Today was only waiting, waiting, waiting!

Today we wanted to start the kiln again, but the hydraulic cylinder that has to push the kilncar in the kiln was leaking very badly. The repaired one came back very fast, but had a different connection adapter. We had to wait the whole day for the adapter and at the moment we were about to go home it finally arrived. They put the repaired cylinder back, but then discovered there was almost no oil left in the hydraulic pump. It took about half an hour before they finally came with the oil to fill it up. But then the repaired cylinder was ALSO leaking very badly. This was it, we went home to the hotel, but of course our 1800hrs taxi was already gone. We tried to get another one, but that's impossible in that part of the town. So we decided: let's go with the motor taxi's. I liked it, at least we rode on a motocycle in China again!

Burnout of kiln completed!

Today was the first day we actually could "do something useful" around here. Today we did what we wanted to do on Friday. I must saw things were not too bad, considering the situation around here with this particular machine......

Things are starting to work around here!

Cooler installed back, and (still) not leaking. Fans have screened cable now, so no noise on the temperature measurements. Tomorrow we'll try to start the burnout again. This time will have more effect than the previous attempt!

Today was not so hot as yesterday

The burnout didn't run fine, too much noise from the unshielded thermocouples. However, both newly installed analysers in the gaspanel are working and I could repair preheater 5. They are also assembling the repaired cooler again, and hopefully tomorrow we can start testing it.
The best thing today was however, that it was not so bloody hot as yesterday! Still very hot, but not SOO hot.

Things are getting a little bit better!

Today was the first day that we saw a point of light: the 13kW recirculation fan came back and now we have it running. Tomorrow we will start with the burnout of the kiln.
Today was also VERY hot. It was more than 30 degrees, but because the electricians had to work on the power they had to shut it off in the factory so all airconditioning and cooling fans shut down. At a certain moment, when I was working upstairs in the controlroom, I thought and felt that it was 40 degrees............I put a towel in my neck, and every 10 seconds I had to wipe my head off. After that work it took about 2 hours before my t-shirt was dry again, but then again: maybe I lost some pounds.........I have to, the food in the hotel is too nice.

The hotel is completely full!

Because of many weddings (because of the moon festival, of course) the hotel is completely full. Therefore the girls put us in the "Jasmine VIP room", that was the only one left, we didn't care of course.
Here we are sitting with the two of us on a Chinese "turntable". Normally you can sit at this table with 10 persons. We ate nice barbequed honey pork with singapore noodles and chicken (bones) with mushrooms. Together with a few bottles of Tsingtao of course.

Moon cake!

Here it is, the famous moon cake. It is a big holiday festival for the Chinese, same as our christmas. During this festival the Chinese eat "moon cake", you can buy it anywhere in the streets, packed in luxurious boxes. And the good stuff is not cheap: 20 euro's for a few cakes.
Next week, when there is full moon, you will see young couples sitting together and looking towards the moon. It is a real love festival. Also when you cannot be with your lover, you both have to look at the moon at the same time, and then you will be a little bit "together" (because you both look at the moon of course).

Replacing the old analysers in the gaspanel

I have to make something new out of this old "shit. Look at it, obviously somebody was trying to make it airtight again. They used the paste you normally use for putting glass in a window. What a mess! It will never go to the low percentages we need! It will always leak.

Chinese Motorcyles!

Here's a row of Chinese motorcyles on the street:
There are many many different brands. The real ones are Honda or Suzuki, but you also see many different Chinese brands. The only thing is that the "japanese" bikes run more nicer than their Chinese copies.




And when it's broken, or when you have a punctured tire, you go
to the repair shop around the corner on the street:

What do we do? To McDonalds (bwah!) or Teahouse?

What do we do? To McDonalds (bwah?). You can find McDonalds (or KFC) anywhere in China.






Nooo, we go to a nice and comfy teahouse:









We went to the "Easy Way Boba Tea House" and had some nice fresh spring rolls with Jasmine Tea drawn from fresh jasmine flowers.

Today we have a day off

Today we have a day off. We're more or less stuck because there are so many things broken now it makes no sense to go on before at least the most important parts are repaired.

Things are still not really improving

Things are still not improving here. People are still working very hard on repairing the broken heat exchanger. And today, also the big 13kW fan broke down. This also must be completely rewound. But don't underestimate the Chinese........they get some things done quicker than we can in Europe. Well see what happens on monday........Anyway, here's a nice picture of the garden in the hotel, walking home through this garden after work makes us happy again. Also, there are some koi fish, check them out. The food in the Zengcheng hotel is pretty good, yesterday we ate a nice Sichuan dish with very nice singapore noodles and some fried mushrooms, all very nice. This keeps us going here!

Things are not improving around here

Today began with a big leaking heat-exchanger (for people that know this machine: after opening valve D, the fresh air input for mode 4, a big gush of water came out). Also the powersupply is not right, they connect all neutrals to the earth here, and say that must be done because of government regulations...........Anyway, if there really was an electrical earth here this should not be a problem. But the earth they have is also.......floating.........They better hit a big pin deep in the ground otherwise it won't work. But we will go on and see what we can make of it.

Working working workin

Worked all morning on a malfunctioning 1600A mainswitch. Of course you could not reach it easy because it was 4 meters high, and those Chinese ladders........are built for people of 75kg max............they fall apart when I climb on them (I'm 80kg).
Therefore they arranged a 10Ton (!) forklift with a platform of 3x3mtr for me. Nice and easy.
Also put 400V by accident on my oscilloscope........but it still works. General rule: never connect anything in China to any wall socket, unless you measured it with a multimeter and confirmed that it is really the voltage you need.

The famous Mandarin Fish

Today we ate the famous Mandarin Fish, one of our favourite chinese dishes. It was very nice. This one was braized in soy sauce. Taste was really good.

Trip to Zengcheng, Guangzhou

The trip went fine. The people arranged a very nice (Chinese) hotel for us. We even ate nasi here, that's something they don't have often (maybe many Dutch people visited this hotel before us..........).
Here's a picture of the Boeing 777 from China Southern that first brought us to Beijing and from there to Guangzhou. Nice airplane, I even find it slightly nicer than a 747...

Gearing up for the trip to China

So, today was very busy assisting the guys in China with the repair of their measurement equipment. Finally, after 8 hours of struggeling, we got the thing working again! My planning was to prepare easily for the trip to china next 3 weeks, but like always, something gets in the way and I have to do it in 10 min. iso. 4 hours. But I don't care, I'm happy that the equipment in our China factory is up and running again, that's most important.

Powerloss measurement equipment

Cool, the company that delivers me very special HF amplifiers for our powerloss measurement systems put our system on their website frontpage. Check it out at www.tcpowerconversion.com

Rehearsal with the band

Yesterday was a very intense rehearsal, I had to tranfser 45 songs to a bassplayer that will fill in for me during my trip to China next 3 weeks. On the 23th we have a gig, but I'm pretty sure he knows all songs by then..............

Cauliflower curry

Cauliflower (bloemkool) curry. Super taste vegetarian dish.
Ingredients:
4 el arachide oil
1 big cauliflower, in roses
1 onion, in half rings
2 toes of garlic, pressed
1 tl djahe (ginger powder)
2 potatoes, cut in small blocks
1 tl ketoembar (koriander powder)
1 tl cumin seeds (Albert Heijn)
1/2 tl cayenne pepper
1 tl koenjit (kurkuma)
1 tl garam massala (see below how to make the mix)
1 can santen (coconut milk)
salt
pepper
1 green lemon (limoen), 1/2 part: juice, 1/2 part, cut in slices
fresh koriander, cut in small pieces
fresh mint, cut in small pieces
1 pack of basmati rice

Preparation
Important: read very well, everything is a little bit time-critical
Heat 2 el oil in a pan and bake the cauliflower 5 min. Add potato blocks and bake 10 min on middle high fire. Roast the cumin seeds in a dry pan for 1 min.
In the meantime, heat another pan with 2 el oil, add the onion, garlic and djahe. Bake softly for 10min. Add cumin seeds, ketoembar, cayenne pepper, koenjit and garam massala. Bake 2 min.
Add cauliflower, potato blocks, lemon juice and santen. Bring to taste with salt and pepper. Close the pan and let it cook on low fire for 10min. When almost finished: add the fresh koriander and mint, and garnisch with the slices of lemon.
Serve with basmati rice, cooked with 1/2 tl koenjit and 1/2 tl garam massala.

Garam Massala mix: enough for about 5x cooking, depends on the dish
2 el djintan (kumin powder)
4 el ketoembar (koriander powder)
2 el kardemom powder
1 el black pepper
1 el cinnamon (kaneel)
1 tl tjenkeh (kruidnagel)
2 tl nutmeg (nootmuskaat)

Vietnamese beef with citronella, vegetables and peanuts

"Vietnamese complete dish", very good taste.

250 gr rice noodles (conimex), cooked according to instructions on pack
500 gr beef, cut in 2x3cm slices, 2 mm thick
2 pieces of sereh (citronella), washed, crushed and cut in very small parts
2 toes of garlic, cut to small pieces
2 el fish sauce (Albert Heijn)
1/2 tl trassi (shrimp paste)
1 tl sugar
salt
white pepper
1 onion, cut to small thin rings
50 gr unsalted roasted peanuts, crushed in mortar (vijzel)
3 el arachide oil
5 drops of sesame oil

Salad
8 leaves of lettuce, washed
1 carrot, cut to small thin rings
10cm of cucumber, cut to very thin slices
50 gr tauge
2 el fresh mint, cut to very small pieces
1 tl fresh parsley, cut to very small pieces

Sauce
3 tl sugar
2 tl wine vinegar
1 tl lemon juice
3 tl fish sauce
1 red pepper, cut to very small parts
1 toe of garlic, cut to very small parts
3 el arachide oil
5 drops of sesame oil (Albert Heijn)

Preparation
Beef
Make the marinade for the beef. Put in a bowl the sereh, garlic, fish sauce, trassi, sugar, salt and white pepper. Stir well. Add the beef and leave for at least 20min. Stir in the meantime.
Put the pan with water and salt for the noodles on the fire.
Salad
Prepare the vegetabels. Put the lettuce in a bowl. Put the carrots, cucumber and tauge each on a separate plate. Mix the mint and parsley and put them on a separate plate.
Sauce
Prepare the sauce, put the sugar in the vinegar and the lemon juice. Stir well. Add fish sauce and 9 tl water. Put pepper and garlic in mortar (vijzel) and ground well. Add this to the sauce and stir well. Add 3 el arachide oil and 5 drops of sesame oil, stir well.
Noodles
Prepare the noodles, cook them according to the instruction on the pack.
Prepare the beef
Heat the pan with 3el of arachide oil and 5 drops of sesame oil. Fruit the onion rings until glazy. Add the beef and bake at high fire for 3min. Add 5 el water and bring to taste with salt and white pepper. Put a part of the crushed peanuts on top, and garnish with parsley.

Penne al forno with salad

Penne al forno
300 gr. penne
1 big onion, in snippets
2 toes of garlic, from the press
3 el olive oil
300 gr. minced meat (beef)
2 dl broth (beef)
1 kg roma tomatoes, without skin and in small pieces
1 tl rosemary
salt
pepper
1 el flour or maizena
butter
parmegian or pecorino in small pieces
Kook the penne 7 min in water with salt and a little bit olive oil. After cooking, cool down with water.
Fry onion and garlic in hot oil. Add minced meat, stir until it is a little bit brown and completely fallen apart. Add broth, tomatoes, rosemary, salt and pepper. Put fire low and leave for 30 min. Add flour and bind the sauce. Preheat oven to 200 degr.
Take oven dish and put button on the inside. Put a layer of penne on the bottom of the dish and add the sauce. Add a layer of cheese, the rest of the penne and at last, the cheese. Put in oven until top of dish is light brown.

Salad
1 lettuce, leave taken apart, washed and dryed
2 tasty tomatoes, cut in 4 parts each
olive oil
vinegar (little bit)
1 tl herbes de provence
1 toe of garlic, cut in half
pepper
Rub the inside of the garlic in the salad bowl. Add lettuce, tomatoes, herbes de provence and stir well. Add olive oil and vinegar and stir well. Add pepper to taste.

Curry chicken with sambal green beans

Curry (kerrie) chicken
400 gr. chicken fillet in small pieces
3 roma tomatoes, without skin, in small pieces
1 red pepper, cut to very small pieces
2 el curry (kerrie)
1 dl ketjap manis
1 tl sambal oelek
2 onions, cut to small snippets
2 toes of garlic, from the press
arachide oil
Fry the onion in 2el oil, add garlic. Stir. Add chicken and fry until light brown. Add curry and bake a little bit on low fire. Add pepper with tomatoes. Bake a little bit. Add ketjap and sambal. Put fire low and cook for 30 min.

Sambal green beans
250 gr. green beans (sperziebonen), cleaned, cut in halves
2 toes of garlic from the press
1 tl sambal oelek
1 onion cut in thin rings
1 tl djinten (kumin)
arachide oil
Fry the beans 5 min on high fire. Add onion, garlic, sambal and djinten. Bake another 5 min while stirring well. Put fire low and let beans cook for another 15-20min until ready. Beans must be crispy.

Nice together with white pandan rice and prawn crackers (kroepoek).
Selamat makan

Famous Chinese dish: Singapore Noodles

Another very tasty recipe: Singapore noodles.
Ingredients:
3 spring onions (lenteuitjes) in small rings
1 red chillipepper in thin rings without seeds
2 red paprikas in long thin strips
1 onion in thin rings
1 toe of garlic cut to fine pieces
15 leaves of basil (fresh)
300 gr thin egg noodles (conimex or soubry)
300 gr chicken fillet in stips of different sizes
5 el chicken broth from tablet
4 el unsalted peanuts roughly cut
2 el arachide oil
1 tl djahe (ginger, conimex)
2 tl curry (kerrie)
1/2 tl cayenne pepper
salt
pepper from the mill

Cook the noodles with salt according to the instruction on the pack.
Heat up the oil in a large pan and bake the chicken light brown.
Take the baked chicken out of the pan.
Bake in the remaining oil the chillipepper, garlic, djahe and onion for 4 min.
Add paprika and spring onion and bake for 4 min.
Add curry and cayenne pepper and put chicken back in pan.
Add the noodles and the broth.
Heat the whole dish on low fire an extra 5 min.
Bring to taste with salt and pepper.
Before serving, add peanuts and trim with basil.
Nice with prawn crackers (kroepoek).

Back to basics!

Back to basics! Got this Suzuki Alto from the car workshop today. 1000cc with 600kg! It has 4 wheels, a steering wheel, an engine and brakes, that's about it. Everything looks and feels about the same as a mini cooper back then! I will be happy when I get my carina back tomorrow!