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What UP!
So I know my blog is a few days late now but I still figured you would all be interested in what has been going on over here in K-Town.
Monday was your typical monday morning: a kind of an "uuuhhh why do I have to be here" kind of day, and even though I got home at 12:30, I still felt like a bit of a Garfield. So when I arrived home to a hot plate of Lasagna that Frau Knaus had made me I was stoked as! And by Lasagna I mean some heaps tasty Ravioli. It was, one could say, purrfect ;)
The next day was the best Tuesday I have ever had in school: primarily due to the fact that three of my four classes were cancelled and so I went home at 9:30! To top the whole thing off I also managed to borrow a guitar from Sophia Kind, and could now release my radical pent up guitar cravings on shredding some hot as licks. Which I found a little difficult given that the guitar is a classical nylon string baby with a fretboard as wide as the autobahn which flies past my town. Anyway, whilst reveling in the joys of the guitar I also checked my emails, and discovered (to my delight) that I had been very kindly invited to Strasbourg for a weekend in March by one of our family friends - the Reys family! I managed to chat to Caroline over facebook and arrange transport, and I am heaps looking forward to venturing back into alsace for the first time in four years.
Wednesday flew by, and I enjoyed dominating at foosball again and discovering the joys of German bakeries. I managed to obtain an apple cinnamon swirl thingy (aptly named apfelberliner) and an icing sugar covered dream which I swear an angel delivered from heaven. And all for the relatively reasonable price of two euros! I also went to Anton's basketball practice that night, as coach Niko decided he was too tired and lazy to coach. Fortunately he didn't make me run the practice - I played. And got schooled. By 11-13 year olds. In basketball. Ouch. But seriously these guys were good, and I was out if practice. After this Niko joined us for a meal, despite Anton's protests saying: "he can't come round, he will just eat everything. I hate it when he does this, NO NIKO YOU ARENT ALLOWED MY FOOD!". What a heulseuse (whiner).
Thursday was another early ender, this time finishing 2 hours early at around 10:30. Instead of hopping on the next tram home, however, I headed into town with the fantastic amazing Niko and his rotzbengel friend Jonas (rotzbengel is part of my new vocabulary and essentially means rascal. WHOS GOT DEM GERMAN SKILLZ). We had to visit Niko's mothers practice to get some billz for the new pair of shoes he desperately needed, and I tell you now that it was most interesting asking for an appointment with Dr Mezger (you might want to google that last name) in a gynaecology clinic. So after meeting with Niko's mum we visited the shopping center just up the street from her practice and found a very classy pair of brown leather shoes for Niko for only 25 euro, and even Jonas found a pair he liked and ultimately ended up buying. We then enjoyed a heaps tasty Turkish meal together, paid for by Niko's mum. When I got home I had two hours to turn myself around and get back to school for my first jazz band practice. It was pretty hard work but I really enjoyed it and it refreshed my memory of some of the less common chords I had learnt back in NZ.
On Friday I finished early, and so began the weekend, and Gladiator XXXXIIV - The baking of the Pavlovi. I have a photo album on facebook containing a few snapshots. So I decided to bake two Pavlova's. One for my family and one for the Kind family, who had invited me around to their place for lunch and then a visit into France to see some swans! Little did I know that baking a pavlova can be highly technical. I remarked that making the mixture was remarkably easy, and if course assumed that the gods of the Pavlova were smiling upon me. Oh how wrong I was. The first attempt looked a lot like a small scale model of Christchurch after the ground decided to do the hokey pokey last year, not so good - but rather appropriate seeing as the Kind family were heading off to live in Christchurch in 5 days. The second attempt was pure genius. I googled: "how to avoid cracking in a Pavlova", followed the instructions and created a true masterpiece of mixture sculpting perfection. Then I overcooked it and the crispy shell ended up 2 cm above the marshmallowy insides. Slightly less fail but FAIL nonetheless! I decorated it lovingly and popped it in the fridge for the next day :)
On Saturday at around 1pm I departed the house feeling refreshed and with a beautiful pavlova in my arms. On the way to the Tram station I passed an old man and a younger woman. Strange looks count: 2. They clearly had never seen a baker of my calibre before. I then hopped on the next tram and perched myself (and the pavlova) on the bench at the back. As the tram whizzed along, stopping and starting abruptly, I had a real battle on my hands, attempting to save the cream covered miracle from impending doom (i.e. sliding off the bench). I finally made it into town, and by now the strange look count was around 15. Walking down the main street and into H&M Man with the gloriously kiwi dessert on a warm and busy saturday was even worse for strange looks. I swear everyone thought there was a bomb in that cake. AWKWARD. Anyway I looked around and found the hat I needed for my costume for Max's 18th party later that evening and bought it, but not without the pavlova cream beauty beginning to slowly melt. At this point I realized the urgency of the situation: I was 20 minutes behind schedule with a rapidly dissolving creamy Mona Lisa. No good. I was so empowered by this urgency that I failed to even appreciate the various: "oh that's so kind, I just felt like dessert" comments thrown at me by random Karlsruherians. But I finally made it onto a tram heading in the direction I needed to go, hopped off and walked towards the kind's household. Or that's what I thought. Little did I know that I made a left turn when I was supposed to turn right, so after a good 15 minute search I started calling for help given the dire situation the cake was in (dribbling off the plate). I eventually got to the Kinds house though, and enjoyed a fabtastic meal made by Matthias, which the whole family had been waiting for as I had not arrived!
All was well though, and we headed into France shortly afterwards, listening to the NZ music I had given to Sophia on a USB while we cruised along the autobahn. We saw an amazing flock of rare whooper swans and had a really nice talk/walk around a swampy region behind the Rhine. We even reached the banks of the Rhine itsself, remarking that Germany was just across the water! We then drove back to Karlruhe and tried the PAV. Here was the moment we had all been waiting for. I only had one piece but everyone else WENT BACK FOR SECONDS! YEAH! I then headed home on the trusty number 1 tram and transformed myself into a PIMP for the birthday bash that evening. It was a really great night and it was held in this awesome as community center thing with a pinball machine and all!
The next day was a leisurely sleep in and a game of basketball that evening, during which I was enlisted as the team coach. Funny seeing as I haven't played basketball for years... But clearly my magic touch did the trick and TS Durlach vanquished Ettlinger SV in style, Niko Mezger throwing down a highly unexpected layoff from BEHIND THE HOOP AND BACKBOARD. One other chap just casually drove forward, leapt up and dunked the ball for two! These guys know what they are doing!
Anyway all the best you guys, hope you are all keeping safe and not spending too much time worrying about me/reading my blog!
Much love,
Nick OUT!
- comments
Auntie Jennie Not worrying about you in the slightest, but delighted to hear you are having such a magnificent time! Please keep sharing your advenutres so colourfully!
Katy my lady? You're the cutest.
Dad Well written and very funny.You have got great writing talents Nic. Keep it up. Dad
Andre Great blog bro do you like the German Sauerkraut? have a great time!
James Bro, you're getting epic at these blogs. I don't see how you have the time with all the baking/coaching/getting lost though ;)