Wednesday 25 March 2015

Singing in the Rain

Sunbathing isn't my kind of thing. I simply don't have the patience to sit or lie idly in the sun. That doesn't mean I don't like the sun. I'm quite fond of it. Plus I really need it. I suffer pretty badly from winter depression. That's not something I made up, it actually exists. Although recently they've given it a slightly more impressive name: Seasonal Affective Disorder. So yes, during winter, I has a sad.


But now spring's here and things keep getting better. Except for the days when I have to get up at 6 (ish) to get to work and it's pouring. Then I'm right back to the sad thing. My friend Ernie doesn't seem to be bothered by it though. Ernie and I go waaaayyy back. He's been around for as long as I can remember. We don't see each other all that often anymore, but every now and then he pops up somewhere. Like this morning. On the parking lot at work. He was having a great time, singing in the rain.



He's such a happy trooper! Just ask yourself: would *you* be singing if you were tied to the front of a garbage truck at 7 in the morning in the pouring rain?


Tuesday 17 March 2015

Of nuts and squirrels

Or: how to survive lunch break in awful weather.

In springtime it's nice to take a walk during lunch break, but the weather has been kind of 'meh' lately. The office squirrels provide a happy distraction indoors as well as outdoors. I had brought some leftover chocolate covered nuts with me, and I could swear the squirrels were giving me the evil stare of doom.



So I graciously decided to give them a share. Just to be safe. After all, nuts and squirrels go well together. See how happy they look?




All this made me think of one of my favorite movie moments:


As a kid I loved this movie, and I'll happily confess I still like watching it every now and then, usually around Christmas. I'm quite sure one day like Miss Hannigan I too will end up in a nut house with all the nuts and the squirrels. I hope they'll be chocolate covered nuts as well.

Did you note Tim Curry in the end? Difficult to believe the singing and dancing dude from this film would later play Pennywise in It. *shiver* No wonder so many people dislike clowns.

I don't want to spoil my happy blog with nasty pictures, so let's just enjoy my favoritest bit from the same movie:



While searching for an appropriate picture, it struck me that this man is not exactly typecast, he's played an incredibly wide variety of odd characters:









That last picture reminds me of the passing of Sir Terry Pratchett. A great mind gone too soon. He'll be sorely missed.



Saturday 7 March 2015

An epic journey through time

Today we went to Urk, a small fishing-village not far from here. It's famous for its fish (duh) and its folkloric costumes. Since the tourist season hadn't properly started yet, nobody had bothered to don their costumes, but in summer you see quite a few people dressed like this (I kid you not):


Walking through the village I got the strange feeling I'd somehow gone back in time. The dialect, the old houses, the people going about their fishing business. Sure, there were mobile phones, cars and a *very* modern pricing policy in the restaurant we went for lunch. (Needless to say we had lunch in the tiny fish shop where the locals went, which is usually a good sign.)

But the cars we saw must have belonged to the tourists, since local cars must look like this for the signs in the village to make sense.


The clock tower confirmed the existence of a time warp, so it wasn't me going (more) crazy: