A sad story. Two weeks ago, a fire in an airport prison killed 11 people. Mostly not criminals, but refugees who were not allowed to stay in our country, and were held in the prison before being send home again. Very tragic.

A couple of days ago they arrested one of the inmates, who they think started the fire. Interesting that you can actually arrest an inmate, as it feels that somebody should not already be in prison before the arrest happens… but well, guess they don’t have a special word for that… Anyways, the lawyer of the arrested person has made the following statement today:
“He didn’t start the fire deliberately.”
Straight away I can’t help but thinking: Weird statement… because it doesn’t deny the fact he started the fire… and the only way to start a fire not “deliberately” must be “accidentally”… but how do you start a fire by accident?!? In the normal world there must be many, many options, but in a prison cell?

My first thoughts go to rubbing wood together… he was in a cell, and the cell looked kinda basic, so probably he was a bit bored, let’s see if I can be like Crocodile Dundee… but still, you need to rub hard to start a fire! And where would you get the wood? And even if you do get it started, it ain’t an inferno straight away, let alone an accident. If I think a bit longer also the obvious things come to mind: matches or a lighter. But those also need handling of some kind to start a fire. I have never seen a match nor a lighter go off by accident… There are other options (see: National Geographic Survival Basics: How to Start a Fire), but like the rubbing, they seem a bit out of place…

The more obvious answer would be that he lighted something, forgot about it and that caused problems. Like people who light up a cigarette and fall asleep on the couch. That kind of thing. But as I can’t believe inmates are allowed to smoke in there cells, what could he have been lighting… Or in other words, what could be in a prison cell that needs lighting?! It’s not that he was in a medieval dungeon where they light the place up with candles and cook on an open fire… and it wasn’t to light tea-lights for a romantic evening…

Oi! Interesting stuff! While writing this, I just passed the TV on my way to a cup of coffee and apparently the lawyer has made another statement:
“He asked for a lighter, but didn’t use it to start the fire.”
Strange… my believe that inmates are not allowed to smoke or create a romantic setting in there cell seem to be wrong… Then they might go with my “falling asleep with the cigarette” story! So if they are, you read it here first! ;-) And if they are not… well, I will probably be amazed about what they can come up with…

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As winter is approaching… well… approaching… with the 20 degrees from last week the weather was as good as during the summer, so it seems and feels like winter should actually be far away, even though the calendar keeps telling a different story… Well, either way, it’s getting time again for a Dutch winter tradition: pea soup.

Today, still early November, was the first try! And what a successful try! Helped by the somewhat sad, cold and rainy weather the setting was quite good for a pea soup lunch. Served the old school way with rye bread and some smoked bacon! Just briljant!! :-)

I guess what makes it so good is also the fact I never eat this until winter time. And even then it’s quite rare. So not eating it much makes it kinda special. Well, at least to me! ;-)

Oh, and for you out there who wonder what is in it, it’s made out of: split green peas, ham on a bone (bone is removed later), celeriac, leek, soup veggies, some more stuff (unfortunately I don’t know the recipe by heart…) and one of the most important ingredients: the Unox smoked sausage! And never be shy when adding the Unox sausage! An extra one doesn’t hurt anyone! ;-)

Traditional Dutch pea soup

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Granny Mundt. I worked with her for quite some time on a project in Stockholm. She got the nickname very early in the project when nobody really knew who she was, just that see talked a lot of our technical teamlead at the time, who’s last name happened to be Mundt and for some weird reason we thought they had to be related…

Later I learned her real name was Mona and she was our most dedicated tester! A very sweet woman who could really put her teeth into her test work and wouldn’t let go until things were working properly. Not always to the great joy of the development team, as her finding problems always meant more work for us. But she would become legendary in the project for remarks like: “There is something wrong with the teasers”, which could point to a million things that could be wrong. As well as smoking the waterpipe with us on a project outing and drinking another 4 half liter of beers after clearly stating she had enough after beer number 1! I always liked her a lot. You just had to love granny Mundt! :-)

So I was greatly, but pleasantly, surprised when she called me today! She was applying to a new testing-job and needed a reference for her work in the past and was wondering if she could write my name down for that. Well, of course I would love to be a reference for her. How could I not be! So now I am actually hoping the people of that company will give me a call… because besides mentioning her qualities in testing I will have so many fun stories to tell! ;-)

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November 3rd is my mamma’s birthday. So the days before that day the big question always sounds like: what do we get her? Normally… But not this year. This year it was an easy and quick decision. She is getting a footbath!

The easy decision came after an initial good footbath review by “early adapter” Bastiaan, which (as often) set the tone. And the follow up with a good review by Martin from Stockholm took all remaining doubts away and sealed the deal! Footbath it will be!

And it won’t be “normal” footbath, only the best is good enough for my mamma :-), so we are looking at the Ferrari under the footbaths, the Medisana 88361! Well… Ferrari… More or less the Ferrari… it was down to the 2 best I could find in the end. The Medisana 88361 and the Babyliss 8038. The only reason it will be the Medisana is based on nothing more or less then availability. I was to late to order it online, so I have been visiting about 8 stores today and none had the Babyliss… Actually only one store had the Medisana, so it was kind of a close call in the end, as else I would have had no other options then just ordering online, which would mean I wouldn’t have the footbath before my mamma’s birthday… but I got lucky in the end!

And the great thing is that I am quite sure that my mamma will love it! :-) As she is quite the fanatic line-dancer every Wednesday evening and always quite the fanatic complainer the next day that her feet hurt from the dancing! *hahaha* Well not for much longer! ;-)

The Medisana 88361

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