Election Duties

Like many other of my fellow countrymen and -women I voted for a new Belgian senate and chamber of representatives today. But unlike the most of them, I was also an election judge (called "bijzitter" in Dutch).

Being such is cause for grieve for many but I never understood why. Okay, you have to spend a day away from home, but other than that what's the big deal?

Today I've been proven right. My first ever duty of judge was definitely a day to remember: fine company, fun conversations, meeting and greeting neighbors and acquaintances, ... And the work was nicely relaxed and certainly without any strain.

Add to that the free breakfast and lunch, and an extra compensation and I'm not complaining.

Or maybe we were just extremely lucky with our chairwoman?

People

The major problem -- one of the major problems, for there are several -- one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it's a well known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

From "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", by Douglas Adams.

Gourmet Weekend

For my 30th anniversary, my wife treated me to a gourmet weekend in Burg-Reuland, a small community in the province of Liège, Belgium. As a special bonus, she also invited our close relatives (brothers and sisters, parents, and children) to join us. My father-in-law had some prior engagements, so he couldn't join us. We also decided it would be best for our son to relax in a familiar environment with not too many people (what with all the hospital-adventures he's been through in the last few months), so my mother-in-law volunteered to stay home with him (for which we were, of course, immensely grateful!)

We arrived at the hotel on Friday afternoon, and stayed until Sunday afternoon. All meals were included and most were four courses, except for the meal on Saturday evening, which was a six-course dinner. Other than eating, we relaxed on the terrace overlooking the fishpond, went for a stroll through the village and surrounding country, or played boardgames. We all had a terrific weekend, despite one of the playing cards from my Shadows over Camelot boardgame getting caught in the wind and sinking in the fishpond. Which reminds me, I still have to order a new one.

Now, this wouldn't have been a blogpost, if I didn't have any musings on the topic. In fact, I have two.

First of all, it occurred to me how much happier our daughter was, with her brother not around. Not that she doesn't like him, though - she always enjoys watching her brother play and they both get along very well - but he always takes the center of attention, leaving her to mostly entertain herself. This time, though, she got passed from one person to the other, was fed bottles by nearly everyone present, was constantly played with, talked to, and cuddled. I've never seen her smile so much. She's an amazingly sweet girl, and I don't even enjoy half of it, so I've decided to pay her a lot more attention and spend a lot more time with her from now on.

Secondly - and this one wasn't a musing as much as it was a hammer on the head - I've come to realize, since I live in Dendermonde with my wife and children, how much I miss my parents, brother, and sister. The little time we spent together this last weekend reminded me so hard of our childhoods, the fun my brother, my sister, and I had together, and the conversations we held with our parents at the table, that our parting and saying goodbyes hit me like a train; I've been overly emotional ever since we got back, and I admit to breaking up in tears on more than one occasion by now. Much of it might be because of the exhaustion of the past half year, but some of it roots in these family ties for certain. So, I would also like to spend more time with them.

This might turn out to be a problem, though. I also decided to spend more time with our son, because he needs the care and attention now more than ever; I need more time for myself to blow some steam every now and then; and I don't want to spend any less time with my wife, because she deserves a lot of love and attention too (because if it weren't for her...)

I think it's about high time for some changes.

A fresh perspective

Finally someone who's given some thought about all those environmental and 'Save the Planet' issues. George Carlin can really put things in a right perspective; we can all learn a little humility from this guy.

People and cars

I notice that people in traffic become more and more selfish, rude, impolite, impatient, inept, cocky, ... behind the wheel of a car.

Is it just me, or perhaps just Dendermonde? Or is it a global plague?

It is really astonishing (and not in a good way) to see how few people apply the rules of 'Right of Way'. Either they don't know, or they just don't care.

Perhaps it would be a good thing to force everyone with a driving license to redo their exams every 6 months. I estimate that more than half of them will fail. At least that would make our streets a little safer and driver-friendly.

It's really sad.