Cheese, boats and floats

You know, I really wish I had something insightful to share here. You move to a whole new continent and its meant to bring out deep revelations about culture, about being a "foreigner" about the underlying similarities of us all and the amusing differences.

But mostly it's beer, cheese on toast, going for walks in the afternoon, working remotely from my clients, and trying to remind Mr B to have dinner most nights. Just like home.

Oh yes, you read right, I've picked up a wee little bit of work. Actually the continuation of work from before, so that's all right. It seems as if the official emigration "to do" list is now:

- Get SoFi Nummer (like medicare/taxfile number combined I think)
- Register with Town Hall (requiring Birth Certificate, yikes, thanks Dad for filing that one!)
- Register as a "zelfstandige zonder personeel" (freelancer) with the Chamber of Commerce. Otherwise known as zzp.

As the Ginger would say "they don't mind a bit of a long word over here, do they?" Appointments booked for the first two, and seeking advice on the third. Yipeee.

So for this weekend our former housemates, the above mentioned Ginger and Jess are here. I'm surreptitiously blogging while they are looking at Van Gogh paintings. Soon we shall attempt to completely tire them out by riding in circles around Amsterdam.

Last weekend was hot, hot, hot in more ways than one. It topped about 28 degrees (sunbaking weather for sure) and there were lots of hot oiled bodies on display at the annual Gay Parade.

Here's a photo of a tiny fraction of the people that rolled out to watch it all afternoon. Note the significant audience who have rafted their boats up and were drinking and snacking on all afternoon. Click the photo to see the some of the boats tricked out for the parade. One thing that was a bit different from Mardi Gras at home, was a couple of big, well organised barges entered by companies, like ING finance, with their employees wearing matching t-shirts and doing co-ordinated routines. The TNT guys (courier and post service here) even had brown cardboard boxes in theirs. That was cool.