~ ANNE! ~

First, the bad news (since it seems to be that sort of day). I can't post my lovingly constructed picture webpages up, since (argh argh argh) for some reason known only to Shaw they won't let you upload things to their webspace unless you're connected through their services. As you can imagine, I'm frustrated by this, since the nearest Shaw connection is thousands of miles away. GRRRR. Not sure if there's anything I can do about this. Will talk to Steve this weekend and see if he has any ideas.

In other news, had plans to go down to Zeeland this morning and see the Delta Project (the series of dams that keeps the ocean out of peoples' houses) but it's snowing here and drizzling there, so we're calling it off. It's a 2.5 hour train ride and didn't seem worth it to stand in the snow. We will probably go to Amsterdam instead, where there are INSIDE museums. I'm still hoping to see Zeeland, although it may have to wait till next trip.

Haven't done too much in the last few days. Thursday was a write-off, as Steph and Rem had Dutch class in the morning and then Steph went back to bed for the rest of the day. We did go out in the evening, though, to this very cool cafe Rem knew of called "Cafe Belgie". We were supposed to meet Joan, a girl that Rem's friend Jenn from Edmonton knew from the internet. (Useful thing, the internet!) We got there and there was no Joan, but we did see a huge menu - they have an enormous selection of Belgian beers. Rem was quite excited and tried two of them - I tasted them and they were really interesting, very mild but good. The cafe itself was obviously a student hangout and there were a lot of interesting people to watch. I really enjoyed actually going out somewhere. When Joan arrived she ordered this bizarre cherry beer. I've never tasted anything like it - had a sort of cough syrup aftertaste.

Joan is an interesting person. She's Dutch, but is hugely into anything Brit and has cultivated this bizarre pseudo-British accent that's like nothing I've ever heard. Sort of mixture of BBC and Cockney with a bit of North England and Scotland thrown in. And it seems to change by the day. Joan is also a repository of all kinds of strange pieces of information. We were talking about the concert we went to, and she told me the genesis of Death Cab for Cutie's name. Apparently there was a Brit band from the sixties called the Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band, who had a song called "Death Cab for Cutie" that was a sort of Elvis parody. Lyrics reprinted below.

Death-Cab For Cutie (Stanshall/Innes)

That night Cutie called a cab, uh huh huh

(baby don't do it)

She left her East Side room so drab uh huh huh

(baby don't do it)

She went out on the town

Knowin' it would make her lover frown

(Death-cab for Cutie)

Someone's gonna make you pay your fare

The cab was racin' through the night, mm mm mm

(baby don't do it)

His eyes in the mirror, keepin' Cutie in sight, uh huh huh

(baby don't do it)

When he saw Cutie, it gave him a thrill

Don't you know, baby curves can kill

(Death-cab for Cutie)

Someone's gonna make you pay your fare

Cutie, don't you play with fate

Don't leave your lover alone

If you go out on this date

His heart will turn to stone

Bad girl, Cutie, what have you done, uh huh huh

(baby don't do it)

Slippin' slidin' down-a Highway 31, mm mm mm

(baby don't do it)

The traffic lights changed from green to red

They tried to stop but they both wound up dead

(Death-cab for Cutie)

Someone's gonna make you pay your fare

Aaaahh oooo....

More to report but we're off to the museum. Hopefully I can finish this afterwards!