Sushi & Whisky

Our last meal with Dutch friends this year: sushi & tuna-steak at Marco's. On top of a great meal, we finally got to meet Marco's girlfriend Maaike.
Guess who does the photo shopping? Right, Bram, that's why you don't see Marco, but two Maaike's. It might be a visualization of how Marco's single malt doubles the good things in life.

Neighbours

This post is dedicated to the best neighbours one can have: Winny & Dancker. Seeing our chaotic state they insisted to cook us a decent meal. Thanks to Winny's Indonesian roots we got finger-licking food. On top of that they'll hop over to be the buffer when our stress-levels get too high, which is a very brave thing to do.
We have this vague plan for a renovation of our houses to cater for us when we are really old. When this materializes, our communal nurse should do everything except for the cooking. We'll just convert the kitchen into a wheelchair-friendly environment.

Wedlock

Our bi-annual boot camp 'prepare for take-off' has started. Our stress-levels soar, notwithstanding Tlo & Tau showing us the best way to spend your day.

All in one: we're no fun at the moment. Our 'prepare for boot camp' party weekend on the other hand was absolutely fabulous.
To start with we had our by now traditional commemoration of our wedding day with Maud's foster-parents Janny & Cees (last year). We stay in their Zeeland farmhouse, and have our pick of shows during the Zeeland Autumn Festival. They just finished renovating the house, and the result is stunning!



Maud by the way managed to totally forget 'it' on the big day itself, because she was too busy revamping Bram's study. Is it an excuse she forgot her own birthday also? Anyway, Bram was not amused, but because he's a darling he took her out for Mexican food anyway to celebrate our first date.
It's a pity we forgot to take pictures of the Zeeuwse mussels and oysters we had for dinner, cause there's another traditional Dutch dish for you: cooked mussels and chips. Delicious!!! Also delicious is the famous Dutch raw herring, which you have to eat like shown in this poster Bram designed for a 'megweregwere integration project' (the bearded man is Bram's dad Ivan sr).

Lezzetli Turk yemekleri

Sunday we had our all time favourite 'food with friends'. We missed about three trains because the company was too nice to leave, and still had to do a world-record biking to the station. And the food was a - awesome, b - beautiful, c - cool, d - delicious etcetera.



Mehmet & Astrid definitely made it difficult for the rest of us to match up when it is our turn to cook! Later today Maud will try to make mercimek corbasi (lentil soup) for our neighbours. That experiment might be successful, but it will take some exercise before she can proudly show pictures of her mercimek koftesi; maybe when the next couple-to-cook, Hans & Inge, make it to Botswana coming European spring... By the way, we just have to get a Turkish restaurant in Joburg, Potch and Gabs!



Patlican and filled mushrooms (recipes).

Medelanders

Today our aunt Maria Isabel Dilrosun - Perez Quiroga got her Dutch citizenship.
The village of Oegstgeest isn't that big, so this month there were only three new Dutchies (the one with the big chain is the burgomaster).
The other two are obviously integrated in real responsible Dutch families with work and school going kids. One came alone; the other one brought his wife. Poor Marisabel had to drag along six people, proving us Surinam Indians don't send the kids to school, hossel for a living, and will appear everywhere where there's free food & drinks (we got of course the traditional Dutch coffee with cake).



It's a pity we are in Botswana when the girls, Karen & Daniela, get their citizenship coming December!



The Godfather Haroen: "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse..."
Thank you burgomaster! Your performance is most appreciated.