Never off that roof

Once I got a ten for an essay (yes, even then language was really my thing) that was about a girl (me) who stayed behind after closing time in an intensely large department store with beds covered with fourteen pillows, chocolate fountains a meter high and racks full of princess dresses and silver shoes.

The desire to jump on those beds after closing time, to try on all the pink dresses and to take a bite of every cake was so strong that I seriously considered letting go of my mother's hand while shopping and sitting somewhere in a department of the Bijenkorf where she wouldn't look for me under a rack until after closing time.

That never worked out of course, but luckily the Bijenkorf hosts a dinner for editors-in-chief once a year and other fashion-loving people. And not in a restaurant, but just somewhere in the Bijenkorf. After closing time then. The night before last, ‘somewhere in the Bijenkorf’ was the roof. For the occasion, they had built a tent and the chef ran the shiny layer off his shoes to bring the warm plates from the kitchen (which was really quite far away) to our tables.

I had an incredibly Everything is Love experience when I looked out over the Amsterdam rooftops and my state was quite happy to say the least. Top model Daphne Groeneveld had just tipped me some nice restaurants for New York, opposite me one of the nice buyers from the Bijenkorf was telling about her trip to Myanmar and next to me sat an inspiring former colleague. That Fiona Hering won a pair of shoes from Sophia Webster (also a guest at the party) didn't even bother me that much. That says something. Jett Rebel was singing in a corner and life, well, that's a bit exaggerated, the evening was good.

After two and a half glasses of wine, CEO Giovanni Colauto invited me to visit the rooftop house. That house has been there for years but has now been made livable. Crawling through we went up a spiral staircase where Kim Kardashian and other women with a prominent backside wouldn't fit through. There we entered a space that was intensely high (I seriously think about sixteen meters) and where a loft bed was built in.

Walking around after closing time in the department store is on my list, eating on its roof too. Now just sleeping in that tower and coming up with the script for Everything is Love 2. Oh, how happy I will be then.