Catching up

Just a quick post to catch up on some events. This is a photo i love of when sean mum and elaine came to visit. We took sean to the nemo. Its the best place ever for kids and has an amazing free roof beach. (Photos later) He loved it. It was his third favourite place after the star wars shop and the fountain at the american hotel.

Birthday and phone blogging

Today i discovered how to merge my phone clog with this one! Great. So now i can update this much easier. To celebrate here is a picture of what my colleagues did to decorate my desk for my birthday!

Livin la vie de dutchie

Quick snack in De Bakkerswinkel with Catriona on a sunny sunday afternoon.

Test from new phone

Testing my new phone. Just bought it in rotterdam.

Pindakaas & Hagleslag

Ok so... I'm into Week 4!
I still like it....

Been home once (stop laughing Cameron), went to Paris to meet my new Boss, on the Thayls - 1st Class :) which was fun.
I'm supposed to be going to London and Rome next week.... but I have to wait till my boss gets back to his office to get more details... so that will be interesting.

Had a week on my own in the office last week as the 2 others that are here were in MIP in Cannes. It was ok.. I like being alone so it was fine. Trying to get a handle on one of the projects I will be doing is interesting. I'm using a system a little like the one I used to use in AA and I keep pressing all the wrong keys.... I'll get used to it. I have a horrible tendency to say we/us for AA and you guys for the new Co! Not good I suspect.
I have made some friends.... some Irish folks... all lovely. And some gay folks, also lovely!

This weekend I had a poke around two markets... Nordermarkt and Albert Cyupstraat Markt.

This place is crazy about markets, and I can see why. I tried Nordermarkt first as its literally just up the street from me and a lot smaller than Albert Cyup. It was great, bought some lovely bread and cheese and tomato tapenade and two plants for my kitchen. So I came home with my haul and then headed off in the other direction to the Albert Cyup. That was class, really long and selling everything and pretty cool stuff too. Got fruit and herbs and other bits and pieces.

And then... what I hade been waiting for, for ages but never seemed to be in the right place for,

Vlaamse frites (literally Flemish fries) they are soo good.... they are double fried... so they are really crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle, then the excess oil is shaken off them and they are then tossed in salt. That's when the fun begins, there is about 18 combinations of sauces you can have on them, I like frietsaus and curry. (frietsaus is like mayo only lighter and sweeter) you can go the whole Dutch hog and have frites oorlog (literally war fries) they have....drum roll..... mayo, satay sauce, and raw onions.... (peuke) Anyway with my frites in hand I strolled out of the market and back along the canal to my house.

Other things done in the last 2 weeks! Went to Vleuten (its outside Utrecht) to visit Catriona's friend Prina and her husband Wiebe in their fab home. There I learned that by Dutch law all new train stations have to spend a minimum 10% of their budget on Art installed in the station. I now have a new hobby on the train.... spot the station art (shut up - i have no one to talk to )

This is Vleuten Station - and the never-ending bike rack!

Prina is lovely and made a fab dinner.... she's pregnant and the bump is growing nicely!

She thought me a traditional Dutch breakfast on thr hoof consists of ... Krentenbrood, Pindakaas, and chocolate Hagleslag - its yum!! Hops watch out this is my new peanutbutter and jam (shit and blood as you so lovingly pronounced it)

I've been invited by the gay boys I met on Saturday to the Drag Queen Olympics (Queens Day Eve - 29th April) so that will be fun.

The Irish contingent are nice, we are trying to set up an Irish Expat Meetup group so we had the first meeting last week with 7 people there. Two came to my house on Sunday to watch movies which was nice. (even if I was dying when I woke up on Sunday morning.... as the beer here is served in half pint glasses - and during happy hour, far too many glasses... I think I drank 10 or 12 before I stopped counting... I did not however stop drinking) anyway Sunday I was dying till 3pm!!
Got my haircut.... Toni&Guy in Amsterdam, by Dutch standards 'they saw me coming' but I've paid more for a haircut I didn't like so to have them do (and agree) with exactly what I wanted was great.

Tonight I go to dinner in The Grand one of the poshest hotels in the city, very near the red-light district (go figure) the IT guys are over and I'm helping them to entertain some folks here. :)

So there you go..... there are the little 'flies in the ointment' but on the whole life here is good. I miss my family, Catriona and friends, that goes without saying, but its not a bad life here.

More soon.

Begin the Beginings!

So here I am.

First week in Amsterdam, have to say I feel like I have been here way longer.

I like it, alot. The only thing I miss about Dublin is family and friends.
Work (or what I know of it) is ok. The office is nice, out a bit, but the people are great.
All the downstairs revenue nad corporate staff are lovely. There are (or will be) four staff in my office, only one I know, there is a lady in sales I haven't met yet and a publicity guy who hasn't started yet.

I'm off to Paris on Tuesday to meet my boss. Wasn't expecting to be going anywhere so soon so clothes have been an issue, or to be more exact shoes.. I only have one pair with me!

Anyway, about the city...

So where I am living impresses everyone I have met, its a REALLY nice area.
The apartment itself is great, small but perfectly formed, STEEP (and spiral) stairs leading to the 3rd floor. Then large sitting room, with a sofa that would seat 6 easy dominates the sitting room, three windows look out to the street, and across to the neighbours. Its and interesting mix of modern (IKEA) and old dark wood furniture. Little corridor to Kitchen that houses the (compact) bathroom with a really good wet room type shower. Large kitchen (i know some houses that don't have kitchens this large) fully equipped and a bedroom off the kitchen. The bed is huge, easily a King size! :) and great storage everywhere!

So far no noisy neighbours, although the fact that the window are original and single glazed means that you do hear everything, but its a mostly quiet street.

We had some fun getting here, in the form of a taxi driver that thought we said Blodestraat and not Bloemstraat...... he left us in the middle of the red light district!! Not near where I live (not far tho... but it feels it with 30-something kilo's of bags!! So we get here and the estate agent arrives .... eventually.... while we wait in the SNOW!!

Thankfully it was a long weekend so I could clean the apartment, it wasn't dirty but it was very dusty and the dust was really making my nose and throat painful!

Went food shopping.... Albert Hijen, best compared to Superquin. there are 2 near me.. so thats handy. Food shopping used to freak me out in Paris, just as everything was very different, even tho i had been to France before... the food in Paris is different, and VERY differnet from Ireland at that time. Now I think we have such a range of european things that its no so freaky.
One thing is the food here (ready meals and so forth) are really high in calories... hmmm... I guess all that cycling pays off.

Speaking of cycling I am thinking about getting a bike, mostly cause I need more excercise and there is no point in handing out money for commuting and then again for a gym.... just getting a bike makes sense....

As for the commute, well if im outside Westermarkt (3min walk) for 8.27 I can get a tram to Waterlooplien and then a Metro to Sparklerweg....
and if I take the right exit (and not the wrong one like I took the first day) I can get to the office for 9am!

So this map (kinda) shows the way....the train line (which I can see from my office window is the big long grey line at the bottom of the image) the Green Line shows the safest way to get to the office... and the Red Line is the fastest... but not terribly safe.

The reason I say its not safe is cause the yellow circle is the prison Bijlmerbajes the Blue circle is europe's larges container apartment complex. Actually if you watch this youtube video you will see the metro station and my way to work plus the container apartments.

So Im beginnig to get the hang of finding my way around, I was nervous of Catriona leaving as she had far more idea of where things were but it just means I have to calm down and think and I'll find my way around.

Ok.... this was a bit of a catch up post. But I am going to post again this week, more about the city and so on.

C

Packing seems to be the hardest word!

Back in my mums, I note that there are 12? days left till Amsterdam.

Still thinking about the shipping ....
I didn't think i had enough stuff to warrant shipping stuff over, but as I look at my crap... perhaps I do.

I have been really good though, and have gone through everything and thrown out rubbish and given books/DVDs/Cd's/clothes to charity... so all that's left is .... still lots of stuff.

I have about 4/5 boxes of things that I would "like" in Amsterdam.
I could always stick with plan A being, bring what I can after each visit home....
Think I'm just worried that for the first few weeks I'll be homesick and wont have my stuff around me..... 
Perhaps at the age of 30 I should just grow up.

Pictures of the apartment for those not on FaceCrack Here!

Mum surprised me today, she said she's giving up cigarettes the day I leave Ireland...
Something about a pact with god..... this worries me!
(I'm glad she's considering quitting all the same)

Had a small going away drinks on Friday,
somewhat tempered by the fact that I had to be home to mind sprog the next day....
His mother was going out Saturday night (left at 10am Sat and came back 5pm Sunday) 
But more drinking will be done at another stage. 
Also my round-the-clock-on-call-babysitting services are soon closing so all advantage must be taken now 
or lost for a while at least.
Still we had fun, if you call 13 games of hide an seek, 3 star wars movies, 
numerous lightsaber fights and some odd questions at bed time 
(where does your poo go when you are dead) fun!!

So I've made one collection from Dublin (house and office -
yes Cam I did take the wicker basket and PC finally, hops still has her leather jacket there tho)
and I have another one to pick up tomorrow (kitchen and remainder of room stuff)
I move out officially on 15th!

Swinging wildly between looking forward to all this to come and wondering am I totally mental.
Trying to learn Dutch the Dutch (being free) way.... Laura Speaks Dutch Podcasts
(available from the omnipresent iTunes and www.lauraspeaksdutch.info)

So far my phrases extend to:
"Its a little bit cloudy", "Can I have a coffee",
"Thank you for listening" and "Are you Mrs Petersen?" 
Not forgetting the phrase I learned from Catriona, 
"This man is bothering me, but its ok as I'm on the pill"  
- essential no doubt

Sitting in the really cozy sitting room in Mum's, fire blazing and what Met Eireann are claiming to be the worst storm of the winter raging outside.....
Think I'll find something on Sky and settle back!

Tot Ziens!

Minuscule Machinations

So.....

Apartment moving along....
Prina went to see it , camera at the ready.....

It is in the good lady's own words

it’s fantastic!! It is really class

Photos turned out as expected, no real suprises.
Bathroom is in existence... and lovely too... small but perfectly formed (much like myself)
And the bedroom..... well it lives up to its name... a room with a bed (and not much room for aught else!)
Still I'm not one for the swinger parties; at least not ones that end up on my bed... that's what the large sofa is for, so I'm happy enough.

Need to confirm the presence of washing machine and dryer (as advertised) as these are very important, and then its all systems go!

I'm interested to note that on the street (a bit down from me) is Cafe Chris, 
Amsterdam's oldest Brown Cafe Est 1624.
I read in a guidebook that its reputed to be where Rembrandt came to have his schnapps on the way from his studio to his home on Prinsengracht.

Also there is Pancake Bakery (which will serve as something of a Lemon replacement)
I'm looking forward to trying Poffertjes.


And look a lot like that up there!! :)
They are tiny pancakes (akin to Silver Dollar Pancakes)

So anyway....

Think I'm happy with the apartment, its really the location that is prime and the living space is great (aside from the minuscule bedroom) so..... on confirmation of the presence of washing machine facilities I'm a happy bunny.....

(PS Hello Cameron, who managed to find this blog while not being on Facebook or finding a link to it on a search engine (its de-listed) its a pleasure to keep you entertained with the inner machinations of my minuscule mind! Big Brother is watching eh? :P)