Things You Buy When You're Alone - London/Munich Edition

One of the sad things about being in Munchen is that I've basically moved from being surrounded by people and sound to now being isolated. This has been made worse by Toshi dying *sniffle mourn mourn* but marginally better by TeeCee taking up the void - able to watch Youtube in bed, yay! 

When Pooey was alone, she bought herself a pair of Totoros while in Adelaide, and in the comments for the entry, she noted that she talks to them when she comes home from work, Castaway-style. I now have my own silent conversant to greet when I arrive home/sleeping cuddlebuddy - Pooh bear!

 Ohai Pooh! He's so happy after waiting for me to come home to talk to him.

Pooh was purchased at the Disney Store Oxford St. Giant (60cm?) Poohs were actually on special for 20 quid. I was so tempted to buy one to keep Normal Pooh company except for the sad fact that since I was flying Easyjet, I would have to check either him or my bag in as a piece of luggage. As I paid for Pooh, the shop attendant even said, "You know its the large ones and not this size that's on special?" Yeah, thanks for rubbing it in.

Later, Soph watched with a bit of amazement as Pooh and I conversed and bonded. Turns out Pooh is a bit vulgar (he burps and scratches) but I'm sure that away from the bad influence of the shopping crowds that will lessen with time!

Places to Stay When You're Alone

...except I wasn't really alone, it was just the last night in London before catching mein flugzeug nach Muenchen. Given that the flight was supposed to leave at 6:20am and the gate was closing at 5:50am, I decided it would be best to sleep at the airport. Now, I was fully intending to pull an airport hobo stint and actually sleep on the terminal seats, but you know, Gatwick isn't as clean as Franz-Joseph Strauss, and I decided to book myself into one of the hotels. 

I considered going into the Sofitel (haha snort) but ended up deciding on the adventure that would be the YOtel. Upon arriving, everything seemed alright with gentle purple-tinged lighting to help ppl feel sleepy. The staff were friendly and asked if there was anything I needed - I requested a wake up call at 4:30am and was handed an alarm clock. Fair enough.

Upon arriving at my pod, I burst into laughter - the layout was...interesting. The purple lighting continued and in that small windowless pod, it made me immediately think of shooting up. I quickly had to turn on the big lights which somehow made the room seem smaller. It was about 2m x 3m? and divided by a glass wall indicating the bathroom with the bed pod built into the wall. I naturally did what we'd normally do in this situation - take photos!

 

Standing at the (closed) door looking in

 

Sitting on the loo, looking towards the bed!

Lying in bed, looking towards the door and toilet

 

Flatscreen tv at the foot of the bed! Handy! Also, take note that the walls and edges of the pod are padded to stop one from smashing themselves on it.

 

And sitting at the TV, looking towards my bags and the shower half of the bathroom.

I hope the pics give an indication of how it lived up to its tiny reputation! I probably could have touched wall to wall. That might be an exaggeration. Despite the small size, it was kinda cool and since it was only me, the lack of size wasn't so bad. I took a shower repacked my luggage, keeping my flight clothes out, hopped into bed, turned the tv on for some nightnoise, and availed myself to the free wifi. 

My sole complaint was the alarm clock didn't go off and I ended up waking at 4:50 and furiously had to get myself out in 10minutes. Would I do it again? Hell yes - it was 50 quid for 8 hours. But next time I'll bring a proper alarm with me. 

The Elusive Hot Ginger Male.

To be honest, I've never really understood Ginger/Ranga/Redhead jokes. I find them entertaining and join in on them but I never really understood why people would get picked on due to their hair colour. *shrug* One thing we have figured out (another one of those tea-room conversations) is that red-headed women are hot, red-headed men are not. Ewan McGregor being the sole exception that we could agree on. Now, I would like to add another one to the list. But again, I accept that people may disagree!

Watching TV over the past few days in Rundon, I became reacquainted with one Damian Lewis. 

Not the clip we saw. 

Soph and I both agreed - he was hot! No doubt helped along with that voice! But you may wonder why I said 'reacquainted'. Well he was also in Band of Brothers as Maj. Richard Winters:

Speaking with an American accent - booo!

But also as Soames Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga

Complicated man, Soames Forsyte. I still can't decide if he's horrible or misunderstood.

Not too many people can rock an Edwardian costume. Not many at all. And he's done more recent stuff (most notably, Life) but I think the supplied clips are enough evidence of hotness! So yes, the current count for hot Ginger males currently stands at 2. Any other nominations?

Things you eat when you're alone - München Edition

I think I've been pretty good about what I've been eating while in this city. I've generally been making myself scratch dinners - albeit huge servings of them because I haven't quite mastered cooking for one, and then astounding people at work who don't realise that my moderately small size hides a stomach of ten kings - but still, I think I've been pretty good at avoiding foods that are too bad.

That was until this week.

I was supposed to meet a girl to look at her spare room at the time of 8:30pm. Due to various bus and train linkages I had to make, I calculated that I would not have time to leave Neuherberg, go to Unterschleissheim, eat dinner, then return to Maxvorstadt/Schwabing in time for the meeting, and so I decided to just go to the city straight from work. This then resulted in the problem of what to get for dinner. I didn't feel like standing in the cold and eating a (very delicious) bratwurst and I lacked the funds to go somewhere expensive. So I fell back on that old friend to homeless people in need, Maccas. I got a Happy Meal (mit ketchup for my frites) because apparently small cheeseburger meals don't exist in this country! And I sat inside, happily playing with my (H)Teecee.

Oh, and here's the toy I got.

How appropriate!

Fucking Easyjet & Gatwick

I made a spur of the moment decision to go to Rundon for Xmas because most of the people I knew in Muenchen were going away and I didn't want to be homesick all on my lonesome (oh, woe is me). Now, because I'd left it late, flights were expensive or non-existent. So that's when I decided to buy tickets with Easyjet. I have flown budget airlines before and said *No more* afterwards, but it was either go budget or pay €400+ for a flight. Via Helsinki.

Everything started off okay. I was booked to fly out from Munich at 10pm and arrive at 11pm at Gatwick. The snow had pretty much melted on my end (amazing but true!) and Gatwick was completely open! I got to MUC nice and early, coincidentally ran into Chris so we went off and got bowls of soup together, and since I already had my boarding pass and no bags to check in, I went straight to gate for boarding.

While sitting around and doing my Posh Wordfind (fanks Laulita!), there was a message on a loudspeaker saying the flight was delayed an hour. Hmmmm....not ideal but I could deal with that, I thought as I purchased from duty-free vodka. An hour later, everyone was getting twitchy as we got another announcement saying it has been delayed ANOTHER HOUR. But I tried to bear it goodnaturedly - I mean, what other options did I have?

Now, Easyjet have a one piece of handluggage policy. I had my Garfield bag and in my hands I held a plastic bag with my HTC, passport, purse, hat, and gloves. The Easyhet woman told me my plastic bag consisted of two pieces of handluggage and I needed to repack it. I was a bit *WTF?!* but as I watched someone try to cram her laptop into her roller, I put the hat and gloves on, the passport and phone into my pocket, and my purse into Garfield, locked it, and strolled onto the plane. The flight was fairly uneventful other than the kid next to me trying to use me as a resting pole, and surreptitiously turning on TeeCee to look up Soph's address for the UK landing card.

The trouble restarted when we arrived at Gatwick. Coming in two hours late, there was a bit of a backlog of planes looking for a gate to pull into. That's okay, I could deal with that. We ended up waiting for about 15 minutes when we pulled into a gate. We the waited at the gate. And waited. And waited. There was an announcment saying that there was a flight of stairs outside the plane but  no one there to open the doors. Then the electricity to the plane was switched off. At this point, even the staff had a mini freak out at the thought of us sitting on the tarmac for an indeterminate amount of time. Something in the plane was turned off and lights came back, thank god. All in all, we waited for about an hour before being allowed off and into the terminal.

At this point, I had a bit of luck as I was sitting close to the front of the plane, and as a non UK/EU resident, I went to a queue that had no other people in it and got through passport control quick-snap. This is when the trouble re-started. I'd been fiddling with my lock to get my purse out so I could get money out to buy a Gatwick express ticket to Victoria. It wouldn't open. I tried and tried and tried...NOTHING!! As I mentally cursed Easyjet for making me repack my bag, I figured I'd just accept it and ask Customs to crack open the lock. Except there was no one at Customs. I waited. And waited. In the end, I just went through the gate and asked the security guy if he had something we could use to crack it open. No joy. He suggested I go out and ring the Information Desk - the desk not being manned because it was close to 2am at this point. I rang them and they suggested I go to a company called Excess Baggage and ask if they had tools for breaking it open. They didn't, and suggested I go to Oversized baggage pick up and ask them. I went to the Oversized Baggage and asked them. They said I should go to Excess Baggage, or failing that, RING INFORMATION. I gave up and decided to walk to the train section and, finding an empty bench, started to sequentially go through the combinations of my lock and call Soph to explain the further delay. Then a guy for the Gatwick express came along and asked if he could help me. I explained the situation and, lo and behold! he pulled out his keys, picked a bar from them and used it to jimmy open the lock. WHY THE HELL COULDN'T ANYONE ELSE DO THAT?!?!?

My purse liberated, I bought a ticket to Victoria, and boarded the train. Having been held up at Gatwick, I ended up missing a bus to Soph's place, and ended up boarding a bus at 3:15am, arriving at her place around 4am, cold, cranky, and pretty fucking tired. But I will not let this wreck my time! NO I WILL NOT!!! As far as I see it, it can only get better from here. Merry Xmas everyone! 

General rundown

Here's a quick summary of what's been happening in the last week when I couldn't write in this blog:

1. Despite being what is apparently the coldest start to winter in I don't know how many years (everyone keeps saying snow at this time of year isn't normal), I think I've been handling it quite well! The sole exceptions were when the S-bahn to my village broke down but they kept telling us it was coming in 25 minutes and I ended up waiting for over an hour, after which I ended up calling someone to get me. The other exception was when I was an hour late to a meeting because it took me 2.5 hours to travel 7km from the village to work. I can walk at a steady 6kmh - I could have walked that faster! Okay, lets say in snow/ice I will walk at half that speed - I STILL could have walked that faster!

2. But its okay, I've found somewhere to live inside the city! Okay, it's not in one of the beautiful Altbaus (old buildings) of Schwabing: 

 Believe it or not, I had an interview for a room in that building with the round tower! 

Alas, not actually in the tower.

but its in the next suburb over! No more waiting for the S-bahn!

3. After Toshi died, I went out and got a smartphone. And no, it's not an iPhone. I'm still looking for a replacement toshi though :(

4. I bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in German. Let the learning commence!

Movie review - Never Let Me Go

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel of the same title, the in-flight entertainment magazine recommended Never Let Me Go as the movie to watch on the way to Muenchen. According to IMDB, this movie was never and does not have a release date for Australia. To that I ask, why?! Spoilers abound but I guess if anyone knows anything about the film/book, it's not really a spoiler at all.

Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth (Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Keira Knightley as adults) are three students at Hailsham, a boarding school in the English countryside presided over by a stern headmistress (Charlotte Rampling). They wear uniforms, have classes, play sports, etc etc. Kathy's got a bit of crush on Tommy, he has a bit of a temper, and Ruth's a bit of mean girl in the making, but everything points to a normal children. Our perception of everything is then changed when a soft-hearted teacher (Sally Hawkins) reveals that the children have clearly never been told that they have in fact been engineered as a donor organ bank for transplants when they reach adulthood. Although they don't quite understand it, this knowledge affects them as they directly and inadvertently search for ways to prolong their lives.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? I'll admit, I never read the novel for whatever reason so I don't know how it differs from the original text but watching this makes me want to read it. Perhaps what I liked best is that the movie presents itself so normally and that it's up to the viewer to decide what it's about. Excluding the sci-fi cloning angle (which is not really explored other than when they try to figure out who their original was), it could just be a story about kids who grew up together and do things to prove their worth. But it is the presence of that piece of information that changes our perception of them and their perception of themselves. To me, the movie itself is a meditation on the nature of love, jealousy, and choice, with a little bit of the ethics of cloning. Whether you're a clone or not, life is short  the choices we make have aims and consequences even if they're not readily apparent.

A particular strength of the movie is the characterisation and acting. At times Mulligan's clueless expression made me want to slap Kathy for her seemingly spineless character and avoidance of life, until it is revealed later that this is an extension of how she doesn't know what parts of her are purely her or if everything she feels herself to be comes from her original source. The flipside is Knightley's performance as Ruth. Someone who comes across as shrill for me,  this time instead comes out as show what Ruth is willing to do to live longer than her allocated time. One of the most compelling scenes for me is the sight of Ruth lying blank and motionless after her final (fatal) donation knowing how full of life she was mere minutes (or years in movie time) she was beforehand. And then of course there is Garfield, who starts Tommy off as a clueless teen who goes along with the flow, following his p33n, to the guy who realises the mistakes he has made in his youthful choices, and then the devasted realisation that he will never be able to prove his humanity and be given the chance to live long enough to make up for it. *sniffles* 

Oh, and this movie continues my semi-crush on him - proof that he's a bit alright even without excellent tailoring and with horrible buzzcut. 

The movie isn't for everyone though. Filmed with a muted, some might say drab, palette, the visuals aren't awe-inspiring as if to highlight how normal and ordinary their world is, other than the reason for their existence. Likewise, the direction by Mark Romanek could be described as thoughful or as ponderously slow with a rushed ending, although I see that more as the way lives are lived - days start off slow and then we try to cram everything in before we can't  anymore.   
 

Interesting. I think it would make an excellent study text/movie in conjunction with Blade Runner. 
8/10

OH NOES!!!!

I have/had a number of topics I wanted to write about but haven't been able to write these entries up for whatever reason, usually involving me being damn tired (only just kicked the jetlag!) or damn busy (I need somewhere permanent to live!). 

Now, I have another reason. 

Something happened to my faithful, wonderful Toshi, and now he tells  me there's a Fatal System Error when trying to boot Windows! I'm pretty sure I know how to try and fix the problem but it involves using the WinXP Pro disk....that I left....in Melbs....*sigh*. Otherwise, I'm scouting out ppl here for some help. Otherwise, *sob*

The only thing that comforts me is that Toshi gave me 4.5 years of faithful service so in computer years, it was about time I let him enter full retirement. But still...*sigh* 

Lebkuchen

So when I met up with Chris to go to the Englischer Garten Xmas Market, he asked me the (silly) question, "Do you like gingerbread and marzipan?" Heh. When I responded in the positive, he said I needed to get some lebkuchen at a very good stall in the market. 

To quote wiki, Lebkuchen is a traditional biscuit baked for Christmas and can contain all kinds of ingredients. We went to the Wimmer stall which smelled delicious and had HEAPS of different lebkuchens for about 2.5o€ each, or a multipack containing the most popular ones for just under 9€. My reaction: "AWESOME!!!! Buy more for cheaper!" Chris' reaction: "WTH?! That's so expensive, there's a bakery near my place that makes them much cheaper!" Needless to say, I bought the multipack for us to split but he said I should eat them all because he could get them from the cheaper shop.  

I took them to work where I am slowly sharing them with my workmates because at 10cm in diameter, they're really for sharing. Their reaction when I showed them the bag: "AWESOME!!!" and as we started eating them: "THESE ARE REALLY GOOD!" as well as the observation that I had clearly bought some really expensive ones because they are AWESOME. I'll confess, each time I ate a piece I actually thought, "I love Muenchen." Such is the power of lebkuchen. 

Another Awesome and Craptastic!

Awesome: Work gave me a desktop computer to use and said if I wanted to buy one, they could get one discounted.
Craptastic: I'd have to use German software. 

Think about it. 

Awesome: I saw a Porsche in the carpark. Even accounting for Germany... a RESEARCH scientist with a PORSCHE?!?!! 
Craptastic: I found out he didn't buy it on his income.

The Awesome and the Craptastic.

The Awesome: I'm not a great lover of hot weather, and the snow is very beautiful. I'm still mildly fascinated by watching snow fall and trudging through it when it's soft and puffy.The Craptastic: When snow goes sludgy, muddy, and icy, it's #$@!%ng annoying! And it really stuffs up the public transport (bus) system.


The Awesome: My village is quite small and cute and is serviced by the S-bahn and some bus routes. My current accom is only a few minutes walk away from both!
The Craptastic: Despite being only 7km away from the 'Stute, I need to take TWO buses to get to work! And then on Monday, after a heavy snow, what normally takes about 20 minutes took TWO AND A HALF HOURS. I could have walked the distances faster than that and kept warm to boot!


The Awesome: Being in Europe, I'm surrounded by European-styling and products in the shops. I may have already bought myself several things. 
The Craptastic: Shops close at 8pm?!?! Department stores, okay, that's fine. But supermarkets?!?! I forgot that I needed to buy some shampoo and by the time I realised, it was too late!


The Awesome: When I opened my bank account, they automatically gave me 50 euros.
The Craptastic: I haven't received the PIN yet to actually access my money! And all the mail I get is in German! Who would have thunk it? :P


No doubt I will think of more goodness and crappy things as they come along.

Christmas Markets!

When I started telling people I was moving to Munich in December and how I was going to die from the cold, I would be invariably met with the reply, "You can go to the Christmas Market and drink gluhwein to keep warm!" The most vocal advocate of this method of keeping warm was, naturally, Pooey, who would suffix the statement with, "FUCK, IT'S YUM!!!" and then reminisce about foods she ate when she visited a market in Berlin. 

According to the guidebooks I've read, Munich is even MOAR famous for its Christkindlmarkt (aka Weihnachtsmarkt), and I've seen a few on my short time here. The most famous is the one in the city centre, Marienplatz, but I've been told it's completely taken over by tourists now and I should visit other ones instead.

The first one I visited was the Mediaeval Christkindlmarkt in Wittelsbacherplatz. I went with Julia, another postdoc from the lab. 

 

 A wooden ye olde tower! 

 

Xmas tree complete with REAL snow. So purdy. 

 

Julia and Sonya lined up for some Feuerzangenbowle, but the queue was too long and slow so we got normal gluhwein instead.

 

Enjoying my gluhwein :D

 

And then Sonya bought some Apfelkuchel - apple fritters!

Walking through central Munich in the morning while shopping, I came across this little market in Promenadeplatz just as it opened!

 

I came back later in the day and it was much more crowded than this.

 

And because it was so early (about 10:30am), I resisted the alcoholic drink and bought these roasted pumpkin seeds instead - Chilli und Zucker flavoured! Btw, pumpkin seed guy...kinda hot.

By the end of the day as I was laden down with shopping so I decided to go home relatively early. As I walked from my S-bahn stop to the house, I heard a musical thumping noise

 

It was a marching band, complete with period costume!

 

Another view of the band, showing their hardcore instruments and uniforms.

I then returned later in the night to get some gluhwein with Peter, another house inhabitant. 

 

Being from Kenya, he'd never had this before!

 

And I of course enjoyed it very much. Because it was quite late (and cold), the gluhwein stall also gave us from free bratwurst. Miam, but so much sausage.

So that's that for now. New photos from other markets will be on fb!

Things You Eat When You're Alone - Munich edition

Branching from Pooey's very highly entertaining mini-series (of sorts), I'm faced with the question of what to eat now that I'm alone. And the issue is compounded by the (relative) lack of access to the foods that I'm usually able to cook, equipment that I'd need to cook it, and cost/transport limitations.


Given that I didn't know what was available for me, I decided to pick up some basics at the supermarket. This included:
Eggs
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Onions
Garlic
Butter
Olive Oil
Pasta
Pasta sauce
Bread
Cheese
Dill 
Bread
Carrots
Frozen chicken wings
And on the advice of the colleague who was with me, Spätzl (a kind of German noodle). 

With these basics, I was then able to make myself a fairly hearty dinner of Spätzl in a creamy mushroom sauce, kinda like the Jaeger schnitzl I had at Oktoberfest sans schnitzl.  

 

Yes, I know it looks like dog food but it was very nice and I had it for lunch as well!

For breakfast (Fruhstucker), I have myself some scrambled eggs with tomatoes and mushrooms (seeing a theme here?)

Made using the Gordon Ramsay method!

Now, Anya said that one of the things she missed most about Germany when she was in Aus was the bread. German bread is...shall we say...kinda hearty. And dense.

I'll admit, I got to calling my bread, "The Doorstop", it's that dense and hard.

Its the perfect bread for toasting and eating with cheese. Unfortunately, one of the appliances my place is missing was, believe it or not, a toaster. No worries, I could just use the oven method of toasting bread. Except there's no oven either. At this point, I decided to be a bit like Pooey and go bad.

That's right, I fried my bread for sandwiches. Awesome, but not particularly healthy.

Here's to more food adventures coming soon!

In Muenchen jetzt!

Sooo...ich bin in Muenchen jetzt. Sudden, I know. In fact, everything happened so fast that even I'm a little bit surprised at what's happened in that small amount of time!  After 19 hours of flying time plus a 7 hour layover in Singapore airport*, I walked into a Winter Wonderland. It's been one day so far, and I'll confess, as I watched the snowy landscape go by from der Flughafen to the Institut, I kinda started laughing like a maniac. I'm sure my cab driver was wondering what was wrong with me, if he wasn't already confused.

As a side story, I picked my cab driver because he was a white-haired man of about...oh, 60 years, and very benign looking. We got off to a very amusing start when he left a door open as my luggage was loaded into the cab. I automatically climbed in the door and then noticed another cab driver saying something to me (it was 6am and my language skills weren't great). My cab driver then came up to me and said (insert German accent here), "Fraulein, I don't fink zat is going to work."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Him: "Vell, unless you vant to drive..."
Yes, in my jetlagged haze, I got into the drivers seat. Kekeke. My kindly driver then proceeded to scare the shit out of me by doing a quick turn that cut off another driver and then flipped the bird when said drive honked him off. No comment on him driving 120kmh on snowy roads.

Anyway, it pretty much meant I rocked up at the 'Stute by 6:30am and waited for the sun to rise - good thing I'd packed some Continental Cup-o-Soup - Thai Red Curry! - which I enjoyed as the sun came up. When it was up, I was greeted by this sight which I thought was so pretty, I had to open the window and stick my hand out to get the shot.

WOAH!!!! I'll confess. Looking at all the snow all on my lonesome, I did have a *WTF am I doing here?!?!?* moment.

 

I also took this photo because a) the snow pretty much melted (it's slushie now!) and Pooey said the snow picture depressed her. The sun came out today and as I walked to the cafeteria (Mensa) with some lab members, one exclaimed "It's like Spring has arrived!"

Anyway, people eventually arrived and we started getting into the bureaucracy of what I'd done - no backing out now! At least, not without 6 weeks notice.


Since I was less jetlagged today (I think), I decided to break out on my own and purchase the really important things that I needed and didn't pack with me - an umbrella (seriously, it rained a lot yesterday), a hairdryer, and more thermal socks and leggings. I was also tempted to purchase a firmer pillow but resisted. I then took the U-Bahn and buses back to the Guesthouse. This confirmed to me that while the Guesthouse is nice and village is cute, I don't want to live in a village on the outskirts of the city. I'd also like to give a shoutout to the guy who helped me get an appropriate public transport ticket. You are awesome and your research sounds really interesting. I'm sorry I didn't ask "Wie heissen Sie?

Anyway, that should be it for now. I have to get up early to get from my village to central Munich to register as an alien. Muhahahah! Toodles!

*For everyone who wanted to know where I slept and showered, it was the Ambassador Transit Hotel in Terminal 3 - $Sing59 for 3 hours of sleep, a shower, hairdryer, and food! Incidentally, there is a free resting/sleeping lounge on the ground level near the Koi Pond and free internet stalls but I didn't want to leave my hand luggage loose while I was passed out.

U2 - 360. Most. Epic. Concert. Ever.

When the concert was announced, my face went all :D. I bought general admission tickets for me and Pooey since she was converted to fandom when she attended their last concert in 2006, but alas, it turned out she was in Radelaide that weekend so the ticket went to Mischka instead. We met up with some friends on Southbank before walking down to the Docklands and after being disgusted by Australia's showing in the Adelaide Test, we ended up being a bit late for Jay-Z's set. Some pics!

The sight of THE CLAW as we walked into the stadium! I believe our words on seeing this was a Keanu-esque "Woah"

Jay-Z on the big screen doing his thang.

Jay-Z finished around 8pm but U2 didn't come onstage until around an hour later as the sun was setting. With some careful manoeuvering, Mich and I actually ended up about 50m away from the stage. Our relative lack of distance meant that we were actually able to see ALL the members of U2 IN PERSON!!! 

Bono on the moving catwalk...

...and then singing with The Edge

Adam was especially visible because he was dressed completely in white and the lights reflected off him quite nicely

Larry on bongos with Adam 

The crappiness of the photos doesn't really illustrate our proximity and in hindsight we could have easily shoved in front but didn't because we didn't want to have a Calvin Harris -in-St.Kilda-shovey experience again. This was a reallz stupid thing to do because there were some tall guys in front of us, and as small girls we could have done it super easily. But that didn't matter too much because the awesomeness of THE CLAW set up meant we had a magnificent view of the screens!

Bono crisp and clear on the screen.

The screens moved at various points so it also formed a light show!

As well as functioning as a giant mirrorball!

Unfortunately, I ran out of batteries so I don't have that many photos and on all my videos, my singing is clearly audible. The setlist from the night (courtesy of google search):

Return of the Stingray Guitar,

Beautiful Day - Blackbird,

New Year's Day,

Get On Your Boots,

Magnificent,

Mysterious Ways,

Elevation,

Until the End of the World,

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Movin' On Up,

Stuck In a Moment,

Pride,

In A Little While,

Miss Sarajevo,

City of Blinding Lights,

Vertigo - Rockaway Beach,

Funky Town - I'll Go Crazy (remix) - Relax - Two Tribes,

Sunday Bloody Sunday,

Scarlet,

Walk On - You'll Never Walk Alone

Encore(s):

One - I'll Stand By You,

Amazing Grace - Where the Streets Have No Name,

Ultraviolet,

With or Without You,

Moment of Surrender 

Anyway, I'll admit that I didn't know all the songs they played during their set, but it didn't matter to me because they played most of what mattered. If I had to complain, it's that they ended the show with Moment of Surrender which I assume is from their new album because no one seemed to know it. It was a bit of a low point - they should have played All I Want Is You instead! All in all, it was an all-round excellent show, the music, the sound, the production values, the mechanical engineering, the support act, even the non-aggro crowd! How many bands can play to 60,000 and have everyone walking out happy? Not many! We exited the stadium to the tune of Elton John's Rocket Man. It was a great way to end a memorable night!

Movie review - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Ah! I've been looking forward to this since I read the last book - and re-read the series after finishing my PhuD! To be honest, I'm not sure I'm capable of giving it a proper review due to my eagerness. Kinda like how Lord of the Rings-philes think those movies are awesome (best picture? I think not!). But anyway, I'll try to elucidate some Pros and Cons - spoilers abound so watch out!!!

Pros:

• The movie moves manages to remain pretty faithful to the book. I think it should satisfy the book readers by retaining the key moments, but also has quite a number of action scenes.
• The movie is also satisfyingly scary - especially the start!
• Despite the scary moments there are also quite a few moments that are funny. Hehehe.
• The CGI has improved immeasurably from the beginning of the series - Kreacher and Dobby could have been rubber figures, they looked so solid! 
• On that same note, Dobby is not as annoying as he was the first time around. I felt like crying when he died :( *sniff*
• The animated break in the middle retelling The Story of the Three Brothers which explains the origins of the Deathly Hallows! EXCELLENT DECISION!!!
• Alan Rickman totally knows how to rock a cape. I want one.
• They toned down the Harry/Ginny stuff. Which is good cos it's painful to watch and in a not funny way.

Cons:

•  There is a slow bit in the middle where Harry, Ron, & Hermione are trying to figure out what to do and walk around the forest. It was slow to read and it's even slower to watch.
• Ron's nightmare about Harry and Hermione getting together....err....it makes the reports about how uncomfortable it was to film visible for all to see. 
• When they do deviate from the story - I was really upset when Harry didn't rescue Mad Eye's eye!

Well, given the number of pros vs. cons, I guess that gives me the film score!
I can't wait for the conclusion!

7/10!

Simon's Peiking Duck Restaurant

Melbs peeps might be aware of a certain institution on Smith St. known was *Old Kingdom*. It's an Old Skool Chinese restaurant that was particularly well-known for its Peking duck which had to be ordered at least a day in advance if you wanted to order it. It was also particularly well-known for the entertaining maitre'd, Simon, aka *Duck Nazi* (go to page 3 of the linked article). It was with much amusement that I found out a friend from uni was his son (hai Schroding!), and it was with great devastation when this friend told me his dad was retiring from the duck business to become an actor. 

A few months ago, Schroding informed me that his dad was bored with retirement and re-entering the restauranting world! Hooray for insider information! And even better, the new place is in Boxy South! Given that Pooey was coming back to celebrate getting a year older while I'm celebrating my departure, we felt this would be a good time to go eat duck. And so we made a family booking and off we went!

Mmmm, slices of duck with that crispy skin

 

The Duck Nazi seems much more relaxed in his mode of serving (he's wearing a t-shirt?!)

But we were still instructed to turn our cucumber and spring onion to 'quarter past three'

Ready for sauce and wrapping

 NOM NOM NOM

The duck pancakes were of course followed by a duck meat and bean shoot stirfry, and finished with a duck soup. We also had some mixed vegetables to up the fibre content. Did it break new culinary ground? Not at all, but it does provide awesome comfort food! In summary, it's pretty much what you got at Old Kingdom but in a much more relaxed (and roomy) environment.  But just like on Smith St., Simon's Peiking Duck Restaurant was pretty packed for our early 6:30pm session so I'd recommend booking in advance and specifying the number of ducks you'd like to NOM NOM NOM!!! 

Moth traps - *WARNING*

WARNING!!!

THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC PICTURES OF DEAD MOTHS IN TRAPS.

I hate moths, they're bastards. They're disgusting little critters who get into your house, lay their eggs and then then die so you end up finding moth bodies here and there if they manage to evade you. But those little eggs hatch into larvae which get into your clothes and chew little holes in them, the little bastards. This is particularly upsetting to me and Pooey because she left some nice (shared) knits in her closet for the summer months, and when I got them out to wear in April, they were holey! Bastards. We use things like naphthalene balls, oak balls, lavender patches etc. to repel them to no joy.

 

A few weeks ago, Mischka informed me about these awesome traps she uses in her wardrobe. They consisted of a small square of moth pheromone located in the middle of a glue surface. the pheromone attracts male moths which then get stuck in the glue. With the males gone, the females can't get preggers to lay eggs! But if they do lay eggs, they'll get traps in the glue as well! It's like a vicious circle of moth death. I ended up purchasing a packet with her - each packet includes two traps, perfect! One for me, one for Pooey.

 

The red spot is the pheromone lure.

 

The trap sitting on top of some knits in Pooey's wardrobe. 

And so three weeks later, this is what we got...

EUW GROSS!!!

  

But on the other hand, at least we know these traps work! They need to be replaced every three months or until the trap is *full*. I'm not sure what defines a *full* trap; it might be related to your tolerance for seeing dead moths.