With Christmas approaching, Dijkman Klompenatelier has come up with a rather novel promotional item : wooden shoes decorated with your company’s logo. What I have seen, that is rather nice, are wooden shoes for children, with the child’s name painted on them.
Tonight we had mussels for dinner, well, at least The Father and The Boy did. The Girl ( of course) doesn’t like them and I find them too aesthetically unappealing for words.
It’s only the second time I have prepared them. A few weeks ago, The Father brought a 2 kilo bag of fresh mussels home from the Albert Hein , and I thought, well, when in Rome…
All of my cookbooks are packed up because of the re-building, so I carefully read the instructions on the bag. If I found an open one, I should run cold water over it,and tap it gently against the side side of the sink. If it closed again, it was safe to eat. So, that’s what I did, not even pausing to think about it.
Once I had checked them all, I placed them in a colander and busied myself with other preparations. It was then that I heard a strange noise- the shells were clicking and moving- oh so gently. They were still alive !! I felt horrible about it, and made sure the small bit of water that they would be steamed alive in was as hot ( and hopefully as quick) as possible.
This is now a very hush-hush secret in the house- that the mussels are actually alive. Should The Boy ever discover this, we would be the new home of 2 kilos of pet mussels.
So far, the only thing this day has going for it is that it is Friday. My mouse is dying, so I can barely move around the page, and dear Mr.Jo has used the wrong color of mortar on our bricks. This really pisses me off, as I’ve told him,The Father has told him, a zillion times that I want light mortar. Instead, he has used medium grey. Our house looks like a bungalow from the 60′s, rather than the 17th century place that it is. I’m very annoyed.
They’ve already done about a fifth of the house. Swell, swell, swell. No doubt this will rate an article in ‘Houdoe’ about how people destroy their listed homes. Grrrrr.
Win is finally graduating, and as he really has no family, he has invited us to come to a swank dinner on March 29, to celebrate. My task, should I accept it, is to find a Sheraton in or near Rennes.
So, of course, I ran to look up Rennes. Hmm, of course. Most of the sites are in french. Oh ! here’s one !. Let me take a look.
” RENNES, AN INNOVATOR
…a city of Innovation
Did you know that ATM technology was invented at the Lannion CNET, a France Telecom research and development institute near Rennes ?
And that Brittany accounts for 45% of France’s public sector research in telecommunications ?
The X25 international standard was developed at the CCETT in Rennes in 1974
Rennes was the first cabled city in France
The first French ADSL experiment took place in Rennes in 1998.
The only French Franco-American institute is in Rennes
Brittany’s flag is the black and white version of the American flag
The first digital TV broadcast took place in Rennes in 1993
The first direct intercontinental TV retransmission was carried out July 11, 1962 at 0:47AM, between Pleumeur Bodou, in Brittany and Andover, USA
1869: France sets its first underwater cable between the station of D�olen, close to Brest, Brittany and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (close to Canada).
The first time-division electronic switchboard in the world was in Brittany, in Perros-Guirec 1970 ”
Well, let’s hope that Rennes at least has a posh hotel.
Today, The Boy and The Girl brought home their first report cards of the year- in fact, for The Boy, it was his first report card ever.
Both were a surprise.
The Girl’s was simply so-so, after always getting top grades, and The Boys’s was excellent. Of course, he ‘flunked’ every aspect that there is of reasonable behavior, but I was enormously shocked by his near perfect grades.
The Father and I are both bewildered about The Girl’s grades- it simply doesn’t make sense because she is very bright. Hmmm, perhaps this is somehow mummy’s fault as well.
Monday brings parent-teacher conferences, so we’ll see what Mr. Mr. has to say.
I took The Boy and The Girl to the dentist yesterday. For The Girl it was the first time, and she had no cavities. For The Boy is was not the first time, and his mouth was simply filled with them. The dentist took the opportunity to give me quite the withering look as he told me how important it was to 1.) brush the children’s teeth myself and 2.) bring them every 6 months for a checkup. I bit my tongue and refrained from telling him that tooth brushing was Papa’s job. But then, rotten teeth are always the mother’s fault – any simpleton knows that.
Today, I should start my Christmas shopping for the kids. While the arrival of a computer in our home has made this easier, it’s still not my favorite past time.I’ve had great experiences with Bart Smit, they usually deliver within 3 business days and add no shipping charges.
A nice surprise was Lego. They ship from Denmark and do charge for shipping, and their prices are about the same as in the stores. So what are the plus points ? The selection, in particular of the fun little pieces- those accessories that usually get lost, like the hats and weapons for the lego figures. I received my order within 4 days.
At odd moments, I’ve been wondering why so many elderly women have short, curly hair. As I look around town, they are in the vast majority. Oh, there is a rogue bohemian with short, straight hair, but that is truly the exception.
Is it this town ? Is it The Netherlands ? Or is this a secret side effect of ‘going through the change’ ? Does your hair simply begin to break off at three inches and develop a curl ? Considering the state of my hair, and my age, this might be a possible explanation.
Wheeled the piglet over for her 2 year old checkup- she’s bursting at the seams ! 86cm and 12.6 kilos ! She loathed every nano-second of it, and was quite pleased when it was over.
I received dreary news today- the playgroup in our town is moving over to the next town, a 20-25 minute walk away – so much for my much anticipated freedom a few hours a week. And the wee one really needs to hear more dutch and learn how to play with other children.
The joys of village life.
I’m a bit slow on my reading. I’m trudging through Malcom Cowley’s ‘ The Dream of the Golden Mountains’, in which he relates his experiences with the communist party during the thirties, and, well, I just really can’t get into it, although it is interesting. He does have a wonderful bit, describing an evening he spent with Fitzgerald and Zelda, when they lived in Baltimore. Guess I’ll keep slogging through.
This book, by the way, is so out of print that I can’t even find it at ebay.
