Isn't this the way the bubonic plague started?

Amsterdam Garbage collecters are on strike. Again.

It's ridiculous, the streets are filthy, and it's really starting to grate me. I pay taxes (Boy, do I pay taxes. Most expats that are on secondment here get something called the 30% tax ruling, and because I am a local hire, I don't get it. But because I am a foreigner, I don't get local pay advantages either, like 8% holiday bonus - an additional 8% on top of your annual wage, paid in one lump sum, in June every year, to spend on holidays, or whatever. I am getting majorly shafted.) Anyway, as I said, I pay taxes. I want clean streets.

It's probably why my bike has a flat at the moment, from running over some glass or something sharp.

It was like when Centraal Station cleaners went on strike and it got to the point where the tiles on the floor of the station were just black and sticky, and the recorded message that looped every half hour was more a droning announcement for the masses,rather than a message of apology. As if they couldn't work out that a cleaners strike was in place, from the eyesore and the stench around them.

As a result of all this hard lying around (hard rubbish is a weekly event!!!).My flatmate and I spontaneously decided to go for a little reconnaissance around the neighborhood, looking to see what the dutch masses were disposing of, and if it could be of any use to us at home.

"This is well pikey behaviour, innit?" he mused, as we were sifting through some wood lying on the street and looking at some old beer crates. He's a keen gardener, and has we have an urban garden patch at our house, on our window sills, and on his balcony. We were looking for some wood planks so he could build plant boxes for his new seedlings. He's currently growing some capsicum, tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes, beans, figs, olives, rosemary, and loads of other stuff all around our apartment, and he's grown most of them from seeds off the cutting board from vegies and things he's bought from the supermarket.

He was looking for some wood to make growing boxes out of, and I was just going for moral support.

I water the plants when he's away, and I really like doing it, and watching them grow. Having the vegetables around the apartment makes me feel a bit more zen, and more in tune with nature, and I almost feel more nurturing. Since I have only lived in apartments since I got to Europe, it has occurred to me more often that I often feel out of balance with nature, since I have no yard to get out to, and at best, balconies to get fresh air. I don't even leave the office to buy lunch, I just walk to to the next floor to the cafeteria which is so stifling.

I guess that's why Europeans love getting out to the parks so much - enjoy the sunshine, and feel the grass, and take in the fresh air.

I fear I'm becoming a Hippy.