Return'd with shtuffs, thoughts, mints and books

So...

Returned (though you wouldn't notice it from reading this) from a two-week, rambling holiday from here to Calais to my Grandparents' in Hoorn, up to Schieermonnikoog (last inhabited island in the Dutch bit of the belt that swings up over Germany to Denmark), down to Luxembourg, then finally down for a pleasant week in an obscure bit of France, near Switzerland, where I finally got to see Le Corbusier's Chapelle du Notre Dame Du Haut and was suitably awestruck.

Finally home, my laptop remains broken, though hopefully that'll be rectified soon enough, and I have a nice big bag of Vichies, a lump of (probably French-made)Komijnekaas and some nice looking pates. I may be bourgeois as hell, but at least the food's good.

Various notes and thoughts, recorded in my head and on folded stickies, follow...

-I may write "The Good Inn Guide To Kalimdor", visiting all the Inns in Horde Territory in WoW and writing little descriptions of them, probably starting in Orgrimmar (of course) and working my way down, across and around the world.

-I may also write a Board PFF, based around the concept of "A Day In The Life", again working my way around and writing little vignettes of life on the various bits of the FH and the other bases.

-"RTL Radio: Die Beste Hits - Mit Gefuhl" amuses me for unknown reasons.

-Possibly from Discworld's "Woddley's Occult Primer": Cthulhu fhtagn ia! Ia, Cthulu! Ia!

-Odd, and gently sarky sign, spotted in the Northern Netherlands near a raisable bridge with automatically lowering bars: The silhouette of a car, driving into one of the bars and getting neatly decapitated. Inscription around the edges: "Wow! A Cabriolet!"

-In Luxembourg, staying near the German border: 106.5 FM: Radio Aktiv: A small radio station, broadcasting from the stone hut that used to be the border post and customs on one of the most important borders between Luxembourg and Germany. It broadcasts across boundaries to any who'll listen. Swords to Ploughshares...

-Syn's goods were sent on Wednesday. Hopefully the contents won't get crushed, go off or otherwise meet with a sad fate...

-Luxembourg: I know next to bugger-all about it, or the history of the Zuiderlijke Nederlanden (Now Belgium). Must investigate.

-Jean Breton. Died "Pour La France", and is commemorated along with six or so others who died in the First World War. Odd thing: He died 24-6-1954, 36 years after the war he was supposed to have died in ended. Odd.

-"The as-yet unfamiliar Lardon particle, discovered in France and thought to be the cause of all known forms of weight gain"

-The castle of Vianden on the L'bourg/Germany border appears to fly an Austrian flag. Also odd.

-Travel writing and business do not mix.

 -"Ste. Galvanoplast." Inspired the wondering of what exactly Galvanoplasty would involve.

-Geert Mak's History of Amsterdam seems to be better in Dutch than in English, but is to be recommended in either tongue, as his history/travelogue of Europe in the 20th Century.

-The descending guitar notes in the middle of John McCusker's "Shake A Leg" are oddly fascinating, yet hard to distinguish.

-Random, yet well-placed wolf-whistles on a record = always funny.

-Le Notre Dame Du Haut was as beautiful as expected.

-Much less DRAMAz than I expected to occur while I was away. Good, that. (1KE ain't released yet, so it remains to be seen)

Not much else, other than some thoughts on the styles used in restored Luxembourgeois Church Windows, an odd sequence inspired by Entity's "Dutch is German on Drugs" quote-thing and other disassociated notelets.

All that remains is to relax, lie-in, try to avoid having to work and take advantage of the two weeks of accumulated Rest Marmotj and Marana (Level 15 Female Warlock, currently in Darkshore) have built up in WoW, curse this keyboard setup for switching around the @ and " characters and bid all those in my timezone and beyond a good night.

(If the thoughts above do not appear behind a cut and clutter up friends pages, I apologise and shall fiddle with it later.)