Like it or not

Just over a year ago I started experimenting using Twitter to retain kayak related news messages that are published through transient RSS feed posts from various news agencies; mainly UK and the Netherlands. I subsequently added this to my Blog and my Facebook profile. Over this first year this has resulted in more than 450 kayak and canoe related news items; by now averaging more than one a day.

Yesterday I made a Facebook Kayak News page for it. The reasons for this are to 'disconnect' it from my personal FB profile, to allow 'The World' to use it without having to 'befriend' with me, and also not to force this news feed upon my FB friends.

There are three 'versions' directly available through Twitter:
KayakNewsFeed (news items in English language)
KajakNieuws (news items in Dutch language)
Zeekajak (combination of the above)

Only the combined version (English and Dutch news) is now publically available at Facebook Kayak News. That is, if you like it ;-)

It will become much more quiet on my personal FB profile (again). My blog entries, like this one, and a (very odd) direct post by me in FB.

Tomorrow is the Peddelpraat club Winter Meeting. For the club this marks the official start of a new kayaking season.

It is time for me to get away from the chair behind my computer and into the seat of my sea kayak again. Being in various sea kayaking committees does not help either in getting away from the computer, especially this time of year. Baja California dreaming of no internet and no phone connection.

Dreaming of Baja... Ginni Callahan of Sea Kayak Baja Mexico just added two extra trips in the Loreto Marine Park for March and April (Whale season). Highly recommended!

Seasonal Baking

Traditionally this time of year starts the season of the Christmas Stoll. Based on a recipe in a heavy used, dog-eared German baking book from the late fifties, some family tradition and some 'supervision' (overriding the recipe!), today, I baked two Christmas stollen.

Dunno about other recipes, but this cake's 'consistency' is not available in shops. The same goes for some of the ingredients that are totally unavailable nowadays (or frowned-upon), but that are not missed, at least not by me.

These stollen can hold for many weeks, but I am sure these two will be gone within a week. So I will be baking more then.

11-11-11 How crazy can it get ?

This evening Gerard called me to inform me he cannot make it to our annual sea kayak instructors meeting tomorrow. He will be working on the water; he is a Pilot at Europoort, the shipping gateway to the busiest Port in the world: Rotterdam.

He told me of a hair raising incident this evening at around 19:00. He noticed a flashing strobe light and adjusted course of the 130 meter long cargo ship he was piloting (at a modest 8 knots), and again. It turned out that a guy in a seakayak was crossing the Nieuwe Waterweg. Unannounced, in the dark, with only a flashing strobe light...

The guy was picked off the water by police and it turns out he is an Austrian that started two weeks ago in Cologne, Germany on it's way to Great Britain...

In the Netherlands and Germany the 11th of November marks the start of the Carnival (preparation) season; 11 being a fool's number. The 11th of the 11th of the 11th. How crazy can one get? A total loony!

The picture above is of Nico (and me) crossing the Nieuwe Waterweg in August 2003 on our way Around the Netherlands by Sea Kayak. We checked-in at the Europoort Traffic Centre by VHF. A VHF radio is mandatory in these areas and kayakers better stay well clear or prepare the Traffic Centre for it well in advance. Despite good visibility and planning we were still surprised at the speed of these large cargo ships, this only being one of the small ones.