The thoughts & opinions of Sassarella, the Queen of Sass as she cavorts in 's Gravenhage & beyond. Brought to you by CES's (Chief Executive Slaves) of Big Skanky Ho Inc.
It's Saturday afternoon and it's been a pretty nice weekend so far. Thursday evening I went out for a drink and accidentally (no, seriously) hit on a cute boy in a bar, which was a little stupid, but hey, I've done worse things. I think the bartender was his girlfriend, but whatever. Worse comes to worst, I never see him again. Not my worst nightmare come true by any means.
I had the day off yesterday, so I headed to Amsterdam for dim sum and a browse round the book market. I ended up eating crispy duck instead and spent a total of 10 minutes in the book market. I did buy a book though, which has thus far given me a few good hours of amusement, called Secrets of the Hand. Having done a quick analysis of my hand, I have come to the conclusion that I have a Square Hand with Long Square Fingers. What this means, according to author Joachim Bennett, is that I have "mental superiority over others." I "grasp knowledge easily and accurately. Such persons are invariably Scientists, Doctors, Surgeons and Lawyers." I also have a medium thumb, which means that I "will work with dignity and will not use violence except as a last resort."
Well, yay me.
Anyway, after the aforementioned meal, I and my dim sum buddy headed back to his place and watched TV for the next few hours, including the last hour of that classic of 90s action, "Fair Game," starring Billy Baldwin and Cindy Crawford. It's not quite the worst movie ever made, but it was certainly a contender. Both stars were in various stages of undress throughout the movie, but despite this fact, there was almost no chemistry and well... no plot, not much good characters, sucky action, etc, etc.
Why did we watch this? I have no real explanation. We went out for drinks afterwards, but there's no rescuing an evening that started out with "Fair Game." I hopped a train back to the Hague, and read my book all the way home.
This morning dawned bright and sunny, and I got a phone call to go dog-walking on the beach followed by delicious pannekoeken. Fun fun fun. I got home about an hour ago, since we got into a major political discussion, which was eventually ended by loud whiny dog noises.
I'm going to go to a chocolate fondue party tonight... totally 70s, but it involves chocolate and it isn't a key party so it's all good. Tomorrow, the photo museum and some serious napping. I've got enough food to last me for a couple of days, so I don't even have to leave the house. Yay!
I've noticed that this blog is becoming increasingly dull.
What to do, what to do...
Hmm... I went and protested the war on Saturday. I took a train full of hippies and punks and some hostile people ("Are you American?", "I'm Canadian", "Are you just saying that so we don't know you're American?", "NO." -- end of conversation) and wandered to Dam Square in a crowd of more of the same. 70,000 people showed up. Which, if you know Amsterdam, is a heck of a lot of people in a really small space. Freezing cold too. You would think that in a crowd, it wouldn't be so cold, but you'd be wrong. So I listened to some speeches in Dutch, and yelled "Ja!" or "Nee!" at what seemed like appropriate moments, and then eventually had to give up as I was on the verge of death by hypothermia. I brought along my camera, but it's battery was dead and I was unable to take pictures, which would have been cool because it was a prettu mixed crowd. I hope that next time someone decides to go to war they do it in the late spring. I wouldn't mind protesting in some sunshine and a breeze, surrounded by socialists and hippies and punks and Arabs on Dam Square. It has sort of a poetic ring to it.
Still, it was a good time. And the Dutch government has apparently been listening, which is cool. The Dutch government, as opposed to most European governments has been all over the war, which most Dutch people seem to be against. So, this demonstration gave them pause... though actually the seat of the Dutch government is in the Hague and they weren't really demonstrating in front of their parliament. Dam square does have a palace, but it's the home of the Crown Prince and Princess, who may or may not have been home. They certainly didn't come out to wave.
I have no TV and I don't really read the news online, so I don't know how these things went elsewhere. I heard London had a million people marching. I wonder if the American media is going to take note of this, since apparently (and this is hearsay), they're not really reporting on the fact that Tony Blair and about three of his friends are the only ones who want to go to war in the whole of Great Britain.
Sunday was spent indolently and then around 3:30, I called up a friend and went sort of bar-hopping in the Hague for the next 7 hours. Pretty odd experience considering the Hague's total lack of a nightlife.
Here's a fun tip though. If you have a Let's Go, or a Lonely Planet guide that includes the Hague, I can tell you right now that they're useless. Someone took a day trip from Amsterdam to write it up. They have no idea where to go.
Yesterday I didn't eat lunch in favour of cleaning my bathroom. Why? I don't know. I just went into my bathroom and thought "I can't take this anymore" and cleaned it from top to bottom. Then I went to work and consumed a pile of chocolate because I was starving and there was nothing else to eat. And because it was good. If you ever see "Neuhaus" on a box of chocolate, pick it up. It will make you very happy. It will make you forget that you spent lunchtime cleaning your bathroom.
I have a long weekend coming up, but instead of jetting off to a glamourous destination, I've decided to go to Amsterdam for the book market and save my money.
Dull dull dull. I will make an effort to do more exciting things in future. posted by Alleen at 11:23:27 AM
