Finally on the road
Finally we are underway. Like all things for which much preparation has been necessary and towards which a lot of time is spent looking out, our departure was a little different than I had imagined.
Of course there was the small matter of the opening in the Amstelpark to be attended to. Having only had about four hours sleep, I arrived at het Glazen Huis in brilliant sunshine and with high hopes for the day ahead. This sunshine was the cause of the first small problem of the day: the deliberately faint light in my kijkdozen was too faint to be seen with eyes adjusted to the light (it had been fine the night before). Thankfully this was easily fixed.
The second and more serious problem was with the film I wished to show: none of the DVDs I attempted to burn with my laptop could successfully be played back on the only DVD player available. I was a bit afraid of this happening having experienced similar difficulties last year at Post Dordt in Dordrecht.
The problem was eventually solved by burning a new DVD on Anna’s laptop, but that was not all: the system of steel cables with which the (old and heavy) TV was to be suspended did not work quite as planned. The solution to this was to hang the TV under the little wooden shelf I had constructed (see photos), an arrangement which was achieved by dismantling the TV, boring holes in its chassis, and screwing up into the shelf. Thankfully my father, who would have had a fit at such disregard for electrical safety, did not arrive until later.
One more problem needed to be solved, that of a lack of correct cables to connect everything together. The only place to buy such things on a Sunday was the Media Markt in the Bijlmer, meaning a mad dash to the metro station even as the first visitors were arriving.
Finally everything worked properly, until Astrid phoned to tell me that the park wardens wouldn’t let her into the park with her bicycle. Now, this was a shame because the idea was to depart from the opening itself, and wave goodbye to everybody there.
Eventually she managed to sneak in the back entrance, but this led to more serious difficulties: the same park warden saw that she had done so and stormed into the exhibition, furious and wanting to know why she had defied him. Of course I could not stop myself getting involved, and was soon furious with him too. He threatened to have our bikes impounded if we did not obey him, until eventually a compromise was reached with Alite’s help whereby we would be out of the park at 5pm sharp. This made our departure a bit rushed, but perhaps it was a good thing to create a bit of dramatic effect!
So at 5pm we loaded up, hugged and kissed all appropriate onlookers, and set of for China. Quite surreal.
One last word about these park fuckers – I cannot hold back from saying that this is a typical example for me of the worst thing about Holland and the reason I am quite glad to be seeing the back of it for a while. I am talking about the obsessive and slavish adherence to silly rules which persons in authority (and those who wish they were) often exhibit. Of course not every Dutch person is like this, but there is certainly a small fascist minority for whom the rule itself is more important than why it is there in the first place. This nitwit today was not interested in listening to our explanations of the project, that it was part of the art opening, or that we had planned about half a year for it. There was a rule and he must enforce it – and likely gets a big kick out of doing it. Was likely bullied at school and now making up for it. OK, no more about him.
Since it was late in the day and we had had not much sleep, we decided to make an early stop this evening. We were able to camp in the garden behind a farmhouse, before which the friendly farmer lady had shown us around the sheds full of horses, cows, and lambing sheep. A very strange and immediate contrast to Amsterdam.
So, a long and eventful day came to a close, and a long and possibly eventful journey began. More soon.
