Tuesday Night is the new Saturday Night...

according to Laura and Rani :)

Laura made an analogy about our lives here:

"The city is like a billiard table - and we are like the white ball - zing, zing, smashing into anything that gets in our way!"

Yes. Concerning I know :)

Another day, another Junkie trying to offload his bike to me...

Sunday Sunday Sunday...

Woohoo, so much achieved ...

Clean room!

Mobile Phone contract!

Caught up with my friend Sverre, we haven't seen each other in something ridiculous like 5 weeks.. was really good to see him. He's been in Norway, and then working on some massive animation projects so it's been hard for both of us. He took me to this Ethiopian place for dinner, it was Ah-maaaaazing... we even had coconut beer (!!!! Sublime!) and I finished up with a cardamon tea... Ohhh so good.

As we were walking into the restaurant, we were crossing the bike lane, and a junkie cycled past, happy as larry ..."Need a bike?" he called out as he flashed past us.

It did look like a good bike, but I think I'l just stick with mine.

Revenge of Starbucks

I just noticed one opening in Centraal Station - BOOOOOO!!

I don't want a Starbucks in Centraal station because I don't want a Grande caramel mocha soy fair trade coffee habit (nor do I want to witness hundreds of preppy dutchies with their noses in the air, and that "I'm so important, I need my coffee to go right now!" look on their faces and carrying paper Starbucks cups around on trains and around the station, acting like they are "da shit").... I want a shoe repair guy and a tailor!!!!

And a Supermarket!!!

You got the green light... I mean... no lights... I mean... just walk..or run... accelerate... or cycle harder!!!!

Saturday night update:


What was supposed to be a quiet Saturday after the errands turned into a big-ish sort of night.

First I met Laura for some market trawling in Jordaan... Oh man, pay day is so psychologically warped.

I bought:

• a bell for my bike
• a hat (when I was looking for gloves)
• a ring (when I was looking for earrings)
• a tropical plant (when I was looking for miniature catci)
• two jackets
• a silk scarf

All carried home with the help of the elastics I bought today for the rear of my bike!!

But!!! The best news is... no more hunting for a winter jacket... I got a HOT HOT HOT white woolen jacket from a vintage clothes shop for a bargain basement price!! So good. So warm. So hot....

YES!!! Awesome. I am going to be one little hot toastie lady in this divine new jacket. Laura didn't agree on it at first... in fact she has started calling me her little Icelandic sheep and making "baaaaaaa-ing" noises at me since I bought it, but I don't care.... Baaaaaa baaaaa....

Then we had a couple of teas and Gluwien at our fav cafe in Jordaan, Cafe Thijssen, and then I went home and my flattie cooked me and her friend dinner, and then I met Laura again for a drink at Soundgarden and then we went to Buurvrouw (night bar) for a few more drinks...

Observation - traffic lights here don't work after 12am, it's kill or be killed... anarchy at it's best... just go through the lights and hope for the best... I kind of like it... I don't know if the municipality council of Amsterdam city know that half their citizens are riding/driving/walking home drunk or stoned in at 3 am in the morning, and making life threatening decisions about their physical welfare is not such a great idea since they have no choice BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO NEGOTIATE INTERSECTIONS AT UNGODLY HOURS WITHOUT ANY ORDER OR RULES .. but somehow it just works....

PS Spoke to my flattie, and she gets taxed 54% of her current wage AND she pays taxes in the US. Wow, sucks to be her right now. At least I am only getting taxed 30%.... (WTF?! Is that the most ridiculous tax rate you've ever heard?? I don't even benefit from health care OR education and I am getting taxed through the nose....)

My friend Leon told me a few weeks ago " You know you're a local when you hate tourists and taxes". I AM SOOOOOO THERE.... I AM A FREAKING NATIVE RIGHT NOW!

PPS Winter Time savings - just rewound my watch back one hour, dude at the bar told me about it... yes!!! An extra hour of sleep... are we now in winter????.... slightly concerned about the coldness.....

Bike Maintenance and Shopping Behaviour

I went to the Post Office this morning to pick up a package from Ma (Thanks Ma! xxx)

When I got there, I realised that I would have to haul it back to my apartment somehow... and what was a beautiful Autumn day yesterday (translate: no wind, no rain, spots of sunshine, autumn colours in full bloom) has turned into a wet and windy day... again.

Luckily, next door to the post office, there was a bike shop, and I pleaded with the dude in the shop to sell me an elastic for the back seat of my bike with all the change I could muster (EU 5.70 instead of EU 6.50) He sold it to me, on the condition that I come back to the shop after I get back from London and Berlin, to fix my handlebars that keep sliding off... I promised I would.

Bike maintenance is just such a hassle for me. I barely took care of my cars in Australia, but this bike is doing my freaking head in.

I just bought a rain cover for the seat, which I always have to carry around because in the likely chance that it rains, and my bike seat gets wet, I won't have to sit on a wet bike seat, and because I can't be bothered getting my front light fixed, I bought these little portable lights that i just tie on to the front and back of my bike every night, which is SO annoying. If i get caught with no lights on my bike its a EU 35 fine. Now I need new handlebars, and probably some air in my tires, and I am just about to go shopping for a bell, and some spray paint or flowers to tie to it, because everytime I pass a bike rack that I THINK my bike is in, I can NOT find it for the life of me because there are about 20,000 ( NO FUCKING KIDDING, it's ridiculous) bikes that look like mine, all racked up in a chaotic mess. Add the wind, rain, darkness and usually drunken state that I am in when seeking my bike, and it's just a big ol' shit fight to get home.

But the irony is, the better kitted out and good looking your bike is, the more chances that it will get stolen. So you go to all this effort to personalise your bike, and then some fucker just takes it.

I can't really talk, I suspect the guy that sold me my bike wasn't exactly a legitimate sales person.

In fact, shopping in general can be pain because of the whole "no car" situation, so it's really opportunistic shopping for convenience of carrying little loads in your arms or on your bike. If I happen to be near a chemist or a Hema ( like Big W, but tonnes more awesome and stylish!) I just have to go in and buy stuff I anticipate to be running out of, even if it's the most expensive shop because I just don't want to spend my weekends looking for stuff, and I don't know when the next time will be that I will be near a store like that. If I move house, and am more in the centre, as opposed to the harbour, I think life would be easier, but at the moment, I am just buying things every day to get me through the days...

The dutch haven't really grasped the whole convenience shopping thing yet....like if I want to wrap a present, I have to go to 3 different stores to buy the paper, the stick tape, and the ribbon. The only plaza type place I frequent every day is Centraal Station, and they don't even have a full supermarket, (just 2 x convenience type mini mart things). I would expect a mobile phone store, and also a shoe repair guy there at least!! But nooooo... they just don't get it.

I then went to the bank today to activate my new card (banks are open Saturdays here, Love it!) and then I went to the el cheapo chain store in town (Blokker) to buy some house stuff....because I just got paid!!! Yes!! Yes i did!! Damn it feels good!

The rate of pay was slightly lower than I thought, because I am getting taxed 30% of my wage. 30%... shit. That's high.

Saturday nights plans?
Wallowing. I am feeling a bit low at the moment, the weather is making me a bit flat, and I suddenly feel like my life has plateaued into boredom.

I might have a drink with Irish chef tonight and catch up with him, but otherwise no real plans.

Sunday:
Mobile Phone contract
New handbag
SD card for my camera so that I can finally start taking photos of my house and put them up, and also of my daily life sights!!
Soup?!?

Spreken Nederlands? Only if we are talking about eating.

Well, it's not fluent, but it's impressing people. The days at the restaurant are paying off. You CAN learn while hungover.

A colleague that I had never met before came back from holidays yesterday. I had lunch with him today to get acquainted and talk shop.

I surprised him, when we ordered, I asked for a "Coffee Verkeerd". (equivalent of a latte, i guess...)

He sort of smirked and I said "what was so funny?"

He said he thought it was nice that I was trying to speak dutch. "Trying" being the operative word.

Then as we were eating (Indian curry soup for me, and a rice and fish stew - getting used to the 2 course lunches to get me through the day, since I don't get home til 7pm these days- and he had 2 rolls with egg and cheese!!!! - "broodje met kaas en ei" - no condiments, no vegetables, no meat - and a pastry with honey.... COLD LUNCHES, they think HOT LUNCHES ARE WEIRD!! Aaagh!), he said, "how's your meal?"

and I said, without batting an eyelid, "Is goed. Heel lekker. Bedankt." ( It's good. Very delicious. Thanks.)

And he laughed and said, " Why is it that the only dutch you know is related to food?"

Even the Dutch are starting to notice my obsession.

Epic day in the office

hungry.

cranky.

tired.

pissed off.

welcome to reality once again, huh Rani?

My colleague nipped over to Brussels and Germany over the weekend. She brought back Dunkin Donuts as a gift to the office. I was surprised to see it was a big deal, but was then informed that Amsterdam is sans Dunkin Donuts ( who cares? not me.) AND Starbucks (ok, that's cool. I like how the dutch haven't bought into that crap.) I never really noticed til now.

Actually, franchises aren't big here. Except for FEBO where you buy deep fried stuff from a vending machine. And Mcdonalds. And Burger King.

But it's not like London I guess, where everything is franchised to buggery. Like Pret a Manger coffee and Cafe Nero and all that stuff. But I guess it's not as big as London, so you don't need one of the same shop within every 2 km.

I love that about Amsterdam.

Another awesome weekend + 2 more to come (I hope)

My weekend started with welcoming my Tante Pien ( Aunt Brigitta) in town, along with my little cousin, Dita, to town.

It was really nice to see them. We went walking around to the nine canal district, had dinner in Dam Sqaure, and then on Saturday we went shopping in Leidsestraat, and then went for a day trip to Valderdam, a tiny fishing/resort village about 20 minutes by bus from Amsterdam.

My auntie was a young and up coming hot lawyer in Indo in her early thirties (she's now a hot, in demand commercial lawyer in Indo) where she was secondered to Amsterdam and New York City for six months at a time. Wow. Seriously cool achievements under her belt.

She lived here in the Old South, and ate Febo (vending machine fried food) and knows the city pretty well. It's amazing the stories that people never tell you until you get some one on one time with them.

My auntie took me to this shop called Pauw, which is a classic dutch brand, everything is handmade, hand sewn, and beautifully classic in design.

I fell in love with a coat and a dress.

The coat was 715 Euros. The dress was 450 Euros. I left the store heartbroken that neither were making it to my wardrobe.

In Volderdam, we had our photo taken in traditional dutch costumes. Hilarious. I loved every tacky minute of it. Undecided if I will post the photos on facebook or if I will just save it for my christmas card this year....

It was so nice to see them, and hang out with some family.

Saturday night, Laura and I went to this amazing restaurant in Amsterdam North (can't remember the name...) I had leg of duck with potatoes, cabbage and a truffle jus, and she had a vegetable bake thingy. Yummmmmm. Then we went for drinks in our favourite bar called Soundgarden in the West, where we ran into friends, Sam and Timur. After a few wines there, we went to a birthday party at a bar near the Anne Frank house in the West, called Werck (Work).

Couldn't find the birthday girl, but the music was pumping and Laura and I were ecstatic to find somewhere to dance to, because we had been hanging out to go dancing for ages! It reminded me of the Lion on a Sunday night, or the Regatta pub in Brisbane on a Sunday night, which is a VERY rare atmosphere here. It's usually cosy little brown bars, or just large superclubs....

After a while, the music went downhill into bad club music, so I left to meet the Chefs from my old restaurant, at a night bar called Buurvrouw in the Centre, where we hung and drank and Laura met us later. We cycled home to my house together at some ungodly hour.

On Sunday, Laura and I slept in and hung out at my place, and at 4pm dragged our asses out of bed to cycle to a cafe called Cafe Thijssen in Jordaan, for Gluhwein, and tea and Pea and Ham Soup! ( yes, I like something with peas in it - mind you they are split peas, not real peas! Mmmmmmm Gezellig AND Lekker!!!!) Not before we checked out the big fair complete with Ferris Wheel, and Double Ranger ride, Fairy Floss and Waffles in the middle of Dam Square. This city never ceases to amaze me - overnight a carnival just appears in the middle of the city.

In a fortnight, I'm meeting my sister in London, and then the next weekend, I am off to Berlin...
Phew. I don't know if I am going to be able to cope not being in Amsterdam for 2 whole weekends.... I might suffer from separation anxiety....

Arctic Monkeys in town soon...

I am wondering if I should go.

Silly question. However, I am going to Berlin with Fran in early November and that will cost money. And Laura doesn't want to go with me to see the Monkeys because she doesn't like them that much.

And there's a circus performance that I want to go to called Traces, which is on later this month. And I should go see a gallery or two before Winter starts officially, and the line ups aren't that long.

Bah. Decisions, decisions.

it just dropped like 10 degrees overnight here

just thought you should know.


Looking for the feeling in my fingers.

If it's not raining, it constantly looks like it's going to rain, or slightly drizzling in 80% humidity, or it's windy as hell.

Now this.

Ungrateful little city.

It's true, I am cocky and pretentious...

... I updated my facebook workplace information.

I haven't had that information on there for nearly 2 years, but I thought it was time to become a real marketing wanker and put it up there. (Just in case anyone I hated from highschool or otherwise in life infiltrates all my security measures on facebook, and happens to get nosey. Honestly. It's the only reason. Then again isn't that the only reason facebook exists? Why deny it?)

A little early to be getting cocky about my new role seeing as I haven't even passed the probation period yet- I just finished my 2nd day actually - but hey, who am I to downplay my own awesomeness??Just basking in the wonder that is myself at the moment. You can find me high fiving myself in front of my bathroom mirror.

Ironically, apart from a police clearance form from Australia to prove that I'm not in The Netherlands while I am on parole, my boss also needs to see a copy of my degree. Well, seeing as it is in a frame in the spare bedroom in my sister's house in Australia, I think the latter is going to be hard to get. My next alternative is actually an academic transcript. OUCH.

I don't think that's a document he really needs to see. From memory it went a little like this...

Business Finance - 6 Withdraw Fail
Management Accounting - 33 Fail
Micro Economics ( 1st time around) - 48 Fail
Micro Economics ( 2nd time around ) - 52 Pass
Arts and Cultures of Asia - 85 High Distinction

You get the idea.

I was looking around in my (somewhat sterile, overly corporate) surroundings today, and I had to laugh on the inside. If you had told me six years ago that I would actually use my degree or that it would get me somewhere today, I would have just stuffed another gravy covered chip from the University Refectory into my mouth and asked you what time the Unibar opened.

Who gets an "Only English required" Marketing Job in the Global HQ of a Multi National Corporation based in Europe in the middle of a Global Economic Crisis?

Me, that's who.

I rock.

Three Amigos surprise visit

Best surprise ever when Luke, Sar and George came to visit me in Amsterdam on the whim... Well, they only announced it 24 hrs before they arrived, despite trying to tease me on facebook for 2 days beforehand...

I don't have any pics of the visit because I keep procrastinating buying a new SD card!!
But here are some George took.

Photos from George's facebook profile.

The.Next.Test -

First day in the office went well.

Apart from waking up feeling like my throat was filled with sand, the morning went well.

The company has 700 people in this particular building, made up of 2 global head offices for a couple of the company's brands. There are a LOT of people that work there.

And so many funny little things that really, really threw me off balance.

Being who I am, it's no wonder that most things I am going to mention today are all food related.

Like;

- working for a company which has a cafe AND a restaurant in their complex; You load up your staff card with money and the restaurant (more like an up scale cafeteria) serves really nice appetisers, mains, pasta, soups, desserts, miniature sandwich provisions ( like proscuitto and swiss cheese and boiled eggs and freshly baked bread rolls etc) Soup is like 65 euro cents. I had a really nice hot meal of grilled turkey, steamed beans and mash potato for 3 Euros today. I don't think I could make my lunch for any cheaper than that!!! No need to haul lunch around then!

Mind you, there isn't much around to eat out at, in this office complex. But it sort of blew my mind - it reminded me of something I read in "The Devil wears Prada", where the main character works for publishing house in New York, and all the girls that work in the fashion magazines hang out by the salad bar painstakingly reading the calorie counter on the menus, and then run to the bathrooms after eating. But I digress. The point moreso was to discuss how new it was to me, and how kinda cool at the same time.

I should mention at this point that the dutch are infamous for not liking two hot meals a day - dinner should be the only hot meal. I have been told this 3 times now... AND not only that ... people told me that cheese sandwiches are their favourite lunch and breakfast options. No condiments. No salad. No meat. Just bread. And sliced cheese. I thought it was a myth. The myth was sustained today as I sat and ate with my colleagues.

Will you never cease to amaze me Dutchies?

- The 'cup of soup machine' in the coffee room. Yes. You heard it here first. Free cup of soup. Don't all rush over here at once people....

- The industrial coffee making machine in the coffee room, where you can choose from approximately 26 different types of beverages, including how strong you want the coffee, and the amount of sugars you want from pushing various buttons.

- The fact that noone has a "personal" mug, and everyone uses and abuses miniature paper cups all day. It's disturbing. I feel like crying for the earth when I look at my colleagues wastepaper basket.

- The standard etiquette that you can't make a coffee for yourself without asking the whole room if they want one. And possibly the room next door too. Seriously.

- Working with an agency that's based in London.

- Getting lost in this monstrosity of a building that has a skywalk, and is oddly circular and rectangular at the same time.

- Being surrounded by expats - I am almost sure I heard an Australian accent today in the restaurant.

- The heating in my building not working, and me wearing 3 layers of tops, and freezing all day.

- The fact that I might have been given a blackberry today to my dismay and shock, but luckily, I'm not getting one. Thank God. It would have been "Goodbye life, hello Crack-berry addiction." So not why I moved here.

On another note, I have made the major decision to seek a thermos, so I can drink tea on the train to work.

Today was the worst day in terms of weather that I have ever seen in Amsterdam. So wet. So grey. So foggy. I'm upset. It's finally here. The bad weather. My flatmate was telling me tonight to get used to it. And to purchase a rain poncho to cycle in.

I'm sorry, I don't DO "rain ponchos" unless I am super drunk and watching live sports. So in other words, I just don't do them. I told her my new job pays for an unlimited public transport card. I am doing the public transport thing all winter. She looked at me and laughed. I was concerned and confused at such a reaction.

Beginnings and Ends

Tomorrow I start my first day at the new job in Marketing.

On Saturday night, it was my last shift at the restaurant.

Weird to think that I was dreading my first day at the restaurant/bar 2 weeks ago, but I was quite sad to leave.

Working full time in a restaurant (40+ hours a week), I got to know all the different people in the kitchen, bar, and on the floor, and I really really liked them. It's such a social atmosphere, everyone is young, and because of the crazy hours, you never know who you are going to be knocking off from work with, and one knock off drink turns into two, or three, and the next minute you are out at dinner and cycling around the city together, and good friends, and you just met that morning on the breakfast shift. There are so many staff there, I started just calling people by their nationalities because I got so confused at first. Head Chef was "Scottish", Sous Chef was "Irish", Sous Chef 2 was "Polish", Bar dude 1 was "Gay and sweet Thai dude"... you get the idea - it worked out because generally they would just call me "The little Asian Aussie." Or "Food runner". Or Gina. Or Rina.

I literally just started learning everyone's names, and then even tonight, I swung past, and saw faces I hadn't worked with yet.

The hospitality lifestyle is definitely conducive to a party lifestyle. I felt like I had to leave the job just to put some sense of routine and normality back into my life. I mean, I was loving the lifestyle a little bit too much I think, to the point where I had to fit my washing, grocery shopping, cooking and sleeping AROUND the partying. ( And it never usually worked out. The continuous late nights, and bright lights were really becoming an issue for the household chores.)

The thing is, logic had to win to some extent. The restaurant was starting to get a bit quiet now that tourist season is over, and the autumn has come (my lord, is it cold here at the moment - the freaking wind and rain is really starting to get me worried... I can barely pedal my bike, the wind is so fierce) so hours will be cut right down, and there's no sick pay if I fall off my bike again and hurt my arm, or catch a cold....

During my last shift, I told a few people that I was leaving, and probably not coming back next week. They were sort of used to it I guess, it's a physically demanding job and not everyone can hack it, but they were a little bit surprised because I held off on telling anyone for ages. I think the turnover rate of staff is astronomically high. But none the less, from what I hear, I'm the only Aussie that has ever worked there, and it completely worked in my favour.

After everyone had finished work on Saturday night/morning, the chefs decided that we should go out to honour my departure, and we drank tequila at the restaurant, and then went on a work pub crawl around Dam Square. One of the chefs, Karl the Irish, had a few friends visiting from Dublin, and we met up with them later on the night, and everytime I finished a drink, another two were being thrown into my hands. It was a lot of fun, to say the least.

I dropped by the restaurant today to pick up my pay (woohoo!), and saw the little party crew from last night, working hard again. I don't know how they do it.

The restaurant manager told me to keep in touch, and if I wanted to come back, I was always welcome. It's something to consider in the summer next year i guess, when the tourists come back and there are hours again. If I save some money from this job and decide I don't want to work the lat 6 months of my visa, I could probably go back to 25 hours or something at the restaurant and just take it easy and not worry about money for a while. Anyway, it was nice to know that I am leaving on good terms and there are no hard feelings.

It sounds like a good idea.... save, travel a bit, live a nice lifestyle, and then kick back and pursue something I really really love for 6 months.....

Hello corporate world... I'm baaaaaaaaaack.......

New Job

I have formally just accepted a position as a Marketing Executive, on a contract basis.

The company is situated just past the Amsterdam Schipol airport, and I will spend about 25 minutes on a train every morning and night commuting - good thing I live about 2 mins from Centraal Station.

The job sounds interesting, but the pay sounded more interesting. Obscenely interesting. Too interesting to deny really.

Back to the 9-5 grind? Wondering if I am ready to be corporate again, after being a flashpacker for 4 months.

Anyway, looking forward to now having an income for all the good things in life, like restaurants, warm clothing, dance performances, books, and big nights out, where I might be able to afford a taxi home!!

Also, other things, such as paying off my credit card, dutch language lessons, and more travels!! Woop Woop!

The head food runner headhunted from Australia

Sometimes I walk into my apartment building and can't believe I am a waitress. It's too amazing.

When people ask me what I'm doing in Amsterdam, I tell them that I was flown in to be a food runner at the restaurant I work in.

Imported all the way from Australia, because I am the best at delivering meals and clearing tables.

Ha ha.