Birthday | Joel S Aufrecht Home Page

Ohhh.. Thog ow. Not … not good. Ow.

Ok, pack. That means finding all my stuff, now scattered around friends place. Which means standing. This take awhile.

I get my stuff packed and ignore the recommendation of showing up an hour early, instead showing up two hours early. Riding the bicycle from my friend’s place, about 4 km south of A’Dam, into the train station in central Amsterdam is somewhat sad. I’m not devastated; it’s not like I haven’t had fun, and I don’t feel like I won’t be back (though, as usual, I worry). But I’m definitely not getting to the other 2/3rds of my trip anytime soon. That’s disappointing.

Even more so because as I ride the bike to central station I realize that the ride and weight is having little impact on me. I’m in considerably better shape in terms of endurance than I was when I left, and I’ve gotten the travel thing down more and more over time. More, I’m still meeting people as I go. A bartender in downtown Amsterdam, a couple of women on the train (the husband of one of them is a DJ at a techno club in … Egypt), other people here and there. I was looking forward to doing that elsewhere.

But I’m trying to remind myself that there’s no reason I can’t do that at home too. And I’m looking seriously at how to go about stating my own QA consulting biz. I’ve been tinkering with that idea for a while, and in the midst of all this chaos a lot of the details came together in my head. Besides, I figure if I have to work for another bozo boss, it might as well be me.

I got to the airport and got things mostly sorted out, but found myself on standby for my flight. They were short of seats and offered $250 to anyone willing to take a later flight. I snapped it up (I lose 5 hours. That’s $50/hr. I can deal). I chatted with the airline women (two of them escorted me around for a while and pointed out the local sites and sounds. Which was a little odd.) And mentioned that it was my birthday, and would be subjectively for an extra 9 hours today.

As a birthday present they arranged that I get bumped to 1st class with a window seat. I think I like the Dutch.

So I’m loafing around on the plane sipping single malt and writing this, having decidedly mixed feelings about the premature ending of it all, but also looking forward to sleeping in my own bloody bed.

None

Anyway, I figure I’ll get a chance to post this Wed or so. I’m thinking I’m going to go out Friday night and dance myself silly. Prior to the dancing, anyone in the area who would like to hear Thog’s Tales of Adventure complete with pantomime and sound effects can meet me at the Bad JuJu Lounge between Pike and Pine on Cap Hill. Email if you don’t know where it is.

That’s it. When next I get a chance to do this, hopefully in the next 6 months, I’ll start writing about it again. Next time I’ll have more of a clue, and hopefully I can avoid the Dingoes….