elvy's little world

Bell-bottom Maternity Pants

2011-05-30T11:16:00.001+02:00

I joined a sewing course in MVHS this spring. For my first project I chose a bell-bottom maternity pants. I got the pattern from Burda Style June 2010 edition, which I borrowed from the city library.

There were 8 people in the class, 4 of us are beginners while the others have been with the course instructor for much longer: a couple of them are even in their 6th year! For them it's probably more than a sewing course, it's the place to meet friends and new people.

The course instructor has been giving sewing courses since 30 years and before that, she worked in the industry. According to the advanced learners there, she's much better than other sewing course instructors in the school. So I guess I was lucky to get a place in her class.

My maternity pants doesn't look exactly like the one in the magazine since we skipped a few steps and simplified the pattern a bit. And still I didn't manage to finish it during the last class, which was on last Thursday. She brought her Overlock machine for me to use, which is really cool since the hem is so neat and looks professional. I wish she had it with her since earlier, then I could've used it to hem the whole pants.

So... I've just finished it. It's very comfortable and I hope I can wear it till the end of my pregnancy. :)

JDrama: Control

2011-05-27T12:10:00.000+02:00

police, psychological
11 Episodes
Theme Song
Link

.synopsis
(taken from Drama Wiki)
Segawa Rio, a quick-acting detective, gets transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s Violent Crimes Division after she got shot during her previous case. She is made to work together with Nagumo Jun, a level-headed but eccentric psychology professor whose skills at behavioral analysis are the key to tracking down the criminals. There's also Teranishi Kei, a shy young detective who's had a crush on Segawa since their days at the academy...

.cast

Matsushita Nao as Segawa Rio
Fujiki Naohito as Nagumo Jun
Yokoyama Yu as Teranishi Kei

Since I'm used to watch CSI, Navy CIS and other crime series using modern technologies to find the culprit, watching Control is a big change. The forensic work is minimal, it's more back to basic: human psychology, motif and alibi.

The whole series is light and entertaining. The female lead is so naive, it's fun to see her interaction with the professor. She's gorgeous, I love her hair. :)

The professor... I didn't realize it was the Bucho from Hotaru no Hikari until after I finished watching the series and looked up the entry on drama wiki. XD

I really like the theme song.

2011 Census

2011-05-26T12:53:00.009+02:00

So... I got picked for the Census 2011 random household samples, supposedly only 10% of the whole population, to give detail information about my nationality, religion, marital status, immigration to Germany, schooling and employment histories, and my current occupation. I'm not allowed to decline this honor, otherwise I'd get fined (up to 5000€ according to some websites). The census guy will come this saturday morning at 9:30. I could either

fill in the formular with his help
get the formular from him and say bye-bye, fill it by myself and then send it per post, or
fill in the formular online on the website

I think I'm going to do (b), no point in making it easier for them to digitalize the data. Except that they probably have something like Louis' new printer.

You probably wonder, why the census is only taking 10% of the whole population into account. But that's not true. The random household sample is 10% of the population plus any adults living in the same house/flats/whatever as those respondents. Then there's also the formulars for houses/flats owners/firms and administrators, the ones for dorms and community accommodations, ones for the particular areas like jailhouses, hospices and refugees' camps. Overall it'd be about 30% of the population surveyed.

Moreover, they're taking the data from the resident registrations and the state-run employment agencies, which weren't interconnected before.

More readings (they're all in German):

Argh, enough of that sh*t.
Anyway, any of you got picked for that random household sample?

24th Week

2011-05-25T22:40:00.002+02:00

Weight: 61,7 kg
Belly Size: 99 cm

yikes! I've gained about 10 kilos in the last four months, I hope I won't gain much more in the next few months. XD

Today I joined a Toytown soon-to-be mums meet up, thanks to Louis for the alert yesterday. :)
There were seven of us, ranging from 12 weeks pregnant to 37 weeks, from Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, South Korea, Australia, NZ... and me. It was fun, informative and I got the chance to exercise my rusty English. yay!

The meet up was in Alex close to the Pasing station. When I got there, I wasn't sure how to find the others but Teresa already waved to me. I guess a confused pregnant woman is easily seen from far away. :D

Some of us were there for the first time, so we introduced ourselves... where we're from, how long we've been in Germany/Munich, how far along is the pregnancy, what our occupation is, and so on.

And then we talked about breastfeeding. Torie mentioned something about baby feeding cloth, but I couldn't find anything about it on the net. It sounds very useful, I really hope that I can breastfeed my baby later.

Next topic was electronic vs manual breast pump (ouch). The consensus was that a manual one is much better and, according to Teresa, the best one is from Avent, which also offers the best baby bottles. Nice to know, I haven't even thought about most of this stuff yet. XD

Color Note to Get Things Done

2011-05-24T14:27:00.002+02:00

Color Note is probably the most used app on my mobile. I use it for my to-do lists, shopping lists and as a notepad to jot things down on the fly.

I've read a bit about David Allen's Getting Things Done, which is a powerful tool to manage information, commitments and communication, put them into priorities and help one to spend time on the most important tasks. But it's too complicated for me, I don't like to spend much time just to brainstorm the lists. I'm the kind of "just do it" person because once I lose steam I'd be too lazy to do anything.

So what I do is to have a daily to-do list and separate lists for home-improvement projects, sewing projects, etc. On my daily to-do list there are things that need to be done on that day and others which can be delayed (they'd fall into the list for the next day if not done yet). Anytime I think of something, I'd put it down on one of the lists or just start another one.

Same thing with the shopping lists: I have the usual grocery shopping list, another one for asia shop, one for the chemist's shop, etc.

For appointments and important tasks I use Jorte/Google Calendar.

So far this system works for me.
How do you get things done?

More about GTD:

Simple productivity systems that I want to try:

Maternity Empire Waist Shirt

2011-05-23T10:39:00.000+02:00

A few months ago I saw a couple of "men's shirt into maternity tops" projects in DIY Maternity that I wanted to try. They seem easy enough for a beginner. Last week Philip went through his wardrobe and decided to throw away two of his old button shirts, perfect for my projects. :D

I made an empire waist shirt from the first one following this directions

What you’ll need:

A men’s button shirt that’s big enough to cover your bump
1/2″ wide elastic

What to do:

Put on the shirt and find the empire waist (just under your bust) and mark it with some pins.
Then measure under your bust (empire waistline) and removed an inch from the measurement.
Cut a piece of elastic that length, and attach it to the inside of the shirt at the empire waistline by stretching as you sew and using a zig zag stitch on your machine.
That’s it! Roll up the sleeves and you’re good to go!!

I altered the collar a bit.

It's very comfortable, but probably would be too hot for the summer since it's so dark. According to weather forecast it would reach 30°C on wednesday and thursday, so let's see...

Weekly Cleanup

2011-04-19T10:53:00.001+02:00

It's been almost a year since we moved into this flat, but there's still a room with a lot of boxes opened yet not sorted. Most of the time we call this room our office, other times our guest room, sometimes the room without a name.

Everytime I saw those boxes I kept thinking that I have to sort them out but always too lazy to start. The big desk was almost always littered with opened letters, flyers, receipts and vouchers as well, which made it even worse.

And so when I read this article last week about "24 Quick Actions You Can Do Today That Can Change Your Financial Life Forever" I decided to just do it.

Action #2: Employ the “Clean Slate” approach to your clutter (20 – 90 minutes)

Simple steps:

1. Pick a room, area, or desk drawer – Pick a single, specific area. Your closet, bedroom, kitchen, office – or even the top of your desk or a “junk” drawer.
2. Remove everything out of the space - Everything… that’s why it’s called “Clean Slate”. Move it into another area or room.
3. Go item-by-item - Ask yourself not “Should I get rid of this?” but instead “Does this item add joy, value, or purpose into my life?”… ”Do I really need it?”. If yes, move it back into the room.
4. If no, put it into one of three piles – Put it either into SELL, DONATE, or RECYCLE piles. After you’re done with each item, sell the SELL pile, donate the DONATE pile, and recycle the RECYCLE pile. Duh.

How this can change your life: Clutter slowly sucks away more of our time, energy, and money. By attacking specific areas where it tends to collect you can reclaim back pieces of these resources. For most people, selling excess stuff is the #1 way to generate extra cash quickly. This process is also addicting and can lead you down a rabbit hole that may just end in an organized and clean living space. Gasp.

I've done step 1 and 2, but the boxes are now lying around in our living room waiting to be sorted. XD I'm good at starting something, but not at finishing them.
They're mostly Philip's stuff, but he still hasn't got time to sort them yet. So I guess I have to do it instead. TODAY!

At the same time as I started that little project, I also collected the papers on the desk, sorted and filed them. Usually I filed them into different folders, but I'm now using this filing system mentioned in here. It's easier so I won't be so lazy anymore.

I bought a couple of white Kassett boxes with lid for this purpose. One is already filled with bank statements, insurances and salary statements. The other one is still waiting for the receipts and stuff to be sorted. :D

Shouldn't take long actually, I'll do it once I've finished cleaning up the washing machine...

Maultaschen vs Stulle

2011-03-28T23:29:00.001+02:00

After years of playing travian, I'm now thinking of quitting. The last version relies too heavily on gold spending, much more than the versions before. And there's also this problem with the customer service... not that I'm in the habit of spending that much gold, or at all, actually.

So I'm looking for a new browser game to play.
A couple of days ago I found an interesting one called MiraMagia, which is still in beta phase and only in German version, another game by Travian Games GmbH.

IMO, once it goes international, it would make a big competitor to those games in facebook. It's pretty and colourful, user-friendly, easy to learn and it has integrated chat windows for different functions/regions such as the village chat, the valley chat (a valley consists of hundreds villages), private chat, support chat, general chat and off-topic.

Last night I was chatting with one of my neighbours around midnight when we both got hungry. We went to make something to eat, got back to chat and asked each other what we got.

NB: So what do you have there?
Me: maultaschen in broth
NB: What?
Me: ... maultaschen soup?
NB: yes

So I thought that was that and started asking what he had, but he asked me again what maultaschen in broth is. I thought *how dumb can this guy be?*

Me: maultaschen in hot water with stock, salt and pepper
NB: XD
NB: MAULTASCHEN?

By then I was laughing madly, I didn't realize that that's what he's wondering about. I've known this word since forever! Okay, since I've been living here. He's German and he's asking me about a german word?

But apparently Maultaschen are only known in south Germany.
Tasche means a bag or a pocket, and Taschen is the plural form. It is also used to describe a sort of pastry with filling both sweet or savoury.
Maul is the slang for mouth. So it can be very confusing for people who's never heard of it. :D

So I copied part of the article in wikipedia for him.

Me: You've just learned something new :D
Me: So, what do you have there?
NB: Yeah
NB: Stulle
Me: err... never heard of it
NB: YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF STULLE?
*rolls eyes* *who was it who's just asked me about Maul-bloody-taschen?*

While he's trying to explain what a Stulle is, I read the entry in the wikipedia.

Me: Oh, so you're from Berlin
NB: ... yeah...

Colin in Vernon God Little (2007)

2011-01-26T22:34:00.002+01:00

The book is told in first-person narration from Vernon Little, a 15yo boy who lives in a small town in Texas. His best friend Jesus Navarro has just killed 16 bullying schoolmates before killing himself. Now the town wants vengeance and he makes a perfect scapegoat. (reviews here and here)

This debut novel from DBC Pierre has won the Booker Prize in 2003 and many other awards. Rufus Norris turned this novel into a stage play with the help of Tanya Ronder and a cast of 9 actors playing 50 different roles in Young Vic theater.

Colin Morgan was still in his last year of drama school when he got the lead role as Vernon. "It’s going great actually I mean they [the school] understood that the opportunity was the kind you’d get once in a lifetime and this time counts towards my final mark, so it’s all working out well."

What they said about Colin:
DBC Pierre in an interview with The Independent: [...] But he's thrilled by the young actor Colin Morgan, who plays Vernon. "He's absolutely spot on. I think it's the first time I've had an image in my head of Vernon. I didn't really picture him for the book. If you look in the text, all you know is that he has long eyelashes and dodgy hair."

Rufus Norris in Q&A Session with What's on Stage: "Good casting directors have their spies in many places. We did have to look pretty hard for that part and it took a long time. Colin was literally the last person we saw. There were two others who were alright but when Colin came in on the last day we knew we had our Vernon."

The Reviews

The British Theatre Guide:
Fans of the novel should delight in seeing it re-created in front of their own eyes and everyone should enjoy witnessing Colin Morgan's unspoilt performance in the title role, helped by the whole ensemble.
Curtain Up London:
This is of course Colin Morgan's play. Not due to graduate from drama school until this July, his wide eyed schoolboy Vernon credibly drives the play's events. He has that hapless air of a piece of flotsam in jeans and trainers, swept along by episodes which are increasingly more bizarre.
The Guardian:
Colin Morgan as Vernon effortlessly sustains the hero's mood of baffled innocence.
London Evening Standard:
Colin Morgan, who has not even graduated from drama school and takes the title role in a stage debut of dazzling conviction, inhabits this limbo world. He is by turns phlegmatic and cynical, disparaging and disconsolate, even defiantly dancing at death's door.
London Theatre Guide:
Newcomer Colin Morgan (in his debut role) energetically portrays the depression and frustration of adolescence in his characterisation of Vernon. Morgan's performance is acutely observed and never betrayed a single hint of first night nerves given the glamour of the occasion and the exhausting requirements of the role – he's on-stage for nigh-on the duration. In one scene in his bedroom, Morgan perfectly captured what could have been a scene from my own teenage years. Writhing in embarrassing, attention-seeking moodiness, it was an uncanny snapshot of jumbled adolescent emotions dosed with rampant hormones. Subsequently, Morgan proceeds to illustrate a transition that describes the growing-up process and the ultimate resolution in 'finding oneself'.
The Stage:
Full of restless energy and youthful charisma from start to finish, Morgan is an absolute delight and carries the weight of the production on his shoulders with ease and a certain swagger, in what is his major stage debut.
The Telegraph:
Colin Morgan, still at drama school and making a sensational professional stage debut, captures all the vulnerability, confusion and gallows humour of the adolescent hero who finds himself in no end of trouble, before making the happier discovery that trouble is the one sure way of getting girls. By the end you feel like cheering him on to a happy ending.
Variety:
Although still at drama school, Morgan can turn his emotions on a dime. Onstage throughout, alive with contempt, he keeps the play alight. Vernon starts out as a slacker but Morgan invests him with focused energy.
West End Whingers:
Morgan (who has yet to graduate from drama school) gives a remarkably assured performance and manages his role as the dramatic centre of the piece with terrifying aplomb in one so young.
What's on Stage:
Most of the evening’s vociferous approbation belonged to newcomer Colin Morgan whose stamina-demanding performance (he appears in almost every scene, often in only a pair of hideously ill-fitting briefs) is comfortably inflated alongside those of his foul-mouthed co-stars who frame this cruelly black comic tale of gross exploitation, mass-murder and media misrepresentation most brazen.

Lots of pics here.

Merlin

2011-01-25T23:15:00.001+01:00

During Christmas holiday my sister came to visit us and stayed for a few days. She had just finished her dissertation, so the timing was perfect for relaxing before she had to start preparing for the oral defense.

She said that she's been watching BBC's Merlin at night to unwind and then showed me some clips in youtube from the series, mostly the cast diaries.

The series is about the adventures of Merlin as a young warlock who's still trying to understand and control his power, and prince Arthur who is a bully and a prat to Merlin but kind and just to his people. Their destinies are entwined, and so Merlin is stuck on Arthur's side trying to protect him from evils and sometimes himself.

I really like the dialogue in the scenes where they met for the first couple of times, especially this part:

A: I warn you, I've been training to kill since birth.
M: Wow! And how long have you been training to be a prat?
A: You can't address me like that!
M: Sorry.
How long have you been training to be a prat, my Lord?

Colin Morgan is brilliant. Merlin is naive and clumsy, yet intelligent, charming and funny. Watching this series is worth it just to see him acts.
His mentor Gaius, the court physician, is played by Richard Wilson. I love watching their interactions in the series. Colin mentioned in an interview that Richard has become a mentor off-screen as well.

Buffy's Anthony Head is playing Arthur's father King Uther who hates magic and prosecutes anyone involved in sorcery. In the bloopers it seems that he giggles (yes, giggles) a lot during the shoot, I'm amazed how he could be so cold and grave in the show.

Bradley James got the role as Prince Arthur, Katie McGrath as Morgana, Uther's ward, and Angel Coulby as Guinevere, Morgana's maid.

Like Bradley said, the show is a butchery of the Arthurian legend. But we're used to that (after all, we grew up watching disney's movies), so let's just watch their adventures and enjoy the show.

Souvenirs from Sweden

2010-11-29T14:46:00.002+01:00

Last week my brother in law went on a business trip to Sweden and he got us a couple of souvenirs: a shotglass for me and a drinking horn style mug for Philip.

The viking reminds me of Hägar the Horrible :D

This mug is made of pure win.
We're going to put it right next to Philip's drinking horn.

Thanks for the souvenirs, bro! Keep them coming! :D

My Nominations

2010-06-20T12:28:00.003+02:00

So far, these are my favourite outfits among the the contestans:

Freizeitoutfit ... von Daisy58 mit Artikeln von Esprit, zusammengestellt bei stylefruits.de

I love this outfit from Miri, it looks comfortable to wear, yet chic and sexy.

Partyoutfit Start your hot summer von Honigbällchen mit Artikeln von Guess, zusammengestellt bei stylefruits.de

This outfit from Anastasia is so sexy and elegant! I especially like the colour combinations.

Freizeitoutfit City Girl von Mietz! mit Artikeln von Esprit, zusammengestellt bei stylefruits.de

Another perfect combination. Those boots, with that bag... they're a win!
But I do hope that I won't be needing my boots comes summer. ^_^

So, have you looked around? Which ones are your favourites?

Win an Outfit of your Choice, up to €1000!

2010-06-20T00:38:00.001+02:00

I noticed that one of the ads that shows up pretty often in facebook is an ad from stylefruits.de. Usually it shows a few nice summer dresses. I was interested, but didn't do anything about it. I mean, online shops mostly have the same stuff, so I could just find them in my usual shop.

Then a few days ago during her visit, my sis told me that nope, it's not a common online shop. At stylefruits, users can create their own outfits made up from the products found in the catalogue and then others can rate those outfits and give reviews. So of course I went and registered myself. :)

Then I got an Email from them.
Apparently they're having a contest this month: they're looking for the most beautiful summer outfit in the blogosphere. The winner would get an outfit of their choice worth up to 1000€. Wanna know how to join in?

It's easy.
1. Register in stylefruits.de
2. Pick your favorite summer outfit worth up to 1000€ or create your own outfit
3. Make a post in your blog and put a link to your chosen outfit (if you don't have any blog yet, why not get one now?^^ I'd suggest Blogger like this one or WordPress)
4. Don't forget to write about how you find out about the contest and put a link to your source
5. After you've finished your post, write a comment there and leave a link to your post

There's also 500€ cash to win. It would be given to the person mentioned the most as a source, so don't forget to mention me if you're going to join the contest. ^_^

And here goes my summer outfit:

Freizeitoutfit Summer in the City von rin mit Artikeln von Esprit, zusammengestellt bei stylefruits.de

The whole set worth around 630€.
The main items are the hilfiger denim babydoll-top and the neosens pumps, I totally heart them. I spent a lot of time choosing the skirt, there are two others from promod which also look good for the outfit. I wanted something romantic but not too sugary, so for the accessories I picked only silver/silver-coloured.

What do you think about the outfit?
If you join the contest let me know, I want to see your outfit too. :) So far I've seen 4-5 very nice outfits, I'll post about them tomorrow.

The New Flat

2010-06-10T09:58:00.003+02:00

Yesterday we had a great weather here in Munich. I spent the afternoon sitting on the balcony enjoying the sunshine and my cold beer while listening to the birds singing.
And the sound of the traffic. ^^
The street that runs in front of our building is always busy during the day, but luckily our balcony is on the other side of the building, facing the garden dividing this property to the next.

I planned to continue reading Luc Ferry's Man Made God: the Meaning of Life but ended up chatting with hubby (who was at work and got so jealous of me :D), louis (about NK, this and this LOL) and my parents, showing them our new flat.

After three weeks, our kitchen is almost complete, the living/dining room is done, but the bedrooms are still full with the few boxes yet unopened. And instead of unpacking these boxes, I'm already planning for decorations. ^_^

Currently I'm looking for a nice wand sticker or stencil for the kitchen, but haven't found anything yet. There are lots of interesting ones, but not like what I want. Probably I should just make it myself, though I'm not very talented in drawing. So that would be my last resort, making a stencil with my own drawing.

Goodbye, Karlsruhe!

2010-05-01T12:58:00.001+02:00

Last weekend we moved the rest of our furnitures out, then a few of days ago we cleaned up the flat and yesterday we finally returned our keys back to the flat owners and we got our bond back. Yes my friends, after ten years (TEN YEARS! This is probably the place where I've lived the longest until now... or was it in Citeureup? hmm...) I'm finally moving out of Karlsruhe.

I remember the first time I got here. I was so horrified.
The town is so small and ~~boring~~ peaceful , very much different than any other places I'd lived before (currently it has about 300k residents, compared to Bogor with its 3 millions residents and Melbourne 4 millions). I rented a room in Hagsfeld, about 10 minutes from the city centre, where I could hear the birds singing as I woke up in the mornings. ^_^

For three months I had no phone, no mobile, no internet, no cable. *shudder*
What I could do after the 4-hours German lessons in the morning was either listening to the radio or watching the public broadcast tv channels to entertain me. yay! >_<

Oh je, remembering all these things make me feel so old. So I'll just stop for now.

The Shoes Story

2010-03-17T14:30:00.003+01:00

Like I mentioned before, looking at floor plans of those flats makes me think of how I'd arrange the furnitures and decorate the place. This in turn leads me to a list of "New Furnitures to Buy". ^^

No, the list isn't long. I'm kinda thrifty and frugal, although I must insist that I'm not cheap. :p

An item under the sublist "Must Buy" is a proper shoe cabinet. What we have now in our hallway (is it a hallway eventhough it's so tiny? or should I just call it entrance?) is just too small. I usually put my shoes for the season there and the others in boxes somewhere else. Philip doesn't own that many shoes, but those are huge! So he usually only puts a pair of shoes there and the rest in his own shoe rack (in our bedroom). So yes, I'd like to have a shoe cabinet, or maybe more, where we can put all of our shoes in there.

The first one that I found is from heine. There are two colours availabe: the one shown here and white; they're available in 3 sizes (3-5 compartments) and, what I love the most, they also come with a mirror front! Isn't it practical?

I thought of it as an ingenius invention to spare room in a small hallway. I was curious if heine was the only one with this idea, so I looked up the otto catalog... and hey, look at what I found! Apparently the idea isn't so new. :D

Talking about practicality, with one of these I could have a shoe rack with a mirror front and a clock on it! I'd be punctual for all of my appointments! ... yeah, right ._.

I was so thrilled about these until I told a friend about them. She said that I forgot the most important thing: the clean up. She said that she got hers from ikea and it's so easy to clean, she could even put the whole thing in the dishwasher! >.<

Okay. So in term of practicality, this is the most practical of all. It's also the cheapest. Let's ignore how it looks, but how about my giant mirror?

Oh, alright.
I'll just ask Philip to make something like this with a mirror on the frontside. ^^

DB oh, DB...

2010-03-16T19:21:00.005+01:00

Now that Philip has to commute a lot between Karlsruhe and Munich, a BahnCard is definitely a must have. With BahnCard 50 he only has to pay half of the normal fare, and he got to earn points for rewards.

As his wife I can get a BC50 for half of the normal price, so I thought "Why not?"
I went to the service center at the main station to applied for mine. Filled the form, gave a passport-size photo, paid the card and was told that I'd get the card per post a few days later. This was about 6 months ago.

Indeed I got a post from Deutsche Bahn a few days later. But instead of my BahnCard, I got a letter saying that I have to send a photo for the card since they didn't get one yet.
WTF? Did the guy on the service counter keep my photo for himself? Ewww... >_<

But anyway, I couldn't be bothered so I just sent them another photo. About a week later I finally got my BahnCard. Without a photo. ._.

Someone told me that the BahnCard isn't valid without a photo on it, but I don't care. If someone checking on the train and really said that it's not valid, I'd just tell them the whole story and tell them to do better. But so far the controllers never asked about it, so I almost managed to forget this incident.

Almost.

A few weeks ago Philip got enough points for a bahn.comfort, the frequent traveller cards from DB which provide the card holders with many exclusive privileges. There's the bahn.comfort-Counter in the service centres with their super fast, friendly (for German standard) services, access to DB Lounges where he can comfortably sit while waiting for the delayed trains (which happens quite a lot judging from his twitter account ^^), etc. So he's really happy about it.

Last week came the post from DB. Inside was his new BahnCard with the bahn.comfort logo... and one of my photos on it. ROFL

Back to Blogging

2010-03-15T19:28:00.005+01:00

It's been 10 months since my last post, so many things happened...

I got married. Twice. ^^
I mean we celebrated it twice, once here in Germany and then again last month back in Indonesia, where my hubby met my parents for the first time. We were there for about 3 weeks, celebrated our wedding and then the chinese new year a few days later. It was so wonderful to be back home.

Another big thing is that Philip got a job in Munich, which means we have to find a flat down there. And soon, since we have to leave this flat in Karlsruhe by the end of April. So we're currently on a flat hunt.

The fun part is looking at the photos and the floorplans and thinking up ideas how to arrange the furnitures and decorate the place. The bad part is looking at the prices and fees.

Munich is known as the most expensive city in the country. The monthly rent is almost twice as much as the rent for flats in Karlsruhe and the bond is usually 3 months rent. Most of the ads are from rental agencies and they normally charge 2 months rent plus tax for their services. So for a 3BR flat about 70-80m² we'd need like 5-6k€ for the initial payment if we rent one through an agent. >_<

So, uh, if you know anyone letting a 3BR flat in the good parts of Munich, let me know? ^^

That Interactive BBQ Party

2009-05-05T11:31:00.003+02:00

Yeah, we joined another interactive bbq party from SWR3 on May Day. As entrée we had chicken satay with peanut sauce and arugula salad, then fish and shrimp soup (using fish broth and coconut milk as base), pork chop with pineapple-tomato salsa and baked potatoes as main course, then sweet calzone with chocolate and walnut sauce to round up.

The entrée was quite good, although the chicken and the peanut sauce were a bit too dry for my liking.

The soup was interesting. It should be cooked inside the pineapple 'shell' but we didn't manage that because it took too long for the 'shells' to get hot. So we pour the soup into a tin pan instead and placed it on the grill. Apparently we weren't the only ones who failed this quest. ^_^

The main course was delicious: pork chop filled with dried apricots mixed with chopped garlic, shallot and chilli; plus the pineapple-tomato salsa. *drools*

Dessert was okay, but I was already full by that time (especially since I had a big lunch that day) so I probably should give it another chance. ^_^
The sauce was really good though.

If you're interested, you can find the recipes here.

Hmm... I just found a really nice bbq blog, many new recipes to try for our next BBQ.

Spring, Time for Asparagus

2009-05-04T20:16:00.007+02:00

A girlfriend from high school just got transferred (from Bogor) to Mainz in January. Now that we live close to each other, a get-together is a must! And we finally made it on May Day.

:: Tips ::

If you are purchasing fresh asparagus look for firm, crisp stalks with compact, brightly colored, closed tips.

The best way to store fresh asparagus is in the refrigerator upright in a drinking glass or jar filled with about an inch of water. Place a plastic bag loosely around the top. It should last three to four days stored in this way.

For our lunch I wanted to make something easy but tasty, so I settled for asparagus and fish. I'd already tried this fish recipe before and it was a hit for our family dinner. As usual I got these recipes from chefkoch.de and tweaked them a bit. ^^

White Asparagus
recipe

Ingredients for 4 Portions:
1.3kg white asparagus
salt, sugar, butter

Baked Pangasius* in Parchment Wraps
recipe
* according to wikipedia they're called tra, swai or striped catfish in english, but I've no idea which one is the usual term used >.<

Ingredients for 4 Portion:
300g potatoes
2 Zucchini, green and yellow (or 1 Zucchini and 1 red or yellow pepper)
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 sprigs fresh thyme
16 cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
1 clove garlic
4 Pangasiusfilet*, à ca. 200g
salt, pepper, olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon

Directions:

Peel the asparagus and cut away the bottom, hard part of the stalks. Set aside the good parts; wash the rest and put them into a pot, add water (about 1 liter), cook until it boils. Let it cool.

Meanwhile peel the potatoes, cut them and the zucchini into 1cm cubes. Mince the garlic. Heat the olive oil in the pan, add the garlic, cook and stir for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the potatoes and zucchini cubes, cook for 10 minutes until tender. Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Arrange the asparagus in double aluminium foil, about 5 asparagus in each packet. Add salt, pepper, butter and 2-3 tbs asparagus stock. Wrap the packets tightly and put them in the oven.

Prepare 5 sheets of baking paper. Put each filet in each packet. Add salt, pepper, the potatoes-zucchini cubes, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, sprigs of rosemary and thyme, and the olive oil. Put them in the oven.

After 15 minutes, the fish should be cooked and the asparagus tender.

Serve with baguette, ciabatta or focaccia. Yummy!

As dessert we had panna cotta, bf and sis were so delighted. ^_^

Thomas Nast Nikolausmarkt

2008-12-09T16:08:00.009+01:00

On Saturday I went to the chrismas market in Landau. They have the traditional booths selling food, Glühwein (normal and ones made from Dornfelder), christmas decorations and presents (ranging from toys to jewels) and a merry-go-round.

They also have a craftwork market, located in two closed, climated tents where the craftsmen show off their skills and works. They're using many different materials, ranging from rattan, wood, clay, metal and textile.
A booth showcasing beautiful mills for pepper, salt, nutmeg and cumin has a slogan

Mahlen Sie schon?
... oder reiben Sie noch?

^_^

My favorite booth is the one selling handmade dolls. I don't like those pretty dolls which look so real; I find they're creepy. Now these dolls aren't pretty at all, but they're very interesting. I especially like the pirates and the witches. A man-size doll of a homeless person were sat on the right side and people looked twice to see if it's a real person or a doll. At first I thought it was a real person wearing a mask. ^_^

The whole market is called "Thomas Nast Nikolausmarkt" in honour of Thomas Nast, a famous American caricaturist born in Landau, who first drew the Santa Claus version known today: a bearded, plump man in red and white apparel. White Rock Beverages used this figure first in their ads in 1915, but it was Coca-cola ads which made this figure famous worldwide.

Before leaving the market, I bought a pair of reindeer antlers with small bells. The booth is also selling these santa claus salt and pepper shakers.

A Tiny Update on Alice

2008-12-07T01:48:00.002+01:00

in Wonderland, from an interview with Alan Rickman.

IH: Have you started Alice in Wonderland yet?

AR: I have, yeah. I was here yesterday because it’s just in the next sound studio.

IH: Is it warmer there?

AR: Yeah, although not a lot, actually.

IH: You are doing a voice for a character?

AR: I’m a voice, but I have been filmed because it’s my face who will be on the end of something that will be the caterpillar. So it’s the first time that they’ve mixed three disciplines, I suppose — live action, animation, and stop motion. I think I’m part of the animation bit, and I saw Helena [Bonham-Carter] and Crispin Glover yesterday. They’re a mixture of the two, actually, because there’s Helena in a costume and in makeup but her head is going to be made three times bigger than it actually is on top of the costume.

IH: Since we’ve read the book and seen the Disney version, how is Tim Burton’s caterpillar different?

AR: I don’t know yet because I don’t know what it looks like, so I’ve only done the first stage of it, which is them recording me saying these lines quite badly. Then, somewhere down the line, they’ll have animated it and I’ll redo it.

IH: Are you working with Mia [Wasikowska]?

AR: They’re shooting with her and Helena, although Helena finished yesterday. I don’t really know what they’re doing, to be honest. I just visited yesterday. I think they’re all just blinded by the color green. It must be quite something to be surrounded by that much violent green all day long, but the costumes — one or two I saw — are incredible. I’m sure it’ll be visual genius again.

Bangkok Foodland

2008-12-05T00:51:00.006+01:00

After reading the positive reviews on qype, which place it at the first rank in category thai restaurant in Karlsruhe, I got curious. So we went there for dinner a couple of days ago.

Lucky that I read all those reviews, because otherwise I might've went back out after seeing the front room. It looks like one of those dingy pubs with its big, dark counter. There's a room to the left but it was quite full so we went to the room in the back of the counter.

It is slightly better than the front room.
It's brighter. There is a TV with thai music videos playing non-stop and some 2 and 4 seat tables which are placed close to each other. A bit too cramped IMO.

But we were there for the food.
Spring rolls are obviously not housemade, so we ordered samusa instead for entree. Then I ordered beef in green curry and Philip beef in red curry.

Seemed that the samusa aren't housemade either, so next time I'm going to give the soups a try. The green curry was very delicious although the sliced beef were a bit hard and the eggplant wässerig, dunno how to explain that in english. Hmm... spongy and absorbed much water. They should've taken only the outer (ca.) 1cm part, the inner part is not very suitable for this kind of dish IMO. But it was still very good, better than the red curry. ^_^

Dunno if it deserves the #1 place since I haven't been to other thai restaurants, usually I had thai dishes in chinese/asia restaurants. But the food are very good for the price they charge and they're not modified to suit the german palate. Definitely worth many more visits. Or takeaways. ^_^

Links

My First Mulled Wine Mug of the Year

2008-11-28T11:02:00.001+01:00

This time I had Glögg, the Scandinavian mulled wine, instead of the german's Glühwein. They taste very similar, but some marinated raisins are added to the Glögg. Powerful stuff, those raisins. ^_^ (Un)fortunately I only had one since I had to go back early to send my next chieftains.

After sending my attacks I went out to the supermarket to get something to eat. There I saw these Christmas beers, so I had to get them too. ^_^"

Went to bed early with a headache.

Spread the Word

2008-11-19T08:58:00.005+01:00

During blogwalking yesterday I stumbled upon this site called FreeRice, a charity website where users play a various educational multiple-choice games in order to raise money to fight world hunger.

How To Play

* Click on the right answer in the middle of this page.
* If you get it right, you get a harder question. If you get it wrong, you get an easier question.
* For each answer you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance...

The games are in art (recognizing famous paintings), chemistry (basic and intermediate), english (grammar and vocabulary), geography (map and capitals), math (multiplication table) and basic knowledge in some other languages (French, German, Italian and Spanish).

I managed to reach level 32/60 in english vocab, mostly thanks to my fondness of Snape's fanfictions. As for famous paintings... I can only recognize Monet and a tiny bit of Van Gogh, Renoir, Rembrandt and Klimt, otherwise I'm in the dark. I already struggled in basic chem, so I didn't give intermediate a go. The German test and multiplication table are very easy. ehehe... I've 'donated' about 8k grains of rice so far, which is very little since an adult needs about 20k per day.

It's quite addictive, but at least this time it's for a good cause. ^_^