Twenty-First Birthday

You only turn twenty-one once, and you only get the chance to do so in Amsterdam if life has been exceptionally kind to you. Needless to say the pressure was on to celebrate my birth in a style befitting the circumstances. I got a wee bit excited for my birthday dinner and bought pretty much the complete set of ' five-year-old girl's party ware' from HEMA*.  Because nothing says legal adult like flamingo serviettes people.

Anyway, this was the table setting for my birthdinner.

*HEMA is the Dutch equivalent of Target in that it's a budget department store, only the quality is killer and it reeks of innovative Dutch design. Yea I'm a fan. Oh, and while we're talking decorations, here are some weather appropriate street decorations I spotted strung up in the Jordaan. 

Mitten season should've ended long ago but darling Amsterdam has been serving up some chilly, grey days of late. This hasn't bothered me particularly because I've been busy studying for my exams (I finished yesterday hence my return to blog-o-sphere) and even busier turning twenty-one! Huzzah!

Here are few of the party guests, who all spoilt me rotten. After only having been here four months I'm super chuffed to have such lovely friends. It should be said that my family and friends back in Oz were also amazingly kind. My sister Claudia made a video of happy bithday wishes from everyone back home and I think it's the best present I've ever received. Limited table space and cutlery numbers meant the Dutch event was quite small, but in this home away from home turning 'eenentwintig' (ie. 21) was a day I'll never forget. T'was radicool. The fact that I had not one but TWO cakes also helped boost the 'amazing' factor.

That, my friends the face of pure joy. I had TWO homemade cheesecakes presented to me for the wishing/eating. A strawberry cheesecake (compliments of Sam) and a baked stroopwafel (traditional Dutch caramel waffle) cheesecake from Kate.

No. You don't understand how happy I was. It's a wonder I didn't weep on that baked cheesecake. Kate's on the right, she knows what she's done.

Speaking of people who do wonderful things: this is Jess my canadian housemate who prepared the entire dinner (best housemate ever?).

She's taken off to Italy/Greece/Eastern Europe now and I daresay I'll miss her, but my friend Daniel has moved into her old room. The container family is growing!

In true family spirit, many a group dinner have been hosted (usually by Pip and Renee). The dinners are a fave of mine, firstly because of the inclement weather, secondly because they never breaks my delicate budget and thirdly 'cause the container company is allllright. (New housemate Daniel is middle on the right for all you curious critters).

When I'm not indoors eating (I realise this entry makes me look like a chubby recluse) I do Dutch activities like canal rides!

A boat tour has been on my to-do-list for a crazy long time so I was happy to tick off last week even if it was raining cats and cocker-spaniels. You really get a fresh perspective of the city from the water. The old houses lean down at you like those portraits of ancient chairmen/company owners/royalty that line swanky boardrooms. Ie. They seem to be watching you with refined, rugged faces that whisper "You wouldn't believe the things I've seen in my time, Sonny Jim".

Also the boat's captain provided complimentary Heinikens to all us sailors. Ultra dutch (pity this sailor doesn't like beer but I was happy drinking in the scenery).

You know what I do like though? Cats. And my new favourite is Elvis the black beauty from Latei which is an eclectic cafe on the corner where the red light meets China town. Location, location!

Elvis knows he's a star. This guys strikes a better pose in his sleep than I do during ten photo attempts.

After finishing my last exam (catch you later Sound Cultures) I did what all normal people would do and went to a petting zoo to let loose. There's one super close to Imogen and Kate's house so they took Sam and I down there to play.

Sam with goat. It's cute because they have pretty much the same facial expression. 

Also today was the return of the IJ Hallen Flea Market. The unrivalled highlight of my month. This time it had changed to the 'summer' (real funny Amsterdam) format which meant the market swelled to about 3 times its previous size... and if you remember last month's post, it was already the biggest market in the Netherlands. This was insanity. 

Sam and I trolled obsessively (if you know us you'll understand) through the stalls and only covered about 50% of the layout in four hours. Granted we did stop to have coffee in a abandoned tram-come-house-come-cafe but we worked HARD.

 We were so thrifty; Macklemore would be proud.  

The two of us scored all this for less than 11euro! I feel like I'm in an infomercial raving on about it, but that's some genuine Adidas, collectable comic book, and designer headscarf action! I'm only slightly ashamed to announce that we're going back tomorrow for round two. Pray for our souls.... and I'll pray for some sunshine (which is pretty much the only element barring my current existence from perfection). x