New bolster cover

I was preoccupied with making a new bolster cover. My usual round robin of interests finally swung back to sewing. I had bought much cloth, and sewing materials before, but never actually sewed anything at all :D

But since my youngest Aunt gave me her sewing machine, I decided to use it to make the new bolster cover for G. I realized not only I could not hit a pool ball in a straight line, I also cannot sew in a straight line, even with a sewing machine.

And I somehow managed to make the machine choke up a few times. Sigh. In the I had to hand stitch the hems. Not that I want to be a big show-off, but aren't my stitches nice? You can't even see them on the other (right) side!

If you look closely, you will realize that I have cut the cloth against the grain. Sigh. Worse thing is that the right side is very rough, now hugging G at night is like having the dead skin on my face exfoliated off like layers of an onion.

Checking for the Nutcracker Soldier's toothache

Woe is the life of Mr B, to have a evil mommy like me...

Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Beautiful old walled city on the Romantic Strasse. However now forever associated by me for Teddy Bear shops.

Eric Clapton "Tears in Heaven" Violin Score

[original source]

Wieskirche

Wieskirche is famous for its Jesus Christ statue that bled tears in the 1738. According to HM, The statue used to sit in a woman's attic until its discovery, then it had its tiny wooden shrine (which I mistakenly took to be a guard house and so deliberately excluded from the photo).

Look at the pretty horsies romping outside the church

But too many pilgrims wanted to see the miracle, and so the Brothers Zimmermann built the magnificient church in rocco style, describing the life and death of Jesus Christ. The church has been recognised as a UNESCO heritage site, and I have to say of all the churches I have seen, it has one of the most awesome architecture, frescoes and ceiling I have seen.

We were lucky to catch part of the Friday mass.

If you look through all my photos, you will also notice that I have an obsession with the pipe organs in all the churches I saw even though I can't play a tune. The church does not use candles anymore, which is why you can see the plaster paintings in all their glory.

Till today, there are many people who make their way here to either admire the architecture, or pray for a miracle. To the left of the photo (or right of the shrine) is a gallery of sorts where you can examine all the photos of the people who were seeking a miracle, mostly babies and children. There was a photo of a US marine who died in Afghanistan, which was very sad with the words "gone but not forgotten"). The other side of the shrine are for those people who want to pray for their miracle in privacy.

Check out the pews. Such effort that went into even carving them!

Since it is a Catholic church, there were plenty of confession booths for all the naughty Germans and pilgrims seeking forgiveness.

Above each of them was a pictorial depiction of a biblical story. The one above is my personal favorite, the prodigal son returns. 

The church is surrounded by pretty farms, inns and footpaths leading to undulating mountains in the background. Awesome views all around. You could spend the whole day here with the family, hiking, visiting the church and eating at the nearby restaurant which has a specialty known as wieskücherl. Onkel H said that they knew the dog (which lived in the B&B below) well, because when he was a puppy he used to tag along with their dog. Now this dog is an old dog which likes to visit the wieskürcherl restaurant for a bit of mittagessen.

Imagine the beautiful church with the even more gorgeous mountain landscape as a backdrop

The old dog in this picture likes to visit the restaurant at the same time everyday for a tasty morsel

Check out the flies settling on the cow and the fence!

Pferd grazing on the field next to the church

Address: Wies 12, Steingaden, Germany

Phone: 08862 932930

Wieskücherl und Buttermilch

I have an axe to grind with Laura Ingalls Wilder.

When I was a kiddie (well relatively young kiddie, because I only started reading when I was 9 years old), her Little House in the Big Woods caused me to develop some weird ass obsession with cabins and the late 19th century way of life (12 can tell you the level of obsession I have over NN's magical cabin in Norway, which I tell his brother that I call "My Disneyland" to his bemusement). Especially buttermilk.

"When Ma finished molding the butter, she gave Laura and Mary each a drink of good, fresh buttermilk."

Ever since then, I have always wondered how does buttermilk taste like? In my fantasy land of course, buttermilk tastes sweet and creamy, like melted butter. So when HM said after our visit to Wieskirche, that we should walk one loop around the small village, stop by the little restaurant on the road to the church and try their Wieskücherl and Buttermilk.

I wasn't so curious about the Wieskücherl. But my ears fairly popped when I heard the word "Buttermilk". I nodded my head eagerly which my fingers clicked clicked clicked at my camera.

First Sip.



Buttermilk



Erst Wort. Nasty.

I immediately give the What the Fuck face I usually give my suppliers when they tell me something I don't like to hear, which made HM and his wife laugh at my face. I pushed the glass to B1, in an unusual show of generosity.

"Drink it, I am not thirsty."

You know what it tastes like? It tasted like yoghurt drink. Sour. 

The Wieskücherl fared better. It was a flat fried doughnut coated with cinnamon and icing sugar. It was very lecker by comparison, and went well with the milky horror. I have a sneaky suspicion that their doughnut contains buttermilk *silent scream*

Coming home, I googled buttermilk and was interested to discover that it wasn't really Laura's fault. Her buttermilk is not our buttermilk today.

小熊大过大熊

I was showing my aunt the trip photos. She was like, oh my god, how old are you already? Still carrying your teddy bear everywhere? 

What to do *shrug*? I can't upload my photos, so Mr B is my rep *hehe*. Here he is visiting his German relative in Frankfurt. This teddy is ginormous, though you won't be able to tell from this photo.

男人不坏女人不爱 My Haul of books from Germany

I am ashamed to say I did not buy much souvenirs back this year. First thing, no matter how much that bloody euro has dropped, it will still be stronger than the Singapore dollar for the foreseeable future. I will upload a pic on how much crazy ass euros we changed for the trip. I also realized that German books are also very expensive in Germany, and they seem remarkably fond of hard covers for books.

Das Geschenk meinem Geburtstag von Schnappi

Second thing... I didn't dare to risk the luggage limit. When we went to Germany, our combined luggage weight was 29kg, when we came back it was 42kg (limit turned out to be 23kg each, so 46kg total)...thanks to the books I bought myself as well as those Schnappi gave me + lots of sausages.

I didn't even dare to buy another bottle of the St Peter's wine back for myself. I had bought two, one for HM and the other for Schnappi from Salzburg's St Peter's monastery. Hauling them back to Germany in my backpack was no joke, I'd tell you. 

As you can see, Schnappi went for a smorgasbord of German books, of varying difficulties. I think I am going to have a super fun time reading the whole pile. I already had difficulty unwinding the metal wire that he wound around the books. Very eco, but I poked myself a few times. To tell you the truth, the best present was the German flag. I am contemplating sewing it on my backpack (the one I used for my travel).

As for me, I know my limits, so I chose all my usual favorite kindergarten books and comic books. The only book I didn't buy was Heidi, which was what I really wanted anyway. Did you know the first English book I read was Heidi, which was ironically translated from German?

My Souvenirs for myself

I am glad I listened to HM and did not buy the Struwwelpeter, and Max and Moritz books at the souvenir books (they cost 6.99 euros each anyway). He said I could buy them cheaper at ordinary book shops, and on my last day in Frankfurt, I walked past a bookshop which had some bookshelves outside. They were selling books on WWII weaponry (B1 was mourning he could not understand German so he reasoned that he could not buy them) and specifically... Struwwelpeter and Max and Moritz.

The book seller was highly amused. He said, "you like naughty boys?"

Yup. =D

Doesn't he know? 男人不坏女人不爱?

TGIF Specials 23: This should be written on his belt

I saw this late last Saturday (I don't like to count Sunday, so dreary, got to work on Monday).

Like the tailor who killed 7 at 1 blow

Horrific Japanese Localized Sushi bento

This is a Salzburg Canontese-run Japanese restaurant's interpretation of Japanese food.

H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E

I blame the Japanese people who were eating inside as we were passing by, getting beaten down by the relentless rain. We thought that since there were Japanese there, it couldn't be that bad right? Wrong... It appears that Japanese tastebuds cannot be trusted the further they are from Japan. B1 said they were just probably relieved to see something remotely familiar after all that brot. I know I was, but I wanted to try the Chinese restaurant which was supposedly nearby, but we could not find it.

I use the "do I see the Japanese eating sashimi" as the benchmark for the bearable freshness of the sashimi in a Japanese restaurant in Singapore. If they only eat the cooked stuff, you know something is off.... But I was curious how Japanese sushi looked like in Salzburg. So I tried (so brave right? No sea nearby, bet it was all thawed crap... which it was.. sigh).

So this is a Japanese sushi bento. I knew they were Cantonese because they served us miso soup before the bento *haha*. The beansprouts and radish were pickled, ala Cantonese sauerkraut haha. 14 euros btw...not including tips.

啤酒大过小熊

Once upon a time there was an ice-cream bigger than my teddy bear, and now a bier than is bigger than him!!!

Mr B trinkt alkohol-frei bier weil er guten Bär ist.

WTF?! Someone has been stealing my shoes!

Jet Lag has made me stupid as well it appears. The day I went back to work, still addled-brained, I stood outside looking at my shoes, thinking to myself, hmm, I don't seem to have any wearable shoes left. Must go and buy...

I even told at least 2 colleagues that. So I bought this Mitju pair which I totally love, and was going to blog about it. Since I have a running series of blog entries on shoes I have been buying, I decided to check through the older entries to see what shoes I have been buying... when I realized. Hey, that brown pair is missing! And then I scrolled further back, two other pairs from another set were missing too!

I am definitely sure that the brown pair was outside my house before I left for Germany. I was working on the day I left, and came home very late, one hour before I was due to go to the airport. Since my aunt was helping to check on the house every other day, I thought it was no biggie.  Anyway when I think back, the black heels have been missing for a while...

What boggles my mind is that my shoes are not even expensive! Some years ago, my colleague came to work in a funk because her gorgeous leopard print pumps were stolen. Mind you, she was just carrying her baby into her mother-in-law's house then when she came out, her shoes were gone!!! But those were expensive!

I don't know what is worse, the fact that someone has been stealing my shoes or that I have been buying so many I didn't notice that they are missing...

The Great Scurvy Scare of 2012

A day before flying off for Germany, I was typing away at a meeting when I suddenly paused in thought. That was when I noticed the back of my left hand had two distinctive brown spots. I was puzzled...

"Google said it could either be liver trouble, scurvy ..." I pronounced seriously to B1 when I got home. I was quite harried because I was working even on the day we were flying off, so B1 was practically flying off the handle by the time I got home (nearly 8 pm, we needed to get to Changi Airport by 9pm.) It was nearly as bad, when we were coming home, we were running through Frankfurt's Terminal 1 because boarding time was 2050 Uhr and we were still going through the security checks at 2045 Uhr, where I was held back by 1 German Customs officer who was suddenly interested in why a Singaporean can speak terrible German, and then by another German Customs officer who wanted to know why I was carrying two blades in my backpack...another story.

He was even more worried, because he noticed that his right hand had a brown spot too. So after we checked in at the airport, he bought some Vitamin C pills while I was wondering how did we both get scurvy (if it was just me, it could be liver trouble... but two persons in the same household? B1 was of the mindset that I passed him some VD. With who, ass? My phantom Ang Mo Boyfriend?)

It took us 5 days, when one strange brown spot came off my hand suddenly to reveal new skin underneath, to realize it was the result of oil scalding from two weeks back. 

B1 liked to eat prawns, which I DETEST. So I made him peel the prawns and deep fry them with me. We were both scalded by the oil because for once, I did not control the fire properly as the prawns were frozen ones and I was too impatient to wait for them to thaw and dry before frying them...

The Joke about the Headache

I have been suffering from jet lag since coming back last Tuesday evening. It has gotten to a point where I was telling T and R that I wanted to smash my head in with a hammer because I couldn't sleep. The eyes are tired but the head won't hibernate. You know that kind of feeling?

Speaking of headaches, B1 and I were waiting for the bus 21 just outside our lovely but mosquito-infested B&B, Haus Ballwein, when the unusually observant B1 noticed this stuck against the bus stop post...

"What's this?"

"Not now, I have a headache." I translated.

百度十大神兽 China's top 10 Mythical creatures

Disclaimer: Blog Author(s) do not claim any bias/ allegiance or derogatory perceptions against any political parties. The following entry purely mortifies the gentle reader with the usual sexual connotations that appear ever so frequently on this blog. Besides this story is bloody old (from 2009)...

1. 草泥马, Cǎo Ní Mǎ (literally: Fuck your Mother)
Supposedly a series of alpaca

This and all similar cute pics are from woyaoqian005

草泥马肏你妈[img src: bbs.ikaka.com]

2.  法克鱿, Fǎ Kè Yóu (literally "French-Croatian Squid" or Fucker you)

Supposedly an aggressive European squid discovered simultaneously by France and Croatia (how convenient) and is said to release a white-colored liquid when agitated.

3. 雅蠛蝶, Yǎ Miè Dié, (literally "Small Elegant Butterfly" or 辞めて or "Please stop")

Supposedly a butterfly which name is the unfortunate phonetic equivalent of "辞めて" wailed/muttered/whined/moaned by Japanese AV actresses in heat. Said butterfly was discovered on 1 Jan 2009 at Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and legend has it that it was the transformation of a Japanese girl after the harsh pleasures pressures during a romantic relationship.

4. 菊花蚕, Jú Huā Cán, (literally "Chrysanthemum Silkworms" or "anus worms")/ (literally "Broken Chrysanthemums" or broken anus)

Ah well, you know what are silkworms, except these supposedly consumed chrysanthemums and not mulberry leaves. If you are familiar with Jay Chou's 菊花台, try re-singing the line ""菊花残，满地伤" (Chrysanthemums scattered, ground filled with wounds/the wounded) as "菊花蚕，满腚伤" ("Chrysanthemum(Anus)" worms, buttocks covered with wounds).

5. 吉跋猫, Jí Bá Māo, (literally "Lucky Journey Cat")

Phonetically similar to 鸡巴毛, i.e. pubic hair. Legend has it that that kitty lives in dark, damp environments and competes for food with the White Tiger (white tiger being a slang term for a woman's shaved pubic area).

6. 尾申鲸, Wěi Shēn Jīng, (literally "Stretch-Tailed Whale" or 卫生巾, i.e. menustral pads)

This creature was hunted for clothing material to manufacture women's lingerie and was discovered by eunuch Zheng He during his maritime travels.

7.潜烈蟹, Qián Liè Xiè, (literally "Hidden Fiery Crab" or qián liè xiàn (前列腺), i.e. prostrate glands). 

A legendary crab that once stopped up the Grand Canal, i.e. the urinary tract. 

8. 达菲鸡, Dá Fēi Jī, (literally "Intelligent Fragrant Chicken" or 打飞机 Dǎ Fēi Jī, i.e. fapping). Species of bird that likes exercise, and the males use neck spasms and spit out a white secretion to impress females during mating season.

 9. 吟稻雁, Yín Dào Yàn, (literally "Singing Field Goose"  or 阴道炎 , i.e. vaginal infection). 

A large goose dove into a certain field, damaging it and causing the local farmers to come down with a strange sickness during Kangxi period.

10.鹑鸽, Chún Gē, (literally "Quail Pigeon" or  春哥).

A species of bird is formerly found in the area that is now Yemen. 
The 春 Chun can also refer to fa chun (发春), which is slang for sexual arousal.

Damn, I knew there was something I forgot 2

Still jet-lagged, I nearly missed meeting up with my cousins, you know the ones who were watching the World Cup final while exchanging messages with me?

I was bitching about how jet-lagged I was since coming back.

Y: Have you been watching the Olympics since you can't sleep?

Me: Nah, what is there to watch?

Y: I have been watching the swimming. I am so tired now.

Me: Go and sleep. You should appreciate the fact you can sleep, unlike me.

Y: Cannot! Today is the last day of the Swimming!

I didn't get why she was so enthusiastic. On the Richter Scale of excitement it was almost like "World Cup Ramos". I had stopped watching any form of swimming ever since they invented that stupid swimming costume that covered up the best parts of the men. I mean the LZR racer suits and similar.

Then I went home and googled a bit on the Olympics. Oh fuck... they have banned such suits on grounds of technical doping... and I am missing this *pointing downwards on the photo below*...WTF. It is like Magic Mike at the pool. Fuck it!

Of course, I also missed the fun stuff about Ryan Lochte (supposedly the guy in the middle) who apparently only does one-night-stands according to Mommy dearest or is a sexy douchebag.

Inspiration roadblock cleared at last

I stopped painting for a while. I kind of hit an inspiration roadblock some months back when things got really bad at work and in life in general. Drawing, then painting, was an outlet for my frustrations. But when things got ugly between me and K, I thought about the painting I did for him as a belated birthday present, which he said at the time he was very touched about, but was now probably in some French incinerator or dump now, it really made me feel incredibly sad (well I was sad about the friendship, but I was even sadder about the painting).

Though I cannot say that I am that good an artist that my emotions can be captured on the canvas, but when I draw, write or paint, my thoughts and feelings really flow through the pen, keyboard and paintbrush onto the blank screen. Since then, I could not pick up a paintbrush and my paints are drying up under my table. And I swear that I will never paint or draw anything for anyone. Buying a present or food is easier.

So when I went to HM's place, I initially did not see the painting I did for Mrs HM as an Easter present (which was sent out together with K's but took a much longer journey to reach Germany) in the house, even though HM has mentioned that she liked it so much she put it in a place of honor. I could not find it in the living room or hallways, so I was a bit disappointed. I did say sadly to B1 that I did not see my Duckie Boo, which I had liked much more than the original one I did.

Then the day before we went back, I was switching off the light in the Badezimmer, when I caught something familiar in the darkness. I could see the outline of my Duckie Boo near the window sill (since I applied so many coats of paint to his yellow body, I could recognize him anywhere).

I am incredibly touched to realize Duckie is leaning against the wall near the bed.

Damn, I knew there was something I forgot

Some friends asked me if my German held up while I was in Deutschland and Österreich. Well...

My own evaluated scoreboard
Written German (not that I got to practise in writing German while I was there but based on my correspondences with Schnappi, K and HM)
- bearable with some grammar errors. I think I can rectify it if I concentrate on my German grammar books.

Reading German - not too bad, I see myself as reading at Kindergarten level. I had no problems reading German TV subtitles, some instructions and most signs

Understanding German speech - took me a long while, but I think I got it like 20% of the time when they talk fast, and 50% when they talk slowly. No problems understanding kiddie shows, so I ended up watching cartoons a lot in Germany. B1 was reduced to watching XXX ads on tv, because as he said, it was the only thing that didn't require understanding of German. Hahha.

Speaking German - BOMB! EPIC FAIL... It is either nervousness or some shit, but I had a lot of difficulty pushing words between my lips. Unless they were food-related. Then again, I never had problems ordering food in any language, even Korean.

In a nutshell, a long time ago, I decided to focus on reading and writing German (when I have the time) and neglected the speaking part of the house, as I told Schnappi. Point being, no one to actually speak German with in Singapore, whereas I could always buy books online or at Kinokuniya. This was not a good idea, as I found out when I went to Germany.

I bought some German kiddie videos on the last day, while B1 was moaning that I did not bring him to any Computer shop in Germany at all.  So I took him to Saturn at My Zeil, which I had asked HM before we went to Germany. Saturn is like Germany's Challenger. It sold computer and other electronic gadgets at eye-watering prices, and CDs and DVDs upstairs.

He bought Diablo II (I seriously don't remember the graphics being so lame) while I got some Richard Scarry and the Muppets Shows (Teil 1) in German. *Keeping fingers crossed for miracle now*

Adoring Gothic Architecture at Michelstadt

Through the rabbit hole and into the beautiful town of Michelstadt

First thing HM did upon leaving Frankfurt was to drive us to Michelstadt, which I simply adored, because it has all the old Gothic timber-framed houses *love love love*! I lingered long after the others, taking photos of all the old houses I could find. Some of them were so old that the floors sunk because the timber stretched over the centuries. I could have a ladyboner just looking at some of these houses.  Some people dig Disneyland, me, I just really love looking at life-sized half-timbered houses. I drew one of them when we told to draw our ideal house back in convent school, though I made some bad judgement and used cream walls against the dark wood.

My dream house had a balcony like this one too!!! Mr B approves!

I wish I could sell up and move to this idyllic little town. Seriously.

Michelstadt's town hall or Rathaus

It even came with a cute ass super old Rathaus (town hall) which was built in 1484 and once captured on a Deutsche Post stamp.

Mr B sits inside the Rathaus, with the super picturesque background

I like the grapevines climbing up the sides of this house with the iron kitty. Greyish blue is a cute look too!

'Drei Hasen' literally 3 Hares. Check out the 3 hares on the signs!

Could see that the inhabitants tried to keep the original flavor of their many droll buildings. For example, there was a Backerei (bakery) sign over one little door, but was actually fronting a flower shop now. The Drei Hasen Hotel and Restaurant was another pretty building with three hares everywhere. If you look on the top left of the picture above, you will see a golden hare haunched on a sign.

Toy shop in Michelstadt with old storybook characters painted between the frames

The toy shop "Spielwaren Dietz" has a lot of old storybook characters painted between the timber frames. Check out (clockwise from top left): Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, the Billy Goat Mother (you know the one where the wolf pretends to be her when she is away and ate her children and she cuts its tummy up to release her babies) with the scissors, Red Riding Hood, the 4 musicians from Bremen, Cinderella, and one of Snow White's Dwarves. NW knows her fairytales ok! *victory sign* I also bought one in German from my trip but that is another story.

There were a lot of private walled gardens near this park. There used to be a little river running through the old moat on the other side the town, but it has long dried up.

Cute little wheelbarrow with lots of flowers!

HM brought us to Cafe Siefert (within Michelstadt) for frühstück which is another wonderful experience that can only be captured in another entry by itself.

Till Pee do We apart

When we were coming down on the Tegelbahn (cable car up and down the Tegelberg), we encountered this young European couple kissing each other passionately in the building, tongues and everything. Even after they finally came up for air, the guy slowly moved away from his other half and their fingers lingered so until they were holding onto each other's fingertips before they regretfully parted, fingers tingling like "magic fingers". The girl even made a clutching gesture at her heart as the guy walked away.

[Roy Lichtenstein's Kiss. Img source: bobkessel.com]

We thought that it was because only the guy was going up the Tegelbahn, but turned out, he was only going to the loo.

Take so long, later your bladder burst into flames. *sourly*

B1 said "this is a case of till pee do them apart".

You have to give it to the Caucasian people, they really love and hate with true passion.

Mr B is one with the Occupy movement

Didn't find the bear and bull but found the huge Euro sign and the Occupy Frankfurt camp around it...

Updated!!!

Just read that the German police went in and cleared the camp. So sad. 10 months of Occupy Frankfurt has ended.