As I settled into my new routine, the rest of 2004 flew by without much to speak of. I was now working 3 unofficial jobs and I enjoyed each of them in their own way. The Nes-Cafe was a special place for the folks that knew about it, there was a feeling of family that came straight from Frans. I had met many friends there and even hooked up with a few guys I would come to know as my ‘concert brothers’, Dexter, Raymond, and Maarten. They loved rock and roll as much as I did and we would see every good band that would come to town. The Dam had 2 awesome venues in the center that catered to all kinds of music. One was an old church called the Paradiso and the acoustics were amazing, the other was called the Melkweg and it was much newer but had a great sound as well. they were both small enough to feel like a club but big enough to bring in some top quality acts. Dexter had a nice house with a pool table in it and along with his girlfriend Marinke, they would have great parties with pool and poker tourneys. I felt honored that I had found such a great group of folks to call friends, we would have many good times as the years streamed by.
With the year coming to a close the landlady once again told me she would be raising the rent on January 1st. I was getting to my last straw with all the rent hikes over the years, especially since they had done nothing to improve the condition of the boat. I expressed my dismay but reluctantly agreed, telling myself I would start searching for something else. I didn’t want to leave the boat as it was one of the coolest places I had ever lived but since moving in almost 5 years earlier, the rent had gone from 1400 guilders a month ( about 600 euros ) to almost 1000 euros a month. I felt like she was taking advantage of the fact that I was illegal and had no recourse to complain about unfair rent increases but enough was enough. I started putting feelers out with all my connections and soon I had an offer. It was a room in a squat house for only 100 euros a month. I knew the guy who ran it, Jeff, from my days running for the hotel, he was a runner for another place. He was also from the states and he had control of two apartments that were next to each other on the second floor. I would be in the apartment next to Jeff’s along with another guy from the states called T-Bone. He was an old alcoholic blues guitarist that would get the occasional gig but spent most of his time drunk and belligerent. I felt hesitant and decided I would stay on the boat until the landlady raised the rent again. It didn’t take long, in April she told me that in May it would once again be going up, I told her that I was not interested and would be moving out. Lucky for me Jeff still had the room available and I was in. Of course this meant the end of my job as supply depot for the Nes but it had to come to an end someday. The day before Frans came to pick up his goods, I took all the weed and the hash and took a picture of me surrounded by it, one of the best pictures I have ever been in! When the day came to leave the boat I felt a tinge of sadness creep in when I thought about all the good times I had there, it was hard to believe I had been there almost 5 years, the time just flew by.
When I got to the new place Jeff had some great news for me. He would be leaving town in a month for Spain and that while T-Bone would get control of the apt. that I was staying in, I could have the one he was in. This was awesome news, not only did his place have all the utilities, it also had internet and a grow room. I just had to get through a month living with T-Bone, a task that would prove most difficult. T-Bone was a nice enough guy and could play a mean guitar…when he was sober. The trouble was that he wasn’t sober often and when he was drunk he was a complete asshole. There were a few nights when I had to hold myself back from beating him to a pulp as he would keep me awake all night with his antics, and I would have to work in the mornings. It was torturous but eventually the month ended and I was able to move over to Jeff’s place. Jeff told me he was through with Amsterdam and that he was going to a hippie commune down in Spain called Benificio, he said he was going to live in a tent in nature, I told him best of luck and hoped that it would all work out for him. He had rented the second bedroom in the apartment out for a month to get some extra cash for his trip but said that after that it was all mine to do with what I wanted. It was cool with me as the renter was very cool and was hardly ever there. The utilities were wired in for free, all I had to do was pay the internet bill and nothing else. The main bedroom was huge and fully loaded with furniture, it also had a home-made grow room that would fit about a dozen plants, I got to work straight away. The neighbor downstairs was also an American ex-pat named Sam and he was as eccentric as anyone I had ever met. He was big into growing and was very provocative about it. The laws on growing were fairly vague but it was generally understood that you could grow up to 5 plants per person and absolutely no indoor lighting. Well Sam had his window sills full of about 20 seedlings and 2 separate grow rooms with 2 lights inside each. He was pushing for a legal showdown with the Dutch authorities and had been raided on several occasions but he kept at it and fortunate for me, he had some of the best clones in the city. I got 12 of his best looking ones and started my first attempt at indoor growing ever.
Things went smooth for the first month with my plants growing nicely, the renter had found a more permanent place and would be moving out and I even got my old room next door for a friend of mine, helping not only them but T-Bone as well. The summer had all the making for my best yet when one day when I returned from work I was greeted with a most unexpected surprise…Jeff was sitting in the living room watching T.V.. After my initial shock I asked him what he was doing there? He told me things had not worked out in Spain and that he was back to take his apartment back. I could hardly believe what I was hearing, I should have known it was too good to be true. I had made the mistake of telling him my situation and he had taken advantage of it. He may have gone to Spain with the intention of staying or just lied the whole time, either way he knew he could come back and reclaim the apartment without any hassle from me. The squat was officially in his name so I really had no choice but to just accept it. He agreed to let me stay in the big bedroom until my plants were done but after that I would have to move back over to T-Bone’s place as he did not want to live with the cat. I tried to put on a face of humble acceptance but inside I was raging at this guy. I would have thoughts of killing him and dumping his body into one of the canals, wondering if I could get away with it but fortunately more rational thoughts would intervene and put me back in happy thoughts. The happiest being that my plants were looking amazing, I had 5 different strains and the buds from each were a rainbow of colors. I was mesmerized by the differences between them all and couldn’t wait to try them all. I felt like a kid waiting for Christmas day to arrive, the only difference being that I knew what my present was going to be. When harvesting day arrived it was bittersweet, on the one hand I had finished my first ever indoor grow and it looked awesome, but on the other hand I now had to move out of Jeff’s place and the prospect of living with T-Bone again was not very appealing. I did have a 3rd temporary choice to stay at Sam’s place downstairs for a week while he went to Germany to visit a friend. I would be risking the chance that Sam’s place would be raided while he was gone but anything was better than staying with that old drunk T-Bone so I took the gig at Sam’s and hoped for the best.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run