Trust

An actual real-life living snake around my neck

I never realised this morning as I left to go to work, that I would end up with a snake around my neck sometime during the afternoon, but that was what happened. But before that I got ambushed and painted green and black and brown.

The Russian Kaliningrad

It was the first day of the Navy Days, a recurring event in the Netherlands where the Navy shows off its work through their people, ships and other assorted thingymebobs. The first day is always reserved for the invited: veterans and schoolchildren. So, this morning me and two colleagues picked up a bunch of juvenile delinq high school students to take them to the navy yard. After having dropped them off, a couple of us drivers set off to the exhibition-part of the navy yard as well to see what was on offer.

I got quite a few comments looking like this. Why???

There was a big tent with coffee and stands that was filled with veterans, there were ships aplenty, including three foreign ones: the German Siegburg, the British HMS Lancaster and the Russian Kaliningrad which arrived as we were on the dock. There were tank-like things, helicopters, a guy with half his leg gone (I think it was a dummy), old fashioned tents and cots, field toilets and showers and there was a stand where you could get your face painted in camouflage colours. To which my colleague dragged me. As soon as I was only half in the chair, the 'painter' got to work and within a minute I had a green and black and brown face.

Perhaps I should also say that when we were walking along and I saw a little boy with camouflage colours I actually remarked that I would like that as well. Never let it be said that my colleagues are short of memory!