Friday evening meals (Or: A bit of heat to end the week)

Posted on May 23, 2021 by Niki

On Friday Marco and I cooked Kolhapuri chicken curry, a spicy, flavorful meal accompanied by naan bread. We found the recipe in our “Indian Food and Cooking” recipe book (Amazon.com link). The chicken joints were first marinated in yoghurt combined with chili powder, black paper, garlic, gram masala and more goodness. Top it off with some garnish (tomato, red pepper slices, fresh coriander) and you have a spicy treat.

Marco and I watched the Eurovision Song contest finale last night. We usually don’t–he watched begrudgingly but did get invested in the end. But since it was held in Rotterdam this year I wanted to watch. Article from nltimes.nl (note: spoilers).

The highlight of the night was seeing Iceland’s presenter: Olaf Yohansson is a Eurovision hit as he tries to award 12 points to Jaja Ding Dong from radiotimes.com (YouTube link). If that does not make sense to you then you need to watch Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga on Netflix. It is a comedy by Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. Olaf Yohansson was a character who is known for repeatedly shouting “Play Jaja Ding Dong!” (YouTube) at the main characters at one of the local bars.

Oh, and for the first time in history a Dutch driver is on top of the Formula 1 standings after a win today at Monaco (see also formula1.com). Crazy!

Categories: Food, Sports | 2 Comments

Art in The Hague (Or: She belongs to no one but herself)

Posted on May 22, 2021 by Niki

Here is another piece of art found on the Achterom street:

I looked up the phrase “She belongs to no one but herself” and found this page for the “She project” at hansmahler.nl in English.

A while ago I posted about a poll that the city held to determine what stones would be used for the Spuiplein and in front of the city hall once the construction of the new cultural complex was complete. At the time I noted that most of the answers were “we don’t care, whatever is least slippery”. It is quite hard to walk there when it rains.

I did of course forget that a lot of skaters love that area because the current stones don’t have any grip. There is also a lot of echo in that area, so they might like the loud sound when their boards slam on the ground over and over again… Anyway, they are not pleased that it seems the city will be going for stones with more grip. Their wheels get stuck in the stone and the board doesn’t react the same way as before. Problem is that it is also an area a lot of people walk through to get from the city centre to the central station and vice versa, so it will be interesting to see what the city does.

The skaters will hold a “Save Spui” demonstration on Saturday, May 29 at 14:00. See also this article at omroepwest.nl in Dutch.

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Graffiti in the Achterom (Or: Woman with red hair)

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Niki

This graffiti can be found at the corner of Achterom and Kissemstraat, not far from The Passage. It is the same street where you can find the adorable cat graffiti. Or try this cat graffiti post. Because we can never have enough cats, right? (Actually, I’m more of a dog person.)

I don’t know if this graffiti has a title. But it definitely draws your eye as you walk past. The red hair is cleverly painted up until the edge of the wall, forcing you to glance down this side street to see all of it. It is almost impossible to miss.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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A long awaited weekend (Or: No alarm for tomorrow)

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Niki

After I woke up today I took a lot of pleasure in making sure my alarms were turned off for tomorrow morning. Marco and I both have a well deserved long weekend, although we don’t have any firm plans yet for how we will spend our time. Perhaps I will visit a few stores in the early morning before things get too busy or crowded, or we will go eat lunch on a terrace? We shall see. But I know I’ll be at the library sometime this weekend, that’s for sure.

The big news of the day is an unfortunate fire that tore through The Hague’s Schilderswijk district. It broke out around 03:00 this morning and quickly spread to neighboring apartments. Two streets were evacuated and in the end about 40 apartments were declared “unlivable”, along with a mosque in the same street. Regio15.nl in Dutch has pictures of the fire on Wouwermanstraat. Scroll to the end for pictures in the daylight.

In English the tweet reads: “A bit of rest after fighting the fire for hours”.

In the category of “Opps” or “Bad timing”: Dutch Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence tests positive for Covid from nltimes.nl. That is the previous winner of the Eurovision contest in 2019, who was scheduled to give a performance during this weekend’s finale. Instead, he goes into quarantine.

And, not something you see that often in the Netherlands: Arrests and one dead after armed robbery turns into high speed chase from dutchnews.nl. The attackers went after an armored transport suspected of carrying diamonds and gold (De Telegraaf said the estimate was upwards of 50 million euros). One of the suspects was killed. Here’s a line from the article: “What exactly happened is still being pieced together, but according to NOS while the robbery was in progress, one of the men, dressed in black and wearing a balaclava helmet, paced to and fro in front of the building, firing warning shots from an automatic rifle in the street.” Since it was a very busy street with pedestrians and cyclists, the police received a lot of emergency calls within a few minutes…

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At her feet, flowers (Or: Statue in The Hague)

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Niki

Here is another photo of flowers for you, randomly placed at the feet of a statue in The Hague. Who knows why? These are quite beautiful flowers, though.

I’m partially posting this article because I like the title: The gym before breakfast on a cafe terrace: What changes today from dutchnews.nl. Today is the first day of step 2 in the government’s plan to reopen society. Some gyms opened at 00:01 this morning, and cafés are now allowed to open from 06:00. So the title makes sense.

And here is some good news for the Netherlands: Corona patient numbers down by nearly 150, cases drop 25% in a week, also from dutchnews.nl. The last time we had such a large drop in patient numbers was January 1. That feels like a lifetime ago.

The Netherlands has a long way to go in comparison to other European countries. However we are getting there, helped in part by the vaccination program speeding up (we are closing in on 150,000 vaccines given each day).

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Muzenplein (Or: Sun with a bit of shadow)

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Niki

The Muzenplein is a hidden gem not far from The Hague’s Central Station. Marco and I went for a walk this afternoon after work to get a bit of fresh air and sun. The Muzenplein did not disappoint.

There is just a bit of shadow at the bottom, obscuring the flowers. The city has planted these tulips all over the city centre to give it a bit more color. Here is a closer look:

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Mondays (Or: Start of another week)

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Niki

It is a short week for me, though. I am taking Friday off because next Monday is a holiday (Pentecost). Did you know it is the last holiday of the year here in the Netherlands? Christmas and New Year’s fall in the weekend this year, unfortunately. But I digress…

The biggest news of the day is that the Netherlands will proceed with the lockdown easing this week, from Wednesday (nltimes.nl). Time for me to get a list ready of books I want to check out from the library… The library has posted a list of what people will be able to do (and not do) once they open later this week; the link is in Dutch. The list is as expected, except that they are also offering the option of studying in the library with a reservation system. You need to have a reservation to sit anywhere. The café in the central library will be open for coffee to go as well.

Vaccination against Covid-19 is going faster every day. Yesterday appointments were opened for anyone born 1963 or 1964. Today they are now allowing anyone born in 1965. We still have a ways to go, but it’s nice to see things speeding up.

Today’s photo of the day: What do you do if you are throwing away used paper and your watch accidentally falls in the underground container as well? You hope the fire department has a bit of time to help. Luckily for this woman, they did.

It’s an unexpected photo, to see someone in such a tight space. And I do need to ask: why do I see what looks like egg in his hair if he is in the paper container? I hope he was able to take a very good shower after this assignment.

He did manage to find the watch – you can see it in his hand.

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A start to the event season (Or: The European Songfestival)

Posted on May 16, 2021 by Niki

While most things have been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, some events are still going on. One of them is the European Songfestival. Rotterdam is hosting the festival because the Netherlands won in 2019 with Duncan Lawrence’s Arcade number (YouTube).

The opening ceremonies are tonight – actually they are going on right now. It isn’t without a bit of controversy: Poland unable to join Eurovision opening ceremony after coronavirus infection from nltimes.nl. Since that article was published Iceland also had a positive corona test. Romania and Malta also decided not to attend the opening ceremony because they are in the same hotel as Poland and Iceland.

The finale will be next weekend, Saturday evening to be exact. I do want to watch at least the beginning of it, since hey, it’s Rotterdam. We will probably get to see a few beautiful shots of the famous bridge:

This photo was taken during Marco and I’s 3rd wedding anniversary.

But normally it is hard to watch the entire songfestival. It doesn’t end before midnight and that means the final results come in after 01:00. It can also be pretty political at times…

Marco said he will watch a bit so that get a bit of the “Dutch feel”. It has been 40 years since the Netherlands hosted the event, and probably another 40 years before we host it again.

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Lazy Saturdays (Or: Dreary walks in rain)

Posted on May 15, 2021 by Niki

As the blog title implies, we’re in a bit of a wet spell at the moment. Which is actually a good thing – for the first time since 2018, no part of the Netherlands is experiencing drought conditions. See this article in Dutch at nos.nl: Regen en lage temperaturen maken eind aan droogte or see this “Drought monitor” chart at KNMI in Dutch. The chart does still show we have to be careful, though. The black line at the bottom left is this year, and it is similar to 2018 (the grey line) which had a wet spring that turned into an extremely dry summer, rivaled only by the record year 1976 (red).

Another cause for optimism – hospital intakes and the number of corona cases continue to fall, with numbers not seen since mid March. Hopefully the planned relaxations for step 2 of the “opening plan” can go ahead next week (government.nl in English). Of course, it is always a balancing act since relaxations will lead to more infections, so hopefully the number of vaccinations administered will help with that. We are currently doing about a million a week.

In other news: First night train from Amsterdam to Vienna departs on May 25 from nltimes.nl. It is a sleeper train; the route takes 14 hours (19:30 departure from Amsterdam, 09:19 arrival in Vienna).

Den Haag zet zich schrap voor renovatie Binnenhof: ‘Het gebied moet interessant blijven’ from omroepwest.nl. After this summer the Binnenhof will close for 5 and a half years for a large renovation. I will miss being able to walk through it. The article talks about a few activities the city will organize to help keep the area interesting for tourists, including a lookout point that will allow people to see the construction from above.

It also talks about guided tours and a focus on archaeology. My favorite archaeology-after-construction area is the artifacts found during the construction of the tram tunnel. They left some in the floor under glass for commuters to view whenever they wanted.

“Around the table” artifacts at the Grote Markt tram stop, dated to the 17th century. Here’s hoping the Binnenhof construction reveals similar finds.

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Time to tango (Or: A mysterious door in The Hague)

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Niki

I took this photo of a door on the Lange Poten street in The Hague’s city centre. It is between the KPN store (a telephone and Internet provider) and Kruidvat (a Dutch pharmacy chain).

It stood out to me because the door looked like a normal door for a residence, however the details around it suggested otherwise:

But no, it is not a residence. Tango Centro is an Argentinian dance school. Who knew. I am sure it has been around for years, but I only noticed the door while standing on the other side of the street waiting for Marco.

And in other news – remember how I mentioned a Dutch initiative to create a website to prevent corona vaccines from being thrown in the trash at the end of the day? Well. Website for left-over vaccines takes action after massive demand from dutchnews.nl. Apparently the doctor’s practice in question had a queue of over 100 people for 20 leftover vaccines. Although that isn’t a bad ratio, considering…

The website has made a few changes, including removing the practice’s phone number to prevent doctor’s offices from being overwhelmed with phone calls. That makes sense.

Anyway. We all know what day it is – happy Friday, everyone!

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