Warm thoughts

It was a cold and sunny weekend, but today is cold with little, tiny snow flakes swirling around. These aren't the type of flakes that will stick and give us a white blanket on the land, more like the kind that seem to be thicker in the air than on the ground and only seen in the cracks of the bricks and in little triangles in corners. The cold is still one that gets into my bones and makes it hard for me to get outside and run, something I'm longing to do. However, I just don't have the insulation I need to keep warm for those critical first 5-10 minutes of the run until I work up enough steam to keep myself warm. So I lurk indoors, with blankets and wool clothing and scrunch up my face when I have to go outside.

I'm not complaining, just stating the facts. I really have nothing to complain about, Mike and I are both staying healthy, the cats, for all their advanced age, are still lunatics on a regular basis, we have a fairly snug home, and we also have the certain knowledge that the days are getting longer and summer is on its way. That last gives me great comfort and the extra push I need to get through cold spells. The cold makes summer so worthwhile and makes me at least wring every last ounce of warmth from it. I don't think I have complained about it being too hot in the summer for years, perhaps that's what living in areas with distinct seasons will do. Perhaps it's my metabolism changing as I get older. Whatever. I love heat.

I remember three years ago, we had a really unpleasant spring here. It was cold, rainy, windy, generally disagreeable. I ran into one of our neighbours, a Dutch man, and as is the norm in any conversation when living in the Netherlands, we discussed the weather. My neighbour was complaining about how cold it was and we both agreed that summer would be a welcome change. Sure enough, we had a beautiful summer (our last since that time), and went for 3-4 weeks without rain and some temps into the 90s F (30s C). I just was loving it, soaking it up, when I ran into my neighbour again. Formalities needing to be observed, we said 'hello' then talked weather. He complained about the heat, saying it was "Too hot". I looked at him in amazement, then said, "You better be careful, you'll jinx it!". I walked away from this conversation shaking my head; after all, we know that winter will come here, it's not like we live in a tropical area and the heat might not go away, it's a finite thing. A week or two later, the weather turned and August was cold - in the 60s F (teens C) and raining every day. When I saw him next, I simply gave my neighbour a significant look when he complained about the cold...he laughed and realized he'd been caught out!

My ways of coping involve warm food (tonight we'll have a pasta with ragu sauce that will have simmered most of the afternoon and which gives the house a homey smell), lots of tea, especially just before bed, warm light from candles, good music, cats draped on oneself, and whatever else it takes. After all, this is our life and if we whine about it too much, we will look back and realize we haven't made the most of what we had.

Thank You Stranger

Shortly before Christmas, I opened our mailbox, one of a group next to our building's entry and therefor accessible to anyone walking by, and pulled out a small, blank envelope. Walking up the stairs to our apartment, I lifted the flap and found a €30 gift certificate to the Greek restaurant Olympia, located down the street here in town. That's all there was, no names (our's or anyone else's) and no note. The amount and the valid dates were the only things there. Since Mike's a popular teacher and it's not a big secret where we live, we had to assume that some generous, but shy, family from school wanted to gift him with a treat.

Whatever the reason, we surely appreciated that gift last night as we tucked into our orders. Olympia is a good Greek restaurant and most nights sees it full of patrons. As you are seated, you are also supplied with a shot of Ouzo each and friendly service. We were both more than satisfied with our choices, but I have to say, we both agreed with the waiter, who stated I'd made a "good choice" when I ordered the garlic and honey chicken. Wow, wow, wow, it was delicious, and that's no exaggeration. Mike ordered the grilled lamb and gyros and was happy with his choice also, but didn't say no whenever I'd offer him a bite of mine! I need to stop by and write down the Greek name for my dish, so that I can see if I can find a similar recipe to make at home. If by any chance the kind person who slipped that envelope into our mailbox last month reads this, please know that we truly appreciate it and send you our thanks!

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It's cold again, the temps have been below freezing the past couple of nights and this morning, there is another skin of ice on the canal next to our apartment (the ice that I skated on a couple of weeks ago having completely melted). Our friend Hans told us that he checked the historical data for temperature predictions and that we can expect more cold weather in February. Apparently, when it's been really cold in January, it cycles through again in February. There could be more outdoor skating yet.

However, I am not waiting for that, I have actually committed to going to an ice rink tonight with our friend Todd. Todd's preferred exercise is skating, and so after hearing that I'd braved the canals, he invited me to the rink he skates at in The Hague. My first inclination was to decline, but then I thought about seizing opportunities (the remnants of seeing Yes Man earlier this month) and decided to give it a chance. So tonight, I will cycle down to Todd's house and from there we will hop on the tram and head off to a new experience for me: public ice-skating. My primary hope is that I don't end up prone on the ice and hurting in ways that will prevent me from a) biking home again, b) running, and c) riding Maroz on Friday! Wish me luck.

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On a final note, I'd like to wish my parents, Deb and Jerry Pegg, a very happy 47th anniversary yesterday. We received an email from them where they are wintering in a tent trailer with the dog and cat, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and they sound just great. They did apologize for the 80 degree F (High 20s C) weather they are enjoying and it would seem they are not missing the snow that they would otherwise be shovelling in Idaho!

Food Issues

At the moment, I'm having a hard time typing because I'm listening to a great song, and so am more preoccupied in listening than in typing! Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfp5x1IDm_8&feature=related If it works you should be jamming to the fun sound of Moxy Fruvous and the King of Spain. Enjoy!

Okay, so we've been living here a few years now, so I'd forgotten these two food items that had me a little buffaloed when we first arrived, but as I've made them both this past weekend, I was reminded. Naturally, when we moved to a new country, we expected things to be different; however, I guess a few things seemed so natural and part of life, that it didn't occur to me that I would have to find alternatives. I'm talking about food here.

I have a vivid memory of deciding to treat Mike to some macaroni and cheese for dinner, a classic comfort food and one of his favourite things (he once famously asked that his Birthday Meal be mac and cheese, fried chicken, and pork chops. I denied him this, not only for his own good, but because he was in his late 20s and just should have known better!). So I made my list for the grocery store and headed out to shop. When I arrived at the cheese section, I found the cheddar I needed to make the dish, but was horrified to see that the tiniest piece cost a LOT. I simply could not countenance paying that much for making a simple recipe. So I imagine I must have stood there, looking dumbfounded, confused, and a bit lost for a good half a minute before my brain clicked back on. I blinked, I looked again at the CHEESE SECTION and realized that I now lived in one of the cheese capitals of the world! Duh, why did it have to be cheddar?

I felt a huge lightening of spirit as I cast aside an unspoken 'rule' that mac and cheese must be made with only one kind of cheese and embraced the idea of using something else. It turned out great, and did again on Saturday when I made it last. In fact, I hope I never am faced with only cheddar as my option for making this, it would now be a little weird to have orange cheese, when in fact, it's normally not.

The second time-honoured, Mike-loved food item are Chocolate Chip Cookies. I haven't been making these lately because I know that if I do, I tend to eat too many of them and that's not good for me. However, Mike loves, loves, LOVES CCC and so I decided to make them for him and see how strong I can be on a personal denial level. Now the middle part of this famous recipe is "Chip" and it is possible to buy chocolate chips here, but they are imported from North America and cost a lot (though not as much as cheddar cheese).

So there I was again, sometime during that first year here, standing in front of the chocolate section of the grocery store - yes, there is a Chocolate Section - when the penny dropped and I realized that Dutch Chocolate is arguably the best chocolate in the world, maybe second only to Belgian and they are neighbours! What was I thinking? Honestly. Then it got fun, as I prowled the section, looking for a semi-sweet chocolate chip alternative among so many choices. I end up buying "Extra Bitter Chocolate" which is darker, about 70% cocoa mass, and sooooo good and then I simply get out the butcher knife and chop it up into smallish pieces. Result? Fan-stinkin-tastic!! When you bite into a cookie now, you never know whether you will get a big chunk of delicious chocolate or maybe an even bigger one, and that works for me! Of course, I'm not eating any since they aren't good for me...

This blog finishes with another great song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU1stt0okdM The Clash, Rudie Can't Fail. Enjoy the music and may you also have the opportunity to challenge some established ideas about food in your lives!

Happy Friday

The week has slipped by, although maybe "floated" would by a better verb...it's been a little rainy here. I realize this all times of the day, when I'm having to turn lights on in the apartment as morning progresses because the dark clouds are lowering more and I can't see inside; when I awake in the middle of the night and hear the rain either lashing against the windows or else the continual patter of lots of water being added to the great deal of water that's already on the ground; when I'm on my bicycle and wearing full rain gear and the wind is not only blowing the rain in my eyes, making it difficult to see, but also acting like a large hand pushing against me as I try to get from place to place.

Because, yes, I'm sticking to my commitment and have been biking like a maniac all week. Now I'm wondering what was so bad about getting on the bike when it was simply really cold - at least then I didn' t have to kit up in rain gear and arrive dripping at my destination! Today was ride Maroz day and the ride down was very wet, but I was happy to be going and the reward of Maroz's happy neigh when he sees me always erases any problems I had getting there. Yesterday, I not only thumbed my nose at the weather and went for a run in the morning, but also biked to The Hague on an errand. Mind you, when I returned home, I was so drained I didn't get much else done, but I had the justifiable pride of being weary as a result of honest hard work.

There was no running today as my legs get enough of a workout riding Maroz, but I intend to be out again tomorrow. Mike will probably come with me, he's wanting to participate in a 1/2 marathon in March and needs to work on his conditioning. The cats will almost certainly stay home and look at us groggily when we return, having not moved AT ALL the entire time we're gone. As I've said, the life of a cat is not a bad thing!

We didn't get down for any movies this week, we intended to go last night, but I was tired and also cozy by this point and it was really pouring rain, so we elected to stay home and watch TV instead. We are finishing the final season of the West Wing and so tucked away a couple episodes (we own the series) before my BBC cookery show came on: Masterchef, followed by another BBC 'lifestyle' show called Victorian Farm. The latter has only started in the past month and shows the trials and tribulations of running a farm using only Victorian methods. It's fascinating because the three main characters are living this way for an entire year, right down to the clothes they wear, the lack of electricity, and the serious amount of elbow grease required for the most trivial (for us) of tasks. Interesting stuff and makes me start to question some of the ways I do things. I always appreciate the gentle jostle of something like this allowing me to see from a new perspective and to make decisions as to how I want to continue doing certain tasks. Too bad the show is only on once a week, I could do with more jostling!

I just looked out the window and saw some folks walking by, heads bowed, umbrella braced before them so as not to be blown inside out (a very real concern here) and the bare, brown branches of the trees waving; I'm glad I'm inside!

Unpredictable Weather

I have to confess to something. I have moaned about having to ride our bikes a couple of times in the past couple of weeks when in actual fact, we ended up taking the bus. In the end, the idea of getting all bundled up in bikeable layers was too much for us and we wimped out. However, I have vowed to change back to being a biking fool and starting tonight. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, Wassenaar is not on a convenient bus schedule. After 7:30pm, there are only two buses an hour and they arrive within 5 minutes of one another! This is a bit skewed since we have arrived a minute or two late a couple of times and then we are stuck waiting for nearly an hour for the next bus. Invariably, we have the following discussion: "You know, if we'd ridden our bikes, we'd be home before the next bus even shows up here..." "Yes, I agree, what WERE we thinking?". And then we say that 'next time' we'll be sure to cycle, no matter what. Normally, we are very good about cycling, to the point that all of our expat friends and many of our Dutch friends think we're a bit nuts, so getting back to it shouldn't be a big deal.

The second reason is that I am continually tricked by the weather forecasts. Why do I keep believing them when they are consistently incorrect. We will be getting ready to head out, I'll check the forecast and say, "Oh wow, look how cold/wet/windy/etc. it's going to be tonight, maybe biking is not such a good idea." Naturally, the prediction does the opposite and I end up stewing because I'm stuck at the bus station, yet again, when I could be not only getting exercise but also getting home in a timely manner!

No More! A belated New Year's resolution: Along the lines of Farragut's famous quote: "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!", we will cycle! Ahem...at least that's the intention...

So, tonight, when we join friends to ring in the new president of the U.S. and watch the inaugeration live, Mike and I will be cycling. In fact, I will be leaving fairly soon for that..(and carrying rain gear, just in case!). May I just say, we are so excited by this change in the U.S. government? This is big stuff on so many levels and if this new administration lives up to a fraction of the expectations placed on it, it will still be positive change. Yes He Can, Yes We Can, Yes!

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A final note, I mentioned we were going to see The Visitor last Friday. Great film! It's an independent, so you will get the chance to see actors not in the mainstream, or even brand new on the scene, and they are wonderful. It's a poignant show, with an ending that leaves you wanting to know more, but so very thought-provoking and worth watching. We all walked out feeling quite pensive.

The Life of a Cat

Cats really have it pretty good. At least ours do. While I write blogs about trying to keep warm, they are snug in the house, wrapped up in a personalized fur blanket and even laying on top of the warm radiators! Since they have not been featured in any of my postings yet, I realized they deserved a mention. After all, Chloe (above) and Elliot (orange and fluffy, below) have been with us since August 1994 and are responsible for a great deal of joy in our lives over the years.

Mike and I had been married about 7 weeks when we settled in our first apartment in Fort Collins, Colorado. Pets were a must, and since cats are something I've always had around and are good in apartment-living, we decided that would be the best option. So off we went to the Larimer County Humane Society (http://www.larimerhumane.org) to adopt our new family members. While these two are not litter mates, they have become used to one another over the past 14.5 years and have moved with us (within Colorado, to Idaho, now to the Netherlands), travelled with us (between Colorado and Idaho when we'd go on holidays to see family), and kept us smiling.

Chloe is the proper little Miss and very much only a two-person cat. When we are away and have cat-sitters stopping by, we always wonder how she's going to do with a change in the routine. Typically, we hear that she keeps to herself and doesn't look for attention until we've been away for a week or so and she gets a little desperate for some contact. She's also the one who still chases her tail and generally acts like a lunatic at least once a day. The rest of the time, she's in a wad on the radiator like you see in the top photo or in a sunbeam on the sofa or windowsill. Would it be possible to build me a radiator like hers?

Elliot, on the other hand is the social greeter of our house. When we have people over, he makes sure to meet everyone as they come in the door, rub up against them and generally introduce himself. He's absolutely friendly and gets a lot of comments along the lines of, "Wow! That's a huge cat!", or "He's more like a dog than a cat because he's so friendly". He's definitely a personality and it's probably good he's an indoor-only cat (since we live on the 3rd floor with a secure door downstairs, it's just not possible to let them out. Ringing doorbells might be a little beyond them!), because otherwise he'd get swept up and taken away by some new 'friend'.

Since they're both going to be 15 this May, they have a couple of health issues, but we've been able to keep everything under control with diet and pills. The Dutch really love animals, just about everyone has a dog or cat (or both) and so we are very comfortable with the veterinary care they receive here. I think the hardest part for them moving here was the plane ride, since then, they've been just fine, down to getting the same food they had in Idaho.

As you might be able to see from the photos I took today (all but the 2nd one), it's a rainy day with some pretty good wind gusts. I look at these two and think how pleased we've been over the years with the fact that we rescued them from the shelter when they were just three months old. At this point, I start to feel terrible for all the animals that are outside in awful weather and cold temperatures. I must get some sort of look in my eye at these times...Mike is always warning our friends that if something happens to him, to watch that I don't become a crazy cat lady!

This is a bit of a ramble, but it seemed like it was past time that I introduced our family to any readers who might be interested in knowing more about the "cats" I mention in these posts.

Seeking Warmth

A hot shower, delicious cocoa - with Baileys, thermostat ON, cats nearby, sweaters, what MORE do I have to do to get warm??? I'm even using red font colour in an attempt to impart heat to my chilled self! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, after all, it is mid-January and I live at 52 degrees North, but the thermometer said it was above freezing and there was no wind, so I thought I was safe.

Wrong. I went down to ride Maroz and pretty much as soon as I began pedaling, my sensors told me it was colder than expected. After a few minutes on the bike and then at the stable mucking out the stall, I warmed up, but then I cooled off again once Maroz and I went out for our ramble. I could tell that even a lot of trotting / cantering wasn't going to beat this one off, so I gave him a decent time out of his stall and then we headed back to the stable. By this time, I felt like I was hemorrhaging snot and my poor nose was feeling very put upon and chapped, so I was happy to get back on the bike and warm up again.

I did, a little. The problem was that I was already cold enough that the exercise didn't really kick in and then I was home and still chilled. And here I sit... I wonder if it feels so cold because it's a coastal cold and the damp tricked me and snuck in under all the thermal underwear, turtleneck, wool, and fleece-lined windbreaker I was wearing? Maybe, just maybe, the ONLY cure is a nap! Now that sounds a lot more sensible than bicycling around like an idiot and freezing various bits of myself. Except...I'm not tired.

I think I'm being overly theatrical because I know that in a few hours, Mike and I are getting back on the blasted bikes and cycling to The Hague for a movie (The Visitor) with Kim and Aaron, and I'm not ready to be back outside yet. Yes, we DO see a lot of movies, but there's a good reason. We bought cards last summer that we pay €18 / month for, and can see unlimited movies. That means the card pays for itself in less than 3 movie viewings / month. Perhaps that is more movies than we would normally average on a monthly basis, but when we signed up for the cards, we saw a lot of movies on the horizon that we knew we wanted to see and so made the committment. Now they are a good excuse to get out regularly and see what new nonsense the film industry wants to throw at us. It means that we will see shows that we might not ordinarily want to spend the €€€ on, but now can justify. It's been fun, too, as I've branched out in my movie viewing and been pleased with some of the choices we've seen. Interestingly, two of the movies that spurred the original purchase of the cards, The Mummy III, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, were both so pathetically bad that we were sorry we went! Incidentally, Aaron set up a blog for us to discuss our latest movie viewings: http://postvisualization.wordpress.com/

Well, I have warmed up a skosh, but am planning on retreating under a blanket with a book (The Condé Nast Traveller Book of Unforgettable Journeys - Great Writers on Great Places) and hopefully a cat or two and see if THAT does the trick!