Things I have recently learnt

[shermarama]

Things I have learnt during the last few days:

• You can buy baking powder and yeast that isn't in tiny irritating individual packets in Amsterdam, but you have to do it in Chinatown
• Romanian and Brazilian Portuguese sound so much like each other as languages that Romanians and Brazilians can get quite freaked out by it
• Brazil is really huge
• The last tram home from the vicinity of Cornelius Leylaan leaves at about midnight
• It takes about forty minutes to walk home from there, but the streets and even the park still feel completely unthreatening at one in the morning
• Underfloor heating takes a veeeerrrryyyyy long time to heat up
• No, I mean really huge, like, if the USA didn't have Alaska, Brazil would be bigger
• Boning mackerel isn't as hard as I feared
• Blue versions of Dutch cheeses, like the blue Gouda we have in the fridge, are damn tasty
• Because the Dutch like to do things properly, there's no cheap-as-chips rubbish-but-they'll-do tools in DIY shops, so a battery-powered drill costs €30, has a sensibly-voltaged power pack rather than being part of the escalating more-voltage = better war in the UK and doesn't even come with any bits at all, never mind the usual forest of millions of mostly useless ones - hence I didn't actually buy one
• When the wind is in this exact direction, the planes going into Schipol sound like they're trying to land on our roof
• Mackerel, stir-fried in a freshly bought and seasoned wok, is damn tasty
• The Lapjesmarkt (rag market) on Westerstraat is a fabulous place filled with a pleasing mixture of bargainous and quality fabrics
• I'm getting better at understanding what people are saying to me in Dutch, but I'm still pretty useless at replying
• I can run nine miles in relative comfort
• Fructose has a considerable effect on cholesterol levels (that's juggzy's interesting and useful overview of what's going on with the whole cholesterol malarkey) - I knew it was dietarily suspect, but not that it had anything to do with that
• If we can't be arsed to get beer from Albert Heijn before it shuts, it's approximately twice the price from the avondwinkel (late-night shop) over the road
• The ring-necked parakeets I keep seeing around here, including swooping round my head while running in the Vondelpark, are part of a stable population that's been breeding here since something like 1976
• I can get very heavily rained on while running without suffering from chafing, blisters or any other detrimental effect (thank you Friday's very heavy and unavoidable showers)
• My running shoes dry out pretty quickly given newspaper and the nice warm laundry room
• That still doesn't mean I want to go running on this windy, drizzly afternoon

That's about it for now. More discoveries as they come in, folks. 

Comments

[lozette.livejournal.com]

We have ring-necked parakeets in Peckham and they're amazing! Although apparently a terrible pest. In the last 6 months I've heard them flying over my garden, but they're yet to land there.

[shermarama]

I've heard about them living in the UK but I never saw them there. Here, there are big bunches of them swooping and squawking past our window sometimes.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Oh bollocks I forgot to change the newspaper in my wetsuit boots this morning. Now they will be full of smelly pulp.

When you said "the more-voltage = better war" I had momentary visions of all wars being fought by little battery-operated robots that thump each other with little sticks and the side that hits harder and breaks more of the other robots wins. You can bet there'd be more investment in battery technology then. In fact I think this should happen and all the soldiers can sit a long way away watching it on TV and clean up the pieces afterwards.

[shermarama]

Wetsuit boots are the worst things in the world to get dry, aren't they? There must be some better design possible for them, on the drying front at least.

Arguably war is already heavily automated but they keep putting the soldiers inside the machinery anyway. Seems like a daft idea to me.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Walking home through the park was ace. I don't know anywhere in the UK where walking home through the park feels safe. And cos I was there in a cold winter, it was often snowy. Beautiful.

I really need to go back to Amsterdam, you're making me miss it!

[shermarama]

I always felt fine in Preston Park in Brighton, but that's Brighton. I can imagine Amsterdam will look pretty good in the snow, though I'm not looking forward to the three months of drizzle and grey until then.

We do have a spare room here, got with the intention that people might want to come over and stay. Just saying, like.