The thing

I have asked Andrea to translate so - don't call us.... Mykle :-)

You have, Mykle? The whole thing? You any idea how much that'd cost ya?

Hi Andrea, What do they call the smallest part of an Euro? I thought I would ask you since you seem to count them :-) Your English is great (probably a lot better than mine) are you a native clog? That's Clog (it looked a bit like dog so I thought I had better make it clear). Visited Rotterdam a few times in the 70's, really liked the Dutch. I can't remember the phrase for 'till next time or later, not alf weidersein (I think that's German) was it -Tot Zeins? Anyway thanks for the entertainment Andrea. Best Regards Mykle.

Tot ziens. Smallest part of a euro is one euro cent, pretty much worthless. I'm highly flattered that you think my English is so good - I was educated in...um...Paddington. Sarah Siddons Secondary All Girls (1200 of the little buggers, to be precise), didn't even manage to pass me 11-plus. Don't know if they still have that in the UK or not, but I failed miserably, in any event. Yep, the Dutch are a pretty tolerant lot. The English could certainly benefit from a few lessons...

Ever keen to divert a perfectly sensible conversation down some totally irrelevant side-alley, I have a song that I downloaded from somewhere a long time ago called "Amsterdam". It's in German and it sounds like it could be a Kurt Weill number. Has anybody ever heard of it, or if I sent it to any of you as an mp3 attachment would you be able to translate it into English for me? I'd love to know what the words mean. It sounds really bitter and cynical (qualitues I look fort in a song). David.

Thanks for the info Andrea. So you're an imported Clog:-) I agree about the Dutch, maybe too tolerant.

Well, if too tolerant means we don't bang people up for ridiculous 'crimes', have virtually no bullying in schools, are decent enough to respect peoples wishes as to when they want to die, have the lowest rate of sex crimes/violence/murder/alcoholism/hard drug users/abortion/teenage pregnancies etc etc etc in Europe, then you're probably right. Long live 'too much tolerance', eh?

Have you got room for a lodger? LOL Sounds too good to be true Andrea. I mean't they used to have trouble with Heroin addicts taking advantage but maybe that's changed. There is a Chinese saying, to the effect, that the more laws you have the more criminals. Whatever, the UK could certainly stand to be a lot more tolerant. Perhaps we have a lot to learn from the Dutch!

Nope, sorry, can't speak a bloody word of German...

Only if you fancy sleeping in the garden shed with the dead rats and spiders... Incidentally, the UK's got a far worse heroin problem than the Netherlands. 'Nother one to us!

Lovely to read Andrea's praise, but I think Holland is catching up fast. Haven't you seen how litter is spreading everywhere? And bored youths hanging out trying to find 'entertainment?' I don't know the official crime figures, but I have the impression 'small' crime is on the increase: there seems to be a lot more (drink related?) vandalism. The beginning of the end?

I have to say, Reinarda that, unfortunately, the vast majority of the 'petty' crime (and litter) is not caused by the Dutch... PI as that may sound, it's sadly true.