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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!

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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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Just a tree (Or: One lonely tree)

Posted on August 12, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is of the tree in the Centraal Park (at least, that’s the name Google Maps gives it). This park is not far from Centraal Station and the Malieveld.

But it’s one little tree, all on its own:

But it does provide some nice shade, that’s for sure.

My coworkers and I found out today that we will be working from home until at least January 2021. That is a very long time, but it was to be expected considering the circumstances. Mostly I think: ooh, January. Hopefully cooler temperatures! (The Netherlands is still in the middle of a heatwave at the moment.)

In other news: Ad falls flat: Coca-Cola to remove ‘inappropriate’ Amsterdam tourism banner (dutchnews.nl). The rather large ad says Ik zeg nooit meer ‘er zijn te veel toeristen in mijn stad’. Or, in English: I will never again say ‘there are too many tourists in my city’. The problem is that since the tourists came back, the issues with drug and alcohol use has skyrocketed in parts of Amsterdam. Because of that some local residents aren’t that happy with tourists at the moment.

Stay cool, everyone…

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Weird purchases by Xenos (Or: Licorice popcorn? Really?)

Posted on August 9, 2020 by Niki

I think it is apt that ‘Xenos’ means strange in Greek. This store in The Hague manages to capture strange very well, although most of the purchases are of the more mundane variety. For example, here is licorice flavored popcorn:

And, slightly less strange, Danish cookies with the tin branded with an emoji theme. The cookies themselves look normal, though.

In other news: whew, it is warm. And that’s with three fans going at the moment. I can imagine this penguin also wanted to swim for colder waters: Escapee penguin recaptured after 11 kilometre swim to freedom (dutchnews.nl).

And in good news: Germany picks up costs for Dutch Covid-19 patients treated in German ICUs (nltimes.nl). The bill was about 20 million euros. As the German minister of health said back in April: “Europe stands together, even in times of crises”. I’m not sure that has always been true this year, but it is a nice sentiment. They are also paying the bills for Covid-19 patients from Belgium, France, Italy and Spain who were treated in Germany.

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Today’s special guest star (Or: The sun)

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Niki

As you know the Netherlands is experiencing a bit of a heat wave this week. This is the first one of the year (the other two times it was warm it only lasted a day or two).

Here’s a look at all of the sunscreen and similar products by Etos, which is a drug store like Walgreens or Rite Aid in America. No food products or prescriptions, though.

That is a lot of sunscreen! But a lot of people are heading to the beach this week (nltimes.nl), so it is needed.

Marco made some lovely sour lemonade yesterday. Lots of lemon slices, lemon juice and water. Yum yum yum. Not to be confused with the Dutch “limonade” which is water with concentrated syrup. I actually had no idea until I read a post from another Dutch blog, Invading Holland, where the writer accidentally orders a limonade. And while I’m here, I’ll also link to his post from yesterday entitled What would it take to melt hagelslag? Hagelslag being the Dutch chocolate sprinkles that are usually put onto buttered bread.

Now I want some chocolate…

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Miniature shopping cart (Or: It’s so cute!)

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Niki

Today I noticed a miniature shopping cart by the local Albert Heijn. It reminded me of the toy-sized groceries Albert Heijn was giving out with a valid purchase some years back. They were called keukenmini’s or kitchen miniatures.

Not much else here to say today, beyond this: have a lovely weekend and stay safe! And if you’re in the Netherlands, avoid those weekend raindrops.

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Miniature display (Or: Games workshop in The Hague)

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is of the window display by Games Workshop, over on Schoolstraat.

And since it is a bit hard to see, here’s a close up of some of the miniatures:

Suddenly I have the urge to watch the Lord of the Rings movies again…

In other news:

  • Calls grow for facemasks in all Dutch public space to stop coronavirus spreading from dutchnews.nl. The mayor of Rotterdam is asking for more research to be done into whether or not the Netherlands should require facemarks at a national level, and how the laws could be put into place if needed. That way if the situation doesn’t get better it would be an easier transition, in theory. I don’t want to wear a face mask everywhere outside (who does, really?), but I can see the benefits. Therefore, if it was a requirement I would do so. One of the criticisms against it is that people will think they no longer need to socially distance if they are wearing face masks.
  • Amsterdam to get first post-pandemic drive-in movie theater from nltimes.nl. This is almost enough reason for me to want a car (but not really, never, no thanks). But it’s a cool idea in general and I hope it sticks around.
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Willem II on horseback (Or: A statue reborn?)

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is of the Willem II statue by the Buitenhof:

There’s some interesting tidbits with this statue.

  • Before 1924 a different statue of Willem II was in this spot (link to Dutch Wikipedia). For unknown reasons The Hague government wanted to instead install a replica of a statue found in Luxemborg: still Willem II, but on horseback. The original statue at the Buitenhof was sold to Tilburg for 1000 gulden (the equivalent of about 7,500 to 8,000 euros today). This replacement is recorded at the base of the statue in the photo above.
  • In the early 1990’s The Hague government wanted to install a “freedom carillon” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II. The bells would have either been placed quite close to the statue or in the statue’s very spot. Part of the problem was that the bells would have been 25 meters (82 feet) high, which might have been too jarring in that area. Momumentenzorg Den Haag has some scans of news articles from the 1990’s covering the situation, if you speak Dutch. But in the end the plans for the “freedom carillon” were thrown out (article from cobouw.nl).

As expected, the weekly coronavirus numbers from the RIVM were a bit high: about twice as many cases as last week (987 compared to 534), 19 hospitalizations and 7 deaths. But not all of those were numbers from the past 7 days, at least.

Outside of that, it’s mainly keeping on top of work during the day and relaxing at night. But the work days do go by quick, at least!

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Dinner time! (Or: Beef strips and broccoli)

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Niki

One thing you may or may not know about me is I don’t cook that often – or at least, not that often out of my comfort zone. I’m more the chef’s assistent in the kitchen and that is fine with me.

In a moment of rushing around with work this morning I suggested an idea to Marco – beefs strips and broccoli. But then as it turns out, he had to work late, which meant it fell to me to start the dinner. And I did awesomely! (But thankfully he came home in the second half and gave some advice and help.)

So let’s see, in the bowl you have: beef strips, broccoli, rice, red peppers (yum!), fresh garlic, fresh ginger and 4 tablespoons of soy sauce. It was nice and spicy thanks to the peppers, especially at the end. The broccoli and rice still had a bit of crunch to it, giving it a nice texture. I’m quite proud of it.

In other news:

  • All mink farms will be culled proactively if coronavirus infections continue from nltimes.nl. I’m not sure if others countries are having trouble with mink, but here in the Netherlands we have a lot of cases of humans infecting mink. Every time that happens the entire farm is culled. (Originally the ruling was that mink farms would only be allowed until 2025 due to ethical reasons, but this new development might cause the government to buy them out sooner.)
  • Coronavirus daily infections rise, while concerns raised about accuracy of ‘dashboard’ from dutchnews.nl. Something to keep a close eye in the coming weeks – the latest relaxation of corona measures was on 1 July and there is a noticeable increase in cases since then. Now that the Dutch health ministry (RIVM) only reports cases on a weekly basis, one must look at the corona dashboard to see what the daily figures are. But there is also concern that the dashboard is not as correct as it could be.
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