Art Wank, Noordemarkt, Twilight & Pre-Finals

This has been a PROPER Summer so far. HOT. HOT. HOT. Makes me feel like I'm on holiday!

What I love about Amsterdam is the close proximity you are to EVERYTHING. On Friday evening, I went to check out an art installation with a workmate and his friend. It was in an old (read: decrepit) Dutch house along the canal. They called it the "Extempore Temporary Contemporary Art Museum Amsterdam". Seriously. It's even got a hard to remember link of the same name here.

It was only in existence for that ONE day, for 5 hours. This blurb taken from their press release:

"History exists. The Contemporary exists. Museums are Contemporary Art history making machines. Our Museum is a Contemporary Art making machine. The only history it writes is its own."

Ahhhh... Gotta love the art wank! Every single floor had individual rooms with lightboxes spelling out each word. Y'know... Ground floor was "Extempore". First floor was "Temporary". Second floor was "Contemporary"... and so on and so forth.

The fact that I wasn't moved enough to take photos of it shows you how I feel about it.

Ah... Art Wank. :)

Then on Saturday, I went and checked out Noordemarkt, or "North Market". It's up the road from where I live (but then again, everywhere in the city centre is so close it's just up or down the road from where I live). HA. This market probably isn't as famous as the Albert Cuyp market that's in every single tourist must-see brochure of Amsterdam, but it's probably 10 times bigger and better. Even the locals shop here, so that's gotta say something about it. Right?

Where I come from in Asia, many of the outdoor markets just seem so... touristy. Y'know... the stuff they have for sale is run-of-the-mill, seen-it-before, only-tourists-would-buy-that-SHIT type of stuff. Here, every time I ask someone where they got something cool, they'd always say "at the markets".

So... Guess it's time I stopped being a mall-rat and checked out the markets. Not like there are malls here anyway, but you know what I mean. Noordemarkt is basically a market down a really loooooong street that used to be a canal. Two rows of stores facing each other, not unlike the Albert Cuyp market, but just loads more stuff with more variety.

A gazilion varieties of fresh herbs. A gazilion varieties of olives. A gazilion varieties of bread.



People rummaging through clothes.


Trinkets from exotic places. There was even a store that sold all kinds of recycled glass turned into jewelry ("from Ghana" she said). I bought a wooden beaded necklace because the lady said "I made this in the winter". I love it when there's a story behind my purchase.


Here's what I found really cool, and made me think of Liz... There were many, many stores selling stuff for crafting, like ribbons, buttons, findings, lace, beads... just so many bits and pieces, it was like a treasure trove!



Not sure who would want this bronze gymnast statue, though.


My favourite - shopping bag of the First Family. (Couldn't bring myself to buy it coz... I dunno... Just seems so wrong!)


Never seen these flowers ever before. Weird and pretty at the same time!


I got myself a pretty summer dress "from the market" (now I can say the locals' phrase! Heh.)


And guess what I wore the dress to today?

Hehe. It was too hot to be outdoors and I wanted to hide away in airconditioning this afternoon. So of course I did the most natural thing any girl would do.

I went to watch Twilight Eclipse. All by myself. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Again, I thought of Liz and her recent review (and even sent her a message while waiting for the movie to start). Was too embarassed to ask anyone if they wanted to come watch it with me - it's one of my guilty pleasures in life.

And you know what I think of the Twilight series. I HATE IT. But I also LOVE TO HATE IT. Bella can still kiss my sorry ass, the little insipid twat! I guess she still needs yoga in her life. How much manipulation can one constipated-looking chick put two HOT guys through?! And it's annoying storylines like these that perpetuate the whole myth of "I need a knight in shining armour to rescue me". Or in this case TWO knights. One who's topless all the time and the other in a soccer-mum's Volvo.

To her credit though, she was a lot less constipated-looking in this film. Sorry RPatz, you're ultra-hot but you've still got loads more acting skillz (with a "z") to catch up on. That constipated face must go! Take a tip from Dakota Fanning - she was bad-ass, icy-cold, but not once did her facial reactions make me wonder what was going on with her bowel movements. HAHAHAHAHAHA!


Ooh look! Found a better smiley shot of him! HAHAHA!


In about an hour, Holland will slaughter Spain. I hope. I had grand plans to join the work crew down at the Museumplein again, y'know, where we watched the semi-finals. BUT... all day, the streets have been overflowing with drunk and loud crowds in orange.


People having barbeques on top of houseboats.



I don't really fancy getting crushed by the Orangemania again. My living room beckons.

Oh yeah, I even managed to squeeze in a led Primary class today! Yeah yeah, moon day and all but I've been a bad yogi and need to get back into the swing of my practice. I figured some practice is better than none.

Quite a perfect weekend. Holland just needs to win to top it off with a cherry on the top.

HUP HOLLAND HUP!! (I have no idea what it means, but it's fun to say it). :)

[UPDATE: We didn't win. Awwwww! I'm glad I stayed home now. Heh.]