by Henk ter Heide on Tuesday January 5, 2010
The Netherlands is experiencing a bit of a cold spell at the moment. We even have had some snow.
Actually I can’t remember the last time we had more then 20 cm of snow on one day.
The Dutch railway company has a lot of trouble coping. Two weeks before Christmas I had to take a day off because no trains were available to take me to the Rotterdam Alexander station. But even if had been able to reach the station, I doubt if I could have gotten the bus I need to reach my place of work.
The week before Christmas they had even more problems. During a period of two or three days they advised people to stay at home because it was very unlikely for them reached there destination.
But that didn’t matter much to me because I had taken two weeks off of work.
Today was the first day I went to work after the Christmas holiday. The railway company still had a little problem. They were suffering from a lack of carriages. So instead of 3 trains consisting of a total of 6 carriages every thirty minutes. All those people had to get into one carriage.
So you can imagine that it was a little bit crowded.
With a little luck I positioned myself at the entrance of the first class compartment. Usually I can’t sit there because I have an second class train ticked. But if the train is really crowded you never see a ticked controller. Since most people don’t take the chance and stand second class, it’s the least crowded bit of the train.
At the end of the first class compartment I had a whole meter to myself.
Coming up on Rotterdam Alexander station I realized that I better work myself to the door. Otherwise I would run the risk of being blocked by a stream of people entering the train while I was still trying to exit it.
So I asked a two men and a lady if I could pass them. Then I got to the really crowded part of the compartment. So before trying to pass those people I asked them if they were exiting at the next station. They were.
As I decide that I wouldn’t try the pass them the lady went into a fit. She started yelling “COULDN’T YOU HAVE WAITED UNTIL I LEFT THE TRAIN”. No, how could I have known that you were leaving at this station? “COULDN’T YOU HAVE TAKEN A SHOWER THIS MORNING?” What do say? Didn’t you take a shower?
By this time the whole compartment was paying attention and some people were laughing.
“SMELLY BASTARD. YOU SHOULD PRESS YOURSELF AGAINST YOUR GIRL FRIEND”. No I’d much rather press my body against yours.
Now most of the people in the compartment were laughing. With an other “SMELLY BASTARD” the lady simmered down.
A few minutes later the train reached the station.
Politely I waited for the lady to exit the compartment, but she didn’t. Turned out that she was trying to get a seat of one of the disembarking passengers.
So I wished her a good day. And after a last “SMELLY BASTARD” I left her.
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by Henk ter Heide on Saturday April 21, 2007
Yesterday I had a fight with the owner of a local pub I have been frequenting for the last ten years. He bought the place nine years ago and soon after that started to make strange jokes: When I came in he would tell me that he would be glad if I left. When I’d leave he’d comment that I overstayed my welcome etc.
Being autistic I have a hard time judging whether somebody is making a joke or not. But most of the time he was a nice man who didn’t bother me. So I assumed that it was some kind of joke, an anoying joke but still a joke.
But a few months ago an other costumor reacted insulted after hearing this joke. She told him that see didn’t like him making this kinds of remarks to me. So it clearly wasn’t a joke.
The last few month I’ve been asking him to stop making this jokes. He didn’t. Yesterday I lost my temper. There were a few other costumers in the place who took my side. The owner told me that I was no longer welcome in his bar because I didn’t like his humor. To which one of the other costumers reacted by saying that he wouldn’t visit this place any more. This angered the owner even more and he told this costumer he wasn’t welcome either. Then he told me to leave and never come back because, as an owner, he had the right to insult and abuse his customers.
Explosion
I’ve been thinking about why I go to this place. Twenty years ago I used to go to a pub called “de Paap” (an old Dutch word for monk). It was a nice pub with a lot of young customers with whom I didn’t have much contact but I liked watching them and listening to what they were saying. But sadly it went out of business after a few years.
“Borsolino” was my new favored watering hole. The crowed in this place was much older. I wasn’t really interested in the things they talked about but the character of the place was nice. A bit like a big living room. It radiated a kind of freedom.
Ten years ago, after working there for sixteen years the owner decided that she wanted to change her life and stopped with the business.
Which left me without a favored pub. After some searching I settled with “de Passage”.
I don’t like it there. I never have. I don’t like the owner very much. Some of the customers are nice people but I hardly see them. Most of the time the place is empty. (I never understood how he earned his money).
The owner is filthy. He drools. Not all the time and when he started out nine years ago it was much worse then it is now. But he still does it. Even in the kitchen while he is preparing diner for customers. (I don’t order diner if his cook isn’t present).
This cook is a nice fellow who has a nice dog he brings to the job ones in a while.
The trouble is that the only place where he can house this dog is in the scullery. Which means that the dog runs back and forth through the kitchen which isn’t allowed by Dutch law because of the hygiene.
I think I’m going to call the health and savety expector next monday. Let’s see what he thinks of my jokes.
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