BVIeach week, Geert Hoste (63) gives his own unique and ironic view of the world in ‘Bye All’. This week will be discussed: the noise pollution from Tomorrowland, which kept local residents awake.
Kwakkelzomer is the summer hit of 2023. Since Frank Deboosere has taken compulsory retirement, we are again determined by Geri Haerynk from Koekelare. Geri keeps in a large ring binder since 1977 whatever the weather. Every year on Christmas Day, while we eat turkey and presents, he predicts what weather we can expect for the coming year. I’ve looked into his forecasts and summarize his work as: Every week ‘cloudy with clear spells. Nice weather, chance of a shower. Geri started his hobby out of dissatisfaction with the predictions on TV. Because the weather in ‘Uccle’ is not the same as the weather in Koekelare. Don’t blame this affable man. I’ve checked and his weather forecasts are much more accurate than polls of voting by veteran professors and Wetstraat journalists.
How Geri himself works is a big secret. It’s a gift he got from his grandmother. He could also predict the weather. She looked at the sky and then said, ‘Cloudy with ipclearings. Schoan were with now-and-ton ‘n vloage’. ‘Metje’ probably sensed this in her magpie eyes. We can’t ask her, because Geri himself is already 82 years old, so the chance that his grandmother is still alive is small. But during a report on Geri I saw a red coffee pot on the edge of his built-in fireplace in the living room. That’s why I started looking into what it means. Firstly: why a red enamel coffee pot? Second, why is the coffee pot there and not on the plastic tablecloth on the kitchen table? The answer is simple: the coffee pot is not used to serve coffee. That’s why she’s red as a warning. There is no coffee in that coffee pot, but something else.
In Koekelare and the surrounding area there are traditionally three things on the fireplace. First, the statue of the Virgin Mary, an heirloom. Second, a polished obus. Third, an urn, empty or with the ashes of a deceased person. A red coffee pot does not belong in the list at all. So I’m guessing that under the lid of Geri’s coffee pot at least one, if not all, of his grandmother’s corns are kept. Probably twisted in a wad of cotton wool. Like a relic.
Satellites, gulf streams, computer models and artificial intelligence, Uccle… Geri doesn’t need it all. A stylo, a sheet of paper and two fluorescent pens. Blue for rain, bright yellow for sun. And the rest throws their hat at it.
Read also:
COLUMN. Geert Hoste: “No matter how many ‘feel-good pills’ you take, you won’t survive Tomorrowland without earplugs”
COLUMN. Geert Hoste: “Barbie and the atomic bomb. Two leftovers from the period when the USA and plastic were going to save the world”
COLUMN. From the secret diaries of Geert Hoste: “Advance with bulky tanks went more smoothly than retreat from Werchter”
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2023-08-13 11:00:29
#COLUMN #Geert #Hoste #Kwakkelzomer #summer #hit