Tales From Amsterdam + Catching Up

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to a really lovely Saturday afternoon here in this little corner of England.  (I`ve gone all poetic today...lol!)  After a cold, frosty start the sun has been shining all day.  It certainly lifts the spirits considerably

                  

Before I tell you about our last day in Amsterdam I`ll bring you up to date with my week.  It`s mainly been the usual ` go to work, come home, cook dinner` apart from Thursday when I went to Tesco all by myself again.  There`s nothing nicer than shopping alone with a your husband`s credit card at your mercy, I`m surprised Jim let me out of the house...lol!  It WAS nice to do the food shop again and get the things I needed.  Jim does a great job for a bloke but apart from spending less cash at the till I do it much better job.  We have to juggle the shopping so that he looks after Roman while I do the shopping.  When he`s on late shift I`m at work so he shops.  It all depends on the circumstances but it does work for us.

                

Yesterday we both went shopping in town, taking Little Man with us. When I collected him from Kerry`s he went mad when he saw me and didn`t even want to give her a kiss goodbye....little scamp that he is!  He really seems to love going out with us and he`s great fun to have around.  After visiting the bank I went to have my eyebrows threaded.  Usually a nice girl called Nitu does it but instead there was a beautician that I`d not seen before...in fact I don`t want to see again either.  Threading, as I`ve explained before, is a the ancient art of hair removal first practised in Persia, now Iran.  There was nothing artistic about yesterday`s session, it was more like torture.  It fet like she was removing my skin, not shaping my eyebrows, and judging by the look on her face she was enjoying too!  Please be there next time Nitu, I can`t go through that again...lol!  To over come the shock we went to Marks and Spencer for cappuchinos and to give Roman his dinner.  He is always fussed by the lovely Louise who works in the cafe and has seen him since he was six weeks old.  Like so many other people she adores his big blue eyes...methinks he`ll be a real charmer when he grows up.  I bought myself a few bits and pieces and I got Roman a hooded top and a long sleeved t-shirt from Primark, just £6 for the two. 

                

On the way home I stopped to fill up with petrol.  Whilst waiting to pay I saw three suspicious looking teenagers come into the shop.  I couldn`t believe it as they filled their pockets with goods from the shelves and walked out of the door, they didn`t even try to hide what they`d done.  The lady at the check-out couldn`t see them and anyway she was serving customers and the manager DID see them but just shook his head.  But nobody DID anything, I couldn`t have been the only customer to have seen them, the shop has CCTV but they just got away with stealing .  Doesn`t anyone care anymore?

      

Now for the last of our exploits in Amsterdam, and they ain`t all culture either...lol!

I`ve really mixed up the order in which we did things so I`ll just slot them in as we go along.  On Saturday afternoon we went for a walk, not to anywhere in particular, just a casual walk.  We saw a nice little alleyway so we thought we`d give it a try, Jim has a great sense of direction so we knew we wouldn`t get lost.  We chatted merrily away as we walked and I noticed this elderly couple in front of us do a u-turn but it didn`t cross my mind as to why. We turned a corner and I looked straight into a window with a red neon strip above the door and had to do a double take.  We were now in the Red Light district and the home of the `ladies of the night`, not of course that Jim had noticed until I had nudged him several times...lol!  It was actually a fascintating place, not at all as sleazy as I`d expected.  There was a relaxed police presence and the place was full of tourists.  There were however drug pushers around but we`d read all the police warnings and knew how to behave if approached by them, which we were or at least Jim was...twice.  One man actually asked him if he had any for sale much to his disgust and my amusement, the poor bloke looks far too innocent for that...lol!   It seems strange to think of a sex industry that is legal and pays taxes, but that`s just what happens in laid back Holland, and strangely enough it works too.  Whether we like it or not these things go on and in my opinion, far better that it`s legal and controlled than illegal and underground.  Soliciting in the streets is illegal and smoking cannabis is only allowed in designated places.  The Dutch certainly seem to know what they`re doing. I certainly felt far safer in Amsterdam`s red light district than I have in London`s Soho where there is a definite air of menace.

On Sunday morning we went to Artis Zoo by Metro water bus, a great form of travel that I highly recommend if you live in a cty that has a network of canals.  It took just twenty minutes to get there and a five minute walk from the bus stop. We had a lovely day there, the zoo is a mixture of old and cutting edge new.  The animals were all very well looked after and all had excellent accomodation.  When we were watching the sealions a little Dutch boy was chatting happily away to me.  I didn`t know the words he used but fully understood the sentiment behind them, children are the same the world over, he was such a sweetie.

Later on when we left the zoo we took another water bus but this time in another direction, we decided to stay on board for the duration of the trip so we could rest, take photos and see different areas of the city.  As evening fell we watched as the city lights came on. One by one they came to life, the houseboats, the canal bridges and the street lights that are much prettier than the ones we have here. The canal ride was a perfect 90 mins at the end of a wonderfulweekend. The whole weekend was an adventure from start to finish, a revelation as well as a fun time. There were things that shocked, Anne Frank`s Museum made us sad, there were things that made us laugh and the horrendous traffic that almost turned our hair white.  But guess what, I wouldn`t have missed for the world! :o)

Cheerio for now. :o)