An unexpected trip

I am in Alanya, Turkey.
On Thursday late afternoon I received a call that OS had been brutally assaulted while on holiday here and he was in intensive care in the hospital. I flew over as soon as I could on Friday and saw OS in the hospital late that evening. His face, legs and arms are almost full of bruises, but fortunately the doctor says there is no internal damage and there is nothing that won't heal, except maybe the mental scars.
Today I spent most of the day in the hospital, at the police station and in OS' hotel room to collect his bags and have a look at the crime scene. OS doesn't remember what happened: he says he went to bed around midnight and the next thing he knows he is in an ambulance. Apparently the cleaning lady found him unconscious and covered in blood in his bathroom.
The same day (!) a Russian lady was found in another room in the same hotel after a failed suicide attempt. The lady was interviewed by the police and she says she has spent time with OS drinking and smoking cigarettes. OS categorically denies that he even knows the lady. The lady was on holiday with another lady and a Russian guy who looks like a block of concrete.
The police think that OS was the victim of the Russian guy who might have been jealous that one of his girls spent time with him. Nobody knows why the Russian lady has told the story that she spent time with OS. OS doesn't recognize the Russian guy and the police have no evidence, so they can't arrest him.
Now I am fighting with the travel insurance and the health insurance people who is going to take care of OS re-patriation. It will take another few days for sure.

RIP Antonie Kamerling

Almost exactly 20 years ago, when I was a couple of years into my first job, I would often come home in the evening and watch the first Dutch soap which was especially made for young people (teens and twens) on TV: "Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden" ("Good Times Bad Times")
Two of the main characters were good-looking young men: Reinout Oerlemans played Arnie and Antonie Kamerling played Peter. In our group of friends of that time we had discussions who was the cuter of the two, and I didn't have to think about it: Peter was definitely my type.
Since those days in the early 1990's I have followed Antonie's career and I often liked what I saw, also professionally. he was not only an actor, but also had a nr 1 hit with this song.
I was shocked this morning when the news broke that he committed suicide, aged 44, leaving behind a wife and two children.
We will miss you, Antonie. Rest In Peace.

Work and money

We had our annual reunion of University friends this last weekend - this time it was in Brussels and we enjoyed the city and the great Belgian food. Have I ever mentioned that Belgian food is one of my favourite foods in the world? Not as "queeny" as French food but much more refined than Dutch or German food. Just perfect.
Anyway, it was interesting to catch up with everybody and our careers have taken very different paths. Some of us have been very successful job-wise with matching salaries, whereas some others also have nice jobs but with much lower pay, mostly because they work as teachers and University professors.
I am good friends with the wife of one of my Uni friends and she was complaining that her husband works too many hours ("every evening") and she is worried about his health. She also told me he earns half a million euros per year which was more than I would have guessed. They have a nice house and two cars - however, I don't think their lifestyle is much different from mine. I think I wouldn't want to swap places with him and work 80 hours a week - after all, we are economists and we know the marginal utility of money is small after a certain level.

Another gay bar closed

Amsterdam's gay bars are closing faster than Amsterdam's trees lose their leaves in autumn... Today it was reported that Soho closed yesterday - this is after Exit, April, Arc and Cockring all closed in the last 6 months or so.
It surely feels like a part of my "youth" has been taken away: these are all bars that I spent way too much time in from 1988, when I moved to Amsterdam, until recently. So many memories, so many people I have met in those places, so many happy moments.
I also still remember being proud of Amsterdam as the "gay capital of Europe" (and at one point, possibly the world) during the 1990's and early new century - now that is only a distant memory and many, many cities have overtaken my city in this respect. Sad.

Too much beauty

I am in Western Canada on a family visit cum holiday, and today we were touring Jasper National Park. It is so incredibly beautiful here - I have been here as a teenager and it is great to refresh my memory how beautiful mother nature can be.

A free performance in Chinese Restaurant New King, Amsterdam

Act 1: Customer at table next to us complains about cold food, waiter offers to heat up food. Customer refuses claiming "we have waited long enough". Customer tells waiter "we go and will pay drinks only". Waiter insists that customer pays for drinks and food. Waiter and customer quarrel for 10 minutes.
Act 2: Angry customer walks away. Waiter (160cm) tries to physically stop customer (190cm) from leaving. Angrier customer shouts he is being assaulted by waiter and forces his way out of the restaurant. Waiter #2 calls police.
Act 3: Five minutes of peace and quiet during which we enjoy our (hot) food.
Act 4: Customer, waiter return to the crime scene accompanied by a police officer. Both parties tell their stories to police officer. Officer decides customer needs to pay, customer refuses, officer tells customer to come to police station.
Act 5: Customer and police officer leave. Applause from public.

A new experience: lab.oratory in Berlin

I spent last weekend in one of my favourite cities: Berlin. The city is constantly changing and there is always something new to discover. Also, my friend FE lives there and it was nice to catch up with him. On Thursday, we went to a nice gay neighbourhood bar for chatting and drinking, and I was introduced to FE's friend JO.
On Friday, FE called around dinner time and informed me that JO wanted to go to "another bar" which was a "bit further away", and I should dress "not too queeny". I didn't ask more questions, but when I arrived at FE's place he was wearing a Spanish police uniform. A little later JO arrived dressed very casually in shorts, Tshirt and sport shoes, so I thought my jeans and Tshirt would be just fine. We took a taxi which took us to the former East Berlin, behind a railway station in an industrial area to an old abandoned factory. We queued for a while, paid the 6 euro entrance fee, and then we were all given a plastic bag to put our clothes and valuables in. Nobody had told me and fortunately there was no dress code that evening so my jeans/Tshirt were fine, but when we got in 50% of the guys were in underwear, 10% totally naked (included JO), 30% in leather/rubber/uniform and another 10% in normal clothes. Slowly I began to remember RE's stories of his orgies in Berlin, and yes, this was the same place called lab.oratory. A relatively small bar area surrounded by quite large play rooms everywhere (I wouldn't call them dark rooms as they were quite brightly lit), a garden and more play areas in another smaller building in the garden. Most guys were in their 30s/40s/50s, with some in their 20s and a small group of 60+. And sex everywhere. Everywhere. If there is a Sodom and Gomorrah, it's current location is Berlin. I thought I had seen it all in Amsterdam, but compared to Lab.oratory the bars in my home town are mellow, calm, clean and dull.
Oh - My - God. Imagine: guys kissing and feeling up everywhere. Dozens of guys in doggie position waiting for whoever wants to fuck them. Fist fucking. Double fist fucking. They have 5 urinals in the toilet but when I wanted to take a leak there were guys kneeling at every urinal waiting for a hot drink. Then I went to a cubicle and the first looked like it had just been vacated by someone who was either 1) very sick; or 2) likes scat. Finally in the 2nd cubicle I could urinate in private. I escaped to the garden where for a little while I thought I could escape the smell of sex, but soon two masters appeared with two slaves on leashes, and within a minute the bottoms were sucking and two minutes later the tops were fucking and taking turns with the holes and mouths of the slaves. Right from the hole of slave #1 into the mouth of slave #2. And most (if not all) of the sex I saw (and it was A LOT) was unsafe.
I tried to find FE and JO after 2 hours but they had disappeared in the huge play areas. Enough is enough, I thought and took a taxi to my hotel.
I was actually quite disgusted with what I had seen. And not horny at all, on the contrary. It's official: I am a prude.