I have wanted to blog, I have wanted to talk to you and ask advice, but silence was needed for a while.

After 7.5 years in Media, I have handed in my notice and will return to study at the end of September.

Some might argue that walking away from a job i know back-ways with a fab paycheck in a great city in the middle of a recession, is bordering on madness…. there are times I agree. However, the “office job” was supposed to be temporary and now its day has passed.

My job is great and like I said comfortable and salaried, relatively stable and poses no great challenge.  But its not what I love, and moving to another company showed me that in dayglow colours. The vast majority of my 7 and a bit year stint was in Dublin in a place that became a second home to me, I loved the people, the job just allowed me time with them. The job here … was the same stuff, minus the family, so in essence it was a husk of the old world.

I am glad of it though, the opportunity to move to this city and make a new start for myself. Being here has been amazing. I have to say I’ve never clicked with somewhere as quickly. I adore Amsterdam. Its a fantastic place rich and diverse and in constant contradiction with itself. It is very settled in who it is yet constantly rebelling against the preconceptions of what those who throng its streets and canals think of it.

Again for me it was the people, I have met a group of people here that are outstanding. In 18 months I have met people I feel as if I have always known.  Truly I have been very very lucky.

But it was not meant to be permenant and the door has opened to a new part of my life and I’d be a fool to close it.

I applied for and was accepted to do a postgrad in Montessori method teaching for 3-12yr olds. I begin on 29th September in Dublin.

This will remain Elf-in-Amsterdam, regardless of the Elf’s coordinates on the planet, a large part of her will remain in Amsterdam.

(plus I have loads of drafted crap I have to put up here relevant to Amsterdam, that I havent finished as I wsa to busy enjoying the place)

Quick QueensDay Recap

My mum came over for Queens Day, which was (despite everything) great.

Despite what? you might ask, well on the night she came over there was a hit and run outside the door.
A young woman was flung off her bike by a lunatic who went on to nearly kill two others at the end of the street. My mum is not a fan of me biking around Amsterdam, in fact she hates it. And for that to happen on the night she arrived definitely didn’t help. The girl in question was conscious by the time the ambulances arrived and could move arms and legs. I was the first on the scene as I was just upstairs, and her friend happened to pick the guy’s licence plate up so hopefully they will catch him.

The next day, Queens Day, we got up and began to explore the city. The weather was amazing and the colour noise and people of the festival are second to none, it really is something worth doing. And early in the day it’s great for families and kids. Later in the day/evening it gets a lot rowdier. So we walked and ate and drank and watched from 11am-4pm by which point mum had enough. We returned to the news that someone had ploughed through a crowd watching the Dutch Royal Family, killing 5 and wounding 20 people.

I wondered at that point if she wasn’t wondering why the hell I chose to live here. But she likes the country over all and knows that where I live and the country in general is very peaceful and safe.

Apartment Living

So for the whole time mum was here the other floors of the house were empty, which was great as when the upstairs folk are home its really loud here. It really bugs me to be honest as they have no consideration and even having spoken to them a few times nicely I know that they really don’t give a crap. I mostly listen to TV/Laptop/ipod with headphones so I cant hear them. The apartment is lovely but I don’t think sound insulation from a house built in 1825 was destined to suit two guys trundling around with their mates slamming doors, shouting and jumping around and listening to dance music and tv with a 5.1 sound system. But anyway, its a pity as I lived here for 10 months with other neighbours in that apartment and they never bothered me.

So other than that it was lovely to have mum over, I enjoyed the peace in the house without the neighbours. The weather was great and it was lovely just to have time with her to talk and relax and spoil her. I really missed her when she left, its really the longest she’s been here since I moved over and I was getting used to having someone in the house to talk to.  I got a bit down when she left, and then I got back to work.

Number Nightmare

With my return to work a project that’s been on slow boil for a while suddenly came to a rolling boil, and I’ve been in work till 8pm every night. I’m happy that I’m making really good progress with it and I know I’ll be done in a couple of weeks, at least this happened in the summer. I’d hate to be stuck in my office till 8 every night in winter, it was bad enough getting to and coming from there in semi light without staying there for 10 hours.

Anyhow, I am returning to my bloggy home, and will be blogging properly again. But that said I may be a tiny bit less frequent than the post a day I was maintaining in March/April.

Thanks for hanging around.

I will reward your loyalty with probably rubbish photos of Amsterdam’s Queens Day and our trip to the Keukenhof.