(written on 3 March 2013)

“Oh, I’m so nervous. I need to wear a shirt that is fit for the occasion. It needs to be a cakey shirt. So what are these friends of you like? Does this shirt look cakey enough? So what do I say to them? Do I shake hands? I’m not sure I want that. So will they kiss me as well? What kind of cakes will there be? I’m nervous. Maybe I need a sip of vodka to calm me down.”

The reason for all this anxiety? In the afternoon I was meeting up with Paula and Sarah for some cakes in a patisserie shop on Heinekenplein. I’d already mentioned to them that I might bring the Kid along (depending on whether he wanted to or not) and they were looking forward to that. So was the Kid (at least, his indifferent attitude didn’t seem to hint at disapproval) and especially because not only is he addicted to pictures taken of him, but also to cakes. And this could be the perfect opportunity to combine the two.

Before we got to the cake shop there was a lot of anxiety to be dealt with though. Social interaction comes quite easily to the Kid, and he does get his fair share of attention in bars (there’s not a single time when he goes out on his own when he doesn’t come back with stories of people he met) but is quite insecure in advance. Today was no exception and even the walk to the cake shop turned out be an exercise in building up courage (“oh I don’t like bubbly people”) and then… then of course everything turned out just fine. The cake was delicious (the picture shows Daniel holding his Swedish Princess Cake, just before it tipped over on his plate) and the coffee tasted well, and most importantly we just had a nice time catching up. Even after Paula went home, and we continued to have some drinks at O’Donnell’s just across the street, it was just a very pleasant afternoon, and Daniel commented afterwards about how nice it had been. Well, another social hurdle taken then. And the shirt? Definitely cakey.

(written on 3 March 2013)

Not really in a picture taking mood today, and from today’s picture you might conclude that Daniel is tired of having pictures taken of him as well. That would be a wrong conclusion. His appetite to have a camera aimed at him and for him to then strike a pose is simply insatiable. The pose today, with the raised middle finger, was shot through a drinking glass. Let’s keep this blog family friendly after all…

In other news today: it’s the weekend. The kid was jumpy and ready to go partying while I was actually just relieved to just relax a bit at home. I had no desire really to go anywhere, which to Daniel made it look as if I was grumpy. I wasn’t. I was tired, and I just wanted to relax, read a bit, play with my iPad for a while, and nothing else. It took a while for that to get accepted by him, but in the end it was a pleasant, relaxed start of the weekend after all.

(written on 28 February 2013)

I could have posted another picture of Daniel because, yes, of course I took more today (of him sleeping on the sofa) but hey, why not a picture of me? This picture was taken as I returned home after work. It was taken in the Prinsenhofsteeg, a centuries old alley close to where I live. The weather was nice enough to go to work just wearing a T-shirt. What’s most striking in this picture, probably mostly to myself, is the amount of weight I’ve lost and how visible it is. Compare the above picture to this one which was taken in Barcelona in January this year… 

… and I think you’ll agree that the results are quite visible. And grumpy as I may look in both pictures, I can guarantee you that I wasn’t grumpy in either, and moreover that I am very happy with the change that’s happened within less than half a year, against all my expectations.

In the evening I walked to the Kriterion cinema with Daniel and we watched the film Cosmopolis which turned out to be a very good one (again, against all expectations). The funniest moment was however as we were waiting for the film to start. I mentioned to Daniel that I had served in the Dutch army when there was still a national service in this country (abolished a couple of years later) and Daniel asked me why I hand’t kept a blog during those endless fourteen months in the army. I had to explain to him that there were no blogs, not even the Internet in those days. “Oh wow,” he said staring in the distance, “I can’t imagine life without the Internet”… Now, if you ever want to feel old, have someone half your age as a temporary room mate. Works like a charm. Every time.

(written on 28 February 2012)

“Have a nice weekend and see you on Monday!” I said to my French colleague Jean-Charles as I left the office on Friday.

“No, I’ll see you on Wednesday,” he said, “because I’ll be in Paris on Monday and Tuesday. Say, do you like macarons?”

“Oh they’re very nice!” I answered.

“Great, I’ll get you some!” – and with that said, the weekend had indeed commenced.

Today was Wednesday of course and much to my delight, Jean-Charles had stuck to his word and presented me with a box of wonderful macarons, produced by famous Parisian patisserie Ladurée. Needless to say that I took them home as if I was transporting a box of expensive jewellery. There, Daniel and I tried two each and the rich fruity flavour was just wonderful. It will take a lot of willpower not to go through this box as if macarons are going out of fashion.

In the evening, Spain kicked Portugal out of the Euro 2012 football competition and that gave a completely different feeling of satisfaction. “¡ESPAÑA SI!” is what I posted on Facebook, knowing that my upstairs (Portuguese) neighbour will read that. Both my upstairs neighbours have behaved in a very bad, selfish way with the renovations on the building earlier this year, and while I can’t do anything to turn that back, I can do many things that will annoy the hell out of them. Supporting Spain and being ecstatic about it is just one of things in my Magic Box of Nagging Nuisances.

(written on 28 February 2012)

When I got home I found Daniel not at home but just in front of the house, appearing to look at a group of street musicians. The above picture was taken just after I had entered the apartment as he was still standing where he stood before. I knew that he wasn’t watching the street musicians though. There was an altogether different reason why he was standing right there and why he was facing exactly that direction. Two years ago, Daniel returned to Amsterdam hoping to get in touch with Michel again. He had met Michel the previous New Year’s Eve and that encounter had been so intense that a short lived relationship had started. Daniel never got in touch with Michel back in 2010 because Michel had made it clear he didn’t want any contact. 

But, as a bizarre twist of fate would have it, when I moved to my current apartment in early 2011, without knowing it, I moved to the building just about opposite of where Michel lives. By some weird coincidence, when I look out of my living room windows (or when Daniel peeks out of the windows from his air bed) I have a perfect view of Michel’s building. His front windows and front door – all perfectly visible. Of course I couldn’t care less about that but for Daniel it was a definite bonus to his Amsterdam visit. On days when the weather is nice, such as today, there’s not even a reason for him to look at Michel’s place from inside my studio, but instead he’ll go to the Coffee Company store (yes, exactly next to Michel’s building) or pretend to be watching street musicians when in actual fact his focus, driven by a feeling of love that has not subsided in the past two years, is a bit to the left… and just a couple of meters farther away.

(written on 28 February 2013)

It was back to work for me and back to daily Amsterdam life for the kid (i.e. Daniel) and for one of us two that was probably a more exciting prospect than for the other. Work – in other words – wasn’t very special. The most exciting thing I probably did was actually in my lunch break when I booked a hotel in Antwerp, Belgium for an upcoming weekend trip with Daniel (“yes, Daniel, of course I booked two separate beds”) but that was about it. The picture shows some new bicycle stands that the city has installed just outside our office. Yes, it’s doubledecker bike racks (not in use just yet) which will make it a bit difficult to park Caroline because she is just a bit bigger than a usual city bike. For now I hope that a small section of normal bike stands will stay as it is; suitable for Caroline.

Daniel had a more exciting day it seems because when I got home, there was a Museum Pass (valid for a year in all Dutch museums) on the coffee table. Wow! During his last visits two years ago, he had spent a lot of time at home but it seems that he has plans to explore the city much more this time, and that is of course only to be encouraged. He got home pretty soon after me and we spent the rest of the evening at home.

(written on 28 February 2012)

It was a bit of a deja-vu this morning because again I got up before my two guests were up, and again I went to the Coffee Company for my breakfast, and again Daniel and Fernando had left the house unnoticed when I got back less than an hour later.

This time, however, Daniel walked in – alone – quite soon after I had returned home as well. I was surprised that he was alone and even more surprised when he told me that Fernando had gone back home already (Daniel had escorted him to the station) and that he was quite relieved about that because yesterday had not exactly been a success. That also meant that he had no plans for the rest of the day so when I proposed to have a walk through town, despite the weather not being great, and have a look at the shops, Daniel was happy to join. It also gave him the opportunity for the thing that he is extremely fond of: having pictures taken of himself. 

I don’t know anyone who is as keen to stand in front of a camera. On his Facebook page there are no less than 5,000 pictures of him (if not more by now) and there seems to be no end in sight. Daniel loves the camera and it must be said that that affection seems mutual. As I was taking pictures of him in various poses and in various locations in town today though, a thought kept coming back in my head. What will my friends, family and colleagues think when they see these pictures online? In some of the pictures Daniel can seem or look rather seductively and I’m sure that this will give the impression of there being more than just a normal friendship between him and me.

The fact that this guy is staying with me for a while, for free no less, already raises eye brows when I mention it to people and I can hear them thinking “is that Enrico’s boyfriend?” or “what’s going on between the two?” – or similar thoughts. Well, the answers to those questions might surprise those people; no and nothing. Daniel is a friend and I get along great with him, but it really feels more like a father-son thing than anything remotely erotic or sexual. Nice as he is, he would probably drive me crazy within half an hour of hypothetically starting a relationship so that is definitely also not the case. But a nice kid, yes, he’s that for sure. In the early evening we went to Spijker, a bar he had been to during his previous visits as well, and I think he enjoyed being back, even if it was just for two drinks. Of course more pictures had to be taken on the way back home.

(written on 28 February 2013)

As I got up at around 8:30, Daniel and his guest Fernando were still asleep, hidden from my view by the curtain in my studio, but presumably still lying on Daniel’s air bed. I went to the Coffee Company store for my breakfast coffee and muffin and when I got back barely 45 minutes later… they were gone! They had left the house and I hadn’t even noticed, even though the Coffee Company offers a good view of my front door. 

With the house to myself, I cleaned it up as much as possible but with two guests having dropped all of their luggage in random locations in my apartment, there wasn’t too much cleaning that actually could get done. The picture is of the Singelgracht and the Holland Casino, with the American Hotel in the distance. It was taken as I came back from my morning swim. Going swimming sometimes seems to have become a bit of an addiction and I was actually thrilled to have gone today – again. My target weight has not been reached yet (I got tantalisingly close last week, but alas) but that’s just a matter of time. That much confidence I do have.

In the evening I met up with Sean and with a Brazilian friend of his. This guy, Fabio, turned out to be ADHD personified. It was all rather overwhelming. Madonna will do two shows in Amsterdam in July (I’ll be going to the second) and Fabio has decided that he wants to meet her. Not only has he decided that, he has taken some serious action as well to achieve that goal. He has set up a website, a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, and on the latter he is posting videos of him singing or lip syncing Madonna songs. And tonight he wanted to record him singing I’m a Sinner in the Red Light District. Initially Sean was supposed to be the cameraman but ultimately it was yours personally who was holding a video camera whilst Fabio performed his version of I’m a Sinner on a bridge over Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Twice. It was all rather embarrassing, really, and I was glad when filming finally came to a stop and we could go to a bar to sit down and have a drink. And it was there, in that bar, that Daniel and Fernando walked in as well at the end of the evening. They’d had a good day, it seems, so all was well that ended well.

(written 25 February 2013)

“Are you at home? Look outside.” Daniel texted me at the end of my work day, just about as I was on my way home outside the office. “No not yet. What’s up?” I replied. No answer. How weird. If he knew that something was going on outside the apartment then how could he ask if I was at home. Surely he would then also be in the apartment’s vicinity? And what could be going on outside? Yeah it’s a busy street but I’m used to that so if Daniel found it big enough to text me then something really odd must have happened. But what? Just a bit concerned I cycled home just a bit faster than usual. Along the way it occurred to me that Daniel was probably having a coffee in the coffee bar on the other side of the canal and was witnessing something in front of the apartment. The tree. That must have been it. Had you asked me to bet money on possible events I would indeed have said that something had happened to the tree in front of the house and that Daniel had seen it happening. Turned out to be true; the tree that stood in front of the house, and that looked rather sick last year but much better so far this year, had been blown over and only then showed how little grip its roots still had on the soil. Anyone could have pushed it over perhaps but in this case it just took a gust of wind.

Daniel was expecting a visitor today, a friend of his from Groningen, and this guy, Fernando will be staying at my place as well this weekend. The two of them will share a single air bed while I sleep on a comfortable double mattress, not that I mind, obviously. Daniel arrived at Central Station at around eight in the evening, much to Daniel’s chagrin because that coincided with his Eastenders TV schedule, so instead of picking Fernando up at the station, the two of them met at Dam Square (much closer by) and spent Fernando’s first half hour in the city sitting on my couch, not saying a word to each other while Daniel watched Eastenders and Fernando kept playing with his smart phone. Rather interesting, young kids these days. After Eastenders they slowly got ready to go out and explore the city, giving me some peace and quiet at home which, for an old geezer like me, was actually most welcome.

(written on 25 February 2013)

And so it was that I was waiting at Arrivals 4 at the airport again. Once more after work (although this time I had not gone home first) and once more for an easyJet flight from the UK. It wasn’t to pick up my friends from Glasgow though. This time it was to pick up Daniel, who is going to stay with me for the next couple of weeks (give or take) to enjoy a summer in Amsterdam. Well, I say “summer” and technically as of today that’s what it should be called, but the weather really is ghastly, with torrential rain showers coming down over the country with an annoying frequency.

‘Oh hi, yeah, hallo,” said Daniel as he walked out of the Arrivals lounge into the area where I was waiting for him. No handshake or hug, just his head lifted up a bit, trying very hard to appear “cool” or whatever these young kids call that these days. He was clearly happy to be here though, his first visit since September 2010, and that showed even more as we walked out of Central Station half an hour later. He enjoyed seeing the familiar sights and the brief walk to my apartment, which – luckily for him because this is where he’ll be staying for the time being – he also seemed to like. He settled down almost immediately on the little bench in front of the open window and started checking Facebook and whatever social media he’s involved in.

We went out for Thai food on Zeedijk and while we were eating a rather nice meal, the skies once more opened and Zeedijk got soaked with rain. And so did we as we made our way home after the meal because the rain did not relent. We just returned home, chatted a bit, drank a bit, and for the rest I decided to just let him be and let him get comfortable in this studio. He seems to be enjoying himself so it’s all good. At around eleven, I closed the curtains in the middle of the living room, he went to his air bed and I went to my slightly more comfortable mattress… and that was the Kid’s first day in Amsterdam 2013.