the onions saga continues in, oh, so many forms!

So I'm tracing back an article on energy-trading, speculation and carbon becoming a new category of sub-prime investment -as you do on Saturday morning, I lead a riveting existence- but, while scrolling down trying to look for sources, what do I come across? Well, this: Men smell of cheese and women of onions. Needless to say I immediately click on it (given the prominent place onions seem to be getting on this blog it could make for interesting reading).

The article starts thus: "Little girls may be made of sugar and spice and all things nice, but their armpits smell of onions."

It is official now, when it comes to my onions, I haven't got a bleeding clue. The mighty Internet never ceases to... amaze me? I am logging off and popping out of the house to get the printed papers. Much less disconcerting, methinks!

the calm during the storm

The other side of the general strike in France this week. A deserted station that would have, otherwise, been heaving with activity. This photograph just stroke a chord and stuck with me all day so I decided to keep it here to come and have a peek now and again. (Nothing to do with politics/ideology as that's not what this blog is about, what it actually IS about coming to a screen near you soon.)

Source: NRC Handelsblad online

sweets for my sweets...

A couple of piccies of the biscuits I (me, me, little me!!) made for a friend on her b-day in December! It was my first time ever making biccies but I think she liked them (even though they were far from perfect, I sort of wrecked half of them (of the ones that weren't already too burnt, that is) on the way there on the bike, and I was pretty late for our lunch date! Oh yeah, I also ended up covered in flour, the kitchen looked like a disaster area and I probably hadn't sworn that much in days, and I am pretty consistent at that!) Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.... Okay, not quite your Domestic Goddess yet, Nige, but beware of la ninja!!! :)

A few days later, another December b-day celebration (I hadn't made anyone blow candle(s) on a cake for ages!) with another lovely friend. It was defo a sweet month, this last December!

This is also one (too) sweet post, but hey, I reckon it's the influence of all this food-blogging lark, I blame you all!

knowing one's onions...?

I'm re-visiting the title of a previous post even though, apart from the pungent edible bulbs in question, both posts have pretty little in common.

Right, setting: pub, Friday after work with a few colleagues. A few snacks to go with the drinks were ordered. One of the favoured nibbles was cheese, which generally gets served accompanied by a generous dollop of strong mustard to dip in. This time it also came with a complementary side-kick of pickled onions (or silver uitjes), which are normally bite-size. These were huge!

Please see images depicting fingers of volunteers to demonstrate hugeness of said onion (the photos were taken with my mobile phone and are, therefore, somewhat lacking in quality... but come to think of it, not much worse than some others I've shown here before, actually!).

Later on, a second plate of cheese was ordered and, to the delight and amusement of those present, one of the pickled onions was even bigger than those of the previous batch. The last picture is just me, the technical wiz (not!) discovering silly options of the camera phone.

Moral of the story: Contrary to what I had stated here before, I do not seem to know my onions.

the horror, the horror...

knowing one's onions...

A few years ago, whilst a student living in the UK (ahem, let's re-phrase: many years ago, whilst a student living in the UK), my adorable yet bonkers friend E sent me this on the mail.
It came on a brown leather string (I seem to remember) and it is one of la ninja's old nicknames, born years ago playing around with the letters of yet another previous nickname. Either way, hilarious as it was I don't think I ever wore it or, at least, I never did in public. (Okay, if you are reading, E, just imagine yourself walking around a small Spanish town wearing a necklace reading "CEBOLLAS" hanging from your neck... Nah, it just doesn't work, too much attention-seeking and not necessarily of the right kind!). The hilarity of it all didn't go unnoticed by my flatmates but that's as far as it went, I decided not to share it with the rest of the world.

However, a couple of weeks ago, during the Xmas break I found the loose letters inside a little tin box in my old bedroom at my parents' apartment so I took them with me. I have just strung them (rather rudimentary) through a simple black thread and they are now hanging on the cork board in the hallway. I still know my onions, me!

pepe the builder 4gb version

Can we save it?

Yes, we can!!

just hanging out...

crónica de una muerte anunciada...

Two weeks ago (when I walked out onto the balcony, defying the bloody cold, to test the wind-up enviromentally-friendly torch I'd gotten for Xmas) I saw my daisy plant as pictured and thought: "Oh wow, cool! Ice droplets on the leaves, let's pick up the camera!"

However, a weekend later, as the country froze over and I ventured it out there again (just before leaving for an outdoors ice-skating day - more about that soon), what I found was a much less pretty sight... the daisy had gone into what can only be described as Incredible Hulk Mode.

I'm not sure she's coming back, I think we've lost her forever. I should have seen it coming but hey, I'm obviously not very good at this domesticity lark... la margarita is dead, long live la margarita!! (whoopsie daisy, indeed!)

Note: "Crónica de una muerte anunciada" or "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" as in Gabriel García Márquez's novella.

place it on the map

"Should we meet at the place?"
"Which place, my place?"
"No, not your place, the place!"
"The place? Which place? Your place?"
"No, man, THE Place!!!"
"???"

Guess what Plaats means in Dutch (go on, three guesses)! Lovely name for a... place, really!

Okay, in all fairness (and according to the Van Dale), it can also mean square which, again, is nothing short of genius! Fancy having a square called Square! But... hang on a minute, there IS a square called Square, or Plein, in Dutch!

I just love the simplicity of it all! I honestly do!

wtf???

Right... I know there seems to be a credit crisis going on, I know the pound's plummeting, I know I live abroad (in the Eurozone), that much I know. But, seriously, people (and I'm naming no names here, L and A), please stick enough bloody stamps on your Xmas cards!!!
Credit crunch, credit smunch!

Note: All characters depicted in this post are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Not.

priceless...

Lost in translation: road sign carries email reply

A council put up a Welsh language road sign reading "I am out of the office at the moment" when it should have said "No entry for heavy goods vehicles".

Swansea council contacted its in-house translation service when designing the bilingual sign. The seeds of confusion were sown when officials received an automated email response in Welsh from an absent translator, saying: "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."
Unaware of its real meaning, officials had it printed on the sign. The council took down the sign after Welsh speakers spotted the mistake.
Source: Ben Quinn, The Guardian, 1st November 2008 - Photograph: PA

Oh yeah, and this one's pretty precious too!

a couple of random film notes...

How great is this vid?

It was a tip from boy. The maker's a young (and needless to say) talented young Dutch artist.



Sideways and Happy Go Lucky, two films I love, love, love and I've watched again this w-end (was rainy and 'orrible outside so hey!)

"easy cake" for a pro!

Here's a little summat I got a friend yesterday at a supermarket in Chinatown!

She's really into her cake-baking (and when I write "into it" I mean INTO IT big time: staying up all hours baking, making everything from scratch, combing the city to find real lard, that sort of affair...) so I'm sure she's going to love it, raaaaaaaaaaaa!

She really appreciated this (a link boy shared, check out the videos) so I can't wait to experience first hand (the tasting bit I'm not so sure about) the end result of this "nouvelle cuisine" experiment!

(On another note, let's see whether I can manage to both write a non-food+drink post next plus (in)formally introduce the blog -when I find out how this all actually works! :)

dreaming of the summer...

...in the heart of winter! Oh well, just a bit to go!

But back to reality in full winter mood...

...the first breakfast of the year, left-overs from the night before, the way it's often done round these parts! ("oliebollen" or "krentenbollen" are deep-fried doughy balls, with or without raisins, usually consumed together with bubbly at the strike of midnight on NYE).

Feliz Año Nuevo, by the way!