Day off

I took today off, with no real plans to do anything. I had hoped for slightly better weather, but that wasn't going to happen. In the end, I popped into town and bummed around. I bought way too much stuff (in a weight kind of way) and was very thankful I took my backpack rather than my smaller shoulder bag. I'm gonna have sore shoulders tomorrow.

I first went to the Albert Cuypmarkt and wandered through there. The last time I was there was over 6 months ago, during xmas break, when I said I'd try to pop by the toko, Tjin's, every couple of months. Yeah, didn't quite happen. Oh well. But I went back today! And ended up with 4 jars of stuff which is one reason my bag was so damn heavy. I got some curry paste; some natural, corn-and-black-bean salsa which was really too expensive, but I couldn't resist it (it'd better be worth it); and some plum sauce and hoisin sauce to make a dip that the wife of a colleague of O's has made when we've gone to their house and it is so yummy. I hope the sauces I got are ok, I didn't expect the plum sauce to be the lighter colour that it is.

Then on the market itself I got almost a kilo of chicken drumsticks to make another thing that this wife of O's colleague made once when we went over: honey chicken. Also very delish. To go with it, I got some corn on the cob at a huge veggie stand. The corn looked pretty good, mostly I only see corn on the cob wrapped in packs of two here, and they look a bit plastic, but these were sold by the piece and looked more natural. The corn was all already half peeled though, as if they expect that the people buying the corn wouldn't know how to take the outside part off. Or maybe just so you can see what shape the corn is in. They were two pieces for a euro, which at the time I felt was pretty good, but I know that must be way more expensive than in the US. You can probably get 10 for a dollar there.

In the on-and-off rain, with my weighty backpack, I trudged over to the Utrechtsestraat and found a decent-looking cafe to have lunch in. I sat in an upstairs area and read a bit while waiting for my order, an uitsmijter with cheese. Damn, it was good. It was on this hearty, possibly corn-based bread that didn't get soggy, the eggs had still-runny yolks, and the cheese was nice and melty. So. Good. I was a happy, satisfied bunny after that.

As I ate, and the upstairs area emptied out, I was left there with only two other women just across the room having a deep, heart-to-heart chat, fortunately in English. So I eavesdropped while trying to appear like I wasn't eavesdropping, though, really, what else would I be doing if I'm sitting there eating on my own? They were talking about life and how they want to improve their lives and be better people (and I thought, oh good, I'm not the only one unhappy with my life) and then they moved on to talking about relationships and men. One of the women, who was Dutch, was talking about problems she's had with trusting her boyfriend, but then I'm not sure the problem all lies with him. She mentioned a couple of times when he'd go out and she'd ask when he'd be back, and he'd either rush in the door at the last minute before his "curfew" was up, or she'd call him a couple of minutes before the time he said he'd be home and ask him where he is and if he's coming home. Um, are you his girlfriend or his mom? I mean, ok, I don't know their history or the background behind doing this, but that kind of stuff ain't good. She was also talking at another point about not wanting to dent men's fragile egos and fortunately her friend said that not all men are like that, you can talk to some men and not have them freak out. I dunno, some people have weird relationships...

On the Utrechtsestraat, I visited Get Records and got the latest Josh Ritter CD (though we have it downloaded) and tickets to see Two Gallants in November. Our first concert tickets since the spring! After that I was mostly tired of hauling around the weight on my back, so I dragged my butt home. Back to work tomorrow unfortunately.