Today my friend Johannes got married to his lovely wife Anneke. I had the honour, along with Joost, to be Johannes' witness at the civil ceremony. Joost, who come from Hong Kong for the wedding, and I started the day in the morning a Johannes prepared for the big day and set off to pick up his radiant bride, who prepared herself elswhere in Amsterdam so that Johannes would not see the wedding dress beforehand.
Being a witness at a wedding is a serious thing, of course. According to the law one must ensure that the couple upholds their vows and what the law states about marriage. But most importantly, the witnesses must listen carefully to hear if the couple declared their desire to wed freely, without pressure and, of course, loudly. That they did indeed!
During the summer Amsterdam is at its best. The bars and restaurants have their terraces in order to enjoy the nice weather, people seem more relaxed and smile much more. And best of all, the canals fill up with boats.
Football does strange things to the psyche. The ordinarily not very nationalistic Dutch are whipped into a mad patriotic frenzy when eleven guys in shorts and orange shirts step onto the field. Within a blink of an eye the populace catches a strange fever that compels them to wear the national colour orange, be it at work or at home, and even decorate houses and streets with all kinds of orange stuff. Why orange?, you might ask. The royal family of Holland is the House of Orange, named after an erstwhile French principality that found its way into the family of William of Nassau, the father of the nation. The orange fever tradition is, however, not that old. It came into being during the European Championship of 1988. Let's hope then that the current team can equal those glorious days. A 3-0 win over the Azzuri yesterday was a good start.
Ribena, a wonderfully delicious blackcurrant drink, is an English institution. For many an English kid, my sisters and I included, it was and is the juice drink of choice. As a drink it is very versatile, too. It makes a delicious refreshing lemonade during the day, but at night it can be drunk warm as a night cap. The Dutch might say it is basically the same as Cassis syrup, but they are gravely mistaken....Nothing beats the sweet taste of England's blackcurrants!!!! That's why every time one of us goes back to Blighty we try to bring back a bottle of Ribena, preferably a 2 litre one.
Today my friend Johannes got married to his lovely wife Anneke. I had the honour, along with Joost, to be Johannes' witness at the civil ceremony. Joost, who come from Hong Kong for the wedding, and I started the day in the morning a Johannes prepared for the big day and set off to pick up his radiant bride, who prepared herself elswhere in Amsterdam so that Johannes would not see the wedding dress beforehand.
Being a witness at a wedding is a serious thing, of course. According to the law one must ensure that the couple upholds their vows and what the law states about marriage. But most importantly, the witnesses must listen carefully to hear if the couple declared their desire to wed freely, without pressure and, of course, loudly. That they did indeed! 
