Not by a long shot, come 5000 short at least. Not surprising when I was send to China for five weeks and one week in Korea. Later on an additional three weeks of leave to get over the previously mentioned six….. Just kidding, but if the car is standing still for 9 weeks I’m not going to make the estimated amount which I calculated in August. Not that it really matters anyway. It seems the riddle on whether to keep the MX-5 is solved, my girlfriend wants to drive it after she has got her Dutch driving license. She has a Chinese driving license but it’s not valid here. She likes small cars and this car is small enough for her taste. So the only thing preventing this to happen is if the car decides it’s time has come and will present me with a repair bill I don’t want to pay anymore. Then my girlfriend will need to settle with a different type of car. Once she has her driving license I will look for another one, still have to make my mind up about that one……
All posts by Eugene Dullaard
Eend in Whisky (Dutch)
Niet meer sturen a.u.b. Heb ‘m inmiddels drie keer ontvangen. Blijft na een jaar of zes/zeven nog best wel grappig. Alleen is de eend inmiddels vier kilo aangekomen en geschikt geworden voor zes personen daarnaast heeft het een extra staartje gekregen voor de volgende dag….. Hier is het verhaaltje voor degene die het (nog) niet kennen:
Koop een eend van ongeveer 5 kg voor 6 personen, twee grote flessen Schotse whisky, spekreepjes en een fles olijfolie.De eend larderen en de binnenkant inwrijven met peper en zout. De oven voorverwarmen op 180 graden en een longdrinkglas voor de helft vullen met whisky.
De whisky opdrinken tijdens het voorverwarmen van de oven. Daarna de eend op een muur-/ vuurvaste schaal leggen en een tweede glas whisky inschenken. Het tweede glas whisky opdrinken en de eend in de oven zetten.Na 20 minuten de oven op 200 graden zetten en 2 glaven vubben met whisky. De glaven opdlinken en de scherven van et eelste glav oplaapen. Nog en nalff glav insjenke en opdlinke.
Na en nalff uul de hoven opedoen om deend te sjekkn. Blantwondezalf in de padkamer ganaale en opde povekand van de linkerand toen. Denove nen sgop geve.
Twee glave whiskiinsjenke en tmiddeste glaf leegdwinke. Den nove opedoen naadattet eerste glaf leegis en de sjotel vastpakke. Blantwndezalff op tbinnekand van de regtehantoen en deend oprape. Deend nogis oprape en metten nantdoek de bwantwondesalv vandeheent fege.
Ze hande ontvette me visky en de tube mesalv veeroprape. Tkapotte glazzopvege en deent teurg in dehove doen. Deheent oprape hen de ove eers opedoen.De twwwiede flesj bisky pedoen en regtopsette. Opstaan van de floe en tochma blijfe zitte. De bles opde gronf neerzette. Uide bles dlinken wande glave zijn opof kabot. Denove afzette, dooge sluiten en omfalle.
Laat de volgende morgen de eend degusteren met citroen en mayonaise. De hele middag en de vroege avond de rotzooi van de muren en het plafond verwijderen en de keuken opruimen. De glasscherven en de flessen naar de glasbak brengen en op de terugweg paracetamol en maagzout kopen?
For the English among you, sorry, the above is Dutch. It’s a joke I’ve found three times in my inbox. It also has no use to use translation tools on it either, I doubt they can handle the language.
Running out of disk space
As this whole thing is actually meant for testing WSS (Windows Sharepoint Services) was installed with default settings. Never figured if I would use it longer, but after seeing decided it should replace the previous portal. However a default installation dumps the database files onto the system volume with all the consequences that go with it. In my case the system volume is tiny and as such I normally move data quite fast towards the data drive in order to protect the amount of diskspace on the system volume, however this program didn’t give an option to install the databases somewhere else. If you start looking on the web you see a lot of stories that will tell you how to do it, most of them being run through a command prompt application. If those would work I would have used them but for some reason or another they all ended in an error and as such that rendered them useless. In the end the move was very simple with only downloading one tool which was SQL Server Management Studio Express. After installing this tool you can connect to the database with the same servername as the command line tools did: \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query and then you can simply detach the databases, move them towards another drive and attach them again. Job was done in ten minutes. What more do you want? Do not use the default selections for this tool, you will end up with the same error as the command line tools did. This error says something like : An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 – Error Locating Server/Instance Specified) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: -1). Good luck with the solution above anyway…
50 Years ago…
The Russians launched their very first satellite ‘Sputnik‘ and with that started what is commonly known as the ‘Space Race‘ between them and the USA. This finally ended with the USA going to the moon a couple of times. After that it became more scientific and less about prestige. And now the eyes are trained on the moon again by more then one nation so it starts to look like a new ‘Space Race’ is about the emerge, who knows. I just hope I can go to moon one day as a tourist and maybe even further. Being a die hard Science Fiction fan this is easily explained of course, even though the moon will be a dull barren place with only it’s low gravity being a sensation (in bumping ones head against the ceiling that is). In the end we as species need to get off this rock (being Earth) as in the end it will stop supporting us, either naturally or by our own wrong doing. But imagine this, as one reporter on BBC World said, the Chinese picking up the American flag from Tranquility Base (Apollo 11 landing site) and selling it on Ebay…
Visit to 서울
… That is Seoul in the Korean language. I left during their Chuseok holiday as the office is closed. The visit was only a couple of days in which to see how the office was doing and to do a couple of upgrades on their IT infrastructure. My colleagues where nice enough to drag me with them for lunch and the occasional dinner. One hooray for the office ladies who made this my best visit yet. Especially the office administrator who gave up some of her time to have dinner with me and show me Insadong. Still a long way to go is understanding something of the language. Instead of knowing just one word, I now know two, wow!!!!!! On the one free day I had, I have been to Cheong Gye Cheon as it had been featured on the National Geographic Channel in one of their mega constuction programs. Went passed City Hall and found some kind of palace bearing the name Deoksugung after having some lunch first. Then I strolled back in the direction of Cheong Gye Cheon and using the Seoul Metro Map arranged by a colleague found my way above ground to Insadong again after wandering into Bosingak Bell Tower and Tapgol park. At that time my feet where hurting as I came to Seoul without any good walking shoes….. The next day it was time to catch my flight leaving from Incheon International Airport.
Chinese Ethnic Cultures
Visited the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park in Beijing today. Except from the sore feet it was kind of interesting. Some of the things I knew existed, like the Mongolian Tents (called a Yurt). Actually this is due to the last book I read mentioned earlier in my posts. Others I’ve already visited before I visited this park. Upon entry we first went to the southern part of the park which let us cross replica’s of Yunnan province. These where very familiar as I’ve visited Kunming, Dali and Lijiang last year with my girlfriend. The buildings looked very familiar because of that, except I didn’t find a stone forest as there was near Kunming, but that’s not really part of any culture I guess. On the other hand the performance of the Naxi minority was. The last performance I’ve seen being on a boat on Erhai lake, if memory serves me right. Some others I recognized as well, like the Tibetan and Korean parts of the park. All in all it was an interesting experience. So for those who do not travel througout the whole country, you can experience a lot of the country in this park. Kind of like Madurodam in The Hague, I guess. You can experience Holland in a single day. Except this one comes with real size buildings and live performances.
Two years ago
….. Sunny came to Holland, so today we are actually celebrating our two year anniversary of living together. This will most likely also be the last anniversary as it will be taken over by a more important date next year : Marriage. The chance of a three year anniversary is therefor slim, unless we do want to celebrate it or something. Upon entering the Chinese office I already got asked if I got married or not so it seems it’s quite important for the average Chinese girl. Chinese culture is different to my own if it comes to marriage, that is something I already noticed a long time ago, and my girlfriend does remind me of so every now and then. She will eventually win, but you have already came to that conclusion by the story above.
Found a corkscrew in ChaoYang
Errrrr…. you found what in what? Well, ChaoYang is a district in Beijing and has a park bearing the same name : ChaoYang Park. In there is an amusement park (to my own surprise, I didn’t expect it but must admit that I never looked in a tourist guide either). It is in most respects similar to other amusement parks I’ve visited in China (ShiJiaZhuang and theBeijing Amusement Park), but this one had a little surprise. I’ve gotta thing for rollercoasters and this is the first one I’ve found in China which has a corkscrew in the track. And no, I didn’t have a ride on it. For those that have access to the photoalbum (or request it) can see it’s kind of short compared to most European ones. So I think I’ll wait and take my girlfriend towards Warner Brothers Movie World in Germany next year. I haven’t been there in three years and there supposed to be a couple of nice new rides now.
Future Cars
Well, as the current one does not live forever I did some thinking on what I might choose as a future car. Due to reliability and personal experience I have a preference for Japanese cars. Had some issues with a Volkswagen which I owned a long time ago, on the other hand the one Honda which I owned wasn’t trouble free either. Which was kind of a surprise to me as it is not really known for having problems. The other cars didn’t give many issues and the only one that gave an issue was due to an error by a mechanic. Most others have been Mazda (with the exception of one Toyota) as well and none of them ever let me down, so I’ll think I will stick to the brand. As I usually buy second hand (2-4 year old), my future car is already on the road and there are only two which I will consider at this time. As family expansion also comes into view in these cars lifetime and the amount of kilometers might go down a lot in the near future as well, feul economy is not really a factor. No I am not looking for a car that will run 1:4 nor does Mazda make any. The two lucky ones are the Mazda 6 in either a nice Sportsbreak package or the MPS if I can get my hands on one, but preferably the RX-8. The latter might be considered risky by some over my choice of reliability, but I love the technology behind it. Although it’s a car that my brother cannot maintain as his wankel rotary engine skills are next to non-existing. The 6 still has a conventional otto or four stroke engine so that won’t be a problem, now I still have to figure out which of the two it might become in the next year or so. Phew, some choice…….. Also, will I keep the MX-5 for fun or should I trade it in. I’m a fan of topless driving, however it’s not my girlfriends favourite thing to do.
Why Asians don’t like Dutch food
……. Well, did you ever tasted it after you’ve spend a month or longer eating the local dishes for most of your time. I normally like the food as it is prepared in my home country, except if I’ve spend a long time away from home somewhere in Asia.
Weird enough, I’ve never had any issues the other way around. Although I’m not a fish eater which was quite challenging in South Korea where I had to endure some dishes containing former residents of the Yellow sea. Did survive but it will never be my favourite. And yes, they do eat other things besides fish, as we do overhere. Fish is also popular in the Netherlands, I just don’t like it. Can’t help that.
But as the normal dutch dish usually consists of a piece of meat, boiled potatoes and veggies where in Asia the rice and veggies are of a much drier variety and the meat is usually integrated into the meal either being the main ingredient or somewhere in the background as added flavour. The only thing is our wet potatoes and veggies taste awful if you haven’t eaten them for a long time. And believe me I was longing for my favourite dish (cauliflower btw) when I got back in my country, and boy don’t you believe my disappointment when I took a bite from it……. Unbelievable. Imagine never eaten any dutch dishes before, like most Asians coming into our country, that must be a miserable experience. This also goes for my girlfriend who still misses Beijing food. On the other hand she has adapted to our western style food quite well. I personally don’t think it will ever be her favourite but she has no problems eating our boiled potatoes and veggies.