Quaintr

"Stijllistisch verantwoord maar daarmee tikje neurotisch." Heel fijn, zo'n stage bij de psychiatrie...

(ps. sorry, this one's in Dutch, couldn't translate this in proper English...)

Okay, in August i wrote about a puncture. But today i really had a puncture. What does one do? Well i've decided to repair it myself. With some help, i managed to take off the rear wheel, only to find out that the inside tire of the rear wheel is different from the one in the front (it's a French one instead of a normal one). So still couldn't repair it. Tomorrow, the first thing i'll do will be going down to the bike shop and then i'll be able to ride again!!! (hopefully) I'll keep you posted - might have finally found my calling *grin*

*edit* Once i got the right tire the problem was fixed in 10 mins.

Let me introduce myself: I'm Queck, 25 years young, happily married, loves to read, loves to write, loves to make things (food, clothes, drawings, movements, basically anything creative), always curious, somethings a bit strong headed, passionate about a lot of things, a medical doctor hoping to become a nursing home physician and I'm supposed to be one of the writers of this blog. Supposed, 'coz four weeks ago my laptops' battery was empty and my adapter was broken. I've been without pc for four weeks, 'coz when I finally ordered a new adapter Dell needed over two weeks to get the thing at my house. (Luckily Roosje has kept you busy in the last few weeks with her overseas stories.) It's been some strange weeks over here. I Ate some lovely baked camembert at Jim's (still need to try that one at home), searched for a missing old delirious lady at work, did some live ER at my design course 'coz my teacher decided to lose her consciousness, baked a lovely chocolate pie for Mic, almost finished the renovation of the toilet and loved the excuse not to do my homework. Which I need to get doing btw, 'coz I'm way behind...

Okay, so another Saturday passed. Last Saturday i couldn't really cook due to the power cut (although i made a chili), but since the power is back on i feel like doing lots of stuff again! So after going to the library, cycling down Bardstown Rd, having a coffee, doing some grocery shopping i decided to finish my pumpkin pie (i'd already made the dough) and make some cupcakes. I still need to get used to the ingredients in this country. They are different from the ones we have in Holland (or UK). And not only the ingredients. Take for example the cupcakecups... they're not as sturdy... so i now got very interesting shaped cupcakes as well... (sorry guys, still haven't bought a camera so can't show you pics)

Okay, so you go to a museum. Do you look at art? Well, guess we didn't. Since there were lots of Dutch painters hanging around and my newly found friend wanted to know about pronunciation we practiced it there and then. So now i still have to go back there and look at the art itself!

think alike. Or so they say. I don't know if i've such a 'great mind'. But i must admit that i sometimes quite like it when i find somebody that thinks like me and has the same type of obsessions *wink*

I'm not a great fan of instant coffee. Absolutely not. But sometimes a girl doesn't want to get out of the house and does want to have some coffee. So i borrowed some instant coffee of my housemate. BIG mistake. VERY BIG mistake. Instant cappuccino with vanilla flavour is definitely one of the biggest mistakes ever. It doesn't even taste like cappuccino (or coffee). So today i cycled another 25 miles to get proper coffee beans *hooray*. Hope they'll taste as good as they smell!!

Okay, so i got some addictions... As most of you know, books is one of them. So yesterday i got into this nice 2nd hand shop cos i was looking for 2 books. I came out with 8(!), including to old(ish) cookbooks for my collection *hooray* Guess i've got a lot to do whilst i'm here...

I like food. I like food a lot. I like to try new things, especially homemade. So this week i exchanged the recipe for making spring rolls (which i haven't got as yet, but my housemate is going to teach me) for a pot of apple-butter (and an explanation about how to make it). As soon as i know both recipes i'll let you guys know as well

"In this country you normally don't have friends that are much older than you yourself are. I mean there's a two year's age difference... I've only got one other friend that is that old."

After reading the labels with nutrition facts in the shop i felt i should share this one with you:

Plain yoghurt (non-organic) contains: ultured pasteurized nonfat milk, pectin, vitamin A, palmitate, vitamin D, contains acidophilus and bifidum cultures. 

I must admit that this was quite a shock...

After 2 weeks in the States my accent has apparently already changed. When one of my British friends told me i felt really bad. Till he said:

"Well, if anything, you sound more British."

So on Sunday we went to Bernheim forest for a nice and relaxing walk. Everything was nice and quiet and there was a slight breeze keeping us cool. Since both of us really like the wind, we didn't mind when it picked up and we happily plodded along. At the end of the walk, whilst sitting just outside the visitor centre, we saw a tree keel over (about 5m away) (luckily in the opposite direction).

"That's soooo cool!"

Right.

Well on our way home the wind really picked up and whilst driving on the motorway we saw one of the electricity cables com down (again: right in front of us). Also at the traffic lights close to my house a cable had come down and most light weren't even working anymore. So after dropping me off he went straight home and had do do some detouring due to falling trees (i've counted 4 in my street). When i got into the house i found that we had a power cut (+ no reception with my phone) and that's how it's been. Still no power in the house.

It feels like camping in your own house. Having candles out and going to bed early. An interesting experience, but not one i'd like to repeat too often, esp not with all the repair-people in the hurricane zone - which means it might take up to two(!) weeks for things to get back on...

*edit* we've now managed to 'borrow' some electricity of our neighbours who are on another circuit and are using their i-net connection as well...

*edit* we've lost the power again...

*edit* for pics: www.antoinegerritsen.com, then go to pictures, 2008-09-14 Hurricane-winds

Okay, so the reason why i haven't been able to post anything is that my keyboard decided to stop cooperating somewhere during the week... Luckily my newly found friend (comes with a car ) figured out what the problem was... the connection within the wire... So the only solution for me was to buy a new one. About 2.5 hrs, and at least 20 miles on my bicycle along a very busy 2-3 lane highway (one wonders how one can still be alive), a new keyboard was attached to my computer. Costs: about 6 dollars... Can they actually make a keyboard for that kind of price???

Does it sound as appealing to you as it sounds to me? I haven't tried it out yet, but since we're sharing recipe's and i know some of you are really into aubergines: a recipe for a vegan aubergine (eggplant) cheesecake! (i've also got a recipe for eggplant with peanut butter sauce)

So i went to a concert in the park. Or at least i was supposed to. After getting myself almost run-over by cars first i managed to get to the park. But when i got there the concert was cancelled due to the weather... (although the notice said: welcome to the sunny side of Louisville it definitely was raining). However, i did see part of a play about Lincoln though. And some old books. And i guess that i at least got my exercise.

Pavement, but sidewalk

Queue, but line

half 6, but 6.30

crisps, but chips

chips, but fries

mobile phone, but cell phone

(to be continued expanded)

Most people know that i'm not much of a cyclist. But since i'm in the States without a car, and i'd like to go from A to B i've borrowed a bicycle... So yesterday i went down the road (8 miles) to go to a talk on chakras (which was fun btw), but since the temperature and the humidity are both very high around here it almost felt like cycling through Burgers' Bush... It was lovely to be out of a building, wind in my hair, but i must admit that it isn't really a cyclist-friendly-city. I mean: a bike-lane suddenly starts and after a few 100 meters it suddenly it ends... I've still got a lot to learn around here...

After 1.5 days of sheer frustration about tests regarding all the rules and regulations considering privacy and data and IRB's etc etc etc etc I've managed to pass all of them tests required for entering stuff into a database and am also learning how to operate the laser Doppler instrumentation. I've already entered all the data there is into the system (oops?), so i'm wondering what i'll be doing the coming six months...

After such a long day it was wonderful to find some letters when i got home! (especially with those lovely recipes) Thanks girls! I guess i now know what the scrap book is for!

- notices about not parking are not really clear... some say one day, the others say another... we only checked out one which led up to: 
- the car almost being towed away; then we exchanged the car for a pick-up truck...
- the pick-up truck having a puncture 

But in the end we managed to move the stuff from the one apartment to the other.