The Kortrijk Windmill, Breukelen

'Kortrijk' = 'Kort-RIKE'
'Breukelen' = 3 syllables, pronounce as you read.
I'm sure you know that Brooklyn in New York was named after this place.  Right?

If you visit this mill, you'll be either appalled or impressed that it is now standing in the middle of a very commercial area.  In fact, many of the shots I took display the rather prominent signpost of McD.  Had the windmill been facing the other way, you would have seen the carpark, and maybe a bit of a well-known hotel as well.  The windmill was constructed in 1675, so it's almost 350 years old.  I wonder what its builders would have said about it today, with all the trappings of the modern world around it.  It is a late afternoon shot, judging as well from the angle of the light.  I had hoped the weather would stay this way, and the trip wasn't wasted, despite a busy A27.

The rest of the day wasn't wasted, either.  Went to work, attended the meeting with colleagues, but mostly with Guilford Guy, who explained everything that Toons has had to do, and what my immediate concerns were for the following weeks.  Toons's students have had to put together a portfolio, one portfolio each, and there are about 95 students, give or take a handful who haven't been attending regularly.  Item One (the email), in coordination with the Internal Operations course, was due last October, so that's done, but none of it has been corrected.  I'll presume Toons was waiting either for the Winter Break or for exam week in January to do this.  Same story with Item Two (the blog), in coordination with the Marketing course, which was due earlier this month.  Item Three will be presentations in coordination with Business Ethics, and I'm going to oversee these in two weeks' time.  Item Four will be a mini-essay due sometime in mid-January, and will also be corrected by me.  The exam in January will be all about grammar.  I'm sure Toons has spent quite a bit of time on that topic, but I'll need to squeeze-plan a quick review on that after the New Year.  In short, I have a whale of a load waiting.  In the meantime, I have to prepare for a Presentations lecture next week, followed by six workshops, one per class, also next week.  Was it foresight that urged me to retake a MOOC on this subject barely 6 weeks ago?  Third Eye and Crystal Ball still functioning adequately.

The trip to the mill was a stress reliever.  The stress is not caused by work, though, but by the goings on in MNL.  It's a source of joy to know that I'm here and not there.  Every windmill is a celebration of that fact.  That said, I am working closely with the Viking to resolve the urgent issues that have come up.