C is for...

Cemetery and Cross

During my trip to Normandy in March this year, we visited several cemeteries. The trip had been organised after the (mainly) boys and young men had asked why they were part of the honour's guards on May 4th, which is Remembrance Day in the Netherlands. They certainly found out why: beaches, tanks, planes, guns and many many crosses, all dating from WWII.

The first photo shows the American Cemetery near Omaha Beach. Row upon row of white crosses and an occasional Star of David. Underneath every cross lies one young man who died in pursuit of freedom for everybody, be they 'different' or 'normal'. The second photo shows the German Cemetery near La Cambe. Row upon row of small greyish flat stones. Underneath every stone lie two to three young men who died in pursuit of one big Germany and only one type of 'normal'.

In contrast to the American crosses, the German stones bear both name and age of the people underneath and what was the most shocking was the ages of the soldiers: about the same age as the young men and women on my coach. It certainly hit home for them.

This is the letter C for ABC Wednesday. Why not join?

Sports

Cross-country running! And I am winning...

So, have you been watching a bit of the Olympics? Watched sports you didn't even know existed? To my shame I have to admit I have! Because I should be studying right now: words and grammar and pronounciation. But I have been drawn to the Olympics. So far I have only watched the swimming, the diving, the gymnastics, the three-day-eventing, some rowing, some judo, some archery, some beach volleyball and many more besides. Sports I would not normally watch, bar the gymnastics and the diving perhaps.

If you will watch the final of the woman's overall gymnastics, keep a look out for the Dutch girl: she is born in the town I now live in! And of course we have a great Dutch guy on the high bar in the final as well. Absolutely amazing. Perhaps you have already heard about the Dutch gold: Marianne Vos in the cycling road race. Fantastic, even if I didn't see it. Of course the commentaries are so biased, I keep switching between several channels to get the most of what I want to see.

But, as I said, I should be studying. And so far, I haven't done that much yet. But I promise: as of tomorrow, I will be a good girl (kicks little devil of shoulder) and start. Otherwise the course I will be on next week, will be a waste of money and time!

Small pleasures

You thought I was a nice person, didn't you? You know you do, because in principle I am a nice person. It's just occasionally that I am not that nice a person. Although most high school children will probably say I am never nice! But that is an altogether different matter.

Anyway. Picture the following if you will: I am driving along the motorway in a large bendy bus (ie articulated bus) which is absolutely filled to the rafters with about 100 people. Standing room and all. All of a sudden a car overtakes the bus, which in itself is not a rarity, I get overtaken a lot, but this car was different. I was in the inside lane and he was in the outside lane. As soon as he had passed my bus however, he slowed right down, annoying everyone behind him. He then proceeded to get into the middle lane and then in my lane. After which he had the nerve to slow down to about 70km/h (around 45mph). So, I flashed my lights and they speeded up again.

They didn't speed up a lot though, only to about 80km/h (50mph) and the girls in the back were looking at my bus and pointing at the sign. I gathered they didn't quite know where to go for the festival they wanted to go to and since I was going to the same place, the figured they could follow me. While driving ahead!

And then the little devil in me awoke. It sat on my shoulder, poking the little angel with a very large stick and gave me a glorious idea. I knew which exit I needed, they didn't. So, since they were in front of me, I wouldn't signal until they were past the point of no return and then get off at the exit. We arrived at the exit, the girls in the back still looking at the bus and when they were past it, I signalled and got on the exit. They braked, but of course there was nothing they could do, save endangering themselves and everybody else on the road.

Honesty commands me to tell you however, that they did beat me to the festival grounds, because they just took the next exit: it was sign-posted from there. It was still very funny though. The guy next ot me thought so too!

Holiday

Normally when we ask for our annual holiday, we ask from Saturday to Sunday. And so I did this year. At least I thought I had, until I got my request back and started looking at it properly. Sunday to Sunday! Ah well, it was in the middle of the school holidays, so what were the chances of me actually working on Saturday? Well, turns out: 100%!

So, now I've got a holiday from Sunday to Saturday, since the last Sunday of my holiday I gave up in order to not go to the Olympics. I don't mind that much though. It hasn't been busy at work at all lately and I have been able to enjoy time off without any problems.

Tomorrow one last day of work (another of those festivals) and then it's off for almost two weeks.

'Symmetry'

Now, I have shown this photo before, but since I do love it, I am showing it you again. Especially since it fits in very nicely with this week's prompt: symmetry! It's the rector's house at Wimpole Hall, now in use as a small restaurant.

It is also of course a type of house I would love to live in: all symmetrical and even, with the front door smack bang in the middle of everything. Unfortunately due to there being a restaurant in the house now, they felt it neccesary to add something on the right side of the photo, which is quite a shame.

This is my 29th entry for Photo Theme for Thursday. Why not join?

B is for...

Blackout

To stay with last week's theme, another photo taken at the Duxford Imperial War Museum in April 2012. Blackouts happened during WWII because of air raids and not just in Great Britain, other countries on the mainland had blackouts too. The main reason of course being that when everything is dark, you can't see what you're bombing, even on a clear night. Even a sliver of light was enough to show habitation and cause potential devastation.

Blackouts today are mostly caused by power failures and tend to produce a lot of children nine months after, especially if it was a long blackout!

This is the letter B for ABC Wednesday. Why not join?

What did you say?

Of late Wuppie has the tendency to sleep on his 'good' ear. Which means that when he is asleep, he doesn't hear as much. So, when I get up, he doesn't twitch his ears and doesn't look up at me to find out if there is a treat in store like the door to the garden opening. I daren't start stroking him either: I am afraid it will just startle him so much, he will end up clinging to the ceiling!

In the photo you can actually see the difference between his two ears quite well. The ear on the right (his left ear) is completely normal and the ear on the left (his right) is thick and feels very hard. He doesn't mind me touching it though, although too much is not good. Then again, touch his good ear too much isn't good either!

The chair he is sitting on while I took his picture, is actually the chair he prefers to sit on now. With only two cats in the house, they have their 'own' place now. Linette on her little couch and Wuppie the big chair. The only place they will occasionally share is the arms' bench in front of the window or me!

'Supreme'

This statue stands in front of the 'Fram' Museum I visited when I was in Oslo in April. The Fram was the ship used by Roald Amundsen and his men as they originally made their way to the North Pole and then changed to the South Pole. They used both sail and engine and were actually very green with their engine: using vegetable oil and diesel, way ahead of their time!

Once they had reached Antarctica they set up camp, building housing for themselves, their dogs and all the supplies they had brought. When the summer started again, part of the men started making tracks towards the South Pole proper, setting up in between camps along the route and leaving supplies there as well. In the end five men, led by Roald Amundsen, made it to the South Pole on December 14th 1911. Amundsen beat Scott by a month, but where Amundsen made it home safely, Scott died on the way back across Antarctica and became almost more famous as a result!

This is my 28th entry for Photo Theme for Thursday. Why not join?

A is for...

Anderson Shelter (or Air Raid Shelter)

It has been quite a while since I last joined ABC Wednesday, but I do love that meme and since I now have a completely new set of photos to pick from, I thought it was time to join again.

Anyway, this Anderson Shelter. Back in April I went to London with this school and one visit they always make is to the Duxford Imperial War Museum, which houses a lot of planes and some assorted other bits of World War II. This Anderson Shelter was part of the assorted other bits. They were used during WWII during any air raid by the Germans. 'Made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end, and measuring 6ft 6in by 4ft 6in (1.95m by 1.35m) the shelter could accommodate six people. These shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top. The entrance was protected by a steel shield and an earthen blast wall.' (text taken from www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)

People didn't particularly like using them: they were crowded, dark and damp and prone to flooding if built in a low area. In the end most people used other air raid shelters that were bigger and/or deeper underground.

This was the letter A for ABC Wednesday. Why not join?

Happy bunny

This was the only bunny related photo I had!

Another hurdle is about to be taken. Because today I went to my new Norwegian class for the first time. A different school, a different teacher, although she knows my first teacher very well: they are in the same year at university doing the same study! But anyway...

Today was meant as a sort of intake and evaluation course. Only two hours instead of the normal five and not as intense probably as the proper course will be. My teacher had brought some exercises for me to fill out, but in the end left half of them behind, since she deemed them "too easy" for me! At the end of the afternoon we decided I would continue to study as much as I could from the books I have and by the time we would meet again (in three weeks' time), we would go over what I should have learnt and practice practice and practice some more.

Besides that she will try and ask me questions that might be asked in an interview, go over grammar and basically get me to level B1 before the end of the course. She felt very confident that that should be possible, which made me feel real good of course.

So, I am a happy bunny right now. What more can I say?