View from the AMC hospital in Amsterdam.
Holland is flat but I think that is common knowledge.

boxing day lunch

We were invited for a swedish inpired lunch on boxing day by Birgit and Oystein.
Mike and Karin arrived looking very Christmassy...

christmas lunch

Walked over to our neighbours to wish them a Merry Christmas and gave them a Spanish traditional "Piña de navidad" (pineapple) and a Dutch tradtional "Kerstkrans" (puff pastry filled with almondpaste)


It was lovely weather.
Antonio was walking his goats.

The sheep were curious but kept their distance.

Schiphol airport.
Flying to Spain for Christmas.
Will be back in a couple of days.

HOMO SAPIENS NON URINAT IN VENTUM

A famous slogan in Amsterdam and you would be wise to follow the advice: Man Does Not Piss In Wind.

Happy Birthday Mamma and Jochem

Birthday lunch for Jochem and mamma in the great noodle place Wagamama on the Max Euweplein in Amsterdam.

VONDELPARK

Just some images I made walking through the Vondelpark this sunny cold wintermorning.

This is nice: the find fence: if you find anything in the park you put it on the fence and the owner can come and find it there. Lots of gloves and mittens in this time of the year.

wishing, hoping and thinking about my dad today

frozen leaves

freezing cold!

We were in Eindhoven for the weekend and it was freezing!
Jochem removing ice from the car in the morning.

Jochem and my mother trying to squeeze Koen into some warm clothes.

He certainly does look like he's dressed warm enough.

The pond in my parent's garden was frozen but not enough to be able to walk on it. Pity!

I couln't resist publishing this: Gisèle participating in a cultural project.

Lunch on the beach at our favourite chiringuito in Málaga where they grill the fish on an open fire on a stick.

Someone offered to make a photo of the two of us.
You can see me looking wary:that's because he had his fingers in front of the lens and moved the camera when taking the first shot.
I'm glad our heads are still in the picture!

Not only the Italians are proud of their coffees.
Here in Málaga it is a culture on it's own and Café Central boasts to have the best in town.
Beats Starbuck's anytime...

Being from an ice skating nation it is always amusing to see children trying to skate. It's not something that comes naturally for the Spanish. Today was a particularly hot day: 25ºC again and feeling warmer in the sun. Talking about wasting energy! Global warming through freezing.

Málaga is becoming a very cultural city.
They had an exhibition of a couple of Rodin's statues right on the main shoppingstreet the Calle Larios.
Sponsored by La Caixa: one of Spain's many banks.

Le Penseur


Or as the Spanish call him: El Pensador...

It was a lovely and sunny sunday so a lot of people were taking a stroll in town.

Chris and Gisèle having pre-dinner drinks in front of the fireplace

pressing the olives

this year's result: 550 kilo's, just enough.
Because of a heavy hailstorm at the end of september a lot of olives had fallen from the trees prematurely. Last year we could harvest twice and had more than 600 kilo's each time.
By the way, when I'm talking about the result you need to know that it's always a shared crop between Oystein and Birgit, our land, Bill's land and even a bit from Keith and Sue's finca this year. I'ts easier and more fun this way.


The olives are dumped into a funnel and...


brought up by a conveyorbelt to a washing and weighing unit.


After this the olives are ground to a pulp, sieved and then mixed for an hour.
It does not really look that appetiting but already smells divine!


Now this looks better: slightly green extra virgin olive oil.
Nothing beats having your own!

more olives

Gisèle is over for a few days from Amsterdam. She has lived in the neighbourhood for more than 5 years but had never "done" the olive harvest before. This was her chance to get even.

If you've tried picking from the ground, hitting with a stick and there are still olives in the tree the only thing you can do is: join them!

We had a communal picking day today on Bill's land. He couldn't help much because he just had his knee operated but he provided us with another batch of olives and a perfect picknick spot to have lunch. Cheers!
(By the way it is the 4th of december and we're all in short sleeves because it was hot: 25º C...)

1st day of olive picking

Saturday morning december 1st and also 1st day of picking olives.
I jokingly asked at the office if anyone wanted to help out and come for a day of hard labour in the countryside. Ia actually loved the idea and came over with her husband Nacho.
It's not always easy to keep your balance on the slope and still try to pluck a few olives from the tree at the same time.

When the trees are on level ground you just place a net under the tree and hit the branches hard with a long stick.

A nice sunny lunch is what you need after all the work done!
Thanks guys!