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Birthing stool out of a milk bucket

Birthing stool out of a milk bucket, originally uploaded by Amazing Amazone.

So I am pregnant.
Living in Holland, we just handle the pregnancy with a so called verloskundige (midwife): a medical professional who is skilled in pregnancies and delivering babies. No need for a gyneacologist when there is no medical reason.
Birthing should be done as natural as possible, so preferable just like in the old days, at home. So to help me with that, the in-laws provided me with their birthing stool.
These days most midwives carry one standard with them at deliveries. Sitting on it the birthing woman can make good use of gravity to help getting the child out. It also helps a little preventing a disaster zone down there...
But this is not a regular birthing stool.
The in-laws used to have a milk farm, so when the use of birthing stools came in use, a home made one was soon provided for the births of the third and fourth child.
Kneeling on it helps bearing the labour contractions better before, and after the birth, catching the placenta.
And yes, this one is made out of a proper milk bucket, with a piping of rubber and a metal seating. Covered with warm towels, it should do its work well.
I'll let you know how it worked out.

Pom and pokoe

Molecular cooking, gazing at the stars, winning a 17th century print and free pom. That is only some of the many things you can do this saturday at the Museumn8 in Amsterdam.
What will I do? I will be going to serve you.
Not the pom, which I will be eating too, but I'll provide you with some good tunes and pokoes at the Persmuseum from 19.00 until 23.00. Again, like last year at the Theater Instituut Amsterdam at the Red Dress fashion lounge (that's why I put in the picture)
What I would do if I didn't need to spin my wheels of steel? Check my program:

Enjoy and see you at the Persmuseum!

DJing with a view

DJing with a view, originally uploaded by Amazing Amazone.

Last sunday I was invited to come DJing between debates on the OMWaNa Stadsmanifestatie, at Pakhuis De Zwijger. Not very exciting, but I did my best and I got some good reactions from onhearers. And I loved the view!

Wolkom yn it Heitelân

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend a diner parlant for the project Wolkom yn it Heitelân. This is Frysian for Welcome in the father country. In this project Wouter Osterholt en Elke Uitentuis want to explore the range of cultural identity between localism (Frysian identity) and globalism. How open is Friesland towards new arrivals? What is Frysian identity? How do you conserve cultural heritage? DO you conserve cultural heritage?
Off course I accepted the invitation and traveled north to Leeuwarden. There I told something about Verhalenvanger and listened to and discussed with artist Misja Immink, Bert Looper and Goffe Jensma. Misja made us all an agent for the ministry of in love-affairs, Bert read some poetry and Goffe told us the entertaining story and its implications of the Oera Linda boek. What we spoke about exactly, you can read here, what I liked personally was to get a good introduction of Frysian culture, which seems to become a new part of me. This was the third time in two weeks I was in Frysland; the weekend before we even attended a family gathering of Farquaads Frysian family. Nice and beautiful country too, sitting on the back seat of a motor cycle or on the back of a horse! Thanks again for riding and staying, Florie!

El Salvador

Not only my own brother lives far, far away across an ocean, the brother of my girlfriend Maaike does too. Also in the Americas, but more south, in one of the continents most dangerous countries. And beautiful. He writes about living in El Salvador and throws in some interesting links to give more context about the troubling history of this petite country.

Blanchefosse et Bay

Blanchefosse et Bay, originally uploaded by Amazing Amazone.

The first weekend of september we celebrated the 20th birthday of my cousin's circle of friends. They met at school two decades ago and thougt it was a good time to celebrate that with family and friends. And we all came. With 80 of us, some shacked in the nearby hotels, others like us set up camp on the grounds of the little French estate of the parents of one of the friends. Drinks, food, campfire fireworks, nature and DJ's were all for free to enjoy us through the whole weekend. And boy, did we enjoy it. So thanks, you eadevieguys! And thanks parents of Vincent for the hospitality.
The shack sits along the road into the valley and houses a lot of swallows and the arrows and bows we got to shoot with too.