We went to Amsterdam, and it was very pleasant. The whole city is really laidback and, well, Dutch. Not laidback in the Carribean way, which is "that thing you wanted doing? It'll be done some time. Chill". More "that thing you wanted doing? It's already done. It was no problem for me at all. Chill".

There was art. Art is good. I enjoyed some of the art.

We went to see Boom Chicago, who are the all-American cast Amsterdam improv group. They run different shows each night - we went to see "Me, Myself and iPod", which combined sketch and improv and was based around a theme of modern technology. The setup was really cool - for one scene they took someones Myspace page and improvised as scene based on their friends page. They improvised video weblogs based on a brief chat with a member of the audience. They improvised songs which were played as if one a video iPod. All very neat and original. The standard of the improv was Comedy Store-ish - very funny, gaggy, but without really doing the stuff we try for in the Imps (charachters, emotions). A pleasant evening.

We did not smoke any weed. I'm all in favour of people being allowed to use drugs if they want to. However, I'm not so much of a cliche that I'd do it just because I can do it legally. I find that a bit tragic.

We did walk around the Red Light District. It is remarkably, and unexpectedly, jovial, with parents walking around with children, waving cheerily and smiling at the prostitutes in the windows, who wave back, look happy and healthy, and negotiate prices with the father. It's such a better arrangement than here in the UK, where we make criminals out of people who aren't. Here, we push the vulnerable underground which allows them to be exploited and stops them receiving the help they may need. What we really need is to offer help and protection for people being abused, and acknowledge that for some girls, it really can just be a job that they were not forced into, that pays well, and that really need not be anyone elses business. But no. It's sex. Therefore, it must be wrong and should be stopped immediately before society falls apart.