(While planning a spring holiday to either Eastern Europe or Belgium/Champagne-Ardennes with Gabriel and watching him dither as to where to go)

"actually if you're coming i'd prefer the baltic states. so that you won't have to meet my uncle/aunt (with whom I was planning to crash with in Belgium) - i just got an sms from my mom

"i heard from uncle that you want to visit? are you going alone? when? how long? who are you going with? mummy and daddy are waiting for when you can introduce a nice girl to us."

that was five minutes ago

while my uncle and aunt are extrmeely liberal european types (who would be completely tolerant of homosexual jaunts) i'd rather not drive my parents closer to the grave if they find out we're taking romantic romps in the french countryside.

i'll ask the Cock to come along so we don't look like a gay romp. or i can tell my aunt you and jk are the gay couple"

"You can find things in the traditional religions which are very benign and decent and wonderful and so on, but I mean, the Bible is probably the most genocidal book in the literary canon. The God of the Bible - not only did He order His chosen people to carry out literal genocide - I mean, wipe out every Amalekite to the last man, woman, child, and, you know, donkey and so on, because hundreds of years ago they got in your way when you were trying to cross the desert - not only did He do things like that, but, after all, the God of the Bible was ready to destroy every living creature on earth because some humans irritated Him. That's the story of Noah. I mean, that's beyond genocide - you don't know how to describe this creature. Somebody offended Him, and He was going to destroy every living being on earth? And then He was talked into allowing two of each species to stay alive - that's supposed to be gentle and wonderful." --- Noam Chomsky

We must condemn the committing of atrocities, lynching and hate-mongering

***

methegirl3: China is driving me nuts.

"This place is crazy. Sure, there're the occasional perks like eating sticks of pineapples that miraculously appears out of the blue on the streets. And then there's the cheap everything as well, whatever.

But cheap isn't necessarily good, as I have just found out. I have grown out of the "best buy must buy!" phase. I am now going for quality thanks to the lessons China gave.

Our house is falling apart, seriously. The sink is forever clogged. My roommate unclogs it by pouring chemicals. I unclog it by using a new plunger. Then the toilet is clogged. Then the toilet cover is broken. Then the washing machine is broken. Then the windows in the apartment does not shut so dirt and cold air comes in.

I would not live here again unless I have to. I will be so glad to get out of China when I do. I'm not having fun dealing with stuff that are of such poor quality!"


someone:

6.
OFFER: cat scarer

Posted by: "***" ***@*** ***

Fri Mar 23, 2007 6:38 pm (PST)

I have a cat scarer going spare. It picks up on body heat and emits a high pitched sound (theoretically inaudible to human ears, but that depends on your hearing) in response to warm objects like cats - very effective.

***

Cock's travelogue:

1- I've managed to lose my hat this trip so far, which I'd only owned for a year. So long, hat!

5- Last evenıng, about 5 mınutes after the traın pulled out of Thessalonıkı statıon, I managed to make the whole traın stop. How? Well, my cabın compartment was pıtch dark, and I was tryıng to feel for a lıght swıtch. I felt thıs handle and pulled ıt. Instead of the lıghts comıng on there was thıs loud whıstle sound. Apparently I had pulled the handle for the emergency whıstle stop. Oops. Fortunately apart from a not-too-amused traın conductor there were no other repercussıons from the ıncıdent.

Cock: "this was made in university parks, oxford

thus showing student priorities in snow sculpture on the only heavily snowing day in oxford"

I finally got these from the Cock last Saturday, after more than 8 months:

Munich:

Beer Hall Band


Cigar Woman


Haxe (Pork Knuckle)


Vienna:

Sacher torte, Strudel

Dancing Slave Girl

Unfortunately I can't remember the date.

Shots from the Young Republic cookout/gathering on Friday evening:


The Cock's Magic Wand


The Cock's Magic Wand


June turns the Cock into a frog with his magic wand


Jiekai's Cookhouse Food. He'd been raving about his "一顶锅"/"一鼎锅 " ("Yi4 Ding3 Guo1" - Claypot Special) for a long time - since he visited me in Utrecht, in fact. So we were all eager to see his house special. After all, this is what Oxford students pay £3 each to eat on Friday nights. When it came out, all of us unanimously agreed it looked like cookhouse food (Enming said he could set up "Colonel Cock's Cookhouse" in Oxford). For some reason I was expecting something like in restaurants, where you have a thick brown sauce full of flavour. This had a thin, watery sauce. nw.t describes it best: "It tastes like the sum of its parts... it's supposed to taste like more than the sum of its parts".


Charles, Me and the Cock


The Cock making meringue. The autofocus refused to focus on him because he's so cock.


The spread: Coq Au Vin, Cookhouse food, Ikea Swedish meatballs with cream sauce and lingonberry jam, General Tso's Chicken. 2 pizzas in background.
My mother taught me a trick for deep frying: instead of flouring and immediately frying, you put the meat back in the fridge so the flour and egg form a glossy layer around the meat. This is why I could achieve the classic golden brown look this time, and leaving the oil clean (though this is a relative term for her deep fry oil).
The Coq Au Vin was not so succesful. This was my first time chopping up a chicken, so I didn't do it very well and there were bone fragments around and about. I also think I put too much wine again (2/3 of a 75cl bottle). Though My Favourite Test Tube Washer says "no such thing as too much wine!", it's different when the bottle has a price tag of $20+ (I doubt I will make Coq Au Vin very often in Singapore, given how expensive wine is here). Like the last time, I reduced the liquid too much and so had too little. I then needed to thicken it. My mother suggested 2 tablespoons of cornflour to 2 tablespoons of water, but the mixture of this and my sauce turned into a disgusting, gelatinous mass on touching the saucepan so there went thelittle sauce I had.


The meringue on the table, and what it looked like inside. I don't think I've had meringue before - it has the texture of marshmallow, and the sweetness too (though maybe the Cock added too much sugar).


Jiekai's pseudo-creme brulee (baked custard), and what it looks like inside, with bits of the crumbled magic wand. It was somewhat moist and spongy. A most unique, even if simple, treatment of custard.
Considering this was the first time he'd made either, they turned out well.


"Flip your goddamn hair" Take 1


"Flip your goddamn hair" Take 2


"Flip your goddamn hair" Take 4

Before anyone asks: Yes, I know Take 3 is missing. No, it's not me. No, the person in Take 3 does not want the clip to be displayed. Yes, I have better hair than the person in Take 3.

My Little Bird was the only one who stayed back to help with the really hardcore cleaning up, and he was so good that my mother didn't complain the next day - this must be a first!


We got a surprisingly large number of people this time - 11 (though 10 was the maximum at any one time), and managed to con new people to come down also. In addition, one of the age old problems YR has faced since its inception due to its nature was ameliorated.

I told the Cock not to make his meringue so early but he went ahead anyway.

So now it's collapsing while we haven't moved on to dessert yet.

Cock.

Trip with Jiekai - Part 17
Day 11 - Nuremburg (10/4)


Triumph des Willens

"Well, when I was watching the footages from the Nuremberg Rallies the thing that first popped into my mind was actually the National Day Parade."


This day we visited Doku-Zentrum - the Nazi documentation centre, established as part of Germany's mission to come to terms with and expitate its war guilt - in Nuremburg. It had ample information and enough photographs, but was lacking in artefacts.

We started off by watching 2 videos - one of the Nuremburg trials and one of the rallies. Watching the former makes you wonder - what about those who perpetuated crimes in China, Cambodia, the USSR, North Korea and countless other countries? Meanwhile the latter reminded me of certain Parades - one woman sang a Nazi-era song to her grandchildren to test their reactions and when they looked at her blankly wondered how they'd been motivated by such songs; there weren't any fun dances or goodie packs in that era though - Nazi citizens were very much more patriotic than those in some countries today. They should offer these videos on Bittorrent to aid in their redemptive process.

The Nazi party was really effective in uniting the country. Houses were decorated with Swastika flags, and block committees would go around persuading, cajoling and harassing households until the whole block was covered with flags. Paramilitary youth organisations (otherwise known as Uniformed Groups) were set up, which children were encouraged to join (before 1938, membership in the Hitler Youth was not compulsory).

The Nazis also had mass displays involving military elements as well as schoolchildren in mass performances. There were some clips which reminded me of the Passing Out Parade (POP) in Obedience School (BMT) - whenever the soldiers or paramilitary elements executed a drill command, the audience would clap. The only difference was that they were carrying spades instead of rifles - however, they handled them much like rifles.

The Nazi party propagated the myth of Aryan purity and Aryan Values, which was bought into by many Germans.

Germans were brainwashed by lots of propaganda in general. In particular, they were brainwashed to believe that Jews were rich, evil and the source of the country's problems (in general, they were villified in a similar way to how fundies villify the Midanites. Wait, actually it was to a lesser extent - the populace as a whole never accepted that Jews should be massacred outright). From this, we must learn the lesson that we can never allow ourselves to be brainwashed by propaganda and to always question what is fed to us.

They also had parades where everyone was singing great patriotic songs. These were completed with multiple flyovers of military aircraft, while new military hardware was paraded. I almost expected to see skydiving commandoes. Mock battles were also staged in stadiums, complete with smoke and the firing of blanks. Nationalism and militaristic nationalism in particular was elevated to the status of a secular religion.

Those who lived through Nazi rule described themselves as "politically naive" and said that they did not know what democracy was. This sounded familiar.

The Nazi party was portrayed as the savior of Germany, without which the country which collapse and enter into a state of penury (economic disaster). They also used to apparatus of state to bully the opposition and promote themselves.

The Nazis organised book burnings - books considered un-German and unhealthy to society (eg Communist books) were banned and burned. Jiekai says the Satanic Verses is not illegal in Singapore anymore - he claims it's available in Kinokuniya, but I doubt this (hopefully someone can check this for me).

There was much talk about the unity of the people under a benevolent dictatorship, with everyone in one big community and subjected to a strong man who would take care of them.

As part of a "coordination" program, trade unions were dissolved and replaced by a new national one. The leader of the National trade union, Robert Ley, was also an important member of the Nazi party, and workers were taken off by the Strength through Joy program with free cruises and vacations.

Civic institutions were replaced with mass community feeling and spirit. The individual was depersonalised - he was insignificant and had to submit to the needs of the community. The Fuhrer was an unreal figure elevated above all else; a cult of personality was created around him - I didn't see any videos of him crying, but undoubtedly those would have helped greatly.

There was a conflation of Party and State - people were appointed to positions in both concurrently. Meanwhile a myth was created surrounding Hitler, allowing him to evade legal restraints.

Throughout the exhibition, despite myself, as at Dachau, I smiled, and so did Jiekai.

The Nazi war criminals were charged with 4 crimes - participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crime against peace; war crimes and crimes against humanity. The last two were reasonable, but the first 2 were ridiculous - with this criteria, George W Bush and Tony Blair could be prosecuted for invading Iraq.

After the Doku-Zentrum, we took a walk around the remains of the Nazi monuments. It was cold and wet, as with the previous day (and so the perfect day to visit Nazi-related institutions), but I swear it was even colder - my breath condensed in front of me, so it was at least 5 degrees, I think. Jiekai needed to wear his gloves, and I rued that I'd not brought mine. It was raining from 8am till 3:30pm, when we left. Jiekai described the weather as January Oxford weather. Once again I considered buying more warm clothing, but *SURELY* May will be warmer.

In the carpark behind the building reminiscent of the Colosseum in Rome there was a travelling amusement park. This spoilt our view of the place (which wasn't that great in the first place thanks to the weather and the unimpressive facades) and we were quite upset.


Doku-Zentrum building


Path around lake


Zeppelin field


Zeppelin Seats


Dispenser in the toilet. Gotta love these Europeans.

To counter the European tendency to cheat on train fares, Deutsche Bahn employs plain clothes ticket inspectors. Wah. One can still spot the DB logos on their bags if one is eagle-eyed enough though.


Don't get off

On Sunday afternoon, I'd gotten the schedule for the trains back to Utrecht printed out - I'd take a train to Frankfurt Flughaven and change to a direct train back. To my horror, an hour before I was due to arrive in Utrecht, I was dumped unceremoniously in Dortmund. Presumably they'd played an announcement about the rerouting, but I was either asleep, not paying attention, it was too soft or the announcement was made in a typically heavy accent. Instead of arriving in Utrecht at 9:20pm I ended up arriving at 12:32pm and catching the last bus back to my flat, and had to make 4 connections - at Duisburg, Viersen, Venlo and Eindhoven; when I asked the man at the Dortmund office for the printout of how to get to utrecht, he asked if it was for the next morning - when I said it was for now, he looked at me as if I was mad. Technically my Eurail pass was set to expire at midnight, while I was on the train to Utrecht, but I wouldn't have had time to buy a ticket even if I'd wanted to, and that was the last train, so together with this PRC studying in Stockholm I presented my technically invalid Eurail pass to the conductor, who said it was okay.

To add insult to injury, mustard and ketchup from the bratwurst hotdog I got at Dortmund fell onto my coat and jeans.

Some guy tried hiding in the toilet on the train to Eindhoven, but the conductor saw him and went to knock on the door, as well as unlock it using his master key. I'm still interested in what'd happen if someone sneaked in without the conductor seeing him.


While we waited for the S-bahn (sub-urban train) back to the town centre, Jiekai described this movie (a comedy) playing on TV at 2pm on Sunday, most of which he'd watched in the bar of the Munich youth hostel. It was not dubbed and thus was probably a German movie. It was about oversexed Germans trying to cut down on sex. Some scenes:

i) The main character is having sex with someone under a banquet table in a country house while a party is going on. The butler wonders why the wine in the wine glasses is rippling and lifts the table cloth, only to see what's happening. Someone takes a picture of the couple going at it.

ii) After pledging to cut down on sex, the protagonist clears his room of sex toys and rips all his pornography off the wall.

iii) The protagonist goes to work in a sauna. He's so hot, the naked women are attracted to him. He's caught by his supervisor and is thrown out onto the street half-naked.

iv) The protagonist dresses in a bunny suit and hands out leaflets. He then enters the van with a woman and the van starts shaking. His fellow worker opens the van and sees the back of the bunny suit going up and down.

v) The abstinence association (the group of Germans trying to cut down on sex) shove the protagonist into a bar full of gyrating women a la the Sunshine Girls. He resists the urge to have sex with them and returns to the abstinence group, which claps and cheers for him.

Gotta love these Europeans.


I prefer Dutch (frites) curry to German (currywurst) curry - it's sweeter, less sour, thicker and less hot.

I almost felt inspired to learn German again. Then I remembered Dativ, Akkusativ, Nominativ and all that shit.

For some reason, in Germany the Da Vinci Code is titled: "Sakrileg". The original title is in the subtitle though.

The more major German trains have music channels which you can listen to by plugging in headphones. Many also have taps with motion sensors and a few even have doors with motion sensors. Wah.

I love the wonders of an integrated computer network - you can get information on the trains running in another country and have the schedule printed out.

My "Let's Go Europe 2006" guidebook doesn't have Dutch in the language guide at the back (boo). Interestingly enough, the French and Swedish phrase lists are the only ones which have the word "condom" in them, the French section is the only one with a translation for "I love you", the German the only one with translations for "Leave me alone or I'll call the police!" and "I'm waiting for my boyfriend/husband" and the Spanish one the sole section which teaches you how to say "Please do not arrest me". Make of this what you will.

Seen on someone's luggage: "Yidelixiangbao daowang" (Italy Luggage something). There were no Chinese characters on it.


Cock files, or things for which I would've pelted Jiekai with the Biggest Snowball In The World, Part Deux, if there'd been snow:

- He said he wanted to wake at 8am, but only got up at 8:40.
- When getting off the stool his coat got caught and the stool toppled to the floor
- He pressed the wrong number on the vending machine and got Maltesers instead of KitKat.
- I asked him what advantages carrying a backpack has over lugging a suitcase. He unhelpfully commented that only girls did the latter. So basically the only advantage is you look "cooler". Wth. (My brother in law says lugging a suitcase through sand or road littered with small rocks is a bitch, but I don't intend to go to Mexico soon/very often, so.)

Trip with Jiekai - Part 16: Day 10 - Dachau, Nuremburg (9/4)

Trip with Jiekai - Part 16
Day 10 - Dachau, Nuremburg (9/4)

This day, I visited Dachau, the very first concentration camp. It was a very interesting experience, since it had many many parallels with a certain unpleasant period in my past, and I smiled on many occasions in spite of myself. Unlike the previous day, the weather was horrible - it was cold, miserable and raining for the whole morning; the perfect day to visit a concentration camp.

Dachau was the first concentration camp, opened in 1933 for undesirables who were titularly placed in "protective custody" (a phrase which served to conceal the true horror of what happened to them). By the end of the war, at least 20,000 had died inside. However, unlike places like Auschwitz, it was not a death camp - inmates were worked hard there, possibly even to death, rather than being killed outright. Thus, they did their patriotic duty for the German state, gaining a chance to redeem themselves for the crimes they had committed.

As such, I don't see why those who were sent there complained. They weren't sent to die, only to work (and when Germany was short of arms, conditions were even improved to stop so many from dying) after being taken in "protective custody". Dying was not the desired outcome, and only those considered unfit to work or considered undesirable (eg Russian Prisoners of War) were killed outright. In fact, they got the chance to serve their country by performing a form of national service and should've felt honoured. Many 'privileges' were granted to inmates - some Sundays were devoted to recreation, there was a brothel at one time and there was a canteen where inmates could spend some of their slave pittance.

Those who were sent to Dachau should therefore be grateful that they were not killed outright. Indeed, it was unfair to those who were sent straight to their doom that other inmates were sent to Dachau. They all should've been killed: this would've been right and proper. One suffer, all suffer. Arbeit macht frei (work makes you free).

[Addendum: people just cant help but feel Dachau is 'hell', 'torture' and everything negative. They never see it as a way of changing the way of life, a form of paying back what the govt has given, a chance to learn about respect, and most importantly, learning about life, work, and play.

Dachau has alot to offer. Only those who say it robbed them of their freedom are just a bunch of ingrates. (Courtesy of cheahchuwen]


Memorial

In Dachau, the inmates rose at an unearthly time and had to run out singing for their morning roll call, standing at attention in a specified manner they'd be punished for not adhering to. In all, they had three roll calls a day.


Roll call square

If one guy tried to escape, his whole block would be punished. Inmates had to arrange their things in a very specific order, and were punished if their items were off-position.


Museum building

Unfortunately, unlike the previous day's guide, this one wasn't that experienced - he seemed a bit haphazard in leading us around, and he didn't count to make sure everyone was present before leaving (a Filipino and I were stranded at one point because we left the auditorium by the back exit, when the others gathered at the front, and they left before waiting the short period of time necessary for us to arrive. We had to look for the others.)


Whipping trestle with bullwhip

Inmates were served bread and ersatz coffee for breakfast. They also had to do area cleaning (for their own good - there was no incidence of disease before 1938) and were punished when they couldn't live up to the SS officers' ridiculously high standards.


Execution wall
Inmates were shot against this wall

A divide and conquer policy was practised - some inmates were designated Kalfakotors and detailed to watch over the others. Some were brutal but others were kind.


SS Penal camp in the bunker

The public at large was unaware of the deaths and abuses going on in Dachau, since it was all covered up, as well as masked with patriotic propaganda and slogans.


Former standing cells
This used to hold 3 standing cells, whose function should be obvious from their names

They had a brothel in Dachau to raise productivity. There was also a canteen where inmates could spend some of their slave pittance, but visiting it (as with many other basic human rights) was a "privilege".


Gate - Arbeit Macht Frei ("Work makes you free")
Loyalty to Country
Inmates were motivated by empty slogans like this that concealed the true horror of their plight. Another (painted on the roofs of the buildings) read: "There is one path to freedom. Its milestones are: 'Obedience, honesty, cleanliness, sobriety, diligence, orderliness, sacrifice, truthfulness and love of the fatherland.'"

Dachau shows what happens when you strip people of human dignity and treat people unequally, where some are designated as being below and inferior to others. Basic human rights - like that to be free - are designated "privileges".


Toilet facilities

Compared to Dachau, the Zimbardo Prison Experiment is really nothing. Indeed, it's insulting to compare the two, and no parallels can be made. We cannot learn anything about the former by studying the latter!!!


Sleeping quarters

Some people point out that the Nazis gained power democratically, and that this shows that democracy is not as effective in protecting human rights as it is touted to be (or something like that). This is not quite the case. It shows, rather, what happens when a dominant party becomes too powerful and uses the apparatus of the state to crush its political opponents and perpetuate its rule, imprisons people without trial and suspends other civil liberties, holding its people in fear and its thrall. It shows what happens when a dominant party replaces the rule of law with the law of rule (with many provisios for executive power and discretion) and has a leader seen/portrayed as infallible and benevolent at its head. All the while, the Party is calling for the country to unite behind it because the Party and the Party alone has saved it from a previous period of poverty and disaster - it is the saviour of the country, as well as the only thing that stands between it and utter ruin.


Guard tower
This is supposed to be an original guard tower, but the guide said the door was facing the wrong way so it was probably reconstructed. Guards with machine guns stood guard inside.

If the Nazi Primary School organised a field trip to Germany, I wonder what would happen. Would people understand that symbols and words are inherently meaningless, and that to cry racism or offence where none is known or intended is ludicrous?


A ditch, trip wire and an electric fence.
Stepping on the grass would get a prisoner gunned down by someone in the tower. Some guards taunted prisoners by throwing their caps onto the grass and asking prisoners to fetch them.

While in Amsterdam, my parents remarked on something (maybe graffiti): "too much democracy". At Dachau, I remarked: "too little democracy". I'd rather have too much than too little, thank you very much.


Old Crematorium

Martin Niemoller (of "then they came for me" fame) was imprisoned at Dachau. Hmm.


Fumigation cubicle
In the new crematorium.


Shower room
All of the shower heads but one (viewable at the rightmost part of the photograph) have been stolen over the years as morbid souvenirs. This was planned but not used for mass gagging.


Incinerator room
2/4 of the furnaces in the incinerator room. The shadows of the pulleys they hanged people by can be seen - they'd hang them, then cremate them. How convenient.


Execution range. With blood ditch


Grave of thousands


Representative prisoner; 'The dead serve as a reminder'
This is the opposite of how they stood at roll call (at attention, with their head down and arms by their side).


Russian Orthodox chapel, 1994

I entered one of the churches at Dachau. Inside, a bible was flipped to Romans 7:8. Given what happened at Dachau, I thought another chapter more appropriate and so flipped it to a random part of Numbers (it was in German so I couldn't find the appropriate verse referring to the Midanites).


Poplars lined along the camp road


Demolished housing blocks. Rebuilt one in the background.


Gate
Leadership, Discipline, Professionalism, Fighting Spirit, Ethics, Care for Soldiers
Unfortunately the original gate was stolen at the end of the war so this is a new one.

Some fundies claim that atheism is dangerous because two of the biggest mass murderers of the 20th century (and probably human history), Hitler and Stalin, were atheists. This is a gravely mistaken view, not only because Hitler was not an atheist and indeed used Christian imagery and worked with churches (Thanks to My Little Bird for first alerting me to this point. Those who wish to see for themselves can read 2 paragraphs of Mein Kampf referring to God), but because we can similarly claim that this shows that men with moustaches are evil (they are, but that's beside the point); what we need to establish was whether their alleged atheism was integral, related or peripheral to their evil deeds.

Rather, I'd characterise the lesson of Hitler and Stalin as being that when there is an unthinking adherence to ideology, convenient rationalisation of heinous deeds, the creation of an us vs them mentality and the unquestioning acceptance of what infallible, omnibenevolent authority/father figures dictate, evil can reign unchecked. Not coincidentally, this is what you find in Fundamentalist Christianity with, for example, its justification of the Midanite Holocaust (the logic for which can similarly justify the Jewish one).

Near Dachau I saw a sign for a lady's night at a bar. Maybe it's only Nederland that doesn't have ladies' nights. Aww.

At the bookshop at the Munich Hauptbanhof the only books in English were travel guides. Damn. There was also a toilet managed by McClean which promised "safe and clean toilets". I was trying to picture what an unsafe toilet would be like: perhaps the toilet covers are loose and fall down, hurting men's unmentionables. Or maybe they start cholera or dysentry epidemics. It's as bad as SFI's mission to provide "safe" food.

Jiekai and I then took the train to Nuremburg. The stupid public transport information/ticketing office was closed on Sundays (luckily we didn't need a day pass or information on buses/trams) - these Germans should really wake up their idea and cater to tourists better.


Deutsche bahn rules
I can't rummage in litter bins, molest other guests or carry metal-coated balloons?! Damn.

The city got bombed to bits in World War II, so I was wondering why the place looked so medieval. Then it struck me: the buildings looked too clean - they'd reconstructed the town to look medieval. As such, everything had a Disneyland feel to it.


St Lawrence Church
Not very impressive.



Facade of the church


View from museum bridge


View from museum bridge


Three old men in a tub (?)


Bratwurst roslein
They claimed to be the biggest bratwurst restaurant in the world. I wonder what their criteria was.


The franconian platter
Instead of crispy pork knuckle they had crispy pork shoulder. Nuremburg sausage is smaller than normal German sausage, has a coarser texture and is more obviously herbed. Red cabbage is nice - sauerkraut everyday gets boring - I suspect there was some red cabbage in it. I like the token lettuce leaf and tomato. The only downside was that the waiter announced to us, as he gave the bill, "Service is not included."


Exotic Coat hooks


Church of our lady


Beautiful fountain


Albrecht Durer statue

I had a melon gelato for €0,70. It was damn good and large, especially after the shit that was Berthillon's.


Candy underwear
Gotta love these Europeans.


Fako medieval town square


"Underground shoes & clothes" *London underground sign*

Like almost all of the youth hostels we stayed in, Lette'm sleep Hostel, the one we stayed at in Nuremburg had motion sensors installed to turn off lights when no one was there. This is a good idea in theory but in practise the light usually turns off at the wrong time, perhaps due to insufficient sensors being installed. Unlike at the other hostels, the cutting of lights at Nuremburg extended to the bathrooms, and no sensors were placed to pick up movement from the cubicles, so while I was showering the light suddenly turned off and I was left in the dark despite waving my arms frantically to attract a motion sensor's attention.


I was musing with Jiekai as to why there were more fundie doctors than fundie biologists (of which there are none or almost none). His theory was that doctors focus on too small a scale and on diagnosis and treatment, rather than looking at the big picture.

Interestingly enough, unlike (at least some) NUS lawyers, Jiekai doesn't know any common Latin phrases despite his distinction for Roman law.


Cock files, or things for which I would've pelted Jiekai with the Biggest Snowball In The World, Part Deux, if there'd been snow:

- He put on a very fake accent when talking to Ang Mohs
- He made an extravagant promise on behalf of 2 other future members of the putative Leage of Desperate Gentlement
- He claimed that I had a Japanese porn magazine in my bag (???)
- When I was uploading files using Yousendit he used the same window to load his own page, interrupting my upload