Weekend Weirdness

On Friday night I was woken around 2am by the sound of an angry mob rioting outside. My initial panic was soon over when I remembered that we received a letter informing us that the snackbar on the corner of our street was to become a temporary film set for the night. When I read the film summary of 'Nachtrit' (which translates as 'Night Ride') a few days before I didn't quite prepare for a sleepless night, but looking back I should have expected it. The film tells the story of a young taxi driver who falls into a life of crime, resulting in 'Oorlog in de straten', which (judging by the din outside) aptly translates as 'war in the streets'. I guess I was hoping that they would be filming the scene where the main character buys a frikadel in a quiet and orderly fashion. The rioting went on til 2am.

Despite lack of sleep, I was up bright and early on Saturday morning and off on my bike to the Amsterdam Dance Centre for their Open Day. Me and my friend Sarah went along to sample a few free classes and to try to remind our rusty bodies how to dance. The best class of the day was the Beginner's Tap Dance session. In reality we were actually doing more thudding than tapping because none of us had tap shoes (trainers don't have quite the same effect) but due to the enthusiasm of the lovely teacher we all had a great laugh. My memories of tap classes as a kid aren't that great (naff plastic hat and cane, dodgy lycra outfits, you know the thing..) but this experience was altogether more positive. I might even sign up for the course!

Last night me and Peter ate at Shiva, my favourite Indian restaurant in town. While we were there a group of people came in and sat down to eat at a long table. Their focus was on an Indian man sat at the head of the table, dressed in long white robes and saffron coloured scarves. He had long hair, a flowing beard, wore a distinctive Hindu caste mark on his forehead and looked every inch the 'spiritual guru'. We were just tucking in to our Chicken Tikka when suddenly the whole table broke out into a spontaneous round of 'ommmmm-ing'. Once the 'guru' man had got that out of his system he sparked up a Marlboro before digging into his curry. Now I'm not exactly knowledgeable in the area of the Hindu faith, but surely smoking a fag isn't the way to spiritual enlightenment?!

Another rich and varied weekend in Amsterdam draws to an end...