Are you in a country that is not harsh to the working class? Or are you an expat to one? I am actually in one where public holidays are not much. It seems nothing but for people who earn monthky salaries, this is a big thing! Paid holidays and recognized national/bank holidays allow resting period for workers. This in turn, promotes high morale, effectivity and efficiency. I am in the Netherlands now, and it is one of the bottom countries in terms of paid holidays and public/national/bank holidays. I could not find other countries but maybe they're not covered in this study/finding.

Which country are you in? Below is a table adopted from what has CNN published and also based on Mercer's study. The Netherlands has only 28 days while colleagues from Vienna has 38. That's 10 more working days, 2 weeks in general. It indeed makes a big difference. WHich country are you in? Do you wish sometimes you're in another country instead?

Below, I have a screen shot of what's stated in the source, Mercer's Worldwide Benefit & Employment Guidelines. I heard that peple in Japan work alot but they have more holidays too... fair enough, maybe?

I read announced or published in our intranet at work (quoted below) that the Hague local trams and buses will announce the stops in English. Currently, the stops are announced only in Dutch. I was delighted to know that English announcement will be available together with the brief tips on what the stop is near to and what it can access, i.e., hospital, markets, theater, etc.

I was able to experience a couple of trams announcing stops. It was kind of disappointing though. Why? The Dutch announcement of the stop is so clear and loud while the English part is inferior in quality. So far I have experienced so little but I do hope it is better in others. I will be posting for further experience soon.

Here follows a message from a representative from HTM, The Hague public transport system.


"HTM and the municipality of The Hague are experimenting with the announcement of information in English as well as Dutch in trams and buses at certain stops.


Many international guests and residents use the HTM public transport system. The English announcements are intended to assist international travellers in finding their way.


The experiment covers forty stops. The name of the stop will be announced in English as well as Dutch, together with additional information such as 'hospital' or 'station' or information about specific buildings and attractions nearby such as ‘shopping area' or ‘theater'.

What's your opinion of this experiment?The experiment in HTM trams and buses runs from 18 July until late October 2011. RandstadRail will follow at the start of its new schedule in August.

Please take a ride with HTM and share your opinion of this project with us via lans@htm.net .

Your comments will be used to evaluate the experiment and help us decide whether or not to continue and how to improve this service even more."

When we were in Paris, one of the things I was shocked was the way motorists were behaving. They do not respect pedestrian lanes and traffic lights. There were so many occasions when it was already the pedestrians' turn to cross the street but trucks, cars, motorcycles, etc. were still speeding up! It was horrible! Once, the old lady still had to wave so many times to have eye-to-eye contact with the drivers to be allowed to cross the street! The streets were scary! I mean, aside from looking at the traffic lights and pedestrian lanes, pedestrians should really open their eyes, especially that roads in Paris are really wide and so are the crossings!

I don't know if anyone else has the same experience but we stayed in the 16th arrondisement, that's where our hotel was, and to reach the center, we had to commute. We also walked alot around the nearby arrondisment for attractions so I cannot really pinpoint which part(s) of the city we had crossing the street troubles.

Just to double check my experience, I googled and I guess what? The first results to my query were pedestrian accidents lawyers advertisements! If there is this big ads on this type of living or job, then I know, they can live with it... as there are many cases about pedestrian accidents!

But why is that? Paris is one of the leading tourist destinations if not the number one, but why this danger? No raffic cameras to fine those irresponsible drivers? Be careful tourists when you're in Paris, always be sure when crossing the street, despite the presence of traffic lights and pedestrian lanes!

Just in general, be careful, Paris or anywhere!