amsterdam adventure (sm)

on again off again

2007-03-13T17:20:00.000+01:00

so, i've been pretty quite. nothing personal but just haven't had much to say, or rather not much i felt like sharing with the rest of you...

guess i still believe that old saying "if you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut".

it's just been winter here the past few months and i've been a grump. as a general rule, i'm a summer person. being from the tropics and all has made me a less than cheerful bearer of winters. cold weather and not alot of sun make me grouchy. sure there have been plenty of good things that have happened this winter, but by the time i get around to thinking about blogging them, i'm grumpy again.

alas, the sun is coming out! spring is surely creeping up on us and i'll be out to play again soon.

boy was I ever tired....

2006-11-29T03:02:00.000+01:00

no, not really, I'm well. Just fell off the NaBloPoMo wagon with a great big thud.

It all started out fine. I had content, good intentions, momentum, and then life just got in the way. Sorry to let you down. Oh who am I kidding, I've only let myself down. Think I'll go have more tequila now...

tired

2006-11-17T22:32:00.000+01:00

missed last night's post as we were out until almost 3 am! ON A SCHOOL NIGHT! I am too old for this. we went to see Yo La Tengo in Utrecht with one of A's colleagues and his girlfriend. it was a nice evening, tho I'm not sure what I thought of the band. They were good, but there was absolutely no energy from the stage. Not sure if that makes sense but usually live shows are nice because the band has a stage presence that livens things up. This was different. They were good, but just performed in a very insular manner. I guess I would too if I was in a successful act that with 20 years of experience. Enjoyable but not memorable.

also LOUD. so loud that my ears hurt. we ended up leaving before the encore (our ears were tired), having a few too many beers, missing the train and getting home just before 3 am. ON A SCHOOL NIGHT.

now it's friday and i'm heading to bed while i can still move.

tomorrow is knitting day in Rotterdam. wish me luck.

hint

2006-11-17T09:29:00.000+01:00

so, my mom left some books behind when she left last weekend, maybe she was trying to tell me something...

body on tap

2006-11-15T23:25:00.000+01:00

i never knew that Patron tequila was started by the co-founder of Paul Mitchell Systems. yes the smarmy hair product magnate now makes the "best tequila in the world"... really. go figure!

maybe i should experiment a little. nah, too hard to procure here. we have to beg visitors to bring us duty free rations when they visit. really, it's all you need to do for a free place to stay in Amsterdam.

nothing

2006-11-14T23:34:00.000+01:00

good comes to mind when I consider today's blog topic. i'm in a winter induced funk, working too much, with too little to do and no real motivation.

my mother always told me if you don't have anything nice to say, then keep your mouth shut. i'm following her advice, for a change...

gezellig

2006-11-13T23:41:00.000+01:00

am just back from my first meeting of the Amsterdam Stitch 'n Bitch group. They meet once a week at a local cafe for, stitching & bitching. There was quite a bit of the first going on, though not much of the latter as I could tell. It was heel gezellig (in Dutch, very cozy - they love that word cozy.)

I was a bit worried that unlike my last knitting group, these people would all be very into knitting, and less into the social aspect that I find so important. (Who wants to knit in a vacuum, not me!). But I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone was super nice, and I had a good time comparing notes with other ex-pats and got some much needed advice on my current project (Thanks Erica!).

There was a reporter there from a local paper doing a story on the group and a photographer came out to photograph us. Earlier in the evening, while cooking dinner, I managed to shred some of my knuckles along with the cheese, so there I was with my needles in hand and two big old band aids on two fingers. I really hope they don't print those, I'd hate to give people the impression that knitting is dangerous.

recovering

2006-11-13T00:10:00.000+01:00

put my mom on the plane today. i find it hard to believe that 5 days have flown by so quickly. it was nice to see her but also physically and emotionally exhausting. it's really difficult to see your parents getting old and realizing that soon they will need you to take care of them, not the other way around. it makes me sad and tired just thinking about the years ahead and wondering what it will be like.

i'm heading for bed now, hopefully will be back to full blogging mode tomorrow.

Oddly enough

2006-11-11T09:52:00.000+01:00

cement trucks here are more traingularly spiral than really spiral...

Off to Delft today with my mom! I'll be back to my regular blogging soon. I know you're all on the edge of your seats.

entertaining at its best...

2006-11-10T23:57:00.000+01:00

Yep, I really know how to show a guest a good time!

it's official

2006-11-10T01:06:00.000+01:00

the democrats have regained control over both the house and the sentate. I feel like i've won the lottery.

sorry for the brevity, my mom's in town this week and after a brutal round of Scrabble (I won!) I'm hitting the hay. We've got many museums to cover tomorrow and not a lot of time...

not kinky

2006-11-08T10:56:00.000+01:00

Today was big victory for the democratic party in the US, they have now won the majority of the seats in the House and there is one final race in the Senate that is yet undecided. If they win this, that means that the Dems hold the majority in both branches of the government. Basically, it means that Bush has been sent a clear message that he's not doing a great job.

Sadly, the Texas gubernatorial race went to the incumbent Republican candidate. It was a memorable election year because there were two independent candidates running for govenor in addition to the two main parties.

Kinky Friedman, one of the independents, is a somewhat infamous musician, writer of mysteries and overall cut up. His platform was primarily based on the fact that he is not a politician and that he would be able to do a better job because of this. I would have voted for him, but sadly, my absentee ballot did not arrive here until last Saturday afternoon. Even if I had mailed it first thing Monday, it would not have made it back to the US in time to be counted. Yes, I could have paid to FedEx my ballot in, but without a steady income, I wasn't really prepared to spend the money. I have been assessed a poll tax of sorts.

Due to this I was a bit despondent about the elections in general. I have always voted and consider it an honor and a duty. You can imagine how happy I was to wake up and find that even without my vote, the US is making a change. I just hope it's for the better.

I speak TV English....

2006-11-08T00:42:00.000+01:00

my mom's in town from Texas this week so I find myself sounding a little more twangy than normal. Somehow, I, unlike most of my family, do not have an accent. This changes, of course, if I spend too much time around those who do....

tawk to y'all layter ;)

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland Ý "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West	Ý
Boston	Ý
North Central	Ý
Philadelphia	Ý
The Northeast	Ý
The South	Ý
The Inland North	Ý
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

museum nacht

2006-11-06T11:29:00.000+01:00

was saturday, a night where all the museums in town stay open late and have parties and dj's & stuff. we were out with a group of friends and saw a few interesting things... smarmy crooners of old amsterdam songs and a rap group at the historical museum and a 3D Bugs Bunny cartoon at the film museum... ended up dancing until 4 am.

I've moved beyond medical ailments to chronicles of my social calendar. progress I hope!?

but I promise I'll get back t0 the chinese doctor story soon... My mom's in town this week tho, so posts might be a bit more brief.

homesick

2006-11-05T23:19:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday we went to see Lucinda Williams at the Paradiso, one of the coolest live music venues I've ever seen. It's an old church that has been turned into a nightclub. The main chapel area houses the main stage with two balconies. There is also a smaller room upstairs which is a great, intimate space. We've seen loads of bands there and Lucinda was a treat.

Aaron's been working late lately, so we rushed through dinner and down the street to find a long line to get in. Luckily we had our tickets and monthly membership cards* in hand so we were able to go right in. We managed to get to the bar and find our way through the crowd and find a really great spot near the front with a great view of the stage. It was odd being at a show where most of the crowd was older. Like 10-20 years older. I'm used to being there and feeling like a grandma around all the cute young 18 year olds...

The Dutch are tall people, Like freak-of-nature tall, so being of average height, it's really hard to find a place where you can actually see the stage in a crowded venue. We first stopped right behind a guy who was perhaps close to 7 ft tall and I simply pushed my way past him to stand in front. I figure it's the price of being tall, you have to know that short people have the right to stand in front of you. He gave me a dirty look but I ignored him and was happy to have such a great view.

[Incidentally, I did try to stand clear of the area directly in front of a guy in a wheelchair who was up on the raised area just behind us. In addition to being tall, the Dutch can also be quite rude when it comes to observing and respecting the space of others around them. I fiercely cling to the golden rule though it is hard not to want to knee someone in the groin once in a while.]

Lucinda played like I would have imagined. Her southern drawl is gravelly and filled with heartache and pain and but somehow she always sounds like she's having a good time (I'm pretty sure she was). Many of the songs were off of The Car Wheels on a Gravel Road album, which apparently has been recently released as a double CD set. She also played several new songs, from a new album to be released in the spring.

I was feeling really good about our perfect spot and just being out in general (after weeks of feeling like shit) so I was really surprised at the rush of homesickness I felt when she started playing. Car Wheels always reminds me of living with my grandmother in East Texas when I was 5. She sang that along with 2 or 3 others that filled me with this overwhelming sense of homesickness, I had to try really hard to choke back tears. It was so nice to hear her voice live. Even better than recorded, more emotion that you can ever get from a speaker. And it reminded me so much of home. Of Texas and small towns with full service up gas stations and rusty beer coolers and squeaky screen doors. It was nice (and sad) to hear someone singing about home. I missed it terribly and have found myself listening to Lucinda, Lyle, Shawn Colvin, Iris deMent and all the other music I have that makes me think of being there.

enabling narcissism

2006-11-04T16:34:00.000+01:00

today is a lazy day. i was out late last night so i was in no hurry to get up and be productive (though now I'm feeling slightly guilty- thus blog entry). It's grown cold out and with no sun, there just wasn't any compelling reason for me to leave the house.

Aaron is working today, so I have found myself sitting in front of my computer all afternoon - reading the news from home, checking my nonexistentt bank-balance, visiting long-dormant friends blogs in hopes of seeing something new, and hitting various blogs from the NaBloPoMo randomizer.

I've been reading blogs (and looking at Flickr pages too) for several hours now. And I have to say I'm all blogged out. It can be fascinatingg, reading some stranger's thoughts on whatever exciting thing is happening in their life - new bamboo flooring, world trips, gall bladder surgery. But frankly, it can also be a bit boring. Why should I care about someone's new car purchase, or what their kid wore for Halloween, or how they knitted 15 billion pairs of socks out of organic, hand-dyed wool in only 3 days. Honestly, there is a whole lot of boring shit going on out there that people just need to keep to themselves. Yes, I'm including myself in that statement.

But this does make me wonder why I feel somehow compelled to write about my life and publish it online so that thousands (ok, maybe tens) of you can read about my daily drivel. Does anyone really need to know the random shit that floats through my brain? The manic thoughts, the medical ailment du jour? Probably not, but I persist.

I'm using this blog writing challenge as a good reason to write more, to shake up the cobwebs that seem to be growing in my brain, and to subconsciously reach out to the people whose emails I have failed to reply to of late. If I do this, maybe they will forgive me for being out of touch.

I am an Internet Overlord

2006-11-03T16:02:00.000+01:00

Honestly, had no idea!

One thing about living in Amsterdam is you get loads of visitors. It's nice to show people around the city, makes me feel like i know more than I think.

day twee

2006-11-02T16:52:00.000+01:00

(and a doozy it is!)
So, here it is November 2nd already, I seem to be on a roll with this blog thing. Though can anyone tell me where the past 10 months went? I swear it was January just last week...

Perhaps my lapse in time has something to do with being sick for about 5 out of the past 8 weeks! I hate being sick and I have been lucky much of the year to be germ free. But sometime in early September I came down with a pesky, and highly persistent, lung bug. I think I stayed in bed at least 10 full days. That's highly unusual for me. Sure, I can loll around in bed with the best of them, but not for 10 days!

Two weeks of that and I broke down, determined to find a doctor. The Dutch have a funny (ok just different) way of locating a primary care doctor. There is no internet research or asking around to find the most recommended doctor through trusted friends. You have to find someone whose office is near your home, like within a few blocks or they won't see you. Apparently it is so that if they have to do housecalls, they don't have far to go. Seems a bit fishy to me, but I called around to few places and was relieved to eventually find someone around the corner who was taking on new patients.

There was no way to learn anything about the doctor I was supposed to see. All I knew was the last name. I didn't even know if it was a man or a woman, much less where they attended medical school. In the US, you can find out where your MD went to medical school, what specialties they focus on and sometimes even see a photo. No such luck here but I was happy to have an appointment the next morning.

I was pleased to meet the doctor, who seemed perfectly competent though was quite possibly a few years younger than me (aren't doctors supposed to be older and wiser?). He listened to my lungs, had me describe my symptoms and gave me a prescription for antibiotics to vanquish the bug I could not rid myself of. Everyone told me it would be difficult to find a doctor who would prescribe antibiotics, that doctors here usually send you home the first few visits and tell you to take tylenol. I knew I needed antibiotics so I was happy I didn't even have to ask.

And after coughing for 2 weeks straight, I had managed to pull muscles in my ribcage and in my groin area, so he gave me tylenol with codeine to stop both the coughing and the pain. I normally try to avoid taking antibiotics unless absolutely necessary (in this case yes) and am not a fan of the side effects. Exhausted and in pain, I happily filled both prescriptions and went home to heal. Took a few days but the antibiotics did their work and I was back on my feet again thanks to the pharmaceuticals.

[Is is just me, or does this seem like I'm some whiney old lady complaining about my ailments.... Hopefully there is some entertainment value in this. if not, please tell me to shut up already!]

A few weeks later I came down with a head cold. Your typical, pain in the ass, sniffly, sneezy, headachy, generally feel like shit cold. Yuck. Ok, so weeks of battling germs probably left my immune system a bit weak, but I felt like I'd already had my fair share of sickness for the year. I suffered through and did my best to treat the symptoms with the stash of OTC stuff I have. Dayquil, Nyquil, Decongestants, etc. I could probably treat a small village with the stuff I have here.

It might not have been so bad, if we didn't have a wedding to attend in Paris that weekend. It's just plain wrong to dread a trip to Paris. But my dear friend was getting married and I had to be there, so we took the train and I sucked it up as best as I could and tried to have a good time.

It really wasn't so bad, but as the cold subsided, it morphed into a sinus infection. The kind where your face hurts and you feel like you're walking around with a few extra pounds of sludge in your head. Not good. And, no, it certainly wasn't the most fun weekend I've ever spent a Paris.

god, this post is getting out of hand. I'll have to do part 2 tomorrow, where i tell you about my adventures with the Chinese doctor next door....

NaBloPoMo

2006-11-02T00:07:00.000+01:00

It's techniclly already November 2nd here but I haven't been to bed yet and I started this post before midnight (and before my mom called and talked my ear off- sorry mom!). So hopefully it counts... I'm trying to use NoBloPoMo as an incentive to jumpstart this blog again. I've been lazy and underinspired. But enquiring minds want to know, what's up in neverland... so stay tuned.

i'm a tandem cycle!

2006-06-09T15:47:00.000+02:00

I know, I know, you want some real info. I need to get this blog back up off the ground. I've been either traveling too much, working too much, or have been too grumpy to write about it. I promise I will try harder to keep you all informed of the news from neverland.

But here's a lil sumpin' to keep you entertained while the blog elves get back to work...

Find your own pose!

There goes the neighborhood

2005-12-29T13:13:00.000+01:00

When I started to tell people last summer that I'd decided to move to Amsterdam, I got many a raised eyebrow. I knew what they were thinking, me packing it in for the pot smoking capital of the world. Ironically, I don't smoke. Not so good for an asthmatic and I happen to think it's rather boring. But I am certainly aware of it around me more here though it is not like everyone walks around smoking joints all the time. You smell it at concerts of course, and I do still startle when I see someone light up a joint in public. The neighbors downstairs smoke though so our entry hall smells like it quite often. Sometimes we can even smell it in the office, comes up the walls in what used to be a chimney.

But most of the people I know here don't smoke. I think it's mostly the tourists who keep the coffee shops in business. (yes, coffee shops are where you buy pot, and cafes are where you get coffee). And it must do a good business because there are coffee shops on practically every corner. But still, I just don't see it all that much.

The past week has been pretty quiet, after the pre-Christmas rush, we've spent most of the past 5 days at home. So after working all day yesterday, we wanted to get out for a bit and decided to walk over to a neighborhood cafe to have a drink before dinner. Just as we were leaving, the door buzzer rings and it's two police officers responding to an anonymous call about trouble at our address, they even had our apartment number. They were very nice, but we assured them there was no trouble, assumed it must have been some mistake and went on as planned scratching our heads about it.

After a few vicious rounds of canasta, we walked back home to make dinner to find a huge commotion. They had our side of the street blocked off, the same police officers were still there directing traffic around it, and there was a large container truck parked out front of our house next to some sort of communications van and a bunch of official looking people milling around in uniformed jumpsuits. It looked like the SWAT team had taken over, just without the assault rifles.

They were concerned not with us but with the ground floor apartment below us. They told us it was fine for us to go inside but of course we were curious about what was going on down there. We googled to find out what the acronym on their uniforms and trucks was for but found no reference to "SEON" anywhere online. Weird. So we called a friend who's lived here for 10 years and she didn't know but said she'd call her neighbor who should. Checking on the situation from our front windows, we saw them running some sort of cabling from the truck into the apartment. Then the lights for the entire building went off. It was starting to get really weird.

the mysterious action outside our window

Aaron went down to ask what was going on since we were being directly effected and they told him there was some sort of electrical hookup violation and they should have the lights back on soon. The cop actually told him to light some candles and make it romantic. They all seemed pretty relaxed, looking up at me watching from our kitchen and laughing about it. They turned on a bank of floodlights they had on top of the communications van so at least we then had plenty of light to cook dinner by.

Our friend finally called back and said her neighbor was stumped but had called her sister who is a police officer in The Hague. The sister didn't actually know what it was but thought it was some sort of special enforcement unit for firearms and narcotics. Then we saw what they were after. They proceeded to empty the place downstairs of their marijuana farming operation. They must have had hundreds of plants, grow lights, electronic equipment, fertilizer, etc. They just junked it all into the back of the container and then drove it off. But it must have taken them a good hour for them to get everything out. All in all, from the time our doorbell rang, it was maybe a 3-4 hour operation...

we had a nice bright movie set atmosphere for our dinner

thanksgiving 2005 redux

2005-11-29T12:32:00.000+01:00

a good time was had by all...

It was a success, but utterly exhausting. I'm not sure I'll want to tackle something quite so ambitious again in the near future. The reason Thanksgiving is such and American holiday and has not really caught on elsewhere is because we tend to have great big American-sized kitchens that can accommodate cooking for 16!!! I took some shots of our Amsterdam kitchen (luxurious by local standards) so you can witness the lack of counter space...

* click here for more pics

We ended up with a 6 kilo turkey (13.2 lbs) and 16 guests. In addition, we made stuffing, veggie dressing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes (i wanted to roast them but there was no space in the oven for anything but the turkey), roasted green beans, cornbread and 2 kinds of cranberry sauce. Aaron ditched work early Friday afternoon to help cook and we were ready to serve about 8:30. Burnt fingers, arms and sore legs aside, I think we did an amazing job of not killing each other in the process.

We had quite the international crowd with guests from the US, Netherlands, UK, Sweden, Belgium and Canada!

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and even the stress of not serving right on time was reduced by the happy sounds of everyone chatting together around the empty table. We had a lot to be thankful for - great conversation and good friends, everyone brought loads of great wine and special thanks go out to Lisa & Simon for the flowers, chairs and yummy pumpkin pies; Emma for the delicious chocolate cake and borrowed cutlery; Simon for his turkey carving expertise; Lianne & Ben and Jack & Jasmin for the salad and fresh greens; Lesley for the Turkish bread; Marjorie for the delivery and dishware loan; and Marc & Tiff who couldn't make it but helped save our butts with extra chairs!

It's a good thing we bought a smaller turkey this time around, I've had it with leftovers - turkey & sides, turkey & pasta and last night, turkey quesadillas...

anyone for thai food?

happy thanksgiving!

2005-11-24T13:40:00.000+01:00

Here's a shot of last years turkey mid-carving. Yummm look at that stuffing! I hope we have equal success this time around.

Paris

2005-11-23T21:58:00.000+01:00

was nice, but cold!!!

I have more photos, still trying to get caught up.

ketchup

2005-11-20T17:17:00.000+01:00

I have been fiddling around with Flickr, pretty cool stuff but I have a lot of work to do... stay tuned for more photos from the fall...