All plans awry...?
Feb. 7th, 2004 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzThe idea was to celebrate a bit that NoKey and I had six months'. The plan was to get groceries, and then go to a tropical swimming pool in Rotterdam, followed by dinner at a Greek restaurant. So he dressed up in all blacks, a shirt with an embroidered dragon on the left sleeve, and I dressed up in a black longsleeve, my black skirt I love so much (the long and wide one), a black rose in my hair and a goth necklace with my red and silver ring as only jewellery. All dressed up to go out indeed.
But first we had to go to Donner for his book of Living Greek 2, for his Greek lessons. So we went to Donner. I drooled over some Pratchetts, Eddingses and other Fantasy books, including a prequel of Jordan that's just been released. He paid for the book and we left the other books standing there and went back to the subway.
The escalator in the subway suddenly tug on my skirt. I looked down and saw that next to my right boot the skirt was stuck in the side of the escalator! I stayed calm (ofcourse) and tried to pry it free. At the top of the escalator it wasn't loose yet, and NoKey pressed the stop button (after looking for it first, it was hard to find which is not the right attitude for a emergency stop button!). After pulling it real hard, slowly the skirt came loose. Modern day society just isn't cut out for medievally long and wide skirts, it seems.
When the skirt was loose again, I saw it was also torn. Ragged edges for at least 40 centimeters along the hemming, five centimeters high. The strength applied to get me free, also tore most of the seam between two panels of the skirt.
This bummed out NoKey even more than it did me, I think. I was like 'accidents can happen' and though I really love this skirt, I could just forget about it for a while longer. He was really sad for a while, mostly because he really loves that skirt on me. It's gorgeous and pettable. At least, it used to be. I will not be able to wear it any longer, so I must decide what I'll do with it. I could shorten it but seven centimeters is a long way up for a hem.
But after a short subway ride and a short walk we arrived at the tropical swimming pool just when the clock struck four. Big bummer was that the entree was 12.50 and that would buy us only two hours of swimming! The pool would close at six, and there was no discount available. NoKey asked to wash his hands and disappeared behind some door, while I talked to Matty behind the counter. She used to be in highschool with me, and she's a girl from my village. She just kept rambling on about Rob, her would-be boyfriend who drowned with another boy from the village 15 months ago. The third boy who was involved in the accident was Martin v/d Ben, a guy from my class who was one of my bullies. He survived.
Matty kept on chatting even when NoKey was back, and I excused us, otherwise she would be rambling for a few more hours, which I had no desire to spend that way. NoKey and I walked to the Blaak, to check out the winterplein with iceskating range.
I love to skate on ice or on the roads, but iceskating is hard, harder by far than on the road. If you're used to skeelers, the grip your skates have on ice is ...disappointing. You fall over much faster, if only because iron bars have little grip compared to skeeler wheels. It's always a game of finding the edge and angle in which you can do 'pootje over*' without slipping & falling.
Big bummer was that the renting of skates was five euro's, and entrance to the ice was another three and a half. With NoKey hating skating, it was certainly not worth trying. It would be nice to be skating again, but knowing that I'd probably be on the ice less than an hour made that a pretty expensive pastime. More expensive than the pool.
So discarding that, we walked on the market, which was cleaning up quite fast, and walked towards Pathe cinema. There, we found out that there were two movies we'd like to see, Return of the King and Last Samurai, but neither was playing any time soon. Sighing deeply, we left the cinema too. None of our plans seemed to be working out!
So back to the idea-jar it was. The newest plan at this time was to go back to Oosterflank, eat at the Chinese restaurant, and watch some more 10th Kingdom. As we were approaching Beurs again, I remembered what he'd said about the Greek restaurant, and said I'd rather eat there. Chinese in a way has become quite 'normal'. Like getting fries when you don't want to cook. So we crossed a street, turned a corner, and we went into Greek Restaurant Olympia.
I love the way Greek people react to NoKey talking Greek to them. Often I understand it when they say "Do you speak Greek?!" and he replies "only so-so". They love it when you talk their language, and are so very friendly, as all Greek people are (or so NoKey says; I've not yet met many Greek people nor visited their country). We had a grand meal at the top floor of the restaurant, Choriatiki Salato (farmers' salad), NoKey ate Smoked Salmon, while I went for the dish with Giros, Sousouki (herbed and minced meat), and Souflaki (grilled pork) with Tzaziki. Mucho YUM.
Too bad NoKey was crashing a bit, because of his cold and being tired. So after a cup of tea, a nice chat with a waiter who recommended one of the Greek isles to us, and paying the bill, we crashed in the subway.
Now NoKey is showering and if he's clean enough I'll join him and kick him out to prepare my hair for tomorrow's photoshoot.
Too bad most of our plans gone awry, but I did have fun, and I learned how to say 'I love you' in Greek.
*) Pootje over is the dutch commenly used name to a technique in which professional skaters take their curves. If used correctly, pootje over will increase your speed, contrary to other means of changing direction.
But first we had to go to Donner for his book of Living Greek 2, for his Greek lessons. So we went to Donner. I drooled over some Pratchetts, Eddingses and other Fantasy books, including a prequel of Jordan that's just been released. He paid for the book and we left the other books standing there and went back to the subway.
The escalator in the subway suddenly tug on my skirt. I looked down and saw that next to my right boot the skirt was stuck in the side of the escalator! I stayed calm (ofcourse) and tried to pry it free. At the top of the escalator it wasn't loose yet, and NoKey pressed the stop button (after looking for it first, it was hard to find which is not the right attitude for a emergency stop button!). After pulling it real hard, slowly the skirt came loose. Modern day society just isn't cut out for medievally long and wide skirts, it seems.
When the skirt was loose again, I saw it was also torn. Ragged edges for at least 40 centimeters along the hemming, five centimeters high. The strength applied to get me free, also tore most of the seam between two panels of the skirt.
This bummed out NoKey even more than it did me, I think. I was like 'accidents can happen' and though I really love this skirt, I could just forget about it for a while longer. He was really sad for a while, mostly because he really loves that skirt on me. It's gorgeous and pettable. At least, it used to be. I will not be able to wear it any longer, so I must decide what I'll do with it. I could shorten it but seven centimeters is a long way up for a hem.
But after a short subway ride and a short walk we arrived at the tropical swimming pool just when the clock struck four. Big bummer was that the entree was 12.50 and that would buy us only two hours of swimming! The pool would close at six, and there was no discount available. NoKey asked to wash his hands and disappeared behind some door, while I talked to Matty behind the counter. She used to be in highschool with me, and she's a girl from my village. She just kept rambling on about Rob, her would-be boyfriend who drowned with another boy from the village 15 months ago. The third boy who was involved in the accident was Martin v/d Ben, a guy from my class who was one of my bullies. He survived.
Matty kept on chatting even when NoKey was back, and I excused us, otherwise she would be rambling for a few more hours, which I had no desire to spend that way. NoKey and I walked to the Blaak, to check out the winterplein with iceskating range.
I love to skate on ice or on the roads, but iceskating is hard, harder by far than on the road. If you're used to skeelers, the grip your skates have on ice is ...disappointing. You fall over much faster, if only because iron bars have little grip compared to skeeler wheels. It's always a game of finding the edge and angle in which you can do 'pootje over*' without slipping & falling.
Big bummer was that the renting of skates was five euro's, and entrance to the ice was another three and a half. With NoKey hating skating, it was certainly not worth trying. It would be nice to be skating again, but knowing that I'd probably be on the ice less than an hour made that a pretty expensive pastime. More expensive than the pool.
So discarding that, we walked on the market, which was cleaning up quite fast, and walked towards Pathe cinema. There, we found out that there were two movies we'd like to see, Return of the King and Last Samurai, but neither was playing any time soon. Sighing deeply, we left the cinema too. None of our plans seemed to be working out!
So back to the idea-jar it was. The newest plan at this time was to go back to Oosterflank, eat at the Chinese restaurant, and watch some more 10th Kingdom. As we were approaching Beurs again, I remembered what he'd said about the Greek restaurant, and said I'd rather eat there. Chinese in a way has become quite 'normal'. Like getting fries when you don't want to cook. So we crossed a street, turned a corner, and we went into Greek Restaurant Olympia.
I love the way Greek people react to NoKey talking Greek to them. Often I understand it when they say "Do you speak Greek?!" and he replies "only so-so". They love it when you talk their language, and are so very friendly, as all Greek people are (or so NoKey says; I've not yet met many Greek people nor visited their country). We had a grand meal at the top floor of the restaurant, Choriatiki Salato (farmers' salad), NoKey ate Smoked Salmon, while I went for the dish with Giros, Sousouki (herbed and minced meat), and Souflaki (grilled pork) with Tzaziki. Mucho YUM.
Too bad NoKey was crashing a bit, because of his cold and being tired. So after a cup of tea, a nice chat with a waiter who recommended one of the Greek isles to us, and paying the bill, we crashed in the subway.
Now NoKey is showering and if he's clean enough I'll join him and kick him out to prepare my hair for tomorrow's photoshoot.
Too bad most of our plans gone awry, but I did have fun, and I learned how to say 'I love you' in Greek.
*) Pootje over is the dutch commenly used name to a technique in which professional skaters take their curves. If used correctly, pootje over will increase your speed, contrary to other means of changing direction.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-07 12:31 pm (UTC)Speaking of photo shoots, can you recommend prop type things for a pirate scene? I have to do one in a week or two to go into a magazine, to "indicate the story" of mine they want to publish...
no subject
Date: 2004-02-08 11:57 am (UTC)Peg legs, hook-hands, and scarfs around the head?
Maybe a patch-eye?
no subject
Date: 2004-02-07 12:51 pm (UTC)Fem
no subject
Date: 2004-02-08 03:26 am (UTC)And while I am at it, it is 'commonly', not 'commenly'.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-08 12:07 pm (UTC)pootje: poot- je : paw-let
A small foot or paw.
over: to go over something, mostly used in this context to indicate the movement.
Actaully what this term describes is exactly what you do. You take one foot, and take it over the other. Then you set it down on the ice.
Like this (Jochem Uytdehage, Dutch ice skater. (http://home.wanadoo.nl/hoewerkthet/tech/im/klapschaats3.jpg)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-08 12:25 pm (UTC)It also reminds me of a drill I would do in when I played American football and did track (competitive running). It was called 'karaoke' and involved running sideways (usually with your hands stretched out to your sides for balance) by putting the left foot over the right foot then bringing the right foot behind the left, then the left behind the right and the right in front of the left and continually repeat, as fast as you can (and you could reverse it - right-front, left-back, right-back, left-front). One of my favorite drills, along with doing somersaults and bearcrawling (i.e. running on all four limbs, which is really awkward as your legs, even when bent, are longer than your arms enough that your butt is in the air and your head is pointed toward the ground).