I've long thought that bloggers are mostly speaking to themselves, despite the fact that anyone with an internet connection can read what they post - it's one of those forms of 'communication' with no guarantees, since you never know if anyone is going to read your post!
Still, sometimes I find it necessary to talk to myself ... and this is a socially-acceptable method of doing so. Still waiting for an answer, though ... should I start worrying now, or when I get an answer?
24.2.10
6.2.10
Swiss (& Neighbouring Countries') Beer!
Well, thought I should collect and post these reviews here ... since one of my main missions over here is to rank and review as many available beers as I can before my mate Matty comes to visit! Graciously, he's given me over eighteen months so far and it looks like I'll have until about October to try some more ...
For the rating, I've used what I call the VB Scale. This is where I try the beer, and rank it according to how many times better it is than VB. VB is a beer that pretty much every Australian who drinks beer has tried by the age of fourteen, making it a good "background level" beer. The fact that it tastes pretty crap meant that I felt confident in beginning my quest that I'd never need to rate something below it ... how wrong I was!!
So, without further ado, here come the beers ... not a very impressive list, given I've had eighteen months, but it gives a fairly broad spread of options ...
Denner Export Bier - DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER DRINKING THIS BEER!! I thought I may have found a cheap gem, since it was 85 rappen (Swiss cents) per can... this is a vastly inflated price for such a dog's product, an assessment that even Jessica agreed with! I bought two cans, ended up drinking two sips... the rest went down the drain. 0.1 VBs.
Eichhof Lager - a pale-coloured golden lager, with a decent taste... you can drink it, but it's nothing special. A nice malty flavour to it but, as I said, nothing special. 2.5 VBs.
Trivia - 'Eichhof' translates to 'calibration yard' in my German-English translation widget... :D
Löwen Weisse - a tasty little wheat beer, produced by Löwenbräu... again, nothing exceptional, but nice to drink. Have only had it from bottles (5 dl...), so may be better on tap, but worth drinking. 3 VBs
Andechs Doppelboch dunkel - a very nice dark beer, probably the nicest (and definitely most memorable!) beer that I tried in my short trip to Münich. Strong, too, as I found out from later research... Brewed (& on this occasion consumed) up at Kloster Andechs, very easy to drink... two litres went down even before I'd finished my meal, despite somebody else displaying most of the previous night's consumption... 10.5 VBs
Hürlimann Hammer - apparently a new recipe for an older beer, nice, slightly fruity, and again worth drinking. Comes in a 'practical' six-pack from the supermarket... 4 VBs
Fledschlösschen Hopfenperle - so far the nicest bottled beer that I've found in Zürich. Discovered it while having a ploughman's lunch at The Pie Shop (an event organised by the Cheese Club, which specialises in importing British cheeses to Switzerland). They were out of the beer from a local microbrewery (which happens when you arrive about 14:30 for a lunch event), so tried the Hopfenperle... nice crisp taste, pale colour, in an attractive green bottle... slightly hoppy finish, with only the slightest hint of bitterness. 5.5 VBs
Cooper's Best Extra Stout - only beer I tried when I made the mistake of visiting the Outback Lodge for a drink... I think I was the only Australian in the place, and the only dark beer they had was the Coopers - not even the Dark Ale, or Tooheys Old... the only thing on tap was Fosters... it was okay, not far different from what I drank in Sydney, but I think it may have preceded me to Switzerland by a number of years... 4 VBs
Murphy's Irish Stout - shouldn't really be in this list, but I got a couple of cans to drink over here... nice, nowhere near as good as drinking it on tap in the Harp Hotel in Tempe (when they had it...), but still a stout worth drinking. 4.5 VBs
Guinness - yes, I had to try a few... Jess bought a four-pack, so I had to drink them... again, not as good as on-tap, but still worth drinking. 4 VBs
Appenzeller Schwarzer Kristall - a very drinkable dark beer, with a nice hint of dark chocolate. Allegedly it has 'blue berry issue surprise the beer drunkard' (thank you, online language translation!). Still, it does have a great 'thunderstorm-black' colour, and goes down well... but don't drink it with a meal accompanied by spicy bbq sauce, just doesn't go well together... 6 VBs (yes, has taken the place of 'best bottled beer' so far...)
Grimbergen Blonde - Actually a Belgian beer, iirc from the bottle... an 'abbey' beer, with barley & wheat, but doesn't taste too strongly of the wheat. Nice, nothing special, goes down well... 4.5 VBs.
Grimbergen Double - Not double the 'standard' alcohol content (actually less, 6.5% instead of 6.7%), think it's double fermented... A very smooth taste, only the faintest hint of bitterness. 5 VBs.
Grimbergen Triple - Again, not triple the alcohol - although it is up to 9%... Final fermentation in the bottle, which appears to really bring out the wheat flavour. Is also more bitter than the other two Grimbergens, with a lingering after-taste. 4.7 VBs.
Eichhof Barbara - What I got last night when I asked for a dark beer. The bartender also suggested something else, but from the mangle of my poor German and his slightly-better English, it sounded like the second offering wasn't straight beer... some sort of mix... Anyway, the Barbara was very nice, went down easily (especially with a bit of pizza!), and was very popular last night with the crowd as one of the girls was also called Barbara... 5.8 VBs.
Feldschlösschen Dunkel Perle (bottle) - a very nice dark beer, smooth and only faintly bitter. Comes in a nice 0.5L bottle, too... :D - 6.5 VBs.
Feldschlösschen Original (mini keg) - nice, something you can easily drink anywhere, any time, but nothing special. Crisp taste, perhaps due to coming straight from the mini-keg... - 5.2 VBs.
Eichhof Pony (bottle) - THE MAKER IS PICTURED ON THE LABEL - SERIOUSLY!! Another beer to avoid! Tried this on a ferry across Lake Lucerne, figured a beer brewed at the local brewery would be okay ... big mistake!! It really does taste like I imagine the liquid a pony produces would taste ... another beer I didn't finish. 0.4 VBs
Sagres (bottle) - easy to drink, and cheap as well! At under a franc a bottle, this one tends to be the beer I drink most often at home ... An easy-drinking lager, no surprises. 4.5 VBs.
Tuborg Gold (bottle) - another cheap foreigner from Denner, 11 francs a ten-pack. Nice lager, nothing exciting but definitely not horrible to drink. 4.6 VBs
Gold Ochsen Original (bottle) - "Ulm's Liquid Gold!" I only discovered this one recently, a hoppy little beer that strongly reminds me of KB ... and you can even go out and "grab a cold gold"!! Not too expensive (costs marginally more than Sagres), great flavour, and goes down easily. 4.8 VBs.
Hope this helps ... as you may have worked out, the beers are listed basically in the order in which I tasted them. Watch this space for more, we'll see how I go ... and I'm sure there are others I have tried, which have missed the list since I forgot to record their details.
For the rating, I've used what I call the VB Scale. This is where I try the beer, and rank it according to how many times better it is than VB. VB is a beer that pretty much every Australian who drinks beer has tried by the age of fourteen, making it a good "background level" beer. The fact that it tastes pretty crap meant that I felt confident in beginning my quest that I'd never need to rate something below it ... how wrong I was!!
So, without further ado, here come the beers ... not a very impressive list, given I've had eighteen months, but it gives a fairly broad spread of options ...
Denner Export Bier - DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER DRINKING THIS BEER!! I thought I may have found a cheap gem, since it was 85 rappen (Swiss cents) per can... this is a vastly inflated price for such a dog's product, an assessment that even Jessica agreed with! I bought two cans, ended up drinking two sips... the rest went down the drain. 0.1 VBs.
Eichhof Lager - a pale-coloured golden lager, with a decent taste... you can drink it, but it's nothing special. A nice malty flavour to it but, as I said, nothing special. 2.5 VBs.
Trivia - 'Eichhof' translates to 'calibration yard' in my German-English translation widget... :D
Löwen Weisse - a tasty little wheat beer, produced by Löwenbräu... again, nothing exceptional, but nice to drink. Have only had it from bottles (5 dl...), so may be better on tap, but worth drinking. 3 VBs
Andechs Doppelboch dunkel - a very nice dark beer, probably the nicest (and definitely most memorable!) beer that I tried in my short trip to Münich. Strong, too, as I found out from later research... Brewed (& on this occasion consumed) up at Kloster Andechs, very easy to drink... two litres went down even before I'd finished my meal, despite somebody else displaying most of the previous night's consumption... 10.5 VBs
Hürlimann Hammer - apparently a new recipe for an older beer, nice, slightly fruity, and again worth drinking. Comes in a 'practical' six-pack from the supermarket... 4 VBs
Fledschlösschen Hopfenperle - so far the nicest bottled beer that I've found in Zürich. Discovered it while having a ploughman's lunch at The Pie Shop (an event organised by the Cheese Club, which specialises in importing British cheeses to Switzerland). They were out of the beer from a local microbrewery (which happens when you arrive about 14:30 for a lunch event), so tried the Hopfenperle... nice crisp taste, pale colour, in an attractive green bottle... slightly hoppy finish, with only the slightest hint of bitterness. 5.5 VBs
Cooper's Best Extra Stout - only beer I tried when I made the mistake of visiting the Outback Lodge for a drink... I think I was the only Australian in the place, and the only dark beer they had was the Coopers - not even the Dark Ale, or Tooheys Old... the only thing on tap was Fosters... it was okay, not far different from what I drank in Sydney, but I think it may have preceded me to Switzerland by a number of years... 4 VBs
Murphy's Irish Stout - shouldn't really be in this list, but I got a couple of cans to drink over here... nice, nowhere near as good as drinking it on tap in the Harp Hotel in Tempe (when they had it...), but still a stout worth drinking. 4.5 VBs
Guinness - yes, I had to try a few... Jess bought a four-pack, so I had to drink them... again, not as good as on-tap, but still worth drinking. 4 VBs
Appenzeller Schwarzer Kristall - a very drinkable dark beer, with a nice hint of dark chocolate. Allegedly it has 'blue berry issue surprise the beer drunkard' (thank you, online language translation!). Still, it does have a great 'thunderstorm-black' colour, and goes down well... but don't drink it with a meal accompanied by spicy bbq sauce, just doesn't go well together... 6 VBs (yes, has taken the place of 'best bottled beer' so far...)
Grimbergen Blonde - Actually a Belgian beer, iirc from the bottle... an 'abbey' beer, with barley & wheat, but doesn't taste too strongly of the wheat. Nice, nothing special, goes down well... 4.5 VBs.
Grimbergen Double - Not double the 'standard' alcohol content (actually less, 6.5% instead of 6.7%), think it's double fermented... A very smooth taste, only the faintest hint of bitterness. 5 VBs.
Grimbergen Triple - Again, not triple the alcohol - although it is up to 9%... Final fermentation in the bottle, which appears to really bring out the wheat flavour. Is also more bitter than the other two Grimbergens, with a lingering after-taste. 4.7 VBs.
Eichhof Barbara - What I got last night when I asked for a dark beer. The bartender also suggested something else, but from the mangle of my poor German and his slightly-better English, it sounded like the second offering wasn't straight beer... some sort of mix... Anyway, the Barbara was very nice, went down easily (especially with a bit of pizza!), and was very popular last night with the crowd as one of the girls was also called Barbara... 5.8 VBs.
Feldschlösschen Dunkel Perle (bottle) - a very nice dark beer, smooth and only faintly bitter. Comes in a nice 0.5L bottle, too... :D - 6.5 VBs.
Feldschlösschen Original (mini keg) - nice, something you can easily drink anywhere, any time, but nothing special. Crisp taste, perhaps due to coming straight from the mini-keg... - 5.2 VBs.
Eichhof Pony (bottle) - THE MAKER IS PICTURED ON THE LABEL - SERIOUSLY!! Another beer to avoid! Tried this on a ferry across Lake Lucerne, figured a beer brewed at the local brewery would be okay ... big mistake!! It really does taste like I imagine the liquid a pony produces would taste ... another beer I didn't finish. 0.4 VBs
Sagres (bottle) - easy to drink, and cheap as well! At under a franc a bottle, this one tends to be the beer I drink most often at home ... An easy-drinking lager, no surprises. 4.5 VBs.
Tuborg Gold (bottle) - another cheap foreigner from Denner, 11 francs a ten-pack. Nice lager, nothing exciting but definitely not horrible to drink. 4.6 VBs
Gold Ochsen Original (bottle) - "Ulm's Liquid Gold!" I only discovered this one recently, a hoppy little beer that strongly reminds me of KB ... and you can even go out and "grab a cold gold"!! Not too expensive (costs marginally more than Sagres), great flavour, and goes down easily. 4.8 VBs.
Hope this helps ... as you may have worked out, the beers are listed basically in the order in which I tasted them. Watch this space for more, we'll see how I go ... and I'm sure there are others I have tried, which have missed the list since I forgot to record their details.
14.1.10
Tim Tam Love!!
Ahh!!! The joy of eating Tim Tams ... a pleasure I've not experienced (until now!) since leaving Australia 18 months ago ...
For those unfortunate enough to have never eaten a Tim Tam, the pleasure cannot truly be described ... but Tim Tams are the greatest chocolate biscuit ever created. Pity the bastards over here want to charge over four francs a pack!! I refuse to pay double for anything, but that means that sadly I've been without Tim Tams for far too long ... :/
Anyway, getting back to the joy: my mother-in-law arrived a coupla days back, with a pack of Tim Tams for me!! I have shared one with my Swiss son, much to his great delight, but other than that the whole pack is mine!!! To ensure this, it has been concealed in what I believe to be the perfect hiding place ... and to ensure it remains secret, I shall not mention the location here!! Spies & informers are everywhere, you know ...
What I really need now, though, is a good hot chocolate ... since while Tim Tams are fantastic alone, they need a hot caffeinated beverage to bring them to their full glory! I'm sure some of you are familiar with the concept: take a Tim Tam, bite off each end, dip one end into the drink, and then suck. It's a race to see how much you drink before you have to shove the molten remains of the biscuit into your mouth - and letting it collapse into sludge in your drink is just not done! Do that, and no more Tim Tams for you!
Bizarre, really, how even surrounded by all of the wonderful chocolate produced in Switzerland, I still find Tim Tams to be the greatest ... or it would be, if Tim Tams were not such fantastic things!! Just make sure they're fresh, though ... old & mistreated Tim Tams are nasty, and should be eaten only as an absolute last resort. Of course, this holds true of all chocolate snacks - although Tim Tams may be the only chocolate biscuit that is actually enhanced by being refrigerated, to give it a bit more crunch. Somehow, the chocolate is not adversely affected by such storage, provided it is not for more than a week - which is not a problem I've ever encountered at my house, anyway.
Tim Tams. Yum.
For those unfortunate enough to have never eaten a Tim Tam, the pleasure cannot truly be described ... but Tim Tams are the greatest chocolate biscuit ever created. Pity the bastards over here want to charge over four francs a pack!! I refuse to pay double for anything, but that means that sadly I've been without Tim Tams for far too long ... :/
Anyway, getting back to the joy: my mother-in-law arrived a coupla days back, with a pack of Tim Tams for me!! I have shared one with my Swiss son, much to his great delight, but other than that the whole pack is mine!!! To ensure this, it has been concealed in what I believe to be the perfect hiding place ... and to ensure it remains secret, I shall not mention the location here!! Spies & informers are everywhere, you know ...
What I really need now, though, is a good hot chocolate ... since while Tim Tams are fantastic alone, they need a hot caffeinated beverage to bring them to their full glory! I'm sure some of you are familiar with the concept: take a Tim Tam, bite off each end, dip one end into the drink, and then suck. It's a race to see how much you drink before you have to shove the molten remains of the biscuit into your mouth - and letting it collapse into sludge in your drink is just not done! Do that, and no more Tim Tams for you!
Bizarre, really, how even surrounded by all of the wonderful chocolate produced in Switzerland, I still find Tim Tams to be the greatest ... or it would be, if Tim Tams were not such fantastic things!! Just make sure they're fresh, though ... old & mistreated Tim Tams are nasty, and should be eaten only as an absolute last resort. Of course, this holds true of all chocolate snacks - although Tim Tams may be the only chocolate biscuit that is actually enhanced by being refrigerated, to give it a bit more crunch. Somehow, the chocolate is not adversely affected by such storage, provided it is not for more than a week - which is not a problem I've ever encountered at my house, anyway.
Tim Tams. Yum.
11.1.10
The Concept of Home ...
Well, another new week at school, another interesting lunchtime chat ...
I was chatting with (North American) English-speaking staff about holidays, trips, and catching up with family & friends ... and I got around to mentioning to one woman who has a lot of people coming over summer that I know of a reasonably large apartment that will be vacant around that time as the residents will be traveling overseas. Of course she asked if it was mine, and that in turn dribbled around to the fact that I will be visiting Australia around that time to catch up with people.
Now, the other member of the conversation (let's call her Arwen, just for fun) chimed in with, "Oh, so you're going home then!".
Without thinking, I replied, "No, back to Australia for a holiday.".
"Isn't that home?" Arwen asked.
"No, Zürich's home," I answered, honestly.
Arwen appeared confused, as if I was being deliberately obtuse, and asked, "Home is where you were born, where you grew up, isn't it?"
I let the assertion slide, and she wandered off to another conversation. Got me thinking, though, about where 'home' really is ...
For me, I feel at home in whatever place I am now. Growing up, home was the only house in which I'd ever lived. I lived there for 21 years, in the same bedroom, without thinking about any other place as being home.
After my Dad remarried, I moved to Mum's house - and that was home. I established myself in a different room, with a few different bits of furniture, and really settled in. This was now home, not the house in which I'd lived for 21 years.
Then, a few years later, I got married. Moved in to a flat with my new wife, and now that flat was home (with a bizarre landlord, who unfailingly mowed the moss around the block each Wednesday. Yes, it was moss (well, 70% anyway!), but he mowed it anyway! He also must have had at least fifty spares for everything in the block tucked away somewhere, as whenever some ancient fitting broke, out came a perfect match - even to the age!
We soon had a child on the way, and felt it best to move away from our unbalanced landlord, so moved into a nice little flat (next to a huge park!) owned by my Dad ... and that was home, double-length garage that never had space for a car (thanks to my wife's hoarding of furniture) and all! Our daughter was born, it was a slightly messier home ... our son was born, and it was a slightly crowded even messier home ... but it was home.
After some years of that home, we had to move to avoid a hostile landlord take-over ... so we managed to rent a house that backed onto the in-laws' side fence. Gave my father-in-law a new perspective on the external plumbing for the upstairs bathroom ... "That sticks out like a sore thumb!". Oh, and he installed the gate through the fence left-handed (natural, given his inclination) ... which meant we had to pass the gate, then open it, in order to visit. Also, for some reason known only to himself, he made the gate less than 700mm wide. Still, once my mother-in-law put a curtain on the kitchen window, we got on reasonably well. My father-in-law swiftly went from half a dozen easily-cared-for reptiles to about a score, including some which required fresh live food daily, once he knew somebody who was not afraid to grab a handful of cockroaches lived next door and could be trusted with a set of keys. That was home, bizarre feeding habits and all ... with the added bonus of emergency babysitting on various evenings when we were suddenly called out to dinner or a movie. Oh, and the landlord living two doors up the road was not a problem ... at least, not as much as his attitude to any broken-down air conditioners or shattered windows ... Yes, home, with an unusable pool that proved to be a perfect breeding ground for goldfish.
Said landlord wanted to let his brother use the house, and gave us the minimum notice to move out. Rather generous of him, since it meant that the moving date was about two weeks after our third child's due date, and our kids are all born late ... truly a great man!
So, second son born in the back room of a house we had to vacate less than a week later (which worked remarkably smoothly, thanks to a friend and her Korean removalists! Lucky them, they could pretend they didn't understand the annoying landlord who tried to give orders as to how things should be moved to avoid damage to his house ... that's what the bond & insurance are for, git!). That home was left with few regrets (I loved watching the goldfish, we had a few big ones in there, and a variety of interesting colours!), and we moved to a flash townhouse near the kids' school.
This was soon home, but for some reason it didn't feel as permanent as the others. I was settled, but the wife & kids seemed not so ... This was due to the fact that, unknown to us at the time, we were going to leave there less than twelve months later (which suited our landlord, whose relationship with his new girlfriend was working well, and he could sell the place vacant shortly after our lease expired).
Zürich was our destination, and an apartment scheduled for demolition within eight months. It felt like home straight away, despite a decided lack of furniture.
Eight? Did I say eight? Sorry, make that fourteen ... nah, stuff it, why not 26! That's a far more reasonable short-term lease ... don't mind the surveying markers, they'll last two years without getting lost - they're about five metres high!
So, home ... perhaps the concept of 'home' is so flexible to me, since I don't really see any place in this world as where I'll really settle. My home is not in this world, but I can be content in a whole heap of places while I'm waiting to get there ...
I was chatting with (North American) English-speaking staff about holidays, trips, and catching up with family & friends ... and I got around to mentioning to one woman who has a lot of people coming over summer that I know of a reasonably large apartment that will be vacant around that time as the residents will be traveling overseas. Of course she asked if it was mine, and that in turn dribbled around to the fact that I will be visiting Australia around that time to catch up with people.
Now, the other member of the conversation (let's call her Arwen, just for fun) chimed in with, "Oh, so you're going home then!".
Without thinking, I replied, "No, back to Australia for a holiday.".
"Isn't that home?" Arwen asked.
"No, Zürich's home," I answered, honestly.
Arwen appeared confused, as if I was being deliberately obtuse, and asked, "Home is where you were born, where you grew up, isn't it?"
I let the assertion slide, and she wandered off to another conversation. Got me thinking, though, about where 'home' really is ...
For me, I feel at home in whatever place I am now. Growing up, home was the only house in which I'd ever lived. I lived there for 21 years, in the same bedroom, without thinking about any other place as being home.
After my Dad remarried, I moved to Mum's house - and that was home. I established myself in a different room, with a few different bits of furniture, and really settled in. This was now home, not the house in which I'd lived for 21 years.
Then, a few years later, I got married. Moved in to a flat with my new wife, and now that flat was home (with a bizarre landlord, who unfailingly mowed the moss around the block each Wednesday. Yes, it was moss (well, 70% anyway!), but he mowed it anyway! He also must have had at least fifty spares for everything in the block tucked away somewhere, as whenever some ancient fitting broke, out came a perfect match - even to the age!
We soon had a child on the way, and felt it best to move away from our unbalanced landlord, so moved into a nice little flat (next to a huge park!) owned by my Dad ... and that was home, double-length garage that never had space for a car (thanks to my wife's hoarding of furniture) and all! Our daughter was born, it was a slightly messier home ... our son was born, and it was a slightly crowded even messier home ... but it was home.
After some years of that home, we had to move to avoid a hostile landlord take-over ... so we managed to rent a house that backed onto the in-laws' side fence. Gave my father-in-law a new perspective on the external plumbing for the upstairs bathroom ... "That sticks out like a sore thumb!". Oh, and he installed the gate through the fence left-handed (natural, given his inclination) ... which meant we had to pass the gate, then open it, in order to visit. Also, for some reason known only to himself, he made the gate less than 700mm wide. Still, once my mother-in-law put a curtain on the kitchen window, we got on reasonably well. My father-in-law swiftly went from half a dozen easily-cared-for reptiles to about a score, including some which required fresh live food daily, once he knew somebody who was not afraid to grab a handful of cockroaches lived next door and could be trusted with a set of keys. That was home, bizarre feeding habits and all ... with the added bonus of emergency babysitting on various evenings when we were suddenly called out to dinner or a movie. Oh, and the landlord living two doors up the road was not a problem ... at least, not as much as his attitude to any broken-down air conditioners or shattered windows ... Yes, home, with an unusable pool that proved to be a perfect breeding ground for goldfish.
Said landlord wanted to let his brother use the house, and gave us the minimum notice to move out. Rather generous of him, since it meant that the moving date was about two weeks after our third child's due date, and our kids are all born late ... truly a great man!
So, second son born in the back room of a house we had to vacate less than a week later (which worked remarkably smoothly, thanks to a friend and her Korean removalists! Lucky them, they could pretend they didn't understand the annoying landlord who tried to give orders as to how things should be moved to avoid damage to his house ... that's what the bond & insurance are for, git!). That home was left with few regrets (I loved watching the goldfish, we had a few big ones in there, and a variety of interesting colours!), and we moved to a flash townhouse near the kids' school.
This was soon home, but for some reason it didn't feel as permanent as the others. I was settled, but the wife & kids seemed not so ... This was due to the fact that, unknown to us at the time, we were going to leave there less than twelve months later (which suited our landlord, whose relationship with his new girlfriend was working well, and he could sell the place vacant shortly after our lease expired).
Zürich was our destination, and an apartment scheduled for demolition within eight months. It felt like home straight away, despite a decided lack of furniture.
Eight? Did I say eight? Sorry, make that fourteen ... nah, stuff it, why not 26! That's a far more reasonable short-term lease ... don't mind the surveying markers, they'll last two years without getting lost - they're about five metres high!
So, home ... perhaps the concept of 'home' is so flexible to me, since I don't really see any place in this world as where I'll really settle. My home is not in this world, but I can be content in a whole heap of places while I'm waiting to get there ...
6.1.10
Hmm, a second post!!
Well, it's happened ... a second post on here ...
Just received a Christmas (and birthday?) present for my youngest, from one of his godfathers ... I Want My Mummy is a hit, as we expected, but I'm not sure either my wife or I will be able to endure the Vegietales CD - the singing is even more out of tune than mine!!! At least I tend to hang around in the right key in most songs ...
Also, post-Christmas sales are low-stress over here ... no big Boxing Day rush, just heaps of stuff at 50% (or even 25%!) of full price ... this sadly doesn't include the nice calligraphy pen Aislinn wanted to buy, but then she was using her own money.
The badly-abused calligraphy pen I loaned to the class still serves me, just, but I also bought a new one for the children to use. They've learned to take care capping the pen now, as almost all of them were horrified at the sight of one half of the nib pointing at right-angles to its partner. The others were very quiet, and would not be game to risk such damage again. A couple of surprising adherents to calligraphy in the class, working hard to master Gothic Black Letter with a 1.5mm nib. Should get something bigger for them as well, so they can do real illuminated letters instead of just 'normal' sized letters.
Now that I have regained possession of my own (slightly-warped) calligraphy pen, we'll see if the poetry inspiration resumes. I found that I wanted to write with my new pen so much that I got back into poetry, after a bit of a hiatus ... may even post some up here in my next update, you never know!
Anyhow, off now ... kids are having dessert, so should chase them to bed soon ... another day at school tomorrow!
Just received a Christmas (and birthday?) present for my youngest, from one of his godfathers ... I Want My Mummy is a hit, as we expected, but I'm not sure either my wife or I will be able to endure the Vegietales CD - the singing is even more out of tune than mine!!! At least I tend to hang around in the right key in most songs ...
Also, post-Christmas sales are low-stress over here ... no big Boxing Day rush, just heaps of stuff at 50% (or even 25%!) of full price ... this sadly doesn't include the nice calligraphy pen Aislinn wanted to buy, but then she was using her own money.
The badly-abused calligraphy pen I loaned to the class still serves me, just, but I also bought a new one for the children to use. They've learned to take care capping the pen now, as almost all of them were horrified at the sight of one half of the nib pointing at right-angles to its partner. The others were very quiet, and would not be game to risk such damage again. A couple of surprising adherents to calligraphy in the class, working hard to master Gothic Black Letter with a 1.5mm nib. Should get something bigger for them as well, so they can do real illuminated letters instead of just 'normal' sized letters.
Now that I have regained possession of my own (slightly-warped) calligraphy pen, we'll see if the poetry inspiration resumes. I found that I wanted to write with my new pen so much that I got back into poetry, after a bit of a hiatus ... may even post some up here in my next update, you never know!
Anyhow, off now ... kids are having dessert, so should chase them to bed soon ... another day at school tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
