Saturday, May 31, 2008

Thuis

Het eerste wat me opviel toen ik thuis kwam was dat mijn appartement eigenlijk wel erg kaal is, na twee weken in een hotel met veel hout en kleur gezeten te hebben valt het witte en het gebrek aan decoratie wel erg op. Moet toch maar wat meer kleurige decoratie zien te vinden. Toch maar mijn plan om een collectie Jazz elpee covers aan te leggen uit het stof halen.

Ook maar eens een poging doen om een aantal zwart/wit foto's van Oud Amsterdam Noord op te hangen, het probleem is dat de muren zo ard zijn dat er geen spijker is in te krijgen.

De katten waren dolblij me weer te zien er moest veel geaaid worden en de plukken haar vlogen in het rond. Ze waren nog blijer omdat ze wee het balkon opkonden zodat ze de koolmeesjes de stuipen op het lijf konden jagen.

Friday, May 30, 2008

We zijn weeer thuis

Precies zoals gepland om 1/2 8 thuis, de katten hebben me gemist zo te zien.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Pindakaas !!!!

Morgen nog een halve dag lesgeven en de rest van de dag ben ik onderweg naar huis, als het goed is zit ik om 1/2 8 Vrijdagavond achter een dikke stapel boterhammen met pindakaas en hoef ik even niet uit eten.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Spooky


Just caught this on the pussy cam

Monday, May 26, 2008

They are still there.....


But I think they are mad at me, both have turned their backs to me.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Dutch Link No 1

The civil war

This is a link to the wikipedia article on the Finnish Civil War












Plans for today

I think I need to drop by the H&M, not sure if I brought enough trousers, It also has been quite a while I did some clothes shopping.

There is also an exhibition on the civil war in Tampere, this should be interesting.

A bit of reading in the park, listen to some music; I bought a new mp3 player a Zen Stone; nice and simple drag and drop to add files and a standard usb/mini-usb cable. I lost my cable for the mp3 player I had.

It looks like I am down to 1 creditcard only, the magnetic strip on 1 of them is damaged....

Finnish Spelling



I think this sums it up for Finnish spelling, You write what you hear so you say what you write. Appearantly (apparently) there are no spelling tests in Finnish schools, there is nothing to test.
It also explains some trouble I had understanding some words that I heard, someone said to me that a feature was 'dis ab led' (pronounce it as it were separate words but without pausing at the spaces and you might get what I mean). It was just the Finnish accent.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Follow Up on Tipping

I checked with the people overhere that I work with, apparently Fins are of the opinion that the Bar/Restaurant owner should pay there staff enough so that the staff don't need tips. (so service is included in the bill).
Talking of service: sofar I have had no reason to complain, everything came quick: waiter, menu, food and bill, no rudeness or fake friendliness. Maybe Amsterdam and American restaurant owners should send their staff overhere for training.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

No Smoking, No Tipping

I have been doing all my smoking standing up the last few days, no more smoking in bars, hotels and restaurants, no more sitting down with a coffee and a cigarette, I am getting a preview of what is to come to Holland. I have mixed feelings about it: my lungs say yes, my addiction says no.

Also: waiters don't like tipping here, if you spend a couple of seconds trying to calculate the tip they are very willing to point out the dotted line where you have to sign (and the place I had dinner tonight did not even have space on the receipt for a tip). No mixed feelings on this subject from this Dutch guy.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Zo wordt er dus voor mijn katten gezorgd....


In plaats van een beetje respect te hebben voor de slaaplaats van een van mijn katten worden er gewoon de voeten opgezet.....

Monday, May 19, 2008

In Finland

I have arrived and am hard at work.

I saw that O'Connells is still there and I think I might have a drink there later

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Even more music

A review of last night's concert from Het Parool
Also remembered there will be a Jazz Festival In Noord in the lst week of June, some names are already sticking out and worth seeing: Room Eleven, The Young Sinatras, Anna Maria Jopek and Rita Reys Trio (the grand old lady of Ducth jazz is still active)

Katie to the vet, me to the concert

Yesterday I took Katie to the vet, her behavior was off, going to the litterbox a few times in a row in a short period of time, without any results.
The vet confirmed that there was something wrong with her, not what I thought (constipation) but 'blaasontsteking'.
I had the choice of pills (twice a day) or 1 shot of antibiotics. Choose the latter as Danny will be taking care of my cats and did not want to saddle her with the task of coming in twice a day (even it it was an option). She still has a little trouble but that should be over in a few days.

The concert (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss) was very good, brilliant drummer, nice lightning, good sound overall, although Barry might disagree.

It was wonderful to hear 'Down to the river' live, AK's voice is amazing.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Talking about music

I should not forget to mention that I will be going to the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss concert this week. According to this review it should be a wonderful evening, maybe I should brush up on my Led Zeppelin

Music: traditional

While writing this I am watching a band that I missed when they were playing in Amsterdam: The Carolina Chocolate Drops. They are a traditional black bluegrass/country band.

Another outstanding musician is Sierra Hull, a mandolin player, She just released a CD with half of Union Station playing on it (Ron Block etc). This would not be anything special if she wasn't about sixteen. She has been playing the mandolin half her life and I found some videos on youtube where is performing with Alison Krauss and Union Station, in some of the videos she must have been 11 or 12 or so.

Last but not least is Uncle Earl, very rootsy music, very good musicians, also worth watching on youtube.

The weather

We are enjoying very good weather here in Lake Bellyditch. I will be away in a week or so and for now the weather does not very attractive over there.

kees: where is the mouse?

kees: where is the mouse? A very good speech on what Web 2.0 actually is.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Spammer??? Ikke????

Ik ben begonnen met een blog over het opknapwerk wat op op het moment plaats vindt, Loenermark Schilderwerk Blogspot.com denkt dat het wel eens een spam blog zou kunnen zijn, en heeft de toegang geblokkeerd (in ieder geval voor mij, ik kan niets toevoegen en/of veranderen). Hopenlijk is de blokkade snel opgeheven ( .

Thursday, May 1, 2008

More cat pics


Jacques Looking.

Katie cleaning

Cat Tongue

Jacques hides his head in shame.

Spaghetti

This is at the moment my favorite spaghetti recipe.




Ingredients:


Per person:
1 courgette (or 2 if they are small)
1 red pepper
1/2 bowl of garlic (or as much as you like)
a good handful of chopped parsley
Lots of olive oil
Salt and pepper.
Put on the water for the spaghetti and start chopping/grating


When everything is chopped up


Put the red pepper and garlic in pan with a thick layer of oliveoil, stir well ann add salt and pepper to taste.

When the garlic starts to turn brown add the grated courgette and mix well


The olive oil will be soaked up by the courgette.
Turn the fire low and cover the pan with a lid.
In the mean time the water will be boiling, so throw in the spaghetti.

When the spaghetti is done put in in the pan with the courgette, add the parsley and mix throroughly.



Serve with grated parmezan.