Archive for February, 2007

The 136th day of October

Friday, February 16th, 2007

Ciao a tutti! Life has been progressing in the normal way and for some time now I have failed to find the inspiration for a blog update. No one has poured Coke on my head or pushed Gio off a bicycle in recent history, and Christmas in Canada with my German friend falling in the icy creek and the big furry animals scratching our rental car is already too far away to write about. For now, I would like to share with you some more notes on Germany. 

1. I finally found out what the word “Muckefuck” means - it is a germanization of “mocca faux” which is a half Italian and half French and means “fake mocca (the coffee)”, and it is in fact a coffee substitute made from barley malt. I had imagined it had something to do with “mucca”, the Italian word for cow, and well, an English word of ill repute.   

2.  Here, there exists a yogurt flavour called “Pflaume-zimt” which tastes just like a Christmas candle (plum-cinnamon). I cannot remember ever having eaten a Christmas candle, but I must have, because I recognized the taste immediately. 

3. There also exists Apfel-strudel yogurt (well, we found it in Holland), and it is a heavenly substance – like a creamy silkly smooth apple strudel you don’t have to chew… with delightful little raisins and crumbs… mmm… 

4. A “radler” is a half beer half Sprite mixture. It sounds sick but it’s worth a try. 

5. It’s still October. Here there are six months of October and then I anticipate a direct transition to May. Since in other parts of the world it’s February 16, that makes it October the 136th, 2007. 

Right now is Carnival and the people of  Cologne/Bonn are very into it, so perhaps I will have some amusing pictures to share with you later.