Yesterday was kind of a strange day. For work I had a seminar in a town at the beach not far from my home. I always want to come on time so I left home at 7.45 AM. It usually takes me 20 minutes but now in morning traffic I expected a longer drive. Well is was 20 minutes so on 8.05 I already was there while al things would start at 8.30 with coffee and conferencing from 9 am.
It was an intense seminar about making exams and all official paperwork for the educational inspection. At 4 pm we were finished. Earlier then expected and that was a good thing cause my sons girlfriend was graduating at 5 PM. So quickly to the college and at 5 exact i could join my wife in the conference room for graduation.
She now has the same papers as my son and will start working making MRI an CT scans in a hospital here in the neighbourhood.
We decided to go out for dinner with both her parents, her brother and her sister, my son and the 2 of us. Not a complex dinner but just an easy and relaxing one.
(For Martin, just a main dish with sate and penut-sause (hope you know what that is if not I will explain), salad, prawn crackers and French fries.
We ate in a "student"-restaurant so lot of young people there. It was real nice.
It was rather cheap for all 8 we only had to pay 120 euro (including drinks)



Once at home I started to realise how things have changed in the way we pay for things. I don't know if you (in the USA) are familiar with electronic paying (not meaning by credit card).
Here we can just use our "banking-pass" to pay. It contains a magnetic strip in which all things important for paying are hidden. We all have a personal identification number (PIN) connected to our banking pass. So in shops its just paying by PIN-code as we say. In the same way we get our money "out of the wall" .



Just enter pin and select the amount of money and things are ok. We also use it with electronic banking by PC. Put your card in a cardholder provided by the bank, put in your Pin and pay on PC (all kind of securities are taken off course).
Another way of paying by banking pas is using the chip which is build in the pas. Its a kind of electronic wallet. You put money on it at a cash point, and you are able to pay (specially meant for little amounts of money like car-parking and so..)



Since we pay and get money this way, cheques aren't used anymore and are completely out of sight here.
Of course we also know the credit card but the "pin-payments" are used far more here. After paying, the money is taken from your bank account immediately btw. So no surprises at the end of the month anymore. Not enough money on your account..... Pin-machine will say: pay different.