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

There comes Santa

Santa Claus hanging on the balcony grill/ pipes...
showing him potential ways to enter the house??

This is quite an unique sight here in Germany.

Its cute I thought :)

Back in Germany - married!!

After a long drawn relationship, stressfull, big fat indian wedding, V and I are finally, 'officially' married (still hard to believe sometimes). Our trip to India was very hectic. Contrary to our skepticism, things went off without any show-stoppers.

We got back to germany, and "our" apartment in Wiesloch on Saturday.
We look forward to spending our new life as a 'married' couple, here among our lovely friends. It was really great to have some of them attend our wedding in India.
They left a lasting impression on all our friends and relatives who attended our wedding.
(more photos to come...)

leaving on a jet plane

V and I fly to Bangalore tomorrow to begin the countdown (together) of our wedding!!!! my gawd!! its overwhelming and exciting at the same time.

I am equipped with stress relieving, sleep inducing pills to cope with it all :) - thanks Eva :D

wedding invites

getting the wedding invites done isnt an easy task anywhere. i took this task upon myself - i would do it in Germany. phew! this personal project of mine was a difficult one. first it took me a while to decide the design, then i had these dreams of the kind of paper i wanted...went looking for it...found it...but the colors did not work right on this textured paper. so i was soon back to the drawing board.

1st round of iteration - get pragmatic - change color, change paper...

2nd round of iteration - get more pragmatic - change design to be more simple and minimalist - single sheet card!!! - white paper!!!!

• scouted for printers...mannheim; heidelberg
• explained what i wanted...when i wanted it...all the while using my limited german language skills...hoping i was saying the right thing and i will get the right result (read - the card)
• place orders...
• made it to the printer on time to learn nothing got printed due to technical problems...
• scout for printers again, this time found one right next to my apartment. a really good one. DruckHaus, Wiesloch. I couldnt believe i didnt notice this place before. More so, I even found a nice paper store in Wiesloch Zentrum. MAN!!! and I was running around everywhere.

Finally I got the wedding invites on my hand just a couple of days before taking the flight back to Bangalore. I have to say, I was (am) more than satisfied with the end result.

It was a good learning experience, I look forward to seeing my friends from Germany at the wedding. I hope it is an enjoyable experience for them in Lucknow, Delhi.