The bicycle ride

Early morning I had the window open because the weather was awesome. I always get a few little visitors. Very curious visitors that are never sure to go in or not. I make sure they stay out ;-)

Early afternoon I cycled to the station to pick up Marjolein for some cycling. I was very early so I stopped in town a bit.

We started off in Amsterdam Noord.

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On our way to Ransdorp.

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The Ransdorp church.

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We parked in between the fields somewhere.

There was a bit more wind and a bit less sun than anticipated which was a pity.

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There were geese with little babies already!

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Back through Durgerdam where we had a wee break (literally ;-)

The new grass

Public transport was screwing up again after work. It was getting busy.

I was early for meeting Eva for dinner and drinks so I waited at Museumplein. They had just put in new grass. Very clever because in 1.5 months time it's going to be Queensday and thousands of people from the province will be turning this beautiful new grass in to a pool of beer, piss and mud. After this glorious event the city council will give the people of Amsterdam the finger and leave it in a shit state for all of the summer. They'll probably fix it when the winter starts again - when no one will want to use it anymore...

It was great meeting Eva again. We (she ;-) talked a lot and had quite a few laughs. The food was good and  the drinks went down well. An evening well spent.

The R&D day

Today was R&D day from work. Had to be at the ferry early coz I was being picked up.

The whole R&D department was meeting up shit creek for presentations and technical discussions.

After the "formal" part, there was an "informal" part in which I participated as a "supporter".

This meant I was not being knocked off poles by gigantic red balls...

I was not being punched in the nuts...

... by colleagues.

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And I did not have to pretend I was in the circus.

The day was planned to perfection because, after the "fun" part of the day, we had 30 minutes to drive back to work where we had to get on board a small river cruise ship for some dinner to celebrate ChipSoft's 25th anniversary.

The views were nice and the cruise was relaxing.

Very relaxing for some people...

The batteries

I bought batteries today. Life can be SO exciting, don't you think?

The statue

Lunch.

Late arvo I went to pickup marjolein. I walked there through the park.

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I waited next to this fountain/statue. I love it!

The sun came through the clouds.

Blossoms in trees on Museumplein.

Marjolein in front of rolls of grass. They're replacing the grass on the square so it can be trashed during the Queensday celebration next month. I don't know who thinks of these things but some city council members are not the brightest cookies in the bunch...

We walked past a bicycle shop. Need a bell?

After dinner we walked to Mulligans for a drink which turned in to 4 pints of cider for me and 4 whiskeys for Marjolein. Cheers!

The car

On the ferry in the morning. The sun is getting up earlier and earlier.

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A little crashed toy car was standing in the middle of where once a big storage building was. It burned down over a year ago.

At work our connection with the sewer got blocked. None of the normal toilets could be used except for 1 ladies and 2 mens toilets in the old, unused part of our building. It was fixed just before 5PM, when we were all leaving.

On the ferry back home this little fella was standing next to me. Sniffing, listening, sniffing, looking, listening and sniffing some more. Very cute dog.

After squash I took the tram to Leidseplein and walked home.

$$$

I finally got around (after 1.5 years) to filtering out my Dutch coins.

My collection of coins and notes in Guilders and my (finally!) complete Euro collection. Well, that is to say only for the original countries...

In the evening I met a girl at Leidseplein to give her back her camera that I found in the snow in December 2009. She never came forward to the police to report it missing but Marjolein found out who the camera belonged to by looking at the photos and searching the interwebs.

I made myself a nice meal. I have another portion ready for work :-)