Coming home

Taking a break, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Back in Amsterdam now on a cold grey but dry day, in a nice warm, neat and tidy house with even some Christmas decorations up, waiting for Fred to come home from another day at work.

Henk was there to pick me up, even though I was delayed about 40 minutes due to the freezing fog at Heathrow, so thanks Henk!It seems we were lucky to leave when we did as I read on the BBC that most flights were cancelled later in the day due to the fog. It was a nice flight and it is always surprising how quickly one rise above what seems to be impenetrable fog to get into the bright sunshine. This time we had a lovely view of beaconsfield, teh town we were brought up, quite fitting seeing as I ahd only just said goodbye to Richard in Bangkok.

The big surprise waiting for me was the square, as pictured in this photo from September. All the holes have been filled and the streets restored but all of a sudden thereis a big round 'square'with a fountain in the middle. They have made a proper roundabout and created a very nice space for park benches and trees. The road is now very tight so will slow the traffic and may even stop the large noisy juggernauts which sometimes come down, not likely to stop the scooters though. A German company specialised in fountains is doing the work on the lights and the water and it will be a couple of months before the fountain is working, but it looks excellent.

had a bit of a shock going to buy half a loaf of bread from Kees, who now has a very brought red sun screen outside his shop, as the chap asked me for € 1.75, for just half a loaf. This is as much as the excellent last night dinner Richard and I had in Bangkok, with fresh prawns, steaks, kebabs, veggies, fruit, rice, salads and all sorts. It is also as much as the (legal) CD I am listening to - a CD of beautiful Vietnamese songs sung by a military choir - Tenh Yeu Nguoi Linh Tre - check them out if you can!

I remember coming back from Thailand and Malaysia in 1980 and being very funny about spending money then. It was the day (another cold one at the beginning of May, when Dexy's Midnight Runners were number one with Come On Eileen, whilst Take That are there now with their excellent song Patience, as we saw in Vietnam watching RAI Internazaionale!) Known Fact won the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on the disqualification of the Frenh horse Nureyev. Both went on to be great sires, Known Fact being the sire of the brilliant Warning and being a very prominent broodmare sire, but I digress...