Amsterdam redux

The conspiracy to rob me of sleep continues. The latest culprit: our globe. You know the one; we walk around on it daily, occasionally see it from above (usually accompanied by tearful commentary by a patriotic, awe-struck astronaut), but we don't really think about it and we certainly don't know what it thinks of us. Point being, Amsterdam is far north enough that the tilt of the globe or the hemispheric dissonance in the atmosphere or some other climatic phenomenon I don't really understand means that the nights here are disorientingly (or, for you Brits, "disorientatingly") short. Last night I realized it was still fully light out, looked at my watch to check the time and was appalled (and not a little enraged) to find that it was almost ten at night. Damned hard to sleep when it's bright as day out at such a late hour. I had always thought that there was a global conspiracy to prevent me from getting decent sleep. Now I realize that the globe itself is orchestrating it.

So one of the things I did while waiting for the sleep pixies to visit last night was flip around on the tv in my room, expecting that I'd find loads of soccer shows on the sports channels. In fact I did not, but discovered to my dismay that the newest, hottest Eurosport is...darts. Yes, that game you play at a bar when you're bored with the company you keep and are willing to engage even in a dull game involving minimal skill just to pass the time. Not only is darts popular and televised, but there are apparently darts stars who dominate the sport (several of whom are Dutch, which might explain why the sport is all over the TV here). It appears that in order to be a player on the darts circuit, outrageously bad facial hair is a must. All that said, I watched the whole damned show (it seemed likely to put me to sleep), so in case you're wondering the guy with the handlebar moustache just edged the dude with the Grizzly Adams beard on his final throw (or fling, or hurl, or whatever).