General Update

No big news today, just a quick note.

It seems I have missed one of the main events of the Cookham social calendar. Let's Rock the Moor is happening as I type this. I thought it was free in the afternoon, only costing in the evening. This was incorrect and you need tickets for the whole thing. By the time I realised this, they were sold out. It was starting to become embarrassing, with everyone I met asking me if I was going. So, no I didn't go.

The weather has been fantastic this week. Today saw the first use of the paddling pool this season and Mitchell's first ever go in it. I'm very pleased with my 6 pound pool; I didn't think it would last one summer, but this is the start of its third. Both Lena and Mitchell really enjoyed their splash around this afternoon, as you can hopefully tell from these pictures.

Now I have to leave you and get back to the football. Bayern Munich is in the final of the Champions League and I do have a soft spot for them in big games. 1860 is my team of choice for Munich, but you don't see much of them on the international circuit. Which reminds me, I have to decide who to cheer for in the World Cup. Australia, Germany or England?

Taking Part

I have been thinking about the subject of this blog post for a few days now and it's rumbled around long enough that I felt the need to put it down on paper. Well, not paper, on electrons perhaps is more accurate. Please bear with me while I give you some background information.

When I first moved to Munich, I ended up joining a Bavarian oom-pah-pah band. I was a member of the Pullacher Blasmusik, the local wind band for the town of Pullach. It was such a fantastic experience, I could write for hours (and probably bore some of you to tears) about why I enjoyed it so much. I played with them for all 13 years I lived in Munich. They were the only group I actually cried saying goodbye to at the end of our stay in Germany.

The reason I mention this is because if I moved to Munich for the first time today, it would be highly unlikely that I would join them. When I first moved to Munich in 1993, I found the band by putting an ad in the local free ads paper, saying I was looking to join a band. Nowadays, every one would fire up their computers and do a search. And for Germany, English speakers searching the web will probably come across the extremely useful and informative website of Toytown Germany. I am still a member of the forums there and they are goldmine to anyone moving to Germany. Not just for information about the place, but as a friendly place to ask the questions you don't know who else to ask. Like why do Germans stare at me? Or is it strange that I saw a woman in her 70s having beer with her breakfast the other day? And it's a great way as a new expat to meet other expats. Lots of them plan organised events and in Munich, they have even formed the TT Orchestra and Singers.

So if I moved to Munich now, I would probably have joined the TT Orchestra, assuming they would have me. Why? Because they would have been easy to find. Because they would speak English and when I first moved to Germany I didn't speak any German. Because when I first moved, I only planned to stay a year, so an expat band would have been easy to get to know people and less intimidating than joining a German-speaking (or Bavarian speaking!) band. But I am so glad they weren't around and I didn't join them.

Now don't get me wrong please, especially my friends who are in the TT Orchestra. I think you guys are great for forming and you sound like you are really taking off and doing fantastic things. Things I would certainly have enjoyed. But I would have missed out on so many other things by not playing with a local band. I went to Ukraine and France on tours with Pullacher Blasmusik and Pullach representatives. Because of PuBla, as we affectionately called the band, I learnt not just German, but Bavarian. This is a dialect of German that other Germans might not be impressed that I know, but most Bavarians certainly were. Probably the majority of my German friends came via the band. Being in the band gave me a good advantage when I applied for a job offered by the Pullach local authority. I even got together with my husband by convincing him to come along and join the band.

I moved to and stayed in Germany to get to know the country and the language, and playing in an expat band would not have done much towards that goal. I lived in much of an expat bubble as it was, with most of my friends being other people from countries other than Germany. PuBla was my best and strongest connection to the country I actually lived in and I'm forever grateful for having made that connection.

I know not everyone is in a foreign country to be part of that foreign culture. But even if you are there purely for work or for family, I think your experience is improved by trying to take part in the local (no longer foreign) culture. You aren't still at home, so you should try somewhat to make where you are home. Who better to help you feel at home than the people who are from there to do it?

I'm not saying that where ever you are, you should "go native". Be yourself and be proud of where you come from. But also accept you are in a different place now and try and be proud of that place too. You chose to live there so you should enjoy there. You don't have to join a local band to do that, it could be a local sports team, an art group, volunteering at a retirement home, whatever. It could be simply hanging out at the local cafe and starting conversation with the people there. It doesn't matter what it is, just take part in the world around you. Trust me, it's good thing to do.

Beer, Glorious Beer!

We were in Munich a couple of weekends ago for another visit. G had to go for work, which he does on occasion. It just happened that this occasion was also during Oktoberfest. Last year was the first year time I missed it after 14 years in a row. Last year I didn't mind, but this year I really was pining for it. Oktoberfest is not for the faint-hearted, or is it for a quiet tete-a-tete with a friend. But neither is it only about the beer. Sure, that's the image most people have of it, but it's also a fun fest where families can have fun on some rides. I will be honest though, and admit that it wasn't the fun fest carnival rides that I was pining for. So when G said he was going to be there for the Munich Hash House Harriers Oktoberfest weekend bash, I decided I should go along too.

Munich always has a great atmosphere during the 2 weeks of Oktoberfest. There seems to be a sense of anticipation in the air, people are walking around wearing traditional Bavarian clothing of Dirndls for the women and Lederhosen for the men. There are lots of tourists and they are pretty excited. Well, when they aren't already drunk or nursing hangovers, haha. Actually, if you only do Oktoberfest, you have to work really hard to get a hangover, as they stop serving beer at 10:30pm and close the tents at 11pm. If you are sensible, you go home at that point, get a decent night's sleep and don't feel too bad the next day. Of course, not everyone is sensible.

Anyways, we had a great time at Oktoberfest, seeing the Hashers and seeing our friends Dee and Martin, who kindly put us up despite jet lag from their own very recent trip. I took Lena on Friday morning to the Fest, meeting up with some other new moms I know. It was funny being there as a parent, you certainly see the thing through different eyes. Lena was very keen to go on the rides, which I indulged her in, as it's not like we will be there every year.

Speaking of beer, I just baked Beer Bread tonight. A very simple recipe actually. 3 cups of self-raising flour, 340ml of beer and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Mix enough to wet everything, whack it in a loaf tin and bake at 190°C for close on an hour. This recipe will obvious vary in taste depending on which beer you use. I used Carlsberg because that's what we have (reasons given below) and found it okay, but in need of tweaking. With this mild beer, the 3 tbsps of sugar made it a bit too sweet. It's a nice quick bread, but to me it didn't really taste or feel like yeasted bread, which was what I was craving. But again, as a quick bread, it was okay. If you make this, I'd like to hear how it turned out and which beer you used.

The reason I used Carlsberg is we *still* have several cartons of it after having 2 big events back in May and June this year. The last one was G's 30th birthday party. The problem we have is that we keep estimating alcohol amounts based on the parties we had in Munich. Now, that doesn't mean all our friends in Munich were lushes who drank like fish. Okay, they are, but that's not why we overestimated here (just kidding folks, you aren't really lushes. Well, not ALL of you). Living out in the countryside, at least half the people came by car to the party, which cuts out a drinker. A lot of the people we invited were also from our NCT group, so with a little toddler to look after, no one is going to drink as much as they might otherwise, simply from lack of time and opportunity to get a new beer! Plus I think that women in the UK drink more wine than beer than the women in Germany (I noticed the same in Australia too), so yet even fewer beers drunk. With so much beer left over, G has being doing his best to finish it off and I've been helping him on occasion too. But there's enough to try out any other lager-based recipes I might come across or any recipes someone reading this blog might care to share.

The Grand Prix of Singing

The Eurovision Song Contest is tonight. My North American and Australian readers might be saying, "The what?" to that announcement. That was certainly my reaction when I first heard people in Munich talking about the Grand Prix. I assumed they were talking about car racing at first, as that's the name by which I knew Formula 1. But with all the talk of costumes, voting and oh yeah, singing; I realised it couldn't quite be Michael Schumacher they were talking about.

If you are that interested in it, you can read about it in my first link. If you're not that interested, just a few quick facts for you to take to your next trivia quiz. ABBA won Eurovision contest in 1974, which basically paved their way to fame. 1988 was the year Celine Dion won the contest (performing for Switzerland, not Canada). And Riverdance, the Irish dance show sensation, started as a 7 minute filler during the 1994 Eurovision. Funny that the filler became more famous than the act that won.

This will be my first time watching it with the BBC coverage, and only my 2nd or 3rd time over all. Apparently half the reason my British friends watch the show is simply for the dry witty comments from Terry Wogan, so that is something to look forward to. Everyone in Munich always complained, "It just wasn't the same" without Terry covering it. So tonight is my chance to see if it's even close to worth the cheesy hype it's given.

Fat Tuesday

Today, in case the less religious amongst you doesn't know, is Shrove Tuesday. Also known as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day in the UK; Mardi Gras in New Orleans and most of South America; Fasching, Fastnacht or Karneval in Germany. Basically, it's the last day before Lent, the last day you can really party and eat up before setting down to 40 days of fasting. The reason for the pancakes is to use up all your eggs, one of the foods traditionally avoided during Lent. The Germans don't have pancakes, they eat Krapfen, which are basically jelly doughnuts. The Germans also have Krapfen on offer for several weeks to months before Shrove Tuesday, which can be a killer if you have a sweet tooth and are trying to watch your weight.

Other than making pancakes and there usually being a pancake race in some towns, nothing really happens in the UK for this day. On the other hand, in Germany people dress up in costumes (fancy-dress for the Brits) and in parts of the country it's an official holiday. Cologne and Mannheim, to name two of the more famous places. In Munich, it is sort of a semi-holiday. Lots of businesses and shops close for the day, or close at noon, but many others stay open. It's simply a matter of chance, as far as I can tell. Along with eating up their eggs in the Krapfen, the Germans also like to do a fair amount of drinking at Fasching. I have many memories, some strong, some very vague, of partying and drinking from around noon until late at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich. Really, considering the enormity of the hangovers, the Wednesday after should be the holiday, not the Tuesday.

We combined a bit of both German and British culture for Shrove Tuesday. We had the pancakes, in the form of crêpes. And we had the alcohol, in the form of a healthy dose of Grand Marnier in the Crêpes Suzette sauce. Lena just had scrambled eggs, no Grand Marnier. Just in case you were worried.