pineapple express @ sneak preview

time to go home after the crepes

vive la france

keyhole view

photowalking tours (the city)

chin chin versailles

bonsoir

Just a quick note before switching off the PC. I have now been vegetarian since Monday and since Tuesday even without fish. I also cooked asparagus for the first time in my life - it was pretty good. I mean it is soooo simple, I don't know why I am not doing it more often. It is a great meat-substitute. I am now off to France for the weekend so I will miss the POPSTARS episode this evening, which I really don't care any more. Here is a great ad for whatever ...

why? I mean why? I really don't get it

this could have been such a good movie. Could have ...

Paparazza @ Photokina

MURAKAMI in MMK

Just a quick note on one of the best exhibitions in Frankfurt. If you live here or just visit and miss this one, you are an idiot. That is idiota in Italian by the way. I really mean it!

vegetarian

the practice of a diet that excludes meat (including game and slaughter by-products), fish (including shellfish and other sea animals) and poultry.

So after a wonderful brunch with Alba at Bastos on Sunday and another wonderful dinner sponsored by Jasmina I decided to go vegetarian this week. It went pretty ok - until tonight. I made another important decision last weekend - to go out more. I researched all kinds of websites for Frankfurt institutions, even created a Google calendar (on the right) and so I went to 2 exhibition openings tonight. The first one was in the filmmuseum. A photographer with the coolest name ever - Jim Rakete - and his portraits shot with 1/8 sec using an analogue camera. Great pictures, boring opening. The second event was in the Kunstverein - the exhibition was, hmm how to descibe - special? We ended up at the bar with some Spanish food. That is when it happened. I went inside, saw the chorizo and went for it. Only with the first piece in my mouth have I realized that I wanted to be vegetarian this week. After some consideration I made another very important decision. Who cares? And so we had a wonderful evening drinking lots of wine, eating cheese, chorizo and olives.

Here are all the pictures. I also got some ideas for a costume for Halloween ...

Oh, another thing. I am very much looking forward to this weekend, going to Cologne for the Photokina. I was considering to buy the new Nikon D90, but recently it seems that either I have been betting on the wrong horse or Nikon is simply doing a shitty job at marketing. Or Canon is simply better. In any case it is worth checking out below movie.

Natalie!!! Cinderella!!!

I don't know what to say. Let's just say, there have been so many good movies at the sneak recently, that I can totally forgive this one. Well, on the other hand, it had its moments. ;-)

süß

u-o-l-y-i-e

Moni - Portrait

another fantastic photo course. Click on the pic to see the rest ...

back again

I created this wordle based on my blog. hmmm, interesting. I am too tired to play with the colors, but I might do it later.

dragonboating

just came home from the dragonboat race. we finished an amazing 4. place. I am now going to bed but got this before and thought I would share this with the world ...

60s brithdayparty - love you guys!!!

das wird teuer ...

Ahoo & Jan & Hamburg

a wonderful weekend full of celebrations, lots of eating, drinking, dancing, smiling. Plus an added bonus - Hamburg. Got to go back there some time!!!

lecsó

I am happy that I finally took the time to tell the world (or at least the ones who read the blog) about the art of cooking a great Hungarian dish called "lecsó". At my last visit to Budapest I managed to visit my grandma and took the opportunity to take some pictures and little movies of her cooking skills. So here we go:

We will need:

• 1-2 onions
  
• a hungarian sausage (best made with spicy ones, but you can take whatever you want)
  
• 3-4 tomatoes
  
• 3-4 paprikas (also known as capsicum but I don't care and will simply call it paprika)
  
• some paprika powder (the spice)
  
• a hungarian paste called "piros arany" - which means red gold. it is basically a salty paprika paste that can be quite spicy sometimes
  
• 2 eggs

1. we start by cutting the sausage - of course at this stage it is CRUCIAL that you try lot. I would say, as a general rule you should buy twice as much as you need. At least if you cook like I do. Also if you don't want to try yourself, just call me, I will gladly help at this stage.


2. cut the tomatoes into small pieces. also peel them if you like.


3. cut the paprika into small pieces


4. have the paprika spice ready


5. if you are very thorough - like my grandma - wash the eggs


6. and then put the egg in a cup so it can be quickly used later on


7. we are ready to start. heat the onions in a little oil until they "sweat" as they say


As this takes a while, we have time to take a picture of my grandma. We call her "Dadó" because that is what I called her when I was very young and couldn't really speak but tried anyway. Now everybody calls her like that.


8. when we are happy with the onions, we add a bit of paprika spice and the "piros arany"


9. now it's time to add the remaining sausages into the pan. This is your last chance to try them before they will be too hot to be eaten before the lecsó is finished!!!


10. when the sausages start jumping around and making that wonderful noise which makes you more hungry, it is time for the paprika to join the party. Of course we have to help the party a bit by stirring it up


11. we have to cover the pan at this stage so that the water from the paprika stays there


time for another picture of Dadó:


12. we can now add the tomatoes and stir them under the rest


13. if you didn't forget to put the lid back on, this is how it should look like after a while:


14. it's time to let it cook openly


15. mmmmmmm - looking good:


16. next the eggs join the rest to bind the sauce a little


17. ta-raa! This is how it should look like just before serving:


18. and this is how it will look like just a little later - call me if you need help to reach this stage!!!


it is best served with white bread which can be used also to "clean the pan". Of course I couldn't take any more pictures because I was busy eating and at this moment didn't really care any more ...

You can find all the pictures and videos on my flickr page

vacation

I am in Vienna and actually should already be in bed because in less than 6 hours I have to catch a bus to catch a train to ...

Aaaanyways - I took a day off on this historical day. Exactly 7 years ago, on August 15th I moved to Germany. I had a drink in the evening with my friends, went home with Claudia at around 1 in the morning, packed a couple of things and took a plane in the morning to Frankfurt. The rest is history as they say. The plan was to stay 2-3 years and then move on. The first 3 years I was working during the week and traveling to Vienna mostly on the weekends, only after we split up and I started spending more time in Frankfurt have I started liking Frankfurt and meeting people. I changed company once, changed jobs five times, am currently living in my third flat in Frankfurt (not counting the hotel I stayed the first 3 weeks of course) and using my 5. camera to take many many pictures of my life. Only recently am I beginning to get bored with the city but am still reluctant to move and start over somewhere else. Still I am slowly accepting the feeling inside me that there is some kind of a change coming. The feeling reminds me of the matrix movie when Leo asks the oracle about his decision to save trinity - really he is not looking for a decision but for the reason why he has made that particular decision. Ok, I am either overworked or high on some drug they mixed in my tomato juice on the plane - as normally I am not writing about this kind of stuff ...

The plan for tomorrow is to go to Budapest in the morning, have lunch with my grandma, who I haven't seen since February, then meet with an old friend and take the evening train to the lake to see my parents. I will either come back with them on Sunday to Vienna or stay a bit longer and come back only Tuesday. We will see. Then there is a dentist appointment on Wednesday to clean my mouth with sand and then I fly back to Frankfurt in the evening.

So what else is happening these days? Nothing much - expect the Olympics in China. The opening ceremony was fantastic; the rest is pretty boring to be honest. I used to like watching the swimming but recently it has become very boring due to the stupid speedo full body suits everybody is wearing - I mean they all look the same now. It's like throwing robots in the water and letting them swim. Plus they are breaking each and every record! It's like the swimming pool is too short and nobody is noticing or something. (I wonder how they are measuring it is really 100m? hmmm). Maybe the athletics part will be more exciting. I wonder when that is gonna start.

The other stuff is pretty boring too - the Chinese are winning everything. Only a few exciting things happened as a Chinese rower missed his race because he overslept, a Hungarian weightlifter broke his elbow while lifting - obviously - too much weight. Oh, yes. And the little girl singing at the opening ceremony wasn't really singing - her sole task was to look good as the one with the nice voice was apparently too ugly to be on TV.

However I am glad that beach volleyball became an official sport at the Olympic Games. At least this way Mr. Bush got a perfect photo opportunity - and look what happened. I mean can you imagine any other politician in the same situation? I don't think so.

it's all legal

there is a god.

ok, before I get too philosophical, a couple of really cool things just happened. They showed the new batman movie at the sneak preview and so I am very happy. Plus I went to another speed dating yesterday and had a really fun evening. Got also a couple of matches so we will see. This time there were some really young girls there so I kindof felt old, but only kindof - I mean, 22 is legal, right?

Other than this work is as usual - a lot of the same old stuff. I need to slowly do something about it.

Weekend was great - started going to fitness center again, did a bit of shopping, went to the hairdresser, spent some time on the decks of two beach clubs on top of some of the city park houses, went to Bonn for a birthday brunch, etc. all in all a great summer with friends.

Had two life-threatening experiences with the bike the week before. First I got lost in the woods around the lake in a misty weather, which was really creepy. Then my brakes broke on my way downhill while speeding like hell. I managed to get out of the woods in Walldorf in the end and managed to brake with the front wheel brake without making a triple flip with the bike.

Went to the zoo for a photography course the weekend before - it was fun but didn't learn too many new things.


Have booked a trip to Vienna for next weekend - I will also visit my grandma in Budapest and the parents at the lake. then 3 more days in Vienna - maybe a visit at the Rathausplatz or the sneak preview, it doesn't matter what, Vienna will be cool :)

Now I go to bed and dream about things to come...

i like it when it rains and thunders

another new york movie

Just came back from the sneak preview and thought I drop a couple of lines. I liked this movie a lot - and not only because of Sienna Miller. There is nothing new about showing people around Andy Warhol taking drugs and living on the edge but it is one of the few films that shows Andy and / or any great artist in a somewhat less good light. The movie is very much like Basquiat but this time the story is really not about Warhol but Edie Sedgwick - who is perfectly portrayed by Sienna Miller. The factory, New York, Paris, horses, central park, Chelsea Hotel, etc. It's all there!!!

I haven't posted too much last week because I was working. And was working too much actually. After almost two weeks of working (including the weekend) I started to feel like Ben Affleck in Paycheck (another great movie by the way) only without all the money and the girl waiting for him. Anyways - I stopped working on Friday and we went to see Get Smart - which was just perfect for a Friday night. Then party on Saturday at our place, Clubkeller later on (gotta remember to go back on a Saturday as it was just perfect) and Sunday was spent at the swimming pool, eating good old Sunday Steak at Buena Vista and then watching Mamma Mia, which was just great. The singing is fantastic, especially Mr. ex-Bond is just, well, I don't know what to say. You should figure it out for yourself :-)


And now the hot summer has finally arrived so I am sure there will be more movie nights approaching as our second floor is somewhat hot so that it is not an option to stay at home in the evening. We shall see ...

illegal

just finished watching the new batman movie - totally illegally from the internet (didn't download, just watched online). The quality was miserable but at least I got the story. I never did this before and I don't intend to make a habit out of it and I am pretty sure I will go and watch it again in a cinema as soon as it comes out so it shouldn't be soooooooooooo illegal. I just couldn't wait a whole month until it comes officially to Germany just because some smartass marketing person decided there were enough other good movies already in the cinema this summer and this way they could get more money out of the summer movies. end of story. punkt.

just finished - thanks, mimi!

a-a-a-choo

the 90's flashing by

and now for something completely different:

dreaming

link to stripgenerator

blog clog

I have to admit I have been pretty lame lately. No blogging, no more picture uploads on flickr, no more other stuff. I don't know why - the main thing is that I am back in Frankfurt and my PC is up and running again. I have to check the old hard disk for any data that might still be there and then we will see. The weather gods seem to be on my side so there is a slight chance that I will spend some time at home this weekend. Oh, one more thing. I have read this book on the plane to Vienna last weekend. It is a very nice book that I can totally recommend.