Having to get up at 6 in the morning to make sushi was starting to get unbearable with the cold winter temps and in mid February I quit. I figured with the other job and having a room-mate would give me enough money to be comfortable.That situation worked well for a couple of months but then one day while delivering sandwiches, everything changed. I was making my regular delivery to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange which was downtown next to a police station. When I pulled up I noticed 3 cops coming out of the station and heading my way. I thought nothing of it as I had seen cops many times while working, with no problems. This time I was unlucky enough to have 2 rookies walking with a supervisor and one of the rookies was determined to show that she knew the law. When they were passing by she says something to me in Dutch. I had been in Amsterdam for almost three years but since everyone spoke English, I had never bothered to learn Dutch and had never regretted it until now. I told her I did not speak Dutch and if she would please repeat it in English? She was very accommodating and promptly told me that the strap on my helmet was not fastened and that it was required to be or it was a fine like not having one at all. She told me that it was just a friendly reminder and to keep it fastened in the future. I thanked her and thought that would be it but as we were talking the supervisor was glaring at me and was curious as to why I didn’t speak the language. He asked me if I had work papers on me? I felt a lump grow in my stomach as I told him that I did not have one and that I was told that I didn’t need one to work a temp job. I went on to explain that I was travelling through Europe for a year and ran out of money here. Telling him that I had found this job to make some money to get out of the country with and that I was leaving in 2 weeks ( obviously a lie ). He looked me up and down for what seemed like forever before saying that it was illegal for me to be working but since I am leaving in 2 weeks he will not arrest me but that I must quit the job immediately and that if he saw me doing it again I would be arrested and deported. I promised that i would go back and quit straight away and thanked him for his discretion. As they walked away I let out a huge sigh and thanked the universe once again. The guy who collected the sandwiches was standing there watching the whole encounter and when I hand him the sandwiches he tells me that the person who delivered them before me was caught in a similar manner and was deported immediately. He says that I must be the luckiest guy around not to get arrested. I just nodded as my mind was spinning thinking about it, the lucky breaks just kept on coming. I returned to the shop and told them what had happened and that I could not continue. They were sad and a bit annoyed as I still had another run to do that day but I knew not to press my luck any further so I handed in my keys and said my goodbyes. I was now faced with having no job for the first time in a while.
I still had a bit of a bankroll so I was not too stressed out but I knew that I would have to find something soon. Having no job gave me loads of free time to hang out around the boat and enjoy its glory, the only problem was Curtis. He was someone who loved to sleep 12 hours a day and normally I would not care one bit but seeing that his bed was a couch in my living room, it became a problem. I started by just making comments and jokes about his sleeping habits but soon I devolved into just going into the living room and cranking up the music. I did not feel bad about it as I would always wait until well into the afternoon before doing so. I was hoping it would cause him to re-adjust his sleeping schedule but as I should have expected it had the opposite effect. He just got increasingly annoyed with me and it wasn’t long before he packed up his bags and left. In hindsight I wished I had handled it differently as Curtis was as nice a guy as I had ever met and I regret being a jerk, especially with the riff-raff that would follow. I now started to get a bit anxious as I would not be able to stay in the boat very long with no job and no room-mate, lucky for me I had my good friend Elvira who was still working at the hotel. I told her of my predicament and asked her to keep her eyes open for someone cool that was looking for a place to stay. She came through for me in less than a week with a guy from New York who was hoping to live in Amsterdam. His name was Patrick and he had that typical New York swagger but he seemed cool enough and I decided to give it a try. He told me a story about how he was a multimillionaire and that because of legal troubles the government had given control of his money to his mother. I didn’t really believe him but as long as he paid the rent, I didn’t care. I started to get troubled by him when I would hear him on the phone with his mother, he was rude and belligerent, even calling her names. I was torn as to what to do, I had always been taught to respect your mother and would never dream of using that kind of language with mine but not being the kind of guy to tell others how to act, I didn’t know what I could say. That changed one afternoon while we were sitting around the living room and Patrick was calling her to find out why she had not sent him money for the rent. I could not hear what she was saying but the things coming out of Patrick’s mouth were truly unbelievable. He was screaming at her with every profanity known but when he starting going in to graphic details about how he was going to kill her and dismember her body, I’d had enough. I had never heard anyone talk to someone like that much less their own mother! When he hung up the phone I told him that he would have to leave now, he tried to argue the point but I got very loud and aggressive telling him that I would physically throw him off if he didn’t leave voluntarily. I didn’t think of how bad that could possibly go as I was determined to get anyone who would treat their mother that way off my boat. Lucky for me I can be fairly intimidating when I get fired up and he chose not to challenge me instead packing up all his stuff and moving out. I once again was faced with having to find a stranger to share rent.
Once again I turned to Elvira and once again she came through in just a few days. This time she had an English guy named Jamie and at first sight he seemed cool with a sound plan so I let him move in straight away. For the first few weeks things were fine as he would be gone all day presumably working and he paid his rent on time. Unfortunately it was all just an illusion, it turned out that he had come to the Dam with a pocket full of money and was burning through it each day doing drugs done in the Red Light. By the fourth week he did not have rent and was making up stories about how he would have it soon. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him slide but I noticed that he was using the bathroom more than normal. After he had been in there for the fourth time in less than two hours I went in straight after him and could smell the tell-tale oder of crack. I was enraged, he did not have rent money but had money to buy crack? I confronted him immediately and told him that he had to pay now or else get out. He tried to barter with me but I wasn’t hearing it and finally I picked up his bag and through it out the door. Being all tweaked out on crack like he was I knew he would not do anything except leave and that’s exactly what he did. this would be my last straw when it came to dealing with room-mates, from now on I would pay for the boat on my own or else find something else. I knew the only way to do that was to find a new job, but without having any documents, that was going to be difficult.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run