My friend tamar made a syndicated feed profile for my other blog.

I'll spar you the tech talk, since I suck at it myself,
suffice to say is you can now follow the contents of my other, dutch blog
on your livejournal.

All you need to do is subscrive at this link: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/dagraper/profile

and speak the magic words: "Thank you Tamar" when you click it ;)

dus als je dit verstaat en het niet erg vindt om een mix van mijn eigen avonturen en politieke bedenksels te lezen, kan je altijd eens langsgaan op mijn echte en Nederlandstalige blog : http://dagraper.blogspot.com

Niet komen klagen achteraf ;)

What can I say....I'm a huge fan myself

I promised to share our candidate for Eurovision
Enjoy!

To all my fellow-Europeans:

we have selected our candidate for Eurovision.

you stand no chance whatsoever

please yield.


want to know why ? Maybe I'll tell you tomorrow ;)




P.S. note to Ireland: no, we are not sending poultry!

aaand we're back :)

It was fun...it's like you imagine it to be, but smaller.

First make-up....great make-up lady, chatting away and making you feel quite at ease really.
The thing about the make-up is that you don't really see it...you're just a bit more tanned , but baby, do you look good after they are done with you :pppp

They were shooting another scene so I had to wait and could follow everything that happened on the screen of the director's room. Was interesting to see, but the waiting is not all that good for nerves.

And then it was my turn....the studio was smaller than I had imagined...strange how a few well-placed camera shots can make it all much larger. We had a table-conversation instead of a couch-conversation, which was good, cause that means less me in the image :p

I was the last item of the talkshow, so I could stay seated all through the closing interview with the singer, which was a bit fun and a bit scary at the same time.

It was even stranger when they had to do a cut, cause the presenter had made an error....the director's assistant tells the presenter to look at me for five long counts and the presenter starts saying things like: that's easy, he has beautiful eyes.

1) sorry hun, but I'm taken
and
2) when an former miss Belgian Beauty starts flirting with you , it's NOT good for the nerves :ppp

It was a fun experience and I'm curious to see the whole edited item on the tube.
Hope I can capture it somehow and show it here as well.

And that's a wrap!

I'm a guest in a talkshow today...I'll be flanking a well-known Belgian singer (for the Belgians amongst you, it's Sandrine)and be talking about cultural life in the city of Antwerp.

This afternoon it's filmed, tomorrow afternoon it will be aired.

Maybe I can get my hands on a digital copy and post it here some time...who knows :)

...and no bachelors for that matter.

*grins*

...cause I am going to hurt some people !

Ah well, guess everybody needs an arch-nemesis to become better than expected ?

Love coffee like anything else ?
Are you a java-addict like me ?
Intrigued by coffee experiences all over the world ?

Check out my Lonelyplanet Coffee Bluelist at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bluelist
Mine is titled 'Where Coffee Tastes like Java'.

Add a vote or leave a comment....and keep drinking!

Time to get on the Col-train...

...is back. He's early this year...

Used my noon break to collect the summer travel catalogues I could get my hands on. The fun of browsing them and selecting my next destination can begin :).

I'm not sure yet, but I'm thinking a Scandinavian adventure this summer and the Big Apple in the fall...

We'll see...the browsing and picking destinations is fun for me already.

We had a Studio 54-type disco-party on New Year's eve.

Dresscode: disco!

I assure you, these are the types of parties that are wrong....WRONG I tell you! :p

To give you an idea of what I looked like:





or



I'm now going to emigrate to a non-disclosed country outside the EU....have a nice life all!

Throwing together the mix for tonight's party I have to dj.....it's going to be one hell of a not-done set :p

This post is for all those of you out there who will be in charge of some cooking during these festivities.

Lets be honest, Christmas can be hell if you're in charge of the kitchen. You tend to spend the whole evening in your kitchen, while the guests sip away at their aperitives. And then we're not talking about all the stress of getting everything ready an perfect in time...and hoping the pudding doesn't collapse or the roast burns.

It doesn't have to be that way....you can be in there with the rest of your guests, and still conjuring up a dashing five course meal with minimal effort on the evening itself.

Some tips and tricks to a great Christmas dinner...

1) On the third Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Alot of dishes can be made in advance without loss of flavour. Others can have their preparations done days up front, without any trouble. Use those...they will gain you a massive amount of time on the day itself.

Soups are a great example...they can easily be made up to a week up front and stored for later use in the freezer.
You can even make more than you need and have a quick and easy meal at hand for the days after Christmas, or when unexpected visitors come calling.

Think soups are a bit dull or meager ? Why not try a surprising pumpkin-apple velouté or a sexy Asian lemongrass consommé ? They will leave your guests asking for more...

Doughs too can be made up front and stored in the freezer. That goes for sweet cake doughs as well as crispy pizza dough. Bake them a two-third of the time, so they retain their shape, but havn't gone golden an crispy yet. Pull them out when you need them and they'll be done in no time !

2) The easier, the sexier...

I don't understand why people always want to make the most difficult dish they can find...for some reason they seem to think it will shine upon them. In reality, they just tempt fate and curse when things go wrong.

Nonsense....even the simplest of dishes can be very sexy. It's in the garnish, the way you present it.

Or in the dish itself...take a sorbet for example.
You get them in fancy restaurants between courses....cold, fruity and good for digestion.
Wouldn't it be sexy to serve a home-made one yourself ?

Easy as it comes....a sorbet is not much more than boiled sugar water, fruit pulp or juice and alcohol.

100 grams of sugar in a liter of water, boil it till the sugar has dissolved.
Add for example the scrapings of six passion fruits and a glass of peach or southern fruit prosecco.
Stir it all and let it cool down, then putting it in the freezer and stirring it every half an hour until you can't anymore. That will keep it light and aired.

3) Match the season

It's winter (at least in this hemisphere), let's face it...even although you can find almost all ingredients, not all will be cheap. Go with what's available...first think ingredients, then dish, not the other way around.
It will make shopping easier and quicker and will once again prevent that typical headache ;)

4) Have fun

It's Christmas....have fun yourself !
Go wild, go crazy and enjoy while you're at it.

Merry Christmas !

I Am A: Lawful Good Half-Elf (5th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-15

Dexterity-15

Constitution-13

Intelligence-18

Wisdom-13

Charisma-16


Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.


Race:
Half-Elves have the curiosity and ambition for their human parent and the refined senses and love of nature of their elven parent, although they are outsiders among both cultures. To humans, half-elves are paler, fairer and smoother-skinned than their human parents, but their actual skin tones and other details vary just as human features do. Half-elves tend to have green, elven eyes. They live to about 180.


Class:
Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don't cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oath. A monk wearing armor loses their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Today is starting to look like an extreme makeover edition....

finally found the time to pass by the hairdresser's....winter short he calls it...

By the time I exited the chair, there was a voice mail telling me my new glasses were ready to be picked up....

...and that was celebrated with having my visa spew flames on a new winter coat and sweater.
Christmas gifts were picked up as well while at it.

And winter sales havn't even begun yet ! ;)

A homely Sunday, that is the least you could say of today...

Christmas mood is slowly seeping in and it shows...put up 'the tree' today...a small one, with subtle decorations, but a still christmas tree.

Next weekend christmas gift shopping is planned...

A few months ago, I started making a 'bramble jenever', which is a sort of gin with fruit,
in this case home-grown brambles. After two months of being stored away warm and dark, for all the chemistry to work its magic, I finally started 'clearing' (making sure most of the residue is gone) and bottling it.

It is sweet and pack a hell of a kick...

I also took all the outdoor terrace plants in, weather is getting too gruesome for my orange tree and fig tree. The kitchen herbs (basil and rosemary) got a new window pane box as well.
Comfortably at hand in the kitchen and warm enough to survive the winter.

Made focaccia's (Italian lunch bread with fresh tomatoes and herbs baked into them) and they are now cooling down to be stored away in the freezer later on (I only bake them 3/4th, so they retain their form, but can be finalised in the oven later on). Same story goes for my tomato/red pepper soup...again, all to be frozen later on today.

Always great to have fresh food at hand when you're feeling peckish, don't have much time to cook or have unexpected (but welcome) visitors over.

Time for a coffee treat now...after all, it is the season to be jolly !

In the 18th century, you had the phenomenon of the 'forbidden opera'.

The Pope had decided that singing only led to sin and therefore should be prohibited. Today, we can be glad he did, since that very period brought us some of the, in my opinion that is, best arias we know in opera today.

An example (for mezzo-soprano, if I'm not mistaken):