Thursday 21 June 2012

Plus Fours , The Showgirl And The Elephant


Sonata:

Saturday included all these and more but it started with a paperboy and a cat .

I was going to Den Haag early and , given the rain , I waited for the bus rather than cycling to the station . As I waited , I watched a young paperboy sort out all the paper's weekend supplements on the bench in the bus shelter opposite , under the supervision of a very fine black and white cat . Once the boy's bag was repacked , he pulled a little bag out of his pocket and put some cat treats down . The cat wound his way twice round the boy's legs and started eating . The boy went off on his round . Cat went back into his garden . A ritual , obviously .

At Utrecht , a middle-aged man got on the train in corduroy plus fours . Unusual in Britain , never seen in Holland . I pondered on how young people can wander round dressed as vampires , princesses or 1940's Land Girls and no-one blinks but how the middle-aged wearing anything "different" are gawped at .

Den Haag , it turned out , was celebrating Classical Music Day and the city was filled with musicians . Whole orchestras offered open-air Beethoven and Strauss , churches had small choirs and chamber music and there was an unusual combination of opera and mime on a small lake . And buskers everywhere .

A Rasta , dreadlocks whirling , danced to a Rumanian trio , a violinist played The Birdie song to an entranced tiny girl in a tinsel crown and , of course , someone had a didgeredoo .




The showgirl stole the show at the wonderful Isaac Israels exhibition in the Historic Museum and the elephant looked very at home in the Rainbow Nation Sculpture exhibition in a nearby park .


All in all , a very good Day Out . It even stopped raining .

12 comments:

Joanne Noragon said...

You have the rain we need; we have the sun. Thanks for stopping by. I used to look in on Fridge Soup from time to time, but didn't know you were here, too.

Liz Hinds said...

Sounds like you had a fab day!

Friko said...

You have the gift of keeping their eyes and ears open. That would make any day out in city or countryside an experience worth having. People who go round, deep in thought, blinkered and closed in, never see the half of it.

Life is for tasting, smelling, feeling.

Pam said...

Well, you've kindly sent us the rain, have you? Thanks so much. Would you like it back now?

June said...

Reading your title, I was almost sure that the first words in your post would be "...walked into a bar..."

Rattling On said...

There was once a real elephant on the cinema steps in Moscow, for the opening of some or other film. Very bizarre as I seem to remember the film had absolutely no connection to wildlife whatsoever.
I like the sound of the paper boy very much and I'm all for dressing to impress. There's a group of young women here in town who all dress in 40s gear. Red lips, victory roll hair, the lot. They look amazing and very glam.

Tattieweasle said...

The showgirl is indeed very arresting! My boys would love the elephant!

rachel said...

Now that was a Day Out I would have loved! Thanks for telling us.

Marcheline said...

You always make me "google". I knew everything except "plus fours"... ahhhhhhh... KNICKERS! To us. I know "knickers" to you is underpants. Hee hee! Isn't language GREAT?

Keith Havers said...

Hi. I've just jumped over from Frances Garrood's blog. I thought that anyone with a Tour de France fan in the family must be worth getting to know.
Loved the description of your day out.

lovethosecupcakes said...

A great day out. I love to hear music when I'm out and about.

molly said...

A grand day! Sounds enough excitement to fill a week-----And no rain? What a bonus!