To twit or not to twit?

Leveraging ideas claims that Twitter suffers from its own branding. I am one of those who has been doing the”Should I twitter? Should I not?” dance for a while. The post hasn’t convinced me one or way or the other, but it did give a push - interesting perspective.

Broek op Langedijk - the first sail-through auction house

“We go boating
Go for tea,
We sail to the portage
Drink sweet milk with cream”
- Dutch nursery rhyme

Portage, also called a carry, is a place where boats are carried over the dike from one canal into another. Something, which is quite hard to imagine, till you actually see it.

Broek op Langedijk, literally means the bridge on the long dike. The village, about 50 kms north of Amsterdam, consists of houses built on the dike that was built to protect the land from the vagaries of the North Sea. The region around this is called the “Realm of the Thousand Islands”. In actual fact, the number of islands dotting this area is close to 15,000.

Around the year 1000 AD, the North Holland of today was mainly a peat area dotted with peat rivers. Houses were built on the banks and the surrounding sands were used for agriculture. However, during the 11th century there were several dry summers, which rendered the land unsuitable for agriculture. In the ingenious Dutch way, ditches were dug around the land, resulting in a lot of water ways surrounding numerous islands. The small islands were used for cultivating vegetables and fruits. The proximity to water kept the plots relatively warm even during the cold Dutch winters. The size of the island was determined by what one man could cultivate by hand. The reclamation continued for centuries and ultimately, the “realm of thousand islands” was born.

Happy Vishu!

Wishing everyone a happy Vishu!

Unaccustomed Earth

Just finished the title story in Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest book Unaccustomed Earth. It is an amazing read - I was feeling a tad guilty that I bought the hardcover, but now I am glad I did not wait for the paperback. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Home manager - outsourced?

Brazen Careerist, one of my regular reads, has a great article pointing out that house managers are a necessity for women with high flying careers. Just the term house manager is so cool! If only I could find an outsourced home manager who could do all my chores, but from far ( I hate the [...]

Church to bookshop

What do you do with all the grand churches in Europe as the number of religiously inclined people are dwindling? In Maastricht, 13th-century Dominican church has been converted into a bookshop!
“Happily, books and churches have always gone together: in the beginning, as St John tells us, was the Word; the word was, in time, written [...]

Outsource the 3:00 am call…

This is hilarious:
“Sure,” I say, “J… can do Australian, American, French and English accents. Sometimes all in the same sentence. Imagine how close the other world leaders will feel to you. Birds of a feather and all that.”

TV Series - All time favourites and recent additions

The one true indulgence I have is TV series, especially sitcoms.
After a long day’s work, when the brain refuses to function anymore, the one thing I always manage to do is plunk in front of the telly and watch an episode of whichever TV series I am addicted to at the moment.
The recent [...]