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

Click here to view the embedded video.

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

Click here to view the embedded video.

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)

Tonight’s cocktail: Tulip Cocktail

• 1 shot / 30 ml / 1 oz Calvados
• 1 shot / 30 ml / 1 oz sweet vermouth
• ½ shot / 15 ml / ½ oz lemon juice juice
• ½ shot / 15 ml / ½ oz apricot brandy

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon zest twist.

The Tulip Cocktail is another taken from the pages of The Savoy Cocktail Book. It is a rich and fruity cocktail, with plenty of apple upfront and a long apricot finish. The vermouth provides a floral bitterness that along with the lemon juice provides a counterbalance to the sweetness of the Calvados and apricot brandy. The Tulip has a complexity that I really love in a cocktail, and despite the small amount of apricot brandy used it has a surprisingly strong effect on the drink. Definitely a drink worth exploring – highly recommended…

Apart from being yum, it is my choice in celebration of the Dutch national flower, to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Keukenhof. They are using the anniversary to mark the 400 years since Henry Hudson stepped off a ship owned by Dutch East India Company, purchased the land for the modern equivalent of UD$1,000 from a tribe that didnt own it and proclaimed it New Amsterdam.

Anyhow, when my mum comes to visit at the end of April we are going to visit the Tulips

On with the Linkage

While 99 Designs might not be the best way to get new work and protect your copyright Mashable held a competition to redesign their logo - which one do you like best?

The Guardian’s piece on “The Rise and Rise of Twitter” makes for interesting reading

Wallace and Gromit’s new ad for Npower, more here on Creative Review

Click here to view the embedded video.

Madonna wants to expand her brood, PopSugar reports

Yesterday it was confirmed that Madonna is trying to adopt a little girl from Malawi though there’s already controversy as the process moves forward. The little girl is an orphan named Mercy, and Madonna will appear in court on Monday to take the next steps.

Some thought Madonna got special treatment when she adopted David Banda, and the procedures could be even more complicated this time since she’ll be a single mom and there’s rumors of her personal life getting in the way

While we are on the topic of families, here are three posts from Travelling but not in love who has been hosting his lovely mother, aunt and cousin.  Read these while drinking your cuppa and risk a keyboard full of tea!  He is one funny guy and his mother and he make quite the double act.

Panti explains the Bicycle in homo friendly terms

The Lisa Hannigan video, for Lille, the pop up book was designed by Maeve Clancy of Flatmates fame.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Flatmates is a year old! And to celebrate, the first 10 people to send their postal address to Maeve with ‘Flatmates Poster’ in the subject heading will win signed limited edition posters.

@paddydonnelly ’s fantastic set of Origami Web 2.0 icons

Grandad opens his advice clinic doors, Sunday suit you sir?

Dine to read.ie was this weeks Tuesday Push, looks like a really interesting way to meet new people and share a book and a meal.

Kevin Coleman finished his Guide to Blogging in three easy parts

And finally,

Found this week while the wonderful @fontfiddler was over to visit

Plop Chocolate Pudding

]]> http://elfinamsterdam.com/2009/03/28/elfs-drinky-links-iv/feed/ 2 http://elfinamsterdam.com/2009/03/24/bff-on-twitter/ http://elfinamsterdam.com/2009/03/24/bff-on-twitter/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:18:41 +0000 elfinamsterdam http://elfinamsterdam.com/?p=337 Yet another app that shows your twitter friends: Top Twitter Friends

According to this expandable/collapsible version of your twitter-verse my BFF’s on twitter are:

1. sineadcochrane
2. pixievondust
3. mcawilliams
4. debbiemet

Who are yours?

The choice of graphics has me singing the goodbye song from Bear and the Big Blue House.…

Yes I know I’m strange!

Bear and Luna sing the Goodbye song

The 4th Irish Blog Awards took place last Saturday the 21st in
Cork International Airport Hotel

(Otherwise known as “some internet thing, you know like the twatty website” – by my mum)

It was my first Blog/Twitter Event, and it wont be my last!
Its been a (lax, badly run) year since I began this blog and 7 months since I began on twitter.

I never thought I would meet anyone from it, let alone loads of very cool, lovely, funny, amazing, madcap, fantastic, charming, welcoming, sweet, sexy, gorgeous, intelligent, inspiring antos as I did at #iba09

Wow! Bloscars are amazing!

I have no words really to describe it other than Loved

I met so many cool people, and I know I’ve only remembered a tiny weeny few, but believe me you all left a huge impression on this little elf!

Bloggers Roadtrip 09 – Amsterdam!
Anyone is welcome so long as you don fly WhineAir

Elf!

After the Twick Size war….. I’m 9inches, oooh yeah!

I twick *this* big

We bring you

Tweet O’Clock!

When’s the best time to tweet me…. Thursdays @ 9am it seems!

When do you Tweet yours truly?

This is just class, and if I wasn’t numerically dyslexic it might even work for me.

Google – Mail Goggles

I have sent a few mails late at night after a few drinkies…
Thankfully I haven’t made and total cockups yet…. but it is likely!

I love the fact that its time sensitive too…
as my mate Mick said, obviously comes from the Dublin Office.

**EDIT** Only realized now that OF COURSE Lexia had this first

Also…. Stephen Fry on Twitter
*gulp* *faint*

Too Cool!

Going to NYC on Sunday for a week…. hoping to get
A: prepaid sim there to use my 3G phone for websurfing there
B: an iTouch!! *further drooling*

Please if you have recommendations, of restaurants, bars, sights, places in NYC I’d love to hear them!
Will be trying out Lottie’s list here too

Have the Avenue Q tickets
Have a cool hotel on Central Park South (with Central Park View)
Have to meet boss man for lunch on the Tuesday (free fancy meal)
Have tickets to David Letterman (thanks to NY office)

What else should I do?