Club 600

[duchieman]

They can do whatever they want now. The Mrs., after going back to school and getting her diploma, just grabbed a really good job in her chosen field. The hours are a little shy but will fill quickly and the income is almost enough to sustain us. Basically we've done a role reversal of sorts. I'm the bitch now! Actually right now, the best thing that could happen to me now is that they cut me off. Then we can cut the crap and get the lawyers involved so we can get down to the bottom of it. Either way, I was just looking at some online courses tonight through a very reputable university here, in Graphic Design and Photography. It's not certificate or diploma but it'll give me a head start and some pre req's for when either Comp or Disability cough up all the crap they're choking on and get me retrained. Yup, I'm the lucky sucker who get's do deal with two insurance co's. Yeee haw! One for breaking my ankle on the job and the other for ending up in hospital 4 months later. July 4th was two years since I broke that ankle. The cool thing is that I can pay for each 6 week unit as we go along and I can opt out of the one's that I don't need or want. Anyway that's part of my goal, but the main objective above all else is to never be an employee again in my life. When my current one put me under surveillance, only 10 weeks after the fracture, that was the tipping point there.

 

[Bobotrank]

so I do toke everynight before bed,, I bet we all do actually haha peace 6 hundo

Hah! I just did. I'm at about a 9 right now, and ready to crash. G'nite 600

 

[whodatnation]

I'm hedging a bet that you might be someone with a big smile, a crazy hat & sunglasses, feather boa and Mardi Gras beads, while carrying (playing?) a brass marching tuba with one hand while carrying a big glass of frothy beer in the other hand...

haha you know me all too well night 6 ers!!! "we" are the shit lol

 

[DST]

Night John Boy!!!!

Morning to the folks in Middle Earth! Hope you are all well.

[youtube]8uFYkLFAg18[/youtube]

IkoIko....

Peace, DST

 

[DST]

Some pics from yesterday Fietsentocht. I did laugh when the guy on that video pronounced FietsDag! The Dutch language is just gobbledygoop on the whole, lol.

The ladies before we left....

Provisions, or Pad-Kos as we call it (Afrikaans)

The Ferry across Het IJ, the water that surrounds Amsterdams central station. The ferries take you to the North of Amsterdam. The city is busy building a metro from South to North underneath the water. But that was supposed to be finished last year, then 2015, then 2017....it's a bit of a Amsterdam local joke the North South Line, haha. No one really knows if it will ever be finished. And the ferries are actually free.

I was going to ask this guy if he knew the Fairy...United States postal service eh!!!

What a bloody gloomy day it was....still warm though, with a nice breeze so quite nice for cycling. AS I said, bit of a headwind on the way back but at least that reduced the number of flying critters that tend to land on you.

You can understand why all the great Masters painted a lot of sky scenes...The Netherlands is all about it's skies!!!

One of the reclaimed roads that takes you to the previous Island of Marken. My wife had stopped to take a photo and I just couldn't stand to be still for more than a second. I was being dive bombed by midges.

Marken, an old fishing village with houses built on stilts, now on brick though...What a weird place, people live there normally and you have tourists taking pictures of everything. One women was hanging her washing out and there was people taking pictures of her. I mean COME ON PEOPLE!!!! Camera's actually really annoy my wife and I. We go to art exhibitions and someone will walk up to a painting or a sculpture, take a picture and walk away....wtf is that all about. WE HAVE EYES, AND SOME OF US EVEN HAVE MEMORIES, USE THEM!!!!! Anyway, as usual I digress.

And that was our day.

Peace, DST

 

[cannabis420420]

very nice pics

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

looks like a kanny day oot lad. i similarly never leave home without a ration of jelly tots

 

[curious old fart]

One thing I have notice in your excellant outdoor photo's is a lack of sunshine...lots of gray, overcast skies. No wonder your wife is discouraged with the 'dam weather. She would love the Carribean.


cof

 

[DST]

Welcome to Northern Europe cof, this is how we are living G, lol. Seriously people who visit Northern Europe and get nice weather and leave thinking, hey, it's not soooo bad. But really when you are here 24/7, there isn't really that much sunshine going on, so yeh, there is not much I can say to my wife. However, I do like having seasons, I do like getting wrapped up, I love the snow (in limited amounts) and there is nothing nicer than a nice Sunny day in winter when it is below zero. I am sure she would love the Carribean, as would I. But then Tropical extremes, and all the other wonderfull things that go along with living in places of extremeties, sometimes makes Northern Europe very welcoming. Saying that, our destination is and will be Cape Town at some point in the future.

 

[Dropastone]

Loved the picture show D. The Dam is in my top 10 places to visit one day.

 

[duchieman]

Welcome to Northern Europe cof, this is how we are living G, lol. Seriously people who visit Northern Europe and get nice weather and leave thinking, hey, it's not soooo bad. But really when you are here 24/7, there isn't really that much sunshine going on, so yeh, there is not much I can say to my wife. However, I do like having seasons, I do like getting wrapped up, I love the snow (in limited amounts) and there is nothing nicer than a nice Sunny day in winter when it is below zero. I am sure she would love the Carribean, as would I. But then Tropical extremes, and all the other wonderfull things that go along with living in places of extremeties, sometimes makes Northern Europe very welcoming. Saying that, our destination is and will be Cape Town at some point in the future.

Thanks for the pics D, I really enjoy it when you do that.

My wife and I have moved around quite a bit in our time and weather is always a huge factor. Coincidentally I was comparing weather data between here and The Dam last night, and really there's not much difference. I'll get back to that. Now, Alberta is a very different story. If you loooooove winter then it's great. Me, not at all. I hate it with a passion. Working in -20 to -50C weather is not fun at all. We thought about the West Coast, somewhere around Vancouver but the rain issue came up. My wife would rather have the cold and sun than rain and warm and I'm the complete opposite. Rain at least brings vegetation and color. Cold and snow bring death and desolation and nothing but white. I was checking out weather in the Dam last night because I was curious how rainy it got there. My daughter is 16 and shoving off to college in 2 years changing things a lot in our lives. All of a sudden there's many more doors to face and traveling/working is one of them. My wife works in health care and I plan to work online so I'm not too concerned about work and such. My biggest concern about living abroad is health care if we get sick. Anyway, my daughter has spoke of wanting to go to school in Europe too so who knows. Either way, I'll be getting over there for a visit as soon as I can, even if I got to go it alone.

I love that Iko Iko song. Here's the version Dr. John did which is supposed to be more true to the original writer James Crawford.

[video=youtube;WaWj2HgN7Fw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWj2HgN7Fw[/video]

Duchie

 

[DST]

Ach it's not end of the world weather here by a long shot, it just seems to be cloudy when wifey has time off work, bless her she ain't got the weather luck, lol.

Thanks for the song Duchie, although I must say, I think I prefer the simplicity of the Dixie version, a bit too much going on in Dr Johns, if you know what I mean.

And it is quite amazing how easy it is to move to another country, I guess it just depends on what stage of life you are in and what you expect. As a youngster I always wanted to move out of the place I grew up in purely because I would either be dead or in jail now, but when I did move away at first I really hated it, I was always back home.

 

[duchieman]

Yup, know what you mean about the Dixie version. I was just reading the bio on the song and caught that the Dixie version was caught on tape accidentally. They were taking a break or something and they were playing drumsticks on the studio ashtrays and the engineer had the tape rolling. He added a couple more instrument later and bingo, you got a hit!

Me, I think I have some Gypsy blood in me. Just can't seem to settle in one place. Maybe I just get bored easy, I don't know. It's not the grass is greener mentality either. Been there, done that, not so. So let me ask D, what's it like for work in the health care field, particularly dealing with people with severe developmental issues, in the Netherlands? Is the Gov pretty lax on foreigners with skills coming and working there? Also, I've been meaning to ask, when I look at your photos and others of Amsterdam, there seems to be a lack of American corporate branding going on. I hardly ever see anything familiar like MacDonalds and other crap like that. Seems as though they get along fine on their own over there. Or is that just me?

 

[DST]

Best thing to do is to check out the http://english.ind.nl/

As for the health care industry, there is like most of the modern Western countries a shortfall in Health care workers, nurses etc. It's not really my field so can't be 100% but I know there are a lot of jobs going to non Dutch people in the health care industry. Language can be a problem though.
As far as branding of the MacyD's etc, don't you kid yourselves, they are here big time, and also have the bloody golden arches alongside most motorways. And small signs dotted around town. Me, I tend to avoid getting any of that shit in any of my photographs, lol. So probably not really giving a true representation of it

Yup, know what you mean about the Dixie version. I was just reading the bio on the song and caught that the Dixie version was caught on tape accidentally. They were taking a break or something and they were playing drumsticks on the studio ashtrays and the engineer had the tape rolling. He added a couple more instrument later and bingo, you got a hit!

Me, I think I have some Gypsy blood in me. Just can't seem to settle in one place. Maybe I just get bored easy, I don't know. It's not the grass is greener mentality either. Been there, done that, not so. So let me ask D, what's it like for work in the health care field, particularly dealing with people with severe developmental issues, in the Netherlands? Is the Gov pretty lax on foreigners with skills coming and working there? Also, I've been meaning to ask, when I look at your photos and others of Amsterdam, there seems to be a lack of American corporate branding going on. I hardly ever see anything familiar like MacDonalds and other crap like that. Seems as though they get along fine on their own over there. Or is that just me?

 

[duchieman]

Language barrier was the biggie I thought of after I posted and yes, that could be difficult when your trying to help someone seriously. And your pics might not be the true representation but they're the better one so thanks for that.

 

[curious old fart]

You're featuring the beauty or the uniqueness and not the commercial aspect. You see things from an artist viewpoint and bring it to life, which is why your pics are so good.


cof

 

[duchieman]

Hey guys, hope you don't mind but I'd like to play a little game. Twitter has a hashmark going right now #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants It's getting pretty funny and I though it would be good for a laugh here. I'll start with my 4. The Little Rascals, The Color Purple, White Men Can't Jump and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I won't do an lol cause that would be like laughing at my own jokes. lol

 

[tip top toker]

I'm gonna lol because you use twitter encounter of the third kind is a good one though

 

[mantiszn]

how about

big trouble in little china

Hey guys, hope you don't mind but I'd like to play a little game. Twitter has a hashmark going right now #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants It's getting pretty funny and I though it would be good for a laugh here. I'll start with my 4. The Little Rascals, The Color Purple, White Men Can't Jump and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I won't do an lol cause that would be like laughing at my own jokes. lol

 

[DST]

Fantastic 5, Armageddon, Jaws, The Pink Panther....