Levi and I rode our bicycles to the Rozengracht and parked near the iconic Westertoren. The weather in the Netherlands has been very bad of late, with lots of rain and low temperatures (considering it's Spring, after all), but today of all days the weather is gorgeous. It's a lovely day to be out and about!

We went for a stroll though the Jordaan, walking along the canals and the vrijmarkt.

The vrijmarkt (literally translated "free market") is something that you only see once a year. Normally, anyone who wants to trade wares in the Netherlands has to have a license. Except on Queensday, when all the citizens get a frew pass! So everyone and their granny gets everything they don't want anymore from their attic and claims a spot on the sidewalk to hawk his old crap.

It brings out the merchant in the Dutch. They sell their unwanted shoes, crockery, old books, cds, knicknacks and even old videos! It doesn't really matter how much it goes for, because it creates room in your own cupboards and you get money that you would otherwise not have had. As the Dutch say: "Wat de gek ervoor geeft" (loosely translated: whatever the crazy person thinks is worth it).

I love the vrijmarkt, as it feels like looking for hidden treasure among people's unwanted things.

At the Westerstraat we turned around and headed back towards our bikes. We had the best fried fish I've ever tasted, from a fish stall on the Rozengracht! It was hot, crispy, salty, moist on the inside and very, very tasty. We ate it while watching the boats on the canal, just like all these people here.

Look at all these people! It's swarming with all kinds of boats, big and small, old army issue and small rubber boats. There are queues at the bridges, where the canals narrow. Many of them play load music and fire confetti. People are partying their hearts out on the water. It's Levi's dream to spend Queensday on a boat next year!

So! Time to make myself feel better. Eventhough it's not Friday yet, I think it's time for my blog's first Friday list. Here's a list of things that make me thankful:

1. sunshine. Everything's just better when the sun shines (or 'less bad', depends on what kind of glass you have )
2. friends. They offer help when it's needed and even if they can't help, the fact that they want to warms my heart.
3. our flat. I love the light and the space. We have doors that can be closed, an actual bathroom, an actual kitchen. Ok, so after two months of living here it's all still not finished yet (in part due to the fact that new things keep breaking down), but hey, we'll get there.
4. Amsterdam. Look at the photo I picked for this post. Isn't it just gorgeous?
5. Leafde! I love this new find on the Prinsengracht. Will post about it soon. I bought a pair of amazing Amsterdam earrings from a lovely woman called Harumi.
6. and last but not least, let's end this list with liefde. Levi is always there for me. He warms my feet when they are cold at night, he cooks for me when I am stressed out, cramming for exams or trying to finish a project. He makes me take time off to sit in the sun with homemade cappuccino.

Thank you.

Look! I can't believe how thoughtful this gift is and it makes me so happy to think of the dishes I'm going to cook with the fresh thyme and rosemary.

The passionfruit plant looks a little sorry at the moment, but I'm hoping our sunny balcony will do it good this Spring. The bag on the left contains iris bulbs. I'm planning to plant them in April or May. Will let you know how they turn out!

Last Saturday we were on a mission for all kinds of house-related things in Amsterdam. It was cold and slippery outside because of the snow, but off we went, on our bicycles to the Nine Little Streets, the Gamma behind Westerpark and more. As we were riding our bikes on the Rozengracht, we noticed that Raw Materials was open and went in for a look at last.

The first thing I noticed was how gorgeous all the materials are. Raw, unpolished, tactile, pure. I loved it! The second thing I noticed, was how enormous the store is. Much, much larger than I had ever expected, judging from the outside. Filled with furniture, leatherware, homeware, decorations and more. 

Third thing of note: the prices. I know, it's a trendy store in the heart of Amsterdam, of course it is not going to be cheap, but some of the items were very pricey indeed. Or maybe it's just my fault, for wanting so many things that it became too much for my bank account to bear?

Levi and I walked out of the store with an old Belgian school chair in an lovely seagreeny-blue colour (sorry, best I could do colour-name wise).

Raw Materials
Rozengracht 231
1016 NA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
www.rawmaterials.nl

Closed on Sundays

All photo's courtesy of www.rawmaterials.nl

We're halfway unpacked and everyday life has begun again. We're both back at work and eventhough our flat is liveable, it's far from finished. We still need a kitchentable, closets and cabinets.

But quite apart from everything that's not perfect yet, I am so very happy with our new home! I love the light, I love the space and the thing I love most these days, is the double glazing in every room. No more freezing our asses off! No more drafts that make our candles flicker. Central heating: what a luxury!

We also had some work done by a contractor, which leaves us with a truckload less cash, but with a shiny new bathroom, a spacious kitchen and a new central heater. Everyone is always scared of being scammed by their contractor, but ours was a friend and he did a stellar job at breaking out the wall between the kitchen and what used to be a tiny third bedroom. The subcontractor who installed the heater was a little less stellar, but all in all, everything ended up ok. Eventhough it wasn't cheap, I'd recommend our friend Boris-the-contracter to anyone who needs work done on their house.

January is coming up and as we've terminated the lease of our current dwelling as per 1 February, things are coing to a head this coming month. The new place needs painting and a floor put in. The kitchen is being delivered on 3 January and my brother in law is going to help us install it. And then at the end of January we're going to move house. Somewhere in between I will have exams and - oh, that's right - we will need to pack up all our belongings and get ready for the move.

I have blogposts ready to be written, about places I've visited and things we've done, but as it is, there's enough to do. I'll be back though, you can count on it.

Happy holidays everyone!

Photographs like this make me happy. It also makes me glad to be living in a city like Amsterdam, with its lovely parks, like the Vondelpark.

Look at that light! Isn't it gorgeous?

If there's no one else, you can play for as long as you like. But if there are other people waiting, you get to play for half an hour if you're with two, and 45 minutes if you're playing doubles.

New on the weekends is the kids' lessons between 1pm and... was it 4pm? If there are lessons, you have to vacate the court.

We take the free ferry to Amsterdam north from behind Central Station, cycle for a few minutes, then find and follow the endless dike. It's lovely out here! The dike is lined with charming wooden houses with quaint facades. People sit in the sun on benches outside their houses, reading and relaxing. We are not the only ones who have had this bright idea, the dike is swarming with people riding bicycles. It feels like 'escaping to the countryside'.

Durgerdam is quite a long ride. We take our time, going at a leasurely pace, enjoying our surroundings. After more than an hour we arrive at our destination and it is teenie tiny. Basically little more than one street facing the IJ. But what a view! We sit and have a drink (we brought our own water, there is a shortage of cafés and terraces. I think we passed only two watering holes on our 1h10m trip. They were filled to capacity).

It doesn't look like there's much else to do here, so we mount our bikes for the return journey, enjoying ourselves all the way home. If the weather's nice and you feel like getting out of the city: Durgerdam is a lovely ride.

After having signed for the flat this week, we figured we had something to celebrate. So yes,going out to dinner seemed like a good idea. It was, but never again at Panama.

It started off well, with scallops for Levi and thinly sliced marinated veal for me. Levi proclaimed his scallops to be delicious. The veal was very nice, it was a shame that it was draped on top of a pile of raw red onion with a little lettuce. The spongy, disgusting eggplant cubes I also could have done without.

The mains were ok, no more no less than that. The Beef Wellington would have been better off wihout the Wellington bit. The puff pastry hadn't puffed, it was soft and wet and even raw in places. I liked the spinach and the sauce, and the meat inside the pastry was ok too, but still, not a winner for me. Levi had chosen the papardelle pasta with vongole, mussels and prawns. The sauce lacked flavour, it even lacked salt. The tomatoes were unevenly cut and the hard wooden bits at the centre had been left in.

But the desserts were the worst of the evening. Levi's crème caramel looked like it had shifted. It was grainy and felt awful in your mouth. My mousse of smoked dark chocolate was accompanied by bloodorange icecream and an orange tuile. The icecream was lovely: cold, sweet and tart (but probably not homemade). The supposed smoked chocolate mousse tasted odd. It took me two bites to figure out why I could not distinguish a smoked taste: it was peppermint chocolate mousse, not smoked dark chocolate mousse. And after a few bites of the so-called orange tuile, I was shocked to discover my mouth was on fire: there was no orange in the tuile, but tiny chili peper flakes. That could have done with a warning sign!

All in all, it was not as advertised. Nearly everything we had was poorly executed and made without much love or attention. Why insist on dishes that are other than ordinary (a Beef Wellington instead of an entrecote) if you are then going to make them badly? I would much rather see an honest steak with fries on the menu, if I can count on it being done well.

The girl serving us was excellent, very professional. She noticed Levi had not finished his dessert and she asked him if something was wrong with it (although the sorry, disgusting look of the crème caramel was pretty obvious) and then offered him something else instead. He opted for a simple cup of coffee. We'd had enough of the kitchen by then. The ambiance at Panama is good, although a bit run down. The people are nice, but it's just too bad that can't make up for the quality of the food.

Panama
Oostelijke Handelskade 4
1019BM Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 - 311 86 89
www.panama.nl