Isn't this what happened in Rome?

This post's title dedicated to my dad, uber-history nerd

Funny thing happened while I was perusing the news feeds today. First I read this story. Is corruption really on the rise ? I am not sure but that guy is convinced. I am tempted to send him the link the story that followed only a few down from his.

The Universal Thanksgiving Experience, in pictures

Signaling the begin of the year-end Eat-A-Thon, Thanksgiving preceded the pepernoten genocide last week as a kick off for the end of my waistline. A Photo-journal into our Thanksgiving, your Thanksgiving, and basically everyone's Thanksgiving:

Before:

During:

After:

Weekend Round Up

First off, I would like to say it's lonely over here. Xmas, no family around, friends from US far far away. Suuuure would be nice if folks left a comment or two on the ole blog. That way I don't have to Big Brother stalk you on Google Analytics to see if anyone out there is reading.

Onto regularly scheduled posting!

Friday we had a lovely, chill evening in after a long week. I made cabbage with a small smoked sausage and egg noodles, a penitent meal after our pepernoten orgy the night before. We watched Monsters vs Aliens and it was about at the level intellectual content we could muster for the evening.

Saturday I did loads of shopping to stock up on foods, toilet paper, and other not terribly exciting things that are strangely getting their moment of immortality on this blog. Because we were going out that evening, we decided to start drinking at 6pm. FH recently purchased The Most Expensive Tonic Water ever, making G&T's suddenly a household staple. That lead to ginger ale and whiskey (I'm not so sold I fear) and then polishing off the wine bottles from this week. Only a few weeks before I had sworn I would cut down on drankin' over the week to try to slow the inevitable trip through life on the Fat-ient Express. Evidently will power is overall not where it should be.

We then met friends and went to dinner at the Iranian resto down the street. We have been here before and it's quite a nice change of pace though I thought our starters were nicer than the mains this time, including a delicious eggplant dish that tasted like warm baba ganoush with goat cheese. Iran is not known for wine for a reason, so go for the local house option.

Several bottles of wine later we made our way to our first Xmas party of the year, at FH's old flatmate's. It was great to see people again and we got home quite late, only to find that a party just a few buildings down was still raging on. We could here the music clearly though an entire separated us from the party. Ah the perils of living in cities! All I can say is, god bless ear plugs.

The next "morning" we woke up feeling raisiny from alcoholic dehydration. Drunken sleep is not terribly restful and hangovers are sort of the last, face-losing kick in the pants to drive home the message that you've done something stupid the night before. We were meeting up with lovely friends who own the Chateau in France for what ended up being: lunch, puttering, drinks, drinks, dinner, stumble home.

Penetance

Last night FH purchased a cone of chocoladepepernoten, which are basically confectionery crack. Just try to eat a few - it is impossible. And you get the euphoric high and immediate sugary crash thereafter just like the real deal.

So we ate the entire thing. I looked up the calories afterwards and would have cried but my tummy hurt and I didn't want to shake it with the sobs. Today was therefore a rather sad day - lotta salads, lotta cuppasoups. You can try to eat more healthily the next day to compensate, but I can't seem to shake the shame of knowing I have a pepernotenproblem.

Today is the day before Sinterklaus. It is so disturbing to pass a family of folks who are clearly from India originally all dressed up in black-face. Zwartepeiten are just a weird tradition for foreigners I guess. On my way to work, I passed a few more of them, followed by Sinterklaus himself, all carried in bakfietsen.

tonight I looked into the eyes of my love,

....and I took his hand in mine, and told him without hesitation,

"We shouldn't have eaten that whole cone of pepernoten."

If this is news, maybe you need a better newspaper

So, my monocultural friend, you are confronted with a page in a non-English language. Someone has sent it to you (not a spammer) with recommends that it is cool/funny/insightful/shocking/blue/tasty/etc.

What do you do??

A) Allow eyes to roll up into head. Oh No, language that is not English! Does not compute! Quickly shut browser and/or burn computer monitor to remove affronting content.

Or do you

B) Translate the page (probably not very well) and enjoy the magics that is Tech Nolo Gee!

How, you may ask, does one command the wisdom of the sages to perform such a feat?  Or maybe you just grunt.

First, get Google toolbar. Probably it has nephariosuly installed itself already onto your browser, Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Toolbar should look something like this - oo I have mail!

Second, go here

Third, scroll down to about mid-page, find the language you want (English), and drag that button up to your browser.

Fourth, give the bird to the tower of Babylon, you are master of all languages!

Finally, now that you are empowered, go back through aaaaall of my blog and check out the Dutch links.

In the evil* empire, is there still hope?

After working in this building for a year or so, I have only recently begun to wonder who are all the other tenants who are slowing me down by stopping the elevator to get out before my floor. Who are the people who I annoy by getting out before they do? Who are the smelly smokers always getting off on the 3rd floor (even more irritating, there are NO stairs except the emergency ones, so even people just a few floors up have to take the elevator).

Because it's also a little slow right now (thanks US/UK crisis, for just hitting continental Europe only now) I had a chance to finally put a name to a face as it was. The results are unfortunately not terribly exciting, but while I was pooping along I came across a REVOLUTIONARY site.

Complaint Radar.nl!

It is just possible that there is hope for customer service in the Netherlands. I came across this site in connection with a e-marketing services company, who included in their offerings a service to monitor and help process complaints sent via the site. I plan to dig in and see who the big offenders are (probabaly everyone). But it's a pretty neat concept. I wonder if they make any money off it?

* okay, the Netherlands is neither evil nor an empire, this is purely hyperbole. Please do not revoke my visa.

Weekend Roundup

We had FH's nephew + girlfriend over the weekend. Very charming guests, who not only brought us totally unnecessary but lovely gifts, but did so from both of their countries. They are both British of course, but nephew is living in Paris and brought us lovely macaroons. Tea and chocolates represented the GF who is still living in London. We didn't get to spend a ton of time with them because...

Yes, yes, we did celebrate Thanksgiving! Of course we did, we just have to do it on a Saturday. We did not attempt the massive gathering we did last year. Frankly speaking, no one was willing to sacrifice their flat to so many people.

So we set up guests with plenty of info to get around, a reservation at a cool resto for the evening, and went to our bacchanalian fest. They also had friends here to visit so everything worked out very well.

Sunday we all woke up very late, tried to go to the new branch of one of our favorite brunch places, George, only to find it completely full. Something we have NEVER experienced at the original location. We quickly realized that this would most certainly always be the case at the new location because it is located smack in the heart of yuppyville, Amsterdam. By happy chance we went to the etencafe across the street, Cafe Gruter, which does very respectable food.

Wandered around, saw them off on their flights, and basically chilled and ate leftovers, as well as far too many macaroons in the evening.

Happy Thanksgiving you lucky bums

It is rare I am jealous of the US, but y'all definitely got us beat on the holiday front.

RISK is an awesome book and you should read it.

I read a perfect example of why this book should be something you pick up and read, especially if you live in the US, today: http://www.slate.com/id/2236302/?from=rss.
 

Leftovers today

Today is a bit dull I'm afraid - it's (shock & surprise!) raining, I'm at (shock & surprise!) work, and I will go home and not do terribly much.

But I did over the last couple days go back and flesh out our China trip. I have a memory like a sieve, so if I don't write it all down now, I will not remember a thing next year. FH has a better memory but I figured strike while the details are fresh. And I made a fancy-doo new label, so you can find all those entries here. Whole DAYS have been added, so it's not just a rerun, is a re-release, like my own personal Star Wars redux with shinier graphics and a fresh coat of paint!

Also many of your comments on posts that have been Completely Redone with fuller, magicaler content, sort of don't make any sense. So if you wanna make this thing a dialogue, feel free to add more comments or just adapt the ones you left earlier.

Weekend Roundup

A moderately less boring weekend that ones past. The good news is, FH seems to have turned that fateful corner everyone kept promising and is feeling significantly less pain. It felt almost as if overnight his throat got better, after two weeks of very slow, imperceptible improvement.

Still Friday we stayed in, but FH was able to join me in burrito and double feature rentals. There is a new burrito joint, since this summer, and lo, it is good. Not as good as New Mexico, but pretty damn good for the Netherlands. Plus because it is the NL, you can get non-spicy salsa for those recovering from tonsil surgery. I have to admit, we are sort of addicted to this place, not only because it is good and I have been in burrito deprivation for years, but also because it is literally across the street from our flat. Add a five minute walk to the movie rental shop (thanks RM, for the update in terminology) and you have an evening of laziness. I am not ashamed to admit we watched the last Terminator movie (not bad) and British comedy Hot Fuzz.

Saturday we walked into town basically because we could - it was a celebration of having FH back to his old self. We went down to the Zeidijk, China-street (it's not quite big enough to be a town)  to get nice veg and herbs. The big event of the day, one we've been wondering whether we'd be able to go to, was the London Calling event, a big weekend of bands from... well I think you can guess at local music venue Paradiso. We wanted to see Wild Beasts who we kind of like and had seen last year, and also Jack Penate, who evidently had a summer hit single? Who knew. Anyways, I know we are getting old because all the kids were annoying and drunk since the thing started at 16:30. Nor were we actually super-keen on any of the bands playing, even Wild Beasts. So enthusiasm was low to begin with, and we ended up leaving so early we were home before midnight! I would say expose yourself to Bombay Bicycle Club and the Boxer Rebellion. We saw the first one and missed the second, but their mySpace pages are maybe worth checking out.

Sunday we had a super chill day, owing in no small part to the fact that we will have crappy-do weather most of the week, with high winds, random rain, and perpetual gray skies. If it seems like this is a perpetual comment on the Netherlands, well, it basically is. We did get out for a few lovely Belgian beers at the latest Gollem to pop up, just down the Overtoom from us. This is a growing chain of Belgian beer/resto's, and they had interestingly taken over a Belgian place I guess. Kitchen is open now, but I have to say the frites didn't look too inspiring.

Failing to communicate

A couple of posts have not made it to the blog. I suppose technical difficulties. Tuesday was a girl's night out, first time out since FH's operation. It was really good to get out and interact with people but because I have been home and going to bed earlier, I found myself yearning for bed quite early. We had pizza at a local place and drinks before and after. Pizza was good but of the thin-crust variety that is not my favorite.

It is strange weather here. Normally we should be about 5-10 degrees colder (that is celcius y'all) by now. But it remains warm enough that I've not donned my winter coat. Nor is it continously raining but only most of the time, also strange for the Netherlands. 

No news is good news I guess, though in some areas more than others. I thought this was particularly good news.

Asking the dangerous questions

I think the most dangerous questions that exist today are the ones that also comprise of a platitude: shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Lately I have been mourning choices made in the past in relation to chosen career and employment opportunities. It's a pointless and even self-defeating game but I can't seem to help myself. Nor would I  want to change anything *really* because all of my random choices led me to Amsterdam and with it FH. I am very happy here.

And yet.  I still wonder if I had not followed my heart and studied art, or had chosen a school with better name recognition, if I would have given myself more choices in the employment aspect of life. It's my current preferred method of torture to daydream about completely different lines of work like law or medicine. It is odd to even consider these things, but I can't help myself. First off, I get queasy at the site of open wounds. I won't even watch medical dramas. And I don't think I ever once in my entire youth contemplated law, so I am not sure how I would have stumbled into that.

Is this just something related to turning 30 I wonder?

Weekend (yaaaawn) roundup

 Weekend round up was that we had a dull weekend. FH is recovering from his throat and while we are moving towards actually being able to eat a whole meal (it hurts to swallow), there is little else in the way of excitement that we had.

Therefore I will share with you something that delighted us many times during our travels throughout China. Especially in airports and planes, but also on a bus once, we were treated to this catchy public service announcement from the Chinese government:

Important Information For You

You might laugh but I think it's an excellent initiative that we might put to use straight away in the US.