The city symbol for Amsterdam is three X’s which stand for heroism, resolution, and compassion (as well as the three threats that the city has overcome - water, fire and pestilence). I happen to think it very conveniently symbolizes in graphic terms the three favorite mottos of Amsterdam: “No”, “Nee”, and, “It is not possible”.

DAY ONE - TUESDAY

We waited two and a half months for Customs to clear our shit and all we got was this shitty ladder. As well as not being able to reach the third floor level (which they found out by almost putting it through the second story window), the mechanism on the platform that moves everything up the ladder was also broken. This took 4 hours to figure out. Then they said they would come back tomorrow.

DAY TWO - WEDNESDAY

The new and improved ladder arrived early in the morning, so I thought I’d make myself a cup of Nescafe before moving everything away from third level window. When I finally looked outside to see their progress, the ladder was gone and so was the van. An hour and half later, there was a buzz at the door. It must be them…

WHY, IT’S THE FOREIGN POLICE - “HOI!”

Five of them. Three cops, and two agents, one of whom looked like he was from “The Matrix”.

Apparently the movers had a permit to take up the street in order to move-in our things yesterday, but conveniently forgot to get a street permit for TODAY. A trip down to City Hall to extend the permit showed that there were too many residents registered at our address: myself and Pierre, as well as the landlord and his family who have sinced moved to Malaysia. Officers were dispatched to our house immediately.

We were told to show identification, and one Matrix-looking fella tried to interrogate me in the kitchen, asking me how long I had been there and why I hadn’t registered with the foreign police (“The forei-who now?”). In a stroke of luck (I can not emphasis the word ‘luck’ here), the foreign police had actually sent me something in Dutch the day before which was enough to keep “Mr. Heima” off of my back. He was kind enough to give me back my passport (“thanks!”).

IT’S NOW 2:00 PM
The moving van and ladder never came back. Eventually Pierre called the moving company and it was only then when we found out, a) where they had gone, and b) that they couldn’t do anything about the permit except for apply for a new one.

It takes 5 business days.