Met Ann in Amsterdam to See A Film @ 16:30 On Saturday and ...

. . . I didn't come home till the next day!!!!

You see, it was all meant to be harmless & innocent with ... a film (with popcorn, of course), followed by a bite to eat. But ... somehow the plan changed and I think I might be to blame for that :) How about I start at the beginning:

First, the morning started with a call from Ann who was sounding a little green. We touched base on our meeting time and location for that afternoon. Poor Ann was feeling a BIT rough after a late night with the girls - GREAT music ... with GREAT friends ... with GREAT drinks ... is a dangerous combination, so I'm told. Well, not really but I am here to entertain you so I need to build up the drama - that's my job as administrator of the World of Bubbles.

Getting back to my point, Ann came home quite late and was not feeling her finest BUT she was still keen to suffer through a movie for the sake of friendship. What can I say? - she might have been debating this precise point at some point during this weekend by thinking "Why... oh why... did I do it?" This truly was the question of the day or weekend, rather?

We met at L'Opera, a restaurant in the Rembrandtplein area of Amsterdam. The plan was to see the matinee show of "Match Point"- a Woody Allen Film. Since I did NOT enjoy the film all that much, I have not bothered to include a review in Bubbles Entertainment. Firstly, I cannot stand Woody Allen but gave it the benefit of the doubt and tried to keep an open mind. Match Point lacked imagination, had a weak plot with lousy characters and was totally predictable. Although, it was better than I expected because of the English actors and the BBC involvement which slightly increased my final impression a notch or two!

After the movie, we thought it might be a good idea to put some food in Ann's stomach. This was my first step in attempting (second step will be revealed later) to cure her intense hangover since LOTS of food is known to be the official remedy for most hangover symptoms - works for me!

After dinner, we SOMEHOW ended up at Cafe Weber which is the "famous" romping ground for the "girlie club" - where they go to meet ... shall we say ... interesting "folks" or for the sake of reality, let's call it the designated place for "hunting men" - but this is to be kept a secret - once you read this, you must forget that I told you.

We arrived at CW @ 20:30 to an empty bar, since it was quite early for the crowds to be out. There we met Irene (above on the left), our friendly CW barmaid who chatted with us for hours, exchanged stories & was my partner in crime in the conspiracy to get Ann to have a drink. We have NOT yet determined who the happy guy is in the background

The second step to curing a hangover is to drink the poison from the night before ... the STUFF that was responsible for bringing on the "mysterious" symptoms. I realise that this might sound truly repulsive and Ann was not initially an eager participant but eventually, she reluctantly and suspiciously agreed to a vodka with lime. Miraculously, after a few sips, she started to feel pretty good. This might (perhaps) be considered an error of judgement on my part because ... after a drink, the party animal in Ann resurfaced and we ended up running to her house to find me some clothes for a night out - not an easy task considering the fact that she is HALF MY SIZE!!

Once we were dressed (notice my subtle transformation - NOT), off we went to Odeon to meet Bella (to my left) and her friend Renate (beside Ann). Odeon is somewhat refreshing and lacks the usual young crowd found in most Amsterdam bars. Odeon caters to an older crowd with its classic atmosphere and mostly 80s or 90s music style - with dance music that is not too heavy on the trance side. We had a few drinks, laughs, danced for a bit and then made a mad dash for the door. It seemed to be an uneventful evening at Odeon so the girls decided to return to CW for a change of scenery. After walking across Amsterdam ... or more like RACING cuz Bubbles REALLY had to PEE & stupidly forgot to do so before our mad dash :)

The girls met some interesting folks and seemed to enjoy themselves. Meanwhile, I had a debate with some guy about Canon digital cameras vs Sony -- WHAT was up with that?!?!?! I am not really qualified on this topic but felt the need to debate nonetheless, for some unknown reason (wink wink).

I took some photos and like usual, spilled a few drinks so our friendly buddy - # 62 helped us solve that problem. I think it was around this time that I took the liberty of cutting myself off.

We also spoke with Irene, our friendly barmaid from earlier who was happy to see us again - I think. It looks like she is sharing top secrets in this shot and I know for a fact that I was still (reasonably) sober enough to comprehend the English language.

Everyone was full of smiles, the entire night long.We got home and into bed at around 06:00. I woke up around 09:00 to a blinding light - I think it is called THE SUN!!!! After a short morning chat with Ann I found myself gathering my tired old bones out the door and back home.

I quickly whipped myself together with an energizing shower and rushed out for a lunch appointment with "Princess Randip" in the centrum - a nice 3 hour lunch was just what the doctor prescribed for my protesting brain cells and growling stomach. Thus ending my long ... long weekend of fun.