h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As I walked up to the orthodontist's this morning for my last checkup, I had a tune running through my head:


DUM DUM, da-dum dum dum du-um.
DUM DUM, da-dum dum dum du-um.


I couldn't place it. I never can place tunes. And if my brother was (a) living in the same country as me, and (b) talking to me, I'd have hummed it at him. My brother has an amazing knack. I can hum half a bar of music badly out of tune, and he'll tell me what the song is I have stuck in my head. I miss that ability.

All I could think of was that it was from a musical. And I don't know many musicals, so that should narrow it down. I was working my way through the songs in Joseph, trying to make one of them fit, when it suddenly came to me. My brother probably wouldn't have known it after all. And it's not from a musical, though it is performed on stage with accompanying acting.

It's "Het Tietenlied", a song about a girl going through puberty, from Kinderen voor Kinderen, a Dutch group which sings songs by kids, for kids, and about kids. I first heard of Kinderen voor Kinderen through Terrence Uphoff's song "Twee Vaders", about a boy with two fathers. Then I looked for more. I discovered a song about ADHD and a couple of others I enjoyed. Not many have English subtitles. "Het Titenlied" doesn't, and I don't understand it, but the tune stuck in my head.

"Twee Vaders", sung by Terrence Uphoff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qf0puHJ-KM.

"ADHD", sung by I don't know whom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K-m-jLjmtQ.

"Het Tietenlied", sung by Elise van der Horst (who later went on to perform, as an adult, as EliZe): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90BnU4CRUSI.

I enjoy these.

TRiG.

And now his wife's had a baby. I'm an uncle. This is a very odd feeling.

TRiG.

have you tried to rebuild bridges???

send him a letter???

I have a similar issue with my brother, he's got a kid that I'll probably never meet.

I'm not writing him anything this evening. When I first got to the computer, my head was still quite sore from thwacking it off a tree. I was too headachy to look at the screen for long, and turned the computer on only to reread my mother's e-mail about where the food was (I'm in my parents' house; they're away).

The headache's passed now, and the swelling has gone down, but I'm too tired to write anything. I've listed to a couple of episodes of the News Quiz, and now I'm going to bed.

TRiG.

I'll write to him tomorrow. I do write, occasionally. Small newsy bits, usually. I generally don't ask questions, because I know he won't reply.

TRiG.

blimey, I hope you're ok.

Maybe a higher authority needs to get you two together somehow (a family gathering or something).

Don't wait for a funeral to bring you together.

I'm sorry he puts religious indoctrination over his brother.