Sunday, July 31, 2022

Medieval Festival Part 2, Evening

 

We were greeted by the Duke without heir and his musicians



Sword fighting


These two guys really liked it



I thought the colours of this tent really cheerful


More musicians


When we walked past them again, these guys switched to some sort of  halberd or whatever the heck it's called and kept going:




A girl band:)


and a beautiful sunset



Their bread smelled so nice, I had to buy one. They baked it right there on the spot:


Tasted great, too!


In the cellars senior citizens were getting drunk tasting wine

We left around 11p.m. but the party was still going on!

It was a great weekend.


Friday, July 29, 2022

Medieval Festival, Daytime Program

 Sorry it took me so long, but I needed to sort out some things first. Here is Part 1 of the pics, because there was an evening program, too:)

It starts with the tournament:

There were going at it pretty hard, too, as one guy got knocked out of the saddle, while another took a direct hit to his shield. It's a kinda dangerous sport. 

Plus specially trained horses (stallions, btw and quite aggressive) and the equipment they need also makes it rather on the expensive side. All the guys were in their mid-forties, at least, if not older.



Some kind of weapon, I guess:)



After the tournament was over, the winners did a victory lap:)


A medieval machine gun, lol! 


The cannons came from a museum in Aachen, I heard


Folks of Limburg are good Catholics...



A view from inside






I thought it very colourful


The guy on the right looks like Gimli:)

To be continued...


Thursday, July 28, 2022

Prayer Request

 My best friend has cancer. Please, pray for her! (and for me, too...)

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Who Doesn't Like A Good Ghost Story?

 Especially if it's true, so here comes...

We've had a darn good vacation. Too good, in fact, as we've done all the things and visited all the places we couldn't for the last 2 years:)

I'll write more about it and post pics later this week, but now about this medieval festival. One day we went to a donkey market in a village close by and discovered that this village had a castle, and not just a castle, but one with unique architecture (only 5 in the whole Europe), a violent history and its own ghost. And a medieval festival being organised, there, too, so we right away decided to attend it, which we did. 

There was a tournament, sword fighting, music, food and all kinds of entertainment so we enjoyed ourselves very much. But we didn't meet a ghost. I guess they don't run around when it's so busy. The castle was originally the property of a warrior bishop, who was ambushed and killed by his enemies, and you can see the replica of his skull with a hole in it in the cellars. The next owner was a cousin or something, and his own son rebelled against him and put his father in prison where the said father died 6 years later.

Some further in line, there was a duke who couldn't produce a heir.  The ownership then went to the line of sheriffs and somewhere in the 14th or 15th century a sheriff died and left a widow and lots of treasure which tempted his neighbour into attacking the castle. Here the ghost story begins. It has a couple of variations so I'll try to present a compilation of them. 

The widow was a lady from an old aristocratic family mentioned in European genealogy, and she was determined to fight, but first she had to secure the treasure so she divided it into 3 parts (gold, jewels and coins) and buried it in three separate chests and also signed a treaty with the Devil presumably to secure help in her martial endeavours. 

Somewhere on the ruins of the main tower they say you can see distinctly the print of a female left hand and that of the Evil one right next to it (I won't lie I didn't find it). But, as we all know sin doesn't pay, so her soldiers who all came from a nearby village  rebelled and beheaded her. So since that time, presumably, on Wednesday and Friday eve (traditional Catholic fast days) this lady wanders around with her head in her hand, kidnaps men of that village, tears their heads off and cooks them in a witch's cauldron.

It's like 5 km away from us, lol! And her treasure has never been found...


Monday, July 25, 2022

Last Year's Conspiracy Theory

 is this year's news:)

Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has lashed out against the “mixing” of European and non-European races, in a speech that immediately drew outrage from opposition parties and European politicians.

“We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”...

Why do the British s888libs even care, the UK isn't in EU anymore, lol:) Not everyone dreams of becoming a greater Pakistan.

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Medieval Weekend

 I've been away from computer for a couple of days as we went back to the camping to celebrate a medieval weekend in a castle nearby. I'll write more later!

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

We Survived Heat Apocalypse!

 Yeah, that's how supposedly right-wing Zero Hedge called it:) Apparently, it was 40*C somewhere in UK, the first time ever!!!

I guess, it was around 40 by Eindhoven here, too but nobody made quite so much drama about it. Where I live, according to one weather app it was close to 38, the other one said 36-37*C so I don't know whom to believe but my gut tells me to err on a cooler side.

On the other hand, it's no denying the weather patterns are getting more extreme. Is it man-made? I don't really know but considering the path the West and especially the UK is currently on, it could be very well God's way to let them (us) get a taste of the heat of Hell in order to reconsider (and I don't mean "climate sins"" whatever the heck it is).

BTW, to all the Americans in comments on the original article calling Brits wimps for complaining and telling us how hot it is in Arizona - you guys have split systems installed everywhere. I, for instance, only have a portable airco which makes a lot of noise and doesn't cool very well, and many people don't have even that.

We had 32-33*C yesterday and I didn't even put it on. I think it was +26*C in our bedroom last night. Today I only switched it on around 5.30 p.m. to cool the living area a bit to eat dinner and turned it off 2 hours later. I always get a headache and running nose from it so I hate it. The temps are back to 27 again and upstairs where I spent most of today and am sitting now it's closer to 30*C . So yes, I do sympathise with the British plight:)

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Hello Fellow Menstruaters

 How are you doing? 

No, I'm not going crazy:) I actually came across this word on a health blog while researching a female-related topic. It's been quite some time since I started noticing that American health websites when dealing with topics such as pregnancy or cycles or anything female-related are purposefully avoiding to use the word woman.

 For instance, it's a "pregnant person" or "persons who menstruate" or even "persons capable of pregnancy" but menstruator just takes the cake! What does it make my husband, "a seed producer''? 

I mean WTF??? A British website which I visited next was talking about "women of child-bearing age", btw...

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Your Comments

 More follows already:) 

While changing comments settings I looked at the moderation folder and rescued several of your comments which were stuck there.

I'm awfully sorry but the reason is that every comment on a post older than 12 days automatically goes into moderation, and that since I used to get a lot of spam I hardly ever checked them!

I'm Back!

 Comments moderation is back to normal. More will follow...

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Short Personal Note

 We are leaving for a 2 week vacation, so see you all later!

All comments will go in moderation till my return.

Please wish us luck as we are going to the region where they expect big protests and possibly unrest tomorrow.

Friday, July 1, 2022

Wokeness On Steroids

 British banks are cancelling their customers now:

Halifax customers are closing their accounts en masse today after its social media team told them to leave if they don't like their new pronoun badges for staff in what is being branded one of the biggest PR disasters in British business history.

One account holder told MailOnline they have already pulled out investments and savings worth £450,000 while many more said they are closing ISAs, cutting up credit cards or transferring balances to rivals after they accused the bank of 'alienating' them with 'pathetic virtue signalling'.

 The row began this week when Halifax, which was propped up by the taxpayer to the tune of £30billion as part of a 2008 bailout, tweeted its 118,000 followers on Tuesday revealing that it would allow staff to display their pronouns on their name badges, in a post that read 'pronouns matter'.

 Some pathetic libertarians love talking "muh private companies" though...

It showed a photo of a female staff member's name badge, which featured 'she/her/hers' in brackets under the name Gemma, and said the policy was to help avoid 'accidental misgendering'.

One customer replied: 'There’s no ambiguity about the name “Gemma”. It’s a female person’s name. In other words, it’s pathetic virtue signalling and is seen as such by almost everyone who has responded to the initial tweet. Why are you trying to alienate people?' Within 20 minutes a member of the Halifax social media team, calling himself Andy M, replied: 'If you disagree with our values, you're welcome to close your account'.

Andy M's response has outraged customers, and seen hundreds claiming they will boycott the bank with many saying they have closed their accounts. Others have cut up their credit cards or getting rid of insurance policies and said the threat was the final straw after it cut 27 branches alone in 2022.

They also threaten their customers with police if they are deemed not politically correct enough:

On its website, Halifax say any customers they deem to be 'transphobic' could have their accounts closed. 

Underneath a page titled 'what we stand for', they say: 'We stand against discrimination and inappropriate behaviour in all forms, whether racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or ableist, regardless of whether this happens in our branches, offices, over the phone or online on our social media channels. 

'Such action may include account closure or contacting the police if necessary.'

So will they also monitor your social media/internet use now? 1984 was truly prophetic. Also, everyone likes to complain about boomers and stuff, but what about millennials?

 On BBC Radio 4 yesterday financial commentator Matthew Lynn warned: 'Companies don't need to aggressively take positions on what are still quite divisive social issues. It probably didn't come from the CEO – it comes from a bunch of millennial 20-somethings running the Twitter feed.

Woke capitalism is our greatest misfortune...