Yesterday I finally went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I read the novel (in Dutch) when I was around 12 and re-read it again a couple of months ago (in English) and loved it both times. The second reading was done with the upcoming film in mind, already thinking about what they would leave out, and change, and how much I would hate them for it. Turns out, they didn't leave anything out. Even more, they added stuff.
Now I won't write a review of the film here, as I think everybody who is remotely interested will have seen it (or go to see it) and form an opinion on their own, and those who are not interested won't be interested in my opinion one way or another (I have a colleague who openly admits to "never having gotten through the first Lord of the Rings movie" and "not liking Harry Potter all that much either"). I want to talk about films based on books.
There seem to be a lot of those around lately. The Hobbit being the main example, but the glorious, lovely, you-should-read-this-if-you-only-read-one-other-book-in-your-whole-life Life of Pi has also been put to film ("that would be the LAST film I'd ever watch", my non-fantasy reading/watching colleague said), and then there is Cloud Atlas, considered equally unfilmable but still to be found in a cinema near you (I'm currently reading the novel) and of course Anna Karenina (why oh why Keira Knightley insists upon working with Joe Wright and only Joe Wright is beyond me). Not sure why we're getting so many book-based films, maybe the studios are getting a bit anxious where they put their money, so they're only betting on stories that have already sold themselves? The Dutch film industry appears to be focusing on 'deciding moments in Dutch history' (with the Willem Barentz' journey to Nova Zembla, the 1953 storm, and now the bombardment of Rotterdam) or sappy love stories all revolving around one of the few internationally famous actresses we have, and otherwise there are a lot of action movies (James Bond (technically also book-based), and Tom Cruise appears to be doing some running around again), and strangely enough very few thrillers or comedies around. Not sure if this is always the case around Christmas, must be, as we're all longing for nice fantasy (that includes romantic) stories that end well, or high-action movies that end well (don't they all).
Anyway, with book-based films, you can mess it up so badly I'm surprised at how many good examples there are. Firstly, you can stick too close to the book. The first Harry Potter movies did this, and they sadly collapsed under their own weight. Then you can get too far away from the book, changing important plot elements or characters and just making it too weird. Like the Lord of the Rings film that had the eagles fly Frodo to Mount Doom and just drop the ring in. Kind of missing the story. Then you can 'interpret' the novel in a new way, which might shed a new light on the story but usually leaves your viewer quite baffled, like the Joe Wright Anna Karenina version set entirely in a theatre (I haven't seen it, I don't intend to, but I've heard enough about it).
Somehow, you need to keep the essence of the story, the characters, the atmosphere, and then make it work in another medium. I think Atonement is a good example, as they changed some important bits (the whole final part of the novel has been changed from a first-person narrator description to a television interview) but still staid true to the story. And then they added some bits, like the colours that show each character's personality, and the beautiful soundtrack, which makes the story work even better. And you can still go back to the novel, and read that and enjoy that, and it can exist side by side with the film without either one being better; they're just two different interpretations of the same story. I think Peter Jackson did the same with his Lord of the Rings films, and again with The Hobbit. The main issue here is that the viewers have already seen what comes next, so the creeping shadows and darkness that you can't read in The Hobbit (which is, after all, a children's book) have to be superimposed upon the story. But the humour is kept, and the characters are the same, and the story too, roughly, it just all plays out on a bigger canvas. And you can still go back and read The Hobbit and marvel on the bits that Tolkien stretched out over pages and pages while they don't really matter and find that the main climactic battle is over in a couple of pages and still enjoy and love it in it's own right, and then watch the movie and see the whole visual interpretation of it without either one 'spoiling' the other.
I'm so very much hoping that they did the same with Life of Pi, which is a very philosophical novel with an essence that is hard to find, and a story that might not work so well visually, as it takes place mostly inside the head of the main character. But still, I think it can be done. And the reviews are good, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Only once have I encountered a film that I thought was better than the novel, and in that case I'd watched the film first and read the novel later. It was a Dutch film, Phileine zegt sorry, based on the novel by Ronald Giphart. In the film, several separate characters from the novel were combined, several disjointed events were connected and relocated, and the many separate climax scenes were also combined, making the 'life lesson' that the main character goes through much more distinct. Sadly, the book was just a big boring drag after watching the film. Not sure if I would have liked the novel better if I'd read it before watching the movie, but just to be sure, I'm now sticking to 'source material first'. Which is why I'm reading Cloud Atlas at the moment, so I can watch the film with what it's based on in the back of my mind. A bit of a puritan approach, but hey, book-based films just are in a place of their own.
Friday 21 December 2012
Wednesday 12 December 2012
Book endings
I've recently read two of the 'hot' novels of our time; The Casual Vacancy by J.K.Rowling and Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan (if you are now wondering where I find the time to read such huge novels; so am I). I loved both novels, but found problems with both endings.
With The Casual Vacancy (as with the Harry Potter novels), I was immediately immersed in the story (although I had to flip back and forth to remember who everyone was several times), and it kept me riveted towards the end. With Sweet Tooth, it took me a while to get into the story (it also took the story a while to get moving), but once I got into it, about halfway through the book, it swept me along. For both novels, this is partly because you expect them to end badly, and you can't help but want to know whether it does. The Casual Vacancy just contains so many destructive people, who hate both themselves and each other, and are willing to do anything to get their own ideas pushed through. For McEwan's novel, well, he's McEwan. Most of his novels end badly, or in some huge revelation you never saw coming.
Sadly, with both novels, the ending disappointed me.
I won't give anything away, but in The Casual Vacancy, the focus is on a large group of main characters and some secondary characters, and the ending of the novel consists of the musings of one of these side characters, which then throws another light on one of the main characters. It is nicely written, but not the climax you are looking for. It just shows that you as reader were right all along; that main character was more likable than any other character in the novel realised. But no other character (apart from said side character) realises this, so there is no real growth or process or catharsis, and you end up on a low instead of a high.
In Sweet Tooth, as I was reading the ending, I got the feeling that this novel would turn out to be some Inception-like loop, which would give a whole new perspective on the novel, and novel writing, and make you wonder if what you'd read was actually real, or a story, or a story about something real, or something that never happened and actually could not exist. But then, in the final two pages, this was blown away by some simple references, and it turned out that McEwan had pulled the same trick as he did in Atonement (but slightly different, of course).
This made me sad. It made me sad because it means that he really will never write something as good as Atonement and Saturday ever again (Solar was the absolute low point, followed by Sweet Tooth) and it made me sad that he (and his editor) did not see this metaphysical loop-like possibility of finishing. He wanted to write an account of the 70s, his experience of the 70s, and that is what he did, so he could not pull it out into something that might or might not be real.
His writing is still great, I love his style and the way his words flow and the way he describes a scene and a character and the small details that make everything real, and he will remain my favourite author for quite some time to come, I think, but still, it is sad to see someone past his high point. But everything has to end some time.
With The Casual Vacancy (as with the Harry Potter novels), I was immediately immersed in the story (although I had to flip back and forth to remember who everyone was several times), and it kept me riveted towards the end. With Sweet Tooth, it took me a while to get into the story (it also took the story a while to get moving), but once I got into it, about halfway through the book, it swept me along. For both novels, this is partly because you expect them to end badly, and you can't help but want to know whether it does. The Casual Vacancy just contains so many destructive people, who hate both themselves and each other, and are willing to do anything to get their own ideas pushed through. For McEwan's novel, well, he's McEwan. Most of his novels end badly, or in some huge revelation you never saw coming.
Sadly, with both novels, the ending disappointed me.
I won't give anything away, but in The Casual Vacancy, the focus is on a large group of main characters and some secondary characters, and the ending of the novel consists of the musings of one of these side characters, which then throws another light on one of the main characters. It is nicely written, but not the climax you are looking for. It just shows that you as reader were right all along; that main character was more likable than any other character in the novel realised. But no other character (apart from said side character) realises this, so there is no real growth or process or catharsis, and you end up on a low instead of a high.
In Sweet Tooth, as I was reading the ending, I got the feeling that this novel would turn out to be some Inception-like loop, which would give a whole new perspective on the novel, and novel writing, and make you wonder if what you'd read was actually real, or a story, or a story about something real, or something that never happened and actually could not exist. But then, in the final two pages, this was blown away by some simple references, and it turned out that McEwan had pulled the same trick as he did in Atonement (but slightly different, of course).
This made me sad. It made me sad because it means that he really will never write something as good as Atonement and Saturday ever again (Solar was the absolute low point, followed by Sweet Tooth) and it made me sad that he (and his editor) did not see this metaphysical loop-like possibility of finishing. He wanted to write an account of the 70s, his experience of the 70s, and that is what he did, so he could not pull it out into something that might or might not be real.
His writing is still great, I love his style and the way his words flow and the way he describes a scene and a character and the small details that make everything real, and he will remain my favourite author for quite some time to come, I think, but still, it is sad to see someone past his high point. But everything has to end some time.
Monday 10 December 2012
Pushing papers around
So this internship I'm taking is about preparing for the working life that comes after university, more particularly, the working life in a publishing company. But interestingly, most things I'm learning have nothing to do with the work itself, but more with the things happening around it, such as 'going to lunch with colleagues', 'having a meeting with people from different backgrounds' and 'interacting with people on cold, stormy Saturday mornings when everybody wants to be in bed but they have to be at some stupid conference they don't want to be at'.
Another thing I'm starting to learn about: office bureaucracy. Today was a case in point, one that drove me almost mad. Now I'm not going to give you any names or specifics, but it's handy to know that the company I intern for is a publisher of educational books, and that they have a lot of their materials online.
Now some time in September, my supervisor got an email from a teacher saying that there were mistakes in one of the answer sheets in the online database, and that she was annoyed by this. She mentioned one specific case, and then said something about 'grammar assignments in the upper levels' also containing mistakes. I removed the mistake from the mentioned exercise and my supervisor emailed back asking the teacher whether she could be a bit more specific about where the other mistakes were. The teacher replied grumpily that she was not planning on telling us.
So about a month after the first email, my supervisor asked me if I could check all (that's right, all) answers for the higher level questions, to see if there were any mistakes. I did this, and emailed her with the mistakes. Then about 2 weeks later she emailed me asking whether I could correct these mistakes. I had thought some specialised author was going to do this, but it turned out I could just do it myself. So I did.
However, there was one question where there was no answer at all, it was simply missing from the answer sheet. I marked this question and send everything back to her, saying that I could not correct this question as I did not know the original author's intentions. She got back to me this morning, saying that the author in question is no longer working for the company (the questions were made in 2007), so I should just do the best I could. So I did, and finally, this afternoon, I was able to email the completely corrected files to IT to be uploaded. A full 3 months after the initial email from the teacher.
I got an immediate reply from our regular IT editor that I should contact another editor, as this was not her area of work. Okay, I thought, just one more email and then I'm done. I resend the email to the second editor, crossed my fingers, and got an immediate reply. Success! I thought. But no, it was an out-of-office reply, stating that the editor would be on holiday until the 2nd of January...
Taking into account the multitude of email this person is going to have after an month's absence, I should be happy if the files are uploaded before my internship finishes. That will be a full 4 months after the teacher initially send her email. All the work I've done on the project could be condensed to about 6 hours. So all the rest of it, the emailing, the waiting, the misunderstandings, the miss-sending, all of that took up the rest of the 4 months.
I'm now starting to see how it is that in such huuuuge companies, stuff always takes longer than you expect. It also makes me less grumpy at our mortgage guy, who delayed our mortgage by 10 days. 10 days is peanuts, I now know, it could easily have been 4 months!
Another thing I'm starting to learn about: office bureaucracy. Today was a case in point, one that drove me almost mad. Now I'm not going to give you any names or specifics, but it's handy to know that the company I intern for is a publisher of educational books, and that they have a lot of their materials online.
Now some time in September, my supervisor got an email from a teacher saying that there were mistakes in one of the answer sheets in the online database, and that she was annoyed by this. She mentioned one specific case, and then said something about 'grammar assignments in the upper levels' also containing mistakes. I removed the mistake from the mentioned exercise and my supervisor emailed back asking the teacher whether she could be a bit more specific about where the other mistakes were. The teacher replied grumpily that she was not planning on telling us.
So about a month after the first email, my supervisor asked me if I could check all (that's right, all) answers for the higher level questions, to see if there were any mistakes. I did this, and emailed her with the mistakes. Then about 2 weeks later she emailed me asking whether I could correct these mistakes. I had thought some specialised author was going to do this, but it turned out I could just do it myself. So I did.
However, there was one question where there was no answer at all, it was simply missing from the answer sheet. I marked this question and send everything back to her, saying that I could not correct this question as I did not know the original author's intentions. She got back to me this morning, saying that the author in question is no longer working for the company (the questions were made in 2007), so I should just do the best I could. So I did, and finally, this afternoon, I was able to email the completely corrected files to IT to be uploaded. A full 3 months after the initial email from the teacher.
I got an immediate reply from our regular IT editor that I should contact another editor, as this was not her area of work. Okay, I thought, just one more email and then I'm done. I resend the email to the second editor, crossed my fingers, and got an immediate reply. Success! I thought. But no, it was an out-of-office reply, stating that the editor would be on holiday until the 2nd of January...
Taking into account the multitude of email this person is going to have after an month's absence, I should be happy if the files are uploaded before my internship finishes. That will be a full 4 months after the teacher initially send her email. All the work I've done on the project could be condensed to about 6 hours. So all the rest of it, the emailing, the waiting, the misunderstandings, the miss-sending, all of that took up the rest of the 4 months.
I'm now starting to see how it is that in such huuuuge companies, stuff always takes longer than you expect. It also makes me less grumpy at our mortgage guy, who delayed our mortgage by 10 days. 10 days is peanuts, I now know, it could easily have been 4 months!
Wednesday 5 December 2012
Facing the difficulties
Today, the 5th of December, is usually a day of joy in The Netherlands. It's Sinterklaas, meaning presents, poems, sweets, chocolate, and family time. As there are no small children 'believing' in Sinterklaas in my family anymore we celebrated it last Friday, but many of my internship colleagues are leaving early, and there was a Sinterklaas walking around the building handing out pepernoten and sweets just an hour ago.
But today, its more a day of misery. Bad things seem to be happening all around me; people getting fired, plans going awry, things they've worked towards for months suddenly being cancelled or changed... I won't go into specifics, as these are not my personal things, but somehow, they all come at the same time.
I've had some bad stuff myself; yesterday I agreed with my supervisor that I am going to completely rewrite my MA dissertation, which will take a lot of work, as I am basically starting all over again from scratch. This is something I decided on my own, and I'm happy with that decision, so it's not completely a bad thing, but still, it threw me for a while. And then today, the guy at the bank told us that we won't be getting our mortgage at the time we thought we would, so we wont be able to sign our contract and get the key on the date we'd planned, so now we've had to move everything around, from the signing day to the day the contractor is going to inspect to the day we actually start working.
This was more than annoying, this was actually enough to make me quite angry, as the bank guy told us the stuff would be done/available by a certain date, and now he was telling us that they were very busy, and had to do overtime, and were understaffed, and boo-hoo, and he couldn't make it. They should have seen this coming weeks ago, as the mortgage laws are going to change by 1 January 2013, and lots of people are wanting to get in on the old system while they still can. And moreover, him working overtime is none of my problem, we're paying him to do this work, so he should be doing it (in time!).
But in neither cases I really got angry. I got annoyed, but not in the shouty "I won't talk to you because you're ruining all my plans but I will shout at you until you give me what I want" way that some people have. I get annoyed for about 10 seconds, and then I switch into practical "okay, this is not the way we'd planned it or wanted it, but this is the situation we have, so how can we make it work anyway?" Pragmatism. I never knew I was pragmatic until faced with these kinds of things, and I'm happy I am, because being angry and/or annoyed and/or shouting your head off at the person who needs to help you doesn't get you anywhere.
But that doesn't take away from the fact that some people are having a really bad day today, and that there's a wall (a mountain, more like) of stuff coming up for me to do, all of it over the holidays, meaning no rest for the interning, dissertation-writing DIY-ers. I hope I can retain the positive view on things that I have now, which is mostly based on "I/we'll figure it out in the end". And you always do.
But today, its more a day of misery. Bad things seem to be happening all around me; people getting fired, plans going awry, things they've worked towards for months suddenly being cancelled or changed... I won't go into specifics, as these are not my personal things, but somehow, they all come at the same time.
I've had some bad stuff myself; yesterday I agreed with my supervisor that I am going to completely rewrite my MA dissertation, which will take a lot of work, as I am basically starting all over again from scratch. This is something I decided on my own, and I'm happy with that decision, so it's not completely a bad thing, but still, it threw me for a while. And then today, the guy at the bank told us that we won't be getting our mortgage at the time we thought we would, so we wont be able to sign our contract and get the key on the date we'd planned, so now we've had to move everything around, from the signing day to the day the contractor is going to inspect to the day we actually start working.
This was more than annoying, this was actually enough to make me quite angry, as the bank guy told us the stuff would be done/available by a certain date, and now he was telling us that they were very busy, and had to do overtime, and were understaffed, and boo-hoo, and he couldn't make it. They should have seen this coming weeks ago, as the mortgage laws are going to change by 1 January 2013, and lots of people are wanting to get in on the old system while they still can. And moreover, him working overtime is none of my problem, we're paying him to do this work, so he should be doing it (in time!).
But in neither cases I really got angry. I got annoyed, but not in the shouty "I won't talk to you because you're ruining all my plans but I will shout at you until you give me what I want" way that some people have. I get annoyed for about 10 seconds, and then I switch into practical "okay, this is not the way we'd planned it or wanted it, but this is the situation we have, so how can we make it work anyway?" Pragmatism. I never knew I was pragmatic until faced with these kinds of things, and I'm happy I am, because being angry and/or annoyed and/or shouting your head off at the person who needs to help you doesn't get you anywhere.
But that doesn't take away from the fact that some people are having a really bad day today, and that there's a wall (a mountain, more like) of stuff coming up for me to do, all of it over the holidays, meaning no rest for the interning, dissertation-writing DIY-ers. I hope I can retain the positive view on things that I have now, which is mostly based on "I/we'll figure it out in the end". And you always do.
Monday 26 November 2012
Traffic theatre
To get from my house to the company I'm doing my internship, I can take two routes. One goes through the middle of the city centre, has very few traffic lights, and is generally quicker, unless it is a market day or there are lots of drunk post-party students hanging about. The second is through a more open patch, going round the city centre, with lots of traffic lights and streams of busy commuters trying to push past me on their bikes.
Sounds like the first route is preferable, and in many ways, it is. But for the past two weeks, I've been taking the other, slower route. The main reason: broken traffic lights.
There is one main junction in Groningen that has been under construction for about 5 years now. A new underground parking lot has been built, put on hold when the digging made the homes in the neighbourhood slide and crack, continued, and finished, with a huge new office put on the top and new roads put around it. It's been chaos and mess and diversions for 5 years now, but finally, the thing is almost finished. On Monday last week, the new traffic lights were installed. These immediately malfunctioned, unable to cope with the busy morning rush, causing long delays and traffic jams. While the problem is being sorted out, traffic marshals have been put in place of the lights.
This provides me with free comedy every morning. There are two of them, standing in the middle of the junction with their whistles and there red lights and their high-visibility jackets. I admire their bravery in stepping in front of an oncoming stream of cars, forcing them to brake and wait. Sometimes cars try to slip past them, but they are always kept in check by an angry whistle and waving of arms. This leads to many smiles and knowing nods amongst the cyclist ready to move. I also love how they apparently arbitrarily decide who gets to go and who doesn't. But their system is so much better than the traffic lights, because they can actually see which line is longest or that there is a traffic jam up ahead so they should keep traffic in that lane back, etc.
But the best moment is when they pull the whistles out of their mouths and shout together: "Cyclists! Pedestrians!" (these generally don't get to cross together, but in the early morning rush hour time is of the essence, and the traffic wardens just mix them together). On a good day, they also make a cycle movement with their hands above their heads, as if we can't remember what we're supposed to do. But most people start cycling as soon as the wardens reach for the whistle in their mouths.
There are always a few car drivers brave (or stupid) enough to try and slip in between the cyclists and pedestrians, but they never make it. The waves of bikes and 'freight' bikes (used to transport small children to and from school) are just too thick. In a couple of seconds, every biker is on the other side of the road, cleverly avoiding the traffic wardens and other cyclists in the process. And then the whole thing starts over again, with cars in short lines having to wait quite a while for the busier parts to clear. But as a cyclist, you're always one of a huge pack, one that floods the junction for a couple of seconds and then separates and disappears. It's one of the perks of being an early morning bike commuter, and I will be sad when the traffic lights are fixed and I won't have my free mime break anymore.
Sounds like the first route is preferable, and in many ways, it is. But for the past two weeks, I've been taking the other, slower route. The main reason: broken traffic lights.
There is one main junction in Groningen that has been under construction for about 5 years now. A new underground parking lot has been built, put on hold when the digging made the homes in the neighbourhood slide and crack, continued, and finished, with a huge new office put on the top and new roads put around it. It's been chaos and mess and diversions for 5 years now, but finally, the thing is almost finished. On Monday last week, the new traffic lights were installed. These immediately malfunctioned, unable to cope with the busy morning rush, causing long delays and traffic jams. While the problem is being sorted out, traffic marshals have been put in place of the lights.
This provides me with free comedy every morning. There are two of them, standing in the middle of the junction with their whistles and there red lights and their high-visibility jackets. I admire their bravery in stepping in front of an oncoming stream of cars, forcing them to brake and wait. Sometimes cars try to slip past them, but they are always kept in check by an angry whistle and waving of arms. This leads to many smiles and knowing nods amongst the cyclist ready to move. I also love how they apparently arbitrarily decide who gets to go and who doesn't. But their system is so much better than the traffic lights, because they can actually see which line is longest or that there is a traffic jam up ahead so they should keep traffic in that lane back, etc.
But the best moment is when they pull the whistles out of their mouths and shout together: "Cyclists! Pedestrians!" (these generally don't get to cross together, but in the early morning rush hour time is of the essence, and the traffic wardens just mix them together). On a good day, they also make a cycle movement with their hands above their heads, as if we can't remember what we're supposed to do. But most people start cycling as soon as the wardens reach for the whistle in their mouths.
There are always a few car drivers brave (or stupid) enough to try and slip in between the cyclists and pedestrians, but they never make it. The waves of bikes and 'freight' bikes (used to transport small children to and from school) are just too thick. In a couple of seconds, every biker is on the other side of the road, cleverly avoiding the traffic wardens and other cyclists in the process. And then the whole thing starts over again, with cars in short lines having to wait quite a while for the busier parts to clear. But as a cyclist, you're always one of a huge pack, one that floods the junction for a couple of seconds and then separates and disappears. It's one of the perks of being an early morning bike commuter, and I will be sad when the traffic lights are fixed and I won't have my free mime break anymore.
Wednesday 21 November 2012
The house phase
I know, it's been quite a while since I've written anything, and also quite a while since I've done anything worth writing about, creatively speaking. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy. My internship has gone up from 2 to 4 days a week, and there are lots of meetings and events in the evenings and weekends, so that's keeping me pretty busy. Also, I've had to finish most of my dissertation before the 19th, which I managed, but only just. But the thing that's been occupying my mind the most lately is the fact that we've bought a house.
Yes, you've read that correctly; we've bought a house. Remember when I was ranting on about life's phases and not being sure where you stand and what you want to do and where you want to live? Apparently, all that doubt goes away when you find the right house, in the right location, with the right feel. Not entirely true, as I still have some creeping doubts when I hear that friends of ours are going to live in New York City for a year, but I was there on holiday just 2 months ago, and I want a garden and a place for our cats to live, and something we can afford, and that's in Groningen, not NYC.
So we've been busy talking to banks and notaries and contractors and bathroom people and what-not, managing stuff from money to insurances to bathroom tiles to paint colours. The house is huuuge, they've combined 2 ex-social rent homes to make one new home, and it needs a lot of work done. There's no bathroom, for example, and only a very basic kitchen. On the other hand, there are two massive living rooms (one of which will be split into a bedroom and an office). So that will keep us busy for a while. We hope to do most of the work ourselves, and we hope to do most of it in the Christmas holidays, although I had also planned to do a lot of dissertation work during that time, so we will see how that goes.
I'll try and put up some before and after pics, something I forgot to do with the house we live in now, which was in about the same state as this one is in. The garden (which is quite big) is also going to need a lot of work, as it is all kind of clay-y and soggy at the moment, but that will be a nice project for April or May. For the moment, it feels as if we've got pretty much the most basic stuff arranged and done, so now we just wait until December 17th, when we'll get the key. And then I will be the most adult version of myself I've ever been, complete with a house and a mortgage. Let's wait and see whether we slide on into the double-income-workaholic stage that seems to follow this stage all around us... I hope not, as I want to enjoy this house as much as I possibly can!
Yes, you've read that correctly; we've bought a house. Remember when I was ranting on about life's phases and not being sure where you stand and what you want to do and where you want to live? Apparently, all that doubt goes away when you find the right house, in the right location, with the right feel. Not entirely true, as I still have some creeping doubts when I hear that friends of ours are going to live in New York City for a year, but I was there on holiday just 2 months ago, and I want a garden and a place for our cats to live, and something we can afford, and that's in Groningen, not NYC.
So we've been busy talking to banks and notaries and contractors and bathroom people and what-not, managing stuff from money to insurances to bathroom tiles to paint colours. The house is huuuge, they've combined 2 ex-social rent homes to make one new home, and it needs a lot of work done. There's no bathroom, for example, and only a very basic kitchen. On the other hand, there are two massive living rooms (one of which will be split into a bedroom and an office). So that will keep us busy for a while. We hope to do most of the work ourselves, and we hope to do most of it in the Christmas holidays, although I had also planned to do a lot of dissertation work during that time, so we will see how that goes.
I'll try and put up some before and after pics, something I forgot to do with the house we live in now, which was in about the same state as this one is in. The garden (which is quite big) is also going to need a lot of work, as it is all kind of clay-y and soggy at the moment, but that will be a nice project for April or May. For the moment, it feels as if we've got pretty much the most basic stuff arranged and done, so now we just wait until December 17th, when we'll get the key. And then I will be the most adult version of myself I've ever been, complete with a house and a mortgage. Let's wait and see whether we slide on into the double-income-workaholic stage that seems to follow this stage all around us... I hope not, as I want to enjoy this house as much as I possibly can!
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Perspectives
I have just finished reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, one of the books I got for my birthday (I asked for "books you think I will like to read" and that worked out very well, so I will probably stick to that for the rest of my life). The book was great fun: a literary adventure, time travel, hopping from one dimension to another, and filled with quotes and references to literary works, many of which I got, but many of which also must have gone straight over my head. I normally don't like crime or detective novels, but this one was exactly right.
The only thing that wasn't exactly right was the perspective.
The novel is written in the first person narrator, with detective Thursday Next (yes, weird name, but not the weirdest by a long shot) telling us what is happening 'real time'. Now I generally don't like first-person narrators, and even less so when the author is pretending that what I am reading is actually happening right now, and the narrator is telling me the story as it is happening. Thankfully, Fforde used the past tense, "I shot him in the back", rather than the present, "I shoot him in the back", which is even more frustrating (and stretching my suspension of disbelief to breaking point). But then, some chapters are still written 'through' Thursday, but she is telling me stuff that happened somewhere else, information that she got later, from her aunt and uncle, and is now putting back into the story at the time it happened chronologically. This would not have been a problem if it was somewhere stated that she got this information later, but it isn't. And then such a chapter is followed by a chapter in which Thursday does not know what is happening in another location while she told me what was happening in that location in the previous chapter, and I get annoyed.
It feels as if the author couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to write in the first or omniscient narrator and tried to go easy and do both. You can't do both, unless you consistently do both, and he doesn't. (Also, I think you should be able to write a detective novel from the point of view of the detective (or his sidekick, as in Sherlock Holmes) entirely, and not need extra information about what really happened so the reader knows before the detective knows).
The first person narrator happens to be a very very limiting perspective to write in. I can think of only two recent novels in which it works properly: the Tomorrow-series by John Marsden and Bridget Jones's Diary. Both of these are written accounts of something that happened earlier, which is the only way it works, I think. And even then, in Bridget Jones there are some instances in which it would not have worked for her to have her diary balanced on her lap, writing away, while Mark Darcy is annoyed with her for looking at him while he is sleeping. But still, the first person narrator works, and Helen Fielding actually makes use of the limiting perspective that it creates by having Bridget make all kinds of daft assumptions about others, which then turn out to be complete nonsense. (I'm currently reading The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, and I have the feeling that the first person narrator is working there too, but it is the story of a man recalling events that happened when he was 15 years old, again, describing the past.)
But if you're telling a story that is to all intends and purposes happening right now, don't have one of the characters spell it out for you. And if you do, and it works, don't cheat by adding scenes that this one character knows nothing about and cannot know anything about at that moment. It's distracting and confusing for the reader, and really, you should be able to pick a point and stick to it.
The only thing that wasn't exactly right was the perspective.
The novel is written in the first person narrator, with detective Thursday Next (yes, weird name, but not the weirdest by a long shot) telling us what is happening 'real time'. Now I generally don't like first-person narrators, and even less so when the author is pretending that what I am reading is actually happening right now, and the narrator is telling me the story as it is happening. Thankfully, Fforde used the past tense, "I shot him in the back", rather than the present, "I shoot him in the back", which is even more frustrating (and stretching my suspension of disbelief to breaking point). But then, some chapters are still written 'through' Thursday, but she is telling me stuff that happened somewhere else, information that she got later, from her aunt and uncle, and is now putting back into the story at the time it happened chronologically. This would not have been a problem if it was somewhere stated that she got this information later, but it isn't. And then such a chapter is followed by a chapter in which Thursday does not know what is happening in another location while she told me what was happening in that location in the previous chapter, and I get annoyed.
It feels as if the author couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to write in the first or omniscient narrator and tried to go easy and do both. You can't do both, unless you consistently do both, and he doesn't. (Also, I think you should be able to write a detective novel from the point of view of the detective (or his sidekick, as in Sherlock Holmes) entirely, and not need extra information about what really happened so the reader knows before the detective knows).
The first person narrator happens to be a very very limiting perspective to write in. I can think of only two recent novels in which it works properly: the Tomorrow-series by John Marsden and Bridget Jones's Diary. Both of these are written accounts of something that happened earlier, which is the only way it works, I think. And even then, in Bridget Jones there are some instances in which it would not have worked for her to have her diary balanced on her lap, writing away, while Mark Darcy is annoyed with her for looking at him while he is sleeping. But still, the first person narrator works, and Helen Fielding actually makes use of the limiting perspective that it creates by having Bridget make all kinds of daft assumptions about others, which then turn out to be complete nonsense. (I'm currently reading The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, and I have the feeling that the first person narrator is working there too, but it is the story of a man recalling events that happened when he was 15 years old, again, describing the past.)
But if you're telling a story that is to all intends and purposes happening right now, don't have one of the characters spell it out for you. And if you do, and it works, don't cheat by adding scenes that this one character knows nothing about and cannot know anything about at that moment. It's distracting and confusing for the reader, and really, you should be able to pick a point and stick to it.
Tuesday 6 November 2012
Japanese stamps
I've written about the stamps I get with my Postcrossing cards before, but never got around to showing you some more. Since that post, I've added a little line to my profile saying that I love beautiful and unique stamps, and the amount of special stamps I've received has gone up quite sharply. Germany, Finland, and the US seem to make it quite difficult to get any other than the 'standard' stamp, but many other countries do have beautiful stamps which I've been enjoying greatly.
Now one country I didn't mention in the original post is Japan (I did refer to a Hello Kitty stamp I had somewhere). Looking back I find this a bit surprising, as cards from Japan generally include the most beautiful stamps. So here I give you some examples, drawn from the 12 Japanese cards I have received so far (I've combined several cards' stamps):
I love this beautiful astrological series (on 2 different cards). They have some sort of glitter effect that you can't see on the scan, but is very nice. I hope to receive more of them!
A cute shaped teddy-bear stamp, I haven't seen many shaped stamps before.
Combined stamps of 2 cards, they look typically Japanese to me (except maybe the fox).
This one also looks like the beautiful Japanese art work that was on the front of the card.
The first of the Hello Kitties, with some more Japanese art work (2 separate cards).
Another Hello Kitty stamp. I like it, but I loooove the one with the cranes on the left...
And finally this huge selection of stamps. Together they get to 70 yen, which appears to be the correct rate, only the astrological signs and the first Hello Kitty are 80 yen.
I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did, and I hope to show you some more stamps in the future!
Now one country I didn't mention in the original post is Japan (I did refer to a Hello Kitty stamp I had somewhere). Looking back I find this a bit surprising, as cards from Japan generally include the most beautiful stamps. So here I give you some examples, drawn from the 12 Japanese cards I have received so far (I've combined several cards' stamps):
I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did, and I hope to show you some more stamps in the future!
Sunday 4 November 2012
Feeding your birds
I've been very busy the past few weeks, the dissertation stuff needs to be done before November 19th, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so I've geared it up a bit, and then there were some other things I may tell you about in the future.
But one thing I did do is put the bird feeder outside. I've always had bird feeders for as long as I've lived in the city, and they've always been busily visited by blue tits, great tits, and the occasional robin or green finch, with blackbirds happily munching up all the seeds that are spilled by the others (I always read about house sparrows invading feeders, but I've never seen them here. There is a big group living in the hedgerows about 50 m from our house, but they don't appear to be interested in my food). For my birthday I got the most beautiful caterpillar-shaped peanut bird feeder, which will be put to good use as soon as I have the time to buy peanuts.
I know some people may be going "feeding the birds? But they're wild animals, they should fend for themselves!", but honestly, these are not wild birds anymore. The gardens in my part of the city are very small and often badly maintained, which leaves little food for the birds. In winter, most insects actually crawl into the houses rather than winter outside, which depletes the store of food even more. Moreover, we're adding plenty of cat-predators who live very close to each other (a wild cat's territory can be many square kilometres) and make it even harder for them to survive. We're the ones taking away their food, we're also the ones making them less 'wild' by removing the 'wild' itself, so I cannot help but want to do something back.
I know there are other concerns, as there is still a rumour going around that birds who feed seeds to their chicks kill them (chicks generally only eat insects), so that you should remove your feeders in early spring to prevent this. Believe me, birds who would feed their chicks seeds would have died out a long time ago (as they aren't reproducing, so their habit isn't established in other birds, etc...). They use the seeds themselves to get some quick energy and get back to finding grub for their young. There are many people who leave feeders out the whole year, so this is really not a problem. I leave mine out until at least the last frost, but usually a bit longer, say the end of April.
Also, it's been really cold (freezing) for about two weeks now, so here the birds really need the extra food. But even if it had been okay weather I usually put out the food at the end of October, so the birds can get to know the place. If the temperature suddenly drops and they have to spend precious energy trying to find a place that can sustain them, they may still have problems even if they do find your food. So put it out early.
All the little bits help, of course, especially if you're living in a city or busy area. Feeders are cheap, food is even cheaper, and you'll be helping that little bit of nature that is still left close to you survive!
But one thing I did do is put the bird feeder outside. I've always had bird feeders for as long as I've lived in the city, and they've always been busily visited by blue tits, great tits, and the occasional robin or green finch, with blackbirds happily munching up all the seeds that are spilled by the others (I always read about house sparrows invading feeders, but I've never seen them here. There is a big group living in the hedgerows about 50 m from our house, but they don't appear to be interested in my food). For my birthday I got the most beautiful caterpillar-shaped peanut bird feeder, which will be put to good use as soon as I have the time to buy peanuts.
I know some people may be going "feeding the birds? But they're wild animals, they should fend for themselves!", but honestly, these are not wild birds anymore. The gardens in my part of the city are very small and often badly maintained, which leaves little food for the birds. In winter, most insects actually crawl into the houses rather than winter outside, which depletes the store of food even more. Moreover, we're adding plenty of cat-predators who live very close to each other (a wild cat's territory can be many square kilometres) and make it even harder for them to survive. We're the ones taking away their food, we're also the ones making them less 'wild' by removing the 'wild' itself, so I cannot help but want to do something back.
I know there are other concerns, as there is still a rumour going around that birds who feed seeds to their chicks kill them (chicks generally only eat insects), so that you should remove your feeders in early spring to prevent this. Believe me, birds who would feed their chicks seeds would have died out a long time ago (as they aren't reproducing, so their habit isn't established in other birds, etc...). They use the seeds themselves to get some quick energy and get back to finding grub for their young. There are many people who leave feeders out the whole year, so this is really not a problem. I leave mine out until at least the last frost, but usually a bit longer, say the end of April.
Also, it's been really cold (freezing) for about two weeks now, so here the birds really need the extra food. But even if it had been okay weather I usually put out the food at the end of October, so the birds can get to know the place. If the temperature suddenly drops and they have to spend precious energy trying to find a place that can sustain them, they may still have problems even if they do find your food. So put it out early.
All the little bits help, of course, especially if you're living in a city or busy area. Feeders are cheap, food is even cheaper, and you'll be helping that little bit of nature that is still left close to you survive!
Tuesday 23 October 2012
Felt Christmas ornaments
So today I needed to do something completely different (without pulling any of John Cleese's faces). My dissertation-writing motivation has come to a grinding halt and I didn't feel up to any painting or re-discovering my knitting abilities.
So I made some felt Christmas ornaments.
I got the idea for these while browsing the IKEA Christmas page (they have some really really nice glass ornaments with spirals which I am definitely getting if we can fit a big tree somewhere), when I saw these cute felt Christmas trees. Nice! I thought. I can make those myself! I thought.
So I did.
And then, because just one ornament isn't enough, I made a star (which looks more like a flower, but hey):
I'd like to have made one of the bell shaped ones as well, but I only had white thread and I'd like the thread to contrast with the felt, so that will be for later (I'll probably stitch that one over the side, rather than following the contours, just to see how it looks). And more stars and trees, of course, the hypothetical future tree will be well-filled.
Please do note that I managed to get the ribbon on lopsided on both of them, even with fastening it to the felt before stitching it shut. I never said I was good at sewing, I'm just a time-for-something-different-and-relaxing sewer!
So I made some felt Christmas ornaments.
I got the idea for these while browsing the IKEA Christmas page (they have some really really nice glass ornaments with spirals which I am definitely getting if we can fit a big tree somewhere), when I saw these cute felt Christmas trees. Nice! I thought. I can make those myself! I thought.
So I did.
And then, because just one ornament isn't enough, I made a star (which looks more like a flower, but hey):
I'd like to have made one of the bell shaped ones as well, but I only had white thread and I'd like the thread to contrast with the felt, so that will be for later (I'll probably stitch that one over the side, rather than following the contours, just to see how it looks). And more stars and trees, of course, the hypothetical future tree will be well-filled.
Please do note that I managed to get the ribbon on lopsided on both of them, even with fastening it to the felt before stitching it shut. I never said I was good at sewing, I'm just a time-for-something-different-and-relaxing sewer!
Sunday 21 October 2012
Autumn colours
I love autumn colours. I may have mentioned this before, and it is something that is usually on the back of my mind throughout the year, but when they actually arrive in full force, I can't help but be amazed at how much I love them.
Yesterday we drove to the zoo in my hometown and there were stretches of road that were completely orange or red or yellow, or a beautiful combination of them all. When we were in the US I was dying to see some famous "fall foliage" and I'm really sad that we missed it, but now that I see the stuff around here I'm wondering if it was always this good and I have just been missing what was right in front of me all those years? Surely, the world was never this pretty and warm-coloured and showering leafs down by the bucket load?
Sadly, they're usually gone within the week. Also, because of some weird warm weather we've been having lately, some trees are still enthusiastically and brightly green, while others are completely bare already. Again, not sure if this happens every year, but it struck me.
It's one of those things where I go "ooh, that's pretty" and then not take a photograph or make myself look better, thinking that it will still be there the next time I'm around, but it never is, and I always feel sad about missing it, or not really seeing it. But that's how it goes, I guess, even though most people now do take pictures and put everything on Facebook for the whole world to see and remember, I'm sure many young parents today will still go "they grow up so fast! It feels like they were still babies yesterday!" when their kids go off to live on their own.
And in a way it's good you can't remember everything, or your head would explode.
Anyway, even though I haven't been taking pictures myself, I've been asking for autumn colours on Postcrossing, and I got some especially nice ones that I can't help but share with you. They're from around the world, although of course pretty much restricted to the northern hemisphere (one of the reasons I'd never move to Australia, I don't think I'd be able to survive without a proper autumn).
ETA: oops, nearly forgot this one, which shows beautiful Lapland:
(I have more general forest/forest path cards too, which I think are lovely and magical and beautiful in their own way, but I'll save those for another day.)
Yesterday we drove to the zoo in my hometown and there were stretches of road that were completely orange or red or yellow, or a beautiful combination of them all. When we were in the US I was dying to see some famous "fall foliage" and I'm really sad that we missed it, but now that I see the stuff around here I'm wondering if it was always this good and I have just been missing what was right in front of me all those years? Surely, the world was never this pretty and warm-coloured and showering leafs down by the bucket load?
Sadly, they're usually gone within the week. Also, because of some weird warm weather we've been having lately, some trees are still enthusiastically and brightly green, while others are completely bare already. Again, not sure if this happens every year, but it struck me.
It's one of those things where I go "ooh, that's pretty" and then not take a photograph or make myself look better, thinking that it will still be there the next time I'm around, but it never is, and I always feel sad about missing it, or not really seeing it. But that's how it goes, I guess, even though most people now do take pictures and put everything on Facebook for the whole world to see and remember, I'm sure many young parents today will still go "they grow up so fast! It feels like they were still babies yesterday!" when their kids go off to live on their own.
And in a way it's good you can't remember everything, or your head would explode.
Anyway, even though I haven't been taking pictures myself, I've been asking for autumn colours on Postcrossing, and I got some especially nice ones that I can't help but share with you. They're from around the world, although of course pretty much restricted to the northern hemisphere (one of the reasons I'd never move to Australia, I don't think I'd be able to survive without a proper autumn).
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| US-1895607 received 9 October 2012 |
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| FI-1562808 received 15 October 2012 |
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| JP-319569 received 15 October 2012 |
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| FI-1552323 received 4 October 2012 |
Monday 15 October 2012
Space connections
So yesterday I watched Felix Baumgartner jump from his balloon back to Earth. I wasn't alone in doing this, apparently 8 million people were watching the live YouTube stream at the time of his jump. Now apart from the fact that I wouldn't even be able to blink my eyes if I knew 8 million others were watching me do it, I think this really shows how information and the sharing of information has taken a giant leap forward in the past few years. 5 years ago, nobody could have imagined something like this being streamed on the Internet for that many people to watch. Information has become available to all in so many ways, it is almost impossible to keep up. I know a lot of people are angry at Facebook and Google because of their 'share everything' policy, as it sends your information to advertisers. But in general, the principle is undoubtedly very good. Also, I think it shows how humans all over the world are inherently similar in so many ways, which will do even more to connect people and possibly work against future misunderstandings, discrimination, and wars.
Yes, I know, I'm both an optimist and a pacifist.
In other space news today, there is a Dutch company, Mars One, aiming to settle the first human settlement on Mars around 2023. Not for any lofty scientific purposes, no, they want to make a reality series out of it. The audience would be able to select which group of settlers is allowed to go first, and then follow their every move. Voting people off would be a bit difficult, as once they land on Mars, they won't be able to ever go back again. This means that those crazy enough to go (they appear to have 1,000 applications already) will be stuck on Mars for the rest of their lives. And those lives will be streamed back to Earth 24 hours a day, for as long as they all shall live.
I am unsure what to think of this. I am uninterested in reality series personally, but not against them per se if the people participating are aware of what they are doing and have fully agreed to it. It is another side of the 'information free for all' I just mentioned. However, I do think the exploration of another planet may be a bit too serious to throw into a reality tv format. Then again, sponsoring and actually achieving the goal (a human settlement on Mars) may be easier to achieve this way than through academic/scientific missions, and if we have to choose between no exploration or exploration through commercial means, then the latter is probably the better option. Still, it feels different than watching Felix make his record jump, even if in principle, it is the same thing...
Yes, I know, I'm both an optimist and a pacifist.
In other space news today, there is a Dutch company, Mars One, aiming to settle the first human settlement on Mars around 2023. Not for any lofty scientific purposes, no, they want to make a reality series out of it. The audience would be able to select which group of settlers is allowed to go first, and then follow their every move. Voting people off would be a bit difficult, as once they land on Mars, they won't be able to ever go back again. This means that those crazy enough to go (they appear to have 1,000 applications already) will be stuck on Mars for the rest of their lives. And those lives will be streamed back to Earth 24 hours a day, for as long as they all shall live.
I am unsure what to think of this. I am uninterested in reality series personally, but not against them per se if the people participating are aware of what they are doing and have fully agreed to it. It is another side of the 'information free for all' I just mentioned. However, I do think the exploration of another planet may be a bit too serious to throw into a reality tv format. Then again, sponsoring and actually achieving the goal (a human settlement on Mars) may be easier to achieve this way than through academic/scientific missions, and if we have to choose between no exploration or exploration through commercial means, then the latter is probably the better option. Still, it feels different than watching Felix make his record jump, even if in principle, it is the same thing...
Friday 12 October 2012
Postcards revisited
It's been a while since I told you about the great postcards I'm receiving, so I thought I'd do a bit of a 'revisited' post, where I can highlight new editions to categories I've already posted about.
These include (linking back to the original posts for those who missed them):
To start with the first one, I have received some truly magnificent Alice in Wonderland cards over the past few months.
A really really old and really really worn (and dirty!) Alice postcard from Russia. My guess is that this thing is actually around 60 years old, and that the sender picked it up second-hand somewhere. It says "Alice in Wonderland" in Russian on the back.
Not sure what to make of these two, the first one looks a bit dollish and the second one a bit messy, really. I've also received another card from the series I was so happy about in my original Alice in Wonderland post:
I have received so many arty cards (Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh...) I could never show them all to you, so I will stick to the really interesting ones:
This card was send to me by a German baby (more likely, his mother) who profoundly excused himself for not having a 'proper' card. I think this is one of the most beautiful cards I've received, it shows a collage from an art exhibition in Bremen.
I love cats, I love poppies, I love the style of this artist, I love all her work.
Sadly enough, no more street art cards, but then the Samuel Beckett one will be hard to beat anyway.
In home-made cards, I've received several photographs-turned-postcard, and one creative actual postcard made by an art student that shows the sender:
but the absolute winner is this one:
It's made of various colourful circles which really give the card some texture, I can't imagine how much work went into making it!
Finally I've received several more Beatrix Potter cards, some duplicates, and one I really like:
basically because Benjamin Bunny is my favourite Potter character (tied with Tom Kitten).
So in contrast to what you might be thinking after my long silence on the topic, my Postcrossing is still going very strong! And these are just a couple of the categories I collect, there's also forests (including autumn colours), books and book covers, poems, cats, owls and other birds, special weather (lightning, the Northern Lights), baking, and of course, tea! Have a look in my received gallery if you've become curious (or jealous :p)!
These include (linking back to the original posts for those who missed them):
To start with the first one, I have received some truly magnificent Alice in Wonderland cards over the past few months.
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| RU-1039418 received 4 July 2012 |
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| UA-322450 received 20 August 2012 |
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| RU-1206945 received 29 September 2012 |
Not sure what to make of these two, the first one looks a bit dollish and the second one a bit messy, really. I've also received another card from the series I was so happy about in my original Alice in Wonderland post:
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| HK-85992 received 8 October 2012 |
I have received so many arty cards (Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh...) I could never show them all to you, so I will stick to the really interesting ones:
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| DE-12216081 received 1 February 2012 |
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| RU-77975317 received February 2012 |
Sadly enough, no more street art cards, but then the Samuel Beckett one will be hard to beat anyway.
In home-made cards, I've received several photographs-turned-postcard, and one creative actual postcard made by an art student that shows the sender:
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| CN-523820 received 8 February 2012 |
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| US-1704636 received 12 June 2012 |
Finally I've received several more Beatrix Potter cards, some duplicates, and one I really like:
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| JP-311676 received 25 September 2012 |
So in contrast to what you might be thinking after my long silence on the topic, my Postcrossing is still going very strong! And these are just a couple of the categories I collect, there's also forests (including autumn colours), books and book covers, poems, cats, owls and other birds, special weather (lightning, the Northern Lights), baking, and of course, tea! Have a look in my received gallery if you've become curious (or jealous :p)!
Monday 8 October 2012
NaNoWri-NO!
Autumn has really arrived. Last Friday we had a full-blown autumn gale which threw all the chestnuts from my parents' chestnut tree and left many people wandering around with broken umbrellas. Now the atmosphere has settled again, no rain, no clouds, and the clear sky brings very cold nights and chilly but extremely fresh mornings. I love the crisp smell of autumn, maybe even more than the warm tinge that announces summer in May. For me, this holds the promise of enjoyment to come: my birthday, Sint Maarten, Sinterklaas, Christmas, all those bright and warm and happy gatherings.
Also, this air gets my creative juices flowing. Normally, I would be preparing for NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, by thinking up a plot and protagonist while translating their webpages into Dutch. But this year, I'm doing neither. I can barely keep everything together as it is, between my internship and dissertation and social life and committees and what not, so writing 50,000 words of prose is completely out of the question.
It's the first time in 6 years that I won't be competing. The first few years I failed, but I won (which means: I wrote a novel of at least 50,000 words within a month) in 2009, 2010 and 2011. I can't even remember what those novels were about, to be honest, but that's not the point, the point is to write write write until you can't write anymore.
But not for me, this year.
I'd fully resigned to this, and even sent them an e-mail stating that I wouldn't do the translation this year, but be back next year (in which I told them I was 'doing an intern' rather than 'doing an internSHIP', which must have caused some hilarity...), when people on Facebook who've never shown any literary ambitions before suddenly started posting "doing NaNo this year! First time!" and I started receiving emails from the Write-In group that I attend here in Groningen asking when we will first meet up, and stuff about the launch party and what not, and now I feel like I'm missing out on this really big and beautiful thing and I should try and do it anyway. And it's true, I am missing out on a great thing, but really, it's more the atmosphere of connectedness and striving together to reach this great, impossible goal that I'll miss, not the frustration and hard work and cold fingers and jealousy at those who finish within 24 hours while you haven't even started etc etc. But those are the things you forget, while the great people and great moments and great feeling when you've finished stay with you.
So for those who are not swamped with work this November, and feel like they could write a novel, or could be the sort of person who writes novels, or just want to join an amazing community that inspires people around the world: www.nanowrimo.org.
Next year, I'll be back.
Also, this air gets my creative juices flowing. Normally, I would be preparing for NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, by thinking up a plot and protagonist while translating their webpages into Dutch. But this year, I'm doing neither. I can barely keep everything together as it is, between my internship and dissertation and social life and committees and what not, so writing 50,000 words of prose is completely out of the question.
It's the first time in 6 years that I won't be competing. The first few years I failed, but I won (which means: I wrote a novel of at least 50,000 words within a month) in 2009, 2010 and 2011. I can't even remember what those novels were about, to be honest, but that's not the point, the point is to write write write until you can't write anymore.
But not for me, this year.
I'd fully resigned to this, and even sent them an e-mail stating that I wouldn't do the translation this year, but be back next year (in which I told them I was 'doing an intern' rather than 'doing an internSHIP', which must have caused some hilarity...), when people on Facebook who've never shown any literary ambitions before suddenly started posting "doing NaNo this year! First time!" and I started receiving emails from the Write-In group that I attend here in Groningen asking when we will first meet up, and stuff about the launch party and what not, and now I feel like I'm missing out on this really big and beautiful thing and I should try and do it anyway. And it's true, I am missing out on a great thing, but really, it's more the atmosphere of connectedness and striving together to reach this great, impossible goal that I'll miss, not the frustration and hard work and cold fingers and jealousy at those who finish within 24 hours while you haven't even started etc etc. But those are the things you forget, while the great people and great moments and great feeling when you've finished stay with you.
So for those who are not swamped with work this November, and feel like they could write a novel, or could be the sort of person who writes novels, or just want to join an amazing community that inspires people around the world: www.nanowrimo.org.
Next year, I'll be back.
Tuesday 2 October 2012
A Writing Rush
So apart from the internship (which I will not say much about apart from that it took some time to get used to working in an office with a lot of other people around me after working at home for so long, but which is going very well and which I am enjoying immensely) I am also writing my MA dissertation. This is the final big piece of independent research I am required to do before I can graduate, and it has to be about 15,000 words. I'd known since last year, when I took a course on the subject, that I wanted to write about Jane Austen, and already arranged my proposal and background chapter before going to the US.
But then, when I came back, the struggle began. How to start. I think this is the biggest problem most people who have to do a really big assignment that will span several months face, and for me, it was no different. I was planning to start the Friday after we came back, but no, to much other stuff to do; the Monday then, no, to many appointments; the Tuesday, no, then I had a meeting with supervisor and could still put it off until finally, last Friday, I actually started writing. This feels like it was weeks ago, so I am surprised to think that I've only been officially writing for 5 days. By that time, mind you, I was completely freaking out, already behind on my own schedule by 2 weeks, and convinced I would never finish the thing.
I know a lot of people are freaking out about their dissertations right now, as it is already October and we have to be done before February, but as usual, I should not have bothered. About an hour ago, I finished my first chapter. It's 2,500 words, it compares the two novels I wanted to use in depth, using 3 primary and 8 secondary sources. I have no idea how I do this, but somehow, whenever I start writing, things just work. I get into this zone of writing, which usually lasts about 3 hours, and at the other end I'm halfway there. Add another day like that and most of the chapter is there, and then a final day to make some changes, put in some extra footnotes, and check the last things, and done.
This does not mean that the chapter is 100% done, of course, I could keep adding more onto it until my entire dissertation consists of just this chapter (which I won't do, obviously, unless my supervisor wants me to add something), I still have to re-read it to see if I don't want to change any sentences (I haven't even spell-checked it) and also, once my supervisor has looked at it she may well ask me to rewrite the whole thing. But most of it is there. Again, I have no idea how I do this or why this works for me. It's highly efficient, as I'm done after only a couple of hours work each day, but this somehow bothers me and I keep sitting behind my computer thinking up all the things I could be doing (right now, I'm already writing stuff for the second chapter, the easy bits which don't need that much thinking over) just because I feel like I should be doing more. I know some people are jealous of me because it seems to come so easily, but they may be forgetting that I'd already read 15 books on this subject (plus the 6 novels I'm using) before I started writing, and that I've been thinking about this stuff for 3 months now. So it's not that strange that things easily form connections and make sense in my head, but also, it's not as if it's effortless, because I am completely drained after a day's work.
Still, it feels like I should be doing more, as if it's coming too easy to me, as if what I've written can never be good enough. Over the years, I've tried to ignore that voice and just handed things in a week before the deadline only to stop myself from fidgeting about it when it was really done. I think I should do the same with my dissertation, even though it feels really weird to stop working before 15:00 when you still have so much to do. But if I can do that amount in a really short time period, maybe I should start enjoying all the time that is left over a bit more, instead of worrying. Ah, if only...
But then, when I came back, the struggle began. How to start. I think this is the biggest problem most people who have to do a really big assignment that will span several months face, and for me, it was no different. I was planning to start the Friday after we came back, but no, to much other stuff to do; the Monday then, no, to many appointments; the Tuesday, no, then I had a meeting with supervisor and could still put it off until finally, last Friday, I actually started writing. This feels like it was weeks ago, so I am surprised to think that I've only been officially writing for 5 days. By that time, mind you, I was completely freaking out, already behind on my own schedule by 2 weeks, and convinced I would never finish the thing.
I know a lot of people are freaking out about their dissertations right now, as it is already October and we have to be done before February, but as usual, I should not have bothered. About an hour ago, I finished my first chapter. It's 2,500 words, it compares the two novels I wanted to use in depth, using 3 primary and 8 secondary sources. I have no idea how I do this, but somehow, whenever I start writing, things just work. I get into this zone of writing, which usually lasts about 3 hours, and at the other end I'm halfway there. Add another day like that and most of the chapter is there, and then a final day to make some changes, put in some extra footnotes, and check the last things, and done.
This does not mean that the chapter is 100% done, of course, I could keep adding more onto it until my entire dissertation consists of just this chapter (which I won't do, obviously, unless my supervisor wants me to add something), I still have to re-read it to see if I don't want to change any sentences (I haven't even spell-checked it) and also, once my supervisor has looked at it she may well ask me to rewrite the whole thing. But most of it is there. Again, I have no idea how I do this or why this works for me. It's highly efficient, as I'm done after only a couple of hours work each day, but this somehow bothers me and I keep sitting behind my computer thinking up all the things I could be doing (right now, I'm already writing stuff for the second chapter, the easy bits which don't need that much thinking over) just because I feel like I should be doing more. I know some people are jealous of me because it seems to come so easily, but they may be forgetting that I'd already read 15 books on this subject (plus the 6 novels I'm using) before I started writing, and that I've been thinking about this stuff for 3 months now. So it's not that strange that things easily form connections and make sense in my head, but also, it's not as if it's effortless, because I am completely drained after a day's work.
Still, it feels like I should be doing more, as if it's coming too easy to me, as if what I've written can never be good enough. Over the years, I've tried to ignore that voice and just handed things in a week before the deadline only to stop myself from fidgeting about it when it was really done. I think I should do the same with my dissertation, even though it feels really weird to stop working before 15:00 when you still have so much to do. But if I can do that amount in a really short time period, maybe I should start enjoying all the time that is left over a bit more, instead of worrying. Ah, if only...
Monday 24 September 2012
A chameleon of accents
It was during one of my first classes for my bachelor English, I think it must have been some Linguistics course, that I realised that not everybody speaks the same English. Up until that moment, British English and American English and Australian English sounded perfectly similar to me (I did like the people in Australian series better, but that may have been because the Australians simply make better youth tv series). This was the same as listening to my grandfather speak to my mother, he with a strong local accent, she answering in standard Dutch: I could understand both of them, so I didn't notice that they were speaking different accents.
After thinking about this for a while, I have decided that this was not weird. It may have been weird because I was studying English, and thus must have had some under laying affinity with the language, and thus may have noticed these differences before, but as I was mainly studying English for the written variety (literature, perhaps writing some things myself), this wasn't really an issue.
But for me, accents have never really been an issue. My mother never tires of telling how I, after we'd been in France for a couple of days, perfectly adapted to the French accent and would call "mama!" in the French rather than the Dutch way (there is a strong difference between these two), copying the French kids around me. I have also spoken with an Amsterdam accent for a while, which may have been influenced by the tv programmes I watched. Then, when I started getting friends in the south of the Netherlands, my accent shifted to their pronunciation, sometimes to the confusion of my northerly friends.
It took quite a long while to fix on a 'proper' accent for my English studies (yes, we get proficiency in the language as well), perhaps because of all the mixed influences I was getting. I have been called Mid-Atlantic by some, which is not really a compliment. But finally, I picked British English, and passed my speaking courses with this. However, after only a week in America, people started to ask me where I lived or studied, as my accent was so genuine (I have since found out that Americans will say that someones English is 'great' when they can utter simple sentences, but I have the feeling that this went a bit further than that). I also noticed in myself that I started pronouncing things in an American way; rhotic (that means, pronouncing the 'r' in certain locations in words, Americans do this, most British don't) and generally rolling the words around in my mouth more, the way Americans do.
I think this is simply an adaptive strategy. When I talked in British English, I sometimes had to repeat myself as others did not immediately understand me. When I went with the American accent, it was easier to make myself understood, and it was also easier to deal with things without getting the added 'she's a foreigner!' bit. Same goes for my Dutch accents; it is adaptive, but also a way of blending in. When in the south of the country, if you speak in a strong northern accent, people will look at you in a funny way, and you immediately feel like you don't belong.
I have no idea why I do this (it is clearly not a conscious effort on my part, even more, I was trying to maintain my British accent in America and failed miserably): it is an automatic thing. When talking to an Indian shopkeeper in America, I almost replied to him with an Indian accent, but caught myself just in time (I was afraid he may have thought that I was making fun of him or something). It comes in handy, usually, as like I said people will take less notice and you will blend in. But it does puzzle me, and sometimes worries me a bit. The way you speak shows where you're from, your background, your culture, your roots. If I will just adapt to whatever location I find myself in, people will never go "ah, but she's from the north! clearly!" when I open my mouth. This may be a good thing, in some instances, but on the whole I would like it if my accents would be a bit more stable, and I would be a little bit less of a copycat.
After thinking about this for a while, I have decided that this was not weird. It may have been weird because I was studying English, and thus must have had some under laying affinity with the language, and thus may have noticed these differences before, but as I was mainly studying English for the written variety (literature, perhaps writing some things myself), this wasn't really an issue.
But for me, accents have never really been an issue. My mother never tires of telling how I, after we'd been in France for a couple of days, perfectly adapted to the French accent and would call "mama!" in the French rather than the Dutch way (there is a strong difference between these two), copying the French kids around me. I have also spoken with an Amsterdam accent for a while, which may have been influenced by the tv programmes I watched. Then, when I started getting friends in the south of the Netherlands, my accent shifted to their pronunciation, sometimes to the confusion of my northerly friends.
It took quite a long while to fix on a 'proper' accent for my English studies (yes, we get proficiency in the language as well), perhaps because of all the mixed influences I was getting. I have been called Mid-Atlantic by some, which is not really a compliment. But finally, I picked British English, and passed my speaking courses with this. However, after only a week in America, people started to ask me where I lived or studied, as my accent was so genuine (I have since found out that Americans will say that someones English is 'great' when they can utter simple sentences, but I have the feeling that this went a bit further than that). I also noticed in myself that I started pronouncing things in an American way; rhotic (that means, pronouncing the 'r' in certain locations in words, Americans do this, most British don't) and generally rolling the words around in my mouth more, the way Americans do.
I think this is simply an adaptive strategy. When I talked in British English, I sometimes had to repeat myself as others did not immediately understand me. When I went with the American accent, it was easier to make myself understood, and it was also easier to deal with things without getting the added 'she's a foreigner!' bit. Same goes for my Dutch accents; it is adaptive, but also a way of blending in. When in the south of the country, if you speak in a strong northern accent, people will look at you in a funny way, and you immediately feel like you don't belong.
I have no idea why I do this (it is clearly not a conscious effort on my part, even more, I was trying to maintain my British accent in America and failed miserably): it is an automatic thing. When talking to an Indian shopkeeper in America, I almost replied to him with an Indian accent, but caught myself just in time (I was afraid he may have thought that I was making fun of him or something). It comes in handy, usually, as like I said people will take less notice and you will blend in. But it does puzzle me, and sometimes worries me a bit. The way you speak shows where you're from, your background, your culture, your roots. If I will just adapt to whatever location I find myself in, people will never go "ah, but she's from the north! clearly!" when I open my mouth. This may be a good thing, in some instances, but on the whole I would like it if my accents would be a bit more stable, and I would be a little bit less of a copycat.
Tuesday 18 September 2012
Key Lime Pie
While in the US, I had some key lime pie for dessert (I'd eaten some in the Netherlands too, but that was a very "culinary" version, whereas this was the real thing). I was determined to make some while at home, and today gave me the perfect opportunity, as we're having people over for dinner for several evenings in a row, and this is not a pie you want to have to eat on your own!
As always, I combined several recipes, to adjust for my own taste and availability of things in Dutch supermarkets. To make a 'real' key lime pie I'd have to use key limes, which are one of those things that you can't buy in the Netherlands, so I used regular lime juice instead. I know this is sacrilage to some people, but really, you can't have everything.
Ingredients:
200 g finely crushed biscuits
100 g butter
3 eggs, split into yolks and whites (make sure that absolutely no yolk gets into the whites!)
1 tin of condensed milk (this comes in 397 g tins, so that's the amount you use)
115 ml lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
80 g sugar
Melt the butter and mix with the biscuit crumbs. Push into your prepared baking tin (which you can line with baking parchment to get the pie out easier when it's done), making sure that you also put it up to the sides so the filling will be properly contained. Put in the fridge to cool.
Put your egg yolks in a bowl and whisk until they are slightly paler and a bit milk-like (recipes often say "fluffy", but my yolks never turn fluffy). Add the condensed milk and whisk for about 3 minutes, until both are well combined. Add the lime juice by small amounts while you keep whisking, and finally add the lemon zest. Pour the mixture into your biscuit base (do not put it back in the fridge).
Now clean your mixer whisks veeery carefully so there is no egg or milk left on them. If you want to be extra handy, also clean the bowl you are going to use by rubbing a little lemon juice over it. This makes your egg whites want to stick less to the bowl, and you will have them whisked much quicker. So put the egg whites into the bowl and whisk until they are white and fluffy and a bit glossy. Add the sugar little by little until it is all absorbed (making sure you don't knock the air out of your egg mixture again). Spoon the mixture on top of the lime mixture, make sure that the peaks do not stick too far above the rest of the pie, as the tips may burn while the rest is still uncooked.
Bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes, until the egg whites on top have turned a nice light brown. Take out of the oven to cool, and when cooled enough put in the fridge for at least 3 hours to fully cool.
So taste-wise, I was afraid it'd be too sweet, as the condensed milk was one of the sweetest things I ever tasted. However, it is mostly refreshing, sweet but mostly lime-y and sour-y. To my great surprise, it actually tasted like key lime pie. Or that's what I thought, someone else thought that it tasted too sweet. The egg white foam doesn't really add that much taste, it is a little bit sweet but adds mostly texture, so maybe you want to add some more sugar if you want to get a real effect out of that part.
I will definitely make this again, probably some time next summer when the weather is less grey and autumny and you really need a fresh pie to keep you happy. But even for this weather, it's a nice reminder of summer!
As always, I combined several recipes, to adjust for my own taste and availability of things in Dutch supermarkets. To make a 'real' key lime pie I'd have to use key limes, which are one of those things that you can't buy in the Netherlands, so I used regular lime juice instead. I know this is sacrilage to some people, but really, you can't have everything.
Ingredients:
200 g finely crushed biscuits
100 g butter
3 eggs, split into yolks and whites (make sure that absolutely no yolk gets into the whites!)
1 tin of condensed milk (this comes in 397 g tins, so that's the amount you use)
115 ml lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
80 g sugar
Melt the butter and mix with the biscuit crumbs. Push into your prepared baking tin (which you can line with baking parchment to get the pie out easier when it's done), making sure that you also put it up to the sides so the filling will be properly contained. Put in the fridge to cool.
Put your egg yolks in a bowl and whisk until they are slightly paler and a bit milk-like (recipes often say "fluffy", but my yolks never turn fluffy). Add the condensed milk and whisk for about 3 minutes, until both are well combined. Add the lime juice by small amounts while you keep whisking, and finally add the lemon zest. Pour the mixture into your biscuit base (do not put it back in the fridge).
Now clean your mixer whisks veeery carefully so there is no egg or milk left on them. If you want to be extra handy, also clean the bowl you are going to use by rubbing a little lemon juice over it. This makes your egg whites want to stick less to the bowl, and you will have them whisked much quicker. So put the egg whites into the bowl and whisk until they are white and fluffy and a bit glossy. Add the sugar little by little until it is all absorbed (making sure you don't knock the air out of your egg mixture again). Spoon the mixture on top of the lime mixture, make sure that the peaks do not stick too far above the rest of the pie, as the tips may burn while the rest is still uncooked.
 |
| The pie pre-baking. |
Bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes, until the egg whites on top have turned a nice light brown. Take out of the oven to cool, and when cooled enough put in the fridge for at least 3 hours to fully cool.
 |
| Post-baking. Crappy photo, but you can somewhat see the layers. |
So taste-wise, I was afraid it'd be too sweet, as the condensed milk was one of the sweetest things I ever tasted. However, it is mostly refreshing, sweet but mostly lime-y and sour-y. To my great surprise, it actually tasted like key lime pie. Or that's what I thought, someone else thought that it tasted too sweet. The egg white foam doesn't really add that much taste, it is a little bit sweet but adds mostly texture, so maybe you want to add some more sugar if you want to get a real effect out of that part.
I will definitely make this again, probably some time next summer when the weather is less grey and autumny and you really need a fresh pie to keep you happy. But even for this weather, it's a nice reminder of summer!
Sunday 16 September 2012
American impressions
So the last three weeks I was in America. This was my first time to the other side of the big Atlantic pond, and it's made quite an impression. You have some sort of image in your head of what a country or its people is going to be like, and when you actually do visit you realise all your (subconscious) preconceptions and stereotypes are based on nothing much. Below you will find some things that I noticed, or talked about, or that are just maybe interesting to know or realise. I have only been to the north eastern part (NYC, Boston, some New England, Cape Cod, New Jersey, and Washington DC), so what I say here is probably generalising those areas only, but I wouldn't know.
- There really is a Starbucks on every corner. There is also a McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's, or Whole Foods. These are never to be found when you are actually looking for them, if you are hungry or in need of free wifi. Also, there are very many small supermarkets and privately owned stores, cafes, and restaurants, which have somehow managed to survive the big chains. We usually went to them instead, as I can have a Starbucks coffee here in Groningen too, if I want to.
- All these shops and stores and restaurants and public transport buildings and what not have a surplus of employees. The Apple Stores are the biggest in this, but generally in restaurants or cafes there was about double the amount of personnel as one would have in a similar European setting. All of these people are very friendly, curious to get to know you, and desperate to please you. As there are so many, they are generally bored, and will be very happy if you talk to them. Also, it's simply polite to say "no thank you, I'm just browsing" than ignore them. I've had some really great conversations with people sitting behind desks or helping out in stores who were just doing their job and interested in getting to know me. I realised that some people just saw them as stupid worker bees that you can ignore when you feel better or smarter than they, but really, these are smart people just trying to earn some money. And they aren't earning a lot of that, so do tip. I was surprised at how happy people are when you give them a tip, even though the US is supposed to be the "big tip" country where you tip at least 15-20% in restaurants (in Europe it's usually 10%, although most people just forget doing it).
- In big cities, people don't greet each other, talk to strangers, or give each other random compliments or services (like holding a door open). When you do do these things, people are generally very happy and outgoing, again eager to help and be nice. In small towns, the situation is the reverse: everybody greets everybody, talks to them, gives them compliments, and helps them out, and if you don't do these things you are generally regarded as strange or outlandish. In big cities, most people ignored us and the fact that we spoke Dutch amongst ourselves, in small towns, some people looked at us suspiciously when doing the same thing.
- Most things are relatively cheap. Hotel rooms in big cities are expensive, of course, but the amount of service you get for the money is pretty high, so overall that's good. Food is cheap too, although alcoholic drinks are expensive. Public transport is really cheap, as is petrol, which is interesting as in Europe both are expensive. A lot of toll on roads and bridges, some of which are ridiculously high, while others are strangely low. Government sites and museums are almost always free or charge a low fee, stand-alone museums or other attractions are very expensive. Once you are inside them, the food is also pretty expensive without being of a great quality (a 12$ sandwich at the US Open which was a soggy 'ciabatta' just containing cold, greasy "grilled vegetables" and some weird hummus paste was the absolute low point). Do mark that most prices are without sales tax, which can be anything from 7 to 20%. If they say "2 donuts for 2$", you will have to dig in your wallet for coins if you show up with just 2 dollar bills in hand. You don't have to pay tax on books, which is something more countries should have.
- Nature is everywhere. I can now see why Americans don't make a big thing about nature loss; they have so much of it. Everywhere there are trees and fields of grass and beaches and rocks and hills and mountains and what not... In cities this is less, of course, but still they are not all concrete and asphalt, there are many trees and parks and grassy edges. But the forests we saw from the plane, stretching all the way from when we first saw the tip of Canada to the suburbs of New York, are just one example. I envy their big country, where there is so much space for everybody that they did not need to cut all these beautiful forests down, like we have done here. Also, a lot of wildlife. Many species of birds and butterflies bigger than my hand. We saw possums and skunks and huuuuge turkeys walking (or laying dead, sadly) by the wayside, and beautiful whales and dolphins in a marine sanctuary. I can now also understand the stress some Americans have over here when there are bugs or other creatures: they have some scary ones over there. Luckily we didn't meet any of them (except in the zoo), but nature is still really and truly nature over there, the good and the bad parts.
- There are a lot of dogs. I have never seen this many dogs in 3 weeks before. Perhaps related, but I'm not sure: many children. Young children, babies, you name it. They somehow disappear around the age of 10, but below that, you'll see everything. Parents with 3 young children in tow in the middle of NYC is not a strange sight. You hardly ever see them on the subways. Also, many tires on the side of the freeways. No idea why, but many people seem to lose their tires. Finally, a lot of joggers. Everybody seems to be jogging at some point of the day. Which brings me to the next point...
- Most people are obsessed with being healthy. To an extreme degree, I would say. Interestingly enough, most of these people are actually overweight and probably in a pretty bad condition. They eat healthy by choosing the "veggie lovers" pizza at PizzaHut, and then take the bus back to their hotel. I have had some very strange looks over ordering some dishes filled with ricotta or some other kind of cheese, while Americans ordered the "salad", which usually comes with some kind of fried thing (bacon, shrimp) and more dressing than I could wade through. The actual amount of fresh vegetables is usually pretty low. Also, the actual amount of movement these people have is very low (every day some Americans staying in our DC hotel asked us which bus or subway line we took, and every day they were amazed that we walked everywhere. I don't think they believed us, as they were complaining about the subway station being 7 blocks from the hotel, and that the walk was so hard...). Taking cabs everywhere and sitting behind your desk for 10 hours straight drinking coffee and eating bagels isn't going to go away with a jog in the park. But sports are important and a big part of the culture, even though most people aren't able to practise them. Also, corn syrup in everything. Most of the "jams" are just corn syrup with some fruit juice (and colouring agents). I've had pizza slices that tasted sweet and sugary. (If you do want to eat pizza, find a good Italian. American pizzas are huge and fatty and they'll leave you hungry about an hour later, whereas Italian pizzas are just filling and taste a lot better, even though they are a quarter the size...) The positive thing is of course that people are willing and trying to be healthier. The sad thing is that they don't really know how to, and that it's almost impossible to do with the amount of junk that goes into their food.
- In a last point, I think few Americans could have written this post. Not only because it is somehow looking at their society from the outside in (although it is extreme how quickly you adapt to your new situation, and how strange some European things now are to me (Americans walk slower, and the handle to flush the toilet is usually on the left-hand side while here it is on the right, to name a few things)). But especially, because in "the land of the free", people are really and truly free. They can choose whatever they want, and others don't chastise them for it. I heard very little complaining while I was there, very little gossip, and many people who were in terrible situations were positive and nice. They are free to wear clothes that others wouldn't ever dream about wearing without getting strange or dirty looks, free to eat breakfast at 9 in the evening or get a pizza at 8 in the morning, free to visit their great national museums or complain that too much money is going to them, free to practise their religion, not get health insurance, get a job after high school, or get a child at 16. You may see this as bad things (in Europe, governments usually have these strict campaigns trying to discourage or encourage people), but the point of the matter is that they can choose. It took me a while to figure this thing out, but in the end, I think it is a good thing. In the Netherlands, the government decides so many things for you, that usually people a) don't think for themselves anymore and b) complain and gripe about everything. They never feel like it is their decision or possibility to change things, as they are being "taken care of". Now I know many Americans are in shitty situations that they did not choose for themselves and would love a little help, so it isn't the best system either. But overall, on many points, I think the American outlook on life is more positive and healthier. I wouldn't mind living there for a couple of years (I've said this about many countries, so this is not really a big thing, but the point is that I would never have said this before visiting) and I am very sure I will travel there again!
- There really is a Starbucks on every corner. There is also a McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's, or Whole Foods. These are never to be found when you are actually looking for them, if you are hungry or in need of free wifi. Also, there are very many small supermarkets and privately owned stores, cafes, and restaurants, which have somehow managed to survive the big chains. We usually went to them instead, as I can have a Starbucks coffee here in Groningen too, if I want to.
- All these shops and stores and restaurants and public transport buildings and what not have a surplus of employees. The Apple Stores are the biggest in this, but generally in restaurants or cafes there was about double the amount of personnel as one would have in a similar European setting. All of these people are very friendly, curious to get to know you, and desperate to please you. As there are so many, they are generally bored, and will be very happy if you talk to them. Also, it's simply polite to say "no thank you, I'm just browsing" than ignore them. I've had some really great conversations with people sitting behind desks or helping out in stores who were just doing their job and interested in getting to know me. I realised that some people just saw them as stupid worker bees that you can ignore when you feel better or smarter than they, but really, these are smart people just trying to earn some money. And they aren't earning a lot of that, so do tip. I was surprised at how happy people are when you give them a tip, even though the US is supposed to be the "big tip" country where you tip at least 15-20% in restaurants (in Europe it's usually 10%, although most people just forget doing it).
- In big cities, people don't greet each other, talk to strangers, or give each other random compliments or services (like holding a door open). When you do do these things, people are generally very happy and outgoing, again eager to help and be nice. In small towns, the situation is the reverse: everybody greets everybody, talks to them, gives them compliments, and helps them out, and if you don't do these things you are generally regarded as strange or outlandish. In big cities, most people ignored us and the fact that we spoke Dutch amongst ourselves, in small towns, some people looked at us suspiciously when doing the same thing.
- Most things are relatively cheap. Hotel rooms in big cities are expensive, of course, but the amount of service you get for the money is pretty high, so overall that's good. Food is cheap too, although alcoholic drinks are expensive. Public transport is really cheap, as is petrol, which is interesting as in Europe both are expensive. A lot of toll on roads and bridges, some of which are ridiculously high, while others are strangely low. Government sites and museums are almost always free or charge a low fee, stand-alone museums or other attractions are very expensive. Once you are inside them, the food is also pretty expensive without being of a great quality (a 12$ sandwich at the US Open which was a soggy 'ciabatta' just containing cold, greasy "grilled vegetables" and some weird hummus paste was the absolute low point). Do mark that most prices are without sales tax, which can be anything from 7 to 20%. If they say "2 donuts for 2$", you will have to dig in your wallet for coins if you show up with just 2 dollar bills in hand. You don't have to pay tax on books, which is something more countries should have.
- Nature is everywhere. I can now see why Americans don't make a big thing about nature loss; they have so much of it. Everywhere there are trees and fields of grass and beaches and rocks and hills and mountains and what not... In cities this is less, of course, but still they are not all concrete and asphalt, there are many trees and parks and grassy edges. But the forests we saw from the plane, stretching all the way from when we first saw the tip of Canada to the suburbs of New York, are just one example. I envy their big country, where there is so much space for everybody that they did not need to cut all these beautiful forests down, like we have done here. Also, a lot of wildlife. Many species of birds and butterflies bigger than my hand. We saw possums and skunks and huuuuge turkeys walking (or laying dead, sadly) by the wayside, and beautiful whales and dolphins in a marine sanctuary. I can now also understand the stress some Americans have over here when there are bugs or other creatures: they have some scary ones over there. Luckily we didn't meet any of them (except in the zoo), but nature is still really and truly nature over there, the good and the bad parts.
- There are a lot of dogs. I have never seen this many dogs in 3 weeks before. Perhaps related, but I'm not sure: many children. Young children, babies, you name it. They somehow disappear around the age of 10, but below that, you'll see everything. Parents with 3 young children in tow in the middle of NYC is not a strange sight. You hardly ever see them on the subways. Also, many tires on the side of the freeways. No idea why, but many people seem to lose their tires. Finally, a lot of joggers. Everybody seems to be jogging at some point of the day. Which brings me to the next point...
- Most people are obsessed with being healthy. To an extreme degree, I would say. Interestingly enough, most of these people are actually overweight and probably in a pretty bad condition. They eat healthy by choosing the "veggie lovers" pizza at PizzaHut, and then take the bus back to their hotel. I have had some very strange looks over ordering some dishes filled with ricotta or some other kind of cheese, while Americans ordered the "salad", which usually comes with some kind of fried thing (bacon, shrimp) and more dressing than I could wade through. The actual amount of fresh vegetables is usually pretty low. Also, the actual amount of movement these people have is very low (every day some Americans staying in our DC hotel asked us which bus or subway line we took, and every day they were amazed that we walked everywhere. I don't think they believed us, as they were complaining about the subway station being 7 blocks from the hotel, and that the walk was so hard...). Taking cabs everywhere and sitting behind your desk for 10 hours straight drinking coffee and eating bagels isn't going to go away with a jog in the park. But sports are important and a big part of the culture, even though most people aren't able to practise them. Also, corn syrup in everything. Most of the "jams" are just corn syrup with some fruit juice (and colouring agents). I've had pizza slices that tasted sweet and sugary. (If you do want to eat pizza, find a good Italian. American pizzas are huge and fatty and they'll leave you hungry about an hour later, whereas Italian pizzas are just filling and taste a lot better, even though they are a quarter the size...) The positive thing is of course that people are willing and trying to be healthier. The sad thing is that they don't really know how to, and that it's almost impossible to do with the amount of junk that goes into their food.
- In a last point, I think few Americans could have written this post. Not only because it is somehow looking at their society from the outside in (although it is extreme how quickly you adapt to your new situation, and how strange some European things now are to me (Americans walk slower, and the handle to flush the toilet is usually on the left-hand side while here it is on the right, to name a few things)). But especially, because in "the land of the free", people are really and truly free. They can choose whatever they want, and others don't chastise them for it. I heard very little complaining while I was there, very little gossip, and many people who were in terrible situations were positive and nice. They are free to wear clothes that others wouldn't ever dream about wearing without getting strange or dirty looks, free to eat breakfast at 9 in the evening or get a pizza at 8 in the morning, free to visit their great national museums or complain that too much money is going to them, free to practise their religion, not get health insurance, get a job after high school, or get a child at 16. You may see this as bad things (in Europe, governments usually have these strict campaigns trying to discourage or encourage people), but the point of the matter is that they can choose. It took me a while to figure this thing out, but in the end, I think it is a good thing. In the Netherlands, the government decides so many things for you, that usually people a) don't think for themselves anymore and b) complain and gripe about everything. They never feel like it is their decision or possibility to change things, as they are being "taken care of". Now I know many Americans are in shitty situations that they did not choose for themselves and would love a little help, so it isn't the best system either. But overall, on many points, I think the American outlook on life is more positive and healthier. I wouldn't mind living there for a couple of years (I've said this about many countries, so this is not really a big thing, but the point is that I would never have said this before visiting) and I am very sure I will travel there again!
Friday 17 August 2012
Administrative blaaaaaa
I realise that administration, paperwork, and contracts are what makes this world go round. I also realise that it is what keeps all of us from throwing ourselves into things without knowing for sure what they will bring us or what we can expect from others. I know there have to be rules and regulations, but surely, not this many?
The first thing I'm kinda getting fed up on: contracts. I've signed a contract with the company I will do an internship for, which I think is logical, as they will be providing me with lots of information and a workspace and what not, and they'd like to see me commit to actually giving them something in return. Conversely, I still have to write up and have signed (by 4 different people) the contact between me, the university, my university supervisor and my company supervisor saying that we will all help me get the internship done and that the uni will then give me credit (the final 10 ECTs). It's a lot of work, because it requires all kinds of specific wording and many many things which I don't know yet, so I'm spending a lot of time thinking about this stupid piece of paper, which should not be the main thing on my mind right now. Finally, I still have to write up a contract with my dissertation supervisor. That's right, it has gotten this far; because students can't trust their supervisors (to help them properly) and the university doesn't trust students (to finish on time, which is actually resonable), we have to sign a piece of paper saying that we both commit to me finishing the 15,000 words on time and her helping me do that.
I mean, where is the trust? I can see how the uni and the internship company have to protect themselves from me not doing anything (while they either pay me or give me credit) or how I have to protect myself from them not providing the things I need, but seriously, my dissertation supervisor? With whom I chat about my US travels, grading papers, the new Jane Austen film, and what-not? Sigh...
Then there is the paperwork that comes with either travelling or moving to another country (I have no experience with the latter, but yesterday I spend the afternoon helping a friend who will move to Sweden on Tuesday, and boy, does it involve a looooot of paperwork). Sticking to our US trip, we have insurance, pre-booked tickets (there is literally only 1 venue that offers will-call, for the rest we have to print them out and carry them around for 2 weeks), international driver's licences, booking confirmations... the list is endless. I am starting to realise why people take these all-in vacations where you don't have to do anything yourself (including thinking), although I'd really hate to do one of those, so plodding on here.
Moral of the story; anyone who tells you that paper is dead and everything will become digital soon, they're either lying or don't get out much. Paper is what this world runs on. It is also what my desk is filled with, and what makes it impossible for me to do the things I should be doing, as there's other stuff to fill in or sign or print out first.
The only good thing is that I know that once the trip is done (and we've actually used all those bits of paper), the internship is on it's way, and the dissertation is going smoothly, I'll be happy I've done all this administrative prep. Something to look forward to!
The first thing I'm kinda getting fed up on: contracts. I've signed a contract with the company I will do an internship for, which I think is logical, as they will be providing me with lots of information and a workspace and what not, and they'd like to see me commit to actually giving them something in return. Conversely, I still have to write up and have signed (by 4 different people) the contact between me, the university, my university supervisor and my company supervisor saying that we will all help me get the internship done and that the uni will then give me credit (the final 10 ECTs). It's a lot of work, because it requires all kinds of specific wording and many many things which I don't know yet, so I'm spending a lot of time thinking about this stupid piece of paper, which should not be the main thing on my mind right now. Finally, I still have to write up a contract with my dissertation supervisor. That's right, it has gotten this far; because students can't trust their supervisors (to help them properly) and the university doesn't trust students (to finish on time, which is actually resonable), we have to sign a piece of paper saying that we both commit to me finishing the 15,000 words on time and her helping me do that.
I mean, where is the trust? I can see how the uni and the internship company have to protect themselves from me not doing anything (while they either pay me or give me credit) or how I have to protect myself from them not providing the things I need, but seriously, my dissertation supervisor? With whom I chat about my US travels, grading papers, the new Jane Austen film, and what-not? Sigh...
Then there is the paperwork that comes with either travelling or moving to another country (I have no experience with the latter, but yesterday I spend the afternoon helping a friend who will move to Sweden on Tuesday, and boy, does it involve a looooot of paperwork). Sticking to our US trip, we have insurance, pre-booked tickets (there is literally only 1 venue that offers will-call, for the rest we have to print them out and carry them around for 2 weeks), international driver's licences, booking confirmations... the list is endless. I am starting to realise why people take these all-in vacations where you don't have to do anything yourself (including thinking), although I'd really hate to do one of those, so plodding on here.
Moral of the story; anyone who tells you that paper is dead and everything will become digital soon, they're either lying or don't get out much. Paper is what this world runs on. It is also what my desk is filled with, and what makes it impossible for me to do the things I should be doing, as there's other stuff to fill in or sign or print out first.
The only good thing is that I know that once the trip is done (and we've actually used all those bits of paper), the internship is on it's way, and the dissertation is going smoothly, I'll be happy I've done all this administrative prep. Something to look forward to!
Monday 13 August 2012
End of summer smell
The smell is in the air again. I can't really describe it, but once I smell it, I know that it is August, probably mid leaning towards the end, and that A New Year is Coming.
That is to say, a new school year. This smell sets off feelings of both excitement and anticipation (a new school year! A new class! What will I do, learn, see?) and sadness (but summer is over! Where did all those weeks gooooo?) in my head. Usually, this is the period that I'm fully relaxed, have read everything I wanted to read, have done everything wanted to do, and am fully charged for a new year of activities. When in university, I'd be busy buying or ordering my books, checking out timetables, arranging my new work schedule, etc. Overall, this is a good time, a relaxed, happy time.
Not this year.
This year, I worked through the summer, initially doing various small jobs which then had larger things tacked onto them until they became quite big jobs. Then there was the preparation for my MA dissertation (which is still not finished), the administrative business for my internship next year (which is not even half-way) and all the prep for our big trip to the US in 2 weeks time. I don't feel relaxed, I don't feel like I've done any of the things I wanted to do or read any of the books I wanted to read, I'm not happily preparing for a new year as I still don't have a clue what or where or how that new year will be spend, and overall, I'm in a state of skin-deep panic rather than a nice tinge of anxiety.
This is probably over-reacting, but that is what a big trip to an unknown country (country? continent!) followed by an internship at a big fancy publishing company combined with an MA dissertation will do to you.
It's not like I haven't done anything this summer: we went on several day trips and spend a weekend away, and we generally had a very nice time with friends. But overall, it's been the same as most normal weeks of the year: boyfriend leaves the house to work for 8 hours, I stay in the house to work for 8 hours, and in the evenings we're tiredly trying to make sense of Tripadvisor or the Lonely Planet or government websites or Ticketmaster (this last thing we don't usually do, of course). We still have quite a large to-do list and I still don't feel like I know anything about the places we're going. We will take a sailing trip next weekend, which is also slightly freaking me out as I feel like I'm 'wasting away' those last precious free hours we have (which is nonsense, and it's probably very healthy to take a bit of a break away from home right now, to clear my head). Again, all of this is probably strictly speaking neither true nor fair, but as I said, panic mode is starting to set in.
So let's hope I'll get back from the US fully relaxed and re-charged. And let's hope that smell, flowers mixed with dried grass mixed with all kinds of herbs mixed with anticipation, is still in the air, so I can have a bit of a do-over for the End of the Summer.
That is to say, a new school year. This smell sets off feelings of both excitement and anticipation (a new school year! A new class! What will I do, learn, see?) and sadness (but summer is over! Where did all those weeks gooooo?) in my head. Usually, this is the period that I'm fully relaxed, have read everything I wanted to read, have done everything wanted to do, and am fully charged for a new year of activities. When in university, I'd be busy buying or ordering my books, checking out timetables, arranging my new work schedule, etc. Overall, this is a good time, a relaxed, happy time.
Not this year.
This year, I worked through the summer, initially doing various small jobs which then had larger things tacked onto them until they became quite big jobs. Then there was the preparation for my MA dissertation (which is still not finished), the administrative business for my internship next year (which is not even half-way) and all the prep for our big trip to the US in 2 weeks time. I don't feel relaxed, I don't feel like I've done any of the things I wanted to do or read any of the books I wanted to read, I'm not happily preparing for a new year as I still don't have a clue what or where or how that new year will be spend, and overall, I'm in a state of skin-deep panic rather than a nice tinge of anxiety.
This is probably over-reacting, but that is what a big trip to an unknown country (country? continent!) followed by an internship at a big fancy publishing company combined with an MA dissertation will do to you.
It's not like I haven't done anything this summer: we went on several day trips and spend a weekend away, and we generally had a very nice time with friends. But overall, it's been the same as most normal weeks of the year: boyfriend leaves the house to work for 8 hours, I stay in the house to work for 8 hours, and in the evenings we're tiredly trying to make sense of Tripadvisor or the Lonely Planet or government websites or Ticketmaster (this last thing we don't usually do, of course). We still have quite a large to-do list and I still don't feel like I know anything about the places we're going. We will take a sailing trip next weekend, which is also slightly freaking me out as I feel like I'm 'wasting away' those last precious free hours we have (which is nonsense, and it's probably very healthy to take a bit of a break away from home right now, to clear my head). Again, all of this is probably strictly speaking neither true nor fair, but as I said, panic mode is starting to set in.
So let's hope I'll get back from the US fully relaxed and re-charged. And let's hope that smell, flowers mixed with dried grass mixed with all kinds of herbs mixed with anticipation, is still in the air, so I can have a bit of a do-over for the End of the Summer.
Wednesday 8 August 2012
Home or away?
I've been studying English Language & Culture for 4 years now, and I naturally feel a great affinity with Great Britain. Maybe that's even an understatement: I love the atmosphere, the nature, the countryside, the people, the culture. I usually only watch BBC programs, most of my favourite authors are British, and I know more about British culture, history, and arts than any other country, including my own. I've always loved British novels and tea, but now I've also acquired a taste for many other traditionally British things, including many bakery things, rugby, (British) theatre, and of course British humour (I still can't figure out cricket, but I will one day!).
So usually, when there's a sporting event, I back both the Netherlands and Great Britain (or England if the countries compete separately, as in the Six Nations Cup). I thought I might get into a bit of a conscience conflict with the 2012 Olympics, as these are held in London and I felt that I would probably back Great Britain more than the Netherlands.
Interestingly, the opposite has happened. I've cheered for the Dutch so much more, especially when competing against Great Britain, which happened mostly in the sailing, cycling, and equestrian sports, that I've been thoroughly annoyed at all the medals the Brits keep winning. Even more, in other sports I'm also starting to oppose the British, and starting to favour people from countries I'd never thought I'd like (yesterday I cheered for Ivan Ukhov in the high jump, but he's just the most eccentric athlete you've ever seen...). In any case, blood apparently does run thicker than water.
I wonder how this will play out when the Olympics are over. I'm generally not a huge admirer of Dutch culture or customs, even though I write extensively about them on my Postcrossing cards, I often think that I'd rather live somewhere less narrow, less self-absorbed, where people have more respect for others (I'm now thinking that probably everyone feels this way about their country, but hey). But then where ever I'd go, I'd probably still feel inherently Dutch, even though I'd always thought I'd easily adapt to whatever environment I'd find myself in. Not that I would be one for importing drop and hagelslag (Dutch things) because I couldn't do without them, but this has shown me that the Dutch thing is ingrained deeper than I thought.
Another positive revelation is that I apparently don't automatically back the horse that is doing best. The Netherlands are doing great, with 5 gold medals so far, but Great Britain is really on a roll. All I can say is: good for them!
PS: The title is from a round of questions in A Question of Sport, another BBC program, great fun even for non-sport lovers!
So usually, when there's a sporting event, I back both the Netherlands and Great Britain (or England if the countries compete separately, as in the Six Nations Cup). I thought I might get into a bit of a conscience conflict with the 2012 Olympics, as these are held in London and I felt that I would probably back Great Britain more than the Netherlands.
Interestingly, the opposite has happened. I've cheered for the Dutch so much more, especially when competing against Great Britain, which happened mostly in the sailing, cycling, and equestrian sports, that I've been thoroughly annoyed at all the medals the Brits keep winning. Even more, in other sports I'm also starting to oppose the British, and starting to favour people from countries I'd never thought I'd like (yesterday I cheered for Ivan Ukhov in the high jump, but he's just the most eccentric athlete you've ever seen...). In any case, blood apparently does run thicker than water.
I wonder how this will play out when the Olympics are over. I'm generally not a huge admirer of Dutch culture or customs, even though I write extensively about them on my Postcrossing cards, I often think that I'd rather live somewhere less narrow, less self-absorbed, where people have more respect for others (I'm now thinking that probably everyone feels this way about their country, but hey). But then where ever I'd go, I'd probably still feel inherently Dutch, even though I'd always thought I'd easily adapt to whatever environment I'd find myself in. Not that I would be one for importing drop and hagelslag (Dutch things) because I couldn't do without them, but this has shown me that the Dutch thing is ingrained deeper than I thought.
Another positive revelation is that I apparently don't automatically back the horse that is doing best. The Netherlands are doing great, with 5 gold medals so far, but Great Britain is really on a roll. All I can say is: good for them!
PS: The title is from a round of questions in A Question of Sport, another BBC program, great fun even for non-sport lovers!
Tuesday 31 July 2012
Garden produce
Yesterday we had our first garden-grown broccoli for dinner. Well, that actually makes it sound bigger than it was: we each had 3 pieces, as the broccoli itself was still quite small but had already started to flower. Now we've had quite some visitors to the garden lately who had no idea how broccoli is actually grown, so here's a picture I took about a week ago:
Yes, broccoli is a flower. The word actually means "flowering top of a cabbage" in Italian (I got this from Wikipedia, btw, my Italian is not that fluent). I don't know why so many people are surprised at the way broccoli grows, but it's always nice to learn something new, right?
Since my last gardening post there have been some changes: we now have (apart from the broccoli) 3 other vegetables growing in the garden: tomatoes, peppers, and winter leeks. The leeks replaced the beans (legumes, actually) that were slaughtered by a buch of slugs (same for the rocket). The strawberries and radishes are of course long gone, and the artichoke plant does not really look like it's doing much, but we'll keep it just to see whether it does something next year.
So, the tomatoes. We actually went for a store-bought version here, because the ones we grew from seed were just too tiny to produce flowers (or so we thought, they now have some very very small flowers, so something may still happen there. The store-bought tomato plant came with flowers in place, which have by now turned into some lovely tomatoes:
I hope they will turn red before our big vacation, so we can actually enjoy them!
The pepper plant is also store-bought and still in flower, and the leeks are still very tiny at the moment, but they're supposed to grow until November/December. The grape plants have some veeeeery tiny grapes which we hope will get bigger in time, but last year the total harvest was 3 grapes, so we're not holding our breath on that one.
Apart from these functional plants, we of course also have some nice flowers, to keep the insects happy and thus to keep us happy.
Our rose (which we've had for a while now, but which doens't seem to get any bigger) had just one flower last year, so I'm very happy with the turnout of this year. There are some other flowers on the lower stems, which hadn't opened when I took this picture, so it looks even better now.
I just found out that this is called a "Common Holleyhock" in English. Well, we call it "stokroos", which means "stick rose", so neither name is very favourable. Anyway, we've had these ones for 3 years now, and they've been doing great all along.
They (meaning the housing association that owns the building) removed a whole wall of ivy from our garden last year, as it was getting into the roof tiles and window sills of the people living above us, and to replace it we put in a clematis, which is less damaging and nicer to look at. I'm never sure whether I like these plants, they look a bit too show-offy for me, but still, they're flowering nicely.
And finally a nice combo shot of our butterfly-bush and hydrangea. We've had both of these for a couple of years too now, they are both in corners of the bit of garden that gets the least sunlight, so I'm not sure whether they are totally happy, but they look nice and the butterfly-bush attracts a lot of butterflies and bees and bumblebees, so that's good.
That's the end of the tour for now, hopefully I can get you one more update some time in autumn, when most of the fruits of our labour should be in!
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| Our broccoli buds. |
Since my last gardening post there have been some changes: we now have (apart from the broccoli) 3 other vegetables growing in the garden: tomatoes, peppers, and winter leeks. The leeks replaced the beans (legumes, actually) that were slaughtered by a buch of slugs (same for the rocket). The strawberries and radishes are of course long gone, and the artichoke plant does not really look like it's doing much, but we'll keep it just to see whether it does something next year.
So, the tomatoes. We actually went for a store-bought version here, because the ones we grew from seed were just too tiny to produce flowers (or so we thought, they now have some very very small flowers, so something may still happen there. The store-bought tomato plant came with flowers in place, which have by now turned into some lovely tomatoes:
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| Cheating with tomatoes |
The pepper plant is also store-bought and still in flower, and the leeks are still very tiny at the moment, but they're supposed to grow until November/December. The grape plants have some veeeeery tiny grapes which we hope will get bigger in time, but last year the total harvest was 3 grapes, so we're not holding our breath on that one.
Apart from these functional plants, we of course also have some nice flowers, to keep the insects happy and thus to keep us happy.
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| Our own white rose. |
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| Alcea rosea, in good Latin. |
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| Clematis show-off. |
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| Butterfly central. |
That's the end of the tour for now, hopefully I can get you one more update some time in autumn, when most of the fruits of our labour should be in!
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