It's Cold And Grey But Autumn Is Painting The Town Red

The Japanese Garden in the Clingendael estate to the east of the city, is only open to the public a few weeks of the year, but what vibrant few weeks in Spring and Autumn they are! Absolutely worth a visit come rain or shine.

More people than trees. Or so it seems in every photo I take!

I've learned over the course of this visit that the trick isn't waiting for people to clear the area so you can take a photo, because you'll be waiting for ever, the trick is waiting for people with clothing that match the background to get into place so you can take a photo... Pink kagool? Yep, just to the right, a wee bit more... :: click ::

I still need to learn, however, to be totally aware of my surroundings: here I thought I had a clear people-free shot and didn't notice the guy right in the centre with his hands on his hips until I cropped and checked the photos on a larger screen back home! I mean, he's RIGHT IN THE CENTRE OF THE SHOT!!

:: plays music to 'The Twilight Zone' ::

And of course, you can't visit any park that has water features of any kind, because you'll always see a heron or two, keeping an eye out for errant fish, and possibly equally errant humans.

I caught handsome Mr Heron doing a spot of catalogue posing. Just after this was taken, he pointed to the bank with one wing, while checking his watch on the other. Obviously a pro.

A Constitutional Preamble

I thought I'd add a little introduction to the parks phase of this literary affair, instead of whipping out a pile of tree photos for you to ogle at with no prior communiqué whatsoever. A twigger warning, if you will.  (I may apologise for that later.)

I started going for walks primarily as a means of finding interesting doors to photograph.  If you know me on facebook, or have had a look at my other blog here, you'll know I have a passion for portals that started with a visit to Vézelay in France last August, a destination to which I brought my brand-new (though not new in terms of tech) Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7". This darling machine connected to the internet if there was WiFi around, and as I couldn't afford a laptop, this was the next best thing! And it took photos, so in that respect it was WAY better than a laptop! Oh my! I didn't own a smart phone (and I still don't), but this piece of kit was quite the Welcome To The Smart Age just the same, and I had a whale of a time taking photos, editing them, and slapping them all over my facebook page.  All from the comfort of my own hotel room!  

Yes, the quality isn't fabulous, but for a night-time photo basically taken with a big-ass fake phone, it turned out rather well.  (Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay.)

The town is an ancient hill-top settlement, originally going back to Roman times, and it became the start of one of four important pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela, so the tiny township is filled with steep roads, and ancient buildings that offer a plethora of characterful doorways to capture on cyber film. And a facebook photo album was born.

baby's first portal photo

At the time I wasn't thinking about the health benefits of going for walks, although after this entry (I may apologies for that later, too) to the joys of pounding the pavement in search of additions to my album, it became more obvious the further I travelled afield that the exercise was actually doing me good. I discovered that I liked walking, coupled with capturing moments on memory card that had already captured my imagination.  

I was tempted to add the portals to this blog, but as I'm at around four hundred doors and counting, I think they deserve their own piece of internet real-estate. Instead, I am happy to share with you in future posts some of the things that have stirred my fantasy on walks throughout this city, and elsewhere, but I'll leave this post with a couple more doors - one that shows the sloping nature of the roads I was talking about, and the other simply because I love that it's absolutely chock-full of texture!  What a story it could tell!

A First Time For Everything

"Nic tried on a pair of jeans today. A pair of jeans in a high-street shop, not a 'plus-size' shop. And in a 'normal' department of said high-street shop, not in a 'plus-size' department of the self-same high-street shop.

(This, it must be pointed out, is a first-time experience in the life of your author.)

And you know what? They fit!"

I do tend to sound glib when expressing myself in relation to my weight loss sometimes, of this I am aware. I have a habit of making things sound a lot less important to me than they really are, and part of that is out of habit - if no-one thinks it's important to me there's less chance of it being belittled/nicked/broken (which is a very old and very hard habit to break), and part of it is because I like to make people laugh. Or chortle. I can settle for snort, too. You'll find a lot of funny people (much funnier than I) who became funnier still primarily as a means to deflect hate, whether by, for example, self-mockery (hey, if I get the fat joke in first, that means people will laugh with me and not at me), or observational comedy (check out this thing that everyone does but doesn't realise how hilarious it is, instead of ridiculing me) to name just two methods of diversion.

So, when I sound a little flippant about about this brand-new shopping experience, believe me, it's covering up the utter and profound joy of potentially finding a bigger range of clothes to choose from, a bigger range of styles, shapes, colours, and at prices that don't penalise the plump for using up a few inches of fabric more than the same garment in a non-plus size. 

Reader, I bought the jeans.

Psych 666

"Nic really wishes she understood the absolutely hilarious reply to the Dutch equivalent of "Jesus, what's with fat chicks and knitting?" that was uttered by one of the ten or so gobby young 'men' on the train, because she's absolutely positive it must have been intelligent and insightful."

Yes, yes, societal norms, the fitting-in with your fellows, pack mentality etc etc etc. Everything can be explained in a psychological manner.

The kid who came out with the first comment may have been trying to assert his place of power within the group by drawing everyone's attention to him, via me. He might have confidence issues, he might have a problem with authority figures, he probably has something about himself that he doesn't like so is perhaps always the first to point out weaknesses in others, in the hope that no-one will notice his.

The comic of the group may want attention just as much as the leader, but perhaps realises that he doesn't quite have the strength to battle for that position, so deflects this flaw into making people laugh instead. He can hog the limelight as much as the leader, but because he's taken the role of fool, he'll never be considered a threat. The comic may also have sadness to bear in his life, depression, grief. It's not for nothing that you hear the greatest comedians are those who have the intelligence to make despair sound funny.

The rest are pack animals. Snarling for scraps of the action, trying to be accepted by copying the leaders, probably just hoping they won't be picked on next for any of their own perceived flaws.

Or they could all just be little devils with no consciences sent to make my day miserable.  

It hardly matters because trying to find reasons to justify their behaviour doesn't make the outcome any different. They come across as little shits, and I go home feeling like one.