back in the dam

I'm living quietly.... It's getting warmer in Amsterdam. The canal's aren't freezing any more:



I'm getting to the gym plenty, and eating quite healthy - which given the blandness of a lot of the food over here and the lack of conveniences such as Greggs, isn;t that hard:



I've discovered that nine inch nails is indeed very good Gym muisc, it spurs you on and you keep pumping cos you know you know theres a big adrenaline kick coming. After a particularly tough day at work, I manage to do the double whammy of Pretty Hate Machine followed by The Downward Spiral:





Then following a shower, it's a relaxing cycle home to something a little more relaxing:

Sigur Ros


Mogwai:


At another Gym session, The Kiwi introduces me to the Sauna on the top floor, its a great relaxing room... you go for a sauna and a shower, and then you can relax on sun loungers and look over the view of Amsterdam from the Balcony...... I'll get a photo sometime....

My next trip is Luxembourg......

Brussels

Another Sunday working...... We're on our way to Brussels....

I've spoken about Brussels before. It's a lovely city etc.etc. but all I ever do here is go to boring meetings in boring buildings and stay in boring hotels. That is if I have the time to stay instead of driving there and back in a day. Luckily this time it's a 9-5 meeting, so it's pretty important I'm awake.

I've decided that rather than hang about hotels bored watching my laptop and considering going and sitting in bars alone in strange cities trying to get a finger on a non existent pulse, I'm going to try to book into hotels which have a gym where possible.

Brussels is the first opportunity of this so far this year. I find a good deal at the Bristol Stephanie on Ave. Louise:



It's a lovely hotel - very plush, and it has a fitness room, a sauna, a Jacuzzi, a sun bed, a masseuse and a swimming pool - I think I may have finally found a Hotel in Brussels that can make me look forward to meetings in this concrete village.....

So Sunday night, after driving down, I go an chill out for an hour in the fitness room.. It's a far cry from Squash City, but it serves its purpose of giving me a work out while listening to badmotorfinger:



I'm alone, so I decide to give thee running machine a whirl. They always scare me and I would hate to skite off one of them while it's running. After a 10 minute jog, I realise that its a good hard work out and I may start using the running machines at Squash city.

After the Gym, we head off to find some food. Ве еат at what I would have to describe as the worst restaurant I've ever eaten in. I don't rememember the name, but I remember where it is and won't be back. The 12 euro starter of spicy gambas consisted of 4 frozen prawns with a tin of tomatoe soup poured over them and a sprinkling of chili powder. The only redeeming factor was getting to wash the bland mediocre food down with a Chimay Blue:



With this, it's off for an early night before the usual day of boring meetings followed by a drive back....

On the drive back, I introduce my boss to Camp Freddy radio:



He like's Dave Navarro's dark and sarcastic humour as much as I do which should make commuting to Brussels more fun.

By the time we make it back to Amsterdam, we have time for a few beers before bed and work in the morning......

Star Wars Monopoly or The Blues Brothers

After another quieter than hoped for friday night(This is becoming habit!!), I'm fresh in the morning and head to the gym. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how different classic albums work as exercise soundtracks. During the week, I nearly broke a stepping machine while listening to mother's milk:



After a Billy Morrison suggestion... I pulled out an old classic I've not heard in a while, which gets you rowing:



Along with Dookie, this would get a corpse moving on a rowing machine.

I've yet to attempt Nine Inch nails, but today I have lots of time, so I'm going to go for the whole MellonCollie and the Infinite sadness exercise:



I won't say too much about this, cos I have a full review drafted that I want to put up here, but it's an album which keeps on kicking me with adrenaline and keeps me moving. At one point on the rowing machine, the music takes me and I go into a sprint till a guitar solo finishes. I'm puggled when I leave the gym.

After the gym, I have a slow cycle to Diemen for an appointment with the Bulgarians. I got Star Wars Monopoly for Christmas, and I;ve been promising to bring it over for a game all year:



It takes us a while, but after what seems like an endless stream of visitors, we settle down to a game of Monopoly. Obi Wan is ecstatic, as are the males in the room who all go like big kids as soon as we say statements like:

"Do you want to buy an X-Wing for 200"

We stick on the Blues Brothers in the background:



It turns out that one of number hasn't seen it. It''s one of my favourite films, so I'm really enjoying watching someone experience all the great moments for the first time. Obi wan is none too pleased. It's clear that less and less attention is being paid to the Monopoly. He gives us an ultimatum; Are we watching the Blues Brothers or are we playing Monopoly???

He was unhappy with the answer, so the Monopoly gets cleared up and he heads off to play in his room in the huff...... I feel bad, but c'mon.... It's the Blues Brothers!!!

......before long, he is bored so comes down and asks us what the film is anyway. He sits on the edge of the couch with his arms folded. It's clear we are meant to know he's in a bad mood. It's the scene where Carrie FIsher has shot at the blues brothers with an assault rifle and jake has crawled towards her to sweet talk them into letting her escape. Carrie Fisher says "Oh jake I love you". At this Obi Wan huffily says:

"No you don't. You love Han Solo!!!"

He's even in the huff with Carrie Fisher.

After the film we cure any huff with a little boogie to Ray Charles "Shake your tailfeather"

Th clear solution would be to have played Blues Brother's Monopoly...

I head off to catch up with some other bulgarians at a Jazz but by the time I make it back to the centre, they are heading home... SO I join them there for a few Bacardi and cokes and a DVD....

I cycle home very tired through the cold breeze of early morning Amsterdam.....

Gym and Shopping

I wake up fresh on a Saturday morning - its a new experience, and feels a little strange..

I'm going to go to the Gym with The Kiwi.... It's my second time in the Gym and I'm really looking forward to it:



I manage to add rowing to my routine and generally, I'm feeling fitter and sweating less - or little enough to not be extremely embarrassed that there's a stream running off the bottom of your running machine. I'm still surprised by how easy it is:

Step 1: Play upbeat classic album on iPod
Step:2: Perform repetitive action and get fit.

The Kiwi jokingly points me towards the basketball courts. Maybe holey Chuck Taylor's aren't suitable gym footwear:



I decide to reward my fitness with a trip to Kalverstraat to stock up on more suitable Gym attire...



Normally I would avoid going to Kalverstraat at all costs on a saturday - it is full of a very slow stream of very stupid shoppers and I instantly become a supporter of american gun laws when I step foot on it. Today, I'm so chilled from working out that I can slowly donner along the street without a care in the world.

I may be going for some sports clothes, which are traditionally associatted with the common or Garden Ned in Scotland:



A ned is a scottish youth who dresses in a tracksuit and hangs around street corners... Their intelligence is directly proportionate to the whiteness of their sportswear. The DO NOT perform sport..... For this reason, long haired hippies like myself don't have much call for sports wear and find shopping for it a little hard. I have decided to grunge up my Gym experience.

Without paying over the odds for a simple pair of good running shoes, it's pretty tough to grunge up my shoes, but I'll look out for something which is both functional and alternative. The real trick is in the T-Shirt... I head into the closest CD shop and look through their T-Shirt collection for something a bit different..... I fail. I'll have to make do with my trusty Subpop T-Shirt:



and the Kurt Cobain "Grunge is dead" T-Shirt I've ordered on the internet:



Okay it's obscure, and no one is ever likely to acknowledge it's origin, but it makes me feel less self concious about looking like a ned, and once I find an Ed Vedder "I love Grunge" T-shirt I can start alternating them:

I feel very chilled after the gym and I'm ready for a wild and wonderful night out. It doesn't happen, no one seems to be in the same mood, so The Kiwi and I find ourselves wandering aimlessly around a few bars and drinking with various people who seem to have forgotten their red tin of "Ronseal Town painter"(Does exactly what it says on the tin........