A small belated house warming party…

By Rob January 28th, 2012, under General

Yesterday I had a small belated house-warming party… Yes, I am living here already close to 2 years! But still I wanted to say “thank you” to my direct colleagues who helped me that day and with this small party I did so.

I was very grateful for their help on that 6 March 2009. For instance how Hans drove with his car and trailer from the city of Haarlem to Haaksbergen, from their to Heemskerk where I live now. But also the other who helped to unload the VW T1 bus of Patrick, the car of Hans and the two trailers. And who helped me to make sure that I could sleep in my bed in my new apartment and that I could watch TV.

So I invited them yesterday into my house. For some it was the first time to see the apartment again after the moving. And I think they liked what I did with it (and which is still not something that is finished. This year I would like to place a new kitchen for example).

At the begin of the evening we had some Chinese food together. The Chinese restaurant that is very close to my apartment is very good. It is a bit rare for me to have so many dinner in my house. If I remember correctly it only happened only 3 times before. But it is was fun.

There were some interesting talks while enjoying coffee, cola or beer. And there were luckily lots of laughter.

The plan came up to play some card games and it sounded as a good plan. And that made it possible for me to prepare some snacks and such. It was fun and lots of laughter again

It was a small, but good party. I enjoyed it a lot.

Of course I bought more on snacks and such then really was needed. But Sanne will come this weekend to have a walk with the dogs on the beach, she loves this kind of snacks as well :) .

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The human memory…. amazing!

By Rob January 23rd, 2012, under General

Currently I am registering all my books into a special program for collections (from the same producer that made the program I used for my DvD’s and BluRays. A lot of work, I can assure you. but then again also very nice to do. Many of those books I have more than 20 years in my possession (they were bought between 1975 an 1985). Most are science fiction and fantasy books.

Something start to surprise me more and more: Books that I have read for the last time at least 20 years ago are still stored in my memory. The cover, some pictures or some words… and the memories about the book come back. I can remember the stories again. And how much more the story impressed me when I read the story long ago, the clearer the memories are. And mind you, most of these back haven’t been in my mind for many years…

Funny, stored safely away for such a long time and just a small trigger to bring them back to me… I read somewhere that our memory registers every sight we see down to the structures in stones we see and saves it all in our memory. Imagine if could freely access all this stored information….

Amazing, just amazing… and there we are with our highly advanced memory chips and such. Such a beginners we are with our megabytes and gigabytes…

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An Indian dinner

By Rob January 22nd, 2012, under Food and Stuff

Yesterday I made the Indian dinner for Marion and me that I had planned last weekend…

I have to say it was fun to make. All those herbs and spices… just wonderful to work with. I have rather some herbs and spices that I hadn’t before and that is great (although storing all these start to become a small problem :P ).

Anyway, as main dish I made “Kodi Vepudu”, which is based on chicken fillet.
First thing to do was cut the chicken fillet into small pieces. I crushed cinnamon, cardemon and clove until it was almost powder. Separated I cut union and chilli peppers as small as I could.
A marinade for the chicken fillet was made of olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, coriander, chilli powder and Koenjit (kurkuma). For 10 minutes I place the chicken fillet in the marinade.
In a wok with hot olive oil I fried the union, chilli peppers, clove, cinnamon, ginger and cardemon for about 3 minutes. Then I added the chicken fillet and baked it until the chicken was nicely done. Added a bit of salt and some curry leaves. And all this together I baked for 3 or 4 minutes more.
Meanwhile I cooked some rice and flavoured it with curry.

I also made a “Mango Chutney”. For this I cut two mango’s into small cubes.
Water was mixed with sugar, cinnamon, clove and ginger. While stirring it al the time, I cooked this mixture until it became a nice sauce. Added a little saffron. Together with the mango, I let cook for 10 more minutes.
At the same time I heated some oil in a frying pan and fried some onion seed. Mixed everything together and added some raisin and almond shaving.

Afterwards I realized that I forgot to add black cumin…

I had planned to make “Kheer” as dessert. But after the main course we both were rather satisfied. And I really dislike to eat more than I want/can. And as there were no ingredients that I could use otherwise, we decided to skip it and go for a nice cup of coffee.

It all tasted good (even with the forgotten cumin). But I have to say that it was a dinner of “extremes”. The Mango Chutney was sweet, very sweet. More sweet than that is beyond my taste. The Kodi Vepudu was rather spicy. More spicy than that and I will not like it anymore. Marion agreed with me a sweet part, but not fully on the spicy part :) .

On the other hand, eating with chopsticks goes better and better. I am not good at it as Marion is (looks like she does it all the time), but there is really improvement :P .

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An old special book and the NCSF

By Rob January 17th, 2012, under General

Most people will know that I have a rather nice Science Fiction and Fantasy books collection. And just the weekend I looked at one of the more special books in that collection…

It is the Dutch translation of very famous book “War of the Worlds” written by H.G. Wells. The book was printed in 1929 and it is the second print, which meant it was one of the 8000 to 12000 printed books. And there were 8 pictures in there. We can all read this in the beginning of the book…

It is nice to have such old edition of such a famous book. But there is more to this book. When I bought this book years ago, I found a receipt in the book that shows that it was sent to someone to be reviewed…

This makes the book even more special. It even makes the book unique. A quick look on Google learns that de “Wereldbibliotheek” (the publisher of the book) still exists. As said, I am happy to be the owner of this book. And for anyone who even wonders: No, this book is not for sale!

I bought this many years ago at the book club of the NCSF. You may wonder what the NCSF is. It the “Nederlandse Contractcentrum voor Science Fiction”, a club for those who love Science Fiction and Fantasy. It was always nice to visit their meetings in the city of Utrecht and the book club sold many good books for very reasonable price.
I really have no idea anymore why I ever left the NCSF.

Another look on Google learned me that to my surprise after all these years the NCSF also was still around. And yes, I signed up again. Now I live in Heemskerk I can visited their “SF cafe’s” in Amsterdam. It will be fun…

It is nice to feel this urge to read again. It have been gone for some time, but it is back again… and that is a good thing!

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The Bazaar of Beverwijk

By Rob January 14th, 2012, under I was there!

For this weekend I had planned to make a nice Indian dinner for Marion and me. Of course there were some special things, like cardemon and curry leaves, needed. But I was convinced that I would be able to get those at the Bazaar of Beverwijk.

This morning I waked up at around the time that is normal for me in the weekend. But Marion, who arrived yesterday rather late and was already then very tired, was still deeply asleep. I got out of bed and I did leave Marion sleeping. Around two hours later I peeked into the bedroom and Marion was still far away in a land of dreams.
So I decided that go quickly on my own to the Bazaar, which is only 5 or 10 minutes bicycling away from where I life. I would just get the things I needed and then return quickly home. This way Marion could sleep a bit more. A good plan…

I could not have been much further then half way to the Bazaar when my iPhone started to ring and a sleepy voice asked where I was. I told Marion that I was just quickly to the Bazaar for some shoppings.
When she heard about the bazaar, she said that she would have loved to have go there as well. And so she told me to wait at the main entrance of the Bazaar for her. She would quickly take a shower and hurry there. I took a cup of coffee at the entrance while waiting there. She was really quickly there. And after some confusion about what is really the main entrance of the Bazaar we met there.

And so what was planned to be a short visit turned into a long stroll of some hours through the halls of the Bazaar. It is always fun what all is for sale there. Don’t expect super quality, but it is surely overall cheap. Mostly I don’t buy there that much. I just love to walk there around to watch things and people.

Finally we made it to the shop where I wanted to buy the things I needed for the Indian dinner, but sadly not all was available (or was known under another name and no one knew). So no Indian dinner this weekend. But back home I found a webshop where I could buy the things I needed, so the Indian dinner will be moved to the next weekend Marion is here with me.

So all with all, it was a nice afternoon at the Bazaar and not wasted time :)

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A black day for the Internet…

By Rob January 11th, 2012, under My personal opinion, Privacy

I just read that two big Dutch Internet-provider, XS4ALL and Ziggo, are ordered by a judge to block the site of The Pirate Bay. This is in my opinion very bad.

Why bad? No, not because the content that you can get at The Pirate Bay. To be honest, I never even connected to their site. People who know me a little are well aware of my rather nice collection of legal CD’s, DvD’s and BluRays. And I buy rather a lot at iTunes.
And I think everyone should do concerning downloading illegal content what he/she thinks is best. I don’t mind and I don’t judge.

It is bad because it damages the freedom of the Internet. It is bad because the rights of some big companies seems to be more important then the fundamental rights of Dutch citizens. This is another step to “Big Brother”. Today it is a server with illegal content. Tomorrow it may be a site with political content that “someone” doesn’t like.

And it dumb, because someone with a little knowledge of the Internet can easily by-pass such a blockade. And in no time there will be many manuals online how to do this for those that don’t know.

The only rightful way to handle servers with illegal content is bringing down that server. That may be hard when that server in another country. True, but forcing the “transporter” to block certain “ways” is a bad thing and even very dangerous when it comes down to freedom of speech and information.

XS4ALL will appeal against the decision of this judge and Ziggo may do the same. I truly hope that another judge may see how wrong this is….

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A nice steak…

By Rob January 7th, 2012, under Food and Stuff

Today I was not in the mood to cook a big dinner. Lets just say I was lazy. But still I wanted to serve something nice to eat for us…

I baked some steaks medium done. That is the way both Marion and I like it. Some pepper, some salt and nothing more then that.

I had still some snow peas, chestnut mushrooms and red onion left. I baked this in a wok on high temperature with some oil. To this all a sauce made of oyster sauce, garlic, sugar and olive oil.

Some Basmati rice with fried mushrooms… and ready is a nice and simple dinner.

Tonight we will take it easy. Reading a bit, maybe watch a movie again. It is important to allow yourself to rest.

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Out on my bicycle…

By Rob January 2nd, 2012, under I was there!

Even when the weather was not really nice today, I had a strong urge to go outside. Must have been all those hours we spend last week on Schiermonninkoog outside with walks and such…

So I took my bicycle and made my way outside of Heemskerk… against the wind at first (brave me!). It felt good to be outside. The wind playing around my head cleared up my head.
As it was just a ride to get some fresh air I left my camera at home, which was stupid of course. There were some nice views to make pictures of. Luckily I had my iPhone with me. Sure, the pictures of a iPhone cannot be compared with those of a SLR. But as I always say, better something than nothing!

I always try to get away from the busy roads. The more quiet and the less traffic, the better it is for me.

My attention is always caught by unexpected things in the landscape. So did this stone pole rising from the ground…

Luckily there was a plaque explaining all about this stone pole. The pole is called “De Stenen Paal”, which means literally The Stone Pole. After the dike breaches of 1717 (and until 1921) this pole showed the border to which “Hoogheemraadschap” (Water Board) was responsible for the maintenance of the dikes. In 1921 all the maintenance of these dikes were placed under the care of one Water Board (Hoogheemraadschap Noordhollands Kwartier te Alkmaar).

I just love this kind of bits of history!

During this trip I also found out where the museum of of air war is. I already heard and read a lot about it…

The museum is located in one of the fortresses that belongs to the Defence Line of Amsterdam. This museum is one of the places I still want to visit.

One day soon I will return to this area with my SLR to make some decent pictures :) .

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Farewell 2011… Hello 2012…

By Rob December 31st, 2011, under My personal opinion

So at the end of the year it almost custom to look back at past year and pondering a bit about it all. Overall I can say that has been a good year, which doesn’t mean that no sad or bad things did happen.

Most sad thing that happened this year is of course that my mother passed away April this year. It is something that is still often in my thoughts.

What was a strange emotional experience was the funeral of my mother on Friday 8 April and that I signed the next Monday the papers to buy the apartment that I was renting already for about a year. This Monday was 11 April. This date was chosen a bit with a reason. It was the my birthday of my father who already passed away many years ago. I thought that my mother would like that idea as a little respect towards my father. I have spoken with my mother about it and she indeed liked this a lot, not knowing that she would not live through that day herself.
It was here that Sanne came with a comforting thought. She said that I was the only one of my mothers children that was not settled down completely. My brother and sister were married, found a place to live and even have their own children. Sure, I had Marion at my side. Found a good job. The only thing missing was a place that I could call really my own. With the appointment for signing the mortgage-papers and the property transfer of the apartment to me I was settled down as well. And that was, according Sanne’s thoughts, that everything for my mother was good now. All her children had found a place in their lives. My mothers work was done…
Neither Sanne or me know if this all is true, but it is sure a comforting thought and one that I still carry with me…

So yes, this year I became the owner of an apartment in the town of Heemskerk. I have to admit that before moving here I thought that Heemskerk was somewhere in the province of Groningen.
It is not very big apartment, but more then enough for 1 (some times 2) persons. After staying more then a year in a room in Amsterdam, it is good to have a place of my own again (but not a bad word about the room in Amsterdam, the kind landlady always made sure everything was okay. And it solved for me during that time a big problem).
I really like the apartment. It has a wonderful wide view over this part of the town of Heemskerk. On a clear day I can see on the horizon the cranes of the Amsterdam harbour. In the evening it is a wonderful display of lights.
There is a nice balcony where you can sit in the summer enjoying the nice weather. I find important to be able to go outside and with this balcony it is possible to sit outside… have there lunch or dinner… read a bit… or just enjoy the view and the weather.
There has things to be done to the apartment. And most important is a new kitchen, but as what I want is very expensive. So I have to safe money for that.

Most important of course is my relation with Marion. It seems impossible to me, but it is getting better and better. With the passing away of my mother, she showed very clearly that she is also there for me in bad times. It was a great comfort to have her at my side during that time.
And I know that in the eyes of some people the relation we have is weird, but more and more it proves that this is for both of us the best. Committed to each other and yet room to be independent and freedom to move around (to avoid confusion here, we don’t have an so called “open relation”… in this relation we are committed to each other).
For me (and I know this goes for Marion as well) it’s like a puzzle where more and more pieces find a fitting place. And it is wonderful and great pleasure to work together to on this (maybe never to complete) puzzle.

The days out with Marion we also very enjoyable. Burgers Zoo (where we went together with Sanne) was great. And so where our visits to Maduro Dam and Madame Thussauds (among others). Our trips here in the neighbourhood to Uitgeest, Zandvoort, Castricum, Haarlem, Amsterdam and such were also very nice.
Of course I have to mention Cirque Stilleto this year Januari in Haarlem (with Ellen ten Damme). It was my way to say thank you to Marion for those nice years together. And in August we saw Ellen ten Damme again in “Het Concertgebouw” in Amsterdam.

Work is also going well. Still enjoy a lot to work in the team where I am part of. Maybe for next year we should have a little more team events again. Would be nice to have as group some fun again outside of the company as well.

This year I also bought some nice things as a new computer (a real speed monster) and a very nice Pioneer media-set (BluRay player and speakers included). And I continued to decorate my apartment and that is of course a job that will never finish.

As I already said, overall it has been a good year. And I feel positive about the coming year…

So all the best wishes for 2012!!!!

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Schiermonninkoog

By Rob December 31st, 2011, under I was there!

Today Marion and I returned home from our small holiday on the island of Schiermonnikoog…

And yes, we had a great time there. The nature is beautiful, even this time for year. So we made long walks. Talked a lot and enjoyed each close company.

I think that is very important for everyone to take now and then some steps away. To look from some distance at everything that is going on. And how could you do that better than with the one you love so deeply next to you. When I look at it all, I am rather happy how everything is going. Sure, there some small things that could be going better. But those are not really important and one should have something to improve, now don’t you?

And yes, even with the cold weather… we did swim in the sea. I have to admit that at first I was a bit hesitating, but after Marion made clear that she wanted to do this, I could not stay behind. So we did swim in the sea. Of course not to long, because even once you are in the water you don’t feel the cold anymore, your body is cooling down. Also it is very important that when you are out of the water you get dry as fast as possible again.
I am proud of this achievement and I fully admit that the “kruidenbitter” (Dutch herbal liquor) tasted extremely well once we were inside again.

Every day breakfast on bed by the one that was awake first (which was mostly me :) ). Fun was also doing the cooking together. And of course the cleaning of the dishes afterwards (no dishwasher there).
The long evenings talking, listening to music and reading were just as wonderful. Of course this with some wine, beer and “kruidenbitter”.

It was a wonderful “break away” holiday. I had really a wonderful time and we both agreed that we should do this again.

A few pictures… I just realized that didn’t make as many pictures of the island as I normally would have done. Must have been something with the nice company *winks*

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