Winzerfest in Wiesloch

August and September are the months for all the wine festivals in the wine producing regions in Germany. Entire villages get decked up for the occasion and you can sample some of the regional wines and also pair the wines with some of the local cuisines. Besides this there are tons of fun stuff for children.

Wiesloch is having their week long Winzerfest and like every year we got together with some friends and checked it out. The giant wheel in town of course was a major attraction for the kids.

I did not dare try it out but little bunny seems to have mastered the art early on. Luckily she went along with some of our friends and we told her that we would rather give little rabbit some company on ground level. It was fun for the kids to try out the bungee trampoline where they could wear a climbing harness and jump up and down on a giant trampoline.

I thought that the bumper cars was more my kinda thing but after two rounds I definitely had enough.

Hot waffles, crepes with nutella and lots of candy and I think despite the weather we made the best of the day.

Sadya time again

This Monday(23Aug2010) was Onam. A day that I fondly remember from my childhood days especially the nice Sadya that Mom used to make and all the preparations that went around it.

It was fun like every year to recreate that atmosphere at home. Little bunny kept asking if she could invite all her friends over for the Sadya with the promise that they would finish all the vegetarian delights served on a banana leaf.

Like last year I really enjoyed making all the traditional vegetarian dishes and wondered if there was some science behind how the different flavours stimulate your palate. A yummy feast indeed!

Looking forward to next year's Onam already.

Balloon Festival

The 6'th International RÖSER Balloon Festival was visiting the Luisenpark in Mannheim. Besides the giant balloons taking off there was tons of fun stuff for the kids. Little bunny enjoyed crafting herself a nice pair of butterfly wings.

She also decided that she wanted to get her face painted like a leopard.
Something to keep in mind for a kids event, keeps them seated in one place without moving..amazing!!! The carousel seats were shaped like giant balloons to match the theme of the festival.

Little rabbit yelled in delight when the carousel went up and down.

Fun stuff indeed for the kids, but for us parents who originally came to also check out some of the hot air balloons it took for ever for some of them to take off.

Of bug bites, google searches and swollen eyes

With children around, you always learn something new everyday. Last evening little bunny came back from her kindergarten with two small tiny red dots on her face. Hubby and me examined the red dots carefully and dismissed it as some kind of unexplained rashes. But then when little bunny got up in the middle of the night with a really swollen face we began to panic. The red dots had metamorphed into these giant swells! After several frantic google searches we learnt that we definitely had to rule out an allergy and administer a antihistamine. Phew, luckily we had one at hand. Feeling better, the rest of the night was spent vigilantly checking on any change in her state. Morning came and a visit to the paediatrician revealed that it was a bug bite and the swelling was due to an inflammation of the lymph nodes. The discomfort should clear up in a couple of days was the promise given. Lessons learnt: never ignore the tiniest of rashes, google search results don't always help and importantly dont panic else both you and your little one will have real swollen eyes the next day.

Spargel suppe

Had a sudden incredible urge to have some spargel (asparagus) soup today for dinner. A quick mental check and immediately dismmised any thoughts on possibly why I would have such an urge on a Monday evening. Knowing pretty well that I could not fulfill my desire at this time of the year I settled for some nice and spicy prawn theeyal instead.

But talking about asparagus the last harvest of this perennial plant is in June here in Germany.

This time it was nice to go and harvest the asparagus plants that was left to grow in the fields. It was sheer joy to hear the snap as I broke the stalks fresh off the plant.

It is indeed a delicacy and I think one reason being that it is only available for about 6 weeks in the year.

Liquid Metal Terminators

Working on the technology side of the house, I am always amazed by Apple and the amazing products that they bring to market. This is a company that I like to follow and each time they release a new product they manage to get the drool factor in me. The amount of innovation that this company churns out is simply unbelievable. Just heard that they got the rights to all the patents from a company called Liquidmetal Technologies. Well, what are they up to now? A new modern metal that they will use for their new devices? Liquidmetal anyway has deemed steel and titanium to have reached the point of diminishing returns.

My hubby's mind seems to be running wild, he says that Apple must be thinking of diversifying into new domains like making special space shuttles with new alloys from Liquidmetal which will enable us to travel to moon and back. Now I would not mind that ride one bit, especially if Apple would be creating that user experience.

Shocking!

Coming back home from work in the evening is the best time of the day. Lovely to be back in your nest with your dearest ones. Today there was the latest edition of the Time magazine also waiting for me. Usually this puts me into even better spirits as that normally means something to browse and read while having a quick evening tea. But the front page took me by shock today. You can read the abridged version of the article here. It may take 10 to 15 years before Afghan women can truly walk alongside men.

Little bunny kept asking me why the lady has an 'auwa' (wound) on her nose. I told her that some terrible people had done that to her. And she replied that the lady in the picture should actually be angry. Shock, anger, sadness was what I was feeling.

Of Sandkastens and birthday parties

T celebrated his birthday in complete style. After couple of weeks of really bad weather it was just perfect to have a nice garden party on a perfect July summer day.

T and his beautiful wife V made sure that everything was taken care of. The highlight for the little ones was the Sandkasten (sandpit), and that kept their little hands busy with their shovels and buckets.

Never thought that a pile of sand could provide for so many hours of pleasure. I loved the food and at the end of the evening I was really full.

V baked some yummy strawberry and peach cakes which was just delicious.

As I am posting this I cant help but think about how nice it would be to have another piece of that yummy peach cake!