Since 08 October 10.00AM we are connected to the servers of SolarNRG. From there all solar panel installations are available to see your “green” profit by day/month/year. There is also a screen where your whole installation is displayed with the profit per panel, accumulating over the day:
This picture was taken 09 October 2018, 08:35AM. Just after sunrise. That is the reason that the day total (green, right upper corner) is still so low: 15W.
When Pierre had his 75th birthday, he invited his family for dinner in a nice restaurant in Geleen, a smal city in the South of Limbourg, as it is more practical that Pierre and I travel by car to the South than that his familymembers with husbands/wives travel to Nimwegen. We had that expierence ten years ago, when Pierre turned 65y and the whole family came to Nimwegen.
For inviting the family to dinner, Pierre got as a present a dining voucher of a very large Dutch hotel – restaurant chain. Their last project is a 14 stories high hotel – restaurant just across the river Waal, in Lent (Nimwegen-North). This hotel is very sought after by the participants of the Walk of the World: the hotel provides bus transfers in the (early) morning to the start location (Wedren) and the double rooms are only €99 (£87 / CA$149) per night.
Today we went to Van der Valk in Lent to cash the voucher and have a dinner party. The service was excellent, as was the food. Only… what a lot of people come there!!! The restaurant can accomodate 300 guests!
Soldiers
My state examination at level B2 is done. I wonder if I made it. In the listening exam I heard an old grandfather and grandmother say something with a crackling voice. I did not understand it. When I left the examination room in Eindhoven, fortunately I was not the only one who had found it difficult. I ran into the city to blow off steam. There were soldiers lined up in the city center, with weapons. Never before have I seen such a scene. They laughed and let everyone who wanted it sit on their arms. I was there and asked if I could take a picture. ,,Of course, that is what we are here today”, said a soldier. I asked if he liked his work. ,,Yes, great work”. The soldiers looked happy and proud. In Syria I often had to deal with soldiers during my volunteer work at relief organization UNHCR. I can already see that I would sit on their arms and ask them if they like their work.
From childhood I have learned never to talk to soldiers, to look at them or to get in the way. Their eyes are not happy or proud either. Rather black and evil. Not because they have always been like that, but because they became like that during the war. Such a military position in the city center would be inappropriate in Syria. Then you get: “Look, with this we have killed your uncle” and “With this weapon we have thrown your house down”.
The soldier asked me if I want to join the army. I said: ,,If this is what the army does in the Netherlands, then it seems nice to me”. The man looked at me from head to toe. ,,You have to weigh 65 kilos before you can work with us. So go eat first, boy.”
University
The new Syrian students at the HAN (Highschool Arnheim / Nimwegen), I feel sorry for them. I felt the same way a year ago. Lost and stupid. In the first month of a study the language level is getting used to. My roommate Ahmad said: ,,I sat in front so that I could hear the teacher well. Then he gave me the turn! I had understood nothing of the question. I felt so stupid towards the rest of the class. It is as if they are treating the Koran, it is that difficult.” (The language level in the Arabic Quran is very high and sometimes difficult to understand).
A year ago around this time, I was able to hang crying at the local government desk. “Please, please, take me back.” But I continued. At the end of each lesson I asked a classmate: :Do you want to write down for me which chapters we have handled and what kind of homework we have received?” At home I continued to translate, read and learn until midnight. That is how I got my first year. I try to cheer up my friends and tell about my development last year. ,,How should I develop then?”, Mahmoud said. ,,We have to do something at home, but I have no idea what”. Ahmad: ,,And during a lesson about Excel, they skipped the first six steps because ‘everyone who knows’. But I am not Anwar, I do not know those first six steps. So I made some sound on my keyboard throughout the lesson, so as not to stand out.”
Yet I am confident. Syrians are like an arrow from a bow. First backwards, then full speed ahead.
The (nearly) 95 year old ex-collegue of Pierre, Jan Holthuis, also an ex-G.P. and former neighbour of Pierre in Horst, is suffering from Altzheimer Disease. We visit him on a regular basis each 3 weeks. Pierre is also stand-by in case a 24h presence of a help becomes necessary. However, after my duty in the Saint Stephan Church we went -later than normal- Southwards.
Sunset over the garden of Jan Holthuis at 6.08PM:
The water control system along his garden:
However, as the installation of the panels, the inside electric cable work and all the paperwork had finished after sunset (about 6.30PM), there were no results for this day. Then it took time to install our installation on the servers of SolarNRG in Germany. As from 8 October 2018 we can check the solar power installation on the computer, on the screen of the converter (pictures below) AND on a smartphone:
On the picture: the middle section Vdc represents the voltage that the panels give in a single current power; the left section Vac represents the voltage in alternating current, as we use in Western Europe. The right section represents the number of Watts produced that day (in this case: at 2.30PM 1,109kW). The P_OK indicates the number of panels that are functioning; in our case that should always be 10/10.
This picture is taken just before bedtime: only the alternate current number is used now. There is no input from the panels, so the production in Watt is zero.
Prince Harry has revealed he still “panics” when he bumps into the Queen walking along the corri-dors of Buckingham Palace, despite being her grand-son. Speaking in a new documentary that explores behind-the-scenes moments of the Royal family, the Duke of Sussex recounts to visitors that he still 
gets nervous when he sees the Queen coming. Addressing a group of hospitality professionals from the Caribbean, who are spending time at the palace as part of a new scheme headed up by the Queen, the newlywed Duke offers some words of encouragement. “You guys have spent way more time in Buckingham Palace than I ever have – and you’ve only been here two weeks,” he says. “Have you bumped into the Queen yet? If you suddenly bump into her in the corridor, don’t panic. I know you will. We all do!” The two part ITV series, Queen of the World, also gains exclusive access to a collection of private home films to show the Queen’s role as head of the Commonwealth. Claudine Jeffrey is one of the group visiting from Antigua to work in Buckingham Palace. Speaking in the documentary she says: “It’s a fun place to work. I say it’s an adventure every day because every day it is always something different. “You never find that you are doing the same thing so that’s really amazing because I love a challenge and I don’t like to be bored…to find myself in Buckingham Palace, it is beyond my wildest imaginations.” Anthony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Royal Household, added: “Our 
Caribbean scholars are eight fabulous young people. This very much was an attempt to reach out and see what more we can do to involve the Caribbean realms particularly in the royal household, so it’s very, very special.” During the show The Duchess of Sussex is reunited with her wedding gown and veil for the first time since her wedding day as Royal Collection specialists prepare the dress for a new exhibition. HRH The Princess Royal also reminisces on her first trip on the Royal Yacht Britannia with her brother Prince Charles, after six months apart from their parents during the great post-Coronation Commonwealth tour.
Whining, the Dutch are good at it. Syrians also hear, but we only complain about food. We love our stomach and can endlessly talk about where the food was good, and where not. Dutch people complain about everything. The favorite subject is the weather.
‘It’s always cold, we have to spend weeks on holiday to the sun to recharge!’ Now it was hot all summer and everyone complained after all. Our grass is burning! The animals have a hard time and the leaves are already falling from the trees! On such a hot day I walked across the street with a newly purchased fan under my arm. People in the street clung to me in despair: “Where did you get them? Are there any more? ” It reminded me of the times in Syria that there was no bread. When you saw someone walking in the street with bread, you rushed over to ask where it came from.
Work is also a favorite complaint topic. The boss is not nice, the colleagues are not collegial and the wages too little. In Syria we have an expression that we use when someone nags. Because a tailor makes your clothes exactly for you, we say to someone who whines: ‘I’ll go tailor-made for you.’ What we actually say: life does not always exactly meet your needs and is not always ‘tailored’ for you.
The good news is: if the Dutch suffer from something, they think up solutions. It is not for nothing that this country is so good with water. Another three times a summer and the Netherlands becomes a heat expert. One very large curtain across the Netherlands? I wonder what you are coming with.
A day in Amsterdam made me a bit panicky. Is the capital a look into the future? Is what I see now in Amsterdam in ten years across the country? In that case I am not on the right track.
I walked into a store with a bag full of new clothes. Just before that, I had bought the wrong size. I did not have the receipt, so I wanted to explain that I had accidentally taken too large a size and would like to exchange it. I started my story at the checkout. “No Dutch,” she said. “Oh,” I said, “is there someone else who speaks Dutch?” “No”, the woman said.
I turned around and asked customers behind me if anyone could speak Dutch. They looked at me questioningly. No, no one understood me. Because I can hardly speak English, I started to portray everything. That the clothes are very big, but I am very small. That I had said at checkout: “A coupon does not have to be.” “The woman looked at me with a sigh, but had understood me by now. Exchange was allowed.
I went for a drink outside. There was a note on the window of the cafe: the café was looking for staff. Requirements: very good command of the English language and possibly knowledge of Dutch. The courage sank even further in my shoes. Is this how it will soon be everywhere in the Netherlands? Or is Arnhem the only city where Dutch is the basic language? I already see myself trapped in Arnhem. Everywhere is work, but I can not go anywhere because I do not speak English. ‘It starts with language’, is shown on all folders of my integration. True, but they should have told me which language.
Lady Mary’s visit day 8.
Travel schedule for 13 September 2018:
STRIKE OF BORDER POLICE and several hundreds of people are waiting in vain to be accepted at the border control: only 10 passengers each time, and only with European passports. ID-cards were not permitted. Crazy action to get more salary!
