And to finish…

Reasons abound as to why I haven’t blogged in ages, particularly it feeling a bit egotistical at times, being time-consuming and it felt a little monotonous towards the end. Not that my year felt monotonous, but to summarise a unique event as something tangible to another reader felt a little straining. Anyway, I wanted to close with a few remarks, but before doing, link my new blog site, seeing as this title ceases to be relevant.

The Netherlands’ took some getting used to, and not just because of the lack of undulation in the landscape. A different culture creates differing emotions in anyone. Perhaps more than that, a different language can effect another personality in someone. Learning Dutch was perhaps the best gateway to gaining an insight into the nation’s psyche. Without this, my experiences would have felt a little numbed, void of being able  to truely communicate.

I noticed several times how such a small nation (16 million) engenders a greater sense of belonging, and being united in spirit with those around me. This isn’t to say that I don’t experience this in Britain, but on May evening in Amsterdam, I found myself on Dam Square for Remembrance Day, not 50 yards from Queen Beatrix, singing Het Wilhelmus along with everyone else. It’s worth mentioning that it’s not that hard to get an audience with the queen. The Prime Minister is quite approachable, so I’m told, but he does bear an uncanny resemblance to Harry Potter. In fact, one Sunday, this geezer showed up at our church for a baptism. I didn’t have a clue who he was at the time.

It goes without saying that being part of Euro 2008 was fun too. Here’s a nice end to all that intellectual gumbo and a pretty caffeinated year.

Any excuse for a party

Profuse apologies for not posting in ages. Sometimes this year, I’ve sat down thinking what interesting stuff to do, and not been able to sum anything up, except comment on the absurd products available in the supermarket. As an aside, who of you buys cheese in kilo blocks? They do here.

So we had a run of frivolous affair: a birthday party for Ferdinand and Sian; Queen’s Day, Ascension Day; Freedom Day and a Pentecost Festival. This country does pretty for its share of religious holidays, even though only about 3% of the population go to church on a Sunday.

Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag) was the late Queen Juliana’s birthday (30th April), and now every year a giant street party occurs in Amsterdam, with a flea market covering most of the centre in the morning, ever turning into a party atmosphere towards the evening. Boats littered the canals, with techno being the music of choice, rather surprisingly.

Freedom Day (Bevrijdingsdag) follows Remembrance Day (Dodeherdenkingsdag), which wasn’t quite so frivolous. As a flat, we attended the event in Dam Square, on the evening of 4th May, which I guess would be close to what happens at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

The next day, I forsook the opportunity to celebrate once more, and went to see the Ajax once again, who through a contrived system, must partake in the play-offs to gain the last Champions League spot. Their last game is on Sunday against FC Twente, and I know you’re all dying to know the result, so I’ll keep you posted…

Seven wonders of the ingestible Dutch world

I’ve been meaning to write about odd Dutch food and drink for a while, so I’ll try and combine a whole load into one post. In no particular order.

1. Pancakes: I thought syrup and sugar was a fancy topping. For the Dutch, this is “plain”.

2. FEBO: Cross a vending machine with a fast-food outlet and you have FEBO. Want a burger, but can’t be bothered cueing? Throw your euro sixty in the slot, and take your pick. FEBO is so named after the Ferdinand Bolstraat in this great city, where they started. Other companies have this method, but these four letter are a Dutch institution.

3. Chips with peanut sauce: Whoever dreamt this up was an utter genius. Forget mayonaise.

4. Belgian Beer: OK, this isn’t really Dutch, but they drink a lot of it over here, and it comes in many great varieties. Very potent though.

5. Extraordinary fruity teas: Order a cup of tea in Holland, and they’ll give you a glass of hot water, closely followed by a chest of fruit tea. Select your bag from choices such as Melon, Cactus, or Sweet wood.

6. Drop: the Dutch name for liquorice, except they didn’t just stop there. The Dutch created sweet flavours, salty flavours, hard gums and soft chewy lumps. So-called “English drop” is Liquorice Allsorts.

7. Stroopwafels: I’ve written about these already, and you know what they look like, since they sell them in Starbucks and other coffee outlets, to put on the top of your drink, but they’re highly regarded here, and pretty cheap.

Thomas, Pat and Bob the Builder

This evening I took a trip down memory lane. I read Postman Pat to a three year-old Dutch kid. It was in English, but his Dad’s American, so he’s being brought up bi-lingual. I hope the Northern English accents were appreciated – I can’t do Lancashire very well, so he had to put up with my best Barnsley impressions.

Earlier on, he also showed me his toy train collection. This was instigated by the opener: “Ik heb een James.”

“Well, that’s just great. Would you care to tell me what a James is?” Cue entrance of James from ‘Thomas the tank engine’ stories, closely followed by: Percy, Harold, Spencer, Thomas and Gordon. Annie and Clarabel weren’t available for viewing; after all, why have carriages when you can have engines instead?

I see another toy he’s holding. “What’s that?”

“Scrambler.  Van Bob the Builder.” We sang the theme tune together. Good times.

Comings and goings

Our garden looks like a tip. The builders appear to have started many things, and obviously can’t be bothered finishing anything. What’s interesting though is how high the water table sits in the ground; in the gaping holes strewen around, it’s not two feet below the surface.

Tourists are starting to arrive in ever increasing numbers. I passed the Anne Frank House on my way back from work, and throngs of bus-loads were swarming around the entrance. From the kitchen window, I can a crowd of school children, questionnaires in hand, writing down (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) enscriptions upon a memorial.

The weather appears to be turning somewhat. Sunday afternoon was bright (but breezy), and Erjo and I made the most of it, by taking a rug, bean bag and duvet, and sitting on the side of the canal, much to the bemusement of passing boat tours, and the neighbours across the street. The former looked confused, the latter just laughed at us. Today though, I saw a couple more people in the Jordaan with the same idea. Wikipedia doesn’t really show you how beautiful the area is; I’ll take some photos next week.

My friend Tom leaves Holland today, so I’m off to see him off at Schiphol now.

Going from port to port

We’d had it on the cards for some time, but today Robert, Ferdinand and I headed to Rotterdam to visit the port and the Seaman’s Mission there. Joost de Bruijn is one of the many chaplains there, and he’s an old friend of Sjaak, so we got a free lift down, accompanied by Sjaak’s girlfriend, Hardassa. I don’t quite know why she came, maybe just in the role as glamourous assistant.

We arrived in time for the ecumenical morning service in the Maritime Hotel. It’s available for public usage, but many seaman quite often stay there while awaiting transfer. Our group nearly doubled the congregation size, which was comprised mostly of Filipinos. Joost’s speed – 45 minutes – at getting through the hymns and liturgy reminded me of that Father Ted episode, in which Ted says mass in five minutes. OK, he wasn’t quite that fast, but I felt the organist held him back. With someone a bit quicker on the keys, he could have broken his record. Later, we learned that the Filipinos like the mass that fast, apparently.

After coffee in the church hall (hotel restaurant), we took a tour of the port, and ended up with a nice meal, paid for courteousy of the Diaconie, and then a quick look inside the Seaman’s Centre. It has a specially titled, “Karaoke room”; what a shame that we couldn’t stay and test it out.

White Zwolle workers

I apologise for the pun above if you know it’s pronounced “zvoll-ar”, but nevertheless (or desalnietamin as they say in Holland), it’s the city where Kim, Robert and I went on Friday to help with a JOP church youth leaders conference, at the horribly misspelled Regardz Meeting Center. Yuck. It was a nice building, just terrible usage of English in naming the place.

So, we spent most of Friday evening and early Saturday putting up those arrow posters you see at conferences or in large buildings, and you walk around like a robot, trying to find the right room. On Saturday afternoon, we helped our Sjaak with his workshops, explaining to people what the Mission House is and about our work. Rather ironically in one of these sessions, I got asked a question about speaking Dutch, which I couldn’t understand.

A bit cocky

The last two weeks that I’ve been on my way to the port, I’ve seen a cockerel waiting at a bus stop heading out of town. Both times he wasn’t there on the way back. But where is he going? Probably to see Captain Bird’s Eye, most likely.

Birthdays and boats

“Hello, it’s Sjaak…are you in the area?…could you pick us up in fifteen minutes?…Great, see you soon.”

This is the way to get a free boat trip in Amsterdam: call up your friend who works for a tour company, and get him to stop outside your house. We don’t do this sort of thing often, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Iain Majcher’s birthday was on Good Friday, and we’d chartered a boat to take us on a round trip about the canals, as a surprise on Saturday afternoon. However, the boat company, in their infinite wisdom, did not anticipate the wintry weather causing problems to their fleet. Cue a phonecall from them to cancel, and hence our project leader making the cheekiest request, getting us a free tour for nothing. Just as well, we’d hired an open-top vessel, and it was snowing over the weekend.

What would you think as a tourist, having just paid €10 for your cruise, only to see fifteen people later jump on in a rather impromptu fashion, sing Happy Birthday, and get dropped off again? In any case, Iain had a great time, and our thanks go to Amsterdam Canal Cruises for their very generous assistance.

Monday saw Sjaak’s day-long birthday/house-warming party, and he had (officially, this time) chartered the same friend to take 50 or so people on more or less the same route as Saturday. Two free boat trips in two days – you can’t say fairer than that.

Maundy Thursday

Words from tonight’s service:

The Cross

We shall take it

The bread

We shall break it

The pain

We shall bear it

The joy

We shall share it

The gospel

We shall live it

The love

We shall give it

The light

We shall cherish it

The darkness

God shall perish it

Amen