Friday evening musing

[Goodwatch]

I often feel the need to write. What better place to put those insignificant scribbles than on our beloved TRF. Ever since I retuned from my vacation last July, I’m torn between hope and despair. My job, my whole IT department, is on the line because of pending outsourcing plans. And in these troubled times of financial crisis, IT is looked upon as costs, instead of benefit. Although the darkest clouds seem to have disappeared, I’m still not happy about the situation. But I’m not loosing sleep over it.

Halloween (in Dutch ‘Allerheiligen’) has always been something of a non-issue here, apart from the most southern and thus most Catholic provinces. But this year, some mom's from our neighbourhood wanted to organize something for the children and I must say they did a great job. They’ve turned a small and quiet side-street into something of a spooky place, with a maze and all. We heard the children scream in delightful ‘fear’ and we went down with a big bag of sweets. The little ones were jumping up and down in anticipation and that warmed the cockles of my heart, let them be blessed with the ignorance of our troubled grown-up lives for as long as possible. When I see children like that, all rosy cheeked and unaware of the differences we adults see, I just long for my own youth.

The past few weeks have provided us with another triple-play: electric wash drier broke down, espresso machine broke down and the back wheel of my bike is ruined because I’ve hit a hidden pothole in a bicycle lane. A wheel like that costs about 150 Euro, totalling the loss at about 1350 Euro. Ah well, it’s just money.

Apple’s new all aluminium Macbook is gorgeous and has been added to my wish list along with an iPhone. But I’ll first buy a new espresso machine.

All and all I’m quite content with my life. We Dutch will always find something to complain about but as the saying goes, when the complaining stops, the nation is in trouble. And as long as we have food and a roof above our heads we have little to complain about.

As many before me have commented about, TRF is much more than a bunch of people with a common interest. TRF has risen above that. And that makes it special. People that don’t really know me may find me a cold and detached. I use the word friend very sparingly and the ill times of relative strangers leaves me cold. This is perhaps caused by a difficult childhood followed by a rather influential military period in my life. I’m one that doesn’t make friends easy anymore because in my view the term ‘friend’ has become subject to much inflation. A real friend is mostly there in bad times. The members that make up the ‘salt’ of TRF come closest to that definition.