It's ALiVe

It's alive

I'm alive.

Just a bit much at the moment, that is all.

I will be back

Food and why I try to eat as much natural food as possible

This is not a joke or a funny little anecdote. This is a pretty important video.

I try to eat as much food cooked from scratch as possible. I don't overdo it or go silly, some things are just too much work to do on my own and also, sometimes you just get cravings or want something small, and sometimes you are on the road and have to take what you can get. But when I do my shopping I always read the list of ingredients. The shorter lists are normally the ones I go for - I may not know all the ingredients but the fewer the products (especially odd names I DON'T recognise) the happier I am - and to be honest, it feels like it makes a big difference, when I eat a lot of not so good stuff I tend to get moody and not feel well. It may just be because I like good food so much that it saddens me when the food has an artificial taste, but I do honestly believe there is more to it than that (on the other hand, we are what we think we are too...).

But I will stick to the food that make me feel good.

And when I see this video I get even more determined...

Let the craziness begin!

Carnival, today the great finale kicks off - but we don't do samba and tiny bikinis, we have German UmpaUmpa music and thick costumes, it is not exactly bikini and feathers weather in Düsseldorf in February...

Things to do in Düsseldorf

Want to know more about Düsseldorf and what to see and do here? Check out Daily Telegraphs article on the topic!

Happy Valentines day, by the way. Not an old tradition in Sweden but it is celebrated but some. I think it is a sweet little day even if I don't personally care much about it.

Thai food in Düsseldorf

There used to be a place in Düsseldorf where I would stop now and then when passing through, to get a quick meal. A Thai place. A place where they would make real Thai food if you just asked them.
I would talk to them and ask for Thai Thai and not German Thai, and, just like they do in Thailand, they would cook it on the spot, and I'd get it served nice, warm and hot, Thai hot. The first time they were a bit careful, but when I again underlined that I wanted it really hot, that's what I got.

Just like in Thailand.

And the funny thing is it was so unexpected, it's a Thai place in the hauptbahnhof - main station.

But that was then. Now they refuse to make the food Thai style, the only food they now serve is German Thai, which unfortunately means totally without proper flavour. It's turned from an excellent fast food variant to totally boring, totally blend (and totally German style service too). So I can no longer find proper Thai food on the way somewhere. There are still some fairly good Thai restaurants around but also many that are rather blend. And all the ones that are good are a bit further away and require you to sit down and
take your time, it is not possible to get the food like you get it in Thailand.  And it makes me sad. What they serve now is pre cooked - and very boring.

If I want Germans style "Thai food" I can eat that much cheaper in the canteen, and the taste is pretty much the same too. I cook better Thai food myself. So I guess that's what I will have to do.

No more special treats - I'll get a sandwish. Or a sausage - this is Germany after all...

Drying laundry outside

My neighbours are still, despite -12 degrees, drying laundry outside. I am tryly impressed. I don't use a tumble dryer myself, but I hang the laundry in the bathroom. In Gothenburg, my home town, you can't get laundry to dry outside in the winter, there is too much humidity. But apparently, in Germany, you can...

I had to google it to try and find out at what temperatures you can still do this but it seems it can be well below freezing - see this Wikipedia entry about drying laundry...

Amazed.

Anna Ternheim on tour

The amazing Anna Ternheim, Swedish sing/song writer is performing in Cologne (Köln) on Saturday, in Kulturkirche.

And I forgot to buy tickets...

Love Ternheim's voice and her music is amazing.

When I remembered to look for tickets, beginning of January, the concert was already totally sold out, so now I am monitoring to see if I can manage to go somewhere else where she is playing, but in the meantime I have her new record and there is always YouTube...

Ugly Naked Guy's wife

Ugly naked Guy on the other side of the street has a wife.
Ugly naked Guy's wife washes her feet in the bathroom sink.

I could also tell you what ugly naked guy reads when he is using the toilet but I prefer not to. (Actually I can't at all, it is a little bit too far, but I can see that they are reading).

I have been contemplating sending them a blinder, anonymously. No "return to sender". There is no way they can have missed how visible they are, but they simply can't care. Clear glass in the bathroom window, and the brightest light ever. The other naked guy, who is in another  flat, at least isn't aware of how visible he is when standing naked next to the window, at least it is one of those proper bathroom windows, with glass that isn't supposed to be fully see through. But having the shower next to the window is is anyhow a good idea to have a curtain or at least close the existing one... But again, he is at least not aware of it. Ugly naked guy straight across must be. He MUST.

German exhibitionism? But Germans are otherwise so careful with covering up their windows, to a degree that it gets ridiculous. They love being naked on the beach and other public places but they will not let anyone look inside their kitchens. Well, I don't know - I am also not going to try and figure it out...

Why don't German water freeze?

It's fascinates me, why don't German water freeze? the big rivers with lots of water, with waters that never stand still I can sort of understand, but what about the smaller streams?

Spent the weekend visiting friends in the south of Germany, not so far from Stuttgart, and I was noticing, with amazement, that the waters were still open. The Schönen Blauen Donau - why doesn't the waters freeze. And not just the big river, also the tiny little streams were open. It is after all minus 16 degrees, and while my friend said that it hadn't been cold for very long, the extreme cold has still been here for a week, ever since the winds changed and the winds started to blow in from Russia.

And the same goes for Düsseldorf, our waters remain open too...

I've truly been enjoying the weekend though,despite the mystery of waters that never freeze and the cold cold weather, I may not be a good skier but I am very good at wearing ski equipment... Layers, layers, scarves, gloves, proper hat, proper shoes, and yes, ski trousers, and the cold is no longer hard to deal with, the hard part is getting in from the outside, before the layers have been peeled off...
I could get used to this if it doesn't happen too often....

Don't complain

It is -10 degrees outside (Celsius that is), abeit sunny (which is of course very nice), but it is really biting cold. And there are more people on the streets without a hat than with one. And that's even if I include baseball caps and so forth.

And there are lots of people without a scarf.

And yet more people that aren't wearing gloves.

No wonder people are cold.

But if you don't have the common sense to dress properly, don't complain. It is one thing if you are caught out but in this case we weren't, it has been cold for a few days. I admit it, I don't like to stick my nose out the door either, but when I do, I dress accordingly. Who CARES about fashion and about hat hair?!? And even if I cared about fashion I don't look good when I have a cold so I thought avoiding that would be a nice thing - and starting with being properly dressed for cold weather feels like a great first step.

Meh! What was I thinking?!?

Flipping cold today, although luckily I have been asked to work from home today - talk about timing.
But I is a bit chilly in the flat, or at least in the living room where I am sitting with work things).
Got a nice warm sweater and a big scarf - also because I like scarves and sweaters.

But I was worried about the temperatures. And then it hits me - I COULD of course just turn the heating up a bit... It's as if I hadn't even thought about  that option. I am saving the max for when it gets really cold, so that there is always the chance to get it a bit warmer if needed - my emergency heating, if you like. But seriously, how many times in the winter is it going to be colder than around -10 in Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf where some of my friends were still biking last week, Düsseldorf that normally, in wintertime, is a few degrees above freezing? What AM I saving for?

Except that is in my nature, I was brought up with a father that saved everything - because you never know what will happen - and my mother is pretty good at it too. I can't help who I am, can I? But I can fight it...

So now the radiators have been turned up a bit. Still not to max though, I still have some margins, but still (and I don't want it to be too warm anyhow, if it is too warm I get sleepy.)

I'm ready

I'm ready to be swept of my feet.
Now the only question is how to get that message through. And to the RIGHT person this time? :-)
And it's not just because it's cold and it would be nice to have something to warm my toes on, although I must admit that it would be nice to not have to worry that my hot water bottle will start leaking because i didn't tighten the lid enough...

And also, the hot water bottle doesn't buy me flowers ;-)

Although who am I to complain, I love my hot water bottle! See, hot water bottles, that's a thing we don't really do in Sweden - another unexpected life quality enhancer with not living there anymore - an easy way to get warm feet. Tried for the first time in freezing cold Belfast, now a commonly used winter companion. Adore my water bottle!

(And to be honest... I said no to a date this week just to stay in with my water bottle... It is a very faithful waterbottle)

Brussels sprouts

I have developed an addiction. Until September 2011 I would have said it would be impossible, and now... It is a serious one too - Brussels Sprouts!

Until September 2011 Brussels sprouts was one of the things I just couldn't stand. I don't like them, I just don't - or I didn't I should say. They would be served now and then and at least lately I would be able to take a few just to be polite, and survive having to eat them, but I really found them horrible. Didn't matter how healthy they are, I seriously disliked them - although at least it had gone from hate to serious dislike, always a step forward.

And then I was in New Orleans and they were served in a salad, but not cooked, they were roasted/baked in the oven. And since then I am stuck. It took me a little while but after I got back I started to experiment, and now I do them at least once a week, sometimes several days in a row... Brussels sprouts made in the oven.

Cut them in half, sprinkle olive oil over, balsamico, a little bit of salt - and bake them in the oven, around 175 degrees (Celsius, that is), for some 40 minutes or until they are tasty, soft but not too soft. I keep making them, and I keep finishing them, most of the time they don't even make it to the salad that I prepared them for, I finish them straight out of the oven pan, while preparing the rest of the meal.

I just CAN'T STOP myself...

I go through BAGS of them...

And now I found how to make them even better - drizzle a little bit of honey onto them before putting them in the oven. HEAVEN!

Brussels sprouts. Who would have guessed...

I am bad

I am really bad. I refuse to call people Herr Doktor or Frau Doktor. (Mr Doctor, Ms Doctor). I think it is ridiculous.

Maybe because we in Sweden don't really use titles at all - except for for the royals - read about how we lost the titles here - Sweden.se is a great source of information when you want to know about Sweden.

But I realise I have to use the Dr title here in Germany, and normally family name, at least when speaking German, so I do, but I really do refuse to add a "Frau" or a "Herr" as well, it shouldn't matter if he/she is a woman or a man, the person deserved a doctor degree and that should be all that matters. So I call them just Doctor. I pretend that I don't understand that you are supposed to add a Mr or Ms as well...  Because I think it is very very silly!

(Update: But yes, I know, it is needed in German from a grammatical point of view. I still don't like the "but you are a woman before you are a doctor" kind of attitude it feels like it is bringing).