Planet Sue

The other night — as in, three nights ago, one of the evenings to the beautiful over-15-deg-C days — a fly tickled me. That was just odd. They usually don’t “bug” me. The next day, there seemed to be a slew of them around, big ol’ “houseflies”. And easy to swat. And then I realized — I was swatting them in pairs. Apparently being in “fliegre\anto” dilecto makes ’em slow.

It didn’t end there, though. By the end of the day there were flies all over the place. We don’t have window screens in this little burg in Germany, and no matter what I tried to convince them to LEAVE the house, they refused. No way was I going to leave the windows closed on such beautiful weather, either.

So began the long siege. I began to wonder what was lying in the floorboards, or in a window casing, that brought on the infestation of the flies. The kitty toilet was cleaned out. There was no rotting anything hiding anywhere that I could find.

Some friends came by to help me eat that marvelous Panang curry (previous blog post), and I broached the subject of the flies. “OH!” my colleague said “They’re terrible! Apparently there is some bird that keeps them under control but the weather was too warm so the flies came early and the birds have not arrived yet”.

Well. I could use a hungry spider right about now. Or a bat. Or do they only eat mosquitos?

So the Caustic One really loves Thai food. The most favored are the salads and soups, but there are some other things she loves, including curries. Of the curries, Panang is the best. It is spicy, yet flavorful. The blend is not so sharp as to remove tastebuds or to burn the ears.

Thai food is one of those things that the Caustic one can actually cook, thanks to her friend Moi from way-back-when. Moi, from Thailand, took the time and energy to teach the Caustic One how to cook Thai food. Thai food is also NOT one of the things one finds in this little town in central Germany. So when that crave came along, that skill of being able to make it oneself really came in handy.

This one is pretty simple.

Coconut Milk
Panang Curry Paste
Lychees
Green Beans
Onions
Garlic
Rainer Pepper
Leek
Beef Strips (in this case, fake beef strips made from soy — non-GMO soy)

Simmer everything and serve over jasmine rice.

This pic is from the last time I made it …
Coconut Milk
Panang Curry Paste,
Green Beans
Mushrooms
Chicken
Onions
Garlic
Leek
Cranberries
Cherries

(Ed Note: written 14.Feb, 2014).
The luge seems to be The Sport for Germany this Winter Olympics. Another gold medal yesterday (Thursday 13th Feb) allowed me to visit another part of the country, gratis.

Well, almost. If my German were better I would have realized that the last phrase of the “where is the GoldBahnKart good” didn’t mean something like “you can’t bring extra traffic” but rather “other railway traffic”, and I would have been doing it gratis. But seeing as how I was already on the Regional Express when the conductor kindly explained that I would have to pay for the ticket from Eichenburg to Halle, I couldn’t just jump off the train. So I bought the ticket. I did get 25% off, though, which was nice. On the way back, I planned the trip via ICE/IC – and in a humorous twist of fate, it is going to take me an hour longer to get home. Unfortunately, I did not save the trip via IC/ICE onto my phone, so I am not really sure what connection to take after Hannover: Do I try to get home from Göttingen? Or do I overshoot and go to Kassel Wilhemshöhe? Well, I’m going to hope that I can make a reasonable connection via Göttingen and exit stage – whichever it is in Fahrtrichting. I may be getting home at midnight. After that, well I think I will be sleeping late tomorrow.

Unless, of course, another Gold was won today and I am not yet aware of the fact. In that case, I might do something crazy and take the ICE to Freiberg in the Black Forest. Four hours there and back, so I would have to leave pretty early in the day. In some respects I hope today was not another gold medal day, b/c I feel obliged to make use of this gold card! I had several opportunities to do so earlier, but between work and this cold, I did not take them — and I feel a bit guilty!

But back to Halle…
In the meantime, I took the time to walk down Leipzigerstraße, following the signs to “Händelhaus”. I am sure I walked past the place, but never saw “IT”. Went back the way I came after taking some pictures and buying some cheap candy to suck on to try to stave off the coughing, found the same sign, followed it back.. and apparently the place was 150 m from yet another sign. No clue where it was. In any event the sun was setting, the architecture from this amazing city (home to the genius of Julius Kuhn and GF Händel, among others) becoming well lit by a close-to-full moon, and it was time to make my way back to the train station. I had given myself two hours to explore, intending to saunter slowly down the Leipzigstrasse and back, but walked too quickly.

A man playing the cello caught my intention, and I regret not stopping to listen to him for a few minutes. Had I known that the street was really not that long, I would have taken the time. His playing was quite lovely. A little further down a young man played guitar and sang modern songs of love. Me without a euro coin — nothing really attracted my attention as far as spending money, but I would have liked to have shown my appreciation for these musicians.

Many trams came together halfway down my meanderings, where a farmers market with fish and vegetables and even an herb and tea vendor with kaffir lime leaves — if I had had a few euros in my pocket, I would have purchased those; they are so needed in Tom Ka Gai and Tom Yum Goon soup and right now I am fresh out (or even dried out).

Back at the train station I noticed a sign for the Martin Luther Institute or some-such; took a picture for the benefit of Slideman. Made the 1907 train to Hannover. We are just coming in to Magdeburg now, which is just shy of an hour of travel. It is 1959; we are expected in to Hannover at 2123; the Göttingen train leaves at 2137 and arrives at 2212. I might have to wait until 23 something or other to get back to Witzenhausen; I sure hope that Witz train is a good connection. After looking at the schedule it seems that I must be connecting at Göttingen, b/c it is about 20 minutes to Witz from there, and the schedule had me getting to Witz about 2238. The Kassel train gets in at 2233, so that would be impossible to get to Witz in five minutes Although further contemplation makes me wonder if the system is merely laughing at me, since it also seems impossible to get to Witz from Göttingen if the train arrives into Göttingen at 2212! We will see!

Ugh! we have just left Magdeburg, and the train is now heading in the other direction! I was sitting in the direction of travel. Now I am sitting in the direction of non travel. I hate that. Although it makes me feel so much better to see that the two couples at tables a couple of rows ahead of me just switched so that folks can face the direction of travel (-: Unfortunately the train was late coming into Hannover, and by the time we reached the station, I had run out of gummi bears to keep from coughing and made the top of my mouth raw from sucking on cheap hard candies and was really tired of sneezing. I have no idea where this germ came from, but I will forever refer to it as the “train wreck virus”.

There are few things so frustrating as running up to a platform at the time of departure only to have the train doors locked and the engineer on the platform say “zu spät”. Some of those things include the info desk telling someone that the only other train for will be at 2227, and that it will get into Göttingen too late to get to Witzenhausen tonight. I was getting cranky, as I was feeling more ill by the moment and had run out of dry tissues. Ick.

The upside to that 2227 train is that I met some very nice people. The train was going to Vienna OR Nuremberg. The first car was going to Nuremberg, with its first stop at Göttingen. The rest of the train would split off and head to Vienna. It was actually on the “wrong” platform, as the overnight to Paris was also running late and was on the same track, so the woman next to me jumped on the train, just as it was to go, and realized that she was on the wrong train- he train was supposed to leave from this platform as well. Another older lady had missed the ICE out of Hannover as well, and the final member of our soire was a gentleman who was headed to Göttingen. We discussed the joys of the German Rail system for quite a while. The conductor told the women who had gotten the wrong train that her best bet was to stay on till Nuremberg, as there were no more connections to be had at any other station, and that train got in at 0300 or so in the morning. We shared oranges and stores, me with my bad German, a few helps with their bad English, and it was actually a very nice experience.

At Göttingen of course I had missed the last train to Witzenhausen, but I had not missed the last train in the general direction of Witzenhausen. So I jumped on, and at the last station of Eichenberg, jumped off and thought well, if I have to walk, I will get there before the 6 am train. There is a path to Witzenhausen from Eichenberg. Not a lovely thought at MIDNIGHT, but well. Fortunately, I did not have to do this. There was a van taxi at the station and it turned out that a bunch of students in my department were also on the train! They recognized me and asked me if I wanted to come along to Witz! Wow. I wanted to go to the Markt (because now i had no cash) but they covered my Taxi fare. I walked home with a few of them, as they were headed to the student bar on campus which is literally a stone’s throw from my apartment. One woman had spent time in Arizona on a ranch and really loved that part of the US. We talked in German and English, mostly at that point, in English, as my German brain was full of Train Wreck Virus and could barely change gears, let along engage in traffic.

Adventures. Good ones.

I have the best people in my life. Was hit by a metaphorical train – during a train ride, even — of some kind of flu/cold/nasty germ last Thursday. On Monday, as I was lazing around fading in and out of sleep and Downton Abby reruns, one of my colleagues called to say he had dropped off some raw chicken liver for the kitty from the bio (organic) chicken farm. I asked him if he knew where I could find the chicken carcasses for soup – and he brought me one. So I cooked the carcass, saved the bones for a certain certified hunting dog, and made Thai Soup with a nice Panang paste that I had.

Panang is my favorite of the curries, followed by Green, then red, finally yellow and well, Massamen is right out. The carcass has a little bit of meat on it, which was just enough, and the addition of leek, mushrooms, beans and more! more! more! garlic made it quite lovely. The only thing missing was the fish sauce, which all cookers-of-Thai-food realize is a necessity, but it was still quite lovely. And it was a lot. I have a vat.

I also have more chicken stock — but it isn’t anything more than the chicken extract, so to speak. I think crock pot dumplings might be in order in the coming week! Might cook the stock down to be more concentrated and freeze portions for later, that makes the most sense as I don’t have a pressure canner right now.

The neighbors across the way were playing music, and it was the kind of music that reminded me of Kex, and Reykjavik, and the airwaves festivals, with a bit of folksy yet good lyrics. It seemed to be mostly live recordings, and the neighbors sang along with the songs that were favorites, and made the evening very nice. I wonder if they like Thai soup.

Hier in Witzenhausen, ist Fruhling gekommt.

It has been a mild winter in Witzenhausen. Even though it could still turn cold, the days are getting longer, spirits are rising (mine included), and Springs seems to be on its way. I left the lab a little after 1700, and with the sun still up, the walk home was quite pleasurable. After the weekend bout with Some Strange Illness, I am under direct orders from my Chefin to NOT wear myself out this week, so my nine hours of writing and meetings felt good and off I went to leave work behind.

Decided to stop at the Used Furniture and All Things Imaginable store on the way home, and found a nice cupboard (Regal with Doors) that will make a good substitute for a pantry in my little Wohnung. The kitchen is very small and is not quite finished; this addition will allow me to put the food away, especially the coming season of canning and preserving, with minimal impact to the floor space and with maximum impact to the orderliness of the place.

Came back through the Markt and could hear rustic music playing. One never knows if the Rustic music playing is live or Ahrends Antiquariat — they have a very old radio/record player/tape player with nice big old speakers and play music until the close. Oftentimes they have performances in the store; twice I have tried to go and missed the concerts. The next one is a lovely harp and classical performance with readings from erotica. Maybe I will go as I will not be able to understand the words and thus won’t be embarrassed! As I came round the corner from one of the streets with stores and merch out on the cobblestone pavement, I saw that the music was, indeed, from Ahrends. It made me think, not for the first time, that sometimes one feels like they are in a movie, and whatever music is playing is the soundtrack. It was a nice soundtrack today; spring in the air, blue skies, sunset.

A few months ago Deutsche Bahn advertised a 25€ “Gold Bahnkarte” for 25% off regular and spar-abo prices on rail tickets. I bought one. Now, 25€ for a four month card is not really the best deal, since the year long card is less than 75 bux for a second class ticket. But this one was in support of the German Olympic Athletes, and each time Germany wins a Gold medal, I get to travel anywhere in Germany for Free the day after the win. Free. Yes. Even on the express trains.

I just returned from a trip to the US. I really didn’t have that much money, and was dreading the cost of the rail ticket back to my little city in central Germany. But… the German athletes solved that problem by winning the gold in the luge the day before I arrived. Thus, the gold card has already paid for itself. Now, we are up to five golds as of this writing, meaning that tomorrow I can go somewhere. Today I could have, as well. I am really hoping, being the opportunist that I am, that there will be a Gold medal won on Friday!

Having just returned from a trip in which Ms. Planet met with her collaborators in Italy, the brain is spinning with the plethora of information garnered during this time. This information was not merely “what we will do, when, why, by whom”, etc, but also the information that people like Ms. Planet tend to accumulate during any sort of visit to a new culture.

Ms. Planet thinks that the information may possibly be put into five general categories, off the top of her head, but, like The Spanish inquisition, this may bear recalculation as this post goes on. Hold on to your hats, readers!

Category 1: the food. The eating. The hospitality thing.

When Ms. Planet was a child, she could not eat enough noodles. Having been raised in a family with a germanic heritage, everything that was made of semolina and put into boiling water is a noodle. Sure there were different sizes, shapes, etc, but they were all “noodles”. “What kind of noodles do you want” was answered by “long and skinny, long and fat, long and flat, bow ties, macaroni, egg” and that was pretty much it. Ravioli was something that came in a can and was pretty disgusting. Ms. Planet went on to marry into a Sicilian/Irish family, with the Irish family being in another state and so the predominant culture was Sicilian. As a result, the Alpha Slacker and Wanderlustette would answer the question with large words generally ending in a vowel, like “fettucini, ziti, spaghetti, cappelini, farfalle, gnochi, tortellini” usw (at the bottom of the page is an excellent reference tool for figuring out these pasta names). Of course, Ms. Planet had no idea what these were but even then she had some capacity for learning. After the birth of Wanderlustette, Ms. Planet was not so keen on noodles. Wanderlustette got all of that craving and continues to this day to love love love pasta.

On to the present. Italy. There is the appetizer course, the noodle — ok, pasta, just for the sake of my kind Italian colleagues — course, the main course, the desert course and of course, the coffee course. So there was a lot of pasta eaten during this trip. Homemade for lunch with pesto, the long sort of fat stuff — maybe officially called spaghettoni. Made German style with spinach and cheese (spaetzle — which Ms. Panet really enjoyed, actually). Stuffed with stuff for dinner (ravioli). The totally oddball thing about all of this is that once Ms Planet returned home, the next day she made pasta (five colored capunti ortolano, actually, recipe might be forthcoming here or on facebook).

Dinner time was a two hour + affair. Lots of talking, no hurry between courses, not a lot of food for each course but always enough to be full. On the last night, the Collaborator treated to a local, organic-based, vegan/vegetarian Slow Food affiliated place. Ms Planet made the mistake of saying she was “really hungry” (she was) but that added a course and whoa. Too much food. Amazing, delicious food — except, to be honest, she is not a fan of cooked radish. Things to learn. Really loved these stuffed ravioli with asiago and mushroom and on a small swathe of pumpkin sauce. The welcome taste of prosecco, poured as a welcome and provided with bread or breadsticks, was a nice touch. Even though the ability to read a menu in Italian is something Ms. Planet is somewhat adept, it was much nicer and easier to let the host pick the food. With the exception of the radish, this worked out well in all cases!

Category 2: Italian.

Medical background can be a bonus. Destro and Sinister come to mind as immediately useful directive words. Grazie, Prego, and Alora (sic) are nice to know. Other than that, as with many languages in this ex-linguists history, the written word is generally easier to follow than the spoken.

Category 3: the research

So much potential! That’s all for now. See the professional page for more details, if and when they are posted (thegreattomatowoman.com).

Category 4: Sleep

Not much of that going on. As my readers know, Ms Planet has an issue with being awake in the dark. Ms. Planet also has a general fear of sleeping through alarms. The days started at 7 am and ended back at the hotel just an hour shy of midnight. Ms. Planet loves to sleep on airplanes heading home!!!

Category 5: the bidet.

What sort of post on a culture that uses this would be complete without at least a brief reference! Ms. Planet has decided this is really cool. Why not have a sink for cleaning up one’s nether regions post-business? She will admit that she avoided the need for such an item except for the hotel where she could experiment with water pressure in the privacy of her own “home”.

There are other things just flying around in the mind of the Planet Lady, but frankly, she is tired of sitting in front of a computer and may, perhaps, return to this post and add additional information.

Alora!

http://www.charmingitaly.com/images/what-kind-of-pasta.jpg

It seems that I have spent most of my adult life having more to do than time to do it. I really envy people who have limited interests, or whose interests are not messy, space-and-time-and-resource heavy, or who have the willpower to say “NO, NO more!”. People who somehow have clean tidy homes.

I, on the other hand, need a maid. Someone who will come in and vacuum every day, do the dishes, dusting, etc. I have regular meetings with myself in which the conversation goes something like this:

Me: “Self, the business plan for the future needs to include a live-in general housekeeper”.

Self: “well, Ms. Planet, in that case, one should include a live-in general groundskeeper/animal helper as well, if you are seriously considering chickens and alpacas and rabbits and cows and pigs and cats and donkeys along with the herbs and tomato research stuff”.

Me: “Self: you are right, of course. Put that down on the business plan”.

This is why some farming families have twelve children. Cheap labor.

see the kitty?

neither do I. Ugh. Must figure out where this PHP page is so that it can be edited.

1. Bureaucracy is a fine tuned art in all countries. The US has no monopoly on “things that make a person go HUH?” (or equivalent NY terminology. In Germany, some rules change so often that no one knows what the procedure is at any given moment. This leads to a plethora of “chicken and egg” situations — for instance, in order to obtain contract A, insurance must be proven. In order to get insurance, contract A must be provided. To get around this, intricate dances are created: Pre-contract A is provided to insurance company, policy provided to contract, contract to insurer.

2. Sugar. In Pickles. This should be a sin.

3. Sugar. On rolls that look like gobs of salt. Evil.

4. From Iceland, scrambled egg and smoked trout on bread is a. mazing. The same goes for sharp swiss cheese on marmalade. For the first time ever, I can actually use the marmalade I’ve opened for something other than the twice yearly toast with sweet stuff crave.

5. Walking distances: having experienced this in Scotland a decade ago, at least I was prepared for the “just a short walk” that for most lazy (or non-lazy) Americans is a precursor to a half marathon. Hiking for kilometers on end is made possible by amazing bike/pedestrian pathways that literally traverse the German country. In Iceland people take their chances on the highways but in both countries, one may just cross country bike/hike without worrying about whose subdivision they are trespassing upon.

6. Just because everyone is a size Twig does not mean they are eating healthy foods. Or even having a healthy lifestyle. Tobacco is everyone’s friend. As are starches. But this really drives home my view that a fit body does not come from starving oneself, but by combining that fifth point (burning calories) with the eating bit. Not so much exercise? Don’t eat so much.

7. The Icelandic win at the Pool game. While the German “Bad” is an amazing conglomeration of hot tubs, salt tubs, wave pools, and some sport pools, the Icelandic ones are affordable and everywhere. Everywhere.

8. Rabbit can taste quite lovely.

9. So can lamb.

10. This list will be continued!!!