evenings outside in amsterdam
Last night we went to the Rijksmuseum and just missed out on their picnic in the garden. You can buy a combi ticket for entry to the museum and a picnic basket but you have to ring ahead and reserve the basket. The music was fantastic but we were late so opted to go into the museum instead of sitting in the garden and listening. The next picnic in the garden is next week Friday, but next Friday I'll be in Heidelberg.
Another garden event is the Opera in the Garden at the Museum van Loon. My colleague was going on Thursday night when the weather was glorious. It is apparently sold out for tonight and tomorrow night, but what a lovely concept. The opera was Il Segreto di Susanna.
Earlier this week we went to Sal Gorda, a tapas bar in Amsterdam Zuid. It was good enough, but nowhere near fantastic. The food that was fresh was great but sadly, out of a choice of about 12 dishes only three were freshly made. The olives were nice, so was the bread, but the chicken wings in aioli were appalling and the meatballs in tomato sauce flavourless. The patatas bravas were good, but the sauce was far from spicy. The service was ok, made better by a very bouncy 20 year old and it was lovely sitting outside. I think if they paid more attention to not letting the food dry out before serving it they'd be much more successful.
Not in the evening, but also out - I went with the ex and kids to see Wall-E, which surprisingly has such glowing reviews all over the place. I found it to be long, and long-windedly moralistic. I enjoyed the message in an Inconvenient Truth. I suppose I'm just sick of kids' movies having to have a moral - can't they just be entertaining? Presto, the short film that's coupled with Wall-E was infinitely more entertaining.
I did a little motivational exercise recently where you make a 'tree' with the centre as what you want to achieve, like 'recapture happy moments' then with 'branches' off it for 'past', 'present', 'future considered' and 'future not considered'. I had forgotten how happy lying on the grass in the park made me feel, so I spent Thursday evening lying on the grass in the park. Perfect.
Making chilli beans on ciabatta for dinner. Watch this space.
Somehow, this post made me smile. It seems life is quieting down for you, and that's a good thing.
My boys are dying to see Wall-e, btw.
If you want some good tapas, come to Spain :P
Great post - and you are so good about doing all this stuff in the evenings! Unless we have visitors, we end up going home and flopping in front of the TV :o)
I love the tree idea - in fact the whole idea of remembering the stuff that makes you happy. Lying on the grass in my garden and staring up at our beautiful tree makes me immeasurably happy.
Also meant to say - I haven't seen Wall-E, but I did see Mamma Mia last night. An unashamed cheesefest with no plot or depth... but the most fun I have had in a movie theatre for as long as I can remember. Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan should get Oscars for "Most game actor/actress in a motion picture" - Meryl belts out The Winner Takes it All on a clifftop in Greece with the wind blowing in her hair with not a trace of irony. Marvellous stuff!