Amsterdam: A Photo Journey: Thursday Thirteen... Attempt 7

Thirteen photos from My trip to Amsterdam I just bought a scanner, I've been meaning to do that for quite a long time, since I'm really lazy it took this long. Anyway I wanted to scan some pictures. As I was going through my album I decided to do a photologue of my Amsterdam trip in 2004. I just love that city, it was tough to stick to 13 but I had to as this Thursday 13 not 130. So I picked some of my favorites. We were a group of around 10 friends and to say that we had a ball would be an understatement 1. Dam Square is the physical center of the city and embodies the essence of Amsterdam. You can sit for hours and watch, there are people walking, cycles, trams, buses, cars and taxis on the same road which is hundreds of years old. 2. The Royal Palace on Dam Square. Jacob van Campen designed this building as a city hall, which it was until 1808, when Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte ruled Holland for 5 years. He thought the building fit for a king, and ever since this has been the official palace for the reigning queen or king of the Netherlands. 3. Leidseplein is a small square, with numerous bars and and street performers; everything from jugglers and fire-eaters to percussionists, mime players and clowns. If you look at the street lamp you'll see one acrobat 4. Rembrandtplien, which at night becomes quite the hotspot! 5. At Vondelpark which is the largest park of the city, close to the Leidseplein and the big museums. Filled with people, both visitors and locals. It's really beautiful 6. Getting on one of the trams that takes you from one part of the city to another. They are adorable. 7. Sitting outside the Van Gogh museum - that was such a trip. One of my dreams come true. Unfortunately the 250-room Rijksmuseum,[the one in the background], which contains a handful of exquisite Vermeers and one of the best Rembrandt collections in the world, was closed for renovation:( 8. Enjoying a cold beer 9. I think this is Jordaan - an easygoing and peaceful area, with lots of bars, restaurants and interesting little shops. 10. The canals are one of the major attractions of the 'Venice of the North'. They look so pretty and at night when the lights are on and the bridges are illuminated, the entire place looks enchanted. The four main city center canals are Prinsengracht, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Singel, and of course there are numerous smaller canals. 11. Don't remember where this is - just remember that I had gone shopping . 12. We ate a lot - it was fun sitting and watching people pass by! 13. This was the Dance Valley - a dance festival attended by around 40-50000 people. It's hardcore fun! (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) 1. Finding Life's Enchantments 2. Echoes of Grace

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Fun Posts by Friends: Thursday Thirteen... Attempt 6

Thirteen Fun Posts [June] I missed some posts in June as I was with dad, anyway for this post I thought I'd go over June archives - and chose these posts by friends on my blogroll! [... in random order] 1. Thing-a-fy by Paisley I can’t say i really ever expected that perhaps the most profound statement i have ever heard would come out of the unsuspecting mouth of my boss, while we engaged in ordinary conversation yesterday at work… read more 2. My Grandmother's Home by Michelle [Komabi + Crow's Feet] All my childhood lies in my grandmother's house. No matter where I am or what I remember, my mind takes me back to that house. It was, as I have said, the centre of the wheel for our entire ... read more 3. Choosing to Write Changes Everything by Greg [Greg's Writing Blog] You choose to write today and it's exciting. You'll be rich and famous in a year, maybe two. And it's not so much about the money because you have something important to say and you love words and everyone tells you how great you write...read more 4. Tug of War by Adam [old things under the sun] What a funny name. It could be a hand-job that you get when you are on R&R, or that feeling that young people get when they think about joining the Army. Of course the other tug-of-war...read more 5. Speaking in tongues the one and only Domestic Minx You have no doubt gleaned from these rather rude and rampant pages, dear reader, that my tongue has oft been tied when it comes to saying no to the demon drink... read more 6. The Hair-Removal Exercise by The Real Mother Hen I went to bed at 7pm last night because I had a stinking headache. This morning I woke up at 7am and had an awful backache...read more 7. The Open Paths of The Sky by Mark [tobeme] Yesterday when the captain of the plane announced to please fasten our seat belts for we were about to make our decent into the airport in Minneapolis/St Paul, I put my book down and peered out the window...read more 8. The Outsider by Meleah Rebeccah 5 years ago, at the age of 27, I made the decision to undergo a complete change. I went from ‘bartending’ (amongst other things) and working nights in a smoke...read more 9. Roaming in Rome by Blurting I’ve learned so much through my travels but there is one lesson that I will never forget. Two years ago, I stepped out of the train station in Rome and started walking down one of the many lanes...read more 10. Good Things by HollyGL I used to visit my "Grammy" in Kansas every summer when I was a kid. I would fly from Florida to Amarillo, TX and Grammy would be there to... read more 11. The Dandelion Tree... The Prologue The sun exposed the beach in its glare. Holidaymakers mixed with locals, flesh tanned, children played, waves swam away as the tide receded. With worries left in cars reaching boiling point, carefree days rolled over the cliffs to give a lightness...read more 12. Politically Incorrect by TwistedSister... totally pissed off! I grew up in a home with a developmentally delayed, epileptic sister. One word that was absolutely taboo at our house was "retarded." It was as bad or worse than any curse word to my parents and it was not to be tolerated. Our parents taught us...read more 13. A study in blog types by Bobby I was enjoying another evening of blogger watching and accidentally read one which is bad luck on Fridays (21 years of bad luck). I was overtaken by a psychic vision - I can’t predict when my ability to see beyond ... read more Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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About books: Thursday Thirteen...attempt #5

Books I have re-read in the last 6 months These are some of the books in my library that I have recently re-read and thought I'd recommend...I read a lot and I feel about my books, especially the ones I have enjoyed and learned from... like mothers feel about their kids and to choose from amongst them is very tough. So I thought I'd make my job easier and simply narrow the choice to the books I have re-read recently! This list doesn't imply that the books not listed here are ones I like any less.... 1. Mister. God, This is Anna by Fynn I could never do this book justice with any review that I could ever write... so even though I am contradicting what I've said earlier about choosing favorites... this book is one I love passionately. It's the story of 19-year old "Fynn" who finds Anna, a mischievous yet wise five and a half year old runaway. It's the story of the time he spent with Anna a very personal account of her outpourings on life. I'll just insert an excerpt EXCERPT: Over the last few months, it had begun to dawn on me that Anna's real concern had very little to do with properties. Properties had the rather stupid habit of waiting upon circumstances. Water was liquid, except that is, if it was ice or steam. Then the properties were different. The properties of dough were different to the properties of dough or bread. It depended on the circumstances of the baking. Not for one moment would Anna have consigned properties to the dustbin. Properties were very useful, but since properties depended on circumstances, the roadway in pursuit of properties was unending. No, the proper thing to pursue was functions. Being outside Mister God and measuring him gave you properties, seemingly an unending list. The particular choice of properties that you made produced that particular kind of religion that you subscribed to. On the other hand, being inside Mister God gave you the function; and then we were all the same: no different churches, no temples, no mosques etc. We were all the same. 2. My Family and other Animals by Gerald Durrell This is a lovely book that you'll read & re read. It's soaked in the sunshine of Corfu & is a detailed account of the author & his eccentric family, their unusual friends & their hilarious yet endearing experiences on this beautiful Greek island 3. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel Winner of the Man booker prize this book is the amazing adventure of the son of a zookeeper, stranded in the middle of the pacific in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, a 450-pound tiger. Storytelling at its very best 4. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway I love the way he writes and invites you into his world...making you wish you were part of that magical world, soon disappearing. "This is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy," he concludes. I didn't want the book to end as that would mean leaving the world he so beautifully captured within his words 5. The Myth of Sisyphus and other Essays by Albert Camus Sisyphus was a Greek hero who was punished by the Gods to ceaselessly roll a rock up a slope and just when he had reached the top after hours and hours of labor the rock would slide down. Imagine pushing up a heavy rock knowing that as soon as you got to the top it would roll down and you would have to start pushing it all over again. And you will have to do this over and over. Camus relates this to the struggle we face in life but what makes this struggle different is the hero's total acceptance of his fate, his rebellion of his very fate. The central conclusion is that just because life is meaningless does not mean that it is bad. The collection of stories published as Le Mythe de Sisyphe in 1942 was the second of the absurds. [From Amazon] "The work has been cited by critics as refined and carefully crafted. The collection stands as more literature than philosophy. Camus spent at least five years writing and editing the work. The polish is clear with the very first sentence: "There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." 6. The Wall & other stories by Sartre Containing 4 other stories, ‘The Room’, Erostratus’, ‘Intimacy’ and ‘The Childhood of A Leader’, this is another of my books that I rediscover regularly and always take away something different from. Speaking of ‘The Wall’... I love the story because it lays bare how we feel about life - hours before we are about to loose it. It’s so easy to romanticize death but when it’s breathing down your neck… you literally piss in your pants. 7. Blood Sucking Fiends by Christopher Moore [Review taken from his site] Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching neck, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her. Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that’s where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) is biding his time night clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door ... and proceeds to rock Tommy’s life -- and afterlife -- in ways he never imagined possible. 8. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time by Mark Haddon This amazing debut novel is written from the perspective of an autistic boy trying to find out who killed the neighbor's dog. It takes us into his life & how he processes information & how he sees the world. It’s a journey into the other side. 9. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri Jhumpa Lahiri's extraordinary, Pulitzer Prize-winning debut collection of stories is a bouquet of stories that offers snapshots of life... traveling from India to New England and back again. In these stories she sketches the tumultuous journey and the feeling of displacement and settling into a culture that is so different from yours that it almost feels alien. It's about love and the strength it gives to cross hurdles of nations, cultures, religions, and generations. 10. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel "In a style that is epic in scope yet intensely personal in focus, Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate tells the story of Tita De La Garza, the youngest daughter in a family living in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. Through twelve chapters, each marked as a "monthly installment" and thus labeled with the months of the year, we learn of Tita's struggle to pursue true love and claim her independence. Each installment features a recipe to begin each chapter." 11. Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham I don’t think I’ve read an author who is so eloquent in his simplicity. I love this book because it’s frighteningly real…imagine falling in love with someone who’s flaws you are so clearly aware of and they are flaws that go against the very grain of your personality. This semi-autobiographical novel explores obsession - it’s the story of a crippled doctor's destructive and compulsive passion for a coarse waitress who ridicules him every opportunity she can get. After she finally leaves him, he finds a comfortable love with a novelist. When Mildred returns, will he take her back? What sort of misery and pain await him if he does? Why do humans allow themselves to be bound to another in this way? 12. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck This is another of my all-time favorites. I am fascinated by China and its history so love reading about it. I remember when I had first read this book years ago I had said about it…’ a story in every line. And I still stand by that review 13. One Hundred Years Of Solitude Like the book before I first read this book years ago and fell in love with it…. The imagery in my head was so vivid it was unbelievable. Weirdly enough when I read it again years later I realized how much we let our rationality get in the way of our imagination and somehow loose that picture sharp imagination. Nevertheless it's a book I revisit ever so often. “One Hundred Years of Solitude chronicles, through the course of a century, life in Macondo and the lives of six Buendia generations-from Jose Arcadio and Ursula, through their son, Colonel Aureliano Buendia (who commands numerous revolutions and fathers eighteen additional Aurelianos), through three additional Jose Arcadios, through Remedios the Beauty and Renata Remedios, to the final Aureliano, child of an incestuous union. As babies are born and the world's "great inventions" are introduced into Macondo, the village grows and becomes more and more subject to the workings of the outside world, to its politics and progress, and to history itself. And the Buendias and their fellow Macondons advance in years, experience, and wealth . . . until madness, corruption, and death enter their homes” Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Silly Jokes: Thursday Thirteen...attempt # 4

Thirteen of the corniest jokes possible So I was debating whether I should list 13 of my favourite books or go in a totally opposite direction and list 13 jokes for 6-year olds. And the silly side won...they are childish but make me laugh...highlight to see more clearly... Warning: The matter below is seriously corny and childish...read at your own peril 1. What did one eye say to the other? Between you and me, something smells! 2. What did the tie say to the hat? You go on a head, I will just hang around! 3. What did the ghost say to the invisible man? Long time no see! 4. What did the doctor say to the man who complained he was shrinking? You will just have to be a little patient! 5. What did the math book say to the history book? Boy, do I have problems! 6. What did the cherry tree say to the farmer? Quit picking on me! 7. Why did Cinderella's coach sit her on the bench Because she ran away from the ball! 8. When is a car not a car? When it turns into a driveway! 9. Why did the farmer bury all his money in his fields? He wanted rich soil 10. What do you get when you cross SpongeBob with Albert Einstein? SpongeBob Smartypants 11. What did the banana do when it heard the ice scream? It split 12. Why does Oklahoma need a telescope? To see what Arkansas! 13. Why did the cookie go to the doctor? Because it was feeling crummy Links to other Thursday Thirteens! (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) 1. Titania Starlight


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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Happy Moments: Thursday Thirteen...attempt # 3

Thirteen Happy Moments had in the past year [at least the ones I have pictures of] Have to admit I stole the idea from Empress Bee [please don't have me beheaded.. my only sin was a brain 'less' of ideas] 1. Hubby's Birthday [May 15, 2007] 2. This was a seriously amazing cake & looked beautiful too.. with fruits sprinkled with golden dust 3. Sweets for my sweet 4. My 3 loves 5. Aby & I at his mom's house on our last visit 6. The ultimate thrill of all times... 7. My best friend [at some birthday] 8. Aby & I chillin' [thats the Burj-Al-Arab in the background] 9. At Cirque Du Soliel - they performed in Dubai recently. 10. Posin' away with my uber cool mom-in-law [that was a happy happy day] 11. At a rocking party 12. At 360 [a cool bar on top of a hotels roof] 13. Mall of Emirates [they keep having random stuff - its fun to watch] Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Socially Retarded: Thursday Thirteen...attempt #2

Thirteen Reasons Why I Think I Might Be Socially Retarded :( 1. It's easier for me to connect to people on a mental plane here on planet blog rather than in daily life. Sad but true. 2. I actually 'dread' making plans on the phone and beg my husband to do it. Not exaggerating 3. I'd rather read a good book or be on my computer than go out with people [except going dancing...I just love dancing - you don't have to be very socially accomplished to do that] 4. The problem is that when I put my mind to it I can be quite great at being the life of the party even, but the pleasure/pain trade-off doesn't make it worth the effort. 5. At times, if there's the biggest shoe around I will find it to put in my mouth. Sometimes I don't think before I talk - for example I actually called someone else a social retard on their face once [I had called myself one too, but still] not even thinking that they may not like it. I honestly thought it was a compliment and was made to realize later that it was stupid! It doesn't happen very often but when it does its bad! 6. I am argumentative and like to have the last word - and sometimes get carried away in the heat of the conversation. Can end up being extremely sarcastic. [Characteristic - Under renovation/repair] 7. My MBA has made my social degeneration truly complete. Full circle here! 8. I'm very honest - and at the same time I don't like hurting people's feelings so the best alternative is not to meet many people 9. I have been spoiled by the fact that I have 4 best friends since childhood - and everyone else pales in comparison to them plus I don't like to gossip - except maybe with them. Unfortunately we all live thousands of miles apart :( 10. I hate the concept of networking - its seems to me like one is using people. I find that very distasteful. If someone doesn't interest me I don't see the point of hanging out just for the sake of having a 'big' social group. 11. I look very different from what I feel - so people end up think I'm some cute silly girl [the fact that I used to be a host for some entertainment kind of show on Tv doesn't help -I'm labeled & stereotyped] that annoys me terribly and so I act even more stupid then they think I am 12. I'm making this list - what does that say... 13. I think that maybe I like to take cover in calling myself socially retarded, I am actually an abnormally lazy bum Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Murphy's Laws: Thursday Thirteen...attempt #1

Thirteen of my favourite Murphy's Laws & their Coralleries [things I identify with or relate to, in order of preference and significance to me] 1. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished 2. The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet. 3. When reviewing your notes before an exam, the most important ones will be illegible. 4. The more studying you did for the exam, the less sure you are as to which answer they want 5. Everything you like is bad for you. 6. The Psychological Prognosis: Love is a form of temporary insanity curable only by marriage. 7. The Rat Race: If there's one rat in a room full of nice men, he'll hit on you first. 8. Every recipe ever written includes one ingredient that you do not have in your kitchen. If you attempt to go buy this ingredient, you will realize you are missing another one. 9. A dropped nut will seek the least level of accessibility. 10. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. 11. If the facts do not confirm the theory, they must be disposed of. 12. To err is human, to forgive is not company policy. 13. Machines that have broken down will work perfectly when the repairman arrives. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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