Thursday, December 29, 2011

German Wedding Updated


Hoi Everyone,

So here are some more pics from our German wedding in August. It's only a selection, includes a couple from the previous post, but also new ones from the professional photographer. There are lots more pictures from the guests, and they might come online sometime, but dont feel upset if you're not represented (or over-represented...)


The album is in Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105955852697062837044/GermanWeddingExpanded?authuser=0&feat=directl

Winterthur


Hoi Zäma,

Well, it's Winter, and I've been really slack at showing you anything of Winterthur, where I live in Switzerland. So I will start trying to make up for it now.
Though I don't really have any pics of the town or house or housemates, here are a couple that I do have...

Starting with Winter in Winterthur and the Christmas Market, which the Europeans do really well: row after row of stands selling christmas decorations, general handicrafts, oils, candles, toys, cakes, jewellery. And of course hot food and hot wine (and also hot beer and hot caipirinhas - in fact you can put the word "Glüh-" in front of anything in Germany, heat it up and sell it at a christmas market! After a while though you see the same stuff for sale all over the place, also with very non-christmasy stuff that you see at every market at any time of the year in any city.
Tie-died T-shirts, cheap silver jewellery, and dream-catchers anyone?


Last year was an unusually snowy year, leading to a white Christmas and beautiful snowscapes reminding me of Sweden. This year there's only been a couple of days of snow in the town which didn't stay around for very long. After the driest November since records began the headlines are like they were in Aus a couple of years ago - drought, increasing fruit and veg prices, cracked and dry fields, lakes without water, delayed start to the ski season... things arent looking good. But last year it was glorious!


The view from the telecommunications tower in Winterthur - with the Alps in the background

Thursday, December 22, 2011

New York

I had a 23 hour stopover in NY in 2009 on the way back from a business trip, and managed to spend the day wandering around. Highlights were finding some good italian food and coffee in the East Village (not as easy as you might think in the US), and seeing a great gig at the legendary Blue Note Jazz Club.

The Edmar Castaneda Trio at the Blue Note. Very cool music - amazing to watch the physicality of Edmar's harp playing, and trombonist Marshall Gilkes can do things on the horn that are amazing. Great toe-tapping music with latino flair. I I hope I get Latino jazz harp playing angels if/when I go to Heaven!


Paquito D'rivera. He was joined at one point on stage by a bandoneon player (tango accordion) who was amazingly expressive and melancholic.


Something else blue that I'd never seen before. And couldn't eat because they were horrible. Maybe some things just shouldn't be blue.


Times Square



Empire State Building


View of the south and Wall St.




The "Seinfeld" Diner - a definite landmark on my to-see list! Unfortunately I didn't have enough time for a sit-down meal, but I would have loved to eat a Mars Bar with a knife and fork in there...



Sunday, September 4, 2011

Aus Wedding Pics



Hiya!
It has taken a while to get some wedding pics from Aus on the blog... there was a lot to do organising the 2nd wedding which has just happened... so it is time to start catching up! In Germany there are 2 parts to the marriage - the registry official bit, and then the church bit. We chose to do the Registry bit in Melbourne, at the end of an already planned 2 week holiday, on the 14th of January.

The official bit - at the Melbourne Registry on 14th Jan 2011


Grandad Ervin, who would have loved to make it to Europe for the German Wedding and had the date fixed firmly in his mind, but sadly passed away on the very day of it.


Ringbearer brother Paul


The immediate family

Debbie and Andrew Carman (the best man), Us, and Christina's Witness (they dont have bridesmaids in Germany), with Ralf


Bubbles!





Our best photo, from our profi photographer



Hee hee!


the Bling






"Excellent!"


The dinner gang having a fine dinner at The Italian. The following day we would have an "informal" bbq at home for about 70 people.


The "Wedding Kugelhopf" - havent found anthing anywhere else like it - pastry sheets filled with thick chocolate butter - amazingly good and rich, from Aviv bakery in Glenhuntly. An old family favourite.

Snapshot out the back at the BBQ on the 15th


Keeping the kids entertained with Tom and Jerry, which meant our pre-prepared photo slideshow showing our life in Europe had to be sidelined.


Ralf - earning his trip by working at the spit roast


Detlef also earning his ticket, and desperately trying to tan by deliberately not wearing a hat

A successful introduction to the world of Cheezels!

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German Wedding 1st Pics



The German Wedding on 20th August 2011 - the Church bit. It was a great day - the sun was shining; no Volcanoes or air-traffic controller strikes prevented the the international guests from Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, England and France from arriving; the food was great; the beer and wine flowed freely into clay goblets, the band rocked and even the jetlagged parents could keep dancing until 3.30 am.


Ruth, Christina's mum making the wedding cake



Night before the wedding, greeting some of our international guests with the internationally recognized pinnacle of German cuisine: Schnitzel! Guests came from Australia, Singapore, Japan, England, Switzerland, Sweden, & France.


The vows: in St. Katharina church in Wallerfangen


Sekt empfang - drinks after the service in front of the church while the Musikverein Konkordia (Chistina's home-town orchestra) played.


Balloon boys and girls

Our first married act together - conducting the orchestra. And it was defintely an "act"; our conducting might not have been great, but the orchestra didn't even pretend to follow us - none of the players even looked in our direction while we were waving the pointy sticks around.


More champagne at the Roman Villa in Borg (Perl) where we had the reception.


Serving staff pouring the popular Römersud beer into the clay goblets.


The Wedding (very basic) Foxtrot






The married life quiz: to this question we both agreed Christina cooked better than me...

The finished wedding cake - decorated with Christina's favourite Margareta flowers


Cutting the cake


About to throw the bouquet




With the moose theme taking on a life of it's own, we provided a space for everyone to paint their own.

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