(written on 12 February 2013)

We started off the day with a lazy breakfast at home and then slowly prepared to leave the house. A short walk through some neighbouring streets but when a light drizzle (yes, the lovely weather of the last few days is gone) it was time for the first indoor activity. Via Warmoesstraat we walked to the Oude Kerk / Old Church, the church in the picture above. Not only is this wonderful building Amsterdam’s oldest, but up until mid June it also hosts the annual World Press Photo exhibition and we spent just over an hour in the church taking all these pictures in. There were many shocking pictures (as is always the case with World Press Photo) such as the ones of cartel murders in Mexico or the Eastern European prostitutes full of scars due to drugs abuse, but of course part of why this is such an impressive exhibition. The Old Church is a lovely building, originally built as a Catholic church building, but during the Reformation, most of its interior (paintings, sculptures) was vandalised and removed and it was taken over by Protestants. It has remained protestant ever since. 

We left the church, walking along Oudezijds Voorburgwal (Amsterdam’s oldest canal) to our lunch destination, Café de Jaren, where we sat down for soup and a sandwich. The intended afternoon walk got cut short just a bit because it started raining quite badly as we crossed the Blauwbrug near City Hall. So once more we looked for an indoor activity and that was going to be the Willet-Holthuysen house, a monumental building on Herengracht which once belonged to an affluent family of art lovers and collectors. The house is now part of the Amsterdam Museum but its interior still has a great feel of how it must have looked like more than a century ago.

Afterwards we returned to the apartment but we did so with a stop at Marqt on Rembrandtplein, a new, rather big and beautiful organic supermarket in an old ABN Amro bank building. We also got some wonderful chocolates in the Puccini chocolate store on Staalstraat, and those were soon eaten when we got home. There, we also had some macarons, and of course some whiskies. In the evening we walked the very short distance to the Bekeerde Suster for some of their home brewed beer and a lovely pub meal, and following more drinks, we continued on to Wildeman, the beer bar again just a short distance away. It was a wonderful first real day of Colin and Andy’s visit that only could have been (marginally) better if the weather had been just a tad better.

(written on 11 February 2013)

It is only a two day work week this week, and – even better news – today was the second day of the work week! I left the office to return home but I didn’t stay home for long. After a quick bite to eat I took a train to the airport and at around 9pm I was waiting at the doors of Arrivals 4 for Colin and Andy to walk out and start their Amsterdam visit! The flight was just a bit delayed but before we knew it we were on a train to Central Station and from there we walked to my place; the apartment they had not seen before. I had left some windows open because the weather was still nice today. As you can see from the picture above, taken of the control tower at the airport just outside the terminal, the sky was clear.

At home it didn’t take long to give them a quick tour of the place (that takes all of ten seconds) and then we settled down in the living area. I’d prepared some snacks (cheese among other things) and I also handed them their birthday gifts, and we just had a nice relaxed time at home. It was too late to head out in the city, but that was fine, it was absolutely great to finally see them here in Amsterdam again, in my new (but tiny) studio. We went to bed well after midnight!

(written on 10 February 2013)

85.0

Let’s take a moment to look at that number and give it some thought. When I weighed 103 kilograms back in January, I decided that I really needed to lose weight. A lot of weight. And I decided then that I would have to get down to a level that would be considered ‘normal weight’ on the BMI scale, which means lower than 85.5 kilograms. So I set myself the goal of going down to 85.0 kilograms, which would put me in the normal weight bracket for the first time in about fifteen years, having floated through the overweight bracket to just the obese label in January.

Over Easter, during a visit to Limburg, I decided that my real goal would have to be 82.0 kilograms, because at least that way I would be comfortably in the normal weight zone without the risk of popping up to overweight again upon drinking a glass of water. So 82,0 became the new target and I have certainly not reached that yet. But… this morning the scales showed 85.0. I had reached my initial target, which means that through exercise (i.e. swimming) and dieting I have now lost 18 kilograms of body weight, with only a further three to go. It’s an absolutely wonderful feeling, but it does come with some unexpected side effects. For example, all of my trousers are now just too big and I will have to go shopping soon to replace them. But that is of course not a problem!

The only ‘problem’ I have now is that in the upcoming weeks, with first Colin and Andy’s visit and Daniel’s subsequent stay here, I don’t think I will be losing weight as rapidly as I’ve been doing so far. So, even though there are only three kilograms to go, somehow I don’t think I will reach my target weight of 82.0 any time soon. Ah well, at least I know that, starting tomorrow, my life is going to busy, but also a lot of fun! The table in the picture above was just polished and it was the last thing I did in preparation of Andy and Colin’s visit tomorrow, other than changing the bed linen of course.

(written on 10 February 2013)

Tweede Pinksterdag, or Second Pentecost Day, is the Monday after Pentecost and it’s a public holiday in the Netherlands, probably best known not for religious reasons (not many people seem to know anymore what Pentecost is about or why it should be credited with a public holiday) but because this is the last public holiday of the year in this country before Christmas. And if we’re unlucky and Christmas Day is on a Saturday, then it’s even the last public holiday in this country before Good Friday the following year. We’re not very generous with these things in this corner of the planet. But I digress…

When I was younger, not only were all shops closed on all Sundays, but they were most definitely shut during the religious public holidays. That’s no longer the case. Amsterdam’s shops are now open for almost 365 day per year (with only Christmas Day and New Year’s Day interrupting that ‘cycle’) and today was no exception. And shopping I did! More bits and pieces needed for the house and also groceries of course. The one thing I bought today that I am most happy with is seen in the picture above; a little bench that I can put in front of the windows and that is strong enough to support me (it actually was sold as a coffee table) so that I can sit in front of the open windows and just stare out… to the endless stream of people shuffling through my street. At the time that this picture was taken, at the end of the afternoon, I had done everything that I could have done in preparation of Andy and Colin’s visit. I was happy with how the place looked, with new cupboards, curtains, assorted items and fresh groceries – and I was looking forward very, very much to welcoming them to Amsterdam and to my apartment. Just a two day work week to go…

(written on 10 February 2013)

It’s Whitsunday today, and there is quite a well known Dutch song with the simple title “Op een mooie Pinksterdag” (once upon a beautiful Whitsunday) that was completely appropriate today. Wonderful weather! And I would so be hoping that the great weather we’ve been having recently would continue into the coming week, making Andy and Colin’s visit extra cheerful… but alas, the forecast is not good, with bad weather on the way from Wednesday – exactly the day that they arrive.

Today was spent with a muffin breakfast in Coffee Company once more, and then a brief walk through town, taking pictures of Amsterdam basking in the sunshine, and then just more cleaning, decorating and now also shopping for groceries for this week.

(written on 9 February 2013)

Absolutely wonderful weather once more today so after a muffin breakfast at the Coffee Company I got on my bike and cycled to Zaanstad. It wasn’t just a leisurely bike ride there. I went to a DIY shop in Zaanstad where I wanted to get some blinds for three of my five windows, namely the ones on the street side of the building. I had bought roller curtains last year when I was decorating the place from scratch but the ones I had bought then were semi-transparent and didn’t go all the way down in the windows. That was OK as long as no one needed to sleep in the living area but with me sleeping in that part next week, and Daniel sleeping there some weeks after that, I figured it would be better to have roller curtains that shut out the light properly. So, long story short: I cycled to Hornbach in Zaanstad today to get three new curtains. And these will block out the light as best as possible.

In the afternoon I removed the old roller curtains, which turned out to be more of a challenge than expected, but once that was done I closed all curtains and I was quite pleased with the result. Dark enough, in any case! The picture was taken of the main chimney of the Hemcentrale electrical plant which provides electricity to most of Amsterdam. It’s situated in the north west of the city and the bike lane to Hornbach goes straight past it. Picture perfect.

(written on 9 February 2013)

The weather in Amsterdam was exceptionally bright and that meant that the views from our 26th floor office were even more spectacular than on your average day. It was so very clear that my super zoom Nikon camera had no problem locating landmarks such as the Royal Palace on Dam Sq, the Zuiderkerk and the church in the picture above, the Oude Kerk. It’s Amsterdam’s oldest building and still an active church (unlike the New Church) and also final resting place of about 10,000 people that were buried here. 

The Old Church is one of the places I’d like to take Andy and Colin next week because the building is really quite beautiful inside as well. Luckily there’s a World Press Photography exhibition running still in the building so that will be a nice combination. The list of things to see and do when they are here is getting longer and from what I have thought of already, they’ll probably need to stay for a couple of weeks rather than the five days they’re staying. Ah well, there can always be a next time! 

At the end of the work day it was time for the weekend, and this will be a special weekend because on Sunday it’s Pentecost (Whitsunday) which means a three day weekend in the Netherlands. Monday is a public holiday! That’s great because, even though preparations for next week are progressing nicely, I can do with an extra day off to get everything in tip-top shape.

(written on 9 February 2013)

It’s not just the interior of my apartment that’s getting a little make-over ahead of Colin and Andy’s visit next week, but also a bit of the exterior. Admittedly the façade of the building still looks appalling, and the upstairs neighbours will have quite some questions to answer still at some point in the future, but at least the front door got properly painted and fixed today. When I got home from work, the letters N A T (wet) were written on the ground in front of the door. I shot around 14 Hipstamatic prints with my camera and together these random settings pictures form today’s blog picture. The rest of the evening I was too busy with my continued efforts to get the house in a presentable shape.

(written on 9 February 2013)

And there you have it. Two pictures, taken a couple of hours apart as you can see by the fading light, but taken from the same position, looking towards the corner of the kitchen area where so far there was an old French cupboard with the microwave on top of it, and some very messy contents. Tonight after work I had a quick bite to eat and then started unpacking the boxes that we’d picked up at IKEA yesterday. The camera recorded the progress of building up the Liatorp cupboard in the picture and as the light outside slowly grew dimmer, the cupboard started filling the corner nicely. I’m very happy with it and I will start filling it with stuff tomorrow.

One small disappointment was that the microwave will not fit in the space I had in mind for it, in the middle of the cupboard, so I’ll have to find another space for that. Oh, and I had also hoped that the doors you see at the bottom of the cupboard could also have gone to the top part, but for some reason that doesn’t seem to work. Never mind, I added them to the bottom of one of my other Liatorp cupboards and they look just fine there. After this was all done, and while it was already completely dark outside, I also built the Expedit cupboard that goes next to the bed, but that was a very quick job. I think I am now a truly qualified IKEA furniture assembler.

(written on 9 February 2013)

Nope, this isn’t a coffin inside Günter’s car, but is was just about the same size and it was a small miracle that it fit inside the car at all so that we didn’t have to hoist it onto the roof. What you see here are boxes filled with yet-to-be-assembled cupboards that I’d just bought in IKEA, in the southeast of Amsterdam. There are still some corners in my apartment that need some finishing touches and I’ve decided that some cupboards will do the trick. There will be one simple Expedit cupboard in the space next to the bed where up until now a huge metal bin stood (used for laundry purposes) and there will be a third Liatorp cupboard, quite similar to the two I already had, in the kitchen corner just next to the windows. 

So, after work, I took a metro to the southeast where I met up with Günter in the big IKEA store there. It didn’t take long for us to collect all necessary packages, and soon we were on our way to my place where we offloaded our cargo. While Günter went to park the car, I carried all packages up the two flights of stairs (not without a bit of effort) and I was just ready from a quick shower when Günter was back at my place and we went for some food and drinks in the nearby Bekeerde Suster pub. I’m so glad I’ve got these last cupboards now as well. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t fit more furniture into my place, so I’m very pleased that no further rides to IKEA need to get planned. Of course, once again, I was tremendously grateful to Günter for helping me out tonight!