There's a screwup with my money, probably because of ABN AMRO. On Wednesday, 6 weeks after I'd given them my bank draft, I went down to see what was happening. I was told that they couldn't help me since they had no access to the records in Amsterdam (where the International Payments office is), and that I had to call a certain phone number myself. I went home and called the number, and was told that I had to go down to the branch in person. And so I went down once again, and finally got some attention. I was told that on 31 March a follow-up had been sent to Singapore, but there was no reply, and that the original request had probably been sent 2-3 weeks before that date.

Meanwhile, the Singapore side claimed that they'd never received any notice from ABN, and that in any case, according to DBS, ABN was obliged to pay me on presentation of a demand draft issued by DBS with no further confirmation in accordance with established International Banking practice.

On Thursday, I tried tracing my cheque's status, but was told that ABN AMRO was waiting for ING Bank to send them the money, and that I'd get it once they did. I tried calling ING, but after being bounced around twice I was told to ask for someone who wasn't there. I was told to call back at 4:30. By the time I called back at 4:50 she'd left for the day and wouldn't be back till Tuesday, by which time I'd be out of the country.

Whee.

At least I discovered that when you wait for an operator to attend to you at ABN AMRO, they periodically tell you: "You are second in the queue". This is a good thing.



Garbage police? Uhh.


Daffodils

In the bus you can eat or drink, but "geen patates frites, ijs of andere eet- en drinkwaren nuttigen, geen radio's, bandrecorders etc. laten spielen of op andere wijze muziek maken en geen vernielingen aan richten" (no fries, ice cream or other messy foods [?], no radios, tape recorders, music to disturb others and destructive actions [?]). Uhh.

I saw a place selling Polish Garnier Fructis for €1,79 per bottle. Uhh. I love competition.

Aldi and Nettorama are the only places where prices go down instead of up. Hurrah.

I saw a little girl who seemed to be floating on air. At first I thought she was a ghost, but then she managed to activate the automatic sensor of the door. Then I noticed her rollerblades.


Hetero, homo or bi? Hot rubber condoms are suitable for all three!

I saw some "Candy" brand lip balm for sale: "Natural lip balm. Tastes delicious!" Wait a minute...


Bunny love


"Canta LX". What happens when the Cock Car merges with a Perodua - the worst of both worlds. I call it the Cock Car X2


I haven't seen purple bird shit before


At this Dutch dinner the exchange students network cooked up, I was talking to this Belgian guy who said that the Flemish have very different food and culture from the Dutch, though the former is mostly due to the French influence; there's a reason why you can't find Dutch restaurants, even in the Netherlands.

The dinner was supposed to start at 7pm, but despite the Dutch reputation for eating early (which I understood after feeling ravenous at 6pm after having a Dutch lunch), the main course only came at 8:41pm (timestamp on my picture) after soup at 7:06 and snacks at 8:12 - they were probably catering for the punctuality and appetites of the Spanish (someone remarked that if you told a Spanish person to meet you at 7, at 7:45 they'd call you to say they were leaving the house).


We first had cabbage soup - this girl from Amsterdam termed it Dutch soup which she'd never had before. Some of us were expecting erwtensoep (pea soup), but were told it was a Winter/January soup, and that it was too late for it now.

I was talking with this Lithuanian who said that in his country they had conscription as well, but that full time students would get unlimited deferment till the age of 26, and on reaching 26 you'd be free. Also, following in the footsteps of other civilized countries, it's going to make conscription voluntary soon. This is a big step from the bad old days when the Tsar press-ganged some people for 25 years (it's made an indelible dent in their national culture - songs and stories and such).

He also said that in Lithuania, the biggest shops open from 7/8am-midnight daily (because they are very "profit oriented"), and that he was very surprised that Dutch shops closed so early and didn't open on Sundays. Looks like it's a Continental Western European thing (or maybe just Germanic). I asked if the girls in his country were afflicted with compulsive photo taking disorder. He said no, but quickly added that perhaps this was because they had no money for film.

The Belgian was saying how it's quite screwed up in his country, since there're two official languages (Dutch and French) and that you've the right to be served in your own language. So in Brussels you can have a shop where the shopkeeper can only speak French, and the Flemish customer refuses to speak French. This is bad.


Dutch snacks: Mini-sausages in pastry, Bitterballen (fried balls with kroket-stuffing), Fluffy pomme balls and Mini-frikandels served with Mustard, Dutch Curry and Fritesaus (Dutch mayo)

Immediately around me at my table were a Dutch, a Belgian and a Lithuanian. What did we do? We started complaining about the French and how stuck up, chauvinistic (they assume that everyone else can/should speak French) and parochial they were (I didn't start it). Why ah.


Sjoelen - A Dutch game
Unfortunately this is much too dark. If someone could lighten it for me I'd be very happy (original video available on request).


Sjoelen board
You have 25 pieces and the aim is to shoot them into slots. From left to right (facing the player) each piece in a slot is worth 2, 4, 3 and 1 point respectively, and for each set of 1 piece in each slot, you get 20 points. A round goes on until the pieces are all used, whereupon those that didn't enter the slots are taken back and reused. 3 rounds are played.


Mains
On the top is witloof - a Belgian vegetable a bit like cabbage - with mashed potato and ham. On the left is something that tastes like wasabe - endive (?), with mashed potato and bacon. And on the right is something with mashed potato and sausage. The Dutch are really jiak kantang.

2 of the people at my table were saying that there's an Asian country where young men have to carry condoms around or they'll get fined. One of them mentioned it and someone else said it was on CNN. I can't find anything online, though. Maybe it was CNN's April Fool's joke.


Dessert
I'm quite sure I've had blue food before.



Cock Car
I swear I hadn't seen any cock cars in Utrecht from the time I came to the end of March - they're so cock that I'd have noticed them. Yet, I saw 3 on Friday (and 2 within 5 minutes).

I finally saw a guy riding on the back of a bicycle on Friday. Actually I saw this twice - it was a day for sightings.

I saw Tropicana on sale for €1.99/l (usual price €2.59). Wah.

I see a lot of Uitzendburos (work agencies) in Utrecht. Maybe that's why the province has the lowest unemployment rate in the Netherlands (not sure about other provinces, though).


My eggs got stolen again despite a sign I taped to the fridge; I had two in the fridge before leaving, and on my return neither was there. I should get a marker. Someone suggests: "One of these eggs is poisoned. Only I know which." Maybe if eggs are in the egg tray people assume it's for public consumption; I will try leaving them in the carton next time.

Someone: "in old kent ridge it's worse
you put a carton of milk in fridge
day 1: carton opened, not by u
day 2: 1/4 gone
day 3: half gone (bear in mind not drank by u)
day 4: 3/4 gone
day 5: empty.
dun u wish u have spit into the carton of milk"

My cheese was growing mold on, and apparently the bottled garlic I had was bad so someone threw it away. Gah.