When you get up really early and you go down to the sea, beaches are deserted. The steps towards the beach stand out stark against the pale morning light. The sunshades are still rolled up an the beds are empty and without covers. The beach … Continue reading Where Sea Meets Sand
Boredom can be harnessed though, creating routines which appear to be vital for survival: Lucky humans, who can close your minds to the endless deeps of space! You have this thing you call… boredom? That is the rarest talent in the universe! We heard a … Continue reading The Not-Screaming Routine and Others
The Plus: And I couldn’t leave without adding this picture (from a fancy dress party a few years back, in Berlin) where two friends dressed up as the Ampelmännchen. These are the symbols on all pedestrian traffic lights in Germany and are quite politcal: in the West, the red and green men looked differently and it is often joked that the Ampelmännchen was the only thing of culture from the East that was kept at unification. I am linking this, of course, with Debbie’s #Januarylight no. 11:
Ampelmännchen Ampelfrauchen
I’ve since read up on the little men (nothing like a good reason for procrastination on a Saturday morning) and found there is much more to them then I thought. When the East mannikins were starting to replace the West ones after unfication, there were apparently protests (a country where this is a problem is a happy country, albeit with miserable people). On a nicer side, in some towns they change the men at Christmas time to have Santa Clause leading the way across the street. And in Friedberg, where Elvis Presley was stationed when he was in the US army they have three traffic lights with his silhouette.