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A bit of cuteness (Or: Practicing for his new job?)

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Niki

Today’s story can officially be labeled “cute” – a boy in a nearby town decided to pretend he was also a football referee. And get his exercise in at the same time, apparently.

The full article at omroepwest.nl (in Dutch) can be found here. In short, it talks about how the five year old ran down to the edge of the stands with about 10 minutes to go in the game and started following the movements of the referee. He even had a whistle he was using. His mother tried to get a photo with the referee after the game, however the referee hadn’t realized what was going on so he declined (he was busy with end-of-game activities after all).

After the referee went home he saw the viral video and realized what the mother had been asking. He then got in contact with the boy and brought along some football related items (a shirt as well as autographed red and yellow cards). And just to mention what kind of world we live in in 2020: the mother also mentioned that he politely took photos with her son at the door, rather than going inside. If you click on the article I linked to below the video you can see pictures of the items the boy received.

And, yes, the boy said he now wants to be a football referee when he grows up. Awwww.

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One holiday closer to the end of 2020 (Or: Halloween spotted)

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Niki

Okay. I’ll admit Halloween is not that big in the Netherlands. Each year you see one or two more stores with a small selection of items. And why am I thinking of Halloween you ask? Marco took some photos of a new Halloween display at the local Xenos:

Of course the best part of Halloween is the candy, but Marco said those display shelves were still empty and hadn’t been filled yet. Here’s hoping it happens soon!

And thanks to the Halloween display I’m transported back to our 2017 Disneyland Paris trip (Marco, Roger and I) where Frontierland was decorated in the style of the Pixar film Coco for Halloween:

Here’s a “Hmm. I never thought of that.” link for you:

Grounded beef? Airlines sell in-flight meals to earthbound travellers from theguardian.com. No joke. It even talks about the company GNS Nuts selling their first class mixed nuts to consumers at a discount. This company normally services American Airlines and United Airlines.

Oh, and the first commemorative coin featuring the Dutch King Willem-Alexander with a beard (nltimes.nl) has been released. I must admit I was shocked when I first saw him with a beard after last summer’s recess, but it’s hard to think of him without one now.

Categories: Holidays | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Brownies? Spinach? (Or: Commercials are weird)

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Niki

Let me paint a picture for you. In the Netherlands you will see this pattern frequently:

  • commercial #1 (normal length)
  • commercial #2 (normal length)
  • commercial #3 is the first commercial, reprised; shorter, about 5-7 seconds

I will admit that I have gotten used to this oddity. But a few days ago I found myself in a confusing situation.

  • commercial #1: Iglo spinach commercial
  • commercial #2: Dr. Oetker brownies commercial
  • commercial #3: a few more seconds of spinach
  • commercial #4: a few more seconds of brownies… and now I’m just feeling confused and slightly put off by the thought of making brownies. Ew.

Side note #1: I don’t think I liked spinach as a kid. But as an adult I like spinach, and enjoy having it every month or two. My favorite is deep freeze cream spinach, since it’s hard to clean fresh spinach.

Sie note #2: I have been in the Netherlands too long. I can easily type spinazie, the Dutch translation, but need to Google the English and triple check it to make sure I am spelling “spinach” right. Hmm. It still looks wrong.

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

Let’s just skip to Christmas (Or: Kruidnoten spotted!)

Posted on August 31, 2020 by Niki

Marco spotted some kruidnoten (Wikipedia) by the local Albert Heijn today. If you’re keeping track, today is 31 August. Traditionally they appear in the grocery stories by 1 September, although we spotted them on 23 August back in 2018. So we seem to be on track this year.

Flavored kruidnoten are also available already. Caramel sea salt, white chocolate, truffle, stroopwafel…
And some speculaas

Marco was sweet and bought some gevulde speculaas (Albert Heijn recipe) for us. It is speculaas cookies filled with almond paste. Yum yum yum.

Of course you can’t blame anyone for wanting to skip to Christmas (and New Year’s, and 2021…) in these crazy times. Give me a shout when you put up your Christmas tree. Good riddance to 2020, I say!

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Finally (Or: Weekend!)

Posted on August 29, 2020 by Niki

I always joke that workdays go by really fast – but weekends go by even faster. I’m glad when they finally come around again, but just about the time I start to relax it’s time to start work again.

Today we made okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes, you choose the filling) for a late lunch/early supper. Even though I was not the one julienning the carrots, I still managed to cut myself on the device while trying to clean it. Ow! Typing with a band-aid can be a bit difficult at times.

But I’ll still leave you with a feel good story – Pierre the rockhopper penguin, rehabilitating at a zoo in Perth. Apparently he passes his time in isolation by watching penguins on an iPad (from far away zoos like in Kansas City in the US and the a zoo in Scotland). He also spends his iPad time watching Pingu, a clay animation TV show about a family of penguins. Awww.

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Of course there’s a book for that (Or: The first corona novel is spotted)

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Niki

Here in the Netherlands we already have at least one corona related novel, a novel that I spotted earlier this month at the library. The theme is about two strangers, both writers, who meet each other at a vacation park and start to fall in love amidst the chaos of corona, social distancing, quarantine and hoarding. But I decided not to check it out, thinking that anything written that fast can’t be good. And I’m not a big fan of romance novels anyway, even if it’s only a side theme.

And you know what the crazy thing is? When I was looking up a review of Quarantaine I found one dated 15 May 2020 from Het Parool. 15 May! That’s just over two months, three at the very most, from idea to publication – that’s insane. The reviews over at bol.com (like Dutch Amazon) are a bit better, at least. It gets four stars over there. But still. Romance? No thanks.

If you read Dutch, I’ll recommend instead Het Station by Joris van Casteren. Joris spends some months at Amsterdam Centraal back in 2014 or so, gathering stories of conductors, security guards, passengers, cleaners, the homeless and more. It was quite interesting but that’s probably because I’m a fan of trains and trams and metros and… you get the idea.

Categories: Culture | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Thai workshop (Or: First time at FOAM – The Kitchen)

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Niki

Last week Sunday Marco and I went to FOAM – The Kitchen to attend a Thai cooking workshop. This was the first cooking workshop that I have attended in my life, so I was a bit nervous about how things would go. But it worked out nicely and we had a lot of fun!

Due to the corona measures there were less participants than normal, only 8 this time. Each participant was in charge of one recipe. Marco and I took the okonomiyaki recipe (a small Japanese pancake) and a pineapple with nuts recipe. Check out Marco cooking the okonomiyaki (yum):

The base is cabbage, with shredded carrots, spring onions, sesame seed, flax seed, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and more. It was also my first opportunity using a Magimix machine which shredded the carrots and cabbage in half a second. Crazy!

We also made a pineapple dish, topped with a paste consisting of: walnuts, red peppers, onions, sunflower seeds, tamari (a type of soy sauce, in this case gluten free) and more. The topping made it hearty, so it isn’t quite a dessert.

Continue reading →
Categories: Food, Marco&Niki | Tags: | Leave a comment

Good news (Or: Oliebollen sales start early this year!)

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Niki

Are you also craving some oliebollen right now? Then I have good news for you: The Hague has said that oliebollen stands would be allowed to start selling from 1 October this year instead of the usual 1 November start date (omroepwest.nl). This is because of the corona crisis; normally oliebollen is sold throughout the year at festivals and carnivals, in addition to being sold during the winter months leading up to the big oliebollen event: New Year’s Eve. This way sellers can make up some of the money they lost this year. And maybe people just want 2020 to be over already? I can’t wait to ring in 2021 myself!

Oliebollen literally means “oil balls” and is the precursor to the doughnuts Americans know. See also the oliebol page over at the English Wikipedia. Traditionally they are sold with raisins inside, but you can also purchase them without raisins. (As Marco and Roger lament, the name changed in the last few decades: oliebol used to mean an oliebol with raisins, whereas if you wanted one without raisins you needed to specify. These days oliebollen are without raisins. and if you want an oliebol with raisins you ask for krentenbol. At least around here. Usually.)

Yum yum yum. This was last year’s batch, topped with powdered sugar. My stomach is rumbling already. Speaking of which… off to make dinner. Stay safe, everyone!

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“Out is inside this year!” (Or: UIT festival in The Hague)

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Niki

The UIT festival is a cultural festival normally held on the Lange Voorhout in The Hague, about a 5-10 minute walk from the city centre. Uitgaan in Dutch means “to go out”. This year, due to the coronavirus, the festival was renamed to “Binnen uit”, or “Inside uit”, referring to the fact that the cultural events will mostly be held inside this year. Reservations are also generally required.

If you are interested in reserving tickets for one of the cultural institutions, you can read more information over at the UIT festival website. Here’s an example: Around the Grote Kerk, a carillon concert from the Tong Tong Fair. In that case no reservations are needed since the bells can be heard over a wide area.

And behind the promotional material in my photo you can see work being done on the building. A Japanese clothing store with the name Uniqlo will open in October of this year.

…Can I have my Marks and Spencer back instead please? They had good food and coffee! I still have an incomplete stamp card for a free coffee, darnit!

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: | Leave a comment

Yum yum yum (Or: Homemade ramen soup)

Posted on August 20, 2020 by Niki

Marco has outdone himself yet again. Here’s a look at our dinner tonight:

Ramen soup with Japanese noodles, super snaps, pork, carrots, fresh ginger, pickled red ginger, green onion miso, onions, seaweed and sesame seeds. Therefore, I say: yum yum yum! Go Marco!

Here’s a sign that we live in a different world now: HTM laat meer trams en bussen buiten spits rijden, tijdens spits juist wat minder from omroepwest.nl. HTM, the public transportation company of The Hague, has altered their schedule for the rest of the year. They will be offering fewer buses and trams during weekday rush hour, but more buses and trams outside of weekday rush hour. Because, really, what is rush hour these days? Sure, some people go to work, but a lot less than before the corona crisis hit. They will also review the schedule at the end of the year to see if it should be extended into 2021.

Today was a bit of a madhouse in the city centre, although I missed it due to being hard at work. Which is probably a good thing. There were more demonstrations from the group “Viruswaarheid” or “Virus truth”. The demonstrators are against the corona measures the government has created. See also this article (with videos) at nltimes.nl: Covid protestors fight with police in The Hague; 1 cop hurt. But note you do see some idiots.

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