Alhandra's Journal

After an idea of John Scalzi's: schadenfreude pie
I started thinking about how to make a Dutch version of that pie: leedvermaaktaart. I wasn't very sure on how to go about this and called in Jelka's help, which resulted in some very good info. Thanks for that.

What you need:
-Dough to make the pie's crust. Jelka suggested I make it from scratch, which went horribly wrong the first time around and resulted in a misbaksel, as Remco and I called it. So, the second time around, I bought some premade stuff, actually meant to make apple pie, but it turned out nicely.

-you need four eggs, one for the pie crust, three for the filling.
-I used 250 gr butter, 100 for the pie crust, the rest in the filling.
-chocolate, more than 75%, melted. I used two bars of Verkade extra puur.
-syrop, Van Gilse. I'm not sure how much I used, I didn't use a measuring cup, because it would just stick all over it. Quite a bit more than I'd put on a pancake. John suggested a cup, after all.
-John also suggested kahlua. I tried rum, since that tastes well with chocolate too. But I think the pie might be better without stuff like that. It does add to the bitter taste, so make up your own mind about it.

Bake for 45 mins and then you have a rich, black, bittersweet pie.

 

Tonight we went off to visit Aunt Chris and Uncle Ysbrand, who live in Goedereede. This is technically in the same province as Rotterdam is, but because it's so much closer to Zeeland, it feels all the world different from where we live.
There is a lot more space to go around.

We had coffee and tea at their home (which still isn't finished) and then drove towards the Brouwersdam, which is at land's end...
The sky was turning an inky black, but only near the horizon where deep clouds obscured the light. Above the clouds, a strip of midnight blue was slowly holding on to the last light, and in the distance the lighthouse of Ouddorp bode the way.

We had a lovely dinner at the very homely D'n Dolle Beer, which was situatied overlooking the Grevelingen lake. The main room of the restaurant was decorated in colours not unlike our own livingroom. The wood tables, soft light and no less than three christmas trees added to the homely atmosphere.

The food was definitely quite wonderful, and the company was just as good, if not better. If you're ever in the neighbourhood, I can recommend it! (The food, and the company too, of course.)

Here's my first DitL post... and it's not even about me.

Last Monday when I couldn't get to work because of the snow, I decided to take pictures of Lisa and follow her around the house to see what she was up to. We had our lovely blanky on the couch and I set up a tripod nearby.

( This is one huge image... )

First up was the Christmas celebration at my father's, who's claimed December 24th for over ten years now. We were ten, all in all, including my grandmother and Aunt Henny.

Dinner was...just a lot of food. I focused mainly on the string beans and carrots, having some potato gratin as well. I also had a teensy bit of beef, but it was smaller than two fingers.

After dinner were presents! I bought my grandmother a puzzle book (and I was pleased to notice I wasn't the only one having a puzzle book gift-wrapped at the bookstore), because she loves doing a puzzle in the morning. For Aunt Henny there were bon-bons, just like for Raphael and his girlfriend Margarite. There was a tapas cookbook for Jos and Eef, a Dutch cookbook for my stepmother, some coffee liquor (Amaretto taste) and chocolate for my dad, and I bought NoKey two cd's of Muse (not a completely selfless gift).

My father and Detty gifted me with a Philips wake-up light, which might help with my problems to get out of bed in the morning. Those things are outrageously expensive, and I can't help but feel a bit guilty because the Consumentengids had a comparative test of the real thing and four fakes, which are a lot cheaper and work (almost) just as well.

But I've no intention of using the wake-up light just yet... I look forward to a long weekend of sleeping in!

I just can't concentrate lately, I feel utterly ADD. So I pose the question to you:
Do I ever seem ADD to you? Have you been bothered or worried by my tendency to get distracted? Or my inability to sit still and pay attention for a long time?

I honestly want to know because it's been bugging me lately. Ohh! Bimfoodle just brushed against my legs. Where was I? QED.

January
WoW is too much fun
I quit the game to work on my novel
February
At my parents' house
They told us about the apartment in Lelystad, which btw is still not ready for them to move in...
March
Writing progresses, and much fun things to do
But my boss at work wants to see me to an assertiveness training
April
A goal
Thinking about what I want to get out of this writing business, a view I may have to revise.
May
Personal front
A locked post about family.
June
Synopsis
The book progressed nicely, despite all my activities and the production of less than a thousand works per week.
July
Kicked out of the writing school
My first kick in the stomach this year. But I bounced back. I understood that I really didn't need to hang around literary snobs to write my novel.
August
Entropy
Nathreee's depressing thoughts on the meaning of life.
September
Cleaning the house
My feet are still painful sometimes.
October
Thinking
A locked post about spiritual things.
November
All seems well
Wordcount has gone up, writing is wonderful.
December
Unexpected
This year's second kick, right where it hurts.

So that was 2009 to me. I wonder what 2010 will bring...

With Avatar being a Dances with Wolves kind of movie, there's a lot of discussion going around. As usual I think people are taking this way too seriously, go on and accuse me of violating Moff's Law. All I have to say is, let's laugh at each other.



( A quick and probably not very good translation: )

Believe it or not, but Christmas really snuck up on me this year. One day I'm just happily chopping away at my parent's future quilt, the other I realise that OMG tonight there's this dinner-thing at my dad's and I don't have gifts for my stepbrother and his girlfriend yet.
Worse still: I haven't a clue whether my grandmother will be there, and whether my aunt will be there, and what to give them!?
And yet, worse still: We were up until midnight playing D&D and my alarm went of at 6.30 am. There's no way I can stay awake during the festivities tonight, espeically the forced cheerfulness at watching "Kroamschudd'n in Mariaparochie" yet again... for the umpteeth year in a row...

But chill, everything will be fine, it's just a logistical challenge. There's supposedly this grand chocolatier around here, and we'll drop in during lunch. That'll take care of any extra gifts I need to arrange. I can call my dad to check if grandma will be there, but I suspect she will have opted to stay at home because of the snows.

Can anyone please tell me how an old, bearded fellow, his eight or nine reindeer, his sleigh and a ton of gifts can be so stealthily?

Vanochtend vol goede moed begonnen om mijn auto te ontdoen van zijn sneeuwjasje.
Hij staat op de hoek van de straat nog steeds onder een volle deken sneeuw.
De sneeuw van de weg is naar mijn wielen geschoven dus die zitten goed ingepakt en vanaf de stoepkant hebben de bewoners voor een zelfde wiel bedekking gezorgt.

Maar naar een tijdje ploeteren was ie sneeuwvrij, op de wielen na dan.
In die tussentijd heb ik verschillende mensen door de straten zien glijden in plaats van rijden.
toch maar even mijn projectmanager gebeld. Nee hij ging niet hij werkt maar 3 dagen per week op het project.
De andere collega is er alleen maandag en woensdag dus dat betekend dat ik er alleen zit... als ik er al kom.

ik heb maar afgesproken met de manager dat ik pas ga rijden als het licht is en er meer mensen over die weg zijn geweest.
Hij was zo vriendelijk om ook nog even te wijzen op het feit dat ik maar een oud autootje heb... maar wel eentje die trouwe dienst verleend.
nog twee weekjes en dan krijg ik die nieuwe maar dat is net te laat voor deze sneeuwbende op de weg.

Dus mocht het zo beter gaan, onderneem ik de tocht naar schiedam anders werk ik gewoon weer een dagje thuis.
Tot het moment dat het licht is werk ik thuis.

Zoals goede hollanders betaamd hebben Anastaszia en ik de stoep voor ons huis sneeuwvrij gemaakt.

Nou ja sneeuwvrij. In de meest ruime zin des woords dan. Een paadje van een halve meter breed naar ons huis en middenvoor een even breed pad zodat de mensen veilig langs kunnen. Erg leuk om dan te zien dat mensen speciaal opzij stappen om naast ons pad verder te lopen. Zucht! Daar doe je dan je best voor.

In de achtertuin hebben we ook een pad vrij gemaakt. Zo kunnen we naar de vuilnisbak en houden we het grootste deel van de sneeuw mooi.

Tja. En dan doet me dat ergens aan denken.
Alleen jammer dat ik geen AT-AT's hier in huis heb.


Shurf

* We take you live to our snow clearing championships where our contestants struggle with the next challenge: snow that has frozen to the sidewalk. Harry, what's happening with you?

- We're standing here at the edge of the practice field and as you can see behind me, contestants are warming up. We see several contestants, aged 25-40, warming up for their runs in the field. But where this field just has the loose snow, rumour has it that the finale field has the snow frozen to the surface underneath. As you probably know, loose snow is easily shoveled, it being just a matter of bloody singlemindedness and putting your backs into it, whereas the frozen to the tiles-variety needs additional concentration and minute coordination in order to break the icey snow's grip on the tiles beneath. These contestants are clearly in for a challenge later today. Back to you, Jim.

* Sounds like a challenge indeed. We now go live to William at the edge of the finale field, where contestants are ready to clear this challenge.

% Thank you Jim. They're in for a fight today, as you can see behind me. The board indicates a roughly L-shaped field must be cleared, from the fake front door, running behind the cardboard cars down to the 15 meter-mark. This is a difficult challenge, as neither the cars or the door can be touched by snow or shovel, and both must remain accessible. The two Dutch contestants in lane one and two are ready to go.
And they're off! Jane in lane #1 is taking it slow, but NoKey in lane #2 seems to be suffering from cold fingers. Yes, he's changing gloves before going on. The suede light-weight gloves are off, and the real sportsmans gloves appear from his jacket pocket.
Meanwhile, in lane #1 Jane is taking off her gloves. Her face is quite red, she seems to be struggling with the conditions, but she doesn't appear to be cold like her countryman in the next lane.
As a difficulty bonus for this challenge there are stuntmen ambling about, trying out the cleared field and checking its desnowification values.

* Sounds exciting, William. The contestants seem to be coping so far, though. But what is this?

% Oh, Jim it's a disaster. The snow shovel - of NoKey - has broken! The handle just snapped off right next to the iron blade, and he's looking at it dejectedly. I fear this means an end to this round... yes! The umpire has blown his whistle and the competition is paused! Paused!
This must be the most exciting endgame I've seen to date.

* We'll be right back after this message from our sponsor.

My mailman is a inventive guy. He left his bike at home and used a children' s sled instead.

A new species has arrived... They look friendly enough most of them are smiling in a way. They come in all shapes and sizes, some of them wear clothes others not. A family of them closed off my street for a while. the park is filled with them.

This morning I found a small one on the stairs to my appartment. it made me smile.  

a big happy snowman in the park

 

 
the little one on my stairs :-)

I gave him an opinion... 

Hopefully the winter stays for a while. I like the sound of the snow under my boots. Maybe more snowmen come to town.

Ze hebben snowy bruut vermoord. In tweeën gekliefd. Het is verschrikkelijk.

Dit was hij gister. Als de sneeuw vanmiddag weer plakt zullen we een nieuwe maken. Nog groter. En ditmaal in de achtertuin, veilig voor de sneeuwpopkiller.

De hele ochtend bezig geweest om naar mijn werk te gaan.

Om kwart over 7 stond ik buiten om de auto uit te graven.
Dat ging op zich goed,net als de rit naar mijn werk. De hoeveelheid ijs op de weg in Houten was wel wat minder, maar dat zal in de loop van de dag wel minder worden.

Alleen die parkeerplaats op het werk. Prachtig maagdelijke sneeuw van een centimeter of dertig diep. Maagdelijke sneeuw op die plekken na waar een auto had gereden en nu vast stond. Ze kon niet  naar voren en niet naar achteren. We zijn drie kwartier bezig geweest om de auto weer vrij te maken en hebben toen besloten dat dit niet te doen was. Zelfs al zouden we de auto's in een parkeervak krijgen, dan zouden we ze er nooit meer uit krijgen. En vanmiddag gaat het weer sneeuwen.

Ik ben dus maar weer omgekeerd en ben nu net weer thuis. Vandaag werk ik wel vanaf hier.
Ik heb ook direct een inlog aangevraagd voor onze Citrix server. Als dat  werkt heb ik ook thuis de beschikking over alle software waar ik op het werk ook mee kan werken.

Voorlopig doe ik het wel met de webmail en de FTP van het werk.

Shurf

59707 / 84563 words. 71% done!

It's progressing nicely, if I may say so myself. Last week's bad news can't stop me from making this manuscript all shiny and perfect. I've had another little fight with Word, something about spaces, haven't been able to fix it yet. But the content, the language, the story makes me happy. I have identified a problem somewhere in the ending, and I'll fix when I get there. Right now I'm polishing the relationship between Jareth and the Countess, and the way Jareth gets along with Topaz. When I'm stuck, I just drift back to the roleplay session a few weeks ago, and the faces of my gracious players just make the story happen again before my eyes. I miss you guys... And the wonderful evening you granted me has not been for nothing, I assure you.

Anyway... I don't have the patience yet to work on a real synopsis and a cover letter, that will have to wait until after the holidays when I've calmed down a bit. First I'll have to call my editor and have that talk... And there is just no way to put it nicely...

On the menu this week: Tonight is Weekend Heroes. I hope Remco gets home in time... Tomorrow: a day of Legend of the Five Rings roleplay, and possibly another evening on Tuesday. We will spend Christmas Day with Remco's parents, Saturday we will have to ourselves, and on Sunday we'll be with my parents and my brother and his wife in our old town.

Happy Holidays, my friends. I'll be working though.

Let it snow, schreef ik eerder deze week. Ze hebben geluisterd, de weergoden. En hoe...

Omdat groter worden vanzelf gaat maar opgroeien optioneel is heb ik net lekker buiten een grote sneeuwpop gemaakt. Kas hielp me uiteindelijk wel mee, maar zonder mij was hij er niet gekomen. Hihi. We hebben de grootste van de straat, maar als het buurmeisje hem ziet duurt dat niet lang denk ik. Maar misschien is ze te druk met de oude slee van de jongens die we haar gegeven hebben.

Het meel voor de oliebollen staat te rijzen. Njomnjom.

Geweldig!
Het sneeuwt en het sneeuwt! er ligt hier in de straat zo'n 30 cm en het wordt alleen maar meer.
De buurt komt helemaal tot leven. Iedereen loopt op straat en breken spontane sneeuwballen gevechten uit. superlevendig.
Ik zal het niet snel zeggen maar Den haag kan heel gezellig zijn.

Vanmorgen ben ik door de sneeuw lopend boodschappen wezen doen en overal wordt druk gewerkt aan de grootste sneeuwmannen. De turkse buurman die zijn auto sneeuwvrij probeerde te krijgen werd van de wal in de sloot geholpe door de jeugd die er weer sneeuwballen boven op gooide.
Hij vatte het positief op en trakteerde de tieners op een dik pak sneeuw in hun nek waar door er weer een nieuw sneeuwgevecht uitbrak.

In een van de bovenhuizen was een dame haar balkon sneeuwvrij aan het maken en zag kans om vanaf het balkon haar man en kind de volle laag te geven die beneden een pop aan het bouwen waren. waarna ze snel weer achter het balkonmuurtje dook. en hij maar afvragen waar de sneeuw vandaan kwam :-D

Toen ik terug kwam van de boodschappen had de buurtjeugd en enkele van de papa's de handen ineengeslagen om een enorme sneeuwman midden op de weg te bouwen. Intusen staan er vier van die mannen op de weg. Met gewoon sneeuw was het al lastig in de straat nu met die poppen kom je er niet meer in :-)

iedereen is buiten en je praat met mensen die je anders nooit ziet.
sneeuw is geweldig!!!

Alleen morgen naar mijn werk gaan zie ik nog niet helemaal zitten...
we zien het wel, eerst genieten!

Well, I know many people who own a car can name numerous reasons why snow is not fun. But I love snow, even if I have to stand outside in the cold waiting for a train or bus that won't show up!

However.

I do wish people were to clean at least 'their' part of the sidewalk. It's snowing like crazy here now, but I'll go downstairs and outside to do my part once it stops! I can manage on the slippery, trod snow, but the elderly can't!

And!

Having snow on the ice will seriously insulate the ice. The KNSB (Dutch skating union) says on their website it's frightfully dangerous to go onto the ice. It's far too thin, it doesn't grow when there's snow on it, and you can't see how thick it is.
And I'm a little bored now that I don't have a business to run anymore. Big black hole after stressful period anyone? Yep, that's it.
Ice skating would have been the perfect pastime. I'll bet you a thousand euro I can't get NoKey outside in what he would no doubt call a blizzard. I would like to build a snow-man though.

Poor NoKey, he gets cold so easily.
But yay! Snow!

ETA:

DE BILT - De hevige sneeuwval heeft het verkeer in Nederland zondag grotendeels platgelegd. Het KNMI gaf daarom zondag rond 10.30 uur een weeralarm af. (...)
Spoorbeheerder ProRail heeft zondag iets na 10.00 uur een negatief reisadvies gegeven voor treinreizigers. Diverse vervoersbedrijven hebben zondagochtend besloten de bussen in de garages te houden in verband met de weer.

Translation: DE BILT - The heavy snow has mostly lamed traffic throughout the Netherlands. The Dutch Metereological Institute KNMI announced a weather alarm on Sunday around 10.30 am. (...)
Rail manager Prorail also gave a negative travelling advice for train passengers around ten o'clock on Sunday morning. Various public transport agencies have decided this Sundaymorning to keep their buses in the garage because of the weather.
From: Winterweer legt Nederland bijna plat on Nu.nl.