Graffiti Bike Ride to Work

It is an absolutely beautiful day in Munich, although...it is supposed to get pretty warm today. So rather than ride my bike along the street to work (perhaps 2-3 minutes faster), I took the river route along the Isar.

I was reading about an application that Adidas launched for the iphone a couple weeks ago (yes, have it on my iphone now...) that allows you to take a "graffiti tour" through Berlin using the GPS capability of your phone. It would be cool to extend the application beyond Berlin, though. Munich might not be such a terrible place to start. Here's my ride to work:

Along the river there is a wide bike/jogger path that has a tremendous amount of traffic on nice mornings although here is doesn't look that busy...


















There are a couple beautiful little ponds with a really large variety of ducks and birds - this morning, just some mallards kicking around, but I've seen some really gorgeous ducks here in the past.
















Under Prinzregentenstrasse there is a crazy tunnel with lights.
At night it is even more beautiful because of the saturation effect of the colors and lights.



















Some samples....




































































































A couple buildings along the path...














A little waterfall on the way (lots of construction here at the moment)














Two years back, we were riding our bikes home after the movies at around 11 pm. A little band had set up their instruments and were playing here where the bridge overhead created echo-y acoustics.















Along the bridge (you are not supposed to ride your bike here...)














Slightly larger dam/waterfall














Graffiti on the wall surrounding my favorite beer garden




























The Volksbad (indoor swimming pool - art deco period, I believe. It is beautiful inside..)


















Along the back of the Volksbad - on the right, a sunny bank where there will be tons of picnics tomorrow during the holiday.















Past one of the two english-language movie theaters in Munich we go to all the time...















And up past Gasteig (symphony hall) and on to work.

Dan Ariely on Behavioural Economics

Particularly interesting short talks (both around 17 min), especially in light of the UK govt expenses scandal at the moment...

Our Buggy Moral Code


and

Are We In Control Of Our Own Decisions?

Next Stop: Schwarzwald

Finally starting to work on my next project although it doesn't officially start until the end of the first week of June.

A few of the more positive aspects:
1. Team is almost all women (the two or three guys on the project are already a little nervous...)
2. A non-telco project for a change (manufacturing! so lots of new aspects to think about)
3) Good length (about 6 weeks in total)
4) Supposedly a nice client (haven't met them yet)

And the more neutral aspect:
It is in the middle of the black forest. Absolutely beautiful beautiful country. But...what can I say, I am more of a city girl. And getting there and back to Munich is only possible with a car or murderous connections with the trains...nevertheless, am happy to be working again on a project and I am sure the green quiet area will be good for me for a couple weeks.

Some views of the city included.

Test a Newspaper?

Just was walking back from lunch with Mallorie a few minutes ago and a guy trying to sell the Sueddeutsche Zeitung (South German Newspaper) to passersby approached us.

"Can I bother you for a moment?"
"Sure."
"Would you like to test out the Sueddeutsche for two weeks for free, absolutely no obligation?"
"No. Thank you. I read the newspaper online."
"Oh, but come on, don't you like reality? See it, touch it, smell it?" he asked, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together near his nose as if to signify the pleasure of sniffing fresh newsprint.
"Hmmm," I answered, "trees?" "the reality of dead trees?"

He was quiet.

We walked away.

SuperCook

Just came across this website that looks reasonably useful. Not sure what to cook? Just enter a few ingredients you have in your kitchen (chicken, rice, flour, onions, etc.) and it will dynamically create a list of recipes you can cook based on what you have. Super easy to use too. The more ingredients you type in, the more suggestions it comes up with. And there is at least a decent number of international suggestions - have seen with just about 10-15 ingredients suggestions for Malasian, Korean, Mexican recipes. Might actually be something I would try out sometime. Especially on a Sunday, when all the grocery stores are closed here and the only place you have a chance of getting groceries is the basement of the train station. (Yes, I have actually done this on occasion.)

Am back at work today, although not feeling like this is the best idea. Probably will go home a bit early today. Ironic is that now that I "know" I am ill, I actually feel worse. Before - I thought it was just some weird weather anomaly or something. Have had all kinds of mixed information on whether or not I am contagious, but am thinking I am not...hoping anyway. :-) Still feeling a bit like a biohazard.

Have cats, books, tea

...soooo not suffering and will go to work tomorrow...I guess. :-)

Working/Sleeping from Home Today

After spending two hours at the doctor this morning and feeling like hell at the moment, am retiring to the bed to sleep. Will hopefully be up and about by tomorrow. :-)

Thankfully, seem to have only mild illness that will go away soon.

Only other time I think I had to wait so long to get in to see a doctor was in the university emergency room in Singapore right after I moved there. Went there in the evening with a 104 degree fever which turned out to be some kind of pneumonia.
(Don't have the original post describing that experience anymore, only the photo. Remember that when I got there, they took my temperature when I walked in and immediately handed me a mask to put on when they saw the result.)

(Ok, had enough of the sick Julie photo from 2007 I had in there before. Will stick with the biohazard garbage photo. ;-) Sort of feeling like biohazard...)

Pad Thai

Never got to see that movie last night surprisingly...so maybe headed there now.
Just finished eating Pad Thai, which turned out well.

As with many southeast asian/chinese dishes, and something I learned from my father when I was little and watched him cook - key is to get all the ingredients prepped and lined up before you start cooking because when you start, you really only have minutes until you're done, and chopping up a missing ingredient on the side simply doesn't work.

Chinese Tower/English Garden

Goal accomplished: after the gym, I spent a good 3-4 hours outside and after dinner will likely head out again. It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Met up with Dominik and his friend Andreas for a drink at the Chinese Tower, which is a convenient 5 minutes away from where we live. (Anyone know of a 1-2 bedroom apartment in Munich for Dominik, please leave me a message and I will pass it on. His American GF gets here in a few weeks and they need a place to live...fast...;-) )

Just now back home, looking out the window at the light on the leaves of the trees surrounding here. Mallorie and I were joking around on Friday (I was in interview training most of the day and during a break she said,

"So, interview me."
So I cracked back: "What's your favorite color?"
She answered seriously, "Green." But then she amended, "Well, green mixed with yellow. But it has to be just the right amount. Nothing fluorescent and brilliant, just the right mix."

And when I look at the leaves here - right at the edges, where the sun fuses through, I think, "that's Mallorie's favorite color.")

Boring but efficient

Stay-out-of-the-kitchen-Thai-noodles

The English garden is yelling for me, so just a simple meal tonight.
Pad Thai and a cucumber salad probably.

Trying to remember the first time I had pad Thai. I think it must have
been when I was 13 or 14 and Thai food started to get popular where we
lived.

A little ironic is that when I was visiting Thailand in 2004, I don't
think I ate any noodles...seems very odd now.

Weather recovery

Marienplatz, around 5 pm. And now it's beautiful out. Tommorow too.
Big smiley face. Off to the movies now. Something with Julia Roberts
and Clive Owens.

No-Calorie TV: Kuchenschlacht

We gave up our TV in 2005 when we moved to Singapore, which was a
really good decision. Even when there are times when I'm tired and
don't feel like reading or cooking or talking with friends, more often
then not I am thankful that the big black box (or I guess it would be
a flat panel these days) is not there to suck me into the void. Ok, I
admit that to a large extent the laptop has merely replaced it. *But*
at least in this case I am actively choosing what to watch or read or
listen to.

Nevertheless, a guilty pleasure at the gym remains watching a cooking
show on Sat morning. It's fairly long (makes for a long workout then
if I want to watch the whole thing...) and...I think called
"kuchenschlacht" - literally "kitchen butchery." Hardly a new concept,
but done really well by ZDF-amatuer cooks compete against one another
for a week to see who is the best cook. They are judged by
professional chefs along the way and each day, one is removed from the
lineup. I like the show because as an amatuer myself, I am really
learning a few things. The competitors make mistakes I make and get
tips for improvement.

Today's show especially good. There were a bunch of recipes I wanted
to try.

Therefore, looks like I got my no-calorie tv for the day....

Waiting for the Sun

This is getting pretty irritating. Maybe I should just be grateful I don't live in the UK or something, where theoretically it is worse. I am just looking for commiseraters.
A couple screenshots from some local webcams:













































Thankfully, Google Reader has a nice line-up of 648 articles for me to read while I wait for the sun to come out so I can get on the bike and go to the gym.

Spritz

A popular Italian summer drink...the spritz. A bit sweet, a bit bitter, nice and cold (on hot days...which it is unfortunately NOT at the moment).

What *I* think is really cool, even if not used to its full advantage in this particular instance is that this blog entry was created in about 5 min from start to finish. Point, shoot, edit, 1-finger text entry, upload and voila! Published directly to the weblog.

Did I mention...I did that with an iPhone? ;-)

Aloo Paratha: tasty but wrong

Probably only one entry today because I am doing some training most of the day, but here's a quick one.

Last night, wanted a simple dinner and decided to try to make aloo paratha (whole wheat indian bread stuffed with spicy potato filling). I'd seen a recipe with pomegranate seeds last weekend that sounded really nice.

My results? Well, too thick, not round as they should be. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. Here's a photo of how they turned out:




So this morning (had aloo paratha for breakfast...and looks like I will be eating aloo paratha for a while based on the fact that I made 12...but at least I froze half of them) I googled it - should'a done that LAST night - and found this indian woman who did a great demo of how to make them.
Will try again....in a few months...when I run out of the ones I made. ;-)

Bike to Work Week

A friend of mine who lives in Georgia (hi tracie :-) ) is busy promoting the "bike to work" week. (Apparently this week). She's always been an avid cyclist and I remember when I lived in Berkeley a million years ago and worked together with her, we bought the same bikes. I think she is still riding hers while mine...uh...got a little rusty from being rained on and snowed on and...hmmm.

What's nice now is that I live in an area of Munich and work for a company where riding to work is the norm for me when the weather is ...collaborating with me. Today was a bit questionable, and as you can see by the photo i just took of the backyard here at work and the sky above...while there is no rain at this very minute...it is threatening to come again very soon. Oh wait, I take it back. It just started to pour. Riding home will be fun.















Anyway, so I promised Tracie I would show how Munich is such a bike-friendly city.
A few photos from around here...:


No cars allowed in this direction, but bikes are allowed. :-)



















Bike lanes next to the street...
















Bikes parked outside workplaces...
















Not bad. :-) Although I get yelled at all the time by pedestrians who think they own the sidewalks. Argh.

Visual Menu ;-)

Fulfilling a request.
I didn't make the Char Kway Teo though.

Chicken Patiala

For people looking for a recipe for chicken patiala - look at a later post of mine here: http://juliecanblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/chicken-patiala-take-2.html. It turned out quite well although is not perhaps the classical recipe.

The sun actually came out for about an hour mid-day today and I decided to take advantage of it. So instead of going out and having lunch with colleagues, I went and walked around a couple streets away from the office in an area I haven't really seen. During the stroll, I walked past a French cooking store - with all kinds of pots and pans as well as spices, liquors, sweets, etc. So I couldn't help but go in and at least look around. In the end, I only bought one small thing - something I had meant to buy ever since I got back from Singapore: rosewater. You can get it here in general, but it's probably most commonly found in pharmacies, of all places.

The reason I had wanted it was because one of the meals we had in Singapore in early April was at an Indian restaurant called Yantra (here are a couple photos I took when we were there of one of the beautiful tandoors at the restaurant and the guy who was cooking in them)




























where I had a dish I had never had before: Chicken Patiala. (and...here's Patiala - south east Punjab, India)












On the menu, the description of the dish (creamy chicken dish) is one that would never ever have interested me much (I like tomato/onion based sauces and spicy. Creamy, mild, white - no thanks). But Rohit, a friend with us, suggested it and said we wouldn't be likely to come across the dish very regularly. And in the end, it was one of the best things I ate on the trip.

What was funny, was that I asked for the recipe almost right away but never got it. We started out by asking the waiter. He said he would try. When he came back some minutes later, he didn't mention the request. So I asked - "any luck getting the recipe?" He looked a bit embarrassed and mumbled something about cream and chicken. So then we tackled the host. Rohit pulled him aside and asked (in punjabi?) for the recipe and gave the guy...a look. And then Rohit turned to me and said "he'll get it." Ten minutes later, the guy came back and said... "well, the chef said he would tell you the ingredients, but not the quantities." I said "fine, that works for me." As we were paying, I was handed a slip of paper and Rohit was given some kind of nod. But a quick glance to the paper revealed immediately that it was inaccurate. One of the key ingredients in the VERSION that we ate was missing completely: rosewater. And so I suspected that there might be other ingredients missing The rosewater was lovely and subtle - that perfumey note that swam through the creamy sauce. But it was unmistakable and it was nowhere on that slip of paper.

So...I'm left with experimentation. Online I've found a few versions of the recipe - and even some photos of what it should look like (like this one)









- but the version I ate was almost a pure white, and while being rich and creamy, had an incredible depth of flavor that I wouldn't normally find in a creamy sauce. So...i have the rosewater...now just need the recipe. Any hints? ;-)

Bike yard flowers

Anyone know what these are called? It is a bush in the yard next to
our bikes that blooms every year about this time. I think I have to go
down later and cut off a few branches. I'm not a big fan of
purple...but these are really beautiful.

Spring for Lunch

Well...Vietnamese spring rolls and strawberries. Close enough.

Behavioral Targeting (Yes), Execution (No)

What I like on Facebook at the moment is the fact that it seems to be doing behavioral targeting successfully. The ads that are being served up to me these days are more often than not things I am interested in. Read: travel, technology, singapore, etc.

So this morning, I saw an ad off on the side for a contest where you can win a free trip to Singapore. Cool. So...click.

Have to add an application...well...ok.



























But then you click through on this page...to the Contest sponsor website (Uniquely Singapore)...and you get this:











Still theoretically ok. Until....you click further and get this:









At which point you write a short letter of complaint.

Trying to fix comments

I have no idea what is wrong with the comments...will try to fix today/tomorrow...

Green Isabella

Sorry - I keep laughing at these. A friend sent me the link a few days ago, and I think they are brilliant, even if they are strange.

I won't say much other than search - and take a look at a few.
My favorites - definitely spider and bee and snail from season 1, limpet from season 2. Very dramatic.

Green Isabella

DoYouPoken?

Playing with new toy that people around the office are all buying from Ingo, who has seemed to have started a bit of a trend.


A tangible social networking device for the super geeky...(www.doyoupoken.com)

For 10 euros, you get a little RFID-enabled USB device where you can upload all your social networking data (Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Flickr, Plaxo, etc.) and then when you meet someone on the street who also has a device, touch them together, watch the little light turn green - data exchanged.

Interesting way to link the tangible to the digital.
Then, upload the data you've collected via USB.


Finally, manage your little poken profile online:


And of course, there are whole communities springing up at the moment around the toy. Ingo thinks they should distribute these things in McDonald's happy meals...I'm not so sure.


Anyway, fun for the moment. Or the minute.

Cave Day

It's just one of those days when you want to curl up in a soft warm place and nap.
But unless you are a cat....

...you go to work.