Chaos - painting

Yesterday, I finally finished the first of 2 paintings I'd been working on here in Haarlem. Its called Chaos, and features 5 crows mid-flight, taking off, and landing, on a stormy background. It is about feeling chaotic (naturally), a little scattered, and in a state of movement in unclear direction.

I bought the canvas, black and white acrylic paint, and 2 paint brushes from Xenos a few weeks ago for some ridiculously small sum around 5 euros - that shop is magically cheap, interesting, and offers an extra 25% off at the weekend! I started with drawing a couple of practice sketches of crows, and testing out different compositions, before drawing out my final plan onto the canvas, unsure of how it would really come out. 

practice sketch

materials 

the plan

If memory serves I had procrastinated a great deal that evening, and was also drinking wine, so by the time I was ready to paint it was already far too dark (and I'd had too much wine). I've made the mistake of painting in the dark before and although I eventually painted a lot of this picture in less than ideal lighting (oops!) I didn't want to start that way. A few days later, while my roommate was out running errands, I found the time to start and managed to get a fair amount done while watching The Mask You Live in - a documentary about society's depiction of traditional masculinity, the male counterpart to Miss Representation, both of which I really really enjoyed. 

first 2 birds

Over the next couple of weeks I painted small portions in increments whenever I had the time, it was a really nice creative outlet and surprisingly easy. I had trouble when deciding on a background, and asked around for advice from my colleagues. The favourite idea was something stormy, with grey clouds and rain, and perhaps some lightning, but having never painted anything like that before (and also set to struggle as I dislike painting in backgrounds behind already filled areas) I was a little skeptical although determined!

first attempt at a background (with coffee of course)

After I painstakingly outlined all of the birds and made a stab at painting clouds, I decided that I actually hated how it was coming out. In an attempt to make the clouds soft and undefined, I had made a something reminiscent of a primary school photo background. Sadly this put me off painting quite a lot, and I took a long break before eventually taking a look at other cloud paintings online for inspiration. The second attempt was much more cartoon-like but I am much more pleased with the way it looks.

second attempt (now with tea)

much better clouds!

almost finished

Yet again I got distracted, and began to paint something new (another cheap canvas!) and so the crows languished in the Night Watch room for almost 2 weeks before eventually being completed. Putting in the final highlights and signing in red was very satisfactory, made only better by the fact I finished the second painting (post coming soon!) on the same day so we were able to hang them in our room that evening. The following day I gifted Chaos to a friend and colleague from the hostel who was particularly fond of it, as I do not have nearly enough space on my own walls back in Maas, and I thought it would be a nice gift before I am scheduled to leave next week. I'm really happy with how the painting came out, and I'm happy that its hanging in the gorgeous apartment of such a cool friend.

completed painting

in the Night Watch room

The week of excellent surprises

After Monday's day off, it was back to work for us with helping the owner of the hostel clearing out Excess things from the hostel (and a handful of things we were unable to sell at the market. Everything was being kept at a site in Amsterdam North which was going to be turned into a hostel, unfortunately the people looking to start up there were unable to get the necessary paperwork and so it was time to clear everything out. The first step was getting everything outside and sorting it into stuff for home, stuff for the hostel, stuff to be sold, and stuff for the tip.

1 of 3 rooms to sort through

first trip to the tip

Amsterdam North's Afval punt was substantially better than any tip I'd been to back at home in England, with lots of advisers around to ensure that everything gets put in the correct area for recycling or re-use, or disposal. Clean, tidy, and very organised it wasn't unpleasant to make 3 journeys between there and the storage to unload 6 cars worth of stuff - especially as I got to ride with the guy responsible for trying to set up the hostel, and he taught me a lot of interesting stuff about the environmentalist scene in the Netherlands.

extraordinarily clean 

dainty forklift helping cover a full container

We finished organising everything and while my roommate took the car headed to move the stuff that was being kept to an alternative storage, I was lucky enough to score a seat in the car bringing things back to the hostel.

eco-friendly hostel grounds

back to the hostel

With a calm evening after the busy day planned, I happened to refresh the NT2 uitslag page to check if the internet on my laptop was working, and to my surprise the results of my exam last month appeared. Of course the only reasonable way to respond to this was to slap my roommate who was sitting next to me, overwhelmed with happiness and relief to have passed. I tried to be controlled myself and allowed myself only a few minutes of joyful crying, before celebrating with my colleagues, calling my parents, and continuing the evening on a high with pizza and beer. That night, I slept better than I had in such a long time, filled with exciting prospects of my now impending internships starting in 2 months time.

On Wednesday, my scheduled day off, my high spirits could just not be dampened despite the fact that my plans for visiting a free art museum, taking a tour of the secret gardens of Haarlem, and having a traditional Dutch meal at a vegan & vegetarian restaurant were ruined by discovering the museum was in fact 10 euros to enter, the restaurant was closed, and it was absolutely pouring with torrential rain. Instead, I sat at the hostel all day happy to work on some revision sheets, make a bit of progress on some paintings, and re-watch a few episodes of the absolutely fantastic Luther.

highlight of the day is always lunch

Thursday morning (still free from hostel work) it was still raining, yet again dashing my plans for the secret gardens, but luckily I had an even more charming proposal of a Lego afternoon. A few hours into my cozy afternoon, I was rudely interrupted by my roomie asking for help "with moving some things". Honestly a little annoyed at being taken away from the fun, I hurriedly came into the reception (in a rush to get back) where I was given a broom and step ladder to take back to the Night Watch room. Stumbling struggling to carry them, I fumbled into the room and surprised to hear someone in our bathroom, after a few moments of confusion I was delighted when my lifelong best friend popped out. Completely unaware she was coming, of course, there was more delighted crying for the second time this week.  

After gathering myself together, and discovering that I was literally the last person to find out that she was coming, we headed into town in a brief pause in the rain to get something to eat. I'd been recommended a couple of nice places to get vegan food in town, and had my heart set on van veg as they offer environmental, organic, both classic and innovative, vegan and vegetarian dishes - and all student budget friendly.

Van Veg

yay veggie trip!

Van Veg

Having scoped out the menu before going (of course) I already knew what I wanted; the Dutchie box, made up of a tofu Dutch-style sausage, braised kohlrabi, and stamppot. Considering I lived in the Netherlands for such a long time without ever having tried stamppot, this was quite a milestone for me. Despite the fact it was not at all how I expected (I think traditional Dutch stamppot is much more solid, and with mashed potatoes?) I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'd like to say I'd have it again but there were so many interesting things on the menu that I'd probably try first if I return. With more high praise for the kikkerfriet (chickpea fries) with sesame mayonnaise, and friendly staff, I'd really recommend it.

Dutchie

Kikkerfriet + finger

enjoying the few minutes of sunshine

Dog selfie

After picking up a large quantity of jopen beers, we headed back to the hostel to form the puzzle dream team and conquer a 500 piece one thats been in the Nacht Wacht room since we arrived. 

one smashed beer - and it wasn't me!

ongelovige

Dissatisfied with environmental vegetarian options, after an order for dominos for the non-vegans, we finished our beer, made an honorable stab at the puzzle before giving up, and then headed to Stiels in town for another drink. Cozy as always, but surprisingly empty, we stayed for only 1 beer before trying out another local bar - van Beinum, for the first time.

less fancy Dominos

puzzle time

the stage at Stiels

loves

We concluded our night in what is now becoming the customary way - a visit to the bar across from the hostel, and a regroup on the floor of the Nacht Wacht room.

infamous bar

Night Watch room (my go-to end of night position on the floor)

Unfortunately on Friday I had 2 hours of work in the morning to complete, this was remedied however by the fact that working also that morning was one of the most awesome people in Haarlem. After the mornings excitement of the new rucksack of my roomie arriving, and the allocated hours of work, I headed with my BFF into Amsterdam to meet another friend for a short while. 

BOX

JOY

Returning from Amsterdam then completely shattered, we had a tasty dinner (if I do say so myself) of vegetable satay, before watching Deadpool on the patio outside - which lived up to the expectations of being pretty hilarious as I'd been told.

film + chocolate + beer + sunshine + friends

In preparation for the wedding party (of our colleague and friend) that were staying that evening and having breakfast the following morning we rearranged the patio and reception tables to accommodate the huge party of 20, and decorated with flowers and heart confetti. The day ended at midnight, when we had to walk to the train station for my friend to leave. With the wedding and the Awakenings Festival in Amsterdam  (35,000 visitors, 45 of which were staying at the hostel), we were in for a busy and eventful weekend. Tot straks!

patio by night

decorated table

tot volgende keer!

Vegan sushi party!

Yesterday was the longest rainfall that the entire Netherlands has had in 20 years - 15 hours. At 3pm, it was supposed to be raining over the whole country. The obvious thing to do on a day like this? Throw a vegan sushi party! After asking around to find out who was interested, and asking about the best oriental supermarket in town, I headed out (at midday after my lovely long lie in following flea market events) for ingredients at Toko Nina. 

Toko Nina in the rain

At Toko Nina I found all of the things I needed for making basic sushi, and had great fun looking at all of the other interesting things the shop had to offer, including ambiguous packets of exotic things, cool ceramics, and a deli counter featuring highly rated Indonesian take-away food.

sushi things 

ceramics

Indonesian food

Toko Nina

Once I'd bought the basic sushi things, I headed back through rainy Haarlem past trusty Albery Heijn to buy vegetables and soy sauce before getting back to the hostel to begin the preparations!

Always happy in yellow in the rain

Still determined to popularize vegan food at the hostel, it was a personal goal to make the sushi as well as a I could without any animal products at all. So, heres what I used.

From Toko Nina oriental supermarket

- short grain sushi rice

- 10 sheets of nori (dried seaweed)

- rice wine vinegar 

- sushi rolling mat

- chop sticks

From Albert Heijn

- soy sauce

- romaine lettuce

- sesame seeds

- peppers 

- spring onions

- sweet potato

- cucumber

- strawberries

ingredients

Making sushi is actually fairly straightforward, and is made up of only 4 things; cooking the rice, preparing the vegetables, making the rolls, then cutting the rolls after refrigerating. Probably the most problematic part of this is cooking the rice, especially if you're like me and you hate having to actually measure things out and use proper timings, because thats pretty important here to avoid over cooked rice paste or under cooked crunchy sushi...just believe me on this one.

1) Make the rice
- Start by measuring out the amount of dry rice that you need for the number of people you're cooking for. Its roughly 1/3 cup of dry rice per roll, and each person will typically eat around a roll and a half (this can be adjusted depending on who you're cooking for!). I used 3 and a half cups of rice for 5 people.

3 and a half cups of rice

- Rinse the rice until water runs clear. Traditionally this is done by covering the rice in water, mixing, draining, and repeating around 10 times, but I find it easier to put the rice in a sieve and stir it under the running tap until the water is clear.

rinse the rice

- Place the rice in a pan with 1 and a half cups of water per cup of rice, cover and bring to the boil over a high heat.

- Once the water is boiling, reduce to a low heat and remove the cover. Simmer for between 15 or 20 minutes stirring occasionally, until the water has been absorbed. 

- While the rice cooks, prepare the rice seasoning by mixing 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and a pinch of salt, per cup of rice you've made (I used 6 tablespoons of the vinegar with a teaspoon of each salt and sugar).

seasoning

 - Once the rice is cooked, transfer it to a large plastic bowl to cool. Add in the seasoning and use a wide spoon to stir the rice continuously to separate the grains and help to cool, for around 5 minutes. To speed the cooling you can put the rice in the fridge for a few minutes, but not too long or else it will get too solid and you will not be able spread it.

cooling the rice

2) Prepare the vegetables
- This is another task you can do while the rice is cooking (or before you start to cook the rice if you prefer to concentrate), and it depends very much on what vegetables you are using. I cut everything into long thin strips and roasted the sweet potato. Other vegetables which would have been nice are avocado, roast aubergine, or carrots.

vegetables 

3a)  Prepare your station
- Rolling the sushi is messy (for me at least...maybe its only me...), so I'd recommend getting everything laid out and ready before starting so you don't have to struggle with rice-y fingers when you realise you've forgotten something. Lay out all the vegetables in an accessible way, have some cling film nearby, take all of the nori out the packet, get your rolling mat in front of you, have a plate to put the finished rolls, and have a small bowl of rice wine vinegar nearby. Its important to wash your hands well at this point as you will almost definitely end up putting your hands in the food...when I was taught how to make sushi, I was told never to eat the home made sushi of someone I didn't trust to have clean hands.

sushi station

3b) Roll the maki
I made 2 different types of roll, the first of which was regular maki, the standard go-to sushi and the easiest to make.
- Start by lying down your rolling mat with the bamboo sticks horizontal to you.
- Place a sheet of nori on the mat, shiny side down, with the shorter side of lining up with the end of the mat closest to yourself (most nori have ridges on them to line up with the bamboo of the mat).

nori

- Use a spoon to spread a thin layer of the cooked rice over the nori, leaving about an inch gap at the top. Dip the spoon in the bowl of rice wine vinegar to spread the rice more easily.

rice

- Add the strips of the filling of your choice relatively evenly close to the bottom of the mat about an inch from the edge.

yellow pepper, cucumber, and spring onion

-  Time to roll! Pick up the mat at the edge closest to yourself and try to think about tucking that end underneath where the vegetables are. Peel the mat away as the nori reaches the rice by the vegetables, it may be necessary to use your fingers to really tuck this in to make a circular roll instead of a fold. Squeezing the roll tightly continue to pull the mat away as you roll it further until you reach the end. Take a second to squeeze down the length of the roll before removing it from the mat and placing it on your plate, ready for the fridge!

they see me rolling

finished roll!

3c) Roll the uramaki

The other type of roll I made was uramaki, otherwise called inside-out sushi. I have heard that these are popular in Western areas as the seaweed is hidden and this makes it less intimidating to eat - not sure this is accurate though...These are fairly similar in flavour to maki (only with the addition of sesame seeds - or whatever seeds you choose!) and are considerably more fiddly to make, I wouldn't usually make these for myself but I thought it would be nice to make the plate look more interesting when cooking for others, and I also hadn't made them in a while. 

- Start with your mat in the same position as for regular maki, and lay a sheet of clingfilm lightly over it.

cling film

- Make a generous layer of sesame seeds* (or others) on top of the cling film, about the same size as a sheet of nori.
*So I was supposed to toast these first but I forgot, it still was fine to eat but didn't look as colourful as it would have with dark brown seeds.

seedy

 - This is the difficult part; spread a thin layer of rice over the sesame seeds. The key which I have found to this is to place a small spoon of rice in the centre, use a lot of rice wine vinegar on the spoon to spread it a little, and then add more onto that in small batches pushing it down to flatten instead of side to side to spread. This way you can use the traction from the already spread rice, and avoid just sliding around on the cling film putting seeds everywhere.

expert

- Place your sheet of nori on top of the rice, shiny side down.

- Put your fillings an inch above the bottom of the nori.

cucumber, yellow pepper, and spring onions

- Roll in the same way as with the maki, trying to tuck the top of the roll underneath where the vegetables are. It is important not only to peel back the mat as you go, but also the cling film or else it will stay inside the roll. If you squeeze and roll tightly then the rice should stick to the nori, but peel the cling film gently to prevent loosing all the seeds.

rolling without the cling film

- When its completely rolled up, do not lift the roll out of the cling film but wrap it around to keep the seeds in place while the rice finishes cooling.

sesame seed explosion

 - Cover your finished rolls and put them in the fridge!

9 glorious rolls

They should ideally stay in the fridge for at least an hour, but they keep in the fridge for a few days (the benefits of not using animal products in cooking!), so now is the time to clean the inevitable mess that you made in the kitchen - because sushi rice is incredibly sticky, gets absolutely everywhere, and is definitely glued all over every container its touched at this point.

clean up!

 4) Cut the sushi! The most satisfying part of the process, use the sharpest knife you have and try to cut in one sliding motion to not tear the nori or squeeze out any of the fillings. Arrange your glorious creations nicely to present to your friends!

sad end pieces

3 planks of sushi and a plate of end pieces

happy sushi friends 

We had a lovely dinner all together, I think my friends were surprised as to how normal home made sushi looks, and although I'd planned on having sushi for dinner for at least one more night we totally finished it all. Having never made it before with roast sweet potato or with strawberries, both were actually very delicious, and something I will do again. 

We followed the sushi with an incredible home made vegan apple taart from our New Zealand Night Watch counterpart, honestly I've never enjoyed an apple taart so much before, he is some sort of baking magician. I have taken the recipe from him, and will attempt to recreate it a few times until I can make it as deliciously as he did.

magic taart

taart and coffee

Thoroughly well fed, we then enjoyed watching a film together (Killing Zoe, a Tarantino film I hadn't seen before but really enjoyed), before bed. Tot straks!

Hooray! Thank you everyone!