It has been a very busy period.
I have not mentioned that Justus has stopped his study at the conservatorium. The reason is that the school himself does not seem to be able to cope with him due to his disability (Asperger). This is at least our opinion as the whole year we have been told that he made good progress and only in the last week they decided not to let him in the next year. This came as a big shock to all of us as he seemed to do fine and he loves composing. After the first shock and huge disappointment, Justus came up with the idea to switch to learning Japanese. (his second big interest)
He and his coach (who helps him with his disability) have already been looking into this 2 years ago. As music in that time was more interesting to him he choose for the conservatorium but now Japanese is back in. Within 3 weeks after unsubscribing from his previous school and subscribing to this new university, he did get the conformation that was admitted. We were so happy for him. In the future he is thinking about taking extra lessons to keep composing but first we need to get him on track on this study.
He also want to live in Leiden. This is where the university is based. Train travel from home to Leiden is going to be an hour and a half and doing this every day is almost impossible. However, living on his own is not something that he can do easily so now he and his coach are looking into the possibility of supervised living. This university has an organisation where people with disabilities can get advise and help on these issue. Justus and his coach (which we call Johan from now on) will go to Leiden in 2 weeks to look in the possibilities for this. I will keep you posted.
Last Monday Justus has done the cooking (with Johan) for that day. He made a very fine Nasi (indonesian rice dish) with shrimps. It was very nice and it saved me from having to do the cooking that day. We even had some left which I will have later. For this meal Justus needed to fry some scrambled egg and apperently he felt very adventurous as he announce later that he wanted to try this again the next day for breakfast.
Well, he did manage that too. He even added some cheddar cheese on top of it and told me afterwards that it tasted very good. I think he’s ready to move out now 🙂
The cheese cake he made over a week ago was very nice and it he was very proud of it. I have to admit he ate half of the cake himself. We are still planning also to make cupcake together.
My canning is going very well. I’ve found a bigger pot which can contain 2 preserving jars. I’m using this now for canning apples.
The methode I described in an earlier post with the microwave does work but I have to keep in mind not to fill the pots to full. I really need to keep at least 2 cm under the rim to prevent the fluid to spill. When this happens you can be sure the canning is not successful as there will be rests of food in between the rings and the glass which can cause a leakage. I’ve already done some pots in the microwave and I keep checking the lids every few days to see if they are still secure. Up to now this seems to work. The cupboard is starting to fill up now with strawberry jam, Tomatojam, chickpeas and fruit with jenever. This is a very strong alcoholic drink which can be compaired with Vodka. I’m buying the fruit on the market when they are at their peak and fairly cheap. Soaking them in the alcohol with sugar will provide a very delicious snack in time.
On other news: Lee had an interview yesterday for a job and they have invited him back for tomorrow. It looks like he is going to be lucky and will get this job. It’s only a temp job for 5 months as the other person he is replacing is going on maternity leave. But if you have a foot in the door with a company, who says there will not be an opportunity for a longer contract? We keep hoping and maybe tomorrow we know if we can pop open a bottle of champagne
Last but not least, here a picture of Boris who I caught while he was robbing the kitchen. I just had fed them and forgot to throw the tin in the bin. Leaving them unattended for a short time he did find this tin and was busy stuffing his face with the leftovers.
badbadbunnie 