Amsterdam!

Yay, finally I got over to the continent. I can get to Amsterdam and into a hotel from Cardiff airport quicker than I can drive to London or my office in Bedford. I haven't been there for over 20 years and its still one of the best cities on the planet (not that I can remember much of the only other time I was there).
I booked a hotel room online which looked OK and in a good area, then read the reviews (which you should never do after you've booked). Bad, bad reviews for the Quentin England hotel, but what can you do?
It was really easy to find, just a 10 min  tram ride from Centraal Station, looked OK from the outside, but whoa...my room in the attic on the 5th floor and tiny. Anne Frank would have had more space in her house.

Not a canal boat, a hotel room.

This time I planned to see the the museums and cultural sites which I didn't get to when I was a youngster (it was mainly bars, coffee shops, nightclubs and the Heineken tour last time). Unfortunately both the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum are being renovated, the van Goghs moved somewhere else and a small section of the Rijks still open with Rembrandt's greatest hits still on show. So I went in...culture done.


The red light district district seemed tamer than I remember. The sex shops have basically disappeared, but the girls in the windows are still there. The narrow streets are teaming with Chinese tourists early on and crawling with Brit lads on stag nights and Arabic kids later on. But there are still great bars and restaurants in there, and the Dutch are very accommodating to tourists. I hit a few bars and settled into one for lots of conversations and beers with locals and other tourists. Fun night, thank god for Febo and frites.

Dutch barmaids...friendly, tall & blonde

Saturday I met up with Susan who I worked with at Fuji in Australia. She's now at Fuji Europe in Dusseldorf
which is a 2 hr train ride away. Great to catch up and get the work gossip. We decided to explore the local neighborhoods not on the tourist trail. Such a cool city, I really want to find out a way to go and live there. Great markets, tried Surinamese food. Cool cafes with great food, funky bars, beautiful canals, bikes everywhere - I don't know how I didn't get knocked over.
Beer o'clock was around 2 and set the tone for the rest of the day. So chilled and relaxed despite the weather. Took Susan to a coffee shop for the first time. They're still everywhere and don't seem to have cracked down on tourists as I had heard. No photos inside, sorry.

Susan and me

Sunday was chillaxing again, found more great places for breakfast, pity the coffee isn't so good (unless you ask for double shots), but still it has to one of the best cities to hang out in. Cannot stress that enough. Good food everywhere too, so didn't want to go back to Cardiff, but Amsterdam's only 2 hrs away for me, lots more tips back I think. So cool.

Back to reality now...shit weather, shit coffee, pre-prepared food, traffic and Christmas...its relentless here already, don't know how I'm going to handle December.

Bbbrrrrr....

I can't remember that last time it's been over 10C. The locals say its gotten really cold this for time of the year, its only spring. I had to buy gloves today.
Just got home from the Castle where they had Guy Fawkes night fireworks. I'd forgotten about bonfire night, we used to have it when I was a kid and Dad would let off fireworks and crackers in the back yard. You can still buy fireworks here...in supermarkets. Any time. And still buy bangers that used to blow kids' fingers off. But sparklers, the type you put on birthday cakes, are considered dangerous. Go figure.

For a country that's obsessed with health and safety (there's even a law called DSE that determines how you work in front of a computer) they were pretty slack with firework safety tonight. There were about 10000 people in a park tonight and when they let the fireworks off at 7pm (already pitch dark) the wind was blowing over the crowd and so were the sparks, landing on everybody. No fire risk though, it was raining as usual.      
                                                                                             Otherwise, its been business as usual. Having the NHS for a customer is an exercise in dealing with red tape. Things get done, but very slowly. I should have been finishing up a job about now and starting the next, but that's probably going to be not happening until the end of January. Probably not home for Xmas.            

Just got home and the X Factor is on TV. God, its awful. So many talent shows on TV here, and they have really run out of talent to put on them.