The 'unforgettable' New Year

New Year. As every other year, we went to my dad's place of birth.

Jan 2. I traveled back with my uncle and aunt. In Patrol -- could anyone find it in the map? -- our car broke down. The situation seems hopeless. Our 'only' hope was a 'montir' who doesn't shave nor comb his long hair, even worse: he didn't have the tools that is needed! Yet he refused to be said 'unable to help' -- he can, he just didn't have the tools!

We had to sleep in a so-called-hotel. It didn't have a name, the 'kraan' is not even there (there is only a hole in the wall where the water comes), etc etc. Nevertheless, we were thankful that we could find a place to rest!

The next day, finally the guy managed to 'make' a tool by which he could open the problem. It then took more than 2 hours before he could find the spare-part.

Later on we learnt that if the problem arose half an hour before, we would be stopped in not-so-safe-area. So it's another point to thank God.

Some changes

Friends, I'm sorry for not maintaning this blog for some time. Seems like some people have 'bad agenda' about my blog. Hence I'm disabling some features and put more restriction. Sorry for the incovenience for the genuine ones.

muisjes or hagelslag

When I was young, I always put 'hagelslag' on my bread. By that time, mom told me that its name is 'muisjes' -- that's the Dutch word (Don't mixed up with meisjes; muis = mouse, notice the similarity between hagelslag and excrement of mice). I noticed that in the package there was the word 'hagelslag' as well, but I thought it was the English word.

Once I was curious about the Indonesian word for 'muisjes' and found 'coklat roti' -- but nobody seems to use this term.

When I was in NL, I learnt that the thing that I know as 'muisjes' is called 'hagelslag' by the Dutch and 'muisjes' is a different thing! Once I met a Dutch girl who insisted that Dutch is the only creature on earth to use hagelslag on their bread -- well, me as well!

Now back in my home country, I looked around and see several packages of hagelslag. Here are some that I saw: muisjes, hagelslag, mesis, meises.

The question is: where is the missing link? If we learnt 'muisjes' from the Dutch, why did we call 'hagelslag' as 'muisjes'? Isn't it easier to pronounce 'hagelslag' than 'muisjes'?

Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy new year!