Dutch, Work, Metal, Rent.

Speed blogging here as I sit in a cafe with laptop battery draining dangerously fast at an already frighteningly low level.

ACERS.

Yeah I had it plugged in earlier but this man has asked to use the plug and I said it was fine because my laptop was almost full. That was hours ago. His must be charged by now, but then, I paid for my drinks a long time ago, so in all senses it's time to move on. And then, just before packing up, I immediately chose to write a blog post. hashtagwhatamilike?

My life the past week and a half has been work. I got a part time job, so I'm working full time and by that I mean all the time. 4 days in on the job and every other waitress is away for various reasons. It was full on. Tiring. Double shifts. Eczema city on my hands. However some of the girls are back now and I'm back to part time. Living the dream. This was the dream, first couple of months in The Netherlands I wanted to get a job where I have time to explore and learn more about the city, then learn some actual Dutch. Goededag!

You can get a job in a cafe/restaurant/fast food chain I think quite easily, in the city centre especially when speaking only English. However they really want to encourage a greater use of Dutch, so to climb any career ladder a knowledge of the language is a necessity. Which is a good thing, it's driving my learning. my reading of this bad boy:

He gets to go everywhere with me. Everywhere.

The other day while walking to work (my chain had fallen off my bike) I decided to walk and read. Read Hugo's Dutch in three months book. Being so used to my normal cycle to work it was only after being tooted at by mopeds I realised I was walking on the cycle path while reading. hashtagwhatanuttern00b

I wish I had more exciting stories for you all. But I have been working so much I literally have been dreaming about stacking saucers. To give you an idea I had work shifts that go like this:

Saturday: 11 hours
Sunday: 6 hours
Monday: 9 and a half hours
Tuesday: 9 and a half  hours
Wednesday: 8 hours
Thursday: 9 hours

So I've been doing a lot of working, then sleeping. Although Hayden and I started watching Orange Is The New Black. I had forgotten how good it is to get a brand new, juicy series to get your teeth into. Also we're savouring the programme, watching one episode every few days. That feels like a practice of the past, archaic viewing with such strong self (the opposite of the following word) indulgence.

I think I need to get my brain back into writing again. And by writing I mean general thinking. It is funny how being tired knocks you to silly.


Battery too low. Have to find another cafe to plug into power source.

I am now blogging to you from my second home in Amsterdam... I give to you:

Beautiful...  heel mooi

Yes, thanks to Hayden I found a metal pub in Amsterdam. Pretty sure at the moment this is the only metal pub in Amsterdam, and I hope to be proved wrong on that. Not because there's anything lacking here. Just because I really like the idea of a thriving metal community. To be honest, on the surface I haven't encountered that much metal. But time and enthusiasm will tell. Metallica's Through The Never is premiering here tomorrow. When I find out my shifts I'll hopefully be able to book to go to a viewing. I'm really hoping Lars and Kirk are going to come to Amsterdam as part of their Europe tour but I've found no information so far.

More on Excalibur. It is awesome. I was just busy cycling to a different cafe to find a plug and a cup of tea when I heard Megadeth's 'Symphony of Destruction' so I locked up my bike and headed  straight in. Right now we have ACDCs 'T.N.T' playing. It's the happiest drinking hole in the city.


Look at the decor:

Yes that is a dragon. Yes you can buy a tshirt.

It's also just so refreshing to sit somewhere and have a constant stream of good metal in your ears.

I should have said, in actuality, when cycling from the first cafe I was looking for ABN Amro bank to set up a bank account. The Netherlands is very strict. We all have this super relaxed image of the country, yeah a lot of that is true, lots of people are laid back, friendly, lenient laws on various past times.

But when it comes to being a Dutch citizen, you have to register, have to (by law) get your own health care insurance, can only set up a bank account with your citizen number and work contract. Perhaps this is mandatory everywhere and it's just the first time I've encountered it, but yeah, it feels like the hoops of bureaucracy are before me and I must jump. Or, like in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone for PlayStation one, fly through.

For once, I decided to give an image for my reference.
Not because it's necessary, but because I like the way
the health is shown in his lighting bolt scar.
SPOILERS: Basically Voldy's health.
Didn't think that one through did you PlayStation?

Almost a year ago, I was sitting at Cara's editing one of Maddrim's many Halloween films (they will be released... one day) and she put RENT on. I didn't really want to watch it I had heard it was sad and I wasn't interested in such a film. Also, side note, at the time, I had no idea Team America's 'Lease' was a parody; boy was that an eye opener on the background of that joke. I just thought they had gone to town with jokes on aids. To be brutally honest, I only realised last month, that that was a parody on Rent.

For anyone who doesn't know Rent  "is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson^[1] based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème." Thanks Wikipedia. 

However, as Cara and Joe watched the film and I started to procrastinate from editing I was drawn into the operatic rock beats of their 90s New York. I began my infatuation with Rent.

The more I watch it/listen to the songs on Aly's spotify the more I love it. It's really great, the whole bohemian life, although inflicted with disease/poverty/inability to write one glorious song. I said to Cara we should move to New York and live a similar lifestyle (without all the bad bits, I hope). 

Now Hayden and I are in Amsterdam, a city of laid back lifestyles and plenty of jazz, and I am craving...

WAIT. QUICK NOTE:

Megadeth's 'Symphony Of Destruction' is on again. I think this must be their Wednesday afternoon playlist on repeat. Can't wait for some more Turbonegro's 'All My Friends Are Dead' again.







Back to Rent:







Craving some structure, is structure the right word? Maybe I need more time off work to think. But yes, I can't wait to have a Dutch bank account, I can't wait to have health insurance. Coming here I've realised I'm the type of person who likes to have work, accounts, to be settled. I'd be a terrible bohemian. I suppose there's always Joanne, she's a lawyer.

I think this is a conclusion now, this blog has been everywhere, if this blog post were a buzzfeed post there would be no classification, well, perhaps WTF.


To give you a conclusion: I am happy to be registered and on my way to settling in officially and now, with less shifts and that means I can party more. I got both worlds. Thanks Hannah Montana, all my wishes Miley Cyrus. You'll get back to the best in no time.

I'm a waitress

Thanks to:
www.ica.org.uk 
www.holisticpage.com.au
rentheadsunite.tumblr.com
rentconfessions.tumblr.com
www.telegraph.co.uk
blood-diaries.tumblr.com
Wikipedia (always)

You don't know the pain of building a robot with Christopher Walken...

....Is probably the best piece of artwork I have ever seen on the internet. Nay, it is the best.
(There is a secret message in this blog. See if you can find it)

Thank you Brandon Bird for painting this in 2004. Online image source: http://laughingsquid.com/

After working with paint to create my collage in my last blog I was reminded about the days and nights I spent on that programe working on masterpieces. Recently I have been staying in town because of the bad weather. This one is called Bawbags: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bawbag
I myself would have called it Skunkydoo the Sequel.

So, while at my brothers we thought this would be a good time to write Christmas cards to all our Dutch relations. Instead we played on paint and made gifs.

This blog isn't going to be very long. I just want to you show you all the pretty things we made.

It all began with a story. Oh, I should give you some context:

When I was 11.

When I was 11 I was really into the Harry Potter books, well I still am
(for further information read: http://marjoleinrobertson.blogspot.com/2011/09/11-years-old.html hmmmm, where have I seen this linked before? How about HERE: http://marjoleinrobertson.blogspot.com/2011/12/winter-is-coming.html I push, I push.)
 It was about that time they started working on the films too. I wanted to be Hermione. I spent much time and effort writing a letter to the Studios asking to play her, and every other female character in the books, ever.

The list of characters I could play was something like this:
Hermione Granger
Lavender Brown
Hannah Abbott
Ginny Weasley
Angelina Johnson
Padma Patil
Parvati Patil
Katie Bell
Mrs Weasley (and I'm not even ginger)

So I thought I'd be helpful and include my details in the letter: hair colour (but I'd happily dye that) eye colour (I'm comfortable with contacts) height (for costume) and head circumference (for my witches hat). It was at that last one where my brother couldn't read my letter anymore for laughing. But I'd written it in pen, didn't have Tipex and knew I should send it straight away (because they had already cast Hermione. Wha)

So anyway, the rest of the story isn't as interesting, but someone at work had to measure their head circumference, by now I have been conditioned to believe that is a ridiculous practice. And I had to bite my hand not to laugh. Somewhere between acting out the story and recreating my pose on paint we decided to draw it on paint. I can't remember how. But I'll skip the image. Now one is drawn by me and the other by Dirk.

Which one is more like me?

The idea of the competition was to represent someone, but you're not allowed to delete any mistakes.
(I drew the one with the nosebleed)

Next we drew Drik:

(Secret message: This blog was actually written on Thursday 8th.)

His pose was from a story at work when his boss fell over. As you may have guessed by our choice of tool Dirk's is the thick pen.We swapped them around to keep  you on your toes. SUPRISE.

Then we made gifs. Are they working? Maybe not. If you want to view them, and more, and some still scans of drawings Dirk made (and stole) go here: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/dirkhead/

I'm sorry for this blog.

11 years old

by Marjolein Robertson on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 5:58pm

Yes. 11. We've all been there, unless you are 10 and under and then why are you on facebook? Why?


But yea, being 11. I don't know what you were into then but I'm going to presume most of you were massive Harry Potter geeks and were all patiently waiting on your owl from Albus. And I bet most of you too hoped that secretly you were at least half witch/wizard, your parents just decided not to let you in the know until it was time to head down to Diog-A and see Ollivander for your wand and then learn to use your (force) magic responsibly under the watchful eyes of the Hogwarts professors.

Yea I waited for that letter. And then when September arrived (by this time I was 11 and 4 months) I ran out my house, up the hill, and shouted to the heavens (pretty fitting because seeing as this was now 2000 that is where old Alby was by then residing) "I'M READY DUMBLEDORE, I'M READY TO GO TO HOGWARTS AND BECOME A WITCH!"
I bet you all did that too.


But that's not what being 11 is all about. No it is not.

Another wish I had, I prayed for, albeit, a little less realistic, was to leave home with a rucksack on my back full of empty Pokéballs and the ambition to become the world's greatest POKÉMON MASTER!
Achievable.

I really hoped by then they would have harnessed technology with the ability to capture and store animals electronically, cocooning them until it was time to release them purely to fight the opponent. I already had a little menagerie of three able bodied animals, lucky pets. The ultimate dream of course to head over to Japan and step into Pallet Town and realise, in a wash of grey scale and 2-D vision that this was what life was.

The premise of the game is actually as crazy as many other Nintendo story lines. Think of Mario, a plumber who on getting sucked into the pipes he's trying to fix ends up in a world of evil turtles and dinosaurs who keep stealing the Mushroom Kingdom's Princess, who is luckily a babe, otherwise it'd be pretty awkward when you FINALLY get to the right castle to bag her yourself and you discover she's a mushroom.

Yea now think of Pokémon - at the age of 11 any kid who wants to can leave home and travel from town to town, sleeping rough, capturing wild animals, training them, making them fight and hopefully earning some cash in the process.
That shit is messed up. And that shit is what I wanted to embark on when I was 11.