I dedicate this column to someone I don’t know, but with whom I have spent a lot of mornings. Hello, anonymous Good morning Netherlands-technician. Without knowing how your name is my thoughts have been with you a lot on Monday.
That started in the morning, at ten past eight. Singer Klaasje Meijer was sitting on the guest bench. “Welcome,” said presenter Fidan Ekiz, followed by a silence that lasted a fraction longer than you would expect. “I thought we would hear something now,” said Co-host Wieger Hemmer. “We had agreed that with each other. And if that does not happen, then that is …” words are short. Or maybe they were there, but Hemmer did not consider them suitable for live television. He finally chose “very sad.” With a burial voice he announced what the plan had been: they wanted to instart ‘son of a preacher man’, because Meijer had such a preacher man as a father. She wanted to sing that song herself, Hemmer suggested. But the former K3 member said, “Rather not.”
Then Hemmer remained in a minor, because another song had been planned. “I think most people know you from the rare melodies of K3,” he said little – “I would help that we would have an instant about it …” Ekiz continued to smile stubbornly, but Hemmer’s mouth was now a straight line. “But maybe not. The technology abandons us.” The growing dissatisfaction with which he looked into the camera made me fear the worst for the employee who, I suggested, just suffered from some start -up problems on the early Monday morning. I thought that was very tangible, and that is why I was all more concerned about the fate of this poor sinner.
In my imagination, the aforementioned technician meanwhile longed for vacation. I looked out of solidarity in the evening Max holidaymanas I traditionally when I need a reminder to what can go wrong on vacation. The answer: Very, very much. Pay too much for your ETA, for example. Since April you need this travel document to enter the United Kingdom. The newly retired Jos had therefore crawled with his wife, of whom he had a gift to London for his early retirement, in good spirits behind the computer. But because humans are the most permanent species, all kinds of desks pay money to Google to be at the top of the results when you enter the search term ‘ETA UK’. For example, Jos and his wife – and many with them – did not end up on the official government website and they spent 224 euros on their travel documents. For the record: the ETA should cost 16 British pounds; About 19 euros.
Unfortunately, Jos and his wife did not get their money back. Just as Paul did not get back the month of his life that he spent in an Indian cell, where he had landed because during a cycling holiday in Nepal he accidentally crossed the border with the big neighbor (Max holidayman offers small and large horror stories). Present in the studio was criminal lawyer Veerle Goudswaard. She was happy that Paul had told his story, said Goudswaard, “because it clearly shows that a small imperfection can lead to very large consequences in these kinds of countries.” Sometimes you need people like Paul to remind you about it.
I hope the Good morning Netherlands-Technician is also a loyal Max viewer, should he have the accident to work this summer. That he thinks about Jos and Paul at the difficult moments-if K3 songs do not cooperate, if Hemmers is very sad-; To all gradations of their holiday section. That is not only as a warning. It also serves as a reason for the stay -at -home to say to itself: Do you see? It can always be worse.