Cycling to Oudekerk aan de Amstel

I wake up late.... but I knew I would....







today I'm going to set out on the first of (hopefully) many cycle trips around The Netherlands. There are two trips in the book suggested which can be done in a few hours from Amsterdam. The one that goes North involves ferrys and optional detours, so I decide to take the one that goes south to Oudekerk aan de Amstel....

I stick a couple of packets of nuts, some water and a smoothie in my bag and set out. This will feed me for about 6 hours, but given that I'm never going to be more than a taxi ride from home, I think I'm being a little over careful.

Oudekerk aan de Amstel means Old "Church on the Amstel", the Amstel being the river that runs through Amsterdam... this bike trip there for heads done one bank of the river, turns at a bridge and heads back up the other side...

I cycle to the Amstel as if I was heading to Diemen, but instead of crossing the river, I turn right and continue south... after a few blocks I'm in uncharted territory(for me anyway).

The weather is perfect... a little breeze, blue skies and sun beating down on my pasty white skin.

It's amaziing how quickly you can get into scnery that makes you forget you are in a European Capital city:





All the dutch cliche shots are there:







Within almost no time, I am at Oudekerk aan de Amstel, and heading back along the other side of the river... You have to be in a good mood to appreciatte this scenery... the people slowly phutting along on boats and the whole "water colour" nature of the scenery means you get the feeling of old people, beige and biscuits.... but luckily I'm in a good mood today and appreciate the peacefulness of the countryside... I'd still take violent scottish Mountains any day.... but this is about something else... and I'm trying to appreciate



Scott Weiland recently joined the supergroup Camp Freddy, so I have been revisiting the Stone Temple Pilots, and have chosen them for the bike trip:



Back in the day... Stone Temple Pilots released an album which was a watered down version of Pearl jam.. but it sounded good enough, and we listened to it repeatedly.... I start out on that album:



After that came Purple.... we accepted this with equal enthusiasm:



I was in a few bands that played interstate love song and big empty.... I know I've played creep and plush before, and vaguely remember jamming Vasoline and Crackerman.... Listening to Purple now... I hear a band struggling with their identity... They are very talented... but in terms of having their own sound, it's not really clear... By the time "Tiny Music.... Songs from the Vatican City Gift Shop" came along.....



......their sound and identity had changed so much that you can hardly recognise the band that made Core... as I listen to this album now, it's probably only the 5th time I've heard it or something.... Now my tastes have expanded a little... so I'll give it another chance... IThere's some nice songs on it... but they flirt with so many styles... that it's a really hard listen... even though some of it is lounge music... Maybe I'll finish listening to their discography and work out what happened, and whether I like it or not.....

Anyway. By the time I'm half way along the other side of the Amstel, my arse is aching.... This cycling isn't as painless as it looks... maybe the saddle on my 10 euro bike is not meant for cycle trips...

Once I'm back into familair territory... I really enjoyed my trip, but the home stretch is monotonous.....it doesn't help me get into Stone Temple Pilot songs that I don;t know, so I reward myself with a little lemonheads....



The ultimate summer music...It also feels better for meandering along at a slow pace...

I take my wearied legs home and have a quiet night in front of the telly....

Burns Supper

Burns Supper....

Thank god for Belgian beer, I get up late but with no hangover... So much to do. The flat hasn't been tidied in about 2 months, so everything needs to be done before I can peel potatoes and turnips. I crank up my playlist and get mopping.

Eventually The Kiwi surfaces and I head off for the Tatties while he mops. I head off to Albert Heijn with a big rucksack and get the Tatties and various other bits and pieces I forgot Yesterday. The Bulgarian Bride is coming over early to help peel and cook, so I bought a bottle of white wine to drink while cooking.... while packing the bag it smashes near the bottom. There's little else I can do but strap it onto my back and walk the half mile home with white wine dripping down my leg.

Uggggg.....

I get back, and the flat is the cleanest it's ever been. The Kiwi heads off to pump some iron, and I get stuck in to whipping cream for the Cranachan.

Before long, everything is in hand and Family Bulgaria arrives. Obi Wan Kenobov is in fine form and sporting a newly shorn head... We set in about the tatties and I start boiling the turnips which I've already peeled and sliced. This is really tough for some reason, Neeps, which I never liked anyway seem to be tougher, more tasteless and take longer to boil in this country. Coupled with the fact that they are hard to find in the supermarket, they are my least favourite vegetables, so I have dealt with them before Obi Wan is around to hear my swearing and cursing.

Once everything is done, we relax with a bowl of Scotch Broth:

As we do this, the other guests arrive in dribs and drabs. We have an Englishman, The Kiwi, a Kiwi girl who is the significant other of the Englishman and another bulgarian couple. He is a regular at the Gollem and appreciates most forms of alcohol to a connoisseur level, and she is an intellectual who appreciates most types of prose to a connoisseur level. She has brought me a book of Burns in Bulgarian. She has been doing some background reading, and it turns out that the Bulgarian's all know more Burns than they first suspected. I even get a book of Burns in Bulgarian as a gift:


Everyone settles with a drink. It turns out that The Kiwi girl was a regular in the bar that I met the Bulgarian bride. We both drank there in 2002, but neither of use remember each other - I blame it on the Jaegermeister.

With the Bulgarian book, and me prompted with the correct guitar chords and rhythm we perform a Bulgarian rendition of a Burns song while dancing and drinking...

Rabbie would have been proud.

Once everyone has had a little bit of food and a few drink, I rattle off Tam O'Shanter; a poem by Burns:

"When chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors, meet;

It's a long poem but has so much rhythm and pace that I think most folk manage to enjoy it. It tells the story of a drunken scottish blellum, who despite his wife's best advice, stays for one too many in the pub and ends up having to ride home through a storm. When he passes a ruined church which is holding a party for witches and warlocks he gets himself into more trouble than he bargained for.

The poem rings home for we drougthy cronies who prop up the bar at the gollem before cycling home well mounted on the modern version of our grey mair meg through Amsterdam's mosses, waters, slaps and stiles that lie between us and our hame whiles crooning o'er some auld seattle grunge sonnet:





After this, I give the poetry a break and serve up some Haggis. Almost everyone enjoys it.

By this point everyone is fou and unco happy.. everyone has broken off into little groups... We have people discussing Burns Poetry in Bulgarian, others discussing burns poetry in lallans scots, people appreciating a good whisky(laphroig), pickers finding new combinations of cheese and mustard to put on oatcakes, a Spike Milligan poetry book churning out such hilarity as:

Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I'll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?




It's generally a very good Burns night/Scottish Night/ General get-to-gether.....

Obi wan is setting up Star Wars Monopoly:



This provides a good end to the night, all the boys are enjoying living out the fantasy of being Han Solo and all the women are living out the fantasy of being with him...

Once the Bulgarians have headed off home, we pull out some good Scottish Comedy DVD's before heading off to bed:







Paris Tomorrow.......Good Night.......

Friday night preperation

After work I head off to the gym. I have to prepare the scotch broth for the burns supper tomorrow, then it will be a friday night in the gollem.

I'm having a selection of mates round tomorrow to celebrate the scottish tradition of burns suppers.

Wikipedia has this to say:

A Burns Supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of the version of the Scots song Auld Lang Syne, which is generally sung at Hogmanay and other New Year celebrations around the English-speaking world. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, January 25, sometimes known as Burns Night, although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.
Burns suppers are most common in Scotland (and also in Russia, where nationally televised Burns nights are held in the Kremlin) but they occur wherever there are Burns clubs, expatriate Scots, or indeed lovers of Burns' poetry.
The first suppers were held in Ayrshire at the end of the 18th century by his friends on the anniversary of his death, July 21, In Memoriam and, although the date has changed to the 25th of January since then, they have been a regular occurrence ever since.
They may be formal or informal but they should always be entertaining. The only items which the informal suppers have in common are haggis, whisky and perhaps a poem or two. However the formal suppers, which are often held by Burns clubs follow a standard format which is as follows.



My dad is an avid burnsian, and I have kept the tradition alive over in Amsterdam with a burns supper last year.

Earlier today I went to the library and selected some tracks for the music. I was trying to keep it scottish without relying on bagpipes, scottish country dancing or teh flower of scotland. The assorted playlist will involve the following albums on shuffle:

wet wet wet:



Proclaimers



Del amitri



Deacon Blue



Mogwai



Jesus and mary chain



Primal scream



The beta band


Franz Ferdinand


Idlewild



The waterboys



After the gym, I get all the shopping done, the menu will be as follows:

Oatcakes and cheese:






Scotch Broth:



Haggis Neeps and Tatties:



Cranachan:



Whisky:



After a few trips to the local Albert Hijn and some industrial vegetable cutting, I can head off to the gollem to join The Kiwi and the boys:



I am pretty chilled due to my two favourite chilling activities; Cooking and exercise. I have a few La Chouffe's:



After what seems like not long, we're heading off to a club called bitterzoet:



I have always hated clubs, the music, the lack of conversation and the focus on looks and clothing just isn't my scene. Luckily the Kiwi isn't in the mood either. We head off together to tackle some KFC before heading home....

Our last hilarity of the night comes when we meet some essex girls in KFC. They do wonders for their regional stereotype by telling me they have scottish friends who are from Cardiff and repeatedly asking The Kiwi to put more shrimps on the barbi....



I'd better get some sleep before the burns supper...

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.....

Back in the Dam: Drummer cloning technologies

I've been back at work in Amsterdam for about 3 days now, and the feet are already itchy. It's pretty tough being back at work. I actually have to do large jobs with direction. I'm still unpacking all the contacts and networks that I made when away at conferences, so I'm still a little scattered.

Maybe in an attempt to achieve some sort of rhythm, I seem to have been choosing a lot of soundgarden on my iPod of late. After seeing Audioslave at T in the Park - I think I've been sub-consciously revisiting Chris Cornell.

I wanted to make up a tour T-Shirt which listed the Audioslave dates and at the top said "Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine Tour 2005", but I've realised this is frivolous.



What would make more difference to the world as a whole is the new campaign that I'm considering.

I forgot how good Matt Cameron is. While Pearl Jam are my favourite band, and they deserve to have the best drummer in the world, Soundgarden was such wonderfully rhythmic music that I think they should still exist. So my line of thinking was that Matt Cameron should be cloned for the good of music as a whole.



Then I realised. Why settle with a mere two Matt Cameron's. His drumming style is almost perfect to do as close a job as possible to filling John Bonham's drum stool. So Led Zeppelin should be re-formed with Matt Cameron taking drumming duties. I suspect from listening to Matt Cameron's drumming style that Led Zep have been a big influence on him at some point in his life, so he shouldn't mind, and probably realises it's for the best.

Is it possible that my brain is running away from itself as a result of being back in an empty office(Everyone is on holiday), either that or I have solved all transients in musical style and progression through the technology of drummer cloning - who knows.