Even NQTs have to take time off occasionally, and so during the half term break I took a trip over to Amsterdam for a bit of a city-break - even if my obsession with teaching is such that every night I was there I had a dream about one or other of my classes.

Being from a small village in England where the most exciting thing to happen is the village gala every summer, Amsterdam was a little different to what I'm used to. I was quite happy to try a little of the weed but was never going to go along with my friends' suggestion of seeing a sex show. I'm quite happy for whatever goes on in the red-light district to go on in the red-light district, and I don't even mean that in a 'what goes on behind closed doors...' kind of way. It can go on outdoors, up a tree, in outer space, wherever. It's just that I'm not going to go looking for it when it would make me feel incredibly uncomfortable, in fact terrified would be a better word. One advert said something to do with ping-pong balls. I don't think they were playing table tennis.

Most of the weekend was spent in total fear of bicycles. They're everywhere in Amsterdam. It took us a while to figure out the safest way of getting form A to B, but eventually we concluded that bikes have the right of way on cycle paths, roads, footpaths, tramtracks, concrete areas, paved areas, grass and canals - which they don't actually use because bikes don't go on water, but they probably still have the right of way over boats even if they can't take advantage of it. The only area where pedestrians have the right of way is on steps, but seeing as Amsterdam is pretty much completely flat there are only about five of these in the whole city. This meant we were forced to walk round with our heads looking wildly from side to side, back to front, and down to the ground in case of zombie cyclists, all the time dashing madly across cobbles and diving out of the way of the two-wheeled menace. It was a relief to make it home alive.