#cunk error

[odvunir]

farlands

[pocketgalaxies]

"so, hang on. if i think therefore i am, what about other people? do they think therefore they am? how can i tell if they're thinking therefore they am? or am i just thinking they think therefore they am, but actually they're not real, and i'm only thinking they am? are you thinking therefore you am right now?"

[thedaveandkimmershow]

We flew home today.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it because, since we essentially arrived in Seattle a coupla hours after we left Amsterdam on a ten hour flight...

Today is literally packed with more hours in it than the usual 24.

It's a weird experience thinking major parts of today actually happened yesterday...

When it was all.

The same.

Day.

We didn't get to bed the previous night in anything remotely resembling a timely manner, by the way. After Kimmer's packing extravaganza—a feat in which she seemingly fit more than should fit our luggage into our luggage—after that it was 1:30AM. Setting a wake-up alarm for 5AM, then, left us three-and-a-half hours for, you know, actual sleep. Only I didn't get (or I didn't take) the full three-and-a-half. I got maybe two hours and then lay awake in bed, eyes closed, relaxed under the covers. Not sure what that was all about but, as my friend Ann likes to say, there you go and there you are. 🙂

Regardless of the monumental lack of sleep, I got up a few minutes after five seemingly without penalty. I didn't feel groggy or sleep-deprived. I just got up, readied the hot water for tea and coffee, woke Kimmer up, jumped in the shower and, by the time I was done, she's up and we're doing our final step of packing the last of our belongings into our luggage before zipping them closed, moving them to the door while we stream "Cunk on Earth" on Netflix and take a few moments to eat some of our food for breakfast that's part of the food we can't take home with us 'cause there's no room.

Coupla minutes to 630, my cousin texts me a "Goodmorning!!!!!" and we're on our way down to the hotel lobby where, surprise surprise, not only is my cousin waiting for us but also her daughter, my niece, both lounging on the couch. It's a surprise because my niece was supposed to be overnight in another town to the east of her hometown, with friends celebrating their new home. Instead, she cut that night short and showed up to see us away.

Which was very very very very very very VERY sweet of her. ☺��

After we squared things with our hotel, we found my cousin's husband waiting outside, car backed up to the ramp in front of the entrance. So we throw our bags in the back, jump in the car, and off we go.

I should mention here that I'm pretty proud of us 'cause this one time at the start of our marriage when we did this 'lil exercise, departing Holland a touch over thirty years ago, it was a comedy of errors. We were staying with my aunt and uncle outside of Amsterdam and we were still packing the very morning our flight was to leave. So it was a messy morning, rushed. I think my uncle might've slightly dinged a car behind and opposite his as he backed out of his parking spot in a hurry to get us to the airport on time. He was pretty classy about the whole affair, only casually remarking how my parents were always packed 'n ready a coupla days before leaving.

This time around, Kimmer packed us at the tail end of the previous day—technically the first hours of our departure day—then we slept a little, got up when we were supposed to, and were out the hotel right on time.

630AM.

Our plan's to arrive at Schiphol Airport three hours prior to our flight. Which is what happened.

So HUZZAH!!!!

😁

The night before, my niece gifted Kimmer with a candy-filled Harry Potter mug. So in the car this morning they're comparing Harry Potter merch when Kimmer asks my niece if she has any of the stickers.

No, I wish! comes the reply.

Now it so happens I have Harry Potter stickers in my rucksack 'cause I was gonna take some time on the flight to Holland placing them on my new water bottle. Never got around to it, though. So I pull them from my bag and hand them over to the back seat.

My first moment of gift-giving as an uncle. 😊

Later on the road, I recognize a bookend experience:

It's daylight again, the late morning of our first day in Holland. Monday. January 1. Six days before. We're traveling across the countryside to our hotel. The sun's out. It's been raining so the trees and grass and highway are painted with a lovely sheen. There are moist reflections in every color, on every texture, in everything we see. Which makes for a beautiful, classic Dutch pastoral scene.

On the radio, it's Depeche Mode, The Cure, and later, "Babe" by Styx. The inside of the car's basically filled with an 80s vibe. I'm talking music with my cousin's husband who's driving the car. We talk 80s music. Popular music. And, of course, music as it relates to my daughter's career as a professional musician. ☺️

Now it's six days after. It's today, this very moment, on the way to Schiphol Airport in the morning while it remains dark outside. It's nighttime for all intents and purposes even though we're navigating the space between 630 and 730 in the morning. In the front seats of the car we're talking about vacations, about traveling by car from Seattle to southern California, about driving that same distance from Holland to southern Italy. My cousin's husband describes yearly vacations ("holiday" as he refers to them) that are the equivalent of piling everyone in the car and hitting the road. In this case, he talks about arriving in Tuscany. He talks about arriving in Genoa. He talks about avoiding hard-case luggage in favor of duffle bags. He talks about traveling through Switzerland, driving the never-ending Gotthard Tunnel, traveling over the mountains when the tunnel's backed up. He describes one vacation they showed up on an Italian beach and no one was there. He describes various strategies for doing this holiday including splitting the 16-hour drive in two with a stayover in Switzerland, allowing for a 10AM casual departure on the first day of their travels. Returning home, the driving strategy becomes a single, mostly overnight, drive to avoid traffic.

It's fun to compare the way we take family vacations, family holiday. It's fun to compare all the things about them that are the same and the very few things that are different.

We also talk about traffic leading into Amsterdam, traffic cams on the outskirts of Amsterdam that serve the same purpose as the traffic cams in school zones in our neck of the woods. We talk about apps he uses to spot and report speed traps and, because we hit a bird just then, we share our own personal stories of hitting birds and other animals on the road. I relate stories I heard about deer leaping right into the sides of trucks or RVs. He wins for a personal story because one time on the way home with friends, a pretty large bird impacted the front windshield, smashing it inward. He's in the back seat of the car at the time looking up something on his phone when the impact occurs. So it's a violently sudden, catastrophic experience for him.

At the same time we're talking about all these things, the back seat of the car is engaged in more relational fare. Boyfriends and girlfriends. Parenting. And school.

At one point we're talking about another one of my cousins. We're talking about their kids when my niece leans forward into the front seat space to fill us in on a few things including shared family vacations with that cousin's family and that time one of the sons was in a TikTok video with his teacher. He was pretty embarrassed by it... but the video did get a lotta views. 😁

And with these competing, complementary, and mostly overlapping conversations in play, we pull into a parking lot at the airport, pull our bags from the back of the car, and walk into the terminal, the five of us.

It's 742AM.

In case you've never been, Schiphol Airport is huge. Schilphol Airport is MASSIVE. And while SeaTac has every airline represented in the main terminal as you enter, at Schiphol there's nothing central like that. You basically figure out in which direction your terminal is then you walk a bunch until you're closer to that terminal from which your flight leaves. It's only there that you finally arrive at the self check-in kiosks and the self baggage drop.

A lotta selfs going on in this airport, I gotta say.

It's definitely a good thing our family's with us because paying for our one big piece of luggage turns into at least a ten minute ordeal. The scanner can't (or won't) read my card. Can't. Can't. Can't. Until finally, with family standing all around me, pitching me suggestions, the scanner humors me and decides to work.

So family, as it turns out, is the essential ingredient to successfully paying baggage fees at Schiphol Airport. 😉

Once that's done, I realize we're living our parent's experience because, once upon a time, my parents, too, left with a lot of family food gifts in their luggage. Once upon a time, too, they had to buy extra luggage, like my cousin did for us the previous day, to hold all those food gifts. Once upon a time, too, my aunts and uncles walked my parents through the airport, helped them with their bags. Once upon a time, too, my aunts and uncles bade my parents farewell in this very airport with embraces and kisses on the cheek.

What was true then, it turns out, remains true today. I think the only difference is that we're more huggers these days.

Another difference, I think, is that we're more likely to draw this moment out because we don't want it to end. We can always think of more conversations to have, more pictures to take.

In the end, we say the things we need to say to each other, the things we want to say. And I'm sure after one round of hugs and a subsequent impromptu conversation, we indulged another round of hugs as if the first one never happened.

For me, my regret is leaving this family. This one and the larger one with whom we navigated the week. I'm also caught by the realization that it would've been a pretty cool thing to have known my cousin's husband earlier in both our lives. And I'm profoundly struck by the fact that, while we live a pretty good and fulfilling life in the states, our lives would've been better, our lives would definitely have been better, with my cousin in it.

Because she really is all that.

☺️☺️☺️

With our extended goodbyes out the way, and after one last round of family photographs—all of us in one image—my cousin and her family start making their way back to their car as we turn to get in line for the self baggage drop.

As we take our place in line, I remember to look back for my family. I immediately spot them walking away. They've been keeping track of us in line as well. And in that moment in which we catch each other's attention for the last time, we reach our hands high into the air to wave goodbye.

And finally.

Finally...

Go our separate ways.

❤️❤️❤️

[brazilian-whalien52]

List of what I remember watching this year

Brazil

Alem do Guarda Roupa

US

Our Flag means Death (S2)

Good Omens (S2)

Ted Lasso (Last Season)

Hannibal

What we do in the shadows (S5)

Jury Duty

Fall of the Usher House (watching at the moment)

House (watching at the moment)

The bear (watching at the moment)

Percy Jackson (airing)

One Piece Live action

Interview with a vampire

Wednesday

XO Kitty (Incomplete)

South Korea

The Eighth Sense

Doona

See u in my next life

Beyond Evil

The devil judge

A shoulder to cry on

Unintentional Love story

Tasty Florida

Our dating sim

Love tractor (watching at the moment)

Choco Milk Shake (Watching at the moment)

Semantic Error (rewatch)

where your eyes linger (rewatch)

All the liquors (Incomplete)

Little Women (Incomplete)

To my star (S1 rewatch e S2 watch)

Thailand

Moonlight Chicken

Bed Friend

Be My favorite

Hit Bite Love

He is coming to me

Only Friends

Our Skyy (S2)

Shadow

21 days theory

big dragon

I will knock you

Magic of zero

Triage

Sky in your heart

Last Twilight (Ongoing)

Cooking Crsuh (Ongoing)

Pit babe (Ongoing)

Twins (Ongoing)

Playboyy the series (Ongoing)

The sign (Ongoing)

Cherry Magic (Ongoing)

My dear Gangester Oppa (Ongoing)

Sotus (Rewatch)

TharnType (Rewatch)

Step by Step (Incomplete)

cupids last wish (incomplete)

Laws of Attraction (Incomplete)

Dinosaur Love (Incomplete)

Chains of Heart (Incomplete)

Japan

What did you eat yesterday?

I cannot reach you

If it is with you

Minato`s Laundromat

My beautiful man

Naked dining

Our dining table

My personal weatherman

Tokyo in april is...

Candy Color Paradox

Takara-kun e Amagi-kun

Buddy daddies

One Piece (Arcs rewatch)

Durarara (rewatch)

My love mix up (rewatch)

Nana (Incomplete)

My happy marriage (incomplete)

Spy x Family (Incomplete)

Ireland

Derry Girls

England

Cunk on Wolrd

Philippines

Gaya sa Pelikula

Gameboys (rewatch)

China

Killer and Healer (china next year I will do better, all the others are unfinished)

Taiwan

Kiseki Dear to me

My tooth your love

Be loved in the house: I do

History 2: Crossing the line (rewatch)

Plus e Minus (Incomplete)

The ones that eat my brain

[c-53]

I tried to put on Cunk on Earth while drawing but it was such a tactical error like. Im literally just staring at my screen with a slack jawed shocked smile.

[thealladeen]

Just New Year things

This is probably my first time thinking about writing something that includes my goals, vision board and a lookback mentally to the books I read and places I visited in the past. Honestly, I am proud of myself that got myself up and came here. I was sickly and lonesome like all the other times when I do not have Kitty's company. But here I am, writing this reflection. Lets begin with the books I read this year, So here's the list and something about it. I read some of the books partially and others completely.

Best of Faiz by Salil Kuldip -

Best of Faraz by Salil Kuldip -

Best of Iqbal by Salil Kuldip -

Esmeth by Thee Alladeen (Had to read it and correct the errors) -

LVOE by Atticus

Bible - first 15 pages.

Jane Austen - sense and sensibility - Apparently I am not a fan.

Playing with Matches by Michael Faudet -

Maktub - Paulo Coehlo - A few wise words.

Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Blood Work - Michael Connelly - A book I found sitting in front of a store, i just picked it up out of blues.

The Bastards of Istanbul - Elif Shafaq

Le Livre Magique (Spiderwick) by Holly Black - Read to improve my french but the languge and so many street slangs that I got lost.

14. This Craft of Verse -

15. Cunk on Everything

16. Spell it out by David Crystal

17. Old Possum's book of Practical Cats by T. S Elliot

Books that I intend to read this year besides the hope to write mine:

Yuval Noah Harari - Nexus (a must read)

Elif Shafaq - There are rivers in the sky.

More autobiographies.

More of Shakespears.

Edgar Allen Poe

Franz Kaftka

More Canadian writers

Books related to teching techniques.

I still don't have self help on my list

New things I did this year:

A published book and,

a long dreamed idea of moving to Canada.

Took a flight for the first time

Met a french french at Paris airport

Completed my TESL certification

Read more than 12 books

Experienced snow for the first time.

Adopted a pet hamster

Attended conversations and book events.

Hiked - The Grand river trail, Schneider Creek, Walter Bean Grand River Trail, Steckle Woods, Doon Creek Natural Area.

Hiked at -7 in snow.

Libraries visited - Pioneer Park Library, Central Library, Kitchener, and Conestoga college library.

Volunteered at Ken Seiling Waterloo museum

[dawnleaf37]

cunk error

[odvunir]

cunk errors

[odvunir]

if you've enjoyed this piece as well as cunk error (https://www.tumblr.com/od2nir/713377567432949760/cunk-errors) I try to do little paintings like these every month when I have time, which is rare! these paintings are actually sponsored by my Kofi supporters who help me enough to dedicate a day of work to painting like this.

if you want to see me do them more often and/or see them a month early, consider supporting me on Kofi! http://ko-fi.com/odvunir

I also have commissions open: https://www.tumblr.com/od2nir/713377567432949760/cunk-errors