Munich Oktoberfest - warm up follies

Leading up to the 2 weeks and 3 weekends of traditional buzz during the Wies'n, there are quite a lot "Wies'n Warm Up Parties". At those bashes the theme, dresscode, music and food are, as expected, Bavarian Dirndl/Lederhosen style.

Nothing surprising so far, but today I stumbled across yet another pug dog story linked to Oktoberfest and the related Warm Up Parties. Remember, in 2010 a poor little puppy ended up in the lost and found office.

This year a quite fancy Wies'n Warm Up Pug Dog Party was organized. 74 female pug dog owners payed 100 € to enter the event, themselves dressed in rather exotic Dirndl and botox, their dogs in Lederhosen. Makes for an unforgetable group picture! Host of the event was dog "Sir Henry" and his dog-mommy Uschi Ackermann. (The two even have their own homepage.)

During the event some German folk singer performed his new Wies'n hit song called "Scharfe Möpse". For all the non-German-readers here, that translates into either "Spicy pug dogs" or, using more colloquial German language, into "Hot bo*bs". Hmmm yeah, one hell of a classy party entertainment I'd say...

Sir Henry himself

But not enough with the pugs. Her significant other is Gerd Käfer, owner of a successful gourmet food business in Munich and the dog fever in combination with Oktoberfest must have gotten also to him rather severely. While she was organizing the party, Mr. Käfer wrote recipes with Bavarian culinary specialities for - yes, who else- dogs! I'll try to find out if those cook instructions with names like PUG DOG SUSHI (is it just me or does that more sound like a sliced up puppy??)or WOOF PIZZA are bestsellers...

Bavarian pug dog (the gourmet, not the ingredient!) recipes

I can just agree with the author of a southern German newspaper who asks himself, if there is no limit to the lunacy grasping people as Oktoberfest time approaches.

Flying with Delta part II: Never again

So, we arrived in Ottawa one day later than we had thought. Spend 10 great days there, visiting family and friends, hanging out at cottages, eating, drinking and relaxing.

When the day of departure came, we were driven to the Ottawa airport, which is very nice, clean and you even go through customs there already, so you don't have to do that after your actual arrival in the US, waiting in lines for hours. Super convenient.

You might see it coming: After three hours of waiting, our flight was delayed and then -surprise!- cancelled. Due to a storm in NYC. Well, we were quite bummed out, but at least we knew we could just call family and stay with someone until the day after, for our rescheduled flight in the early morning.

This time, we were smart enough to recheck our flight online in the evening. And again -who would have guessed?!- it was cancelled. At least we didn't have to go back to the airport, waiting there for nothing. Our next flight was supposed to leave the same day at 2 pm, but checking again online on both airport's and the airline's homepages, it appeared to be cancelled on one of them. So we called the airline and the airport but nobody could help us. Nobody knew what was going on. So we went there anyways, but we were pretty pessimistic about the outcome of this anew attempt. We felt like we were just not supposed to go to New York.

And we were surprised again: This time the plane took off almost on schedule. We made it to New York, had two wonderful days there and there was no problem whatsoever with our flight back to Europe.

By the way, asking our cab driver in New York about that storm, that was supposed to have caused the cancellation of two of our flights, he said, that there was one in the morning the day before, but since then the sun had been shining. And other airlines flights had gotten in just fine and on time.

What remains is our declared intention to never fly with Delta Airlines again and an odd allergic reaction hearing the word combination "air traffic problems".

I just thought I'd share this...

Look at this and try not to drool. Impossible huh?

It's a perfect example of a typical Italian breakfast. Most definitely not healthy (and it's a secret how the very same Italians often keep a Dolce & Gabbana runway silhouette) but so delicious!

Now imagine a foamy/creamy cappuccino with it and there you go with

 la dolce vita.

chocolate croissant

"You talkin' to me?!"

...sounds familiar? 

Spill the beans you movie lovers, whose famous words are these?

Well folks, there are some people in this world who just don't seem to believe in the most basic rules of courtesy. I could list at least 5 names right now. Looking at these people, I'm sure, the reason for this lack of manners is not always a foul character, but sometimes insecurity, arrogance, stress, no education...

...frankly, I don't care.

In my opinion, it should be known to and possible for everyone to greet, say "thank you" and "please" and it surely doesn't matter in which language. Just saying it, will be understood and positively noted. Internationally, overcoming all language barriers, cultural differences and diverse customs.That easy.

Do you agree?

bitte.

1. please; if you please
2. you're welcome
3. excuse me
4. here you are (when offering something) 

danke.

wie bitte?

per favore / per piacere / prego / per cortesia / per gentilezza

grazie / grazie mille

prego?

please/ you're welcome

thank you

pardon?

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
{Arthur Schopenhauer}

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
{Francis Bacon}
 

The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.

{Christian Nevell Bovee}

 

courtesy pays off

...also here.

easy enough, right?