Koninginnenacht

Its queens night tonight.

Its the night before queens day. I just stayed in the office till about 8pm, sipping wine and writing press releases.

Then I had a couple of beers at the homo monument with Mr B and some work pals who were leaving at the same time. At the momument there were drag queens queens doing eurovision take offs, there was the obligitary beer tent with the cups for 1 euro deposit. And many people dressed in orange.

then i cycled back tot the flat to change into jeans and get a waterproof jacket to go out and meet Mr B and the others. I cycled past temporary tents on the canal bridges, houses totally open to the street, stings of orange flags where residents had clearly connected their house to the nearest lamppost, orange balloons put out by the city council, people cruising on boats in the drizzling rain and dark, pumping basslines everywhere, and general amsterdam craziness.

Apparently tomorrow is the queen mum's birthday. It s a holiday and it lines up pretty well with the start of spring. Amsterdammers have been copped up inside since october with rain and shitty cold, less than 10 degrees everyday for 6 months. And now they want to par-tay.
I'm off to see if I can find my friends.

What's in bsharp's bag?

Following on from the meme started by Betty Sue and Miss J...

- 2 x free postcards for "negen straatjes" (the nine little streets) area - picked up at the amazing brazilian sandwich shop near work. With sincere intentions to write and send to aus.
- saved label with address of funky mexican hand-made shop (in the 9 straatjes)
- wallet from Bondi Market - never really happy with the double fastening mechanism
- only decent lippy I own (from Body Shop in an airport I think) inside carry case with mirror - a gift from little sister who does try to keep me nice
- memory stick (totally full)
- keys on chunky seahorse keyring from Miss J, plus Albert Hein bonuskart, which I get swiped at the supermarket sometimes, but I'm not too sure what that gets me as a "bonus".
- Ikea pencil (the horror)
- Mobile phone
- single bandaid
- 2 types of travel sickness pills (Stugeron and dramamine) one with no packet
- 1 x neurofen left in the bubble pack (apparently I am addicted to off-the shelf medicines, who knew?)
- pen
- Camera case (normally containing the camera used for this photo..)
- 2 x Albert Hein receipts, 1 shoe shop receipt and 1 receipt from todae in glebe (also for shoes)
- 1 x flier for a swing night in Haarlem train station
- 1 x custom moleskine Amsterdam SIY guidebook, a pressie from the glebe vegan household.
- 17 eurocents in loose change