Louise Playford loves living lastminute.com

Here's the entry for the lastminute.com entry I talked about earlier - there's some pics of London and Amsterdam... it's hard to pick favourites when both places are just so beautiful!

I really owe this page an update- it's just been so crazy busy hectic fun! Planning on making (a lot of) time for a (gigantic) photographic post this week!

:)

A very quick post...

Here is my very quick post to share with you a video I've made to enter a competition from lastminute.com...!

It shows some of the adventures I've had recently, mainly showing how bad I am at film making, it took me 6 hours to prepare a 60second film of photos! I probably should practice more!

http://youtu.be/lNBQpvQX660

Please go watch! :)

I have had a crazy amazing week which means I need to make some time to write about it up here, but at the moment I have to rush off - Sinterklaas is coming to town!!!

Louise  :)

Whoa, time flies...!

So, I'm now over 2 months in!

It's been absolutely brilliant so far!

Since I last wrote there's been quite a few weekends spent in the 'Dam and lots of evenings out!

Key things I've done/seen or that have happened:

• Edna, my first bike, got stolen. I now have Norman. Norman's tire burst on the first day I got him, but now he's ok (not taken any pictures so far...)

• MuseumNacht - a night when all the museums are open til 2am, with DJs, drinks and LOADS of activities, and strange things - like eating grasshoppers with chocolate... We went to 5 museums/places including: Nemo (the green building), the Ship Museum (the white building), saw some zombies and a glitter ball in foliage at De Hortus Botanicus (drinks and DJs too), a thousnad candles lit in the Portuguese Synagogue, and FOAM, a photography museum where there were silent disco, art installations etc.

• Lots of meals out, including: tapas, Mediterranean tapas, Italian tapas, katsu curry cooked by a Japanese expat, traditional Dutch food, Indonesian food, Vlemisch Frites and much much more! Some meals out have been a bit of an adventure, as there may be a reason why the Dutch are not famed for their food.....!

• Nights out, including in De Pijp, the Jordaan, Leidseplein and various other places! Lots of bars are tiny, or you stand outside under heaters! Also been clubbing with visitors from home, other expats and Dutch people too! This weekend have the MTV EMA awards to go to on the Sunday, and on Saturday going to see Nicky Romero at Club Air. 

• Museums: Other than museumnacht I've been to quite a few museums, for instance the Amsterdam Museum (opposite my house) and the newly opened Rijksmuseum. A museum of an old (apparently was very famous) brothel has opened up down my road, which we're planning on going to have a look round, and I still need to revisit some of the Dutch classic museums such as Anne Frank Huis and Van Gogh.

• My favourite place I've found at the moment, as it's so peaceful (if you manage to find some time without a bus load of tourists going through it) is the Begijnhof. It's better explained here, but is worth popping in to see, if you can find the doors to it! 

• I completed my first run in Holland - Run for the Hunger Project, which started and finished at the Olympic Stadium! I came 89 out of about 155 women so I was pretty happy! Out of the whole competition I was about 323....doesn't sound quite as good! It was a really good event, with free beer, ben and jerry's and food, which was quite ironic considering it was a run for hunger....

• I've also been to the cinema quite a bit, especially when raining as me and a few other expats have the pathe unlimited card which means you can go to any film, whenever you want! (Except for if you get to the cinema 10 mins after the film's published start time, which we all know is STILL when the adverts are on, and they don't let you in!)

• Erm, I'm sure there are a lot of other things I've done/seen since I've been here, like cycle through Vondelpark (which is amazing, especially now it's all autumnal colours!), which is so normal now i do not necessarily think to comment on it!
  
  
  
  

Weekend 2

P.s... I did write this on Sunday... work has just got in the way! Next update soon!

This weekend was my second full weekend in Amsterdam - and was significantly more busy than last weekend!


This week has been really good - I'm fully settled in, my bank account is sorted and I have a social security number!



Thursday I had expat drinks at the office, met some of the other secondees to Amsterdam. Travelled back to the city with a few of the expats, ended up at a BBQ instead!

On Saturday it was pouring with rain for most of the day...so me and a Canadian expat met up with a couple of her friends and cycled over to Roest (in the pouring rain) in the north east corner of Amsterdam. It's based in an old warehouse, which has a 'beach', and is right on the water. Most of the stalls were eco food/products as well as a lot of vintage & food stalls.

This weekend was the last weekend of the Amsterdam Fringe Festival, so we took the opportunity to go see a 'best of the fringe' play...it was called 'Beloved'. I'm not sure any of us actually really knew what we were going to see - see The Beloved!! It was in the basement of a bar, which was pretty cool, lots of retro film posters and aeroplane seats in the bar, but the basement was pretty dark and the audience was about 15 people...! It was all a bit strange really, but I feel cultured now, and am glad I managed to make the Fringe Festival!

We then went for a tapas/paella (and sangria!) dinner. After that we went to go see the film Lovelace (with Amanda Seyfried) and that was a pretty crazy film too!

Sunday revolved around food a lot (again!), we (me and an expat) went round an art market, then went to Neighbourhood Food Market in the West (and saw Westerpark) and then went shopping!







Ooh, we also went to a few open houses as this is the last weekend of the Open Monumentendag 2013 so we went and had a look at some of the old houses on Herengracht.

Sorry the formatting is slightly crazy, I took so many photos this weekend!

So far...

I'm a week and a half into my 6 month adventure and have completed a few, all though not many of  My To Do List!! Some of the things don't really lend themselves to good photographs.. aka bread and sprinkles!

My main accomplishment is the purchase of Edna, my bike (see previous post!). On Saturday, on my trip to pimp my bike out (with a milk crate and another chain & lock...wild!), I came across a bridge full of love locks - one way looking down to a church, the other to a classic Amsterdam canal view. It was really sweet!

Love locks - Amsterdam

Sunday - I went to visit a hockey club, cycling the 25km round trip (getting very, very lost in the process!). Luckily it ended up with me seeing Riekermolen windmill - and it actually was sunny! 

Riekermolen, Amstelpar

 Amsterdam is a complete maze. You can think you're walking in a straight line, and maybe have turned right once...next thing you know you're back at your flat! Everywhere you turn is a new sight/view/experience which is amazing! It's pretty similar to London - but significantly cheaper!  :o)

Blog numero uno!

Hi,

Welcome to my blog! I'm an accountant, but by trade rather than by nature! I'm currently on secondment from London to Amsterdam for 6 months, starting last week!

I'm planning on making this a blog of my thoughts, my pictures and a way to document my time spent in Amsterdam, which so far has been absolutely amazing! 

Work has put me up in an uber-cool studio flat, near a tram, plus I'm now the proud owner of a 'Grandma' bike - I call her Edna...

I have a to do list which I want to complete/add to over the next 6 months, I've completed some, the others I might wait until people come over -it's so exciting! Shame I have to go to work...... -It seems to get in the way of the weekends!!!
I've already visited an office outskirts of Utrecht...totally glamorous...! 

Louise

Edna, my 'Grandma' bike