Queen's Day 2007

Carousel, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Queen's Day this year has been of the warm and sunny version, something it looks like we will have to get used to. I will not write much as I am sneezing a lot. My face and head are a bit burnt after spending too much time under clear blue skies these past few days.

The festivities around the house were similar to many other years, although the area is spreading more and more into the side streets and right up to the end of Hogweg. We have our own beer - Breed Bier - which is brewed by handicapped people but is not, in fact, all that nice!

Despite being publicised by the Amsterdam press as being Amsterdam's best kept secret for Queen's Day, it was not a lot busier than normal, although the day did seem to last longer than many other years. Fred is at the Elsa's Bar, where there is a great blues band playing on a stage. I would be there too were it not for my incessant sneezing every time I go outside of the house.
Thoams was earning money by having people drop a coin into a bucket of water in the hope that the coin goes into a glass at the bottom of the bucket. If the coin goes in you double your money (and Thomas loses) but most coins miss their target, which gives Thomas his profit. Just a pity that the glass he chose to use was a glass whjich Foiona had given us years ago. She saw it when she arrived and told us it was a collectors item, the designer of teh glass having since become famous. Unfortunately and inevitably, the glass broke! Thomas spent his money on 'stuff' he says. Meanwhile Vera was making money by dressing up as fortune teller with a wizards hat on and telling people's fortune. She didn't quite make as much money as Thomas, but nor did she berak anything.

Fiona is having a bath next door and trying to encourage Thomas to do well in his upcoming exams. Thomas does not want to go upstairs because he saw a mouse running around the kitchen and doesn't particularly want to get close to it again. He said it was white with a red tail. A bit strange, as all the mice we normally have in the house are of the dark brown variety, but now Fiona confirms that it was indeed brown.