Hard work ahaed of me.

Amsterdam, 31-07-2007. Hey, this internet stuff is working just fine. I mean like today i received a whole bunch of pics made at the Anna Frank House by one of my customers. Man, i have been selling these funny games there for years and literally thousands of people have made pics of me but despite all the promises, nada and nothing has ever been sent to me. Now all of a sudden i get 5 pics from one single customer, happy i am. Happy and content indeed!!! Not that the weather has been perfect for sewlling Mandalas, quite the contrary i would say, rain and wind are the worse enemies oif a street seller! However, weather forecasts for the coming week are finally excelent, funny because now that the weather will finally be OKAY i am nearly out of games. No problem, sir, i will just have to work a bit harder and since the last couple of days have been like a holiday indoors with lots of cheap supermarket beer and expensive joints from the Heavenly Coffeshop as well as lazely watching porn- and other movies on my telly, i think the hard work ahaed of me will suit me just fine!!!

Anna Frank and her hiding place.

Amsterdam, 18-07-2007. Looks like the good weather has finally returned to Amsterdam and though i have sold all the games i made last winter and are therefore forced to work hard making new games, i still had enough of them to make a quick sorty to the Anna Frank House where, as always at this time of year, the queue of people wasd nearing the Keizersgracht which means several thousand people all waiting to see an old derlict amsterdam house with bare walls of which the wallpaper has long since come down with a bit of Anna Frank scribbling on the old table that was supposedly there when the Frank family was there hiding from the anti-jewish nasi regime. The queue has always been good to me, 20 games i sold today quick and easy. Returning home i realised i would have to make new games for tomorrow, in front of the telly watching le tour de France. My fingers can do the work without the use of my eyes.

Teuke, the cow at the animal farm.

Amsterdam, 16-07-2007. I had quite a scare when this morning at the animal farm, i saw Teuke - our cow - walking out of its pen in the direction of her very own field. The stupid animal has been so difficult to handle off late that Magriet does not want her outside any more. However, she quite calmly walked right through, all the way to her favourite field ignoring all the visitors - mostly young mothers with little children. She did scare Arjen and Rob who were at work in "her" field out of it before starting to graze peacefull on the fresh grass. A couple of quiet hours at the Anna Frank House later in the afternoon calmed me down enough to forget about the potencial disaster earlier at the farm with that darned animal.

Friday the 13 th.

Amsterdam, 13-07-2007. Hard to believe my neighbor downstairs is having his birthday party on friday the 13 th. I am sure he is not superstitious. Not that i am but still... having your birthday party - or worse, your wedding on this particular day is really tempting fate!!! Not that i care much though the music might well continue late into the night and with tomorrow`s sun i might well like to have a good nights sleep so i can sell my games at the Anna Frank House. Today the weather was not too bad and i managed to sell 12 games, all of them at 5 Euro a piece so money was good today!!!

A giant dead squit on the beach.

Amsterdam, 12-07-2007. Found this really amazing news clip with pic in the paper today. I mean imagine finding a giant squit during a walk on the beach like the one in the photo attached! Every so often i read these stories in the paper about people who find giant squit on the beach, must be quite a shock, if not to your eyes then to your sense of smell. Sure as hell a dead squit like that must smell an hour against the wind as we say in dutch. Walking beaches all over the world i have found a few things like dead people in India and huge dead sharks as well as dolfins but a dead giant squit....NEVER, and i probably never will however many beaches wherever in the world i might yet walk on.

My old battered Mandala suitcase.

Amsterdam, 10-07-2007. I worked hard this morning at the animal farm doing my volunteer job, but i still enjoy the work even after nearly two and a half year. Magareth gave me 100 Euro this morning, not too bad for a volunteer job. With the weather being sunny and good for a change i hurried home after my work done and tying my old and battered Mandala suitcase to the back of my bike i cycled off to the Anna Fran House selling 13 games in about two hours. not too bad a day financially speaking i mean.

07-07-2007, a magical number.

Amsterdam, 07-07-2007. Now is that a nice date or what? 07-07-2007. a magical number and the papers in Holland have been writing about it like there was no tomorrow. Not that i care, i am after all, way too cynical to believe in anything at all, let well the magic of numbers! 14 Mandalas i sold today, now we are talking about numbers i like. 70 Euros i made today in a couple of short hours, and like everybody knows.... money does mean something. One can transform money in all sorts of nice things like food, booze, joints, prostitutes, sigarillos....well i am sure you get the picture! No doubt some of this money i made today will end up in the pockets of the thai Hot Mommas that ply the infamous Pattaya boulevard, in exchange for sweet sex!!! Some of it will be used for sigarillos and ice-cold cheap supermarket beer and sigarillos from the tabaconist shop down the road here in my street and maybe another 3 Euro for a mind altering joint, just making sure i will keep myself on the right track. The photo in this notice is a painting of Amsterdam made by the mother of my daughter Charlotte who is by now well on the way to her second birthday.