We went to see Bill’s doctor, who was a GP but he was into alternative kind of therapies. When he checked me over the following morning he said that we’d pierced the first meninges, but he didn’t seem overly concerned. He told me to eat Jello and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. I had a cough, so I was a bit like a whale – every time I coughed, some fluid would come out of the hole in my head. He gave me some medicine for that and also prescribed me some kind of Chinese herbal remedy. I think maybe we did it in the wrong place because there is an artery there somewhere which is quite close to the surface, so in retrospect maybe we should have done it in a slightly different place. 

Last Saturday, I travelled to Amsterdam to watch the annual Canal Parade. This year was the biggest-ever event, with over 80 boats taking part. It’s reckoned that there were over 400,000 onlookers, including yours truly.

I was fortunate enough to get a good spot on the balcony of Cafe Werck, thanks to Nancy and Piet-Jan of Shell’s Pink Pearl LGBT network. From here, sandwiched between the Anne Frank House and the Westerkerk, I got rather carried away and took (as I later totted up) 2,149 photos of the event. After a few days, I’ve now whittled these down to a mere 496 photos of the parade itself, 26 photos of the Shell boat, and 76 photos of onlookers, passersby and sundry characters.

This was a good parade. First because there were more boats than ever before, but also because of the message sent by politicians such as the Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, and the Minister of Education and Culture, Ronald Plasterk, by their participation in the parade.

The Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen:

The Minister of Education and Culture, Ronald Plasterk:

The full set of photos of the parade that I took can be found here; the photos of Shell’s Pink Pearl boat can be found here, and a variety of photos of onlookers, passersby, and characters hanging around the parade can be found here. Lastly, I draw your attention to the HIVOS boat, with its sombre message that not everybody is free to celebrate. Never a truer word was spoken.