"I would like one very much so, thank you!"

So the weekend just gone was potentially one of my most favourite times to be in Amsterdam. James, Crystal and Vicky came out for a few days and their enthusiasm and overall positive vibes for the Netherlands was thoroughly infectious. I laughed until I cried and spent some great time with three of my favourite people. I find it funny that I have only known James and Crystal for around a year and Vicky for a while longer, as it seems like we have been friends forever.
So James and Crystal arrived Thursday evening and turned up at my work. I sent them off to hire some bikes as I wasn’t due to finish work till 8.00pm. They arrived back and we rode off to my flat with me pulling their suitcase alongside me and riding one handed. We stopped off for a beer in the park, then after dropping stuff at mine headed off to get some beers and some food. I had cleared out Mike’s old room which was next to mine back at the work flat and he had left a load of weed behind so after eating and some Albert Hein shoppery we chilled for the night.

Friday saw me getting off to work for 9.00am and leaving them with my keys for the day. I went for a run to 180 at around 4.00pm an met Crystal and James outside. We agreed to meet outside banks, the bar next door at 6.00pm which was where I was gonna meet Vicky. I got a phonecall from Vicky at around 5.30pm to say that she was outside my work at number 477. I went out and she was no-where to be seen. Turns out she had gone to Herengracht rather Keizersgracht. She had done well to get one road away so I agreed to meet her at the bar at 6.00pm. We all convened and then headed off to hire Vicky a bike. She didn’t like the bike she got and then the one she did get the dynamo didn’t work on. It was pretty funny but got stale pretty quick, so once she was happy we headed back to my flat to drop her stuff off and start the weekend.


After a few beers and some chongerry at my place we decided to try the Indonesian which is just by my house. I didn’t know about the Dutch/Indonesian connection, but Crystal filled me in and we stuffed our faces on some of the best food I have eaten in The Netherlands. After din dins we rode for about 20 minutes to a club that was heavily sponsored for the evening so it was free. This place was huge, it had an outside bar, a restaurant, a big club that was a converted church and lots of outside space. The music was amazing when we got in, but it was still early so when we went back to the dancefloor later it wasn’t so good. It was good for about 15 minutes but the dickhead DJ decided to that annoying thing where they don’t play songs but do clips from songs which you think are gonna come up but don’t. The technical term is teasing. I call it being a shithead. We rode home pissed up and stoned, grabbed a sandwich from my work and then headed back to mine to sleep.





Saturday we chilled in the park with the ducks, showed Vicky the red-light district, saw a woman fall into a boat after crying about not seeing her friend for ages, ate the best cheesecake in Amsterdam at De Bakkerswinkel, drunk more beer, smoked even more weed, bought mushrooms, went to my favourite Mexican restaurant, chilled hard, rode lots and got stuck into the Dutch lifestyle. Cold Snap were playing at the a squat venue just round the corner from my house with Let Down, so at around 10.00pm we headed to see them. The gig was really weird as these three or four Dutch punks that were almost certainly Nazi’s we mocking Rome and I felt really bad for them. They played really well and covered Get Real, which was kinda amazing. To be fair, with what me and James were on they could have covered Robbie Williams and I would have said it was the best thing ever. They had no-where to stay so I offered up my floor, I did tell them that we were going to the Melkweg first though so they could either come with us or I would meet them later. They chose to meet us later! I had the best time in the Melkweg even thought DJ Krust was terrible and the drum and bass room was piss weak. You can take drum and bass out of London but you can’t take London out of drum and bass. I really craved some chavs and some bad attitude in there to make it a bit more edgy and real. As it was, it was a lot of hippies and 30 something singletons dancing to the worst MC I have ever heard, who’s favourite repeated line was “right here, right now!” So bad. The indie room didn’t fare much better. This was all irrelevant though as we all hung out and laughed so hard about the most ridiculous things. I cried for about 5 minutes straight if I remember rightly. We took a taxi back to mine, I knocked on the window of the Cold Snap guys van which was right by my house at about 4.00am and then we all headed back to mine. Crystal and James were leaving at 7.00am to fly home so we stayed up all night to see them off whilst the band slept upstairs. I remember sleeping at some point and saying bye but it’s all quite hazy.





We awoke at 12.00pm, saw the Cold Snap guys off and then me and Vicky did nothing for the whole day. We bought food, watched Cloverfield which was hilarious to see Vicky’s reaction and Dog Soldiers and feel asleep after quite an exhaustive weekend. I took Monday off work and hung out with Vicky all day. She planned to be cultural and go to a museum or something but we ended up sitting in the park and doing nothing all day. Kinda typical of us really, lazy motherfuckers!