I'll be needing happy pills.

...Because it's been raining here for just about the last day and a half. I finally got tired of waiting for it to let up (long since given up on the 'waiting for it to stop' program) and decided to head off to the market anyway. Tops of my legs are slightly damp at this point, but I do have a good working rain coat that does the rest of the job.
Just as I was coming out of Dink's the wind picked up and blew over some one's bike. Wasn't mine.
"New and shiney" has a rather convincing kick stand, thankfully. I think the wind must have caught hold of the saddle bags on this person's bike or something, not sure.

Dreadful sound.

It's one of those stomach churning moments.

The good news about the nasty weather as far as the market is concerned? You can belly up to just about any vendor without having to wait nary a moment. Could have sworn the Dutch wouldn't have changed their shopping habits one bit on account of a little rain, unless they mobbed the place right at 2:00 p.m. and got it over with.
I didn't get there until after three.

Forgot to mention that, while I was out running the roads on Wednesday, I did remember to stop into Media Markt and pick up a power bar for the sewing room. It was the only type that was long enough, coming in at around 4 meters I think it was. I've already forgotten.
Main thing is, this arrangement will serve the purpose.



Boy, this is exciting stuff, innit?


I'd prefer not to go to the large chain stores such as Media Markt, Best Buy, Futile Shop and their ilk, except the local yokels here in town didn't have what I wanted.
I already checked, so settle down.
Something to be said for "service" at the local Mom and Pops, even though one might pay a couple shekels more, I figure it's worth it for the most part. Plus I'm not overly keen on having to deal with some pimply faced dolt who might know everything there is to know about the latest media format, but doesn't realise that smacking his chewing gum in my presence only gives me the urge to make him swallow it.

Best to be avoided.

And no, that wasn't my experience this time at Media Markt, but I've had my moments at some of those other places.
Believe me.

The only other comment I might add for today:
I've been getting it all wrong. Here I've been buying beer all these many months.... well, years and, apparently I should have jumped right to the end of the line.

I mean, where do you go from here?

More lousy weather

Originally the plan was to take a little trip over to Münster in Germany today, so I dutifully took Gabe to work so we would have the car, but the weather has most definitely not been helpful.
I've managed to dodge the rain so far today to get in to town to pick up a couple things. Since parking is always the consideration in Delden on a Friday I still took new and shiny instead of the car. With it being Market day, it's especially bad on a Friday afternoon. We're going with the Atlantic salmon program for tonight (€22,00 worth!) so I had to head back out to the market in the afternoon. I don't mind a few rain drops if it means not trying to find a parking spot. It still amazes me the number of people who head in by car, but what do I know?
Happened to bump into our landlady at the market. It's not like we can be really chatty or anything, due to my limited Dutch. She did ask if Gabe was working, to which I replied, "Ja, ze werkt en ik winkele"*, and that was pretty much the extent of our conversation. Up to this point I can pretty much only ask for certain things and hope to get them. Even then, unless I see a particular product, there's a pretty good chance I won't know what the heck it's called and won't be able to get it.
That's why the market can be easy, since it's all out there. A number of the merchants do speak English, but I keep plodding along in my pidgin Dutch as best I can.



*she works and I shop.


The last of our three sleepy heads has finally arisen. (um...it's past three p.m.) That would partly be due to the fact that they took a trip to Amsterdam yesterday (Thursday) which turned out to be a long, wet, cold experience.
See, getting well into "geezerdom" I would never want to attempt such a thing in the dead of a Dutch winter, no matter how mild it might seem compared to the Great White North. At this point in my life, I have no problems being completely miserable without any external stimuli like the cold or the rain, so I sure as hell wouldn't be going.

Amsterdam was looking pretty grim...

Gave them my cell phone, with the instructions to call when they got to...
wait for it...
Deventer, since the timing is usually such that one can be at the station in Hengelo at about the same time as the train comes in.
There was only a minor glitch, in that the train they were on was being put out of service at Deventer. Since their Dutch is pretty much non-existent, they missed that little snippet, and found themselves sitting on a spur somewhere just outside of town. Just sitting there, wondering if something was going to happen.
Luckily, they do check the trains to see if anyone is still hanging about, so our hapless travellers were then taken back to the station and punted off in order to wait for another train. Pretty sure it was getting close to midnight by the time we all got in the door.
This would be why one of the party is not feeling quite up to snuff today, since hypothermia can be an insidious companion on a long journey, especially if your boots leak.

Ah, youth.

I'll stick to staying inside where it's warm and dry thanks.