Dispatches from Amsterdam

By Ben Golding

Dispatches from Amsterdam

Thoughts from a weekend of bicycles, canals and the occasional joint.-I brought my camera. Why did I bring my camera, I only ever seem to take it on holidays and accumulate endless photos of food and landscapes.-SCAB IDEA: Write the whole thing in proper stream of conscious.When do I tell them about my James Joyce thing?-There are so many bicycles in this city.-A cup of tea goes so bloody far you wouldn’t believe.-Amsterdam is a strange city of dualities; the Amsterdamians are cultured, smart and friendly, whilst the revelers come to drink and smoke themselves into a stupor and stare at naked women in windows.-I could live here.-The reading list is starting to become daunting, but I’m on target and if I keep shoving these books into my brain, i'll have devoured enough by the start of term to at least blag some part of it.-A whole summer holiday crammed into a weekend away, whose idea was this?-This personal project thing will get sorted, I’m about ¾ of the way through but the filming is now becoming more interesting than the actual project.-The architecture here is haphazard and jostling but in the best possible way.-SCAB IDEA: Present a photo essay.-I need to organize so much; work is going to keep their laptop so that’s another grand at least. Shifting designs up to the last day is running me inside out; I still have to tell some of our clients that I’m leaving and hope they don’t freak out.-The edge of a precipice.-This place relaxes me. Flowing water and balmy weather can calm the most irritable souls.-I look like a bear with a sore head.-London occasionally bleeds in and I find myself muttering obscenities at cycling tourists under my breath.-I miss my cat.