It rains cats and dogs all night long. On days like this, it's nice not to have to take a cold shower. - We make ourselves comfortable in Hector. We put on the second round of coffee. Do we really want to go outside? But there's already a lot of hustle and bustle in the square. Dog and van, or dog and caravan, almost seem to form a symbiosis. Or is it dog and van owner? I'm not sure yet. - The youngsters don't care. First they mix up the old dogs, then the masters. Then they go in search of food. - Even dogs seem to be turning into vegetarians these days. - My foray into the plant world is over. The last time I went shopping, I got stuck at the sausage counter.
What was the saying when I was young? - "Meat is a piece of life force" - maybe there is something to it after all. (Note from Torgit: Yes, of course, and milk makes tired men lively. Just because they had nothing back then, milk was advertised. And the more stupid the advertising slogans, the longer they stick in people's minds)
Torgit goes for a walk. But her walk is one thing above all: muddy. - On the way back, she finds a new buddy. Seems to have been one hell of a mess ...
I'm about to fetch the axe, but the sow has piled up.
It's not until the afternoon that I drive to the beach with Etienne in his old Land Rover Discovery. It's fun driving through the sand. - The flying Dutchman, Peter van D., simply holed up in his horned DAF yesterday and didn't open the GNR. - After half an hour of knocking, they have given up for the time being. Is this the right solution? - We don't know.
But on Monday morning, when they are likely to return, he will also be gone. At least for the time being. - Coming home for Christmas - Peter would make a great Santa Claus, wouldn't he? - As an old Bowie fan, he reminds me of his song Heroes:
"...We could steal time - Just for one day - We can be heroes - For ever and ever..."
We will stay away from the beach for the next few days. - Especially as Portuguese galleys have allegedly been spotted. And we're not talking about an oversized rowing boat. We're talking about jellyfish here, at least almost. You'd rather not go swimming, wouldn't you? Although the Portuguese man o' war is very similar in appearance to the jellyfish, it actually consists of an entire colony. A large number of these individual animals specialize in certain tasks such as feeding, reproduction, defence or the formation of fishing threads. This is solidarity 😉 - Speaking of tentacles, the numerous blue, white or red-violet tentacles are up to 50 meters long. With up to 1000 cnidocytes per centimeter, that doesn't just sound pretty painful. It's probably supposed to be.
We'll keep an eye on it. - There's nothing to see on the beach in the afternoon. - But rumors seem to spread even faster on pitches than on the internet. I find the English term "floating terror" appropriate in this respect.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, one of the pirates keeps losing his wooden eye - funny? - But it's not always funny for everyone. - Today there was collateral damage, at least it was not intentional and is not directly related to the destination of our trip. - Nevertheless, you accept that there will be damage when you're moving in such a small space as we were. - Today it affected me personally. - Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows about my handicap. - To be more precise, as a young lad I injured my left eye so badly, i.e. gouged it out, that I went blind on one side. For many years I have been wearing a prosthetic eye, a so-called glass eye, which has now broken. As a cripple, I can call myself that, this is a sensitive issue. - Now I have to think about how to deal with it. Either I walk around like this or I have to take a trip to Cologne. - Because if that happens, I want to go to my namesake Marc, Master Marc Trester. I'm not sure yet. - Ocular prosthetics is something you can always keep an eye on.
I didn't even realize what the profession, the craft of ocularist meant. "Just a better glassblower" - then I got to know Trester junior. Marc is a third-generation ocularist from Cologne. I found his statement that despite six years of training, he only perfected his skills in his actual profession particularly fascinating. And yes, you read that right, it really is six years of training.
The prosthetic eyes are made of glass and already have a colored iris in the most common eye colors. Marc selects the right model from hundreds of options. - This alone is an art. - He then heats the ball, which resembles a ping-pong ball, with a Bunsen burner and shapes the iris of the prosthesis with veins, dots or speckles. Just watching is impressive. I'm sure you've heard the term "glassblowing art" - without wishing to belittle it, this is nothing, nothing at all, compared to what I saw at Marc's. - But what I consider to be the real art of ocular prosthetics is how the artificial eye is adapted to the eye socket. At first glance, the implant is not recognizable. At least not for adults. - But children's eyes sometimes see more.
However, an ocularist is not only a skilled craftsman, but certainly also half a psychologist. Here, sensitivity is required in two senses. After all, it is often a stroke of fate that leads to the loss of an eye. In my case it wasn't a stroke of fate, I call it stupidity.
Marc has this great feeling and is a nice guy anyway. - We share an interest in travel. If you ever know someone who needs that extra touch. - https://www.institut-trester.de
An artificial eye is not only important due to the psychological strain of losing an eye, it also prevents the eye socket from collapsing. This prevents disfigurement. Until now, it was always the Beauty and the Beast. - Now we seem to be switching roles. - Torgit already seems much more balanced. (Note from Torgit: Yes, I'm stuttering a lot less 😉 )
By the way, do you know this one? A deaf person and a blind person are having a conversation. Says the deaf person, I can't hear any more disabled jokes. Says the blind man, that's exactly how I see it.
Torgit loves and likes to quote Loriot at Christmas time: "There used to be more tinsel" - A company was now offering mugs with this quote. I bought one for Torgit before our trip. - The humorist's heiresses fought back - now the court has ruled.
Insight of the day: "There used to be more tinsel" is not worth protecting. - Tell that to Torgit.
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