October 24, 2007

Worst case scenario – Hema’s secret on the street

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 4:04 pm
rookworst1.jpg

Hema’s famous smoked sausage is made by Unox in Oss, a disgruntled Unilever (Unox is owned by Unilever) employee told the Brabants Dagblad during the strike. Unilever and Hema have refused to comment on the comment.

Some 1,000 employees have come together in Rotterdam to try and get more say about Unilever’s future and want better working conditions, etc. All six manufacturing plants are on strike. And if the management pisses them off some more, who knows what culinary or cosmetic secrets will come out next.

If I had to guess which company made those sausages, Unox would be a likely candidate. The strike is news, but I’m not sure about the sausage bit. Smoke sausage is Dutch and was immortalised on a Dutch stamp this year.

(Link: De Pers)

Tags: , , ,

October 16, 2007

24 pumpkins – visiting Canada

Filed under: General,Nature by Orangemaster @ 5:23 pm
24pumpkins.JPG

We’ll leave the political scandals and rantings to the Dutch newspapers. Only two souls post at 24 oranges (we are always looking for more – drop us an e-mail – no really!), and one of them is enjoying a vacation in Québec, Canada, where these lovely pumpkins were snapped.

Canada celebrates Halloween, while the Netherlands does not. When the Dutch do try to celebrate it, they often take elements of Christmas and give them an orange and black twist, like cakes and gifts. It’s weird.

And then a note to those city employees that make so much noise blowing leaves in the street twice a week and in some places on Sundays:

sacorange1.gif

They sell plastic garbage bags with funny faces here that look like Halloween pumpkins. They are more efficient, nicer and the kids like to help rake the leaves. It has to be cheaper and less noisy than those stupid blowers.

More real news tomorrow, although this has a Dutch-Canadian connection.

Tags: , ,

October 13, 2007

Free newspaper delivered to the office

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 4:14 am

There are three free newspapers in the Netherlands: a Dutch edition of Metro, Spits (by the publishers of the Telegraaf), and De Pers. In the fight for market share the latter has now come up with a new scheme: free delivery to the workplace. Any office that has more than 50 employees can request free delivery of a free newspaper. And of course for De Pers this is a nice opportunity to figure out where the companies are that can afford to advertise.

Via Dagelinks.

Tags: , ,

October 12, 2007

Biggest irritant: jumping the queue

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 5:18 am

queue.jpg

Multiscope, a Dutch online marketing agency, has polled 1,970 Dutch people to find out what their biggest sources of irritation are. Most of the complaints were about anti-social behaviour: for instance 68% of the people gave “jumping the queue” the top spot. When asked what sort of remedies people would agree with, stricter, harsher, and more immediate punishments were at the top of the list. Almost half of those polled agreed with the suggestion that the Dutch police force could take a leaf out of the book of the para-military police force of Spain. (Is it me, or do these measures sound a bit harsh for “jumping the queue?)

The entire top 10 was:

  1. Jumping the queue
  2. Dumping waste
  3. Dog poo in the streets
  4. Cars not keeping their distance
  5. Spitting
  6. Loud portable music
  7. Loitering
  8. Second hand smoke
  9. Loud mobile phone conversations in public
  10. Not receiving right of way

Although a lot of countries believe they are the number one complainers of the world, there are differences in what people actually complain about.

Via Telegravin.

(Photo by Diliff, and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license version 2.5.)

Tags: ,

October 9, 2007

You’re Dutch when it suits us

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 1:16 pm
princess1.jpg

In the Top 200 list of most influential Dutch people, there are three people of ethnic origin. They are Dutch-Moroccan René Dahan, Moroccan-born Sadik Harchaoui and Princess Máxima, who is Dutch-Argentinian. All three of them are Dutch and coincidentally all three have dual citizenship as they cannot do away with their other nationality legally. That’s all fine, I plan to do the same soon.

What bugs me is that they are Dutch when it suits the press and in this case, indeed the best case, they are from a minority group. So you can play both sides when it suits you. No wonder the Dutch identity is not a constant.

(Link: allochtonen.web-log.nl)

Tags: , , ,

October 3, 2007

Free restaurant for the poor

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 11:21 am
fork1.jpg

Joy4You, a new restaurant for the poor, is opening its doors on Wednesday, 10 October in Utrecht. The poor can have a free meal on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Families as well as singles can eat there for free.

Everything is sponsored, as butchers, supermarkets and vegetable distributors provide them with food. People who want to eat at Joy4You must register with Stichting De Burcht-Armenzorg. Only after a meeting with this association can someone be eligible for a free meal.

But why an English dotcom name with negative connotations?

(Link: rtl.nl)

Tags: , ,

September 29, 2007

Colour code your first aid kit

Filed under: Dutch first,General,Science by Orangemaster @ 10:45 am
first aid

How does that Dutch advert go, “but the answer is allllllways simple?” Two entrepreneurs from Roosendaal and Oudenbosch came up with a colour-coded first aid kit. The code list describes what stuff is used for what. Simple. For the photo of the real thing, follow the link.

The inventors Dick van ‘t Hoff and Ronald Cleijsen have asked for a patent on the idea. They have also found a manufacturer ready to go to the market with them. The ESE in Veldhoven (aka buyers) will be buying their first aid kits. I love a good business story.

(Link: Omroep Brabant)

Tags: , ,

September 25, 2007

24oranges visit Oktoberfest

Filed under: Food & Drink,General,Music by Orangemaster @ 10:02 am

Sometimes, no news is good news. Actually, two days of Oktoberfest is just that: good news! Clear blue skies (see first picture), beautiful autumn sun, beer, dirndls (see beer-drinking woman) and lederhosen.

As a tourist in Munich at Oktoberfest – still going strong – I’d like to share the best tip I got: Go to the Wiesn (huuuuge fairground where Oktoberfest is held – it’s free, right downtown, easy access) BEFORE noon or earlier, especially with children. The lines to the rides are short and you can still walk around normally and get a seat in a beer tent (see other picture). No seat means no beer and no Oom-pa-pa music. And you need both!

oktoberfest1.JPG

oktoberfest2.JPG

oktoberfest3.JPG

(Photos: Orangemaster and Eric)

Tags: , , ,

September 23, 2007

Police officer forces brutality witness to delete movie

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 2:38 pm

A man from Deventer has filed a complaint against a police officer who forced him to delete video footage of a violent arrest, according to De Stentor. The policeman had just arrested another man for being drunk and disorderly. When his prisoner tried to escape though, the policeman started beating and kicking him, according to the witness.

The local chief of police, Lute Nieuwerth, tried to add oil to the flames when talking to De Stentor by coming up with some of the regular fallacies; blame the victim, sometimes excessive force is not excessive, yada, yada, yada.

The 19-year-old victim of the beating has not filed a complaint.

Tags: ,

September 20, 2007

‘Cool (male) farmers’ sought for calendar

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 11:38 am
tractor1.gif

Today, 15 ‘cool (male) farmers’ will be competing for a spot in the Stoere Boerenkalender 2008. People can vote on boerderij.nl for their favourite farmer boys (as we write this, that part of the site is having probs). The organisation hopes to provide a sequel to last year’s successful ‘farmer’s daughter’ calendar (Boerendochterkalender). The site will publish the calendar in November, which will also be sold on line.

(Link: De Pers)

Tags: ,