Oink

Oink oink oink oink sow. Oink piglet oink oink oink. Oink oink boar oink. Oink oink oink oink swine. Oink oink oink piggery. Oink oink hogs oink oink oink oink oink. Oink sow oink oink oink. Piglet oink oink oink.

Do you get the drift of the conversation over the last three days yet? If not, let me enlighten you: I had eleven pigfarmers, two pig medication people and one pig vet on board. Conversation ranged from swine to sows to boars to piglets to medication. It was over five hundred kilometers on day one. We got stuck in traffic for four hours on our way there, so the day got even longer!

Now don't get me wrong! They were nice men and even though the topic got a bit boring after three days, it was not too bad. They did make a mess though! Only fourteen of them and still... It was like I had a coach load of 15-year olds.

Just to stay on the subject of pigs:

A lion, a tiger and a pig are talking about who is the scariest of the three. The lion says: if I roar, the whole of the savannah is cowering. Ah, says the tiger: if I roar, the whole of the jungle is cowering. Ah, says the pig: if I sneeze, the whole world is cowering!

Danish

Well, when this post posts (I've preposted it), I will be somewhere in Denmark trying to understand the signs. The picture signs are fine, it's the written ones that are the problem. But no point in getting all grrrr about it in advance (as I'm writing this on Tuesday and I may not have any problem with written signs at all).

I will be back on Friday. At first I was supposed to get back sometime after midnight (which would mean I would be back on Saturday really), but I've seen they already want to leave at midday! No argument from me, even though traffic will be a lot heavier then... Ah well, I will tell all about it asap and hopefully show some photos too! Probably of one of the companies we're visiting today...

U is for...

USS John F Kennedy

No, I didn't take this photo: I wish! It's a postcard I received on visiting the ship though, so I thought it passed the mark.

The USS JFK was one of the biggest (if not the biggest) all purpose carriers in the world and I got the chance to see her and set foot on her, while she was still in commission (she has been out since 2007).

While me and three friends were on holiday in Malta in 1999, one of my friends hit it off with an American sailor who at the end of the evening gave us VIP tickets to go and visit this ship. Now, this was a sun-holiday for all of us, but then again, when do you ever get the chance to see the biggest navy ship in the world? So, we caught a bus and went to the capital of Malta where she was berthed. Long lines of schoolchildren were already waiting to get to see her, but we just walked past everyone and got on for a great tour.

The ship was absolutely huge! Over five thousand people working on her and some of those people wouldn't once get upstairs during the whole trip! Of course we didn't get to see everything. I never saw the sailors' quarters, the kitchens, the hospital, the shop, but we did get to the bridge and several other areas. It was a great day out and thanks to my flirty friend, a free one as well!

For more U words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

Goodies

Well, apart from being quiet work-wise, the last couple of weeks have been very busy present-wise. During the birthday weekend my friend gave me a shirt and two denim jackets. When I arrived home last night I realised Goldilocks had been in. Not eating, but leaving food: my mum had made 'snert' (thick pea soup) and left a couple of portions in my freezer. She had also left a chocolate letter (yum) because of Sinterklaas. Then last night I also was able to finally collect the package that had arrived from Germany, containing yet more Christmas films I have bought.

From this week until Christmas, work should be quite busy. I was in Germany during the weekend and will leave (very very early; yikes) tomorrow morning for Denmark for three days. With a total of fourteen (14) men on board. I don't know what's on during the weekend, but next week should again be busy with Christmas markets in Germany and getting all the soldiers back we delivered on Sunday! Well, it's better than sitting at home!

Saturday Archive (on Sunday)

My sister and I have been going on holiday together quite a few times. We went to Belgium and Luxembourg, we went to Ireland, we went to Wales, we went cycling in the Netherlands (never again). And for some reason people always want to take photos of us. 'Are you twins?' was a question that we were asked on more than one occasion and it p'd me off big time. Until I figured out they thought I was younger and from then on it was okay.

This photo was taken in a youth hostel in either Belgium or Luxembourg (I'm guessing the latter) and we both were in a funny mood. It's not taken by someone else: my sister had a self timer on her camera! We did have a great holiday though. I had ants in my pants (the result anyway: I got bitten on my behind while listening to the call of nature), we saw several movies which were doubly subtitled (Dutch and French), we got stuck in traffic in Luxembourg and we saw cartoon walls in Brussels. Good times...

Christmas ornaments Sent

Well, I received some ornaments from the USofA, but I also sent some. One was a tree ornament made of glass with a little glass bird on the inside (I liked it) and the other is what you can see in the photo. A little robin on a snow-covered log with some pinecones and a bit of holly. Like the other bits and bobs I've shown recently, I knitted it myself (following a pattern I hasten to add, I would never be able to figure all of that out myself!).

Christmas ornaments Received

Somewhere in late October/early November (according to some too early), I entered an ornament swap. Basically, I had to buy/make a Christmas ornament and send it to someone somewhere. That person would send me Christmas ornament as well. Well, this week a box from the USofA arrived!

I managed to only look at the box for about half an hour, before I finally gave in and opened it. In the package was a box and in the box were two Christmas ornaments. A beautiful home-made ball in my favourite colours and a special edition Harley ball. The only thing I have to do now is get a tree so I can put them in. Thank you Michelle!

Hard work

I am getting really tired with work now. Last week I only worked two days and this week... wait for it... three! Three whole days of work! I must admit, both yesterday and today were really easy: driving an hour and a half to my starting point. Loading up the coach, dropping them off one kilometer further! Picking up another group nearly two hours later and so it continued the whole day. Me and a colleague stayed in a hotel, which was okay. We had finished nice and early and in time for biathlon (my most favouritestest sport in the whole world. Apart from hurling. And curling is addictive. And I do get stuck watching tennis on occasion as well. But biathlon is the best) and I was able to watch the race, saw an American (Go Tim Burke) get the silver medal and a Canadian (Jean-Philippe Le Guellec) get to tenth place. And that is brilliant, because it's usually the Germans, Russians and Norwegians doing really well. So, I was cheering.

Tomorrow however, I can recover from all that hard work of the last two days and then on Sunday I have another day of work and again staying in a hotel. Next week I will have a three-day trip to somewhere in Denmark. A country which I don't like very much, because I don't understand any of the written signs. They might as well have written them in Chinese or hieroglyphics for all the sense they make to me. But more about that on my return. Anyhow, that's the reason I will be posting a bit erratically during the next couple of weeks (because it's not likely to ease off until after Christmas). But, I will try and post whenever I can!

T is for...

Telephone

I remember the telephone my paternal grandparents had in their kitchen: a big black bakelite phone. I even remember their phonenumber: 412! My maternal grandparents had to use the telephone box (or cell as we call them in the Netherlands) in the village and it wasn't until I was about ten or so that they finally got hooked up.

This photo was taken somewhere in Luxemburg (country) while on holiday there in 1997. Mobile (or cell) phones weren't in use yet and if they were, you held a proper brick in your hand: heavy and huge! So, if you wanted to phone home, you had to use a phone box. I couldn't even insert a card, it had to be money! We've come a long way...

For more T words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

How Jane Austen dealt with tentacles

A few months ago I was sent a book by Quirk Classics. 'And could I please read and review it?' Well, it's taken a bit of time, but I've finally finished it. So, here's the review!

The ultimate film/television series of Pride and Prejudice is the BBC-adaption with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. And when I read that book, I could easily visualise Elizabeth Bennet kicking behinds and wielding a big knife. The ultimate film/television series of Sense and Sensibility is the Ang Lee film with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman. And for some reason I couldn't quite picture Alan Rickman with tentacles hanging from his face!

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters has a great title, but I felt it had just a tad too many sea monsters injected into the story. Some of it was quite funny, other bits were just weird or even plain stupid. Yes, PPZ had bits added that weren't in the original, but it was an enhancement to the story; SSSM had bits added and not all of them fit. PPZ stayed true to its era; SSSM veered away from it on occasion, especially the rubber suits!

However, most of my issues were with Elinor Dashwood. Elinor is a likable woman, she has the most sense of the whole family and keeps her feelings close to her chest. But here she's also portrayed as quite dim and even a bit cold. Not really noticing that there's a crack in the underwater dome, even when everything is happening to Marianne, is not something I would expect from her. And her turning away from a servant in distress while he is being devoured by fish right in front of the house, makes her quite selfish and very unlikable.

The others are more or less portrayed in a similar way to the original, although two characters are given a bit more of a story: Mr Palmer and Lady Middleton, both stories adding to the general feel of the book.

Now, the question of course is: would I recommend this book to anyone? Well, yes! I would. In the Netherlands books by Jane Austen are on the reading list for English classes in high school and this would fit perfectly and perhaps even get some boys reading these great books.

For anybody who already loves Jane Austen's books, it will be a fun addition as well. Yes, you will always compare the book to the original and to the films and television series that have been made, but that in itself is not such a bad thing. Comparing the two will only make your love for the original grow and perhaps open your mind to other adaptations of other classics.

If you don't mind orang-utans, octopusses, pirates and a lot of water intruding the world of Jane Austen that is...