Exhausted But Happy.

    

Roberto Matta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Matta 

We were up early again today as the air conditioning installation carried on today; it is now 99% complete.

Friday afternoon at 16.00 they will be l be back to do a couple of things, Andre was extremely disappointed not to complete the job today.

However I reassured him that I was not bothered by the fact that he had come back on Friday.

If it is in the middle of summer and a heat wave was happening I would be very upset to have air conditioning installed that I can't use for some days.

As its now October I don't think I'll be needing to use the air conditioning between now and Friday, so is not a big deal have to wait a few days.

Certainly not after waiting since the 18^th of May, waiting for two days is nothing compared to being made by Amsterdam Council to wait five months in the summer.

I am pretty exhausted, so I'm going to keep this short again and find another amazing painting by Roberto Matta after which I shall publish it on my blog.

Richie is making a delicious dinner for us, the aromas are wafting my way from the kitchen, it smells lovely so much so I can hardly wait to eat it together with Richie.

Tilting Against The Windmills Of The Bureaucracy.

Roberto Matta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Matta  

 

Finally action, after winning my appeal the 15th of May, against my application for air conditioning being turned down three times by Amsterdam Council.

Tomorrow morning at 08.00 Andre, the man from the air conditioning company will be here to start installing our air conditioning unit

How typical of Amsterdam Council to keep me waiting from the 18^th of May when I received the official letter from the Amsterdam court.

Which informed me that I had won my appeal against Amsterdam council’s refusal of the air conditioning.

Which is absolutely vital to make life bearable during the summer months for me, as well as anybody else suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Making me wait until October to get this vitally necessary equipment installed, does indicate that Amsterdam Council has no interest in the welfare of its handicapped residents.

It is very worrying that the council department responsible for handicapped and disabled city residents is so negligent in carrying out its work.

I first applied in April 2011, it is taken me one year and six months to achieve a result, and I recommend taking action to everybody in my position.

It is good to let the authorities know that just because I am handicapped it did not mean that they could push me around without a fight.

Even though I can no longer physically stand up anymore, I can still stand up for myself and fight my corner against the insensitivity and apathy of the bureaucrats.

I recommend that everybody do the same and fight for their rights, and don't let anybody push you around.

Be assertive, they don't expect disabled and handicapped people to be assertive, they think we are a pushover.

Remain Positive And Optimistic.

Roberto  Matta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Matta 

On Saturday evening the weather became clammy, oppressive and the clouds became dark, then a rumbling noise became audible.

Not long after that it was followed by lightning and another roll of thunder, the storm went on for most of the evening and night.

It seemed to rain all night and I was most surprised to find quite a pleasant day on Sunday.

            

It was changeable weather but there had been blue skies and sunshine with large clouds.

Since the weekend it has been cool, overcast and rainy with no sign right now of the summer weather returning, although the long-term forecast predicts warm weather.

As its no longer hot weather the air conditioning unit is turned off for now, it is nice to feel a breeze coming in through the window.

Much nicer to feel natural breeze rather than cool air pumped endlessly around the room, also it is lovely to me to hear the noises from the neighbourhood.

Something I can't do when the air conditioning unit is on, when the weather is suddenly hot I need a cool room which only the air conditioning can provide.

This afternoon I had an appointment with a man called Andre, from an air

conditioning company, to see where install the air conditioning.

It won't be a mobile unit as that is not suitable for us, or the apartment, Andre had a very thorough look around the apartment.

Then he suggested that the heat extractor unit should be placed on the small balcony which we don't use in the front room.

In the front room high on the wall he will place one air conditioning unit, which is not very big, it measures 80 cm x 20 cm.

Then he will install another unit in the bedroom and connect them both together, so that both the front room as well as the bedroom will have air conditioning.

This all sounds very good, because it's the Amsterdam Council, he has to send them an estimate of the costs before he can install the air conditioning.

Hopefully they will not take their usual two months to give their agreement as it would be excellent to have it installed as soon as possible.

Andre said that if approval from the Amsterdam Council was not needed he could install it next week.

If the bureaucrats take their usual two months to give their approval then it won't be installed until October the earliest.

I shall have to do my best to remain positive and optimistic and hope that despite it being the holiday season the Council will nod this application through.

    

Good News..

 

Oscar Dominguez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Dom%C3%ADnguez 

Today I've received some good news; the first was from Werner, the salesman/advisor from RTD Het Dorp that my health insurance has given the go-ahead for Seetech.

What a relief it was to get the news that finally I would be getting the eye controlled software which I've been asking for since February last year.

Right now I don't care as long as I get it as soon as possible, so that I can learn how to use it, hopefully I'll become Seetech literate quite quickly.

The other good news came in the form of a registered letter from Mrs Yildiz from the Amsterdam council’s legal department.

It was a long densely written bureaucratic letter which went through point by point what the council’s duty of care to the handicap was.

As well is outlining exactly in what circumstances an application for air conditioning would be agreed to.

While stating in the letter that I won my appeal, it also mentions that there could be a problem with abnormal levels of heat in this apartment.

In the letter it says that the investigator Hans de Graaf from Mozaak had asked me this question as well is whether I asked my landlords for assistance with my problem with the heat.

The letter states that because I did not cooperate with this part of the investigation, and that is the reason in negative decision had been made by the investigator.

I of course answered all the questions including those two, informing the investigator of the problem was my MS which my landlord could not help me with.

Mrs. Yildiz goes on to explain that she has decided to overturn the negative decision and give me air conditioning.

The letter does not tell me what type of air conditioning I will get nor does it tell me who will install it or when we can expect it to happen.

Seeing as its holiday time right now in the Netherlands, I will have to wait a bit longer to hear.

The Never Ending Story.

 

Jan Toorop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Toorop 

The news last Wednesday of the council’s negative decision concerning installing air-conditioning, despite my winning the appeal on 16th of May, upset us.

Both my posts were about this news, after I'd written and published on Thursday, I decided to put everything out of my mind until the next week.

Later on Thursday night I was relaxed, ready to go to sleep with no conscious thoughts in my mind, when instantly I started thinking about the airco.

I told Richie, he said try to think of something else which I did, surprisingly it worked well, the thought was Yorkshire pudding.

A good blog friend Muff, put forward a suggestion of starting a petition, her other suggestion was to start a Face book page to protest against Amsterdam Council's callous and arbitrary decision.

I like both of the suggestions, a petition sounds good, so does a Face book page, trouble is I really haven't got the energy to do either; I don't have any objections to anybody else doing this.

I've identified three places to register protest against the negative advice concerning the air conditioning.

First of all there is the Amsterdam ombudsman for whom I have this e-mail address: info@gemeentelijkeombudsman.nl

The ombudsman is the place for all complaints against the council, here is also the telephone number 020 6259999 you can telephone between 10 and 12 every weekday morning.

The investigator for the Council in this case is Hans de Graaf, he works for Mozaak who assess handicapped peoples applications, and his e-mail address is Hans.de.Graaf@mozaak.nl.

Then there is the person responsible for the decision in this matter, Mrs Yildiz she works for the legal department of Amsterdam Council.

Telephone; 0031 20 552 7151/7512

When I had written this, I received an e-mail from my case manager, to tell me that the council had decided to give me one air-conditioning unit.

She congratulated me; the problem is one unit is not the answer for this apartment, as the windows are from floor-to-ceiling.

A separate air-conditioning unit needs to be positioned under a window which you open enough to hang out the extractor tube.

Funnily despite the council’s zeal for investigations, they did not bother to check whether an individual air-conditioning unit would work here.

When Amsterdam Council refused my application in 2011, we had a heat wave.

So Richie brought one of these units in the hope that it would help me,

sadly because of the windows we cannot use it.

Today is 10^th of July, the investigation was closed on 19^th of June and I have not heard from Amsterdam Council.

Keep A Balance.

Jan Toorop 

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/jan-toorop

Since Wednesday the days were really difficult for me because it was such shocking news about the air conditioning that it got me quite depressed.

Which is not how I want to be, especially as depression is one of the side-effects of Multiple Sclerosis.

I'm sure that depression can cause a lot of damage; something that I want to avoid is much as I can, for a brief period the news totally demoralised me.

Somehow I will have to try to keep a balance and not get too involved with fighting for my rights, but on the hand I don't intend to give up any time soon.

The whole way this is being handled just shows what the Amsterdam Council thinks of my application for air conditioning, they seem to think it is a frivolous request.

Of course it is not frivolous it is a vital necessity, Wednesdays heat wave confirmed once again why I needed it.

If I didn't get physically sick and unable to function due to the heat I would not want air conditioning.

In my opinion air conditioning is one of the contributors to global warming and the destruction of our weather systems.

My earliest memory of air conditioning was in the 50s in Trinidad, when an American school friend took a little group of us to her house.

I remember thinking that her house felt like a deep freeze which I did not like; I also recall being offered strange cheese sandwiches.

It was cheese like I've never seen nor eaten before; bright orange cheese spread in a jar, the other option was hot dogs, also orange.

I remember tentatively trying both but I could not manage to eat them, I was very glad to get home to a delicious curry.

The only other time I've experienced air conditioning was in 1997 when I visited Trinidad for the first time since 1962 when we had left.

The other thing I never thought I'd be using here in Amsterdam is mosquito nets, which we both have so that we can get a good nights sleep.

That is much better than swatting mosquitoes all night which is something that we had to do, especially in the last 10 years.

Today I feel a lot better especially as yesterday and today it has been cooler which is made my life a lot easier.

My intention now is to relax as much as I can and enjoy the weekend with my Darling Richie and our three delightful dogs.

Shocking News.

 

    

Jan Muller, 1957.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_M%C3%BCller_%28artist%29       

Today I'm recovering from an extremely humid day yesterday, as well as the shock of hearing the latest news about the air conditioning.

The friend, who represented me at my appeal hearing on 9^th of May against the Amsterdam Councils decision to refuse me urgently needed air conditioning, telephoned them yesterday.       

She wanted to find out for me when the council intended to get around to actually installing the air conditioning.

She was informed that another e-mail with more questions for me to answer was sent on 12^th of June, when they did not get a reply they sent a  letter on 19^th of June.

The letter was to inform me that the advice was negative and they were closing the case immediately.

Both my friend and I were shocked at this news, the only e-mail I received on 12^th of June was one from the investigator Hans de Graaf explaining his investigation.

In the e-mail he apologised if he'd upset me, that was not his intention however he did have to ask questions.

Apart from his apology and explanation there were no questions in this e-mail nor did I receive any letters in the post from either the investigator or the council.

This afternoon I sent an e-mail to Hans de Graaf, it was very short and to the point I just said no e-mail with questions was received on the 12^th of June neither had I had a letter in the post.

I asked for an explanation as to why the case was now closed, I wonder when I will get response, as its July I stand more of a chance of getting an out of office reply.

This really is an incredible state of affairs; it is as if Amsterdam Council were above the law by deciding arbitrarily to close the case.

I almost want to re-read the court decision of the 16^th of June which informed me that my case had been accepted by the court and I had won my appeal.

It was particularly horrible to get this news on the hottest day so far this summer, on Tuesday it was 18° and yesterday it went up to 28° and it was humid.

The humidity made me feel physically sick and I could not do much on the computer, my left index finger was floppy and could not function at all.

The air conditioning is a vital necessity for me now, yet Amsterdam Council seems to think that is not urgently needed.

They have Zero understanding about disabilities especially the effects of a debilitating disease like Multiple Scleroses.

Their only interest is in their careers not in the people they are supposed to be assisting, burocrats love ticking boxes and saving money.