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Winter 2009 (first snow)

December 17th 2009,

I wake up and look outside and there it is winter has entered the Netherlands, giving the world a totaly diferent look by the snow that had fallen during the night.

The world does look nicer with with all the snow, actualy you do not want to stap into the snow, becuase it looks so beautiful when the snow is un-touched, unfortunately work called and we had to travel to the office.

The disadvantage of the snow shows itself within seconds, the car will hardly move its place, braking and steering is suddenly a totaly diferent chapter in this winter wonderland.

During work it kept on snowing so the looks did not change and neither did the road, of course the highway is ok, some major roads in city's and villages are ok too, but when entering the road that only lead to where we live it gets more difficult again.

Well, the roads, front and back garden do look well cover by the snow, it does give the cosy feeling, especialy during this time of the year, hopefully it willlast till christmas period, so we can have a white christmas this year.

Asia Trip 2009, Sydney Australia, Singapore, Singapore, Jakarta Indonesia and Bali Indonesia

Saturday April 4th,it is 08.30 as the taxi stops in front of my house, he is picking me up for my Asia trip, I am on my way to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for my 11.30 flight Destination Sydney with a stop in Singapore.

A bit past 11.30 the airplane leave for a 12,5 hours flight to Singapore, after a smoth flight we arrive on schedule in Singapore, at the airport i wait for approx 3 hours for my next flight from Singapore to Sydney, duration approx 8,5 hours, on Sunday April 5th at 19.00 local time i arrive at Sydney Airport.

A taxi will take me to Crown Plaza hotel in Parramatta, where i will stay for the next 4 days while visiting our network company stationed in Huntingwood, a 20 minutes drive from Parramatta.

The weather in this period was good, the week before NSW was traeted with heavy rains, but now the weather was like 25, 26, 27 C and sunny.

When finished working I went back to the hotel to put my stuff away and dress more casual for dinner, just around the corner of the hotel, a street with a lot of restaurants were situated, so enough choices for different kind of foods.

Thursday April 9th was the last working day and they were so kind to book me a hotel in Sydney, which was Crown Plaza too, now situated in Darling Harbour.

I realy enjoyed staying in the Crown Plaza Darling Harbour, close to the harbour shops and restaurants, even the city center, china town and Circular Quay are at walking distance.

During my sty I explored Darling Harbour, Curcular Quay, the Bridge, opera house and Manly, went to see the city center, china town, the gardens, by monorail, tourbus, Sydney ferries and by foot, I did a lot of walking during my stay in Sydney.

Monday April 13th (2nd Easterday) I left Sydney for my next visit Singapore, after a 8,5 hours flight i arrived back in Singapore.

Singapore was manly business visit, I stayed in Furama river front Hotel, although it was a business trip, still there was time to have good dinners and explore Orchard Raod and China town.

Saturday April 18th, my next destination was scheduled after almost 2 hours flying from Singapore I arrived in Jakarta, now my holiday started.

When comming from holland, Jakarta is something different, i was supprised/amazed about the way the traffic flows through the city, sometimes you have to close your eyes, expecting things to go wrong, but with a bit of honking and lights flashing, every body goes the way they planned.

After 2 days Jakarta we Left on Monday morning april 20th for our flight to Denpasar Bali, we took a taxi to Kuta, where we stayed at Yulia Beach Inn, we booked a bungalow,the place was nice and closed to everything, the street almost neded on the beach, the shops and restaurants were nearby and the weather was good.

During our stay we did an organized trip, thay picked us up at 8.30 in the morning and returned us at 21.00 in the evening, incuded where lunch, dinner, we went for a barong show, batik factory, silver shop, paintings in ubud, marked, vulcano, coffee plantage, rice feelds, tanah lot temple, realy nice was dinner, on the beach, the water almost toughing our toes.

We also went to waterbom, which was realy nice with all the slides, the lazy river and the swimming pool with the bar in the pool.

Af course we went to the beach too, bought some souveniers in the local waroengs and had relaxing massages in the massage studio/spa, lunches and dinners were good too.

Friday april 24th almost at midnight we left bali to return to Jakarta, in Jakarta we also bought some souvenirs in one fo the several malls.

Sunday april 26th was the end of my asia trip, my return trip started at 18.45 local time to return to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport with a stop in Kuala Lumpur, Maleisia, the stop was just 1 hour, the trip from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur was 2 hours, from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam 12,5 hours.

At 06.00 dutch time i arrived back in holland, where the taxi picked me up again and brought me home, at 7.30 in the morning i was back home, from my exciting Asia trip, which gave me a lot of new impressions.

JeePee's blog

JeePee's blog

Car drive around the Drunense duinen.

Car drive around the Drunense duinen.

Location: Drunen, Helvoirt, Drunense duinen, Udenhout, Loon op Zand, Kaatsheuvel, Waalwijk

Period : Autumn 2009, d.d. 14-11-2009

As you can see this region in the middle of the Netherlands is a beautiful area, which makes it possible to make very nice pictures the whole year through, these "autumn" pictures were taken during our car drive around the Drunense duinen.

Sinterklaas en zwarte piet

Sinterklaas en zwarte piet

Sinterklaas & zwarte piet have arrived in the Netherlands, traditional wise they come to holland by steamboat, every year another city is choosen to be the city they arrive, this year it was Schiedam.

From the moment that Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands, kids are allowed to put their shoe in front of the fire place, mostly they will put in a drawing for sinterklaas, a carrot or sugar for the horse (Amerigo) or a wishlist what they would like to have on the evening/night of the 4th of december (his birthday), Sinterklaas is left on december 5th.

The next morning the kids will find a small present in their shoe or some candy.

This is a traditional kids event, kids get very excited in this period and start singing all kids of Sinterklaas songs, the excitement gets its peak on the evening of december 4th or the morning of december 5th, when the kids get their presents and can start unwrapping them.

Spinazie gehakt ovenschotel à la chef de maison Jean Pierre

Na een zoekotcht op internet van verschillende spinazie gehakt schotels, heb ik met ingredienten uit een aantal van deze recepten, zelf een recept gemaakt met ingrediente die ik zelf lekker vond en ben tot het volgende resultaat gekomen, de uitvoering zoals hier beschreven is voor 4 personen, ik heb hem destijds gemaakt voor een gezelschap van 13 personen, en heb dus alles met 4 vermenig vuldigd, met als resultaat dat er nog maar een klein beetje over was, net genoeg voor 1 persoon.

Spinazie gehakt ovenschotel à la chef de maison Jean Pierre

Benodigdheden voor 4 personen :

• 400 gram gehakt (runder)
• 400 gram spinazie (diepvries)
• 500 gram aardappelschijfjes
• 1 ui
• 1 teen knoflook
• 4 eieren
• 1 bakje Boursin cuisine (245 gram)
• 100 gram geraspte kaas
• Olie
• Zout
• Peper
• Ketjap
• Ketchup
• Nootmuskaat
• Tijm



Bereiding :

• Fruit de ui in olie in een wok of hapjespan, voeg daarna het gehakt toe en bak het lekker rul, breng het op smaak met knoflook, ketjap, ketchup, zout, peper en nootmuskaat (proeven om te kijken of de smaak goed is).
• Als het gehakt mengsel op smaak is, voeg je de reeds ontdooide spinazie en de helft van het bakje Boursin cuisine en wat tijm toe, goed doorroeren zodat er een egaal mengsel ontstaat (wederom proeven om de smaak kwaliteit te bewaken).
• Kook de eieren en laat deze afkoelen, na afkoeling in tweeën snijden
• Ondertussen de aardappelschijfjes voorbereiden, doe de aardappelschijfjes in een pan of bak en meng dit met de rest van het bakje Boursin cuisine
• Bereid de ovenschaal voor door deze in te oliën.
• Leg een bodem in de ovenschaal met een deel van de aardappelschijfjes, vul deze met het gehakt/spinazie mengsel, druk de in helften gesneden eieren in het gehakt/spinazie mengsel, dek het geheel af met het restant van de aardappelen, bedek het geheel met de geraspte kaas.
• Zet de ovenschaal in de voorverwarmde oven (200 graden) en laat deze ca. 30 minuten in de oven staan (controleer regelmatig of de kaas/paneermeel een kleurtje krijgt)

Het gerecht kan geserveerd worden met witte wijn, rode wijn, rosé, bier, cola of gewoon water.



Smakelijk eten
Chef de maison
Jean Pierre

An autumn Sudnay afternoon walk in de Drunense duinen

Today, we wnet for a walk in de Drunense duinen, it is an area which is carefully watched by "staats bosbeheer", you find all diferent kinds of trees, but the population of pine trees is the biggest, this area has also dunes, wich is very strange, as Drunen is a place in the middle of the country and you can not see any sea for almost 100 kilomters.

The area is a very beautiful area, it is being used for many purposes, there are special biking paths, horse riding tracks, moutain bike tracks, walking path's and wlaking tracks, but most important of all, no cars are allowed in this forest/dunes.

on the edges of this forest/dunes you will find a number of cafe's/restaurants where you can take a rest, have a drink and something too eat, they also have as,all play ground for the children to play in.

For us it is only a 5 to 10 minutes drive by car or 15 till 20 minutes by bike to one of the cafe's/restaurants where we can park the car and continue by foot., that is what we did today, we parked the car at "de 3 Linden" en coninued walking into the forest, this time we did not take the tarmac walking/biking path, but we took the walking track and we were able to shoot some nice autumn pictures.