Moving days

The movers have just left (for the second day, they didn’t manage to finish yesterday!) and I am about to start cleaning the apartment while O is off to the office. Tomorrow we move out of the apartment, which has been our home for 2,5 years, and check into the Condado Plaza Hotel*. It will be nice with some luxury: relaxing by the pool, eating out (after having eaten left-overs for the last couple of days) and meeting up with friends for the last time [for now].

Living room with our stuff that will be air-shipped in the middle, 438 lbs in total (mostly clothes packed in air-tight SpaceBags). The furniture belongs to the apartment, except for the leather arm chair seen on the right (we have two).

Result of the move: 100 items! The movers were complaining about the amount of books we (actually I) have and O threatened to sell them all on eBay

Kitchen full of boxes

To sum up our feelings right now, as expressed by O yesterday evening: [I] can’t believe that we are actually leaving, and [I] feel homeless… Who knows when we will have a proper home again!? Hopefully in a few months’ time…

TV- and guest room, also full of boxes…

We wanted to stay in Puerto Rico until Monday but when Iberia suggested us flying San Juan – New York – Barcelona – Madrid, we decided that Sunday was good enough (with a DIRECT flight to Madrid!)! We will spend a week with O’s family in Spain and then we head to Brussels, and I am already lining up dinners with friends

 
*) Features in the [crap] film Men who stare at goats with George Clooney, as a hotel in Kuwait in the 1980′s! (I haven’t liked any of George’s so-called comedies, he’s just not funny!)

Show & Tell / Friday theme: Change

I really have to apologise for my sporadic participation in the Show & Tell / Friday theme, but here’s at least an interpretation of today’s theme which is CHANGE, chosen by Saltis.

Our lives, as I have mentioned so many times before, will change in a week’s time (or so, probably Easter Sunday to be specific) when we leave Puerto Rico and move back to Brussels.

Here are some photos to show the way our everday views will change from living in San Juan to re-making a life in Brussels. It is probably not an entirely fair comparison, but I want to underline that I love both cities and just like I have missed Brussels, I will miss San Juan and our life here.

Street life in Old San Juan

Brussels street view

A rainy (Midsummer’s) day in San Juan

Brussels on a rainy (National) day

Punta / Playa Escambrón, San Juan

Parc Leopold, behind the European Parliament, Brussels

The City Wall in the Old San Juan

The old City Wall in Brussels – not much left of it…

Plazuela de la Rogativa, San Juan

Manneken Pis on Belgium’s National Day (21st July), Brussels

The Raíces (Roots) fountain in the Old San Juan (usually spraying passers-by with water)

Fountain in the Parc Royal, Brussels

Old San Juan by night (seen from our departing cruise ship)

Brussels Town Hall at the Grand’ Place, by night

I will try to make the blog round today but I can’t promise anything with all the things I need to do before the movers arrive on Monday morning…
Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Mais-oui, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Taina, and Under Ytan.

PS I did a similiar post comparing a Swedish autumn with autumn in Puerto Rico – click on the link.

Wednesday Recipe for Lemon & Butter Fish and Fake Risotto

Only one week left in the apartment here in Puerto Rico and we are trying to finish all the food we have at home (pantry, fridge & freezer). Our friends will probably get some food packages, just like when we moved from our home in Brussels and the farewell party guests went home with bottles of alcohol and canned food

Enter our kitchen

I made the following recipe last week and it was delicious! I merged two different Rachael Ray recipes* and then adapted them to what we had at home:

Lemon & Butter Fish and Fake Risotto
5-8 grape tomatoes (or whatever kind of tomatoes you have at home)
garlic cloves
1 deci-litre of rice per person
fish filets (e.g. white fish such as cod or mahi-mahi)
a handful of mushrooms – sliced
a handful of fresh / frozen spinach
1 onion – chopped
fish stock
butter
olive oil
parsley
lemon (juice + peel)
whole-grain flour

Saute the chopped onion in olive oil. Add the rice, fish stock cube and water to cook the rice as usual.
If you are like my O who hates tomato skins when the tomatoes are warm, sink them into some boiling water for a few seconds and then peel the tomatoes. Cut them up and put aside.
Fry the sliced mushrooms with a clove or two of garlic in olive oil.
Dry the fish filets and turn them over (dredge) in whole-grain flour. Fry them in olive oil, and season with salt & pepper.
Remove the fish and melt some butter in the frying pan, when brown add lemon juice & peel, some fish stock and parsley.
When the rice is ready, add the peeled and chopped tomatoes, fried mushrooms and spinach to the rice and mix.
Serve the fish on top of the fake risotto and add a little bit of sauce.
This was one of the best and most simple fish recipes I have ever made, but it tasted so good – even as left-overs the next day.

Not the best photo but I was so hungry and didn’t have the patience to take another one

Have you noticed that I hardly ever make a cream-based sauce? Living with a Spaniard I just never have cream / crème fraiche at home, and the sauce above is one of the few times I have used butter in the last year (except for pancakes, baking and making quiche). I have realised that a tomato-based sauce or just some lemon juice, stock or white wine is just as delicious! (and I never thicken my sauces, I like them thin and runny!)

The second lift in the apartment goes straight from the garage to the kitchen, very practical!

No etiquette question today but some photos from the best kitchen I have had so far – and we are planning to use it as a model for our next home (in case there isn’t already a great kitchen in the place we buy!?). I would only change the colour scheme – the busy red-brown granite makes it almost impossible to see dirt**, which I guess could be a good thing and I would choose white kitchen cupboards. O doesn’t agree so let’s see who has to do the furniture compromise in the kitchen! We do agree on one thing though – the cupboards should go all the way to the ceiling; less dust and dirt to clean and more storage!

The kitchen isn’t actually very big but since the dining area of the living room is just next door, it doesn’t have to be bigger. It is well-planned and there is definitely plenty of room for at least two persons to work at the same time. I would like to have a separate book shelf for all the cook books in a future kitchen, in order to free up counter space, and why not a big larder / pantry as well!

A sink with a view is just the best – why stare into a wall when doing dishes or preparing a meal?

*) From her book 365: No Repeats (Lemon and Brown Butter Fish Fillets + Grape Tomato-Arugula Rice)
**) Or tiny ants which we have had problems with lately… Can you believe that they climb up the wall and in through a crack by the window on the 9th floor!? Well, they do and it is really annoying!

My grandfather’s smell or The man your man could smell like…

An absolutely fantastic ad for a brand that my maternal grandfather used to use:

I love the end: “I’m on a horse”!

By the way, if you have a man in your life – does he use the same shower gel as you? O does, but we usually go for uni-sex smells, at the moment we are using Savon de Marseille with olive oil…

Retail therapy and a seaside lunch

Only three weekends left in Puerto Rico and today we did some outlet shopping, drove along the beautiful northern coast from Barceloneta to Arecibo and had a delicious seafood meal.

I have to confess something; it is actually the third weekend in a row that we go to the outlets! Maybe we are shopaholics but the clothes are much cheaper here than in Europe and we might as well aprovechar (take advantage) while we are here! Especially as we do need to update our wardrobes for the colder climate in Belgium.

Check out these bargains*:

$15-cardigans from Ralph Lauren; a black wool one and one in white cotton ($15 = 11 € / 107 SEK!)

A dark blue blouse and a top from Banana Republic for $15 and $10 (7 € / 71 SEK)

My favourite bargain – a summer dress from Banana Republic, $45 (33 € / 322 SEK)

Swedish B had decided to join us for today’s excursion and we met in Barceloneta where the huge Prime Outlets mall is located. We only went into a handful of shops and actually only shopped in RL and BR. As O likes to say, we were not “very inspired” (despite the above purchases), and maybe we are quite “shopped out” after the last weekends’ shopping sprees.

Our second destination was a restaurant that B has been telling us about but we haven’t had the opportunity to check out:

Salitre Mesón** Costero in Arecibo

Fortunately we didn’t bring any children 

View over Arecibo’s lighthouse, el faro Los Morillos

Surtido marino – an assortment of seafood (calamari, real fish sticks and coconut shrimp)

Asopao de camarones – Puerto Rican soup with rice and shrimp (I got mofongo (mashed plantains) as a side order). !Delicioso!

Another photo of the Arecibo lighthouse

It was a lovely place and we fully enjoyed the late lunch and the views over the ocean, the lighthouse, the surfers and the lizards on the beach (no lizard photo today though). Definitely worth the drive to Arecibo (79 km from San Juan).

*) We hardly ever pay the full [outlet] price when we shop at the outlets, and always look for “Clearance” and today we also had extra discount vouchers of 15% in Banana Republic and 20% in RL, hence the low prices…
**) Mesón is an old-style tavern

European women who lunch in San Juan…

A few weeks ago I decided that in order to maximise spending time with my friends before leaving we had to schedule to meet regularly during this last month. My French and Peruvian (so the title of the post is obviously wrong!) friends and I have met for breakfast or lunch in various locations every week.

These are my top two favourite places in the neighbourhood, places that I have discovered in the last month thanks to my French friend E and it really is too bad that I have such little time left to go back and enjoy them!

Hacienda San Pedro Coffee Shop is just opposite the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) and gets its coffee of course from The Hacienda San Pedro in Jayuya. We are hoping to be able to visit the coffee hacienda before leaving Puerto Rico – it’s on the list!

It is so nice to go and have “fika” (Swedish expression for having a coffee break) in a place that is NOT Starbucks! The coffee is better and cheaper and the atmosphere is just different. As French E said, it feels European! I discovered the yummiest ecological yoghurt, which comes with cereal and fruit, here and I was very pleased when I noticed that they also sell it in the Borders Café in Plaza las Américas.

Under the Trees entrance

Yesterday E took me to another hidden gem – who would have thought that behind the trees along a busy street next to the Hilton Doubletree hotel, a calm and fresh restaurant with delicious and affordable dishes could be found? Under the Trees should really be called Behind the Palm Trees 

Behind the trees there is a really busy street and I used to pass on my way to the Alliance Francaise without realising what an oasis I was missing…

You have to imagine the big scrumptious salads we had for lunch yesterday… I forgot to take a photo before we had finished. We choose self-service (not paying a tip is great!!) and had two huge salads, shared a yummy almond-raspberry cake and drinks for less than $25!

The best part of the lunch? That we were sitting outside and with the breeze we were “almost cold” as E said at the same time as I had the exact same thought. We laughed – two Europeans who marvel at the fact that they are almost cold [outside] in the Caribbean! And we were really pleased that we hadn’t decided to sit inside where we would have been too cold!

Too bad that the background is so busy, but can you see the lizard enjoying the sticky sweet stuff on the wall in the photo above?

March Sunday in Puerto Rico

Hallelujah, I found the camera cable so I could upload the most recent photos to the old computer!

On Sunday we did a little excursion to the East coast of Puerto Rico:

Walking to the lighthouse in Maunabo

Playa Larga, Maunabo

Puerto Rican coastline

El faro de Punta Tuna. This is how a palm tree looks when it is dying, I think…?

Imagine my surprise when I had uploaded this photo to the computer and discovered an iguana behind the little palm tree that was my photo object

The lighthouses in Puerto Rico look more or less the same, but they are still beautiful!

A funny looking square tree – it must have been cut like this, or what do you think?

And then we drove through the mountains:

Driving through Yabucoa

Busy street in Guavate, a place famous for its “lechoneras”, simple restaurants that serve roasted pig and other Puerto Rican specialities, + lots of stands selling souvenirs and trinkets.

La lechonera El Nuevo Rancho

Lechón asado

Dancing at the lechonera to live music

Show & Tell: Time

Arrggghhh, no Friday theme last week because I still can’t use the computer I usually work from (with all the recent photos) and I still can’t find the USB-thingie for transferring photos from the camera memory to the old laptop (that doesn’t have an built-in slot for memory cards).

However, I decided to use some of my photos already uploaded to Flickr to illustrate Saltis‘ chosen Show & Tell theme of “TIME“, unfortunately a few days too late…

An old lamp [shade], salvaged from the old summerhouse

As you have probably have understood by now, especially after last week’s post on a kitchen full of old stuff, I like things with a history that have stood the test of time.

What does that expression mean anyway? According to a Wordreference forum: “Time wears things down. Things erode, or wither, or decay, or die. If something stands the test of time, that means that it is lasting, or enduring.”

The last Royal wedding in Sweden in 1976 commemorated on a plate (I might just have to get one of the 2010 Royal wedding as well now!!)

I think that the things in the three photos from the summerhouse have lasted / endured despite being old and a little worn. They might be old-fashioned or even kitschy but that’s part of their charm and appeal for me.

The lamp needed a new plug which my father fixed and now it lits up the summer guesthouse; the plate was a birthday present from my sister which she had found at the annual local flea market (loppis) for 5 SEK (~50 Euro cents / American cents) and will serve as a cool cake plate; and some of the books were found at another flea market (10 for 50 SEK) and well, words don’t get old!

Old Penguin books (and a couple of  newer ones)

What objects / non-objects do you think stand the test of time? Houses? Cars? Clothes? Books? Furniture? Memories? People?

For more interpretations on the subject of TIME:
Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Mais-oui, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Taina, and Under Ytan.

Wednesday Soup Recipe & Etiquette Poll on Public Transport Politeness

I have been having computer and internet problems lately; yesterday the new[ish] computer didn’t want to start and I am so happy that we have a few backup laptops to use when that happens. I was (and still am) worried though about all work I have on the computer I use most of the time – most specifically a photobook I worked on for many hours last week, and a family tree that took me two days to fill out Fingers crossed that I manage to access them – the computer has started up but seems to still have a few issues for the programmes to work…

Anyway, despite all the problems, I would really like to share a recipe and some etiquette thoughts with you since it has been weeks since my last Wednesday post! First of all, a fish soup recipe:

Petchie’s Fish & Spinach Soup
600 – 700 grams of fish – I used cod and mahi-mahi
a handful of shrimp
2 chopped onions (1 if “American size”)
3 garlic cloves
1 fennel (I didn’t have fennel at home so it is optional), cut into strips
1 carrot, cut into strips
5 (2 if “American size”) peeled and cubed raw potatoes
1-1,2 litre water
2-3 cubes of fish stock
1 tablespoon thyme
1 can chopped or whole tomatoes
2 deci-litres dry white wine
a handful of fresh spinach leaves
fresh parsley and / or thyme
olive oil, salt & pepper

Prepare the vegetables, and sauté the onion and garlic in some olive oil. Add the carrot, (fennel) and potatoes + water, stock and thyme. Cut the whole canned tomatoes with a pair of scissors and add. Add more salt if needed and pepper. Boil for about 30 minutes.
Cut the fish in large pieces and boil in the soup for 3-6 minutes, then add the shrimp and spinach. Sprinkle some fresh thyme or parsley and serve.

(Inspired by Svenskfransk fisksoppa from the book “Kärlek, oliver och timjan” by Anna & Fanny Bergenström)
I have a photo of the soup but I can’t find the camera memory thingie to transfer the photos to the old laptop!

UPDATED:

The Etiquette question:
A few weeks ago I saw on NBC’s (?) New York-edition* of the news that you can get fined if you take up two seats (for example with your bag(s)) in the NYC subway, which I found very interesting! Around the same time I read a few etiquette questions / debates in the Swedish newspaper about how to behave on public transport (this particular question rendered 162 comments!). And then Anna in Stockholm published a funny list of the worst behaviour on public transport…

So here’s my question for you (since men hardly ever comment on my blog posts, I just assume that you all are WOMEN – but men are very welcome to prove me wrong!):

(NB. (again) I assume that most of my readers are women in this case, but men are of course most welcome to comment and vote as well!)

And let me tell you a few anecdotes on public transport politeness:

• Two of our Belgian friends moved to Stockholm around the time we moved to Puerto Rico. The guy S (with a VERY Swedish name!) told me that he thought Swedes very extremely impolite on public transport. Every morning he takes the bus from Nacka to Slussen and then the metro / subway to T-centralen to get to work. It is a constant pushing and shoving getting off the bus, doors slammed in his face when entering the metro station and on top of it all he has been yelled at for attempting to give up his seat to women!


A not so crowded metro train in Brussels

• In Puerto Rico it is common practise to give up your seat to the elderly and to women in the guaguas (buses). I have seen young, cool guys with bling-bling and baggy pants give up their seats to middle-aged women! As a Swede I always feel a little embarrassed when asking older people if they want my seat since I am afraid that they will yell “I am not that old!!”** (not unlikely to happen in Sweden but has of course never happened to me in Puerto Rico!)
• When we were in Spain last year in February; O, his brother J-I and I took the bus downtown in Zaragoza. At a bus stop two older women (70+) got on and looked for seats. J-I and I automatically stood up and they sat down, while we stood by the doors. The women looked over at us and then started apologising profusely for having taken our seats!! They said that they had thought that we were getting off, and how rude of them to “take our seats”! We explained that no, no, we had done it voluntarily (we didn’t say “because you are old”, of course, ha ha) and eventually they accepted and thanked us. I was very surprised to see that apparently it isn’t common practise in Spain either to give up the seat to your elders!?


Queuing for the airport bus at Schuman, Brussels

• In Brussels, what I can recall, it is a mix of politeness and indifference. Nobody would start shouting at you if you attempted to give your seat to somebody, and people usually remove their bags if you want to sit down next to them.

How does it work on public transport where you live? Do you think that it is an important gender issue / battle to tackle? Personally, I think that there are more important gender issues at hand (equal pay, opportunities etc) and if you take offence from the fact that somebody gives up his [/ her] seat for you, then don’t complain the day you might find yourself pregnant / sick / old and frail and you are left standing in the bus! I know that there are people who believe that it is these small steps of battling for equality that make the difference but I find it ridiculous to take offence for such “seat-generosity”.

*) We get the New York edition of the news here in PR since they don’t have a special news programme for our island
**) Just today there was another etiquette question in the Swedish newspaper – a young girl who usually tries to offer her seat to the elderly passengers and often gets rudeness back (read more here). What is wrong with the Swedes???

Swiss / Swedish Kitchen Inspiration

While I am starting to prepare for the move back to Brussels, I keep wondering where we will un-pack our stuff… Will it be in a rented apartment or in a house of our own? And when will it be? Within the next few months or maybe longer? We are going to try to divide our belongings into two groups: 1) “will need immediately” and 2) “to be stored until getting our own place”, which will be an interesting exercise since we are not going to do the actual packing ourselves (for insurance purposes the movers need to do it).

Speaking of a future home, my “Inspiration”-folder on the computer is filled with photos from homes all over the world. Every time I see an interior on the internet that I like, I just have to save the pictures for “future reference”. Hopefully we will soon have a house of our own to furnish and decorate according to our (??) taste! I am sure that there will have to be lots of compromises between O and I, because I am not the only one in this household who is interested in interior design…

However, there are a few of my own photos as well – from a home I have loved and been inspired by, since I was a child: my father’s uncle’s home in Switzerland! I have already written about his and his wife’s beautiful old house in a small village by the Geneva Lake (read more here and here about the house and garden). I hope that you like these inspiring photos from the kitchen in their small guest apartment.

They renovated the apartment in the 1980′s and everything still looked the same in 2007 (my last visit) as when I was a child and we spent a few days almost every summer in this wonderful house. Even the mugs that my brother and I used to drink from were still in the cupboard (see below).

Unfortunately my father’s uncle R (as an uncle-less person, he was as much my uncle!) passed away in 2008 and we miss him dearly. He moved to Switzerland already in the 1950′s and only came back a few times to visit his parents, his sister (my paternal grandmother) and us. His Swiss wife is still alive but I am the only one who can really communicate with her since her English is not great and neither is my parents’ French. I hope that we might be able to visit her this summer.

A 1950′s spice chart, designed by Signe Persson-Melin

Both R and his wife M worked as graphic designers and they had their own ateliers in the house. I wonder if not my interest for interior design originates in my fascination as a child for their home. I used to dream about living in that old stone house with steep squeaky stairs, graphic posters on the walls, retro furniture from the 1950′s and 60′s and antique objects. There was always so much stuff to look at and do for us children; photos and paintings, a Labyrinth-game* and a blackboard in the hallway to draw and write messages on. And not to forget the ping-pong table and the black leather beanbag chairs in the old “nailsmith’s workshop” (spiksmedja) in the garden.

If you look carefully, you will be able to see some Swedish china in the cupboard – the jug for example with “1 liter” written on it

The way this kitchen looks is, according to me, a wonderful combination of old and new. Personally, I would move in in a heartbeat! Maybe I wouldn’t choose the same kitchen cabinets if I designed my own kitchen, but considering that this space was updated in the 1980′s I think it has a surprisingly modern feel.

My brother always had the cat-mug and I had the dog one

I guess that since I nowadays also live abroad and have a foreign spouse, my father’s uncle’s more than 50 year long life in Switzerland is even more fascinating for me. I definitely regret that I didn’t have more opportunities to discuss with him about culture and languages… Nevertheless, the Swedish touches in his and his wife’s home is one thing that I intend to replicate in O’s and my future Spanish / Swedish home in Belgium 

Serving plates including the popular Swedish Blå Eld from Rörstrand

*) You know that frustrating game where you are supposed to balance a small marble through a wooden labyrinth that moves in all 4 directions…