Freaks and Drunken Lovers

Indeed!!
I loved the title of their album when I first heard it. It cant be more apt for a band and music as theirs.

As they start playing their music, the entire crowd inside the room starts freaking out. They really really become totally crazy doing the famous ska dance. At frequent intervals we were part of this bunch of crazy people too - getting ourselves a good workout :). This time we were at the Ngobo Ngobo concert at Cafe Central in Weinheim.

During a break to cool off, we had an american guy walk up to us and ask if we were from India and "you obviously speak english..."
He was really curious and asked, "what brings you to weinheim?"
Another of those nice proud moments for us when we said, "oh our friend is up on the stage, playing the sax." :D
(im so glad he asked hehe)

Yes, the genre of SKA music is totally new to me. If it wasnt for Eva, I would have never heard it/ heard of it...but Im glad I did. I really enjoy it.

Feeling lucky

As the weather got a wee bit warmer - enough for us to be able to go jogging again, thats what we did on the weekend. Saturday was a longer run as we kind of got lost following the winding paths around Wiesloch, Rauenberg.
Nevertheless it was enjoyable.
As we were jogging through the wineyards, the farms, I realized thats what I like the most of being here. All my life I have lived in a "big city." Im my opinion, big cities are kind of similar across the world.

So I love the fact that I am able to run past farm fields, an occassional tractor driver wishing us a good morning, interesting birds flying past; avoiding lumps of horse dung; taking a break in a small watchtower; watching children play Boule...basically living in a "rural" set up. All of this, and yet being so close to office; being employed with a large multi-national company and everything that comes with it; not compromising on any aspect of "quality of (my) life"

If I were to be live in such an environment in India, it would mean, living in a suburb - would be very very far from the city (because indian cities tend to be big) - would have to compromise on infrastructure...dont know what else.

Im feeling really lucky to have had such an opportunity in my life.

Germany backery (the real ones)

Almost every tourist attraction in India, nepal has a 'German Backery.'

Most often this is a small restaurtant that sells among other (regular) things, some apple pie, croissants, muffins, some 'bavarian' rolls, danish pastry, an assortment of cookies...

Now compare this to a 'real' german backery!!!

Phew!! its a different world. ofcourse, what else do I expect ja?

Compared to one little glass rack with these goodies , here, the entire store (top to bottom) is stocked up with goodies. There are tons of different options of just bread. Then there are the sinful sweet things!!!

V and I love waking up late on a saturday morning, walk to the Wiesloch Zentrum and visit Rutz to have a cup of coffee/ hot chocolate and some of their lovely backery products. We let the regular customers (who seem to know exactly what they want) go past us in the line, we wait in a corner to make up our mind on how to satisfy our taste buds...!!!

Ofcourse all of this shows on us by now :P

preparing for my driving tests

the past few days i have started studying seriously for the written driving test. at the outset, I have to admit, the question papers are quite well designed. The fact that its is very 'visual' is great from a cognition point of view...
During my first attempt of answering some of the questions, I got the feeling that a lot could depend on a person's mental model - experiences in their home country...
E.g. my immediate reaction to open ended questions, like, "what should you be prepared for?" would be to select ALL options --- anything could happen...however, in the German context, this may not necessarily the correct answer :)

Interesting experience. I am however convinced that once I get past this and clear it successfully, I will be pretty well aware of the rules of the game of driving in this country.

Snowfall in Wiesloch

We experienced the first snowfall this season - since V and I got back. It was really exciting. We were gazing out of the window for hours, just watching the snow fall and the whole landscape slowly turning more and more white...
We couldnt hold on to our excitement, so we found a reason to put on our winter gear, step out and enjoy the snowfall...walked around in Wiesloch.

Marzipanschwein

Our Marzipanschwein (marzipan pigs) - Thomas gave V and me this traditional symbol of 'good luck' :)
...It’s a German tradition to give little symbolic “good Luck” charms to one another around the Christmas Season and the end of the year (New Year's Eve). Marzipan pigs, like this small pig made of Gourmet Marzipan, are Good Luck charms # 1 in Germany. :)

Welcoming 2009

After a pretty hectic time in India, V and I were not up to doing something much on new year's eve. An invitation to spend the night at Thomas and Marianne's house was perfect.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Marianne in a beautiful chikan suit on the occassion. She really looked very nice.

Steven and Marina (Marianne's children) were really friendly and very comfortable quite soon with V and me. Despite our broken English and German respectively.

Some good drinks, great food and the BEST Tiramisu (made by Peter) was a perfect ramp up for THE moment!!! it was midnight!!!

Thomas brought out all the crackers and we were out in the backyard bursting them along with some Sekt to welcome the new year.

Thomas kept to all the BIG ones while Peter and the kids restricted themselves to the smaller stuff.

The one thing that stole the show was Thomas' gun. A gas gun. Was great!!

He had some real loud things loaded into it :) - infact for V and me, the first few moments of 2009 felt like 'diwali' - there was not a quite second...there were fireworks all around us...we had never experienced Germany this way - so loud :)

We went to bed around 4:00 am, 1st Jan 2009 and were up again around 10:30. V and I took a walk around the house to gaze at some really beautiful bunglow's...wished a few people on the street "freues neues Jahr"

Were back for some lovely breakfast.

Breakfast followed by Marianne and Marina playing us some classical music. Marina played her sax followed by her flute. Marianne actually played some Mozart. Wonderful experience.

It was now time to open up Thomas' prized gift - his Hookah!!! He was all set with coal, flavoured tobacco et all. V was given the task to set it up. Then were were all taking turns to turn into dragons. Haha!

V, Peter and I almost stayed over at their place on 1st too. We literally had to force ourselves to move...get set to get out of there. Were on the road around 7:00 pm. They were wonderfully warm, friendly, comfortable and cosy first few days of 2009 for us.

New year wishes to all