snow person, originally uploaded by siggimus.
getting christmassy here, snowing a lot
Tag: life
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travel tips for…
airports all over the world
don’t be just another franchise in the chain of hell
kastrup airport
offering people the chance to check in via one of those clever little kiosks you have all over & then having them wait in the same check-in line as the un-checked-in others to hand over baggage, kinda defeats the purpose
airbaltic
asking, 30 mins after planned takeoff, whether everyone is absolutely sure they want to go to riga & not vilnius, hinting that it woulda been an easy mistake to make, as the plane to vilnius looked exactly the same & was sitting at the next gate over, does not inspire great confidence in your (or kastrup’s) abilities to handle the complexities of modern air travel
& running around for 20 more minutes after that with puzzlement & wonder written all over your faces before taking off without any explanation does not add to aforementioned inspirations
latvia
greeting dignitaries with temperatures of -14°c, is just not done
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sniegputenis
sniegputenis in riga so, for monday it says:
snowstorm. mostly cloudy. cold. -13 … -16°c. wind 6 m/s
mostly cloudy during snow storm? can’t wait to see that
looking on the bright side, it seems to be slowly getting a little less cold. -13 … -16°c on tuesday
& if siggimus will still be alive on wednesday, -7 … -15°c is more to his liking. it doesn’t even say auksts!
yay
not that siggimus really knows what dr?gns means. could be ‘deceptively cold – feels much colder than it actually is’
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august
went to theatre last night. saw fjölskyldan (august: osage county)
quite powerful & dramatic, but with lots of comic relief
superb acting, good music, interesting set. good fun
you don’t even notice that it’s a good 3,5 hours …
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no coincidence
turns out it’s no coincidence that cat rhymes with brat
every day when siggimus comes home from work, the little furry critter waits next to the door & starts grunting & mini-meowing to indicate that siggimus is to play & cuddle
this instant
so, siggimus tries to locate the toy (not easy!) to play a bit
so, when siggimus finds the toy, he picks it up & throws it, along the floor, to the furthest end of casa siggimusum – all the way over to the east wing
at which, ugla the cat shoots off like a rocket, chasing after it, generally coming to a screeching halt on the slippery parquet floor. only occasionally bumping into things a bit
mostly, this goes well
1,2 seconds after she reaches the toy, the joy of the hunt fades & the grunting & half-meowing starts anew
occasionally, she will pick up the toy, run to siggimus & drop it at his feet
occasionally as in once every 63 times or so
the other times, she gives siggimus a puppy-eyed (yes, yes) look & half-meows a bit more. even half miaaaaas a bit. appealing to siggimuses infamous kindness & generosity of spirit
being a kind & generous spirit, siggimus does her bidding
repeat 150-200 times, or until right after siggimus collapses into a panting lump of wheeze on the floor, having run two and a half marathons (at least!)
not that siggimus is complaining (siggimus would never do that!), but a bit of gratitude would be appreciated. do you hear that, ugla?
update: seriously, some of those sounds are a kind of blend between meowing, purring & something that could come out of miss piggy. even more annoying at 5 in the morning…
updated update: ‘cuddling’, for ugla involves siggimus risking various extremities in petting her or rubbing. this pleases her greatly momentarily, but typically evolves into her trying to bite sizable chunks off of said extremities within seconds. maybe this is because she can’t go out to hunt birds or mice?
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sweet mother
of all that is holy!
sweet mother of all that is holy people are trying to live here!!
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weird & wonderful hotel
siggimus is famous!!
siggimuses pic on weird and wonderful hotels well, a tiny little bit famouser … they finally used his pic
(here’s the original & here’s all of siggimuses pics from that place & here’s the prison’s web page)
no, siggimus never slept there, he didn’t even participate in the ‘reality show,’ but has watched a ‘documentary’ about trying to catch ghosts & spooks there & janis’ band mary jane recorded there once, over night. apparently quite spooky
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not acceptable
forecast for evil weatherthose little white blobs are harbingers of snow! simply not acceptable!
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rafting
last saturday, siggimus embarked on yet another of his daredevily adventures
a little before noon, siggimus was (with some other people) assembled at work & invited to feast on a breakfast of champions
there was egg, there was bacon, there was sausageafter a lotta bacon, siggimus (& the others) played a little game
winning this game calls for a high intellect, so there’s little surprise that siggimus(es team) came out on top
in fact, the other team took almost half an hour to even figure out which game they were playingsoon, siggimus was herded to a big bus & driven out of town – into untold mysteries
at the end of the road, there was more game playing, with siggimuses team, la cicciolina, winning such varied games as group relay sack-race (four in bag at same time), running puzzles & skotbolti, coming in second in round 2 of skotbolti & untie the human knot
after this, siggimus & co were driven down to a wee river, for a spot of sailing
there was rowing & there was paddling & there was mirth & there was merriment & there was ducking into the mermaid
soon it became apparent that the silly suit siggimus (& others) were wearing, was not watertight
the glacial river-water at the bottom of the boat soon seeped in to the foot and got the little toes wet
& coldthen, as the envious people in the 2 teams that weren’t team la cicciolina, took every chance they got to splash team ciccolina with ice cold water, hurling insults & abuse in its wake, it became glaringly apparent that not only the siggimus feet would get wet
as is fitting for a daredevil such as siggimus, there were adventures & scary bits when the boat bounced up & down in man-eating rapids & there was life-flashing-before-your-eyes-scream-like-a-girl bits
but soon things got calm & we stopped for a bit
anchors were cast, boats disembarked, and the gang climbed ashore, up on a wee cliffwhen there, guide suggested we walked to the edge of the cliff
& keep walking
siggimus looked down into the icy cold green-brown stream rushing past 6 metres below
siggimus scratched his bright red safety helmet
there was swearing & there was cursing & there was talk of going to an early watery grave & there was a general commotion
yet, siggimus (& others), being fearless & daredevily & preferring risky business over most other business, recklessly walked the cliff, so to speak
like lemmings (fearless & highly intelligent lemmings, mind you!!), one by one, the gang stepped into the abyss
siggimus too, plummeting down down down down, toward inevitable doom, that sensible bit in his head screaming, nooooooo, get back up there!!
the sensible bit in his head stopped quite soon, as siggimuses body cut into the murky water & dug deep deep down
suddenly the lifevest realised there was a reason it was invited along & did its bit to pull siggimus up again
surfacing, siggimus remembered why he doesn’t like to take baths in 5-6°c hot water
having swam ashore & climbed back up, siggimus decided to defy logic & common sense & go in breach of all that is natural & jump in again
refreshing, except for the bit where his feet touched the bottom
rowing on, it soon became apparent that the pirates on board the titanic, were out to steal team la cicciolina’s womanfolk off the love boat. siggimus spent the next 20 mins or so defending the sole womanfolk on the love boat, whilst others in the crew engaged in guerilla tactics to exterminate womanfolk & manfolk alike from the other boats
highly entertaining & deeply fulfilling, trying to drown some of your colleagues
all attempts at workmate-drowning failed, & all returned to the house to dry off, change to dry clothes, eat, drink & be merry
all of which was turned into an artform, especially the drinking
having somehow managed to escape it for over half a year, siggimus was promptly put through the initiation ceremony of being punched in the gut when you least expect it. the bruising will heal, siggimus is told
siggimus tried to ease the suffering in his gut-bruised stomach & strengthen its defenses by pouring obscene quantities of beer into it
it didn’t help much
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adventures in cycling
although the ‘cycle to work’ project has long ended, siggimus heroically & unselfishly still cycles to work a lot. you could say it’s to save the environment, you could say he’s a good man. actually, you could say a lot of things about siggimus, all but three of them good
this has unwittingly put him on a rollercoaster ride of life, with hair-raising ups & gut-wrenching downs
let us examine two random examples from the last 25 hours
25 hours ago
being the superhero he is, siggimus managed personal best time ever, 00:16:00 – sixteen minutes flat
without even trying so much
an admirable feat considering how it took just over 21 mins the first time he cycled that route. & in all probability this is a world record, although siggimus is of course too modest to claim it
a superhuman feat considering his best time before that was 00:16:42. he bested his best time a whole 42 seconds. usain bolt, busain smolt
this means an average speed of 26,3 km/h. slightly less than bolt’s average, but bolt didn’t have to go through a near vertical maze of a graveyard, so there
30 mins ago
the morning was humid
dark clouds secretly gathered in the distance, evilly plotting to thwart siggimuses happy plans & rain on his parade & bug him a bit
blissfully unaware of the plotting of the clouds, siggimus heads out in good spirit, merrily cycling away over the wet asphalt, joyfully circumventing any & all puddles, sufjan stevens caressing both of his ears gently
flies past bónus, burns through yard, crosses that street, dring-dring!-get-out-of-siggimuses-important-way,-man!
clouds a-plotting
whooooooshes! down hill that’s much less fun when you come the other way
clouds cease their foul plotting & get ready to smite
siggimus is approx. 50 cm onto that fateful other street when suddenly, as if by pure cloud-magic, a tiny but sturdy car that wasn’t there before appears out of nowhere, heading directly for siggimus in a slow, but determined fashion, aiming to maim him in the awfullest of ways, leaving him incapable of cycling or baking betty crocker ever again
with the agility and swiftness of a cat, siggimus swerves out of way, activates turbo-legs & (ironically!) in a burst of cloud, disappears out of the way of that tiny but sturdy killing machine, whose navigator looked pale as a bucket
another day, another near death experience
thankfully siggimus has a broad back & strong bones in it. mere humans would likely crack under this kind of stress
