Quick update:
The Dutch government made a great deal by buying the Dutch division of the Fortis-group including the ABN-AMRO part which was sold to Fortis last year.
The Belgian politicians are a bit furious, cause they felt Fortis is sold too cheap. Well they agreed with the deal so they aren't allowed to moan now. Last year ABN-AMRO was sold to Fortis for 24 billion euro's. Last week the Dutch government bought Fortis including ABN-AMRO for 16 billion euro. So quite a nice deal. Funny thing is ABN-AMRO now is bigger then the Fortis part in Holland so the bank will continue under the name ABN-AMRO.
Belgians are calling it a "bad Belgian joke" by nationalizing the bank. It was the best thing the government could do at the moment to avoid an economic crisis here.
The weekend was fun btw. Saturday I started to get rid of a border plants in the garden, because the expansion of our house will start in about 4 weeks. We need more room in the garden so.... Today I still feel the muscles I usually not use..lol.
Last night we had dinner with my father-in-law. He became 85 last week and invited us for dinner (including kids and their girlfriends). My youngest son had to cancel cause he already had bought tickets for the musical Tarzan. For Martin: it was, for me, a fishy night. I started with Salmon an a bed of rucola salad and taggliatelle with a nice Béarnaise sauce. Main-dish contained a combination of Tournedos (steak) and Salmon (again). I was curious about that combination because it is not something I would place on a menu. Well it tasted so well. The salmon was prepared with excellent herbs and tasted a bit spicy. That in combination with the steak....delicious. I took a desert called: choco, choco and choco. Well it contained a lot of...yes, chocolate. Chocolate ice-cream with cream, chocolate pudding and chocolate cakes.
My father in law had decided he wanted to give some money to his grand-children. They all received an envelope with 1000 euro's in it and they actually were a bit confused about the amount of money. Was really nice to watch their faces....
TC