poor gidionics have been struck down
and bed ridden by a numbing headache
and a throat that feels as if there is a
tennis ball lodged in it.we are left gazing
at the photos on the bedroom wall..



the photos were taken by our father,pete
smit,when he was a teenager in the early 1950's.
we only discovered the negatives after his
death and when we set about printing them
we discovered a magical collection of images.

amongst the collection was this picture of
victor mature taken in 1955 on board the
queen mary en route to new york.....

johnny jordaanplein

our old friend mark flies in from the other
side of the world to say hello together with
girlfriend sarah.great to see old friends
and catch up after 3 years,even if severely
"jetlagged"!

we origionally posted this photo a couple of weeks ago
on our night out after the radiohead concert.
it was taken in cafe de diepte.
we were sad to read in the papers that since our visit
de diepte ( "the depths" had had it's
licence taken away by city authorities and had been
forced to shut, ( despite widespread protests)

amsterdam used to be famous for it's diversity,
freedom and liberalism.
not any more.

when gidionics first came to amsterdam and before
the diepte came along the bar was called "gaffa" .
you had to knock on the door and wait for a
pair of eyes to appear from a spy hole and decide
if you were friend or foe....
in our early amsterdam years we learnt a lot from
the gaffa and the nightime characters we came across
whilst the rest of amsterdam slept.
the diepte inherited some of that spirit and it's closing
marks the end of an era....

nowadays you have to go to berlin or barcelona to
get the feeling of exitement that used to be here-diversity
has been sacrificed to satisfy the lucritive demands of
expats,stag weekends , conference delegates and
the traditional youth drug tourists.
whores,coffeeshops and irish bars....and it's the diepte
that has to close.
shame on you!

gidionics walk down to the mercatorplein
to have a look at the kermis (funfair) that
is in town for a few days.
we come across a fleet of police cars-not a rare
site in this part of town (de baarsjes) but we
see no crime in progress...
perhaps in a hurry to pick up a take away food
order?

18 september is the day that chile celebrates
its independance and gidionics
find themselves at a small party to celebrate.
good people our friends from chile........

the youngest gidionic aspiring member is introduced to the gidionics gentlemens' barbershop on the gelderskade....although initially scared its a fairly painless rite of passage... as a result our young friend earns the privilage of wearing the official gidionics sunglasses.....

old canals



cruise ship at passagers terminal



recently opened muziekgebouw with
great terrace on the water



the voc replica ship

after the long summer break gidionics head to the first club3voor12 of the season. headlining are the dutch band bettie serveert celebrating their 15 year anniversary. shame they never quite broke through to a wider audience like the uk or america but still good to see them live and flying the flag for dutch guitar bands.... www.bettieserveert.com

gidionics are on the way home- midnight on the dam and a naked man is in the process of being arrested. drug fuelled amsterdam madness-poor guy will be crying for mama in the morning....

5 years on.........
gidionics remember like it was yesterday.
amsterdam associations-
rembrandt toren-amsterdam's tallest building



the almost completed "pyramides"

gidionics come across a dutch t.v. crew filming
for the cop series van speijk



gidionics spot dutch actor tygo gernandt playing
the role of a cop on a bike.we realise that dutch
actors can't be fussy when it comes to work
but this role is nothing compared
to his performance in the film "van god los".

gidionics gardening experiment enters
its last stages....and it is the male weed
plant that reaches maturity first,flowering
and producing pollen.males have to be separated
from the females....



the first signs of budding appear on the
female weed plants.couple of weeks to go..



note that this is legally tolerated in the netherlands
but not in the majority of other countries...so don't
try this at home!

horse



museumplein



old amsterdam house supports