CD Spending Spree...

Albums of the Day :

Mathilde Santing - Mathilde Mathilde (Disc 1)

Golden Earring - Moontan

Golden Earring - Switch

Mathilde Santing - Under Your Charms

Shadow Gallery - Room V (Disc 2)

Conspiracy - The Unknown

Huelgas Ensemble - Lamentations

Soundtracked today by Dutch faves and new acquisitions...

After a good night on the house boat, into town and to Bagels and Beans for breakfast...

...followed by a walk along the canals...

...where fresh strawberries were enjoyed...

...along with lovely views...

To Dam Square, where some CDs were acquired and, then...

...to Cafe 't Molenpad for drinks...

...before making our way home...

There had been a CD spending spree...

After a rest, back out and into town for tea...

...post which a constitutional as darkness fell...

We passed a small independent gallery...

...and rather a larger national one...

Back down past the Concertgebouwe...

...and home in the dark...

...managing to find the boat...

Highlight of the Day : CD Spending Spree

Happy birthday to me...

Albums of the Day :

King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Five New Songs

King Crimson - Red

Herman Van Veen - Zweitausandeins Compilation (Disc 1)

Up at 6:30 and a taxi to the airport at 7:45...

Breakfast at the airport branch of Wetherspoons – much better atmosphere than the big canteen situation we usually experience at the “Food Mall”...

A bonus is the presence of Hearts’ Greek star Fyssas at the next table – he’s seeing his father, wife and child off to Greece...

On the flight I am landed with the most fidgety booby in the world next to me...

I try and blank out his annoyingness by listening to King Crimson’s “Starless and Bible Black” – apt due to the fact that around half the album was actually recorded live on 23 November 1973 at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouwe...

Luckily it’s just 70 minutes to Amsterdam and I am soon rid of him. It’s hot here as we step off the plane. We have hand luggage only so it’s straight to the railway station to buy a couple of return tickets to Centraal Station...

A quick and efficient service sees us in Amsterdam around 20 minutes later and we quickly buy 72 hour tickets to take us through to Sunday afternoon...

We walk through the Re Light District to the Neiewmarkt and sit in the sun enjoying the first of many drinks we’ll have between now and Sunday night. We sat here in October 2004 on our anniversary and celebrated the 03/04 New Year in this very Square...

We grab a delicious filled roll from a nearby delicatessen before heading for Dam Square and boarding the No 25 tram and validating our tickets – they will last until 14:30 on Sunday...

We had been told it was a fifteen to twenty minute journey to the terminus followed by a short walk to our houseboat...

However, roadworks and a long walk to the boat put paid to this timetable – it was worth it though when we got to the boat...

So quiet, lovely and clean, with the water of the Amstel River lapping against it, just a few inches below the level of our windows...

After unpacking and having a bit of a rest, we headed back out, this time walking 10 minutes up the river bank to Amsteldijk...

...for a No 12 to Museumplein where we buy some drinks from the underground Albert Hein Supermarket before jumping on another tram up to Spui (pronounced Spow though we have always called it Spewy)...

We sit outside at the Hoppe and partake of a cool beer in the hot sun. I foolishly opt for a Tripel (9% proof) and am immediately inebriated...

But hey, it IS my birthday after all...

We walk to Dam Square and sit at a café enjoying a coffee/hot chocolate...

...and then back along the canals to Spui and to the Antelope and Tiger Indonesian Restaurant, reputedly the best in Amsterdam...

Not having booked, we have a 10 minute wait for a table, during which beer and gin is consumed...

We decide on a huge 12 dish Reisstaffl – 12 various dishes are delivered to the table all at once around 15 minutes later. The food is delicious and consists of:

Beef curry

Chilli Prawns

Coconut and Peanut Garnish

Fish kebabs

Fried Vegetables

Giant Crisps

Halved Boiled Egg in a Coconut Curry Sauce

Pork kebabs

Rice

Sati Sauce Salad

Scrambled Egg Salad

Small Sweet Crisps

It is accompanied by more beer and Anne moves from Gin to Wine...

At 8 o’clock, a two minutes’ silence descends on the restaurant, we observe it but don’t know what it’s for – we had seen a line of dignitaries going into the cathedral up at Dam Square earlier on and guess that perhaps someone important to Holland has died...

But no, 4th May is the day the Netherlands celebrates is freedom from Nazi occupation...

Anyway, yum!

We leave the restaurant, full to the brim, and sit in Spui Square watching the world go by before walking down to the Leidseplein where we buy some fruit juice for the boat, catch a tram to the Concertgebouwe and a number 12 back to Amsteldijk...

I am asleep by 10:30 – a great day...

Highlight of the Day : Birthday meal at The Antelope and the Tiger (Indonesian)

Hearts skip a beat..

Albums of the day:-
David Bowie - Outside
Various - Out of the Bedroom Vol 4
Herman Van Veen - My Cat And I

Feeling better today - probably another dodgy pie I hear you say...

This evening, we put Meg the Black Cat into her basket then into the car and I firstly drive Anne to her mum's for the crunch game, Hearts v Aberdeen...

If Hearts win, they go into the Champions' League next season, leaving Rangers in their wake - if they draw or lose, it's all down to Sunday's match, the last of the season, against the 'Gers in Glasgow...

Anne has been a bag of nerves ever since Rangers beat Hibs last night at Easter Road...

So Meg and I leave her behind and head to Julia's in Armadale, Meg's very own holiday home, where she will join Pandy the fluffy slasher cat and Dylan the mental dog for a few days while Anne and I head to Amsterdam for my birthday...

I arrive a little earlier than arranged and so let Meg out of the basket inside the car for a while - which she really enjoys - exploring all the exciting new nooks and crannies where she's never been before and sitting on the back window ledge watching the cars go by...

Julia arrives at 8 and the handover takes place smoothly, with Meg heading for the front window sill immediately, like she's never been away, and I'm off on the road again, heading for John and Ali's in S Queensferry to deliver the final master of Out of the Bedroom CD 4...

I find them struggling with their broadband connection but stay around for about an hour, chatting about this, that and indeed, the next thing - and John lets me have a sneak preview of a couple of tracks from their new Impossible Songs album, due soon, which they recorded in Germany while Anne and I were in France...

Sounds good - quite rocky from what I heard - and I think John's intending to add more guitar to a few tracks...

I jump back in the car and listen to the game on the radio - thankfully, Hearts are 1-0 up but there's still a good half hour to go...

Back home I continue to listen in the kitchen - nerve wracking stuff - then three minutes added on time and then, finally, it's all over, Hearts have won and must now finish 2nd in the league - what a season it's been for them and I'm so pleased for Anne...

A bit later I get the call to go over and pick her up from her mum's...

Back home again, final packing for tomorrow and then off to sleep around midnight - late but tomorrow's flight's at a civilised time...

Highlight of the Day : Hearts make the Champions' League!

Laughing away the pain...

Not feeling too great today - ha! just in time for our trip to Amsterdam on Thursday...

Consequently, spent the evening lying on the settee. Listened to Lee Morgan's "Leeway" album (not as goos as "The Gigolo") before watching a fly-on-the-wall-documentary about Girls Aloud - showing them being all pop starrish in Greece - they were in Athens and couldn't think of anything to do (!!) in between the corporate shows they were there to perform - a big earner apparently...

Didn't show them in a great light..

Later, two episodes of "My Name is Earl" one we'd seen already, one we hadn't - the one where Randy laughs at a bird flying against a window, turns around, sees a bird (he's pathologically afraid of birds), takes fright and runs into the same window...

What a great show this is...

Albums of the Day
Weather Report - The Best Of
Lee Morgan - Leeway

Highlight of the Day : Laughing away the pain with "My Name Is Earl"

Flying over land...

Albums of the day
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Five New Songs Demo EP
Gang of Four – Entertainment
Various – Out of the Bedroom IV
Gil Scott-Heron – Reflections
Alex Lloyd – Watching Angels Mend
Albinoni – Oboe Concertos (Disc 1)
Lindsay String Quartet – Janacek/Tippett/Bartok
Lindsay String Quartet – Dvorak/Beethoven/Borodin
Lee Morgan - The Gigolo
Lee Morgan - Search For the New Land

Well, I must say, winning a FOPP token seems to be a total deterrent to buying CDs there - I visited again today and was not tempted...

Back home I played through my five new songs - just in case - you never know when I might perform a full live set again...

This evening, I was looking for an Indian Restaurant on Google – Mr Singh’s West End Balti House actually – and got caught up in matters when offered the chance to see the location on a map. One of the options on Google Maps (http://www.maps.google.co.uk/) is to view a map comprising satellite photographs – fascinating...

Soon I was off to New York, then I found Crispycat Towers, then to my German friend Jorg’s house in Felsberg, then to the place we stayed in Cereste...

Then I “flew” across America from San Francisco, over the Atlantic and back to Scotland, homing back in on Mr Singh’s West End Balti House...

Then to Australia – but, although there’re photos of the landscape, nothing’s named – so back to Europe and Konigsee near Berchtesgaden, then over to where we were in Austria last year, then tracing our Alpine tour of 2003, then up to Munich where I even found the place I lived at for three months back in 1979...

All accompanied by a cheeky little glass of Mosel Riesling...

Of course there were a million and one other things I could’ve been doing but I chose to spend around three hours all told, doing this - there you go...

How entertaining...

Here’s a map of the Konigssee – where Anne and I spent our honeymoon in 1983. You may find it hard to believe but I once rowed us in a boat all the way from the top part to the sticky-outey bit on the left hand side – and back again!! (do click to make it a bit bigger)



Happy days

The evening is rounded off with some jazz listening - a cracker of an album from Lee Morgan, "The Gigolo" and, from the same man, "Search For the New Land", a more "interesting" rather than "cracking" album but good all the same....

Whilst listening to the former, I watch Hearts tank Celtic 3-0...

Highlight of the Day : Looking down on the planet from above – kind of...