Day 3: Wednesday 12th February
CloudMaster:
My phone alarm goes off and drag my weary carcass out of my bed
. I’m really not with it this morning, even brushing my teeth is an effort. I go to the kitchen and make myself a brew and roll a wake n bake. Excel is still lying in his pit catching flies, judging by his snoring it was a good thing I had the back bedroom.
My lungs feel battered this morning, all that smoking, vaping and the incense sticks burning all night have taken their toll. I finish my smoke and wake Excel with a second boil of the kettle. He tells me off for letting him sleep, I’m not fussed as its going to be a slow morning for me. I’m so stoned from the previous 2 days that I hardly notice the effects of the wake n bake
.
We both drink copious amounts of the tea so after yet another brew we decide it’s time to get ready and start making our way to meet Padge near De Pijp. I tease Excel about last night, he finally made a brew after offering several times but forgetting. The tea he made was pretty unique, mine is a little milky so I head to the kitchen to find another teabag, as I go to stir the tea I notice my sugar cubes have not dissolved, the penny drops as I realise that he has forgotten to boil the kettle, that’s what I called stoned
.
We leave the apartment and head for the Waterlooplein after agreeing dinner time with the apartment staff. Excel is cooking his piri piri chicken tonight which I’m very much looking forward to. We jump on the metro at the Waterlooplein and jump off after 2 stops, Padge is waiting for us on the platform. We stop at the supermarket for a few bits then head straight in to De Pijp via the Albert Cuyp market.
1st stop is Yo-Yo, this place is under refurbishment and everything is being packed up for storage, they will operate out of a container from next week. As we walk in I notice the very large play area outside, will the new laws change the way this place operates? I’m not overly impressed by their wares but Padge does try some cheap outdoor Friese, it’s not bad for the price.
We move round to Ibiza now and this place has a good menu, some old favourites but also new strains, didn’t look at the hash. From here on my report becomes sketchy around what was purchased etc so please excuse the vagueness, hopefully Padge will recall the correct purchases? We all buy something from here, we stay for about half an hour as it’s a nice coffeeshop but the music is not to any of our tastes.
Things get very blurry from here on but I think we have a look at Club Media, nothing on the menu stands out for me and the Budtenderess tells us that there is nowhere to sit right now so we move on. We look around quickly but decide that if we go to Katsu now there will be seats.
Katsu is the last nail in my coffin, up until now my tolerances have been good and I’ve not reached that saturation point. Excel and Padge head off to the counter to see what’s on offer, I think I have enough to keep me going until the afternoon so don’t buy anything. We notice that they have a water cooled vape and are soon sat at the table with a Japanese chap who shows us how to use it.
I’m very very stoned by now and consider my options, do I have a go and end up comatose and unsociable or pass and save for myself for later. Peer pressure ensues and I give in. Smoking Bubblegum in a vape at lunchtime was not the best idea but that was just the beginning. Padge has met the Japanese fellow before and recalls that he is an antiques dealer and we are all soon acquainted, he leads an interesting life travelling all over the world and had lived in many places so had some good stories to tell.
We spend an hour so in here smoking and vaping. Things get silly as I start to roll cocktails, the Japanese chaps remarks that my rolls are strong and that I like to mix, I explain that we have been smoking like fools since we got Amsterdam on Monday morning and he laughs. The Japanese chap has an apprentice who does not sit at the table with us, felt awkward as he approached his boss every so often with bits of paper he was working on at another table. As I say, it’s turning in to a heavy session when Excel passes the Parvati Pollen to the Japanese chap and tells him to put that in the vape. He uses his pen knife and puts a little on top of some ground bubble gum for the vape and all 4 of us are now enjoying this.
I realise then that I’ve hit my threshold, I can’t get any more stoned than this, saturation point reached. I ask Excel if my eyes look red or stoned as I rarely suffer from outward signs and he says I look no different than this morning, I tell Excel and Padge that I’m mega stoned and they laugh
.
We decide to head back to the apartment as Excel is keen to make a start on dinner now that everyone has such high expectations for supper. We also have one last big blowout planned for tonight as Excel will not smoke tomorrow so are keen not to waste the whole afternoon. With that in mind we say a farewell to the Japanese chap and Excel makes him the offer dinner, he declines graciously and we leave Katsu after thanking the staff.
Back at the apartment we unload the day’s purchases and admire our collection of bags which we still have plenty of. It’s decided that we need to get a push on with the smoking this afternoon as there is so much left. Excel makes some final preparations for dinner and then we all get stuck in to smoking and vaping for a couple of hours.
Conversations seem a little surreal as we are all very stoned and we start talking about things like being stuck on a dessert island with just one strain of bud, what would your choice be? Etc. Padge makes a confession about his love for all things purple which I think is fairly appropriate on account of his avatar name. Excel moves upstairs to arrange the cooking of dinner and the staff agree to provide an accompaniment to the main course whilst Padge and I discuss his time in the city, what he likes about the place, how long he plans on staying etc.
Whilst Excel is cooking, Padge and I come to the conclusion that as this is our last night in the city we should hit a special coffeeshop, we had discussed 1e Le Hulp as I’d been there briefly on my last trip but did not have the time to stay and enjoy the place. Padge says the Hulp is the perfect last night gathering place and says he will come depending on how his GF is feeling. Padge leaves on Excel’s announcement that dinner will be 5 minutes, he says he wants come out tonight and will keep his fingers crossed that his GF is agreeable.
Excel is keen to eat with the staff upstairs and tries to convince me to join him, I’m so stoned I would embarrass myself, they are used to it he says but I’m not in the mood. I just need half an hour without conversation, eat and then I would be recharged. Excel concedes and brings me down a starter of the piri piri chicken which I devour with vigour, not had breakfast or lunch today. He tells me there is more to come with steamed rice which is a good thing as I’m starving. I put butter on my rice as I’ve always done since I was child and Excel joins me, surprised as he has never tried this before but as they say it’s the small things in life which give us the most pleasure.
I have to say I absolutely enjoyed the dinner and thank Excel for this treat (his cooking is ace
but tea making skills are atrocious
). Excel has been applying his charm with everyone everywhere and apartment the staff have been no exception to this, whilst cooking dinner he has convinced one of the young ladies who works there to join us on our night out. I explain to Excel that 2 is company and 3 is a crowd but he says Padge will join us, 4 almost makes a party so that’s more like it.
After dinner clear up and we are ready to head out, we hear from Padge, he can make it and will meet us in Le Hulp, the young lady from upstairs joins us as we head off for the tram stop on Rembrandtplein. As we are walking it’s clear to see that this young lady is not shy and comes across very friendly. I jokingly ask her what the attraction of a night out with us is, one silver haired and one with no hair, she laughs and replies that it would be fun, tactful lol. We laugh and joke on the tram as she pretends to never have been to a coffeeshop and plays the innocent.
The young lady gives Excel a nickname which is very fitting with his northern English heritage and keeps calling him it all night, he doesn’t seem to mind. She is struggling to understand Excel’s accent and keeps staring blankly at him and I keep having to translate, she speaks English and French from Montreal Canada. As we ride the tram I jokingly ask the young lady to translate some fairly mundane phrases from English to French and she obliges, as unpatriotic as its sounds French is very pleasing to my ears, one phrase stuck in my mind “not tonight dear, I’m washing my socks” translated to “pas ce soir chéri, je me lave les chaussettes”
We arrive at Le Hulp and it’s busier than we expected, we make our purchases. I opt for Amnesia and NYCD, not sure what Excel picks up. I go upstairs and secure seating whilst Excel and the young lady arrange drinks. As I find the seats I can see that Padge has arrived so feel relieved that I will not be playing the gooseberry tonight. As we get seated our luck runs out as a dutch couple join us on the stairs and secure the sofa before we can get there, he proceeds to spill both their coffees and heads off to find a mop.
We settle down and conversation goes from here to there with the odd misunderstanding, we find out a little about each other. The young lady is an inspiring artist and singer and soon has her camera out. I notice that she does not decline any of the smokes and particularly enjoys a 6 way cocktail, not bad smoking for a 1st timer I joked. She opens up a little more and tells us about her exciting life in Montreal and how she wants to try DMT. Padge and I are both interested in this, he has tried it once but I’ve yet to experience this. She explains that there is a place in Amsterdam where you can perform a Huyawaska ritual which involves the use of DMT, It’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea but I have shamanic interests so this was a good talking point for me.
No idea what the time is but it’s after 10 and Padge says he has to go and the young lady says she still has 4 rooms to clean so Excel and I say our goodbyes to Padge, I feel a little sad as this may be the last time we see him, tomorrow he has stuff to do. Padge has been a true gent and kept us company everyday so far, he took us to De Pijp and we had a great time thanks to his fun character
.
We jump on the tram back to apartment with the young lady and she says she will join us again tonight if she gets her cleaning done, we tell her the door will open and just to come in. My tolerance has levelled off now and I feel a little less stoned but we still have an awful lot of bags to get through.
I lay out what we have left and explain to Excel that we have to get through this tonight, he then produces a pot of lemon ice which he has purchased in Le Hulp unbeknownst to me. I tell him to get grinding and we swiftly move in to that smoke till you drop mode for our last night, we still have lots of Parvati Pollen left in the fridge too.
Around midnight the young lady comes down to wish us goodnight, she is very stoned from earlier and tired from cleaning so declines a further session with us cannaseurs as she put it. We vape and smoke till the early hours for one last time, 5am we roll a pollen bud cocktail which leaves us both beyond speech and ready for bed, Excel has managed to swing it so we can stay in the apartment till 6pm tomorrow when we both leave the City for the Airport.
As I lay down for my last night’s sleep in Amsterdam I feel the leaving blues kicking in
, last day tomorrow and I always have mixed emotions. Sad I’m leaving but glad that I’m going home.
Exceluk1:
I'm nearly there, just a little more to left to tell
)
.
. Padge & I decide that vaping is great fun and a pretty good way to consume buds but it was not as good for us as rolling, the ritual of it all just makes this the best way for me. I also found that the vape was a bit like a stoned on switch whereas smoking rolls you tend to build up to a stone slowly which works much better for me.