Memories of the first bear

Today, somehow I remembered that in my youth I was a member of the photo club of my hometown Cologne. I enjoyed going there a lot though being the shy child that I am I did not dare to go alone and always went there with my friends from school.
When I started to look if the club still exists and has an internet presence I started remembering more things. I found the club and browsed their site, to see if I still could remember more things when maybe seeing names. I recognized one name but I cannot recall the person. However, I do remember that back then during my membership I was fascinated by the guy who was the responsible for the "youth". He was a true bear from what I remember now! I wonder, did it have any influence on my taste in men since at that early stage I was intrigued by this man? I looked on the site but I could not remember his name nor did I recognize anything. A pity, I would love to see him back, see if he still is a bear... I don't even know if he was gay but for sure I was totally fascinated by his masculine bearish appearance, the full beard, the hairy chest... ;) Those are sweet memories, I'm torn between investigating more or letting it rest in the past and my memory. ;)
In any case, I'm still attracted to photography and bears, amongst other things. :)

...it never happens to me.

Picture this: you're sitting in the train, on your way to work, a 20 minute ride. Then, across you on the other side of the aisle, a young punk-ish twenty-ish guy takes a seat. The guy is somehow interesting to look at because of his style. While looking you finally realize that the guy has one hand in his trousers - yes, in his crotch! You start wondering if he suffers from lice or maybe is just re-arranging the "contents"... and while keeping watching you confirm to yourself that indeed he has a hard-on hidden in his trousers! And yes, he is playing with himself, while you keep watching! Of course, you decide not to look any other way but keep looking! And he keeps playing... and there's your stop, you exit the train to go to work.

Well, this did not happen to me but to a good friend. Such things never happen to me. I wonder how I would react if it'd ever happen. Maybe it's how I appear towards others that this would (n)ever happen to me. And I don't even know whether it's something I should be sad about missing...? I guess to experience the "excitement" and being "attractive" to someone else (even for such a purpose as simply being an audience) is cool since it's out of the ordinary (somehow)? How about you, have you had such experiences? How did you like it, how did you react?

Freedom

This evening by chance we switched on the tv and there was a documentary by dutch television about canadian students who were coming to the Netherlands to commemorate the liberation of the Netherlands by the canadian forces on May 5th, 1945, some 65 years ago.
It was an interesting program and I felt intrigued and I kept watching. I was surprised to learn about the canadian students' plan to visit Holland. They "adopt" an individual soldier who gave his life in the war to fight for freedom and liberty and against the very same people I am a descendant from. It deeply impressed me that those young Canadians were so dedicated to honor these men by visiting their graves in Holland. While watching the program I surely shed a tear 'cause it deeply touched me. I felt very emotional about Holland's national holiday today.

Yesterday, during my shift at the airport, at 20.00 hours there were two minutes of silence to remember those who gave their lives. I always find it extremely touching to experience how a normally busy airport completely falls in silence and no one moves or says something. It always gives me shivers and honestly I have to fight tears 'cause I find it very emotional when they end the two minutes with playing the dutch national anthem. I don't know why it strikes me so deeply, but I know it does.

How lucky I am and thankful I should be for living here and now. I should think about this more often and come to realize how little and insignificant my personal individual daily problems are. I should cherish the freedom I have, in every way.

Happiness comes easy

Today, Jelle and I took a little walk around the neighbourhood. Jelle returned from the gym and off we went for our little walk. At first we walked to the station (which is close-by) as I had to load my electronic rail card with new data at the ticket machine. I also charged the card with some money so I can use the card as an electronic ticket for my ride to work as well. Jelle already had done that but I was a bit reluctant to do it... going through the procedure on internet first wasn't high on my priority list. But Jelle and our friend Erwin convinced me of the advantage.
Then we continued our walk through our neighbourhood but not before we stopped at the BP gas station to grab an icecream: Jelle had the new Magnum Gold (which wasn't spectacular according to him but of course he fell for the advertising and the fact that it was supposed to look gold...) while I had a "simple" Solera Exotic, very yummy! The weather outside was very pleasant and the icecream was a nice complement. Anyway, we continued our walk, passing by Jelle's gym which he finally showed me. Now I know where to find him should I need to (as he never takes his phone there). We continued, passed by a Lebanese restaurant that we noticed quite a while ago but haven't tried out yet. It looks very inviting and we hope to try it out some day with our friends (Dani, get up here!!!). We continued, passed by a neighboring district, saw some newbuildings and some still being under construction and we realized how long ago it was that we passed here with our bikes as we hadn't really noticed these changes! We returned into our neighborhood and we kept talking about this and that and shortly before reaching our home we passed a building in which a colleague and friend lives. We hadn't seen him for a while and while passing along the doors I was wondering which door it was 'cause I couldn't remember. Jelle knew and we hadn't really finished talking about it that suddenly we heard someone behind us shouting. We turned and guess who it was: our friend had just left home to go to the airport to fly to work (yes, he works for the same company as we do). So of course it was immediately a happy "Hello" and kisses and smiles! So instead of going home we accompanied him to the train station again all the way chatting and updating ourselves about the last news. We dropped him at the station and Jelle and I returned finally home debating on the chances that we would meet him now and there...
I finally came to the conclusion that things like this make me happy: meeting a friend, receiving a smile, knowing that someone else is happy to see me too... I also arranged today to meet another friend next weekend and all that made me happy and thankful. Happiness does come easy sometimes.

The ideal flight

Here's a question to those of you who are - like me - interested in civil aviation: the other day I was talking with my Jelle about airlines and planes and previous journeys we made, sharing some beautiful memories. At that point I was thinking how the ideal flight would look to me, based on my personal experience so far. I came up with the following: the flight should be with an Airbus A380, with a business class configuration like Emirates Airline has, with an inflight catering/meal service that equals at least that of Etihad and Qatar Airways, with an inflight entertainment system like Emirates uses in Business Class on its Airbus A380 and with the crew (flight attendants/pilots) from Lufthansa. To me, that would be the ideal combination.
So, how does YOUR ideal flight look like?