December 7, 2010

An interactive history of KLM’s house-shaped genever bottles

Filed under: Architecture,Aviation,Design,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 1:29 pm

First you follow the link to the cute little Delft blue houses, and then you can click on any of the 91 bottles and find out what house it is and where. Most of them can be found in Amsterdam, but a few of them are from towns like Amersfoort, Delft, Breda and Schiedam.

I spontaneously clicked on number 81 and got ‘proeflokaal’ (roughly ‘tasting pub’) De Drie Fleschjes (The Three Bottles) in Amsterdam pictured above (here is what it looks like today). Ironically, it is a place to sample gin and have a drink.

What I thought was odd though is that there is the same house twice (11 and 23), another ‘proeflokaal’ in Amsterdam, Wijnand Fockink. I think the makers of the site made a mistake, as 90 is a much nicer number.

(Link and image: klom.com, via amsterdamadblog.com)

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September 28, 2010

Which city will win as the Most Hospitable?

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 4:08 pm
Maastricht1

Based on criteria such as ‘friendliness and safety’ and ‘accessibility and Information’, five Dutch cities are up for the Most Hospitable Dutch City this year.

Just to put things in perspective, none of the main Randstad cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) were nominated, so that you understand why the Dutch aren’t fond of these cities and tend to complain about them to others. I found myself explaining to Germans last week why the Dutch are not proud of their capital city and it wasn’t easy.

Breda (Noord-Brabant), Haarlem (just outside of Amsterdam, North Holland), Den Bosch (Noord-Brabant), Maastricht (Limburg) and Nijmegen (Gelderland) were given top marks this year “in the research for the 2010 Most Hospitable City in the Netherlands.” The winner of this year’s award will be announced in Haarlem, the Most Hospitable City of 2009, on 14 October.

Haarlem is generally upper middle class, Caucasian and quaint. Breda is a student city and much-loved by the people there (that’s where DJ Tiësto and Mentos come from). Maastricht, also a student city, is the ‘jewel of the south’ where people celebrate carnival and speak their own dialect. Den Bosch is just as cute as a button and I enjoy visiting it. As for Nijmegen, another student city, I lived there for three years and I know that the Roman ruins and architecture attract many visitors, including my own family.

My guess is that Nijmegen or Maastricht will win it this year. I’m leaning towards Nijmegen.

(Link: dutchdailynews, Photo: a shopping street in Maastricht)

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September 1, 2010

Recruiting students for sex line causes a stir

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:19 am

In the Student Handbook 2010-2011 for students in Breda there’s apparently a two-page advert to get students, most probably girls, to work for phone sex lines. While students usually work at the supermarket for about EUR 7,50 or so an hour, talking dirty on the phone pays a cool EUR 24 an hour, which is a lot of money for a student. The advert has a funny title as well: ‘Geld verdienen met lullen’ (‘Earn money with talking’, although ‘lullen’ (infinitive verb) just happens to be the plural of ‘cocks’ as well). The students have to be 18 years of age to be hired.

Why did this make national news? Well, it preys on poor students. However, a job is a job, the company is legit and I don’t really see the problem. I know for a fact that talking dirty as a job for money is hard work because when I was a student, I used to translate such delightful phone messages before all of this was online for good money. Some of what you hear is very difficult and not funny or sexy at all. I can’t even imagine being the one answering to or saying these things on the phone for hours on end. The students deserve that EUR 24 an hour.

(Link: kijkditnou, Photo of Phone booth in Buenos Aires by Javier Volcan, some rights reserved)

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June 17, 2010

Neighbourhood cops that twitter

Filed under: Online by Branko Collin @ 8:43 pm

Meet Peter Smaardijk and Ilse Segers, twittering cops. These two police officers from Etten-Leur and Breda respectively have started posting about their beat from their Blackberries last week.

Together with two officers from Tilburg they will post tweets about their daily police life in order to be more accessible. The Noord Brabant police also hopes to increase its network of eyes and ears this way.

In practice, the four officers twitter both standard police announcements (“watch out for pick pockets”) and their day-to-day affairs (“Spent the rest of the night writing the report.”). The police recommend citizens do not to use Twitter to report a crime.

(Photo: Twitter.com / Politie Midden en West Brabant. Link: BN/De Stem.)

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March 31, 2010

Breda students invent a walking fridge

Filed under: Food & Drink,General,Science by Orangemaster @ 5:47 am

It all started with a Dutch beer advert featuring a walk-in fridge, which then got a ‘Dunglish’ sequel featuring a miscommunication between an Eastern European building contractor and a Dutch guy who ends up getting a walking fridge. The story continues with a parody on the first advert from another Dutch beer company and now we have four final year students in Breda from Avans Hogeschool who invented the RoboFridge. Watch it dispense soft drinks this time around, but I’m sure beer cans fit in there, too.

(Link tip: dutchnews.nl)

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March 25, 2010

Daring entrepreneur scores with free food

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 2:11 pm

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Giving things away for free these days usually arouses suspicion, but one Dutch restaurant owner decided to give it a whirl anyways: free entree and main course, you pay the wine and the dessert. The article also makes sure to mention that the bread and butter is included, because in the Netherlands, you usually have to pay for that.

Restaurant owner Jeroen Verpaalen of L’Entrecote in Breda serves a salad with mustard dressing and walnuts, French bread with herb butter, entrecote and fries for free. Nope, the wine is not overpriced, nor is the dessert. Verpaalen considers it marketing, as “we all need the help of our clients”. In return, his clients are so happy with the food and service that they order more expensive wine and leave more tip, the latter already included in the price.

Letting clients decide what your product or service is worth and paying for it accordingly is a trend in business circles here, but doing the same with food in an industry that is constantly raising the prices is pretty daring. (Skip the steak, I’m a fan of the seafood platter!)

(Link: bizz.nl)

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October 2, 2009

Vegetarian fan complains about free meat snack

Filed under: Food & Drink,Sports by Orangemaster @ 2:58 pm
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A Feijenoord (Rotterdam football club) fan decided to complain to the director of NAC (Breda football club) for the free sausage rolls (‘worstenbroodjes’) that were handed out at the game last Sunday. The Breda fans were given the free meat snack to comfort them for their team getting kicked 2-0 by Feijenoord.

The Feijenoord fan thought they should have thought of vegetarians, maybe even offered a meat-free alternative. It reminded me of the airplane I took yesterday which offered cheese or pork sandwiches. It can be done.

I get what they guy is saying, but then you’d have to think of obese people, people who have low-sodium diets, gluten-free eaters, diabetics, people with peanut allergies, kosher, halal, and so on.

Surprise: we live in a mostly meat-eating society. Just say no and don’t eat it is also an option.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl, Photo: veggieunwrapped.com)

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July 15, 2009

Lounge chairs in a park

Filed under: Architecture,Design by Branko Collin @ 9:30 am

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These metal and plastic grass lounge chairs in the Valkenbergpark in Breda were made by designer Lisette Spee and architect Tim van den Burg, who hope to be able to make more of them.

(Link: Designboom. Photo: Tim van den Burg.)

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June 16, 2009

Cephalopod lamp

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 9:06 am

This lamp, the Ode 1647 by Jacco Maris from Breda, Noord Brabant, must be one of the spookiest I have ever seen, although the designer was mainly looking to recreate the grandeur of chandeliers. I want one in all its splendid tentacliness. Apparently they come in all shapes and sizes. The arms are made of copper weave.

Link: bright.nl, in a short report about the 100% Design fair.

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November 4, 2008

Ordering food at the restaurant from a computer

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink,Technology by Orangemaster @ 9:49 am
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Waiting for your order at a restaurant is never any fun. Restaurant ‘t Hart van Breda has solved this problem by installing a computer that takes orders: you click on a computer screen from your table and voilà . You can even play computer games and chat with guests of the place as well. According to owner Nanda Koomans, “it’s in tune with the times. We have a young target group who lives and works digitally. This is perfect for them.” She emphasises the popularity of the system using an example. “Yesterday we had a group of girls and boys that were chatting with each other. After their digital talk they all went outside to go out together as a group. That’s of course very nice!”

There are also eight “digital free” tables out of the 26 for the non computer-savvy. The system was developed in Israël where its introduction has usually led to an increase in turnover. Although the initial investment is pricy, Koomans believes it is worth it.

I’d rather use a computer than get stressed out over the service in the Netherlands, but computers break down and make mistakes too. Life is tough.

(Link: fok.nl)

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