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So anyway, this is where it all went down.

Evening scene on the Oude Gracht.

Good place to get mugged.

Meanwhile, down in the cellars ...

Rob shows the girls some new tricks

Rhian and Fedde look a bit uncertain, but David is in the mood for a party.

Babette makes eyes at Bernd

Bernd looks impressed

Babette gets stuck into the bread and salt

Rob and Anouk are prepared to give the evening the benefit of the doubt

Aha ... smiles all round, looks as though the evening is going to be a success after all.

Maud needs another glass of wine ... or three

Bernd doesn't - he's well into the groove.

Mood shot of the Casa di David.

More mood ... where DID everybody go?

Anouk orders Tagliolini neri e bianchi con capesante, code di gamberi e scalogno ... she has no idea what it is, but we were all very impressed, I can tell you!

We  were much more cheerful than we look here ... honest !!!

Myrna wonders who is creeping around in the darkness ... no worries, it's only the paparazzi.

Anouk tells Linda that the Cannelloni ripieni di ricotta e spinaci con salsa di asparagi e
prosciutto di parma here is to die for, although there is a lot to be said for the Salmone in cartoccio con patate, porri e salsa ai capperi. Linda decides to go for the spag bol, reasoning that there is a chance that the waitress will not have died of old age before she has finished giving her the order.

Nigel and Linda seem to be very close colleagues ... any closer and Nigel would have some serious explaining to do when he got home.

I don´t understand art, but I know what I like. And no, it is NOT a good spanking. Furthermore, this object non d´art is the visual equivalent of elevator music.

David and the waitress in a tug of war for a plate of seriously good nosebag, in all fairness it has to be said that the girl was fairly new to the job.

Apparently we had to share a plate of assorted starters ... resisting the entirely natural urge to elbow our dining companions out of the way, we all hung back, making just the occasional stab at the goodies on the plate.

David says grace ...

We all wait until Fedde gives us permission to start.

Fedde describes his ideal partner ... Rob is lost for words

Come ON ... dive in for Gawd's sake.

Looks good dunnit

Against his better judgement, Fedde knocks back the cold asparagus soup.

Silence descends over the table, as we focus on feeding the inner linguist.

There's nothing like a little after-dinner conversation ... but this one was a little on the premature side as we had not even had our dessert yet!

The waiter collects the dishes while we try to work out whether he is speaking Dutch or Italian ... or something in between.

Rhian is fairly sure that it is not Czech or Russian .... Fedde just bites his nails

Fedde enjoys a quick gargle with the old vino .... almost time to go home.

Bernd smiles for the camera ... Maud has seen it all before.

We all ask Babette who her role model is ....

What's this? A glass of milk? What are they thinking of?

Babette launches into her speech - to a very appreciative audience

Fedde tells Rhian one of his favourite jokes:

As an airplane is about to crash, a female passenger jumps up frantically and announces, "If I'm going to die, I want to die feeling like a woman."

She removes all her clothing and asks, "Is there someone on this plane who is man enough to make me feel like a woman?"

A man stands up, removes his shirt and says, "Here, iron this!".

Rob caught in the act of snapping Babette

Half an hour into Babette's speech our concentration starts to flag ....

Fedde and David though are still hanging on her every word ....

Just the slightest hint of eyes glazing over.....

...aha, page 143, we are nearing the middle of the speech .....

Rudely breaking into Babette's speech, Fedde tells Rhian another off colour joke:

The newlyweds are in their honeymoon room and the groom decides to let the bride know where she stands right from the start of the marriage.

He proceeds to take off his trousers and throw them at her. He says, "Put those on."

The bride replies, "I can't wear your trousers."

He replies, "And don't forget that! I will always wear the pants in the family!"

The bride takes off her knickers and throws them at him with the same request, "Try those on!"

He replies,"I can't get into your knickers!"

"And you never bloody will if you don't change your attitude."

Rob asks Myrna what she thought of the joke .... as you see, a picture can often be worth a thousand words.

So Rob tries to lighten things up by telling a joke of his own:

During a recent IT password audit, it was found that a blonde was using the following password:
MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofy
When asked why such a big password, she said, "Well, it had to be at least 8 characters long.

The seafood arrives and Rob gives the thumbs up

Fedde hangs on Babette's every word ... odd, because she was showing him how to count down from one million seven hundred thousand and ninety three ...

Oh no ... judging by the expressions on their faces she was actually telling him another dirty joke .... happily our Maud is above that sort of thing.

Bernd explains to Rhian how to work out the value of ... the poor girl is clearly less than rivetted by this conversational gambit.

Babette - who is intensely bored by mathematics - takes a quick nap, Fedde briefly considers prodding her awake.

David - vastly relieved that Bernd did not ask him about equations - is wreathed in smiles.

What's this? Fedde and David not on speaking terms? Surely not?

In a moment of mad mathematical mania, Rhian sees the light and modestly exclaims:

.... Bernd is impressed, but not as much as Rhian, she has no idea what she just said.

Maud had this to say about the evening:

Bedankt voor het heerlijke etentje, ik heb er erg van genoten (en Bernd heeft het ook prima naar zijn zin gehad)!

Was er nog iemand die NIET te veel gegeten had?