BookSeat

Here is one of my Christmas presents 'in action'.























And here's a 'naked' pic for those who have no idea what they're supposed to be seeing in the first photo. It's an ingenious system to allow you to read 'hands free'.

Chocolate Poisoning

Luckily Sil didn't have too many ill effects from the chocolate she pilfered on Boxing Day though I had a few worried moments when I looked up the symptoms. She'd scoffed most of the decorative Christmas chocolate log which I'd (stupidly) left being decorative in the empty fire grate in its cellophane wrapping. She was extremely hyper and barking at any distant noise of fireworks for most of the day but I'm not sure if this was all due to the chocolate poisoning or if she just gets nervous about explosions anyway. Good job it wasn't dark chocolate or she might not have got off so lightly. See this article for some of the details of what quantities of chocolate can prove fatal for canines. (Although I do find the measurements a bit confusing.) I'm really just putting this blogpost in to warn those who might not realise that chocolate is poisonous for dogs. Though there's no reason to get hysterical over small amounts it can definitely be dangerous and often even fatal in larger doses.

Sprouts and Paper Hats

Even when I have access to a double oven I still seem to prefer the gizinty method of one pot cooking...

Tidying Up Books, Hanging Up Maps

After last week´s blog with this photo I realised that the piles of incoming books were starting to get to a dangerous height so I decided to take some safety precautions to prevent a possible yuletide avalanche.

The box on the floor full of not-yet-read hardbacks has been moved to a newly freed space on the bedroom window ledge.























This book of ReadAndToBeKept books has been culled from the random chaos of The Growing Pile.










While I was in tidying mode I hung the map of Marrocco on the living room door.

By lucky chance the part of Marrakesh where my hotel is for the marathon is visible on the other side of the door through the window.

Traffic Jam

Along with most of the rest of the country today I spent some time in a snowy traffic jam.

All Wrapped Up

Call of the Wild

Joep was very concerned about the fate of the dogs on the film tonight.




















I hope he doesn't have nightmares...

Buchmania

Rianne and I went along to this today, on the top floor of the wonderful public library in Amsterdam. (Why have I never been here before?) Organised by a club of Boudewijn Büch enthusiasts.

Nop Maas read from the as yet unpublished 3rd part of his biography of Reve; the bit about an extremely controversial interview he gave to Boudewijn Büch. Later the 'surprise speaker' was indeed Theodor Holman. I'd spotted him earlier, first mistaking him for a possibly autistic bookseller who refused to make eye contact when I did my usual friendly nod to the person behind the booktable. It was only when I saw the pile of Theodor Holman books that I realised that the well-filled face beneath the explosion of white hair was in fact his. Snotty git - if he hadn't been so obviously unkeen to make any contact with the hoi polloi he might have sold more of his books. Though to be fair, he did make an excellent job of reading his monologue on the subject of what possibly went through Büch's head when he was acting out the death scene of his invented son.

He certainly made me feel like re-reading De Kleine Blonde Dood, which I can only remember as being a beautiful short novel about his relationship with his father. (Vague, vague, I can't really remember why I liked it so much, just that it was definitely beautifully written.)

Anyway, enjoyable afternoon. Excellent location. I'll certainly be going back there. In fact there's a Reve day next week... ach maybe not, but I'll certainly be going to have a look at the Reve museum on the second floor next time I'm in town.

Party Pasta

Ground Control...

Installing the new touchscreen involved a fair bit of despair but in the end it all seems to work as it should and I even installed a new and scary sounding Mozilla Thunderbird programme to deal with my old email address.

Sinterklaas

While we were out in the snow with Minnie, Sinterklaas had delivered a big pile of parcels...

Lionel Shriver in Amsterdam

Maaike and I had tickets for a reading organised by the John Adams Institute in Amsteram. Since I read her brilliant "We Need to Talk about Kevin" I've been A Fan of this writer so I was glad of the opportunity to see what sort of person was behind the books. She's very, um, driven. Very annoyed about a lot of things. Which, I suspect, if I had been unlucky enough to be born in a very rich and powerful country which can't even be bothered to arrange adequate (adequate? what about ANY?!) healthcare for the majority of its citizens, I would be too. She has a very fierce sort of lasersharp intelligence - she is in fact, exActly as you'd expect her to be from reading her.

Slow Cooking

After yesterday's slow run I had a day sawing wood for the stove on the boat and making a big cast iron pot of food. Inspired by Chanou's blog I made some photos of the cooking process.
I don't 'do' recipes but here's a vague description of how it was put together. Stuff chicken with a mixture of bread, mushrooms, wine, Indonesian boemboe and some peanut and coconut mix stuff that was in the cupboard. (Mix together till mushy.) Wrestle stringy bit over back legs again to keep the filling in. Roast chicken in olive oil in the pan till it's browned more or less all round. Chuck in some more wine so that there's a layer of liquid on the bottom of the pan. Find the right way to balance pan on stove so that it's simmering rather than boiling furiously. (This involves bits or wire meshing and metal, you may well have a simpler method involving some sort of a temperature dial.)

Go away and saw some more wood/read book. Open lid and peer at miraculously cooking chicken occasionally. Turn once or twice if you feel the need to dO something. Add sliced potatoes round the edges. Stare at flames for a while. Read some more. Add chunks of courgettes and smear the rest of the stuffing that didn't fit inside chicken over the top.









Go away for a run to investigate beaver building progress. Add mushrooms. Look for big enough plate to put chicken on. Discover that no such thing is to be found on the boat. Add wee tomatoes. Prise bits of tender free-range, maize-fed chicken off the bones. Listen to enthusiastic noises. (Get home, make blog, wonder why some photos are turned to 90 degrees but not be able to get bothered enough about it to change it...)

My First Bento

I've always admired the bento boxes one of the boekgrrls regularly makes up. On Saturday she returned a book I'd lent her and she'd made me a bento of my very own.


I've just been to her blog and found a post describing exactly what was in this bento. The spicy nuts were wonderful, well, it all was really. I ate it in the bath I had after my 3 and a half hour run in the rain yesterday. Luxury.

Joep the Sniffer Dog

Joep was very interested in one corner of the big grey cover that I put over the couch for him. When Sproet was here it was folded up and under my desk for him to lie on and obviously still had his scent on it. After he'd had a thorough inspection of it he seemed satisfied that his predecessor was no threat and settled down for a snooze.

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