Leiden, The Netherlands

I'm travelling these days is to Leiden where I am studying to complete my qualification in counselling psychology. I stayed at the beautiful (Van der Valk) Hotel Leiden last week. It is on the banks of the Rhine river which flows through Leiden. Leiden is a sister city (twinned) to Oxford http://www.oxford.gov.uk/community/Leiden.cfm So, these two beautiful cities are joined together.

Leiden celebrates the end of the Spanish siege of the town in 1574 every October 3rd. Everyone in the city queues for a city hand out of white bread and herring, which is eaten with the "hutspot", a stew of potatoes, onions, carrots, etc. Members of my class who reside in Leiden will be celebrating with one another, warming their toes, eating hutspot.

This is the city of my Leembruggen Clan. Leembruggen's still remain in the general area, around Den Haag. For those of us hailing from the East, our family started from Leiden in the 1600s and went out with the Dutch VOC to Sri Lanka and Malaysia and from there to Australia. We have remained connected despite the distance. My great Uncle studied medicine in Leiden. My cousin lives in Amstelveen. The Leembruggen family business of worsted wool was abandoned some years ago after a rather long, illustrious history in Leiden. The P Clos and Leembruggen factory can still be viewed from the Langegracht.

So, this Leembruggen returns to Leiden four hundred years later to study, to carry on in the family healing traditions. I am proud. I am a Leembruggen. I am Dutch. Woo-hoo!

LankBlue²

9/11

There's a 9/11 commemorative service in Amsterdam & I'm thinking the drive into A'dam is necessary. I was *deathly ill* when the planes flew into the towers; thereafter, busy fighting to stay alive. For the first time, I have had a chance to focus on this day, although it's in the constant memory of us all, precipitator as it was for the war against Afganistan & the flawed war with Iraq.

We should remember, if we don't, that this did not just happen to Americans, though it happened on American soil. The last I read, 82 different nationalities died that day. Many were practicing Muslims.

How do we redress all the wrongs of this world? How do we redress the wrongs done to the 'Other'? To Us, whomever the Other & Us maybe? I think the answer is with PEACE. With talk, not war. I am happy to hear more commentators say that the war in Afghanistan, the war with AQ can not continue: We must talk.

Idealistic? Wrong? Leftist liberal drivel? Maybe. But look where war gets us. Let's talk.

PEACE, baby. Peace for the sake of babies yet to come.
LankaBlue²