o, I mentioned before that it was rather cold right now. Well, firstly, walking through shady streets, I altered my mode of using my SteemFEST scarf. Backwards. It can serve as a nice face mask, or just let it down and cover the neck rather nicely.

Teh Rat, RIP.

Now, I am not sure how to introduce the next picture. I see dead animals from time to time, but they are often pretty brutally injured, with rupture and lots of blood. Well, it isn't often I see rats dead, so maybe the cold slows them. I guess this one got stomped or maybe run over by a scooter. He did bleed but not so bad, and the upper body is entirely intact.

I see these things and sometimes I want to show them but usually can't. This rat are smaller than the ones I sometimes saw in Sofia. Usually I see them alive but there is no way you can snap them without great patience.

Het Ijs

I have seen a bit of frozen water before, but never like this in the two previous winters. A little, but certainly not so early.

You can see that the seagulls are all standing two legged on the surface of the pond.

Here is another angle near the ground where someone pulled pieces off the ice and cracked them on the shore.

Then, to show how thick it is, here is my glove on the ice. The stick to the right could make a little shatter once in a while when I whacked the ice.

Maybe this year the canals will freeze up good this year. Actually, thinking about it, I bet the salted roads greatly reduce the icing up. Today for the first time I saw signs of deicing salts on the streets and paths. There is an annual ice skating marathon but it has been some years since enough. I wonder if some sections are unfrozen by salts.

The Prison

Well, I said and showed the venue for the winter shelter is the old Havenstraat prison. Here is its' official sign out the front:

Well, anyway, I was walking back and saw cool things to share, so here they are.

The Uitkering

Today I initiated the process of getting a welfare payment. I have an appointment for 20 December... quite a while. But also I have to sign up with 3 "Uitzendbreaus", temp agencies, more or less. Well, so I am going to look into these and get to know a few nearby. I have been thinking about it, and since I am here and I am perfectly able to work and scale that old first month obstacle, I hope I can find something quickly.

But it is not "must be done yesterday" stuff, while on the other hand, the silly season has many short lived job possibilities. I suppose some of the staff at this shelter are this.

Well, so that is my 29 November diary. It is my sister's birthday today. Well, technically just about over as I write. I hope she is doing well.

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We can't stop here! This is Whale country!

_{Loki was born in Australia, now is wandering Amsterdam again after 9 months in Sofia, Bulgaria. IT generalist, physics theorist, futurist and cyber-agorist. Loki's life mission is to establish a secure, distributed layer atop the internet, and enable space migration, preferably while living in a beautiful mountain house somewhere with a good woman, and lots of farm animals and gardens, where he can also go hunting and camping.}

_{I'm a thoughtocaster, a conundrummer in a band called Life Puzzler. I've flipped more lids than a monkey in a soup kitchen, of the mind. - Xavier, Renegade Angel}

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All images in the above post are either original from me, or taken from Google Image Search, filtered for the right of reuse and modification, and either hotlinked directly, or altered by me