Being a bit slack...

I guess I've been meaning to post something here, but it's so easy to get caught up doing... well, a great deal of SFA. Tash has put me to shame by managing an update (with photos, no less! I'm always too impatient to wait for them to upload) despite having three small charges to chase after. I am so slack. I meant to update my recipe-blog, too, but I've been too much of a guts... that is, I ate everything before I got to take any photos. Made an awesome vege-chilli (could make the non-carne joke but don't really need to) but the last of that disappeared for lunch. I'd like to think that it wasn't what caused my swollen lips last night / this morning... fuck knows. Possible causes could be cumin or capsicum, but I was fine with a cumin-heavy curry that I made recently, and I ate some of the capsicum raw to no ill-effect... stupid face, I wish it would just chill out. Though it has been ok recently.

But hey, I'm enjoying my sloth while it lasts, which won't be for too long. On Monday I'm heading to Hamburg for 4 nights (and then Bremen too, because it's kinda on the way home...ish) so I'm looking forward to that. Managed to find single rooms in hostels for 30 and 35 euros, as opposed to the 20 - 25 euro pricetag that comes with a 4-person dorm. I'm more than happy to splash out an extra tenner per night to avoid other people. I'm just so sick of talking to strangers... I think I got worn out after my first couple of months here and have never been up to the task since then.

So, when did I last update? Wednesday. Hmm... well, on Thursday I caught the train up to Muenster again, this time so that I could see This Will Destroy You. I got fed curry for dinner courtesy of Matt and Tash, who have been putting me up (or putting up with me, hehehe) a lot recently, which is completely awesome. I borrowed Tash's bike to ride into town and managed not to fall off, which I was quite proud about. (I'm pretty wobbly when I can't get both feet on the ground!) Saw TWDY, who were actually really good - I'd half expected some sort of pretentious indie-trying-to-be-doom rubbish but was pleasantly surprised. Glad I remembered earplugs, though - I'm already terribly deaf. Sound was good, though - definitely want the loop station from the lead guitarist. Maybe his shoes, too. Rode back at a good pace, feeling kinda elated. Need to get that tyre replaced on my rubbish bike so that I can go for night rides in the rain, because it feels pretty good. I slept well, for the one and only time in the last week, so I think there's something to be said for the exercise.

The next morning, I crawled out of bed at the appropriate time (breakfasttime! hehe), met up with Tash in the city for a spot of shopping, and managed to find a jar of fresh, vegan pesto. Nom nom nom. I was going to open it on the train and dip bread into it, but I managed to restrain myself til I got it home. Then I sauteed some veg (mushrooms, beans and tomato - the dregs of the fridge, basically) and coated them in pesto. So good! The rest of the pesto was supposed to have made its way onto some baked tofu, but instead was devoured over pieces of bread. Oh well, at least it met a noble end. In my guts, that is. The baked tofu can wait, and the block of tofu will be used for a scramble, just as soon as I buy some garlic... so, probably tomorrow. Dom Markt is on... I'm probably going to buy more olives. So hooked.

Saturday I also went to the Dom Markt (and yes, stocked up on olives... so much garlic, but so good!) and bought a few things. Delicata squash, a giant spaghetti squash (which had terrible flavour compared to the other sort, but it looked like a pumpkin, so I bought it without knowing it was a spaghetti squash) and various other vegetables. More Elstar apples... turns out the bags are 3kg, so that's 2 euro per kilo. I bought some local Cox's Orange Pippins the other day, also bulk-packed, for the equivalent of a Euro per kilo... but they just aren't as good. I'll stick to Elstar. White and crisp and juicy, yum. They're my lazy snack at the moment, which is probably better than getting into the salted peanuts again.

Since then, I've been incredibly lazy. Oh, today I went to the post office and sent a couple of books home, plus a postcard and then a card for Lou, just because it was cute. 26 Euro! 24 of which was the books. It's a pricy endeavour, but entirely worth it. But I'm going to need a hell of a lot of money to get all my books home now. No one let me buy any more, ok? I did read Dracula the other day, which was borrowed from the Mitbewohnerin. It was pretty good, but dragged a little towards the end. Did make me feel a bit creeped out when they talked about blood infusions - much moreso than the actual sucking of blood. Ugh. This coming from the wuss whose father studied Medicine, whose mother studied Dentistry, and who used to calmly go along to the blood bank as a child, hang around while Mum donated blood, and then be excited because they'd give me a biscuit (frequently a Scotch Finger). What the hell happened?! Meh, anyway.

Presently, when I'm not prowling youtube for videos (The Hawaiian Islands acoustic stuff is hilarious, especially when Lee gets into the falsetto backups) I'm reading a book called "Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations". I'm about a third of the way in, and enjoying it, which generally bodes well for a book. I really had to claw my way through Fast Food Nation, but I'm pretty sure that I'd already read it somewhere, which was why I found it boring. Also, the problem with these books (I'm looking at you, Michael Pollan) is that they're all just using the same statistical information over and over, presenting the same findings (aka, we're fucked, but more eloquently spoken) and often go so far as to quote eachother. Overkill, people! I know it's great that you're all drawing attention to the revolting mess that is our food system, especially the animal-raising part, but honestly, can we get a fresh perspective here?

End rant. I think I'm just happier reading tidbits from Civil Eats (even if all the best entries seem to be cross-posted from Grist) and the Politics of the Plate. Plus the other sixty or seventy food blogs that I seem to be following these days. It just keeps growing, and growing... I'm going to be stuffed when I have to go back to class. I don't want to. I want to go home and hang out in the Summer, except that a) it's not Summer at home and b) that would make this whole venture a rather large waste of time and money. Today it only got to 12 degrees.

This morning I got up early and watched 'Scent of the Green Papaya', which I remembered watching in about year 6 at school. I'd seen it in the foreign section at the video shop nearest to my old house, so I thought it'd be worth a go. It wasn't great, honestly. But the ideas were good, just poorly-executed. It's amazing how fast film moves forward these days... I suppose I could say the same for many things, but I feel as though media shows so accurately the changes in style as they pass... or rather, preserves them well enough for us to reflect on in the future. It's like how you can look at something made in the 70s, but designed to be set in the future, and you can still tell that it's the 70s simply because of their clothing and haircuts, despite the fact that it's supposed to be futuristic. Oh, and can someone please tell the world that no, we will NOT be wearing one-piece suits in the future? I think everyone should be aware that as much as I love a onesie, they're a pain in the ass when you need to pee. What's that, you don't care? I'm just sayin', is all. ;)

For future reference:
http://relyme.com/2009/03/18/urban-outfitters/