The Dutch are coming!!!

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Well, here we go - the High season is upon us and the madness has already begun. The site is set to go from a pretty meagre 250 people upto around 3000 within a week - that means a 1200% increase in workload for us! Pass op, mijne damen en heeren - de Nederlanders komen!

I manage a bar on the campsite and, in general, the customers are pretty well behaved, save for the odd drunken scuffle or general rowdiness. That is normally the preserve of high season when we have DJs from 'the city' here and it all gets a bit mad - but two nights ago it began already when a young group (two of whom I recognised as having been thrown out of the bar by force by myself and 2 of the security guys last year for fighting with some locals) rocked up and proceeded to drink the bar dry (no problem there) but the old tell tale two-men-at-a-time trips to the toilets and the ensuing increase in volume and talking about themselves meant that trouble was inbound - sure enough the toilet blocks got smashed up and they were smashing the lights out on the campsite when the boss found them. Suffice to say they aren't welcome here any more...

Football - aghh what can I say - I despise nationalism in any form, except for the world cup when it's allowed within reason!!!! Still, England's abismal performance left me with my second team to support (Germany), who were promptly kicked out last night by Italy in the last minute of extended play - much to the Dutch's delight. Schadenfreude is not a nice facet, but the Dutch seem to have it in bucketloads and will cheer against the Germans for any reason.

The Germans, however, are the host nation and I have had a lot of good times in Germany. They also have a good league. The Dutch, however, don't seem to see past the war, and the nationalised view of the Germans is accepted by all. There was even an incident where Dutch police stood by while Dutch fans pushed German cars into the canals in Amsterdam. That is institutionalised racism if you ask me - and I would have cheered the Germans on, just to piss the Dutch off! The Dutch are pretty nationalistic - nationalism is to be seen every where. All the kids wear orange, the parents all carry orange bags, orange beach towels, orange swimming shorts, orange orange orange! Fine, some orange is normal, but this is just excessive - and it's not just during the football - it's always like this. Imagine if the English wore a St. George's cross like that all the time - it would quite rightly be denounced as overly nationalist.

Anyway. Rant over. My flag has been put away and it will not come out again until the next England football match. I hereby officially denounce my English/Britishness and have resumed my "International nationality" - or should that be "Internationality"? Whatever.

Well - takes breath - how do I follow my opinion column entry up? With the weather, of course! It's hot! Damned hot! 35c in fact, and it's only going to get hotter! Fine if you're with a lady, but it's crappy if you've got to work!

My room has now got two other people in it, a Polish guy called Tomek, who goes swimming about 10 times a day in 10 minute blocks??? and a dutch guy who just arrived yesterday called Martijn who is going to work for the entertainment team. The students are coming to work now, which lightens the load a little for us "Stamm-Personal", but there's also more and more going on on the site.

Lieber Leser(in), I will update you when I actually have something to tell you about!

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