Bad day

Due to a seat I couldn't get adjusted, another seat that kept adjusting itself and a very very busy last bit of my shift, the area between my shoulders had started hurting. Which then travelled up to my head and stayed there. 

However, I really knew it was a bad day when I couldn't get the company car in gear. I tried and tried and was cursing and grumbling. I turned the engine off and on again and still nothing. 

Until I realised I had to actually use the clutch as well. That's when I really knew. 

Bad day!

PS: it rained all day as well...

On a journey

One of my great-grandfathers

As you know I have been quite busy with my research into my ancestry. And it makes for fascinating reading so far! I find out so much about some people and so little about others! Here are some of the discoveries I made so far:

I already knew I was descendant from Charles the Great, but now I found out there is actually some debate on whether he actually existed! Listen to me folks: he did! Because I have to come from somewhere and he is a great person to come from!! So, not based on any science or fact, I vote for his existance.

I found out one paternal ancestor killed a man in France. Now, this was a long time ago and happened in what is now a suburb of Orléans (he was a student there). I say killed a man, but all I know so far is that he was arrested for killing a man, so it might just be a storm in a glass of water that.

I found out one maternal ancestor had two children while unmarried. One passed away when about 3 years old, the other was my great-great-grandfather. On his marriage papers it said that his mother hadn't acknowledged him. I know (from other sources) that he lived with his grandparents. 

Job Ulbes Faber
1827-1906

I found out that the brother to a paternal ancestor thought he was married in 1900 when his 'wife' had actually divorced him 4 years earlier on the grounds of 'left the joint abode in a state of malevolence' and 'he does not reside in this country'. In fact, only 2 years into their marriage, he had sold everything he owned, including the canary in its cage. And 3-4 years into their marriage, he had not only left their joint abode, he had actually left the country. He had emigrated to America with seven of his children (they were not hers). 

I found out that one maternal ancestor was killed by a priest over some court case. I still have to find out all the particulars, but apparently the priest lost the court case and was about to lose another due to my ancestor. Not happy about that, he decided to kill him!

Menno Simons

I found out that a lot of my paternal ancestors were baptists, which I found very surprising at first. Until I realised that Menno Simons (the mennonites) was born and raised in Friesland, where nearly all my ancestors come from as well. It would even be a possibility that some of them even knew him personally!!! 

The breadrunner is on the left

I found out when my grandfather first went away to work: he was fifteen and a half. I found out the meaning of May 12th. I found out about turn skippers and millers, bread runners and farm hands, labourers and clothmakers. The main job on my paternal side is farming, be it farmer or farm hand, the main job on my maternal side is still to be found out. 

There are so many things to find out about, so many things to discover. The stories I have so far only touch the surface and I actually only have one story that is close to be written down into a chapter for a book I hope to make about all this. 

So, if I am missing in action, I am off discovering!

This post was partly inspired by this week's prompt from the Spin Cycle. Thank you Ginnie Marie at Lemon Drop Pie!

Inspired food

Pumpkin soup and bread and butter. Mmmmm

I love cooking and lately I have actually been doing a lot of it. Simple things mind, like boiled potatoes and cabbage and stuff. Last week I made a vegetable soup à la home, which tasted okay, probably a bit too salty. Although some extra water will certainly deal with that, making it a good soup like I used to have when living back home.

I also made a red cabbage 'pie' a week or two ago. It was gorgeous! I still have two more portions frozen, but I now know what to get to make it perfect. Basically it's small bits of (leftover) meat, ie beef or lamb, apple compote or apple mash, red cabbage and potato mash. All in layers in a sturdy oven dish and put for 45 minutes in the oven. 

I won't be going hungry soon!!

And then yesterday I made another dish from scratch. Something I had never thought I would do. Another soup. I am not really a soup person, but this pumpkin soup was so tasty when I tasted it over at Yamini's last year, I wanted to try it for myself. I had a bit of trouble slaughtering the pumpkin, but I got there in the end. I thought I had cumin, but I didn't. I might have put just a tad too much pepper in, but the result was absolutely yummmmm! With some thick slices of bread and butter I had a very enjoyable lunch. I have one portion left for today and another two go into the freezer. 

I wonder what culinary delights lay in store for me this week...

Photo on Sunday 2015-34

About a year and a half ago, my sister asked me to finish knitting her cardigan for her. She is more into cross-stitch and crocheting and was actually having problems with her hand/arm while knitting. So, I had a look at it. 

The thing I usually knit are socks or dolls and animals, so a cardigan was a bit different to me. Besides that, it is a lot bigger than what I usually do, it only has one (!) colour and my sister had already knitted part of it. Which meant I would either have to adapt my knitting to hers, or I would have to unravel the whole thing!

In the end, I only unraveled part of it and got going. It looks okay now. I will show again when finished. I just have to figure out about the pocket she wants and about the buttons. Any ideas? Oh, and the blue/white knitted thing in the bottom photo is a trial for another project I hope to do once the cardigan is finished. Although the trial will probably be turned into a cushion or something!!

A disgrace

I should call it that: a disgrace! Because that's exactly what it is! I promised a post about how busy I have been and what happens? Nothing! Nothing at all. Zip, nada, zilch, ingenting!!

And I have been busy! Busy doing the dishes (every day if you please), researching, busy cooking meals (every day if you please), working (almost every day), researching, laundry, cleaning, researching, watching television and then some more researching.

The research is of course into my family roots and I have found some amazing things only in the last few days. It is really exciting and it takes up a fair amount of time. Because you get sucked in, it is so addictive! The latest I have found is about a brother of an ancestor (the one who moved to New Jersey) and his "antics". Not only did his wife have to divorce him, three years after he left the country, during their time together it wasn't all sweet smelling roses either! I really get a picture of this man now and it is great fun!

And what about those dishes you ask? Especially those of you who have known me for a bit longer? Well, I don't know, but I seem to be on track, which is always good. Perhaps I finally realised that having to do the dishes for two hours because I saved all my crockery and stuff up is not a nice way to spend a Sunday morning. Let's hope it continues!

The other busybody in this house is of course Miss Oswin. She has found a new hobby: ruin the underside of the two-seater couch! Apart from going out twice (!) in an hour. The first time she will go out, do something or other and then come back to have some sweeties. After which she feels there is still a good time to be had outside! Like catching mice (I found one this morning). 

Right now however, she is busy taking one of her many beauty sleeps. Which are of course very important as well.

And one more thing I will get busy with from this weekend: my sister's cardigan. I promised I would try and finish it, ooh, about a year and a half ago! And did I do that? Did I ever... So, since I will be going to see her soon, I thought it would be nice to have a finished product in my luggage! It took me some time to locate the cardigan again, but I did in the end and from Saturday I will give it a go!

Right, that was it from a very busy (!) me. I will try and mend my ways!!

PS: It is even more disgraceful than I thought! I wrote this post yesterday, but never finished it! Shame on me!!!

Dessert

I had this amazing plan on Monday. I would make kale 'n' mash and I would have a perfect dessert of blackberries and apple. It could hardly be better. However, the meal didn't quite come together the way I had hoped. 

First of all, I had cooked too many potatoes for the mash. Not to worry though, I left some out, to be used to fry yesterday. But even with the ones I left out, I still had a bit too much mash. Never mind though, I had enough kale. But since I only used one bag, I didn't really have that much. In the end though, the result tasted as it should. 

The dessert? It ended up in the bin! Because I left it on the stove for too long. Which meant that the blackberries and apple had turned into black slush and stuck to the bottom of the pan. And I mean really stuck to the bottom of the pan. As in: I need industrial cleaner to get it out! As I haven't got the industrial stuff, I have been trying ordinary stuff, but after three days of scouring cream, oven cleaner, more scouring cream, more oven cleaner (you get the drift): the result is the photo at the top (the pan on the right). 

I think I might need a new pan!

Photo on Sunday 2015-33

I have been busy with a lot of things this past week. I will tell more about that next week. Promise. In the mean time I leave you with Miss Oswin who thinks the letters sent to me in the past make a perfect bed!

Prickly

I would have loved to take this photo, but I didn't
Photo from Wikipedia

As I was driving my route this morning, I saw several flattened creatures on the side or even in the middle of the road. Most of them were hedgehogs. Lured by the heat of the tarmac, they make their way to and try to cross the roads, where they are then hit and killed by cars.

So, when I saw another one that was in the middle of the road, I felt quite sorry for it. Until I realised it wasn't quite in the middle and it wasn't dead! It had had a fright from the car that had just sped past (well, he was going about 15 miles an hour, but to a hedgehog, that must seem like supersonic, no pun intended) and was sitting still on my side of the road. 

Not my hands, and not 'my' hedgehog either
Photo from groei.nl

I only had one passenger and we were nearing the last stop, so I stopped the bus, got out and tried to pick the hedgehog up. Because the minute I tried, it became a quivering ball of prickly spines. I tried again and this time I was able to gently lift it up, take it to the other side of the road (where it was clearly headed) and put it down in the high grass. 

When I came back about ten minutes later, the hedgehog was gone. Scuttled off into the safety of the grass and hopefully living a long life yet! As for me: I felt the prickly spines for a few hours yet!

Photo on Sunday 2015-32

My satellite connection is playing up. I mean, really playing up. It's working fine from morning to evening, but come 8.30pm, it starts to stutter and finally go down. Until about midnight when it comes back!

Next week the satellite man is coming over. He will hopefully update and solve this problem. Because not watching the Doctor....

London

Me and my sister during her visit to me earlier this year

My sister and I had decided it would be nice to go to London again. It has been over three years for me! I usually went about five or six times a year in my old job, but since moving to Norway I don't travel that much anymore. So, London it was. Sometime in November or December. 

Then my sister got invited to a bachelorette party. In New York! Which meant that she still wanted to go to London, but wasn't that sure about how to finance the lot. 

Well, for me, seeing my sister is more important than a trip to London, so instead of going to Oxford Street for some Christmas shopping, I will be visiting my sister in Northern Ireland. And there will be plenty of opportunity to go shopping there as well. And perhaps this time I actually get to see a bit more of Belfast!!