*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

Ice Skating at Somerset House

The photo above is that of Somerset House in London. For Christmas, an ice skating rink has been set up in the courtyard and a big Christmas tree stands in front of it. It's very pretty! (As you probably do realise, I'm not writing in chronological order. I'm still in Munich at point of writing this post - am holing myself up in a cafe to get away from the cold and typing away on my laptop as there's wifi here. Thank god for wifi!)

I'm getting ready to get on the ice! I hadn't skated in probably about 15 years and I was really wondering if I could still skate!

There's a special area for kids who are learning how to skate and they have little penguins to help them. It's so cute!

I discover, to my delight, that I can still skate. I guess it's just like cycling...once you learn it you don't forget it. I went skating with my cousin and we had a really good time at Somerset House.

Christkindlmarkt

The Christmas markets in Germany (known in German as the Christkindlmarkt) are lovely! There is such a festive mood here, but I'm not really feeling very festive myself. I'm finding myself less and less capable to cope with loneliness. Yes, the things I'm seeing are lovely, but with no one to share it with, it just becomes just another nice place and rather meaningless. Still, I'm grateful for the chance to see all these. It's freezing cold in Germany though! Bbbbrrrrr.......

I went to Nürnberg yesterday, today I went to Innsbruck and tomorrow I'm just going to walk around München (Munich). On Wednesday I make my way to Würzburg to meet a friend. Then on Saturday I have a long train ride from Würzburg to Milan via Stuttgart and Zürich. I stay one night in Milan and the next day I fly to Tokyo via Rome.

I can't wait to get to Tokyo to meet up with my friends who are flying up from Singapore. I really could do with some travel companions.

Photos will come when I arrive back in Singapore!

Leaving London...Again

Am leaving London later this afternoon. Will be on the road again. If I don't get to write again until I'm back in Singapore, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

City Gal Turns Little Bo-Beep

What happens when a quintessential city gal tries her hand at being Little Bo-Beep? Nothing very much, except she gets bored after having to watch them graze for three hours every day and making sure they don't go beyond the ditch that separates them from the dangers of the road just ahead. She also gets out of breath after having to run around chasing and herding sheep to make sure they're going in the direction she wants them to.

Like an animal behaviourist, she also begins to gather observations from watching sheep. Here's a summary of her report:

1) Tending and herding sheep can be rather tiring work when you are new to it - you end up having to run around quite a bit.

2) It is rather boring, so perhaps take a book to read. Just make sure you keep glancing up once in a while to make sure none of the sheep have gone stray. Or just take the time to reflect and muse on life while admiring the scenery around. But really, there's only so much one can muse on.

3) The true meaning and origin of 'herd instinct' becomes very apparent. One sheep moves and the rest follow. It really sucks when they do not move in the direction you want to – then you’ll have to start chasing them back, e.g. the sheep going through the bushes.

4) You have to stand at the back of the flock and then herd them in the direction you want them to go. If you want them to go in the opposite direction they are facing, then in front of them and back them up. They’ll turn away from you.

5) The older lambs tend to form a group of their own after awhile and they graze together. It’s so cute…they’re like a youth group! They are about a month old and old enough to eat grass. They play with each other by headbutting each other. It's really adorable. Occasionally they look for their mother and suckle at her udder. In the photo below, four of the lambs were grazing together. Then one of them, in the background, went to look for its mother to get some milk.

6) The lambs that are a few days old follow their mother around because they can only feed on milk. They’re too young to eat grass. The lambs and their mother locate each other by their bleep. Somehow they’re able to distinguish. It’s very amazing when you see a lamb calling out to its mother and you see the mother going towards it and vice versa.

7) Once a lamb kept following a female sheep around because it had lost its mum for awhile and it wanted some milk. The female sheep’s actual lamb was there too. The lost lamb tried to suckle but got pushed away by the female sheep. Interesting how they know that’s not their child.

8) When grazing, the lambs get tired more easily so they often sit down on the grass. They look like little balls of white cotton in the green patch. The adults never sit. They just have their heads down all the time and are eating away at the grass like lawnmowers. In the photo below, you can see the lambs in the foreground and the adults in the background.

New-born Lamb

On my first morning at the farm, I was pleasantly surprised to find a new-born when I went to the sheep pen. Usually lambs aren't born at the end of the year, but there's a horny male sheep (named 'Jackomino' aka Little Jack in English) which is sowing his wild oats whenever he gets the chance. The male and female sheep aren't separated, you see.

When I first got to the pen, I didn't actually spot the lamb. What I first saw was blood on the mother's legs and I was thinking, oh my god, what happened??? Then my eye glanced towards the right, and there I saw this baby lamb still wet from the amniotic fluid and I saw the placenta lying near to it. You can see it in the photo if you look closely enough (middle bottom).

A close-up of the new-born lamb still having its eye closed. It's so sweet, isn't it? This one has some spots on its body...just like its mum!

The mother nudges the lamb to get up. It was really very cold, and the lamb was lying so still for a long time that for a few moments I actually thought it was dead...frozen to death!

But thankfully, the lamb was a healthy one and its mother didn't reject it. Soon, it was up walking and suckling milk from its mother's udders.

More sheep tales to come.

Mountains Beyond

Beyond the farm are the lovely Italian Alps which serve as a lovely backdrop to the surroundings. It's usually foggy in that region and I was lucky to have been able to enjoy some sunny and clear days at the farm even though it was very cold!

The Lone Traveller

I've come to realise that I can't travel do the lone travelling thing for more than two weeks. After two weeks, I really start to feel the loneliness and seeing new places just doesn't seem that fun anymore. Moreover, me being the foodie, I like having people to enjoy food with - if you're travelling with someone, you'll get to try more food.

There are good and bad things about travelling alone and in a group. When alone, you do as you please and don't have to care about what other people feel like doing. More often than not, you learn to really toughen up as a person as you have to deal with all sorts of situations on your own. You learn to be more resourceful and daring in asking for help, finding your way around etc. Like an animal who finds itself in strange territory, your senses are heightened and you have to be more alert in your surroundings. It's good training in survival skills and independence. I also often found myself more willing to talk to strangers or fellow lone travellers just 'cos I needed some human contact. It's probably the same for other lone travellers, too, as they are usually friendly and willing to chat as well. Because of this, I've had interesting conversations with people from other countries and whose lives are very different from mine.

Overall though, I'd say I prefer having a travel companion. I don't like travelling in a big group. The maximum group size for me would be four people. Any more than that and it just becomes difficult dealing with different preferences and personalities. Friendships may even be broken! Seven years ago I backpacked on my own in Europe and told myself that I'd never do it again because of loneliness. But I got myself into the same situation again! Sometimes it's not by choice...it's just the fact that it's difficult finding someone who can travel at the same time and who wants to do the same thing.

There's something romantic about travelling by train through Europe. I love doing it as there's some amazing scenery to be seen. The journeys may be long, but I feel like I'm watching a long and beautiful film when I'm travelling by train through Europe. I just love looking out of the window and just reflecting about life as I watch the scenes unfold in front of me. While travelling from Italy to Germany, I saw the vineyards, the open green fields, snow-capped mountains, the castles sitting atop a hill with the little villages below etc...absolutely gorgeous.

There also seems to be an unspoken comradeship among fellow train companions. It's like you become friends for that short journey and you start chatting. During my journey from Bologna to Nurnberg, there was a German guy, an Austrian, a mainland Chinese woman who has been living in Italy for 15 years, an Italian lady and myself in the same cabin. It was so international and there was Italian, Chinese, English, and German spoken during those hours we were in the train. It was an interesting cultural exchange. You'll never exchange contact details, but for those few hours you're friends. At the end of the journey, you say goodbye and wish each other a good journey. Other times, people say 'ciao' and with the nod of their head, acknowledge and thank you for your company and presence.

I guess it's times like that when I feel that travelling alone isn't that bad after all.

Making Salami

First you have to tie strings round the cow's intestines. The intestines have to be about an arm's length and string is tied into a knot at one end. The other end is left open to put the mince pork through.

The mince pork is put through the salami machine.

The assembly line. You have to make sure that the filled cow's intestines are very taut.

I'm helping to poke holes through the filled salami to make sure that any air inside is squeezed out. Air inside the casing is no good as it will cause the meat to rot.

Hanging the salami to be cured and dried.

The source of the salami eating its last meal!!!!

Another Update

Before anyone thinks I've disappeared from the face of this earth, I thought I'd better post a short update.

Quite a lot happened after I left the farm. I had fallen ill on the last day at the farm. I don't know what it was that I ate, but I ended up with a terrible bout of food poisoning. On the last night of my stay in the farm, I was vomitting throughout the night and I had the runs the next morning.

The worst thing was that the runs continued for about ten days, which meant that I was in Turin and Bologna and I didn't even get to eat anything. I tell my friends it's like being in a black comedy - a foodie in Italy who's not able to eat! I stayed in Turin for four nights but I could wasn't really eating at all. I survived on sugared water and some plain bread, so I was really quite weak. I didn't have the energy to walk around and also the weather in Turin was cold and rainy. Rather miserable really. I then made my way to Bologna and had bought train tickets to Florence and Rome and then back to Germany while I was in Turin. I had also arranged my accommodation for all those cities. Anyway, all that came to naught as I decided after my first night in Bologna that I couldn't travel anymore. I wasn't getting any better with the medicine I was taking and I was seriously thinking there was something wrong with me.

In the end, I made my way to Nuremberg where I stayed at a friend's place to rest for three nights. I was spending half my time in toilets so I decided that it was better to rest somewhere. Travelling just wasn't fun anymore as I was sick, weak and tired. Plus the weather was crap. Not that the weather in Germany was any better than northern Italy but really all I wanted to do was rest. Staying in hostels to rest wasn't the most ideal situation in what wasn't already an ideal situation!

I went to see a doctor the day after I arrived in Nuremberg. It cost an arm and a leg - 70 euros! Faint. I would have gotten the same service for 9 euros back in Singapore. While in Nuremberg I decided that I really wanted to be back in London which was a place I was familiar with and where I had more friends. I was feeling pretty miserable by then. Thanks to a friend who was online at the same time I was at a Net cafe, I managed to find out about possible flights to return to London from Germany. So on the spur of the moment on a Tuesday afternoon, I booked a Ryanair flight to fly out of Frankfurt Hahn airport on a late Wednesday night.

Wednesday was a long trek. I left my friend's place in Nurnberg at 11am. Took the U-bahn to the Hauptbahnhof and had to take a train to Wuerzburg and then transfer trains to get to Frankfurt. I got off at the wrong Frankfurt train stop. Instead of stopping at Frankfurt Main Hbf, I got off at Frankfurt Main Sud. So after making some inquiries, I had to get back onto the S-bahn and make my way to Frankfurt Main Hbf. After arriving there, it was another difficult search to find the bus which would take me to the Frankfurt Hahn airport. The airport is a regional one and is a 1h 45min bus ride from the Frankfurt Hbf. After asking the tourist information, I managed to find the bus. And from there it was another bus ride to Frankfurt Hahn. The flight itself took only an hour. I arrived in London Stansted at about 0030 local time. By the time I got the back into Central London by bus it was around 2am.

It was a lllooooonnnggg day, but I was never more glad to be back in London. Seeing signs in English and speaking English at normal conversational pace seemed to be such a relief.

I also managed to catch my cousin who was holidaying in London and we hung out together for a few days before he flew back to Singapore on Tuesday night. I've also been able to catch up with friends and ex-colleagues and go back to eat at my favourite spots! Yes, I'm back to eating normally again...thank god!

My wallet got stolen while in Borough Market on Saturday. Such a bummer. I lost quite a lot of cash, my Singapore credit cards, my UK debit card and Singapore driver's licence. I'm so jinxed!!!

Anyway, will be hanging around London till next Saturday then I fly to Germany to meet a friend and her boyfriend. After Germany, I'm flying to Japan to spend Christmas and NYE! I can't wait!!!