As I mentioned last week, all the national holidays come in a big glut from now till June 1st after which we have ne’re a long weekend in sight till Christmas.

It all kicks off with the Queens day festival, 30th April, marking the birthday of the Queen Beatrix (well actually her mothers birthday, but as QB’s birthday is in January, the pragmatic choice was to leave things in March)

Anyhow, there is Koninginnenacht, the Queens Night, the evening of the 29th, mostly celebrated in The Hague, but also celebrated wherever there is alcohol. Once work finishes the bars open and all hell breaks loose. The next day is Queens Day, Koninginnedag. Amsterdam is awash with Orange, and stalls appear everywhere, selling anything from a broken teapot to a donut, from a dress mannequin to a dental mirror and everything in between. Needles to say with5 days left people are already laying claim to the “best” plots on pavements and the like, marking their turf by writing BEZET in some manner on the ground

Next week my Mum is coming to visit for the festivities, but I do promise to post a round up of it all here.

In honour of this National Day our cocktail this week includes 4 essential Dutch ingredients, no not Hash, Cheese, Tulips and Arrogance…..

Something from BOLS, Genever (Dutch Gin) Orange Colour and the word Dutch!

Comfortable Young Dutch

• ½ shot BOLS Genever (young)
• 1½ shots  Southern Comfort
• ½ shots  Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 shots Freshly squeezed orange juice

Add all ingredients to an iced shaker.
Shake and strain into an ice filled old fashioned glass.

Liquored Up? now lets get Linkered Up!

All this recession talk would have you believe nothing is happening in the shops these days, but I think thats Bull!

And so do Panti, Rick, Redmum, Ian, the Guardian and even CNN

RTE 9 0′clock news

Click here to view the embedded video.

Full CCTV Video

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Last night I got a wonderful invite from @kittynel to go for a cruise through the canals on her new boat!

It was gezellig hoor!

Twitter News

We all know Oprah joined Twitter recently, but not to be outdone on the emerald isle, our own fair female shlebs piled onto the social networking train…. Twink, Lorraine Keane, Grainne Seoige, Bláthnaid NíChofaigh, Amanda Brunker and Glenda Gilson all joined very recently and are trying to figure out what the hell is going on!

Speaking, or tweeting about whats hot, Friday saw #doylejoke day. On prompt of @lecraic’s jibe about tweetbombing @darraghdoyle for his “bad” jokes, AJ offered a limited edition Helvetica Moleskine notebook to the best “worst” joke tweeted by 5.30

My last top twitter tale, is this  – Development of a method of tweeting using brain activity

That’s right, no keyboards, just a red cap fitted with electrodes that monitor brain activity, hooked up to a computer flashing letters on a screen. Wilson sent the messages by concentrating on the letters he wanted to “type,” then focusing on the word “twit” at the bottom of the screen to post the message.

The development could be a lifeline for people with “locked-in syndrome” — whose brains function normally but who cannot speak or move because of injury or disease.

Blogger News

Some bloggers need YOUR HELP

The ladies of Gaelick what to know

What the velvet hearts on the tree trunks along East Wall are for?

Panti would like your help resurrecting a lovely turn of phrase

“To Beat the Band”

The Culchies are up in arms, about the possibility of a musical based on the life of Jade Goody with songs such as “DOH! Whats a Dear” and Lottie’s suggestion of Don’t Cry For Me East Anglia? Suggestions on a postcard to the Beeb, where we are sure it will be their new 12 part search for a star.

Other thing happening in the blogosphere, Lilly Collison has moved blog home, she’s now a WP blogger!
Check out her new WWW place of residence www.lilycollison.com

My 2nd appearance on Desked – My Home desk  —>

Biff Sniff has some pretty cool tshirts to mark the demise of the global market economy – click on the image to get your shirt!

Wantsies and Other Stuff

Every Elf has wantsies – and coming up to my birthday…. here are a few of my pointlessly favourite things:

Singing Gizmo from Gremlins – you have to watch the video

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Zip up headphones
Mine are always in a mass of knots! They even have a volume control on the zipper!

Noma Bar’s May 2009 Limited Edition Cover for Esquire

and finally: I leave you with two natural wonders:

Northern Lights (as I know they are @fontfiddler’s favourtie thing ever)

Click here to view the embedded video.

and
Scenes from the zoo

According to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), over 600 million visitors pass through the gates of over 1,300 zoological parks, reserves and aquariums worldwide every year. Springtime brings many new animals to these parks as well, as newborns. Collected here are some photographs from zoos and aquariums around the world from the past couple of months. Don’t forget that 2009 has been designated as the “year of the gorilla” by the United Nations. (37 photos total)

So last night I was introduced to an amazing group, German band called Notwist, performing with the Andromeda ME Orchestra in Paradiso WOW….
I have a thing for rock bands (although in this case it was Rock and Electronica) with Orchestra’s. Part of my love for Sigur Ros… is that rock with amazing delicate notes. Last night I was delighted to see a Harp on stage (no there was no pint of bass, smart asses). I love the Harp and Harpischord … weird I know…. which reminds me of Dustin OHalloran.

Nightlife here still exhausts me, I mean its remarkably peaceful for a city in which the pubs serve until 4/5am during the weekends and nightclubs seem to go on until breakfast, take that Dermot Ahern. Here is proof that turfing everyone out of the pub at the one time, rather than allowing people to chose when to go home and filter out accordingly is the far better option.

Really looking forward to my holiday… 8 weeks and I will be in New York with Catriona, can’t wait. Really looking forward ot having time to explore the city unlike the last rushed visit where I saw nothing only a New Jersey outlet mall.

Thinking about Catherine today, she will have to have the leg amputated….. and today the Metro began working again, although I think that for as long as the weather remains half decent I will stick to biking. I’d like to try the “shorter” Dam Square cycle on the way home but not sure I am brave enough just yet. Morning is one thing, but I dont fancy doing that route back in the evening.

Must be homesick, considering leaving RTE online on after the news to see a bit of the Rose of Tralee…. perhaps I need an emergency slap! Its been in my head since mum mentioned it at the weekend, the usual Irish Mammy, “you know its the end of the Summer when the Rose of Tralee is on” I actually like Ray Darcy on the Rose, he’s a big Queen (well for an Irish mucker) and very Bitchy

On the topic of RTE news, I enjoyed the piece on Drivetime this evening about the blogger room, sponsored by Google at the Democratic Convention in Denver today, sofas, sweets, soft drinks… google seems big into tooth decay!!
Not too sure about all the “hype” surrounding the US elections, I mean yes its a big country and yes its a rich country…. but really… I heard a soundbite from some US celebrity stating that this was the most important election in history… REALLY? That’s taking it a tad too far for my liking.

Had the best cup of tea this evening …really good….. just needed to say that!

Anyway…. ad break over… back to good ole RTE News, six months of BBC brainwashing has formed a deep appreciation of RTE One (Radio and TV). Well at least thats my current excuse, other people might say Im showing my age, Morning Ireland, Liveline and Drivetime…. its a little bit middle aged of me … but I dont care… pass me my knitting!

Final disturbing note…. An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD singing ‘Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore’ at the Fleadh Cheoil in Tullamore

Been home once (stop laughing Cameron), went to Paris to meet my new Boss, on the Thayls – 1st Class which was fun.
I’m supposed to be going to London and Rome next week…. but I have to wait till my boss gets back to his office to get more details… so that will be interesting.

Had a week on my own in the office last week as the 2 others that are here were in MIP in Cannes. It was ok.. I like being alone so it was fine. Trying to get a handle on one of the projects I will be doing is interesting. I’m using a system a little like the one I used to use in AA and I keep pressing all the wrong keys…. I’ll get used to it. I have a horrible tendency to say we/us for AA and you guys for the new Co! Not good I suspect.
I have made some friends…. some Irish folks… all lovely. And some gay folks, also lovely!

This weekend I had a poke around two markets… Nordermarkt and Albert Cyupstraat Markt.

Prina is lovely and made a fab dinner…. she’s pregnant and the bump is growing nicely!

She thought me a traditional Dutch breakfast on thr hoof consists of … Krentenbrood, Pindakaas, and chocolate Hagleslag – its yum!! Hops watch out this is my new peanutbutter and jam (shit and blood as you so lovingly pronounced it)

I’ve been invited by the gay boys I met on Saturday to the Drag Queen Olympics (Queens Day Eve – 29th April) so that will be fun.

The Irish contingent are nice, we are trying to set up an Irish Expat Meetup group so we had the first meeting last week with 7 people there. Two came to my house on Sunday to watch movies which was nice. (even if I was dying when I woke up on Sunday morning…. as the beer here is served in half pint glasses – and during happy hour, far too many glasses… I think I drank 10 or 12 before I stopped counting… I did not however stop drinking) anyway Sunday I was dying till 3pm!!
Got my haircut…. Toni&Guy in Amsterdam, by Dutch standards ‘they saw me coming’ but I’ve paid more for a haircut I didn’t like so to have them do (and agree) with exactly what I wanted was great.

Tonight I go to dinner in The Grand one of the poshest hotels in the city, very near the red-light district (go figure) the IT guys are over and I’m helping them to entertain some folks here.

So there you go….. there are the little ‘flies in the ointment’ but on the whole life here is good. I miss my family, Catriona and friends, that goes without saying, but its not a bad life here.

More soon.