Tuesday 31 March 2009

Dancing, DAFs and Don'ts

This is what humans do when they are happy. Margo is dancing with her sister Ada and the man taking the photo is RudeBoy who is the husband of Margo. Ada has Alzheimer's but loves music - especially Celine Dion - so this is a special song for Ada with love from Tizit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHyJTpDFgc8
In the next photo is KeKe with the most beautiful baby in the cosmos - Mila. She likes KeKe's soft tummy and fell asleep straightaway. Mila went on vacation with her parents to Grand Canaria which is an island somewhere in the sea - just like England.
Maybe all the beaches in England would like a sign like this one in Scheveningen. It tells you all the things you cannot do - TaTa says in Denmarkland the signs tell you what you can do but in Dutchland they all say what you cannot do. According to this sign you cannot: walk the dog, drive your car (watch out Jeremy!), ride your bicycle or your motorbike, and loads of other things which humans do - but it doesn't say you cannot walk your cat, or ride a unicyle, or land an aircraft - maybe they just ran out of space to put DO NOT on.
Then another lovely blue sky with some clouds.
The last photo is one of TaTa's favourite cars called a DAF (short for Daffodil) or long for Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek.

In 1959 DAF started the production of passenger cars. The first taken into production was the 600 model. This model, also known as the A-type, was a design of Dutch engineer Van Den Brink and incorporated some very innovative technologies. Most important of those innovations was the Variomatic transmission, an automatic transmission that didn't have any actual gears. DAF stuck to this transmission of the future all its car-building life and even today it still exists in a high-tech version called Transmatic, built by VDT (Van Doorne's Transmissie bv) in Tilburg, The Netherlands. From 1959 to 1963 30,563 DAF 600s were built. In 1961 the DAF 750 became available, an improved version of the 600 fitted with a bigger engine of which 16,767 units were sold up to 1963. 1961 also saw the introduction of the Daffodil (and you thought I was joking!) 30 model: a luxurious version of the DAF 750 with slightly revised bodywork of which 23,045 units were sold.
In 1963 all models were replaced by the new Daffodil (a contraction of the words DAF and Krokodil, Dutch for crocodile). The 31 was a further developed version of the Daffodil 30 and sold 56,200 units until it was succeeded by the Daffodil 32 in 1965. The 32 was an improved version of the 31 model with technics and bodywork still hailing back to the DAF 750 and selling 53,674 units up to 1967 and an additional 500 units for the rally sport model Daffodil 32 S (only built in 1966). The end of this line was the DAF 33 (shown in the photo) that was introduced in 1967 and built up to 1974. Top speed was 112 kph and it accelerated from 0 to 80 kph in 17 seconds (in the original DAF 600 it took 33 seconds to get from 0 to 80 kph). The DAF 33 was by far the most solid version of this series; 131,621 of these cars have been produced. The DAF passenger car production facilities were sold to Volvo in 1975, so the original DAF 600 in all its guises up to the 33 model has been the mainstay of DAF car production until the end. It was a characteristic car with a very loyal following but the DAF was often ridiculed but now of course is a collector's item.