The next chapter

New Years was a fantastic time up in Amsterdam. Lots of beautiful girls were besotting me at every corner. Having fireworks let off by revellers was surprising given the intimate nature of the crowd befelling the streets - the skyrockets made it especially special. It felt very European to not have an agency such OSH ensuring everyones freedom be limited in the spirit of a wet blanket. Instead they were used in controlled fashions to cause passers by to need to carry several changes of undergarment with them on the eve of the 31st:

* Doublehappys were let off a the feet of passers by to give the illusion of walking amongst, and setting off landmines but without the annoying limb destruction.
* Skyrockets were let off a few steps ahead of and intersecting the path of walkers to really give the a feeling that you're actually in downtown Falluja. I would have thought that it would be extra points to disrupt a cyclist. These cyclists seemed as hardy as the local insurgent youths and appeared to actually welcome the onslaught with a trite "Als tu Blief" as they rode past.
* Fountain fireworks were used as the effect of blood pouring out a freshly decapitated corpse just to show that Geurilla youths with big swords can flex their might.

Emile and I were wandering around Amsterdam from about 11.30 looking for where the flow of crowds were leading. Unsurprisingly we bumped in to his work collegues and stuck with them throughout the evening. At midnight the mandatory handshakes and kisses (three for the Dutch) were done. For an afterparty we wandered to the Dam and grabbed a few beers from a bar and hung out on the street chatting about incidental things (read: banter).

At about three o'clock we both headed home with the Jesus wheels and nodded to ourselves in aggrement of a relatively sober new years being the way forward. Not out of some illogical reason to stop drinking, but just a lack of need. This will invariably change from year to year depending on the cost of fish in China I suppose. The following day I went out to one of the local Mac Winkels and bought a battery pack for my iPOD. 23 hours of extra battery it says. A pity the first use (after a fully charge) couldn't give me but one millisecond. Might just have been bad alignments of the planets I'm telling myself.

The Ruckfart back to Frankfurt was depressing as usual, but I met a pilot in training, who I thought would be interesting to talk with. The experience was a double-edged sword I would tell myself as I sat there listen her talk, then talk, then talk some more. I now completely understand how people can find pilots boring people to talk/listen to - it felt like I had a sign around me that said "I liked getting talked at - try me today".

Anyhow, I've been a bit crook the last week or two, but it seems to be getting better. I thought I had built up a hardy resistance to bugs over the few years, but it seems that the bugs here know that you don't have a German moustache air filter then attack.

The weekend after this I'll be back in Austria visiting Yayeri and having a burn down the ski slopes. Aparently this month is the coldest, so there should be a good base of a metre and a big waiting.