Not so long ago, my morning routine upon waking up was to fix myself a cup of coffee, and tune in to the early morning news to check out the traffic conditions (Unang Hirit with Love Anover,he3x) and then get ready for work…If traffic is good, I can give hubs 10 minutes more of dreamland time...(Believe me, with him, 10 minutes more matters!)
Now, it's still the same except that the traffic monitoring is no longer important. Replacing it, is: WEATHER WATCH. Back then, I would only look out the window to check if it’s raining or not. Then if it is, I'd bring an umbrella and a jacket(with the Philippines' humid climate,sometimes a jacket is not even necessary)! But now, being in a country with a “predictably unpredictable” weather, rain check is a must!Actually its not just the rain one has to check, but the ever-changing temperature…
Lying in the “nether” (lower) lands, the Dutch do not only live by the sea, they live in it. So you can imagine the chilly winds coming from the seas around it. When we first came here, we were confused to read forecasts that would say:
So now we know why they have to add that "feels like" info…It's just like San Francisco, but colder,especially in areas like The Hague and Scheveningen (arrgh, this is a hard word to pronounce if you haven't mastered the guttural "ch" and "g")
As such, with this kind of climate, one has to have appropriate apparel everyday...Where being UNDERDRESSED no longer means you are not “japorms” enough, but rather you don’t have enough threads on you for the cold.Or you may be way too OVERDRESSED and you are wearing a woolen turtleneck on a day that is forecasted to have 33degC later(though this is not very common; it was during the official heatwave that temperatures soared this high,record breaking 37degC in fact). Anyway, in short, one has to be: dressed by forecast.
The www.buienradar.nl shows satellite imagery of the cloud movements and has information on sensible weather elements such as: maximum and minimum temperature, humidity, cloud cover, probability of precipitation, weather type, and wind direction and speed. Whoa!At first, when a Dutch friend told us about this monitor, we were like,” Wow what’s the big deal?”…But then again, experience is the best teacher, and it has reminded me that when in Rome…you know how that ends…hehehe…(Ano kaya nangyyyyarrrrri?He3x...Brrr brrr)
The weather is a national past time for every Dutch to talk about, (well in the case of the British, to moan about().As the British weather is more unpredictable they say...) If you are the new guy at lunch and you want to break the ice (pun intended, hahah!)…just start with: “So I hear its gonna be better this weekend” or “Oh gelukkig, het is mooi weer vandaag!”(Oh fortunately, it's a beautiful weather today!)… And you’re guaranteed an hour’s worth of entertaining weather-related anecdotes…
A close friend of mine who is on a different time zone,would always be online when I check the internet for the weather status and forecasts on the mornings, while she would be getting ready to bed. After 3 minutes or so, I would realize I had blabbered incessantly about the weather and that it lulled her to sleep...Hahaha
And the Dutch are aware that they talk too much about the weather(as most Europeans do)…And they would ask me if in the "Filippijnen" (its the Dutch word for Philippines, and this is what they use) do we also talk about the weather as much as they do. I told them that for us lunch conversation topics are very diverse: “So how long did you get stuck in traffic yesterday?”…or…"What’s the peso-to-dollar rate today?”, or “Sinong naevict sa bahay ni kuya?” (hahaha,no no, never watched this,but hey a trivia for you: that Big Brother Show originated in The Netherlands way back 1999 and was subsequently cloned across the globe)
HAVE A NICE WEEKEND! And yeah the weather is going to be lovely this weekend :)
-Bebsy
Now, it's still the same except that the traffic monitoring is no longer important. Replacing it, is: WEATHER WATCH. Back then, I would only look out the window to check if it’s raining or not. Then if it is, I'd bring an umbrella and a jacket(with the Philippines' humid climate,sometimes a jacket is not even necessary)! But now, being in a country with a “predictably unpredictable” weather, rain check is a must!Actually its not just the rain one has to check, but the ever-changing temperature…
Lying in the “nether” (lower) lands, the Dutch do not only live by the sea, they live in it. So you can imagine the chilly winds coming from the seas around it. When we first came here, we were confused to read forecasts that would say:
Today’s Temperature: 2degC (but feels like -6degC)…
So now we know why they have to add that "feels like" info…It's just like San Francisco, but colder,especially in areas like The Hague and Scheveningen (arrgh, this is a hard word to pronounce if you haven't mastered the guttural "ch" and "g")
As such, with this kind of climate, one has to have appropriate apparel everyday...Where being UNDERDRESSED no longer means you are not “japorms” enough, but rather you don’t have enough threads on you for the cold.Or you may be way too OVERDRESSED and you are wearing a woolen turtleneck on a day that is forecasted to have 33degC later(though this is not very common; it was during the official heatwave that temperatures soared this high,record breaking 37degC in fact). Anyway, in short, one has to be: dressed by forecast.
The www.buienradar.nl shows satellite imagery of the cloud movements and has information on sensible weather elements such as: maximum and minimum temperature, humidity, cloud cover, probability of precipitation, weather type, and wind direction and speed. Whoa!At first, when a Dutch friend told us about this monitor, we were like,” Wow what’s the big deal?”…But then again, experience is the best teacher, and it has reminded me that when in Rome…you know how that ends…hehehe…(Ano kaya nangyyyyarrrrri?He3x...Brrr brrr)
The weather is a national past time for every Dutch to talk about, (well in the case of the British, to moan about().As the British weather is more unpredictable they say...) If you are the new guy at lunch and you want to break the ice (pun intended, hahah!)…just start with: “So I hear its gonna be better this weekend” or “Oh gelukkig, het is mooi weer vandaag!”(Oh fortunately, it's a beautiful weather today!)… And you’re guaranteed an hour’s worth of entertaining weather-related anecdotes…
A close friend of mine who is on a different time zone,would always be online when I check the internet for the weather status and forecasts on the mornings, while she would be getting ready to bed. After 3 minutes or so, I would realize I had blabbered incessantly about the weather and that it lulled her to sleep...Hahaha
And the Dutch are aware that they talk too much about the weather(as most Europeans do)…And they would ask me if in the "Filippijnen" (its the Dutch word for Philippines, and this is what they use) do we also talk about the weather as much as they do. I told them that for us lunch conversation topics are very diverse: “So how long did you get stuck in traffic yesterday?”…or…"What’s the peso-to-dollar rate today?”, or “Sinong naevict sa bahay ni kuya?” (hahaha,no no, never watched this,but hey a trivia for you: that Big Brother Show originated in The Netherlands way back 1999 and was subsequently cloned across the globe)
HAVE A NICE WEEKEND! And yeah the weather is going to be lovely this weekend :)
-Bebsy
