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Do you like pyschoactive drugs and Venn diagrams? Then have I got something for you!
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"Alsjeblieft" means "Thank you". whoops, I should have said "Please".
edited 31 Aug 2010.
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This week there is a festival known as Amsterdam Sail going on in the city.
It involves dozens of old-timey tallships sailing into the port of Amserdam and having people boozing it up.
It was quite an impressive sight. I was actually surprised by the size of some of them. I had always thought the ships from the Age of Sail were much smaller.
The other thing I noticed was the amount of ropes, pulleys and other bits of kit of unknown function on them. It was actually very easy to see how these ships, when they left Amsterdam for Indonesia under the pay of the Dutch East India company, they were the high tech vehicles of their time.
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Aug. 3rd, 2010 @ 10:22 pm
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We went to Brussels for the wedding of a French woman and and a American man, which included all the proceeds, including the reception and speeches being translated into both languages, like some sort of nupital UN.
The day after we had a bit of a wander around Brussels itself. Vero is a bit of a comics fan, so our first stop was a comics shop, or a bande dessinée as they call them. I picked up an issue of The Cities of the Fantastic, which is a series set in an alternate 1930s, in a genre I can only describe as architecture porn.
After this small bit of shopping, we set out into the city. The comic was premonitious, as the main thing I noticed about the city was its amazing architecture.
I like building watching as much as any tourist, but after marvelling at a few piles of brick and glass, I frankly, get a bit tired of it. But the architecture is so novel and beautiful, I was happy to wander the whole day and just look.
The city is chock full of Art Deco style architecture. Lots of buildings have brass facades, with tubes, grills, stylised lilies and vines, spears, and even animals and gargoyles, often with a patina of green. Windows were stained glass, filled with bold diagonal geometric designs and curved sketches of both plants and animals. Balconies were held up by rivetted iron braces, bent and twisted into curved tongues and leaves.
And we also saw the Mannequin Pis, a statue of a boy pissing into a fountain, done in the classical style.
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I got back from my trip to Brisbane a few weeks ago. The purpose of the trip was to go to the weddings of my sister and my friend Troy (seperate weddings). I'd supply photos, but I think everyone who reads this blog is well aware of what Brisbane looks like.
We were in Australia for 3 weeks. My girlfriend, Veronique, is French and has had a lifelong obsession with Australia. So our holiday consisted of equal parts, going to weddings, visiting my friends and family and wandering around in the bush looking for wild koalas.
All three objectives were met.
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| » Luxembourg |
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Last weekend was a long weekend so I rallied a few friends to go climbing in western Germany. European weather being was it is, at the last minute it got rainy, and my friends all got unenthusiastic for a six hour drive to sit under a rock watching it drizzle. As a compromise, we went to Luxembourg, in the hope that it would be drier there.
I knew as much about Luxembourg as any Australian. Basically, that it is one of those tiny weird ass countries that Europe is fond of, ruled by its own inbred little monarchy.
Living in the eternally flat Netherlands, it was actually a real treat to see hills again. The country is very rich. Apparently, it is the most expensive place in Europe, lower paid workers generally commute, from the neighbouring countries. This would also explain why we only saw a handful of people under the age of 50 on the streets.
The country is tiny, but not as small as I had imagined. It is a couple of hundred kilometres across. Still small enough, that we accidentally ended up Germany twice after taking wrong turns.
I later found out that Luxembourg is officially a Grand Duchy, which seemed very D&D.
May. 19th, 2010 @ 04:42 pm
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| » Talking about the weather |
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Snow is very lovely, but unfortunately there is only a week or two of it and then you've got months of cold, grey, windy weather to deal with. At that time of year, I wonder what the hell I'm doing in Amsterdam.
But when spring does eventually decide to arrive, late, and hastily tucking its shirt it, it really puts on a show.
This time of year, Amsterdam has to be one of the nicest places to be. Sitting on a terrace, drinking beer and watching the boats putter down the canals, past all the old lopsided brown buildings and gaping tourists.
Apr. 28th, 2010 @ 05:13 pm
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| » Chinese vegetarians |
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I went down to Rotterdam last week to go to a museum. On the way there, we got hungry and decided to go to one of the Chinese restaurants that we were passing by.
I'm not normally too keen on Chinese food because the vegetarian options are normally pretty limited, even things like Braised Vegetables often have pork in them.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up the menu and it actually had a whole vegetarian section. Since I wasn't that hungry I just ordered some steamed vegetarian spring rolls.
Five minutes later, the dish came out. It was a roll of steamed rice pastry with nothing inside.
Vegetarian? Technically, yes.
Mar. 4th, 2010 @ 05:55 pm
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| » The sweet taste of home |
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I went to a post-movie drink with some friends last night.
They all (a mixture of French & English folks) wanted to go to the local Australian bar. I resisted. They insisted.
Trying to get into the spirit I ordered a VB.
It cost 5 Euro 50.
Thats $8.50 is the old country.
For a VB.
Jan. 15th, 2010 @ 10:27 am
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My laptop sits on an old wooden desk in the kitchen and has a small drawer with a wood and brass handle on the front. The desk was in the apartment when I moved in.
In the far left corner of the desk, against the white stucco wall is a book, lying lengthwise, called 'Onder de Australische zon', a Dutch translation of an Harlequin romance novel, written by an Australian woman named Lindsay Armstrong.
Immediately to the right of the novel is my camera case, empty. Underneath the black and orange camera case is a piece of cardboard, folded once. It contains four dates with the time 12:30 next to them, all of them physiotherapy appointments from the first two months of the year.
On top of these last two items lies my laptop case.
To the left of the case is a black business card with white writing. It is from a casting director who gave it two me after an impro show I did in March. Sitting over the top left corner of the card is an electronic guitar tuner. Next to this is a postcard, featuring a doberman and a chihuahua, addressed to my ex-girlfriend Karen. It has no stamp. Sitting on top of this is my agenda, an empty Specsavers glasses case and a pen with the website address www.dhl.nl printed on it. I have no idea what DHL is.
Behind the laptop is a blue Dutch to English dictionary. Underneath that are two scraps of paper. One contains an old shopping list. Half of the items I never bought. The other piece of paper is a chart listing the bar chords formed by the open A and E finger shapes.
Under that is a A4 printout, which contains a poem written for me by my friend, Quathar, who is half Dutch, half Pakistani, as a Sinterklas present. The poem is in the form of rhyming couplets. The first of which is a fact about me, the second a quote from The Big Lebowski.
Next to this sits a silver Canon camera and the packet for a pack of playing card with photos of Australian animals on the back. This was sent to me from Australia by Katherine, as an inoculation against homesickness.
Next to this is a black iPod, which I have not used for over six months.
In the close right corner of the desk is a two inch thick book from Microsoft press about programming for the .NET 2.0 framework. On top of this is a little pamphet about a play my friend wrote and directed last month. 'Liquid Love' by Teresa Merilainen. For the life of me I can't remember the English word for a little pamphlet that you get when you go to see a play, that describes the play and the cast.
On top of this in a autobiography, 'The elfish gene' by Mark Barrowcliffe. I took it from my old friend Tiest's house in Cambridge when I was there earlier in the year. I've been meaning to mail the book to another old friend, Troy. Inside is stuffed three postcards, which I meant to mail at the same time, but still haven't.
Through the window, the sky is still light blue. It is a quarter past ten at night.
Jun. 30th, 2009 @ 09:49 pm
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ashmoore's journal