Reporting live.....

... from amsterdam. im currently sitting in our 33C (91.4F) living room. the heat is crazy! and so it was yesterday, and sunday. and the days before... but today and yesterday are the hottest. as opposed to boston, houses, shops (except supermarkets of course), and even the local gym are not equipped with (proper) airconditioning, as its usually not this hot, and not for this long. i was just enjoying the light breeze by opening the balcony doors on either side of the apartment. a tiny breeze, but still... then i needed something from the kitchen and saw there was lots and LOTS of smoke, clearly not from a BBQ or something. ash particles were coming up too, and had already landed in our bedroom. what was it? then i saw that the idiot downstairs neighbour (i have no clue who they are, but now i know they are idiots), decided to just burn all the trees they had cut down from the neglected garden a week ago. that was all very, very dry ofcourse, and was burning like crazy. pfew, was i happy i hadnt just hung out the white laundry!!

i texted tim, mostly to figure out whether i should perhaps call the police or something. but before i knew, i heard the sirens and police and 2 firefighter trucks arrived. by then the neighbours had already put out the fire themselves, and from what i could see they were not opening the door for the police!!

now they are all gone again, and its too hot to get the vacuum out to get rid of all the ash.... :( wonder what eventually happened..... it was interesting to see how many people suddenly appeared to be home, standing on their balconies to see what was going on....

Dancing cop

always fun to see a cop directing traffic. if you shoot multiple images and watch them after each other, it looks like a weird dance on the middle of the street, sometimes.. :)

going back and forth to new york in one day is really fun, but tiring too! we got up at 4.45am on saturday, caught the subway to boston, and then had the 6.30 bus to new york, delivering us to chinatown around 11 (traffic was a bit slow yesterday), we spent the day and got the 7pm bus back to boston, getting back home just after midnight..... then the downstairs neighbors had some loud party, so we stayed up and watched some series. 

as a result; today i did hardly anything. too tired... :)

Stop idling!!

today it was supposed to rain (or so said tim), but it didnt! during the night we had crazy rain, so much that some places around boston got a little flooded. here it was ok, but the rain did wake me up..  today, on the other hand, was gorgeous! it was 20-24 degrees C. can you believe it? ending october, and we could walk around without jacket. a perfect day to goto the cemetery behind our apartment, as they are at their best in fall, i think. 

look at this tree, isnt it beautiful?! i walked towards it to take a picture, and then i saw the police car. arrghh!! why are they always hanging out at the cemetery? to keep me safe? to protect the ghosts? to hide? to close secret deals? it really, really annoys me to see them at the cemetery, in a car. do they really need to make their rounds also there? this guy was not even driving around, he was just standing there, while his motor was running. thats my next frustration! why do i see police cars everywhere idling around?! why dont they just shut off their engine? this is what the massachusetts law says about idling (chapter 90, section 16a); 

" No person shall cause, suffer, allow or permit the unnecessary operation of the engine of a motor vehicle while said vehicle is stopped for a forseeable period of time in excess of 5 minutes. Whoever violates this will be punished by a fine of 100 dollars for the first offense, and 500 dollars for each succeeding offense." so... why do i literally everywhere, even the cemetery!, see police vehicles doing exactly that..? are they excused from the law? moreover, it costs extra gas, causes more pollution and is not good for your car.....

Get out!!!

found this photo in my "to-post-folder". its from the st patricks parade. i guess this street was blocked for traffic and this officer was placed there to make sure nobody would enter.

its extremely hot and humid these days. its so hot that it doesnt cool down much during the night. but... in the weekends there is at least the great prospect of starting the day in the pool next to our apartment!! yesterday, we got there just around 9.15. hardly anyone there yet, and those who were, were just enjoying the morning sun, not intending to enter the water at all. its the perfect time, no children yet, nobody just hanging in the water; the pool entirely empty to do some real swimming! then, when most other people arrive, we have done our workout, had some sun, AND still an entire day ahead of us... but.... just as i was about to get in, the security guard came and ordered us all to leave the pool area! right NOW! because.... it was not yet 10 am, and the pool opens at 10. "yes, i know you are here every weekend, and i never say anything, but head security checked the videos and noticed i dont order you out and told me i have to. so, you have to leave. because... its not yet 10, and if something happens when its not yet 10, you could sue us". really...??!! really?! 

there is no lifeguard at the pool, and there is a huge sign that swimming is at your own risk.... but not before 10, apparently. at 9.50 someone tried to enter; nope, not allowed. one resident just placed herself on the ground in front of the entrance, waiting to be allowed to return again. it was one of those times that what happens is so plain ridiculous, that everyone starts talking to each other... :) we heard that ball playing is not allowed either. there are many green lawns around the apartments, but when 3 adults were calmly throwing a ball around, it was quickly ordered to be stopped by the security guy. 

this morning we did not even bother going to the pool :(( at 9 yet another parent with a young child was ordered away, to come back at 10. it seems we should be "grateful" we are allowed to live here in the first place. as if they prefer not to have any residents! just perfect green lawns, empty of any life, a blue pool, without anyone around it, and certainly nobody in it (perhaps only people with a perfect figure?). beeeehh, oak grove village, im really tired of all your rules..... :( i live here, and you definitely forgot that i dont leave at 5 as you do....

Officer cupcake

whenever something, whatever work has to be done on a public street (or on the road) that disturbs (or could potentially disturb) traffic (cars, bikes, pedestrians), a policeman is placed there to oversee it all. always. no exception. and often its completely useless! they just watch the workers do their job. or stare at their shoes. or their phone. or pretend to regulate the traffic. or they are just chatting with the workers. almost never it seems useful that they are standing there. even, they take up space and make it even harder to pass the work area! (or sometimes its really no problem that some work is being done, if it hadnt been for the police car thats taking up a lot of space on the road). 

i thought this useless use of officers happened everywhere in the us, but i recently learned that thats not the case! pfew! it differs per state....

(and im amazed i could spend so many words on that. i actually wanted to post about something else, but i couldnt find the words and thus settled for this older picture)

Police car

somehow (unattended) police vehicles have a huge attraction on young people (i feel very old writing that), numerous times now i have seen scenes like the above. why? because its fun to have your picture taken in some weird pose with a police car in the background? because if there would be an officer inside the car it would be totally unacceptable? i dont know! whenever there is a parade or whatever going on and a lot of policemen are present, people also often ask to have their picture taken together with the officers. they usually oblige. passersby see that happening, and immediately ask for the same. i dont think this happens that much in the netherlands... :)

the girls above were really crazy. i managed to capture them at their most decent pose, somehow... when someone saw me taking their pic as well, he said; "yep, their real classy...." this was on st patricks day, back in march. the brown bag on the ground most likely contains a bottle of alcohol of some sort...
we are back to wearing jackets, and its a little rainy...

Traffic enforcement

somewhere close to the museum of science, when it was a little warmer outside.

i always wonder how fit they are. could they run, if they had to? they must have gotten their nickname "officer cupcake" from somewhere, right? :)

Green mass

as you can see, there were quite some people watching the st patricks day parade yesterday (it was 3 miles long. some places were more crowded than others. the crowded ones were quite annoying to get through, but at some point we really just wanted to leave..)

this was the damage; 8 arrests and 244 citations for drinking in public... why dont they just allow public drinking?! i dont really get that. many were drinking anyways... if they catch you carrying an open can/bottle of alcohol, thats sufficient proof that you were drinking in public and you can get a ticket (so the police does not have to see you doing it... (the actual drinking)). only sometimes drinking in public is allowed, or only when its in a bag (like the brown paper bag you always see in the movies, haha). there are actually a few places in the us where drinking in public is allowed (here you can see where).

the police blogged about their arrests, if curious, you can look at that here. they describe the situation, as well as the full name, age and hometown of the arrested person. i especially like the title of their blog post: "if you got arrested at this year's st patricks day parade, you probably did something to warrant it." 

probably you did....

Hey, Dali!

sorry, no post last night, i was suddenly exhausted and fell asleep on the couch.. (actually quite a while ago since that happened. at some point it happened almost daily!).

just a quick post to make up.. here we were just driving around, not too far from our apartment (but have no clue anymore where this was). i suddenly saw this (i think) stencil-painted face of (must be) salvador dali on this piece of street furniture. hahaha, almost every day i learn something new, because of this blog (as a result, it also always takes me much longer to write a post than i intended. as it is usually the last thing i do before going to bed.... i usually end up going to sleep later than i should) i was looking up how you call this thing. well, its a fire alarm call box, but normally they are painted red, so im wondering whether this one is still in use (and so i learned that in the UK they call everything placed on streets, like benches, fire alarms etc "street furniture"). 

anyways... these boxes look very ancient, and they are! but they still work, and for example after 9/11 they proved useful in new york (there are 15,000 of those in new york). power and cell phone service were down in large parts of the city, but those boxes are powered from a separate supply and continue to work in the face of outages of both electrical and telephone systems...

behind is a fire hydrant. you cannot park in front of a fire hydrant. always frustrating, when you think you have found a parking spot (parking in boston is horrible!!), the fire hydrant pops up... grrrr. if you do park there, you can expect a parking ticket. or.... if there is a fire... firemen will not hesitate to damage your car... (picture here).

and once again... i wrote much more than intended! i just wanted to show this pic, and write that this is a typical residential street with use houses. that i like these streets, and that they are just as you see them in the movies... :)

Dancing dragon

last sunday we went to chinatown, as they were celebrating the chinese new year (year 4710), which started jan 23rd. the year of the rabbit giving way to the year of the dragon.... (once every 12 years, as there are 12 animals)  i was reading a bit, and did not realize this; in western culture/literature the dragon is a mean, scary beast that needs to be defeated by heroes and so on. on the other hand, in eastern culture the dragon is a symbol of good fortune and intense power.... this could be a good year... ! :) people born under this sign are regarded as innovative, passionate people who are colorful, confident and fearless. 

the dancing dragons were going from door to door in chinatown, seemingly tireless, throwing around lettuce and oranges (this was what they were feeding the dragons). as they were going up each stairs leading to the shops and restaurants, firecrackers were going off. of course, there had to be a policeman guarding this all, but he looked rather bored... (maybe it was too noisy for him).

the theme day for this month at citydailyphoto is animals, so that was a good opportunity to show this pic! :)

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Between giants

i have posted a picture of the old state house before, but i guess never in such a way that you can see how cute and tiny it actually is. the afternoon sun was falling through the tall buildings just to illuminate it, and i thought it was so pretty! (in reality it looked better, of course)

i think i wrote it before, but i will write it again: its not the state house anymore, its now the entrance to the subway, orange line! (upstairs there is a museum). it is not really obvious that it is a T stop (at least not to me), so the very first time we went there it was only because i had seen a picture of it in some travel guide, telling me that it was the "state street" stop. and how delighted i was when indeed there were the turnstiles allowing you entrance to the subway downstairs, well underneath the building...
normally there is quite some traffic on this road, but it was temporarily blocked for the veterans day parade... good for me, otherwise the big cars would have blocked the view! :)

 nowadays its dark before the clock hits 5, buuuuuhhh!! :(

Sexy cyclist

saw this girl last week at the boston common (there were lots of interesting people there that day!), and she perfectly illustrates a news story over a month old by now... in may, a dutch bicycle company manager was cycling in new york, in a miniskirt. then she was stopped by a cop, who wanted her ID and told her that she was not supposed to ride around like that. she was told that her outfit was very disturbing and dangerous, as it could distract cars. she then told him that she was not aware of any dresscode, and that biking with a skirt is perfectly normal in the netherlands. the cop responded: "I decide what's a dangerous situation".... in the end she didnt get a ticket, but.. next time; she'd better wear pants!!

only later, back home, she posted this pic on facebook and then media saw it and several articles appeared, both in the us and in the netherlands. again somewhat later it was questioned whether the story was true; perhaps it was a marketing stunt to sell more bikes?! she didnt get the name of the cop, and also no ticket. well... i can perfectly believe that something like this happens, i heard several weird stories about us cops showing off their power like this already... like this story, for example, or this one..

Boston firefighter

last week, or perhaps the week before already, we suddenly were surrounded by fire engines. a small street in the center of boston, and 6 or 7 trucks. the ladder out. a lot of spectators. but no fire.... actually not much happened. they were just standing around..... i think it was an overheated eeehhmm... dont remember. but something got overheated... luckily it didnt seem too dramatic or dangerous...

im wondering whether this firefighter can run at all! ;)

Bostons original

is that a bostons original? or mister nut? :) at the boston common.

on sunday we were suddenly amidst the "walk for hunger", right at the finish; we found out when people were saying to us; "thank you! well done! great job! thanks for walking! some water?" eeehhmmm?

not much more to write today. at work i received emails to warn real americans for the potential threat when traveling, after yesterday's happenings with ob/sama. ah well.. im not american and not traveling, but security is up; more policemen at subway stations, more security checks to be expected... etc etc. if really curious, here is the link for the travel alert regarding anti-american violence.

Marching on

yet another picture from the st paddy's parade (someone asked us on saturday for directions to the parade and then wished us "happy st paddy's day!"). it is held in boston since 1804, and in new york they do it since 1762, the longest running parade in the US.

the sun made for nice shadows and i tried many time to catch that; mostly not very successfull (the policeman was in the way.... :D). i liked this one, although i dont remember who these men were. surely they looked all very different, but their shadows are alike....

i read somewhere that nearly 600,000 people gathered for the parade, and the newspaper told me this morning that 363 citations were issued by the police and 11 people got actually arrested for the following reasons: "Charges included assault and battery, disorderly conduct, affray, indecent exposure, and resisting arrest". my goodness! i just was googling around a little more, and ended up at bpdnews.com (boston police department), here they have listed with full name and age who got arrested on sunday. i think thats ridiculous....

Dancing cop?

nope.... he wasnt (elegantly?) dancing.... this cop was trying to get all those people peacefully watching the parade onto the sidewalk (you can click on the picture to see it entirely). here they are slightly on the street, and he might have gotten orders to not have people on the street. he really pissed me off big time... with his overweight figure, barely able to move himself. if he had had to run, he wouldnt be able to, for sure. but he liked to threaten people, for no apparent reason. there was a woman who went to stand in front of the parade (they were not moving at that time anyways), and someone was taking her picture. mister big cop didnt like it, and told them to MOVE, or next thing would be handcuffs.... really, nothing was going on, the sun was shining, everyone was enjoying themselves, and then there were these cops trying to make themselves look important. or noticed, or whatever....

other than that, i really enjoyed it, especially since it was so sunny out! today, on the other hand, it was snowing most of the day, later turning into rain! spring... not quite yet...

See something?

 

when you are waiting at a subway station, you hear a lot of messages. that the train is approaching, then that the train is arriving, that you should watch your personal belongings, that you should not litter the station as that could cause fires. that courtesy counts, and that if you see something, you should say something. apparently, commuters dont really hear all those messages anymore, and so for the "see something, say something" campaign they now started with a different approach. because... people in boston dont see, and/or say as much as people in other cities/countries and thus not that many suspicious people and/or packages are reported. they want boston to do better!! (but, maybe there are not that many suspicious things going on here... :D ?) yesterday at north station there was  this enormous package. i asked tim whether he saw it (its right in front of you when you enter the station), but he said "huh, what package?" so... today i was in front of the package, and i took a picture of it when he arrived at the station. then we went downstairs, and i asked him; did you see the package? guess what his answer was...

ah, and.. "The campaign is funded by a $1 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security’s Transit Security Grant Program.  It promotes a collaborative effort of state and local agencies to work together educating the public to be more aware of their surroundings, and report any behavior that may appear suspicious to the proper transportation and law enforcement authorities." but for sure they didnt reach tim.... maybe he should watch this video....

Lady Fiasco

yesterday i saw large trucks with "monster tour lady gaga" on it. i asked my friend google what it meant, and i found out that today lady gaga was giving a concert in the TD garden. since the TD garden is in north station, where i take the orange line, i packed my camera this morning as i hoped to finally photograph "people going to the TD garden". ~19.000 people fit into the TD garden, so whenever there is an event, its hard to miss when you are in/around the station. tim left work a little later than me, so i was alone at north station, with my big camera, much too heavy bag, and an enormous amount of shyness!! :(( buuuh.. there were sooo many, very interestingly dressed girls (and some guys), much more interesting than these legs i recently posted. that was just child's play. seriously. but i did not dare... i felt so out of place, so obviously an outsider just there to take pictures. it was very crowded, and there were so many policemen and security guards... then tim finally came (usually then i better dare taking pics), but no.. still not... then he took some, and i was jealous, but they were all unsharp (ha! i thought... (how mean!)). finally i took the one above, but i took some time (as thats one of the things i finally learned; if i do take a pic; dont take it hastily...). and yep, immediately a policeman came telling me that i could not just stand there and had to move on. so, that was it. no extreme lady gagas for me..... :(

Road repair

many roads around boston are pretty bad, and winter is making them even worse. snow, salt, melting freezing, melting and freezing again... it creates small, large and enormous potholes. we bumped into a few already... by far the worst road is the road to my work, of course... 

tim sometimes picks me up in the evening (when once again i missed the shuttle; after 7.15 they go only twice per hour and at some point im just sooo tired and dont want to take the shuttle/wait for orange line/walk the 5 mins home; the laziness!!). in weekends we always go by car , when the shuttle is even more infrequent; this was last saturday when they were repairing the road. some 2 hours later, when we drove by again, they were all gone and that part of the road looked like new again.

in the background, to the right, you see downtown boston and a part of the zakim-blabla-bla-memorial bridge (cant remember the exact name; but i wrote it down in this post), to the left you see  a bit of charlestown's bunker hill monument (that we still have to climb....).

Police posture

just typical.... theres nothing more to say! :)

as seen when walking to massachuttes massachusetts (aarghh, i can never spell it right!) general hospital (MGH) from north station, wednesday morning.