1st course:
Rocky Shores
Black pudding and pan-fried scallops
with roasted beetroot, parsnips and leek at the side.
or:
From the Veg Garden
Mushrooms, roasted vegetables and a sour cream dip with fresh chives
~Toast to the Lassies~
~Red Red Rose by Robert Burns~
2nd course:
At the Harbour
Traditional Seafood Chowder
or:
Lazy Beds
Leek and Potato Soup
3rd course:
Later, at the Pub
Haggis (traditional or veggie)
with neeps, tatties and whisky sauce
4th course:
Dessert
Cranachan, kindly provided by T.
~Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns~
Last Saturday, Cavendish and I took advantage of the long weekend and went to see the “New Objectivity” (“Neue Sachlickeit” in German) exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, just a couple of days before the exhibition’s closing date on March, 9th.
In short, a great day out. Fantastic art and after that a nice stroll through the inner city of Mannheim, including a visit to Mannheim Baroque Palace, which is one of the largest palaces in Europe and nowadays serves as one of the main buildings to host the city’s university.
Pleasant and safe train ride back home.
I have no words for how I felt when, two days later, on Rose Monday, around lunch time the news broke that two people had just been killed in a deliberate attack by a 40-year-old German who had driven his car right into the crowds at Mannheim’s main city centre shopping area.
In light of this, it took me a while to decide whether I really wanted to post an entry that was originally intended to be nothing more than an artsy picture spam with a few extra words how poignant, inspired and incredibly well curated “The New Objectivity - A Centennial -2024/11/22 - 2025/03/09” is as an exhibition.
What happens when Cavendish invites a bunch of colleagues for a small belated Burns Night Dinner ;)
2nd and 3rd course provided by us, extremely delicious lentil soup, amazing cheese and wonderful dessert by above mentioned colleagues…
Btw., never having tried anything like this before I was at first super skeptical about the Whisky-Cured Salmon. (Essentially fresh Salmon generously covered with a mixture of casting sugar and salt and then drowned in a larger amount of Whisky.) Turned out I need not have worried, because twenty-four hours in our fridge rendered the fish as tender and aromatic as could be. Perfect texture and taste!
1st course
Soup of the Day
Toast to the Lassies
2nd course
Whisky-Cured Salmon with Beetroot Dressing and Oatcakes
Address to a Haggis
3rd course
Haggis with Mashed Pumpkin, Mixed Vegetables and Colcannon at the Side
The Corries: Oh Flower of Scotland
4th course
A Selection of fine Scottish Cheese
Sing Along: Will You Go, Lassie Go?
5th course
Surprise Dessert
Sing Along
A happy Easter to everybody out there! :-)
In case you are wondering about the not quite so brightly coloured eggs: I was naive enough to believe that if you set out to buy egg dye the Saturday before Easter, the supermarket would actually still have some in stock. Surprise, surprise, everything sold out. So I had to resort to curcuma and beetroot...
This picture postcard photo of Cavendish and me was taken a couple of days ago, by an automaton, at the Duisburg Christmas Fair. After such a long period of not really posting anything of substance I thought it would be nice to kick-start this whole journaling thing with something visual. :-)
Because having a look at the writing desks of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
joyful_molly and others made me want to share mine as well ...
( Where there is a mug and a laptop there is home )
Today we are having "Siebenschlaefer", which is basically the German equivalent to the North American Groundhog Day as far as traditional weather lores go.
The two main differences though: The whole affair isn't about the arrival of Spring, it's about Summer. And demonstrating to the world that we are being exactly the bunch of peevish, overly thorough and overly serious people which everyone wants us to be, Germans do not rely on the behavioural quirks of cute little animals for their weather predictions. Oh no! Apparently it's all about empirical evidence drawn from century long observation for us.
Just look out of the window, my newspaper says. And if you see rain, you'll see rain for the next seven weeks. Statistically proven accuracy of this: about 60-70% (which, of course, can be easily translated into "just slightly higher than 'The weather might be dreadful, or it might not be dreadful'" *g*)
But as this morning, in fact, was the sixth rainy morning in one row...
( For everyone who is as sick of this weather as I am, or otherwise in need of some virtual sunshine )
cavendish's friend R., a professed music nerd in every sense of the word, we got tickets to Robert Wilson's version of Madame Butterfly at the Amsterdam Opera House. What better opportunity to combine a marvellous cultural event with a grand day out. Being an interested lay person, I've seen quite a few operas over the last couple of years, but never one which was staged so artistically convincing. Both the minimalist stage setting with its background of subtly lighted silk as well as the singers' reduced, ritualized movements gave the whole performance the flair of a traditional Japanese painting. The singers' voices, especially the lead soprano and tenor were easily among the best I have ever heard. A whole different class than what I'm used to from the undoubtedly solid "Deutsche Oper am Rhein". 
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
