Nudelhaus Sano

Despite claiming that I would revisit Sushi Sano, the fact is I haven't. But this past weekend, what I did manage to do was visit it's sister restaurant Nudelhaus Sano! This place is a VERY small shop front that serves udon, soba, and ramen soup noodles. It also sells pho which is a travesty to me, but since the place is run by Viets and there are apparently not so many Japanese people in Munich (Trung said he'd never had Japanese soup noodles!) I'll let it pass. But I'll never order it. 

What I did order was the following:

Edamame. Are they meant to be warm? I can't remember. But they were nicely lightly salted.

Chashu ramen! 

It's no Menya, it's not even close, but I've been away for a long while and the soup base was and all right light soy-base, but the pork was nice and the noodles had a nice texture. 

The Damage. 

But then being Asians, Trung and I were still hungry so we ordered more sushi. One of Trung's friends saying something along the lines of *omg, she's small but she eats almost as much as him!* heheheh.

Quote of the week

Nameless Person 1 (this will be apparent why later), "We should go to this restaurant - it has their menu online!"


Me, "Hmmm, sure why not? It looks good."


NP1, "Mmmmm...Reh-ravioli!"


Me, "What is 'Reh'?"


NP1, "It's...umm...I think, Bambi."

Fatwoman 1 Mallymoodle 0

I'm not a particularly large person and in Germany, I'm even smaller than normal! In fact, Juliane once said to me, "Wow, when you're not wearing heels, you're REALLY SHORT!!!" Hehehe. A plus of this is that when I need to do things like dodge through Oktoberfest crowds, or cram myself onto the u-bahn, my small size comes in handy. This backfired on me the other day.


I was sitting on the bus, taking up my small amount of space and reading my Kindle when all of a sudden I felt a "whoosh!" and was pushed up against the glass of the window and lost the ability to move sideways. While I was distracted, someone of the larger persuasion chose to take advantage of the fact I was taking up less than my allocated public transport space! And then to add insult to crushing, I had to get off earlier than they all the did to allow me to get past them was a cursory angling of her legs into the aisle! I believe I made a small lapdog-like shrieking sound as I pulled my coat out from under her mass. Lesson to self - always keep an eye out in future. 


This post is inspired by KH's immortal entries because when it happened, I was reminded of his own experience.  

Let there be Light! (sorta)

One of the things that continues to mystify me about Germany is the apartment situation. When Germans leave their apartments, they tend to take fittings that would not have occurred to me to remove, e.g. the Kitchen. This can also be extended to the light fittings. As a result of the former tenant taking their lights with them, I have been living in a room for the last 5 months with two lamps or candles for light and three wires hanging out of my ceiling. The long European Summer sunlight hours mean the lack of an overall lighting situation hasn't really bothered me, but things are different now that I'm waking in darkness and arriving home in semi-darkness. 


The sound rules in our block of apartments means we're not to make a great deal of noise after 7pm mean that any light fixture putting would be done on weekends and I'm not great at DIY and I'll be the first to say I should not be handed a drill and told to make a hole in the ceiling. So finally on a weekend when Fabi and I were both in Munich and both free (!) we decided to put a light up in my room. After a bit of drilling, that's when we discovered a metal plate in the ceiling. And so we instead put a hook into the hole and hope that will be strong enough to hold up a light. But we have to wait a bit to make sure the glue is set enough to support a hook and a light hanging from it. 


So maybe I'll have light by December!

Making Enemies in German Class.

In my feeble attempt to become more Deutsch (and you know, be able to actually live here and read my mail etc.), I have now started my third different Deutschkurs. - the in-house one that I was promised months ago. As a result of this discontinuous learning, my language knowledge is understandably hodge-podge to the extent that I could apparently know complex things such as where the conjugated verb is supposed to be in a side clause, but not know how to do *simple* things like tell the time. 


This has manifested itself in funny ways. For example in one class, the teacher asked me which were the Summer months. I proceeded to say, "Von Dezember bis Februar" much to everyone's surprise. I then clarified by saying "Oh, ich komme aus Australien!" The teacher then said something along the line of, "O rly? What is Summer like in Australia?" which then set me off on a spiel saying it depended on where you were because it varies. When I finished talking, I saw my classmates had a WTF look on their faces. Clearly it doesn't matter if we're all phds and postdocs - if someone is smarter than you in class, you hate them :(


This happened again recently except this time Asia was in class with me. This time, we were doing possessive pronouns for the different cases and our teacher wanted us to write a description of a family member outlining things like age, hair colour, personality etc. I proceeded to write something about Pooey (hai Pooey!) and then the teacher said "You can do this for homework - except Mooey, you can do it now as an example." Err, okay. I then read out what I had written down and when I finished, the class - including Asia - had that hating look on their face again. 

The Gym!!!

During the excesses of die Wiesn, I decided that all those litres of beer and half chickens were making me tubby. While I could try counting on the hard Winter knocking the kilos off me like it did last year, I decided it was probably time I went back to the gym properly.


Part of my resistance to joining the gym was the fact that this country seems to only have rolling one year contracts that have to be cancelled 3 months before the end of the year otherwise they roll it for another year. Not happy, Jan! But ah well, I can suck it up because I'll know if I'll be staying here for another year hopefully 3 months before I leave. But now I have joined and it's a question of how to integrate it into my life multiple times a week.


Unlike the old one, there are no classes and no pool (dammit), but they do have Concept 2 Rowers and lots of different weight machines! And best of all, it appears to be fully stocked with lots of hot guys who get a bit stroppy when I kick them off the assisted chin up machine! Viel Spass!

Cold

Despite it being on Autumn, I'm now sleeping with two doonas and a hot water bottle. And then when I checked the weather on my Wunderfon, it was -1C. It made me glad that I used this past weekend to pack away my summer clothes (*sniff, good-bye t-shirts and dresses) and bring out the thermals. 


But it's actually a lovely sunny day that's supposed to top out at 21C so lets hope today's thermals and woolen jumper don't kill me! 

In Rundon with Pooey (and others) - Day 4

On my last day in Rundon, me and Pooey had a 9am appointment to look at more dresses but we were so early to Marble Arch that we decided to swing into Primmy for ANOTHER round! It was bizarre - it was the emptiest we'd EVER seen the store. Okay, it still looked like any other department store on a weekday but it made us think that the best time to shop there is clearly 9am on a Monday morning.


After this, we found a dress that might be *the* dress. Therefore I will not post it here but if people want to know what it looks like, post a msg and if Pooey gives the okay, I can email a pic to you :P


Believe it or not, after this we decided to go BACK to Primmy and the difference of 1 hour meant that there was actually quite a long queue to get into the changing rooms. It was, however, shorter than we'd seen it at many other times and so we joined in to try on some dresses. Then we ran around the city trying to find some last minute items (e.g. hand warmers), and beautifying moments. 


And then for the last few hours in Rundon, Poo and I gathered up Amy for one last quick shopping round and lunch before heading back to furiously try to pack everything. Good thing we bought me the luggage allowance on Sunday night because I went back to Munich with a full suitcase in addition to my huge carry-on backpack. And then to make up for getting me to London at a reasonable hour, my Easyjet flight back was delayed. A typical end to a holiday ;)

In Rundon with Pooey (and others) - Day 3

The Asian food binge in London continued when we decided to have yum cha. Pooey was shocked SHOCKED!!! when I told her the story of the blank faces in response to my question as to where I could have it Munich so she and Smee decided to include me in their search for the best yummers in London.

Poo and Smee peruse the menu

They were finally satisfied by what we'd settled on

I SO HAPPY WITH ALL MY FOOD!!!

Unfortunately, the happiness didn't last so long. While all the food was *right* on the surface, the more we ate, the more we realised it was kinda sub-Melb standards. I was particularly disappointed by the xiao long baos which had almost no fluid inside! :O  


Anyway, after the disappointment, Smee went off to look for Thai basil so he could make pho while me and Poo continued our shopping odyssey. First stop was Escapade Costume Shop in Camden where I bought a costume for an upcoming Halloween party and where we saw this amusing sign:

Because we were so highly amused by the costumes for sale and decided to make our time in the long queue worth it, me and Poo decided to try on a few costumes. They ranged from the hilarious to the horrifying. Why are female costumes so slutty? Almost all the outfits had skirts that ended just after my ass, low necklines or both. Also, it was annoying to discover that the Camden Town tube stop allows passengers out but not back in. People visiting the area might want to be aware of this.    


Next, we went to Oxford St. and went nuts, as outlined in this entry. As big sis and a hater of European Winters herself, Pooey is especially concerned about the likelihood of my freezing in the snowy Munich Winter which resulted in us first hitting Uniqlo and Marks & Spencers before committing shopping suicide by going to Primark last on a Sunday afternoon just before 6pm. At several points, one of those announcements that goes *This store will shut in X minutes* was broadcast over the store. At the first one, Pooey said, "Just ignore it" and sure enough EVERYONE in the store pretty much ignored it! We eventually managed to leave the store as the 5 minute message was broadcast.


From here, we actually then went to Embankment. Why? It turned out Smee was unable to find Thai basil in Chinatown and he went home and phoned around different groceries to see who was stocking them on a Sunday night. Having located a shop in Hackney, he decided to borrow a car and drive there to get it. We also bought some noodles, hoisin sauce, chili sauce, and a six pack of soy milk which I was taking back with me to Munich.


And then we had home made Pho!

NOM NOM NOM

Pooey looking mighty happy

More happy faces!

Smee slaved over it all day so I guess his smile cracking abilities were less than ours.

Close up with all the herbs and chili and hoisin sauce!

And then after this, I actually passed out on the sofa and vaguely recall Poo and Smee turning off the TV and lights. 

In Rundon with Pooey (and others) - Day 2

On day 2 in Rundon, me and Pooey got up to achieve what was one aim of my visit - finding her a wedding dress. For this purpose, despite the late night the day before, we got up early and made it to a bridal shop in Angel where J joined us for champagne at 10am. 


To be honest, I've never really given much thought to what kind of dress Pooey should wear. She already has an idea of what she likes and she's got a pretty good body so most cuts suit her and we both know that white white doesn't suit Asian complexions. This meant I wasn't required to stand around and say *yes, no, no, YES YES!!!!* and instead sat back drinking my champagne, and fool around with various wedding paraphernalia.

Yes, this does mean wearing a veil. Pooey attendant found it hilarious and she was so nice, she offered to get a veil for J to wear as well so she wouldn't feel left out. 

Another girl was there trying on dresses. 
I really wanted to tell her that the things she was choosing didn't suit her. She's in the background. 

Afterwards we headed out towards Soho for our afternoon tea at Soho's Secret Tea Rooms.   

Along the way, me and J got tempted by (lots of) cakes at L'Eto Caffe and we bought a passionfruit meringue. The waitress was a real bitch and we're never going back there.

Pooey's already blogged her entry (wtf, she's posting faster than me?!) but the Secret Tea Room location was the top room of a dingy pub and you had to walk through the bar to access it. The room itself is quite small and cute but also a little dingy. 

A sad and empty tea service

Services that are now full and happy! (And so was I!)

Anyway, I'd just like to reiterate Pooey's assessment that it was pretty average. The most notable aspect was probably the sheer magnitude of cake we received. Or it could simply be because there were five of us present - SEM and Leesh also attended - and some of us may not have pulled our weight in cake! Not me though.


We then went our separate ways and Pooey and I walked through Chinatown to get to the Shaftesbury Theatre to watch Rock of Ages.

Because I was still in a bridal mood, we couldn't resist taking this photo at a photography studio that does cheesy wedding photos. 

The view of the stage from our seats.

Some of the cast performing Don't Stop Believin'

If you like 80s rock (Journey, Bon Jovi, Mr. Big, Pat Benatar etc), you will enjoy this! I will confess to singing along with some of the songs but not as much as the woman sitting next to me REALLY enjoyed it and sang along with ALL the songs and bounced around in chair while doing so. But perhaps the best thing about the musical is that it really doesn't take itself seriously - characters often break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience and at one point, they even made jokes about the fact they were in a "musical with poop jokes and White Snake Songs". In fact, here's a fun promotional video featuring cast members!

However, I must mention that Eye of the Tiger does not feature in this musical.

We then went home where Smee made curry chicken and roti for dinner and where we had PARTY PIES as an entree!

It's really funny what you miss when you can't have them. These sure hit the spot and then Pooey packed some into plastic boxes for me to take them back the Muenchen.

In Rundon with Pooey (and others) - Day 1

When Pooey booked her ticket to return to London I decided that, despite having been there a month earlier, I TOO would hang out with her London! And so I did and we had an awesome few days as ladies of leisure without (much) care for money! At various adventures we were joined by various Meldoners. Here's a (delayed) recap!


First of all, despite swearing I would never fly with them again, I found it hard to resist their super super cheap prices and chose to fly Easyjet again. However this time I decided to take an earlier flight and so instead of wandering the streets of London at 3am, I arrived at Gatwick at the more reasonable time of 7:30pm-ish. I was happy! I'd arrive in the City at a reasonable time for dinner! And then, I saw the Immigration queue. *sigh* London City Airport is great because it's all business people meaning the *UK/EU* queue is a monster while I can happily skip to the *All Other Passports* line. Not so at Gatwick. I eventually made it out around an hour later, but it's OKAY! I managed to pass the time by reading Harry Potter on my Kindle. Seriously, that device has revolutionised my life. 


Pooey patiently waited for me at Gatwick and knowing that I've been suffering from a lack of Asian food, particularly roast duck, and people to share it with, she had decided that we should go eat a duck (and other food). The delay at Immigration and time taken to drop my luggage off meant that it was late enough for Smee to join us!

  It looks like we're doing a happy food dance!

We ordered (clockwise from left) umm...something with tofu, the DUCK!!!, salty egg battered prawns, rice, and kangkong. Miam.

After this, Smee and Pooey taught me their mint smashing game. Despite being an absolute novice, I wont because my misunderstanding of the rules meant I threw my mint directly at someone. This gave me extra points! When we got back to their apartment, Pooey showed me some of the goodies she smuggled into the UK for me. These were party pies (to be discussed later!) and a snuggie to keep me warm on my sofa during the hard Muenchen Winter. 

Being a two-headed monster Pooey's one :D 

She got me one in red. 

A good start to the funness that is a Rundon weekend!

Getting ready for Winter

I was pretty proud of myself the last time I was in London. Other than things I regarded as essentials (a pair of jeans, some thermals & toiletries), I didn't do that much shopping. But this time with Pooey's company, it was as if I was crazy buying stuff. A look at the weekend's damage to my bank account puts it at €300. Heheheh But I would like to argue that a lot of it was goodies to get me ready for this horrible, horrible Winter. 

So with a bit of help from my lovely model, Pooh Bear, here's some of what I bought!

Earmuffs! 

A new coat! What you can't tell from this photo is that it actually flares at the waist - another Primmy win!

Primmy gumboot socks. The furry bits are supposed to sit at the top of the boot.

The skirt made me think very much of Bavaria, and the hat is from M&S

I love matching accessories (hey, I'm a certain type of girl) and M&S were full of those! Scarf and arm warmers!

I also love M&S glittens (gloves+ mittens). So many to choose from... 

Then we went to Uniqlo where I picked up a cashmere scarf in my favourite colour...

and some thermal shorts to go underneath that deer skirt!

 

I think this hot water bottle and woolen case also came from Primmy but I needed some jelly hand warmers to keep my hands toasty warm. Pooey had never seen them before and will take one home for Ma!

Pooey also brought me a snuggie in Stonecutter red. 

There are more things I bought but I decided to stop abusing Pooh by putting him in thermal shirts and more undies.

I hope with these things the Winter will be marginally more comfortable. I think I need to stretch some of my woolen jumpers though - I was looking at them and I think they've shrunk in the wash :S HOW WILL I FIT THE THERMALS UNDERNEATH?!?!

But I'll write the entries about what we did in Rundon as soon as I get some time!

Seeing things

*News flash!* I like to sleep in. Chances are, if I'm seeing the sun rise it's because I'm heading home from a party. Well the unimaginable has happened - I had to get up early to go to work and saw the SUN RISE. When I woke, it was still dark and it was kinda grey as I was walking to the u-bahn, and pinkening as I waited for the bus. Walking to my building, I actually saw the sun low over the horizon near the Allianz Arena and decided to pause on my rush to work to take a photo.

Wow, it's really pretty.

I hope I never see it again. 

Bus race

So! I don't know if people have noticed but I tend to not write that much about work. This is because work is largely not interesting. Everyday has pretty much the same way about it. I get up and do my morning ablutions, catch the u-bahn to the bus stop, catch the bus to work, work, then do everything in reverse. Every now and then, work throws in something different, e.g. going into the animal facility or being able to do my own experiments (as opposed to palming them off onto my technician). But today! Something special happened. Or at least, something different.


This being Germany, public transport usually runs like clockwork. Pooey marvelled that the trains would pull in by the minute, on the minute. Likewise, buses have a bit more error in them but they're also fairly reliable (imo). In peak hours the bus comes every 10 minutes with every other bus being a special express Betriebsfahrt from the u-bahn to work. Oddly enough, the normal bus and the express both seem to take approx. 10 minutes to get to work *shrug*  


Anyway, when I turned up today at the u-bahn, I was met with a larger than usual crowd of people waiting for the bus. I wondered what was going on but then I figured it out - apparently one bus DID NOT TURN UP!!! :O And then the most shocking of things happened - TWO BUSES turned up at the same time! My position in the crowd meant I was closer to the Betriebsfarht but it was sitting behind the normal bus and thus have our time dictated by that one...or WOULD IT?!


What followed was one of the most exciting 10 minutes of my life, ha ha snort, as the Betriebsfahrt battled the normal bus for supremacy and position in the bus lane. There were moments when they appeared to be racing side by side, trying to overtake before reaching a wall of stopped traffic, each trying to edge the other to hit stops. Eventually, we, the Betriebsfahrt made it there first! Our victory was short lived as the normal bus pulled in seconds later before I was even able to disembark. Oh well. And then the rest of the day was boring. 

Dachau Konzentrationlager

On one of the last beautifully warm days of the year, I actually took a break from the Oktoberfest revelry to go to Dachau Concentration Camp (Konzentrationlager) for some perspective and quiet time. 


As much as life in Munich seems to be a never-ending stream of parties, beer, and good times, it's sobering to think that the city was a hotbed of extremist politics and Munich was a Nazi stronghold and where the party came to prominence. The town of Dachau is 16km or a 15 minute ride on the Munich s-bahn (S2). From there, the walk is approximately 30min or there is a bus to the camp itself. Because it was such a lovely day, I chose to walk. The way to the camp is marked with several signposts denoting significant places (e.g. where prisoners were made to make roads/buildings). The proximity of the camp to the town was a little startling, even accounting for changes in geography with time. 


Dachau was the first concentration camp, existing for the entire 12 years of Nazi power, and the model of how all subsequent camps worked.Unlike Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau was not an extermination camp (people sent there solely to be killed), although it too had a gas chamber and crematoria to dispose of the bodies. Instead, the camp tended to kill by starvation, abuse, withholding medical treatment, and overcrowding. Originally starting off for political prisoners, the camp was built two hold 6000 people, eventually holding at least 10 times that amount. In addition to holding people declared 'undesirable' by the regime (i.e. Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals), the camp also held a large number of clergy (mostly Polish Catholics) and Bavarian Royalty. Although most of the buildings have been demolished over time, two of the 'barracks' have been left standing with examples of how the conditions inside the camp changed over time to become more crowded and unsanitary. The camp was the second liberated by Western Allied Forces and the museum contains several photos and videos showing the atrocious condition of the camp and inmates, living and dead.  


On that note, one of the things that startled me about actually being in Dachau was the contrast between what happened there and the state of the camp now. As most the pictorial evidence from the time was in black and white, it was startling to emerge from the cold museum and barracks and see the gloriously warm day with the golden birch leaves against the deep blue sky. It's easy to think of everything that happened here occurring in gloomy grey conditions from the photos when the reality is the prisoners would have also experienced all the horror on similarly beautiful days. For some reason, this actually made me really sad. 


While I totally recommend that tourists come here, I would just like to say that I don't believe this is a place where one should act like a tourist. By this I mean I found it incredibly tasteless to walk around the space where atrocities occurred and see people posing with the Arbeit Macht Frei gate or taking photos of the plaque that denotes where POWs were shot. Hence the photoless entry.


Entrance to the camp, now a memorial, is free but I recommend getting the audiotour to guide you through the various buildings still standing and the survivor testimonies. 

Things I learned during Oktoberfest.

1. My limit is 2L of beer at the rate of 1L per hour - otherwise it gets too warm. On one hand, I feel like I could and should do better - it's the Asian in me! On the other hand, Oktoberfest beer is around 7% alcohol so 2L is like....2 bottles of wine. 


2. Be friendly to your waitress and tip her well. If beer is €8.90, you should be paying her €10, you'll get served faster that way. Also, she might be able to get you into a tent next year.


3. The word Schlampendirndl - literally, slut dirndl. It is MUCH more fun when you're in tracht but a traditional dirndl is meant to go to your ankles although knee-length is acceptable. Thigh high, or worse - ass high, and you'll have ppl whispering or even yelling *schlampendirndl*!

Also going to a costume shop and buying an *oktoberfest outfit* really makes you look like a Schlampe. 


4. The word Fahne - when you drink too much alcohol and you emanate the smell of booze. It actually really amuses me that Germans have a word for this!

5. The main section of the Hofbrau tent does not take reservations on the weekend. This makes it full of tourists on the weekends. They are probably either Italians or Australians. Eleonora often had her head in her hands when the Italian anthem was sung (quite often). 


7. A half roast chicken IS a great thing to eat! But the Entenbraterei (roast duck restaurant/tent) serves some pretty damn good half ducks. I'm gonna try and eat one of those next year! 


8. On that note, there is more to Oktoberfest than just the main beer halls. When Amy and Rachi asked me what it's like, I said, "It's a bit like the Easter Show." So go out and eat the carnival food (when she came back, Amy said, "I ate fairy floss today!") and ride the rides. The jury is out as to whether it's better to ride before or after booze.  


And finally...Oktoberfest is sure damn fun with a bunch of friends. Looking forward to doing it again (maybe) next year! :D


P.S. People using their iPad to take photos/videos look like absolute morons. They're waving around something which is about A4 size (often because it's in a case). I pointed out some people doing this to Ruben and he snorted and said they were 1. Idiots because you wouldn't want to take something like that into the chaos that is a biertent and 2. Showing off. I really wish I took a photo of it cos it seriously looked stupid.