Pages

Lo and behold what did I see yesterday? A possibility to add 'pages' to my blog! So, I added pages to my blog: one where I tell you who I am (previously known as my profile), one where I share my dreams and goals, one with all the books I've read so far (if you click on the red names, it will bring you to a review) and one where I invite all my readers, commenters and followers to leave a little message. Call it a guestbook if you like...

I may add some more in the future: about the best winter desserts for example, or Christmas films, or anything else that tickles my fancy.

Where is your fancy anyway?

How Jane deals with blood

Lately any books coming out involving Jane Austen and/or her stories seem to have something of the supernatural about them. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters and now the latest I read: Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford.

Jane Austen is running a book-store somewhere in small town America some two hundred years after her death. That's of course because she isn't dead, she's a vampire. Turned by another great writer of her time (which I have yet to read), she lives forever as her forty year old self, never aging, greying or gaining weight. She uses the name Elizabeth Jane Fairfax and cannot get her latest book published. All the fuss over Jane Austen drives her mad (finger puppets? Action figures? Sense and Sensuality?), the man who turned her into a vampire comes back and shakes things up and she's almost romantically involved with the local Mr Perfect: Walter. And finally a publisher wants to publish her book...

Where PPZ and SSSM were adaptations of Jane Austen novels, this is a completely new work and in my opinion the best of the three. Yes, there are vampires in it, but it never becomes ridiculous or unbelievable, because it feels like a beautiful love story with some vampires. I can't wait for the sequel, but since this book has only been out for six/seven weeks, I will have to wait a while yet...

Very highly recommended!

Biathlon

I am a massive biathlon fan and will be glued to the television screen during the Olympics to try and watch every single race there is. But for those of you out there who don't know about this sport: have a little look at this video. It's a video made by Time (yup, the magazine) during the summer and features Tim Burke, the best American of this moment. He was the cup leader during several races and has proven that you don't need to be German, Norwegian of Russian to be good at this sport!

I wish him, his teammates and all the other athletes the best of luck during the coming Olympics!

D is for...

Doodlebug

The official name of this contraption was the V-1 and it was used by the Germans during WWII. The V stands for 'Vergeltung' or Retaliation. It was an early cruise missile and it was used to bomb population sites like London and Antwerp.

It was launched using what looked like an inverted ski-slope, mainly from the French and Dutch coastlines, until they were taken by the allied forces. It was propulsed by a simple pulse jet engine which pulsed about 50 times a second, giving it a buzzing sound, hence the name 'Buzz Bomb' or Doodlebug.

About 10.000 V-1's were launched at London and about a quarter of those reached London, Croydon being the area where most fell. British Intelligence then started giving out false location and correct times to upset the system: with a location north of London and a time for the south of London, the Germans made corrections causing most doodlebugs to land short of London.

For more D words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

PS: I am looking for the perfect winter dessert (so no ice-cream!). Strawberry Jam Anne sent me a yummy Lemon Surprise. So do you know of an absolute great and scrumptious dessert that contains no coffee or nuts (not too fond of those)? Please send a recipe to the address mentioned below. I promise to make and taste (hey, it's for science!) every single recipe sent to me at busdriver1971@gmail.com and make photos and write a post. So do you know of an absolute great and scrumptious dessert that contains no coffee or nuts (don't like those too much), please send a recipe to the above address.

Break or brake?

This morning I started work in a very cold coach. The temperatures have dropped again and since our coaches are all parked outside, the inside was nearly as cold as the outside. It's a good thing I can put the heating in my chair on. A warm back and warm behind. Mmmm. Anyway, enough about my warm buns.

I started driving and within a few minutes I realised something was wrong. Now, my demolition colleague had driven my coach yesterday, so I thought perhaps he had been at it again (he wasn't by the way). So, what was wrong? Well, the brakes were a bit soppy. The coach came to a stop, but I felt it needed more than it did last Friday. I managed to pick up the people and take them to where they were supposed to go. I then drove back to the garage to get the brakes checked out. After all, it might only be frozen brakes!

Well, the brakes weren't frozen. One of the brakes was broken. Not working at all. I shouldn't have driven! It was a good thing I know my coach, am not a pushy driver (well...) and the weather was good. I had to leave my coach in the garage and tomorrow I drive a colleague's coach.

When I got back to the lot this afternoon, my colleague was there. I told him about the problems with my brakes and he said: hey, I had problems today as well! My heart sank. When he described his problems, they were exactly like the ones I had. So, tomorrow I will be (carefully) driving his coach to the garage, picking up yet another one and doing my day's work. At the end of the day, I will have to drive that one back and pick up my own.

Now before you wonder about the state of our coaches: my colleagues had no problems with the brakes yesterday. But the weather has been very wet (snow, fog) and cold lately. Those two things combined can cause problems very quick! I am just happy I found out today and not while I was driving down a mountain like last week...

Surprise!

Well, Delia Smith's Lemon Surprise actually. Strawberry Jam Anne has picked up on the challenge to provide me with the bestest, nicest, yummiest winter dessert to eat on a cold and/or dreary day in those dark days before snowdrops and daffodils. And I promised to make and taste all your efforts. Here goes:

Ingredients (all metric!):
50 grams butter
110 grams caster sugar
rind and juice of two large lemons
2 eggs, separated
50 grams selfraising flour, sifted
150 ml milk

850 ml deep baking dish, buttered
pre-heat oven at 180 Celsius

Preparing:

First beat butter, sugar and lemon rind together until well soft (it won't go light and fluffy because there's more sugar than butter). Then, beat in the egg yolks, a bit at a time. Next, fold in the flour, alternately with milk and lemon juice. Finally whisk the egg whites until nice and stiff and fold them in to the mixture. At this point the mixture will look a bit curdled, but that is normal. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and bake in the center of the oven for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot (although it also tastes quite nice cold).

The surprise is that after it's cooked, you will find a nice lemon pool underneath the spongy surface.

So, what did I think? Well, let's just say there is nothing left. It was really nice both hot and cold, although when it was hot, it was also very very gooey. The only thing I missed, was a bit of sauce. Not quite sure what sort of sauce should have gone with it, but that was missing. Other than that, it was great. Hot in the winter, nice and cold in the summer. Now just to find a nice sauce to go with it!

Delia Smith's Lemon Surprise: a good winter (and summer) dessert. Any more suggestions?

Update 08 February: Carolina suggested raspberry coulis/sauce to go with this dessert. And I think she may be right...

In short...

I bought new shoes and they are really comfy. Great buy!

I am watching the live-action Scooby Doo 2 right now (and I hate Scooby Doo).

My nose is still a bit clogged, but I am on the right track to full health. Finally!

I will make the first winter dessert later tonight, thanks to Strawberry Jam Anne. Photos and taste review to follow tomorrow!

I've got the weekend off.

Odd job

Okay, since I am Dutch, I think it's about time you learn some Dutch words. Not counting cookie, apartheid or polder. Here goes...

Klusser: person who does odd jobs.

Kusser: kisser.

Vak(manschap): skill/skilled

And this company seems to be very skilled in what they do, or so it says anyway.

I had nearly passed him on the Motorway, when I saw this. I slowed down, grabbed my camera and took this shot.

Shoes

About six weeks ago I wanted to buy myself a new pair of shoes. I don't own that many (one pair I can wear during the winter, two for the summer) and I really needed a new pair. But of course I couldn't find a pair I liked and if I did like them, the cost would keep a third world country fed and clothed and housed for a year! Apart from that, I always have difficulty finding shoes that fit properly. Boots are out, because my calves are a bit too wide. Heels are out, because within two hours my ankles swell up to ginormity and start to hurt. Pointy shoes are out, because they hurt my toes. And when I do find a pair that fit, they are usually in brown or some other hideous colour that will clash with my uniform. So, no luck.

The girl in the shoestore had a sollution for me though: Germany! She actually advised me to go to Germany for shoes. More choice, less money. But when do I ever get to spend any time in Germany. I mean, I go to Germany on a regular basis, but I never have the opportunity to visit a shoe shop. Until this week.

On Monday I had to go to Winterberg. Which is exactly as the name describes: winter on a mountain (Berg is German (and Dutch) for mountain). A lot of snow which was good, since Winterberg makes a living of skiing tourists. Which I had to pick up on Tuesday. Due to some strange instructions I phoned the contact on Monday already and immediately found out that instead of leaving at midday, we were supposed to be leaving at six pm! Which gave me a whole day in town!

I had a lie-in. A lazy breakfast. I took a walk to see how much my coach had been snowed in during the night (see photo). And I found a shoe shop. And some shoes. They were black. They fitted. They had a 1cm (approx. 1/2 inch). They were fantastic. It was a 20% off deal! They are mine!

C is for...

Charging

Italy is a country that is incredibly fond of scooters and mopeds. When driving around in Rome or Naples, the best thing to do when driving a car or a coach is NOT to pay attention to them, because they will drive you mad! It's like an anthill. Just a lot noisier!

However, driving all those scooters about also means a lot is being spent on petrol (or gasoline for the overseaers) and the more petrol you use, the more emissions get into the air, which are not so nice especially during the hot summer months. So, this is one way of battling that problem: electric scooters! I saw several charging points when I was in Florence last year and there would usually be at least two scooters attached to the chargers. I thought it was a great idea.

For more C words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!