Who Needs Disneyland?

It has been long since I blogged last.

My summer was very eventful, getting onto a flying start with a visit from my son and family to our holiday home in Normandy. You will understand how busy it was, children getting up much earlier than my preferred time in the morning, so in order not to miss too much time with them, I had to drag my body out of bed and try to increase my energy level to theirs, because they were up and running with a smile on their face straight away.

They had been to Disneyland in Paris on their way to us, but I am convinced they will remember these animals better than some costume cartoon animals.

Who needs Disneyland?

And this ride in the playground at the old ruined castle in Mayenne was full of joy.

Who needs expensive toys when you have a collection of empty plastic bottles?

Instead of extortionate restaurant prices you can sit in the dying sunshine on the doorstep with some snacks and a locally produced apple juice.

We all had a lovely time at our own pace. The simple pleasures of life always outstrip everything else, especially when you are in such wonderful company.

Water Music in Gent

Grand pianos are rather expensive. You need to keep them safe, at the right temperature, at the right humidity, stable and also polished to a really high glossy standard. When in Gent the other weekend we came upon this strange boat with a remarkable cargo.

It was moored at a riverside restaurant, so we assumed it was for entertaining the dinner guests later that evening. We carried on walking down the narrow streets and lanes and were just crossing a bridge when we heard piano music being swept in our direction by the wind. No, it was not “Blowing in the Wind”, but some classical piece. So we looked upstream and saw this surprising scene.

A man was using his whole body weight in order to steer this, as it turned out to be, Bangladeshi wooden boat. A pianist was assisted by a helper to both keep the sheet music on the stand and to turn the pages at appropriate moments. A woman was sitting next to a man getting ready to jump ashore to moor the vessel.

The pianist was very good and a crowd was gathering on the river bank and on the bridge. Everybody seemed astonished, but all the faces lit up and people were smiling and chatting about this rare musical event.

The pianist kept on playing while the boat was being moored. But was the woman just decoration? No, all of a sudden she stood up and started singing.

I do not know who they were, why they were performing in this unusual way, and I did not recognise the music, but it was a nice surprise and very enjoyable. A grand piano and a soprano thrown in for good measure, not bad for a stroll in the old town of Gent. (I wonder how much the insurance was for this musical adventure?)

Updating Tom Tom (and Visit to Gent)

If it ain’t broke … That’s why I have not updated my sat nav in the first year, but last week I was booking a hotel in Gent, Belgium (more about that visit later), and before clicking away the last window it asked if I wanted to transfer the address to my Tom Tom. Sounded good, I thought, so I clicked on the button with the familiar icon. But before anything was activated my Tom Tom suggested I update the software. I don’t know why I hit the Yes button, but I did. Then I clicked on a few options that looked useful. Disaster!

When I tried to switch on the trusted guide gadget, it froze. It dawned on me that this was exactly what I had read a lot about on the net. I tried everything, like unplugging and then re-plugging, rebooting … Nothing worked. My next step was to google the issue, which led to many different, possible solutions, all involving complicated instructions about finding obscure files on my PC and to copy lots of stuff back and forth.

Then I remembered that my Windows software had popped up a window saying there was something not quite right with the drive which was the Tom Tom. But I had to close the Tom Tom first, and then the window disappeared, so I had to go to Control Panel and find the Check Disk function, and then activate it to correct what was wrong.

While this was in progress I realised what I had done initially. I had greedily chosen to update parts of the software which I had not paid for when I bought it. So I guessed that must have been what caused the freezing. Once the Tom Tom had been tidied up, I updated only the basic default option, and hey presto, it was again in working order!

I was happy as a child, picked up the Tom Tom, went outside to get a signal, walked up and down the street waving it in the air. I felt a bit silly, especially when the security patrol (I live on a military base!) came past in their pick-up truck. I was so embarrassed that I felt compelled to wave to them with a stupid smile on my face.

Like I mentioned earlier, we went to Gent, and I could certainly have done with the help of my Tom Tom to find the hotel in the old town centre with narrow one-way streets and pedestrianised areas. It was like in the old days, and in the end I had to stop and ask for directions.

The medieval town centre itself was unbelievably picturesque. We had a terrific two-night stay and had excellent food, beer and wine. The place was rather pricey, but not enough to deter us from returning. We actually bought a hotel voucher to get a cheaper stay next time with this particular chain.

 

Not Only Garden Work …

As always this time of year, the garden in France has grown like mad; grass knee-high, weeds everywhere and hedges bulging out of control. So last week was spent having a go at all the green stuff with hedge trimmer, grass strimmer and bare hands. The weather was wonderful; it only started raining as we left yesterday morning. I won’t bore you with pictures of garden tools and machinery, or even worse, sweaty gardeners, but I leave you with a picture more representative of what we indulged in after heavy duty garden work. Aaaah!

Kappesfest Rheindahlen 2011

Last Sunday it was Mothering Sunday in Germany and there was also something going on in one of our little towns nearby. It was called Kappesfest, and I had to look it up in my dictionary to understand the significance of the word. It means [White] Cabbage Holiday! Kappes could also mean [to talk] nonsense, rubbish. What a day, eh? We knew there was a staty of a farmer with three or so different vegetables in front of him, being part of the statue, or should that be called an installation these days? We simply had to investigate.

On our bikes through the countryside we came across some horses with cool shades.

When we arrived in the square there was some cooking demo going on up on the big stage in front of a whole square full of beer drinking, wine drinking and sausage etc. eating people.

Otherwise a medieval theme was running through the stalls all around the little town centre, among them a baker who seemed to having done a lot of quality testing of his own products.

Some young maidens/ladies needed a rest on the church steps after all their earlier work.

In a corner of the main area we came across some birds of prey and their handlers, who let courageous people even hold their feathery friends. You needed more than an oven glove to feel safe!

   (Merlin)

The eagle owl was a bit scary and heavy, so nobody took that challenge.

(Eagle Owl)

Then all of a sudden we heard music from the stage and we quickly joined this crowd.

What was going on?Jive, jitterbug and rock ’n roll! A group of middle age amateur dancers were getting everybody’s attention with a fiery and energetic display of supple elasticity. They really went for it; arms flying, legs jumping, skirts twirling and some cheeky smiles.

  

  

They were having a ball (sorry for the pun) and the audience had a wonderful time, as did we. Many cameras were out, but I was the only one crawling around, ducking to stay out of the way, with a long lens on an SLR, trying to catch the spirit and the agility of the dancers. I have only put up a very few of my photos here, but I hope these reflect what we experienced in Rheindahlen on Sunday. In order to avoid offending people I refrain from displaying some of the more “revealing” images, although they did not seem to mind showing both this and that! Great day out, good fun.

Back Again After Easter

It’s been a long time since I last blogged. Family business in Sweden first and then Easter Holiday in France are my excuses. (The clock faces courtesy of a shop in Vannes, Brittany.)

When we stay at our holiday home in Normandy we like to go on a mini holiday if time permits and weather is on our side. Although we enjoy the beautiful rural surroundings, often on hour-long walks, …

… we also like to see something different. Only a couple of hours’ drive away is Brittany with its Celtic heritage and beautiful coastal scenery. We have been many times, but we had not yet been to the south-eastern part around Vannes. So, that’s where we went this time. Isn’t the rocky coast stunning? I wonder what it might look like in the autumnal storms. The power of the sea, the swell with no wind to speak of was impressive enough, just the natural movement of the sea was fascinating.

After lunch in a restaurant with the above view (moules frites for me), it was time for some rock walking (didn’t really climb) and photography. There will be more images later, but I want to show you just this one of some sea gulls above the foaming water. They, very conveniently for me, flew into my picture on cue. I have cropped this photo slightly, but otherwise not manipulated it much.

Most of the time though, we sat in our garden (instead of doing work in it!) enjoying the summer-like temperatures, often in the shade of the lovely laburnum.

I will come back with more later, but this will have to do as my Easter report for now.

Judge Carmen at Maastricht Carnaval

At the carnival in Maastricht I stood for quite a while on a bench in a crowd in front of a stage. A male choir kept the audience warm with their enthusiastic singing, even at one stage singing about what I was doing. Mrs S said, they are pointing at you, saying something about photo. Neither of us understand much spoken Dutch, and I wondered if I had offended somebody, but my fears were unfounded. It was a song about taking photos, that word being mentioned many times accompanied by the lead singer pointing at me. I could only smile back in return and point my camera at somebody else in the crowd. Nobody seemed to mind, several of them (in particular women for some reason) more or less posing, smiling into the camera. But the best shots are normally of people who are unaware of the photographer.

This week’s picture is not one of outstanding beauty, but more of outstanding happiness on a man’s face. This bespectacled gentleman was dressed as Carmen, red dress with black dots and black wig and all. But the hair piece had been slightly dislodged and looked more like a black version of an English judge’s court wig and a Caribbean pirate’s floppy hair combined!

Judge Carmen had bumped into a couple he knew, but who did not recognise him at first in his outlandish outfit, so he had to “identify” himself. He laughed heartily at their reaction.

What I like in particular about this split-second out of the five seconds it all took, is that it tells a whole story, in a blink, his expression being representative of the atmosphere of this annual event, sheer joy, fun and some silliness.

Carnaval in Maastricht

We have often passed through Maastricht on our way to or back from France, but we have never had time to stop. To make it worse, it is less than an hour from where we live, so we decided to go there yesterday. We know the Germans are keen on Karneval, and we have been to Duesseldorf and seen all the fancy dress, happy people and all the colours on earth. What we did not know, was that the Dutch are as keen on partying during the carnival season. Yesterday was grey and cold, but that did not dampen the spirit. Just look at these snaps.

        

    

    

     

Happy New Year Everybody!

Well, December was apparently the coldest in the UK since the Met Office started monitoring the weather a long time ago. But we went to Sweden to spend time with relatives and friends, and the coldest temperature the car thermometer registered was –22 degrees.

The whole country was covered in masses of snow. You needed your long-johns and thermals, that’s for sure, and woolly hats and gloves …. but it created some beautiful scenes for free…

…and some funny ones as well.

In Stockholm my grandchildren could not go on the swing …

… although some kids played outside in Malmö …

… my two little darlings had to play indoors most of the time…

 

While the snow caused some people problems …

 

… others took the opportunity …

 

… but most of all, it was beautiful!