Reaping the benefits of Friendship - Miss Bear delivers little Doses of Singapore and Germany

During one of our lazy Sundays spent swimming at her brother's condo, Miss Bear brought up that she would be going to Austria for a business trip the next week. Two pieces of info enthralled me (1) she would be doing a stopover in Frankfurt (2) Singapore Airlines can allow up to 30 kg in luggage.

Being a tight pussy, I seized the opportunity to ask if she could help me pass some things to Onkel und Tante HM in Frankfurt, especially since she would be spending half a day in Frankfurt. She said ok! For once, I was glad I was a lazy cow, because I had already bought some foodstuffs that I was planning to send to Germany by post. Miss Bear's trip was going to spare some massive $$ at Singapore Post. I also tend to look out for and buy birthday presents throughout the year, so I was able to rally all the outstanding stuff I was going to buy within days. Thanks to Miss Bear, I saved postage for at least 2 occasions, i.e. the easter package, and the birthday parcels. *Insert success kid meme here*

Not only did Miss Bear bring my presents over to Frankfurt, she also carted back a bewildering load of 7 items from Onkel and Tante HM!!! Onkel HM whatsapped me and told me that they tried to stuff her luggage upon arrival, but seeing that the parcel was about 4kg and she was going to extend her trip to travel around Austria and Germany, they took mercy on her and arranged to meet her again on her way back to Singapore.

Since we had this golden goose of an opportunity, Onkel and Tante HM asked me what did I want? I wanted this:

Frühstück at Pension Gerlinde

I swear that breakfast at Gerlinde has set an awfully high benchmark for continental breakfast (which I actually dislike as I feel that most hotels, especially business hotels, try to get away with providing a good breakfast buffet with what they call "continental breakfast".) Gerlinde serves blueberry tarts for breakfast, such decadence! & Champagne on Sunday mornings (which Bobo and I stupidly did not partake). Till now, I dream of that breakfast roll...

Here are the goodies in Onkel und Tante's latest little dose of Germany! All 4 Kg worth...

Goodie 1 - Käsespätzle

I love Käsespätzle. Miss Bear asked me to describe it... I called it German version of Mac and Cheese hahaha.

What I find annoying is the fact that the package insists that it is a portion for 2 persons, and I can barely feed myself. The one reason why I liked the USA trip was that the meal portions in USA made me feel like a delicate flower hahahahaha.

Goodie 2 - Volkornbrot (rye bread)

The one on the left contains sunflower seeds.

Even though Onkel und Tante HM couldn't send me volkornbrötchen, and Miss Bear didn't step into a bakery during her trip, I was comforted to find three packages of volkornbrot. When Miss Bear passed the bread to me, she asked me if it was cake. When I told her it was bread, and offered to let her try, she demurred. :D Oh well, more for me then *haha*

 Goodie 3 - Honig

Two things I learned in Germany. Eat cereal with yoghurt and volkornbread with honey... As part of recreating my elusive breakfast, I asked for German honey too!

Goodie 4 - Konfitüre (Jam)

Blueberry Jam

A mixture of Jams

 Goodie 5 - Knackwurst

Thank god not leberwurst *hehe*

Goodie 6 - Warsteiner Bier

Did I also mention I have an obsession with KoenigLudwig Bier Käse? Which reminds me, we went to the Kaltenburg Ritterturnier organized by the brewery during our trip to Germany. I must blog about it one of these days.

The super atas version of NTUC (think it was called 360 or something) carried it for a while, but like everything I like, it had to close down Gottdemmit.

When Miss Bear whatsapped me to Onkel HM to lessen their parcel by half, I wanted to tell him to remove the beer *smirking at Bobo*. The night I lugged the parcel back from Miss Bear, one of the cans immediately disappeared down his throat, the lush.

Goodie 7 - Rabe!

New books about the little black raven. Now when I think about it, I wonder if Onkel HM is trying to play a secret joke with me (I always grumble about the bloody black winged pests in my garden) when he buys this series?

Looking at the massive parcel, I must treat Miss Bear for helping me lug the stuff back from Germany + help me buy a Longchamp for my Mutter. When I was younger, I noticed that my mother liked the Longchamp bag very much, except we were very poor and she could only afford the 海盗牌.Personally as a tight pussy, it goes against my veins to buy any brands. But my mother deserves a nice bag now and then :)

The bag is folded. This was the version and color my mother likes. It's dark purple, not that anyone can see clearly in the pic.

PS. Ok, I caved. I thought about getting a brightly colored version for myself, but they didn't have the size I wanted so fuck it :D. Better luck next time. Too bad it didn't cross my mind to buy Longchamp myself when I was passing through Frankfurt the other time.

A little of dose of Germany

A lot of things happened recently. So I was deeply comforted by this package of love from Onkel und Tante HM that they sent separately from their Christmas present. 

People asked me when I returned home from Germany if I had eaten pork knuckles while I was there. I didn't. I don't really like pork knuckles. What I do love is käsespätzle.  A love further reinforced by the fantastic dish I had at die Kleinmarkthalle in Frankfurt. Yumz. Strangely I had no problems ordering in German when I was with strangers. But when asked to speak German with friends, I drew blanks. Pathetic.

So after asking me what I missed from Germany, Onkel und Tante HM sent over volkornbrot (loved the tiny loaves from Pension Gerlinde) and instant spätzle. Of course they didn't forget to send over two cans of bier for the government. Oddly enough managed to passed through customs without being taxed. Great! Conversely the Deutsch customs was anal as usual and tried to tax HM for kopitiam "coffeeshop" coffee (the way Singapore prepares its coffee is different. A traditional taste would be coffee beans roasted with margarine or corn before being ground for flavor). The Deutsch customs thought it was something very expensive like luwak coffee (coffee  beans from a civet cat's ass) or something... now to think about it, now that HM told them it was ordinary coffee, maybe this time I could send the real luwak coffee. Hehe.

Why it is important to know your friend's name

Duck was very hospitable and kind to me when I visited him in Vietnam two years back. So naturally I was very excited when it was his birth year and I could mail him something special, a commemorative coin from Singapore Mint.

Unfortunately I forgot his full name (I remembered the last word in his nick formed part of his name), and he changed his company address (he prefers that I mail to the office instead of his home). So I just wrote to Mr "the last word in his nick". Anyway shortly after I sent it out, he miraculously popped up in Skype, which he never after creating it, and he told me that at least 10 persons had the same "last word in his nick" in their names. Oh fun.

Well, after 2 months, the damn thing came back. Not too bad. It has restored my faith in the snail mail system :D Not sure if it was because it was registered mail.

Help! My tank is... drowning!?

This is what happens when you are looking at other parts of the map. 12ax7 pointed out that my tank was drowning, and we all had a laugh. No fear, the silly thing managed to drive itself out of the canal. Cool, isnt' it?

Shitty Relic CoH connection

I don't know if anyone else has been experiencing this but this whole weekend, I have been experiencing some really shit connection in Company of Heroes. I have been kicked a total of 4 times on Saturday itself, and it really made me mad especially for one of the games, because I had wasted 2 hours on it, and was already going to win when it happened. Totally denied me the chance to pulverize the enemy base. Pissed.

And that is how, I got 4 wins without major contribution. Damnit. You might think it is good, but I think my CoH friends will probably ban me :D for being such a leech, unintentional or not.

Clearing up the Friends' Closet

In the light of the new CoH coming out in a few months' time, and with the recent frustration I had online, I have decided it is time to clean up my friends' list. Like I was telling the guys, I have like 100+ CoH friends, but now with the game being so old, I have like only 7-11 guys online sometimes (I even have cases where I am the only one online, due to the timezone difference). 

I don't really like to play with people I don't know anymore, and friends wise, I now only accept people who have more than 1000 wins over losses (this is to sift out those bozos who create multiple accounts. It is already frustrating for me to have friends with multiple accounts) or are very funny people to talk to.

My little Company of Heroes Moniker

Only my CoH friends will be able to understand why I couldn't resist buying this handphone strap when I encountered it at the cashier's while waiting to pay for B1's birthday sake at Nipponya.

Initially I wanted to get this for C but after consulting Bär and Z, they have convinced me that any guy carrying this will be deemed very gay. Besides I like it a lot so much that I decided to keep it for myself.

How appropriate for its strap to be my favorite pink with pink sakura flowers *hehe*.

Kari gets a new pussy (cat)

I hadn't seen Karirin for a while. Killing Floor is very distracting :P

Anyway, he was online yesterday, so I said hi.

(I might not remember all of it, but that boy really messed with my head yesterday)

NW

Where have you been? I haven't seen you in days. =D

K

I got a new girlfriend. Her name is Guipsy de Fiona da House.

NW 

Ah...(more like eh... never heard this kind of name before. Was it an actress' name?) Congrats! How did you meet?

K

Internet. 

NW
So long distance relationship? That's tough.

K

No, she's live-in.

NW

So fast?! (Is it a French thing, love at first sight?) Doesn't your mother mind?

K 

No, she likes her. She's cute.

(I have to admit, that's when my deviant mind starts churning... did he really do what he said he was going to do?)

NW

You are messing with me. She's (something we have been talking about) or a puppy right?

K 

No. she's not a dog. 8 mouth (dear boy always mistakes months for mouth, but for a while there, I almost thought 8 BJs already? Then when I though 8 months. Did he mean the relationship is 8 months long or.... *pedobear*)

So he sent me the pictures.  She looks absolutely huggable!

La Mademoiselle Guipsy de Fiona da House (mit nur eine Auge, poor baby)

Love the guy, he always has a droll sense of humor. And no, I did not see your uncle in the lift.

Google Translate to the Rescue! Forced to write in French

I am still mad at Kari for abandoning us for a week plus. Just kidding. Welcome back to CoH! =]

But seriously I needed his help yesterday when we were playing German stonewall with his level 20 Brit friend, SRB (something, too long to remember, and not interested enough to remember). You know how it is sometimes when you get an experienced dude in the chatroom before the game. He says the right things (e.g. "bank, grens") so you seeing his rank, misunderstand that he is not the talkative kind, not that he cannot speak your language.

Then the game starts and then that's when things get interesting because you realize oh fuck, this guy can't speak English. The rest of us, meaning Dracul (Dutch, some German, English), Herrmannmeier (English and German) and I (English, Mandarin and terrible German) began guessing what was his language. Dracul got it right when he guessed French (I should have known since Kari once told me this dude was his friend).

The dude replied "SRB", meaning Serbia.

That's when I pulled the one and only French sentence I know "Parlez vous Anglais?"

He said "Fr." "It" and something.

We get it. You can speak everything except German and English. We are fucked.

Careless me lost my engineers (we need them to repair HerrmannMeier's tanks). Dracul is rather not-on-the-ball sometimes when it comes to helping others repair. And HM lost his too. So we are stumped.... I popped out and used Google translate.

"SRB, avec-vous des Ingenieurs?"

He drew a yellow circle on them standing by the garage.

"Sil vous plait aider a reparer?" (I don't have a French keyboard, I guess he can still understand)

Again, circle around the garage. Damn him, he wants HM to drive there for repairs. No spoonfeeding. =D

I asked if anyone was making grens earlier (he was silent). So I told him I was making mortars "je fais mortiers. Faire Attention. blanc = mortiers" (white circle).

Everything was hunky dory, except for HM. He was infuriated because SRB who was very careful not to get hit by my mortars, was killing everything with his grenadiers. HM's tanks were totally not hitting anything. I asked Dracul to tell the dude in French to tell the guy to let HM upgrade his tanks. No go.

"Sil vous arreter? Laissez HM amerlioer ses Reservoirs?" I think about 80% lost in translation, or he was being a dick, because he continued killing. HM was really mad and said he was going to just play with iphone until the game was over. Even Dracul said "let the guy play by himself."

I was like "people level 20 what..."

Then I was infuriated too because he dropped his v1 on my precious Otto, Franz und Emil. *Pissed*. When I started screaming in English, the hornochse said "non my". That was when Kari popped in and said he was back. I asked him how to scold SRB for bombing my snipers, but he avoided the question. Bad Kari. :P

Dracul proved it wasn't him by announcing his and dropping. HM just said it wasn't him. I am pretty sure it was SRB. Whatever!

What's better than Breakfast in Bed?

B1's first time cooking breakfast in the new apartment. This day is a special day indeed~!

Last night I tried to stay up so that I could play with Herrmannmeier, who hadn't played CoH for several months. This means sleep deficit of course, because I had promised to play with 12ax7 the next morning... zzz.

Anyway this morning was a nightmare! I woke up my usual time, but because USA clocks moved forward by one hour, the time difference became 12 hours and I was late! So I said I would join the next game which meant that I had only 1.5 hours to do my washing, water my plants, run out to my house to pick up some more clothes, and buy groceries for the weekend. 

So I dumped the clothes in to soak, and ran out the door, drove like a maniac, parked at my old apartment (I wanted to save fuel even though B1 told me not to, because driving to the market requires longer routes. Sounds weird right? Walking is faster?) before running across the bridge to the market...

I have forgotten, when you go to market early, you will encounter all the housewives and aunties buying stuff. I had to wait patiently to pay for my vegetables. Btw I bought my first chicken! I don't like market smells and I hate touching raw, fresh meat. So I have been feeding B1 frozen meat (which has already been cleaned). But I wanted to make samgyetang (korean ginseng chicken) *smacks head! I forgot the ginseng* so I sucked it up and marched to the odoriferous wet market section. Luckily it was early so they hadn't washed down the place, so it smelled somewhat bearable...

For about S$40, 

I bought S$9.40 of green seedless grapes (my fav), oranges (for B1), and bananas (for us? we both hate them)

S$20.65 worth of black beans, sweet potato leaves, kang kong, tomatoes, potato chips (S$7.30), potatoes, garlic, napa cabbage, spring onions, wintermelon,  eggplant, carrots, mung beans (for chinese dessert, Kari, I show you), and sprouts.

S$2 eggs (I have been craving for them)

S$9 of chicken, 1 whole chicken (S$5), two deboned chicken thighs (S$3.60), chicken bones (?). I don't know how the whole thing became S$9 instead, but the auntie must have seen that I am a wet market virgin and took pity on me. 

When I was at the fruit stall, I asked the uncle for the time, he told me it was 10.30am.

I was like fuck!!!! Needless to say, I ran out of steam running back. I panted and heaved as I carried my stuff up the bridge, through the apartment blocks and back to the car. Rushed home, and grabbed my clothes, and hard disk and ran back down again after waking B1 up and asked him to meet the car. In between it all, I emailed 12ax7 from my old computer, I wasn't going to make it and to go ahead. Now re-reading my email, it totally does not make sense, as he was telling me.

"I just reached the other house after buying groceries. But the game is on at the other house so I cannot play here. if i call [B1] to switch off the game he will yell at me to come back. :D I think you guys just start an american stone first? Cos i think it is very late in usa now and you have class tomorrow.

I think I need about another 15min."

Was I trying to tell him to start a game with me? Without me? Or play USA stonewall (when I wanted to play German)? My initial intention was to tell him to forget it, go ahead and play without me. But I felt that he being a gentleman would still wait. So I still tried to race back, and therefore the super incoherent email. [To clarify on the yelling, when I was robbing B1 of his car keys, he reminded me that he was going out for his colleague's house warming so not to be late coming back.]

I was absolutely knackered when I got back to the computer. I begged B1 to make breakfast, which he did, after claiming he did not recognize bacon, or how to fry an egg or tell when the bacon is cooked. He wanted to make half-boiled eggs, which I cannot stomach. I negotiated in vain for fried tomatoes. =D

I was very pleasantly surprised yet puzzled at the plate. Why were there scrambled and sunny-side up? He said, I did not know what you wanted, so I made both.

bear bear bear bear bear bear bear bear bear

OHMIGOD.

This must be some magical place. My favorite kind of architecture filled with my most favorite furry beings in the world. This sight made me wet drool.

From Herrmannmeier. The photo not the idiotic comment. That was me.

Sweet reminder from Wachenstein

It is strange really. When I was a teenager and the Internet something awesome and new, it was terribly exciting to receive emails, even when it was really stupid stuff that people were circulating among each other like scary stories, heartwarming crap, chain letters or dumb gifs.

Now I become terribly excited when I receive a snail mail. Especially from overseas friends. =D

It is the kind of rare excitement you get when you have a penpal I think. Refreshing and exciting everytime. Last Thursday, I was sad after that bloody long meeting (I usually have a lot of meetings, but not one that lasted 6 hours at one go). So when we got back, B1 opened the letterbox and declared, "you got mail."

From the ever delightful Herrmannmeier und Frau Herrmannmeier who were on holiday near Wachenstein Castle. Sigh. *envious* Sweet of them to remember that I like art, especially architecture. =D

Updated!!!
On the strength of their sweet reminder and subsequent invite, B1 and I visited the HMs in Germany during our July holidays. Read the label "Mr B visits Deutschland and Österreich" to read about it all!

A little Reindeer hangs on a Rearview mirror in France

I interrupt my recounts of the Singapore Air Show 2012 with this delightful photo.

My Christmas present to Karirin, a handsewn little brown reindeer with a heart on its butt is hanging off his rear view mirror. I totally missed it the last time when Kari sent me the link to his car club's activity page. I only realized after he re-sent the photo and very heavily hinted that I should look at the mirror. I have been wondering what happened to my Mr Ruldoph.

He flew all the way to France and is hanging off a mirror now. *touched*

The French are so charming! =D

Schnappi's Brief

Schnappi's long-awaited letter finally arrived...and now bloody B1 confiscated and lost it... and all I read so far was "Finally I gathered my *****??????"

Horrible boy wrote 8 pages of german in barely legible black ink and 2 pages of Englisch in almost transparent blue... =D. It's going to be a fun challenge I see.. but still, thanks Schnappi =D.

Never mind, I got it back, the notti man put it in my bag. Anyway, I will have to photocopy the damn letter so that I can read the English version. As for the german one, thanks... that should take me a jolly while =D If you ever do write again, please TYPE the letter.

Fotos von dem Italian Riviera, bei La Spezia

Diese Fotos sind von meiner Amerikaner Freund, M. These photos are from my American friend, M (who plays with me on Saturday and Sunday mornings because we have a 13 hour difference!).

Danke schön, M!!

Look Kari, I also have Panda cheese =D

Fireworks at the beach

Von Kari. A photo on the beach. Somewhere in France.

Emperor Elijah, master of irony

A penguin who hates the cold. Wtf. Isn't he ADORABLE?

Btw I would like to point out that I am finally LEVEL 16. Yes, finally. 

This is the shitty i7 I have, which crashes CoH now and then with a German message. Until I am ready to move, I am solely dependent on an old monitor with dead pixels and HELLO KITTY speakers (which are actually quite good, I am quite impressed). It can scream German rap songs and bombing sounds like the best of them.

Beautiful Autumn

HM sent me a photo he took while walking his Poochie. Isn't Germany beautiful in the Autumn? *droolz* Look at the contrast in the leaves' colors!