Skip to main content
A Day in Amsterdam
Taking a flight from Halifax to Prague, I was provided an opportunity to visit Amsterdam, seeing as I had a 12 hour layover there before the final leg of my voyage. It was a beautiful city and I'm glad I got the chance to see it.
I arrived pretty early in the morning, on Christmas Day. My first stop was the Museumplein and the Rijksmuseum. It was very early, and so nothing was open at all. I took the time to walk around the Museumplein and some of the surrounding streets while I waited for everything to open. It was a nice walk and a comfortable 8°C, making for a nice change from the heat of the plane, terminal and bus. Ravens were cawing and pigeons tried to beg food off me. I didn't have any, so they were out of luck.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Losing a loved one, as an atheist

When I was around 11 or 12, I started to question the received wisdom that there was a deity. I came to the conclusion that all signs pointed to no. Do I outright, unequivocally and without reservation deny the existence of such an entity? No. However, I don’t see it as a likely scenario, and until I’m presented with hard evidence, I have enough reason to say that there isn’t. Some people take comfort in their religious beliefs, especially their belief in an afterlife. I have no interest in an afterlife, either for myself of my loved ones. In the past five years I’ve lost both my grandmother and mother, both of whom I loved dearly. No amount of belief in an afterlife would soothe my pain. I mourn at the fact that they are lost from my life, right here, right now. I imagine it’s the same even for those who believe that the dead pass on to somewhere else. You can’t escape the fact that their tangible presence is forever gone from your life. Unless you believe in ghosts, but that’s a ...

Living with Bipolar Disorder

Feeling down when something bad happens is normal. Feeling elated when something good happens is great. Bipolar disorder is neither. Previously referred to as manic depressive disorder, bipolar disorder consists of mood episodes ranging from deep, dark depression to the sense of invincibility and superiority that is characteristic of a manic phase. It disrupts the lives of those who suffer from it and all those around them. Luckily, however, with the right course of treatment it can be kept under control. Bipolar disorder has been found to be linked genetically and physiologically to schizophrenia. A person suffering from bipolar disorder can experience the same sort of hallucinations and delusions as someone with schizophrenia. Both have a genetic component, with a number of genes interacting to create a pre-disposition to these disorders. The families of those afflicted often include others with one of these disorders, mood disorders or alcoholism. Depression is a common symptom ...

Another post

It's been over a week since I've posted here, and I apologize to my loyal readers who have probably all headed to the hills. Twitter has been keeping me distracted, while my bipolar disorder and newly-diagnosed ADHD have left me feeling less than effective. It's hard to push yourself to try to succeed when you feel you've been so far from stellar that bothering with anything is a waste of time. But things are picking up. I'm on new medication, I have great friends, an incredibly supportive wife and a window into new techniques to help keep my problems in check. There's definitely a gleam of hope where a short while ago there was none. I'd love to find employment, but my chosen field of expertise, software development, seems to be yielding little, if any, job prospects in the area. I can always cast out a wider net in my search, since so far I've only looked at Nova Scotia. However New Brunswick and PEI are both a stone's throw away. PEI is apparently...