I went along to the hospital with Phil again this morning for his follow-up appointment. He is doing a lot better, and was actually able to utter a few words this morning. After that, I headed back to the Vodafone store to mostly finish off the transaction I started on Friday, tried to revert on Saturday, and was told I couldn’t continue with on Sunday. Fiona has a new phone now, and Alex’s is on order. Yay! Despite these hiccups, the adviser who helped me was lovely to deal with, apologetic, and very helpful.
(Just before hitting the shop, I bought a snack and a drink, and sat outside for a little while to watch the birds and take some photos. The jackdaws were a lot less skittish than they tend to be around our garden, and they were almost coming up to take crumbs from my hand. The gulls are bullies, though.)
This week the gemeentes Zaanstad, IJmuiden, and Beverwijk are running a week of activities highlighting the rich industrial heritage of the area. (Week van de industriecultuur.) I was late in booking my tickets, and some of the tours I would like to have taken were all full up. But this afternoon I got to see around the Nauerna site of waste processor Afvalzorg. They gave us a presentation, and then drove us around the site.
After separating out recyclables, Dutch household waste mostly goes to incinerators. Afvalzorg deals with the next step in the chain. They take the rubble and ash from the incinerators, and process it to extract and clean metals and varying grades of landfill material. They contract with gemeentes throughout the country to literally make new land for parks and any other construction projects.
On the opposite side of the canal the indoor ski slope of Velsen Zuid is already built on landfill, and the Groene Schip site will be opened to the public in 2019. The main Nauerna site is going to continue to be filled until 2022, after which they will start landscaping it. In the end it will consist of a brand new mini-mountain, 40m above sea level, with fantastic views out over the harbour and surrounding countryside. I was very impressed!
Daily self-care checklist:
- Sleep: rubbish. Woke up at 04:00 with a blinding sinus headache, and I stayed awake until about 05:30 when the painkillers had knocked it back enough. Then dragged myself awake at 08:00 again.
- Walk: not really. I had though that the Nauerna visit would involve more walking, but they took us around the site in a bus.
- Bass: no
- Photography: yes, lovely. Birds are my favourite subject right now.
- Snacks: Pain au chocolat, banana bread, smoked almonds.
- Meat: no. Had a couple of crispy “cheese schnitzels” for dinner, which are like self-contained grilled cheese sandwiches. I think I’d prefer an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich, though.
