More English Skating & other Adventures.
Believe it or not, but skating appears to be extremely popular here in the UK. Well in any case, the Alexandra Palace Ice Rink (not open-air like Sommerset House, but also cheaper and no one-hour time limit) in North London was literally packed. Eventually three brave skaters showed up (plus me, makes 4), one Englishman, one Italian, and one American, but before being able to display their superior ice-skills they had to wait in traditional English queues for well over an hour in total to, first, get a ticket, and second, get skates. But we made it! We will not let English efficiency get in our way, nay, our right to skate on proper ice. So, after Tuesday's first on ice-hockey skates, I now had my first on figure-skates (there must be lead in those, btw). It was a great success, despite this being, on average, the second time on ice in my fellow students's lives, only one fell (the Italian), and that only once. But did I say it was busy? It was. I don't think I was quite expecting it, but it appears that quite a number of Dutch stereotypes about the outside world don't really go (for the UK at least):

1. Drop, or Liquorice, is in fact well known around here, and not only here (in the UK), but also in Scandinavia where at least the Fins apparently have a great diversity of Dropjes. Overhere, we find at least, as expected, the so-called Engelse Drop (freely available at Sainsbury's) and also various other sorts, as explained to me by one of the natives, although the various names escape me at the moment.
2. Stroopwafels, another ex-pat heimweh-object is, thanks to globalisation (or something like it) freely available at the local Starbuck's, and the UCL Union Coffee Bar!
3. English (London) weather, when compared to the Weather Forecasts of our beloved NOS 8 Uur Journaal, compares favourably. What dreariness? Although ... Unfortunately, chances are we won't be skating on Thames anytime soon (what with those whales and all...)

Anyways, to wrap up the story: the people at this ice-rink definitely knew how to skate just as well as any Dutch(wo)man, although indeed speed ice-skating is quite unknown. Still - we have seen the results at recent World Championships - in the USA it has recently become pretty popular among High School kids. So, we skated for about an hour and then we got off, off to Harrod's. Other side of town, who cares? But we went there, because there I would get my present: a bowl of ice-cream at the ice parlour in Harrod's. Random, but nice, I'd say, and I hadn't been to Harrod's yet. The ice-cream was good, although somewhat overpriced, but I didn't need to care about that and it came in great quantities: the four of us shared two bowls. Harrod's is a busy place, in the early evening during sale! It's lit like a christmas tree outside and packed inside, and what surprised me: large parts of it didn't look all that different from your average V&D or Bijenkorf, except maybe some extra weird & fancy stuff. How about: a clothes department for your dog ... Huge bottles of perfume.. A chocolate making machine.. A rumoured room full of Antiquities for sale.. Luv'ly fake Ancient-Egyptian style escalators and halls (remember: Egyptian-owned business), and Di-and-Dody Memorial fountain/portraits/shrine type of thing, with one of the most original immortality symbols I ever saw: "You Look at 30,000,000 years" (a piece of petrified wood). But other places were quite spectacular to see, especially the food hall, and then especially the bit where you could buy prepared meals and 'canapés' (hapjes). Makes you hungry, although prices can cure easily here. Ever wondered how much a kilo of Beluga Caviar costs? Think about: 3,200 pounds. I'd hope they'd give that nice mother of pearl spoon with it (otherwise: 11.65! Bargain!). Must admit I was tempted to buy a 'baby' Stilton for 10 pounds. Might have been a tad too much Stilton for a one person household.

OK, enough ramblings. Does it show I tried reading an entire book that I really didn't want to read today? "The Nuer: a description of the modes of livelyhood of a Nilotic People" by E.E. Evans-Pritchard, heartily recommended. Especially the bits about Kinship Structure And The Relation To An Acephalous State are always a cracker.

Goede Nacht.