Purdy

I was on my way home from work when I saw how pretty this was and decided it should be shared with all of you as well.

Interesting tidbit - the windmill is a cafe and they have nice cake!

Even more Duolingo fun

I'm not sure this can be topped for sheer weirdness/specificity :D

A visit from Carlinho

ERMAGHERD!!! MEH FEHRST VESEHTEHR!!!

Carlinho was heading from Berlin to Frankfurt in order to fly home to Brazil for vacation and decided to swing by and see me on the way. What a sweetiepie. And like all great guests, he made me food! To be more precise, he made me coxinhas, a brazilian snackie whereby chicken is re-shaped into ...er...chicken.

Making them is both complicated and easy. Boiled pieces of shredded chicken breast is mixed with milk, cream cheese and chicken stock to make a paste and then enclosed in a mixture of mashed potato and flour, before being crumbed and cooked. It was just easier to let him do it.


Ready for baking! (No deep frying in my open-plan kitchen, kthnxbai


Also, coxinhas make great post-party food. *just saying*


They also held up well for breakfast!

Return of Frau Feierbiest!

I got a very important message in February. Despite now living in a completely different country, Rubio, mi hermano español, was once again organising tables at Starkbierfest. His message then proceeded to lay on the emotional blackmail - we all lived so far apart from each other now, so many people were returning for the reunion, did I want to be the one to miss out? And then I got another message - Laura was also going to reserve a table the day before Rubio had his! BAM, I WAS THERE!!!

And my god, it was like I never left!

REUNION NUMBER ONE!!!

My beautiful, delicious hendl *sniff*

Some Bavarians doing what they do best

Dr Pfft doing what he does best!

REUNION NUMBER TWO!!!

Ele and me, we couldn't stop hugging each other. Te voglio bene, tesoro!

Rubio wanted the beer though, so I had to lay one on it to let him know I missed him too

Also beautiful

To be honest, it was a little strange being back in Munich. Getting off at the Hbf, I took a deep breath and got a big whiff of the scent of sugared almonds and roasted meat - smelled like home! And another thing was clear - we had really missed each other since I've been gone :(

New skills

I now know how to dissect a cockroach brain.

Rediscovery of the bubble bath

I didn't go out (much) this past weekend because I had a stomach ache (or a hangover, whatever). I decided to have a good weekend in and indulge myself with a bubble bath. Although I hate walking past Lush due to the sensory assault, I had read good things about their bubble bars. I wasn't sure if I wanted to splurge so much money on a product that could only be used once or twice though, but then I figured...meh, give it a shot and if I hated it, I would have something to curse. Well, let me tell you, the splurge may well have been worth it. 

I bought a Lush rose jam bubbleroon because I like the scent of roses and also because it looked like a macaron. Following online recommendations, I broke it in half and proceeded to use my hands to grind one of those halves under the running bath water. I then walked away to get my kindle, and then sat back and let the bubbles build while reading my worries away.

At some point, I looked at the water and was greeted by this sight:

HOLY SHIT, ALL THOSE BUBBLES!!!

And they lasted pretty long as well. So yeah, if you're looking for a nicely scented bath with epic bubbles, this'll do the job. Word of warning though - there was some pink residue and online commentators said this needs to be washed out otherwise it can stain.  

Hmmm

Hahahahaha

PAH!!! (aka, pie)

Lack of pies has been one of my greatest challenges while living in Germs. I've managed to vaguely overcome it, either by buying pies, bringing them in my luggage, or just flat out flying to places where pies are more plentiful. But I never tried to make a pie.

Until now.

BEHOLD!!!

I mostly used Jamie Oliver's Aussie humble pie recipe but made modifications depending on whether I cbf getting the ingredients (e.g. make the pastry myself? Whatever)

Egg wash

Oh yeah!

It didn't just look good, it also tasted good! Except I think that next time I won't use Weissbier to make the sauce - I sometimes got that residual Weissbier/banana flavour kekeke.

And because I had leftover pastry and egg, I also made mini-quiches!

Meine erste Kohlfahrt!

Understanding and participating in local customs is one of the most important things when integrating into a new environment. This means that when my boss asked me whether I had ever heard of a *Kohlfahrt* and whether I wanted to participate in the one organised by work, I said, "No and SIGN ME UP!!!"

Kohlfahrt literally means "cabbage tour", and only takes place in the region around Bremen and Oldenburg. A bunch of buses picked us up from work and after driving around Niedersachsen for a while, dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. From there we were supposed to walk around with some trolleys filled with alcohol and take shots of alcohol every time we came across an intersection, until we reached our destination where we would eat a hearty local meal of Gruenkolh (kale) with local sausages. Apart from the cold, it was awesome!  

The special trolley/shot dispenser

I thought it was pretty cold - 3C (but feeling like 0C), but all my colleagues said it wasn't?!?!

Hahaha, bacon man street

We did manage to see this beautiful sunset

Dinner! I quite like Gruenkohl - it's kale chopped up and cooked with...I think barley...some potatoes, Pinkel, Wammerl (pork belly), and kochwurst. As you can probably tell, it's quite hearty. I therefore only had two servings.

Cologne work visit

Work sent me to Cologne for a day trip to meet some more collaborators to discuss our plan for the next few months. While it was a long day (I took a train leaving here at 7:44 boooo), it was fairly productive and even gave me a couple of hours to walk around the city before heading home. 

I finally got to see this sculpture in situ!

And I also saw this game! It's mostly for Shascha who would cry out "El Chupacabra!" whenever she was scared.

Disrespect

I acknowledge that as a female who looks like a teenager and works in a STEM Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) position, I can expect to come across a degree of sexist behaviour in my career. However, acknowledgement and acceptance are two very different things and it doesn't make it less jarring when it happens!

And it happened this week when I was invited to meet a collaborator to learn how to use their instrument, which is used to automate some experimental steps. When I asked if it was possible to use the attached computer while the system was being run, the collaborator unbelievably replied to my question with, "A computer is not a toy".

THE FUCK IS THAT?!?!?!

Luckily while conversing with my boss later about the device, he said he had also noted that that specific collaborator seems to be the type to dismiss women in research. While I'm glad he mentioned it without me having to say anything, it definitely makes me not want to use that instrument and to look for better collaborators!

Dinner!

It's a few days late but a few friends and I decided to have our own version of the CNY reunion dinner. Being newbies in a city that has no Chinatown, we weren't exactly spoiled for choice when looking for places to eat. However, I had serendipitously made an acquaintance a few days before who told me that there was a restaurant that served peking duck - with pancakes and everything!

True story - it was almost the whole shebang!

It didn't come with the other stuff (soup made from the bones, noodle stir fly with the other meat), and it can't really compete with Simon's Peiking Duck. But as something to tide us over, it definitely hit the spot. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy year of the monkey everyone! Just like in Munich, there's not much going on in terms of celebrations in Bremen. What I did do was continue the tradition of wearing new clothes - starting the year new and all that. I chose to wear a red and white striped sweater/dress from Uniqlo and a duffel coat from Primark. Despite the relatively cheap aspect of my outfit, I was complimented! Does this say something about fashion in Germany? Heheheh

But here's a ghostly photo of me and my clothes.

My work doesn't have any full length mirrors so it had to be taken in the reflection of a door. 

I need this shirt

But I want it in a colour that's not brown :/

Prima Taste Laksa Noodles

Now, I love laksa and it's a pretty hard to come by in Germany. To overcome my lack of laksa over the last few years, I've been trying to make it myself using various paste mixes. But then in 2014 on one of my trips to London, Pooey introduced me to Prima Taste Laksa Noodles. Yes, laksa flavoured instant noodles. 

THEY ARE THE BOMB. 

Like, they actually really taste like laksa! I'm just writing about them now because I had a bowl for lunch today and they made me really happy. The soup is thick and aromatic with the right mix of spice and coconut, and so long as you cook them following the directions, the hokkien-style noodles are chewy. Sometimes I also boil rice vemicelli noodles to add to my experience but instead I limited myself today to just a boiled egg, prawns, tofu cake, mint and coriander. It was worth it. 

But the best bit is I've found an asian grocery in Bremen sells them. I DON'T HAVE TO LOAD UP ON THEM IN LONDON ANYMORE!!! 

#almostwinning!

So I have already made a couple of friends in Bremen, two of which are a couple from Sydney! They've already been here a few months and had sussed out a regular trivia night that's in English. They invited me along, not knowing who I am. 

As a team of three people, we came third. We each got these tubs of Haribo gummis s our prize.

Coming third isn't the same as first or even second, but I guess I can still say - THE QUEEN HAS RETURNED!!!

Love you long time, London

Because I am the new girl, work sent me to a meeting in London to meet other people I would be working with. Not gonna complain about that! Okay, I will complain a little bit - it was a two day meeting with an 8AM START on the second day. But the flipside of the early start was an early end, allowing me to catch up with some London peeps :D.

I caught up with Amandine, Mr J, Liz and Livvy at Lobster & Burger.

And like any self-respecting Asian, we all got lobster

I got mine grilled. yay. 

Afterwards we met with Angry Chris and headed to Bread St. Kitchen for cocktails. 

We also took this epic photobooth pic while at Bread St. because the pauses between shots were so long we weren't sure if it was done or not :D

And I strolled home from there and felt a great swelling in my heart for all my friends and how even though time may pass, we still had a great time together in this amazing city <3 .="" p="">

Also, a shoutout to Smee letting me crash and also making me squid ink pasta. Delizioso!

Wonderful discovery at work!

As everyone who's ever started work in a new place, there are lots of things to figure out when you get there, and one spends the first couple of weeks trying things out. Well. I made a great discovery.

The coffee machine is also a hot chocolate machine!

I don't drink coffee so I never really paid much attention to the coffee machine other than to make sure it gave hot water. But there were so many other buttons - one of which said *Kakao* and another that said *Schokomilch*. Imagine my joy when a colleague confirmed that they delivered!

Now how to make sure I don't get diabetes...

Life in Bremen so far...

So what's it like now living in Bremen compared to Munich? Well first of all, lots of people said it didn't snow in Bremen and also warmer in winter because it's too close to the sea.

This was a goddamn lie. It's plenty cold in Bremen and there was quite a bit of snow on my first week of work. This photo was from my third week of work. Look at it! It looks like it's in greyscale!!!

My balcony is more private than my one in Munich so one sunny Sunday I sat there and had tea and cookies. Then I went quickly inside because it was still 6C.

And there are still cute dogs everywhere!

Epic Journey Home - the way back

Alas, all things must come to an end, and the end to my time in Melbs came all too quickly :(

For my last full day, I decided to be a tourist and wandered around the city taking beautiful photos of the place.

The NGV international inner courtyard *sigh*

I took a walk through the gardens, along the Tan, then took this classic view of the CBD and Southbank *wipes tear* 

Then I went to NGV Australia and saw this sweet sculpture by Patricia Piccinini *sob*

And swung by 8-bit where I had this pretty cute burger *yum*

Oh, I doooooo

But yeah, this time around I really started to feel the pull of family and friends at home and just how far away I've been and how long I've been away. But the state of research in Australia is pretty dismal right now so I'm still not holding my breath on being able to get back. 

On to happier topics, I boarded the plane much more in a much more relaxed state than when I arrived. I also had a 7 hours stopover in Singapore meaning I'd be catching up with Pooky again!

There weren't many things open but we did manage to make it to a hawker stall where I got chicken rice again :D

Singapore Airport was having a promotion whereby you could get a Star Wars plush toy if you spent over a certain amount of money in the airport. Since I was getting Smee some vacuum-dried meats, he also got a bonus Darth Vader!

I had a 24 hours layover in London. So naturally I went shopping. These were the last of the Regent St. Xmas decorations. 

And another chicken pot pie at Heathrow to eat!

From there I flew back to Berlin to spend NYE with Dana and Marie (who was coming up from Munich to meet us :D)

Had to do this - eating a Berliner in Berlin!

Dana made fondue for NYE dinner - using Mama Dana's recipe

Mmmmmm, lecker!

Hehehehe

And so 2015 came to an end. Here's a wonderful 2016!