Some pictures of jewelry I made...in case you were interested.

People keep asking about my jewelry, what kind I do, etc, so here are a few pictures of things I made (and sold) recently. These dangly pearl things sell like hotcakes. I really can't keep them in stock.
The set above is a bracelet, necklace and earrings made of pearls, turquoise and rock crystal on sterling silver.  I call it Cleopatra's jewelry. The photo quality is not the best, I was in a hurry and forced Rich to take the pictures for me in not-so-great conditions. But you get the gist.

Chain of jewels....

Here's another one...I call this one "Chain of Jewels". Get it?

It's a bracelet with matching earrings. The stones are labradorite....a stone I find fascinating as it is greyish but has this amazing blue opalescent fire to it. The stones I used in this bracelet are particularly nice. It's sterling silver hand made (by me) chain in a nice heavy weight. I make alot of things that I want to keep for myself and this is one of them......

And the traveling continues...

So we are going to Prague next week for a few days. I'm already packing. Or should I say unpacking as I just got back from London last week. Still, the laundry is almost done and I have a fairly good idea of what i am bringing along. THat is half the battle.

In Prague, Rich is intent on tasting the beer and I certainly do not mind accompanying him there again, where I can drink even more beer than the first time. Oh yeah, and Prague is also pretty, I guess.  I mean, if you like medieval architecture, old churches, cafes in the square, palaces, statues and cobblestoned streets. Most of the buildings are painted in pastel shades, which makes it even prettier. Pretty, that is, if you like that sort of thing. Which, thankfully, I do.

Rich also sprung a pretty huge surprise on me yesterday. This year I have been the one doing the traveling, mostly. Rich did manage to make it to Morocco with Colleen and I, and he and I have gone to London a few times. But for travel it has been a fairly light year for him. He sure as hell made up for it yesterday. Get this:

HE BOOKED A NILE CRUISE FOR US!

Yeah, you read right.

We are going to EGYPT! End of August. HOLY SHIT!  

He had originally been looking at cruises in the Baltic, going to places like Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallin, Stockholm, Copenhagen. But everytime he called the companies that he found on the web, the cruises ended up being quite a bit more expensive than advertised on their web pages. So on a whim he checked out Egypt and it was half the price of the Baltic cruises...including the flight from London to Luxor!  The Baltic cruises didn't even include the travel to Copenhagen, where the boat left from.

Yeah, it seems strange that a trip to Africa is cheaper than a trip right here in our own backyard, but there you have it. We're freaking going to Egypt!

Remember how I was bitching about lack of summer and heat? Well, I guess you get what you ask for because the average temperature in Egypt when we will be there is 47 centigrade, which is like, 110 0r 120 degrees Fahrenheit. So basically, we will be wedging summer into a week.....That's kinda like roasting your chicken at 500 degrees for 20 minutes instead of for an hour at 350.

There's a pool on the boat, though, so I guess we will be able to cool off that way.  

I have some other travel irons in the fire for the fall months, but nothing is confirmed yet so I won't mention those. Let's just say that this year I will have been on three continents and 10 countries thus far in 2004.  And only one of those countries was Texas!

AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!

Aftenposten reports that this summer is the coldest in Norway in eleven years.

The sun has become a distant memory.  You guys in Texas, I envy you. I haven't broken a sweat yet in 2004!

I'm going back to London. At least there I can get warm weather. Even if it is just in the Tube. It gets downright hot in those Tube tunnels and trains. 

 

This does not inspire confidence

Walking about London yesterday, I was in the Clerkenwell area, just north of the City. There is a famous and ancient hospital there, called St. Bart's. It is a teaching hospital.

Along one roadway near the hospital, among the variety of street signs pointing one here and there, were two disturbingly juxtaposed signs:

Sign on top:
School of Birthing and Midwifery

Sign just under it, pointing in same direction:
School of Butchery

Eek.

London is a foodie town

I just had the BEST meal.

I am in London. Right around the corner from Colleen's flat (where she generously lets me crash while she is in the US) is a gastro-pub called the Admiral Codrington. I decided to go there for dinner tonight as it is close, easy to get to and I was HUNGRY. (I walked all the way from Leicester Square to her flat (in Knightsbridge) this afternoon for a bit of exercise, I guess it's about three/four miles or so. Just past Buckingham Palace and Harrod's, how posh.)

So what I ordered was simple. A piece of seared blue fin tuna served on a sort of tomato puree. There were pieces of fresh cucumber scattered about as well. On the side were chips (french fries)....All the flavors together just mixed in such a perfect way...the tuna was perfect sashimi grade, raw on the inside, the cucumber bits were crisp and fresh, the fries hot and salty... I sopped up every bit of the sauce with the freshly baked bread. It was not a big meal (it was one of those places where they have good food, small portions) but it was AWESOME. It was so good I decided to treat myself to dessert....small dinner, not too fattening, why not?

The dessert made me moan, it was so good. The people sitting next to me gave me funny looks (and one guy sitting nearby suddenly looked rather interested) as I quickly tried to quell my vocal enjoyment of the dish. It was described on the menu as "chocolate donuts with vanilla cappucino". Well, my favorite two words in one phrase are chocolate and vanilla, so I figured even if they were crap, they would be ok. OH MAN. This dessert...it's in my top three of all time. (The other two have been in London also, go figure.) Anyhow, the "donuts" looked like fried samosas or beignets, little triangle sized pieces of fried dough, sprinkled with powdered sugar, served with a tiny little frothy cappucino on the side. The waitress told me to be careful when I bit into them...they could be hot. So I carefully cut into the first little pillow of yum....and out gushed this rich goo of chocolate, all hot and melty. Not too sweet, just right. The chocolate pastries with the bitter vanilla coffee, it was just too amazing.....It was so good, I literally used my finger to get all the chocolate off the plate, I didn't care if it looked tacky, I was in heaven. The waitress, as I finished, asked me, smilingly, if I liked it, and I just smiled back at her and sighed. I noticed, as I left, other people ordering that dessert as well...I guess I started a trend.

I am a happy girl right now...um yum yummmy.....

Ten Dream People to Have Dinner With

You know that game where you list 10 people dead or alive you would like to have dinner with? Here's mine:

Queen Elizabeth the First
Diana Vreeland
Ghandi
Johnny Depp
Nicholas Cage
Jesus
Rasputin
Michelangelo
Madame de Pompadour
Lord Byron

There would be some interesting conversations, I am sure.

I would also like to invite Jesus to a second meal, this time with George W. Bush, Billy Graham, the Pope and the Dalai Llama. I would like to hear Jesus set the record straight with GWB, BG and the P and tell them to stop making insane rules and pronouncements in his name. I'd like to see how he and the DL interacted, I bet they'd get along well. Maybe he could work some mojo with some loaves and fishes, just for grins. It would be cool. Do you think the Secret Service would frisk Jesus or maybe do a background check? I can see it now:

"Hmm. This guy claims to be the son of God, born of an immaculate conception, and he has no social security number, photo ID or credit record. I dunno, guys, whaddya think? Do we let him in? He's clean, no weapons...just a walking stick...and he's, er, commando under those long robes. I gotta say, though, something about the guy seems trustworthy!"

Jesus would do the Jedi mind trick, say the equivalent of "These are not the droids you are looking for", and go on in.

What would be the FCC fine for THIS????

So the FCC in the US charges a fine of $500,000.00 for a split second TV broadcast of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" boob.

Here in Norway a couple had sex on the stage during one band's (called "The Cumshots") set at the Quart Festival and the Norwegian authorities fined the couple $1,400.00 each. Which they refuse to pay, as they apparently "fucked for the rainforests". (Be careful that is an "adult" site.) They screw in front of other people for money which they then give to organizations that work to save the rainforests. It's a charity fucking, don't you see? So that's ok, then.....

You won't be hearing about this in the US. There is no way the news CAN report it....even the name of the band is verboten.

More traveling to come

On July 10th (this Saturday) I am going to pop over to London for about 10 days of, well, not exactly R&R, but more like "get out of Norway" escape time. It seems that summer has decided to bypass us in Norway entirely...it's been cold and rainy ever since I got back from my trip to Amsterdam and beyond. (Today is the first sunny day...so why the hell am I inside writing to this blog?????) Rich will join me for part of the time..he can't get away for the whole t ime, though.
I will be back on July 21, but there are internet cafes all over the place in London (my fave being on King's Road) so I can update this as the urge hits.

Of course, as I complain about the weather here, the UK has been hit by a "freakish July storm" with gale force winds and colder temperatures. And there is a threatened baggage handlers strike which I am constantly checking on, as I soooo do not want them to go on strike on Saturday! But just in case I will pack some essentials in my back pack to cover any emergency baggage issues.
My friend Norway Jennifer (I have three friends named Jennifer...I call them "My Jennifer", "Jennifer Cook" and "Norway Jennifer") said "Why don't you just carry on your baggage?".
To which I reply..."10 days of stuff in a small carry on? I have standards, you know."
She said, "But I thought on your recent big trip you did carry on the whole time?"
To which I again reply, "No...I could CARRY it, but it was not carry on". See the difference?

It's all semantics.

Anyhow, Rich has also planned us a trip to Prague for early August. After I came back raving about the beer and the beauty and the beer, telling him my stories about how much he would like it, well, he got a bee(r) in his bonnet and planned us a trip. Did I mention the beer?

When Colleen and I were there we had the great honor and opportunity of being guided and shown about by Milan Reban, my friend Milena's dad, who is from the Czech Republic. He really went all out for us. We really felt very pampered and special, being shown around by this true gentleman who knows everything there is to know about Czech culture and history and BEER! I do not have my pictures back yet to post here (they are in hock to the photo place while I get up the guts to pay the exhorbitant amount I owe for 8 rolls of film + CD) but I will get them after the trip to the UK. Anyhow, there are some of our charming host Milan and I am forever grateful to him for making that trip so special!

So now I am going outside to enjoy what sun I can before it goes away. Oh, shit. The sun already went away. The clouds are rolling in again. Why is summer avoiding me???? Did I piss off the sun god or something? I WILL do the naked sundance if necessary. Norway is empty, so no one will see me, they are all on vacation......

Why Bush should not be re-elected.....

Here is a link to an AP article I found on Yahoo. If there is any better reason to not re-elect Bush, I honestly can't think of one.
(Is Kerry all that much better? No. But he's not Bush and right now Bush is a totem for all things bad that have happened lately. Removing Bush would be like removing a big thorn in the side of the world.)
Americans don't get to see how the rest of the world views George Bush. The US press conveniently does not mention it. He is almost unanimously hated, laughed at, ridiculed and discounted. Everyone pretty much wants him to go away. The damage he has done to relations between the US and Europe (and indeed the rest of the world) is almost incalculable.
And folks, let me tell you, being over here in Europe, I see examples of it everywhere I go. When people in countries I visit find out I am from Texas (of which I am VERY proud but don't talk about that much anymore, for fear of retribution), the first thing they do is ask if I support Bush. When I say my usual variation of "HELL NO!", they relax their guard and then they tell me their reasons why they think he is so awful. They ALL hate him. They all are confused by him. They wonder why America stopped being the land of the free and and started being the world's aggressor.

I wonder about that too. Alot.

Family European Vacation, 2002

This is a picture of me, my "little" brother, my dad and my mom at St. Odille Convent in France.
We did a family road trip in October 2002 drinking our way through the Alsace wine region of Germany and France. (For pictures of family wackiness, click on the "Want more pictures?" link at left.) We rented what we thought was a big turbo diesel Audi A6 Station wagon, until we all got into it, when it suddenly became much smaller. But then as most of us (except my Mom at 5' 7")are in the 6 foot and up range, there aren't many cars that WILL seem big. I think my brother is standing on a step in this shot. I mean, he's big, but he's not THAT big.
Rich could not come with us on that trip. He had a deadline at work. At 6'7" he definitley would not have fit in the Audi, though. It was squooshed enough with the four of us. Next time we will have to rent a bus or something so he can come along too. Do busses come turbo diesel?

Warm colors for a cold climate.

A view of our house in Norway.
This is the main floor living room looking out to the deck. It was already painted the right shade of red before we got there. The curtains came with the place. (I am not a fan of curtains, myself, as I prefer shutters or just clean light windows, but the ones here are ok, so I left them up.) On the right, that white thing is the fireplace. I LIKE the fireplace.
I wonder what we will think of this photo in 20 years...will it still look ok or will we cringe like we do now, thinking of avocado green?

Ruminations on style

Before we start, I want you to do me a favor. Go to this link. Check it out, then come back here for a story. ......Go ahead, it's ok. I'll be here when you get back. I promise....

Done? Have you seen it? I know what you are thinking, it's the same thing everyone thinks: Wow. What the fuck? That's HORRIBLE! General laughter ensues.

Now, go back to your childhood. I will assume that most of you reading this grew up in or have good memories of the 70's, yeah? Ok, so think back on where you lived in the 70's. Think. Yeah, uh huh. See what I mean? You are cringing right about now, aren't you? And you know why! Because you grew up in surroundings that were not entirely unlike those in that link! (Ok, maybe with the exception of the horse/garage/kitchen combo, I have no friggin' clue WHAT that was about.) C'mon! Hands up! Who admits it! Ok, I'll go first with a description of a room we had in our house in Houston, where I grew up in the fierce style ecclecticism that was the 70's. It was called "The Star Room".

It was called "The Star Room" by my brother and I, in honor of my dad's really awesome collection of lighted and neon and glowing beer signs. Like, he had signs for Coor's beer, and one of the big old Clydesdale Horses signs (was that Budweiser?)and a bunch of others. One for Hamm's Beer had glowing and fading stars that constantly changed, it was mesmerizing. My brother and I were never allowed to touch them, of course. The beer signs were purely adult territory.

The Star Room was a "party" room that had black and red deep shag carpeting on the walls, with the beer signs on the higher shelves along one wall, along with a hookah collection and dad's "technologically state of the art" stereo with reel to reel system on proud display. The room with these dark shaggy walls was furnished with a black and white houndstooth sofa. The sofa was accented with red, white and black shiny vinyl pillows. (I remember stabbing those pillows with darts from the red/black/white dartboard to hear the "popping" noise one gets when piercing vinyl. I regretted that later in life, as that sofa and those damned pillows became the hand-me-down decor for my first college apartment.)

The room had black and white zebra striped curtains, as well as one furry white chair with chrome feet and one furry black chair with chrome feet. More funky shiny pillows, shades of red and black. Somewhere in the room I also remember a patterned furry flokati, which is basically a big sheepskin. Like the beer signs, brother and I were not really allowed to touch it either, for fear of mysterious flokati disasters, I guess.

The coolest thing about the room, though, was that Dad had a beer cooler, covered in shag carpet to match the walls, serving chilled Coors beer on tap non-stop, whenever desired. (I learned at a young age the advantages to beer on tap and would climb up there and just open the tap into my gullet. Mmm...it's still my preferred way to drink beer.) Then add the chrome and glass table and "accent" wall that was plastered with black computer boards (Dad owned a computer supply business back then) from floor to ceiling, and you had a room that Austin Powers would have felt quite at home in. Groovy or what?

Thinking back on it, of course, all that red and black and shag carpeting just seems horrendously cheesy and charicature-like, but back then it was definitely the epi-center of cool and all my friends were pretty jealous. I mean, who else's Dad was cool enough to have a Star Room with all that awesome electrical and stereo equipment. (Of course none of us EVER snuck drinks of beer, did we Julia?) I need to see if maybe my Dad has a picture of that room somewhere, maybe he can scan it and I can post it....

That's taking the idea of "organic" a bit far.

Today I did some grocery shopping. I have to do it alot. Bread has to be bought daily, it's not like in the US where it comes in pre-cut "stay fresh" loaves. Bread here frequently comes hot and fresh and it's really good. Milk comes in small liter containers. Meat comes in small containers. Ditto salads and yogurt and there are precious few TV Dinners to be had (that are edible). Everything is small and (usually) fresh, and grocery shopping is a daily habit. As is cooking. It's too expensive to go out and there are no drive thrus, so I have become, by necessity, a whiz of a cook.

Chicken is a new thing to Norwegians. Historically, they never really ate chickens, they just used their eggs. The marketing of the chicken in Norway is a bit strange to those of us from the US. They sell the breasts and the wings. That's pretty much it. Wings are very popular here, they like to douse them in this orange flavoring and call them "buffalo wings". You can't get cut up fryers, and a whole chicken is always a disappointment, being small and scrawny. Since it is still a delicacy, it's QUITE expensive, a kilo of chicken breasts being $20. A whole chicken is about $15, and it won't be more than 2 or possibly 3 pounds, if you are lucky. It's taken a bit of getting used to for them, the idea of chicken being a mainstay in the diet. (They still eat whale meat as a favorite protein.) It's been hard for me, this paucity of chicken, as 85% of my recipes begin with "Take 4 chicken breasts..."

Today I saw something that I have never seen before in a grocery store. I saw an organic chicken. But I think they missed something in the translation of how an organic chicken is supposed to be presented. It was a WHOLE CHICKEN. I mean, head, feet, wings, that wiggly thing on it's head, butt, the WHOLE THING. Tightly vaccuum packed in clear plastic.

For a visual....you know at the end of the second (real) Star Wars where Han Solo gets frozen into the metallic brick thing? And his face and hands stick out and he is kind of making a face? Like "OUCH! I"M FROZEN IN A BRICK AND I DON'T LIKE IT!" THat's how the chicken looked. Its feet and head were all cramped and pained looking and it was wrapped in a clear plastic brick and STARING AT ME. It was the most un-appetizing piece of grocery product I have ever seen. Am I supposed to get it home and cut off its little organic clawed feet and its little organic feathered head and remove its little organic innards and feel that I am doing my family a favor by feeding them a hacked-up range-fed pissed-off plastic-wrapped organic chicken?

I bought frozen pizzas and Heinz baked beans instead. The Brits eat beans on toast. I will learn how to do that. The idea of chicken claws and heads and butts being in my garbage gives me the willies. Yeuch.....

I been sayin' this all along!

Yahoo! News - Majority of Americans Now Call Iraq War a Mistake

It's so nice to know others are now saying it too! Let's hope it's another nail in GWB's coffin.

First a kiss......

Amsterdam June 2004.
They struck a pose just for me.
Kissy!

....and then they show you what they got!

Amsterdam June 2004.
A very dark and blurry picture of the Dutch drag queen in his natural habitat. The subject in question is performing a mating ritual known as "the flashing of the Calvins". The woman with the fan is assisting him as the "nut wrangler".
This is the first time this elusive ceremony has been caught on film.
Directly after this photo was taken, the photographer was captured by the natives and force fed beer and mayonnaise french fries until she cried "Uncle!". She then, under severe duress, was made to sing "It's Raining Men" at a karaoke bar. She was let go rather immediately after her performance as her singing skills were found to be lacking, or, as was stated in slang Dutch parlance "Man, that bitch can't sing worth a shit!

Reading in the toilet

Amsterdam June 2004.
Sign on the inside of the toilet cubicle door in a bar. Should be mandatory signage in every bar in the world, as far as I am concerned.

Get your ass in the air, wave it like you just don't care!

Where else but Amsterdam? Upside down aerial trapeze artist in a thong.
(Scary thing is, this picture file is titled "bunghole2" on my computer. I had no idea I already had a file called bunghole!)
Actually this guy was pretty amazing. He has been doing this for about 12 years, he is in his mid to late 50's and he's in great shape. I just wonder about his choice of clothing. Would it kill him to wear briefs?
Posted by Hello

Giving head.....

Amsterdam, 2004.
Heads.

Ok, mine is the black one in the middle......

Amsterdam, June 2004.
Bike parking lot. Note the girl looking perplexedly for her bike.
Also in the background, that large building? It's a three story bike parking garage and it was FULL of bikes.

Brides, Boobs and Bongos.

Amsterdam, June 2004.
A Brazilian wedding procession on the Herrengracht. I could hear the drums coming for blocks, and there were about 150 people following behind the dancers, drummers and happy couple.

Posted by Hello

Strange things happen in Norway

David Bowie got impaled in the eye by a flying lollipop at the Norwegian Wood show here in Oslo this weekend. The Norwegian version of the story has much better details (in Norwegian) and much better pictures

No kittens were harmed in the making of this joke.

I just think this is really funny. No other comment.

J'ma El Fnaa Square, Marrakech, 2004. Is that a snake around my neck or was that guy just really happy to meet me?

Essouira, Morocco. February 2004. A traditional Moroccan water seller, or perhaps David Bowie's doppelganger?

Every damn day I learn something new.....

Two changes to El Bloggo...

1) Anyone can now post a comment. I thought it was a "registered member only" thing, but guess not. Who knew I had options? So make nice and comment any old time you want.

2) This html thing is cool...check out the Random Surrealism Generator link (on the left). It's like poetry for the A.D.D. generation! They let me copy their html and paste it into my blog. Aren't they nice people? They give directions on how to customize the formatting to fit, too. Wow.....look at me taking my first web-page building baby steps!

Austin, Tx, Jan 2004. Alan, Me, Clark, Toya, Craig and Sean. Friends are a good thing.

Beer on the Sognefjord. Skol!

Me Likey Amsterdam

I had a great time in Amsterdam. I did an experimental "solo travel" for that leg of my journey and it worked out great. Just me and my, ahem, backpack,(read "largish bag that has straps on the back posing as a backpack but it also has wheels") checking out the scenery and meeting the locals.

I stayed there from the 5th of June thru the morning of the 9th. I had a great time on all my recent travels (including Frankfurt, Prague, London, Northern Germany, Copenhagen, and places in those vicinities) but Amsterdam was the most fun for me. I guess because I did not know what to expect, and the atmosphere there is just so down to earth and "whatever happens, happens". And somehow safe at the same time. Anything can and will happen there, and everyone just shrugs and says "ok, whatever".

Nekkid man biking down the road?
Whatever.
60 year old guy in a thong and ONLY a thong doing an aerial trapeze act above the cafes in the square?
Whatever.
Brazilian wedding party (150 people) marching to a drum beat down the Herrengracht, dancing women in feather bikinis leading the way?
Yeah, sure, only an average day.
People wearing bright orange jumpsuits, their faces painted orange and feathers in their hair, singing and drinking on every street corner, and dancing with whoever walks by?
Ah, it's a football game tonight!

The Dutch people are a hoot, to a man. Really earthy and funny and surprisingly friendly, though their language does sound like hawking loogies. The street my hotel was on, Prinsengracht, is pronounced Prinsen(hawk) ra (hawk) t. Like if for the "gracht" part you hawked out the "gr" and the "cht". I'll try to say it for you some time. Something about the pronounciation changes the timber of the voice, and everyone has a deeper and somehow more sensible sound to them.

I really liked Amsterdam not for the coffeehouses and the "party atmosphere" but for the sheer beauty of the place and the way history is in every doorstep and around every corner. A perfect 17th century town, it's just so pleasant for walking and there is so much to do on every block. I walked MILES. It was also rather thrillng for me as I had studied Dutch art of the Golden Age in college (with a very sexy blonde female professor who wore very tight pencil skirts and all the guys just LOVED her. I thought, well hell, if Dutch women are this cool, then I wanna be Dutch too!). I was dying to see the Rijksmuseum and where Rembrandt worked. The Rijksmuseum, as it turned out, was under renovation and so had a sort of "Greatest Hits" of Dutch art exhibit going on, but it was still cool. I was just hungry enough that I knew I might not be able to spend hours there, so the short version ended up being perfect, and the design of the exhibit itself did my little decorative painter/stenciler heart proud. It was GORGEOUSLY done.

I also got to see the latest Harry Potter movie in the most GORGEOUS cinema I have ever been in. It's called the Tuschinski. It was excruciatingly beautiful, I almost missed parts of the movie looking at this theatre. But I did really like the movie alot, too. Seen it twice now. If I were 14 I would have a MASSIVE crush on Daniel Radcliffe.

My last night in Amsterdam I decided to go on an escorted walking tour of the Red Light district, thinking that might be safer than going alone. I called and reserved a spot on the walk, and when I showed up it was just me and the tour guide. Her name is Kimberly, an American who has lived there for 18 years and has an apartment in the Red light District. The tour, it turned out, included a beer. So she showed me around, gave me fun facts (Tarrantino wrote "Pulp Fiction" here! Chet Baker died here!") and then we stopped for beer.
A few more facts and another beer (impromptu this time).
Then a couple more buildings, then MORE beer. Hey, bars are part of the tour, aren't they? Gotta get the flavor of the Red Light District, right?
Before I knew it, her gorgeous Dutch friend Derek called her, she told him to join us, and we ended up drinking ALOT more, finally ending at a gay bar in the Red Light District and hanging with the homies. One of whom looked EXACTLY like Stephen Moser (Stephen, did you know you have a Dutch Doppelganger?).
There was a drag show in the bar across the road from where we sat, and the drag-ees came out into the street in their full regalia...mincing about in 18th century garb, like Madonna video wanna be's. They flirted with all the rough looking biker dudes outside that bar, (GOD did I take pictures, which I will post next week). One came over to our side of the road and talked with a friend, who apparently asked him what he wore under his skirt. So he hoiked up his skirt to reveal...tighty whitey Calvin Klein boxer briefs. I was shocked, I thought it would be better than that, something frilly or bloomer-ish, or a sequinned thong. You know, something FABULOUS? In my disappointment and surprise I hollered (unthinkingly) "Oh! That's SO not fabulous!". Everyone in the road heard me and busted out laughing, I was really embarrassed. But the guy good-naturedly came over and flirted with me and flapped his fan at me. Even let me take a Big Head picture. I told him he simply MUST wear unders to match his overs, so next time he promised he will wear black ones or red ones to match his dress. (I am ever the Fashion Co-ordinator. It matters not what your style is, I will help you coordinate yourself, whether you want it or not!) I finally managed to waddle home drunkenly at around midnight. Having missed dinner in all the hilarity, I got some fries ("vlaamse frites aka the National Dutch Drunk Food")on the way home. They are served with mayonnaise. You can get ketchup if you ask, though of course that is SO American. So I did the Dutch thing and ate the mayo-doused fries out of the paper cone (using the tiny little fork provided) while staggering to the tram stop. Apparently I am an honorary Dutch Gay Man now. Good thing I like boys.

Yes I was hungover on the train the next day. But that seemed to be my modus operandi....go out the night before I had to be on the train and get wasted, then hurt on the train. And hurt I did. Ow.