curiosity

Gong Making in Benguet

This photograph, taken from the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)’s book on living traditions in the Philippines, is of a trainee artisan as he pounds a brass plate into the shape of a gangsa, a round, smooth-surfaced handheld gong used by the Cordillera peoples in the Benguet region of Luzon.

Looking back at Leiden: Where was this painting made?

Having visited an antique convention in the Hague a few months ago, I found this postcard being sold that was labeled as being from Leiden. Supposedly a postcard of the city painted in 1934 by artist Bernard van Vlijmen (1895-1972) as indicated on the bottom left corner initials of B.V.Vlijmen, the watercolor art is drawn from the perspective of someone overlooking the cityscape, half of the painting being the city streets and its buildings with people walking by, and the other half being a canal, with everything being interconnected by bridges and walkways.

The Variety of Hospital Food in the Netherlands

This is breakfast at HMC Westeinde hospital in The Hague, the Netherlands. Every morning, the ‘breakfast cart’ comes along to each patient’s bedside, where the patient is offered a choice of white, wholegrain or raisin bread with butter, margarine, cheese or jam. Alternatively, patients can opt for a cereal (only one choice, an off-brand cornflake) with milk. Alongside this, you can choose to drink tea, coffee (both with or without milk, sugar and sweeteners) or apple or orange juice. You are also offered one hard-boiled egg.

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