Looking off towards the positive side of life as the week gets rolling:
- The 50 km per hour sailing record was broken last month by a remarkable craft called a Hydroptere. It’s impressive, a large hydrofoil with grinders stationed out on each wing to adjust the sails. The video looks intense: I once wanted to try to sail a twin-trapeze 49er and thought that it would be a similar rush across the water, albeit on a much smaller scale.
A friend directed me to a local realty site for renters, and I have to admit that there are far more apartments available in Maastricht than I had thought. I’m clearly not going to save any money if I want any combination of view, style, and ambience, and there are a lot of miserable student digs. But the inventory seems to have lots of variety in my geographic area, so there’s hope.
- I was inspired to try some Dutch cooking this week, and pulled down a recipe for gehaktbal. This meatball is 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound of ground meat all by itself. Gehakt is a combination of spices, unique to me, but gives a good hearty flavor like an American meatloaf (missing catsup and onions, though). It’s a hugely messy dish to make: I was up to my elbows kneading together a kilo of ground beef and pork, eggs, milk, and bread crumbs. I got slippery enough that a bottle of wine slipped out of my hands, leading to still more cleanup. There’s also an unholy amount off butter involved: the recipe recommends making a gravy out of the stock, but it’s just too oily for that. Still, the dish came out wonderfully and made enough for three dinners.
Okay, a grant request turned in for a UK Technology Competition today, a proposal sent off to an orthopedic group for a new remote monitoring idea, and an IP landscape complete. Off to the UK tomorrow for a review of an earlier grant proposal, now up for funding, and then on to the US Monday for a site visit and business planning review.
All of the bits seem to be coming together, on time, on task.
Remarkably.
