Today was very windy. It is said that the famous French mountain wind, the Mistral, can drive people mental. I never believed that until today. There was madness in the air.
First there were the automatic double doors at the exits of the Rotterdam underground railway. They sense your approach and open up away from you, but not today, they opened up towards me (a form of madness), realised their mistake, reversed the movement and knocked my spectacles off my nose. The inspector who listended patiently to my complaint agreed that the system is disastrous and should never have been introduced.
Next stop the parking police to make sure we don't get fined for parking the newly acquired van in the centre of Rotterdam. I walk in and the next thing I know is I lie on the ground. Ouch! A man using a zimmer frame has activated the invalid lift, which means that a railing emerges out of the ground to keep him from falling off the platform. Don't we all love designers of mechanical contraptions?
I should have been happy because the parking permit was organised within minutes (Dutch bureaucratic efficiency for you), even before I could complete filling in my complaint form about the invalid lift, but I wasn't. Next stop McDonalds for some 'oral consolation'. The young man at the counter asks: 5,60? Puzzled, ask him if I am supposed to haggle about the price. No sir, just asking if you are 65 (five-and-sixty), then you pay less. So that is the first time someone has asked me if I am 65. Better get used to it. Don't these people read blogs? My profile says clearly that I'm 57, not 65.
PS We don't have the 'sue them' culture where I live. Too bad, I could have made good money today.
29 comments:
Hey Koos!
Sounds like you've had a mad old week over there!!!
I think Bill Wyman looks pretty good when I found out he's actually going to be 70 this year! He didn't look that old when I saw his Rythym Kings and Eddie Floyd last year.
Pictures of the Southend gig are up on my blog at:
www.reevosramblings.blogspot.com
Chat to you Saturday!
Ben
Poor you, Koos! I totally sympathize! It doesn't sound like the most pleasant of days. As the saying goes, some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield. Have faith, though - tomorrow is another day, hopefully a windshield day for you. :)
Hi Ben, Thanks for your account of the Southend gig. I recommend all others to go see it. Makes me wish all the more I could have been there too.
Thanks Mary Beth, it was rather unpleasant indeed. On the other hand it was very rewarding to see Val's tears of laughter when she read my account of what had happened.
Love
Koos
*LOL* I can imagine!...though I'm sure she was laughing *with* you, not *at* you, right?? :)
Hi Mary Beth, I like to think Val found my description of this absurd day humourous (she nods).
Chris. B. said...
Monday the 8th, absolutely brilliant, Koos. Sue his ass I say!
You have every right to be grumpy middle-aged man. ;-P
Tuesday, 09 May, 2006
Oh, Koos, it sounds like you had a terrible sequence of events yesterday! I'm not sure how I would have reacted to "65". I might have muttered something about dog years, but there is no graceful way to handle such a comment, or if there is, I've not yet fallen upon it. I still have a few years to prepare my clever retort...
I hope today is better!
Cheers,
AM
Hi Koos,
The worst thing is thinking a 57 year old boy is 65.....
Yes, I would try to sue them ;-)
Erik-Jan.
b.t.w. Val's blog seems dissapeared......
Erik-Jan.
I have pulled a stomach muscle here! Poor Koos, what a day you had! And that stupid McDonald's man telling you you're 65? Moron!
I too went to the Southend gig and have photos from the night. And Mark T too. It was soooo good! Need more though, it wasn't enough!
Hey, my mom and I are planning to go to Amsterdam/Rotterdam next year in the spring! Hurraaaah!!!
Hope I see you, and meet Val, before that though!
xoxoxo
M
Dear Koos
Oh, the maniacal winds do blow!
The ventura effect happens in many areas of my mountains, too.
I can quite identify with the motion sensor doors...
I went to the bank this morning & the doors didn't open for me - so there I was jumping up & down, waving my arms in front of a closed smoked glass door on the sidewalk in the middle of Main Street...
I did laugh about your seniors comment!
I'm sure the majority of McDonald's employees don't blog...
But, coming from a relatively seasoned blogger, you look much younger than 65 in your photos - trust me.
It's funny you should mention paying for parking. My older daughter & I were talking about that very thing this morning.
She asked me why one has to pay for parking in the city. We live in a rural area & don't have to pay, of course, & it was a new concept to Beth.
If we ever do take the 3 hour trip to the city & have to go downtown, we park in a stadium parking lot (free) & take the public rail transit.
I am not a fan of litigation, myself - it becomes a huge problem in a society when no one takes responsibiliy for themselves.
I could really go on about this one...
Hope you're having a calmer day today.
Love
Dale
Hi All
I now realise that the title of this post should have been 'Just Another Tricky Day' and the subtitle for the age thing 'better get used to it'. The upside is I don't have to prove I am over 16 ;-)
Today was much calmer and quite enjoyable, including this evening's band practise.
For those who don't write (no-one on this page really) I can recommend writing about daily experiences, it throws a humorous light on a life that might otherwise turn sour. Anyone hear the crashing sound of an open door being kicked in here? Blogging is about diaries, isn't it?
Thanks all for wonderful supportive comments! From what I've read society can grind to a halt for fear of being sued, but when coming across (pun intended) an idiotic lift as I did yesterday, I really feel like letting them face the consequences, lest nothing is done about it.
I like Beth's question about paid parking very much. In the real world space isn't rare.
I hope we'll still be in touch next year, Marietta. Can't wait to renew our acquaintance - and meet your mother. Plenty of terraces around the harbour!
It's May, spring is back and so are the tourists and punters.
Love for you all
Koos
Kudos, Koos!
That is exactly what it's all about!
...being able to laugh at ourselves & realise that we are all in it together!
It may have also been "just another trick of the light" in the restaurant, that confused the server...fluorescent lightning does nothing for the complexion!
LOL
Love
Dale
verifcation: eyesqdln
Shouldn't forget my brother in 'law', Chris! How are you doing my friend? Any new developments in the band? Your eponymous debut cd coming up yet? I'll pimp it shamelessly for you!
Thanks for your encouraging words.
PS Wait 'til Chris starts his own blog. Colourful!
I'm doing o.k., thanks Koos.Yesterday was my birthday. I was off shift, the sun was shining, my bike was beautiful and you gave me real laugh...what more could a man ask for?
The band has its next gig at our 25th anniversary but no c.d's yet. We haven't played together since last August, so we're a bit rusty. I hope all is well over there with everybody and Toots and I look forward to reading about your next adventure with some over securitised piece of public machinery...take care.
Not anonymous at all, sorry.
Better late than never: Happy Birthday Chris, sorry I forgot - as usual...
PS
Do you read
Val's blog as well?
And
our dog Sindy's?
koos thought i better tell you ..i think our pets are conspiring behind our backs ..i might be wrong though..hmmm..
Dear Gipsy
Thanks for warning me! The pets are taking a risk: we might start conspiring behind their backs. That'll learn them!!!
Love
Koos
hmmm yes give the little critters a run for their money..lol......koos who is Iris DeMent and Ilse DeLange?...
oh btw koos did you know your good self was featured is one of my april posts..ride the snake bite..ill go in to hiding now...
i had visualized you to be that way koos...a true cool dude...OMG..OMG..i have just listened to the link still havent found what im looking for...i have just nearly cracked a rib laughing...that was you koos dancing round the fire absabloody fantastic!!.....i think bono would be proud of this the original version...lol...lol..lol...thankyou koos..x...
"Unt I shteel haffunt fount vot I'm lookink forrrr..."
LOL ROFL Ha Ha Ha
Koos, you certainly are a cool dude!
Was that you doing the Bavarian slap dance in the background?
Hope your weekend is shaping up to be a grand one!
Love
Dale
hello koos, ive been reading storys bout you on gypsys blog..and val tells me you banned poor sindys pocket money for 200 years!!!!thats harsh i thought my 2 weeks was bad.
Hi Koos,
I added a link to your blog to our own page.
Cu,
Barry
Hi Burbanites
Terribly honoured. See my link to your pages!
Love
Koos
Hi Koos,
hope you feel better again.
Nice to have you on board when we went to the helling,
you can see it on our blog.
May be you can look to the blog I mentioned, http://goedeverwachting.blogspot.com/
of the ship we are cleaning up it's a pitty it has to be sold.
Hope to see you fot coffee or beer this week.
Hola Koos,
Sorry, I've been a very bad blogger..:(....I'm sorry that you had a bad day..sometimes you think that you should have stayed in bed....let me tell you a funny thing: the lights of the toilets in the place I work are automatic, they only work if there is somebody inside the toilet...well, this morning, they turned OFF as I went in..:(....I waited inside, in the dark, for some seconds with a question mark upon my head....and they didn't work till somebody else came in!!!!!...¿???¿¿¿?¿?¿?¿?
I'm very glad that you are interested in Albania....Last year, a friend of mine and I decided to visit Rumania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. We just made the reservations for the hotels from Spain...our plane left us in Hungary and took us in Macedonia....We travelled by bus from Transilvania to Albania, wow, it was hard!!! but it was fantastic, we saw wonderful places!!! I've got so many things to say about that trip....I'll try to post more photos....I would love to go to Moldova and Belarus too, I've been visiting your friend's website, thank you!!!!
Love,
Elena
XXXXXX
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