... I don’t like White beer. At all. It’s too fresh and soury. I like my beers strong and dark. As a rule. But for some reason, I really, really like Vedett Extra White. On our beertrip to Belgium I drank 3 or so. The last time I drank white beer is a year ago, so that’s quite a lot. Now it could just be a weekend fluke or something… But for now, top stars for this beer…

I’m not much for plain ale, or pils. I prefer the nice belgian brews with a slightly higher alcohol level. But this one is actually quite nice. It’s no leffe or maredsous, but on a warm afternoon on a terras in the sunshine, I don’t mind drinking a Vedett. Will get launched in Holland soon, I heard.

Had some Rodenbach during my beer tour at the Palm Brewery. I have to admit that, purely as a beer to drink in the evening times, it wasn’t really my thing. It’s quite sour. We also had some during diner, instead of wine, and it did accompany the food quite well.

I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with this book. Of course, having not read the back of the book properly, I was expecting stories by Roald Dahl himself, not a selection by him of other work. So I was expecting something else, but still, I like a good ghost story. But most of them were a bit… predicatable. There was one story that gave me the shivers which was Ringing in the New Year. And the introduction by Roald Dahl himself was very entertaining. But when the introduction really is the best thing about a book, I’m not if I should recommend it to all my friends…

Read this in preparation of my trip to turkey, on which I leave this wednesday. ‘De Brug’ means ‘The Bridge’ in Dutch and it’s an account of the history of the Galata Bridge in Istanbul mixed with some stories of people woprking on the bridge.

The book was published in 2004. I’m really curious how much the bridge and the city have changed since then.

Can honestly say this is one of the worst beers I ever tasted. The colour is a nasty muddy brown and it’s sour.

Yes, beer from glorious Haarlem. There’s several variaties, but Jopen Koyt is my favorite. It’s a dark, sweet beer, with a strong liquorice flavour. Good for dark dreary nights tucked away in a cosy pub corner.

As a story, who moved my cheese is kinda crappy. If Mr Johnson would have taken a class in fictional writing, he would have failed miserably, I think. Especially the high school reunion dialogue bothered me immensely. But, then again, storytelling is not the point of this little book. It’s trying to get a point across. Which it does quite well, so in that sense it’s very well written indeed.

The point Spencer is trying to make is: people get used to things, but things change. And you can then either sit around and bitch about how it’s crappy it changed, or you can get up and find something new to enjoy (look for new cheese). Which is a good point. I made the mistake before of staying in a job which wasn’t bringing me any satisfaction anymore much longer than I should have. Because I was scared I wouldn’t be able to find another job. I thought that was the best bit about the book actually, it posed the question: ‘What would I do if I weren’t afraid?’ We often let our fears drag us down. So it’s a good idea to ask yourself that question from time to time. I liked that.

Somethings itching me though about this book. And I think it’s that this book, and other books of its self-helpfull kind, are so focused on achievement. It’s all about running through a maze and finding cheese. But isn’t the real question: why do we keep running into that maze looking for cheese? Why don’t we just stay at home and bake waffles? Or go to Japan and enjoy some sushi? Why do we think that cheese is all there is?

Does cheese (and the fight for cheese) really make us happy? When most of us think about what style of living they enjoy most, I think many will say they enjoy their vacation time the best. Why? Because it’s a period of a few weeks in which we don’t give a damn about cheese. We just lie on a beach and get tanned or go hiking or see pretty buildings or whatever. We turn our backs on the maze for a while and do what we want to do.

Change brings succes. But does succes bring happiness?

Anyway, the book does make a good conversation piece and causes some philosophical pondering and I love philosophical pondering so I’ll give it 4 stars just for that ;)

It’s always good to set goals in your life. I try to do that a lot. One of my goals in life was to taste al 7 kinds of Leffe beer. That’s right, I didn’t say the goals had te be al educational or world altering or anything. Drinking beer is perfectly nice goal.

Anyway, you’d think drinking beer is quite an easy goal, but it’s actually not when one of these Leffe beers is an export beer that is only sold in France and Spain. So I went to Spain (not just for the beer, mind you, I’m not that much of an alcoholic (anymore)). First pub I went to I thought I’d hit the jackpot, but the beer turned out to be Leffe Brown. Is Leffe Rossa, si, si… Lying bartending bastard… Anyway, finally, in Sevilla, I found this awesome world beer cafe which sells almost every kind of beer imaginable. A true beer walhalla. And there finally found my Leffe Rossa. Sadly enough, all other types of Leffe beer taste better than Leffe Rossa. But then again, that’s probably why the Belgians Export it to lands far, far away…

A beer with… koriander. Who could have figured it would taste so nice. This is a beer you either love or you hate. I love it.