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The Adventures in Amsterdam - July 28th 2014

 A short story based on the true events that happened to me today.

After having slept quite badly my alarm clock woke me from some strange dreams at 8.30. After snoozing twice I managed to drag myself from the comfortable sanctuary that is my nest (known to other people as a bed. unless it's mine in which case people not only call a nest but a pig sty, stable, cot etc.) I showered and ate breakfast to the sound of the light pitter-patter of what seemed to be the entire English channel being dropped right on top of our heads.

Deciding I'd rather not swim to work I thought I would go on the brilliant public transport network which webs through the great city of Amsterdam. As I walked to the bus/tram-stop I watched the road, as I always do, to see if a tram goes by with out me. The street in front of me had transformed into a fast flowing river with a current threatening to drag me with it. As any human will do, I tried to tip-toe across the street to minimize the wetness of my feet. This was hopeless however, as the water almost drowned me, so I soon gave up.

When I arrived at the bus/tram-stop I checked the timetable. Either the tram is coming in two minutes time or have just missed one, I thought, as I did not see one go by I assumed the the first statement is the correct one. By this time the rain was seeping through my (not-so) Shower-proof coat. I waited for a while until I saw two trams at the stop before mine and Instinctively check the time doing the math in my head. Nothing to worry about I have ample time to get to work on time, I think. Until The tram started moving. We were moving so slowly I think I could almost see people rowing down the river of the street faster than we are moving. In my minds-eye I could see people over taking us by swimming. With a slight knot in the pit of my stomach I returned my attention to my book (which is AWSOME by the way). We were going so slowly that when we got to the traffic lights at Museumplein I had hardly noticed we had not moved for I while. I looked up and watched the tidal waves that the cars made and the poor victims being swept out to sea. The tram stayed still. I did the math watching the clock thinking, If we leave now I could still be on time. After about ten minutes I decided to call my manager saying, “I think I may be late.” He replied, “please, hurry we can use all hands on deck.” I thought this strange as It was Monday morning in the summer holidays when it is at its most quiet. I assumed that it was the rain that people were taking shelter from.

The tram stood still at the traffic light for about twenty-five minutes. I waded from the bus/tram-stop to my work getting tThe Adventures in Amsterdam - July 28th 2014here about twenty minutes late. There was no one in the office where we are supposed to 'report for duty' as it were so I was looking around wondering what to do when a colleague of mine said, “The manager said that if I see you I should tell you to go down to the mirror corridor (this is literally translated from what we call it in dutch. it is the down stairs corridor where the toilets are) with a mop. Thinking I need to mop under the urinals to prevent it getting smelly I went down stairs to find that water had crept under the door into the storeroom which one now had to swim through.

My manager was busy hoovering the water up with a water-vacuum. He told me to take my mop and mop up the water in the mens restroom. Let me tell you this is very slow work. if you were ever debating trowing two buckets of water on the floor so you could mop it up to do something or why ever you would want to do this I advise you not to or you should at least know that it took me over an hour to mop it up.

After that I moved to the the ladies restroom which took me just under another hour. After this I had to mop both of them again with clean hot water because the water on the bathroom floors was the colour of black coffee (One of the reasons I do not drink it. Coffee I mean) I had been busy for well over two hours when I had to go and do the job I was supposed to do. Checking tickets, denying people the use of our toilets (because we want to prevent becoming a public toilet) and giving people information they either do not want or will not listen to.

Over the walky-talky (we refer to them by fancy names but walky-talkies are basically what they are) I heard that the front few rows of the auditorium of screen 4 (Is that correct? I have no idea what one calls cinema rooms) had flooded too. We spent the rest of the day sucking the water there up as much we could in between films.

I will end this thrilling tale of water and almost drowning with a thought that crossed my mind while mopping, today I did not work in a cinema, I worked in a swimming pool.