December 25, 2020

Christmas time at 24oranges HQ

Filed under: General,Music by Orangemaster @ 1:50 pm

What a year! Who doesn’t need a break? We really do.

As far as postings go, we had a tough time keeping up in general this year, but a lot stuff has been sorted to be able to post more regularly. We’ve upgraded a lot of things in the background.

It’s Christmas day now, and the plan is to eat easy-to-make yet but nice Christmas food and watch a few Christmas classics.

Like every year, co-blogger Branko will come up with a list of his favourite stories of 2020, which should be online at some point.

If you need very different Christmas music, there’s always our friends at Christmas a Go Go!

Happy Holidays from 24oranges HQ! Stay safe and stay sane!

Tags: , , ,

December 23, 2017

Christmas break time at 24oranges HQ

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 10:58 am

Xmas-tree-2017

24oranges is going to take a breather for a few days to catch up on some much needed sleep, finally make that video we promised in March (it’s bad juju if we don’t get it done in 2017), eat, drink and watch comedy on the telly.

Branko will again have a Top 10 list of this year’s favourite stories before the end of the year.

Happy Holidays to all you and thanks for your continued support!

Tags: ,

December 24, 2016

Time for the Christmas break at 24oranges HQ

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 6:02 pm

Xmastree2016

24oranges is going to take a breather for a few days to enjoy some peace and quiet, try out some new Christmas food and drinks, and catch up on some sleep.

Branko will again have a Top 10 list of this year’s favourite stories before the end of the year. By the way, next year on 23 February will be our 10th anniversary!

Happy Holidays and thanks for your continued support!

Tags: ,

January 4, 2016

Duindorp wins bonfire battle, sets new world record

Filed under: General,Nature by Orangemaster @ 11:03 am

2016-ny-bonfire-brankocollin-008

On 31 December the battle of the Christmas bonfires in South Holland was heatedly contested between Duindorp in the North and Scheveningen in the South, both on the beach. Current world record holder Duindorp ignited its fiery rivalry against Scheveningen to win by 50 metres in height, with a fire that was 4,000 cubic metres.

Duindorp took the win with a stack measuring 33.80 metres in height as compared to Scheveningen’s stack of 33.30 metres, which made all the difference, setting a new world record, confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records who I guess kept warm and took notes.

On January 3 in Amsterdam families and friends got together on the Museumplein with the Rijksmuseum as a backdrop to burn Christmas trees, a tradition that kicked off in 2009 and is now an annual event. Back then the pile of trees slowly being added to the bonfire caught fire and the fire brigade had to intervene. Nowadays there’s a fence around the bonfire and the police are there as well for crowd control.

(Link: www.nltimes.nl)

Tags: , , , , ,

December 25, 2015

24oranges HQ closes shop for a day

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 1:23 pm

Xmas2015

The 24oranges tree is the same every year, but decorated slightly differently. I found it years ago abandoned on Queen’s Day (now King’s Day) in a big blue IKEA tote bag and it does the job just fine. This year it has candy canes I bought in the UK (not a Dutch thing) and some baubles made by friends.

Today’s menu is wild mushroom stew Bourgignon, which means red wine is involved, and home made almond shortbread cookies. Oh, and the fantastic French cheese that someone brought from France and left me to eat upon returning to France for the holidays, you know who you are.

Branko will again have a Top 10 list of this year’s favourite stories before the end of the year. Thanks for the comments, the likes and following us on Twitter. We’ll try and be more present on instagram (if only we could toggle between accounts!) in 2016 and we’ll keep uploading great Dutch pics on Flickr.

Happy Holidays, and for anyone who is working, have a good day and take care!

UPDATE: we took a few days.

Tags: , ,

December 24, 2010

Holiday food and skating fever news

Filed under: General,Sports by Orangemaster @ 2:35 pm

Here it is again, the tree I found in the trash a few years ago that adorns the office. The 24oranges crew has enough food and drinks to fill a bunker, and so pics will surely follow.

There are rumours that the Elfstedentocht (‘Eleven Cities Tour’), the outdoor Frisian skating marathon will possibly be on this year, the last one of which took place in 1997. Not only will we write about if it happens, but we plan on attending and taking pictures.

Read more about the Elfstedentocht on 24oranges:

Elfstedentocht stronger brand than Olympic Games

Winter fever Dutch style and time off

He brought a piece of his toe to the reunion

Tags: , ,

December 15, 2009

Interactive Christmas tree at Utrecht train station

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 5:12 pm
4184740396_a35067ebe5

In another train related story today, Utrecht Central Station, the country’s biggest train station, has a big tree that changes colour thanks to people’s text messages. Travellers can text red, green, blue or flash and the tree will change colour. I wonder what colour flash is already. Anyone who bothers spending the time and effort to send a text message can enter a contest and maybe win stuff.

Maybe it makes people forget the new train schedule that causes problems every year or any train delays, who knows.

(Photo and link: Walter, used with his kind permission)

Tags: ,

December 6, 2007

Of course it’s not a Christmas tree

Filed under: Art,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:27 pm
kabouter1.jpg

The controversial statue ‘Santa Claus’ by American artist Paul McCarthy (someone feel free to clean up the Wikipedia article) will most probably be placed on the Binnenwegplein in Rotterdam, near the Boijmans Van Beuningen museum.

The meter-high statue got people talking about it two years ago because the Santa Claus (Father Christmas) has a big Christmas tree that looks like a sex toy, commonly known as a buttplug. The city bought the statue for almost EUR 300,000 in 2001, but couldn’t find a suitable place for it.

Funny enough, in 2003 the Tate Modern in Britain had no qualms about Paul McCarthy’s work, neither did the city of Antwerp, but Dutch politicians did. Even the huge 24-meter Santa Claus installed outdoors in a park in Antwerp was entitled “Santa Claus with a Buttplug”.

I thought you weren’t supposed to buy things if you didn’t know what to do with them, especially with tax payers’ money.

(Link: De Pers)

Tags: , , ,