What Is Carole Up To Now?

Carole is wandering the world. Having had a couple successful careers, as a software engineer then a technical marketer, it's time to take a sabbatical and plan for the next big thing. New philosphy: "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death."

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!

The last couple weeks have been rich with holiday events. Both clubs that I belong to had a Christmas lunch, we got together with friends at the local Weihnachts Markt for gluhwein, then went for dinner at a local restaurant. I had friends over for dinner, 2 separate evenings. Stopped by the Weihnachts Markt several evenings this week to hear the bands they had playing. (Weihnachts translates into ‘sacred night’) And then we had Christmas Dinner at another friends place last night.

I have been happy with my efforts at entertaining. Having people over to dinner here is a labor of love. The first one I did, Gayle & Dawn came over. (Logan went to see ‘King Kong’.) That dinner was not too difficult to, I was able to get everything from the local MiniMal market. Then on the 20th, we had Glenn & Ewa, and Jackie over. This one was a test. I was not able to shop the day before, so that day I went to the market at ElizabethPlatz to get a chicken to roast. This involves taking the U-Bahn, then a tram, to get to the market. It turns out that they don’t grow big chickens here (I asked for one that was 3 - 4 Kilo, she said ‘Das is eine Puten! – that is a turkey!) so I ended up with 2 chickens for the 5 of us. Got some vegetables at the stand next door, and caught the tram back home. Got everything upstairs, then headed out to get the milk, butter, etc. from the local MiniMal. Got that all upstairs, then headed out again to get wine. There’s a great chain of wine shops here, Jacques Wein Depot. They have a bottle of everything open for tasting. And there’s one only a few blocks away. But they weren’t open yet, so I ended up at another market. Got those bottles home & up the stairs. By now then I want to do was take a nap!

But cooking had to start. I wanted to roast potatoes & carrots along with the chicken, but the ovens here are small. Could not fit both the roasting pan with 2 chickens in it (no room for potatoes) and a separate pan with potatoes in the oven at the same time. So I did them first. While they were cooking, I made some hummus and an artichoke dip for appetizers and prepped the brussels sprouts. Took the potatoes out, got the chickens in. Then assembled both the wet & dry ingredients for biscuits.

When people showed up, we sat in the kitchen first while I warmed the potatoes, sautéed the sprouts and assembled & baked the biscuits. The forced me to take the chickens out while the biscuits were in. It’s true what the chefs say; resting the meat for 10 – 15 minutes out of the oven makes it much juicier.

The meal was great, we used all of our 5 wine glasses, sat around & talked until almost 11. What a day! I now understand what’s involved in having people over & will always make a thank-you call the next day.

The stores and Weihnachts Markts were open yesterday until 2 p.m., and then the streets emptied. It’s been warmer here recently, and the snow is all melted from the sidewalks, so we went out walking. We headed out to Mark and Jean’s yesterday at 7 p.m., and I commented that this would be a good time to film a zombie movie. Hardly anyone on the streets or the trains, which were running a regular weekday schedule.



I still very much love the trains, trams & busses. It’s like having private transport almost to my door. Granted, I have to share with lots of other people sometimes, but I just get in & get out, don’t have to park it or wash it or gas it up. The only downside so far is the sidewalks are sometimes slippery with ice, and they throw down small gravel for traction. And that gets everywhere! I’m vacuuming every day by the door, we are trying to keep the floors in good condition.

It’s very quiet today. Tomorrow is also a holiday, nothing but restaurants are open. This week Logan had planned to rent a car, and we were going to check out interesting places nearby. But he was not able to do this. He’s currently in process to get his German license, and has surrendered his California license. Last time he was able to rent a car using the paper saying all this (in German), including the details of his California license. But not this week. Got a different clerk who said ‘nope’.

So, we will do some shopping locally – Logan needs a warmer winter coat, I need warmer gloves, I want more wine glasses and a couple more baking & serving dishes – and we’ll explore some areas of Munich that we haven’t seen. Maybe we’ll visit the Deutsches Museum, reputed to be one of the best engineering/technology museums in the world. We may also take the train to Salzburg or other places close by.



And we are cat-sitting, Gayle & Geordie brought Breeze over on Thursday night. They are back in the UK for over a week and Gayle didn’t want to leave Breeze in their apartment for that long. Their neighbor would look in & feed her, but that’s a long time for a pet to be alone. (And feeding is not the problem – Breeze is huge! She may weigh 25 pounds and she’s solid.) It’s been fun having a cat around again.

I hope you all are having a great break from your normal routine.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Simple things make me happy

Another week flies by. Late last week I figured out how to get the bus to WalMart. It wasn’t a place I shopped at, in the states. But here, it is so convenient that I cannot pass it up. I loaded up on household supplies and ended up with the knapsack stuffed full and heavy (OK, there was wine in there too), a 4-pack of paper towels under my arm & 2 shopping bags. Made it home with everything intact, but it was a close thing. The design of my knapsack is such that if the zipper gets opened a bit at the top, and there’s lots of stuff in it, it unzips itself rather quickly. As I was coming off the bus I noticed some plastic cups rolling along the pavement. Yikes - those had been inside! I got the pack off and set down just in time before the wine fell out. Got it contained again & home with no further incident. I can now better gauge what I can carry, and it is not w hole shopping cart full.

On Saturday, we ended up driving back to WalMart, it seems to be the closest ‘getranke’ market – drinks – to us. I wanted to have plenty of waters and some beers on hand. It was easy to load up the cart and buy it, not so easy fitting it into the car (we took a couple plastic crates for the water and beer) and very tough taking it upstairs.

Then we got everything staged for the potluck, this involved taking the kitchen table and chairs to the dining room, and the chairs off the balcony too.

We played from 6 – 7:30 on Saturday evening, then Logan and I zoomed home (first a bus, then the U-bahn) and quick cleaned up and got the lasagna into the oven. The first guests showed up at about 8:30, everyone was there by 9. I think we didn’t start eating until 9:30. A bit late for me, considering I had been running around the court. Two of the people, Anna & Niklas, are very good players. They invited Phillip & Christiane. Phillip is the Bavarian badminton champion. Watching him play was amazing – just a blur. The sound when he smashed it – I didn’t know a badminton shuttlecock could make that noise! I have a lot to learn. Not sure how to get more practice in, I may need to find a coach.

This was the first time I’d made lasagna here, and I substituted the Bavarian ‘Quark’ for ricotta cheese. It worked out well. And, I made a huge amount so we have leftovers. The dining room table here is narrow, but with the 2 leaves open we managed to squeeze 10 of us around it. We had the kitchen table set, but ended up not needing it as a couple people couldn’t make it. So no one had to sit at the “kid’s table”.

The house is still pretty clean and picked up, so it feels nice to be here. A win all around.

It was great entertaining again, even though I miss having all my utensils, nice wine glasses, platters & plates. I will have to think carefully about what I’ll serve at future events, I don’t want to buy a bunch of stuff here, there’s just no place for it. But I did find, finally, a salad spinner. We have been using a colander, which is poorly designed in that there are no holes at the very bottom, so there’s a little puddle of water in there no matter how much you shake it. I had seen a lovely chrome job in the local equivalent of Restoration Hardware, but was NOT going to pay 155 Euros for a salad spinner! Last week I was browsing in the nearby Woolworth and there it was – a thing of beauty, to me at least. I’m very happy with my 5.95 purchase.

On Sunday we went upstairs to visit with some of the neighbors. 16:00 at the Simons, for cookies, cakes & tea. It was great to meet them and the Luhmans, who live below us. Their English is great and their friendliness was wonderful. Dr Simon is a dentist by trade and a hobbyist electrician/designer. He showed us several lamps that he’s made – a couple have ostrich eggs for the shade, and he’s drilled out stars all over the shell, so the light twinkles through. Beautiful. Their place is rich with paintings, some of which Dr. Simon’s mother has done; photos, 3 large framed racks containing test tubes filled with sands from around the world; all kinds of things to look at. It was fun to see how their place is differently configured from ours, and to see how they’ve decorated.

Christmas cookies are taken very seriously here – everyone bakes and there are several ‘must-do’ types. I really like a couple of them and will look for recipes, for next year. I think I have just about OD’ed on cookies for this year. Since I have no scale I can’t tell if they’re sticking. But I have realized it’s time to join a gym. I have not been walking much or biking at all and that’s not good. There is one pretty close to here that has reasonable prices. Meanwhile I’m walking up all the stairs I can.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Stories from the week

I’m trapped in the apartment with the door open. The stairs & hallway have been undergoing renovation. It started in September, with sanding of the stairs. I was hoping it would be finished by the time I got back (Nov 20th!) but noooo. The week before I returned they started on the plaster – plaster dust everywhere! They continued the plaster and finally finished it up last week. This week, our doors and doorsills are being painted. So on Monday and today, the painter came and did prep, patching and painting. And, the door stays slightly open until it all dries. She finished around 11:30 today, so I should be able to close the door soon. The hallway looks wonderful and I’m very happy that the work is just about done. Brushing up against plaster dust or paint sandings dust in a black duvet coat provides unintended comedy for everyone on the train.

Where were we? Oh, up to Monday Nov 28th. I played badminton again. Tuesday was a work around the house kind of day, laundry & grocery shopping. Wednesday, I went on an IWC tour of the city of Dachau. The city is pretty, has been around for 1200 years (they celebrated it this past summer) and people keep suggesting that the city change it names. But, our guide explained, they don’t want what happend to be forgotten. They have just started installing stones in the street, created by an artist, to commemorate a place where a citizen was taken from and hauled off to the camps. Dachau did not have a big Jewish population even well before the war, so she said that 5 stones would be installed in the city. Apparently, this is going on Germany-wide. I’ll take a pic if I come across one, it may be a while as she also said that the city of Munich was not going to do this because they didn’t want people essentially walking on a memorial.

Thursday December 1st was another world-class museum tour, led by Alex. This trip was the Lenbach Haus, and the artist Franz Marc. There was quite a gang of us, maybe 30 in all. Alex had arranged to get the microphone & earpieces, so she could talk in a normal voice & we could all hear here. It was stellar. She knows so much of the background on the artists, and she could tell us about their lives – they were rock stars well before music got electrified – and she points out great details in the work. For example, Franz Marc started off in mostly natural pastel colors in his oils, and water colors, but ended up in electric colors in his own color scheme: "Blue is the male principle, stern and spiritual. Yellow the female principle, gentle, cheerful and sensual. Red is matter, brutal and heavy, and always the color which must be fought and vanquished by the other two.” Franz Marc (1880-1916), German painter of Der Blaue Reiter, in a letter to Auguste Macke.

Alex pointed out one watercolor, done in 1910, where he used the deep red and dark blue straight off the palette, no mixing or tempering. This marked his departure into the deep colors and away from natural colors. She is like a detective, delving into the 'what happened here' behind turning points in an artist's work. So cool.

After the tour, I met Gayle for lunch. She has been doing amazingly well in launching her business. Unlike other people I’ve worked with, she faces the hard stuff & motors through it. For example, she didn’t have set prices for her treatments – Reiki, Aromatherapy Massage, etc. We talked about pricing and when I was gone, she worked up a price list (her partner, Geordie, helped) and put it out there. She had been telling a few people some very low prices, because she just wanted to get out there & start working, but it didn’t take too long to convince her that market rate was what she needed to do. So she did it. And she’s come up with packages, like a Baby Massage class for moms & infants, and a ‘Dolly Treat’s day for little girls. So her work is increasing and I’m cheering as much as I can.

Friday I had to make a trek out of town, to get to the local FedEx office. It had been warmer Thurs night, and froze overnight with ice crystals forming on all the trees. Friday was clear, with bright sun and a high cornflower blue sky. The trees were gorgeous and unreal looking, covered in white that had formed ¼ inch crystals from all the branches. I was glad to be out in it. Got off the train, looked for the bus but didn’t see one, and decided to walk. On the map it showed 3 or 4 blocks to my destination. I got onto the right street, looking for #28 Zepplinstrasse, and I was at #2. Walked & walked, finally came to #4. Walked & walked, my toes starting to get cold, my legs freezing, now I pass #10! It was an industrial area and each number on the street was a block or so to itself. I finally got there, completed my errand, and turned around to do it again. I had my workout before I ever got to badminton that day. Walking on icy snow, in a long coat, provides the same sensation as walking in water – lots of work but you don’t get very far very fast.

Saturday the 3rd, the weather turned really nasty. It was just freezing, and of course it was raining lightly. That night was the IWC Christmas party. We took public transport and got there just fine. It was a good party and I’m glad we went.

Monday, trapped in the apt, I made cookies for the cookie exchange on Tuesday. There were about 20 people at that party at Debbie’s house, everyone brought lots of cookies and one ornament or decoration gift. We had a Yankee gift exchange, and everyone got into the strategy of when to steal which and what still-wrapped gifts to pick. I was the last to pick. I had had my eye on something for 15 minutes and got to steal it. I scored a great tote bag, and returned the Christmassy soaps that were part of the gift to the woman I’d stolen it from. She hadn’t wanted the tote bag, but really loved the soaps, and gave me the ornament she picked (which was the one that she had brought!) so it was a win all around. I got a ride back close to home from Kate, in her Smart car. They are quite roomy inside – just don’t look behind you and you’d think you were in a regular car. She said that she’s even brought things home from Ikea in it, the passenger seat folds down & the back window is a hatch back so something long can extend outside. (Of course, if you had taken someone to Ikea with you, they’re taking the train home!)

Monday night was Vicki’s leaving dinner. Vicki’s on her way to Campbell, and looking for work in the Bay area. I believe I will send her to TMD! You guys will love her. I am sorry that she’s going and glad to have met her.

Well, I’m pretty much caught up. I need to go work on prep for the lasagna I’m making for the couples badminton pot luck Saturday night. It’s going to be here at our apartment – and it’s really interesting thinking about having people over with very little in the way of glasses, serving dishes, space … all the things I had collected in California. I have to think of it like camping, making the best with what we brought over.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Beautiful, snowy Munich

Well, whaah. We were going out tonight, to one of the Christmas Markets, but Logan just called and not only is he not on the way home, he’s still in a meeting. So I have made myself a snack and decided to spend the time updating you, dear readers.

It is lovely to be here for the Christmas season. I don’t understand enough of the language to be getting blasted with the “BUY something” message from the shops & papers; and I’m not watching local TV so I don’t get the commercials. It also seems quite a bit less emphasized herre. What they do have lots of, is Christkindl markets. (Christkindl, the Christ Child, is the one who brings the presents here.) So, most of the pedestrian plazas have bloomed with wooden huts, filled with handcrafts, food, Gluhwein and Christmas ornaments. The markets are packed, people meet their friends for a mug of Gluhwein or punch, and wander around looking & shopping.

It’s great to wander around the markets, looking at everything and sipping – what’s that you say? Gluhwein? Simply one of the best winter inventions of mankind – hot mulled red wine. Sold by the mugsfull at the markets. The spicy scent rises in the cold air & mingles with the smell of grilling sausages, altogether making me hungry! So, we were going to go to winter Tollwood, which is a very large market held on the Oktoberfest grounds, but it’s not to be tonight. I hope for tomorrow night.

I have been busy the past couple weeks. One day after I got back, on Nov 21st, there was a meeting of the incoming board for Ladies International Association. I have somehow gotten myself elected to be secretary for 2006. Should be interesting. The next day was evening set-up for their annual craft & clothing fair – a fund raiser for the charities we support. I was OK during the day, but took a late afternoon train out to where we meet, to help with set-up, and was falling asleep on the train. I just couldn’t help it. Going either way, around 3 – 4 in the afternoon I can’t seem to stay awake. But I didn’t miss my stop. And it turned out that they place had sold the room for that night, so we were only able to set up the clothing.

A note about this – there is a thriving second-hand clothing scene here. I have seen several second-hand shops in the city, womens mostly but men’s clothing too. The ladies in this club work their contacts all year and get great stuff donated – lots of designer stuff. Mostly too small or big for me.

The next day, Wednesday the 23rd, was the fair. I got there early to help with the set-up, and work the craft table. And of course, shop. I didn’t see any books I wanted, and the white elephant table held no interest either. So I entered the tombola, and won a couple things. This seems to be a European thing, they all know the word ‘tombola’. To set one up, you gather lots of prizes, wrap them and give them all a number. Then you sell chances, which are tightly rolled slips of paper, most saying ‘better luck next time’. If you get a slip with a number on it, you’ve won the corresponding prize. I won a great casserole dish, blue & white, Polish pottery; a faux-leopard neck warmer and a box of greeting cards that I promptly put on the white elephant table – they had clowns on them.

I had not seen any clothes that I needed or that fit, but one of the other club members pointed me to a suit – beautiful sage green skirt & jacket, Bavarian style. Jacket fit, skirt a little too big but easily remedied. At that point in the day, the clothing was ½ price, so I got it for 10 Euros. Quite a bargain!

That night, I took a U-Bahn to nearby Lehel, and met Gayle for dinner, it was great to see her again. She was also a wonderful listener, she’s worked with elderly and mentally challenged people too and she knew just what I was facing with my folks. It helps to talk about it. (A girl thing, I know.)

The next day, Thanksgiving. For the other club, International Women’s Club, I’m on the ‘monthly lunch out’ committee. One of the other committee members had arranged for an American Thanksgiving lunch at Der Pschorr, essentially a brew pub at the edge of the Victualienmarkt, in downtown Munich. Der Pschorr is now the anchor of the newly opened Schrannenhalle, and we had tables on the balcony overlooking the open marketplace. It was beautifully decorated. Lunch was great – the server brought out the roasted turkey for us to admire and we broke into applause. There were mashed potatoes, (or ‘creamed potatoes’ as they call them here), steamed veggies and roasted sweet potatoes. Lunch was wonderful.

Afterwards, I went home to prepare my dish to take to … Thanksgiving Dinner – that night. Eva asked a few people over including Logan & me, and she prepared a beautiful roasted turkey, onions roasted with balsamic vinegar, a fresh leek salad, corn bread, polish-style cauliflower & broccoli (lightly simmers, drained & covered with buttered bread crumbs), I’m sure there were potatoes in there, I brought a sweet potato casserole, did I mention there were hors d’oeuvres? And sweet potato pie? And chocolates? And Eva-made biscotti? Oof! Dinners at Evas are well-known to be delicious eating marathons.

Friday the 25th I played badminton. Thank god for some exercise! And made another sweet potato casserole to take to … the Thanksgiving Dinner potluck on Saturday! Susie Lenz often hosts a potluck, there’s room in her house for lots of people, which is good – 31 showed up. She cooked 2 enormous turkeys and made gravy, and all the guests brought the rest. Someone brought a huge pan of my favorite kind of stuffing. That, the turkey and gravy is all I need! We had gotten a ride out with Eva & her husband Glenn, and a ride back with Lizbeth and her husband Roman and considered ourselves very lucky for all.

Sunday, the 27th, Logan had reserved spaces for the new Harry Potter movie. I really like this system. You reserve tickets on-line, then show up and pick seat when you purchase the tickets. We went early, and then lunched at a nearby Indian restaurant. Liked the movie, and how it focused more on the characters. It still left out huge hunks of the book perforce.

On the way back we stopped at Marianplatz, and walked around looking at the Christkindl markt - lots of little wooden huts, with people selling things. Mostly Christmas decorations at this one, and all pretty similar to each other. Touristy, I think. We continued on home, got off the train at Munchner Freiheit and walked through the Christkindl markt there. Much more interesting products. This market is a crafts & craftworkers market. In one stall, selling beautiful glass necklaces, the crafter was making the beads. We saw furniture and lighting and ceramics on our quick way through. I need to dress a bit more warmly to browse these outside shops - and I will!

Did I mention that it was a bit below freezing, with occasional snow, here? I had spent my last couple days in the states near Boston, visiting my friend Maggie. What a wonderful antidote that was, too. Chatting & hanging out with her & her family was a great decompression from dealing with mine. Maggie & I go way back, to college. She met her husband, Mike, at GE, about when I met Logan there. Logan had sent her an email showing the view off our balcony – the snowy snowy view off our balcony. I panicked, we went to Macys & I bought a real winter coat. They call them ‘duvet’ coats here – the quilted, hollowfill kind. It is toasty warm and washable. I had a hell of a time getting all my stuff, plus this big puffy coat, back, but I did it. My big suitcase weighed in at just 50 pounds. Lots of vitamins came back with me – they are so much cheaper in the states!

... and I need to stop now & go make dinner. More soon, I promise!