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August 22, 2002
peter and vanusa's wedding
On Wednesday August 21st we all went to our colleague Peter's wedding. This was held in Amsterdam, with the reception afterwards at the Hortus Botanicus. Peter looked in turn: scared, relieved, proud, happy, delirous. Vanusa just looked sensational and the Dutch gezelligheid was nicely spiced with a bit of Brazilian flamboyance to liven things up a bit! Peter and Vanusa are by now happily honeymooning in Thailand.
Posted by Faith at 10:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2002
double dutch
A few months ago while giving my father his internet training at a local internet cafe, (why not at home?, well if you'd seen what he did to our computer! I figure at least an Internet cafe will have insurance.) I came across an 'English' keyboard. I'd never heard of such a thing but apparently they exist. Slightly different to the standard one, which is American I suppose, what made it extra confusing was that the PC it was attached too had the normal drivers installed. So not only did the keyboard have some values in strange places but what was printed on the keys did not always correspond to what they produced.
Well last week at work they gave me my new laptop. Its very nice but again, not only has strange key values in strange places but also exhibits an alarming discrepancy between what is printed on many keys and what they actually produce. So you have to guess twice. Once based on memory and then if that doesn't work a second time based on some sort of strange ESP. And this is yet another form of discrepancy different to the 'English' keyboard which ICT advise me is because it is a 'Dutch' keyboard!
So how many keyboards from how many countries are there out there and who uses them?
Posted by Faith at 08:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 06, 2002
het nieuwe flatje
On the weekend we abandoned plans to go to the Pride Parade, (something to do with incessant rain) and moved into our new flat instead. (its the one on the second floor with no flowers on the bacony) We are staying in De Pijp but just a little closer to our favourite cafes and the Albert Cuyp Market.
Its proven to be a bit of a challenge size wise. We are moving from a large, cheap but illegally rented flat to one half the size and three times the price. All we've had to sacrifice is a bathroom and about 30 square meters. We have a typical 'Pijp' bathroom, a WC with a shower hanging on the wall. Finding a spot for everything can be tricky, the kitchen is also guiness-books-of-records small, the loung room doesn't have much to spare, so eventually you're left standing on the balcony clutching your toothbrush and still trying to find a spot to put it!
It didn't pass us by that the bedroom didn't have room for much else other than the bed, what we had failed to anticipate was that Ron's feet would be hanging over the end of the bed! And somehow we overlooked the church steeple with the very large bell that's practically in our back yard!
The stairs are steep, the spare room on the fourth floor, the neighbours VERY close and the local red-light district not quite the tourist-friendly kind, but we love it. It already feels like home.
Posted by Faith at 08:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 02, 2002
talking to the animals
talking to the animals
Ron's parents, my 'schoonouders' have a neighbour who is married to an Italian girl. They often babysit this couple's two year old boy. They were startled to hear her telling him one day that cows go "moo". In Holland children are taught that cows go 'boo'. So now I have visions of Dutch cows leaping out from behind trees at passing Dutch cyclists attempting to scare them to death. Apparently in Holland cows go 'Boo', dogs go "Waaf' and I can't even write what a rooster does. Whereas 'moo' is the Dutch word for 'tired', the 'bauw' as in 'Bow Wow' is the building industry and 'Cock-a-doodle-doo' is enough to send the average Dutch person into hysterics. What was interesting is that Italian and Australian renditions of these animal sounds seem to agree. Does anyone know any other versions of animal noises?
Posted by Faith at 08:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 01, 2002
the parking permit
Parking permits are like gold in Amsterdam. You may be entitled to one but in most areas the waiting lists are between one and five years long. So many people resort to a similar arrangement as us; park outside the Mercure Hotel over the Utrechtse brug and keep an old fiets down there to cycle to and from home on.
During the four days of summer each year this isn't too bad and we enjoy an evening stroll down to the Amstel, but for the other 361 cold, wet, dark evenings and mornings, as I watch Ron pedal off up the Rijnstraat, I do tend to roll over, snuggle back into the doona and be really glad I don't have my drivers licence.
So the exciting news for us is that this weekend Ron and I are moving house and THE most exciting thing is that we will be getting a genuine bona-fide Amsterdam parking permit! And not in one year, two years or more but tonight! Our new landlord already has the permit and only had to transfer it to our name and vehicle.
Of course the parking permit doesn't solve all your problems. You do still need to find a spot to put the car. But for us the parking permit really is for parking so once we are parked we tend to stay that way, for up to six weeks at a time. All we have to do now is remember WHERE we parked the car!
Posted by Faith at 08:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
watching the world go by
One of our neighbours used to work on the nearby Ruysdaelkade. Now retired, she still like to spend her days sitting in windows. Only now its her doing the watching.
Posted by Faith at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack