Some days I feel like I should have a blog which just documents bike photos. Some other bike photos include: Bikes in Delft and Amsterdam || Bikes along a Utrecht canal || So many bikes by Holland Spoor (train station) || All that remains: A lone bike wheel || Beads along bike spokes
Yesterday I came across a purple bike, although the paint was chipping. Looks like it used to be an orange color.
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Here is a close up:
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See? Orange paint!
As mentioned in a previous blog post, Paagman has officially opened on Lange Poten. Lange Poten 41 was previously a film house, a store called Liefhertje, and a Mercendes Benz store.
There are two levels. Like the previous Paagman, the secondhand books are on the upper floor.
The roof is rather stunning – so let’s show another picture.
And below is a view from the second floor, overlooking the entrance.
Of course, if you’re visiting this bookstore, don’t forget to stop in at the American Book Center a few shops down!
Here are more photos of the new bookstore (article in Dutch).
A few weeks ago, Roger, Marco and I went to the café in Marks and Spencer for mid-afternoon coffee and cake. Yum! At some point I looked over Roger’s shoulder and finally noticed what should have been glaringly obvious as soon as we walked in. There was a fish staring back at us!
M C Escher’s Three Worlds; click to see a slightly larger version
It is a lithograph by Dutch artist M C Escher, “Three Worlds” (Wikipedia). Hopefully the picture above gives a good sense of the enormity of this copy – the fish itself is pretty much the size of an adult human!
Here is a close-up:
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The black and white colors blend in nicely with the the rest of the café as well. If you’re in the area (the central part of The Hague) make sure you check it out!
Marco surprised me with another Valentine’s Day themed breakfast. It is becoming a sort of tradition. 😉
This time he used the waffle maker!
Whar can I say, I am a sucker for his chocolate waffles (which is just the normal mix with cocoa powder thrown in). Another was dusted with sugar, and the last was “regular”. It also came with coffee (which we usually drink after dinner so that is a lovely novelty) and a large glass of milk. Yum.
And then halfway through I decided to get creative:
Another use for the candy hearts! 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day, all.
If Monday’s journey includes a stop to Utrecht Central, you might just be presented with a bundle of tulips by an NS worker (NS being the main train company in the Netherlands). The official reason for this is to promote “random acts of kindness”
Of course, the more cynical train riders would say that the timing is a bit suspicious as NS had a lot of sensor issues earlier in the week at Utrecht Central. This train station is more or less in the middle of the country and the main transfer point for trains. The delay due to the sensors completely halted traffic for a few hours, but the effects were felt far into evening rush hour. Delays were easily 90 minutes to 2 hours.
In continuing with the random acts of kindness theme, the NS recommend that if you receive a bundle of tulips that you pass it on to someone else to brighten their day. The article says that this isn’t the first time that they passed out tulips to train passengers, so perhaps it is just a a nice gesture after all…
Ever heard of Green tea kit kats?
Me neither!
Right before Marco and I went to America for the holidays, a friend from Japan visited us, bringing way too many tempting treats. Two bottles of Baileys (one regular, one orange flavor), for instance. The most unexpected was definitely the green tea flavored kit kats. It turns out that provinces in Japan each have their own flavor. You can read reviews of 15 flavors at kotaku.com. There is even a red bean sandwich flavor! And here is an article from CNN about how Kit Kat managed to get so big in Japan.
Another gift he brought was one of Terry’s chocolate orange. I have slowly made a dent in it every few nights, as it is great with coffee. I must admit the first night I found them quite artificial tasting (how often do you eat chocolate flavored oranges anyway?) but the second night and there after they definitely went well with the coffee.
It is either a pity or a good thing that those irresistible orange slices are almost gone.
A few weeks ago, Marco and I went to Ikea in Delft to see if we could buy a bookshelf for me. I originally wanted the narrow, but tall version, in dark wood – but it was way too heavy to carry back on the tram. So we settled for the shorter version which still stores a fair amount.
Of course, I still need to populate it with more than junk (there’s a lot of random papers that I threw in there simply to clear off the nightstand) but it did mean that I was able to set up the earring holder I got for Christmas. Which made me realize I have a lot of blue earrings, but could use some more of other colors…
Some other random news: I started the second half of the B2-C1 Dutch course at Volksuniversiteit. Like the last one, it is 10 weeks and should be done around the third week of March. After that, my Dutch is good enough to sign up for courses (in general, not just at this school) with native speakers. Hmmm…
I’ll leave you with a few pictures of graffiti that I took on the ride over to Ikea. The owl has already made an appearance on this blog, but this picture is a bit better. The other is new.
The graffiti is always more interesting on this side of the pond!
A reader of my blog could say that my blog is mostly about random food and snacks.
And they would be right.
Yesterday Marco and I had cheese and crackers, with tea.
The cheese (not pictured) was a cheddar easily purchased at Albert Heijn, the local grocery store. Tophat 48+. The crackers, well, those came from Kelly’s expat store. Ritz crackers from America. Deliciously buttery with perhaps a bit too much salt (tastes good to me). Of course this particular box came from the UK, so a bit easier to transport.
The tea holder is a Christmas gift from Roger, from the Dutch version of Amazon: bol.com. The cups are from my brother and sister-in-law (thanks!). They say “We go together like” and “peanut butter and jelly” with our names personalized on them.
And the little hat – that is from a promotion; this time of year they can be found on Innocent juice bottles. See more at The Big Knit project. Cute! And useful, since the top is hot when we need to remove the tea holder.
Over the weekend Marco and I went to Naga Thai (you guessed it, a Thai restaurant). I have been there a few times but this was Marco’s first time. We were there for lunch so he was able to try out the lunch menu. I was torn between the two appetizers: a fish cake and a loempia/egg roll — or chicken served in coconut milk with mushrooms. Both are quite good! This time I went for the soup.
For the main course we both had finely chopped chicken with basiculum and red peppers. It was pretty good, but not as good as the non-chopped version in my opinion.
Dessert was three types of ice cream: lycee, coconut and mango ice cream, with a sliver of chocolate on top. Yum! We rounded that off with a small (Dutch size) cup of coffee.
And for randomness’ sake, here is a photo of a discount Christmas item that they were selling at V&D last week. I like it enough to upload it in a larger size, even if I didn’t buy it!
Yesterday morning Marco and I tried out the waffle maker we got for Christmas from Marco’s dad and his wife. It is a Bestron “Sweet Dreams” waffle maker. It was an experiment – the dough might have needed to be slightly runnier in future attempts.
Bestron “Sweet a Dreams” waffle maker
Marco modeling an almost finished set of waffles. This dough was sweet, however we also received a receipe from that described how to make a more savory version with ham and cheese. We also received a sample while at their house – it was delish (lekker)!
Some attempts above. It can be difficult getting the amount of dough you need to add just right – too little and it is not completely filled in, but too much and it runs over the sides. Messy business that!
I suspect our next attempt will be something savory. Yum.
