Everyday purchases

Camping chaos (Or: Another Jan van Haasteren puzzle)

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Niki

This week I have a new puzzle, again from the cartoonist Jan van Haasteren (read a previous puzzle post about him here). This week’s puzzle is called “Camping chaos”:

In the lower right you have a panicked mass of people trying to escape the man on the diving board. Well, actually, trying to escape the shark underneath the man on the diving board… There’s also a lot of people with cameras in this puzzle, occasionally filming scantily dressed women. That’s the Dutch humor for you.

And of course the usual random floating hand coming out of unexpected places, a trademark of his. No Sinterklaas in this puzzle, though.

Let’s see how long it takes to finish all of the paths and green areas…

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Jigsaw puzzles | Leave a comment

End of the school year cards (Or: One of these doesn’t quite belong…)

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Niki

I made a quick trip to Albert Heijn to pick up some broccoli. (If you had told me five years ago that I would willingly buy broccoli, I would have laughed. Hard.) Anyway, it was rather busy when I went so I had plenty of time to stare at the items for sale around the cash register, especially the “Congrats! You survived the hell that is school!” cards.

And then I noticed one of them isn’t quite the same as the others. You don’t even need to know Dutch to guess which.

For your information, geslaagd means that you passed. Gezakt, with the sad looking smiley above on the right? Bummer. You failed. I took a peek inside – blank.

Categories: Amersfoort, Everyday purchases | Tags: Albert Heijn, Cards | 1 Comment

Hemelvaartsdag (Or: Visiting Zoetermeer on a day off)

Posted on May 16, 2015 by Niki

This past Thursday was a national holiday here in the Netherlands – Hemelvaartsdag, or Ascension Day, a Christian holiday. Marco and I decided to take the tram to Zoetermeer and do some shopping. Well, I decided to do some shopping and Marco begrudgingly came along… I kid, I kid.

We visited the Stadshart (City’s heart) to do our shopping. I did manage to find a new pair of pants for work – harder than one might think as the Netherlands seems to discriminate against short folks like me! Here’s a view of the indoor part of the shopping area:

One interesting thing about this area was the lack of proper protection against wind in the beginning. Not long after it opened it became clear that this area was really nothing more than a huge wind tunnel. I found an old article in Dutch about the issue (article) but I mostly know about it from the stories Marco told me.

As usual we stopped at Bagels & beans for a coffee and an apple crumble. The weather wasn’t as good as it was a few weeks ago in Leiden but it wasn’t too cold. For the Netherlands anyway…

Categories: Everyday purchases, Zoetermeer | Tags: Bagels & Beans | Leave a comment

Flowers for a compliment (Or: Albert Heijn)

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Niki

Last week my mother-in-law and I made a stop at Albert Heijn. She had a coupon from the Allerhande (the Albert Heijn recipe book) for a discount on Senseo coffee. The coupon itself was good from mid-March until today but she hadn’t had much luck finding an Albert Heijn with the item in stock.

When she asked at the customer service desk for this particular Albert Heijn (Grote Markt 55A) whether they had the item in stock, the worker looked in the back for the item and whether or not it might be re-stocked soon. When she couldn’t find it, she offered a few different options. My mother-in-law was quite pleased with this service and remarked about how the service at this Albert Heijn was better than at her own. At this remark we both received flower bouquets, a quite unexpected move.

Here’s a picture of mine, though I’m sorry for the blurriness. I tried to sharpen it a bit, but it didn’t quite work out:

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Albert Heijn, Flowers | Leave a comment

New York marathon (Or: A puzzle marathon)

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Niki

The puzzle is now complete! As a reminder it is a puzzle with the name “NY marathon”. 1,000 pieces! This was two nights ago:

And around dinner time tonight:

You can find the puzzle here.

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Jigsaw puzzles | 2 Comments

Jan van Haasteren puzzles (Or: NY marathon)

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Niki

Last week Roger dropped off one of his mother’s puzzles for me to work on. Little did I know, it was 1000 pieces! (I thought it would be 500.)

It is a Jan van Haasteren puzzle with the title NY Marathon – he is a well-known Dutch cartoonist. Part of the reason I like his puzzles is the fact that they are animated – it reminds me of a puzzle I had when I was younger (probably 500 pieces) with a mini golf theme.

First things first – separate out the edges:

I had a small scare at one point when I couldn’t find one of the edge pieces (remember, it’s not my puzzle!) but after a while it turned up. The biggest issue is the lack of table space – hence why I don’t have any puzzles of my own and it is better to borrow one from someone else.

Progress is being made…

But still a long, long way to go.

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Jigsaw puzzles, New York City | Leave a comment

Cakes and other baking goodness (Or: By the Asian store?)

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Niki

If you are looking to make American-style cakes and desserts and happen to be in the center of The Hague, I would actually recommend visiting the Asian store underneath C&A (to the left of the C&A entrance you will see stairs leading downwards – see also this blog post with a photo).

Here is just a small sampling of the various Duncan Hines recipes they offer:

In total there are probably about 15-20 different types on offer at any point. German chocolate cake, red velvet cake, blue velvet cake, coconut surprise… Unfortunately the selection isn’t available in the webshop on their website linked above. Of course if you are desperate for American food there is also usfoodz.nl though it is definitely import prices.

As there is a large Asian population in the area (it is not far from Chinatown) the store is almost always crowded. But it is a staple if you’re looking for Asian food. There’s also a smaller store by the same name in the Markthof, across from the Hema entrance and close by Simonis, a fresh fish store, and “Flowers for you” (a flower shop, of course).

Categories: Everyday purchases, Food | Tags: Desserts | Leave a comment

On the move again (Or: Paagman’s moving to Lange Poten 41)

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Niki

Tonight I visited Paagman’s (a bookstore) on Spuistraat. Before 2014, there was a different bookstore at this location — read my post about what happened to Selexyz. Before that, it was De Slegte, yet another bookstore. Marco tells me that De Slegte was there for ages…

So imagine my surprise when I walk in and see that Paagman’s didn’t last long either!

They are moving as well. Not that Lange Poten is that far away; it’s only a few streets from Spuistraat. But we are beginning to think that this particular location might be cursed.

The sign reads: “Paagman’s is opening a new store on Lange Poten 41. We are also bringing the second hand books with! 700 square meters reading, listening and discovering. Books, music, film and coffee.”

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Books, Paagman | Leave a comment

Exported root beer (Or: Random American brands)

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Niki

A few days ago I was at the Albert Heijn looking at the rather small export section that they have (a few American or American-ish things, like yellow mustard and Skippy peanut butter, etc). What always amuses me at Dutch stores is their tendency to use American-sounding brand names or packaging with American flags to label the product as AMERICAN PRODUCT BUY ME NOW.

This time I noticed the Stars and Stripes root beer, which does at least seem to be an American item, though I think they went with this brand versus the more popular and well-known root beer brands like A&W because the name was American sounding.

I’m actually not a big fan of root beer (maybe one can every 3 or 4 years?). Which is a shame, because a root beer float (root beer soda + vanilla ice cream) sounds delicious.

Categories: Everyday purchases, Food | Tags: Brand names, Drinks | Leave a comment

Chip and dips bowl (Or: Curves appreciation)

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Niki

I spotted this a few weeks ago at a cooking store nearby work and I just had to take a picture of it. Some of the comments are in Dutch but you can assume they all follow the same theme that is shown on the right side: “Love my curves”.

For example, the top comment is “Heb ik een dikke kont in deze broek?” and “Lekker kontje”. Or “Do I have a fat butt in these pants?” with the reply “It’s a nice butt.” Yeah.

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