GAD and Sexy

“Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.” G.G. Marquez In a house hold with tree guys, one girl and a single mother there’s always something going on. For the first 11 years we lived in a suburb of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Calling it a suburb is really not very descriptive for what it was, a better description would be, a modern built ghetto with a subway connection. Growing up in the city might be dangerous because of traffic and the ever shrinking room to play, our suburb was mostly dangerous because of kids and their cruel sense of humor. Sometimes we’d get carried away and join in, there have been occasions where one of my brothers pied over his toys to make sure the other kids wouldn’t touch or steal it. A very effective technique. On the other hand this technique was also utilized by other boys on your toys. I just played with my sisters dolls and developed a keen eye for yellow staining. Most of the time I just...

46 degrees in the sun the thermometer read when leaving the hotel room. Together with our friends my wife and I handed in our room keys. Dragging our suitcases we started our 30 minute walk to the train station. Zakopane station lacks nothing but offers nothing extra. The platforms are accessible from just about anywhere but tickets can only be bought from the main station building which has the classic station look. When entering the main hall it becomes obvious that time has stood still at PKP, the national railway company of Poland. Nothing has changed much over the last 40 odd years in this station. We buy our tickets from a woman nearing her pension age, although very friendly she is slow and a queue builds up quickly. With 35 minutes to spare we were the proud owners of 4 first class train tickets on the fast service to Kraków. As we made our way through the station we decided to stock-up on drinks and food for our 3 and a half hour journey. At the platform entrance there’s ...

Saturday is the traditional day for weddings in Poland. As such our Poland vacation was planned around the wedding of a friend of my wife today. We got out of bed around 8.30 to start preparing for the wedding. My wife had an hairdressers appointment on the other side of town. We drove up there together, first we went for the flowers and then my wife went to the hairdresser and I spent some time in the old apartment of my parents in law which happens to be in the same building. About an hour later she was done and we went to have the car washed. I don't care much for cars and as such mine is washed about every six months, however you shouldn't show up at a wedding with a dirty car so we told the guys it needed a spit shine. They really do great work, you bring the car and drive it into the appointed booth and they start their work. We went to the mall next to the car wash and about 30 minutes later we returned to our transformed car. Full hand work and that for 40 zlot...

So early this morning at 5 the alarm clock woke us up, or more accurately woke my wife up. Just about 30min later she came to kick me out. I receive some leannensey as most of the time I do the full 11 hour drive. Anyway we were ready to start rushing; gently put the last things in our suitcases and throw the cat in the bag, I started to pack the car. About 40 minutes later we drove of through a deserted The Hague. The drive to Wroclaw Poland has become routine after so many times. I fill up the tank and check the tires the day before so that we can drive close to half way through Germany without stopping. Just the way I like it. I would actually prefer not to stop at all in Germany as they have issues with payment machines along their major international route through the country, go figure. Anyway we were doing fine and usually when I get to a quarter tank I start looking at the distance signs for gas stations. I drive by a sign, 2km to the next gas station after this statio...