wakeman.dk

Oliver Oliver Bo Boliver
Banana Fana Fo Foliver
Fee Fi Mo Moliver
Oliver!

http://cox-tv.com/namegame/#

By popular demand, some short videos and more photos of the little man are now available at http://wakeman.dk/oliver .  You will need the username and password to access the files; use the clues on the page or e-mail me for the password.

Oliver Brent Wakeman is here at last.  He was born at 9:45 pm on August 7th and weighed 9 lbs, 6 oz (4.26 kg).  Oliver and his Mom and Dad are exhausted but doing well.

When there is nothing to do but wait, make some scones…

Classic scones with jam & clotted cream
MAKES 8· PREP 5 mins· COOK 10 mins

For toweringly tall scones, always pat the dough out a bit thicker than you think you should. I say pat rather than knead because scones are essentially a sweet soda bread and, like other soda breads, will become tough when over-handled. Kick-start the scones’ rise with a hot baking tray and don’t leave the dough sitting around. If you like your scones with lots of juicy fruit, stir 85g plump sultanas into the mix at the same time as the sugar.

Ingredients
350g/12oz self-raising flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
85g/30z butter, cut into cubes
3 tbsp sugar
175mL/6fl oz buttermilk (If you don’t have buttermilk, use regular milk and a squeeze of lemon juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract
beaten egg, to glaze
jam and clotted cream, to serve

1 Heat oven to 425F/220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Tip the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, then mix. Add the butter, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar.

2 Put the buttermilk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 secs until warm, but not hot. Add the vanilla (and lemon juice if you using regular milk), then set aside for a moment. Put a baking sheet in the oven.

3 Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife - it will seem pretty wet at first. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a round about 4cm deep.

4 Take a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones. By this point you’ll probably need to press what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. Brush the tops with beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray.

5 Bake for 10 mins until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking, generously topped with jam and clotted cream.

If freezing, freeze once cool. Defrost, then put in a low oven (about 160C/ fan 140C/gas 3) for a few mins to refresh.

PER SCONE (no jam or clotted cream) 268 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 41g fat 10g, saturated fat 6g, fibre 1g sugar 8g salt 0.95g

Well, ten years ago, Michael Hutchence did something stupid, two years ago the Canadian JD Fortune won top prize on a US reality TV show to be the new frontman of INXS, eight months ago INXS cancelled their European tour because Tim Farriss needed knee surgery and one night ago, INXS finally played the Paradiso in Amsterdam.  Wayne and a very pregnant Lis were sitting up in the balcony for our last rock concert for a few years.

For an hour and a half, the old church rocked with some classic 80s hits and a handful of new stuff, even a Johnny Cash cover.  While you sometimes realized how much you wished it was Michael on the stage instead of this young whippersnapper, it didn’t hinder the evening at all and you felt good for the guys getting out and playing their music again.

Bottom line on the new guy:  Looks like Dave Navarro, sounds like Peter Murphy, filling the shoes of Michael Hutchence.  Weird, but effective.

Setlist:  Suicide Blonde, Devil’s Party, Mystify, Disappear, Taste It, By My Side, Afterglow, Hungry, Never Let You Go, Folsom Prison Blues, Need You Tonight, What You Need, Devil Inside, Pretty Vegas.  Encore:  New Sensation, Never Tear Us Apart, Don’t Change

It is easy to call internationally but when I try to explain it to someone, it sounds very difficult.  So, here is my quick and easy guide to dialing phone numbers around the world.

The United States uses 011 as the international dialing prefix.  The rest of the world uses 00.  So, to dial a foreign telephone number, enter any numbers specific to the telephone that you are using, such as 9 or 0 to get an outside line if you are in an office or a hotel room.  Then dial the the international dialing prefix (011 in USA, 00 anywhere else) and then dial the country code for the country that you are calling and the telephone number.

A short list of country codes:
1   USA
31  Netherlands
45  Denmark
44  United Kingdom
Examples:
Calling Holland from the US:  011-31-12-345-6789
Calling Denmark from Holland:  00-45-1234-5678
Calling US from Denmark:  00-1-123-456-7890

The gotcha is that for calling within a European country, a zero is often added to the telephone number.  In the first example above, the number that would be dialed from within the Netherlands would be:  012-345-3789 .  Telephone numbers may be given in this form or in the form of (0)12-345-6789 so remember to use the zero when calling within that same country and don’t use when calling from another country.

If I am traveling, I often use an AT&T calling card to make my calls because it is SO much cheaper than direct calls from a hotel.  Here are the toll-free AT&T International access codes for some countries I visit
(current as of 10 June 2007; find a code at http://www.att.com/traveler )

USA:  1-800-225-5288 (1-800-CALL-ATT)
Netherlands:  0800-022-9111
Denmark:  800-100-10
UK: 0-800-89-0011 or 0-500-89-0011
Germany:  0800-225-5288
France:  0800-99-0011
Belgium:  0-800-100-10
Luxembourg:  800-201-11
Switzerland: 0-800-89-0011
Israel: 1-80-949-4949 (or to place calls using Bezeq Telecom: 1-80-922-2222)
Italy:  800-172-444

The website http://www.countrycallingcodes.com can also be used to figure out which buttons to press to make that call.

Lis and I went to see an opera in Amsterdam on Saturday.  The Netherlands National Opera company performed Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner.  The stage design and costuming were very minimalist and futuristic which Lis hated and I liked, once I got used to the idea.  The title role was even played by a Yank but I still couldn’t understand his German very well.

Link to summary

Link to libretto in German and English

My company hosted a holiday party on President’s Day and Lis got to meet all my colleagues while we were in Seattle.  There was a caricature artist at the party who thought we looked like this.  Not sure why Lis is pushing me in the water though

I made my first full Turkey dinner this year, complete with dressing and pumpkin pie.  Delicious!