01.01.2012

Watching the amazing  fireworks at Midnight from the roof top (I could have gone to the Scheveningen beach with CT  SS but decided to skip the torture of ride bike in the super cold & windy weather)... became a part of the huge crowd watching thousands of people skinny dipping in icy cold water at Scheveningen beach the North Sea.Its funny but here in The Hague its a tradition, at 12.00 midday on 1st of January every year people dip in the North Sea and  wait...by paying money, this year it was a 2 Euro contribution and each brave participant was given orange gloves, cap  (before the dip) and a bowl of pea soup (after the dip) all for JUST 2 Euro (dipping, bathing is free otherwise throughout the year....but today it was not)  the whole event was sponsored by some company called Knox…my 1st day of year 2012 started with loads of bang, watching ten thousand people actually dipping in the icy cold water and finished it with reading 4109 lecture slides. Happy New Year, Happy Travelling, happy cooking and happy studying to me the whole year. 

Huge crowd at Scheveningen beach...gettin ready for the Icy dip

31.12.2011

A very eventful year. 

How about some fried chicken and Gluhwein tomm.

Fried Chicken with onion, garlic and Machal Apouba....very much my own invention

It's new year time again and as usual  m away from home and family but with my frens here and we plan and will try to make our new years eve celebration as much fun as possible. I am planning to make my fav. fried chicken...loved by my frens here and sisters favorite, another dish invented out of my love for cooking and desperation to have good food. The recipe is really simple and it's easy to cook....and to make our celebration more interesting  we will have Gluhwein, the traditional red wine with spices and orange which is served warm (popular during winter and esp. during Christmas in many parts of Europe)....n I've to admit it's the only alcoholic drink I like....the spices(cinnamon and black pepper) in Gluhwein makes its so non alcoholic  and the best is it doesn't smell like like alcohol at all (I don't really like the smell of alcohol). Happy celebrations to me and enjoy....

Christmas @ Haarlem

I've never enjoyed Christmas as much as I enjoyed today....early morning we went to one of our frens place at Haarlem and attended the mass at the Cathedral in Haarlem with them. It was interesting as I was attending a Christmas mass for the first time in my life. Merry Christmas to me and to you...

Flowers or veggies???

2nd bunch of tulips

After buying the 1st bunch of tulips few days back I ended up buying another one yesterday...as I've been trying to live in a students budget (which is not easy for me) buying flowers over veggies does effect my budget so  I've been trying to convince myself NOT to buy cut flowers every week. But..... the Tulips are really pretty, lasts for about a week, really brightens my room and fits in my budget perfectly (just 2 euros)....there I go...trapped in the flower vs veggies debate...at the end flowers wins and I am planning to buy all the possible colors of tulip while I am here in Netherlands.  Once I am back home in India next year  I know I will never buy tulips coz it will be unaffordable and also it'll not be available at the local florist...last time I bought  deep orange color and this time I bought the lovey red...next time maybe I'll buy the Pink tulips. 

Is it real???? A Tulip story

Tulips on my table

Yesterday I finally bought Tulips from the flower shop next to Albert Heijn XL and  also bought a beautiful vase....as cooking is my first priority I think its more practical to buy veggies than flower, it's not that I've not been buying flowers but I've been buying only the potted plants and not the trimmed flowers but yesterday I just decided to buy flowers over "veggies"....and come on m in the Netherlands how can I not buy Tulips...maybe this is the only place in Europe where I can get 9 Tulips for 2 Euro or even cheaper sometimes (3 bunch for 5 Euro). It looks beautiful on my table and I think it really  brightens my room. 

Later in the evening my fren CD had come over for dinner and her first reaction after seeing the tulips were "Oh....it's beautiful but is it real????" and I said "You don't trust me with flowers right??? The reason why CD said that  m sure is because of the very real looking fake orchid I've in my room which  I got from Bangkok and have kept it in a pot to make it look even more real....it might sound funny but its looks more real than the real ones they sell here. And again this afternoon my fren KR came and she said the same thing "is it real??". We all had a good laugh over my tulips...