Parking & Canals

i took this picture last monday. ah, only now i realize that was yesterday. indeed, i took this picture yesterday, but somehow it seems ages ago... :) as you see, it was very sunny....

i guess most people know amsterdam has a lot of canals. 165 in total, some 60 miles of water, combined. there are also a lot of bikes, cars, houses, and not a lot of space. so... parking is often done right at the waterfront. unfortunately, its very important to always lock your bike to something (as i have written several times before). not only because someone might otherwise steal your bike.. every year between 12,000 and 15,000 bikes are fished out of the water!! im pretty sure most people dont have the habit of throwing their bikes into the water on purpose (i certainly dont have that desire), but someone else might just do it for you. here you can see a video of the piles of bikes coming out of the canals...

it also happens that cars get into the water. it is estimated that around 35 cars end up on the bottom of an amsterdam canal. they are parked at the edge as well, and having the car in reverse gear when expecting to go forward is sometimes all it takes to end up in the canal..... (this happened to one of tims colleagues. she got out fine but the car didnt... we dont need to park next to the water but just to be sure we did get an emergency hammer recently....)

Empty wall

i currently feel like the wall above; totally empty... not good if you are trying to write something... :( and whatever i wrote i erased again... aarghhh...!

this was also in providence, last sunday. we wanted to walk a bit through the city. but it was really, really cold. and the streets were so empty.... we were glad when we found back the car to go to the nearby mall. but the mall was a letdown too....

Parking lot

it started snowing a little last night.... and we woke up to quite a layer of snow again! very pretty.......

tomorrow it will be around 10 degrees, so that will result in a watery mess, i presume. as above; this is somewhere at some parking lot around boston. it does not really matter, since all these parking lots are more or less the same, as are the shops....

if you look carefully, you can see several shopping carts randomly scattered around. this always annoys me, and when im in a bad mood, can even make me furious... sometimes we indicate to lazy shoppers that they forgot their cart, but they never seem to get it.... especially at the end of the day, the carts are spread out over the entire parking lot, making it hard to find a spot. ironic, no? you goto the supermarket late to avoid the crowd, but still cannot park... 

in the netherlands this is less of a problem; at most supermarkets you have to put some money into the cart that you will get back upon returning it. surely most dutch will bring their cart to the other end of the parking lot when their money is involved.... :)

Snow drift

when walking to the station yesterday morning, i heard some birds, it was very sunny, not cold at all. even warm, perhaps? and i thought i could smell spring... i was writing some lines in my mind that surely would some way or another make it here, accompanied by a bright and sunny photo....

not so much, today it was very cold again!! the wind is blowing around, making it even colder. we went to the cinema, for a change.. :), and saw "the eagle", not about americans, but about a roman that wanted the eagle back that his father had lost somewhere in britain. at times the movie reminded me of "the long walk" (another rather recent crappy movie). both had in common that there were barely women and quite some hardship and fighting. there were at least 3 little kids in the audience, im not sure this movie was the best choice for them. tim just wrote on facebook "avoid at all costs". ah well, i would not go that far; at times it was interesting....

when getting out of the theater it was suddenly terribly cold (-8 C; yesterday it was +13 C)! even more wind, and snow.. blown around by the wind just above the black streets. actually very pretty; i tried to take a picture of it... reminded me of liquid nitrogen on lab floors.....

Snow farm

i guess we discovered a snow farm.... mountains and mountians of snow on the excess parking lot of the showcase cinemas in revere. in summer there is a market here, and in winter there is snow! :)

today it rained a lot, and it was not so cold, so the piles started to melt, resulting in soooo much water on the streets!! but the piles of snow are still high, the roads still narrow (i saw so many rear view mirrors that were broken off cars standing alongside the roads.. it just doesnt fit currently). many roofs are collapsing too, due to all the snow..... according to the weather forecast; more to come next week.

ah yes, we went to see a movie (we go very often here), this time it was the king's speech. i had seen the preview already several times when going to other movies and wasnt that enthousiastic. but.... it was a very good movie. not boring at all (as i had expected)!

Silver glow

snow has started!!

im curious how much we get this time, and where they are going to put it all....

this was last week, or maybe already the week before... it was so sunny. and then the snow... looked like a silver world to me... :)

Immersing ourselves

ofcourse we are immersing ourselves into "very american things"..... :)

last weekend we got a little lost and discovered this enormous bowling hall not too far from our house! we went inside and it was just like in the movies... !!!

so, yesterday me and tim and two other dutchies (who studied with tim in utrecht) went bowling, voluntarily! buugh, why do they make those balls so heavy? certainly im not a very talented bowler... 

i took some pics but havent sorted out which one to post yet, maybe tomorrow....