Friday, January 2, 2009

Chagrijnig

- being cranky / bad mood -

Oh nooo...2009 already started bad for me. I have received The Blue Envelope from 'De Belastingdienst' (tax company). Which means good or bad news. OF COURSE it was BAD news for me and now I have to pay A LOT of taxes...Bitches! I was gonna save up some money for a new iMac but nooo.
I have to pay almost one third of the price of a new iMac. Boy oh boy. It's hard being Jack Daniel. Always struggling in life.
(I also had a flat tire, so I had to bring my bike all the way to a bike...thingy! Bikestore / Bike-repare-store / Bike-garage.)

Anyways. My sister cheered me up by telling me all these stories of people she knows being in bigger (financial) problems than me and took me to a nice place called Latei. Perhaps my fellow blogger and only regular Dutch visitor of my blog, The Man Who Knew Too Much, knows this cozy place. He probably does...hence his name. He knows a lot...

Check out these pics I made during my crankyness-mood to happiness-mood. Amsterdam is the right city which can make you smile again, even when you're in a very depressing mood and struggling hard to survive.
Thanks Mokum!


- There were these different lamps (for sale!) hanging on the ceiling. -


- Cups, boards, plates. Almost everything you see in this lunch / breakfast place was for sale. -


- Then, after lunch we walked into an unexpected Asian event: I think the Dragons are supposed to move the bad spirits out of the houses. But only the places where they had how do you call this in english? for the Dragons. -


- Hanging up the food which the Dragons had to eat. -


- Cute Dragon. -


- My sister. Scared like a mouse of what's coming up next! -


- Firecrackers! -


- And then we moved along. Walking over the little bridges to cross the canals. -


- Of course, we came across lots and lots of bicycles! -


- Almost near our place. This picture (of Sarphatistreet) was taken when we were walking through Sarphatipark.. -

16 comments:

Rita said...

"He probably does...hence his name. He knows a lot..." That seriously made my day, you're so funny!

Your sister is so pretty! And I really like the pictures of the dragon and that of the bikes. That one reminds me of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, where you see a bunch of bikes everywhere, too.

curiositist said...

Cute dragone!he is so fashionable

Judging by your photos , bikes live their own life in Amsterdam.ha!Don't forget to look for them))

Of course ,I speak Russian, it's my native language.)But if it isn't noticible it'll cool!

TMFA said...

You misinterpreted my name: Knew Too Much - Which obviously states that I do not know that much anymore. I will explain the metaphor of my user-name and the metaphor of my blog name one day when I am famous. ;)

I really like the photo of the fireworkcrackers - actione!
AND DAMN that pic of your sis hiding/scared is the best shot I've seen so far by you. Very cinematic capture, and if there is one thing I like it is cinematic photography!!

TMFA said...

Oh yea forgot to add: I don't know the place. Never really hang around Zeedijk, only when showing my friends or parents the red light district hahah.

And the kropsla would be Lettuce..

Dominica said...

I hate brown envelopes (in Belgium, they're unstylishly brown :-// )
So I really feel for you - typical, we work all so hard and then these cheesedicks send you this horrendous enevelope(s) ...
Then again, many less fortunate people have nothing or a small pension to live on (even if they worked really hard during their lives) So maybe we have to look at it as a luxury problem (does that make you feel better ?? :-/

Evelyn said...

Dragon Dance is a traditional dance in Chinese culture, it is often seen in Chinese New Year and festive days, or opening new buiness. Dragons are believed to bring good luck.

The vegetable that dragon gonna eat is called lettuce in English.
It's called " 生菜 - San Choi "in Chinese. It symbolizes vitality and vigor. Therefore, we eat it in every important Chinese festive days, so does dragon eat it in such occasion. Maybe you should have one to cheer up!! haha

And, the practice that dragon grap the lettuce is called " Grab Green " in Chinese.

Interesting,right?

Nia said...

hehe thanks! no, my bf isn't an art student - but he should be. he's so creative! and artistically inclined.

love these pics!
happy new year!~!~!

karl's sweet child said...

as always jack, great shots!!
your sister is so cute, love her expression!

ps: i cant speak dutch but my family still speaks dutch.. sometimes i understand what they're talking about buut when it comes to me to talk, im totally blank..heehee..

Evelyn said...

hey Daniel,answered your question on my blog, go and check it out.

Nia said...

hehe thanks!
and yes, i changed the name and url
its now LIVE GLAM OR DIE.
spread the word ;) !

Morgan said...

Haha, I didn't even put up most of the pictures !
I took 205 that day. Close to a record.

That's a lot of fire crackers, it must have been unreal. I can only imagine how loud that must have been.

I'm sorry to here about your taxes : /
I hope the rest of '09 goes well though.

Anonymous said...

Sjaaaakkkkss! Lot of fans I see.. how nice. Blue envelopes are really sucky.. and januari is the month to lick the financial wounds of christmas and sinterklaas. But I know just the right thing that cheers you up: a nieuwjaarsdansje at the Paradiso. We gonna to do sjansen and dansen ;-)

Bye mate!

Lilian Montes said...

happy new year too :)

Anonymous said...

Haha I'm keeping it with microblogging aka twitter ;-). The last time I blogged was december 2007.. I was blogtired haha. Buhbaai

Daphne said...

i wanna bicycle!

Josefin said...

hey!
förstår du mycket svenska?

what i wrote was just a poem. to get things and thoughts out of my head, i write sentences that often doesn't make any sense at all...

thank you! i will put up some photos soon!

and, these photos are filled with so much feeling. great job