Merry Xmas and best wishes for 2017!!
(Yes, we made that ourselves! ;-)
Sunday, 25 December 2016
Thursday, 1 December 2016
Old & cold
Pippin is 15 years old. That's a pretty respectable age. Lately, he's not been doing too great. He's lost his appetite, lost a lot of weight (and he was a skinny bugger to start with!) and he's rather cranky. After increasing the number of feedings per day, his health and mood improved drastically, but he was so matted from neglecting himself, that I had to clip a lot of his coat to get rid of it. Never a problem in summer, but it's mid-winter! Poor puddytat!
The solution came in the form of a tiny dog coat. Not only is he nice and comfy now, he also blends in with the rest of the cats perfectly. Camouflage kitten!
The solution came in the form of a tiny dog coat. Not only is he nice and comfy now, he also blends in with the rest of the cats perfectly. Camouflage kitten!
Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Close, but no...
The city council probably meant well when they decided to create a parking space especially for the disabled. But I think the person tasked with the execution of said plan, was probably suffering from some disability themselves?
What suprises me even more, is that I'm apparently the only one that's noticed. The sign is so dirty and dilapitated, it must have been around for ages!
Tuesday, 30 August 2016
Bert and Ernie, sitting in a tree...
While hunting for Pokemon, I ended up in Almere Kruidenwijk, the area where all the streets are named after herbs and spices. The herb-hood, so to speak. I didn't quite realise I was riding along the Sesame-street, when suddenly I came eye to eye with 2 of my childhood heroes:
Over the years, the tree had wedged itself slowly in the bicycle standard. So when the tree had to be removed for safety reasons, the city council decided to leave the stump where it was, entwined with the metal bars.
As a tribute to Sesame Street, they hired a chainsaw artist to carve the likelyhood of the two lovely muppets out of the tree:
Ah, fond memories...
As a tribute to Sesame Street, they hired a chainsaw artist to carve the likelyhood of the two lovely muppets out of the tree:
Ah, fond memories...
Saturday, 27 August 2016
Good food
For many people 'Italian food' is synonymous for 'pizza'. But I don't like pizza. Pizza for me is bread. With stuff on it. The only good thing about pizza is stringy cheese. So far I haven't managed to find a decent Italian restaurant in the immediate vicinity, meaning that whenever I have a craving for Italian food, I have to take a slight detour of approximately 188.4 kilometres. Luckily, it's only 45 kilometres away from where one of my best friends lives, so a visit to her tends to result in a visit to Vecchia Roma in Delfzijl.
For starters, I can strongly recommend the Antipasto Fantasia, even though it is pretty much a meal on it's own:
Allow me to add a disclaimer: it's not always the same dish, it tends to depend on what's in storage as well as the chef's mood. The taste however, is always brilliant!
If you have any room left – or in our case: sit on the cozy terrace watching people pass by and catch Pokemon for 1.5 hours – try the lasagne. The amount of flavour in there is extraordinary. This is pretty much the only time I regret I cannot eat more!
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Gnomish cows
Another lovely July day, so a great opportunity for a trike trip. While enjoying the sun and the scenery, we passed this cute cow.
I confess the adjective 'cute' is not one I often use in the context of cows, but this one was actually cute! It probably makes a bit more sense when I add a bit of perspective:
Yes, that is a full-grown gnomish cow! And no, I've lived in the country side long enough to not mistake a calf for a more-or-less-fully-grown cow. That, plus the fact that Mrs. Gnomish Cow had a calf of her own. A pint-sized baby bull!
Yes, that is a full-grown gnomish cow! And no, I've lived in the country side long enough to not mistake a calf for a more-or-less-fully-grown cow. That, plus the fact that Mrs. Gnomish Cow had a calf of her own. A pint-sized baby bull!
Monday, 23 May 2016
OMW to Mars!
42. Not just a number. Even Wikipedia knows that. It's the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. So as of today, my level of know-it-all-ism has increased even more.
To celebrate the happy occasion, we did the logical thing: we went for an advanced driver training course. For those among you who find this slightly less obvious than I do: the course was a present for hubbie's birthday 1.5 years ago, but we never actually got around to taking the course, and the soonest available date happened to coincide with my birthday.
So instead of a nice lie-in, we were up with the chickens and on our way to the test course. Once we got there, it turned out that there were 3 groups taking three different courses. Oddly, these appeared to be age-related. There was the 'refresher course' (really old people), the 'how to annoy other people slightly less whilst maneuvering with a caravan course' (old people) and the 'I wanna drive fast but I wanna do it safely course' (us).
The day started with a theoretical framework about speed, brakes, car physics and other undoubtedly important but not very interesting stuff. Once we got that out of the way, we were off to the test track:
The track consisted of various tracks, which contained slippery bits and lots of sprinklers for added fun. To the left you can just make out the outer circle of the roundabout where we practiced understeer and oversteer. After that we were off to the far right (cropped out of the picture) where we got a taste of what an 'emergency brake' actually means. And to make it even more interesting, we got to do emergency brakes while trying to swerve around obstacles. You'd be amazed at how well steering goes even when you have 2 feet on the brakes!
Far in the distance you can see a slippery slope, which ends in a slippery curve. Here we got a taste of how much a descent influences the length of your breaking path and had we not been on the safe course but on an actual hairpin bend in midwinter, we'd have all ended up at the bottom of the ravine. Lesson learned: you pretty much cannot go slow enough!
Last but certainly not least, we went to the 'shake me up' track, which you see in the right of the picture. You simply accelerate and drive onto the slippery track. The fun bit is that when you cross onto the slippery part, your car is nudged by an invisible thingymajig in the road and randomly gets thrown to the left or the right, with greater or lesser force. And then it's a matter of counter-steering and safely decelerating. Although I will happily confess that the runs where I forgot to decelerate were the most exciting ones; they were one big happy whiiiiiiiiieh! Hubbie managed to do a 180. Twice. I guess that makes me the designated driver for the foreseeable future. And beyond.
The course was only half a day, so we paid a visit to the Aviodrome, a large aviation museum, which happened to be right next to the test course. Hubbie and I are both aviation nutters, so we'd already been there several times, but we always manage to find some bits and parts we'd never seen before.
Today we visited the replica of 1920's Schiphol airport, which was an absolute gem, both inside and outside:
The people lucky enough to work there appeared to have a lovely sense of humour:
Of course the planes are the focal point: the museum has over 100 planes on display. Most of them are inside a huge hangaar:
However, the Boeing 747 and some other planes wouldn't fit, so they are displayed and fully accessible outside:
As a gnome I'm intrigued by everything that flies (see my treatise on chickens and my celebratory piece on our national airline) and I would have loved to become a pilot. I'm telling you: we're made for that kind of stuff. Look at all the shiny gauges and buttons!
The Aviodrome is not just about planes, it also tells the history of aviation in The Netherlands, all the way from Anthony Fokker who flew his home-built air-plane 'Spider' over his home town of Haarlem in 1911...
... to the current space age. It would appear that NASA was slightly reluctant to donate some original spacecraft to the museum, meaning the mock-ups looked slightly less convincing than the real deal.
Hmmmm. That antenna looks slightly familiar. Let's have a closer look:
I could have sworn I'd seen it somewhere before. Oh wait, I remember!
I kid you not, they actually used an IKEA bowl in the mock-up. But hey, I won't tell anyone if you won't!
The reason Aviodrome is one of my favorite museums, is not just the planes, but also how they make learning stuff about aviation very immersive, insightful and imaginative. To explain the effects of gravity for example, they have a scale you can stand on, and by pressing the various buttons, you could see how much you'd weigh on the moon, on Mars or on Jupiter. Apparently Jupiter is a no-go, but Mars is very inspiration for someone trying to lose weight!!
It was starting to become a rather long day for me, so we went home and got some rest before we went for the last stint; our traditional birthday diner with the family. Can you guess which plate was mine?
To celebrate the happy occasion, we did the logical thing: we went for an advanced driver training course. For those among you who find this slightly less obvious than I do: the course was a present for hubbie's birthday 1.5 years ago, but we never actually got around to taking the course, and the soonest available date happened to coincide with my birthday.
So instead of a nice lie-in, we were up with the chickens and on our way to the test course. Once we got there, it turned out that there were 3 groups taking three different courses. Oddly, these appeared to be age-related. There was the 'refresher course' (really old people), the 'how to annoy other people slightly less whilst maneuvering with a caravan course' (old people) and the 'I wanna drive fast but I wanna do it safely course' (us).
The day started with a theoretical framework about speed, brakes, car physics and other undoubtedly important but not very interesting stuff. Once we got that out of the way, we were off to the test track:
The track consisted of various tracks, which contained slippery bits and lots of sprinklers for added fun. To the left you can just make out the outer circle of the roundabout where we practiced understeer and oversteer. After that we were off to the far right (cropped out of the picture) where we got a taste of what an 'emergency brake' actually means. And to make it even more interesting, we got to do emergency brakes while trying to swerve around obstacles. You'd be amazed at how well steering goes even when you have 2 feet on the brakes!
Far in the distance you can see a slippery slope, which ends in a slippery curve. Here we got a taste of how much a descent influences the length of your breaking path and had we not been on the safe course but on an actual hairpin bend in midwinter, we'd have all ended up at the bottom of the ravine. Lesson learned: you pretty much cannot go slow enough!
Last but certainly not least, we went to the 'shake me up' track, which you see in the right of the picture. You simply accelerate and drive onto the slippery track. The fun bit is that when you cross onto the slippery part, your car is nudged by an invisible thingymajig in the road and randomly gets thrown to the left or the right, with greater or lesser force. And then it's a matter of counter-steering and safely decelerating. Although I will happily confess that the runs where I forgot to decelerate were the most exciting ones; they were one big happy whiiiiiiiiieh! Hubbie managed to do a 180. Twice. I guess that makes me the designated driver for the foreseeable future. And beyond.
The course was only half a day, so we paid a visit to the Aviodrome, a large aviation museum, which happened to be right next to the test course. Hubbie and I are both aviation nutters, so we'd already been there several times, but we always manage to find some bits and parts we'd never seen before.
Today we visited the replica of 1920's Schiphol airport, which was an absolute gem, both inside and outside:
The people lucky enough to work there appeared to have a lovely sense of humour:
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.
Today is the stewardess' birthday, so in celebration we'll be doing 20 loopings!
Of course the planes are the focal point: the museum has over 100 planes on display. Most of them are inside a huge hangaar:
However, the Boeing 747 and some other planes wouldn't fit, so they are displayed and fully accessible outside:
As a gnome I'm intrigued by everything that flies (see my treatise on chickens and my celebratory piece on our national airline) and I would have loved to become a pilot. I'm telling you: we're made for that kind of stuff. Look at all the shiny gauges and buttons!
The Aviodrome is not just about planes, it also tells the history of aviation in The Netherlands, all the way from Anthony Fokker who flew his home-built air-plane 'Spider' over his home town of Haarlem in 1911...
... to the current space age. It would appear that NASA was slightly reluctant to donate some original spacecraft to the museum, meaning the mock-ups looked slightly less convincing than the real deal.
Hmmmm. That antenna looks slightly familiar. Let's have a closer look:
I could have sworn I'd seen it somewhere before. Oh wait, I remember!
I kid you not, they actually used an IKEA bowl in the mock-up. But hey, I won't tell anyone if you won't!
The reason Aviodrome is one of my favorite museums, is not just the planes, but also how they make learning stuff about aviation very immersive, insightful and imaginative. To explain the effects of gravity for example, they have a scale you can stand on, and by pressing the various buttons, you could see how much you'd weigh on the moon, on Mars or on Jupiter. Apparently Jupiter is a no-go, but Mars is very inspiration for someone trying to lose weight!!
It was starting to become a rather long day for me, so we went home and got some rest before we went for the last stint; our traditional birthday diner with the family. Can you guess which plate was mine?
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