The diary of a Scot in Amsterdam

I have been back in Scotland for a total of 42 hours for Christmas. Short, but that was the intention. I’d rather go for a longer trip when I can afford it and when I actually want to, rather than to celebrate the birthday of someone who is dead and who I have never actually met. No offence intended to religious types here (well, maybe a little).

The intention was to travel light, and so I left with one piece of hand luggage and a mostly-empty rucksack to fill with things of mine that were still in Edinburgh. The problem was that when I arrived the rucksack did not arrive with me; I had waited, and waited, and waited at the baggage belt but it never came, and when the thing switched off and there was no-one else there it became obvious that it was not going to come.

I reported this to the office, who between me leaving the airport and getting to my parents’ house phoned my mum to say first that it was going to be sent today (I’m now back in Amsterdam) to Edinburgh, which obviously wasn’t much help, and then that it would stay at Schiphol (a much better idea) where I could pick it up on my return.

So, after a very short reunion with the family and some lovely Christmas dinner and presents I found myself back at Schiphol this morning, where as instructed I asked at the easyJet office for my bag. Actually, this might be easier if I make a list;

1. Asked at easyJet desk. Told to go to lost property in arrivals hall.
2. Asked at information desk in arrivals hall for lost property. Told to dial ‘11′ from internal phone.
3. Did as instructed. Told to turn around 180 degrees, walk to the end of the corridor and report to ‘Door 19′.
4. Reported to Door 19. Told that this was the wrong place and to go to Servisair desk at the other end of arrivals.
5. Did this. Told that they do not deal with easyJet baggage and to go back to Menzies Aviation desk (next to Door 19).
6. Did this. Was told that my bag had been sent to Edinburgh, whereapon I was about to walk out before the woman at the next desk said that actually, no, it was here somewhere.
7. Instructed to follow the man from Menzies Aviation to look inside a metal cage where, glory of glories, my bag was waiting.

Of course all this while carrying my other bag and a very large and heavy box of things from home. After all this I was ready to scream. Might not sound much but it was driving me nuts at the time.
Result in the end, though.

Quite a stressful week this week due to assessments at the DAI. What this basically involved was everyone having to present their work in front of everyone else plus tutors plus two guest assessors over the course of three days (Tue, Wed, Thurs). I was pretty much in the middle, and of course had failed to prepare myself very well at all. Seeing the savage way that some folks who were on before me were shot down in flames didn’t exactly help, but in the end mine went not so bad. Perhaps this was because I talked for ages and ages and they were just glad I had stopped, but at least I did get some pretty useful feedback and encouragement. And people laughed at the bits which were supposed to be funny which is always reassuring.

The problem is though that I made some quite ambitious claims about what I am going to do in the future, and now of course I have to actually carry them out. In particular, I intend following up my Journey with a Chair (see an earlier post) by carrying something extremely heavy from one end of the Netherlands to the other, and although this is a small country that is still a tall order. Should be fun though. I might try and film it as some sort of road movie.

For the first time in ages I am in quite a relaxed mood today. For once I have been paid on time, I don’t have too much to do, and of course now that I have my passport back I can go home for Christmas. I havenae seen my wee sis for a year (and the rest of the family for nearly six months), and of course I miss them all a lot. And naturally mama’s cooking too.

Someone must have been listening to my cry for a bit of luck the other week, because two amazing things happened today.

Firstly, I GOT MY PASSPORT BACK! Yes, miracles do happen. There was a letter waiting for me this morning from the Police, not usually a good thing I suppose but this time it was telling me that my passport was waiting for me at the lost property office (not the first time I have been there). By some stroke of good forture it all went without a hitch, and I can now go home for Christmas, saving myself a huge amount of cash for a new one in the process. Thankyou a million times to whoever handed it in. You have earned your place in Heaven (OK, that’s a bit over the top, perhaps).

The second thing is even more exciting. At last, I have found somewhere which can supply Buckfast. The place in question is Thomas Green’s British food store on the Saphartipark; I was passing on the way to the lost property office and thought I’d call in. They don’t have it in stock, but can order it for us at €6,70 for a half bottle; not cheap, but not outrageous either. For a case of 12 we’d get a 10% discount.

As soon as I found this out, I called Andy at work with the fabulous news. Of course he was over the moon, and the decision was taken AT ONCE to place an order for a case. This I did, and if all goes well it should be with us the first week in January.

In fact, it turns out that our house is on the shop guy’s route home from work, so he’ll deliver it for us too. Out-fuckin-standing!

Went to a performance tonight at STEIM, a centre on the Utrechtsedwarsstraat for electronic and experimental music. Interesting, but the kind of thing that can become very repetitive and boring once the novelty has worn off. The first guy (TokTek) did some nice things with some huge, macho-looking joysticks controlling his computer (with some guitar and circuit-bending thrown in as well), followed by two blokes (SCHNACK) manipulating the sounds of a trombone through a laptop, and finally a girl on saxophone accompanied by a man with some strange, home-made things the fitted over his fingers that produced some spaced-out noises as he waved his arms around and pushed lots of little buttons with his fingers (Christine Sehnaoui & Michel Waisvisz). I feel really not with it for saying so, but I prefer a bit of rhythm when I am listening to music – dance to this you could not. I ain’t cool enough for this shit, and I’m not sure that I would want to be.

I have not gotten much further forward with the story of the passport from last week. No word from the police, and when I phoned the British consulate to ask what would happen if they received a lost passport, I was told that they would return it to the issuing office in, yes, Scotland. Now, surely a British passport lost in the Netherlands has obviously been lost by someone IN the Netherlands, who cannot then get back to the UK, because they don’t have their passport, but to get it back they would need to be in the UK. Where they can’t get to without a passport. Fucking stupid idiot morons. I don’t want back in your damn spastic country, anyhow. I have mouthed off many times about how stupid the Dutch authorities are, but I guess they have some competition.

There is the possibility that some students from the DAI might participate in a public art project next summer at Kunsthuis SYB in Beetsterzwaag, a small village in Friesland. I suppose Friesland compares a little to the Northwest of Scotland in that it is extremely rural and has its own language (Fries), but that is about it; the place (like most of the Netherlands) is completely, totally flat. I mean not one single landmark of any kind. I have to admit that because of this I would find it really hard to live a long time in one of these tiny places; it seems pretty depressing.

That said, it’s a nice little place. Very peaceful, seemingly quite prosperous, and it felt like a million miles away from Amsterdam, which it kind of is since the journey there involved 2 trains and a bus and took the whole morning.

The project would involve us staying in the cute wee house in the pictures below, making some kind of art that might hopefully engage a little with the people living in the village – they have, perhaps not surprisingly, been not so keen to get involved with what the Kunsthuis has been doing to date. The conclusion is that it is perhaps not worth wasting too much time on them.

Around nine of us plus our mentor Florian made the trip from Amsterdam/Enschede/elsewhere, with the intention of developing a proposal which can be submitted sometime in January. It would not be true to say that anything really concrete came out of this, but we did at least agree to work on the concept of some sort of parallel economy for the village, or something related to economics. It’s a start.

I can’t believe it. Cycling nearby last night when I noticed my wallet and passport in my back pocket and thought “that’s a stupid place to keep them”, but didn’t do anything about it. 20 minutes later I suddenly realised that they were gone. And this while stone cold sober in the middle of the evening.

I’m supposed to be going home for a few days at Christmas, but it looks like there is no way I can get a replacement before then (and anyway it’ll cost €150 or thereabout).

A lot lot lot of things have been going wrong for me recently, and it is really beginning to get me down. One of my jobs failed to pay me on time and so I ended up being a week late with the rent and being overdrawn because my direct debits of course came out regardless, all of which is going to cost me money. Plus because my bank pass was lost a fine which I needed to pay will take 3 days rather than 1 at the bank (and it needs to be paid by tomorrow). This could result in another fine or worse case imprisonment (although that seems a bit far-fetched). This I could do without.

Further to this, I’m only getting one shift a week in the bar, so it has gone from far too many hours to far too few, and I still can’t seem to find the time for college work, that job, and also my other (web design for my old boss back in Scotland). We’ve got college assessments in less than 2 weeks and I’ve got fuck all to show.

I need a break really bad. A little bit of luck must be coming my way soon.

Was up late last night after a fabulous meal at Katie + Jimmy’s (they’re leaving town for good tomorrow), then up again very early to take Jo to the airport. Not best pleased then to be called into work on my way home (why did I even answer the phone?), but luckily managed to get out of it after an hour or so, blagged a free cooked breakfast, and went home to sleep for a few hours. Nice one.

This was just as well because there was a party on the Stubnitz tonight (it’s a boat moored at the NDSM Werf in Noord), which of course would not be finishing ’til about 6am. It was really brilliant, actually (first time I’ve been), and in any case what other kind of party starts with a (free) ferry ride in the middle of the night beneath the glittering lights of Amsterdam before climbing up ye olde gangplank onto a fucking great beast of a vessel, complete with huge floodlights beaming into the sky?

Only problem was the journey home – I had my bike, it’s a very very long way from home, and it was raining like buggery. By the time I got home myself and everything I was wearing was soaked through, and there was nothing for it but to climb under the covers and sleep the whole day though, only getting up to make toast with jam and herbal tea. By the time I got up Saturday had been and gone and it was dark again.