Bagel and beans (Or: Chai latte, anyone?)

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Niki

Earlier in September, Marco and I visited one of the local Bagels & Beans cafés to enjoy a lunch outside. It was a bit cold, but doable as long as I kept my jacket on. It was probably my first visit in 2020, although admittedly we usually only go a few times a year. Check out our chai lattes:

I always loved these plates, and pretty much forgot about them until I saw our coffees. I also had a bagel with butter and chocolate sprinkles, but I was decidedly not Dutch about it. If you’re Dutch, you spread on the butter and then pour the sprinkles on top. The butter is mainly there to help keep the sprinkles from falling off while you take a bite. I have no interest in butter and chocolate together, so I instead simply alternated which one I put on my bagel. Which did mean I sadly had some chocolate sprinkles left over, but c’est la vie.

It definitely showed that I haven’t been to a Bagels & Beans in a while. I forgot that you need to pay inside. Which worked on in the end, since we were also asked to leave our contact details for corona purposes. Unlike other places (with a QR code you scan) you simply wrote your details in a notebook with a pen.

In other news, The Hague library no longer requires online registration before visiting the library (article in Dutch from the library website). The rule only lasted about two days, but was temporarily required after the press conference last Monday. A few days later the library received status in The Hague’s emergency ordinance as a doorstroomlocatie, or basically a place where people walk through it to experience something or get something (museums, monuments and attraction parks are other examples). This was probably for the best, since the link above mentions that there were long lines outside of people waiting to get in. Face masks are still urgently advised the library, like all public indoor locations in the Netherlands.

Here is your Awww moment for the day. The first color photos of the panda cub born earlier this year in a Dutch zoo are available:

The panda definitely knows how to pose for the camera.

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Oliebollen and coffee (Or: The perfect pairing)

Posted on October 3, 2020 by Niki

As noted in an earlier blog post, I stopped by the oliebollen stand in the city centre today (in the area of Blokker and Xenos). Luckily the stand is big enough for good social distancing – there are two lines in the middle, with exits on either side. I didn’t have too wait that long either. I ordered two oliebollen and four krentenbollen (oliebollen with raisins). The two regular ones are for me and the four krentenbollen are for Marco and Roger.

Preparing the goods… bag of oliebollen with a canister of powdered sugar. And here’s a look at the oliebollen with some coffee:

Not the best pictures in the world but you get the idea. The one on the left is a krentenbol and the one on the right is an oliebol. Normally we douse them with even more powdered sugar, but not this time. The dough itself is pretty sweet anyway.

The reason we can have oliebollen already is because The Hague (along with a few of the other larger Dutch cities) decided that oliebollen stands would be allowed to open a month earlier, from 1 October, rather than the usual 1 November. This is to help combat the loss of revenue due to all of the cancelled festivals this year, where oliebollen is also traditionally sold. Oliebollen sales will peak around New Year’s Eve (the busiest day of the year), although some stands will stay open through the end of January.

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: , | 4 Comments

More postponements (Or: Bring on 2021 already)

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Niki

Sure, let’s bring on 2021 – not that I think January 1st, 2021 will be a magical day where everything is suddenly better. But you have to look forward to something.

For a good read, check out this article at dutchnews.nl: Despite the government u-turn, the Dutch are still unwilling to wear masks. It does a good job of explaining what kind of issues this country is experiencing with wearing something as simple as a face mask.

This week saw two more cancellations in The Hague:

It just reinforces Marco’s idea that we should put up the Christmas decorations extra early this year, to bring some more cheer into our apartment.

On the plus side, I know that the oliebollen stand on the Grote Markt by Xenos/Blokker is open again. I’ve seen it with my own eyes! No photo proof yet, however. I heard a rumor that we’re going to go pick up some tomorrow. Yum yum yum. According to their Facebook page, they are open from tomorrow (Saturday).

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Store displays (Or: The many holidays of Xenos)

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Niki

Over the weekend I went to Xenos, a local store, to purchase additional face masks. That particular mission was successful, luckily. I also spent a few minutes staring at all of the holiday displays in the store. Halloween, Sinterklaas (December 5) and Christmas all in one day. I’m sure if they celebrated Thanksgiving in this country you would have seen turkeys as well.

Halloween costumes and other attire
I wonder if any kid has tried to pull down some of those Halloween buckets yet…
Continue reading →
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Dutch cabinet’s emergency ruling (Or: Face masks “urgently advised” in public places throughout the Netherlands)

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Niki

This afternoon the Dutch House of Representatives and the ruling Dutch cabinet held a debate about corona measures in the Netherlands. This debate followed the press conference that was held on Monday evening. During Monday’s press conference the cabinet urgently advised that face masks be worn in shops in the bigger cities, including here in The Hague.

The Dutch government has now gone a step further with their urgent advisory to say that face masks should be worn in all public indoor areas where people gather in the Netherlands – not just in shops and not just in the large cities. The advisory went into immediate effect, unlike Monday’s advisory which went into effect Tuesday evening. As noted a few days ago, they can’t (yet) require face masks to be worn as the law would first need to be altered.

Rutte: Face masks “urgently advised” in public places from nltimes.nl

Ook kabinet: dringend advies om mondkapje te dragen in binnenruimtes from nos.nl. In this article the prime minister said that if these measures fail the next steps might be a complete closure of the retail branch, including restaurants and cafés, or a shutdown of all sports. In other news articles they have said an evening curfew could not be ruled out, either. Since this went into immediate effect, the cabinet has said that they will release full details of the advisory on Friday. Think of things like what spaces are considered “indoors” and “public”, etc.

I feel like the Netherlands is pretty late here (in Germany and Belgium face masks have been the norm for some weeks now), but every little bit helps.

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Face masks and other thoughts (Or: Life in The Hague)

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Niki

Since 18:00 this evening residents of The Hague have been strongly advised (but not legally required) to wear a face mask when inside a shop. When I went to Albert Heijn this morning I would say about 60% of those I saw in the store were wearing a mask, even though it wasn’t 18:00 yet.

This does put retail in a tough position. Bijenkorf (a high-end department store) has said they will require face masks in the larger cities where the advisory is in place. Most shops have declined to do so at the moment, however. It is asking a lot of workers to also control face mask usage. The stores would prefer that the government adjusts the law so that it is legally required across the country. At the moment the law does not support the government forcing its citizens to wearing a face mask; it can be challenged in court.

Dutch retail groups won’t enforce face masks, ask for national regulations from dutchnews.nl

More and more cabinet members are in favor of requiring face masks across the country, versus the regional measures that are in place now. NOS.nl has this article in Dutch: Steeds meer stemmen in Tweede Kamer voor mondkapjesplicht (More and more politicians in the House of Representatives are in favor of a face mask requirement). I think the government will wait and see what the effects are for the recent measures first before adding new ones, however. It depends on how the country is doing in about 10-14 days.

The Dutch ministry of Health has also released their weekly Covid-19 statistics – see more at rivm.nl in English. It is to be expected. For instance there were 19,326 cases in the last week compared to 13,471 cases in the week before that.

I just read that The Hague’s library system has requested that all visitors wear face masks. They have also requested that you register your visit and answer some health related questions, preferably in advance although at the door is possible as well. In that case you can either scan a QR code to register online or fill out a paper form if the other options aren’t possible. For the moment both links are in Dutch; it’s not available on their English website (yet).

I’m hoping that the events of the last few days lead to face masks because more normalized in Dutch society. Time will tell.

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Time to turn the corona tide (Or: More measures to prevent a lockdown)

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Niki

So. I’ve kind of ignored the elephant in the room, but it’s not going that great in Europe and it’s not going that great in the Netherlands either. We’re around 3,000 infections a day and they are expecting 5,000 infections by the end of next week regardless of what we do now. Therefore the Dutch prime minister and the Minister of Health, Wellness and Sport held another evening press conference today to discuss new measures, both country-wide and measures for Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. They pointed out that we are at a crossroads: if we don’t see a positive effect from these measures within 10-14 we might be heading for another “intelligent lockdown” again. Hmm.

Here are some of the measures (but not all, see the links below for more information). More regional measures might still follow. Most are country-wide except the first one about face masks.

Continue reading →
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That’s useful (Or: Store map of Blokker in Rijswijk)

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Niki

I saw something cool in Rijswijk’s In de Bogaard shopping centre: a Blokker store with a map by the entrance:

The map makes it easier to see where you need to go before you enter the store so that you don’t mindlessly wander up and down the aisles (and up and down again, seriously) trying to find what you are looking for. And the store map goes perfectly with one of their corona measures: Koop doelgericht or “Buy purposefully”. In other words, know what you want (when possible), get in, get out. Kudos. More stores should have maps at the entrance and/or provide them online.

So Blokker is pretty smart. For a less than smart company, try the Samen restaurant in The Hague. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet. For the last few months the rule in the Netherlands has been that up to 100 people could gather inside or outside, including restaurants. But since it is going in the wrong direction (we’re up to 3,000 cases per day now, from nltimes.nl) a lot of places are only allowed to have 50 people inside or outside. Including The Hague. And then you get this…

Crowded Hague restaurant busted with 200 guests; Covid rules allow only 50 from nltimes.nl. (nos.nl reported that it was 200-300 guests.)

While most of the blame must lie with the restaurant, I think people must be mathematically challenged if they don’t turn around when they see the actual restaurant area and demand their money back. I’m trying to give some people the benefit of the doubt, since if you came early it probably wasn’t that busy… but really, people. Come on.

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

Strange news (Or: Old TVs and a rat with a medal)

Posted on September 26, 2020 by Niki

Happy Saturday all. Yesterday’s “highlight” was getting drenched by Storm Odette (article from regio15.nl in Dutch). I did have a rain jacket with me, though, and I knew I wasn’t going to get back home without getting thoroughly drenched. I tried to stall a bit in the Albert Heijn by the Holland Spoor train station, but really there’s only so many rows of food you can browse before you get bored.

By the time I got home my rain jacket and the bottom of my jeans were thoroughly drenched. A napkin in my backpack also fell victim to the wind and the rain. Luckily Marco was home so I could stand outside the front door and hand him my jacket and backpack before taking a step inside. After that it just a matter of getting into dry clothes as soon as possible.

I learned two things yesterday:

  • face masks are a lot less annoying when the weather turns colder. A bit of hot breath can help keep you warm now. I should remember to bring some mints or gum, though. Stale breath is still way too noticeable.
  • Apple Watches might be waterproof to a degree, but even they will stop responding if your fingers are too wet. Okay, no restarting my music then. I’m too busy avoiding this burst of rain and wind and trying to walk forward anyway…

And for some strange news – from bbc.com: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months. I can’t believe it took 18 months to solve this, but I’m sure the villagers were excited to finally not having internet issues anymore. And the fact that someone was so into routine that they would turn on their TV every day at the same exact time…? That’s crazy.

And because everyone needs to see a rat with a mini medal:

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Don’t eat those bagels! (Or: Safety warnings)

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Niki

For the first time in my life (at least, that I can remember) it was useful to pay attention to the safety notice sent out by the local grocery store, Albert Heijn. In this case the notice was about the sesame bagels they sell. I first heard about the issue on Tuesday when they sent customers an email about it.

I’ll admit I had no idea what “gewasbeschermingsmiddelen” was, but Marco explained it was basically pesticides – during a routine safety check they noticed that the amount of pesticides left over on the sesame seeds was too high. After the email I didn’t think too much about it for two reason. First, because the original dates listed didn’t match the date on our package and second because we already ate two of the four bagels over a week ago and didn’t get sick. (These are bagels which you finish baking at home with expiration dates 6-8 weeks in the future. They are also packaged in two groups of two, which is always handy when there’s only two of you.)

So on the one hand I’m thinking “Okay, different batch, and we didn’t get sick from what we already ate… let’s keep it.” and on the other hand I’m thinking “Hmm. I’ve seen this happen before. Let’s keep the remaining bagels, but not eat them right away. Just in case they change their mind.” Which they did on the following day, as you might be able to read in my screenshot. Now it says that they are removing all sesame bagels from the store shelves as a precautionary measure. So into the trash our poor remaining bagels go. Thud. We never even got the chance to invite you over for breakfast…

Helaas. Or as Dutch kids like to say because it rhymes: Helaas, pindakaas. Which translates to “Unfortunately. Peanut butter.” Which isn’t as cool as it is in Dutch, I know.

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

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