Jazz And Sinterklaas

I’m listening to the Duke and Coleman Hawkins -Moody Indigo and Limbo Jazz- while working, and this thought just crossed my mind that I know two wonderful men who deepened my love for jazz. One was my dad who taught me about his connection with jazz while I was just a child. My mum never liked it and so my dad would end up sitting in his car parked in front of our home to listen to his favourite tunes. Just sitting in the car listening to jazz was a great adventure to me when I was that little girl so I would often ask him if I could come along and join him.

Having to ask him, slowly vanished over the years and twenty years later I would just sit there with him listening, each drawn into our own world, staring at what was going on around us. Not saying a word just enjoying that very moment. Not as often as in the past, since I moved out when I started my study in Amsterdam but still it was always our moment together. I wanted to pay him my last respects by playing some jazz at his funeral, ‘of course’ I wasn’t allowed to…

Yesterday I received a sweet eCard with a typical Sinterklaas scene from a friend, bless him for remembering half of my roots while they’re so different from his. Tomorrow is Sinterklaas evening so to all my Dutch friends: have a wonderful Sinterklaas. Last year I received a kilo bag of delicious Kruidnootjes covered in chocolate. This year I decided to bake them myself because I shouldn’t forget my roots and I’d like to celebrate just because I can *hehe*. I looked up the recipe and will bake a few batches to give to my Dutch friends here in London.

It’s been a typical wet English day with a sun peeking between the clouds every now and then, but I don’t mind, I have jazz to enjoy while in my head I’m dancing to ‘Limbo Jazz’ and I have a relaxing baking session to look forward to tomorrow or perhaps tonight.

For those Dutch out there who wish to do the same, the recipe is below.

My sky earlier today… while I tried to bask in the sunshine

Speculaaskruiden:

Grounded nutmeg [2 g], ginger [1 g], cardamom [0.5 g], white pepper [1 g], cloves [2 g], and cinnamon [15 g]

Kruidnootjes:

Flour 185 g

Baking powder 1 teaspoon

Brown sugar 85 g

Speculaaskruiden 15 g

Pinch of salt

Butter, refrigerated 125 g

Mix flour, brown sugar, speculaaskruiden, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the butter bit by bit and knead into a firm dough. Leave it to rest for half an hour. Heat oven: 150 C/310 F. Use baking paper or a greased baking tray. Form small balls of dough [+/- 1 cm Ø] and place them on the tray, not too close to each other. Bake for about 20 minutes then leave to cool. If you like you can dip them in melted chocolate…

Et voilà, there’s your homemade Kruidnootjes *hehe* Have a good weekend!

Thursday Thoughts

Life is still busy but good lately and I have one of those days today where I feel I have all the energy in the world to get things done that I need to have done. My appointment with the dentist went well, although I still think it’s a bit expensive but I’m not complaining and I don’t really understand the system here; more about that in another post. It’s done and I can smile again without being aware of something that shouldn’t be there. I’ve finished the web portfolio and since I’m a terrible perfectionist I had to do things right. So what I did was: ‘De puntjes op de ‘i’ zetten‘ another Dutch saying that literally translates to ‘Put the dots on the ‘i’…‘ which means, ‘Dot the i’s and cross the t’s‘. I’m happy with the result.

:-)

Last night I went to one of the local pubs where I met up with my Irish neighbour Neil and some of his friends, a couple from Australia, another neighbour and a friend of a friend of Neil. Neil bought a house down the road and moved out of the ground floor apartment two days ago. I ran into him that day when I came back from the dentist and we ended up having coffee and a chat. He invited me to join him and his friends to see someone perform at the pub. I had no idea who it was, nor did Neil and what he told me turned out to be wrong *LOL*. There were a couple of live bands playing at the pub yesterday and the main gig was Peter Case. He seems to be famous and has worked and recorded with famous people like John Hiatt and Ry Cooder.

It was a fun night out but I was surprised that someone like Peter Case would perform at my local pub of all places. I mean there are so many other venues out there, especially in London, where he could earn way more money. I think what he did is brilliant! You see, I didn’t have to pay an entrance fee and he performed for an hour and a half, that is quite rare these days! A gig is at least £30,-… There was a bowl near the door where people could put some money in for the artist, if they enjoyed the evening. You should’ve seen how much was in there! There was a crowd and it was nice to see people of all ages and walks of life… I have respect for artists like him who perform at pubs and don’t have a celeb attitude where it’s all about the money in most cases. And because of that I bought his CD to show my appreciation.

Tonight I’m invited to Neil’s housewarming party so I’ll have another fun night out. He bought a nice little house a bit further down the road, something I can only dream of for now until I have a steady income. One day soon… I’m allowed to have dreams aren’t I? *hehe* Talking about dreams, I got a really sweet email in from one of my readers and she doesn’t realise this because she doesn’t know, but she reminded me of another dream I have *thank you for reminding me!*. I must see the Northern Lights some day and I so envy people who live up north of Norway, Sweden or Finland because they have the opportunity to see this natural phenomenon more often than I do. I could go to Scotland but chances are rare. I think once I’m out of this mess I’m gonna treat myself to go and see this wonder of nature!

© Norbert Rosing, National Geographic

I’m off now: gonna reply to some more emails, build a website for a rock climber in Scotland, leave some comments for neglected fellow bloggers and then shoot off to a party… Am I hyper? Nah…

:P