I’ve been putting off the blogging for the past few days after having enjoyed a largely internet-free Christmas with family and friends in Amsterdam last week.
I did make an exception for the four-way conference Skype chat with my sister in France, and my other sister and parents in Auckland — but aside from that previously unaccomplished feat of digital communication, I was offline.
Amsterdam, as usual, was great. We stayed with Brendan and Martijn right on the canals in town, walking distance to everything. Bobbie walked to shoe shops, I walked to record shops, Jake and Brendan walked to Nemo, the science museum. We also did some walking together.
Ice skating in the Dam Square was fun. Jake and I slid around on the ice while Bobbie watched. I was better at it than anticipated, and had managed to retain some muscle memory from my rollerskating days, when I was about 12. I was hardly Torville (or Dean — which one was the guy?), but I could move around, stop and even go backwards intentionally.
Jake enjoyed it too — particularly the bit where he made snowballs out of the ice shavings and threw them at me whenever I was least expecting it.
It was cold, but not quite snow-worthy. The food was great and we spent as much time as we could having naps, playing Uno Extreme (which we were so impressed with, we have to buy it and make everyone we know play it too) and eating Dutch treats.
I took a few photos — mostly of the statues in Rembrandt Square, it turns out — and if you have a look at the slideshow, you’ll see some of what we saw as we wandered around. Jake is not yet quite as tall as he looks in that photo. He’s on tiptoes.
Presents were very good this year — Bobbie gave me a kind of DJ’s flight case for 7″ records, which was good timing, given my recent discovery of the 10p 7-inch shop, and from Jake I got a couple of bowls for my Go counters to go with my wooden playing board. Presents from the family back in NZ had the kiwi theme, which was nice, and from our Amsterdam friends, a rear-view mirror for the computer monitor and a bottle of feijoa-flavoured 42 Below vodka.
After a slight miscalculation that led to an early morning and extra bit of spare time at Schipol airport, we came back on Thursday. I brought back a few records (Coltrane, Ornette and Miles on vinyl, plus a couple of funk 45s) and Bobbie with her new shoes from the Camper store sale.
Since then, we’ve been gradually unpacking and meeting friends for coffee and other beverages in the intervening days. Friday night at the Bull’s Head was good — one of the Jam Jah / Friendly Fire reggae nights with our friend Robyn DJ-ing, and Paradox doing vocals. We went with Juliet, and discovered that the Bull’s Head is the only place in town that serves Feijoa flavoured 42 Below.
I’ve reacquainted myself with my digital music collection and spent most of yesterday getting back to the task of sorting out the tags and album artwork on the latest batch. It’s a repetitive and daunting task, but it’s kind of therapeutic.
Jake’s spent the last couple of days at a friend’s in Bromsgrove, which seems to be as far away as you can possibly get and still have a Birmingham postcode. We went out with him on the perpetual bus journey, and found it to be a quaint village largely consisting of an enormous ASDA supermarket, and some small cafes that were entirely lacking in anything resembling coffee.
Tonight, we may or may not be going to a friend’s birthday party / New Years Eve do, but we’ll probably have to go in shifts, as Jake will be home by then. I’ll probably go from about 10.30 till midnight, and Bobbie will go after that, once the people start actually turning up. It’s that sort of party.
Hope the Christmas thing was good for you too – catch you in the New Year.
To take advantage of this fact, my friend Craig and I did the charity shop crawl along the Kings Heath high street today, and found some magificent bargains, perfect for Christmas stocking fillers. He found this awesome duck-shaped hairdrier for only £5 — the ideal gift for someone with hair that gets wet sometimes, and who doesn’t yet own a comical cartoon-shaped electrical appliance. Those feet are a stand — and the duck comes off. You turn it on and adjust its speed by moving its little bow tie up and down.
I did manage one complete triumph of a bargain: this superb air football table for £1. It came in its original box, batteries included and a full complement of little football discs. Like a cross between an air hockey table and a pinball machine, this little beauty blows just enough air through the pinholes on the table to keep the disc moving. And when you flip the paddles, it emits a satisfying late 1980s electronic ‘peeeooww!’ sound, which becomes almost instantly irritating.
Of course, having brought it home, we couldn’t wait for Christmas to unveil this one, in all its branded Marks and Spencer glory. So it had to be given as an early present. 
