Kiwi party

Given that we did the full on Amsterdam Party thang last night, tonight I'm pretty glad that we have a party to go to. Maybe it's the social circles I run around it, or maybe it's the tiny Amsterdam houses, but I don't find myself at many Amsterdam house parties. They tend to be more subdued dinners or social get-togethers. But tonight through a friend of a friend we are off to a Kiwi birthday party round the corner from her flat.

We head off to the off license and get ourselves some beers, then we head back to the flat and spend some time beautifying ourselves while we wait for the arrival for of a kiwi friend. I say beautifying, we really just watched a bottom DVD:



The Kiwi girl stays in the Red Light District, so doesn't often have to use any form of transport to find social life. I'm very surprised she managed to use a tram and head out to the west..

We head the few block to the party on foot. We are greeted by the host's Dutch wife, who doesn't know us, so seems a little skeptical until her husband comes along and knows The Kiwi. Most of the rest of the party is dutch women and we head out onto the balcony to enjoy a cold one before the Kiwi's we know get there.

On the Balcony, we meet the band who are playing in the living room tonight. They consist of a Kiwi, someone from Finland and two Dutch guys, we laugh and joke for a while until we're joined by more Kiwi's. One strange fact about Kiwi's is that because they socailise so much and the country has a population of about 4 Million, they always have mutual friends. It;s quite bizarre, you mention a town, and pretty soon, there's a mutual drinking partner that they know.

The band are ready to start, and we head to the living room for the first time. The band are tuning up, and finally I get to find out what they play. They had been pretty sketchy, but now we see that we have a Dutch Drummer who is playing what appears o be a Box(he later tells me it Peruvian), but I still don't know what it's called. He's joined on the right by a man playing what can only be described as Wah wah Mandolin. You then have the Finnish guy on a double bass and a kiwi singing and playing guitar.

They play lots of covers, and given some of the audience, there's a few crowded house numbers which go down well. Most people are standing around watching, but given my extensive experience of playing to dead audiences, I encourage the kiwi's to start dancing. At first I feel a bit daft, but by the time we are getting acoustic renditions of such hits as Whole Lotta Rosie by AC/DC I'm going for it. despite the lack of involvement form the Dutch half of the room.

They are pretty well behaved and subdued, but by the second set, we are pulling them onto the dancefloor to join us. Eventually, the band finishes and we take the opportunity to leave. I'm sure the non-dancers were quite glad to see us go, but the kiwi birthday boy and the band was glad we came along and livened things up a little, so I don't feel too bad.

I arrive home in the early hours. It was an interesting night. A little different which is good, but I'm glad when my dancing shows come off and i crawl into bed.

Stormtroopers are all wife beating Kiwis

We are woken at 11am by a phone call from Kiwi Girl who is in a bar and asking if we want to come and watch the All Blacks play Australia. No Way. It's a long lie I'm after.

I get up around 2pm and make some pancakes for breakfast, and then watch "Once Were Warriors":



It's a rough gritty film about a Maori family living on the poverty line. It's got a very "real" wife beating scene. It stars Temuera Morrison:



One of the biggest Kiwi film stars, his face is familiar because he plays Jango Fett in Star Wars episode II:



Jango Fett is the man that they clone to make all the Stormtroopers. Which means that Stormtroopers must be wife beaters as well. I knew they were bad bastards(Quite literally).

After the film, we contemplate inviting people round for a dinner party, but a few phone calls later and the plans have shifted. Kiwi Girls has few people round for drinks, and we're gonna bring a few more and make it a party. So after dinner it's off to Coco's to meet the Pool Twins and Miss Germany before heading off to Kiwi Girl's flat in the Red Light District.:



On the way to the flat we go to the off license for supplies. It feels good walking through he streets holding a crate of beer. It's been a while since I did that - this feels like my student days again.

We get to the flat - it's gorgeous - pretty big for a canal house flat and in the middle of party central. No wonder Kiwi girl doesn't sleep, she lives bang in the centre of a 24 hour party.

We get there and sit for a few drinks we listen to/watch the following:

Pearl Jam - VS - Not my choice. Very rarely has someone else chosen Pearl Jam when I'm at a party:









Not my choice:




This is all while drinking and playing trivial pursuits, with only short intermissions for air guitar.

By the time it's the early hours, the rain is "stoatin af the grun"(i.e. Heavy), so we stay for beers until it goes off. It doesn't go off, but we eventually we go home anyway.

This "quiet" weekend is turning into a weekend where I don't see much daylight.

A quiet Friday night in (the pub).

Although it's friday night, I decide to have a quiet night in. I've neglected my guitar playing and I want to relax and catch up. The Kiwi eventually comes home from work and invites me for a drink with his work mates. Maturly, I decline, but decide that I might call later and catch up with them.

After a big hearty bowl of mince and tatties, and some relaxed guitar noodling, it's 10pm and I'm ready for some company. I naively think because it's 10pm, it's only a few drinks. I meet The Kiwi, a kiwi girl, one of the Pool twins and some of their work mates at Cafe Cuba on the Nieuwmarkt:



It's quite a touristy bar, being close to the Red Light District, but it's quite lively and full of Friday night post work drinkers. I soon join in the Corona drinking. We have 2 or three and then head off to another bar cos the Antipodeans are getting cold and I've just found out that the beers are 4 euros a bottle(Scottish tightness habits die hard.) I am learning more and more about Kiwi's. In my studies of the two I've met, it would appear that they like a drink. They also have a strange grammar to their language, in that instead of using full stops. They use he word "Bro", even when it's a woman. On leaving Cafe Cuba, we pay the drinks and The Kiwi has this exchange with the barman:

K: Dank u wel(Thank you in dutch) bro.
B: Alsjeblieft,(Please - but used differently) bro.
K: Tot ziens(Cheerio) bro

The bar man had even picked up this new form of closing a sentance.

We head along to some small, lively, but empty bar and take a few tables. The kiwi girl is about 5'6" yet she is keeping up with the boys beer for beer and showing no sign of drunkenness. We have some good conversations about comedy and films. The Kiwi's rave about a film called "Once were Warriors". It seem's to be the Kiwi equivalent of trainspotting.

Before long(i.e. about 3am), we are off home. A pretty good night of nothing conversations, hilarity and beer.