Eating Out

Foodstuffs

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20160130_185547labrasse   Ingrid called, earlier this week, if I wanted to go out for dinner and go with her to pick out a new fridge on Saturday. Of course I said yes 🙂

We settled on dinner at Chi-Chi’s, a Mexican place. We could only get a reservation for 20:30 so we turned the order around. Fridge shopping first, dinner second. Only, during the day Ingrid found out that the Mediamarkt isn’t open on Saturday evenings any more…

We still headed to the city at the agreed upon time. Except instead of shopping, we went to La Brasse for drinks and a pre-dinner snack. Cue cappucino and cheesecake 🙂

We stayed there for about an hour and a half just chatting and talking. Then we crossed the street to go to Chi-Chi’s. I’d never been there before but I enjoyed it. A nice location, looking pretty modern and not like a stereotypical Mexican place. They had choices between actual Mexican stuff like burritos, taco, quesadillas and more Mexican-American inspired burgers.

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I went with a spicy burrito as a starter, a steak burger for a main course and fried ice cream with whipped cream and honey. It was very tasty!

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Ice, Joe

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After getting my bike padlock frozen I borrowed Mom’s bike to use until I had time to look at the lock. Tuesday went fine, but Wednesday morning, the ice got the better of me, again. This time when I went around the corner near the Chinese restaurant. There, too, it was slippery. Luckily I was, again, not going very fast so there was no damage to me or the bike.

When I got home I returned the bike to Mom’s and set to work on my busted lock. After some wiggling, the key slid in and it just opened… Stupid lock.

Yesterday after work I hit the city with Kim. The temple of her glasses broke so she wanted to get that fixed and maybe get new ones. Unfortunately they couldn’t fix the temple as they didn’t have that particular size and hinge mechanism anymore. They also had no time anymore to fit her in for a measuring for a new pair so we left with nothing except an invitation to come back the next day.

We were now pretty hungry so it was Pappa Joe’s for dinner. I decided on nachos instead of  a burger and had some bread and herb butter to go with it. Afterwards we walked down the main shopping street to browse and get some stuff. Kim wanted gloves, and she found a pair she liked. I checked out the book outlet and found two graphic novels I liked. So score for the both of us!

Spectre

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20151111_123031Guess what day it was? Double feature movie day!

After work yesterday I had lunch at La Place and then took a stroll around the store before meeting up with Gert. We did some browsing in various stores.

We took a coffee and cake break at Hema before slowly heading towards the cinema. With one last stop at Zara where I found a gorgeous sweater. It wasn’t in the budget for this month. I hope it’ll still be there later.

The first movie we saw was Pan. It was a fun adventurous romp without substance. Hugh Jackman was fun, but I didn’t expect the Nirvana rendition.

20151111_143651We followed it with Spectre. Now this was good. I’m not well versed in the Bond universe. I’ve seen Bond movies, and I’ve seen the first two Daniel Craig ones. I’ve not seen Skyfall so I didn’t understand all of the bits that referred back to the events of that.

I don’t really have any judgement on if it was a good Bond story or all of that. I just know that from the moment it started with the whole Mexico City action sequence I was gonna have fun. It had all the things I expect from a Bond movie: action sequences, high speed car chase in expensive cars, many different countries, a pretty woman, and an interesting plot.

The only downside was that it got shown in the big theater and there weren’t many movie goers at that time of the evening. This results in a very, very cold room.

After Spectre was done, I had some time before my bus. We decided to warm up with a coffee at Subway. And sitting there, with the front door open, it was warmer than the movie theater…

Transporting

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This is how Mr. Squeekypants and Mr. Clumsyass spent a whole ten or so minutes when I went to bed the other night. I don’t think they’ve ever been this close to each other without either one of them running off or protesting. Progress!

The day after was another relaxed movie day for me and Gert. We started the afternoon with a drink outside enjoying the sunshine. Then we hit the cinema for The Transporter Refueled. This isn’t normally a movie I’d go see in the cinema. Or at all, really. I’ve not seen any of the previous movies either. But we saw the trailer a couple times before other movies and it just seemed so fun. And it was. Some semblance of plot but mostly a lot of fast and skillful driving and some action in between. I enjoyed it very much.

20150930_154432We then went on to see The Intern. I had fairly high expectations of that movie. I like Anne Hathaway, I like De Niro and from what I’d seen in the trailer this seemed to be a smart comedy without an overdose of romance. I’m glad to say I wasn’t disappointed. Hathaway and De Niro were awesome together. I liked the plot a lot. It was nice to see the modern-ness of it. Female CEO, working mother, stay-at-home husband, trying to find a balance between work and private life, internet, social media all that stuff. It really is a movie of this time and I like that it’s more a slice of life thing. The issues don’t magically get resolved just because the end of the movie is approaching. It has it’s happy(ish) ending, but there’s still work to do.

Tomorrow I’m taking all three monsters to the vet for their annual regular shots and their semi-annual anti-flea shots. Always a fun operation to run. Monkey hates the trip and the vet. Milo is generally terrified but quiet and calm. And Captain is the wild card. This will be his second time at the vet. The previous time I got his ears done and he got the anti-flea shot. Then he didn’t mind and was curious to walk around the room and sniff. This time around he knows what’s coming…

To the Sixties and Back

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Monday I saw Man from U.N.C.L.E. with Gert. It’s a fantastic movie, I love it 😀 It’s campy, and a glorious throwback to the sixties. In terms of plotting and general vibe it reminds me some of Kingsman, but then with Americans and in the past. It earned itself an immediate spot on my want-on-disc list.

After this we went straight on to The King’s Garden (aka A Little Chaos). This is a period film about the gardens of Versailles. It features Kate Winslet as a female landscape artist who gets hired to design and build a part of the gardens. She has to face her own insecurities, contempt and sabotage by other male landscapers and navigate the budding romance with the head landscape artist who happens to be married. It’s a cute film, with very good locations and a very nice Alan Rickman as King Louis.

Wednesday it was time to see The Fantastic Four with Nienke. It’s a fairly bland movie. I liked that the way they got their powers was different but other than that… I like the 2005 movie better and that one isn’t good either.

20150828_192052Today was market day in town so I took a gander with Mom. Bought some jeans on sale for €5, which was a steal. It’s a nice model with some flare around the ankles and a three-button close instead of a zipper. I also got this cute, light blue, stoneware pitcher. It’ll look nice with some flowers in the spring, or as a general decoration in the bathroom once I have adequate furnishings there.

At the end of the afternoon, Eva and Jarig came by with Feije. We briefly strolled around the market some more and then headed to La Sicilia for dinner.  We ended the day with a quick cup of tea at home before they left for The Farm.

This Sunday should be fun as well, it’s my cousin’s baby shower 🙂

High Tea

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Today was a very good day 🙂 Nienke and I went for a High Tea at the cafe/gift shop in town. The weather was not great, but okay enough to sit outside. We each got a small tea pot and cup with our chosen flavour of tea. Then a stand with delicious goodies was brought out. Unfortunately, there were quite a few wasps nearby who also liked our jam. After being accosted long enough, we withdrew to an inside seat. There, free from black-and-yellow menace, we enjoyed the rest of the tasties 😀

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Mom Day

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Yesterday I went to the movies with my Mom. As far as I can remember, the last time that happened was in 1998. Mom chaperoned thirteen-year-old Eva and me when we went to see Titanic 🙂

This time around, it was just the two of us, and we saw Spy. I’m not really a fan of most current comedies. I find they often rely too much on crude humor. I prefer wit, and some forms of physical comedy. The trailer I’d seen of this looked promising. And Mom really wanted to see it. So we went to the city, ate at Subway and then headed for the cinema.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the movie. The main character is played by Melissa McCarthy who is really a very good actress. And here she gets to play a woman working for a spy agency who is actually very competent at her job. Even though her superiors or colleagues aren’t convinced of this. The comedy mostly ensues because her colleague, played by Jason Statham, is, unexpectedly, the screw-up. Add to that a very entertaining story and fun action sequences and you get a movie I heartily recommend.

Food Coma

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Almost no words needed.  Friday I went out with a bunch of colleagues to this all-you-can-eat-style Japanese restaurant. Lots of sushi, but also other Japanese food. I don’t like fish, so I never really had sushi. However, they also had sushi with meat or veggies so I had some of that along with regular meat and such. It was fantastic, I wanna go again. I’ll let the images do the talking.

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Dinosaurs, Immortality, Food and Quakes, Oh My

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jwI love my cinema subscription, three movies in the last two days 🙂

Tuesday, Nienke and I went to see Jurassic World. It was an awesome movie! Chris Pratt is great, the more I see him, the more I love him. I knew him from Everwood, and he was good there but after that I didn’t really see him in anything. I understand he was in Parks and Recreation, but I don’t watch that. So seeing him in Guardians earlier this year was a very pleasant surprise. And now with Jurassic he just reaffirms how much of a joy it is to watch him play.

The movie itself was fairly similar, plot-wise, to the original Jurassic Park. It was a very decent film. Not many surprises, but great fun and nice nods to the original.

aoaYesterday, I met up with Gert after work. Our first movie was Age of Adaline. I’d seen trailers and the combination of immortality, the decor and the fact that the other main part was played by Dutch actor Michiel Huisman triggered my interest. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t quite live up to my expectation. The pacing felt off and the interaction between Adaline and Ellis was awkward at times. More awkward than the story called for. Separately I liked both of Blake Lively and Michiel’s performances and I love the visuals and decor. Harrison Ford was a pleasant surprise as Ellis’ father.

After Adaline we had quite some time left before our planned second movie, so we went out for dinner. Strolling around the city we settled on Hemingway’s for Cuban inspired tapas. It was glorious and it was much. So much even that I ended up taking a bread home.

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The second movie was San Andreas, and this one exceeded my expectations. I had seen trailers of this also, and was going for two hours of random disaster and The Rock saving the day. That’s exactly what happened, but there was also a plot that wasn’t completely ridiculous and that sort of coherently pulled the movie together.

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Off Pitch and an Irishless Coffee

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Monday after work I had a movie date with Ingrid and Nienke. Getting off work I headed for the cinema where Ingrid was already waiting. Nienke, who came by bus, showed up a little while later. First we went into the cinema to get Nienke registered for an Unlimited card, and then we got our tickets. Since we had more than enough time left before the movie, we then sauntered up to Subway for dinner.

Afterwards we went back for the movie, which was Pitch Perfect 2. I had high hopes for the film, since I really like part one. Part two had a lot of good things, but I missed spark for about two-thirds or so of the movie. I’ll probably watch it again if it’s ever on TV or something, but it’s not a favourite.

Coming out of the theater we had some time left before our bus would go, so we decided to have a drink. At first we decided on a coffee place further up from the cinema, but it was closed 🙁 So we settled on a Spanish themed café-restaurant called Cerveseria Catalana. With the others going for some beer and wine, I chose an Irish Coffee. I always like that. Too bad, though, there was decisively little Irish in that coffee. Kind of a shame, considering the price…

While we were enjoying our drinks, we figured it was a good idea to take a later bus and sit and chat some more. So that’s what we did 🙂