Lekker Weer!

Nice Weather! The only eye contact in over 30 minutes of walking on the busy street was at the end of the walk with the neighbor lady downstairs. Don't think she knew who I was when I said good morning in Dutch, but she said, "Lekker Weer (translation:Nice Weather)," back to me. Actually it is not nice weather to me. A tad too cool and much too foggy and gloomy. But good sunny weather is predicted for this week, so guess it is Lekker Weer!

As a morning person, I look forward to getting up and out. This morning I made two observations: no eye contact and two identical vases in every living room window. The no eye contact reminded me of The Dog Whisperer. He always says that if you want no trouble from a dog, don't make eye contact. Guess that works here too in such a small country with over 16 million people.

I remember that eye contact got me into trouble in Rotterdam back in 1979. While shopping alone, I passed a gentleman on the street, made eye contact, said hello, and he followed for several blocks. Only after I shouted GO AWAY (in English, of course) did he finally get the idea that I was not interested in him. Whew! I learned back then to keep my eyes diverted. But this morning I just tested the waters of 2012. No eye contact! Some people even jerked their heads away. Interesting.

Then seeing the two identical large vases in every living room window actually became a game. I observed almost no curtains or sheers, but there were always two large (mostly white) identical vases in the windows. Sometimes the vases or pots were filled with flowers, but most of the time they were empty. It was more like they were statues or art objects than real vases. On the rare occasion, there were three vases instead of two, and even rarer there were several small vases. But I was impressed by the frequency of the two large vases in the windows. It seemed as if there was no individuality and every house was to look almost the same. (Order of the Queen! HaHa!)