In my job working on Coca-Cola, I have had more than my fair share of trips to Atlanta. On the face of it I'm going for meetings to present work or to get to know the people and business better. But I know that really I'm going for the food. Everything tastes better in America. It's bigger, more colorful and in the South, more fried. God bless America and all who eat there.
Here's what I ate on my last trip.
Straight off the plane after a 9.5 hour flight it's got to be Chick-fil-A in Atlanta airport - regular chicken sandwich meal with spicy fries on the side.
Breakfast the next day was epic. A 'pop over' in the hotel - kind of like an eggs benedict but served in a massive Yorkshire Pudding. I thought that would finish me for the day.
But no, lunch was pizza with some people I was traveling with. We didn't go for the 'Maximus', breakfast was still sitting heavy, but we did have a big New York Style 'pie' and some amazing macaroni cheese/lobster croquette type things.
That night it was BBQ. Wow. Brisket and fried onions. Oh my!
To be honest the next day and a half passed by in a meeting and food blur. But I remember, shrimp sandwiches, fried chicken with mash and gravy, and a huge burger before getting on the plane home.
Luckily I don't get to Atlanta every week. I need time to build up my appetite again.
12 hours ago I was standing on the equator in Kenya. Now its 10 degrees below.I’ve got 2 hours to get enough groceries to last for the long haul. They say the canals might freeze. We hear it every year, but it hasn’t happened since 1997. Very exciting, if it’s going to be that cold, we might as well have the treat of frozen canals.
5 February 2012 Sunday
The canals are close to freezing. There are hungry birds flying in front of my front door asking for crackers. Behind them are some young swans in the canal in front of my flat looking for anything to eat. I clean out the pantry and head outside to the canal, feeding them everything I’ve got. Spelt crackers, bread, seeds, Cheetoh’s. Crazy lady, in a bathrobe (thank you Charlotte Street) and trainers, hanging over the side of a snow covered houseboat trying not to slip into the cold water, feeding birds.
I feed the swans and ducks by hand to make sure everyone eats. Swans look at you sideways (no binocular vision) then curl their necks and lunge at you much like a spitting cobra, snapping at whatever is in your hand. I have the beak marks on my fingers to prove it.
8 February 2012 Wednesday
Canals have frozen! Walk to work in horrible manly looking but effective boots. It’s my birthday and I spend my lunch hour (or two) on the frozen canals with Sanne, Ross, Andrew and Jaime. Best birthday/lunch hour ever. Jaime practices her yoga moves on the ice. I practice my pirouettes. We are brave enough to pass under bridges, not quite sure of ourselves. We make it almost all the way from WK to Glassworks. Sanne and I run into Chris and Mark. We are chatting when we hear the ice crack. We all jump ten feet and scatter. Mark tells me if I go under, he will tell my family I was a good producer and a good friend, but there is no way he’s going to help.
There is one area not quite frozen over where the ducks are swimming in a small circle. Sanne is Dutch and brave enough to walk by that. I am not.
9 February 2012 Thursday
Walk to and from work on the ice. I see some amazing things: parents pushing their babies in prams, bikes on the ice, man with a bottle of wine tied to his neck with a cord and holding paper cups - €1.50 a cup. A marching band marches by in full uniform playing Tusk. Frat boys, too cool for school, walk on cracked, melting ice. They fall in- ha. Frat boys on skates use the I-beams under the bridges like monkey bars to pass over the melting ice under the bridge. One group has set up a restaurant on the ice. We hear if it stays cold enough, there will be a skating race on Saturday, Keizersrace. This is the only country in the world where that could happen and be backed by the authorities and sponsored by the local paper. Not shot down by safety regulations. Have I mentioned how much I love living here?
10 February 2012 Friday
Walking home from work, I’ve come across an impromptu party on the Keizersgracht canal. Oddly I happen to be wearing a blue wig and Elvis glasses left over from the Heineken Serenade Live so I fit right in. Living in Amsterdam is like living in a Tim Burton movie. There are hundreds of people on the ice, all jumping up and down dance to house music. Untz, untz, untz. At one stage, we hear a giant crack. People stop, look at each other and keep dancing. No panics here. Occasionally someone falls through the ice, but they just get pulled out.
11 February 2012 Saturday
Ice holds. The race is on. Hundreds of people line the Keizergracht canal to watch.
12 February 2012 Sunday
Ice is melting, snow is melting, it’s raining, it’s over. We just missed the Elfstedentocht. Now on to football riots, Ajax vs Man U.
Creatives Ignasi & Toby popped up in the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool last week.
This is what the article said:
Toby and Ignasi are creatives at advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. In their spare time they create murals and art installations.
"Free work keeps you healthy," says Toby.
Toby is from New Zealand, Ignasi from Spain. They met each other at W+K on the Herengracht and have enlivened many office walls sincethen.
Allergic to Poison was their first exhibition in the new gallery Guns & Butter on Lauriergracht, where they created installations inspired by pop culture and typography.
For several of the pieces, Ignasi sawed and sanded a total of two thousand wooden triangles. The most striking work in the exhibition is from Toby: a ten meter long blue finger painted on the wall.
The opening was full of Wieden+Kennedy colleagues, friends and strangers. They were nervous, but to their surprise, they sold almost everything on the first day.
Super Bowl Sunday is something of a misnomer for us Americans in Amsterdam, because those darn time zones mean that the game doesn’t actually start until 12.30 am… on Monday.
So I went to bed (before kickoff) on Sunday night, and shortly after waking up on Monday morning, I understood that the Giants had won (last-minute nail biter), most of the ads had disappointed (with some notable exceptions from the Portland cousins) and Madonna had killed it.
Say what you will about the costumes, M.I.A.’s finger, the Will-Ferrell-alike on the tightrope, the cartwheels, World Peace (?!) and all the rest, but I found myself pretty impressed. Not just with the sheer spectacle, but with some of the tidbits that have come out in the days since the Super Bowl.
Madonna was the most searched for term on Google during the Superbowl:
And for those of you who love everything you've seen and read on the subject of Her Madgesty this week, you might be interested to know that she's taking her show on the road, hitting the Netherlands with a show at the new Ziggo Dome this July:
I won't try and over-intellectualize what all of this means for us in our day-to-day lives, but I might suggest that Robbie Williams was onto something when he sang 'Let me entertain you…'
On 4 September 2011, I walked in stupid, and today will be the last day I’m going to walk out stupid.
What can I say? It’s been fun. It’s been crazy. Sometimes hard, but in the end all worth it. I made some friends, made some enemies like Siavosh. I guess the crazy times were the normal times: Rock star Johnny’s stories, sleeping on the sofa in the Kennedy’s mansion, doing the lawnmower dance with the guys from TAG London, Chris wrapping up Cari while she is singing the theme song from ‘The Titanic’ and having a disco shower after a workout.
Thanks everyone and don’t eat the yellow snow under Tiago’s bike.
Have a goodbye drink with me after work at Wheels.
Rock on,
Rens
Post by Rens Ciggaar, ex-intern of every department
Hi, my name is KISS. As in the band but without the make-up. I’m the lead singer of a band formerly known as ‘Various Artist’. We just released our debut album ‘The Best Of’. It includes one track: Jaan Pehechaan Ho. It’s a cover of the original track, but you won’t notice the difference. There isn’t any.
Recently we changed our name to ‘The Serenades’. Not just because it rhymes with pomegranates, but also because we will sing a serenade for your date. Just give us a little info on that special someone you fancy, what you want to do on your date, and why. We'll improvise you a serenade. Dates guaranteed. Try us here: https://apps.facebook.com/heinekenserenade/
Recent Comments