Journal · Amsterdam · 12 entries
Notes kept through an Amsterdam year
Shorter than the guides and written closer to the evening. Each note takes one thing the weather does to a booking and says plainly how it tends to go.
- The Radiator Question, Asked Fourteen Times a WeekSomething close to a dozen booking threads a week now contain a sentence about heating, and it has changed what gets suggested back more than any other shift. Here is what those sentences usually say.2026-09-12
- What Last October Taught Us About Street DoorsOne autumn taught this house more about Amsterdam entrances than three years of mild evenings had. The lesson fits in a single line of a first message.2026-09-05
- Wet Coats and Where They Go in a Hotel RoomThe smallest logistical problem in a rainy evening here is the one likeliest to make the first minute awkward. It is solved by deciding in advance.2026-08-30
- A Thunderstorm, a Cancelled Evening and the Notice ScaleA summer storm crossed the city one evening in August and produced a run of questions about cancelling. Here is the notice scale, set out plainly.2026-08-19
- The Week the Attic Rooms Became UnbookableFor about six days in early August the top floor rooms of the old centre stopped being usable in the evening, and the bookings moved downstairs and later.2026-08-08
- Why August Bookings Start Two Hours Later Than MarchThe average start time of a booking moves by roughly two hours between late winter and high summer. Daylight rather than temperature is what moves it.2026-07-26
- A Note on Towels, and Why Four Is the NumberTowels are the dullest thing on the preparation list and the item most often short. Here is the arithmetic, and why it changes with the season.2026-07-09
- The Forecast Changed and So Did Thirty EveningsA settled week turned wet overnight in the middle of June and a run of bookings moved with it. It is a useful illustration of how one free change works.2026-06-18
- Midsummer Light and the Eleven O'Clock StartVisitors from further south find the June sky here genuinely disorientating, and it pushes the whole shape of an evening later than they had planned for.2026-06-04
- Spring Arrives and the Roster Fills by LunchtimeFrom the middle of April the city changes size, and the effect on a booking is not about weather at all. It is about how early in the day a message arrives.2026-05-12
- Cold Floors and the Towel Nobody Thinks to Put DownA warm room with a cold floor still reads as a cold room. In the old centre the floor is the item on the preparation list that gets missed almost every time.2026-04-10
- The Quiet Argument for Ninety Minutes in MarchAn hour is a complete session in a warm room and a slightly compressed one in a cold room, and March is the month where that distinction is easiest to feel.2026-03-27