Make a short summary about this text and some conclusions:

Love is a dangerous emotion, let me tell you. And it always
happens when you're least expecting it. It creeps up on you
and jumps on you out of the blue, It grabs you by the
throat, shakes you and says, ‘I'm here! You'd better take
notice of me!”

I mean, think about it. One minute you're going along
very nicely, thank you. You get up every morning for work
and you come home every evening, You make dinner. You
watch your favourite TV program on Tuesdays and
‘Thursdays. You go out, you come in, You have a drink on
Friday nights. The highlight of your week is lunch out on
Sundays. Thav’s life as you know it. At least you think
you're alive, but then real life comes along and does a little
dance in front of you and you realize that you've been half
dead.

‘Thar’s the way it was when I met Ria.

One minute I was just going along like this, bored but
kind of OK. Well at lease I was healthy. Next thing I knew
Twas out late at night, freezing to death, doing all kinds of
strange things. And it seemed to me that I just had to do
them; somehow I didn't have any choice.

Now I don't know about you, but there’s a certain
pattern to my falling in love. First of all, it always happens
in winter, so it’s freezing cold, October, November and
December are the usual months, and they're cold in
Holland, really cold. And in The Hague the wind comes
off the sea and goes right through you like a knife. Not the
kind of weather for hanging around on street corners or in
telephone boxes, but that’s always what I end up doing.
One day I’m going to bed at nine thirty with a good book,
the next 'm out at one o'clock in the morning, knowing
that I’m going to be exhausted the next day. Exhausted, but
excited. Then comes a cold, or even worse, flu. Pd like to
fall in love in summer, but it never happens that way.

Then there’s the poetry. Suddenly I start writing poetry;
it just pours out of me. And it’ all deep meaningful scuff
that has to be written in the early hours of the morning,
usually accompanied by lots of alcohol. So the next day, on
top of the cold I already have, I have a hangover from the
drink. It’s a miracle that my bass hasn’t sacked me.

‘And the worst bit is when I realise that there’s probably
another man in her life. And of course he’s really good-
looking and has a sports car and a big bank account.

So everything followed more or less the usual pattern
with Ria, First came the cold and the poems. I hadn't seen
the good-looking boyfriend yet, but I had the feeling that it
was just a matter of time. There was something about Ria
that was different, though. She was different from other
gitls. First of all there was her job. She was a tram driver.

But lec me tell you a little bie about myself, because no
doubt you're wondering what an English guy is doing
living in Holland, in The Hague to be exact. Well, my
name’s Harry Brent, I'm twenty-nine and I've been here for
‘wo years. I work for an international import and export
company, JGD. They're based in Manchester but have
offices all over Europe. They sent me here to work in their
Dutch office. I'll probably be here for another two or three
years. Import and export. Sounds kind of boring, eh? Well,
it’s OK really, and Holland is an interesting country. For
one thing, you can more or less do what you want here, I
mean, it’s very liberal, very tolerant. And although I don’t
really do much that’s exciting, if you know what I mean, I
like it. I like the atmosphere and just the thought that if I
wanted to take all my clothes off in the middle of the
street, no one would care. No. No one would even notice.

So, like I say, I live in The Hague. It’s not as beautiful or
as exciting as Amsterdam, but it has its advantages. The
best thing about it is that its near a place called
Scheveningen, which is almost unpronounceable but lovely.
Ie has long soft sandy beaches, which are wonderful for
walks. And the sea here, the North Sea, is just beautiful, a
soft blue-grey.

I go to the beach a lot. The traffic in The Hague is
pretty bad, but it has good public transport. The noisy red
trams and their rails are a familiar sight and that’s how I get
about. Number one to work, number three to the city
centre. And number eleven from my place down to the
beach. I live alone in one of those typical tall Dutch houses
on a little street between the city centre and the beach. I
often go down to the beach after work and at weekends, to
walk and relax and look at the sea, Which brings me back
to Ria,

I first noticed Ria when I was going to the beach on
tram cleven one Sunday afternoon. It was early October
and a beautiful cold bright day. The tram suddenly stopped
somewhere in the middle of nowhere; something was stuck
on the rails, Ie happens a lot, and I didn’t take much notice
until I looked out of the window and saw the tram driver
removing a small piece of wood. Now, you can get on a
tram in Holland without seeing the driver, and that’s
exactly what I'd done. But now I saw her, I couldn't take
my cyes off her. ['ve never seen a tram driver wear a
uniform as well as Ria did. She was tall and slim. And even
from a distance I could see that she was beautiful, with
long dark hair. Really attractive. She was wearing a skirt,
unlike most female tram drivers who usually wear trousers.
‘And she had legs that seemed to go on forever. Yeah, she
was different.

But the most amazing thing about Ria was her eyes,
which I noticed straight away, and which were the exact
colour of the North Sea, a lovely soft blue-grey. And those
eyes kind of grabbed me, that’s the only way T can put it, so
that I couldn't think of anything else. Pd been grabbed by
the throat.

‘Well, she got back into the tram and we carried on
towards the beach. I moved up the tram so that I could be
nearer to her. And I just looked at her all the way to the
beach, though I tried not to let her see. I was kind of dazed,
as if I'd been hit on the head. I was confused, I don’t mind
telling you.

‘Anyway, the number eleven stops at the beach, on the
south side of Scheveningen not too far from the port; it’s
the end of the tramline, It waits for ten or fifteen minutes,
turns round and goes back to the city. I got out and just
sort of hung around for a while, looking at Ria but
pretending I wasn't looking. The idea of going away was
scary; I might never see her again. After a few minutes, Ria
got out of the tram and talked for a while to another tram
driver, That's when I discovered that she was called Ria,
because I heard him shout something to her. It looked like
she was going to drive tram eleven back to the city.

Thad a little time so I went over to the other side of the
road and bought some chips from a little shop near the
beach, keeping my eyes on the tram, and Ria, all the time.
Then I walked back slowly to the tram, eating my chips
and mayonnaise — 1 know it's a strange combination, bur
I've got used to it. I got back on the tram and went back to
the city with Ria.

So that was it really. For the next two weeks I spent all of
my spare time on trams, especially on tram eleven, hoping
that she would be the driver, and that I'd get to see her. I
got to love that little red tram; it was kind of comforting. I
also spent a lot of time waiting for trams, which is when I
got the cold. I got to know her routine, and I managed to
see a lot of her one way or another, And at nights I would
go home to my house and write poetry.

‘Anyway, one late afternoon I was waiting for the tram on
the platform. Ie pulled up and, as luck would have it, Ria
was driving. I was feeling kind of brave that particular day,
and I got on at the front, just so I could really see her. As I
got on, she smiled at me and said, ‘goede middag’ which
means, ‘Good afternoon,’ Well, not so unusual you might
think, but I knew when she said it that she recognised me.
Ie was the way her eyes met mine. I don’t remember much
about that tram ride, I can tell you! I could feel my face
burning red. I was completely overcome with ie all. I kepe
reliving that moment when she had said ‘goede middag’ for
days afterwards.

Well, from then on we said hello to each other quite
often. I was working towards asking her out, you know,
kind of trying to find the courage. Finally, one Friday
evening, I knew I had to go for it. For one thing, it was
starting to look very strange, you know, me following her
around like that. I didn’t want anyone to think I was some
kind of weird guy who follows women — you know, a
stalker or something.

So this particular Friday evening T left work at six o'clock
as usual, What I needed was a drink, I thought. Otherwise
there was no way I could talk to Ria, not really talk, I mean.

The office where I work is near the centre of the city, on
a street called Korte Voorhout, so I decided to go to the
Dudok. Irs a big new bar just a few minutes’ walk away. A
cool kind of place, if you know what I mean. A fashionable
place to be seen. I sometimes went there for a quick drink
after work, just because its near the office.

The Dudok was already crowded; it was a popular spot
for an carly evening drink, what the Dutch call a borrel.
Yeah, it was definitely borrel time. I found a place at the bar
and drank a couple of beers quickly. There was a new
barman there, a friendly sort of bloke who came over and
started chatting, ‘English, ch?” he asked. Turned out his
brother had gone to work in London, I didn't have the
heart to tell him Td never been there. I mean, just
Heathrow airport. So I just nodded when he mentioned
Notting Hill and Chiswick.

‘Lovely part of London, Chiswick,’ he said.

‘Gorgeous,’ I said.

‘Another beer?”

‘Er, Yd better not,’ I said weakly.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Its. . . how do you say it. . .? On
the house.’
‘Anyway, he was a friendly guy, like I said. He kept
coming over to talk to me from time to time, and I kept
drinking. I was thinking about whar I was going to say to
Ria, to be honest, and I wasn't getting very far. After about
an hour, he asked me, ‘So, what are you doing all alone on
a Friday evening, Harry? By then we were on first-name
terms. His was Hans.

Well, Id had a few beers by then, so I told him about
Ria. I told him about tram eleven and the fact that fd
decided to try to get to know her and to ask her out.

Hans smiled at me with big round eyes. ‘Oh, well, good
luck, Harry? he said. ‘And I hope she doesn’t disappoint
you. They say that Dutch women are really strong! You
take care of yourself?

Funny thing to say, I thought, Anyway, I had a few more
beers, and before I knew it was eleven o'clock! I felt like I
knew London like the back of my hand, bur that wasn't the
point. The point was to talk to Ria and ask her out, I told
myself, It was time to get on tram eleven. I wasn't totally
drunk, though I must say I'd had enough. I said goodbye to
the barman and ran off to catch tram one so that I could
get on tram eleven at the Hollands Spoor Station.

On the platform I stood where the front of the tram
would stop to make sure that it was Ria driving, The first
driver was a man, some big blond guy with a moustache, so
I waired for the next. Ah, there she was! She looked as
attractive as ever, with those lovely North Sea eyes. I got on
at the back of the tram this time. I didn’t want her to see
me before I was ready, if you know what I mean. I put my
tram ticket in the little machine and sat right at the back. It
was late October by now and it was really cold and windy.

As a matter of fact, it’s always windy in The Hague. But
the moon was up and it was nice and clear.

I still wasn't sure how I was going to approach her but,
like I said, I had to try, Well, I sat there and sat there and I
couldn't think of a way to talk to her — I mean, say more
than ‘Good evening.’ What do you say? ‘Do you come here
often?” I just couldn't imagine myself asking her, if you
know what I mean. Truth is, I'm not very good with
women, I suppose.

So, before I knew it, we were at the beach and everybody
had to get off, There were about ten people on the tram,
mostly people who lived up there, I reckoned, and they all
got off and walked away pretty quickly. I got off quickly
too so thar Ria wouldn't see me. T went and stood behind
the tram shelter, where I could see her but she couldn't see
me. It was obvious from the way that she collected her stuff
together that she was going off duty. I tried to think of a
way of hanging around for a while and kept my eye on her.

Then, she said something to another tram driver who
was going to take the tram back to the city centre and then
she set off walking quickly in the direction of the port. I
didn't know what to do, to be honest, seeing her go like
that, s0 I followed her. Oh, I know it looked like I was
stalking her, which is exactly what I said I didn’t want to
do, But it seemed like my only choice. Like I said, love is a
dangerous emotion.

Well, by now the wind was blowing up a storm over the
North Sea and the sky was full of huge black clouds, Dutch
weather is like that old joke: ‘If you don’t like it, just wait a
while and it'll change.’ The sky reminded me of one of
those paintings you see at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam,
painted by Rembrandt or Vermeer or someone. It wasn’t
raining yet, but it was only a matter of time.

I kept quite far behind Ria, Well, I didn’t have much
choice, to be honest. She was a very fast walker! She kept
up a quick pace along the seafront, trying to get home
before the storm blew up, I suppose. I was almost running,
just to keep her in sight! I suppose I was drunk too, to be
honest, and it’s hard to move fast when you've drunk too
much. There were a few people still around, coming out of
the bars and restaurants in Scheveningen and walking to
their cars, or just taking the sea air. I didn't look too
strange, It was about midnight by now. I was thinking to
myself ‘this is stupid,’ and telling myself that I was a
coward but, like T say, T couldn't help ir.

The beach front at Scheveningen is long, and there's a
kind of wide path that goes right down towards the port.
That was obviously where Ria was heading, so I was
thinking that she had to live somewhere near the port. Part’
of the old fishing village, the original Scheveningen, is
down there. So I carried on walking, following her.

The weather at the beach changes pretty quickly, like I
said, and, sure enough, before long it started raining quite
hard, that kind of horizontal rain you get around here. I
didn’t have an umbrella of course, so soon I was completely
soaked. After about twenty minutes’ walk, we got near the
port, At the beginning of the port area, there are a lot of
fish restaurants and small bars. But by now they were
almost all closed, and the place was nearly deserted. Ria
looked round at one point, but I was far enough away that
she couldn't recognize me.
Then we got into the port itself. There were quite a few
boats there: a few local fishing boats, and some ships with
the names of English ports on them. Around the harbour
itself it was pretty dark, and the only noise I could hear was
the sound of Ria’s heels on the pavement.

Right in the corner of the harbour there's a little bar
called De Hoek. It’s a place where the fishermen go, and
some Scheveningen locals. Td never been in there myself,
though I'd heard people at the office talk about it. It had a
reputation as a wild kind of place. It was still open; I could
see a kind of dim yellow light and there was music and
voices coming from inside. I looked at my watch. It was
one o'clock! It was late, but the bar was so far away from
any houses thar it could probably stay open as long as it
liked, I thought.

‘Anyway, Ria walked over towards it, opened the door
and went right in. Odd, I thought. Did she live there, or
was she just going in for a quick drink before bed? Hard to
say. By now the rain had died down a bit, so I decided to
wait a little longer. Well, I was already wet through so it
didn’t marter. Yeah, | know it sounds crazy, but that’s what
Itold you. You do strange things when you'r in love.

So I waited quite a while, My mind was working
overtime, I can tell you. Did she live here, or did her
boyftiend live here? There had to be a boyfriend. Perhaps
he was a fisherman or sailor! A good-looking sailor with a
sports car and a big bank account of course. That would be
just my luck.

So there I was, waiting. And I thought, ‘Hey, I haven't
got anything to lose.’ You know what I mean? So what if
she’s got a boyfriend? It can't be any worse than standing
out here, dripping wet and shivering. By now I was like a
dog that had just come out of the sea. And it looked like it
was going to start raining again. So I walked over to the bar
and opened the old wooden door.

‘The only things I noticed at first were the overpowering
smell of cigars, and a fair amount of smoke. I could hear
music playing too, sounded like jazz, I looked around,
trying to see Ria.

‘Are you sure you want to come in here?” I looked up
into the face of a huge Dutch guy. He was standing right
next to me blowing smoke in my face.

‘Er, I’m not sure,’ I answered.

‘Well, decide,’ he said.

‘The bar was full of people, men mainly, though there
were a couple of women too. I looked around for Ria, but I
couldn't see her anywhere. I moved away from the tall
Dutchman and pushed through the crowd towards the bar.
‘As I moved through the smoke I could see a kind of stage
on the other side of the room. And on the stage someone
was dancing to the music. After a minute or so, my eyes
got used to the smoke and the dim light, and I could see
the dancer. It took me a little while to work out that she
was completely naked!

Well, I didn't know where to look, I can tell you. The
big Durch guy was looking at me, smiling and watching for
my reactions. I sort of smiled back. To be honest, I wanted
to leave. I felt kind of embarrassed. But I didn’t want to
seem foolish or anything, so I acted like it was the most
natural thing in the world. I ordered a beer, though it was

the last thing I wanted, to tell you the truth. I just wanted
to run out of there, Ria or no Ria.

Then the music stopped and everyone clapped. ‘Oh
good,’ I thought, ‘this is my chance to get out of here.’ But
the music started again almost immediately and someone
else came onto the stage.

‘Look at this,’ said the big Dutch guy, pushing my
elbow. ‘You'l like this!

I smiled kind of awkwardly, and looked over to the little
stage and at the face of the new dancer.

She was wearing a bit more make-up than usual, but
there was no mistaking those eyes. It was Ria!

‘Well, I was shocked, I can tell you! But it got worse. The
music started and Ria started taking her clothes off
Everyone in the bar was shouting and whistling. Part of me
wanted to leave, but the other part just made me stay there.
I couldn't move. Little by litte, Ria’s clothes came off until
she was completely naked. And then came the greatest
shock of all, because then I saw that there was something
about Ria that was different. She was different from other
girls. And ie wasnt only that she was a tram driver. She was
aman!

‘Aaagh!’ I sort of screamed and moved quickly towards
the door.

‘See what I mean?’ said the big Dutch guy behind me,
laughing.

I ran outside. The Dutch guy followed me, shouting,
“So, you like our entertainment, do you, little English boy?”

Abit rude, I thought, calling me ‘litde’, but I thoughe Pd
lec it pass, I ran as fast as I could.

I ran all the way back home. I couldn't help thinking
about what Hans had said about ‘strong women’, He didn’t
know how right he was.

Yeah, there are times when life comes and grabs you by the
throat.

So, all that happened about six months ago. Since then,
things have, well, calmed down a bit. I get up every
morning for work and I come home every evening. I make
dinner. I watch my favourite TV program on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. I go out, I come in. I have a drink on a Friday
night. The highlight of my week is lunch out on Sundays.
OK, it’s boring, but to tell the truth T kind of like it. Pm

happy.
But I'm really not looking forward to the winter.