At least it's cool in the pool

This morning has been good and bad.

The bad? Our fridge freezer has stopped working and we cannot get anyone to repair it until FRIDAY. Simon's going out to buy one of those cheap mini fridges after work today*, to see us through. It's about 27 degrees today, so it would be nice to have some way to keep milk from turning to cottage cheese.

The good? Alexander had his first swimming lesson today and it went really well. I was nervous as I thought he might be a bit frightened and also that I might not be able to keep up with the instructions. There was no need to be worried as the teacher was so nice and the environment so well set up for babies. We both had fun. And we learned a new German song about being little fishies.

*Then after the big fridge is better we can keep the mini one in the bedroom and pretend we are in a hotel, on our holidays.

Punch drunk

We went to our neighbours' house for a party last night. Today I feel a little bit fragile.

Obviously the preceding two sentences are in no way statements of cause and effect.

Oh. Was that my nose growing?

It was at the party that I got my first taste of a German drink called 'Bowle'. It is a fruit punch made in a big bowl (hence the name) which typically contains champagne, white wine and chunks of fruit. The bowle is ladled out into glasses, along with the fruit (you're provided with a tooth pick to eat the fruit). Not only is it a lovely drink, but it counts towards your 'five a day'. Hurrah!

Link for recipe...

High dining

On Monday I was lucky enough to share a meal with friends in a restaurant on the 30th floor of a skyscraper (almost 150 m high) known as the 'Media Turm'.

We started with drinks. So far so good. Even better was the fact that we sipped our drinks while out on the 30th floor viewing terrace - which gave me the chance to see Cologne from a different perspective.

The first photo was taken with the camera pointing across the spread of the city and features the twin peaks of the cathedral.

The Media Turm is part of Cologne's 'MediaPark' district, which is a leisure and business zone developed just 11 years ago.

In the second photo the camera is pointing down to street level. The wedge-shaped group of buildings in the middle make up the forum area of the MediaPark. If you look closely you will see that they are shaped like segments of circles, with the curved facades facing inwards. Apparently this unusual layout was chosen by the architects so that people congregating in the centre of the forum area would be able to appreciate the interesting curved facades, while the more boring flat facades would be facing outwards where people are less likely to hang around. I think it also works as a scheme when viewed from above as I found it much more enjoyable to look at than rows of rectangular buildings.

More about the MediaPark...

Pfingstmontag

A pinch and a punch and, gosh, it's the first of the month. Here it's also one of the wonderfully abundant public holidays.

This public holiday is called Pfingsmontag, which means 'Pentecost Monday'. It has traditionally been a day for celebration as Pentecost is an important date in the Christian calendar (it marks the time when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples).

When I was trying to find out about the festival I came across a lovely article from The New York Times describing a Pfingstmontag gathering by Germans in New York in 1860. Here are some excerpts which give a flavour of the event:

'The recurrence of the German May festivals was hailed this year with unusual enthusiasm...
Motion was the order of the day, either in dancing, running, leaping, walking, turning, twisting, swinging, gyrating, rolling, riding or tumbling - all was a continued scene of unceasing, uninterrupted, continual, perpetual motion...
But, of all the amusements of the day, quaffing the foaming lager was the most universal.'
NY Times, May 29th, 1860
View full article...

My celebrations have been more humble. We all went out to an icecream parlour and I had a banana split. Oh, and I did some spins on the carpet with April this morning, which must count towards my quota of motion-based activities.