A rare old storm

I wanted to write a blog about the storm which is raging outside but I do not have any storm photos on flickr so I will combine this post with some references to YouTube, where I have found some excellent videos.

The storm we have is said to be the worst we have had for very many years in Holland and the National Crisis Centre has actually called on people NOT to go outside, if they can possibly help it. The wind is so strong that it is blowing things off rooves and houses, making it easy to be hit on the head. The rain is causing a lot of flooding too.

Having spent the afternoon at home yesterday because of the rain, I was determined not to stay inside all day so I deceided I would brave the winds, not actually having seen the forecast about the very bad storm. It was all quite an experience, even though I managed to avoid the worst of the winds by cycling down narrow streets offering protection. In the meantime, the wind was whipping up froth on the canals, blowing up spray onto the streets. A large old tree fell down, crushing two cars underneath, while the taxi driver who stopped to take a pic with his mobile phone said another had fallen on the Nieuwmarkt and had squahed a Porsche (he said with a smile of satisfaction). Just before, I had seen my ex-colleague and liquidator, Peter Verloop, cycling along the canal, seemingly without a care in the world. Hat's off to Peter, as it was a rare storm!

At some stage the heavens opened, there were flashes of lightning, cracks of thunder, sheets of water coming down, branches and twigs fell, awnings flapped, the aeroplanes, which unbelievably still flying powered through the wind, in between the very fast moving low cloud. The road home was hazardous, as first of all I had to cycle through the rain and now there were large puddles on the cycle paths and a whole load more debris lying around. Many many motorbikes has been blown over, fortunately not onto the cars parked next door as far as I could see. I was soaked to the skin, at least to the extent I was not covered by my excellent rain jacket (Murphy and Nye, still looking as good as new two years on), notably my private parts which all of a sudden felt very cold. Anyway, the good thing about cycling home in the rain is that you can take your wet clothes off and have a nice warm shower, which is what I did. Only after did I go upstairs and switch on the TV to see what they were saying about this storm. It'd've been a pity to have taken their advice and not to have experienced the storm, so often they seem to happen at night and this time we had ringside seats!

Anyway, despite teh fact that we can now see last autumn's crysanthemums flowering almost next door to this spring's daffodils, we have finally been promised something like winter for next week, with maybe even some snow, if we are lucky!

The YouTube references can wait for another day.

Well, well, well, with eleven people dying in the UK as a result of the storm today (three in Holland as well), and such storms being a predicted efect of climate change in north-western Europe, one would have thought that the topic of climate change would be discussed on Question Time this evening. But, no, even in a week when there was nothing much special reported about Iraq and the Home Office, those two subjects came up AGAIN for discusison with the panellists making exactly the same remarks as all panellists make every week, when these subjects come up. Boring!

A last thought though and that is that Fred managed to get home safely, despite all the trains in Holland being cancelled because of the storm, because one of his colleagues, Thea, who actually lives in the opposite direction gave him a lift in her car all the way home! How wonderful. Poor Eric, though was stuck on the Belgian/Dutch border and was last heard of trying to find a bed for the night in Antwerp.

A Sunday afternoon walk around Amsterdam

After a delicious dinner the previous night (only the carrots didn't work out too well as they stayed hard), it was a late-ish start to the day. A beautiful sunny day, thanks to a rare ridge of high pressure coming our way. We decided to take advantage of it by going for a walk around town, a typical, Fred, Charles and Henk activity.

Our walk took us up Linnaeusstraat, past Oosterpark, behing Artis, along the Calendar Panden, past Kadijk, up to Het IJ, in front of Centraal Station, behind again to Westerdok and Reaal Island, back along Brouwersgracht, Spuistraat, across to the Red Light District to Nieuewmarkt and straight back through Plantagebuurt. Excellent, sun shining all day, just a coolish wind, although a lot less brisk than the previous few days.

P.S. I will keep this slideshow on here, as it sort of illustrates the walk we made yesterday, but I find it altogether too busy. Great software, again, but I don't think I will be in a hurry to use it too often. Removed 19 January 2007.

Saturday evening at home in January

Bahir Dar shepherds, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Not so much to write about today and not so much time as Eric is coming round for dinner. A Jamie dinner, Fred cooking roast lamb wih aubergine and me making 'dinner-ladies' carrots - sliced carrots laid down with garlic, orange peel, parsley, olive oil, cooked in orange juice, white wine and vegetable stock (from a cube - so handy always!)

For desserts we would have been eating apple crumble were it not for the fact that they were selling three pineapples for a euro (I managed to bargain for a fourth one as it happened) outside the Turkish grocery store on the Pretoriusstraat. Jamie tells us we can eat this with castor sugar and mint, so we will try this as well.

All washed down with some lovely (and cheap) Argento wine from Gall and Gall. I am bringing a box of six home whenever I can, as there is a 3 for 2 promotion this month and we want to take advantage, the question being whether or not one drinks more when one knows that the fridge downstairs is full of bottles of cooled Chardonnay.

In the meantime, listening to extended CD singles from East 17 and 2wo Third3 from the mid-nineties, having discovered 4thChild, the previous singer of 2wo Third3 on MySpace, through a link from Marc Almond. May I recommend a link to Marc's site as he has placed an excellent song there called Weakness for Roses, sung to the accompaniment of Martin Watkins' piano, a song written by Baby Dee. Just how wonderful is the internet?

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...