Pidgeons, Pirates, Proclamations

Friday oh Friday, thou hast such beautiful hours in you!

The weather was perfect today! After a busy week at work, I managed to take off early today - getting the benefit of glorious sunshine, mild temperatures, a fresh breeze and hoppin' good mood :o)

I stopped in Essen on my way home, grabbed some Asia noodles, and planted my four letters right in the middle of the sunshine, overlooking the busy shoppers hustling by to catch some of those final winter sale discounts. I must say, I felt thoroughly content.

Then, of course, I noticed the growing crowd of pidgeons greedily eyeing me. I suppose they were rather eyeing my food, but briefly I felt like I had just entered a pirate movie - Stan, limping, with one foot only a stump, Pete, messy, with dishevelled feathers all over the place, John Jack Guybrush with an eye hanging out of a socket (ok, I made that one up).

Pidgeons really are the rats of the air. Although contrary to my belief that rats are damn smart, pidgeons always strike me as mind-numbingly idiotic.

I sat there, watching three of them inching their way forward, smelling the food (do birds even have a sense of smell?!). Occasionally, I would shift my positions rapidly to shoo them off a bit. Then a good couple of feet away, someone must have dropped something, and all of them took of, hustling over to the single crumb of whatever, with pidgeons flying in from all over the area! They must have been around 15 by then. By the time they realized that what had been dropped had mostly been a bottle cap (and thus not entirely edible), ALL OF THEM decided to come back over to my place! Only this time, they weren't satisfied with shuffling on the floor but found their spots right next to me on the wall. Great. Fortunately, they are easily shooed away.

Remember the pidgeon lady from Home Alone 2 in New York? You get the idea :o)

Well, sunshine, food, people-watching, and shopping, what more can you want on an average day :o) One of my professors once noted that women are odd creatures. They love shopping, hope to find a good deal, but if they fail to find something, there's always a "Claire's" or "Six" close by to at least buy herself a set of earrings.

Wise words, mister. Look at what I found :o)

Welcome to the globalized world :o)