Saturday: A day off in Amsterdam.....

Saturday couldn't come quick enough this week... I arrived back late on the sunday from Berlin, then worked all week and really missed my weekend long lies. By saturday... all I could do was collapse in bed.... get up late.... and catch up on washing. There's next to nothing in the house that would let me construct a decent meal, so a phone call from the Bulgarian Bride with an invite to dinner is very welcomed when it comes. It always feels like being with family when I'm over at Diemen, so it's a good place to relax.

After Berlin, I've decided that I need to see more of the Netherlands and do a bit more than sleep, drink and eat in Amsterdam. Given that Mowgli is coming over and we'll be a bit more active than my current circles of drinkers, I go shopping.

I buy..



....because the good weather has started and I want to start mixing my heallthy living with getting out and about and doing some stuff.....



......because I have spent very little time outside of Amsterdam in my four years in this country, and I want to start being a tourist at the weekends a little bit more...



..... because I'm spending 2 weeks there in July for 3 conferences I have... 2 of these will be on my own, so it will make it more enjoyable if I can do a bit of sight seeing..

Once I have a bag full of books, I take off along the Amstel to make my way to diemen.... I am jumping over speed bumps and grooving out to The Colour and the Shape:



The sun is shining and I am wearing shorts, (fake)Oaklay's and a pearl jam T-Shirt... I'm in a great mood and take some pictures of the scenery in preparation for going a bit of a road trip tomorrow...













I like the road to Diemen.. it's straight and peaceful, and I can sing as I cycle without attracting so many looks....






Diemen itself is beautiful too.... I'm in a great mood, and a heron on a tree by the river makes me stop to take some photos....










Dinner is wonderful as always and we celebrate the good weather with the usual array of Bulgarian salads.... I can't wait till I get the real thing in Bansko in a week or so....

We watch the Magdaline Sisters before it;s time to go home:



It's cool to be cycling home in shorts when it;s dark and there''s a cool summer breeze keeping you awake in the early hours of the morning...

I make it home really late.....

.....Leka Nosh......

Belgique

It's a late start on Sunday after our Hilarious Saturday night. I play some guitar, cook a curry, watch the eastenders omnibus, and then get a phone call from the Bulgarian bride. She's in the centre meeting some friend's for a drink and they are meeting at 6.30pm on Dam Square:



A quick phone call to The Kiwi tells him to go there after kick boxing instead of home.

The Bride has a colleague staying with her for a week while she carries out a placement. She is from Moldovia, so I can tick off another country in my book of friends. Also present is Obi Wan and a Bulgarian friend from the wedding.

Tonight we are targeting Belgique:



Belgique is a small Belgian beer bar which nestles in the heart of Amsterdam's busy shopping street up a back alley. It is so small that it only has about 8 seats, luckily, the building across the road has scaffolding on it and they have hung hammocks from it. We claim some hammocks and then Obi Wan and I hit the bar.

He takes great delight in acting as waiter for the first roun of Kwak's as the beer comes in a very strange glass:



We swing from the hammock's and enjoy the fine beer. Obi wan is teaching us Dutch. The Kiwi asks:

"Heb jouw een grote slaapkamer?" = "do you have a large bedroom"

The Bride declares "He's leading the witness!". The Kiwi already knows that Obi Wan has a large bedroom, where each corner represents a different planet for lego spaceships to fly to:



Before long, it's time for the Diemenites, to head southwards, and The Kiwi, the Bulgarian and I stay for a few more beers before we head home to eat the curry and hit the hay. Before we hit the hay we have partaken in the following beers:

Amsterdam's own Zatte:


A Chimay blue:


And a St. Bernardus:

Deadline met and DVD

So finally after about 12 days of working non-stop we meet our deadline.
Instead of hitting the bars, I´m due for dinenr and a DVD in Diemen again. We´re planning to see the rest of the Commitments.

There is a Taiwanese/American coupel coming roudn too. They were at the house warming party, so I´ve met them before. Obi Wan is as usual bouncing off the ceiling. I´m a little worse for ware and looking forward to my bed, but I accepted the invite to keep me out of the pub, and it worked.

We have a Bulgarian dish which seems to be a cross between mince and Tatties and Lasagne, it´s kind of stacked mince meat and potatoes. It really fills a hole, and I feel much better afterwards.

By now Obi Wan is showered and in bed,and we settle down to watch the Commitments. We stay awake past the first half hour this time and everyone agress that it´s a pretty good film. I head off early to look foward to my first long lie in weeks.

Boysitting

The blog has been seriously neglected of late. I didn't take my computer to Bulgaruia, which meant I had that backlog, and then there was dublin. I have a huge deadline at work, so I've basically been working every hour that I'm not asleep. It's been a long while since I've done that, and at first it feels good. A real comraderia and team work, but by Saturday(Today) I'm quite glad when the Bulgarian Newly wed asks me to baby sit. It avoids me going out for a drink with some other mates, as I know that this tired, stressed and over worked, it will be a very suick trip to drunken oblivion, and a less than fresh head for work on sunday.

I take a quick trip to the public library roudn the corner from my work and pick up a few DVD's for entertainment.

One time a while ago I was baby sitting Obi Wan Kenobov when he was a little younger. Somemone phoned me and I said I was baby sitting. He was very angry when I got off the phone:

"I no baby. You tell people you boy sitting. Okay??"

Anyway. Now he's pretty chuffed when I come round as it usually means he gets to play Lord of The Rings on my powerbook:



I'm not much one for computer games. I don't think I;ve been past level 1 of Mario Bros, because the first tiem I get killed, I decide I've lost interest. Lord of the Rings however is a differrent kettle of taters.(Boil em, mash em, put em in a pot.) Not only has it always been a fantasy of mine to pretend I'm aragorn, Legolas, gandalf or one of the boys, it's on my beloved apple, so It's even more fun. I bought the game to get through a round of boring conerences ages back and I completed it not long after. Obi Wan, however, still loves playing it, so I usually take it round when I'm visiting. But we keep that till later when I go round.

I decided that I could just veg in front of some DVD's. I always like to take round good kids DVD's. I remember vividly enjoying certain films when I was a kid, so I'm pretty good at picking out DVD's that a Star wars, and Lord of the Rings loving 7 yr old will appreciatte. He loved the Goonies, and once he's a wee bit older I hope he'll appreciatte the lost boys. So today from the Library, I have the Princess Bride:



In the library I wanted to get willow, but I couldn't find it. I had phoned Nine Inch Nina as an escape from work and she had been over the moon at the prospect of watching willow and I thought it would be a good option, but it'll have to wait till next time.

I remember watching the Princess Bride when I was a kid. Me and my sister were getting Babysat, and the man babysitting us brought round this video. We'd never heard of it, and basically thoought "What's this crap??(In 7 yr old thoughts of course).

The film starts with the boy from the wonder years(Fred Savage) moaning cos he's sick and his Grandpa has decided that he's going to read a book. The koid, being a thouroughly modern boy prefers to play his nintendo entertainment system and thinks that books don't have the same excitment. He interupts all the way through the introduction about how it's a love story and he doesn't want to hear about kissing. Then of course by the ene he's compeltely won over and thinks that love is an important part of the tale provoiding you have major elements of Jim Henson style monsters and swashbuckling and fights and stuff.

It's a great movie for kids and the script has enough adult and clever humour in it to keep things alive. That and the cameo of Peter Cook as a priest with a speech impedement makes it a cracking film. Obi Wan agrrees and by the end is shouting:

"I am Inio Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die!!!"

So another success in the DVD choice.

After DVD, it's dinner. His mum has made some good Bulgarian soup and her attempt at a scottish dish called "Mince and Tatties"It tastes magnificant, but this may be cos it's my first real meal since I was in Ireland.

After dinner, it´s the inevitable 2 hours of Lord of the Rings playing, where Obi Wan´s eyes get so wide he looks like he´s on something. I have to admit, that I quite enjoy it to. Eventually it´s time for his bed, and I instantly crash out on the couch until his mum gets home.

She´s had a good night at a party and we sit down to watch the Commitments:



I´ve loved the Commitments, sonce I first saw it. I love any film that shows the rise and fall of a band. But this one has the added value that it´s funny too.

It´s about 2am and we last 30 minutes into the film til I decide it would be better left for another night. I head off and enjoy the long cycle home in the refreshing chill of the almost autumn night.

Steaks, beers, and light sabres

After a very well behaved early night last night, I have met my deadlines at work, so can catch up on the everyday stuff which lies under reams of paper on my desk. I left my Camera at the dinner last night, so I meet Miss Argentina for a coffee. It's good fun having a chinwag without alcohol, and makes a good relief from a very empty office.(Everyone is on holiday or at conferences). Coffee was at the closest bar to my work, Cafe Molenpad:



It's a great little bar. A lot of character, I've had a lot of good nights, afternoons, mornings, terrace sessions, beer sessions, coffee sessions and tea sessions here. It's a bar which is very good at multi tasking.

Tonight I'm triple booked. I had planned to have a Guitar Jam, but then I got offered Steak, Beers, and Pool with The Kiwi and the Pool lads. While it's not going to be the same level as Sunday's steak, so good relaxing conversation sounds like fun. Later in the afternoon, I get a phone call from one of my Bulgarian friends, He tells me that they are having a party at their new house. I can't pass this up as I want to see the new house and they are pretty good friends. I decide that I can reduce myself to double booked by getting a steak with the lads, and then heading to the party.

We meet at Coco's on Rembrandt plein:



It's an Australian theme bar which boasts warm beer and lousy food. The bar is popular with Australian and New Zealand ex-pats and it's full pints of cold beer, large portions of food and large screen football/rugby/cricket mean the English don't mind it either. We meet up with a Dutch colleague of The Kiwi's and have a pint here before heading off to one of the touristy Steak Restaurants on Rembrandtsbreestraat, It's an Italian steak restaurant. which is in the touristy area of Rembrandtsplein, so I don't expect much. When we go in, we have a little old Italian man who does the bad service act. It soon becomes clear that the bad service act is really just a clever ruse to hid the fact that the service is pretty bad. We ask for pints, half litres and he pretends he doesn't understand, we order them in several languages and he "Yeah, yeah, yeah's his way off to the kitchen. He comes back with Litres. It's just a trick to get more money out of tourists. Although the steak is pretty good, everything that surrounds it is cheap and crappy. Five portions of chips amounts to one larger than normal portion in the middle of the table, the steak sauces are packet mixes etc.

We have fun anyway, the conversation is pretty good. We even get onto discussing the differences between the Johnny Cash version of "Hurt" and the Nine Inch Nails original. An expression of pain or a very good tune. Johnny Cash takes away so much of the original's darkness, but you can see what a great song it is in terms of melody and structure when Johnny Cash does it. Basically Johnny Cash trades some of the pain and darkness to make the hooks of the song more obvious.

By the time the bill comes the table is so full of empty plates that the waiter hands it to us on a tray. The Dutch guy is the only one with free hands, but is hesitating on being handed the bill in case he has to pay it all. One of the English guys notice this and a says "C'mon at least hold it - it's only a piece of paper". This is in reference to the Dutch being tight.

We head off for a quick game of Pool. A few cheeky doubles and some nice long pots mean that I can still hold my head high in a Pool hall. After a few games I have to get going to get to the Party.

The party is in Diemen-Zuid which is south-east of Amsterdam. It's about a 20 minute bike ride away. I should probably take the tram, but living in Amsterdam you never really want to be away from your bike. It keeps your options open for getting home. It's quite exciting getting out of the centre. Going to a suburb, to a real house. I'm greeted at the door by their very excited kid. He insists on running around the house and showing me everything before I'm allowed to speak to anyone. By Amsterdam standards the house is Huge!!! There's three floors and three bedrooms. It's hard for people to understand this excitement when you haven't lived in Amsterdam, but Amsterdam living is very cramped. Houses are small, and Amsterdammers are experts in making the most of small spaces. So being in a house with so much space feels great. The garden is a good size as well. To give an idea of size, it's big enough and dark enough that if you wanted to you could hide in he bush and wait till people pass and jump out with a light sabre, you could.





The kids are playing with Light Sabres in the garden. They decide that I should be Darth Vader, cos he loses his legs. It's funny watching kids worship Ewan MacGreggor in the same way I used to run around the school playground pretending we were Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. The difference is the toys, we used to just imagine we were holding light sabres(Or hold sticks if we were outside the playground), whereas no kids have things with lights that vibrate. I explain that Darth vader has a heavy dry breathing because he is thirsty and that he needs a beer. While Obi Wan MacGreggor goes to the fridge, I go and say hello to my bulgarian friends and introduce myself to people I haven't met.

I've arrived quite late, so the party's winding up, but it was good to see this set of friends, some of who will be in Bulgaria next week. The new house has a great feeling, and theres a garden. I look forward to Barbecues here next summer(I think the good weather is finished for this year.)

I really enjoy my night time cycle through the countryside - no cars, just me and MellonCollie and the infinite sadness: