A Dutch Life

There have been quite a few of these sorts of articles, but I like looking through them all. It is incredible to think that these lenses in space can get photographs this crisp:

PC World – In Pictures: The Strangest Sights in Google Earth

Started with My First Time
Continued from My First Time Part II
Continued further from My First Time Part III

I asked again, the silence was repeated. The barmen’s face was blank, still, was waiting. Getting anxious my eyes slowly focused more carefully on the fridges, I began to turn the colour into letters and then words. With a sudden and now instinctive reflex, I said “Make that a Coopers”, I paused, then followed it with “…a Coopers Pale”. From my left I heard the loudest of whispers, it was the old bloke. I remember the sentence like it was the first I ever spoke, “Mate, there’s nothing like a Coopers, it’s the taste of an angel pissing on your tongue.” The now coolly excited barmen burst into animation. His eyes turned to a look of respect, emphasized by his body language, he nodded ever so slightly then turned and gathered four beers from the fridge.

When I caught sight of the bottle that would be my first, it was upside down. I was puzzled and curious as I watched the barmen skillfully and tenderly right the bottle, spinning it as he did. I had never seen this before but I liked it. He asked if I wanted a glass, testing me, by his tone I knew I was not going to get one and that “yes” would have been responded to with “no”. Upon my decline, he slid the bottles over to me and took the cash, I grabbed the beers and headed back to the table, I did not even wait for the change. As I did this, I glanced down at the fridge trying to determine exactly where the barmen had retrieved my beer, but there was no sign deceiving him, not a gap in the united front of Coopers bottles.

To be continued…..

Cant decide what aspect of this report is funnier:

Investigators say James Coldwell, 49, robbed the Citizens Bank at 1550 Elm St. while clad in clothing adorned with tree branches held on by duct tape.

or

Coldwell was charged with one count of robbery after answering questions at the police station, Capt. Dick Tracy said.

What are the chances of a guy robbing a bank, dressed up as a tree, being arrested by a police offer called Dick Tracy? The mind boggles.

Union Leader – Police rake in leafy robbery suspect – Monday, Jul. 9, 2007

Went sailing this weekend with Wout, Joost and Cees (Wouts Sailing father and beautiful boat owner).

The weather turned out to be a rare sunny oasis in a desert of clouds and rain. I have actually been reminded of what it is like to get sunburn!

Here is a picture of me at the helm, with Wout ensuring I don’t run us aground.

Walking up an escalator that has stopped.

No matter how much you prepare yourself, perhaps by repeating “The escalator has stopped, treat as normal stairs” in your head thousands of times, you still get this weird feeling of motion the minute your foot takes that first step.

Apart from having a real chuckle about the English-ness of the title of this report, I glad to see these poor guys overcome some terrible PR, finally a little truth in reporting. 

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Piranha ‘less deadly than feared’