2 years.

<<The young couple first married on August 5, 1744, when Joseph was eight and Sarah six, and first ended their marriage six days later when Joseph refused to believe, to Sarah's frustration, that the stars were silver nails in the sky, pinning up the black nightscape. They remarried four days later, when Joseph left a note under the door of Sarah's parents' house: I have considered everything you told me, and I do believe that the stars are silver nails.

They ended their marriage again a year later, when Joseph was nine and Sarah seven, over a quarrel about the nature of the bottom of the river bed. A week later, they were remarried, including this time in their vows that they should love each other until death, regardless of the existence of the riverbed, the temperature of the river bed's bottom (should it exist), and the possible existence of starfish on the possibly existing riverbed.

They ended their marriage one hundred and twenty times throughout their lives and each time remarried with a longer list of vows. They were sixty and fifty-eight at their last marriage, only three weeks before Sarah died of heart failure and Joseph drowned himself in the bath. Their marriage contract still hangs over the door of the house they on-and-off shared-nailed to the top post and brushing against the welcome mat:

"It is with everlasting devotion that we, Joseph and Sarah L, reunite in the indestructible union of matrimony, promising love until death, with the understanding that the stars are silver nails in the sky, regardless of the existence of the bottom of the river, the temperature of this bottom (should it exist) and the possible existence of starfish on the possibly existing riverbed, overlooking what may or may not have been accidental grape juice spills, agreeing to forget that Joseph played sticks and balls with his friends when he promised he would help Sarah thread the needle for the quilt she was sewing, and that Sarah was supposed to give the quilt to Joseph, not his buddy, ignoring the simple fact that Joseph snores like a pig, and that Sarah is no great treat to sleep with either, letting slide certain tendencies of both parties to look too long at members of the opposite sex, not making a fuss over why Joseph is such a slob, leaving his clothes wherever he feels like taking them off, expecting Sarah to pick them up, clean them, and put them in their proper place as he should have, or why Sarah has to be such a pain about the smallest things, such as which way the toilet paper unrolls, or when dinner is five minutes later than she was planning, because, let's face it, it's Joseph who's putting that paper on the roll and dinner on the table, disregarding whether the beet is a better vegetable than the cabbage, putting aside the problems of being fat-headed and chronically unreasonable, trying to erase the memory of a long since expired rose bush that a certain someone was supposed to remember to water when his wife was visiting family, accepting the compromise of the way we have been, the way we are, and the way we will likely be. May we live together in unwavering love and good health. Amen.">>

-text from Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran 
-Foto by Fotoflex

Parks, museums, friends...

These days have been quite calm, but I also had the chance to finally visit a friend who lives in Arnhem, pretty much at the other side of the country. We took a long walk in Sonsbeek park with her cute dogs and saw deer. Deer ! We also went shopping and I was able to find the "item" of the season, pastel jeans, for 10 EUR (instead of 6 times that prize, win). And yes, they look summery and happy, and autumn is coming, followed by the darkness, but I've been known for wearing colorful stuff even in the winter, perhaps despite it, because I firmly believe happy clothes can brighten any day.

 Yesterday we went to the Sunday Market by the Westerpark in Amsterdam, and oh the food was delicious. We had my favorite greek treat, Kolokitho-keftedés: zucchini, feta and herb balls just barely fried and served with tzatziki. After that we visited the Tropenmuseum (or tropics museum, which used to be the "Colonial museum") and it is definitely worth it. It depicts the cultures and folklore of the world, by continent, but they do not stop at the historic level, you also get a glimpse of people's everyday life and vision and get hints on where it all came from.

For the love of letters in the mail, cooking and sharing...

 One of the things that excites me the most (I am talking kids-before-Christmas kind of excitement) is sending and receiving letters in the post. So I was super happy to see Fiona's old-fashioned recipe swap invitation in her blog. You shouldn't miss her post from yesterday, on how a box of handwritten recipes from her grandma brought back memories and happiness. So I am inviting anyone who wants to participate to head over there and register so we can all share letters and recipes and handwritten envelopes delivered by the postman. I am so happy! Now deciding which recipe to share is gonna be quite the dilemma, but I have a few ideas.

Monday morning...

I am home right now, taking a sip of my coffee with milk and enjoying the sun coming in from the window. Last Wednesday was my last day at work. The boy, who's got a sense of humour,  got me flowers with a card that reads: "Proficiat, gestopt met werken", something along the lines of "Congratulations, you stopped working". These cards are obviously meant for people on their retirement. Anyway, I am kind of happy because this situation gives me lots of time to think, to put things back in place. I needed a break from the constant rushing out of the house, from the commute at rush hours (2 hrs. 30 min in all), from being tired all-of-the-time, from feeling I wasn't really doing anything with my life by doing a job a robot could do (in fact, one of the reasons my contract was not renewed is that we are being replaced by computers). So here I am, figuring out what to do with my time. So far I've baked peanut butter cookies and I am quite proud of myself for finding a frying pan at half-price, since the one we had was umm.. not non-stick anymore (how domestic). I plan on reading, on letting all the stress go, on baking lots of new things, taking my time to cook and well, let's see what else I can come up with. Of course the obvious thing to do would be to volunteer at the local animal clinic, but I am not sure I want to work "for free", I always end up feeling undervalued, and like it leads to nothing, so if I do it, I am going to have to convince myself that it's worth it, so that I don't lose the motivation.  We'll also be going to Istanbul soon, so I am looking forward to that. I just feel so drained...

A weekend in Lille

 One of the greatest perks of living in Europe is that you can visit lots of places without even having to travel very far. Last weekend we decided it was time for a short trip and we headed to Lille. It is crazy to think that we could be there in 2 hours and a half time, and that we were already 2 countries south.

 We did what we always do when exploring a new city: walk the heck out of it. And because we were in France, we had to try all the local delicatessen, in this case, the merveilleux, a meringue filled with whipped cream and bathed in chocolate. We also had to have macarons in all kinds of exotic flavours at Patrick Hermand and an eclaire too (how could we not?)

 We went to the zoo, and spotted a red panda; we found the Pasteur Institute and old dispensary, and we visited an exposition on the myth of Babel through Art at the Palais des Beaux Arts (which will be there until January 2013). The tower of books was my favorite.

 I loved how Lille's architecture is both very clearly Flemish in some buildings, but remarkably French in others. It was a funny feeling, like we were in France, but not quite, as this whole North-European culture is quite similar if you compare it to Belgium and The Netherlands. We are back home now, but this left me hoping for our next city trip.

My latest baking adventures

 I think I've said it before. Baking is like therapy for me, it is the one thing that makes me completely put the stress-and-worry switch off and just enjoy the moment. My latest attempt was a dutch-style apple cake. For this, I used Deb's "Mom's apple cake" which is said to be a Jewish apple cake recipe. This makes sense, since "...jews seem to have lived in the province of Holland before 1593". 

 The recipe turned out perfect, the cake is moist  and juicy. I did add ginger and nutmeg instead of only cinammon. But, but... I did not have a ring pan, so the first time I made it I used my 22 cm. springform. The cake rose quite high, except, horror, in the middle. I was wondering what could have happened, what I did wrong, what had caused another sunken cake, but on closer inspection, after cutting it, I realized all the apple squares had gone to the center of the cake, making it heavier, so it was not really one of those dense disasters that sometimes mysteriously happen.

 I was determined to try it again, and succeed at this one. In order to do so,we finally decided to get a bundt pan. And this time the apples stayed evenly distributed and the cake went up up and super high. So close to perfection.

 Yet... the boy became so impatient that he kind of made me unmould it before time. And that is when the cake broke. I wanted to cry and throw the pieces around, it was just an ugly mountain of crumbs and pieces. Luckily it still tasted quite good and it was gone within 2 days. I was not quite ready to accept defeat with our brand new pan, so I tried another recipe that eluded me last time, pandan cake. And this time,  the cake came out perfectly of the pan, oh lovely green perfection.