Did I ever say an engagement was an elephant, madam?

Bit earlier than expected. Missed all of Sunday. As in missed Dresden Dolls. As in missed Sigor Ros. As in missed the Hives, We Are Scientists and Elbow. That and a whole day of Lowlands. Noe.

My lovely knees are to blame, of course. Collapsed in the queue on Thursday(!), and paid the First Aid Tent quite a few visits before realising that I was risking getting back to Manchester on Friday if I stayed for another day. The fact that the TWAT doctor wouldn't give me any crutches or a wheelchair did not do me any favours either. Marieke and Stijn were lovely enough to take me back home (and miss all of Sunday as well themselves, remind me to take them out for dinner or something next month) and Ton, my godfather, bless him, drove down to Flevoland and picked us up. Mind you, one chat with him about his chemotherapy, and the doctors constantly telling him he's only got a few months left to live made me see a little perspective about missing a day of stupid gigs. He's so light-hearted about it all though, I'm really impressed! He got all fatherly tonight; he bought us a ridiculous amount of Chinese take-away, rang my parents (even though I had done so already), offered to take me to the doctor tomororw (he lives all the way in a Rotterdam suburb) and rang me twice tonight. I'm really happy to be his god-daughter!

Anywaaay, what I did experience of Lowlands was brilliant as usual! Quite nice to have loads of lovely people (Marieke/Stijn, Nouk, Hsins and of course de mofjes (Sinkface und Herr Mattheus)) to hang around with. Highlights:

- Thursday night, playing the first drinking game with Dutchies I've ever played: Ring of fire. Geen Jager geen Ne(e)ger! Even though the Dutchies didn't really get the concept of drinking fingers, everyone got pretty jolly and fun was had. The Hangover was of course cured by de koffiewekker.
- Dancing to the Ting Tings in the India
- Seeing Laura Marling (even though she only played for half an hour and didn't play New Romantic, biaaatch)
- Discovering Amaretto Koffie to warm up the very cold Lowlands nights
- Our late-night chat with our racist neighbour 'Ferry' ('laik de boat')
- Blowing many Big Ones (bubbles)
- Rascals! Arctic Monkeys with an Edge, one of the few new and refreshing things I've seen all weekend! And all of that despite the fact he came onstage greeting Amsterdam.
- Witnessing a moon eclipse.
- Dancing to Franz. Nostalgia all round.
- Sitting in the First Aid place overhearing the most random conversations, from morning-after pills to tongue stinging wasps.
- Swirls! Too many.
- Tanning on the Alpha hills.
- Watching 'Persepolis.' Intrigueing!
- Rich and Matt's moffisms ('Kijk! Een Vledermaus!')
- Shouting 'Burn the Witch!' with Nouk walking past the Nightwish gig
- Praising Allah with Johnny Rotten. Sex Pistols were quite interesting for a song or two.
- Finding Richie and Matty on a girl's shoes
- Jip en Janneke en de Jodekoek
- Sunshiiine! No complaints about the weather this time!
- Anouk's big shiny face on the massive screen during the Wombats, several times.

Less appealing:
- Dutshhhhhh English. Cringety Cringe.
- Lowlands getting more and more commercial and badly organised every year. Maybe it's because we've been to Glasto twice now, but me and Nouk were saying we've never been so annoyed by being ripped off at our favourite festival. Also, they sold way more tickets without making the site any bigger, so everywhere was always full, even the DJ tents at night.
- Generally, the lineup. Half of what I wanted to see was on today, mind.
- Everything in the Juliet. Oh my god. They must be a bit more strict on what they allow on stage in the name of 'comedy.' Even Toneelgroep Amsterdam was poor, and they're supposed to be Holland's best actors.

Anyway, time for a bed. A real bed. Ha. Why did we ever evolve as a species if camping is still a popular pasttime? Discuss.

So sad. Bloody Russians. German Schwalbe goes Sovjet. Guus is never allowed back in Holland, traaitor. We just didn't deliver though, and neither team was amazing, I think the expectations were just too high. I'm just focusing on being happy that I won't miss Holland winning a major tournament, being at Glasto and all. We'll still be painting Dutch flags on people's faces though!

As for nicer things, I've been having a really lovely time staying with het mattmofje in Nottingham. We had a really interesting tour of the castle and dressed up in orange (and drowned our sorrows haha!) I keep getting deja-vues from five years ago, when we were here to visit Marieke. Going back now though, time to go home and pack!

..I WANNA GO HOOOME! Dutchieland is going Orange Crazy.

Watched the game in a Sheffield pub with Rich and his friend though, which was also lovely. Me and Nouk have decided that, should there be a Glasto final, we're not going to be sad, we're going to dress up in Orange and have a great party!

Sheffield was lovely by the way! So nice to see Nic again! I'm well pleased that Rich is coming to Mancs tomorrow so I can finally repay all the times I've abused his hospitality this year. Also, amstell woooo

From mof.

1. If you got the chance, would you ever give up your Dutch passport for a British one?

YES. Without a doubt. My nativeness will always reaffirm the Dutchness in me, but, as for my Britishness, I'd like it on paper. Particularly if it comes with a lovely Britman.

2. What's been your favourite part of your Britland adventure so far?
Oh dear, that's difficult. Just generally being able to manage, doing well at uni and building up a few very special friendships. The best moment of this year was mine and matt's trip to suffolk though: I've never felt so English in my life as when we were hunting rabbits!

3. Do you think you'll live here forever and become like Yeti?
Hopefully I will, though I'm not sure whether I'd be as good an ambassador for the Dutch language as she is. I think I'll just try and be very English but proud of my roots at the same time. Like you and the Swedes perhaps?

4. What's your favourite form of potato? (e.g. mashed, boiled etc.)
First boil for a bit and then fry with some butter, like my mum does. Not the healthiest way, that's why I don't do it too often.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world (but not the UK) where would it be?
A European capital with a lot of history and a lot to do. Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, maybe even Amsterdam?

This time from Mattmof.

1. Name three things that really piss you off about England.
- Dentistry. I've heard it from various foreigners who all have to book a flight home just to deal with a dental emergency. Just get rid of those 2 NHS dentists left and get your insurance to cover most dental work.
- Lack of tall men. I know I will find my tall man one day, but the general lack of them does pisses me off exceedingly.
- Dubbing on television. If I didn't watch the Dutch news daily I would never hear any other languages ever. The British are a lot more fond of other cultures than many people assume so this just has to go. Particularly the talking straight through whatever the person's saying so you can still hear both really gets to me, especially when you can understand both!

2. What do you think about the English invasion of Lowlands? Is it good or should they all stick to their own damn festivals?
It's great! Really good for the Dutch reputation of being hospitable and fun outside the Amsterdam coffee shops. Some ruin it by being able to speak Dutch and all that nonsense, but most just behave delightfully British and it'll make me really happy seeing that. Did you not remember me and Hsins following around the Scotchman last year? I bet it's a bit annoying for some bands though, like the whole Yorkshire invasion of the Pigeon Detectives gig.

3. What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Ever since my first year of uni, it's been BBC morning television. I am so ready 'to dabble into property' myself, you wouldn't believe.

4. What single change would improve the quality of your life?
I'd have to go all soppy and say a boyfriend. Two years of being single hasn't been all bad because of the way I spent it living in England and doing the things I love, but I will always feel there's something missing. I'm glad I made some real friends this year though, last year I really missed someone to talk to about everything and anything, but this year I've made at least three amazing good friends.

5. Should Britain join the Euro?
So so difficult. As long as the Dutch government is paying me in Euros I'm pretty pleased with the pound being worth so little. Moreover, I've always said I really love spending pounds because it fits in so well with Britain being so British and chronically wanting to be different, which is one of the things I love so much about it. I hate Holland having the euro, I really do, but it's getting exceedingly difficult to ignore the economical signals Britain is getting, and maybe, one day, hopefully not too soon, they might have to join. Mind you, if that makes them lean more towards Europe than towards America, as an ally, that would make me one happy bunny indeed.

Went to Sheffield on Saturday to Rhian's parteh, and had a lovely time eating the mof's delicious homemade humous, watching eurovision, watching de mof get absolutely smashed and getting a teensie bit smashed myself as well. Great night anyway! Felt bad I had to sneak out in the morning, but Preston was awaiting for me..

Preston, you might say? YESH. Hayley invited me and Helle down to where she lives, which is actually just outside of Preston, in Hoghton, and the surprise she'd prepared for us was to go down to Hoghton Tower and get a full tour! :D Third most haunted house in Britain apparently, and all the stories made the tour even more interesting. And even though some of the stuff, like 'Shakespeare spent his youth here and my own theory is that he received inspiration for his balcony scenes from this balcony right here' was bullocks, I did really like the James the Ist knights beef, hence it's now called SIRloin Steak business. Also, Dickens went for a visit and then published an article in which he declared it to be a dump, haha. That's when they decided to renovate the place though, so go team Charles!

Rest of the day we spent in pubs. One was the Sirloin haha, and the other Hayley's local pub, with her parents, after dinner, where they bought us drinks and riduculed us for being pint drinking students. They were lovely, and so very very Northern. Very much the same Preston Northerness as Katja last year. Aaand they made us a Sunday Dinner, which Helle was very excited about, because it was her first homecooked one. The next day we went for a walk around Preston, and I saw (from the car, so I couldn't make a pic, booo) a sign saying: WELCOME TO PRESTON. TWINNED WITH ALMELO (NL). Woo! Didn't see any swimming pool paradises called Almelo Palace though..

Aaanyway, splendid weekend, and here's some photos from the castle:
( Clickety Click )

yaaawn. First time I properly left the house in days. I had all these plans of spending all afternoon in the library sorting out my His resources essay. Then I remembered that Marieke's bus pass was still valid for one more day, so I thought I'd go into town first and get Rachel a birthday pressie. I should just stop being picky about buying presents for people, because I had walked all the way through town and through the Arndale and back before I saw something I liked. So by the time I got too the library I was exhausted. Also, at the hairdresser's refused to cut my fringe for free (they promised pfft), AND someone bumped into me, causing my sandwich to fell apart on the ground, both of which, as you can well imagine, darkened my mood substentially.

Haha, I'm getting old.

Anyway, luckily there were my lovely housemates when I got home, and Alice cooked us some lovely carbonara. And, even better then my loveky Sheffieldse moffen texted me they were in fact in Manchester, so I went back into town for a drink and a lovely cuppa! Hope I didn't seem too incoherent/smelling of carbonara, jongens. I get overly excited when I do get to leave the house these days..

Woo I just got rid of my Berlin train ticket! I put it on marktplaats.nl half price, and within a few hours a guy rang me to ask if it was still available. Make sme think I should have asked more money for it, but I was just glad to get anything for it, so there you go. He was really nice, told me he saw my ad and decided to plan a spontaneous visit to his sister who lives in Berlin; his wife really wanted to come but because I've only got one ticket she told him to go for it. That's one burden lifted!

Nouk rang me; she's been chatting to Wombats again haha. She sang Postman Pat with them onstage, again, yesterday. Her and her Scousers are staying at Marieke's after the Amsterdam gig tonight, but they're coming over tomorrow for a tour of Gouda, so that should be nice for a bit.

I've hardly moved all day, WHY is my knee still painful?!

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Berlin, hier komme ich doch! God, I'm gonna have to brush up on my German..

talking about moffen, guess who's coming to stay on Saturday?

ooh and Alles is Liefde is superb, Nouk sent it to me on dvd! Watched it twice now, second time with Matt. Despite the dire quality of the subtitles, I think he did enjoy it. Everyone has to come and watch it soon!

Really great to see Rich and Mattmof again. Also, I've rediscovered Hans de Booij!

Tonight I need to take it easy though, this oldie's well exhausted.