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Saturday 2006-09-02 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Lots of paper and a blister!
I have a lot of errands to run today; on Saturday the shops are open in Amsterdam but tomorrow only a few in the city center will be open.
First I bring back the little battery tester I had borrowed from the photographer’s store. Next, I still need a spare battery for my watch. When I find a jeweler’s store that has one I ask if they can also clean my silver necklace and earrings from Nepal; hey can, but it will take a fe minutes, which I spend for my next errand: rubber tips for my monopod (also used as walking stick) which I find in a hardware store nearby. Next on the list: a lot of photocopies.
Carla lent me her “Nagel’s China” — a thick book that is both encyclopedia and travel guide — printed in 1968: just after the cultural revolution in China, when the country slowly opened up to foreign travelers again. She’d been there with her husband in the early seventies. The book is of course too precious (and heavy!) to take along with me, but some sections about Beijing in particular (like an extensive one about the Ming tombs) have good information. That means I’ll take along photocopies — and lots of them. Other information for when I’ll be on my own in Beijing as well as some parts of the manual for my new camera get the same treatment. When I’m done I take a little break with a big glass of fresh orange juice.
Finally, I need more writing materials and plastic envelopes to write my stories and store my collectible and ‘photocopyable’ artifacts (things like beer labels and courtesy shampoo and combs you get in hotels).
When I finally get home after more than four hours, I find my little toe hurts a little. On inspection, it turns out to be blister! Clearly I’m out of training (though I grow blisters all too easily).
