"NESLONS AND MANDELAS" -- SuusinMokkum and Val Show All in Maastricht, NL

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Well, all our recent Neslons & Mandelas, which are being exhibited at the Cafe Jenze in Maastricht until the end of August;

Here are some photos of them.

(Sadly you cannot see the Neslons in the passe partout frames that we ordered for them, because the frames were of the wrong size. So we had to make do, and make what we could of unadorned Neslons. The Mandelas are properly framed, and look goooooooooooooood!)

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Gve me an E, Give me an R . Give me a N. Give me an I.?

What have you got?

What have you GOT?

ERNI!

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Almost...but the punch-line I was going to use was 'Both are close to f***ing water'. (Hence the 'making love in a canoe')

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Thanks Erni! It's strange, but there are no drunks or real alcoholics in my village. The Frnech don't seem to 'abuse' alcohol -- at least in public -- in the same way as the Brits do. Alcohol-free beer and wine are horrible -- the latter is just expensive grape juice.

The drinking water here is OK. I live in a street of the Old Fountain (Vieille Fontaine). There was a public drinking well here, but it was closed down about 1900 when the water got polluted. the original fountain still exists, but it doesn't work.

Here's the start of the joke in the form of a question for you:

"What's the similarity between drinking French beer and making love in a canoe?"

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Merci, Erni. To me, as a Brit of a certain age, bars are very much a part of my 'social fabric', similiar to what young people seek today on Fartbook or Twatter : a place where you can meet -- real -- people, talk, relax, have fun, etc. They have had a similiar role -- if only for males -- since Britain became industrialised in the nineteenth century. Bars had a different role from the sixteenth century onwards in the UK when people drank weak beer, because the water (in rivers, lakes, etc, in which everything was dumped including sewerage) couldn't be drunk because it was polluted.

A pub with good beer is a good pub. It is very hard to find an 'artisan' beer in this part of France. (Before everyone starts attacking me for this comment-- (and before you have even heard my joke about French beer --  let me just say that the wine in this part of France is excellent.)

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Ronnie Wood, Dear Ernie, fell into a Hamburg bar when he was drunk, drugged, or drunk & drugged. He tried to buy the bar, but he didn't have enough cash on him. So he bought the barmaid instead. They lived together for 4 days then split up when Mrs Wood discovered what was going on. Later, Ronnie left Mrs Wood for a 19 year old Slavakian (or Slovenian) and 6 days later they are reported to be living happily ever after.

This has NOTHING to do with our exhibition, Ernie  -- but it's good fun!

[stripygoose]

What a fantastic exhibition - well done you two! : > )

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Wow! ...didn't realize the size of Suzanne's non-postcard mandelas. How fantastic!

And, Val...your "nelsons" look great...even without the fancy frames.

Congratulations to you both !