Have you ever seen one of those calendars that usually hang on the wall of the toilet in a Dutch house? Have you ever thought about its meaning and implications?
To give a short explanation, we can say that those calendars are a kind of brief "agenda" in which Dutch people take down the birthdays of their acquaintances.
They make good use of the time they have sitting in the toilet, keeping in mind their beloved friends' and relatives' birthdays. Thus, it is almost impossible that they will forget a special date.
As a foreign guest, you can take advantage of this by doing the following. Next time you are invited to a Dutch house, bring a pen with you and go to the toilet. There, write down your name in your birthday date.
Maybe it could be a little disturbing for you to know that your name will be hanging on the wall between the towel and the toilet paper and that these people will be staring at it while taking care of their physical needs, but that is not the central point. The important issue here is that you will hear from your Dutch friends the day of your birthday and for sure that will let you forget the peculiar mechanism of their memory.
