Before October Ends...

...let me show you the marvellous sunrise I observed yesterday morning just before 8.00 from my kitchen window.

The saying goes that such a colourful sunrise means bad weather, but all of yesterday was sunny and mild. Today looks a bit overcast, and at only 10 Celsius (50 F), it is cooler than yesterday, so maybe the saying is right.

My parents and I are going to visit my godmother and her family in a nearby small town this afternoon, to uphold the lovely German tradition of meeting for coffee and (preferably home-made) cake.

Her daughter, who I have not seen in - I think - 10 years, will also be there, and I am quite looking forward to this.

Since Monday night, my computer is back up and running! I can play my games again, and of course there is now nothing that keeps me from blogging more (I didn't really want to use the corporate laptop for that; my previous post was from there and it was NOT done during working hours, but still...).

Enjoy the weekend, whatever you'll be doing!

I've Been Watching...

...more telly during this week than usual (I usually don't watch TV at all), mostly because I can not use my personal computer these days (the HDD is gone and I may or may not lose some pictures, saved games and other stuff, entirely due to me being lazy about regularly backing it up) to play my favourite computer game, and because I was in between books.

Last night, I happened to come across a movie that had already started; the first 15 minutes or so were over by the time I got there. What I saw was a youngish man sitting next to a life-size, life-like doll (the kind that is sold as sex doll) at the dinner table, and another man and woman (both real, not dolls) sitting opposite. They were eating, and talking, and it quickly transpired from the conversation that the man with the doll was firmly convinced that the doll was a real woman, while the couple (obviously close friends or relatives to him) were, for some as yet unknown to me reason, playing along with him, also acting as if the doll was real.

This bit I found intriguing enough to stay on that channel and watch the whole movie, which was "Lars and the Real Girl" from 2007, starring Ryan Goslin, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, Patricia Clarkson, many other people and, of course, a "Real Doll" (as they are really called).

I had not known of or heard about this movie before, and so I had no idea what it really was about. Instead, for a long time I was waiting for the doll actually coming to life - do you remember the 80s movie in which a shop mannequin comes alive? Or "Splash", also from the 80s, which features Daryl Hannah as a real mermaid? There were quite a few such fairytale stories in those days, and although they are all more or less silly, they make for an entertaining two hours or so, and so I thought, why not, and kept watching.

Well, in "Lars and the Real Girl", the doll does not come alive. Never. The young man who is convinced she is his living, breathing girlfriend is the only one who sees her like that; to everyone else, she is just a doll. At least to begin with.

Lars is a bit of a loner and has problems with social interactions; at home, at work, and at the church he regularly attends. As the story develops, we learn that these problems stem from an unhappy childhood. Lars has reached a point where nobody can even touch him - literally. It hurts him, he says, as when you've been out in the cold for too long and your frozen limbs slowly warm up again.

Because Lars has become so delusional about "Bianca", and his brother and sister-in-law deeply care about him and worry about his mental health, they agree to atheir doctor's suggestion to play along with it, pretending to welcome Lars' "girlfriend" into the family. Bianca gets to sleep in the guest room; her inability to move on her own is explained by Lars with an illness and very low blood pressure, and she is taken around in a wheel chair all day. Because of her "illness", Lars and Bianca go to see the doctor (played by the wonderful and wonderfully beautiful Patricia Clarkson) regularly, and while Bianca has to "rest" after her "treatment", the doctor talks to Lars, trying to get to the root of the problem.

In their day to day lives, Lars works at an office where a young woman is clearly interested in him. He shies away from her, and yet it bothers him when eventually she has a boyfriend. Lars' brother and sister-in-law are going to have their first child, and their daily and weekly routine quickly incorporates Bianca, as it would if she was a real human being with special needs. She is washed and clothed, "fed", taken out for shopping and to church, and put to bed like a child at night.

The small town community soon adopt her for Lars' sake, who introduces the doll to everyone as his girlfriend. They welcome the couple at church with a bunch of flowers for Bianca, and they even take her out for some volunteer work such as reading to a group of children, or for a haircut at the beauty salon.

Nobody has any idea where it is all going to lead, and, frankly, I found it at times rather too unrealistic how everybody rallies round and joins the pretend play. In all communities, no matter how big or small, there is bound to be someone who won't do what everybody else sees as the decent thing to do, and I would have expected Lars and Bianca to be ridiculed by some people.

Eventually, through all the interactions brought on through Bianca with his neighbours, co-workers and church members, Lars becomes less of a loner and his social interactions less awkward.
How he finds his way back into the real world, where dolls are just dolls and neither can nor should replace human friends, I won't tell you here, because it would mean to spoil it for you, should you decide to watch the movie yourself.

It is a rather sweet story about friendship and love, in the family and out, and worth watching, I think.

The season and the weather are used as dramatic devices. When the story begins, it is winter, with deep snow everywhere, and people all dressed in heavy coats and woolly hats, scarves and gloves. With the unfolding of events, there is a subtle change in the weather, even a day or two of thawing, before frost hits again and it snows once more. However, the film ends with the first fine days of warmer weather and a promise of spring and better times to come. All this is subtly related to what happens with Lars and Bianca and Lars' colleague.

If you happen to come across it somewhere, maybe you'll see what I mean.

Let The Music Play

This post is going to be a bit different in that I will "show" you some music (one can't really "show" music, because music is not visual but acoustic, right?), so if you are generally not too keen on clicking youtube videos, just skip this post and wait for the next one.
Some of you may remember that I was telling you about my first dance lesson ever back in March. There has been some progress since, in spite of a 2 1/2 month break during The Summer We Did Not Have, mainly due to a different schedule for the dance parties.
By now, I am quite able to spend two thirds of the time on the dance floor when we go to the Saturday night dance; I can now do Tango, Slow Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha, Disco Fox, and a tiny bit of Bachata. Sunday afternoon's lesson in my living room included Samba and Blues, but I am not ready to do those in public yet - at least not before 11.00 pm, when my favourite hour at the party begins:
many couples leave by then, and there are only a few left. The DJ takes requests, and usually by then I am in such a "couldn't care less" mood that I am ready to try something new there and then, without having been taught first in the comfort of my living room with nobody watching.

Last Saturday, we had once again so much fun, and the DJ played our favourite Bachata song:

Mind you, it looks slightly different when we do the Bachata - for one thing, we are not dancing barefoot on sand ;-)

While I'm at it, let me also show you my favourite Cha Cha track:
(just skip the first 30 seconds, they're just babble)


And although I am now risking to have everybody incredulously shake their heads at me for the cheesiness of the next track - it's a Rumba, nice and easy to do (the first two minutes, that is - the rest is just for fun):


This song was also played last Saturday; it is (surprise, surprise!) a Disco Fox:


Oh, I could go on and on now that I've started youtubing for my favourite dance tracks! This one was played at the first dance party I ever went to, on June 11th of this year - it is another Cha Cha: 

 A lot of the songs they play at the Saturday dance parties are not at all my taste, and I find it difficult to dance to music I don't like. But I have become better at regarding them more as pace makers to practice the various dances than as music to be enjoyed per se; there are still songs I will refuse to dance to (much to the chagrin of RJ), but I keep learning new steps and so we do not have to sit at the side much anymore.

Saturday nights have truly become something to look forward to!

Read in 2011 - 23: Wenn die Dämmerung naht

Every now and then, I read a book in German, which was the case with this one, "Wenn die Dämmerung naht" by Peter Robinson. And throughout the book, I kept wishing I'd been reading the original English version - because while I did not find any type setting errors (and if you have been reading my blog for a while, you'll know how meticulous I am about those), more than once I read the German sentence and just KNEW what it must have been in English, and found the translation lacking. Overall, the lady who translated the book still did a good job, just not a brilliant one.

If you have read any of the books by Peter Robinson, you are familiar with DCI Alan Banks and DI Annie Cabbot, as well as with quite a few other characters you'll meet again in this story, such as Winsome Jackman, the athletic and beautiful Detective Constable, and Kevin Templeton, who manages to be so NOT politically correct all the time that his colleagues truly despair.

The original title of this book is "Friend of the Devil". It is, as all the Alan Banks series, set in Yorkshire, with the main locations being Eastvale and Whitby. Leeds and Scarborough are also mentioned, and especially the scenes set in the latter evoked quite a bit of nostalgia in me; with my late husband, I went to Scarborough on holiday for many years, and with every name of a street or a place I had a clear picture in my mind of what it looked, smelled and sounded like.

Annie Cabbot has been transferred to a different police unit than Alan Banks, and the two of them do not see or hear a lot of each other. This changes when their current cases show a link - a link that leads 18 years in the past.
Annie's case is that of a woman in a wheelchair, found murdered at the edge of a cliff, and Alan has to deal with a dead girl found in the "Labyrinth", an area of dark, narrow alleyways between ancient houses either empty or used as storage sheds, just behind Eastvale's market square. At first glance, they seem to have nothing to do with each other, but once the connection is made, Alan and Annie and their teams work together, and the deeper they dig in the past, the more mysterious it gets. A member of their team falls victim to the murderer, and we read how police men and women react when a colleague is killed. During the "showdown" with the murderer, it seems like Annie is going to be next, but in the end it turns out that she never was in any danger. Not this time, at least.

The personal lives of the main characters also feature in the story. Alan falls in love again, but the direction of the relationship is unknown. Annie gets herself into some trouble, and her drinking causes problems to herself and to others.

As with the other Alan Banks stories, this one is a good read and there is plenty of suspense. It took me almost as long as it took Annie to figure out who the murderer of the woman in the wheelchair was, and I was surprised at the turn of events that lead to Alan finding the murderer of the girl in the Labyrinth.
There are some gruesome events, but they are not described in such detail that I found it unbearable to read. The setting is atmospheric and (most of) the characters act credibly.

Next time I come across an Alan Banks book, I am definitely going to read that, too - preferably in English :-)

This one is for Kay: Sauerkraut!

Ever since I have started working from home, I've been to my parents' for lunch once a week, with the exception of those few weeks during which I was travelling.

My mum is an excellent cook, and a few years ago, she became moderator at one of Germany's biggest cooking forums on the internet. She regularly posts her recipes there, always using her own photos, and she has kindly allowed me to use them on here as well.

Not long ago, we had Sauerkraut for lunch, and I mentioned this to Kay who is one of my most regular readers on here. She asked for the recipe - here it is!

Meike's Mum's Sauerkraut with apple and pineapple

You need (to serve four):

500 g Sauerkraut

2 middle sized apples

1 small tin chopped pineapple

1 tablespoon butter

1 laurel leaf

8 juniper berries

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons instant broth

If anyone needs an explanation for what Sauerkraut actually is: raw white cabbage, shredded and salted, and left to ferment. With fermentation, not only does the cabbage become easier to digest, it also acquires a very nice "sour" taste - that's why in German it is called Sauerkraut.

Melt the butter and lightly stew the peeled and chopped up apples in it.

Add the Sauerkraut and pour some of the pineapple juice from the tin on it. The spices (laurel, juniper and cumin) need to go in now as well. Depending on the type of Sauerkraut you bought, simmering could take as little as 20 minutes or a lot longer for the kraut to be ready.

When the kraut turns soft and a nice golden colour, add about 4 tablespoons of chopped pineapple and the instant broth (or, if you are not happy about using anything "instant", salt). Stir well and let boil properly once more.

Sauerkraut and mashed spuds, along with sausages, are an unbeatable combination, but of course the kraut goes very well with many kinds of poultry, such as pheasant or partridge.

It is quite the typical autumn and winter dish, and I must confess I have never cooked it myself - not once! And why should I, when my mum makes it much better than I ever could :-)

The Park Without Pumpkins

As mentioned in the previous post, here are the pictures showing the (larger) part of the park where no pumpkins are on display. This was only a week ago, and yet the season has truly changed since then. It is much colder now, and when I leave the house, instead of skipping about short-sleeved and bare-legged, I need my coat, proper shoes, and a dress or skirt is only possible in combination with warm tights.

Have a look at the park (it is the one I walk through on my way to the other park; I showed you some bits of it here back in August) - it is one of the things that makes my home town most worth living in (of course, my family and friends being top of that list).

This enchanted little stone cottage was originally built not only to adorn the park, but also to house the head gardener. As far as I know, its current residents still work in the castle grounds. Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by this house, and imagined what it would be like to live there - in the middle of the vast park, when all the visitors have gone and it is getting dark. Would the statues come alive? I was convinced they would!

Raised beds in the "teaching garden". They show all sorts of herbs and spices there, accompanied by short explanations of their use in medicine and in the kitchen.

 There is also this beautiful raised bed of seasonal fruit, flowers and vegetables.

This building was never actually a viaduct, it was built as a ruin on purpose. In those days, it was fashionable for rich people (like the duke who owned the castle and park by then) to have some picturesque "ruins" dotted about their land. Today, the building behind the arches is a café, and quite popular for weddings and other functions.

The orangerie (glass house) holds various exhibitions throughout the year. At the moment, you can walk through scenes from the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty". This table with the golden plates is supposed to be the dinner hold in celebration of the little princess' birth, when her parents offended one of the fairies by having the table laid for only 12 guests and she, as the 13th, had to stay away.

The perfect place for a little rest before we left the park and walked back home!

Pumpkins Everywhere!

No, not quite. There are still large parts of the beautiful castle grounds of my town that are not, one way or other, affected by what the organizers dub "The World's Largest Pumpkin Festival".

Saturday a week ago, my mum and I decided to have a walk round the park and the exhibition. We have, as good Ludwigsburgians, season's tickets and therefore do not have to pay admission to look at a few pumpkins. Also, it was a gorgeous day of blue skies, warm and sunny, just perfect for the park.

We had the most pleasant surprise before we even got to the exhibition: From afar, we could hear music. It sounded a bit like classical music, and we were quite sure it was live. We could hear a violin, but weren't quite able yet to make out where exactly it came from. Then, as we walked on, all of a sudden, at the exact same moment, both my mum and I recognized a tune, looked at each other wide-eyed, and exclaimed: "Cobario!!!" 

And that's right, it were indeed Cobario playing - one of our favourite live bands. They are three young men from Austria, and we've seen and heard them for a few years now at the International Street Music Festival in Ludwigsburg. This year, they won the 1st prize, and I guess that made the organizers of the pumpkin exhibition invite them to play that weekend, too. Well, we'd had no idea, so it really was a big surprise for us.

We went and got ourselves something to eat and drink (all pumpkin-themed, of course), and sat and listened to them. If you want to have a taste of their music, you can find clips on their website: http://www.cobario.at/

When they took a break and we had finished eating, we chatted a bit, and then they moved on and so did we.

There will be more pictures (without pumpkins) from the park in a separate post; adding these here would have just been too many.