Yesterday another walk. Passing friend Pierre’s, who also is a horseman. Isn’t it a good idea to go and ask the man in Gemmenich (Belgium), 1 hour walk from here, the one with the Arab and Berber horses? Yes, a good idea. I also passed Stan’s, the professional winemaker in our region. A chat with Stan, asking him if he wants to help me next year with the vinification of my wine. Until now this has always been done in Eindhoven (1 h. driving) by my brother Jack and that distance maks it all quite complicated. OK, Stan said. Next I passed Lee’s. When will we go out for dinner? The ladies will arrange that. The walk went on to Mechelen, where on Thursday all employees always share lunch in a cafetaria. When the vineyard and the sheep Wahlwiller. In one way on to Sjaak, the dog’s man, whether he knew a new dog for me: not home. Then on to Gemmenich. Ranging the bell at the fence of the horse man with Arab and Berber horses. A board at his garden fence said “architect”: A greyhound bitch on the other side of the fence began to chance imediately to my lame Joep, a huge Irish wolfhound ignored us and a little pooch helped me to call the boss because my rattling with a handbell at the gate had no results. Herr? got out of his house and asked disturbed what I wanted. I: haben Sie einen Minut? ( do you have a minute for me?). Nein, ich habe Besucher ( no, I have visiters). Must be ladies’ visit, I thought. I still told him in one sentence what I was looking for: nein! I felt like Mary and Joseph on the way to Bethlehem. This is how I will soon be treated when I’m on the road. I was gradually on my way home. At the border appeared to be a horse farm. A nice German was about to help me but neither had a horse for sale. So you see, Germans are just people, like Dutch: some are nice and some are not. On the way back I drink tea at Ciel’s and all this shows that even hiking 25 km’s can be quite pleasant.
Yesterday until after midnight sitting in front of my PC, I was looking for dogs and horses. Animals ads enough, but all the horses were of that shining, polished kind of hobby horses, rarely exercising longer than one hour, and then in the sandbox, nothing used to, never have garment a river, always finely groomed the night in a clean box. Such horses I can not use. And with dogs the same story: Pampered, fed cattle, often with hip dysplasia, not able to walk much further than the street corner.
This morning, no phone, no car, bike broken, horse lame, lame dog. Seems back to my student days. “When happiness still was very common” (or a different song). So this morning I got up a little earlier. After taking care of cats, dogs, ponies and myself I walked 7 km. to my work. Tonight after returning home from my work walking again and then finish the rest of the 25 km. In between I went once again to dog trainer Sjaak in Wahlwiller. Who happened to be home. After listening to my story he picked up the phone and immediately knew a sheepdog bitch in Nuth: young, vital, trained, good with kids (hopefully also for adults). The ladydog proved too soft for the police training ( only good) and she has the same color as the Iceland horse that I have in mind. Such a dog is physically and mentally trained, knows the important commands, listens well. That’s what I need. Only question is whether such a small bitch beast ads to our presentation. Our hope is that that dog also has a nice appearance. We will soon go and take a look at the bitch. In the beginning I started out with a gray konik horse, a gray male sheepdog and a gray man, all three guys, all three a little untamed. From now on it is maybe a brown gelding Icelander, a brown female shepherd and not a brown guy, respectively. A gelding, a female and a male. Well, then all sexes will be equally represented and all three, well, two out of three, tamed and thats a nice presentation too. Perhaps it’s only good that Sonja will not participate in the trip, because everything seems to be replaced!
For next Saturday a young lady of the Sophianumcollege and I were invited to come and tell something about Mama Alice for the local radio. The entire weekend was filled already with all kind of plans or expectations , but all right, we’ll go out of our way for a charity purpose. I’m looking forward going out for diner, to catch up once again with my Sonja , whom I had hardly seen this week . Akke from Maastricht is almost done with the website of my journey and the link to Mama Alice. I’ll see how he gets this done . Now only 5 to 6 w . before departure, things seem to surely end up fine again. Of course!
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