Week 47 Oliebollen en Appelflappen

Oliebollen en Appelflappen

Ah, the Covid Kilos...

Officially, not even winter yet...and in need of comfort food! (Oliebollen = "oil balls" (a bit like donuts) and Apple Flaps - apple in donut style pastry or just plain pastry)

I also made a Jaffa self-saucing pudding - from my BBC Good Food Collection...

A quote from the recipe...

"This intense chocolate orange sponge bake with thick sauce is about as indulgent as a good pudding gets".

This is from one of my favorite weekly emails/blogs

John P. Weiss

https://johnpweiss.com/blog/162634/how-to-matter-in-a-world-adrift

Mesmerised by the fire...

I found some old photos that Barry took on one of his trips over here.

I went to Stuttgart one year with Barry and Mendrisio another - both times for the World Cycling Championships.

Barry was quite an amateur photographer - I remember early on that he always had contact sheets of photographs, including our trips to Canberra and Sydney (for part-time work).

 He found the switch to digital photography hard to make - he was once "crooked" on me because I took a beaut photo - observing that "anyone can do it these days".

I was thinking about Barry the other day - sometimes when I light the fire out the back, I just sit and stare at it, mesmerised and drifting away with my thoughts. (must have been because I was looking at the photos).

I found myself thinking of Barry's friends around the world - mostly, if not all, made through his travels and connections with cycling. It was never really my thing, but now and then I would get interested in hearing Barry's stories and even meeting some of his friends.

Bruno, from Cologne, is such a likeable chap. He was a German Cycling Champion (I think an amateur) - I have seen the Rainbow Jersey in a glass cabinet at his place. He and his wife Gabi and daughter Emily came to our place once. I took them out on the boat even though it was windy and at the end of the season.

(We were thinking of going to Cologne for the Christmas Markets - but not this year with the ongoing Covid situation).

Another old "mate" of his lives somewhere not too far from us - he dropped in one day as he was cycling nearby. 

(They're all getting pretty old, these days).

Yet another lives in Den Helder - Barry used to drop in on him after being at our place.

Fred "the fisherman"...(as Barry called him)

I met Fred in Backnung (near Stuttgart). The local tourist office in Backnung has a book for sale which tells the story of a few young lads from the area. Two brothers and a third young man (all aged about 18) set their sights on riding their bikes to Melbourne, for the 1956 Olympics.

This they did, meeting Nehru in India on the way and they were flown to Darwin from Indonesia by Soeharto. They arrived in Melbourne in time for the Olympics! I wonder if such an adventure could be undertaken these days?

Along the way, in Italy, "Fred"  undertook a scuba diving course. After the Olympics, Fred remained in Melbourne - he met Zara, who was a dancing girl at the Tivoli - and drove a bus for a while. He later put his scuba diving to use and ended up diving for abalone. This turned out to be quite a successful business and when I met him he had a fish restaurant in Williamstown. He was also sponsor of a cycling team - which is why he was back home - for the World Championships.

Backnung was a very nice place - must get back there one day...

Barry told me of another cycling friend - from England - who ended up marrying a girl from Groningen. I forget his name now, unfortunately.

 I was able to look it up years ago in an old newspaper report from Groningen - the chap won the race and was given a kiss by one of the "official" girls at the end - they got married and were living in Canada when Barry told me the story. Of course, I can't find the newspaper story now.

On our way back from Stuttgart, we called in on another old cycling mate - he now owns a coffee franchise called...Coffee Fellows - again, I have forgotten his name...

We're all 13 years older now, as well!

I met "Blackie" one time on a Skype call with Barry - and I sometimes hear from an old girlfriend of Barry's (from school days).

Funny where my fireside trances take me sometimes...

Around the Farm

Finding all the Christmas stuff again...

Still fixing the leaks...

Janny hasn't paid for the roof yet - as it is still leaking! here and there. The ridge capping seems to be the main problem - the water gets in at the top and can come out literally anywhere on the way down. (Depends on the wind direction, mostly - but it needs another preventative layer underneath the capping itself). The white end bits have all been replaced with the same stuff, but with a "down-turn", also aimed at preventing the wind.

They have to come again to finish it off.

Gathering my paint for the boat - it goes into the shed on 30th November. 

Clearing the spouting (again!)

Last Sunday, we took Ben back to Amsterdam. He really does live in a nice area. We found a good take-away (there's not allowed to be anything else at the moment).

The streets are just about empty!

Ben's front door...

We were asked to sign a petition to "save the trees" - almost unbelievably (for the Netherlands) they want to cut down these trees in Ben's street - presumably to create more parking spaces - but there will never be enough (trees or parking spaces), in any case.