The square-about

I did some banking. Very modern office. Still took about an hour to get done what I needed.

Some dude in my hood owns a E100,000.00 Tesla electric car. It got vandalised last night... I hope the vandals house burns down.

Later I cycled through town. The Choppermeister was free again.

I tracked down Nic and SW. We had ice cream at the IJskuipje.

I then went to Mulligans and drank too much too fast with too little food in my stomach. I'm not sure if this was really a square-about or if it was my eyes so I took a picture. Looks square to me... I guess once my head is clear I'll know ;-)

Happy birthday Nicole :-)

The hardcore ice cream-eaters. Geert and myself.

A swan was cleaning where I waited for the ferry.

A submarine was rotting away where I waited for the ferry.

Ferry people.

In the evening I walked through the old part of town to get to Nicole's birthday party.

It's a lovely area and it was a very nice, slow walk. Very relaxing and it put me in a good mood.

Suzanne and Nic.

Quite a few people turned up.

Late night and hungry... The snack bar is never far away in this city :-)

Yummmm.

It's red.

Coffee in the morning. I stayed home because the cable-guy was dropping in to look at my non-functional cable connection. It appeared that my line and the line for No. 26 were crossed. After un-crossing them my connection was fine :-)

I walked to the shops. Someone in my neighbourhood has a lot of pretty yellow roses.

A random shot in my new hood.

My couch and my didgeridoo with stones from Australia on the shelf above it.

In the evening I went to eat at Waga's with Nic and SW.

We were going to see a band play but were very disappointed to find out that there was first 2 hours reserved for 2 other bands which was never mentioned. So we left and had some drinks on a terrace in town and a lot of laughs. It was more fun than waiting around for the concert.

It was all just a dream...

In the morning Nicole and I drove the train to Amsterdam. This is a free news paper that exists in several countries but not in Australia. I love this news paper.

Second class compartments had not changed a bit. Neither had the people.

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When we walked out of Amsterdam Central Station it felt like we had never left. It was weird. It had been two years but it felt like we came back from a two week vacation. It was unreal.

The gypsies still play beautiful tunes.

Tram 25 that used to take us to our house before we moved.

Central Station.

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We met Suzanne at the station and we walked in to town. It was great seeing the Amsterdam canals again.

Suzanne at Zen's lunchroom. It was fantastic to meet her again.

Nicole and the Zen lady.

Gerrit joined us as well. The gang of four was complete again.

Temperatures were a little bit different than in Adelaide but the Guinness kept me warm.

Eh! Selecta!

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In the evening we met lots of friends at Mulligans. It was fantastic to see everybody again. Unfortunately you can't talk a lot on these kinds of occasions so I will have to catch up with people separately as well over time :-)

The Suzanne woman

Opposite my bus stop is this building. I believe it used to be or still is a town hall. Or maybe it's a gallery. It's a nice building anyway.

View from my bus while driving home. It was 17:00 and getting dark.

We had a big fat down poor tonight that was scary. Because the last time we had one like this the flat flooded a bit. Everything was OK thankfully.

A bit later Sneezer's little helper came on Skype. It was very nice talking to her again :-)

2007 wrap-up: The last Dutch days

The last week before we left was very chaotic and busy. We slept in our old apartment untill the last day. On the day we sold, my mum came to pick up the last things. Also we had drinks with colleagues and some of my family came over for a last chat while we were at my mums and dads.

Also we visited Suzanne and Alex for a wonderfull afternoon and evening. And I couldn't leave without saying bye to Wil, the owner of a frie-stand I used to go to when I started living in Amsterdam.