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Amsterdam set to slash spending [12 May 2012]
Financial troubles at city hall. According to the Parool, Amsterdam council has to slash spending by an extra €144m this year.
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Rolling kitchens roll back into Amsterdam [08 May 2012]
It's back! May 17 to May 20 - the Rolling Kitchens food festival in the Westerpark. Dozens of mobile kitches serving very fine bites - from pizza to oysters, and all for a very reasonable price.
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Busy bees at Cisco Amsterdam [08 May 2012]
The relentless use of the word 'sustainable' by companies to show they have a green and socially-aware side becomes extremely tedious at times, especially when they talk about 'sustainable banking' and the like.
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Dot Amsterdam [08 May 2012]
Amsterdam city council has applied to buy new top level internet domain name .amsterdam, according to local broadcaster RTV Noord-Holland.
The council made the application to the international domain authority ICANN in Paris. The initial cost of .amsterdam will be €140,000 plus €13,000 a year, the broadcaster says.
The city, which at one point was considering giving every resident their own .amsterdam email address, plans to earn back the money by selling domains to companies.
Smile, you're on a Dam square camera [05 May 2012]
There are, according to Saturday's Parool, 77 surveillance and other cameras focused on Dam square and the Damrak. More than enough you might think. But no, for Friday's Remembrance Day ceremony with queenie, they had to add another eight.
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Amsterdam high schools have had their chips [03 May 2012]
Snack bars and fast food restaurants located close to secondary schools should not be allowed to sell French fries until 2pm so that pupils can't sneak out for a greasy snack at lunchtime, say Labour city councillors in the Parool.
The idea was apparently dreamt up by councillor Maarten Poorter, who was shocked during the Day of the Healthy School Canteen when pupils at the Comenius Lyceum were offered kebabs and pizza at 10.30 in the morning.
Perhaps the good councillor could turn his attention to the ubiquitous soft drinks and chocolate vending machines in every school instead? And if he is that worried about high school health, a smoking ban in the playground would not go amiss either.
Mind you, yesterday research by the World Health Organisation showed that yet again Dutch teenagers are the happiest in Europe - so we shouldn't take too much away from them....
Fewer people but just as much rubbish in Amsterdam [02 May 2012]
There might have been fewer people in Amsterdam on Queen's Day this year but they left just as much rubbish as ever behind them, city council officials say in the Parool. So far, binmen have picked up 100 tonnes of crap in the city centre alone.
Naples aan de Amstel [24 April 2012]
Perhaps the title of this entry is a little unfair on Naples. After all, there were reasons why garbage piled up on the streets there. Here in Westerpark we have no such excuse - apart from our anti-social residents.
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New best terrace in town [11 April 2012]
It's cold and windy and not exactly terrace weather but this is my new favourite place for a sundowner.
Apparently 38,000 people have already visited the new Eye Institute on the banks of the IJ (yes a pun...) in Noord. We will all be queuing up to watch the sunsets when the spring really starts.
Amsterdam's canal ring residents are not lefties after all [07 April 2012]
For some reason in the Netherlands, the people who lived in the 17th century canal rings of Amsterdam are regarded in populist circles as being left wing. The likes of Geert Wilders like to refer to the linkse grachtengordel elite. But according to the Parool, it's just not true.
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Holidays with a hoover [20 March 2012]
There are some very, very irritating adverts around - such as speed skater Mark Tuitert and his 'last Bueno'.
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Gin no tonic [19 March 2012]
Our local Gall & Gall used to keep the tonic close to the entrance, underneath the hot air blower, so it was always warm. I always used to ask them to get the tonic from the back shop because it was too hot to use, even if you filled the glass with ice cubes.
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