Duke Of Edinburgh

I was home for one day on Wednesday two weeks ago (it took me a while to get round to finishing this blog entry) to finally collect my Duke Of Edinburgh award.

I was kind of shattered from going out a bit too much earlier in the week and was hoping for a bit of a lie in when I got home. But it turned out my presentation was at 11am so there wasn't much chance of that. In fact we had to be at the palace at 10 something or other to give them time to get us all ready for the presentation at 11. So at 9 my sister and I left the house to make our way to St. James' Palace. We managed to get there before the set time and got in the red London queue (there were different queues depending on which part of the country you were from). As we made our way into the palace it was all quite weird. I'm not very comfortable when things are really formal and it was obviously very formal in the palace. It was strange seeing what seemed to be palace servants around the place, something I find very alien, especially in this day and age. And we were told to go from room to room, pointed the way by various staff members stationed at doorways. It all seemed a bit of a maze. The palace was grand with all sorts of castle like decorations (ie. lots of gold and old paintings). We ended up in the throne room (thats where the London group presentation was). The London group was also the first group to be presented to. We had to wait quite a while with those getting the awards on one side and our guests on the other. I spent that time talking to the people sitting next to me who were friendly (one of whom was expressing his desire to become an escort).

Eventually the Duke of Edinburgh arrived and we had to stand in a semi circle shaped group. He came and asked us questions about what we did to get our awards before asking questions to our guests. He came across as quite friendly and fun (which surprised me as I was expecting him to be a bit of an old fuddy duddy type) and he didn't make any politically incorrect comments as he seems to be known for.

After he'd left for the next room we were presented with our awards by the author Anthony Horowitz. When I was younger and actually finished the books I started reading I loved Anthony Horowitz books and considered him my favourite author so it was pretty cool to meet him. He asked a couple of questions such as what and where I studied and whether I was enjoying it.

After that we were free to go, though it took quite a while to get out as we had to wait for the other rooms to finish their presentations before we could walk through them to get to the exit.

Once we'd left we went to Misato to eat which was nice, even if there was a large queue and the 'waitresses' told us to get our own water when we asked for some. How I miss Chinatown. I stocked up on pork and chicken buns (which unfortunately I have now run out of). Then we went back home, tired but satisfied.

Mucha

I've been doing a bit of drawing around christmas and since i've been back. Its mainly been me copying Mucha paintings/posters. So I thought i'd put a couple on here:

Wha da ya want!?

It seems my French flatmates have just discovered the joys of a Yorkshire accent or should that be I have just discovered the joys of their attempts at a Yorkshire accent. While I was cooking some noodles in our kitchen they were sitting together eating their meal and conversing. The conversation seemed to have more than its fair share of the phrases 'ma love' and my personal favourite 'Wha da ya want!?' I was informed by these flatmates that this is how Yorkshire folk speak. I have come to the conclusion that my french flatmates are brilliant.

Amsterdam Hitch - Amsterdam!

Amsterdam is an interesting city. Its not classically beautiful in the sense of places like Prague or Česky Krumlov but it has a quirky beauty with its tall, thin houses and their large windows and the canals running through it. And there was a really nice friendly atmosphere about the place. Its also quite surreal. Walking through the Red Light District (which we were staying just by) I would see the prostitutes in the windows through the corner of my eye and, forgetting I was in Amsterdam, assume it was mannequins in shop windows. But then i'd look over and realise they are actually women trying to entice men in. I have to say we had a lot of fun walking up and down the many streets and alleyways of the Red Light District looking and laughing at all the prostitutes and their attempts to tempt men in. One of my friends got freaked out at one point by a scary prostitute giving her an even scarier face as she walked through the thin side street, as if to say 'this is my turf, how dare you venture into it!' We saw many museums (not just the sex museum or cannibis museum, there was an interesting one to do with Holland's colonial history and the history of beads though i'm not fully sure how the two things linked together). In fact I went to more museums in Amsterdam than i've been to in years. And I got to go to the Anne Frank House which I really wanted to see and was glad I went to despite the long queue to get in.

The weather in Amsterdam wasn't too bad whilst we were there, in fact we had good weather for the whole of the hike/time in Amsterdam/journey back. It rained quite a bit and hailed at one point heavily but, being a fan of rain, I don't count that as bad weather. In fact I felt it added to Amsterdam's charm.

Another thing that got me about Amsterdam is the amount of bikes everywhere. Obviously you hear about bikes being a major form of transport in the Netherlands but its still weird seeing it. I kept almost getting run over by cyclists as they have priority and expect you to get out of the way of them rather than manoeuvering around you. So whenever i'd hear the bicycle bell ringing at me (with the cyclist coming up behind me) i'd forget to get out of the way as i'm not used to hearing bicycle bells.

We stayed with a really nice family. They were extremely friendly and even took us out one evening to 'the best chinese restaurant in Amsterdam'. Whenever I've gone to a chinese restaurant in another country I've usually found it disappointing (with the exception being Malaysia). However I was pleasantly surprised. It reminded me of the chinese restaurants I go to back home and, having not been out to a good chinese since the christmas holidays, I scoffed the food down, enjoying it immensely.

I finally got my coat back after leaving it once again in Prague (I think this was the 4th time i've done that in the last year and a half). I met up with my friend who i'd gone to visit in Prague just before christmas. Luckily she'd brought my coat with her when she'd returned to Holland. We had a nice dinner together, catching up and reminiscing on the Dobruška days.

I'm writing this blog entry almost two weeks after going so i'm sure i've left a lot of stuff out. But I have to say I really enjoyed my time in Amsterdam. Its the surrealest place i've been to in Europe but definately in a good way. I've also discovered that I am now jealous of my coat since not only did it go to Holland before me but it also had almost 2 months there whereas I only got 3 days.