Everyday purchases

Decemberzegels (Or: Efteling inspiration)

Posted on December 22, 2025 by Niki

Every year, PostNL (the Dutch post office) releases new decemberzegels, or December stamps, for use during the holiday period. This year they can be used from 10 November to 3 January for letters. They are like America’s “forever stamps”, as you can keep using them every December. Currently you can use stamps from 2010 and newer.

The theme this year is fairy tales from the Efteling, a Dutch theme park. Some of the themes are the Princess and the pea, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Each sheet has 10 unique stamps (PostNL decemberzegels page in Dutch).

Here’s a close up:

This year I used my last 2021 stamp, actually, so I had to buy more. Earlier this month I went to one of the PostNL pakketpunten, a place to pick up and send packages in random stores like flower shops or dry cleaners. They make a bit of money (not a lot!) for each package that goes through their hands.

Mind you, I have lived in the Netherlands since late 2012. I recently celebrated my 13th anniversary here (December 18, 2012). The conversation I had with the shopkeeper was in Dutch, with no issues on my side. But I was reminded that I still have an American accent, because at some point the shopkeeper asked, in Dutch, “You know you can use these to send mail internationally, right? Just add two stamps instead of one, provided it doesn’t weigh more than 50 grams”. I said something “Oh, cool, I didn’t know”, since I didn’t. After I left I realized he probably mentioned that because of my accent…

Heh. Oh well!

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Everyday purchases, Holidays | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Takkie and Sepia at Hema (Or: Christmas gifts 2025)

Posted on November 12, 2025 by Niki

Hema is going all in on the Takkie and Siepie gifts this year. Takkie is a dog and Siepie is a cat, and both are from Jip and Janneke, a series of children’s books (English Wikipedia).

This year they have Takkie mugs:

There’s also a Takkie toy:

I also took a picture of some of the stuffed animals.

Takkie has a red collar and Siepie does not have a collar.

You can find more Takkie and Siepie related items on Hema’s website, on their Takkie en Siepie page.

I’m a fan of Takkie with a scarf as well as the Christmas ornaments for both of them. Cute stuff!

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Handybrew tea maker (Or: It is actually quite handy)

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Niki

Last weekend we went to Umami, an Asian fusion restaurant. Check out some of the food:

Admittedly there was definitely a bit too much creme fraiche on the bao bun at the front of the photo, but it was otherwise delicious. My favorite was probably the veggie dumplings in the back, or the bread with anise dip (not pictured).

On a whim I ordered tea, and it came in a quite handy contraption I had never seen before, a Handybrew. I thought it was so cool I went to a local tea shop, Simon Levelt, the next day and bought my own.

You steep the tea leaves in this plastic container. The trick is that when you put it on top of a glass, it magically pours out, and stops as soon as you lift up the container again (so the opening is controlled by pressure). See also this YouTube video:

Another selling point is that the tea stays pretty warm in the Handybrew container, so even the second glass is warm. I appreciate that. Of course, it’s a bit messy to clean out the tea leaves after the fact, but you can’t have everything!

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Lays chips (Or: Would you like a box with that?)

Posted on June 2, 2025 by Niki

Last week, a controversy arrived in the Netherlands: Lay’s chips now come in a box. Why is that a problem, you ask?

Because normal sized bags of chips are 185 gram, and the new boxes are 125 gram. For the same price.

Chips van Lays in een doosje, kiloprijs schiet omhoog from nos.nl (Lay’s chips now in a box, price per kilogram skyrockets). The company says the price increase was due to the improved package, as the boxes don’t make as much noise and you can re-seal them so the chips stay fresher longer.

I for one won’t be buying a box (although that is also because there are healthier options available if you want to snack on chips). I’ll miss the Doritos, though.

Has this phenomenon started appearing in other parts of the world yet?

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Tompouce (Or: The yearly battle to not get messy)

Posted on April 27, 2025 by Niki

Yesterday was the King’s Day holiday in the Netherlands, celebrating the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. His birthday is on April 27, but since that falls on a Sunday it was celebrated yesterday instead.

The company I work for through a King’s Day party this week, complete with orange tompouce, cheese blocks with Dutch flags sticking out of them, and borrelnootjes (Wikipedia). The last is a peanut or similar nut with a crispy coating around it. The flavor of the crispy coating can differ. Think of things like cheese & mustard, bacon & cheese, oriental, provencal, paprika (bell pepper), etc. They are a typical snack to eat at a bar, or you can buy them at your local grocery store.

HEMA is a big seller of tompouce, although you can also get it at Albert Heijn and probably other grocery stores. But for King’s Day the typically pink frosting is replaced with orange frosting:

I’ve mentioned before how impossible it is to eat these things with just your hands. The middle layer is cream, so if you bite down it will of course squirt out on the other side. My usual method of attack is to use a small fork to eat most of the cream, damaging the structural integrity of the top layer like I am playing a mad game of Jenga. Eventually I pull off the top layer before it collapses, alternating between eating the top layer, the remaining cream in the middle, and the bottom layer.

Tompouce is tasty, but very sweet. Once a year is good enough for me. Luckily a coworker was willing to “halfsies” so we each had half. You can read more about the history of tompouce at HEMA at their website (you’ll need to use Google Translate).

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Croissant… pillow? (Or: Latest marketing by Albert Heijn)

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Niki

At the supermarket chain Albert Heijn, the focus for this year’s Easter is on croissants. Including a very large croissant pillow…

The Dutch underneath reads “Te lekker om op te eten”, or “To delicious to eat”.

Other croissant-related purchases this Easter include:

And that is your croissant news for the day. Happy Easter!

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Getting old (Or: Getting old, stylishly)

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Niki

Yesterday was my 42nd birthday.

Oddly enough I have a lot more peace with that than 40 or 41. And now I get to be the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything (aka 42, a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy joke).

But one plus of getting old is more opportunities to buy stylish things. Today I went to the opticiens and bought myself a nice pair of prescription reading glasses, although I will have to be patient as they won’t be ready for a few weeks.

I grew up with a distinct preference for blue, although purple (and green) have started to pique my interest the last few years. So I was thrilled to see these reading glasses, which are mostly blue with a hint of purple here and there.

Note: technically I’m already old, because I bought a pair of bifocal glasses last summer.

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Anyone up for some sweet pretzels? (Or: Speculoos flavor)

Posted on March 17, 2025 by Niki

Here is another off-the-wall item spotted at Xenos:

That’s right, speculoos flavored hard pretzel pieces. This is one of their “sweet” varieties. Wikipedia describes speculoos as a spiced cookie, noting that the speculoos version from Belgium has less spices than the speculaas version from the Netherlands.

I didn’t grab a bag on the day I snapped the photo, but a few days later Marco came home with a bag without him knowing I had taken a photo for the blog. We still need open the bag and try it… we’ll see how it tastes!

(Anything is probably better than the British Twiglets pretzel snack. Those taste like ashy death. I wish I was joking… I usually love pretzels!)

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Flowers for International Women’s Day (Or: When you don’t have a vase)

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Niki

Yesterday was International Women’s Day. While I was at the hairdresser one of the workers passed out roses to all the women working there and getting their hair done. I’m not really a flower person – neither Marco or I have a green thumb between us – but I wasn’t about to say no to a rose. Except for the miniature thorns on the side. Ouch.

After my hair appointment I went to Kelly’s expat store to pick up some very important supplies, including cinnamon raisin bagels and Rold Gold pretzels. (The pretzels are a newer offering at Kelly’s but one I appreciate. They are usually my go-to snack when visiting the US.) After making my purchase, the cashier asked if I wanted a flower. I was amused, but said yes, since it would make for a funny story on the way home. I chose a pretty pink flower to go with the rose I already had.

When I got home I told Marco about the two flowers I received, why and where. I mentioned that I had to take out my contacts but after that I would try to find something to put them in, since we don’t have vases lying around (anymore).

When I came back I noticed Marco had found the perfect vase for me:

Asahi is easily one of my favorite beers, so it was a logical choice for us.

Bonus picture – here’s what we had with the beer last Friday:

To celebrate the weekend, Marco made marinated salmon with pandan rice and sugar snaps on the side. There’s also some pickled ginger hiding in the back. It was delicious, and the beer paired well with it.

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Another weird item at Albert Heijn (Or: Marshmallow… what?)

Posted on February 23, 2025 by Niki

I spotted a weird item in the Easter section at Albert Heijn last week. Check it out:

That’s right… marshmallow croissants. They are also filled with chocolate “flavor” (vulling met chocoladesmaak). On the positive side, they do look realistic-ish. But they must be really weird to bite into. I’m not a huge fan of marshmallows so I will skip on this one.

Another weird item at Albert Heijn, but this time I actually purchased it: Lay’s chorizo and onion potato chips, one of those limited flavors that may or may not stick around. It wasn’t too bad, if you like chorizo. I’m not sure I would buy it again but the flavor was exactly as described.

The flavor is part of a poll to choose the best limited flavor. The other two flavors in the poll are 1) garlic and herb 2) mac and cheese. I’m willing to try the garlic and herb but I can’t bring myself to buy a bag of mac and cheese potato chips.

Great. Now I am thinking about marshmallow croissant flavored potato chips…

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