It doesn’t look like we’ll be going on any boattrips soon. It’s been snowing steadily since this morning, and there must be about 20 cm of snow. Which is a lot in these parts. The snow acts as a kind of muffler, making everything a lot more quiet. As long as you don’t have to go anywhere, it’s beautiful. But there are probably a lot of traffic jams because of this…
Because of all the bridges in Amsterdam, snow is usually swiftly followed by gritting (and road salt-) trucks, which leads to the creation of a horrible, sooty black slush. I’d much rather have clean white snow – that doesn’t get into your shoes too much.
Author Archives: Timon
Fur
1
On the occasion of the second Fur Ball in Amsterdam:
If I were a bear,
And a big bear too,
I shouldn’t much care
If it froze or snew,
I shouldn’t mind
If it Snowed or friz –
I’d be all fur-lined
With a coat like his!
For I’d have fur boots and a brown fur wrap
And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap
I’d have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws
And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws
With a big brown furry-down up to my head
I’d sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.
A.A. Milne
English Writer
(Old) York
We’re back from a whirlwind trip to York. We departed Amsterdam for Rotterdam/Europort on wednesday afternoon, to catch the night ferry to (Kingston upon) Hull. We drove from Hull to York, and got to the Wheatlands Lodge hotel at about 9:30. It’s a kind of anniversary for me, as I first stayed there in 1980, when I started my 1st term at YCAT (York College of Art & Technology, as it was then called). Apart from Jan, all of us had been to York previously. All of us was my mother, my brother and sister-in-law and their two daughters, and Jan and myself.
Things hadn’t changed as much as I thought they would have. The York Arms was exactly as I had left it 20-odd years ago. Or it looked suspicously like nothing had been changed.
Other things had changed though: there’s now a Starbucks on the corner of Stonegate and Petergate, with a wireless hotspot. Technology certainly has moved along. It was in York that I saw the first Apple Macintosh. Now if only I could get a wireless card for my iBook….
After an all-too-brief (not-quite-)two days, we took the ferry back to Rotterdam/Europort. We’ve only been away two days/three nights, but it seems like a much longer trip. I suppose that’s good value for money…
Sneezin’ and wheezin’
I’ve got a cold. Running around Cologne for a couple of days in just a thin layer of nylon will do that to a body. I just hope I’m well enough to go to York (England) next week as planned. Just a short trip, to celebrate my mothers birthday. It’ll be deja-vu all over again, as I lived in York for four years between 1980-1984. I expect it’ll have changed. As have I.
5 Jecke in Kölle
Last weekend was carneval, or as they say in Cologne: Fasteleer. We were there, as every year, and it was fun, as every year. But it wasn’t as busy as other years: maybe because of the time of year, too soon after Christmas, or maybe because so many people have the flu.
Our little bunch was one short: Henk was ill in bed, in Amsterdam, with a bad flu. While we (Frits, Niels, Thomas, Jan en Timon) were in Cologne, with a spare costume…
After a lot of phoning and asking around, we found Mario who didn’t mind helping us out. The problem was that we needed to be six, as we had costumes in the six colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. And Mario had to ‘fill in’ the yellow costume.
And even though we got a lot of compliments, we didn’t win any prizes – but then we’re used to that.
The costume ball of the Rosa Funken was as busy as ever, but a large part were ‘curious’ rather than ‘gay’: people who had heard that the Rosa Funken Ball was always such fun, and who had come to see what is was about. What they didn’t get, was that the idea is to come in an inventive, and possibly outreagous, costume. Something off-the-peg from the Kaufhof or Karstadt simply doesn’t cut it for this crowd. So we were not too impressed with the costumes.
But there were some good costumes: Josephine and GeraldineDaphne were great, we loved Audrey Hepburn: but they (like us) were not appropriate to the theme, which was ‘Pirates of the Seven Seas’, and so did not get to the stage, let alone a prize.
I’m just hoping that next year it’ll be more of a ‘Gay Ball’.
See more pictures here: carneval 2005
Spending spree
Last night there was a telethon on Dutch TV to raise money for the relief of victims of the tsunami-disaster in Asia. There is a central account where the major aid organisations collect their funds, and the total stood at € 67 million at the beginning of the evening, and by midnight the total was € 112 million. It’s amazing to see how this disaster has captured all the attention, while there are still other, huge disasters are crying out for money too…
In a way I am pleased that we managed to donate so much money in this country (it works out to about € 6.50 per dutchman, woman and child) – we are so much better off in this part of the world – but I am a little weary of the people and organisations that are giving money on the keeping-up-with-the-joneses principle. But it’s all in a good cause, they say.
The new year is here
I was planning to put this entry up on January 1st, but server problems meant that I could not get at the blog up till now. But anyway, let’s wish you all a happy new year!
See our New Years card on this page.
Christmas 2004
After celebrating Christmas Day with the relatives (my mother, Jan’s mother, Jan’s brother and sister with their respective children), we celebrated our ‘family’ Christmas on Dec. 26 (what we Dutch refer to as ‘second Christmas Day) with 22 friends. So there were 24 of us in all for dinner. Each course (there were seven) was prepared, served, cleared and the dishes done by one group: that way everybody did their share, without burdening anyone with the complete dinner.
It was fun, as always, but a few people had to work again the next day. So it was not as exuberant as last year’s ‘Scottish’ Christmas.
Jan’s birthday
Today Jan celebrates his 44th birthday. The party was last night, and it continued until 3:30 am. Because it was Henk’s birthday two weeks ago, and we were all in Cologne for bear-weekend, the party was also for him. Together they had invited about 30 people, and most came. It was a great evening, just talking and having fun.
Jan got a lot of presents, and donations for a new sewing machine (you need the right tools for the job, after all). Henk also received quite a lot of presents, so they were well pleased.
Today we are a bit tired and the worse for wear. We had some other friends over fot coffee this morning, but other than that it was nice and quiet today. This evening we’re going to the Shako for what will be the last meeting of the Netherbears, as the Shako will close on January 1st. So the Netherbears will have to start looking for another place to have a regular bear-afternoon.
Sinterklaas
Last Saturday we celebrated Sinterklaas, otherwise kown as the birthday of St. Nicholas. The official day is December 6th, but it is tradtionally celebrated on December 5th, the eve of St.Nicholas. But as December 5th was a Sunday this year, we celebrated on Saturday.
Anyway, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children (and sailors), and on the eve of his birthday we exchange gifts. Legend has it that he lives in Madrid, Spain and that he travels to Holland on his steamship ‘Spain’, together with his helpers, all Black Peters. Very politically incorrect, and very probably historically inaccurate.
We celebrate this occasion by eating chocolate (mostly in the shape of chocolate letters: everyone gets the initial of his first name in chocolate) and pepernoten (small spice biscuits).
Gifts are usually not very expensive, and are accompanied by a poem – supposedly written by St. Nicholas – which more often than not takes the mickey of the recipient.
The standard of writing this year was much improved over last year – I think a bit of competition is creeping in. Before anyone could unwrap their present, they first had to read the accompanying poem out loud. But before anybody got to have their present, we all had to play charades, and you couldn’t open your present until you had won a round.
A lot of fun was had by everybody. Oh, and everybody was: Simon (the host for the evening), Henk, Cees, Niels, Steven and Ronald, Theo and Rene, Jan and Timon, Jan and Rob, Frits and Hank.
It was the first of many celebrations this month.
Augenweide
The title for this post, Augenweide, is German for a “A joy to behold”. (Actually, the literal Dutch translation is “A lust for your eyes” – which may be more appropriate). In any case, it was the word that came to mind as I sat in ‘Gloria’ looking at several hundred handsome men, some dancing, some just socialising. ‘Gloria’ is the name of the venue of the annual “Butch and Bear Disco”, which is part of the Bear weekend in Cologne. The weekend was over before we knew it, and was – as ever – a lot of fun.
Having come to the Bear weekend in Cologne for the past 7 years, I’ve seen it grow from a relatively small event to what is now probably the major bear-event in Europe. And it seems there are more nationalities each year.
We arrived in Cologne on Friday afternoon, on a slightly delayed train. “We” in this case means the Amsterdam contingent: Wim, Nick, Frits, Niels, Frank, Mark,Cees, Jan and myself. After we dropped our stuff at our respective hotels, we wandered around town, showing Cees some of the sights including, but not limited to the Humana thrift shop. Dinner was at Taormina (we like our traditions to be – well, traditional) with Frits, Niels, David and Charles, Thomas, Jan and myself. After that, it was off to the disco at ‘Gloria’. And as I said before, it was a great view: all these handsome men, just being friendly – it was great. I stayed till 2:30, and then decided it was time for bed. Jan doesn’t dance (only waltzes), so he went home early.
Next day we were up bright and early – 9:30 actually, but on an occasion such as this, that is bright and early – so we had time to do some shopping. Actually it was more a matter of browsing, because I don’t think we actually bought anything. And after all that walking about, Cees and I went to unwind at the sauna. Jan wasn’t feeling very well, so he cried off and went back to the hotel for a lie-down.
That evening, Saturday, we went to the “Bärennacht”, which is when Mr. Bear germany gets chosen. It’s amazing to see the performances the candidates put on. What they lack in talent, they certainly make up for in enthousiasm. And it does take some guts to get on stage in front of 1500 men watching! In the end somebody won, and I’m sure he’ll be a worthy Mr. Bear. But the real star of the evening is the “Moderator”, or compere of the evening. He comments on everything and just keeps the show bouncing along merrily. I’m just sorry for those in the audience that don’t speak German: they lost out on a lot.
After the show was over, everybody mingled, and I chatted with several friends, both from Germany and elsewehere, as did mostly everyone. Then at 1:30 it was time to get back. The organisation of this event lays on special shuttle buses to take you back to the city centre after the show is over, and the sign on the bus is actually “Bär Express”.
So after a couple more beers in Cox, and chatting to Doug and David from Arlington, it was time to head for bed and get some sleep. Then next morning – after a last coffee at “Quo Vadis” – we left for Amsterdam. I felt a little sad that it was over again for another year, but very happy with the memories of a fun weekend cathing up with old friends – and meeting new ones.
So what’s up next weekend?
A busy weekend
This weekend was filled with preparations for carneval in Cologne, which will take place in the beginning of february next year. As time seems to go by so quickly these days, we wanted to make sure that our costumes were ready in time. So this weekend was devoted to the costume-making. I’m not going to post any pictures, because we want it to be a surprise (for most people, anyway – regular visitors have already seen our outfits) for the event itself. You can read more about the Kostümball here: Rosa Funken
A November boattour
On sunday November 7, we (Jan and Timon) took a few people out on a boattour through Amsterdam. Rene was there, with Raymond and Allan, Gerard, Rein and Frank were there too, as well as Mark from england. The weather was surprisingly nice (for the time of year), but by the time we got back, everybody was thoroughly cold.
We quickly defrosted a couple of liters of dutch pea soup, to warm everybody up again, which had the desired effect. From the weather today – cold, wet and gloomy – I would say that that was the last boattrip for this season. But it’ll be spring before you know it!
You can see a few pictures here: gallery
Something to think about…
A reflection by Eric Meyer (css-wizard) on the recent elections in the USA:
whatever happened to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” ?
Oh, and read an updated version here: meyerweb.com. Eric makes the points for gay marriage quite eloquently. I’m just happy we live in the Netherlands, where we’ve at least jumped that particular hurdle (marriage is open to same-sex couples here – I know: we are one).
The Friendship BnB
Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
(First Post yey!) This is the log for the adventures of the good ship AYOR (and its crew). Please bear with me as I fiddle with the styles, the colours, the design etc. etc.
Picture of said AYOR
