Diminutive

Back to raining gray Munich now, (well Brussels was just as rainy and gray I suppose), and have been sent to the next client already...which is quite ok. Ramping up quickly. Switching from Pharma to Media - like switching to another part of my brain.

All in all, though the Brussels trip was a lot of work and not so much sleep for a night, had a lot of fun with the UK team (thank you Anand, Bradley, Robert, Richard, Andy, Anthony...) on Tuesday night and during the presentation on Wednesday.

I managed to try a few of the Belgium specialties: a plate of frog legs, plenty of fries, some very nice mashed potatoes, a couple glasses of Chimay ale, a bite of a crepe and a bite of a waffle, some chocolate (wasn't that impressed...), and the most expensive (22 Euros!) but very tasty hamburger I think I have ever eaten (which is admittedly not Belgian.)

Was overwhelmed by one ever-present feature in all the streets of Brussels. The famous Mannequin Pis - which they even sold for 8.50 euros in the minibar of my hotel room. You wander around the city and this guy is EVERYWHERE. An hour before I headed to the airport to head home I made Bradley take me over to see the statue, which was only a few streets away from the hotel we were in. As we approached, I was astounded by the size of the thing which has left its impression all over the city (even saw a painting of it on a coke machine at the airport). It can't be more than a foot and a half tall. I exclaimed "that's it?!" and Bradley said "yup." And the 20 tourists that were standing around looking at the thing cracked up laughing and started nodding at me.




Need to look up the story behind the statue I guess...

Brussels

Flew in to arrive mid-day for a pitch tomorrow afternoon. Ended up on the morning flight rather than evening in order to keep the costs down which has its plusses and minusses. Minus=get up early and deal with the rush hour commuters on the way to the airport. Plus=rest of team gets in around 6 pm, leaving me with a few hours to relax. Um, I mean, work really hard in my hotel room. ;-)

In all seriousness, I guess I get to do both. I took an hour out to go down and walk around and pick up a really nice bio sandwich and salad for lunch and pop my head into a few shops. I've never been to Belgium before, so this is finally a new country for me - first one in many years. (Yeah, i gotta get out and see more of Europe...). Not that I will be able to boast that I saw Belgium in the few hours I will have to explore.

I *knew* Belgium was famous for chocolate (among other food items...which are turning my head right and left as I walk down the street - waffles, fries, mussels, seafood everywhere), but I don't think I have ever seen so many chocolate shops in my life. Rather overwhelming. Of course I will take some chocolate home...but I wouldn't even know where to buy it - one chocolate from 20 different shops I guess....:-P

Meanwhile, the wall of beer/ale in another store had me pretty awed as well...

And the cathedral in the center - just had time for a snap and then I turned and headed back to the hotel. Time to work for a bit, but the team heads out for dinner together tonight, and that should be fun. The concierge recommended a French place and a Belgian place, but if I know the UK guys, we're gonna end up in a pub. ;-) Actually, everyone is recommending mussels and fries (very Belgian!), which sounds like a good plan to me.

Resurrection?

Walking to work today, I passed this rather frightening newspaper...


Translated, the headline reads:
"Man hung dead in cellar for 13 years."

I didn't buy a copy of the paper to read it, but sort of wondered...

"What now?"

Did he return to life after 13 years of being dead?

Who found him?

Why didn't anyone go down to the cellar for 13 years?

What made them FINALLY go down there?

So many questions....

Maybe I should have bought the paper.

Lucky Buddha Pears

I have a beer bottle (originally filled with beer) that I bought in Singapore because of the fact that it was in the shape of a buddha. Called "Lucky" beer, I am guessing it sells really well around the time of the Chinese New Year (late January, early February).


Just saw this, though....over on Boing Boing.

I wonder if they call these Lucky pears...



...and I wonder if they are lucky.

Jackfruit

It feels normal to be back in the office and in front of a computer again. Although when I stepped outside to get something for lunch today, the warm air and sun was much more inviting than the office buzz, phones, and LCD monitors. It's HOT here, though, and I wonder if the frozen shrimp I bought during my lunch run will make it home in ice-cube state or if I will have a drippy mess when I get to the door. The streets in Munich are all torn up everywhere - everyone is on vacation now, so the city decided to do all the road work at once - a big mess getting around, even on a bike. Hoping the repairs go quickly. Meanwhile, on a bike, one has to weave around the pedestrians and the few cars that manage to remain on the road which makes the going a bit slower than usual.

Saw these two lovely jackfruit during my lunch run as well, although they will not accompany the shrimp home. One of my favorite tropical fruits, I think I ate it from a can the first time 20 years ago. Used to eat it fresh in Singapore all the time, and as you can see, it's still possible to get here, but the pricing is a bit different. And like lychees, jackfruit manages to keep its texture and flavor when it gets canned, so it's not a bad option.

Not A Fun Way To Begin The Day

Tiny News

It's Sunday and the New York Times gets delivered here on Sunday.
After years of reading it online, I'm not used to the real thing. But
here it is and sitting in front of it is a strange feeling because it
is so damn *small*. Literally, physically. I know it is a cost saving
measure-less paper and ink means less cost, but it's still strange. I
used to be able to spread the thing across the table or bed and it
would be an effort to manage the size of the broadsheet. But now, its
dimunutive form makes me wonder at what i'll find inside. Less news,
fewer photos, different experience? And i have just glanced through
the headlines and already recognized a few of them from the online
edition yesterday. But still, it is a moment or two to relax. Enjoy
the morning sun and toast with butter and get lost for a bit in
another place as I read.

Beach

Surfer

Guardian

O-my

Peaches

Sunrise

Fog City

am crashing now...soooooo tired.

Swiss Ice Tea

At the bakery this evening, on my way home from work, I did a double-
take when I ran into this. So i bought one. I mean, it's being legally
sold at my *bakery* so what could it possibly do? But what might be
more amusing would be to take it with me on my trip to San Francisco
tomorrow...

Description: Black tea with Swiss syrup of hemp blossoms and Swiss
extract of hemp blossoms.

Slogan at the bottom: "fantastic natural feeling." hmmm, what kind of
fantastic natural feeling??

Deerfield Cellar Rat

Shameless plug for Addison Rex's blog here.
Check it out.


I met Addison when he was 5 years old and running around my first post-university boss' home. :-) Now 21 (or 20? how old are you Addison?), Addison, aka "the Cellar Rat," is learning how to make wine from his uncle in northern California.


Interested in the wine-making process? Take a look at Addison's blog. He's not a bad writer - guess he takes after his Mom. ;-)

Key Lime Pie

I had a couple requests for the recipe for Key Lime Pie...so here we go:

1 cup plus 2.5 TBS graham/cracker crumbs (Deutschland - Leibniz Butter Keks)
5 TBS unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1.5 tsp grated lime zest
1 can sweetened condensed milk (1 Dose gezuckert Kondensmilch)
2/3 cup fresh lime juice (key lime if you can find them...)
1 cup cream
3 TBS powder sugar (Puderzucker)

Preheat over to 350 degrees F (160 C)
In a large mixing bowl, combine graham crackers, butter and sugar.
Press mixture into bottom and sides of a buttered 9-inch pie pan, forming a neat border around edge. Bake crust about 5 minutes until slightly golden
(Note: I used crushed almonds instead of graham crackers...and I made individual mini key lime pies in ceramic ramekins...)

In another bowl, beat egg yolks and lime zest at high speed for about 5 min or until very shiny. Gradually add the condensed milk and beat another 3-4 min or until thick. Add lime juice and mix until just combined.

Pour mixture into pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes.

Let cool.

To serve: combine cream and powdered sugar and whisk until stiff. Serve pie with a couple spoonfuls of the cream (or vanilla ice cream as an alternative...)

Enjoy.

Anyone for a Glass of Wine in a Summer Garden?

Bird Houses

Nice long walk in the woods this morning. The trees in the black forest are full of bird houses. "Why?" I asked Andreas when I got back and showed him the photos. "Well, because there are a lot of birds." Ooookay, makes sense. ;-)

Black Forest Should Be Called Brown

???

Mangold

no photo tinkering. Real colors.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

...it's a hot air balloon advertising something or other. Contributing
to the 3000+ marketing messages an average person gets bombarded with daily. You'd think people would try to be a little more creative these days and leave the hot air balloons alone. I should put together a collection of some smart ads-have seen some good ones lately.

Adoration and Comfort Rolled into One

Some days (or nights) you just want something like this pointed at you
for a few hours. :-P Or head for a pool? Oh yeah-next week I will be
at the pool (and beach). Crash of waves, sea air, screaming gulls,
wind and the smell of bay and eucalyptus trees.

Legacy

Wow!!! Mom! :-)
Just saw Andrea's photos on facebook with you. I couldn't figure out who she was until I saw this photo and her caption. How many years ago was she a student of yours? I read the caption and was very proud. :-)

I think I'll Pass On This One

Future Bike

When we were in Paris a couple weeks ago, one of the things we were really impressed with was the French Government's bike rental scheme. Unlike the Deutsche Bahn's for-profit program, the French program is non-profit (actually, it is not only non-profit, the bike rental prices are government-subsidized, I think.). Which meant the prices for the bikes was incredibly reasonable. The first half hour was free and every half hour after that was perhaps 50 cents. And the bike stations were everywhere. I'm sure by now there have been some studies done to monitor the effectiveness of the program (I believe that the program was created primarily to get cars off the street, but other motivations included increasing general health of the population by helping increase their physical exercise levels and lowering pollution levels in the city), but I don't know about how successful the French government considers the program.

Here, you can take a look at the bikes.



They were a bit clunky, but I am guessing pleasant enough to ride.
We didn't get a chance to rent them because we didn't stay in Paris long enough.


































This morning I came across an article on a concept bike (and actually a whole concept for transportation) created for the city of London. Sounds like it was created for a competition (and this was the winning entry). You can read about the concept here if you are interested. But take a look at the bike they created/concepted - it's beautiful - and if it could actually work, pretty brilliant.


The idea is basically that when you use it like a bike, the energy you create by peddling is somehow stored within the bike. And then when you want to use it as a scooter, the energy that you stored within the bike is used to power the motor. The concept goes even further - showing how the bikes could be collapsed and folded to be transported on a bus - which in turn could be partially powered by the stored energy in the bikes (and used to pay your fare.) I wonder if something like this will really be reality in 20 years...or less?

Convenient Timing

Loooookeeee

I am sitting in a restaurant right now drinking a cold strawberry smoothie. The restaurant has a nice wooden bar so i sat down at it and begged for the smoothie, which cannot be found on the menu, but for which I had a strong craving suddenly. And as i was sitting here waiting for the nice bartender to whip something up that vaguely fit the term "smoothie," i saw something in the corner of my eye. A magazine. And as I looked at the photo on the cover, i thought...."hmmmm, somehow seems familiar." So i went and picked it up, looked at the photo again, and then flipped it open to see who the photographer was. Ok, you can guess now. :-)))))