August 28, 2012
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(written on 7 May 2013)
The Kid and his friend spent the day in Amsterdam while I was at work, but because I will be off to Barcelona tomorrow evening, being in the office this very short work week is not bad at all. Besides, I’m sure office life is actually quieter than spending a day with the two kids. In the evening they spent hours trying to decide if to go out, then what to wear, then what to drink at home before going out, then where to go… I don’t understand this. In my younger days there were about five minutes between deciding that I wanted to go out and actually going out, but kids these days seem to have turned that into an art form all by itself. My mirror, unemployed for most of the past two months, suddenly is getting used again as if there is no tomorrow.
Then, when Daniel and Kayleigh finally left the apartment at around 11, both already quite tipsy and with Kayleigh not feeling very well because of a cold, Daniel did something exceptionally selfish and stupid. I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say that it was extremely unkind towards hid friend Kayleigh… and I won’t be surprised if she will hold this against him for a long time to come. Kids these days. I went to bed, lying awake for a long time, wondering how clever it was from me to trust Daniel with the apartment for the upcoming week while I will be in Catalonia…
The picture shows the Rijksmuseum building which has been closed for around ten years now while it’s undergoing major refurbishment. It will reopen some time next year, but today the new logo was already unveiled. You see it here on the front of the building. Not only is it rather bland and not very exciting, it’s also misspelled! Many Dutch people anglicise their use of Dutch words by splitting those words into smaller parts and putting a space in between the words. “Parttime” is one word in Dutch, but often Dutch people now write “part time”. “Spoorbrug” (railway bridge) will get turned into “spoor brug”. It’s an annoying habit and now the Rijksmuseum has done it as well. Quite maddeningly they now write their name as “Rijks Museum” which is quite ri di cu lous.
