Actually @Sandi T. after I posted this morning there was someone else I remembered, again in Amsterdam (where else). There’s a very touristy spot called Leidseplein. It’s a nice place to sit with a beer and people watch, it’s a square surrounded on three sides by bars and restaurants. There was a guy there who used to lurk around and every 20 minutes or so he’d remove his Colombo style raincoat and leap into action to do his act. If you sit in Leidseplein you will get “entertained” by some talented and some not very talented street entertainers. This chap belonged in the latter category. To me he looked like an 55 year old office worker or a computer programmer who was doing his act whilst his batch program was running. Anyway his act entailed stripping off almost entirely naked except for his man bits which were wrapped in what looked Aluminium foil and would start climbing a rope, which was tethered to a tree and secured to one of the buildings. He brought all his paraphernalia in a little cart which had a CD player inside playing music. He climbed the rope doing a sort of pole dance routine. We hoped and prayed that the aluminium foil did not come loose (thankfully it never did). After 10 minutes or so he’d come around to his transfixed audience for some money. We saw this guy many times, always in Leidseplein. Now this was a memory which has never ever left me, no matter how many times I prayed it would.
Oh, my, that one takes the cake, Nikki!! And your description was terrific--I could almost picture the scene. Fortunately, the key word is "almost".
The very first time we saw him our jaws dropped to the floor. Anywhere else the police would have arrested him. We always knew he was going to do his act even before we clapped eyes on him when we saw the rope attached to the tree.
There was a guy used to walk through Cumbria regularly if not the country known as the naked rambler. Often seen him in the lanes wearing a backpack and a thong. Long may eccentricity live!
Specially for you @Sandi T. someone has filmed the guy and put it on YouTube. Now you too can share my memory. Enjoy!!
Green bomber with orange lining was a 80s skinhead thing. Skins of the late 60s & 70s had as you say a Harrington and top gear skins wore a Baracuta Harrington.
Thanks, Nikki. Now I can’t unsee it either! Actually, what he’s able to do is pretty amazing, I’ll give him that. But I thought it hilarious that one of the comments was, “Does he really have to be wearing a thong to do that?” I had that same question.
The only bit of my description which was wrong was that he used a piece of metal pole to support the rope, but the rest was just about spot on. If you’re sat outside enjoying the weather and a nice beer the last thing you want to see is a middle aged bloke in a thong leaving little to the imagination. (Or a women’s swim suite looking like George Bush Jr)
Um, no, @Privateer. I was a bit more, shall we say, "streamlined" in my racing days than that female cyclist on the black and pink bicycle. There were and are pros and cons to that. On the plus side, for racing I had less weight to drag uphill on climbs. Cons--well, that's obvious and have little to do with cycling. Climbing up Mt. Lemmon in my racing days... Waiting for a teammate to change a flat...
Some strange sights during these times. And also some sad ones. I saw this tent along the Rillito River "Loop" path on my daily walk recently.
Don't look under the bridges Sandi, most are occupied, especially if there within a mile of liquor store or a car detail shop.
And you get there faster than you can spell Kohorna... A musician that I like very much got stranded and locked down on a tour through Canada. She has been taken in by an old couple just to get her off the street: no tour, no gigs, no income, no hotel... Man, can you get f.cked up quickly these days!