Gimmie the Glühwein, and no one gets hurt

Knowing that in a few days Sweet No and I would be leaving Germany on our way to the States was putting me under pressure from many different directions.

Do we have all the presents purchased? Is everything on the list so we know what to buy and bring back to Germany as we do some "self-importing"? Isn't packing something you should start to do more than 10 hours before leaving?

But in the back of my head was a troubling thought about something I would be missing in Germany when spending Christmas in the States... Glühwein.

Ah... mulled wine (wiki), the necktar of the Gods. If I left Germany without standing outside in the winter chill, surrounded by a Christmas Market, listening to German Christmas songs while holding a steaming mug of spiced wine... well, things just wouldn't be right with my world.

A few nights ago I realized that Sweet No's company Christmas party would give me a few hours alone after work, and the perfect opportunity to take in some dinner at a Christmas Market (wiki).

I picked my target. The market at Schloss Charlottenburg is not far from my office, and has always been a nice choice.A quick ride on a subway and then bus found me almost skipping toward the shops and food sellers. The smell of grilled meat mingling with roast almonds heightened by the vision of the softly lit tents gave me a spring in my step for certain.

What to do first? After having had no lunch, I was starving at 18:30. Maybe I should find food, eh? While walking around looking for something which would tickle my tastebuds, I found a good price on the aforementioned necktar of the Gods. There were many people standing around sipping the stuff... and I wasn't one of them! Must... have... Glühwein! When I made it to the counter the man listened patiently as I stammered out in shitty German my desire for the hot, spiced goodness. The next question from him was "Mit Schuss"?

Oh... yes, that is right... often the spiced wine just isn't enough, so it is offered spiked with another shot of rum or amaretto. He's asking me if I want a little extra in my mug.

"Gerne, mit Rum bitte" shot out of my mouth without even thinking. Silly me, I had just told him that it would make me very happy if he would put a bit of rum in that hot wine, please.

Money was exchanged for a cute little cup of steaming goodness. The mug itself showed the Schloss (castle, for want of a better word) and had a Pfand (deposit) of three Euro (roughly 4 Dollars).Walking away slowly I took the season's first sip of REAL Glühwein! Hmmm... warm and lovely going down, with just the right amount of tang and aroma to let me know that I'm drinking cheap red wine with some herbs. But it is the experience, you know?

NOW it is Christmas! Now I can get excited about the pine trees for sale everywhere. Now I can look forward to the exchange of presents! Most immportantly now I can go to America, knowing that I've officially opened the Christmas season with my first (and it turns out - my only) Glühwein.About 20 minutes later when I was slurring my words through trying to order some Pierogies from the Polish stand it became evident that I should have thought harder about having food BEFORE the Glühwein... but hey, the buzz just added to the festive atmosphere, eh?

Oh, and that first picture up above... you've got it right, that was the FIRST one I took... AFTER the food... and before sobering up slightly... so it's a little crooked... It's still pretty isn't it?

This is the Russian stall where they sell stuff like Borscht (wiki), beef on a stick (Shashlyk), and this lovely delicacy... fish eggs on dark bread which has been slathered with salty butter.

Hmmmmm. I really thought about trying some, but after my Pierogies and a bowl of Borscht, I figured I'd had enough.

So what about you? What is it that signals the REAL beginning of the Christmas season for you?

Holly Jolly Snooker

Long time no write, eh?
IF there’s anyone still reading this rag, let me apologize now… for being gone so long, and in advance for my crappy writing. But you should be used to that by now, shouldn’t you?

Let’s just say that I’ve been busy. Work has been exasperating lately. Nothing too stressful, just work, work, and more work... which just wears on me. Every day I start work with a fresh new list of prioritized items which must be completed. At the end of that day I often see a few things crossed off, but more likely I have a much longer list than what I started with. OK OK, so I've got a job, and that is better than lots of folks... perhaps I shouldn't be complaining, eh?

On top of work has been life. Sweet No and I have been busy getting our new apartment in order. It seems like we’ve almost been living at furniture stores each night after work. We needed to outfit our loggia “the reading room” with sisal carpet and some nice chairs. Done. Next is a kitchen.

I must say however that I really don’t like shopping, and this kind of shopping can be painful not only in the pocketbook, but it often feels like pulling teeth.

Imagine this: two women, one tall, hard and lean, the other short and pleasantly plump. Now imagine that these two women want to buy a pair of reading chairs. Our conversations sound like something out of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, “This one is too big… This one is too small… This one is too hard… My feet don't touch the ground... The backs of my knees don't touch the chair...” you get the picture.

Add to that two completely different tastes in furniture. Sweet No wants something with checks or stripes or lots of color. Snooker is more of a solids kinda girl with an astigmatism which makes lines look like they’re dancing. Give me a solid color chair with a pillow which adds a dash of color... that's me. No wants the grandfather chair with BIG checks. It is incredibly hard to get something to make us both happy… but we finally did it last night. Now let’s just hope that they fit into the loggia door.

OK, that is enough to get used to the idea of blogging again.
I'm looking forward to catching up on all of your blogs over the holiday.

If anyone is interested, there is a set of pics for Tahiti on Flickr.
The New Zealand set is taking a little longer, but I add some every day or two.
If you've got my Facebook info, there are a LOT more pics for both sets... Flickr is just for the "arty" type pics with no faces.