Signs of improvement

I don't like January much.  It's cold and damp.  It holds bad memories of losing my dad.  The fun and lightness of Christmas and New Year already seem a long time ago.  My husband leaves for work in the mornings and it's dark, and when he comes home in the evening it's dark.  On a bad day that is the same for me {and I finish at 4pm!}.  So when I pulled the blinds this morning to wave goodbye to him, it was such an unexpected pleasure to see the beautiful colours in the sky as the sun rose behind the clouds. 

Today I plan to do some more work to the little album I am making using the photos from our trip to Cologne. I got the album from A Trip Down Memory Lane.  I bought one last year in blue for my Portuguese album and loved it so much I bought another for this project in black. 

I've done a couple of pages already and even altered some page protectors so that they make extra inserts to display more pictures.  The next pages I want to do will be featuring a bar we found near the markets.  It was the most fascinating place.  The lighting was subdued and the walls were full of Victorian style games and machines.  Like 'What the Butler saw', Bagatelle and Fortune telling machines.  Not to mention one of those scary Laughing Sailors that sits all quietly for ages then suddenly springs into action and bursts into hysterical laughter.  We spent quite a while in there gradually defrosting from the cold of walking around the markets and thawed out whilst sampling a glass of their finest gluwein.  They had an old fashioned juke box in there, which was linked up to these

They kind of gave me the creeps to be honest.  When you chose your song, they would rise up from a sitting position and 'play' the music.  Their fingers moved and their cheeks blew in and out and the spooky one on the left with the crossed eyes moved his eyebrows up and down.  It was kind of traditional old German 'oompah' music but playing modern songs.  Totally bizarre but one of those memories that stick in your mind.  I know that whenever I look in that album in the future and see this photo, I will be transported back to that little booth in the corner of a traditional German Bierhaus.