It has started again. What? The paper boys and girls going door to door to collect their Christmas bonus! Collecting the thank-you-for-a-job-well-done-all-year euro. A small sign of appreciation for the delivery of the newspaper in good and bad weather.
The first one just rang the door bell. I opened, he slipped me the “Merry Christmas and happy new year note” and said “Here you go”. I responded “Thank you”. I wasn’t ready. I looked down at the little note, read the text and let the words wonder through my mind…. then it struck me: “he wants money!”. This moment was a bit awkward as it took a bit to long for me to get my thoughts straight. And when I did, I was on my way to close the door a bit to go back inside and search for my wallet. But at the same moment, he said bye, turned and walked away. Guess he thought I was just going to close the door. To cheap to give him a euro. I really wasn’t, but as he turned away, I reacted by closing the door. End of story. Opportunity gone. No thank you euro at number 4…
He left me behind feeling guilty… him being soaking wet from the rain didn’t help with that… but I ain’t that cheap! I blame it on the gathering of circumstances. Me not being ready. Him turning to quickly. But now I am ready. More then ready! He put me on top of the game! A euro is already situated next to the door.
Bring on the next paper boy or girl! :-)

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Yes, this is one that is very high on the list with my all time biggest frustrations… For you who don’t know what I am talking about, I will explain.
I live in a small street where it’s impossible for two cars to pass each other without one giving way. No problem, as I am quite the easy driver and most willing to give way whenever problems with passing cars occur. All fine to this point, but when I do pull over to make way for another car I do expect the hand. A small thank you hand that is. Just raising one hand slightly of the steering wheel to show your thanks for the other pulling over and making way for you. Such a small gesture, such a little thing… but for so many people a bridge to far. A great shame!!! What can be so hard about raising the hand?!?
I think that this is a perfect example where our current society shows their lack of respect! Where people only seem to think and care about themselves. It starts in your own street! It even happened where I least expected it… in my own family! My mom was driving, someone else gave way and….. nothing!!! I was shocked ! No hand… She forgot… Unacceptable! How can you forget the hand?! She promised to better her life and raise the hand from now on. A great relief! A proud son! :-)
I guess my passion about this subject is up high again, due to two “incidents” last week… where I gave way and the hand was not raised… twice… painfull….
The hand is not something you forget, it’s a way of life! We should raise it without thinking, because it’s such a normal thing to do. So why don’t we?? Please sweet people, let us make a difference. Our own little contribution to make this world a better place, so please show your respect and raise the hand!!

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Today our royal prince has been buried. A sad day. Sad, but also somewhat remarkable… Remarkable to see all European royal families gather and dress up. As a request of the prince, all the royal men were dressed up in their military uniforms and it keeps amazing me how many medals some of these royalties have…. just unbelievable! In my mind you get medals in the army for extraordinary behavior or bravery, like a “medal of honor” or a “bronze star” things like that… but that must clearly be a wrong judgment… Because even if it the royalties spend time in the army, it’s not likely we will send them to the frontline to be part of actual combat… Of course they can contribute in other ways to the well being of the army, but how can that justify a chest full of medals? Some have a couple. That looks nice. But some have 2 rows of more then 15 medals each!!! And some of them are huge!!! What do you need to do to get all that metal???
It’s always very impressing to see the war veterans from WW II. True heroes who put there life’s on the line to make Europe free again. They deserve a chest full of medals, but most often don’t have so many as the royalty… Strange…
I see all these kings and princes with so many medals and can’t stop thinking it looks weird…. well, in general the whole kings and queens story is more from fairy tails or history lessons then from this day and age. It’s just very expensive entertainment for the public. Even so I do like it! :-) It works on my imagination! Maybe because it is like something from a fairy tail. And what could be more fun then a real life fairy tail? And what can be more intriguing then a chest full of medals? Who cares where they got them! I just make up a story behind each of them about an heroic prince with a wounded soldier on his back running from enemy territory back to safety! So keep handing out these medals! The more the better! :-)

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No this will not be a “hommage” to Frank Sinatra. Yet. As I am sure I will, sometime before I am done with this blog. Or the blog is done with me! :-) And no worries, it’s not referring to the Elton Johns song either. Ever since I saw the good man in a rather disappointing concert I don’t think he will be reading any good reviews on this website! ;-)
Blue eyes is me. Well, actually eyes shouldn’t be multiple… Blue eye would be more appropriate… No, wrong. I wish blue eye would be more appropriate. My eye ain’t blue. What happened? I played squash and was hit straight on the left eye by the ball at very high speed. I never have been more happy with my glasses. Because although they broke, I bet they took away some of the impact. When I opened my eye after the incident, the world looked all blurry. As it seems to do often lately, but then it’s not caused by my lack of vision… But after the blur, normal vision came back quickly, only little pain stayed. So no big problems at all. Nice but sad… I was hoping for a blue eye… the impact would have justified it! The pain in the beginning was definitely sufficient enough. Iron was bent, glass almost broken. But no… nothing to prove my scary moment. Disappointment… It’s hard to explain to people that my eye hurts when there is not much to see but a little more blood in my eye white. No heroic story to tell. Butt well, I guess to be a hero a bit more is needed then just take a squash ball in the eye and survive. I will just have to keep trying! Wasn’t it Spider Man who said that there must be a hero in all of us?! :-)

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The air mattress. Yet another beautiful invention of mankind. But only great when used on water, to lie on and enjoy the sun. Any other use should be found in a ritual burning of the mattress. Why so much passion in my voice? I slept on one last weekend… 3 nights… 3 horrible mornings… It’s not that I actually slept bad on the air mattress, but that was only because I was exhausted every night and could have fallen asleep in any position or location. So sleeping went fine, it was the waking up that started the horror… Unbelievable what just 6 hours on an air mattress can do to your back… I rolled of the mattress, tried to get up and *arggg* just pain from the lower back all the way up to just below the shoulders. Luckily in a couple of hours after rolling of the mattress the pain went away again, but it makes me wonder why people use these air mattress’ as a sleeping facility for their guests. I told my host to try and go back to the store with it and hope he gets his money back. He won’t have many friends left if he lets them all sleep on the air mattress! :-) Not that I want to sound rude and didn’t appreciate him offering me a place to sleep. On the contrary! That was very kind of him, and I had a fun weekend, but the air mattress experience is one to remember when visiting next time!
But, as with most stories, this one also has a happy ending! Last night sleeping in my own bed was like sleeping in heaven! I slept like a baby, woke up, moved, wiggled, moved again, no pain! Big smile!!! Great way to start the day! Maybe we need some bad experiences in our life to reflect on all the good things we often tend to forget. Even as small as your own little bed.
Now I just look forward to the day I will be lying on an air mattress again… somewhere on the water in a sunny, warm place. Cocktail close by. I am not sure where my mind will be dreaming of to, but I know it won’t be this story! :-)

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One of many good place to find writing inspiration must definitely be the airport! It’s almost like this weird little multicultural country. People running in all directions, people being mad for missing flights or partners that walk to slow, people without stress starting their holiday, people returning home full of beautiful stories, stewardesses in killer boots.
I watch it all zipping my overprized coffee. I don’t seem to mind being early on the airport as so many little things seem to fascinate and amuse me… Why doesn’t the man with the huge hand luggage bag take a little trolley to make his life so much easier? Why torture your fingers to prove what point?? Or the man who stamps his foot on the floor because he can’t pass the large queue on the flat escalator caused by an obviously physically challenged man. What is the point of stamping your foot?? Does he wanne scare the physically challenged man away?? Amazing… Just amazing…
But mainly amazing until the moment I myself get caught up in one of the situations that I normally find to amuse me. The people in front op me on the flat escalator make the world stop for a moment when they start posing for a picture. Nothing strange about that, but as I am standing closely behind then and the line-up is not big enough to cover the width of the flat escalator, I will be in the picture as well! A very uncomfortable feeling… In general I don’t like to be on pictures that much, so the idea to feature on the holiday pictures of complete strangers doesn’t appeal that much. No escape though. I quickly go through my options. Smile? Option. Move? No way to go. Left or right means jumping over the edge of the flat escalator and that feels a bit over the top and the way back is blocked by people. No options there. Look away? Awkward, cowardly but definitely an option. My eyes find the woman with the camera again. Still thinking about what I should do… to late… a quick clumsy smile… *FLASH*… it’s over. Relief. Instinctly I went with my first thought, as I most often seem to do. A good choice? Only the picture can prove that I guess! :-)

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