Experiment culinar foarte reusit cu hering afumat si elemente auxiliare

[Post publicat de Liviu pe Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]

Am realizat in noaptea aceasta un experiment culinar foarte reusit, pe care doresc sa-l share-uiesc lumii intregi.
Fazele se mananca pe rand, i.e. nu se combina si nu se alterneaza intre ele; o faza incepe abia dupa ce cealalta a fost terminata:

Faza 1: Peste cu diverse elemente auxiliare, paine si smantana:

1. Hering file afumat - 150 g (cantarit in forma finala preparata). L-am cumparat deja preparat (evident!), ambalat in plastic si vidat; a fost putin cam sarat, dar ok.
   
2. Mustar super iute.
3. Masline verzi.
4. Usturoi.
5. Paine stil lipie, usor pufoasa, cu gust dulceag.
6. Smantana greceasca, 10% grasime, racita bine in frigider. - Ofera o senzatie racoritoare peste pestele si maslinele usor sarate, respectiv mustarul super iute.
   

Faza 2: Warm down

1. Cartofi natur - cantitate mica.
2. Castraveti murati, extra fini (adica mici-mici, mai mici decat degetul mic de la mana), raciti bine la frigider.
   

Faza 3: Desert

1. Portocala, sau orice alte citrice, e.g. mandarine, gref etc. - dupa 20-30 minute.
   

Recomandari suplimentare:

• In loc de apa, ar putea merge mai bine o limonada.
• La faza 1, se pot adauga suplimentar feliute de lamaie.
  

Concluzie:

Declar acest experiment culinar o reusita.
[Cred ca m-a luat valul si am mancat prea mult.]

Less than 48 hours

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]

This post is scheduled for automatic posting when there are less than 48 hours until my departure to continental Romania. Technology is cool.

Indeed, at this moment there are less than 48 hours, i.e. 5 minutes less, until my flight takes off heading Romania.
Romania is cool.
TAROM has always been cool and provided great service. I advise you to use it too should you go to Romania.

Yeah, countdown on!

Cleaning done on a large scale in a small room

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]

Since (1) my flight back to continental Romania is only a few days away, (2) Christmas is getting closer every passing day and (3) I finished my exam(s) session (although one homework still waits for me to start solving it - yeah, keep waiting, I'm not in the mood now!), I decided it was time to clean both my room and the facilities, i.e. toilet, I share with my apartment mate.

I'm proud of what I accomplished today:

1. Vacuum cleaning: this way I removed all the dust from the floor. We have a quite decent vacuum cleaner shared between the 3rd and 4th floor of the building (only at these floors students live).
2. Cleaning the floor with the help of universal detergent and a very useful mop that I bought in September (if I remember right).
3. Cleaning the toilet (shared facility): I was so determined to clean everything that I rushed in that common facility too. - In a funny way, I finished cleaning it at about the same time a scheduled post on my computer science blog got posted :D Isn't technology cool or what?
   

There was no need to clean the other shared facility, i.e. the shower, which was good news since the first 3 tasks kind of got me tired.

Everything's clean now - nice and shiny.

Yeah, Christmas on!
Looking forward to it!

nl: retour afzender - en: return to sender

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]

Problem:
You live in a new place (in the Netherlands) and keep receiving mail addressed to the former occupant of that place. I guess, (1) this is annoying you and (2) it's frustrating for the sender to send mail that never gets answered/read.
So, what solution is there to solve this problem?

Solution:
First, you should write on the envelope retour afzender which in English means return to sender.
Second, you should put the envelope again in a post box - yes, there are plenty of those on the street, so you will find one instantly.
Well, that's it. Now, TNT Post will return the envelope to the sender and the sender will know there is a new occupant, i.e. you, at that address; there's no need to stamp the envelope again, since this service is basically included in the mail delivery service which has already been paid when the sender placed the stamp on the envelope.


... now a bit about myself:

At first I ignored the problem, since I was quite busy at the time. Then, envelopes started piling up in my room. I remembered I read something on one of the leaflets with instructions from De Key, but haven't had the time to solve the problem. Finally, last week, although I kept being busy (I know, repeating it might get you nervous, so to make things clear, I must say I've been busy the whole time), I decided to search in those leaflets and eventually I found the solution I was looking for.

As a side note, now I know the names of the people who have lived here before me: J. Lopez de Lacalle Beltran de Heredia and Achem Baye John. Now, since only one could have lived at this address last year, it means the other one was lazy enough (or maybe even more occupied than me) to solve this problem. So, the million dollar quesion is: who is the lazy (or more occupied than me) one? Is it the one who keeps being sent mail from the VU and a greeting from I-don't-know-who, i.e. Achem, or the one who keeps being sent mail from both the VU and the Dienst Persoons- en Geo-Informatie, i.e. J. Lopez? Hmm, I think it's the latter one...

For now, I just wrote the 'retour afzender' phrase on all the envelopes, and I plan to put them in the post box on Monday, since Sunday I'll be busy voting in the 2nd round of President-of-Romania elections...


Update - 19th of March 2010

I have received today the VU magazine, in Dutch obviously, doh! One copy was for Lacalle etc. and the 2nd copy (yes, I received 2 at the same address) was for Mevrouw (en: Ms.) D. Zhang - so yes, now I know the names of 3 people living here before me. Cool!

22nd of November: elections in Romania

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]


22nd of November

Romanians had quite a busy day yesterday, on 22nd of November, since they had to vote 3 times:
First, decide the new President.
Second, decide whether to put pressure (or not) on the Parliament to switch from the current 2 chambers organization into an 1 chamber organization.
Third, decide again whether to put pressure (or not) on the Parliament to lower the number of MPs from the current 471 to at most 300.

I am a constant voter. I like voting. I see it as my duty to enforce democracy. So I had to go to the Hague to express my opinion.

I got up a bit too late, i.e. 2 hours later than I planned due to oversleeping and Amsterdam rain.
I missed one train (7 seconds should have I arrived earlier I would have caught the doors open). Well, I entertained myself by making 2 videos and some pictures with trains comig and going from Amsterdam Lelylaan.
Luckily these trians come every half an hour and I eventually arrived at The Hague.

I decided to navigate to the embassy in my classic style: having the map cached in the brain (funny language, right?) due to the reading done the previous night and cross-checking the paper map and Nokia map (on my cell phone) very rarely.

It was an entertaining 55 minutes walk in a completely unknown city. Now, after completing it, the path looked like this: Rijnstraat, Koninginnengracht, Javastraat, Scheveningseweg, Adriaan Goekplaan, and finally the little street not shown on any map on the right of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons building.


View Amsterdam (by Liviu) in a larger map

The Romanian Embassy looked really nice. I liked it. It felt like home.

There was quite a long line of people anxious to vote. Luckily there were a few friends already in line, so I skipped some 10-15 minutes of staying in line. Overall, I waited 50 minutes outside in the blistering cold (ok, I admit to not have been that cold). There were another 2 shorter queues in the embassy corresponding to the 2 voting rooms, so we had to wait another 20 minutes inside the embassy. Yes, voting is a demanding task.

Once we finished we took a picture to celebrate the moment.


23rd of November

Now, on 23rd of November, the outcome of the elections annoys me a little since Mr. Basescu and Mr. Geoana shall compete in the second round to become President of Romania. I generally agree with the results for the reorganization of the Romanian Parliament, although I prefered the 2 chambers style; indeed, a decrease in the number of MPs seemed terribly necessary.



Note: I shall provide a link to the Picassa album at a later time. Yes, there are several albums many people patiently wait for, so bare with me some more time. Thank you for your patience!

First haircut, first post

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]

I've had on Wednesday my first haircut in the Netherlands, so I decided it was a great time to have my first blog post, too. Hopefully, there shall be other posts before my second haircut.