Sunday, January 15, 2012

It's not mine, it must be urine

Another eventful weekend here in Maastricht!
On Friday night Nick and I went out with our friends Laura and Richard to our favorite thai restaurant "Pet Thai". Laura and Richard got engaged over Christmas so we were celebrating. Nick bought Richard a celebratory bottle of Wild Turkey - that never ends well, and I bought Laura some organic body products. Vanilla-coconut....smells so good!
I had to teach until 7:15pm so we had a late dinner reservation for 8:30pm. When we arrived Richard and Laura were waiting for us. We quickly joined them and started discussing potential dishes. Suddenly, standing to the left of our table a conversation between the manager and a "gentlemen" I use the term loosely, became quite heated. The whole restaurant got very quiet as the argument escalated, ending about 5-minutes later with the manager escorting the man to the door. When they got to the door things got a bit physical. A few shoves were exchanged and the man was pushed outside. He proceeded to bang and throw himself against the door. It went on like this for some time. Finally, the man left. Minutes later, we heard a bang at the door and the sound of what we found out to be the man urinating against the front door of the restaurant. At this point the manager lost his cool and grabbed a bottle from the bar. He proceeded to run into the street with what seemed to be the goal of beating the man with the bottle. He came back to the restaurant about 10-minutes later with a broken bottle in hand. The manager didn't apologize, he simply walked to the bar and continued on with his business as if nothing had happend. What a strange experience? It was very odd and I felt nervous throughout dinner but we decided that at least it had made for an interesting night. It was really uncomfortable to witness the confrontation because the man was clearly under the influence of drugs or alcohol but the manager fed the fire and instead of deescalating the situation he took it to a whole other level. Needless to say, I think he made it clear that he did not appreciate the manager or the establishment. Sometimes non-verbal forms of communication can be very powerful, yuck!
We walked home with Laura and Richard to enjoy a celebratory taste of the "Thunder Chicken", as Nick likes to call it. It was great to share the tradition of Wild Turkey with two great friends.
On Saturday I taught a class in the morning and had my photo shoot for my website. My friend Sandra mentioned that her fiance Stefan does photography as a hobby and would be happy to take some photos for me.
I was very excited and so thankful that she offered and I quickly recruited her to be in the photos with me. When I arrived at their house I realized he was hardly an amateur, he had all the equipment set-up and special lighting. It was a great experience and he got some wonderful shots. He did a great job making the shoot fun, creative and in line with my vision. He was exceptionally talented! Thanks Sandra and Stefan :)
Saturday night we had a fabulous dinner of Indian food with our friends Ben and Mandy. Homemade curry dishes, one meat dish for Nick and Ben and one veggie dish for Mandy and I...mmmmmm, so good. They did an amazing job! We are so spoiled to have such great friends. We got home around 1am and I had to teach again this morning. I'm lucky I have such a wonderful group on Sunday mornings or I would have had a tough time getting up this morning. I love my 8 hours of sleep! Nick and I spent a relaxing Sunday together. A run before lunch and a walk in the afternoon, chilling on the coach and hanging out with the cats was the extent of our activity today.
It was uneventful and exactly what we needed!

2 comments:

  1. I am looking for Olena Kochyetkova (Ukraine). She lives in Maastricht, the Works in any IT company in the Netherlands. She did not answer the phone and @. I would appreciate any information

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