just add limoncello...

...and forget the rest. the NL summer evenings are great for dinner, so some folks from the project I'm on are taking off once/ week to enjoy it while it lasts...

this week was Limon - a tapas place in one of the more expensive parts of town. i was keen to get out, we're in full on training mode at the moment, so busy, stressful...there was a break in the schedule last wednesday...a couple of beers, nice food, surrounded by Belgians and Dutch, not having much idea about what was being said...there were a few aussies there...

i should have stopped at a couple of beers...but it's so easy to keep going with daylight til after 10pm...next stop was an italian place that we've been to a couple of times...and my first experience of limoncello...probably my last...like my photo, things got a bit hazy after that :)

Scheviningen

...yeah, i still can't say it properly either :) It's the beach most easily accessible from Den Haag on the North Sea, or Nord Zee as these Dutch folk say...I've been down there a couple of times, on the right day it's so nice that it seems like half of Holland gets down there. I caught the number 9 tram down there from Centraal, out to Scheviningen along Nieuwe Parkplaan then walked up to Westbroekpark - a massive, beautiful parkland where the other half of Holland comes on a nice day. The tram was crammed full, so was Nieuwe Parkplaan...but it's worth it for the beach and the late evening sunsets over Nord Zee to the west...

BHP Billiton First XI

...working here in the Hague with BHP Billiton, a big mining company with Australian (BHP) and South African (Billiton) roots. they have a team in a local cricket competition played after work in the long Dutch summer evenings once/ week. I met one of the aussies organising in the lifts when I first started here and last night I made my debut. Our team was made up of Aussies and South Africans...and Eric Smuts Senior and Junior...Eric Sn works with me, Eric Jn is his 10 yo son, who's a young star in the making

We played at Voorburg Cricket Club, a really well maintained ground on a perfect evening...despite having 10 players, we got up for a win in a 20 overs/ team format. I added about 16 with the bat before being bowled by a slow, straight one and did pretty well at mid off in the field...

afterwards the other team put on Heinekens and a bit of tucker...brilliant!

jetlag, sleeping in and big splifs

...a really comfortable flight over from Houston to Amsterdam - funny thing about the US, they make a huge fuss about you getting in to the country, but make it exceptionally easy to leave...maybe not so funny really...

5 days after my flight, i'm back in my Dutch groove...last 2 days i've slept in til about 11 - combination of the jet lag and a hectic few weeks of joining the project, getting up to speed with what's going on, delivering training and travelling a quarter of the way round the world...it all caught up with me this weekend...

i went up to a really cool courtyard cafe for coffee yesterday...there were these 2 blokes at the end of my street (Nieuwe Molstraat), both coughing heaps...one moreso than the other, they were passing a huge joint between themselves - middle of a busy street, round midday on a Saturday...up in Amsterdam on Friday night was the same deal - someone pulls out a joint and fires it up. Amsterdam was pumping - it is Pride weekend and the city was really warming up to it...it was my first night out in Amsterdam, definitely not the last - i jumped on the train at Den Haag Holland Spoor, and, half an hour later I was at Schiphol, to meet a friend of a friend I'd made in Mysore...then another train to wander round the city...back home by midnight...then a couple of massive sleep ins...and now...Sunday coffee, followed by some Sunday arvo yoga...then work looks a lot slower for the next couple of weeks...

i'm 1 month into a 3 month contract...no indication yet as to if the contract will be extended - everyone's way too busy to try to meet the go live date = 1 September, it's now August 2, and the project's launch has been delayed twice...when they're spending US$1 million/ day on this thing, delays are quite costly...so busy and stressful...

given all that, i'm not sure where i'll be next, tho the FOF i met in Amsterdam said Diwali is on in India in October...and our German manager is suggesting Oktoberfest as a celebration for getting through our work...could be a very good couple of months :)