Nimby

This is one of the main squares in Amsterdam - right in front of the royal palace. Currently filled with a very large, loud funfair. I wouldn't stand for that if I were King, but perhaps he likes funfairs more than me.

Today we wandered through some lovely bits of Amsterdam (and some bits we shouldn't have stumbled into that required a bit of explanation) to the Botanic Gardens - the idea being to get the bit of the day that was for Me out of the way early. Actually the kids loved it even more than me and, though it is tiny, it sucked up over two hours and by the time we got to the zoo, the queue was round the block.

A quick rejig of time and the kids (who do not tolerate queues well) decided the zoo should wait until tomorrow.

Instead, we went to a diamond factory for a tour - very interesting but will mainly be remembered for the moment when the tour guide with great ceremony said 'here's the biggest diamond I can show you' and TallGirl piped up into the respectful hush that followed, 'oh look Mammy it's nearly as big as your one'. (It was much bigger - and at 42,000 euros I should hope it's not something someone would wear to do the washing up and gardening!)

Then a meander through a flea market to look at items more in our price range (TallGirl was delighted to discover 'the exact same watch' that she'd seen in the diamond shop for a tenth the price...)

Next a ME trip to my favourite shoe shop for new hiking boots and an impulse purchase of some bowling shoes that are officially (with the benefit of backblipping this tomorrow) The Comfiest Shoes Ever.

Then home to dine on salad (it's early in the holiday for me to be craving salad) and listen to Mr B's tales of stress from the office.