Apple Restaurant

I was at a dinner ‘party’ this evening. Some meetings/conferences happening at the office and the guests and we went together for dinner.

It was a really terrific restaurant. Funnily, they had everything there apple-related. On the walls, there were artificial apples hanging. At the entrance, there was a HUGE machine which could juice hundreds of apple in a go. Their wifi-netword was “Apfel-net” (Apfel is the German word for apple).

And yes, it went much further to the following level.

They had even the toilets done with apple themes! How about that?

And well, the dinner was mostly fun. One of the guys wanted to try out the eggplant dish, because he liked all about it, except the eggplants! So, he asked for it without the eggplants. (this stupid joke got repeated enough that I was royally bored with it)

Every one in the group had some special demand regarding the food. The waitress, was extremely accommodating and very friendly. Needless to say, I *really* liked her! :)

The service was excellent and the food was fantastic!

(Some day I should take my SO to this restaurant.)

And, at the end of the day I became a savior too. One of the guests hadn’t checked in the hotel and the reception was closed by the time we reached and his reservation wasn’t of much help. With my German skills, I managed to secure him a room without trouble.

So, it was an altogether very nice evening.

And I am sooooo tired now. So this is good night from me.
Signing off,
Sands.

Ok, Judge me now.

Most of us are uncomfortable when (it looks like) someone is judging us. Well, we use the term “judging” only when the evaluation is not the way we desire. But when it comes to others, most of us aren’t reluctant to judge (of course, when it is our “assessment”, it has to be good, right?)

On Thursday, we watched the latest installment of Twilight saga – “Breaking dawn – part 1”. I was not planning to, when I got out of office. But then she suddenly had the idea and we headed to the theater near home. (And watched it in German)

It easily qualifies for a spot in the bottom ten movies of all times. Still it was good that we went, for, she was extremely happy that we went for the movie.

So, there you have it – a good reason to judge me. If that’s not enough, I can also tell you that I’ve read the whole saga – I wanted to know what the fuss was about and failed to find the cause for the fuss.

Signing off,
Sands.

This shall not be the case

Not being regular, here on the blogosphere, is not the way to go. I should get back to writing. And I think, yes, I will.

For a long time I wasn’t sure why I am not writing. Two major things coincided with the downfall of the frequency of posting and like any other idiot, I assumed that one of those was the reason for my lack of writing. (I know, correlation doesn’t equate to causation)

Apparently, it appears now,  something else, of which I was oblivious, was (and is) the real reason.

The situation would not change for at least 6 more months. But I have already taken long breaks and I should get back to writing.

Here is my attempt to break the long break. More will continue…. soon.

Signing off,
Sands.

Heidelberg (rain (motor (bike))) trip.

“This year we didn’t have a summer; Next year we may have one” – forecasted my colleague this morning.

So very true – the summer didn’t have any sun. There was a day in July when I had to turn the radiator (room heater) on.

After the frustrating rainy months, we decided to make a trip to random places. Incidentally, I came to know at that time that an acquaintance lives in Heidelberg (just 110km away from home).

Saturday – about noon – we started. The forecast did say about overcast and showers. Well, as  long as it is typical German showers (drizzling) we don’t care. The plan was to go straight to Wiesbaden and then ride by the side of Neckar river  through Mainz – Oppenheim – Worms – Mannheim and reach Heidelberg.

Time (and we) flew till Nackenheim – where we decided to take a little detour to a mountain-top church.

But before reaching the church, we stopped by the side of the vineyards. From the roadside, the vineyard(s) stretched till the horizon.

The grapes were tender. But that didn’t stop us from having some though (sour grapes). Making photos weren’t a part of our plan – just ride and ride and ride. So, all we had was the iPhone and she did take some pictures anyway.

Note: A curious thing – in that region, almost every village has the name ending in “heim”.

So, here I stand by the side of Rudra – that’s how the bike is called.

(I am not supposed to publish any ‘long haired’ pics. But I am going for a haircut in 2 days, so I hope to use that as an excuse for putting this online.)

It was then it started to pour – almost like never before in Germany. We simply got drenched. We cancelled our ‘food plans’ @ “Worms” – cool name for a city, eh? Went straight to Heidelberg.

The rain came again – with all its might – during our way back home. It was foggy all around (and great sound effects from lightning/thunders). It took almost double the time to reach home. After the rain, I was starting to worry that she might fall off the bike of some hypothermia or so.

Needless to say, I was extremely cautious, we reached home all safe and decided: “Never are we getting back so late. If we are on bike, be home before it is dark”. The experience really did scare us (and prolly taught a good lesson too). :)

I’ll be flying to India by the end of this month. So, for another bike trip, we’ll have to wait till the end of September – when I am back gain. Hopefully, we’ll have some good weather then.

Signing off,
Sands.