Saturday, December 24, 2011

The dinner

I had invited Marjolein, Nantko and Gerrit over for dinner tonight. The only thing missing still were most ingredients and a steaming pan. So first things first, I went out to get me a steaming pan. The morning had been quite nice so far but as soon as i stepped outside it started pissing down...

Finally just after noon I had everything I needed and i started working. I started with 2 mini caramel-chocolate tarts.

The rest of the day I spent on an awesome fennel-tomato soup. In the evening I also made roast potatoes, steamed veggies and steaks.

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Nantko, Gerrit and Marjolein, each with their steak.

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My dinner. The steaks were 12 euro's each and I didn't have a good track record when it came to baking steaks. This one however was very nice!

The dinner was lovely and the company great. Afterwards we went to the pub.

The fantastic elastics were playing. They were fantastic indeed.

This was a very well spent day!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Visiting Antwerp

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Marjolein and I took a little day trip to Antwerp today. The station is old and beautiful.

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Station's roof.

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Looking down. The station has 3 or 4 floors!

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There were trees with pressies in 'm.

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The main shopping street with all the expensive shops.

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There was a guy playing a piano.

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And an old man playing an accordeon.

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Also there were pretty things on street corners.

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And a hand...

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And there was a pretty Marjoleintje as well :-)

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The "Onze lieve vrouwe" cathedral.

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This HAS TO BE the most photographed row of houses in Antwerp; At "de grote markt". It's fantastic.

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A small castle on the banks of the river "Schelde".

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The train back got cancelled. Actually both the train there as well as the train back were cancelled. Getting there and going back was all a bit disastrous.

It was nice to see some buildings in town but I have to say that I will not visit Antwerp again in the next 10 years I think. Mostly the city is grey and dull, like many big Belgian cities...

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The candles

Some people like Christmas just a tiny bit too much, don't you think?

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I bought some proper candles of my own tonight.

I received 2 more Christmas cards today! One from Australia and one from Marjolein :-)

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Scrooge

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Candle at Marjolein's place. We had dinner before going to the theatre!

For the first time EVER I was going to see a professional production. And snce it's close to Christmas we went to see "Scrooge".

The Haarlem city theatre.

Star of the show was Erik van Muiswinkel.

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A small choir was singing carols. They moved around the place a bit which was fun.

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Marjolein at the old stairs. It looks like she's posing for a photo in a magazine.

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The staircase looks awesome.

Until the play started 2 girls were playing carols on the violin.

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Scrooge visited by the first ghost.

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The play was wonderful. Funny and touching. The decor was very warm and Christmassy and the costumes looked great. I had a great night!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A tree in a box

My Christmas tree finally arrived. A bit late though so didn't have a lot of time to decorate it.

Monday, December 19, 2011

The Köf II

It was very cold this morning and very slippery too! Puddles were freezing over...

Lunch was yummy :-)

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My office through the reception window which is now covered in fake snow ;-)

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I got two tiny model trains again today. There is something wrong with this model, don't know exactly what yet. We'll see once I put it on connected rails sometime in the future. It's a lovely little model of a Köf II though.

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This is the real model. The photo is taken in Switzerland. There's a webpage with technical details of this particular one that's been saved by a group of people who restore old trains.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

The cloud

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Dove on Marjolein's balcony.

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The orchid my mom gave Marjolein.

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Cloud action.

And then it started to hail.

The streets turned white.

On my way home I noticed past Nic's shop. She was in so I stopped for a chat but then ended up finishing all the paint work ;-)