Amsterdam Gay Pride (With many colourful photos :) May take a bit longer to load)

I haven’t been very active over the past couple of weeks (which is quite an understatement to be fair) but I do hope to make up for it with a collection of photos taken at this year’s gay pride parade in Amsterdam.

The weather was lovely, the atmosphere amazing and the people great.

 

no participants of the gay pride parade. Just people who decorated their private boat according to the gaypride theme (copyright Karlstein)

nope, the parade still hadn’t started. More people who decorated their boat and wanted to observe the parade from their boat. Unfortunately I had the bridge’s chains in my field of view (copyright Karlstein)

more and more spectators on their boats find their way to the canals to watch the parade. (copyright Karlstein)

the bridge was soon getting crowded (copyright Karlstein)

Oddly enough this lady is single (according to her T-shirt)

the AIDS fond mourning for their colleagues who have been aboard the plane shot down over Ukraine. Still not the beginning of the parade. (copyright Karlstein)

 

The AIDS fond boat. Not strictly a participant. (copyright Karlstein)

copyright Karlstein

note the mass of spectator boats on the right and how crowded the bridge on the right side is. (copyright Karlstein)

The police boats clearing the canal for the parade. (copyright Karlstein)

this boat an actual participant of the parade was shooting confetti which wasn’t much to my liking. (copyright Karlstein)

the gay Moroccan boat. (copyright Karlstein)

Exodays/the gay Jewish boat. (copyright Karlstein)

on the Exodays boat.

Exodays and one and a half tablet. (copyright Karlstein)

some more boats coming around the corner. (copyright Karlstein)

rainbow gate over one of the many, many venues. (copyright: Karlstein)

some of the canals were lined with metal fences (copyright Karlstein)

crowds next to the canal (copyright Karlstein)

one of the many posters standing around advertising all of the events in association with gay pride (way too many to attend all) (copyright Karlstein)

house at one of the canals (copyright Karlstein)

that looks like to old pink bedding sheets hung out of a window (copyright Karlstein)

masses of people

gay Californian flag (copyright Karlstein)

OutTV’s boat is on the canal. You just can’t see the canal anymore with all the people attending the parade) (copyright Karlstein)

another boat on the canal where you can’t see the canal anymore (copyright Karlstein)

attendees (copyright Karlstein)

some weird street decoration (I wouldn’t want this in my flat) (copyright Karlstein)

street scene with oversized pink bottle (copyright Karlstein)

(copyright Karlstein)

house with gaypride flag and colourful balloons and I think a Welsh flag not properly unfurled (copyright Karlstein)

That was a boat sponsored by one of the banks, I think (copyright Karlstein)

A bunch of gay & bi Egyptian god & goddesses. Though I haven’t found my Hathor there (copyright Karlstein)

the google boat. (copyright Karlstein)

(copyright Karlstein)

(copyright Karlstein)

copyright Karlstein

COC boat. The COC is the leading LGBT rights organisation of the Netherlands. The text reads “There still a lot to fight for. Fight with us” (copyright Karlstein)

Couple crossing the crowded street. (copyright Karlstein)

LGBT service personnel. (copyright Karlstein)

the Vodafone boat (copyright Karlstein)

cafe adorned with flags (copyright Karlstein)

gaypride flag from a private house in central Amsterdam (copyright Karlstein)

street impression (copyright Karlstein)

Someone just lost her skirt and I absolutely love the woman’s face on the right (copyright Karlstein)

the print on the high visibility vest reads: police. Pink in Blue.
(copyright: Karlstein)

dolce vita in Amsterdam: outside the pubs on Sunday (copyright Karlstein)

impressive gay pride flag (copyright Karlstein)

spotted in central Amsterdam on Sunday (copyright: Karlstein)

pub with gaypride flags (copyright Karlstein)

I found more gaypride flags (copyright Karlstein)

and more gay pride flags (copyright Karlstein)

this shop closes at 5p.m. due to the gay pride parade (the shop keeper was likely busy celebrating)

gay flags appear to be on sale everywhere. At least this shop specialising in sailing & boat equipment (incl flags) stocked some. (copyright Karlstein)

hard to determine which shops/businesses were not rainbow coloured. (copyright Karlstein.)

all the freebies I could collect (copyright Karlstein)

 

A few impressions not to do with gay events…

 

Locks bearing couples’ names locked to a bridge. Seen in Amsterdam. (copyright Karlstein)

An Amsterdam attraction I didn’t visit: The cheese house (you may guess why) (copyright: Karlstein)

the trams in Amsterdam all have a logo/pattern in addition to a number. This labelling system stems from a time when illiteracy was more common – when the trams were still horse-drawn.

 

different pattern/logo on tram #14

one of the closed market stalls in Amsterdam. I didn’t know that the stalls were so pretty (copyright Karlstein)

another closed market stall. (copyright Karlstein)

The Hague has taken some of its older trams out of the depot. (copyright Karlstein)

cat sleeping in a hop window (not the first time that I’ve seen cats in shops inside shops in the Netherlands) (copyright Karlstein)

 

yet another way to ruin your date (tried and tested by me)

As spring is now over and summer has arrived and I still haven’t had  “proper dates” as some of my friends put it and they decided to change that. So for the past weeks I’ve heard almost countless suggestion on whom I could or should see and what I could do to change my single status.

I finally agreed to a date and since I’ve seen the woman briefly before and she’s a friend of a friend the first date was going to take place at her place. She is Belgian, smart and good-looking. So I was excited to meet her and should the expression “agreeing to a date” have a negative undertone I can assure  that this isn’t the case.

The first problem arose when she contacted me that she couldn’t get all the required ingredients for the dish we planned to cook. The only ingredient she couldn’t get was “cilantro” as she put it and I have to admit that I had to consult the internet to find out that “cilantro” is the North American term for “coriander” (she had also used terms like “pants” for “trousers” or “zucchini” for “courgette” previously). After I figured out that I had a nearly full bag of coriander in my kitchen I offered to bring it to which she agreed.

Her face was priceless when she watched me taking out the small bag of coriander (and labelled as such) out of my bag.

“Hang on! You’ve brought coriander! Does that taste similar to cilantro?!” she exclaimed.

That was the moment when I couldn’t keep a straight face any more. I know it is not nice especially considering that she isn’t a native speaker and hasn’t lived in the UK for long but her sudden confusion about American English when she previously had extensively used American terms was just too funny in that situation.

The good things about the evening to follow was that the food turned out to be excellent. The bad things about the evening was that the atmosphere was somewhat dampened and my date appeared to be very hesitant to talk.

Though for the next date I know that I am gonna avoid foods like chips (or fries), courgettes (zucchinis), aubergine (eggplant) or coriander (cilantro) – unless of course I am gonna date British in which case chips with beans are not only linguistically acceptable but also suitable for a date between Brits. 😉

you know your colleague is gay when….

…he feels compelled to place an air refresher in the restrooms at work.

 

This was at least what I was thinking when I heard that this is exactly what Daniel did simply because there were none and according to him every bathroom has got to have one.

Urgent: British Nationalists uncover secret plan by Gays and Bisexuals to take over the UK

Dear Fellow Conspirators of the most honourable “Unholy Alliance”,

I am writing this open letter to regretfully inform you that the BNP Youth organisation has uncovered our Unholy Alliance’s sneaky plan to destroy everything positive about Britain from sliced bread to fish & chips through the introduction of gay marriage.

In the light of exposure of our well-guarded secret plan I suggest that we meet in our local gay friendly synagogues to plot the efficient poisoning of all wells to eradicate the heterosexual British bakers  living a traditional family who produce sliced bread and then replace sliced bread with gay bagels  in every major supermarket chain to make every Brit currently straight like a ruler as gay as Graham Norton in a pink Miss Piggy-swim suit.

Best Gay wishes, Kim

 

Another censoring out of homophobic offenders’ religious backgrounds for fear of not being politically correct?

I was more than relieved to read that the thugs suspected to have brutally beaten up a gay man in New York were arrested but I couldn’t help but notice that Pink News omitted any further information  on the suspected offenders. But at least I was lucky to find out more information including a photograph showing one of the arrested when I looked at NY Daily News. It turns out that all of the five arrested men are Hasidim (a branch of ultra-orthodox Judaism) and at least two of the arrested are thought to be members of the Shomrim, an organisation made up of volunteering ultra-orthodox Jews who patrol the streets and are supposed to uphold order or the kind of order that passes in ultra-orthodox Judaism for order. Given that Hasidic order doesn’t take a positive view on homosexuality the alleged perpetrators’ religious affiliation may have been a crucial information in this case making Pink News’ omission even weirder.

The only logic explanation is that Pink News didn’t want to reveal their religious background because it’s a minority – despite the fact that the background may have played a key part in perpetuating the crime.

Yes, it’s true there are many antisemitic conspiracy theories out there portraying Jews in a negative to disgusting way and there are several countries where Jews are still discriminated against and the sentiment to not feed those conspiracy theories is in itself honourable though it is terribly wrong in this case. In this case there was a majority of ultra-orthodox Jewish thugs beating up a solitary homosexual.

If Pink News was afraid that its readers could develop antisemitic prejudices based upon the action of few jewish individuals who are certainly not representative of Jews as a group they could have provided a link to an overview of different jewish denominations and explained their different attitude towards homosexuality. Combatting prejudice by information is certainly more productive than attempting to prevent prejudice by withholding information.

To make a start it should be remembered that Israel (currently the only nation with a Jewish majority) has anti-discrimination laws to protecting LGBT people and bigger Israeli cities host gay pride parades with Tel Aviv which has also been elected the world’s best city for gays naturally having the biggest parade. Furthermore there are Jewish denomination  that back LGBT rights (and Pink News has covered it).

So I really can’t see any reason why the average Pink News reader should fall for antisemitic prejudices just because a few thugs not representing an entire group of people may have committed a crime.

 

Guess where those words have been uttered…

Then I’ll need to put vaseline on my fingers and put them into the hole.

If you guessed a cell biology lab you’d of course be correct. This sentence has had nothing to do with some kind of dodgy venue or practice. More precisely the centrifuge’s closing mechanism (in the image framed by the two black rubber rings) needed to be greased.

It wasn’t making things much when the technician greasing the centrifuge was loudly musing whether she should have become a gynaecologist or proctologist whilst greasing the holes.

centrifuge (similar to the one in the incident) with rubber framed holes which on occasion need greasing.
(copyright: Retama, image used under the GNU Free Documentation License)

 

 

Maybe Charly shouldn’t turn to an ex-lover for dating advice?

“You good to talk?” Charly sounded like it was important – after all she didn’t even bother to ask me how I was doing and additionally it was a bit late for Charly’s normal calls.

“You know I think Claire…” Claire was Charly’s date whom she had seen for a couple of times and they appeared to be having a great time.

“Yes?” I was fearing that Claire had decided that  there would be no further dates.

“I think that Claire may be a bit … well, weird.” Charly was careful & hesitant when uttering the last word.

“Weird? What do you mean?” I was really under the impression that they were having a great time together and now I was getting more confused by the minute. Was there any sense behind this phone call?

“I haven’t told you but the first time I was at hers and I took of my shoes she asked me which shoe size I wear.”

Charly’s shoe size or the size of her feet really aren’t bad or worrying at all. I  know that Charly has another issue with her feet and as such doesn’t like to discuss her feet at all.

“Another time Claire was touching me feet when… you know.”

Oho. I thought that I started to understand the problem. Charly always makes sure that she applies antiperspirants to her feet and she does that for a reason. So any occupation with her feet are something that always reminds her it is a problem zone. Though if her feet were giving her (and Claire) problems the last thing I’d done is touching the feet. I’m very certain that anyone who hasn’t got a fetish for feet would exactly do the same and avoid contact.

“and then, then she bought me socks as a present!” Charly wasn’t amused.

“What’s so bad about that?!” I seriously wasn’t getting it. Charly has a problem with her feet but no emergency has occurred and her date appeared to like her feet and apparently hasn’t even discovered the problem. So by any normal standards Charly should by now be over the moon. But she wasn’t. Far from it.

“WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT IT!?” Charly certainly wasn’t amused. “Seriously can’t you see it?!”

“No, I seriously don’t see your problem.” I was trying hard but I nevertheless failed.

“Look, how weird does anyone have to be to ask me about my shoe size, touch my feet – when you know and buy me socks as a present?”

I have to admit that it is certainly weird to be very occupied with Charly’s feet. But I never imagined it to be a problem for Charly.

“Oh, are you still jealous?!”

True, it was Charly who had broken up with me. (Note for anyone who has no or little experience with lesbians: it is fairly normal that ex-girlfriends still get along very well.)

“No, I’m not jealous. What are you talking about?” I was getting annoyed and unfortunately I wasn’t very good at hiding it.

“Well, otherwise you wouldn’t be so unsupportive when I’m facing this! Do you have any more to say?” Now Charly was annoyed as well. – Maybe lesbian ex-girlfriends don’t get along as well as previously assumed?

But in order not to destroy the last chance of getting along with Charly I didn’t reply that I’d loved to add that I’m absolutely speechless about Claire’s fascination with Charly’s feet. After all I had the pleasure of the problem without antiperspirants once and it genuinely puzzles me how anyone could touch Charly’s feet, let alone volunteeringly touch Charly’s feet.

Andra, a Flyer and the Missionars (in short: Andra’s epic win)

“What is that?”, Andra wondered pointing at what looked like a long table with a group of four or five people standing behind the table. The table was standing right on the pavement and we were just heading from the pub to a club.

Lubor started walking sharply to the left to investigate the unusual table sight.

The next thing we knew was that the people behind the table were a christian group giving out free hot drinks to anyone. Whilst we waited for the coffee Lubor had asked for two of the Christians started talking to Andra and me about life in general and Christianity more specifically.

“Do you really think that this is what Got wants?” asked one of the Christians after Andra had let it slip that we were on our way to a gay club.

“At least he didn’t try to stop us so far”, Andra replied not hiding the fact that she had taken offence over that last question.

“Are we all good to go?”, Lubor turned up with a plastic mug full of hot coffee in his hand looking from Andra to me and back.

“Oh yeah, we are.” Andra said without hesitation.

“Guys, before you go….” the Christian started fiddling in his shirt’s chest pocket, produced a flyer and handed it over to Andra “I want you to have this. It’s an invitation to church. Remember that God loves you and that Jesus is…”

Andra interrupted: “Yeah, I think I’ll keep that flyer well and warm and in a place close to my heart”. And then she stuffed the flyer right down into her (impressive) cleavage.

The Christian’s mouth stood open.

“It never has been treated that warmly, has it?”, Andra asked before getting into motion.

In this case I may have been a bit slow over a couple of years – or: I can’t explain why this slipped my pink radar

In case you do not know Kate Bush’s song “Kashka from Baghdad”you should really listen to it (here are the lyrics). In case you don’t know who Kate Bush is, you’re pardoned if you’re below a certain age, if you happen to be above a certain age and a British citizen and don’t know who Kate Bush is there should be a legal possibility to revoke your citizenship (after all she is one of the greatest British musicians of our time).

Whilst I know who Kate Bush is and have listened to Kashka from Baghdad number of times I never realised that Kashka is a male name. I always thought the song is about a woman fleeing an unhappy marriage and then living “with another man” somewhere else and this is the reason why Kashka lives “in sin”.

But now (after a couple of years admittedly) that I figured out that Kashka is a male name I realise that the reason why Kashka lives “in sin” is that he lives with “another man” as opposed to living with a woman.

So there’s a really great (gay) song that I knew and I never realised how gay it was until now.

My head is hung in shame.

That was sweet. Thanks to the unidentified easter bunny

This morning to which I wasn’t looking forward after the long weekend (sorry to all of you who live in areas where you didn’t have a long weekend) I found several, well: two, lovely surprises in the form of easter eggs.

One was “hidden” on top of the computer screen (possibly to make the search easier?) and the second one taped on the inside of the folder lying on top of my desk.

At least this week starts very sweet – for me.

The unidentified easter bunny’s efforts to sweeten the start of the week were undermined by a colleague who not only had found her two easter eggs after which she complained that she was growing  fat anyway (see also: heterosexual problems) but then nevertheless “found” another colleague’s (and good friend of hers) easter eggs and kept those since he isn’t coming in today anyway.

I hope that all of you who celebrate(d) Easter had a lovely & sweet easter and that all of you who celebrate(d) pesach had a lovely, sweet & kosher Pesach. Should I have forgotten any other holiday that just took place, please accept my sincerest apologies. I of course hope you had a lovely & sweet holiday as well.