Journal · Notes on evenings
The Journal
Some things I explain often enough that they deserve to be written down properly: how a dinner date works, what a first message needs, why certain evenings land and others merely happen. A new note appears about once a month. None of them will waste your time.
Field research, you could say.
Someone has to do it.
August 2026 · Amsterdam · First times
August, and Turning a Year
On the month I keep open on purpose: a diary without names, the appetite that follows the counting, and the dark coming back a few minutes a night.
Read the note
August 2026 · Amsterdam · First times
The Hotel Bar, Chosen Well
The room where an evening actually starts, and the three things I look for before I sit down. On the hotel bar as the honest beginning of a first night in Amsterdam.
Read the note
July 2026 · Amsterdam · First times
A Dinner Date in Amsterdam: Where I Would Take You
The city takes eating seriously and lights itself beautifully after dark. How to choose the table, the neighbourhood and the pace for a first dinner date, by someone who sits on the other side of it.
Read the note
June 2026 · First times · Practicalities
What a Good First Message Contains
Four bones, two examples, and the mistakes that end conversations politely. Written by the woman who reads every message herself.
Read the note
May 2026 · First times · Practicalities · Discretion
Why Screening Makes the Evening Better
What screening is, what it is not, what happens to your information, and the part nobody tells you: it changes the texture of your own evening.
Read the note
April 2026 · Time & rates · Practicalities
Three Hours, Six, or Until Morning: What Time Changes
Time is a quality question, not a quantity question. What each tier of hours actually feels like, and one honest rule of thumb.
Read the note
March 2026 · Discretion · Amsterdam
Discretion in Public: A Date That Looks Natural
Will anyone be able to tell? No, and the reasons are worth understanding. What a room actually sees, my half of the craft, and your much smaller half.
Read the note
February 2026 · Couples & women · First times
For Couples: The Conversation Before the Invitation
Three questions to answer together, one rule about jealousy, and how to write to me once you have. The best shared evenings are decided at home first.
Read the note
Coming next: the seasons of the city, and where to celebrate the evenings that come with a date on the calendar.
Prefer your reading delivered? The Journal has a quiet RSS feed: no addresses, no lists, your reader simply notices when a new note exists.
Read enough?
Then write the note.
A date, the hours, the city, a line about yourself. Everything the notes above explain begins with one message.
The Journal will still be here afterwards.