Viggo's Blog: Arctic Stream Winds

Hiya fans, Viggo here.
If it wasn't for the fact that I am sans balls, they would have frozen off today and especially last night!

Me and the guys had made plans to shoot the breeze on the pavement in front of Mate's house last night, but we got a little more wind than we had bargained for...Frith, my ears were flapping against my cheeks and Mate's tail whipped into the shrubbery and we had to free it. The White Goddess was watching us from her windowsill, so we couldn't give up too easily, but frankly I would've gone inside in a flash if she hadn't been sitting there looking aloof and gorgeous.
Mind you, Mate says that she's stuck up and that I should start looking around for someone who appreciates me, instead of mooning after a lady cat who pretends she's in another galaxy.
And Big Black assured me that he's had her (once!) and that it wasn't worth mentioning.
But somehow I don't believe him. He's lost his nuts as well, you see, and isn't it a fact that us toms sort of lose our joie de vivre et amour a bit? Then?
Only a bit, mind! I am quite capable of falling in love.

My woman is looking over my shoulder and snorting. Ha! She doesn't understand. What?
Oh. She's claiming she only understands too well, that nutless toms and post-menopause women have a lot in common.

So, anyway, didn't it half blow last night, and today as well?!
That wind is supposedly blowing all the way down from the arctic. I say! It brings us hail and freezing rain, and I feel sorry for those tiny ducklings we spotted whilst walking Gina today.
In fact, I feel sorry for everyone pining for warm balmy weather, which is the entire nation.
Still.
It could be worse.
But I'll be staying in tonight, I'll hide in the closet so my woman can't put me out.

See ya!

Viggo's Blog: Humans Are Silly!

Hiya fans, Viggo here.
I simply have to share something with you... Can you all stop giving us such awkward silly and often plain stupid names please?
See this great mate of mine? (The cat, the cat!)

He's the one from the corner, and we have bonded (as you can see for yourself) and have become fast friends. I call him Mate (He calls me Mate too, for some reason). And then yesterday I heard his woman call him in the street (we were just sitting on the pavement shooting the breeze), and do you know what she calls him?
Simply.
My friend's name is Simply.
She had this explanation for my woman about how his twin brother was called Red (Simply Red - right...Whooooooo cares) but was killed whilst crossing the road, and blablablah.

I ask you! Frith! First of all 'simply' is not even a moniker,  and second it is an adverb, for crying out loud. Dutch humans should not give their cats English names they do not understand. Even worse, when you turn it into some sort of Dutch, you get the word 'simpel' which means 'not difficult' but also 'not very clever'.

Obviously I put this to Mate, but he shrugged it off and said not to worry, he gets fed very well and his humans are good to him.
Well, I would not stand for it! Very glad my woman calls me Viggo. At least that is not English. And when she sometimes calls me Stop Being So Annoying, or Don't Do That, I ignore it.

So there!

Almost 32,000 times read by "a Reader"... Whoopie!

When I started this blog three years ago, I never ever envisaged so many people reading my posts!
Starting out as 'me-therapy', this blog has evolved into a regular 'hi folks, so nice of you to join me in my life' and even more so into a 'hiya fans, Viggo here' romp.

I intend to keep it up.
So, I'll wish you a very lovely evening (the sun is out over here - always an event) and a good week!

Viggo's Blog - Me and My Mates.

Hiya fans, Viggo here.
Recovered from all those chocolate eggs and silly hares (which you call bunnies? I don't get it!)?

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you, is that I have mates, yeah?!
It took some time, and some nifty handling from my side, but nowadays I can chill with my friends.
The White Goddess is still unobtainable, so a cat's got to do what a cat's got to do, and thus I have searched for and found a circle of male buddies I can hang out with.
(My woman says we are all technically and strictly ex-males, but she's just jealous so pay her no mind)

This great guy lives on the corner and we have a lot in common, not in the least a dog in our house. His is a floppy soppy Golden Retriever. He was sitting on my woman's car here, hmmmm, not quite sure I like that....So I chased him off pronto and we rolled around on the pavement a bit.

This oldie (he's 15!) used to live in my house before his people moved to Bangkok and let their house to us, but has moved two doors down as those people are now looking after him. My woman said she would happily have taken him in, but thought it unfair to old Gina. Hah! She should have moved smelly Gina two doors down instead...

What?

Oh...

She's just told me off for being nasty about Gina. (But-it's-the-truth-she-smells-dog-breath-shhhh!)

This is Gina and me on our morning walk, this morning. Just to show you that we hop along nicely...My woman can really moan about nothing.

Would you know we actually saw a deer there? It was very early this morning (Gina has a weak bladder) and it stood about halfway. But as soon as my woman fumbled out her iPhone it jumped away. I swear we see more wildlife around that cemetery next to our house than next to the forest where we used to live. 

Okay, I'm going back to sleep now. Just wanted to show you my friends.

Tarah!

Oh...just to make you laugh...This is smelly Gina giving a doggie kiss to my woman. I don't mind that, rather her than me actually!

Haiku on Easter Monday

Prefer my hares

boxing rather than with eggs

in silly baskets

(and yes, I do believe this to be a rabbit)

The Lasses - Where An Impromptu Night Out Became Great.

When you, like me, average 25 concerts a year (not counting the festivals), it's easy to become a little jaded, a tad blasé. But once in a while I am pleasantly surprised.
Our annual Hellevoetsluis Celtic Festival has introduced me to gems like Sarah McQuaid and Albert Niland in the past, and this year it was the duo The Lasses.

The Lasses are Sophie Ter Schure and Margot Limburg, and they are down-to-earth in looks and approach, not an eyelash out of place whilst joining another singer on stage just for the hell of it, whilst waiting for their own performance. This "Oh, hey, let's sing along with this tune, as we know it anyway" whetted my appetite for their own set, for they out-sang their hostess..., so I hurried along to the secondary, tiny, stage where they were to sing their own list of traditional and original celtic songs.
They were to play three 30 minute sets and were quick to inform us they wouldn't be doing any doubling, good for them. And straight off, with their rendering of Bill Monroe's The One I Love Is Gone I was totally hooked.

Talk about voices blending gorgeously, made for each other. The guy who brought these two women together deserves a statue in front of the Amsterdam Irish Pub (Mulligans !) where they have regular music nights as far as I'm concerned.

So far they have produced two CDs: the first, simply called "The Lasses", with 11 tunes, ranging from the sweet traditional Next Market Day to the iconic Dougie McLean Caledonia to the wonderful Hole in the Heart by Karine Polwart (my favorite from this CD).

The second is called "Daughters" and it is a bit more elaborate, carrying 13 songs. And it is super. My favorite is Hush Hush (Jim McLean), a poignant lullaby remembering the forced emigration from the Scottish Highlands, where you can almost hear the sheep bleat and see the sad farewell on the people's faces. But I also love Stretched on Your Grave (Frank O'Connor and Philip King) with guest singer Victor Lacken, whose voice again blends in beautifully.

Obviously I will provide a link for your perusal:The Lasses with Cobbler's Daughter
(from their second album)

The Lasses with The One I Love Is Gone

Typical loud pub audience... sorry about that. But you'll get the gist.

Did I say too much? Nooooooo...did not, did not.
You can find The Lasses for yourself on www.thelasses.wordpress.com 
or 
mailthelasses@gmail.com
and...they are currently in The USA, I believe...

Spring Has Sprung in Nieuw-Helvoet.

Good morning you all, everywhere.
The predominant Spring colour around my house is yellow - but that's hard to see, so off-yellowish it is for my script...

Isn't it wonderful that the long, wet winter has almost passed? Today is the Spring Equinox, and our days are getting longer and the nights shorter and personally I cannot wait for those long evenings in the garden, wrapped up in a thick blanket (this is The Wetlands after all) as near to the fire pot as I can get without catching fire. The good thing about our Wetlands spring weather is that it keeps your beer/white wine nice and cool.

My new garden is a bit basic, but it does have some nice nettles... 
Last week I cut down the shrubs which needed cutting back, and I now have a neat pile of branches I need to get rid of. I tried to burn them, but they are too green to burn and my neighbours somehow didn't take to the smoke they produced... I'll have cut them in small pieces and give them to our garbage truck to take away, as this garden doesn't have room for a compost heap.

Do you know something, my cat Viggo has made friends with quite a few of the other cats in my street, and now wants to spend his nights out on the pavement, chilling with his mates. He has almost lost all the weight he put on whilst in confinement when we just moved house, and is very content.
I swear that every house in this street has at least one cat and most of them has at least one dog as well, and they all grin at me when I walk past with both my old dog Gina and cat Viggo in tow, except for one grumpy terrier who always needs to bark at us and makes me jump, as he hides behing the bushes and then runs out barking like the mad little dog he is.

All in all we are very happy here in our new part of town.
Hope this Sunday finds you happy as well.