Hilarious sugar puns

I just had to share these photos of these hilarious packs of sugar that were at our apartment jn the Cinque Terre (more on that soon I promise). Funny,  no?

Los Angeles and Hawaii

So at the beginning of October we headed to LA to spend a few days with Joe's parents. We've both been to LA before but it was great to spend a few days kicking around the city, the weather was great which was a nice change from Munich which was getting decidedly chilly and we also got to see our friends Mike and Neelam who have recently relocated there. We went to the Getty, to Griffith park and cycled along Venice beach boardwalk. We ate a lot of mexican food (yesss!) and had more than my usual quota of starbucks (fyi usual quota is zero, coffee in Italy rocks).

a hummingbird at the getty - can you see it?

the walt disney music hall

some dude surfing 

me and my hairy husband at griffith park

token kiwi taking a photo of a squirrel (oh my god a squirrel!!)

family photo at the getty

cycling the boardwalk 

a pohutakawa in downtown LA

hundreds of dire wolf skulls found in the LA tar pits

 From LA we flew to Hawaii. The idea was that we support DAd in the ironman but unfortunately due to logistical issues Dad couldn't make it - but we had a week of fun in Hawaii none the less. Another unfortunate thing was the US government was shut down at this time, so the Volcano National Park on Kona was closed. This means we have to go back (which funnily enough we are not that upset about). In Hawaii we lay by the pool, went snorkelling (with dolphins! and a turtle! and manta rays (at night!)!) and drove around the island. Pictures of some of the said adventures below

 
Dolphins riding the waves of the boat we were taking to go on our night manta ray snorkel. We had been snorkelling with the dolphins earlier in the day (by chance there was a pod of them in the bay where we went snorkelling), it was a pretty magical day

Joe and I half way up a Volcano 

Joe in a rock (made by a lava flow?)

Kissing under the banyan tree

The Hilo side of the island - very lush

Magical sunset on our last night there

Oktoberfest

So the first exciting thing for me to happen in October (actually at the end of September) was Oktoberfest. My new work is across the road from the Weis''n and my flat is also quite near it so for the three weeks of Oktoberfest my commute (a 25 min walk) and any trip to the bank or supermarket was impeded by folk dressed in traditional Bavarian dress in varying states of intoxication.

My work went to Oktoberfest for one afternoon as a work function. I must say it was wonderful and not really what I expected, here's why

Oktoberfest is not just a bunch of 20- something year old tourists getting drunk.

It is a massive festival that locals, young and old support and participate in. Families take their children to go on the rides, eat cinnamon sugar covered nuts and maybe hang out in the beer gardens (though not usually the drinking tents, although I did see the odd child in them a couple of times). Also there doesn't seem to be any upper age limit, you see plenty of the older generation there drinking a Mass and eating half a chicken. They all dress up in the local dress and go and party. That's another thing I loved about it, everyone is there to celebrate so that's what they do, no matter the level of intoxication the moment you walk into a "tent" (I use this term loosely as this is what they are called but they are by no means a tent, more like semi permanent large hall). So the moment you walk in, people are dancing on chairs and singing and clinking there giant mugs of beer together shouting Proust! (cheers in German).

I had such a great time that I went again (also with workmates, in a less official capacity after work one day). Below is photographic proof of me loving it!

The Commuter Life (and how to move to Germany!)

So it's been three weeks since I started my new job in Munich. Things are going pretty well, the job is exactly what I expected, the people I work with are wonderful, it's a very international office full of great people from around the world.

On Monday morning I get up very early and catch the bus from Bolzano to Munich and get to work at about 10am (my work is fine with this, I just work abit later on Monday evenings). On Fridays I start work a little early, leave early and catch the bus back to Bolzano at 5pm. I get into Bolzano at around 9pm. So far on all three occassions Joe has met me at the bus and we've gone out for dinner or drinks with friends straight from the bus, it's a pretty good way to start the weekend. To make this whole arrangement even better I have a six month bus pass which lets me ride the bus as much as I want.

So the commuting is going smoothly, the new job is going smoothly. Moving to Germany though is a long process...

Firstly you must find somewhere to live! The whole system hinges on you having a registered address. This is not so easy in Munich, they have a rather severe housing shortage. I ended up finding somewhere for the first month, this allowed me to do the next step...

Tell the KVR where you live. The KVR is an intimidating place. I got there ten minutes before it opened and there were masses of people outside, having had experience with Italian public offices I thought that I would be there for hours. Actually this was not the case, when they finally opened ten minutes late (very un-German of them) and everyone stormed the doors I went to the info desk, the lady told me where to go and I went and stood in a line at that desk which was not open. When I got to the front of that line I got given a ticket with a number on it. I waited five minutes, then my number was up and a very helpful English speaking lady registered my address.

Now that my address was registered I could get a bank account (yay!), so I got one of those.

I also got health insurance which is mandatory in Germany.

Now I just need a tax number. Problem with this is it gets sent after you've registered at the KVR within four weeks, I needed it earlier than four weeks. Lucky for me I got it a week later, now I could go and get my tax class card. So I went to the tax office (slightly less intimidating) and got my number and another nice lady sorted out my tax class card in five minutes. So for all my fears about the German bureaucracy things have gone reasonably smoothly. I've also managed to find a permanent flat (yay!). I now just need to organise personal liability insurance and register as a resident at the immigration department (neither of these two things impact on getting paid, hence they are at the bottom of the list of things to organise), so it's been a busy few weeks but I'm almost organised to live in Germany!

So this boring image free post is kind of reflective of my life the last few weeks, lots of time in public offices or the bank, or reviewing training at my new work. But something cute that I see most mornings on my way to work is pre-schoolers being pushed in these carts by the daycare workers as a means to transport a group of tiny people efficiently to the park. Tots cute!

it's like an army truck but for toddlers

Lake Garda

So I live rather close to Lake Garda, one of the lakes in Italy's lake district. My friend Gwen and I decided to squeeze in a couple of days holiday before I start my new job and Lake Garda was our destination.

In a word Lake Garda is beautiful. It is currently cooler than Bolzano which was very refreshing. We stayed at Park Hotel in Desenzano which was great, we got a last minute price, they gave us a free room upgrade, breakfast was included, they had a rooftop pool, a hotel dog and they are on the lakefront. Totally recommend them! Below is the view from our balcony.

Basically we lay by the pool, ate delicious italian food including loads of gelato and one morning we caught the ferry to check out the little town of Sirmione which was really cute as proven by the pics below.

The view of Sirmione from the ferry

Selfie of Gwen and I on the ferry, it was windy

The square in Sirmione where you get off the ferry, totally cute and authentic italian, was a lovely place to stop for a coffee.

I loved this gelato shop, the tiles were gorgeous, the gelato delicious and the iceblocks looked amazing

So pretty

Gwen going for a little paddle

A couple of photos of the lake, as I said earlier it was so beautiful

Another selfie

This is the fort thing at Sirmione, it guarded both the water and road entrance to Sirmione

So to sum up Lake Garda, beautiful place to chill for a couple of days. You get an authentic Italian experience and its easily accessible from Verona by train (20 mins from Verona to Desenzano). I will definitely be heading there again and wouldn't change a thing! If you have more time and more energy there are lots of other towns to visit, lots of hiking and mountain biking to be done and if your in the mood for some water sports its a great windsurfing spot.

Cooking dinners

So what have I been up to apart from sweating profusely in the ridiculously hot weather that is Bolzano in August? Well mainly trying to source things we need for the apartment (we have a washing machine and tongs! and a vegetable peeler!) and find a flat in Munich. I need a flat in Munich because I GOT A JOB IN MUNICH! I start at the beginning of September and am heading up to Munich tomorrow to view a few flats.

The other thing I've been doing is playing the wife and keeping house. To be honest I don't love this job. Cleaning doesn't give me much satisfaction, luckily the apartment is tiny and requires little cleaning. The part I do like is cooking dinner. As I'm not working right now I get to cook dinner the way I like - plan a menu for the next couple of days, head to the supermarket and get everything I need and then cook. Fyi the way I don't like to cook is when you get home after a long day at work, Joe is whining he is hungry and with half empty cupboards you need to magically (and quickly) make something delicious.

So in our tiny kitchen I have been cooking dinner almost every night. I cook from cookbooks. I like the method of following a recipe, I might tweak it a little but I like the order of getting out all the ingredients and following the steps. Currently I have one cookbook with me. Everyday by Peter Gordon.The man is a genius, everything is delicious and I'm having a great time working my way through it. Some of my favourites are Chicken breast en papillote with cherry tomatoes and rosemary, Pasta with blue cheese, walnuts and pear, Tuna skewers and squid with parsley yoghurt, Red curried potato, mushrooms and spinach. Saturday night we had Mussels with Tomato, Chilli and Mint and it was so easy and so delicious I thought I'd share it with you.

You need:

• 1 large red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 red chilli sliced (these are difficult to source in bolzano, I can only get sweet peppers so I used chilli flakes)
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 pinches of saffron
• 1 kg mussels, beards and barnacles removed (this was Joe's job, thanks Joe!)
• 1 kg of cockles or clams (I didn't have any of these so we just had mussels)
• 3 large tomatoes, diced
• 1 glass of white wine
• 50 g butter
• 1 small handful of mint leaves shredded

1. In a large pot saute the onion, chilli and garlic in oil until it begins to caramelize

2. Add safron then mussels, turn the heat to full and put the lid on for 2 mins. Give it a shake now and then.

3. Give it a stir and add the tomatoes, wine and butter and put the lid back on.

4. Cook until the mussels have opened (about 3-4 mins) stirring now and again. 

5. Stir in the mint and ladle into bowls.

It was so so yum and I converted Joe from being a not really a mussel fan to really really liking them :) 

I also loved that it is cooked in one pot on the stove top as we have a tiny kitchen! The photo below is our whole kitchen!

Well I got back to Europe just over two weeks ago and it sure has been a busy couple of weeks. In this time I have visited Munich for a weekend, had a job interview, moved into our new apartment and collected our dogs from Milan airport (which involved my first driving experience in Italy).

40 hours of travel

I arrived in Munich after many hours of travel. My flights were actually pretty good, I had an upgrade to premium economy on Air New Zealand for the first leg of my trip (Auckland to Tokyo) which was lovely. Premium economy was only a third full so it was a really relaxing flight and they let me take my very overweight bag on the plane. I stayed the night in an airport hotel in Tokyo. Checking in with ANA (All Nippon Air) was interesting, first I was somehow booked in as a child so I kept being asked if I was flying alone, then obviously my bag was still really overweight so I offered to pay the extra charges but the lovely ladies told me that the baggage rules had just changed so I just had to make sure I was underweight next time. Then even though my AirNZ gold status expired at the end of June my star alliance gold must still be active in the system because they gave me a lounge invite and then once I was in the lounge I got informed that I had been given an upgrade to business class – score. Basically it was the best flight I have ever had and I arrived in Munich in a really good mood.

Munich

Munich is really lovely. It was really hot while we were there (near 40 degrees) and everyone was out by the river and in the gardens in their bikinis and speedos, except for the naked man we saw who was lying on a lounger by the river completely naked. Below is a photo of us by the river.

We didn't do much in Munich except walk around and eat. As I plan to spend my weekdays there we both figured we have plenty of time to visit the museums, galleries and churches - actually we ducked into a beautiful church in passing and then once inside I realised I was dressed quite inappropriately (straples, sleeveless maxi dress) so we made a quick exit. I had my job interview on the Monday and then headed home to Bolzano. 

Bolzano

Bolzano is hot, like really really hot, all the time. We moved into our new apartment just over a week ago , it is tiny but all we need really, and the views are amazing, below is a shot taken from our little balcony.

 We are still busy sorting it out and acquiring things we need - this weekend we bought a really skinny washing machine. The apartment came with a bed frame but not a mattress so I have bought a super fancy self inflating air mattress to tide us over until our actual mattress arrives – this means we have somewhere for visitors to sleep – come visit people!! Just maybe not in August as it is really quite uncomfortable. I was getting rather weighed down with all of the organising we've been doing but the last weekend in Bolzano has been quite lovely (it's been cooler, only 29 degrees!) and we've done some fun things. There was a wine festival on Friday evening that we went to, all the local wineries had stalls and you could sample there wares for one or two euro. It was great everyone out having a nice time and minimal rowdy behaviour, I couldn't help thinking how out of control it would be if there was a festival  where you could get glasses of wine for a couple of dollars in New Zealand. Last night after spending most of the day inside out of the sun watching game of thrones we took the dogs for a walk by the river and then got gelato, so nice to be able to finally do that. Which leads me to... 

The dogs

I know this is what you have all been reading this really long post for – how are the dogs??? We picked them up last Thursday, this meant driving to Milan on Wednesday evening which I did (!!!) in a snazzy new Audi A3 and then headed to “cargo city” at Malpensa Airport on Thursday morning. We then visited five different offices getting different documents signed and occassionally paying people some money before we could get the dogs. It was actually pretty seamless, just Italian. The ladies at the vet office were lovely, one insisted Joe practice his Italian with her while we waited and the other went and visited our dogs after the vet called her to let us know that they “were very well and very beautiful”. When we picked them up they were very glad to see us and get out of their crates, Moose was fine as soon as he could see us, Ruby still looked pretty worried until we got her out. Their travel crates took up the whole back half of the car so Ruby curled up at Joe's feet and Moose had the best car trip ever on Joe's lap. The dogs are settling in ok, it's really hot so they are having to adjust to that, though thankfully the nights are now a little cooler. They are taking it in their stride mostly, Joe and I have a theory that it was such a traumatic experience on the plane that they are just happy to be with us now that nothing else is phasing them. I really need to work on my Italian as Italians love their dogs and I am constantly getting stopped in the street by people wanting to say "ciao" to Moose and telling me he is "molto molto bello". I feel abit sorry for Ruby as she doesn't get anywhere near the same amount of attention as there are quite few yorkie terriers walking the streets with their owners that look very similar to her. Moose however is quite a novelty. Below are the two of them on our couch this morning

That's all for now, hopefully I'll have some adventures to share with you soon.

Ciao for now

Rachael