Haircuts

Well, one day last week I was sitting around and I just got tired of my hair.  So, I cut it. By myself, without a mirror mostly, with kitchen scissors.  All told, it turned out OK.  Not good by any stretch, but I could go out in public after I tidied it up a bit with a mirror.  But I couldn't do the back, so I asked the man to give me a hand.  He was not a happy participant, but gave it a go.  Let's just say it didn't go that well.  Fortunately it's still chilly enough here that I could wear a coat to hide the shelf on the back of my head. 

However, on reading the forecast which said that it may get up to 20 on Sunday (!!!!!! Squeeee!!!!!) getting my hair cut became a higher priority, so when we got to Breukelen - the origin of Brooklyn, I had a look around at the hairdresseres.  The first wanted 52 Euros for a cut.  I figured for that price the man could have another shot at it.  The place I prefered was cheaper, 26 euros.  Now we're talking!!! They did it on the spot and let Chuck come in with me.  Yippeee!!!! 15 min later, maybe a bit more cause she wanted to straighten it, it was all done. 

Then I was off to the library to get a bunch of work done - wifi was so bad I used data anyway, but at keast I was all plugged in.  Got some dog food and we got back to the boat.  Friday night and the good old (and young) boys were starting to gather by where we were moored and the town was lovely, but there was nowhere nice to walk, so off we went, south (more or less) for about an hour.  We're now moored outside the Vechtstreek museum in Maarssen having figured out that the private moorings for restaurants have a different symbol on the map.  The first three we passed weren't public.  Where we are is lovely though and we'll probably stay for the weekend. The museum is of the entire region of the Vecht, the river we're on, and will hopefully prove interesting.  Plus there's a couple of nice big parks nearby so it all looks grand.

Onwards ho!!! To Broekelan

That's right, we're in Broekelen, origin of Brooklyn in NY city.  It honestly doesn't look much like it's offspring.  On the trip down we were serenaded with a heartfelt solo of O Canada at one of the bridges!!!! I joined in to make it a duet. The man is half Canadian and we'd gone past his houseboat.  He was so excited to see us that he jumped into his car and drove down to meet us as we came through the next bridge.  He's headed for 3 weeks in Ontario in a few days.  Gonna watch the Jays on the 27th in fact!!!

There is something about travelling through the Netherlands as a Canadian.  There is a real connection there for many Dutch people. 

Canadian DNA

While walking the dog yesterday, I got talking with a woman and it came out that we're Canadian.  Turns out her uncle's mother had met an Canadian soldier during WWII, they'd fallen in love, and her uncle was the result of this three week whirlwind wartime romance.  His mom never found the man again, remarried and had a family, but the uncle always wondered about his Canadian family, and never felt entirely at home with his mother's family. 

Then the lady I was talking to said she'd done a DNA search to find relations, and had found some people with a common ancestor 6 or 7 generations back.  But the uncle? He found a cousin in Canada, and he's going there to meet the family and stay with them for several weeks.

Kinda cool.  Apparently he's really delighted to get to meet these people and they're really excited too.

Found!!!! Who'd a thought!!!

(small trigger warning in this one) normally a family show here but ducks can be brutal it would seem.

Chuck and I went off this afternoon for a walk and saw a bunch of mallards mating well, there was one female and a lot of males plus one randy coot and the whole thing honestly looked dreadful, it's a wonder the females don't get drowned. 

Anyway, they drifted closer to shore and partially to see better and partially to let her get a bit of air, Chuck and I went over. We were on a boardwalk over the action. The males did move off and she shook herself all over, and was looking rather bedraggled.  When another male appeared, she dove and I didn't see her for a good long while.  I remember a friend whose parents had a farm and the duck ended up in the freezer cause he kept raping the chickens.  Yeah. .

Anywhoo, I looked down off the boardwalk at the end of all this and low and behold, there was the cockpit cushion we'd lost the day before!!!!! In reach too!!!!!

We're on a river with a toich of current, never thought Id see that again, but there you go.

Winter is officially over!!!

We're on the move again !!!!!  Having left Weesp, where we spent the winter, we've headed peacefully southward, that is a generalisation as the Vecht, the river we're on winds and turns back on itself amd meanders.... So southwards, sometimes going west, or north and occasionally even south.  We've come to a cute little town with not much in it, Overmeer, and both Chuck and I were delighted to go for a walk in a new place.  We managed to lose a seat cushion overboard, which was unfortunate but not disastrous, and we are now without out beloved heater as there is no plug.  However, we spent the afternoon laying in the cockpit in the sun, so we should endeavour to survive .

Reading two books

I'm reading two books at the moment, and both are slightly unsatisfying.  Now, I adore Barbara Kingsolver's work, always and forever, everything I've read, till this one, which is a struggle for me.  Two reasons, she's got two parallel stories going- very fashionable, but lord I hate this.  There's always one that's less interesting.  And the principle story is a mother with financial problems, a couple of nearly grown / grown but childlike kids with problems and a house that needs a lot of repairs.  Now, I love historical novels, I love books set in other parts of the world partially because if the writer is even half way worth their salt, you learn about how people lived in other times and places.  While I don't have all the same things going on in my life, this story really isn't - so far anyway - about a life that is all that unfamiliar. Beautiful writing, uninspiring to boring to depressing plot (her family has a LOT of problems!)

The other book is Kilian Journet's latest book, Res es impossible - Nothing is Impossible.  Kilian Journet, for those of you who don't know who he is, is a top mountain runner and ski mountaineering athlete, he's also Catalan and a household name there.  He's also kind of nuts.  You may have heard about his speed climbing Everest twice in one week, I think without oxygen.  He is nuts.  His book is super interesting in content cause he does all these wild crazy ass things - so glad I'm not married to him.  He and his wife, Emelie Fosberg, also a top mountain runner and ski mountaineer, had a baby a few days ago.  I find that I am maybe going to have to stop following him a little bit because he takes his life literally in his hands so often (see this video on Instagram he posted about 3 days before his child was born) that I find myself getting angry as he is now a Dad. 

Anyway, see how I wrote that? Kinda all over the map and unfocused?  That's how his book is written. Interesting content, pretty crappy hard to follow meandering writing. 

Ho hum. 

Peggy's tea and cookies

Well, in Catalunya, I had a nap every day I possibly could, which was almost every day.  In Canada, with my work schedule, that isn't a choice.  Now on the boat, in northern chillier darkening climate, the nap is usually gone.  I get lots of sleep at night in general.  It's dark by 7 and not light till 8 or so, so I'm usually in bed by 10, and get up around 8.  What we have instituted is tea and cookies. Mmmmmmm.

Peggy used to have tea and a couple of cookies at 4 o'clock every day, and it is excellent. When we're not trying to rush madly onwards, we try to stop by 3, if not earlier.  So tea at 4 is very possible and very delightful.  It also means we can try the different cookies from different places.

Love you Peggy.

Crazy making wind

In some parts of the world it is reputed that you can use wind induced craziness as a mitigating factor for crimes of passion.  Certainly in Catalunya they talk about people from some really windy areas as a little bit nuts.

I never got that before I came to Denmark.

Good god, the wind here!  Granted we're on a boat in a harbour, so we're kind of front line, but it never stops.  I woke up this morning and down below, in the harbour, tied to the dock, it sounded like we were racing upwind.  Water sloshing, wind howling in the rigging, the works.

It does start to get to you.  If it would only be quiet for a minute or two. 

We walked the dog in the woods to get a break from it for a while.  It was soooooo nice.  We ended up in the lee of a hill and it was so still.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh

We had hoped to leave Denmark tomorrow, but the forecast has changed enough that it is looking very unlikely.  Maybe Monday.

CraaaaazzzzyyyYYY!

Instant Mashed Potatoes

My much loved Great Aunt Peggy used to have us for lunch every weekend.  It was marvelous.  We'd go with the kids, have lunch, swim in her building's pool, have tea and cookies and go.  Peggy lived to 103, and moved herself into a home at 100 or so and was pretty British in her cooking.  She believed that a good meal is a roast, potatoes and two veg.  So, potatoes hit the menu pretty often.  As she got older, peeling all the potatoes and hauling the full pots around got to be too much, so she got instant mashed.  They were OK.

Now that we're living on a boat again and stove fuel is harder to come by, and it is often cold.... We got some instant mashed potatoes.  It's a little pricey but it is so easy and when we get into port, cold and hungry.... It's amazing. The swedish brand anyway.  We've got a package from Denmark now. We'll see.

Beginning, middle, end

OK, this has been bugging me. 

It's also why I've been reading a lot of detective novels lately, but even there....sometimes, no right now pretty much all the time, I want to read a book that starts at the beginning, moves on to the middle of the story, and then the end.  Is that so hard?

A while ago it got fashionable to write  a novel with several apparently unassociated story lines, and you would switch from one story to the next on a chapter by chapter basis.  The first time I read this it was weird, but there was a certain excitement when the stories finally came together, but you know what?  There's always at least one story line that you don't want to read, so then you're tempted to skip those chapters, or at least skim them, and then final pull together?  It was kinda cool the first time, but then it wasn't.  It was just predictable and you still had to wade through the storylines you don't like.

Then there is the clumsy hinting about the past, and flashbacks to it.  I'm quitting reading one book that on a chapter by chapter basis, goes back and forth.  Chapter 1 in the present with heavy handed hints about mistakes that happened in the past, chapter 2, slow painful build up to the past error....continue throughout the book.

Honestly, why is this so hard?  Just tell a story. Introduce the story and characters, build some tension, resolution.  Beginning, middle, end.