Hup Oranje!! Let's Take A Leaf Out Of The Dutch Book

Hup Oranje! Let's Take A Leaf Out Of The Dutch Book

June 25th 2014

Hooray! Netherlands have once again kicked booty at the World Cup ... why, may you ask, is the daft girly supporting Holland? Well my friends I am half Dutch, and I know tis fickle, but they really, really, especially now, have a better chance of winning than England.

I was feeling a bit sorry for England, until, in the press conference, a down in the dumps Gerrard stated that he had to go away and think about things ... on holiday. Well excuse me but, wouldn't more people think better of them if they came back and trained a bit longer, than just shooting off to Nice once they were done? Anyway, what do I know .... Talking of Holland, I lived there for 7 years, where I worked at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and later for General Electric at their head office. I love the Dutch, where else could I organise School Lunches ... consisting of a packed lunch, apple and a tuck shop. Also a boardroom transformed into a playground with skipping ropes, hopscotch and jacks and compulsory school uniforms for the day (including the Directors) and no one batted an eyelid!! The amazing thing was to watch everyone, and I mean everyone, revert back to children, and actually arguing about whose turn on the skipping rope it was (when an hour before they were arguing about international trading and projects running into the millions)

I also organised Devon Cream Teas (where I read out the etiquette of Cream Teas before they were allowed to eat), a Hawaiian Lunch (complete with blow up palm trees, sing-a-long Blue Hawaii lyric sheets and Hawaiian Burgers) and ... well .. anyway you get the picture.....I organised quite a few, don't want to bore you! But what I am saying is that, the Dutch 'got it' ... they got that to be healthy and yes get more from your employees, you have to be able to breath, to smile and to relate to each other, just for a little while, in a totally non work related way.

You know there is a word in Dutch, that there is no translation for in any other language, that word is 'Gezellig' ...it encompasses the heart of Dutch culture, as the Dutch tend to love all things gezellig ...a dinner with friends is gezellig, on a boat on Kings Day with friends is gezellig ...

Hip Hip Hooray For Gezellig !!! Next Time .... Kings Day In Amsterdam

Tunes of the day:

Ozzy Osbourne 'Bark at the Moon' - hung out with his bassist many years ago at The Roxy in LA, Phil Soussan .. jolly nice chap

Poison 'Love On the Rocks' - went to album launch on Sunset Strip ... managed to talk my way onto the guest list ...oh to be 20 again!

Cinderella 'Gypsy Road' - went to see them in Birmingham ... snowing ... got the whole line of girls waiting for autographs to do star jumps to keep warm