July 31, 2017

Inflatable flamingo hinders holiday floating session

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:30 pm

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A couple on vacation on Mallorca decided to blow up their inflatable flamingo they had bought at the toy shop before leaving. They jokingly posted on social media that the flamingo has an abnormality, but that they are open minded and accept him the way he is. The flamingo’s neck is the other way around, which means it’s not very comfortable to float around in as it pokes you.

They wrote a letter to the shop they bought it from to ask them jokingly what went wrong during the flamingo’s gestation. As of this morning, their post was viewed over 22,000 times and someone even offered them 50 euro for the abnormal inflatable flamingo.

The shop jokingly wrote back that in a sea of pink flamingoes, they would know exactly which one was theirs, a bit like having an odd car in a huge car park, and that they could also come by and trade it in.

(Link and photo: omroepbrabant.nl)

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April 4, 2009

Too many people on vacation threaten Queen’s Day

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:23 pm
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Since many families will be going away for two weeks (!) in May as school is out, some towns will not have enough volunteers to help out with all those Queen’s Day activities. Queen’s Day falls on Thursday, 30 April and many people will take Friday, 1 May off, which is not a holiday (Labour Day) in the Netherlands. Then they’re off to foreign countries with their caravans for two blissful weeks. Two weeks!

Although more people will stay home because of the recession, newspaper AD says many towns like Aerdenhout and Haarlem cancelled some Queen’s Day activities and sports events because they can’t find enough volunteers. Boo hoo hoo: two predominantly white, rich cities can’t find volunteers because the really rich folks will be gone. I will be working very hard both days, find out more here under ‘Upcoming’). Co-blogger Branko will be selling stuff on the country-wide flea market instead of buying this year and I promised to keep the coffee coming before working until 5 am the same evening.

The Royal Dutch Automobile Association (ANWB) estimated that about 450,000 people will be taking off. Do they all come from upscale Aerdenhout and Haarlem, and Rheden near Arhem, which I am assuming is white and loaded as well?

For those who don’t know: Good Friday (10 April) and Easter Monday (13 April) are days off, then comes Ascension (Thursday, 21 april – people often take Friday off too), and if that wasn’t enough for you, there’s Whit Monday (1 June).

And next year, Liberation Day (5 May) will also be a day off.

Boo hoo hoo.

(Link: ad.nl, Photo: Amsterdam Queen’s Day 1996)

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August 2, 2008

Cheese most popular “caravan food”

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 11:37 am

We’re in the middle of the six week school holiday period, so Dutch travel trailers have once again spread out across Europe. Not only do we have a reputation of traveling with trailers but also of bringing along our own food—what do you mean, we have to integrate too?

According to a study by insurance company Fortis though, bringing along your own food is in decline. “Only” a quarter of the Dutch still bring along foods (quote-unquote both by Z24 and me). Legend has it that we like to bring along our own spuds, but the study shows that the most popular caravan comestible is cheese, followed by chocolate sprinklings (hagelslag) and black liquorice (drop). Somewhat embarrassed I must admit the latter two make sense to me: hagelslag just goes well with French bread, and liquorice and iPods can help while away the long hours on the road.

Photo by Jon Sullivan, released into the public domain by its author.

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