Season spirits

Hello Autumn, how have you been? I quite like this season. I love the colours of the leaves and how they make pretty pictures, but I don't like them wet and slippery on the bicycle lane, not being able to see if there's any branches underneath. I don't like the wind either, or let's call it storms. At night you can hear the wind blow against the building and makes me think of getting up and battle the wind on my bicycle. Don't underestimate the wind. Today I nearly ended up in a ditch with a garbage container when a nasty wind nearly blew me off the road. I was able to get my feet on the ground just in time or else I would have seriously crushed the cookies in my bag. Among other things.

I do love the bakery that's so typical for this season, Sinterklaas bakery. Sinterklaas is a bit like Christmas, but here the kids are getting small gifts and candy in their shoes two weeks prior to the actual day (December 5) and bigger gifts on the day itself. The arrival of Sinterklaas is a big event shown live on national television. Sinterklaas rides his white horse on the rooftops every night and is helped by Zwarte Pieten, Black Petes who are dressed in colourful playsuits. These Black Petes are well, black. Sinterklaas is also known as Friend of the Children and will give children who have been naughty some sticks on a rope so they can be hit with it and children who have been really naughty will be put into a sack and shipped to Spain, where the Turkish Saint lives. Confused? It's about the candy and the anticipation, once December 5 is here I've usually left the country and celebrate my birthday in a country they don't know about Sinterklaas and I can wander over Christmas markets and eat German Bratwurst.

I already wonder and fear whether I have enough films for my cameras (yes, plural) for when we are in Leeds again. My Diana Mini currently has about 19 pictures left on its current film and I have two 36/100ISO films and one 24/200ISO film. You'd think I shouldn't have to worry. Everyday I see so many great shots while on my bicycle but you don't want to constantly shoot the same things over and over again. That traffic sign is not going to look any different tomorrow, no matter how great it looks on a picture. I want a little stuffed bunny, preferally white, which I can take with me wherever I go and take a picture from it in every new place I get. Bunny in Amsterdam. Bunny in Alkmaar. Bunny on the train. Bunny in Rotterdam. Bunny in Vlaardingen. Bunny in Leeds. Bunny on the Arriva Bus. Bunny in Manchester. You get the drill. Just one silly picture. It would make a nice series.

And so I wrote about completely different things I intended to. But listen to Damaged by Erase Eratta. It's good!