Amalia

Our Crown Princess Amalia reached the age of 18 yesterday, so now she's legally allowed to become queen if anything untoward should happen to her father, King Willem-Alexander.  Today, he presented her to the Raad van State ('Sta-tuh'), or Council of State, the highest advisory body in the country, of which he is chairman.  As king, though, he is not allowed to vote on any laws because he is not allowed to choose sides or political parties but should be above all of them.  The role is largely ceremonial, we are told, but it is important, nonetheless.  Amalia has indicated that she is eager to learn, but wishes to finish her gap year, this current year, which she's been using to do practicum work in a couple of places (we're not being told this info to protect her privacy), and after that she intends to go to university.  She finished cum laude at secondary school and is interested in degrees in economics and political science.  She actually takes after her mother, Queen Maxima, who has a Masters in Economics, and her grandmum, former Queen Beatrix, who has a Masters in Math.

Beautiful weather today but I did not go out because I wanted to watch her introduction to politics.  It's not often one gets to follow 'royal news' connected to government (the gossip pages are fine but insufficient and often too speculative anyway).  We understand that Amalia has accepted the fact that she could be queen someday and is not rebelling against it the same way her father used to.  She looked quite grown up, but I know this is a façade as she's normally a lot more spontaneous than she showed today.  Am I a fan?  Yes and No.  I don't stalk them online and I'm not greedy about the latest scoop.  I do like it, though, when I can follow something significant that they're doing.

Stayed in bed most of the morning, not exactly asleep.  As anxious as yesterday.  Went down to breakfast/lunch, and for the first time in ages, AW insisted on serving me in the morning, and then he asked what was wrong.  I said I was worried about losing the house, and he looked at me and said 'No, no need to worry.'  He then explained how we could work it out, and it was very simple, and it was a huge relief.  So the rest of the day went much, much better.  In the evening, he had Wednesday regional bridge online, and I opened a new MOOC, that one I'd been thinking of, and I know it will be the last for this year, after which I don't mind waiting again till spring.  There's only so much coping one can do, and gaming is so much more fun, and then there's the housework, too.

There's a little rhyme I posted elsewhere, in 'reply' to a similar rhyme about how the season has pagan roots --
No Xmas trees or baubles hang in our living room
No heaven, hell, no judgement day, no chronicle of doom
Instead the day-to-day of living, then the new year's boom
O tidings of ordinary life, work and play
O tidings of ordinary life.

Asked AW if, maybe, we might decorate this year, although we haven't done that since last century, and he said, 'Why? Do we celebrate the Muslim events?  Or the Hindu events?  Or any other?'  To which the answer was, of course, 'no'.  'So why should we celebrate this?'  And he was right.  We do, however, intend to stay up for New Year's, as we've always done.  And I just might take out our box of coloured balls one of these days and shoot them when it's grey outside.