Sunday, 20 June 2010

Tag, you're it!

I got tagged by Strawberry Jam Anne. Isn't it great? And the only thing I have to do, is answer ten questions she made up. And then I have to think of ten questions and tag five other bloggers! So, it turns out to be a bit trickier than I originally thought...

1. How do you relax? If I just have to relax after a long day's work, television will do just fine. If it's a major problem at work and I have a big stone in my stomach, I keep thinking of cornflowers, poppies, daisies and dandelions. Over and over and over. Until the stone turns to a pebble and then to a grain of sand. Or until I fall asleep!

2. What possession could you not live without? After considering this question for some time and weighing up the pros and cons of all the possessions I have (could I do the dishes by hand again, how about doing my laundry in the bathtub) I think this would have to be my laptop. Because this enables me to meet people from all over the world, without leaving my home. A bit like books really. Which would come a very close second!

3. What makes you laugh? Almost anything can make me laugh. On television it would probably be QI (hosted by the brilliant Stephen Fry), Dinnerladies (only two seasons, but absolutely fantastic), Last of the Summer Wine (how can you not laugh at three old men roaming the wilderness of Yorkshire and getting into all kind of scrapes), the Muppet Show (need I say more) and lots more. 

4. What is your greatest fear? I think I answered this question not long ago. It would be that I would make a big mistake in moving to Canada. But then again, there's only one way to find out...

5. Who do you most admire, living or dead and why? I admire my cats. The way they can just sleep all day and take life the way it comes.

6. What talent do you wish you had? Do I need any more talents? I am the most accomplished person in the whole wide worl... house. I wish I had the talent not to get too worked up about something and then needing to think about dandelions and cornflowers to go to sleep...

7. Who would you invite to your dream dinner party? My in-laws. 

8. What single thing would improve your life? A good cleaning lady or gentleman. 

9. What is your favourite song or piece of music? Do I have to choose one? Avonden by Boudewijn de Groot would be right up there. I believe, I believe, I believe in you and me...

10. What is your greatest achievement? Well, making it to 38 years and 355 days is quite an achievement. Don't you think?

So, that is the first part of this tag dealt with. Now to tag five others. Monique, Misfit in Paradise, Sunny, Ginny Marie and Debby. And then to think of ten questions.

1. What is the best sound you ever heard?
2. They offer you a film role. What role would you play?
3. What is the best thing about where you live?
4. If you had a magical power, what would it be?
5. One of those telemarketeers rings you up. How do you deal with them?
6. What would you not write about in your blog?
7. Do you have a tattoo? If so, where? If not, would you ever get one?
8. You HAVE to watch a sports game. Would it be football (the soccer variety), football (the American variety), tennis, Formula 1 racing or chess?
9. If you had the chance, would you go to the moon?
10. Do you own your (adopted) country's flag and do you fly it? 

Saturday, 19 June 2010

Roses

I've been called a lot of things in the past. According to two people I was inhuman. Most of the teenagers on the schoolrun think I am not a very nice person (and that is putting it very very mildly) and have vocalized that using quite harsh words. My colleagues think I am a chatterbox and a piss head (mostly because I need the toilet quite often. I hope).

But today I was called old-fashioned. Not because I like brass music or knitting. But because I prefer carnations to roses. Always have done. And apparently carnations are not modern. Not in. Not hip.

So now you know: I am an old-fashioned, inhuman, &%$#%, chattering piss head. And I love me!

Friday, 18 June 2010

Right and wrong

Sometimes things don't go exactly to plan. Often it's the company or the passengers who mess things up. Today it wasn't their fault. But then again, you could say it wasn't our fault either.

This morning me and a colleague had to pick up 75 people to take the Airforce Days. When I arrived they were quite surprised to see me: they had only ordered one bus for sixty people. Well, our sixty-seaters were employed elsewhere, so instead there were two fifty-seaters. There were less than fifty people there, but we both did the trip anyway.

When we were due to go back home again this afternoon, we were told by a teacher there was another bus 29. I had bus 29, so that was quite strange. We soon found out what had happened.

The address we were given was Church Street (I'm making the names up, the principle stays the same) and that's where we went. However, we were supposed to be in Saturn Street. Another coach (a sixty-seater) turned up as well. The address he had been given was Moon Lane, he was parked in Saturn Street and was supposed to be in Church Street! You see what happened don't you: the other coach (from a different company) took our passengers and we took his! Isn't it brilliant?

Thursday, 17 June 2010

NOP 5


This is called the Little Polder House and is a piece of landscape and motorway art. It was only after it was erected that they realised the size of the house fitted perfectly in the NOP. The short sides of the house are three meters and the long sides are eight meters. The plots of land given out to the first farmers were three hundred by eight hundred meters or a multiplication by two or three of that.

The little boat on top of the smoke has two functions. First of all it shows you where the wind comes from. And the second function is a bit more morbid. If there were no dykes surrounding the part of the country I live in, the little boat would be floating on top of the water instead of the smoke!

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

V is for...

Chateau de Versailles

This is the back of the beautiful palace of Versailles. And isn't it imposing? The front is equally imposing, but renovation work meant scaffolding and the amount of people wanting to visit equals no nice photo!

The palace didn't start out like this, it was first a much smaller royal hunting lodge, just outside of Paris. Louis XIV wanted to make it his home though and started expanding almost the minute he arrived. From 1661 onwards, the palace was extended several times until in 1789 (with still more plans to extend and improve), the French revolution took place, all the royals were forced back to Paris and all plans were put on hold. 

During the next few years several things were suggested about the palace, but in the end it was settled that it would become a museum and it has been the museum of France ever since. Nowadays it is a fantastic place to visit, not only the palace itself, but the gardens, the stables and everything else is fantastic as well. You could easily spend a whole day there and not have seen even half! 

For more V-words from around the world, please visit ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

Wildlife

After we had arrived yesterday, parked our coaches, watched the game (Netherlands-Denmark: 2-0) we went outside. After all, they weather was quite nice, although the sun had more or less disappeared. I wanted to take a walk and one of my colleagues joined me. I wanted to do the same walk I had done in January.

It was a lot easier to walk without half a meter of snow to plough through. But all of a sudden my colleague stopped me and pointed at something. Well, it took me a while to spot it myself, but I managed in the end. Then of course I had to take a photo, but I couldn't keep the camera steady enough. My colleague offered to be a support and I managed to take a photo of the deer. You will have to enlarge the photo, but it's really there!

We continued walking. High grasses, ferns and nettles everywhere and then they came out: the flies, the buzzers, the things that roam about your face and will not leave you alone! Once we had gotten back to the tarmac, we spotted a fox coming towards us, but as he spotted us, he sat down. I took a photo and realised it wasn't a fox at all; it was a hare (sigh).

We had our dinner outside and as soon as the first dish hit the table, so did the fruitflies. They were constantly hovering around our faces and extremely annoying. And I guess they weren't really fruitflies either, because when I looked in the mirror later, I saw a lot of little pinpricks in my face! And when I woke up this morning I realised I had been stung twice on my leg as well. Even though I had been wearing trousers! Awful creatures....

Monday, 14 June 2010

Monstrous Monday 1

Basically it's like the Feline Friday thing I had going quite a while back, but from now I will be doing it on Monday to coincide with my Dutch blog.

This is the sight I wake up to several times a week, provided I sleep on the left side of the bed (seen from the foot of the bed). Isn't he just gorgeous?

Sunday, 13 June 2010

Feathers and caps and stuff

In March I drove a school to London for the second year. They had asked for me and so had the organization that hires the coach. In a week and a half I have to drive another school to London for the second year. They too asked for me via the same organization.

Last week I got an e-mail. Whether I would be okay staying in a guest family instead of a hotel. I didn't mind too much, provided I have my own private facilities, which I am entitled to according to my workers' agreement.

Today I opened my e-mail and there was another one: the problem was solved. I would be staying in a hotel. It was a bit dearer than planned, but I had always done outstanding work in London, so they wanted me to stay there.

Good thing I don't have to wear a hat to work: it wouldn't fit anymore!!!

Weekend

Even though I spent my weekend with my friends (yesterday) and my parents and brother and his family (today), I haven't really much to tell. I had a big dinner and two fishbowls of white wine at my friends' place. We saw three films (one with Michael Bublé and a stripping mountie?) and went to bed at 2am. I slept okay on my matrass on the floor and was woken in the end by the sun in my face and the sound of two children running around.

After breakfast my friend drove me over to my parents, because it's my father's 65th birthday today! I had made a photo book of our trip to France and both my parents loved it. My brother and his family arrived shortly after (I also had a book for them). I chatted to an uncle of mine who has recently visited Canada with his choir, I chatted to my sister in law about their upcoming and past trips. I tickled my niece, took photos of my nephew holding a bionicle (?) and had a fishy lunch.

Now I am home again. And it seems I had more to tell than I originally thought!

Saturday, 12 June 2010

We are the champions...

If you are not a football fan (like I am), the worst thing that can happen is the World Cup. Because then every idiot comes crawling out of the woodwork to add his two cents to how they should have played and what they should have done and who should have been in the line-up.

Not only that, every single store and/or brand comes up with another 'get them all' item that you have to have. There are Beesies (Supermarket Albert Heijn), Gogos (Supermarket C1000) and bracelets. There are hard hats (Heineken), orange dresses (Bavaria) and cooling beercrates (Grolsch). Orange make-up, orange shirts, trousers, shoes, even underwear.

But to go with the flow (for this once mind, never again for football), I have dressed up in my finest, searched for anything orange in my home and taken a photo. So you can also enjoy the idiocy of football!

PS: it turned out quite dark, sorry for that.