It's MADNESS!

I had lunch with Nicole at Edel. They made my burger the right way. Impressive!

Lunch-view.

Lunch.

My friend Kate pointed out this Indian restaurant to me that is apparently very close to where I currently live and it's supposed to have the best curry in town.

Nicole brought me chocolates from Switzerland, they are very nice indeed!

Orchid update for my mom. It's making beautiful flowers still.

Late afternoon I met with Marjolein and Ruud at Wagamama's for dinner. We went to get some poffertjes afterwards across the road. Here's Marjolein infront of the poffertjes joint.

And there is Ruud!

Only today I found out that the arch that I have passed under so many times in latin ("Homo Sapiens Non Urinat In Ventum") reads "People should not pee against the wind".

Then we went down in to the subway.

They had giving the train prettier interiors.

We got off at station Bijlmer to walk to the Heineken Music Hall.

We went to a concert of....

MADNESS!

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The support act was not much good but MADNESS did an excellent show performing everything we wanted to hear.

Here are some more pictures without comments:

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Afterwards Marjolein and I went to Mulligans for a night-cap. The band there was well, not comparable. I was happy to hear Beatles songs in the pub though. It's a sought after break from regular Irish and Scottish folk music (I know that sounds odd coming from somebody who's been a regular in an Irish music bar for 15 years ;-).

Two weeks of striking...

Rubbish keeps piling up in tow. The strike is on for two weeks now.

This man was doing something that looked funny....

The docking site on my way to work. It was very quiet on the ferry because dus to yesterday's bank holiday, today a lot of people took a day off. Schools were closed as well I think.

I got some drinks for me and my colleagues. Guess which one is mine?

This boat raced past my ferry on the way home.

Cosmetic plant surgery.

I had a bad night of sleep. At 3AM I woke abruptly from a dream, I can't remember what I was dreaming though. The between 5-6AM a freaking MOUSE was stuck in the wall behind my head and started gnawing a hole in the wall (I think...). I fell asleep just before 6AM to wake up just before 9AM. Not enough uninterrupted sleep. And I was so looking forward to a good night as I have the day off today.

This plant used to be my grandma's plant. Then it was mine, then it was Ilse's and now it's mine again except that it used to be straight and now it's crooked as hell.

I repotted it to put the weight of the plant more in the middle so that it wouldn't knack.

My dinner.

Going home.

Driving through the Leidsestraat on my way home.

The bridge close to my house was open.

Going to work

The corner tower of Hotel American on Leidseplein.

The city theatre hall. Also on Leidseplein.

The cleaners-strike continues for another week. Nice little piles of rubbish are being formed everywhere...

Waiting for my ferry.

My new house!

This little guy caught the ferry with me this morning. As he/she couldn't fly away coz the doors were closed, it did about 50 rounds to look for food... Gotta admire that I guess..

This is where I will walk in to my street in about 3 weeks time.

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Those bottom windows will be mine in 3 weeks :-) I am very excited. I went there today to measure a few things. It felt very good and cozy.

The street from the other side. It's nice and quiet and wide, lots of light for a little apartment like this one.

Mothers day 2010

I took the train to Alkmaar today to visit my folks for mothers day. Not this train, this one was going to Germany.

Not this one either.

Ilse, Cassie and I gave my mom (and dad) a new digital camera. Here is my mum unpacking it.

My dad got to unpack the less exciting camera-pouch ;-)

And then it was dinner time. Rather lovely (very Dutch main) stuff. This was the entree. A lovely salad.