Happy 2016, Everyone! And may it be a good year.

Whilst I am writing this, I am watching the BBC News from the corner of my eye, and my heart goes out to all of you in the flooded areas. As a Dutch Wetlander I can relate, believe me (have a look at that photo below).

In the meantime I gather those of you in the South and Midwest of the States are having a rough time of it with tornadoes as well... So my heart goes out to you too.
No idea if there are natural disasters at this time in Russia, we get no news like that, but...
My heart goes out to all of you. Where-ever in the world you are. Period.

The thing about natural disasters is that there is absolutely no-one to blame (most of the time) - I mean, an avalanche coming down a mountainside may be due to some idiot having made a wrong environmental decision at some point in history, but right at the moment the avalanche strikes, there's usually not one particular person to point the finger to. 
The same goes for the flooding in the UK. Yes, decades of bad water management may be at the heart of all those communities now having to deal with polluted river water sloshing through their houses, but who can you blame, name and all? Nobody.
So it makes it easier to pull together and help each other out. No-one to blame, just people suffering and needing help.

Could that concept be at the heart of the reluctance many of us feel at helping out all those thousands of refugees hoping to find shelter in our safe (though perhaps twister and flood-prone) countries? For there is definitely someone to blame and name there. And thus it's easy for us to say okay, that guy or that group of guys (they are always guys) are the guilty one(s), he has driven his own people out of their own country, so let him solve his own problems.

Contrary to the 500.000 refugees our Mr Wilders had predicted would overrun our tiny country in 2015, we have come to meet 45.000. That's 45.000 souls, as far as I'm concerned.
Perhaps we will need some flooding of our own, and then the refugees helping out filling the sandbags, to change our minds about them?

I wish you all a wonderful 2016. May it be a peaceful, happy, prosperous year for you.

Viggo's Blog: Free At Last!

Hello fans, Viggo here.

See that?!

I'm OUT!

Hence the frightfully bad shaky photo. I ran towards the camera, you see, just because I could.

There, that's better! That is me, sitting on the windowsill - on the outside, mind you!

My woman had thoughtfully provided my new birds with some bread crusts, and I was waiting for them to find a flypath to the table.

So far they haven't appeared, although I have seen them when I am on the inside of that window...silly feathered nitwits.

Thought I'd bring you up to date on our situation here.

My woman has turned into frenzied screwing machine. Ahem. That sounds awful, doesn't it? I mean: she has become very handy with a screwdriver. Shall I give you a list of what furniture she has screwed over the last couple of days? Ahem. That sounds just as bad.

Oh bollocks, I will not. One picture tells a thousand words, right?

See (that gorgeous cat on) that lovely gleaming TV cabinet? She made that. Amongst many other things.

So, things are definitely looking up! I have refound my freedom, and I have explored the rooftops of all those sheds around here, and have met my new neighbour to the left, who shooed me (I said: don't you shoo me, strange woman, but she refused to listen). To the right of us are two fearsome dogs, so I have only reconnoitered from the top of their shed.

And the neighbourhood is fine, I must say, much less fireworks then in the old one. That resembled a war zone from Dec 30th onwards. Here you have the occasional mild 'bang', but I don't mind that. Gina does, she's such a wuss, do you know she takes special little pink pills for anxiety? My woman hides them inside bratwurst, honestly, Gina is such a baby. And I don't get any!

Okay, time to say cheerio then.

Hope you all will have a lovely New Year's Eve!

Speak to you soon, XXX

Viggo.