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Showing posts from 2008

A Lovely Day

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Der Kleinhesseloher See, mit Eis. Today was the first day in a week where I possibly expended more energy than I took in. I worked off at least 3% of the christmas cookies I have eaten in the past week. Result! Reader, I cycled (icicled?) around the wonderful English Garden with my sister. It was indeed cold. I wore a hood, a woolly hat, leather&knit gloves. Woollen tights, knitted trousers. Thick socks and trainers. It took a while until I got warm. It took me a while to realize that I was on a better bike than my sister and she was struggling to keep up. At least she got quite warm. Der Eisbach - the icy river where people swim in the summer, sitting on the banks like on a beach.

This last Sunday of 2008

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I don't really have any good intentions for 2009. I have stopped smoking. I could drink more, but am running out of people to drink with - unless it's herb tea... Don't even try to lose weight any more, just cook smaller portions or invite more people to share the food. Maybe I could read more books, cycle more and spend less quality time with my computer. Get to the seaside! to Scotland! Isle of Wight! Cornwall!  Mustn't forget to spend all my money before some bank swallows it whole, or the government invents yet another tax.  Listen to music. See Lisbon. I hope to see a better world this time next year. Not much I can do about it, but dreaming is allowed. Ich habe eigentlich keine guten Vorsätze für 2009: Das Rauchen habe ich aufgegeben. Trinken könnte ich vielleicht ein bisschen mehr - aber mir gehen bald die Freundinnen aus die noch mittrinken! Abzunehmen brauche ich mir gar nicht vorzunehmen - höchstens kleinere Portionen kochen oder mehr Leute zu

Umami

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Suppe ist immer umami Soup is umami by definition Neulich habe ich wieder mal einen Artikel über umami gelesen - die fünfte Geschmacksrichtung neben süß, sauer, salzig und bitter, gefunden von japanischen Ernährungsspezialisten. Der umami Geschmack kommt scheinbar vom Glutamat, eine Verstärkung des natürlichen Geschmacks vom Essen, der wohl fast süchtig macht. In der bayerischen Küche fällt mir sofort ein Beispiel für umami ein: die Leberkässemmel. Nach Tagen von Weihnachtsplätzchen, Sekt, Cava und Prosecco (der plural ist übrigens prosecchi! Eure Oberlehrerin) kam sie mir in den Sinn und das Wasser lief mir im Mund zusammen. Morgen, Kinder, wird's sie geben, morgen ist kein Feiertag!! The other day I read about the umami taste, the fifth taste sensation the Japanese discovered to complete sour, sweet, bitter and salty. It's based on the effect of monosodium glutamate, I believe, and sort of hooks you on the food. In Bavaria, my immediate umami association is the national d

Happy Holidays...

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....to everybody who reads my uneventful but often nourishing diary! No white Christmas here, again. Sunny though. A dinner of Cassoulet and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes with sprouts is prepared, with a fruit salad and elderberry cream to follow. Plus the home-baked biscuits. So it looks like no-one will go home hungry. Recipes for cassoulet are easy to google. Ich wünsche euch allen, die ihr diese unaufregenden, aber oft nahrhaften, Aufzeichnungen verfolgt, eine geruhsame Feiertagszeit. Unser Weihnachtessen ist heuer, auf Wunsch meiner Nichte, Cassoulet mit Kartoffel/Süßkartoffelbrei und "Brockerl", gefolgt von Obstsalat mit Holunderschlagrahm und den schon gesehenen Plätzchen. Keine Hungersnot wird ausbrechen. Rezepte kann man googeln!

Time for scary food

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This one is a sweet potato with a scary price tag. Eine Süßkartoffel mit einem Horror-Preisschild. This one is a rattlesnake! eine Klapperschlange! no shit! Weihnachten - die Zeit der Genüsse - Braten und Glühweine und Lebkuchen und Plätzchen. Manchmal sieht man auch sachen, die man vielleicht lieber nicht essen möchte. Hier sind schon mal zwei Beispiele zum Thema Horror-Nahrungsmittel. Here's a fish from the time of the dinosaurs. Not amused at the idea of being eaten. ein Fisch-Dinosaurier... Christmas - a time for enjoying delicious foods like roast turkeys and mince pies (well - took some getting used to loving these), and lebkuchen and stollen....Sometimes you see things, however, that may appeal to the specialist but I would give a wide berth - here's some scary food!

Ice-breaker

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Heute war ich auf der Post, um Briefmarken für meine Weihnachtskarten zu kaufen. Und siehe, es ward mir ein Wunder zuteil: anstatt stundenlang in der Schlange zu stehen, kam ein freundlicher Mann an die Tür und sagte die magischen Worte: "Nur Briefmarken?" Ich folgte ihm, und innerhalb von wenigen Minuten waren alle meine Karten im Kasten. Für Engländer ist das nichts besonderes, sie haben seit Jahrzehnten einen Vorsprung durch Logistik. Im Supermarkt gibt es Schlangen genannt "9 items or less" (okay es gibt auch eine Diskussion darüber, ob es "....or fewer" heißen müsste), und in den Postämtern ist ein kleiner Laden für kleine Dinge wie Briefmarken. Jetzt hats hier endlich bei der Post auch geschnackelt. Today I experienced a small service miracle in the post office, when I went to post my Christmas cards - for you, my dear faraway friends!! and instead of having to queue around the block as usual (who says only the English know how to queue?), a friend

Fuck off Tom Stauffenberg

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The method of Different Trains: Mr. Reich's 1988 piece, Different Trains marked a new compositional method, rooted in It's Gonna Rain and Come Out, in which speech recordings generate the musical material for musical instruments. The New York Times hailed Different Trains as "a work of such astonishing originality that breakthrough seems the only possible description....possesses an absolutely harrowing emotional impact." Mr. Reich has an exclusive recording contract with the Nonesuch label; in 1990 he received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Different Trains as recorded by the Kronos Quartet on Nonesuch Il sole anche di notte

Die wilde Qual der Wahl

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There are things about capitalism you just got to love. Like the Oberpollinger department store in München's shopping mile (by the way, Department Store is now officially a German word, written in capitals - because they couldn't find a German equivalent for such a premium palace - Kaufhaus is just too old-fashioned). It is like Harvey Nichols combined with what I imagine to be an airport restaurant in Dubai (apart from the Bavarian porky section). Check these fotos! Es gibt Dinge im Kapitalismus, die muss man einfach lieben. Wenn man beim Weihnachtseinkaufen entdeckt dass das ranzige alte Karstadt-Kaufhaus in der Fussgängerzone jetzt wieder als Oberpollinger firmiert, wie man ihn ja in seiner (ihrer?) Kindheit kannte, und dass der im obersten Stockwerk ein Dachterassencafé hat das sich gewaschen hat (okay, wird erst im sommer wieder richtig interessant) UND dass es da eine Fressmeile - oder vielleicht eleganter, Genussmeile - gibt wie man sie sonst nur aus dem KaDeWe in Ber
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Ich habe einen Ohrwurm, und der geht so: Hodareijo, dje duli ritieiho, dui auf da Strah, hoe rüti jo, dulijo dürüh. Und dann gehts wieder von vorne los. Die wunderbare Zwirbeldirn Maria mit Begleitung Das ist der Fluch, in einer (wunderbaren, hochbegabten, passionierten) alpenländischen Singgruppe zu sein. Die Lieder und Jodler werden ein Teil meiner Körperzellen und verlassen mich nicht mehr, auch nicht in der Nacht. Seit meiner Kindheit sind bayerische Lieder und das Jodeln Teil meiner Kultur, meine Mutter war eine wunderbare Jodlerin und sie und meine Schwester und ich (und später auch meine Nichte) singen dreistimmig seit ich denken kann. 25 Jahre Leben in London haben mir andere Musik gebracht - ich spielte Bass in einer Punkband und es gab auch sonst musikalisch einiges zu hören und zu tun, von Liedern der "diggers" bis zu öffentlichen Ceilidhs, wo jeder noch so schlecht mittanzen durfte, irische "sessions" in Pubs und ein Musikprogramm von lauter superbegabte

A holiday

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We started it all with coffee and cake, the traditional way. In the nicest places in München, here: Glyptothek I had an eventful, fun, hedonistic, busy week with my friend Debbie from London - we had a holiday in München and discovered a lot of things that I will need to check out in more detail. We walked around München, ate exotic things in high-up places, lay on the sofa, drank bubbly and cooked lavish dinners - mostly soup. We went out to cafés and restaurants and met friends, sisters and nieces. She went back tonight and life returns to whatever is normal. I even made her eat chocolate-covered fruit Mit meiner Freundin Debbie habe ich gerade eine Woche Spaß gehabt hier in München - wir sind rumgelaufen und haben uns München von oben und unten angesehen, wir sind auf dem Sofa gelegen (das ist für mich Urlaub, zusehen wie Debbie und Mick Kreuzworträtsel lösen), haben Plätzchen gebacken, Prosecco getrunken und uns mit Freunden, Schwestern und Nichten in Cafés getroffen. Jetzt ist sie

A Baking Frenzy

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Die letzte Ladung - the last batch Heute hatte ich plötzlich Lust zu backen wie wahnsinning! Debbie unterstützte mich auf der kreativen Seite. I felt inspired to do Christmas baking day today, with Debbie taking care of the decorative side. The birds, with eyes and walnut wings
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Yesterday I understood that one should never try to repeat an ecstatically happy experience. In the summer, I went to Kochel with a friend, we had a sweaty walk up the mountain to the waterfall, it was hot, the sun was shining, the Franz Marc museum was full of people, the café tempting, the lake refreshing. Yesterday, by the time Debbie, Luisa and I got there, there was no weather to talk about, no people in the museum, the café seemed ridiculously overpriced (€6.80 for a bowl of soup - hello?? Social security food budget for a week!) Kochel seemed a sad town with lots of horrid pseudo-Bavarian homes built in the Nazi 40-s. So we take the next train back home, after watching two railway employees read the paper and a sign saying: You can't buy tickets here, go to the machine. Good train connections, though, and the salmon trout on a bed of lentils was delicious... Gestern wurde mir schlagartig klar, dass man Glückstage nicht reproduzieren kann. Im Sommer fuhr ich einmal mit meiner

Writing and talking

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I have been reading my way around blogosphere a bit recently and been thinking about what's a perfect blog, how many words I want to see written, etc. I usually feel my pulse rate go up when I look at blogs (except those of my favourite bloggers' - see the list on the right) and see eight million links you have to click on, each one of which take you somewhere completely different, forcing your brain to adjust to new topics with every click. Nonooonono - I like my narratives linear, with clear chapters and footnotes - and lots of fotos. Not too much text, wordage, chattering and babbling, humming, hawing and twittering - this is writing after all, not a conversation. Unless it's about food. Recipes and tales about great dinners in fabulous restaurants, or where to get things like melon ballers, rosewater or palm sugar. The best blogs, though, are like letters from a your best mate, or a sudden inspiration, no matter their length. made by Scots barista in Glyptothek

A lift to the clouds

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There is a place in Munich where you can go really high up and see over the whole town. Not telling where, though! It has one of the last remaining paternoster lifts. Wish I could work there and spend all day taking pictures of the changing sky. Ich fand ein Gebäude in München wo man bis in den 12. Stock fahren kann - in Münchens wahrscheinlich allerletzten verbliebenen Paternoster! Ein Abenteuer. Ich wollte ich könnte da arbeiten und den ganzen Tag Fotos von den vorbeiziehenden Wolken machen.

Christmas - Es weihnachtet!

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This weekend, The Family decided to spend Christmas eve at my home, instead of our Mum's - she won't have a tree in her flat "any more". I feel very grown-up now, and, lying in bed last night, immediately started making mental lists of what I needed to buy, what delicacies I have to fill the fridge with, what I could cook, what's for pudding etc.etc. First things first, today, we went to Aldi to get in the booze - yeah I know I swore not to shop in places that destroy milk prices, but we are having an economic crisis! The ridiculous thing is - it's all just a big excuse, because my family each drink a thimbleful of bubbly, and my Mum's motto is "I have no appetite" (Not true, by the way. She is just bored with her own cuisine and happily applied herself to Mick's rather hot curry). Also, after one Christmas of a "no presents" rule, we all decided that no presents is depressing and returned to "strictly one present each"

Easy pieces

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Die Bilder sind von der Fraueninsel, gestern. Poem by Robert Frost (I like the many I's in it) I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away an interrupted cry Came over houses from another street, But not to call me back or say good-by; And further still at an unearthly height One luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night.

Keeping your head warm

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Mützenmodeschau Some ideas for woolly hats for the winter season

The melting blog

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As soon as I open a newspaper there is this onslaught of bad stuff - corrupt politicians, greedy money lenders, murderers, small children getting tortured to death, and to top it all - Madonna and Guy - Paris Hilton ..I mean, really, I am not saying I am the only good person on earth but you start looking around and thinking - what does this man get up to at home, is this child being maltreated, is there anyone you can trust any more? Is Andrea Ypsilanti a bad person, has Obama got a chance in hell to change anything? Can I bear to see any more bankers gracefully accepting a "downsized" salary of only EUR 600,000? and then a picture of a grinning child scavenging in a rubbish dump in Peru? Do I want to think about the Russian or the Sicilian Mafia, ever again? I decided to stick my head in the sand. And from now on I will try to make the world a better place by writing only uplifting stuff about what books and food and parties. In English and in German, because I have, after

How about reading?

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I read this letter to my newspaper today about the whole hype: "Save the automobile industry! save 1,000s of jobs" etc. and this guy says "why don't we just drive the cars we have, we all work less, okay, we have less money, but we have more time to read." It's hard to say things like that, but they need saying, too. Once upon a time..... click on the picture if you want to read it!

Abwarten und Tee trinken

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This is one of the German sayings I like very much: wait and drink tea -what could be better? Coffee, maybe. Actually, it's a bit English, since tea is the panacea for everything in England. Unforgettable: when our house in London burned down in 1979, we were standing outside watching, incredulous. Our neighbours were outside with tray full of mugs of tea (lots of sugar in there, dear!) before the fire brigade. November - time for a cup of tea.

the little things in life

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Today, I read a book by Christa Moog about Katherine Mansfield that I admired, "Aus tausend grünen Spiegeln". I was jealous of the way she was able to intertwine her life as a woman who left her country with that of her subject, who left New Zealand to live in London and Paris and the South of France, like a rolling stone. She just describes where she is, where she "meets" KM, how she sees the things that KM saw, she quotes passages from her stories and then just puts her own story beside them. Is it possible to learn to write like this? It is a sort of fictional but also chronicle style, full of sensuous images of bursting plums and the feel of Paris streets, of the busy kitchen of a London biographer (this must be Claire Tomalin who also wrote a biography of KM), and of the warm sun on rusty farm machinery in Thuringen...It was kind of hard to read but also like watching a film, one of those films that was spawned by "the French Lieutenant's Woman"

Quick lunch

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Today I was even busier, deadlines approaching, time to make a quick soup with the leftover pancake batter from Tuesday - classic Southern German and Austrian soup - and apparently in italy it's called zuppa di frittata! Although there is nothing in it for me, I feel kind of pleased that we have a new woman agriculture minister in Germany who used to build helicopters in her former life. By the way - thanks for all the feedback, it's nice not to write for a void. Which reminds me - whatever happened to my friend in Copenhagen?

Happy Breakfast

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Saturday morning, time for the mega breakfast. I wish I were one of those people who have a slice of mango and lemon tea for breakfast, but it just ain't gonna happen. It's bread, croissants, butter, jam, cheeses, philadelphia all the way.

Simon's mirror

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Once upon a time.... ....there was a beautiful space in Camden Town, London, which was lovingly turned into a huge and hugely ambitious café by Danny, Debbie, Haitch, Dorothy and myself. It was called WKD and all our friends were involved in some way, either working there, helping, being there, dancing, drinking, eating, bringing more friends... Here is Roz sipping one of our many house cocktails For two years I more or less lived there, until I couldn't drink, work and stay up all night any more, and everything started going a little bit pear-shaped. Here are Victoria and I with our beloved Brasilia coffee machine. But while it lasted it was the best place in the world. We had bands on every weekend, among them the just about to happen Jamiroquay and the majestic Dionne Warwick - and even Chaka Khan (which involved Danny cashing in his life-long devotion to her). I also met the most wonderful people there, working with Mel from Camberwell, London, (now in Flori