The poles

You can now see the tips of the poles they've been "pouring" in the past weeks. Pretty cool I think. I like seeing construction.

The construction update

Construction is still underway to get this place ready for building.

The suitcases

Driving to work on the tram...

Tourists coming in already. Howmany suitcases do you need?..

Construction near my work.

Simone and I went for a walk again after dinner. The sunset was beautiful.

The Twiske reserve.

The scaffolding

Leftover pancake-lunch :-)

Demolision in progress in town (Rokin). They took down a very ugly building. I hope they'll build something decent...

When I got home I found this scaffolding in front of my house. They are replacing all our window frames except for mine because they were replaced less than 10 years ago.

The hole

Another plumber arrived at 8:30. Let the hacking and slashing commence!

Yeah, so now I have a hole in my ceiling and we couldn't see it leaking anywhere. That sucks...

Had to vacate my shelves, the contents of which now lie on my bed. Has to stay there a while coz I need to check if I can spot a leak anywhere for a while. So every time I hear water running I run over to check now. Just dandy.

In the meantime the builders who arrived at 7AM had finished putting up their scaffolding. This is going to be fun. I think they're going to break out a section of the outside wall. Maybe I should just move to Tahiti for 6 months...

And then it started to snow, for like an hour, after which it just rained. And then rained some more.

In the evening I picked up the last 3 remaining items that were in my trunk. 1 air filter, 1 radiator and 1 glove box (don't ask...).

The trip to town.

Horrible flashbacks at the end of my street...

I went in to town with Nic.

The weather was glorious, it was warm! The canals looked beautiful.

Shocking news! I went to Wagamama and I did NOT order chicken katsu curry! Instead I tried the chili men and I have to say it was very nice.

The waga kitchen.

The lizards at Leidseplein.

(Click to enlarge)
Another beautiful canal.

There was a premiere at Tuschinki theatre. Some dragon movie I never heard of.

(Click to enlarge)
Then we went to James Gate and I had Magners cider. I loooove Magners. But 1 pint costs 7.50 euro :-(

I bought settlers of Catan.

I cooked chicken siam tonight.

Three portions to take to work.

The shadows

My druid has shown a liking for cross dressing today...

YEAH!

Lunch was at Wagamama today. Placido was there as well. It was a delightful little visit as always. This is their lovely open kitchen.

Venturing further in to town there was the opportunity to look at one of the sites where they are working on the new metro line.

This will be a station with a large underground parking garage.

Cool.

The view from the Kalvertoren cafe.

Shadow figures.





Coffee candy.

It contained a chocolate covered almond.

I scored a few jugs.

The 7th anniversay

The first thing we did today was visit the bonsai shop on Anzac Highway. On our way there we passed the leadlightshop on Prospect road (close to our house) which has been a beacon for me ever since my first visit here, 6 years ago.

The bonsai shop has over a thousand bonsai trees that they have all "trained" themselves. Trained means that they didn't actually grow them from seeds but rather took young trees (1-2 years old) and then made them grow in the desired shape.

They had some beautifull bonsai's and they sell them for $35 to $4000. Personally I would never buy a trained tree myself. It's the training and caring for your tree that makes it fun.

After the bonsai shop we went to see Karin play cricket. On the way there we saw that the Noord-Zuidlijn is also getting a stop in Adelaide. They are working hard on it and the sign said it will be finished in 2065. That's pretty optimistic I reckon but I bet ya it's still sooner than any of the Amsterdam stops! ;-P

Purely coincidental I ran into this license plate, "WOLF".

Karin and Gavin in the kitchen after the match.

I re-potted the bonsai I bought at Bunnings yesterday. I'm also trying to make 2 other bonsai trees. One is a walnut tree and the other one is a mandarin. I have put the pot on the stand that Nicole still used while she lived here more then 7 years ago.

I hope the walnut and the mandarin will be OK. I did some heavy duty pruning...

Today Nicole and I have our 7th anniversary together. It's been 7 fantastic years with never a fight and never any expectations or presure. We're simply good together :-)