All you need

In ever sleazier Amsterdam.

I hate the place, I really do. When I first visited Amsterdam in about 1991, we stayed in a hotel called 'Ronnie', somewhere right in the centre. It appears still to exist, if the internet is anything to go by, but remains dirt cheap with rooms from 18 euros. That ought to ring a bell, and indeed when we stayed in it it was a truly terrible experience with dirt and bugs and whatever... Never again, I said. We were going to a conference. There was *absolutely* no reason to end up in a flea pit.

While the red light areas were more or less confined in the early 1990s, and I remember visiting a friend who was then working in Amsterdam who had a really nice flat in Prinsengracht or Herengracht overlooking the canal, now it seems that sleaze, in the form of cheap hotels, red light activities, erotic shops and fast food has spread everywhere across the historic centre. Meanwhile, the place is packed, full of drunks and druggies, and just not my sort of place at all.

But needs must, I had to spend an afternoon in Amsterdam to go to a couple of sessions at a conference and commune with some colleagues. It was a relief to go back to sleepy Tilburg on the train, and be met by a lovely reception committee at the station. Now we are waiting for our take away food to be ready, and we're going to eat on the terrace. Excellent.

Today's link is a tale of mathematics. Brett Forrest on a 'shattered genius'.