Wow, is this year going faster than other years, or what? I feel like May has just begun (I've just come back from China), and suddenly it's almost July already! We're bracing ourselves for some of the hottest days to come this year (30+ temperatures, the whole country is in an uproar) and in the meantime I even managed to read some books!
19 De vegetarier (The Vegetarian) - Han Kang
20 The assassination of Margaret Thatcher - Hilary Mantel
21 Us - David Nicholls
22 Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
23 Gooseberries - Anton Chekov
I alllmost managed to finish The Talented Mr Ripley as well, but then sleep overtook me, so that will have to go in next month's list.
But considering that the last full week of June was last week (week 26), and I'm now at 23 books, I seem to have actually caught up by one book! I am now only 3 books behind!
So I read some wildly differing books this month. The Vegetarian is by a South Korean writer who I'd never heard of, and it is a very beautiful but also slightly disturbing book about a woman who decides to stop eating meat, and the events that unravel because of that choice. It makes you wonder whether anyone is actually in their right mind at any time. I feel that Us is this years The Rosie Project: the book about a scientifically minded man (first-person narrator) who falls in love with this artsy girl but can't quite get the affection across because of his slightly autistic nature. Only in Us, the couple are actually married (much to the surprise of the protagonist) and their marriage is falling apart. Also, Us has a wonderful sense of humour, which makes me want to read more books by Nicholls. Then there was Gooseberries, short stories by Chekov, to complement the short stories by Hilary Mantel. And finally Black Swan Green, of which I've written a lot already.
Hopefully the approaching summer weather will mean lots of lazy afternoons filled with reading and eating home-grown strawberries...
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Sunday, 28 June 2015
Black Swan Green
So I've been reading quite a lot to keep up with my 52 Book Challenge, and one of the books I've recently read was Black Swan Green by David Michell. Now I may not have written all that much about him here, but David Mitchell (not to be confused with the comedian of the same name) is one of my favourite authors.
As with most of my favourite authors, I first read his most well-known novel, Cloud Atlas, because you have to start somewhere, and if lots of people are saying a book is great, you start to believe them. And it is great, beautifully written, very intricate, with seven different 'layers' of story all interweaving into one big saga. Most people know the novel, or the film, which was less good but still nice. Then I read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which is about a Dutchman living in Decima in Japan. This novel doesn't have the whole 'separate stories making up one bigger story', but that is a good thing, because it lets you focus on how great the actual writing is. The sentences are very well-constructed, with lots of imagery and metaphor; it is almost poetic. Which meant that I'd become hooked, and that I had to read his three earlier novels too, while waiting for a new one to come out.
His 'earlier' novels, before he became really famous for Cloud Atlas, are Ghostwritten, number9dream, and Black Swan Green, and I read them in that order (although Black Swan Green was published after Cloud Atlas, it never go the same amount of attention, weirdly enough). I've done the same with Ian McEwan's novels after 'discovering' him with Atonement and Saturday, and I think this is a great way to get to know an author, see how they've developed with regards to themes and characters, but also the things that really show their style, who they are as an author. Ghostwritten follows a slightly similar pattern as Cloud Atlas, only less complicated and well-developed: it travels through various countries and characters in various chapters, as the protagonist 'moves' through different people. You can definitely see his style as an author and his way of combining different stories into one, and the mystical elements that become part of all of his novels, but this is clearly a 'first novel'. Then in number9dream and Black Swan Green, we follow the live of a young, teenage male protagonist during a difficult period in their lives. number9dream is set in Japan, and it is a coming-of-age story in which a boy searches for his long-lost father, getting further entrenched in the Japanese underground world. In this novel, there a strong sense of imagination; some scenes don't really happen, but just take place inside the head of the main character as he ponders his options. It is sometimes confusing to read, but very nicely done, and it keeps you as a reader on your toes.
And then there is Black Swan Green. In this, we follow 13-year-old Jason for one year, from January to December 1982, and experience one (or sometimes several) day of each month through his eyes. The chapters begin and end quite suddenly, so you sometimes don't really know what happend until someone mentions something in a later chapter, and some things you never really find out. Which is okay, because again the writing is some of the most beautiful I've ever written (Jason is a poet, after all) and the scenes just take on a magical atmosphere of their own. What happens, really, is nothing out of the ordinary for a 13-year-old in the early 1980s, but because of Mitchell's style, it becomes almost fairytale-like to read. Also, I've just found out that it's semi-autobiographical, which gives it a whole extra layer of complexity. In all, I think Black Swan Green may be my favourite Mitchell novel, even ahead of Cloud Atlas.
So Mitchell is great with his (written) language, and his characters are very well-rounded and deep, and his plots are amazing (even when nothing really happens, which is a lot of the time). But there is one final thing that makes his novels so interesting to read; they are all interconnected. Where Marvel has its Marvel Cinematic Universe, with all of their super-hero movies combined into one larger story, so all of Mitchell's novels are also connected. Characters from one novel appear in another, or are referenced to, or there are other connections that you only see when you've read the novels quite carefully. For example, take Mrs. Crommelynck, who teaches Jason about poetry in Black Swan Green. She mentions she is the daughter of a famous composer from Belgium, whose last sextet was actually written by a young man named Frobisher. This sextet, and the character of Frobisher, form a very important part of Cloud Atlas. Then there is the song '#9 Dream' by John Lennon, played in Black Swan Green, but obviously a reference to number9dream. Several other characters, including classmates and teachers of Jason, appear in other novels or short stories by David Mitchell. So all in all, you get the feeling that not only some of his novels consist of several smaller stories making up one bigger story; no, all of his novels combined make up one large David Mitchell universe, with some things actually taking place in this place and time, and some in mysterious pasts, unknown futures, or mystical 'other' worlds very similar to our own. He does count on his readers to be intelligent, attentive, and amazed. Although the novels are just as nice without seeing the connections, it just adds another layer of brilliance.
Luckily for me, his newest novel The Bone Clocks is out already, and waiting on my 'to read' pile (and another novel, Slade House, is said to come out this year). But as with all great writers, I have to take a little break with some other, lighter novels, before I can dive into one of his intricate and beautiful stories again. It is an experience you can't get enough of, but one you should take in small, measured quantities, or all other novels will seem unoriginal, unintelligent, and uninspired by comparison.
As with most of my favourite authors, I first read his most well-known novel, Cloud Atlas, because you have to start somewhere, and if lots of people are saying a book is great, you start to believe them. And it is great, beautifully written, very intricate, with seven different 'layers' of story all interweaving into one big saga. Most people know the novel, or the film, which was less good but still nice. Then I read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which is about a Dutchman living in Decima in Japan. This novel doesn't have the whole 'separate stories making up one bigger story', but that is a good thing, because it lets you focus on how great the actual writing is. The sentences are very well-constructed, with lots of imagery and metaphor; it is almost poetic. Which meant that I'd become hooked, and that I had to read his three earlier novels too, while waiting for a new one to come out.
His 'earlier' novels, before he became really famous for Cloud Atlas, are Ghostwritten, number9dream, and Black Swan Green, and I read them in that order (although Black Swan Green was published after Cloud Atlas, it never go the same amount of attention, weirdly enough). I've done the same with Ian McEwan's novels after 'discovering' him with Atonement and Saturday, and I think this is a great way to get to know an author, see how they've developed with regards to themes and characters, but also the things that really show their style, who they are as an author. Ghostwritten follows a slightly similar pattern as Cloud Atlas, only less complicated and well-developed: it travels through various countries and characters in various chapters, as the protagonist 'moves' through different people. You can definitely see his style as an author and his way of combining different stories into one, and the mystical elements that become part of all of his novels, but this is clearly a 'first novel'. Then in number9dream and Black Swan Green, we follow the live of a young, teenage male protagonist during a difficult period in their lives. number9dream is set in Japan, and it is a coming-of-age story in which a boy searches for his long-lost father, getting further entrenched in the Japanese underground world. In this novel, there a strong sense of imagination; some scenes don't really happen, but just take place inside the head of the main character as he ponders his options. It is sometimes confusing to read, but very nicely done, and it keeps you as a reader on your toes.
And then there is Black Swan Green. In this, we follow 13-year-old Jason for one year, from January to December 1982, and experience one (or sometimes several) day of each month through his eyes. The chapters begin and end quite suddenly, so you sometimes don't really know what happend until someone mentions something in a later chapter, and some things you never really find out. Which is okay, because again the writing is some of the most beautiful I've ever written (Jason is a poet, after all) and the scenes just take on a magical atmosphere of their own. What happens, really, is nothing out of the ordinary for a 13-year-old in the early 1980s, but because of Mitchell's style, it becomes almost fairytale-like to read. Also, I've just found out that it's semi-autobiographical, which gives it a whole extra layer of complexity. In all, I think Black Swan Green may be my favourite Mitchell novel, even ahead of Cloud Atlas.
So Mitchell is great with his (written) language, and his characters are very well-rounded and deep, and his plots are amazing (even when nothing really happens, which is a lot of the time). But there is one final thing that makes his novels so interesting to read; they are all interconnected. Where Marvel has its Marvel Cinematic Universe, with all of their super-hero movies combined into one larger story, so all of Mitchell's novels are also connected. Characters from one novel appear in another, or are referenced to, or there are other connections that you only see when you've read the novels quite carefully. For example, take Mrs. Crommelynck, who teaches Jason about poetry in Black Swan Green. She mentions she is the daughter of a famous composer from Belgium, whose last sextet was actually written by a young man named Frobisher. This sextet, and the character of Frobisher, form a very important part of Cloud Atlas. Then there is the song '#9 Dream' by John Lennon, played in Black Swan Green, but obviously a reference to number9dream. Several other characters, including classmates and teachers of Jason, appear in other novels or short stories by David Mitchell. So all in all, you get the feeling that not only some of his novels consist of several smaller stories making up one bigger story; no, all of his novels combined make up one large David Mitchell universe, with some things actually taking place in this place and time, and some in mysterious pasts, unknown futures, or mystical 'other' worlds very similar to our own. He does count on his readers to be intelligent, attentive, and amazed. Although the novels are just as nice without seeing the connections, it just adds another layer of brilliance.
Luckily for me, his newest novel The Bone Clocks is out already, and waiting on my 'to read' pile (and another novel, Slade House, is said to come out this year). But as with all great writers, I have to take a little break with some other, lighter novels, before I can dive into one of his intricate and beautiful stories again. It is an experience you can't get enough of, but one you should take in small, measured quantities, or all other novels will seem unoriginal, unintelligent, and uninspired by comparison.
Sunday, 7 June 2015
Oreo cake
A couple of weeks ago I made an Oreo cheesecake, wondering why I never thought of using Oreos in my baking before. Since a cheesecake technically doesn't involve any baking, I decided to rectify that today by making an Oreo cake.
I've been making plain old cakes since I was really young (it's one of the easiest recipes to remember: 3x 200 grams and 2 eggs, same as in the family recipe apple cake), but usually they turn out quite dry. Adding Oreos to the mixture seems to remedy that, and it tastes great!
Ingredients
200 g butter (softened)
200 g sugar
200 g self-raising (or plain) flower
2 eggs
a teaspoon of lemon zest
half a packet of Oreo cookies (about 12) broken into small pieces
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and line the sides of your cake tin with baking parchment.
Now you make this cake like you make any cake: mix the butter and sugar together until they are soft and creamy, add the flower, and then add the eggs one after the other. After adding the eggs, you have to mix continuously for about 4-5 minutes, to get enough air into the mixture for the cake to rise well. This can be really heavy on the hand and wrist, but since I now have my beautiful KitchenAid, I could let the machine do the work for me, and break up the cookies in the meantime.
Add the lemon zest and the Oreos in small quantities, and mix thoroughly so that everything is well-combined (your cake mixture will become somewhat blackish/brownish in colour, which doesn't look that great but means the Oreo taste is spreading its love).
Pour or spoon your mixture into the cake tin and bake for an hour at 180 degrees. My cake was a bit burned at the top, probably because of the really high sugar content. You could probably leave out some of the sugar (use 150 g instead of 200) because the Oreos themselves, especially the white stuff, contain a lot of sugar, but I thought of that after I put it in the oven, so not one of my brighter baking moments.
As always, looks can be deceiving, and the taste is actually really really good. You can taste the Oreos, but the lemon zest also comes through quite nicely, and the cake itself is not too sweet. It isn't dry at all, but pretty moist and with a firm crust. And it looks great, almost not-homemade. I dare to say this may be one of the best cakes I made in a long time.
All because of the Oreos, of course!
I've been making plain old cakes since I was really young (it's one of the easiest recipes to remember: 3x 200 grams and 2 eggs, same as in the family recipe apple cake), but usually they turn out quite dry. Adding Oreos to the mixture seems to remedy that, and it tastes great!
Ingredients
200 g butter (softened)
200 g sugar
200 g self-raising (or plain) flower
2 eggs
a teaspoon of lemon zest
half a packet of Oreo cookies (about 12) broken into small pieces
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and line the sides of your cake tin with baking parchment.
Now you make this cake like you make any cake: mix the butter and sugar together until they are soft and creamy, add the flower, and then add the eggs one after the other. After adding the eggs, you have to mix continuously for about 4-5 minutes, to get enough air into the mixture for the cake to rise well. This can be really heavy on the hand and wrist, but since I now have my beautiful KitchenAid, I could let the machine do the work for me, and break up the cookies in the meantime.
 |
| KitchenAided multitasking. |
Add the lemon zest and the Oreos in small quantities, and mix thoroughly so that everything is well-combined (your cake mixture will become somewhat blackish/brownish in colour, which doesn't look that great but means the Oreo taste is spreading its love).
Pour or spoon your mixture into the cake tin and bake for an hour at 180 degrees. My cake was a bit burned at the top, probably because of the really high sugar content. You could probably leave out some of the sugar (use 150 g instead of 200) because the Oreos themselves, especially the white stuff, contain a lot of sugar, but I thought of that after I put it in the oven, so not one of my brighter baking moments.
 |
| Slightly scorched cake. |
 |
| Somehow one slice disappeared before I could take a picture... |
All because of the Oreos, of course!
Thursday, 4 June 2015
Garden update - in bloom!
Remember the veg patches I wrote about a while back? Well, they have gotten bigger. A lot bigger. As did all of the other stuff that we bought for our vegetable patch. Somehow you always start off with lots of small things, thinking that most of them won't take and you'll have plenty of space for those things that do grow. But then suddenly everything is growing and getting bigger and sprouting unpredicted leaves and flowers and what not, and we start dreaming about a bigger garden again...
So how are things doing? Well, of the 7 'veg patches' (aubergine, broccoli, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, thyme, spinach and endive), the thyme never really did anything, and neither did the strawberries. I don't really know what happened to the spinach or the endive, they may still be around in some of the smaller pots, but I've kind of lost track of them.
We planted the 5 proper broccoli plants out into the garden, only for them to be eaten by the ferocious slugs that prowl our garden at night. So the only things left are the aubergine and the cherry tomatoes, and they're doing really great!
(Now I took these pictures with my phone camera, which appears to be the worst camera in the history of camera phones, on a really bright day, so bear with me.)
So apart from the small supermarket veg patches we also have some other plants which we either got as small plants or which we planted out from seed from last years crop or from housewarming gifts we had a couple of years ago. The peas in the picture above came from a packet that we bought about 4 years ago, but surprisingly they still managed to become proper plants.
So this was the 'bit plot' about 3 days ago. We've had a lot of rain and even more sunshine in the days in between, so everything has grown out a lot more since then, but I didn't want to bother taking another picture. The sticks are all anti-kitty protection, because they do like to dig their holes in this area.
On the far right you can see our potato plants, which we grew from potatoes that had sprouted roots after being left out too long. Next to the potatoes are the broccoli plants. The biggest one, the one on the left, is actually the remainder of the supermarket veg patches which we grew from seed, the others were bought as small plants. In front is a small row of onions (actually lasts year's crop; they were too small to eat, so we left them in the shed and planted them out again). Behind them is a line of cucumber plants which we grew from seed, and behind those is a line of beets, also grown from seed. Then we get to beer slug, who tries to keep everything from being eaten (these things are wonderful: you fill them with beer, the slugs want to drink the beer, they fall in and drown. Much better than spreading poison. Works perfectly with pots or jars not in the shape of snails too). The courgette plant on the far left has already been savagely slaughtered, as you can see. All the way behind the beets you can see our leeks, which were bought as really small plants and are really doing well. There is a kind of empty area in front of beer slug that may or may not contain any seed, I'm not really sure what happened there.
Apart from this plot we have some smaller pots containing the aubergine and possibly the endive or spinach. We will plant these out into the ground if and when space appears, but as I mentioned before, these plants do tend to get larger and larger...
So much for vegetables, what about fruit? Well, our apple tree, after its bumper crop of last year, decided not to do anything at all. No flowers, that is, it's sprouting plenty of leaves. But there will be no home-grown apples in our future.
The strawberries on the other hand...
We're usually on holiday when the strawberry season hits, but this year we won't be going anywhere in June or July, so there will be loads of lovely strawberries to eat!
In short: our garden is in full bloom (both figuratively and literally). Even with the attacks of the snails and the extremes in weather, I think we will manage to grow some things this year, so we will be able to eat from our garden again. Which I still think is one of the best things; eating something you've grown yourself, preferable from seed. It always tastes better than store-bought stuff. And maybe next year, we'll have even more space...
So how are things doing? Well, of the 7 'veg patches' (aubergine, broccoli, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, thyme, spinach and endive), the thyme never really did anything, and neither did the strawberries. I don't really know what happened to the spinach or the endive, they may still be around in some of the smaller pots, but I've kind of lost track of them.
We planted the 5 proper broccoli plants out into the garden, only for them to be eaten by the ferocious slugs that prowl our garden at night. So the only things left are the aubergine and the cherry tomatoes, and they're doing really great!
 |
| Cherry tomatoes and peas |
So apart from the small supermarket veg patches we also have some other plants which we either got as small plants or which we planted out from seed from last years crop or from housewarming gifts we had a couple of years ago. The peas in the picture above came from a packet that we bought about 4 years ago, but surprisingly they still managed to become proper plants.
 |
| Our vegetable patch on 1 June |
On the far right you can see our potato plants, which we grew from potatoes that had sprouted roots after being left out too long. Next to the potatoes are the broccoli plants. The biggest one, the one on the left, is actually the remainder of the supermarket veg patches which we grew from seed, the others were bought as small plants. In front is a small row of onions (actually lasts year's crop; they were too small to eat, so we left them in the shed and planted them out again). Behind them is a line of cucumber plants which we grew from seed, and behind those is a line of beets, also grown from seed. Then we get to beer slug, who tries to keep everything from being eaten (these things are wonderful: you fill them with beer, the slugs want to drink the beer, they fall in and drown. Much better than spreading poison. Works perfectly with pots or jars not in the shape of snails too). The courgette plant on the far left has already been savagely slaughtered, as you can see. All the way behind the beets you can see our leeks, which were bought as really small plants and are really doing well. There is a kind of empty area in front of beer slug that may or may not contain any seed, I'm not really sure what happened there.
Apart from this plot we have some smaller pots containing the aubergine and possibly the endive or spinach. We will plant these out into the ground if and when space appears, but as I mentioned before, these plants do tend to get larger and larger...
So much for vegetables, what about fruit? Well, our apple tree, after its bumper crop of last year, decided not to do anything at all. No flowers, that is, it's sprouting plenty of leaves. But there will be no home-grown apples in our future.
The strawberries on the other hand...
 |
| ...doing better than ever! |
In short: our garden is in full bloom (both figuratively and literally). Even with the attacks of the snails and the extremes in weather, I think we will manage to grow some things this year, so we will be able to eat from our garden again. Which I still think is one of the best things; eating something you've grown yourself, preferable from seed. It always tastes better than store-bought stuff. And maybe next year, we'll have even more space...
Sunday, 31 May 2015
52 books challenge - May
So I realise that this is my 200th post and I could make something happy-peppy cheery about it, but the truth is that I haven't been writing nearly as much blog posts as I would have liked, so number 200 should have happened a long time ago. With that in mind, I'll leave a small yay here - yay! - and get down to business.
The business of reading books that is, the 52 new books I'm going to read this year (I keep remembering books that I've already read and want to read again, such as The Casual Vacancy and A Dance with Dragons and Juliet, Naked, but all of those will have to wait until 2016). The standings are as follows:
15 Waarom vuilnismannen meer verdienen dan bankiers - Rutger Bregman & Jesse Frederiks
16 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
17 The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
18 Funny Girl - Nick Hornby
As today is the end of week 22, I'm still 4 books behind. We'll not get into that anymore, I'll just have to catch those up at some point.
But what a combination of books to read this month! Brideshead Revisited, one of the classics I've been wanting to read ever since one of my best friends wrote her thesis on Evelyn Waugh, and I finally made it. It contained a preface by the writer himself saying that he would have done everything completely different when given the chance 15 years after finishing it, but I think it was one of the best classic novels I read in a long time - one of the easiest reads, anyway.
Then came The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Wow. I always make a point of reading the Man Booker winner (if I haven't already), and this one must have been the best in a long, loooong time. It's about the Burma railway, and the Australian POWs building that railway, and one horrible day in their lives. But it's also about Australia, and the spirit of Australia, and about love, and hate, and trauma, and about moving on, and about finding yourself in an honoured position with people saying you're a hero while you were only doing what you thought was best and don't feel all that special at all. Also, it's about the other side, about the Japanese and Korean people also working in the camps, and about their culture and sense of duty and honour, and the aftermath of WWII for them. It is so beautifully written, heart wrenching to read, and again one of those novels which everyone should read so that there will be no more wars, or prison camps, or torture.
I didn't know what to read after I finished that one, so when I came upon Funny Girl, Nick Hornby's newest novel, I was sure that had to be the one, because Mr Hornby has cheered me up in the past. Not because his books are funny in a ha-ha kind of way, they have funny lines and ironic nods, but they also give you a vision on life you don't really come across that often. Usually, they're about people in a pretty desperate situation, trying (or not trying) to get out, but in this case, the protagonist's only downside in life is that she's living in Blackpool. Which is not where she wants to be, so she goes of to London and lives through the Sixties, shedding most of her beliefs and customs from back home and turning into a TV comedy star. It is one of his most serious books to date, even though the subject matter is by far the least serious. But it is up there with some of his best.
I now once again find myself wondering what I'm going to read next, but the pile of to-read novels in my bookcase is ever growing, so I'll just finish typing this up, walk back downstairs, and see what's next. Hopefully something short, to make up for those missing 4 books...
The business of reading books that is, the 52 new books I'm going to read this year (I keep remembering books that I've already read and want to read again, such as The Casual Vacancy and A Dance with Dragons and Juliet, Naked, but all of those will have to wait until 2016). The standings are as follows:
15 Waarom vuilnismannen meer verdienen dan bankiers - Rutger Bregman & Jesse Frederiks
16 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
17 The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
18 Funny Girl - Nick Hornby
As today is the end of week 22, I'm still 4 books behind. We'll not get into that anymore, I'll just have to catch those up at some point.
But what a combination of books to read this month! Brideshead Revisited, one of the classics I've been wanting to read ever since one of my best friends wrote her thesis on Evelyn Waugh, and I finally made it. It contained a preface by the writer himself saying that he would have done everything completely different when given the chance 15 years after finishing it, but I think it was one of the best classic novels I read in a long time - one of the easiest reads, anyway.
Then came The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Wow. I always make a point of reading the Man Booker winner (if I haven't already), and this one must have been the best in a long, loooong time. It's about the Burma railway, and the Australian POWs building that railway, and one horrible day in their lives. But it's also about Australia, and the spirit of Australia, and about love, and hate, and trauma, and about moving on, and about finding yourself in an honoured position with people saying you're a hero while you were only doing what you thought was best and don't feel all that special at all. Also, it's about the other side, about the Japanese and Korean people also working in the camps, and about their culture and sense of duty and honour, and the aftermath of WWII for them. It is so beautifully written, heart wrenching to read, and again one of those novels which everyone should read so that there will be no more wars, or prison camps, or torture.
I didn't know what to read after I finished that one, so when I came upon Funny Girl, Nick Hornby's newest novel, I was sure that had to be the one, because Mr Hornby has cheered me up in the past. Not because his books are funny in a ha-ha kind of way, they have funny lines and ironic nods, but they also give you a vision on life you don't really come across that often. Usually, they're about people in a pretty desperate situation, trying (or not trying) to get out, but in this case, the protagonist's only downside in life is that she's living in Blackpool. Which is not where she wants to be, so she goes of to London and lives through the Sixties, shedding most of her beliefs and customs from back home and turning into a TV comedy star. It is one of his most serious books to date, even though the subject matter is by far the least serious. But it is up there with some of his best.
I now once again find myself wondering what I'm going to read next, but the pile of to-read novels in my bookcase is ever growing, so I'll just finish typing this up, walk back downstairs, and see what's next. Hopefully something short, to make up for those missing 4 books...
Saturday, 16 May 2015
Oreo cheesecake
How did I not think of this before? Oreo cheesecake; two of the best things in the world, combined!
So in Beijing, we ate a lot of Oreos. Mainly because they are the only cookies that have a somewhat reasonable price (a roll of Oreos costs about 5 Yuan, whereas other cookies, such as chocolate chip, start around 45 Yuan. Still not a lot of money, but when something is 9 times more expensive than something else, and that something else is perfectly good... the choice is easy), and of course because they're well, Oreos.
All this Oreo-eating got me thinking; I wanted to bake something new, but I don't really have the time to go proper recipe hunting, and I should be able to make it quite quickly because I didn't have enough time to do serious baking before my friend came round for tea last Thursday. So, cheesecake is the perfect solution, as you can make it one day ahead and everybody (well, most people) like it. And then I thought: why not use Oreos for the base? And so the Oreo cheesecake was born.
I've done cheesecakes before, notably the double chocolate cheesecake, so I worked from those recipes, tweaking them somewhat to meet the stuff I actually had bought.
Ingredients:
154 g crushed Oreo cookies (the amount in one packet)
75 g butter (melted)
500 g mascarpone
200 g cream cheese
100 g sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Crushing Oreo cookies is a bit of a challenge, because the slippery white stuff in the middle means you'll mostly be separating the two biscuits instead of actually breaking them, but that's fine. As long as you end up with somewhat smaller Oreo bits.
Line the bottom of your tin with baking paper. Mix your Oreo bits with the melted butter, and add to the cake tin. Leave to cool (if the next steps take a while, you can put it in the fridge at some point (never put it in the fridge straightaway - melted butter is really hot and you're fridge won't like that)).
It won't look very appetising at this point:
But it's all about the taste!
For the cream cheese mixture, mix all the rest of the ingredients together until they are light(er) and fluffy(er). I added cocoa powder to make it a bit more chocolaty, but you can leave that out or replace it with something else (vanilla, or lemon). Spoon the mixture on top of your Oreo base and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
You can line the sides of your tin with more baking paper, but experience has taught me that the cheesecake mixture will only cling to the paper instead of the tin, so I usually don't bother anymore. I just use a sharp knife to separate your cheesecake from the tin, and you're good to go.
The end result is very tasty. It could be more Oreo-y, maybe you could add some Oreos to the actual cheesecake mixture, but nevertheless good. The cocoa in the mixture does make it more chocolaty, although you do need the sugar to get the sweetness back up, otherwise it'll be pretty sour and bitter.
So Oreos, not just good for eating but for baking too. Obviously, I didn't do any 'real' baking for this one, just melting, so maybe I'll work out some other Oreo recipes that do involve the use of an oven in the future. But for now, we have Oreo cheesecake goodness.
So in Beijing, we ate a lot of Oreos. Mainly because they are the only cookies that have a somewhat reasonable price (a roll of Oreos costs about 5 Yuan, whereas other cookies, such as chocolate chip, start around 45 Yuan. Still not a lot of money, but when something is 9 times more expensive than something else, and that something else is perfectly good... the choice is easy), and of course because they're well, Oreos.
All this Oreo-eating got me thinking; I wanted to bake something new, but I don't really have the time to go proper recipe hunting, and I should be able to make it quite quickly because I didn't have enough time to do serious baking before my friend came round for tea last Thursday. So, cheesecake is the perfect solution, as you can make it one day ahead and everybody (well, most people) like it. And then I thought: why not use Oreos for the base? And so the Oreo cheesecake was born.
I've done cheesecakes before, notably the double chocolate cheesecake, so I worked from those recipes, tweaking them somewhat to meet the stuff I actually had bought.
Ingredients:
154 g crushed Oreo cookies (the amount in one packet)
75 g butter (melted)
500 g mascarpone
200 g cream cheese
100 g sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Crushing Oreo cookies is a bit of a challenge, because the slippery white stuff in the middle means you'll mostly be separating the two biscuits instead of actually breaking them, but that's fine. As long as you end up with somewhat smaller Oreo bits.
Line the bottom of your tin with baking paper. Mix your Oreo bits with the melted butter, and add to the cake tin. Leave to cool (if the next steps take a while, you can put it in the fridge at some point (never put it in the fridge straightaway - melted butter is really hot and you're fridge won't like that)).
It won't look very appetising at this point:
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| Oreos and melted butter, hmmm. |
For the cream cheese mixture, mix all the rest of the ingredients together until they are light(er) and fluffy(er). I added cocoa powder to make it a bit more chocolaty, but you can leave that out or replace it with something else (vanilla, or lemon). Spoon the mixture on top of your Oreo base and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
You can line the sides of your tin with more baking paper, but experience has taught me that the cheesecake mixture will only cling to the paper instead of the tin, so I usually don't bother anymore. I just use a sharp knife to separate your cheesecake from the tin, and you're good to go.
 |
| I'm freeee! |
 |
| It was a dark day. Chocolate to the rescue! |
The end result is very tasty. It could be more Oreo-y, maybe you could add some Oreos to the actual cheesecake mixture, but nevertheless good. The cocoa in the mixture does make it more chocolaty, although you do need the sugar to get the sweetness back up, otherwise it'll be pretty sour and bitter.
So Oreos, not just good for eating but for baking too. Obviously, I didn't do any 'real' baking for this one, just melting, so maybe I'll work out some other Oreo recipes that do involve the use of an oven in the future. But for now, we have Oreo cheesecake goodness.
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Countries visited
When I was about 9 or 10 I decided I wanted to visit one country for each year that I lived. Which may have started because I counted all the countries I had visited so far, and it came up to exactly the age I was. Or I may have read about it in a book (think about what a great short story that would make; someone has to visit a new country for each year that they live, and what could go wrong...).
Anyway, the recent trip to China got me thinking about this again, so I decided to make a list of all the countries I have visited so far, in somewhat chronological order (I really can't tell if I visited Germany before Belgium, or Luxembourg before France... My parents may have something intelligent to say on this, but really, who cares?), to see whether my goal from two thirds of my life away still holds. I've only included countries that I actually spent at least one night in (otherwise I could include Oman or Abu Dhabi due to flight transfers, or Slovenia and Croatia as I trained through them, although that was on a sleeper train), unless they are really small countries one usually doesn't actually spend a night in (Vatican City and Andorra).
So here goes:
1 The Netherlands
2 Germany
3 Belgium
4 France
5 Luxembourg
6 England
7 Switzerland
8 Italy
9 Denmark
10 Spain
11 Egypt
12 South Africa
13 Mozambique
14 Malawi
15 Zambia
16 Kenya
17 Tanzania
18 Poland
19 Jordan
20 Sweden
21 Vatican City
22 Hungary
23 Czech Republic
24 Austria
25 Scotland
26 United States of America
27 Andorra
28 Australia
29 China
Wow, who would have thought that would fit exactly? And there may be countries I've missed: I'm not sure whether I've ever visited Monaco or San Marino, but I think this list looks pretty neat.
I still have some countries relatively close by that I really want to visit (Greece, Portugal, Norway, Ireland, Turkey), and loooots of countries further away, so I think I will try to actually keep up the 'one country a year' rule for a while. It gives me just as good an excuse as any to travel more!
Anyway, the recent trip to China got me thinking about this again, so I decided to make a list of all the countries I have visited so far, in somewhat chronological order (I really can't tell if I visited Germany before Belgium, or Luxembourg before France... My parents may have something intelligent to say on this, but really, who cares?), to see whether my goal from two thirds of my life away still holds. I've only included countries that I actually spent at least one night in (otherwise I could include Oman or Abu Dhabi due to flight transfers, or Slovenia and Croatia as I trained through them, although that was on a sleeper train), unless they are really small countries one usually doesn't actually spend a night in (Vatican City and Andorra).
So here goes:
1 The Netherlands
2 Germany
3 Belgium
4 France
5 Luxembourg
6 England
7 Switzerland
8 Italy
9 Denmark
10 Spain
11 Egypt
12 South Africa
13 Mozambique
14 Malawi
15 Zambia
16 Kenya
17 Tanzania
18 Poland
19 Jordan
20 Sweden
21 Vatican City
22 Hungary
23 Czech Republic
24 Austria
25 Scotland
26 United States of America
27 Andorra
28 Australia
29 China
Wow, who would have thought that would fit exactly? And there may be countries I've missed: I'm not sure whether I've ever visited Monaco or San Marino, but I think this list looks pretty neat.
I still have some countries relatively close by that I really want to visit (Greece, Portugal, Norway, Ireland, Turkey), and loooots of countries further away, so I think I will try to actually keep up the 'one country a year' rule for a while. It gives me just as good an excuse as any to travel more!
Friday, 8 May 2015
China travels
So we've just returned from our trip to Beijing, China. Where we spent only one week, which several people called 'decadent', and which isn't nearly long enough to see all the sights, but it was everything we could manage with our limited off-days and busy jobs and stuff (the upside is that the busy jobs make us able to actually pay for the trip to China, so it does feel like a good balance).
Anyway, one of my friends from university decided about a year ago that she wanted to teach English in a Chinese high school instead of a Dutch one, so off she went to Beijing, where she teaches the lucky few in the special 'international program' how people think and work and study in the rest of the world. All of this to prepare them for their studies at Yale or Oxford or Harvard or Cambridge, because that's where most of them end up (although most of them also fail quite quickly and go back to China, because just 2 years in an 'international program' won't really prepare you for the culture shock). But as soon as she decided to live in China for a year, we decided to come and visit her.
I'd never been to the 'real' Asia before; I visited Jordan in 2007 but that's more the Middle East than Asia. My boyfriend had already travelled extensively in Vietnam, China, and Malaysia, so he was probably more prepared. Although there wasn't that much to prepare us for; Beijing is a lot like any other big city around the world, only with a lot more smog. Otherwise; congested streets, great metro system (really, the best I've ever been on), lots of international restaurants, supermarkets, shops, etc. Lots of tourist attractions, although not always in the shape one would expect. And, even more unexpectedly, it's also a very green city; the Chinese love their plants, both flowers and trees, and there are some nice parks.
My friend lives in one of the typical Chinese apartment buildings, with oddities such as a refrigerator on the balcony and showering over the toilet, so we got the real local resident experience. She had the first three days of our visit off, so she could show us the sights and explain some Chinese customs and words to us, which was nice because most of them don't speak any English except for 'bye-bye'. But we managed anyway, because smiles, hands and feet, and a friendly tone will get you by almost anywhere in the world.
So what did we see? More temples than I could ever have imagined in a country that went through a Cultural Revolution and doesn't really like religion all that much. But there are lots of beautiful Buddhist temples around, the biggest and most impressive of which was the Tibetan Lama Temple quite close to my friend's house. Apart from billowing clouds of incense and lots of worshippers it contains a 27 meter high Buddha statue, the finest we saw in the whole country. We visited some other Buddhist temples, some newer and some older, but this was by far the best.
Then there was the Temple of Heaven, which was visited by the emperors to pray for good harvests. This isn't so much a Buddhist temple as a general heaven-worship temple, it also has something to do with fung shui (there used to be temples of the earth, fire and water as well), but the whole picture never really clear. These were really nice round temples with lots of numerological detail, which was nice after seeing all the other square temples. Also lots of guardian animals on the roofs, which is probably my favourite thing about these temples (we used to call the figure in front 'guy on a chicken' before we found out it's supposed to be a phoenix). The Temple of Heaven is situated in the Temple of Heaven Park, one of the many parks dotted around the city (sadly, no sitting on the grass, only on benches).
Of course we also visited the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, playgrounds of the former emperors. The Chinese call the Forbidden City the 'Palace Museum' and have put little shops and toilets and everything in all the buildings, but they're still standing and great to see. We loved the nine-dragon screen, of which only a few are left (we saw the one in Beihai Park, too). But mostly it's biiiig, way bigger than you'd think, with more than 800 buildings and huge squares that could fit thousands of people.
The same is true of 'the' square, Tian'anmen Square, to the south of the Forbidden City. This was one of the most stressful experiences I've ever had in a touristy place, with loads of jumpy policemen and military standing around, and very detailed security checks to get there (apart from the regular bag searches, you had to show your identity card, and there was some not-friendly frisking going on, especially of elderly Chinese ladies. As usual, we could walk straight through). There was some disturbance when someone threw a lot of leaflets into the crowd, with the stressed-out policemen shouting and pointing and running as if it were hand grenades rather than leaflets. On the lighter side, there were lots of Chinese tourists (also at the Summer Palace and Forbidden City), many of whom wanted to take pictures of us, because they're from tiny villages and we're weird Western tourists. Different people took different approaches to sneaking a picture, with some of them outright asking us to take a picture with them.
And last but certainly not least, we visited the Great Wall of China. This took some organising to get there, as we had to take two buses out of town, the first of which got stuck in a massive traffic jam and the second of which we couldn't find, so we took a black cab to the wall and arrived there about 4.5 hours after we set off. But it was well worth it, as we visited an unrestored section of the Wall, with all its crumbling beauty and very few other tourists. We had a great walk, and then a great bus ride back, again getting stuck in traffic and spending a total of 9 hours on buses (this was the day after we spent 9 hours on a plane, so you can imagine the state our legs and backs were in by that time - Chinese buses don't really accommodate people over 1.80 m). But again; it was more than worth it.
Beforehand I thought food might become a problem as I'm a vegetarian and allergic to lots of other stuff, but it was a breeze. We had some dinners in Western restaurants and some in Chinese restaurants, including a hotpot 'fastfood' restaurant and two vegetarian 'mock meat' restaurants (close to Buddhist temples, of course). My boyfriend didn't get to eat the much-anticipated Peking Duck, so we'll have to go back for that some day. There are some other things we didn't get around to doing as well, but then my friend is somewhat thinking about staying another year, so we may visit her again. Or we'll take a larger Asia trip one day, as this one has warmed me to that part of the world, which I didn't really know that much about. All in all, it was a great trip, and if you're unsure where your next city trip should be to, put Beijing on the list!
Anyway, one of my friends from university decided about a year ago that she wanted to teach English in a Chinese high school instead of a Dutch one, so off she went to Beijing, where she teaches the lucky few in the special 'international program' how people think and work and study in the rest of the world. All of this to prepare them for their studies at Yale or Oxford or Harvard or Cambridge, because that's where most of them end up (although most of them also fail quite quickly and go back to China, because just 2 years in an 'international program' won't really prepare you for the culture shock). But as soon as she decided to live in China for a year, we decided to come and visit her.
I'd never been to the 'real' Asia before; I visited Jordan in 2007 but that's more the Middle East than Asia. My boyfriend had already travelled extensively in Vietnam, China, and Malaysia, so he was probably more prepared. Although there wasn't that much to prepare us for; Beijing is a lot like any other big city around the world, only with a lot more smog. Otherwise; congested streets, great metro system (really, the best I've ever been on), lots of international restaurants, supermarkets, shops, etc. Lots of tourist attractions, although not always in the shape one would expect. And, even more unexpectedly, it's also a very green city; the Chinese love their plants, both flowers and trees, and there are some nice parks.
My friend lives in one of the typical Chinese apartment buildings, with oddities such as a refrigerator on the balcony and showering over the toilet, so we got the real local resident experience. She had the first three days of our visit off, so she could show us the sights and explain some Chinese customs and words to us, which was nice because most of them don't speak any English except for 'bye-bye'. But we managed anyway, because smiles, hands and feet, and a friendly tone will get you by almost anywhere in the world.
So what did we see? More temples than I could ever have imagined in a country that went through a Cultural Revolution and doesn't really like religion all that much. But there are lots of beautiful Buddhist temples around, the biggest and most impressive of which was the Tibetan Lama Temple quite close to my friend's house. Apart from billowing clouds of incense and lots of worshippers it contains a 27 meter high Buddha statue, the finest we saw in the whole country. We visited some other Buddhist temples, some newer and some older, but this was by far the best.
Then there was the Temple of Heaven, which was visited by the emperors to pray for good harvests. This isn't so much a Buddhist temple as a general heaven-worship temple, it also has something to do with fung shui (there used to be temples of the earth, fire and water as well), but the whole picture never really clear. These were really nice round temples with lots of numerological detail, which was nice after seeing all the other square temples. Also lots of guardian animals on the roofs, which is probably my favourite thing about these temples (we used to call the figure in front 'guy on a chicken' before we found out it's supposed to be a phoenix). The Temple of Heaven is situated in the Temple of Heaven Park, one of the many parks dotted around the city (sadly, no sitting on the grass, only on benches).
Of course we also visited the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, playgrounds of the former emperors. The Chinese call the Forbidden City the 'Palace Museum' and have put little shops and toilets and everything in all the buildings, but they're still standing and great to see. We loved the nine-dragon screen, of which only a few are left (we saw the one in Beihai Park, too). But mostly it's biiiig, way bigger than you'd think, with more than 800 buildings and huge squares that could fit thousands of people.
The same is true of 'the' square, Tian'anmen Square, to the south of the Forbidden City. This was one of the most stressful experiences I've ever had in a touristy place, with loads of jumpy policemen and military standing around, and very detailed security checks to get there (apart from the regular bag searches, you had to show your identity card, and there was some not-friendly frisking going on, especially of elderly Chinese ladies. As usual, we could walk straight through). There was some disturbance when someone threw a lot of leaflets into the crowd, with the stressed-out policemen shouting and pointing and running as if it were hand grenades rather than leaflets. On the lighter side, there were lots of Chinese tourists (also at the Summer Palace and Forbidden City), many of whom wanted to take pictures of us, because they're from tiny villages and we're weird Western tourists. Different people took different approaches to sneaking a picture, with some of them outright asking us to take a picture with them.
And last but certainly not least, we visited the Great Wall of China. This took some organising to get there, as we had to take two buses out of town, the first of which got stuck in a massive traffic jam and the second of which we couldn't find, so we took a black cab to the wall and arrived there about 4.5 hours after we set off. But it was well worth it, as we visited an unrestored section of the Wall, with all its crumbling beauty and very few other tourists. We had a great walk, and then a great bus ride back, again getting stuck in traffic and spending a total of 9 hours on buses (this was the day after we spent 9 hours on a plane, so you can imagine the state our legs and backs were in by that time - Chinese buses don't really accommodate people over 1.80 m). But again; it was more than worth it.
Beforehand I thought food might become a problem as I'm a vegetarian and allergic to lots of other stuff, but it was a breeze. We had some dinners in Western restaurants and some in Chinese restaurants, including a hotpot 'fastfood' restaurant and two vegetarian 'mock meat' restaurants (close to Buddhist temples, of course). My boyfriend didn't get to eat the much-anticipated Peking Duck, so we'll have to go back for that some day. There are some other things we didn't get around to doing as well, but then my friend is somewhat thinking about staying another year, so we may visit her again. Or we'll take a larger Asia trip one day, as this one has warmed me to that part of the world, which I didn't really know that much about. All in all, it was a great trip, and if you're unsure where your next city trip should be to, put Beijing on the list!
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
52 books challenge - April
So I'm writing my reading progress for April one day early, because I don't think I will be finishing another novel tomorrow, with the travelling to China and the panicking about the travelling to China and all (more about travelling to China in a post to come!). So this is my score as of week 18:
11 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre
12 Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
13 De Ontdekking van de Hemel (The Discovery of Heaven) - Harry Mulisch
14 The Beautifull Cassandra - Jane Austen
Which means I'm still 4 books behind, but I haven't gotten more behind, which is good. Also, I fiiiiinally finished reading The Discovery of Heaven, which took me about 2 months. This is one of the real 'classics' of Dutch literature, and most people become very pretentious when talking about it, especially when they managed to get through it at an early age (it's on a lot of secondary school reading lists). I can't say I really cared for it; I liked the first part and the last part, but the middle two parts could have done with a LOT of editing. Hardly any character development, but lots of pointless side characters not really doing anything or going anywhere. Also, Mr Mulisch is very fond of killing off characters quite abruptly and for no apparent reason, which I couldn't really appreciate. The whole plot ties up nicely at the end, but I just wish we could have gotten there a bit faster.
But with that huge tome out of the way, I think I will be reading more and faster from now on. I'm halfway through Brideshead Revisited, but I also have some newer novels lined up, which I generally read faster. Also, there is the plane flight to and from China to give a lot of reading time (more about China later). So I have enough excuses to see myself getting to at least 20 novels in the next month. We'll see how that went at the end of May.
11 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre
12 Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
13 De Ontdekking van de Hemel (The Discovery of Heaven) - Harry Mulisch
14 The Beautifull Cassandra - Jane Austen
Which means I'm still 4 books behind, but I haven't gotten more behind, which is good. Also, I fiiiiinally finished reading The Discovery of Heaven, which took me about 2 months. This is one of the real 'classics' of Dutch literature, and most people become very pretentious when talking about it, especially when they managed to get through it at an early age (it's on a lot of secondary school reading lists). I can't say I really cared for it; I liked the first part and the last part, but the middle two parts could have done with a LOT of editing. Hardly any character development, but lots of pointless side characters not really doing anything or going anywhere. Also, Mr Mulisch is very fond of killing off characters quite abruptly and for no apparent reason, which I couldn't really appreciate. The whole plot ties up nicely at the end, but I just wish we could have gotten there a bit faster.
But with that huge tome out of the way, I think I will be reading more and faster from now on. I'm halfway through Brideshead Revisited, but I also have some newer novels lined up, which I generally read faster. Also, there is the plane flight to and from China to give a lot of reading time (more about China later). So I have enough excuses to see myself getting to at least 20 novels in the next month. We'll see how that went at the end of May.
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Would you believe I managed to log in to Blogger at exactly the right moment?
Seems like the right time for the shortes blogpost so far. Yay, thanks for reading to you all!
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| Wednesday 29th of April, 11:30. |
Sunday, 19 April 2015
War remembrance
It's almost May, which means that in the Netherlands, the yearly debate surrounding the remembrance of WWII is heating up again. We have our Remembrance Day on the 4th of May, with the national ceremony at 20:00. The 5th of May is Liberation Day, with lots of music and festivals around the country. There has been some debate as to whether the proportion of remembrance and celebration is quite right: many people are keen to celebrate their freedom, but not to remember those who died for it.
Having witnessed Remembrance Day on the 11th of November at the National War Monument in Canberra, I can tell you that our 'remembrance' pales in the light of the Anglo-Saxon way. This is partly a cultural thing: we Dutch don't like to dramatise things and we don't really have a strong military presence, and probably partly due to the fact that we weren't the liberators who sent thousands of young men halfway across the world to die on foreign soil, we were the ones who had to be liberated, after failing to keep out the enemy. Also, for the Allied forces, it's easy to determine who was 'good' and who was 'bad' in the war: we are still trying to come to terms with some of the things that Dutch people did to other Dutch people 70 years ago.
In a way, the whole debate surrounding the remembrance makes the event itself seem less important, at least to the younger generation who hasn't witnessed the war itself, or seen the effects on our parents. Which is why I turn to books, as with so many things in life. From an early age on, I've always been interested in WWII, and at some point I'd literally read all the WWII children's books our library stocked. It wasn't really a subject my grandparents talked a lot about, but for some reason I found it fascinating, so I went and got my information from elsewhere. As I got older and discovered 'real' literature this interest waned somewhat, but as I've been digging into 'the classics', I've come across several war books which have made a pretty big impression on me.
Firstly, there is All Quiet on the Western Front, a German account of WWI. 'We' were neutral in that one, so what is known as the Great War in other parts of the world isn't really a thing here, but this novel did bring the message home. I cannot imagine how anyone could ever start another war after reading that novel, which was probably why it was banned in Nazi Germany. I'd read some of the English war poets for my literature classes and was pretty familiar with that side of the story, but you keep forgetting that it was just as bad for those on the other side.
Then I read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, which isn't about a 'live' war, but plays out in post-WWII Berlin. The Cold War is something that ended during my lifetime, so I have some memories of it (the fall of the Berlin Wall, most prominently, although I was very piqued when the country which I'd finally memorised as Czechoslovakia suddenly didn't exist anymore, and was now two separate countries). 'Cold' as it may have been, that war also changed many lives, and the setting of this novel made quite an impression.
Then I read Slaughterhouse 5, which you can't actually say anything proper about, except that again I cannot imagine anyone reading that novel and still being in favour of warfare. It is harrowing, and it will stay with me for some time to come. But I loved the jumbled-up style, and I wish I'd read this book before my 'trauma theory' essay for literature, as this would have been a great primary text to work with.
Concurrent with all the above, I've been reading De Ontdekking van de Hemel, which is translated as The Discovery of Heaven in English. This doesn't deal so much with WWII directly, but the after effects on Dutch society run throughout the novel.
And finally, my newest read is Brideshead Revisited. This was written during WWII by someone actively involved in WWII, and although most of the story takes place earlier, the whole atmosphere is that of a time gone by, destroyed by the War (amongst other things). In that sense, the novel has more in common with The Discovery of Heaven than any of the other novels written during a war.
In a way, I find these novels even more disconcerting. We can all imagine the horrors of war, but the effects that a war leaves on a society, the things that are lost and cannot be restored because something essential has been taken out, be it trust or innocence or a whole generation of young men, those effects are much harder to formulate and come to terms with. I cannot imagine how my country and my society would have been without WWII, because it took place and changed the world irreversibly. But through reading novels like these, we can get a glimpse of the profound impact a war can have on society. Maybe it isn't about whether we would have been 'good' or 'bad' during the war itself, but about how we go on when the war has ended, and peace will never be the same again.
Having witnessed Remembrance Day on the 11th of November at the National War Monument in Canberra, I can tell you that our 'remembrance' pales in the light of the Anglo-Saxon way. This is partly a cultural thing: we Dutch don't like to dramatise things and we don't really have a strong military presence, and probably partly due to the fact that we weren't the liberators who sent thousands of young men halfway across the world to die on foreign soil, we were the ones who had to be liberated, after failing to keep out the enemy. Also, for the Allied forces, it's easy to determine who was 'good' and who was 'bad' in the war: we are still trying to come to terms with some of the things that Dutch people did to other Dutch people 70 years ago.
In a way, the whole debate surrounding the remembrance makes the event itself seem less important, at least to the younger generation who hasn't witnessed the war itself, or seen the effects on our parents. Which is why I turn to books, as with so many things in life. From an early age on, I've always been interested in WWII, and at some point I'd literally read all the WWII children's books our library stocked. It wasn't really a subject my grandparents talked a lot about, but for some reason I found it fascinating, so I went and got my information from elsewhere. As I got older and discovered 'real' literature this interest waned somewhat, but as I've been digging into 'the classics', I've come across several war books which have made a pretty big impression on me.
Firstly, there is All Quiet on the Western Front, a German account of WWI. 'We' were neutral in that one, so what is known as the Great War in other parts of the world isn't really a thing here, but this novel did bring the message home. I cannot imagine how anyone could ever start another war after reading that novel, which was probably why it was banned in Nazi Germany. I'd read some of the English war poets for my literature classes and was pretty familiar with that side of the story, but you keep forgetting that it was just as bad for those on the other side.
Then I read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, which isn't about a 'live' war, but plays out in post-WWII Berlin. The Cold War is something that ended during my lifetime, so I have some memories of it (the fall of the Berlin Wall, most prominently, although I was very piqued when the country which I'd finally memorised as Czechoslovakia suddenly didn't exist anymore, and was now two separate countries). 'Cold' as it may have been, that war also changed many lives, and the setting of this novel made quite an impression.
Then I read Slaughterhouse 5, which you can't actually say anything proper about, except that again I cannot imagine anyone reading that novel and still being in favour of warfare. It is harrowing, and it will stay with me for some time to come. But I loved the jumbled-up style, and I wish I'd read this book before my 'trauma theory' essay for literature, as this would have been a great primary text to work with.
Concurrent with all the above, I've been reading De Ontdekking van de Hemel, which is translated as The Discovery of Heaven in English. This doesn't deal so much with WWII directly, but the after effects on Dutch society run throughout the novel.
And finally, my newest read is Brideshead Revisited. This was written during WWII by someone actively involved in WWII, and although most of the story takes place earlier, the whole atmosphere is that of a time gone by, destroyed by the War (amongst other things). In that sense, the novel has more in common with The Discovery of Heaven than any of the other novels written during a war.
In a way, I find these novels even more disconcerting. We can all imagine the horrors of war, but the effects that a war leaves on a society, the things that are lost and cannot be restored because something essential has been taken out, be it trust or innocence or a whole generation of young men, those effects are much harder to formulate and come to terms with. I cannot imagine how my country and my society would have been without WWII, because it took place and changed the world irreversibly. But through reading novels like these, we can get a glimpse of the profound impact a war can have on society. Maybe it isn't about whether we would have been 'good' or 'bad' during the war itself, but about how we go on when the war has ended, and peace will never be the same again.
Monday, 6 April 2015
Queen Lear
To keep up on my Shakespeare, which is something they command you to do before you are given your MA in English Literature, I've visited no less than two Shakespeare plays so far this year (and I foresee a third in the summer, when the open-air Shakespeare Theatre in Diever will stage Romeo & Juliet). But in winter we decided to stay indoors, and watched the plays at the Stadsschouwburg in Groningen.
The first was Hamlet, my fifth or sixth Hamlet in all, played by The Tiger Lillies. I had never heard of them before, but Wikipedia tells us they are "a cult British musical trio", which is not who you expect to put on a Shakespeare play. To this end, they teamed up with 4 actors, who played the main characters during the real 'acting' parts of the play, while they connected the acted bits through song and dance and a bit of cabaret. There wasn't much in the way of props or setting, just one big panel with some windows and doors, which could be tilted all the way to the ground when they didn't need it. It was brilliantly done; good acting, wonderful music, the (sometimes very high-pitched) singing was great and very relevant to the play. It also showed that you don't need to put on all of Hamlet exactly as Shakespeare has written it; you can just take 4 people and the main scenes and the gist of the story, and it will still work. I've seen Hamlet done with 6 actors who also played their own musical instruments at the Globe in London, and that one was slightly better on the acting part, but this one was better on the musical part. Anyway; a great show.
There were several other Shakespeare performances in the Stadsschouwburg this year, but we decided to stick with the one as there were other plays to be watched and it is still pretty expensive. But then one of the other plays was cancelled because the theatre went bankrupt, and we decided to visit another Shakespeare play just because we could. This was to be Queen Lear, an adaptation of King Lear by Toneelgroep Amsterdam.
Now while Hamlet had been basically the play that Shakespeare intended, with some scenes and characters removed and some musical intermezzos added, this was something completely different. Not only had they translated the play from English to Dutch, but they also reversed most of the gender roles. King Lear became a queen, his three daughters were now three sons, and their two spouses (the dukes Albany and Cornwall) had become gold digging women. Kent was there, still a male, and the fool was also still male. These were all the characters, but they proved that you can play Lear with only 8 people (with one doubling as the madman on the heath). But if all that change wasn't enough, they also changed the setting to the current time; not a kingdom divided, but a company, with several obvious references to the recent banking crisis. You might think that this is a bit too much for poor King Lear, and in some ways it was. At first you kept trying to remember what the 'real' play was about, and what they changed and why they may have done that, and what was going to happen next. But then the story got underway and you kind of forgot that you were actually watching Lear, until some of the typical Lear stuff started to happen, like the storm or the blinding of Kent or the 'Never never never never never' line. Which was good, because it is recognisable, but it also felt a bit tacked-on, as if they were trying to prove to themselves that they were still really playing Lear and not something else. They play in itself was well done, great acting and a good atmosphere, but during these typical Lear things it all felt a bit too contrived. King Lear is a universally recognisable story about old age and seeing your inheritance dissolve into nothingness, and they could have kept it just like that. I can imagine that when you tell people they're going to see Queen Lear you feel like you're obliged to keep in some of the typical Shakespearean stuff, but to me, it was not really necessary. The story was good enough on it's own.
But anyway, this was enough Shakespeare for a while, until Romeo & Juliet will start in Diever. That play will also be translated to Dutch, but otherwise they usually keep things original, and they have a large cast of volunteers so lots of characters will be there. It's good to see so many different versions of these classic stories, it shows how timeless and universal they are, even when translated to music or our modern times. But once in a while, it's still good to see the original thing, with lots of actors, in the open air.
The first was Hamlet, my fifth or sixth Hamlet in all, played by The Tiger Lillies. I had never heard of them before, but Wikipedia tells us they are "a cult British musical trio", which is not who you expect to put on a Shakespeare play. To this end, they teamed up with 4 actors, who played the main characters during the real 'acting' parts of the play, while they connected the acted bits through song and dance and a bit of cabaret. There wasn't much in the way of props or setting, just one big panel with some windows and doors, which could be tilted all the way to the ground when they didn't need it. It was brilliantly done; good acting, wonderful music, the (sometimes very high-pitched) singing was great and very relevant to the play. It also showed that you don't need to put on all of Hamlet exactly as Shakespeare has written it; you can just take 4 people and the main scenes and the gist of the story, and it will still work. I've seen Hamlet done with 6 actors who also played their own musical instruments at the Globe in London, and that one was slightly better on the acting part, but this one was better on the musical part. Anyway; a great show.
There were several other Shakespeare performances in the Stadsschouwburg this year, but we decided to stick with the one as there were other plays to be watched and it is still pretty expensive. But then one of the other plays was cancelled because the theatre went bankrupt, and we decided to visit another Shakespeare play just because we could. This was to be Queen Lear, an adaptation of King Lear by Toneelgroep Amsterdam.
Now while Hamlet had been basically the play that Shakespeare intended, with some scenes and characters removed and some musical intermezzos added, this was something completely different. Not only had they translated the play from English to Dutch, but they also reversed most of the gender roles. King Lear became a queen, his three daughters were now three sons, and their two spouses (the dukes Albany and Cornwall) had become gold digging women. Kent was there, still a male, and the fool was also still male. These were all the characters, but they proved that you can play Lear with only 8 people (with one doubling as the madman on the heath). But if all that change wasn't enough, they also changed the setting to the current time; not a kingdom divided, but a company, with several obvious references to the recent banking crisis. You might think that this is a bit too much for poor King Lear, and in some ways it was. At first you kept trying to remember what the 'real' play was about, and what they changed and why they may have done that, and what was going to happen next. But then the story got underway and you kind of forgot that you were actually watching Lear, until some of the typical Lear stuff started to happen, like the storm or the blinding of Kent or the 'Never never never never never' line. Which was good, because it is recognisable, but it also felt a bit tacked-on, as if they were trying to prove to themselves that they were still really playing Lear and not something else. They play in itself was well done, great acting and a good atmosphere, but during these typical Lear things it all felt a bit too contrived. King Lear is a universally recognisable story about old age and seeing your inheritance dissolve into nothingness, and they could have kept it just like that. I can imagine that when you tell people they're going to see Queen Lear you feel like you're obliged to keep in some of the typical Shakespearean stuff, but to me, it was not really necessary. The story was good enough on it's own.
But anyway, this was enough Shakespeare for a while, until Romeo & Juliet will start in Diever. That play will also be translated to Dutch, but otherwise they usually keep things original, and they have a large cast of volunteers so lots of characters will be there. It's good to see so many different versions of these classic stories, it shows how timeless and universal they are, even when translated to music or our modern times. But once in a while, it's still good to see the original thing, with lots of actors, in the open air.
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
52 book challenge - March
So I started my 52 book challenge a little more than an month ago, and to keep myself motivated through sheer peer pressure, I'll try to give monthly updates whenever I actually remember.
Last time, I was in week 8, and I'd read 6 books in total. I've made some progress until now, but not as much as I would have liked. We're currently in week 14, and here are the books I've read since last time:
7 The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman
8 Dit kan niet waar zijn - Joris Luyendijk
9 Gratis geld voor iedereen - Rutger Bregman
10 Dept. of Speculation - Jenny Offill
Yup, I am now officially 4 books behind. But I'm reading two books at the same time, so I may be catching up (or so I tell myself), or at least not falling behind even more.
Other noteworthy things: two of the books on the list above are Dutch. I don't really read a lot of Dutch books, but there have been some good ones coming out recently, so I've been buying and reading those. Interestingly, both Dutch books are also non-fiction. I wasn't sure about including non-fiction books on this list, but because I will never ever make 52 books in a year if I don't, they're there. Also, I've already sneaked in one of the very short novels I have saved up to 'make up' for a whole week with a novel that I can just read in 3-4 hours. Dept of Speculation also only took about an afternoon to read, so technically that's in the short novel category too.
Anyway, the list so far doesn't really seem that promising for the future of the whole challenge, but I'm still pretty positive, with several holidays coming up in the near future. I'll try and write another update at the end of April, and we'll see how things stand then. In the meantime, I'll get back to John le Carre.
Last time, I was in week 8, and I'd read 6 books in total. I've made some progress until now, but not as much as I would have liked. We're currently in week 14, and here are the books I've read since last time:
7 The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman
8 Dit kan niet waar zijn - Joris Luyendijk
9 Gratis geld voor iedereen - Rutger Bregman
10 Dept. of Speculation - Jenny Offill
Yup, I am now officially 4 books behind. But I'm reading two books at the same time, so I may be catching up (or so I tell myself), or at least not falling behind even more.
Other noteworthy things: two of the books on the list above are Dutch. I don't really read a lot of Dutch books, but there have been some good ones coming out recently, so I've been buying and reading those. Interestingly, both Dutch books are also non-fiction. I wasn't sure about including non-fiction books on this list, but because I will never ever make 52 books in a year if I don't, they're there. Also, I've already sneaked in one of the very short novels I have saved up to 'make up' for a whole week with a novel that I can just read in 3-4 hours. Dept of Speculation also only took about an afternoon to read, so technically that's in the short novel category too.
Anyway, the list so far doesn't really seem that promising for the future of the whole challenge, but I'm still pretty positive, with several holidays coming up in the near future. I'll try and write another update at the end of April, and we'll see how things stand then. In the meantime, I'll get back to John le Carre.
Sunday, 22 March 2015
Veg patches
So most of you will probably know by now that we have a small vegetable patch in the back garden, in which we try to grow some food, with various outcomes. Potatoes, apples, pumpkins and strawberries appear to love it here, while carrots, lettuce and cauliflower don't really want to do anything. This year, we're sticking to our success stories, and therefore we've already put the potatoes in the ground (in a different place than last year, of course).
We started quite early this year, because the major supermarket chain in the Netherlands decided to jump on the whole 'authentic food' bandwagon and give out miniature vegetable patches with every 10 Euros of groceries you bought. Technically they're not only veg patches but also herb gardens, as you can also get stuff like thyme and rosemary, but they called them 'moestuintjes' (= veg patches) nonetheless.
I've talked to several (freelance) marketing professionals in the last few weeks who cannot comprehend how this supermarket chain has another 'hit' by giving away stuff that most people usually turn up their noses at, but somehow little boxes are popping up left right and centre on the window sills. How many of these will actually turn into proper plants or be planted out when the time comes remains to be seen.
Of course, we will take our little plant proteges very seriously. We got 7 'patches' in total: aubergine, broccoli, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, thyme, spinach and endive. Luckily, most of them are plants we've already grown and/or plants that like our soil. We've put the first 5 of them in their boxes already, and the broccoli and cherry tomatoes have come up really quickly, so we've put them in bigger pots ready to be planted outside when the temperatures get a bit higher. The thyme is now also showing two very tiny leaves, but the aubergines and strawberries don't appear to be doing much as of yet. We won't put the leaf vegetables out until about halfway through April, because these tend to grow pretty quickly and we don't want to see them wither away in the cold March air.
Apart from these new plants, we still have a lot of strawberry plants from last year, plus the apple tree, and a lot of pumpkin seeds from the two pumpkins we grew last year (and didn't eat, because I really just like to look at them and marvel at the fact that we've grown these things in a small, shaded garden in the middle of the city). We may buy more peppers at some point, but with the 'free' veg patches our own patch is filling up pretty quickly. Hopefully, this will be the last year we grow stuff here, as we are now seriously looking at moving to a place with a bigger garden before next spring. But even if we get half the amount of food we grew last year, I'll still be a happy gardener!
We started quite early this year, because the major supermarket chain in the Netherlands decided to jump on the whole 'authentic food' bandwagon and give out miniature vegetable patches with every 10 Euros of groceries you bought. Technically they're not only veg patches but also herb gardens, as you can also get stuff like thyme and rosemary, but they called them 'moestuintjes' (= veg patches) nonetheless.
I've talked to several (freelance) marketing professionals in the last few weeks who cannot comprehend how this supermarket chain has another 'hit' by giving away stuff that most people usually turn up their noses at, but somehow little boxes are popping up left right and centre on the window sills. How many of these will actually turn into proper plants or be planted out when the time comes remains to be seen.
Of course, we will take our little plant proteges very seriously. We got 7 'patches' in total: aubergine, broccoli, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, thyme, spinach and endive. Luckily, most of them are plants we've already grown and/or plants that like our soil. We've put the first 5 of them in their boxes already, and the broccoli and cherry tomatoes have come up really quickly, so we've put them in bigger pots ready to be planted outside when the temperatures get a bit higher. The thyme is now also showing two very tiny leaves, but the aubergines and strawberries don't appear to be doing much as of yet. We won't put the leaf vegetables out until about halfway through April, because these tend to grow pretty quickly and we don't want to see them wither away in the cold March air.
Apart from these new plants, we still have a lot of strawberry plants from last year, plus the apple tree, and a lot of pumpkin seeds from the two pumpkins we grew last year (and didn't eat, because I really just like to look at them and marvel at the fact that we've grown these things in a small, shaded garden in the middle of the city). We may buy more peppers at some point, but with the 'free' veg patches our own patch is filling up pretty quickly. Hopefully, this will be the last year we grow stuff here, as we are now seriously looking at moving to a place with a bigger garden before next spring. But even if we get half the amount of food we grew last year, I'll still be a happy gardener!
Saturday, 21 March 2015
Getting a haircut
There are some reoccurring things in one's life that you have to repeat after a couple of months. These include going to the dentist, having your eyes checked (if you're a contact or glasses-wearer), going to your GP or getting your meds. Mostly, I find these things an annoyance because I don't have that much time, but mostly they're more useful than terrible.
There is one exception to this rule; going to the hairdresser to have my hair cut. I really dread this, because of two things:
1 I don't really pay that much attention to what my hair is doing or how long it's getting, so I usually don't go to a hairdresser until it's about 2 months too late, leaving my hair too long and frizzly;
2 I don't really 'fit in' with people who pay a lot of attention to their hair and hairstyle and make-up etc, which leaves me short of conversation topics while I'm there, and generally creates an awkward atmosphere for all involved.
These things are of course related; because I feel really awkward trying to make conversation while I'm there, I keep postponing actually going, which makes the person cutting my hair even more exasperated with the state of my hair when I finally do go. Thus making me feel even less like a normal human being who should actually be allowed in a hairdresser's.
Although I'm really happy with the result once I've managed to find the time and the courage to actually go, and always plan on bettering my life and visiting more often, the pattern is very well-ingrained and somehow always repeats itself.
The funny thing is; most people I know don't like to go. Usually, because they always get a different result than what they opted for; hair either too short or in a weird way that you can never actually replicate at home. I personally never have this problem, because I always ask for my hair in exactly the same way, and after a couple of times memorised the lingo that the hairdresser uses when they ask the confirmation questions about what you want, so I just tell them those words from the beginning and usually end up with exactly the same hair. Which is thoroughly disappointing to the person who has just cut my hair, because it is a style that doesn't really work when you wear it down, but which works perfectly when you put it in a ponytail or bun, which is how I wear my hair 98% of the time. So I'm happy with it.
And the other thing I hear other people mention about not liking to have their hair cut is the same problem I'm having; the lack of suitable conversation topics that leads to awkward silences. This concerns women, generally, as men either have silent hairdressers or are out of there so fast that the lack of conversation doesn't really matter. And I even know several other women who postpone having their hair cut because of this. So I'm not alone.
However, contrary to all expectations, I had my hair cut yesterday, and it all went swimmingly. The girl cutting my hair was one I'd already seen several times earlier, so we had some recurring topics that we could use. Also, we're of almost the same age, which makes things easier. And, most important of all, we'd both just visited Australia, so we spent about 20 minutes talking about that. We never even got to the question of why my hair was way too long and dry as dust.
Which got me thinking; maybe the solution is that when you make an appointment to have your hair cut, you also hand in a list of personal information, including your age and hometown, but also recent experiences and interests. That way, they can match you to someone who has the same interests, so you have something to talk about.
Also, hairdressers should realise that they are abnormally interested in all things concerning hair (an understandable occupational hazard) but that most other people don't really care that much. So when they comment about styles or products or whatever, and get a terse reply, they should really drop the subject instead of asking even more questions or suggesting difficult products or procedures to 'amend' problems that the person whose hair it is doesn't really have. This would take away a lot of the pre-cutting anxiety, which leads to people going to the hairdresser's more often, which probably also amends the disastrous state one's hair can get into. It's win-win all around.
It would make me, and my tormented hair, a lot happier and more relaxed. Because really, having your hair cut should be just that; having your hair cut.
There is one exception to this rule; going to the hairdresser to have my hair cut. I really dread this, because of two things:
1 I don't really pay that much attention to what my hair is doing or how long it's getting, so I usually don't go to a hairdresser until it's about 2 months too late, leaving my hair too long and frizzly;
2 I don't really 'fit in' with people who pay a lot of attention to their hair and hairstyle and make-up etc, which leaves me short of conversation topics while I'm there, and generally creates an awkward atmosphere for all involved.
These things are of course related; because I feel really awkward trying to make conversation while I'm there, I keep postponing actually going, which makes the person cutting my hair even more exasperated with the state of my hair when I finally do go. Thus making me feel even less like a normal human being who should actually be allowed in a hairdresser's.
Although I'm really happy with the result once I've managed to find the time and the courage to actually go, and always plan on bettering my life and visiting more often, the pattern is very well-ingrained and somehow always repeats itself.
The funny thing is; most people I know don't like to go. Usually, because they always get a different result than what they opted for; hair either too short or in a weird way that you can never actually replicate at home. I personally never have this problem, because I always ask for my hair in exactly the same way, and after a couple of times memorised the lingo that the hairdresser uses when they ask the confirmation questions about what you want, so I just tell them those words from the beginning and usually end up with exactly the same hair. Which is thoroughly disappointing to the person who has just cut my hair, because it is a style that doesn't really work when you wear it down, but which works perfectly when you put it in a ponytail or bun, which is how I wear my hair 98% of the time. So I'm happy with it.
And the other thing I hear other people mention about not liking to have their hair cut is the same problem I'm having; the lack of suitable conversation topics that leads to awkward silences. This concerns women, generally, as men either have silent hairdressers or are out of there so fast that the lack of conversation doesn't really matter. And I even know several other women who postpone having their hair cut because of this. So I'm not alone.
However, contrary to all expectations, I had my hair cut yesterday, and it all went swimmingly. The girl cutting my hair was one I'd already seen several times earlier, so we had some recurring topics that we could use. Also, we're of almost the same age, which makes things easier. And, most important of all, we'd both just visited Australia, so we spent about 20 minutes talking about that. We never even got to the question of why my hair was way too long and dry as dust.
Which got me thinking; maybe the solution is that when you make an appointment to have your hair cut, you also hand in a list of personal information, including your age and hometown, but also recent experiences and interests. That way, they can match you to someone who has the same interests, so you have something to talk about.
Also, hairdressers should realise that they are abnormally interested in all things concerning hair (an understandable occupational hazard) but that most other people don't really care that much. So when they comment about styles or products or whatever, and get a terse reply, they should really drop the subject instead of asking even more questions or suggesting difficult products or procedures to 'amend' problems that the person whose hair it is doesn't really have. This would take away a lot of the pre-cutting anxiety, which leads to people going to the hairdresser's more often, which probably also amends the disastrous state one's hair can get into. It's win-win all around.
It would make me, and my tormented hair, a lot happier and more relaxed. Because really, having your hair cut should be just that; having your hair cut.
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