Dutch interns & Dutch weekend

The Dutch way to say 'thank you for the nice time in the agency'.

When interns leave an agency, most of the time they make something to be remembered. It can be from a flash movie to a fake article or a postcard with their photo on it. Our Dutch interns Reinier and Marlon left the agency on Friday and thought of the most effective idea to stay remembered yet. They simply filled a huge balloon with a 'thank you note' with gas and let it float up in the agency until it reached a height where nobody would even dare to come. The result: these coming weeks everybody will remember the funny stunt of the two crazy Dutchmen.

Talking about Holland. I went back to Alkmaar again this weekend. It's always good to go back because after all I lived in this small city for more than 29 years. But the problem with Alkmaar is, everything stays the same. Not a lot changes in the city itself, it's peaceful and quiet and in the pubs you always meet the same people and hear the same music. Oh, and everything closes at 2:30. Thinking of this always makes me happy that I live somewhere else.

But there was something different about this weekend. It could have been the parties I went to. On Friday a Belgium electro-rockband called Vive la Fete performed in Alkmaar and on Saturday there was a DJ in De Stapper, a pub where they normally play rock and alternative music. Seeing something unexpected in Alkmaar was new for me I guess. But without being cynical: I went back in exactly the right weekend and it was great.

I'm still at my work right now. It's 20:00 and this week I haven't got time to go sporting or to do the laundry (although I should do that). Yes, the workload is getting hardcore again. But that's always better than last week, when the most challenging task was walking up the stairs to get a cup of coffee.