erratic is the word

 

 

 

So, erratic it is, and will continue to be. This ninja is no regular, organised, disciplined blogger. Oh well, no news there.

Cheers to the generous soul who gave me some book vouchers for my 40th b-day (at least, I assume they were for me; they were simply sitting around and it was my partee, so I took them.) I never had the chance to say thank you but I got myself a book called "Forty". How about that.

Look at the lovely flowers my future potential cucumbers were sporting a couple of weeks ago (they have more flowers now, but I have not taken any more pics.) Good sign, innit?

Also, those wooden boxes are temporary mini allotments of sorts (for what I can gather.) They have appeared on an empty plot pending development in the neighbourhood, together with a grassy play area. What a fantastic, green use of empty city space. Liking this urban farmers lark, if a tad enigmatic to me (stadsboeren.org)

Over and out. At least, until next erratic ninja brief. 


p.s. The sign on the bookshop window reads something on the lines of "We strongly recommend you urgently read this book". Ha.

starting the year with a bang (or two)

Weihnachten ist toll :)* says Mathilda.

I am positive it is. What I know for sure is that New Year is definitely fun in Berlin.

We started the new year with a bang (and you will have to excuse the pun, no way to avoid it, really), i.e. in the midst of one of the biggest fireworks extravaganza in Europe, Unter den Linden.

Truth is this ninja does not even enjoy fireworks that much.
Chicken ninja. Cheep cheep.

Bang number two was this morning. Proper beginning of the "real" year.

I read it was verraderlijk glad**. Still got on the bike, cycled carefully but, lo and behold, about twenty minutes later... Bang. On the floor. Bruised knee, embarrassment, metro.
Clumsy ninja. Boo hoo.

It is just a scratch and a bruise and I am perfectly fine. However, that is no way to land (knee first) back into reality. After two great weeks away (Barcelona + Berlin, telepics to follow), there was absolutely no need for that, thank you very much.

Well, hello 2011. Gentler treatment, please. Ta.

* Christmas is nice   ** treacherously slippy

¿qué?

I really did my best to follow the instructions.

dear driver, welcome to amsterdam and good luck to you

oh dear

From the very cool cats at work is not a job.

This ninja has been busy elsewhere doing utterly important and meaningful elsewhere-related stuff. However, normal nonsensical activity is expected to resume by... well, soon enough.

limonada a porrillo

Lemonade ahoy. Lemons are in season, aren't they?

wear a thong, carry rum or debug ie6...

... are just some of the things you can do while keeping calm or while carrying out a similar activity (kelping clam or the like.)

Fab evolution tree put together here and found by way of here but actually sent to me by an attentive young man. So no, I didn't move a finger, it just landed in my Inbox. Hooray. Best way to find cool stuff, isn't it just?

On another note: The geese are back! I can hear them clearly, noisy buggers. (They've been gone since the canal started freezing around Xmas. I think they were just around the corner, to be honest, but it's been a while.) I'll count them in a minute to see whether anyone else had (and went ahead with) my Xmas paté idea.

I really am going to tape them one day and post the audio file here (both because it'd be a rivetting post and because I know people are secretly very interested and fascinated by the racket the bloody gaggle of geese living in my canal makes. Not and... probably not either.) Onto that red couch now to watch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the film) and yes, I'm still poorly. Bloody germs, nearly as annoying as the bloody geese. Adiós.

watery mooney

I really loved the Moon Walking illustration google used of a couple of months ago.

This one today is pretty good too (I like the previous one better) but this water-on-the-Moon-discovery-lark basically got me thinking it was perhaps time to revisit that other theory on water on Mars.

Okay, I've just realised this looks a bit like product placement with that humongous logo up there but, considering I'm using blogspot for nothing... (Nothing, nothing, we'll have to see about that. I don't normally believe in not paying for stuff so I reckon my soul's already more than charcoaled and I will end up having to sell my body (or summat) too for not having read the small print regarding blogditions of usage and shit. Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.)

Off to do sensible stuff and things now. Boo hoo.

Image taken from google logos.

vedett(e) means star in french...

And what a star this Belgian lager is! It was love at first sip when tasted for the very first time in Antwerp about two years ago and becoming a steady favourite as more places are starting to serve it in Amsterdam.

What better way to drink it that from its own long glass, occasionally resting on a road-sign table, while perched on a bench in one of your favourite beer gardens enjoying a beautiful late spring evening. Ah, bliss!

or else...

Hotel corridor, wonderfully manic Bangkok, about two years ago.
Still not sure whether I complied or not!

birds of a "leather"...

The images above, one illustrating a ban on smooching at a railway station in the U.K. and the other warning about... a bird with a rubber fetish (!), have been taken from this repertoire, which is going straight into my favourites. A whole series dedicated to signs ranging from funny to weird to, sometimes, venturing into the blatantly idiotic. By origin, some of them could have been shown (and perhaps are) here, another ninja fave.

However, it reminded me of one of the many and varied reasons why I started this "cajón de sastre": to post/share/publish stuff I probably wouldn't otherwise. So, high time to stick some of the silly pics I've been taking over the years. I just had a quick browse at my collection and decided upon the below, taken in Barcelona outside a bar. Just ace.

I fear non-Spanish speakers may miss the undertone, but hey! It basically reads "No touching or pulling up the plants or I'll cut your hands off". Yup, just like that!

I love a good random sign, me (and, apparently, I'm not alone)!

place it on the map

"Should we meet at the place?"
"Which place, my place?"
"No, not your place, the place!"
"The place? Which place? Your place?"
"No, man, THE Place!!!"
"???"

Guess what Plaats means in Dutch (go on, three guesses)! Lovely name for a... place, really!

Okay, in all fairness (and according to the Van Dale), it can also mean square which, again, is nothing short of genius! Fancy having a square called Square! But... hang on a minute, there IS a square called Square, or Plein, in Dutch!

I just love the simplicity of it all! I honestly do!

priceless...

Lost in translation: road sign carries email reply

A council put up a Welsh language road sign reading "I am out of the office at the moment" when it should have said "No entry for heavy goods vehicles".

Swansea council contacted its in-house translation service when designing the bilingual sign. The seeds of confusion were sown when officials received an automated email response in Welsh from an absent translator, saying: "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."
Unaware of its real meaning, officials had it printed on the sign. The council took down the sign after Welsh speakers spotted the mistake.
Source: Ben Quinn, The Guardian, 1st November 2008 - Photograph: PA

Oh yeah, and this one's pretty precious too!