Ramses

75 today!

Dinner and Floor Show

I went to a small restaurant on a canal close to my house. I'd seen it before, passing it on my way to the supermarket, but I'd never eaten there. It's a strange mix of Argentine and Italian food, which really means lots of steak, pizza and pasta. It all started pretty well, some guests already there, but not too many. We got the menu quickly enough, and our food. We wanted pizza, and it tasted very well.

We were seated close to the bar, the centre of operations. Three members of staff were there, a man and two girls. I think one of the girls was quite new as she still had to ask many questions on what to do and where to find things. As the evening wore on the restaurant got more quiet and it felt like the three didn't have that much to do anymore. One of them had her own dinner, the other two dealt with orders coming in over the phone. That was quite a challenge, with the supply of Fanta running out while that appeared to be the favourite for the evening. One of the delivery men came back in, looking for a parcel, but found it incomplete. The staff all claimed to have nothing to do with the order.

We got our coffees on time, but had to wait a while for the apple pie. We saw it coming past a few times, being taken from one end of the restaurant to the other, after the manager had explained they had forgotten about that. Intriguing. Well, it tasted pretty good in the end. And it really was quite funny...

I Went to a Marvellous Party

Sometimes things don't go quite as planned, but that needn't make them less fun. Take last night.

It was a good day yesterday, nice and sunny, a lovely day to be outside. And I was going to be outside in the evening, attending a birthday party at the open air theatre in the Amsterdamse Bos. So it all looked pretty good. I made a tzatziki, got some Turkish bread and I was all ready for it. I was due to leave my house at 18.30, but about half an hour before, it got a little grey outside. And then a little greyer. And a little greyer. When I left there was a slight drizzle, but nothing to worry about, and I got to my friend's house more or less dry. Then as we were packing everything for the picknick it started to rain. So we waited a few minutes, until it seemed to be getting dry again. We got our bikes and cycled down to the park. Somewhere along the way it started to rain again, and it was pretty wet when we got to the theatre. And so were we.

We had to wait for some other guests so we took shelter under the trees. That is where we ended up having our picknick, standing around, waiting for the rain to stop. We drank our prossecco, had Turkish bread with cheese, egg salad and tzatziki, and enjoyed the salads. It took a bit of juggling at times, but it all tasted great. The rain didn't stop, but people did turn up for the performance. And some people left again.


Then it was time for the play to start, and it was still raining. I was wearing my weather-proof gear, so I didn't mind all that much. At least it wasn't cold. We had our dessert in the rain, tiramusa and coffee from proper cups. The actors were on stage deciding whether or not to get on with the show. In the end they decided to go ahead, and they started in the rain. At one point they had to stop the show for about ten minutes because it was just too wet. After that it got much better though, and towards the end of the performance it was dry. It was a good production, and I'm glad we got to see all of it. We cycled home around midnight, still a little damp, but not too bothered. Marvellous party really.