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October 31, 2005
(More) reasons to be cheerful
I sent an email to someone in Melbourne today and received one of those out-of-office replies that reminded me that he would be "vigorously celebrating the Melbourne Cup for the long weekend", as people do in Melbourne at this time of the year. I could count the number of times I've felt homesick since I've been in the Netherlands on one hand, but at least four of them have been when the Melbourne Cup was on.
Now THAT's something to look forward to next November!
PS. And here is what its all about.
Posted by Faith at 12:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Well mannered, all around.
It's great when you 'discover' someone or something new. Not new to the rest of the world but new enough to you to get you all excited. BBC-star-Kathy-Clugston and I went to the Concertgebouw last month to hear the Kronos Quartet perform with Wu Man and Amy Knoles as part of October'sChina Festival. The Kronos Quartet were as usual brilliant and both guests were satisfyingly amazing. The program featured pieces by Tan Dun, a composer who amongst other things won an Oscar for the music in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Better late than never? What we heard with the Kronos Quartet was enough to inspire a trip to Amazon. More CDs to pack!
Our seats were on the stage itself, we being not organised enough to book early, thus we had a good view of not only the performers but also the audience. We did notice a bit-of-a-flurry and a standing ovation for two guests who arrived fashionably late, we had arrived only seconds before them and were too busy getting arranged ourselves to take too much notice. (To be honest, I may still have been in the bokzone...) They were seated directly above "Mahler" in the balcony, central and directly over from us so we had quite a good view. Even so, it wasn't until AFTER the break that Kathy peered into the distance and said "Isn't that Prince Willem and Maxima"? A series of discreet but penetrating eye-ballings revealed that indeed it was.
Being well bought up of course we resisted the urge to wave. They didn't wave either which goes to show they have been just as well bought up as ourselves.
Posted by Faith at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 28, 2005
Photo Friday: Delicate
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October 27, 2005
The bottom rung
Where I grew up the WORST thing anyone could do was wear socks with sandals. Luckily it was an affliction that we saw rarely, mostly on TV, and one that we were convinced affected only the British. So it came as a bit of a shock to me when I first arrived in the Netherlands, almost 5 years ago, to discover that the habit had crossed the Channel and was far more widespread than I'd ever imagined.
This morning Jacob's Dutch genes woke up on the bossy side and motherely love was stretched to it's very limits. Discovering his summer sandals Jacob decided they were the perfect accompaniment to his already considered outfit. As the rest of this outfit had entailed lengthy discussions and negotiations I took the cowards' way out and reached for a pair of socks to at least adapt the sandals to the weather.
And so it was that this morning I stepped out onto the pavement into a full-blown existential crisis. Not only was I walking down the street with a boy wearing sandals-with-socks but worse, I KNEW for a fact that his mother had dressed him in them.
Posted by Faith at 07:30 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
October 25, 2005
More autumn antics
Like clockwork, (and like many Netherlanders) the autumn weather has prompted an I-want-my-penison-now crisis in our central heating system. Seems we can have hot water OR central heating but expecting both is just asking for too much. The ancient system governing these is no longer able to make the transition from one mode to the other.
Like clockwork, this year's lucky winner of the annual Govert-Flincktraat we-want-you-to-repair-our-heater-lottery dissolved into helpless laughter at first sight of our 'system' and proceeded to bandy the word 'antiek' around a lot. The question is not how long it will take to find a replacement part but do they still exist in this universe-and-time-continuum? Do we have the technology to travel back in time and find one?
The owner of our flat is overseas and suddeny not able to read his voicemail, email or sms's. Mind you I sympathise, he is planning to sell the apartment in just over two months when we leave so he is in a tricky position. Let the cranky Australian and the adorable-wee-little-boy freeze to death in the cruel Dutch autumn (Dad's at the office all day so doesn't suffer as much)or fork out and pay up? Suddenly working in a client's office all day is looking strangely attractive.
Posted by Faith at 04:29 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 24, 2005
Reasons to be cheerful..............
Ronnie, (despite his allergic-reaction to horses) is a man of exceptional talents and gifts. Here are two examples;
1)Saturday mornings (when it's my turn to sleep in) he gets Jacob up, dresses him, feeds him, takes him outdoors for his two obligatory trips per morning, does the shopping on the Albert Cuyp and THEN cooks muffins before the two of them wake me up around 10.00ish, Ron bearing a cup of tea and Jacob a warm muffin and looking proud enough to have cooked it himself.
2)In his spare time, (that is when he is not working full-time, cooking muffins, bathing Jacob, putting him to bed, 'doing' the cheap-flights-of-Europe or being led screaming behind a runaway-horse) Ron wrote a book with some colleagues very simply called "Service Oriented Architecture". It has nothing to do with buildings but is nerdy and technical and it's in Dutch but even so I think everyone should use it as their Christmas-stocking-filler this year.
Muffins and architecture, what more could a girl want?
Posted by Faith at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 20, 2005
Granny fetish
Since broadcasting my age on the internet I've been getting a whole new class of comment-spam. Now, if I wanted to see a hot-fat-old-perverted-slut would I need to use the internet? Meanwhile the word "mature" has assumed all sorts of diabolical associations.
Posted by Faith at 12:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2005
Tick tock
Who knew the Dutch countryside could be so dangerous? While in the Achterhoek for a weekend we spent an uncommonly sunny autumn day walking through the woods around Montferland. Jacob astounded us by walking 5 of the 15kms we covered himself on his very-own-two-year-old-legs and as usual revelled in what passes for wide-open-spaces in this part of the world. Most of the day was spent searching for mushrooms. On the discovery of red mushroom with white spots we were all compelled to gather around and sing Kabouter Spillebeen.
Jacob also learnt that while he could admire mushrooms and even accost them with Dutch nursery rhymes he mustn't touch them ("niet aankommen") We know he took this to heart because he reminded Oma of the danger of touching mushrooms oh, at least 387 times? "oma, paddestoelen, niet aankomen!"
It was only once we were back in Amsterdam that we discovered Jacob had bought home with him his very own little friend. A tick, nestled snuggly into his upperthigh. The tick has been released into the sewers of De Pijp (probably to re-emerge as the-super-tick-that-ate-Amsterdam) and we are now breathlessly waiting for signs of Lime disease. Will he turn green?
Posted by Faith at 04:24 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 17, 2005
When Groovy found his Groove
Having failed for years to get Ron to try horseriding a recent weekend in the Achterhoek provided the perfect opportunity to ease him into the idea with the hiring of a horse and cart from the Huifkarcentrum.
Disturbingly enough it was decided (3-1) that I should drive, I'm not sure why as my horse-driving experience was the same as everyone else's, zilch, and what's more I was the only one who had never had a driver's licence. We were given a horse called "Groovy" and after a quick lesson in cart-driving from a man who spoke impenetrable Achterhoek-ese and memorising of the Dutch for "Giddyup" and "Whoa" we set of.
Groovy was old and not best pleased at being dragged out on a Sunday morning and had his own ideas about the route and the pace at which it should be taken. Still we were working out a compromise together which seemed to be working for everyone. Jacob was VERY impressed yelling "Mama paardje rijden!" from the back seat at anyone who would listen. The sun was shining. It wasn't raining. (break into song...Feeling Groovy.....)
Ron has protested several times that he doesn't like horses but I hadn't realised just how deep it went. It goes deep! Having beeing instructed to make small-talk with the horse (as then he would be more likely to follow my commands) I was doing my best to keep up a nice line of Dutch patter. It wasn't easy with the increasingly shrill instructions from the back of the cart. "For God's sake Faith, STOP!" (50 m BEFORE the intersection), 'more to the left', "There's a car!" "STOP!" "STOP!" "STOP!" Add to this father-in-law's efforts at helping by also giving the horse commands, commands which often contradicted my commands, and the peace of the countryside was beginning to be lost on me.
Eventually we caught up with a much bigger cart from the same centre being led by two of Groovy's stablemates, much bigger and younger stablemates. Not wanting to be shown up Groovy set off after them at a pace that was both surprising and impressive considering his efforts so far. As we turned off the paved roads and onto sand tracks and over grass fields this new found enthusiasm took on an alarming aspect.Whenever his horsey-colleagues vanished from sight behind a hedge or curve in the path Groovy broke into a whinny and a trot, dragging us behind him with little respect for the actual path boundaries, low-lying hedges and market-vegetation. What with the screams from the back, the contradictory instructions from Opa on my left and my efforts to wrest Groovy from his groove we must have provided a good 15 minutes worth of entertainment for the tourists in the back of the cart in front of us.
Eventually I had to get terse and tell everyone to "Shut Up" after which I was able to get Groovy back under control and hold him back until the other cart had disapeared from sight. Groovy regressed to his earlier I'd-rather-be-dog-food pace and we finished our tour of the Montferland countryside in a civilized fashion. Well, except for Ron that is, who as we passed our hotel, leapt out the back and went and hid in the parked car with Jacob.
Till death do us part, in sickess and health, for richer or poorer. But not behind a horse!
PS: This from the Huifkarcentrum website "Met een lief en gewillig paard door de prachtige omgeving van het montferland. Het lijkt moeilijk maar toch valt het reuze mee, het paard is gewend om naar u te luisteren en zal u graag van dienst zijn." seems to be pushing the envelope a bit when applied to Groovy. But he did add a bit of spice to the morning!
Posted by Faith at 12:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 12, 2005
A goat by any other name
I've done some research and the most common answer to the question "Why is it called bokbier?" is that bokbier is a bastardisation of "Einbeck-bier", this being, apparently where bokbier originates. In the local lingo "Einbeck-bier" became "Ainpöckisch Bier" and from there it's a small step apparently to "ein Bockbier" in German or "en bokbier" in Dutch.
However, for some this theory is just too simple and the PINT (the Dutch society for the promotion of information about traditional beers) goes on to explore some slightly more interesting ideas involving among other things satyr's, Dionyssian celebrations and a brief history of spring beer's in France and Germany and their consumption in the autumn amongst other things. Bockbier is much older than the logic that provides the first explanation. There is no conclusive answer but if you can read Dutch plenty more fascinating details to ruminate on while cycling in the 'bokzone'!
Posted by Faith at 12:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 11, 2005
Inspiration and bicycles
Friday night Ron and I escaped the clutches of Bob-de-Bouwer (Bob the builder) and parenthood for a few hours to go and see Beijing Bicycle at the Film Museum.
It was billed as the Chinese version of Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves which was intriguing enough for me. I was expecting something a tad depressing but the film had a strangely uplifting effect despite the relentless progress of fate against our hero. I think it was the direction and camerawork, which were beautiful and also very inspiring. By some strange coincidence, many of the shots made use of a technique I've been itching to play with lately (with still shots though, not moving pictures) and provided buckets of inspiring ideas. Now that I am happily 'freelancing' again, (read, without a client) I may actually find the time to try them out.
Posted by Faith at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 08, 2005
40. hmm.......sounds like 36? 32? 29? do you take Visa?
Somehow, I managed to turn 40 a few weeks ago. More than a month ago actually. (Doesn't time fly when you're having fun.........)
The day itself was painless enough. We arrived at breakfast on the terrace of our hotel in Turkey, the one where we sat looking out over the Aegean and Rhodes, (just thought i'd throw that in...) to discover a bouquet of flowers from the garden and an enormous cake cook had whipped up for me. The other guests burst into a spontaneous-and-slightly-embarrasing-but-very-sweet rendition of Happy Birthday, I was congratulated in German, Dutch, English and Turkish and Jacob did a little dance.
After climbing up through the lower regions of Baba Dag to Kilim along the Lycian Way we spent the afternoon swimming before dining on our terrace, accompanied again by the Aegean and Rhodes but with the addition of a bottle of Turkish bubbly.
One advantage of drifting along on the tailcoats of the notorious baby-boomers is that by the time you reach any significant milestones in the age-stakes most of them have been there a good decade before you and wrenched it from sensible/dowdy/middle-aged/grown-up or whatever association it had that you weren't looking forward to and created a whole new set, usually revolving around youth, vitality and shopping.
These new associations are not without their own problems, the crap-exponent seems to get higher with the years, but what is handy is the 'loosening' of ideas that happens. By ditching one set of ideas and introducing another, or several, it becomes much easier to imagine yourself as something other than what someone who turned 40 might have been expected to imagine themselves to be, say, 40 years ago. There have always been people with the fortitude to ignore cultural regulations and stigmatisations but now it's easier than ever with the babyboomers conveniently muddying the waters before you step gingerley into the pool.
And thus, turning 40 has been reasonably painless, more than anyhting its feels like some universal practical joke. Just not quite sure who it's directed at yet?
Posted by Faith at 10:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Leaving, on a jet plane........
We have passports. We have visas. And now finally we have tickets. Three one-way tickets to Melbourne, Australia. Its official. We're moving back. New Years Day 2006 at an imhumanly early hour we will be arriving back in Melbourne to live.
At least for now.
Posted by Faith at 09:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 07, 2005
....more goats.......
And speaking of bokbier.
I met Odette recently for a natter and chat about all-things-stress-related, an occassion which coincidentally revealed to me the true power and purpose of bockbier. We had planned to meet at the Brouwerij 't'IJ, a windmill in Amsterdam where they brew their own beer. They have recently added a bokbier, the Biobok, to their list of accomplishments so I was looking forward to trying it. (Mind you, they have to do something about the name. It is a killer. More reminiscent of an industrial farming product than a beer.) Unfortunately the molen was gezellig, warm and crowded, not something either of us was in the mood for, so we ended up at De Groene Olifant (The Green Elephant) instead. What a coincedence! They served the Brouwerij 't'IJ's Biobok also so I was able to try it after all. The universe moves in mysterious ways.
I'm sorry to say the Biobock was a sloppy affair, not much flavour and very unstructured and saggy. Reminiscent of trying to drink the local beer in Scotland but not quite that bad. Despite this I soldiered on and tried a second one, and we ordered a portion of bitterballen to give the beer a nudge in the right direction. Unfortunately, there was nothing could save the Biobok (...as I mentioned, with a name like that...) and we were forced to leave in search of more congenial environs.
We ended up at one of our favourite tapperij's, forgotten its name but it's on the corner of the Utrechtsestraat and the plein with the Nederlandse Bank, it being in the direction of my final destination for the afternoon. Here, they were serving the Brand Dubbelbock, a heavier bock but very nice with it. Luckily I only had time for one, it being a Dubbelbock and all.
And here is where a bockbier really comes into its own. As I cycled along the Weteringschans to meet BBC-star-Kathy-Clugston at the Concertgebouw I was enveloped in what can only be described as "the-zone-of-warmth-and-gezelligheid" or, lets call it the Bokzone. Those first bitter autumnal winds couldn't numb me, the grey wet fog descending around my ears couldn't dampen my enthusiasm and it was only with a great trilling of bells that even the amsterdam trams were able to penetrate my new-found sense of wellbeing. THIS I thought, is what Bokbier was invented for! The first strategic line-of-defence against the onset of autumn.
Posted by Faith at 01:53 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Photo Friday: Five
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