I'm woken up just after 10am by a knock at the door. It's my new flatmate. My previous flat mate moved out while I was off travelling. So on a day where I thought I could be adventure free for just a few days - I now have a new flatmate to meet.
He's a banker from New Zealand, and we decide to seal the relationship by going off to Bar Gollum that night.
Bar Gollem serves hunners(Scottish for many - one, two, hunners), of Belgian beers. We seem to have opted for a beer called Satan(http://www.satanbeer.com). Maybe the tiredness had taken my common sense away, but I didn't notice that this was a bad omen.
It's my recollection that we had 4 of those babies. The problem is that when you are drinking normal crappy(But oh so standardised) beer,
you start to feel it, and decide to have a last one before the off. With Belgian beer, that last beer shouldn't be taken, cos it is liable to change you from a little tipsy to completely plastered.
Luckily being a seasoned drinker, I recognise this - make my excuses and head for home. Unfortunately there is a further problem. The best means to get around in Amsterdam is by bicycle. I often cycle home with few drinks. I would never even think about getting in a car drunk, but cycling is less of an issue, cos the only person you can harm is yourself, and the small canal streets of Amsterdam ensure that there is little fast traffic.
Most sane people(Those who think twice before drinking a beer called Satan) would have walked or got a tram, but I decide to slowly cycle. All goes well - I'm listening to the beastie boys on my iPod, when taxi pulls out in front of me. I stop suddenly - normally not a problem - swerve a little and rattle my front wheel off the kerb. This is normally results in you losing control for a second but recovering, but in this case I take a tumble. Maybe because of the beer - maybe it would have happened anyway. Nothing serious, I fall over and land on my elbow. I think it is nothing an cycle on. By the time I get home my elbow is throbbing - I've grazed my elbow.
I realise several things now. The first is that children are hard as nails - never do I remember grazing something and it stinging like this. I try many things, sure that there is a parental secret to stopping a kid's grazed elbow from stinging. I have an ice lolly - I play with some lego - nothing works. I decide to give up and go to bed, but realise I should clean my elbow.
Having been in Scotland for the best part of 3 weeks and carried my mountain first aid kit around, it was used to cover blisters, the paracetamol cured a couple of hangovers, and then there was the aftermath of the drumstick fight.
Never did I think I would need it in such a flat country. I realise that I have no plaster's, no antiseptic cream, no nothing. I have a good think - pour some whisky(Only bell's) on it give it a wipe and head off to bed.
I'm looking forward to getting to know my new flatmate - any relationship which has scars to show when it started can't be half bad.
1 comment:
Thanks a lot for writing this, it was unbelieveably informative and told me a ton.
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