in da house!

Yes true believers! we are now back in amsterdam from our househunting trip to antwerp, and have confirmed an apartment in the city..

unfortunately no pics to share just yet [because we had a frantic 5 days running around seeing as much as we coul] but we are heading back on wednesday to sign the papers - so will take some pics to give you a slice of our life in belgium..

we had a good time exploring the city, and navigating the different bits of our soon-to-be neighbourhood..and are raring to go!

ok, more in a couple of days time..

-k and j

K - the first time i have seen snow in my life!

Dear everyone,

I saw snow for the first time today! i stepped out onto the kalverstraat [jos was meeting up with friends, so i was just re-re-re exploring -- i.e. getting lost, in the city] and suddenly there was snow!

i just couldn't stop smiling [for the first 10 mins, after that, i had to stop smiling because my teeth were cold...

glorious feather-light bits of ice swaying in the breeze, freezing my nose, neck and fingers - but snow nonetheless...obviously the pictures don't do the snow any justice - that and its not some jaw dropping landscape with mountains and hobbits and mystic rings, but it's my first snow experience!
this is just in front of the dam, where all the mime/ stand up people have miraculously disappeared because of the cold...


and this is a bit of street art on one of the small streets off the main kalverstraat - note the snow speckled umbrella of the dude on the right....see, i never bluff you one...


and just to show how goofy the weather is, here is a pic from about 5pm - sunny sunny sunshine on the pedestrian crossing sign...

what a great way to have a good friday! btw; the easter weekend here is serious stuff..they even get an extra day off on monday, as easter second day....which means their super long weekend stretches from friday through to monday!

amazing! [pls remember most things are already closed on the weekend]

p.s. i made assam fish curry for dinner tonight [no pic posted because it looked not very stylish] but man, it really hit the spot after today!!

some things in amsterdam

here are some nonsense pics for you hip cats out there:


1) of all the names for toilet paper....

2) these are my new stylin' in house footwear! it gets to about 4-6 degrees C at night...so the socks in the house haven't really been cutting it...they're called cloggies and come in red or white was well....but i thought better to stick with traditional-kicks ya?

3) Josefine arranging some ranaculus we bought for the house....its amazing how nice the flowers are here...

chocoholics of the world unite!

So this is the post i was warning you guys about.. please make sure you are sitting down when you read this...and maybe have a large bowl-like device handy....because there are some drool-some pics just below:-

so the story is that we were walking along the barri gotic just jalan-ing and looking at the random cool things everywhere in Barcelona [you will not believe the number of pictures of alleyways and near-pointless ephemera i have pictures of], and we decided to have a pre lunch coffee/snack around noon-ish (this is because lunch is typically 1-3pm .....and dinner is from 8pm onwards)

and we though the unassuming little flourescent-lit cafe with the easy going vibe was something ordinary...and it turned out to be super-duper-i-can't-believe-it's-chocolate-holy-shucks-wha-lup-babeh-loobah-wah-lup-pap pap!


Here you see my fellow chocoholic-in-crime, with [clockwise from the left]: Churros, a cup of hot chocolate and my coffee..

More importantly [and stupendously], the chocolate was super thick, and had a hint of orange/ floral accents.....it was like having really good cognac where there are accents of flavour as you taste it!

and this picture clearly illustrates how yummy yummy it was! [sorry for the slightly blur pics; i couldn't wait for my turn to have some lah]...so you dip your churro [deep fried you-tiao like thing] and it is PURE HEAVEN!!!

last but not least....[ok, so this should have been the first pic in the post - but in all honesty, we were so blase about going into this shop, we didn't even see this display facing the tiny lane this hot chocolate shop was in]...they even do creme catalan, flan, hot chocolate with thick whipped cream and brioche!!!!

sugar overload!!

gluggy gluggy super yummy!

barcelona ole ola cafe con leche!

So we're back now from barcelona, and here are some pics we took on our 5 days there - as a bonus, Jos will be helping me with some of the weird/wonderful things that we found there:

J: Because our last day in Barcelona happened to be palm sunday, we were lucky enough to see a procession of spanish catholic people carrying some sort of woven palm sculptures as well as Jesus on a donkey.

J: It looks like squid.. It tastes like garlic... What can it be?
K: this was one of my favourite lunches actually...the sotong and sardines[in the background] were grilled to perfection....super shiok stuff!



J: The weather was really good, but it was getting a bit cold here... This is in front of the Catalan museum and part of the musical fountain. The fountain was more of a real fountain than the old Sentosa musical fountain, but it didn't have any laser animation things.
K: Brrrr.....




J: Things are better when you're wearing a scarf!

K: and this is the view of Barcelona City from one of the hills, Montjuic, where they also had a Joan Miro museum, the National Museum of Catalunya (with a dizzying collection of artifacts and religious artworks) and a fort where they housed a military museum... the air was really nice up there and gave us an excellent vantage point of the city

K: this is in the Eixample area of town where the Modernista buildings by Gaudi are - the lamp is an actual working street lamp - and is one of about 40 lining the main boulevard...nice

K: and this is the roof terrace of our apartment where we stayed for the 5 days; the weather was mild with excellent sun on 4 of the days - so we had the luxury of breakfast on the roof with local yummy things like strawberries, fresh bread, cheese and assorted things to nibble on!

so yeah...we did remember to look at a house called batlo

eat some yummy seafood extravaganza in a pan

(and even a seafood meegoreng called Fideuà )

and even, get lost in the maze of streets known as the Barri Gotic where Jos got some toe socks and I found Spanish design and street art everywhere!!!

it was an awesome, inspiring and yummy-eatin' holiday!

[i'll be posting other pics in the coming days...and a story of how hot chocolate is super yummy!]

pictures galore!! - C

and here are some random pics of our adventures!

the first is down an old street in the city - there's this tiny shop in the corner which sells antique collectables and genuine vintage...quite cool

the second is a pic of some tulips we were bringing to Jos'grandmother in Wageningen - approx an hour out from Amsterdam...the colour is amazing, no? i have never seen tulips last so long out of the chiller at the florist's.....well that being said, they leave the flowers out in the open because the weather is cold enough

and the third pic is of Jos along a walking path on our way back to the train station from Wageningen..

pictures galore!! - B

here you have jos and I from yesterday's walkabout in the city centre - I have the Dam behind me, where there is the the royal palace AND we found out later, bring-your-dalmation-and-maybe-even-dress-up-your-kid-as-one day....

Jos is in front of a canal, and there sure are a lot of them in Amsterdam

and yes, it is as cold as it looks....its been consistently 6-8 degrees everyday..

pictures galore!! - A

here are 2 pics of the gezelligheid that was absolutely present at the dinner table! warm lighting, conversations abound, wine, makan...it was all there! it was hard to take good pictures because of the lighting though...so lots of action in the pics..

big family dinner!

makan makan makan!

So Jos' dad organised this shindig at this restaurant 5 doors away from his place to celebrate our return to the land of cold and woollen sweaters; and it was a big-bang-chit-chat-gezelligheid event!!

I got to meet the super tall aunts and uncles and cousins and even nephews and nieces, and we lounged around the house till about 7, and then proceeded to the eetcafe Hooghooudt for the [approx] 5 hour dinner!

We had the resident gypsy band violin-ing through the evening, with some yum yum wines and makan to help with the conversation as well...and the awesome thing was that we got to switch our seats about half way into dinner, so we could circulate and meet even more family members!

having met the neurosurgeons, lawyers and dermatologists in the family, [and more glasses of wine], Jos' dad made the big announcement of presenting Jos with the garnet necklace which we had gone shopping for the day before as a wedding present to her [and me, because i get to see my uber cool wife in some seriously cool bling!]

so the evening was a big big success! got to meet the extended family, got to have nice chats with some of the 20+ relatives gathered, had a good night of makan and music - it was a really big night out for us, and we were glad to have been a part of the festivities!

...in other news, jos and i were down in chinatown stocking up on some supplies for the coming weeks, and guess what? you can't find sambal bleachan in this part of the world; there are indonesian equivalents in the asian shops, but no yeo's or prima versions of the salty/smelly/spicy stuff! looks like might have to experiment a bit in the kitchen...

AND AND, the grass jelly drink by yeo's , is still using the can design from the 90s....AND is made in CHINA!!! woah! steady lah yeo's....making big money now lah...

oh, and one other thing......its co-o-o-o-o-o-o-old....i'm now up to 4 layers, and gloves and sometimes a scarf...and its 8 degrees + all day, and about 5 degrees at night...but it DOES make for a great time nursing a cup of coffee/ hot chocolate and some light reading...

right - am off to wageningen to visit jos'grandma, and perhaps even an adventure in the land where only the kuiferstraat [amsterdams's equivalent of orchard road] is open on a sunday - can relax on the hour and a half train ride and take in the scenery..

p.s. will post pics soon...i am being lazy...

its eight degrees at eight in the morning!

wowza! after the 13 hour flight, we made it to heathrow and stepping out onto the tarmac at 8am at 8degrees was a big wake up call!

and we made it to Schipol on time, but guess what? our luggage was still in Heathrow, finding its way to us.. so sometime in the next day or two, our barang barang should be returned to us..

so today, we managed to amble around the neighbourhood - to see how much/ little had changed [a ''subway'' (the one with the sandwiches and chipotle dressing) popped up in the middle of one street VS the dulcet tones of reggae still being piped through the enamel-ware and rasta-ephemera shop]. saw the classic frites stall and smelt the stroopwafels, as well as had a glimpse of spring colours at the flower shops...

yes yes, this all doesn't quite make sense when there aren't any pictures, but i assure you, we will post some pics once we get a hold of our time differences/ jet lag

ooh....and one last thing before i end [i am actually a bit tired by now - i am re-re-re thinking my words as i type them -

it's pretty amazing to be in such a cold cold country! winter fashions abound! no need to stuff everthing in the fridge! fruit stays in an actual fruit basket! [and if we're lucky, maybe snow!! (turns out we missed a light snow about 2 days back) - still keeping my eyes peeled for my first ever - once in a life time chance to see/touch snow]

catcha later mates

K (and J - who is now a bit cold)