Daily Dutch living

A few weeks ago my parents noticed that there was a duck hanging around the house. Sensing what was about to happen, Mom tried to shoo it away. But it was to no avail – the duck made her choice and the nest was made.

Here is her nest. I am surprised so many eggs could fit in one duck… The nest is right up against the house, underneath a bench (which is the wood piece you see here).

Last I heard a few days ago, the eggs have not hatched yet. Of course it’s not so much that my parents are against the idea of little ducklings in the yard. Our dog is older, slow, and probably a bit blind. So she pretty much ignores the mother. (And hopefully the duck keeps ignoring the dog, or I will fly home and make sure it wishes it had! I have a soft spot for Oreo, our dog.)

It’s more the factor of what other wildlife gets into our fenced in yard. Every week or two, a cat is spied lounging on the deck. So it’ll be a miracle if all of them survive – but that’s why the duck lays so many!

Not to be out done, Marco’s aunt and uncle also have their own newly hatched birds…

Cute little goslings in the Netherlands

Here are two little goslings who are exploring their yard. His aunt and uncle spent a lot of time and effort fixing up their home and surrounding land, which is in the country. Having spent the rest of my time in the Netherlands staying in cities, it was a bit of a shock to see what the Dutch countryside looked like.

But it was very peaceful and relaxing. And amusing when a chicken waddled past hoping that none of us would notice that it was about to get into the home through the open back door… but we noticed. Poor chicken didn’t get to explore the inside!

I remember one time Marco needed to purchase a new fryer. He kindly waited until I arrived so I could experience the joy that is fryer buying. Of course I don’t know what street the store was on – but I can tell you there was a shoe store nearby, as well as a lightning store with lots of chandeliers, I think. It was a wide open street with a lot of space to roam.

The main “odd” thing to me about the store was not being able to grab the item you wanted right away. First you looked at the items on display – mostly small appliances and maybe some cooking materials and vacuums. It’s a bit hazy now. Once you knew what item you wanted, you pulled off a small official piece of paper which had the item and model number on it and took it up to the desk.

You then wait in line to hand in the piece of paper to the cashier, as all of the items that were actually purchasable were not accessible to the general public (sort of reminds me of a closed stacks library!). After a long while, you reach the cashier, who then sends someone to go grab the specific item you are looking for. It’s even possible that that particular store was sending up items on a dumbwaiter type system, but I might be misremembering… But there’s more waiting at that point as well, since it takes a while to go grab it.

I think the waiting bit took about 20 minutes or so.  And of course the amusing thing was the fryer he picked out was the “Princess” model! (If that’s not his, it’s very close.) Though it had nothing to do with the name, and more to do with the color (black). When pressed into service, the fryer made some pretty good fries. Though if I remember correctly, the “viewing window” quickly fogs up, so good luck seeing much.

And then of course there is the realization that fryers are… a lot of work, and require hot oil. On my side of the ocean, these are the fries that I eat. You really can’t go wrong there – it’s microwavable and the instructions are hard to screw up, evening coming with pictures. Hence the name “easy fries”. Done in 4 minutes flat and you don’t have to worry about burning yourself either. I did burn a few plates, though…

I think they taste just fine, although I am not that picky when it comes to fries. Remember I haven’t lived in a place with an oven since late 2007, so I really can’t afford to be picky!