I have been invited by KvD. to come over and spent Queensday at the usual spots, Vondelpark and Cafe The Soundgarden but it would’ve been a last minute [therefore an expensive] decision. I wasn’t really willing to pay a hundred pounds just to fly over to NL for one day… So to all the Dutch: Happy Queensday! Hope you had a good time and a nice day off and no headache tomorrow morning! 
I feel a bit drained today since yesterday was way too ‘gezellig’ [=Dutch for pleasant]. I don’t really have a hangover it’s just that I feel like having cotton balls for brains and I can’t seem to concentrate on work. I was invited for lunch by MvdM.; I would deliver the wine and he would prepare lunch. I bought a bottle of Rosé and AS. kindly offered a box of death which contains another 3 litres of either red or white wine, in this case it was a white Chardonnay. I was on MvdM. his door step at 13.15 sharp, with the wine and a gift: some Indonesian Boemboe pastes so he could prepare his partner a nice Indonesian dinner some time.
We sat in the garden all day, the weather was nice, not too hot, perfect! I introduced myself to their cat, letting it sniff my hand first and when I tried to stroke her, she started hissing and hit me with her paw [she didn’t use her nails, lucky me]. After that little introduction, MvdM. told me the cat freaks out at times, growls at people, attacks them, hissing, biting and clawing. I said to him that by the end of the day she would pick up my vibes and come to me.
I ignored her all day and only gave her attention when she asked for it [eye contact and talking to her] and by the end of the day she approached me several times and rubbed against my chair with the back of her head and the rest of her body. MvdM. was surprised to see this, he said it normally takes up to a year… I have done this before with cats of friends and it always works, they are drawn to me somehow and behave in a different unusual way; they would come and sit next to me instead of hiding, let me stroke them instead of clawing etc. As long as I respect their territory things are fine.
I had such a good time the day was over too soon, I stayed till after midnight and I had way too much to drink… The bottle was finished in two hours [just the two of us] and since we’ve been chatting so much we had ‘lunch’ in the afternoon, around 16.30 instead of 14.00. MvdM. had prepared a really nice paella, delicious. By the time we had our lunch the weight of the box of death was already starting to slightly decrease. Around 22.00 W. came home and introduced himself. The three of us were chatting in the kitchen and having a great time. Then just before 01.00 AS. called me to tell me that he couldn’t sleep when I wasn’t there (…)
He asked me if I wanted him to come and pick me up. None of us was really tired and we were in a deep conversation but since MvdM. had to work today it would be a clever idea to head home and let him catch some sleep, even though he didn’t want to. So I asked AS. to come and collect me. I had a great day and we will probably meet up again soon. It was good to be able to speak Dutch all day long; even though AS. and I tend to mix the languages, most of the time it’s English. [AS. is very good at speaking Dutch, just not when we argue]. I was also happy that I didn’t have to carry the heavy box of death again: I reckon it only contained about a liter when I left.
So today I’m experiencing a bit of a fried brain, I wanted to sleep in but my cell phone kept beeping every ten minutes, when I no longer could stand the annoying beep and finally got up, I found it was a message from MvdM., telling me how crappy he felt at work after saying, ‘thank you for bringing the lovely wine’ first… *lmao*
Category Archives: Out And About
Dim Sum and Markets
We booked our flights and the rental car today for the wedding in June. I found a really cheap B&B in the same little village where the reception will be. It saves us a 12km trip to the nearest big hotel, which would be 40 Euros by cab . I called the cab company of that particular area and the person on the phone was really helpful and kind, he gave me some addresses of hotels to check out online. The nearest hotel would’ve been either Wieringermeer or Schagen and the latter was booked already. A room at Wieringermeer would’ve been another 93 Euros. So I called the lady of the B&B and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the room was available. The perfect place to stay, in the middle of nowhere, in farmer country!
I needed fabric to sew two new dresses, and a zipper to adjust and finish my dress for the wedding. So we went to Ridley Road Market, to this store called ‘Dalston Mill Fabrics’. An Aladdin’s cave to be explored, so many fabrics and colours, zippers, threads. I bought a dark chocolate satin and a light grey satin, thread and zippers so I’m all set to finish the dress for the wedding and start the other two in time. This store was situated next to the Ridley Road market, a cool market, we were a bit late but we’ll probably go there again. I need to look for bamboo steam baskets since mine are falling apart of intensive use. I also need to look for ingredients for Dim Sum, since I have been craving this and Sushi lately. I think I will make some Sushi next week and buy fresh tuna from this market.
We then rushed off to Lakeside, A. had bought the wrong size of shoes so we had to go there to swap them, they only had one pair left unfortunately, the ones on the shelf, so one shoe was slightly more cracked than the other. I went to Marks & Spencer and finally found the pants [cropped leg] that I have been looking for, so I bought two of them in black and I ordered another pair in a light grey tartan fabric [very nice!]. I will have to collect them next Saturday from Ilford. Because I have been craving for Asian food for days we decided to order in Chinese. Unfortunately Dim Sum is never on the menu, well, not the original Dim Sum, only starters… Anyway it was good but I will still make some Sushi next week!!!
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Ridley Road Market
Open: Mon-Wed, 9am-3pm, Thu 9am-midday, Fri/Sat 9am-5pm, Dalston Kingslane Railway Station.
London Borough of Hackney
This is the place to come if you’ve a penchant for Asian, African, Caribbean and Mediterranean food stuffs. Sadly, the market has made headlines in recent months for all the wrong reasons (allegedly illegal bushmeat is easily obtainable if you’re a regular to the market) although that said, it’s still a good place to come for cheap fruit ‘n’ vegetables, exotic spices and Asian specialities. Ridley Road market is a truly great place to walk around; it bustles, it jostles, it smells, it’s noisy, it tests your patience, it tires you out, it’s completely fascinating, at turns its comic and then somehow seems poignant. In short, it’s alive.
The mixture of races rubbing shoulders with each other is incredible: Indian, Chinese, Jamaican, old time Londoners (ie, pre-yuppy), Turkish, African – they’re all here, buying provisions, chatting away in all manner of languages and dialects. And the food on sale is amazing: dates, custard apples, big fat avocados, pomegranites, sharon fruit, mangos, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, puna yams, bags of garlic, thousands of chillis, a whole array of scary blackened smoked fish heads, and even rolls of dried, cured cow skin. The various fishmongers sell between them fresh tuna, coley fillets, live crabs, squid, octopus, salmon, cod, tilapia, skate, red snappers and psychadelic parrot fish.
You take as you find, speak of what you see, and after many years of walking down Kingsland Road, ending up at Ridley Road market, one can never tire of the amazing vibe of the place, its myriad faces and languages all competing with the sound of the market traders shouting back at you, selling they’re bits and bobs, rubbing they’re hands together to get the warmth back in, sipping hot steaming cups of tea. Ridley Road market, and by extension, it’s a great place; busy, colourful, unpretentious, noisy, real and alive. If you can see beyond its scruffiness, you might well find yourself falling hopelessly in love with the place.
© My Hackney
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