First post COVID trip abroad (part 3)

The above image is a result of being introduced to a local activity here at Heeze that takes place annually. A closer look might give you an idea,

but you'd better watch any video using "Brabantse dag" as keywords to see what it's all about. Here's a random one from 2018:

When I first saw what they're doing my jaw drop dead on the table. How come a think that looks impressive as Venice's carnival stays under the radar like this one? Here's their site in case you wanna browse it.

I came to help the team that the house I'm staying at participates and they have a whole workshop under a large spacious tent (if you watched the video you can understand why they need lots of space). Places like these for a handy man like me are an absolute playground:

I cut some wood for the guys, all of them warm and nice boys and girls of (almost) all ages.

As much as I love tools I do love horses as well so I stepped towards the fence to see two of them happily having their lunch under the hot Dutch sun:

Impressed by the local mentality already I have my first walk around as I search for the nearest supermarket. I must admit this village is hands down among the cutest I've ever been. I have to try hard to be discrete and not picture every single house around as all of them cause drooling.

Pictures don't tell the whole story but you can get an idea - here's my first view right out of the door:

Kinda cute way to warn for speed bumps:

If only I could have any of the following ones:

What a nice touch from the municipality:

The local school:

That guy on the bicycle felt the need to say "hi" to a total stranger (me) though I had my back at him - what a cool neighbourhood:

Even on the other side of the village where I went to withdraw some cash (only country so far my cash card doesn't work in supermarkets) things are far from ugly:

Lovely all the way. What can go wrong? Probably nothing 😎

More Dutch beauties coming soon!

First post COVID trip abroad (part 2)

What you see above is the entrance of my nest where I already had some of the best sleeps ever as the area is most of the times literally as quiet as it gets.

Let me show you around the garden:

Cute bird feeder

One more bird feeder

Heatwave killer AKA pool

Rather generous trampoline

Tallest tree of the garden

As you can see this place is a kids heaven.

And the house itself matches that:

As an aged kid I already love it and so (I guess) do the non human residents of the place.

Let me introduce you to those lovely ladies generously offering me fresh eggs on a daily basis:

Starring in alphabetical order, above you see Annie (the white one), Mijntje (the grey brownish one) and Tina (the black one). The order is alphabetical but also because Annie seems to be the most aggressive of the gang focusing exclusively against Mijntje. Don't ask me why, my Chicken are even worse than my Dutch are so I have no clue. Owners suspect hormones.

It's also interesting to mention other differences among those (lovely when not fighting) ladies: Annie changes feathers and doesn't lay eggs yet. She might be jealous of the yummy bright green ones Mijntje produces (almost) daily hence she hates her. Tina is notorious as an escape artist but since I am around hasn't tried anything like that so far.

Last but not least, ladies and gents here's Arie, the 13 year old diabetic cat:

Yes, he so loves it when I pet him. Not that much when I inject him though and I have to do that twice per day. During the last one he didn't yelled "ouch" so I think I've found the smoothest way to do it already. Despite his age he still catches mice. And also is a great poser:

See him in action here:

Hats off to the owners of the place for saving him from euthanasia. And for the whole place of course.

Now the lives of all the above (especially his) are in my hands. So far all good. My calendar is full of such commitments for the next days. I will manage to show you around the area in my free time. Stay tuned - it's really nice around here!

First post COVID trip abroad (part 1)

 

I had two choices: Continue the renovations of my penthouse in Athens under a melting heatwave or make me and a Dutch family happy as I would sit their house and pets giving them the chance to leave for vacations.

You guess my choice...

I initially thought about riding the whole way on my bike (yeah, surprise surprise eh?). The thing is that ferry prices to Italy are like 50% higher this year due to an asshole pretending to be human in Kremlin and riding the whole way through Balkans queuing at numerous borders on the way isn't exactly my kind of party so... plane it is. However, the situation at the airport of Athens almost made me rethink about that. Not its fault, what can you do when the whole planet wants to travel at the same time but I've never seen it more crowded ever and this is too much humanity for me already. And I hate queues...

I do like the idea of displays playing videos of people praising Greece out of their own experience as I get closer to my gate:

I don't like as much the fact that few people are wearing masks inside the airport on these long queues and the same happens inside the plane. Trying to convince people about the obvious brings you to the conclusion that common sense is not that common anymore.

Plane taxis and I am about to leave Hellenic soil after...

I don't want to remember how long:

A burning hot runaway is now the way to "up up and away":

Bye Athens, see you later:

Flying over the East Adriatic coast:

Austria and Germany:

And finally close to my destination over Dutch soil:

Eindhoven, here I come:

I land for my second time ever in the Netherlands and I get the same feeling of effortless beauty like the previous one when I spent my birthday years ago around Amsterdam and Utrecht. Back then I was lucky to experience the warmest November they ever had around and now I am lucky to leave Athens at the beginning of a heatwave while the Netherlands have just finished with theirs.

Public transportation is lovely around here but I have a bit of a hard time trying to figure out which train to take to my destination. Everyone's willing to help me and English speaking but a couple I ask first admit it's a bit of a mess with the train system and can't really help me. Second attempt is another guy, super kind, points me at a train but looks a bit unsure. At the first sight of a guy who works in trains I rush to ask him and after thinking for a couple of seconds points me the same train with the previous one. Feeling as if I had cross checked things I enter it and I am all alone in the wagon while it still stays idle in the station for a while so I decide to step out and cross check things again. I see the same train employee and he looks rather unsure so I re approach and this time he goes "Actually you have to take the next train". Funny how asking 3 guys including one who works here could send me kms away from my destination. 

Train (the right one) is nice and neat:

"Nice and neat" goes all the way as I walk towards the house where a lovely Dutch Italian family waits for me. Any place would be nice with such people but theirs is really nice like admittedly most of the properties around here. Perfect place to relax after many hard working days I had.

I'll be showing you around on the next ones - stay tuned!

My early childhood's lullaby

 It's been so long since I last saw it that I missed the fact that I still have it. Wanna see what helped me sleep as a little child?

This thing is a very old music box from Sankyo, not sure exactly how old though as I can't even recall if it was bought for me. This thing must be early 70s the latest but wouldn't be surprised if it's coming from the 60s. Sankyo shipped their first ones after WWII.

Gotta love those Japs cause this thing still works! Needless to say how extraordinary it feels to see it after such a long time bringing back so old and special memories. I recall myself how I watched it slowing its tempo as the cord was getting closer to the end leading its song to a slow death.

Though I didn't need it after the very first years of my life I still kept it around my bedroom and it lost one of its two covers at some point, I think just before my teens but don't recall exactly how. 

This made it look like that:

"No bad thing happens for no good reason" as our wise ancient ancestors used to say so that accident gave me access to its mechanism solving the mystery of how it works back in the day (no Google then). What always caught my attention though never managed to confirm its purpose is this little "fan" this thing has:

It rotates by those sprockets and since I doubt this thing needs any short of cooling I can only guess it helped to spread the sound though this sounds also like a long shot. If it wasn't for the missing cover this thing would still be around in its full glory.

Curious how it plays? Have a look (and a listen):