Its harvest time

We just made it at the right time this year around. I think little bunny's persistence helped ensure that we made it exactly in the last week of the year where we could harvest our own strawberries.

It was fun despite missing the lush display of fruits which would have been the case if we had made it couple of weeks earlier.

Little bunny had fun looking under the bushes and screaming out in delight everytime she would find a nice juicy red fruit waiting to be plucked.

I don't know if it was my mind playing tricks on me, but I was sure that these freshly plucked strawberries were definitely sweeter and tastier than the store bought ones.

What a match!!

It's not very common that you see public display of national pride here in Germany. But today was a day of celebration indeed. What with Germany thrashing England in the world cup 4:1. The match was just awesome, the first goal by Klose was just perfect and then the momentum just kept building up.

The team work was so evident in every move the way the ball was passed superbly among the team members. After the match driving around town was so much fun. Everybody was filled with glee and complete cheer.

People in their cars honked away loudly, blowing their vuvuzelas everybody totally in a mood to party.

Now I am looking forward to next Saturday (July 3) when Germany will play Argentina. Already makes me nervous but I am just hoping that Germany will win again!

Food

Vacations are always a good time to reflect on things that sometimes you don't think about too much. Since the 25 May I am on vacation visiting my brother and family in the United States. I had a great time visiting Washington DC with the family and seeing some of the most amazing buildings and sights. Enjoyed some awesome food in some great eats in the city. Talking about food, every now and then my mind keeps wandering back to this art piece at the National Mall in Washington DC. Now I don't consider myself a serious meat eater but I do enjoy an occasional indulgence every once in a way. But this trip for various reasons have gotten me to think seriously about the whole affair with the kind of food we put into our mouths. Even thinking about where your food comes from and what kind of processing happens before it is presented sometimes can trigger a lot of mixed emotions that is not always appetizing.

Where did the year go?

My little rabbit is an year old!!! Cant really believe it!! Wow it just seems like yesterday when that nice tender warm bundle of life was thrust into my arms. I still remember that look in those beautiful big eyes looking up and saying 'Hi Mama, its me :-)'. Now that bundle makes sure that we are on our toes at all times, making all her demands loud and clear and making sure that her older sister really learns to share all her toys!! A friend mentioned today that children teach parents so many new things in life and I believe this is so true.

Was fun today to meet most of our friends who could celebrate little rabbit's first birthday along with us.

The weather was perfect, the birthday cake was yummy, the kids had a blast and the food was as always at Wimmers really good.

Was back at home almost close to midnight and would have expected to crash into bed but here I am wondering where the last year flew by so quickly.

Analysis and Analysts

Was away at my company's corporate event in the beginnng of this week. It is definitley one aspect of my work which I like a lot because it gives me an opportunity to meet with people who actually work with what I work on. I talked to couple of analysts as well and this got me wondering as always. Analysing and predicting something based on analysis is definitely a huge value add for any industry. But today in all areas of life what you hear is mainly post analysis and extensive reports based on post analysis. The world financial crisis, the EU crisis, corporate mergers and acquisitions etc etc. are always analysed post happening and dissected and views and ideas are shared on why certain events happened and not why certain events will happen. CNBC as a television channel with a bunch of extremely smart analysts and newscast thrives on postmortem analysis of all the reasons why we are in the financial crisis that we are in today. Wish moving forward we could preemt more of these. Could apply this thinking to all aspects of life as well actually...hmmm...

BBQs and more

This week seems to be rainy and cold, but the last weeks of April was really T-shirt and shorts weather. Remember the lovely Sunday (Apr 25) spent with friends on the bank of the Neckar. The place is called the Neckarwiese a nice green area on the banks of the river Neckar. Perfect place to go for a picnic, there is a separate to grill your food which is what we all did, soak up the sun and also the lovely city and all the diverse people who come there from different parts of the world. But looks like everybody had similar plans like us! A lovely day indeed and looking for the sun to come out with all its power.

Vishu and shopping hours

I remember last Wednesday evening (14 Apr) so well. A long day at work followed by a high decibel evening with the girls, late evening work calls after the girls were in bed and a presentation for the next work day to be completed. In between all this I realised that before going to bed I needed to arrange our Vishu kani for next morning. A quick mental check and I realised that I had forgotten to pluck some bunches of the lovely Forsythia bushes which grow all over the place at this time of the year. Thank God for the new opening hours(07-24 hrs) of our friendly neighbourhood supermarket Rewe I got some lovely bunches of yellow roses which looked so good.

Plus I enjoyed the quiet of the close to midnight shopping, all the shopping aisles were on display only for me. It was so nice to wake up hubby and girls next morning to the beautiful display in promise for good luck hopefully for the rest of the New Year.