[{"content":" Warning! This site is not finished, and arguably not even in progress\u0026hellip; ","date":"23 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"","summary":" Warning! This site is not finished, and arguably not even in progress… ","title":"","type":"page"},{"content":"","date":"23 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/posts/","section":"","summary":"","title":"","type":"posts"},{"content":" Remember the good old days of 2005? Peter Kay was at the top of the charts asking the way to Amarillo, Doctor Who was back on the telly for the first time since 1989, and the UK was a part of the European Union. It was in these younger, more innocent times that I moved to the UK from the Netherlands. Oh, the laughs we had.\nA Lot Has Happened Since Then\u0026hellip;\nThe United Kingdom has been my home for more than two decades now, and I more and more get the feeling it doesn\u0026rsquo;t really want me here, akshually. Or rather, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t like that I stubbornly held on to my Dutch passport for twenty years. How dare I, I guess? Well, one of the reasons I dare is because it costs about £2000 to even attempt to get citizenship. (I mean really, government? What the heck?!) so I\u0026rsquo;ve always refused. I have Settled Status, so it wasn\u0026rsquo;t really necessary.\nBut now\u0026hellip;\nI\u0026rsquo;m afraid, the time has come, I\u0026rsquo;m afraid, to make British citizenship a priority, I\u0026rsquo;m afraid. Settled Status or not: I\u0026rsquo;m afraid! My legal status in this country hangs on one piece of tenuous legislation which I am* sure* will be \u0026lsquo;revised\u0026rsquo; in the next 5 years or so. So I\u0026rsquo;ve decided: now is the time. And it\u0026rsquo;s STILL too expensive for me to do. So I\u0026rsquo;m asking you lovely people for a little bit of help towards the naturalisation paperwork. It\u0026rsquo;s not a decision I make lightly, otherwise I\u0026rsquo;d have done this years ago. Help me annoy the gammons by making this foreigner a countryman!\nIf you want to help, please click the button below to go to a GoFundMe page I\u0026rsquo;ve set up. It is very much appreciated.\nGo Fund Him ","date":"23 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/posts/enbrittification/","section":"","summary":" Remember the good old days of 2005? Peter Kay was at the top of the charts asking the way to Amarillo, Doctor Who was back on the telly for the first time since 1989, and the UK was a part of the European Union. It was in these younger, more innocent times that I moved to the UK from the Netherlands. Oh, the laughs we had.\n","title":"Enbrittification","type":"posts"},{"content":" \u0026ldquo;We do not do it because it\u0026rsquo;s easy. We do it because we thought it would be easy\u0026rdquo; Yeah so\u0026hellip;I just sort of started over. The 2025 incarnation of bas.scot was initially just a bit of a test project for me, playing around with Static Site Generators. Then when I did my Stairs to Space fundraiser, it had to sort of stick around. Like when you had a friend with whom you only hung out because they had a Nintendo.\nBut a combination of Jekyll (and Ruby, I think) just straight up not working anymore on my machine (or did something fuck up Node? I couldn\u0026rsquo;t be bothered figuring it out.), my initial site being hosted via Github which I wasn\u0026rsquo;t fully comfortable with, and getting a new laptop with that \u0026lsquo;Fresh Install Smell\u0026rsquo; meant that I basically went and etch-a-sketched the whole damn thing.\nSo yeah, you can look forward to:\nbooks \u0026amp; media, knitting, crochet \u0026amp; sewing electronics/music tech lifting heavy things and putting htem down again, and cheese ","date":"19 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/posts/shed-overhaul/","section":"","summary":" “We do not do it because it’s easy. We do it because we thought it would be easy” Yeah so…I just sort of started over. The 2025 incarnation of bas.scot was initially just a bit of a test project for me, playing around with Static Site Generators. Then when I did my Stairs to Space fundraiser, it had to sort of stick around. Like when you had a friend with whom you only hung out because they had a Nintendo.\n","title":"Shed Overhaul","type":"posts"},{"content":"I tr to read, if not \u0026lsquo;a lot\u0026rsquo;, then at least \u0026lsquo;consistently\u0026rsquo;. I lean heavily towards Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction and Fantasy, because I love books that try to Put The Magic Back. My current Wheelhouse (Hi Glassers!) looks a little like this:\nBook about grief that aren\u0026rsquo;t about grief First contact, learning to communicate Cosmic Awe \u0026amp; Horror Solarpunk, Postapocalyptic Optimism Find me on Fable: Fable Profile\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/read/","section":"","summary":"I tr to read, if not ‘a lot’, then at least ‘consistently’. I lean heavily towards Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction and Fantasy, because I love books that try to Put The Magic Back. My current Wheelhouse (Hi Glassers!) looks a little like this:\n","title":"","type":"read"},{"content":" Who am he, and what him do? Never Late, Nor Early I’m a Dutch native, Scotland based, 40-something who lifts, makes cheese, knits \u0026amp; crochets, messes around with electronics and generally just tries to be a decent human.\nIn this house # We recognise trans women are women and trans men are men We open the Gate, and invite people in We support our LGBTQIA+ siblings We don\u0026rsquo;t believe in guilt regarding pleasures or food We roll initiative when someone attacks the party We know that “Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic-ethnic group in a given nation. It’s just the promise of violence that’s enacted and the police are basically an occupying army.” We know there’s no such thing as an ethical billionaire We don’t entertain fascists Attributions # Site Powered by Hugo and Blowfish Shed icons created by Paul J. - Flaticon ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"","summary":" Who am he, and what him do? Never Late, Nor Early I’m a Dutch native, Scotland based, 40-something who lifts, makes cheese, knits \u0026 crochets, messes around with electronics and generally just tries to be a decent human.\n","title":"About (me)","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Authors","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":" Remember the good old days of 2005? Peter Kay was at the top of the charts asking the way to Amarillo, Doctor Who was back on the telly for the first time since 1989, and the UK was a part of the European Union. It was in these younger, more innocent times that I moved to the UK from the Netherlands. Oh, the laughs we had.\nA Lot Has Happened Since Then\u0026hellip;\nThe United Kingdom has been my home for more than two decades now, and I more and more get the feeling it doesn\u0026rsquo;t really want me here, akshually. Or rather, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t like that I stubbornly held on to my Dutch passport for twenty years. How dare I, I guess? Well, one of the reasons I dare is because it costs about £2000 to even attempt to get citizenship. (I mean really, government? What the heck?!) so I\u0026rsquo;ve always refused. I have Settled Status, so it wasn\u0026rsquo;t really necessary.\nBut now\u0026hellip;\nI\u0026rsquo;m afraid, the time has come, I\u0026rsquo;m afraid, to make British citizenship a priority, I\u0026rsquo;m afraid. Settled Status or not: I\u0026rsquo;m afraid! My legal status in this country hangs on one piece of tenuous legislation which I am* sure* will be \u0026lsquo;revised\u0026rsquo; in the next 5 years or so. So I\u0026rsquo;ve decided: now is the time. And it\u0026rsquo;s STILL too expensive for me to do. So I\u0026rsquo;m asking you lovely people for a little bit of help towards the naturalisation paperwork. It\u0026rsquo;s not a decision I make lightly, otherwise I\u0026rsquo;d have done this years ago. Help me annoy the gammons by making this foreigner a countryman!\nIf you want to help, please click the button below to go to a GoFundMe page I\u0026rsquo;ve set up. It is very much appreciated.\nGo Fund Him ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/naturalisation/","section":"","summary":" Remember the good old days of 2005? Peter Kay was at the top of the charts asking the way to Amarillo, Doctor Who was back on the telly for the first time since 1989, and the UK was a part of the European Union. It was in these younger, more innocent times that I moved to the UK from the Netherlands. Oh, the laughs we had.\n","title":"Help me become British ","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":" Jenni Fagan Majestic Cosmic Cat Ooh but it\u0026rsquo;s such a good feeling, you know? When you take a chance on something completely unknown to you and it absolutely pays off?\nMy eyes were slipping over books arranged on a table in our LIBS1 in the way that they do when you\u0026rsquo;re waiting for someone else to make up their mind, and they stuck to the front cover of The Delusions. I mean, how could I not?\nIt\u0026rsquo;s glorious, with but the prose and the story moving between down-to-earth realism and near feverish lyrical grace. It evokes huge, the hugest, questions. And then proceeds to not answer them, because it doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter. That\u0026rsquo;s not what the story needs, it\u0026rsquo;s not what you need to know and I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to know it either.\nLocal Independent Book Shop\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/read/the-delusions/","section":"","summary":" Jenni Fagan Majestic Cosmic Cat Ooh but it’s such a good feeling, you know? When you take a chance on something completely unknown to you and it absolutely pays off?\n","title":"The Delusions","type":"read"}]