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Easter 2020 (Or: A bit smaller and closer to home)

Happy Easter, everyone! It’s a quiet holiday – we’ve opened the windows nice and wide today to get that spring breeze circulating through the apartment. This year Marco and I ordered Easter Brunch from a local restaurant, FOAM Catering. You can find them at Frederikstraat 44.

We were tempted after Marco saw the menu on Facebook:

We went with the meal and added one massive chocolate chip cookie and one banana bread muffin to the spoils. Check it out:

From left to right we have the massive chocolate chip cookie, and then next to that the banana bread muffin (sort of hidden). In the box above we have the two sandwiches – BLTA (tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado – YUMMM!) and the wakame baguette with scrambled tofu, chives and tomato. I can easily say it is the best tofu I’ve ever had. It was great and did actually look like scrambled eggs. You can see the scrambled tofu container in the lower right, as you needed to warm it up separately and then add it to the sandwich.

Underneath the sign “Like our food?” is the mango jalapeño gazpacho, my second favorite item after the BLTA sandwich. It wasn’t that spicy, and the mango wasn’t too sweet. To the right is the scrambled tofu, as earlier mentioned. In the box on the far right is the coconut power balls and underneath the two brownies. Sweets wise we kept it at the coconut power balls, which were unbelievably tasty. We saved them until last and had them with a cup of coffee. The two closed containers in the far back are the extra scrambled tofu and gazpacho.

If you’re in The Hague I would definitely recommend this restaurant – it was well worth the price and we’re already planning our next visit. And without this experience I wouldn’t have ever known tempeh bacon existed, so that’s a definite win.

Stay safe, everyone!

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: | 2 Comments

Good Friday (Or: A bit of sun and relaxation)

Happy Friday everyone! ☀️ We made it to the weekend.

I would also like to give a shout to my mother who has an irregular job which is not only Monday-Friday – hope you’re getting some time off here and there!

It has now become routine to check the numbers from RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) in the afternoon, as they release statistics about the coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations around 14:00 every day. They seem to have increased their server load in the last week or so as the site doesn’t freeze around that time anymore.

RIVM Statistics in English

Note: The Netherlands has increased testing capacity in the last week, so the number of confirmed cases is going up due to that. They are now able to test healthcare workers outside of hospitals, including workers who work in home healthcare.

The statistics regarding ICU beds can be found at NICE (National Intensive Care Evaluation) although that page is not available in English. Daily numbers are released sometime after 16:00 each day. Also note the time stamp at the top of the page is whatever the time was when you visited the site, not the last time that it was updated. But keeping an eye on the ICU beds is important is this country as we needed to quickly increase our numbers to be able to handle the expected strain in the ICU.

In either case, the numbers aren’t complete yet as some hospitals send in their reports a day or two later. For example our country generally has a higher number of deaths on Tuesdays as they include deaths over the weekend and on Monday.

Here’s a photo from The Hague Centraal train station earlier this morning:

Care for each other, keep 1.5 meters distance

ProRail is responsible for the infrastructure and capacity of the rail transport lines, while NS (which I mention sometimes in this blog) is responsible for most, but not all, of the passenger transport in The Netherlands.

And a look at the current tram schedule at the train station:

At the moment, trams operate every 20 minutes during the day on a weekday and every half hour in the weekend.

Stay safe!

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

An empty Malieveld (Or: Coronavirus trumps good weather)

Ahh, weekend! It’s an early one, but we’re getting four days off. My work gives both Good Friday and Easter Monday as paid holidays, and Marco took tomorrow off and gets Easter Monday as a paid holiday. This has been a long work week. It’s not the work itself, just the constant working from home situation, I think.

This is the end of week #5 for working at home, and my expectation is that we’ll also be working from home in May as well. Or at least partially working from home so that the social distancing and 1.5 meters rule can be enforced on the work floor. For instance by saying only half the workforce can go into work each day, and alternating who goes in each day.

So hopefully that explains the long walk Marco and I took in the afternoon yesterday – sometimes you just need to get out and stretch. Here is a look at Malieveld – unbelievably empty on a day when temperatures reached 71F / 22C. It was the first time I took off my jacket in many months, I must admit. And the first time in a while that I wondered if I should have put sunblock on…

There were a few people in the grass in the distance, but not many. You can also see that the grass still hasn’t completely recovered from the farmer protests back in October of last year. Check out this aerial photo: Reddit link.

Looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow. And maybe stretching my legs and going for a socially distant walk at some point.

Categories: The Hague, Working & Volunteering | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Warmth and sun (Or: Cautious wanderings)

Oh, sunny days! (which makes me think of the song “Oh Happy Day” from Sister Act 2 – obligatory YouTube link).

But today’s temperature was about 66F / 19C. Spring is coming. I took a break from work to take a short walk, finding bits of sun while practicing my social distancing responsibly…

I took a photo of the old city hall, where Marco and I were married in September 2013. See the stairs in the lower right? We took some wedding pictures there. I was reminded again of how much taller Marco is than I am, as I had to stand a few stairs above him in the pictures.

Blast from the past (blog post from September 19, 2014 to be exact): Holding hands (Or: A year ago today)

There was another press conference this evening with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Healthcare Minister Hugo de Jonge. For the most part the message was Hou vol! Or “Keep going! You’re doing great!” With a few exceptions, we managed to use our common sense and stay home over the weekend, only going outside if needed and going out alone, etc.

There was also a reminder that Easter was coming and we needed to celebrate it at home responsibly and not travel throughout the country to visit family. With a similar amount of “You’re doing great! Don’t stop now!” and a reminder that the only way the country can consider relaxing the measures (piece by piece, slowly) is if we all individually and collectively make smart decisions in the near future. You get the idea.

Minister de Jonge also mentioned that the government was looking into two apps to help in the fight against the coronavirus: one app to let you know if you have been in contact with someone who had later been diagnosed with the virus, and another app to help potential patients stay in touch with their doctors. They don’t know if the apps will be compulsory (my guess is no, as people tend to be stubborn around here) and how they will work with regards to privacy and user data.

Further reading on the two apps:

Dutch see apps as key to relaxing lockdown, tracking corona suspects (DutchNews.nl)

Kabinet wil apps voor opsporing en monitoring coranapatiënten (nos.nl)

Kabinet wil app die wijst op contact met besmette landgenoot (ad.nl)

Categories: Marco&Niki, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Wow, they have that again! (Or: Albert Heijn stock levels)

Marco came home today with a surprise: our Albert Heijn has their spicy pasta sauce base in stock again!

The last time I saw this item was before the big coronavirus scare. Let’s see – that means it has been almost a month.

Check out the photo I took of Albert Heijn’s pasta section on 17 March:

Marco would proceed to joke for the next month that only expensive items were left on the shelfs, since Dutchies are still Dutchies after all.

Interestingly enough I saw toilet paper for the first time a few weeks back already. The rice section is still fairly low, but they were able to start re-stocking that a few weeks ago as well.

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

Weekend baking (Or: Lemon sugar cookies)

Over the weekend Marco and I baked lemon sugar cookies:

It has become a nice ritual in these corona times – last week we also made cookies from a ‘all in one’ baking kit. The box was for chocolate chunk cookies but we replaced the chocolate with Reese’s pieces (but a knockoff brand). We decided to divide the recipe in two as it said it would make 4 dozen cookies… yeah, we don’t have anyone to share them with, so no go!

We used our Joseph Joseph adjustable rolling pin for the first time during this bake as the recipe called for cookies of 1/4th inch thickness. The rolling pin comes with a set of ‘rings’ of 1/16, 1/6, 1/4 and 3/8ths inch so that you can always get the perfect thickness. It worked really well actually!

We didn’t have a proper cookie cutter so we simply used an empty container that was previously filled with ‘chocoladestukjes hagelsteentjes‘ (tiny pieces of dark, milk and white chocolate).

Now the question is what we will bake next week… any ideas?

Categories: Food | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Empty streets of The Hague (Or: Plenty of places to park your bike)

Recently Marco took a photo of the bike parking outside of Hema:

This was at the start of what is normally evening rush hour, as everyone heads home from work. Normally this area would be packed with bikes, crammed so tightly together that it would then be impossible to remove your bike once you returned from your shopping trip.

The area is normally so full that it there are ‘bike coaches’ which help you park your bike. Or bike coaches that stand around all day talking with each other… one of those two is true. Although one time I did see one of the coaches help an older lady diagnose a problem with her bike, so that was nice to see.

But still: the strange times continue, with no end in the near future.

The government launched a campaign today called ‘alleen samen’ which can be translated as either ‘only together’ or ‘alone together’. Basically reminding us that we are together in this – even when we must undertake so many actions alone (article in Dutch).

Categories: Daily Dutch living, The Hague | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Chocolate eggs by Hema (Or: Stroopwafel flavor, anyone?)

It feels like a lifetime ago, but a few weeks ago (13 March) I was browsing in Hema. I could not resist snapping a few photos of their chocolate egg collection:

Some of the flavors included dark chocolate banana cream, white chocolate matcha lemon, milk chocolate cookies and cream (that one was almost empty), milk chocolate orange, milk chocolate coconut, milk chocolate peanut butter… I definitely learned that everyone’s favorite flavor is milk chocolate, not dark chocolate.

There was also a display near one of the entrances.

But the best (and most Dutch) flavor was…

You guessed it… Stroopwafel flavored chocolate eggs!

Categories: Everyday purchases, Holidays | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Art in the city centre (Or: Heaven holds a sense of wonder)

The Hague is home to many pieces of art, especially in the city centre. One of those is is called Heaven holds a sense of wonder by the artist Femke van Wijk.

It is a bronze sculpture created in 2011. You can find it on the Kalvermarkt – to the right is the Kalvermarkt-Stadhuis tram stop and in the background is the Primark retail store. In the distance is the Grote Marktstraat, a large shopping area.

A close up of the crown:

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

Restaurants in The Hague (Or: Take your food and go)

Here is a look at one of the local Burger King locations:

The Burger King itself is open, but the table and chairs are blocked with caution tape. This is because restaurants are currently closed in The Netherlands, with only take out and delivery allowed.

Coronavirus in The Netherlands: what you need to know (in English, from DutchNews.nl)

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