I am perfectly happy that they didn't go to the baptism, the only crownprincely couples there were the parents and godparents of the baby + the belgian crownprincely couple. The attendance of Laurentien and Constantijn wasn't really required either, & I consider it as a private visit to familyfriends. The choise of Laurentien might be appropriate as she and Mary spend time together during some Hans Christian Andersen-event. I am still surprised that the etiquette at baptisms is so different in every monarchy, as the belgians & spanish didn't invite any foreign royalty, the dutch only the Benelux-royals + godmother and the danish invite the entire bunch. I assumed the royal courts would do some 'benchmarking' these days.
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Now don't get me started on that horrible man, Peter van der Vorst! I must admit I distrust everything that 'journalist' says. He doesn't have a lot of expertise on the subjects and shows his disdain for the royal family occasionally (why he wants to be a royalty reporter beats me). That the Crownprince dislikes this incompetent man, who at times reaches to the levels of German boulevard journalism is perfectly understandable. When he started on the programme I e-mailed RTL-boulevard several times about the numerous mistakes they made, but their friendly replies and subsequant flow of mistakes made me believe that this is an incurable thing & I gave up.
Since the crownprince ignores that horrible manthis guy has complained, complained and complained on RTL-Boulevard about this and how he could not understand why this was happening (though it was quite obvious to me). Like the editor of 'Prive' magazine the 'journalist' takes everything rather personal and tries to find a way to attack the crownprincely couple, but not to frontal as that will cost him viewers/readers as the dutch public doesn't like nasty remarks against their royals. Anyway, I wrote a letter to newspaper 'De Telegraaf' to nominate Peter van der Vorst for the next 'Braakmiddelen top 10' (vomitting top 10) in which their television critic 'bashes' the 10 most annoying people on television (and my letter was placed & joined by another one with the same suggestion!).
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Now for the
number of engagements: In the UK they list the engagements in a different way then in The Netherlands. If Queen Beatrix visits on one day the province of Groningen where she sees a farm (1), drinks coffee with elderly in their home (2) , has a meeting with officials (3) and opens a factory (4), the dutch would list this as 1 engagement: the visit of the queen to Groningen. The british would list this example as 4 engagements, hence the difference. But of course Peter van der Vorst 'forgets' to notice that (or just doesn't care enough to check). I believe the visit to Marocco is listed as 1 engagement, while we all saw that the crownprincely couple attended much more. Also 'surprise' visits are not listed here.
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I am quite pleased with the number of public engagements the royals made last year, especially Queen Beatrix was active, dispite her knee. This month, as I said, I expected more public appearances from the crownprincely couple. Maybe there just isn't anything 'public' to do (january is usually a quiet month), but a few working-visits wouldn't hurt. I assume they are doing things behind the screens, as the dutch royals usually are very much involved and prepared in the things they do (probably preparing -among other things- the argentinian state-visit), but I think it is important for them to be 'visible' & 'out there'. Now the year of micro credit ended I hope Maxima will re-orientate on her future and select some new causes she wants to support. Since 3 core-royals recently died there must be so many niches 'neglected'.
Now, if they used this month to 'work' on a 3rd girl (I am hoping for 4 girls, like Juliana had), I will withdraw my complaint in october

& appreciate the crownprincely agenda of january 2006.