Amsterdam, Netherlands

'You'll have to go to Dam Square on Saturday afternoon," Günter had told me on Wednesday, "because it's National Tulip Day and they'll be handing out free tulips."

National Tulip Day, hey? I had never heard of that. A marketing trick for sure, but hey, if free tulips are to be had then it would probably be worthwhile checking it out. Or so I had decided on Wednesday. Today, however, I had forgotten all about it again. I was reminded when I walked to the supermarket in the morning. There, on Dam Square, was quite a big, heart shaped field of tulips. Behind it was a lorry with the text With Tulips You Always Score written on it, and in the middle of the field was a group of people dressed in orange singing (oh yes) Tulips From Amsterdam.

I continued my way to the supermarket (after taking the above picture) and returned home to read more about the tulips on Dam Square on the internet. Apparently the Mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, would make a speech at 1:30 and pick the first bouquet of flowers, and after him everyone was allowed to pick a bouquet for themselves. Free of charge! Sean was here briefly in the afternoon to pick up some stuff he had bought in Bijenkorf on Thursday and left here, and when we both walked towards Dam Square I saw that many indeed were picking tulips. I couldn't resist my Dutchness any longer. I love tulips and buy them regularly but if they are free then they become irresistible. I picked about twenty flowers of varied colours and, while Sean went back to Bijenkorf, I returned home, happy with my tulips. May National Tulip Day become a tradition for many years to come!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

A four day weekend started today! What a wonderful feeling, especially because I have absolutely nothing planned for the weekend and because I have set myself some strict budget limits I am trying to make this a very austere weekend as well. Funny how you become much more aware of the need to save money once your savings have been wiped out. Especially with likely further maintenance costs on the building it's important to put some money in the piggy bank again. Sure, I'll have a holiday payment coming in in April and hopefully a four digit tax return some time in May... but I wouldn't be surprised if those amounts would vanish into house repairs as well.

What I did do today was treat myself to a film in The Movies film theatre. Next week the International Film Festival Rotterdam will start and as a 'Tiger Friend' I had the advantage of being able to order film tickets for the Festival before the general public was able to buy them (namely last night) but after some consideration, and again for austerity reasons, I decided to give the festival a miss this year. That's too bad, but given the uncertainty of house expenses also quite unavoidable.

I did spend 10 euros to go see J. Edgar today though. It's a film by Clint Eastwood about the life and times of the man who was the FBI's first and longest serving (no less that 48 years) director J. Edgar Hoover. I really enjoyed the film, and got caught up in the story from the first minute basically. To my delight Judi Dench played the role of mother of J. Edgar Hoover. Even in his lifetime there were rumours that J. Edgar Hoover was gay. He never married and his assistant Clyde was always by his side, even on holidays. Of course the film touches on that topic. It also claims J. Edgar loved to cross dress but that "fact" is disputed by many people. An altogether very enjoyable film! Much to my shock I saw afterwards that the title was played by Leonardo DiCaprio. I had completely not recognised him. Then again, Titanic is probably the last film I saw by him, so I sort of lost touch with his career. He played the role very well though, no matter what some of the reviews I read about the film said. The picture, of Brouwersgracht, was taken as I walked back home after the film.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

More noise outside in the morning, just as I was waking up. This time it sounded really close. Say! Would they be taking the scaffolding away? It's been there for two weeks now, much longer than the initial forecasted week, and I'm getting really tired of it. It sure sounded close by. There was the noise of metal moving... there were workers, seemingly just outside the window.

The mystery was revealed as I walked out to go to work. Not only was the scaffolding still there. There was also another obstacle, as you can see in the picture above. Liander, the company in charge of the city's electricity and gas networks, and the same company that had dug up the street on the other side of the canal had now decided to dig up, and completely block this side of the canal. Right in front of the building. In order to get to the metro I had to make a bit of a detour and when I returned home in the evening, part of the street was still dug up. Great, so it's not just the scaffolding now but also the street itself is a mess. Fingers crossed it won't last for too long.

As I was walking into town, Sean texted me asking me if I wanted to meet up with him. It's shopping night and he and Mike wanted to have a look at the sales in the De Bijenkorf department store. I joined them, and while they were busy picking up bargains left and right, I kept my distance from anything on sale. "These are really great deals," Mike said, "you should get some for yourself." I didn't have the guts to tell him that my bank account forbids me to do so. I just smiled and said nothing. I'm very good at that. Afterwards Sean came back with me (wait for it, that sounds wrong but it wasn't) and we had some wine and talked about Sean and Mike's recent trip to South Africa and mine to Barcelona. Was good catching up with him again.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

"Oh no! It's starting to rain!" my colleague Karin said with despair in the afternoon as she looked outside. Checking the buienradar.nl website, which by the way is one of the most websites in this country showing you how obsessed we can be with the weather, confirmed her observation. It was raining and not about to stop any time soon. She complained that she did not have proper rain wear with her for her bike ride home, so that's when her creativity kicked in. She went to the reception area, got a new big bin liner and cut holes in it for her arms and head, and presto! Instant rain coat! Combined with scarf, fur lined hat, and thick winter coat she was now ready to even face Arctic weather conditions. No Amsterdam rain would hurt her today! I took the picture of her just as she was about to go home.

I returned home by metro, picking up some pizzas at the supermarket on Nieuwmarkt. Günter came over tonight. I hadn't seen him for ages after they spent Christmas time in their house in Germany and he cancelled last week's meet-up because he had a cold. We booked our Madrid hotel for our trip in March tonight and then had a very nice evening drinking Cava (it's the New Year still, after all) and red wine, and catching up with all we'd been up to. A great evening! 

Amsterdam, Netherlands

I have three bikes, and currently all three are out of action. One bike, the oldest one, is the one I like least of all three. When I fell in August 2010, injuring my head after I crashed into another cyclist and got acquainted with the asphalt a bit too intimately for my liking, it was with that bike. And when I fell late last year, slipping away on the pavement outside my new place, it was also with that bike. Not long after that I discovered that the saddle of that bike was broken, and it is now parked not far from where I live, awaiting my decision on whether it's still worthwhile having it fixed.

Another bike is a simple back-paddle brake bike, that I bought second hand. It's one of those bikes that get rented out to tourists on the islands in the north of the country and after two seasons of carrying fat germans around they get sold to bike shops in Amsterdam who then sell them to people like me so that the bikes can continue carrying fat people around town. It's a good bike but I haven't used it since the move. It had two flat tyres when last I wanted to use it and it's now parked somewhere in De Pijp (at least I hope it's still there because I parked it there half a year ago at least) but I will get it fixed because it's a pleasant bike to use.

And then there's Caroline, the bike I bought for the move and that I continued to use afterwards because it's a very pleasant bike to ride. Unfortunately Caroline's saddle got a tear in it and the gel that lies underneath the surface started to come out, so I had to cover the saddle with first one, then two plastic bags. Not a pretty sight. Then, on Thursday last week, one of Caroline's paddles broke off as I was on my way home on Keizersgracht, so I parked her there. I'm not sure how much having her fixed will cost, especially because it's time for a proper service as well, so I've decided to let her stand on Keizersgracht until the new salary comes in next week. So, until then, no bikes. That's not very dramatic though because, when in the past I used my bike to cycle into town, I now live in town and I never use my bikes in the weekend anymore. It will be metro rides to work every day from now until I get Caroline fixed next week. To compensate for lack of exercise I do walk home every day after work and that's when the above picture was taken. Our office is one the second to highest floor in the tallest building in this picture.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Back to work and this time I will definitely compensate for working today by taking Friday as my part time day. I'm looking forward to a four day weekend! Yay! But... first there's quite a bit of work to get done. My UK project, due tomorrow, is progressing nicely and I will have some good results to show... but I'd like to show more results and getting that analysis done is quite time consuming. That's what kept me happy and busy in the office today.

The picture shows the Okura hotel in a nice afternoon sun, as seen from the office. It's still completely dark as I leave the office at the end of a work day, but it's noticeable that days are getting longer. Ever so slightly, minute by minute, the dark of the evening is pushed backwards day by day and that is a great feeling. The Okura was of course my neighbour for fifteen years while I was living on Amstelkade. Had I continued to live in that place then the bike ride to the new office would have been amazingly short, say five minutes or so. But I'm happy that I moved to the city centre (though dreading any future maintenance costs on the building) and I can still see the Okura from the office. All I have to do is turn my chair a bit and there it is.

Munstergeleen, Netherlands

The province of Limburg is the only part of the Netherlands (except for a smaller area where the river Rhine enters the country in the east of the country) that has any hills of significance. The rest of the country is as flat as flat can be. People in Limburg will happily tell you that the Vaalserberg (Vaalser Mountain, which is a terribly exaggerated name) is the highest point of the country at 321 metres or just over 1,000 ft.

Even that small claim to fame is no longer true these days. After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles (a group of five islands in the Caribbean) as a sovereign country within the Kingdom, the islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands, while two other islands, Curaçao and St Maarten, became sovereign countries within the Kingdom. And as it happens, the small island of Saba, which already had the highest point of the Kingdom, now can also claim to have the highest point of the Netherlands with the wonderfully name Mount Scenery at 877 metres (2,900 ft) dwarfing poor Limburg's Vaalserberg.

Nevertheless, Limburg does have some wonderful scenery of its own. In the early afternoon, before the rest of the family arrived, I had a stroll through some of the hills just east of Munstergeleen. The weather was fantastic, and everything looked beautiful. I only walked for just over an hour, but it was very nice to walk for a bit in the land that of course will always be my roots. I returned to my parents' place and much to everyone's surprise my sister Ilse, who lives in Amstelveen and my niece Stefanie arrived as well. It was a very nice afternoon and the typical Limburg delicacies that my parents had prepared tasted delicious. I returned home in the early evening, having to use a replacement bus service (oh those dreaded words) for part of the way, and was home just before 11pm after a very nice weekend in Limburg.

Sittard, Netherlands

It's my dad's birthday on Monday and we'll have a family get-together at my parents' place tomorrow, so today I took a train down to Limburg for a weekend visit. With scaffolding in front of my building in Amsterdam, it would be childishly easy to break in virtually unnoticed into my apartment, so I took my computer and some other 'valuables' with me in my backpack. Tomorrow there will be engineering work on part of the railway between Amsterdam and Limburg which meant that I could not take my bike with me on the train. That's what I usually do because then I can cycle from Sittard station to my parents' place (15 minutes) which is a bit quicker than walking (50 minutes). Not that I mind either option, really.

So, at Sittard railway station I first bought a nice bouquet of flowers (red and white roses) and I walked to my parents' place in Munstergeleen, where I had lunch, and then... walked back to Sittard again to have a look at some of the shops and have a delicious Limburg Coffee (like Irish coffee but with a typical Limburg herb liqueur instead of Irish whiskey) in my favourite bar, Schtad Zitterd on Sittard's Market Square. I returned to my parents' place in the late afternoon (once more walking, so great exercise) and after dinner we went to my sister Joyce where we had a very nice evening playing cards. Shame that I lost the game, but the evening was great none the less.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Friday the thirteenth today, but since I am not superstitious, I don't think this day has a higher risk of adversity than any other day. I did go into the office this morning, despite the fact that I had announced this day would be my part time day instead of last Monday, and I was happily working away on my project when an incident occurred in the office (not to get described here) that left me, well, furious would be the word. This was at around 11:30 in the morning. Two minutes later, sitting back at my desk, I decided that I would not have to put up with what happened on my part time day, when I wasn't being paid for being in the office anyway, and I left. I told my manager and reception that I was taking my part time day still and left.

I walked home, calming down on the way, and took a picture of the roof of the new extension of the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art. This extension, currently under construction on Museumplein as well as the entire museum are due to reopen this year after years of renovation. For all the obvious reasons the extension has been nicknamed The Bath Tub, and I'm sure the picture shows you why. I must say that it looks great in the 'artist impressions' I've seen of it... but I'm a bit more apprehensive of what it will look like in reality. When I got home I decided to go an buy a gift for my dad's birthday... but then when I returned from the shops I continued working still. From home, and still for free, but the pressure on this UK project is just too big and there's still so much to do. Still, today was as close to 'going on strike' as I've come in all my career. Friday the 13th? Next one I will not leave the house.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Until the days start getting significantly longer again, the chances remain pretty high that the daily picture on this blog is one of Amsterdam in the dark. Such as this one, taken as I was walking home from work. It shows Rokin, which is actually where the Amstel River ends. It's a funny notion that, centuries ago, people simply stopped the river from flowing towards the Zuiderzee by building a dam on the spot which is still Dam Square to this day. Of course the water needed to flow anyway and that's what the canals took care of. People often think that Amsterdam's canals are filled with filthy still water. I can't guarantee it's clean water and definitely wouldn't recommend drinking it, but the water in Amsterdam's canals is fed by the Amstel still and so, through a system of locks, gets flushed out every night. Rokin is the last stretch of genuine Amstel River before it reaches the Dam.

The weather was horrible today so I took a metro to work. Admittedly, with the bike ride to work not being enjoyable at all even on the nicest of day, a metro ride is always an interesting option if it weren't for the fact that I do need the exercise of a bike ride as often as possible, but today the rain was a genuine reason to go underground. My manager had already left for Paris yesterday so only my American colleague was still in town. With him I did some more training today, and at the end of the day it was also time for him to say goodbye as he's flying back tomorrow morning. It was good to see him in the office. Hopefully he'll be able to pick up what's expected of him in the next couple of weeks.