Cannstatter Wasen- ROUND 1 !

The Cannstatter Wasen rolls into town this week in Stuttgart..

think, 

funderland ( irish)

 carnivals ( american)

fete ( british )

All Together Combined :-) 

Its big and in your face, with lots of cool ...

emm....music like  

THIS

and

THIS

food galore of course

yum, pistachios ...

corn for sale, 2 euro and the first for me of a German delicacy...

CURRYWURST!

 not my last...

 
these snoopys not for sale unfortunately...sorry min

BRING ON ROUND TWO TOMORROW

(!!!!)

ruairi :-)

Schickimicki !

Possibly the only most ridiculous German word i know......

der/die Schickimicki (-s)  member of the in-crowd/smart set; trend-setter, jet-setter; fashionista
Schickimicki- (in compounds)  (snobbishly) trendy

 If you want a more comprehensive Schickimickiexperience...please click HERE

 Schickimicki we are not

NOT

certainly not

NEVER in a million years..!!!

ok...expect a proper post in the coming days from our trip to the Cannstatter Wasen...

Its been HIGHLY recommended :-D

ruairi :-)

Pumpkinfest, round two !

more pumpkins!!

will i ever get bored...

probably not...

Any takers with what this is supposed to be?

:-D

its a craze, their everywhere !

pumpkin with warts in a fancy shop...

baby pumpkins...awwwww

NOT pumpkins ( i dont think!) but they look similar...

kurbis=pumpkin in German.

funny. :-D ....is this getting old yet??!!

NOT forgetting second round of pumpkin cookies...

eat me !

ruairi :-)

Pumpkinmania

I know I must appear to be obsessed with pumpkins and other members of the gourd family, 

but how could I not be...I mean...their everywhere !!

they must be pumpkin fans like me...?

Huge!!

Its like a desktop wallpaper :-D

I found this on the street on the way home from a party..odd?

balaphone, pumpkins included!!

 So to celebrate the season of the pumpkin, I decided to make pumpkin and raspberry chocolate chip cookies. Recipe HERE

be warned, i missed the 48 servings bit, so if you want 10 big cookies, use half the ingredients. I have plenty of dough left to make some more for the weekend!

They are REally good!

ruairi :-)

Stuttgart 21

Basically there has been pretty much constant protesting in Stuttgart since my arrival on the 1st of September.

They (...the government...) want to destroy the park for an even bigger train station...presumably so they can increase industry and make more money.. think destroying the Stuttgart equivalent of Central Park, Hyde Park etc...
And the people are NOT happy.

 their on my college!

 So after a nice little practice sesh in college, I walked into one of these riots. See above and below.

emm...how do I get home ?!

Its a bit unnerving but none the less, a powerful sight to see the people come together and unite!

As I am a complete dope when it comes to speaking and reading German, I never know when the next protest/march/riot will take place...

I usually rely on seeing something like a police bike bombing it up the pedestrian walkway, men with guns, people jumping on cars etc...lol Although, the park is stunning and serene at night with little night-lights sitting peacefully on statues and trees.

Wheres Wally/Waldo (ruairi!)

Thoughts?
 

Follow your own star!

 Check it out HERE

if you understand German...that is!

ruairi :-)

Butternut Gratin

Around this time last year, the Sunday Time's Magazine printed an article with recipes for pumpkins and squash’s. Deep in my bank of travelling tatt newspaper cuttings, I dug up the gem.

I remember having a conversation about it with a few of my percussion colleagues, and getting a little bit over excited .. not quite hyper-ventilating… but close!!!

I remember being completely obsessed, doing all the recipes and nagging everyone else to try them... !!

Do you remember 
(!!!)

the first of many gourd recipes I hope to be trying...

So… Yesterday I made a butternut squash gratin

adapted from the Sunday Times Magazine, September 2009 ( and a few extras added in by me for the lark)

• 200mls 30% fat cream
• a large squash
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 finely chopped tomato
• nutmeg
• salt n' pepper
• 125g full fat mozzarella  preferably a good creamy brand

you can of course use parmesan as the recipe stated but I prefer mozzers,

Peel the squash.

Chop the squash into two parts the long section and the round bulbous section.

Deseed the bottom part and chop into small chunks, boil the chunks for about 10 mins.

Whilst these are boiling slice the top long part into disk shaped slices. Boil these for  just 5 mins. Drain and leave to cool.

To be Mashed

•  the boiled chunks
• Tomater
• 25 grams of the cheese
• one of the garlic cloves
• 50 mills of the cream

Press the mash firmly into the bottom of the gratin dish.

Put the disks of squash on top ....  lets try to keep it even peeps

pour over the rest of the cream and chopped/grated cheese

season with salt/pepper/nutmeg and lob a few chunks of butter on top

Bake at middle heat for 40-45 mins...or until golden brown

I would recommend leaving to sit for 5 mins before serving, as it gives the ingredients a chance to come and cool together, thus, allowing a cleaner serving process.

It went down well

ruairi :-)

Music on the street

So, the curse of the number 9 strikes again...

whilst wandering  in down town Stuttgart yesterday afternoon.. I saw the most oddly fascinating thing,

a scary cool lady on the street playing odd Halloween styled music...on a saw

I took a picture...ALTHOUGH...

I never remember her looking directly at the screen as I took the picture..Its the curse again for sure!!!! see my post here.for the record she had realll talent and played the saw like no other ive ever seen

some of the other cool street acts...

man playing horn to popular melodies as Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie ( ABBA) and Achie Breaky Heart ( ??)

he had real soul in his performance :-)

man honking on sax whilst a parrot sat on head, parrot squawked every now again...emm...entertaining!!

no caption needed...

lol..!!

ruairi :-)

The concer, pigeon, noodle lampost and lady post...

Its Officially Autumn(!) , fall, herbstlich,

or whatever you choose to call it.

 (well not for 5 days or so)

BUT

  the finding of my first concer that practically fell into my hand* prooves that it is upon us.

*well like a meter away, which is just as good...

Ive been lucky to have had the company of a fellow Erasmus who goes by the name of  Frau Turner these past days- YAY

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

justs a few of the things that have gone down in Stuttgart ALREADY since her arrival....

1)

Frau walked intoGOT SERVED by a lamp post on seeing a picture of the number 9 to Aldwich!!!!!!!!!... 

funniest.thing.ever

hopefully this poster of the bus, or of course the bus itself isn't haunted/cursed....

2)

Whilst cakeing ourselves up on kuchen

in a cake dealership, a pigeon raided the cake shop, unfortunately,  Frau's attempts to mediate the situation angered the foul fowl and he unleashed his wrath on ME!!!!  

Ie. he/she flew around and knocked lots of things down...

seriously traumatic like.
I even considered using my newly found concer as a weapon and throwing it at the bird.

see attached facebook group...

Pigeons Are Getting WAY Too Brave Thesedays...

Im a fully paid up and loyal follower. I thought I left argumentative pigeons behind in London...

Just in case you didn't quite catch a look, via the crapp picture i took..

NOT KIDDING....

(major LOls!!)

3)Found an amazing noodle place*, noodle and lychee juice for c. 4euro.... besides, the lovely Asian lady working the stall said she liked my hair and wanted to come to Gross Schlagzeug Nacht :-)

 *name and details to follow

 yummmm....

4)We met an amazing American lady from Colorado and subsequently had a huge conversation with her for ages about culture and travel- she suggested we go to Baden Baden, it sounds like the Jersey Shore of Deuchland! Has anyone who might be reading ever been to Germany ( or Baden Baden?) Can you recommend any place worth visiting??

I asked her to come and look at my blog, hopefully she will...IF YOUR READING THIS LOVELY LADY, THANK YOU FOR YOUR WISDOM AND WE HOPE YOU GOT HOME OK :-)

ruairi :-) 

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Times on Sunday time

 

After purposely scouring the streets of Stuttgart in the hope of finding a newsagents that was...

1) open  ....EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays in Germany

2)that had an international news section

3) selling the Sunday Times as part of there international news section

4) selling the Sunday Times with the magazine supplements as part of their international news section

Eventually, after a half mornings search... I hit the jackpot and scored the paper...

(minus the magazines)

 

One little problem though, look closer...

Yes, you see correctly, what is usually a bumper magazine laden package for the grand oul price of 2 pounds is a COMPLETELY slightly anorexic slimmed down version of my favorite newspaper charged at 5 euro and 10 cents, slightly disappointing...

( its the 10 cents extra for Germany that insulted me the most, I mean WTF!)

So, I leanet the hard way that many of the newspapers I am familiar with and enjoy reading seem to also have an "International Edition"

Which I read as..... 

a watered down, more expensive version of the publication, with less and older articles.

ALTHOUGH, I have to admit, It WAS WAS worth it and I can understand the reasons for such changes- I mean I am in a different country and all... I should be gratefuller !

 There was nothing more comforting than panning out with the times and just enjoying peace and quiet. There were some fantastic articles on Eduction and in particular, a  chap by the name of Gareth Malone- whos work as an music and education animateur, im a big fan of.

I was so happy- It was as if all my Christmases had come at once :-D

im tempted to buy as behind the veneer of Christmas decorations, lies cheap cheap chocolate goodness

Whaaaait ein minueten

Christmas decorations in Lidl already, ALREADY!

ruairi :-)