Starbucks comes to Utrecht, including the long queue...
...which I'm not prepared to spend half my lunch break in. Sigh...
Sssst!
...which I'm not prepared to spend half my lunch break in. Sigh...
Toad: "There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." (Kenneth Graham)
Which is exactly what we did last evening. We rented a fine little sloop and messed about in it for almost three hours. Down the Hollandsche IJssel to Montfoort, upstream again to IJsselstein and finally back to the marina.
Now, I have to make it absolutely clear: I couldn't care less about sports. It leaves me stone cold. People who spend large parts of their life trying to become faster than others, or reaching greater distances than others have more than a little hint of silliness about them. I obviously understand that it's all part of the generally silly entertainment industry (and of advertising, which is even sillier), but I could well do without it.
With one exception: the Tour de France. For some reason it gripped me about ten years ago. The heroism (another thing that possesses more than a hint of silliness) of these cyclists has a hypnotic effect on me. I still don't understand a lot of it, but I just have to watch. In some ways, it defines summer for me. When the last man in the peloton has passed the finishing line, that's the start of the end of summer. Sad but true. A curious emptiness descends upon the world, at least for a couple of days.
And in fact just today I started to notice how the evenings are getting shorter. Really. *Sigh*.
It contains disorientation and a wopping big cushion
