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I remember, back in 1997 when I was still living in Germany and planning a trip to the UK, that the exchange rate from the “Deutsche Mark (DM)” to the “Great British Pound (GBP)” was 3:1.
So 1 Mark bought me 30 pence!
And, I remember that when the price for a “normal” roll went up to 32 Pfennings, e.g. 10 pence, my parents were devastated. That was very expensive for a roll.
scary roll
Now, for the last few days when I buy rolls it crosses my mind that the rolls here are about the same “number”, e.g. 32-39 pence which makes it about 100 pence, a price increase of round about 300%.
Unfortunately, the Euro now is so strong that for argument sake 39 pence are about 49 Euro cent. If we assume that the Euro was 1:2 to the DM we are back to 1 DM for a roll these days.
Not sure how the inflation developed in the last 10 years. If we assume about 4% on average over 10 years, we would end up with (if I did it right) about 51 Pfennings for a role, e.g. 25 cents or about 28-19 pence.
This still means a price increase of 100%, e.g. I pay double the price for a roll in the UK than I pay in Germany. Of course I do not know how much you pay for a “Broetchen” these days in Germany - please advise and comment! The only reference I found is a year old, 25 cents, locally even 15 cents! That sounds about right.
I am looking forward to some comments on “how much should a roll cost” and “why are rolls more expensive in the UK than in German”? Any other experience of roll prices?
For all economists out there and those who are interested in CPI etc., see Wikipedia for details.
Enjoy your lunch 
Is it only me or…..
I love Saturday mornings. What did I do today? I woke up at 8ish with a tired head. Nice Bordeaux and Cheese Fondue made me very sleepy last night. I got up, showered and first thing: the post office. Aren’t those the pleasures of life where you have to pick up parcels because you weren’t at home during the week and opening hours are during your work time.
Then I got the FT, haven’t read it for a while but wanted to get back into the habit, really enjoying it. Off for a massage, shopping in a far too full supermarket, doing the laundry, tidying the house and - oups - it is almost 3 pm.
What does that mean? Lunch, a quick tidy, some friends for a BBQ and before I know it, it’s Sunday.
So what do I make of weekends these days? To be honest. Our weekends are planned until late September, therefore, I cannot wait until I am there (in September) to have each and every weekend off! Hurray.
When I decide to not invite friends for a weekend or two (sorry guys) and enjoy myself, the house and a weekend off. Times will come.
Anyhow, to make this entry not too boring, I should refresh it with some thoughts on …. wine of course.
The 2005 Cab Sav from California is apparently very good. No surprise I visited (online that is) one of my favourite wine suppliers again…www.kj.com and joined their mailing list. Better keep up to date with the developments.
Kendall Jackson is also using Online PR quite effectively, being featured on YouTub; learn more about combining wine and food here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRMSIPIt-4o
Hello All,
What a successful Sunday.
We went off to the Surrey country side to visit the Denbies vineyard. I wrote about the visit to a Kentish vineyard earlier this year. I find it amazing to find good white and rose wines in England and also nice sparkling wines. Denbies is the biggest vineyard in England and is a lovely site.
The restaurant offers a great view over the vineyard and great food too. Overall, definitely worth a Sunday afternoon. If the weather is nice, you can walk over 10 miles around the estate if you would like to.
As a result of our visit, we decided to grow our own wines. We got some planks, a “growing wall” and two wine plants. The results can be seen here:
Vineyard at Ballueder's
Please note the happy wife in the background
Well, I guess it is back to work tomorrow. Have a good one,
Volker
I wanted to add some more restaurant reviews.
This one is for Mello, a restaurant in Beckenham.
We went there last night, four of us, and I have to say, this award winning place is amazing. The interior is not as posh as you would expect it to be. Too much pink for my liking with some nice warm coloured pictures/decoration to brighten it up. The setting is great with crystal glasses.
The service is friendly and attentive as well as knowledgeable about the wine. Since the four of us could not decide which wine to choose, we just got 2 bottles, 2 for 2.
The Chianti Classico was medium dry (as suggested) and less typical of a Chianti Classico. The Echeverria Merlot was just perfect for a Chilean Merlot; I am quite curious to try the Echeverria Cabernet Sauvignon which I bought in Harrods yesterday. Harrods has a fabulous wine selection, however, for my liking, too much on the Bordeaux/French side of things.
So much about the wine. The pre-starter was a mushroom soup, homemade of course, and absolutely delicious, very creamy.
As chosen starters we had:
- Poached pear & blue cheese salad with rocket leaves & walnut dressing
- Pressed chicken & foie gras terrine with crushed apple & toasted brioche
- Shiitake mushroom & broad beans salad with pan fried quail egg & mushroom dressing
- Tian of Cornish crab, Morecambe bay shrimp with sweet pepper puree, crushed avocado & toasted rye bread
Main courses consisted of:
- Assiette of pork with creamed cabbage, apple puree, prune & Calvados jus
- Pan roast fillet of English beef with creamed spinach, potato rosti & oxtail croquettes
- Pan roast rump of lamb with braised Puy lentils, caramelized onion wild mushroom, aubergine caviar & red wine jus
Absolutely great. The oxtail croquettes were special, something I have never tried before. Then, the lamb was a little bit stringy, so not as tender as suggested. However, the beef and pork were amazing. Nothing to compare it to and nothing else to say but absolutely stunning!
So, overall, an amazing place to take people, to go yourself and treat yourself.
Mello also offers gourmet nights, something surely worthwhile doing.
Average price I would suggest around £50 per person including wine.
Enjoy and let me know if you liked it.
Now, I wanted to keep you updated on the pedometer successes.
After one week the following results are shown:
Wednesday last week on a trip around an old town in Spain: 15,770 steps.
Thursday last week, another trip around a town in Spain: 13,956 steps.
Friday last week, another trip around a town and the first night of the fiesta: 12,582 steps.
Saturday, 12,243 and Sunday only 8,896 steps - maybe too long of a siesta 
It picked up again the next day and even yesterday where I mostly travelled on the plane, I got over 10,000 steps, which is the goal.
Not sure if I keep it up but I believe in London it should not be a problem. The pedometer really is addictive, you look at it, it encourages you to reach the 10,000 steps a day and you feel good about it. Now, all I have to change is eating too much, e.g. 10,000 steps do not burn 10,000 calories
I keep you posted.
Volker
Yes, I have been away. Whilst probably not too many people noticed it, I have been to Spain for almost a week. I wrote some blog entries in advance so you ain’t getting bored.
Let me start with Spain.
We flew down with Easyjet to Madrid, hired a car from Hertz (sorry, really recommend Hertz) and drove up to a place called A Coruna from where we flew back last night. Clickair does a fantastic low cost flight from there to Heathrow.
From Madrid we drove up to Segovia, a lovely little town with an amazing aquaduct with a lovely little succulent pig to eat. Nice Rioja wine and a high food bill. Our hotel/hostel, chosen by a good Spanish friend, was decent and good enough for a night. We had a lovely evening in the old city and from there started early morning to Astorga, our 2nd stop.
So, leaving the town of Segovia around 11 in the morning with a slightly heavy head, we drove to Salamanca where, besides a nice cathedral, you can find a frog on a skull at the old university building. Very interesting.
From there we drove north to Astorga and slept in a nice little motel. That place also offered nice steak and Jen ordered “half a cow“, famously a steak the size of the rip of a veal (or whale, I do not remember ). Wow, very lovely, but since we speak little to no Spanish it was difficult to explain we wanted to have it “well done”. However, well done for my wife to finish most of the cow! Here is a picture I found on Flickr which shows about the size of the steak!
The next day we took some back roads with lovely curves from Astorga to Ponferrada and then back on the motorway to A Coruna where we stayed the next 4 days. We had 4 days of fiesta, the big summer fiesta, with our friends and family who live down there and also came over from Scotland. That was absolutely fabulous. Even if I do not clearly remember how I got down the hill one of the nights, but och well, the fiesta was amazing.
So thanks to everyone in A Coruna for our lovely time. Spain is a friendly place with friendly people and great landscapes. Just far too hot for a German. And, too many mosquitos.
Surely we will put some pictures on Picasa soon.
Here is a map of our way: map of Spain trip on Google Maps.
Now, I wanted to write about the summer and my remaining week off. I do that later I guess.
Speak soon,
Volker
This post is related to a few different topics.
First things first. Like so many out there it is time for me to shed some weight after I initially lost a few kilos prior to my wedding. See post last year.
We now have this excellent book about weight loss, the weight loss bible which we ordered at Amazon UK.
Reading this book I needed to get a pedometer. Really, I am obsessed to make my 10,000 steps a day. To do that, supposedly, is as good as moderate exercise. No more gym, just walking, up the escalators of the tube, down the stairs, around the park, up the stairs in the office, no more lifts…
So, before I thought which one to buy, I found one at Google….actually, Matt Cutt was blogging about an Omron Pedometer that comes with a software! Wow, I thought. If the guys from Google use it, then I should have one (no, I am not obsessed with Matt’s blog but like reading about his gadgets!).
A quick look to Amazon UK gave me this result. None available with Software. Never mind, I thought, why not order it from Germany? Amazon Germany gives you this result. No way to spend almost double than what Matt spent. So, why not order it at Amazon US? Even if it takes a week, with the Dollar being that weak, or the pound that strong, why not save some money and learn patience. But, they would not ship it outside the US.
At the end I went for the smaller version, without the software. It will be fine for a while. If I like it and make my 10,000 steps every day and need the software, I am sure I could get it at eBay - there was one last week
Summary: Amazon sells a product in the US that they would not ship to the UK but they do sell it in Germany. Odd? I just do not understand that. But, I am happy with it and made my first steps.
Why? Easy enough. Royal Mail seemed to have been too lazy to find our company on the digital company registry at our office this morning. I was in from 8 am awaiting my pedometer but no sign of it at 11. So, I went down to the receptionist who found a note saying “we could not deliver, you were out, dated 8:35″. No way, I said. Need to have my pedometer (I was almost crying, running up the stairs but did not count them).
After a few minutes on the phone to Royal Mail I made my way over to their post office by bus and walked the 2 miles back. Brilliant exercise for a lunch break and my first 2,500 steps. Only 7,500 more to go. And that was only half a day.
Final summary: If I keep on walking, missing mail and use my lunch breaks, 10,000 steps should be easy enough done.
I keep you posted, after I had my glass of wine, celebrating my pedometer (so I do not lose my weight too quickly).
Have a good night,
Volker
I keep saying that for months….I wanted to write something about my most favourite places in London.
First of all, I have been living in London for almost 4 years, a little bit outside, about 20 minutes to Victoria on the train. After the first few months London got to me and I thought of leaving this city. I mentioned before that this feeling went and then I started loving London. With my most favourite place being around 6 pm (depending on the season), just when the sun disappears (can you tell it was autumn), I like to sit in the little hexagonal shaped pub diagonal across from St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. A good pint with a good friend and I forget all my sorrows.
Anyhow, today I want to speak about Sushi in London. There are many places, like the chains of Wasabi, Itsu, Yo Sushi - but there is one little place in Soho N. introduced me to a few years back:
The best bit is downstairs where you sit on the floor with your legs going “into the floor”. Imagine a low table, about 3-5 inches off the ground and you sit on the floor/cushion and put your legs in a hole underneath the table. Their “all you can eat” plate with 8 different choices of Asian food (chicken, prawns, spring rolls, mushrooms) and their huge plate with sushi that you can re-order until you cannot eat no more. It is just fabulous! Not too expensive, depending on how much wine you drink. Normally for 2 people you get enough food not having to re-order.
My other favourite Sushi place in London is “Moshi Moshi Sushi” - the restaurant I have been was in Liverpool Street. Again N. showed me around and we watched the trains going past below us. That is a nice little place with amazing food. The wine selection is better too. You can choose to sit on the conveyor belt or on a table, might even be considered romantic corners. Definitely a must go for any sushi lover in London. Even found some pictures on Flickr of it.
That is all about Sushi now in London. Any comments or any places I might have missed?
Tracy Chapman sings about a “new beginning” and so do I. Then again, I am not singing, I am just writing about it.
On Friday I finally signed a new gym membership for a gym just around the corner from work. My work colleague goes every day and I aim to go 2-3 times a week and also, to go at the weekends at their branch in Beckenham.
Today I was in the gym at 8.21 am! Did some cardio and some weights, ordered more protein and I am all set to lose more weight (I admit I put some more on since the wedding) and to get fit again. Too easy to just sit in front of the telly and have a glass of vino.
Btw telly, I will pick up the old telly from a friend. So excited to have a bigger and better TV. On that note: I never got myself I new telly ever. Always bought old ones from friends and family.
So, watch this space for more info on my new beginning/gym adventure.
After 2 day of fasting one forgets about hunger. I noticed that I did feel less energetic but having more time not to go shopping or to cook etc. makes up for it. Also, I can sleep so much better. When did I last sleep over 10 hours? My body can relax totally as there is no food or digestion to concentrate on or spend energy on. After all the digestion is the main energy consumer in the human body.
I am curious how it would go to fast for a whole week? As much as I am tempted to do so, I am not sure whether we live in an environment for it? Just imagine you fast at work and have to go to the loo every 30 minutes? And taking holidays to fast - maybe…. - then again in other religions it works to not eat for longer. Maybe fasting is something we should integrate in our western lifestyle but we are all to set to forget about the natural resources, the natural processes and ideas that were passed down from generations.
Today is my last day of fast. Vegetable juice (I hate it) but you can feel how your body is getting cleaner and emptier. It is a feeling that sets energy free too. And another very positive effect is to use the time of inner cleaning and clean your environment too. I already have a bag for charity and still have the cupboards to clean today.
I am however looking forward to a simple chicken soup tonight or tomorrow morning ,-)
What is fasting? Wikipedia and an alternative medicine site explains it in very good detail, also with all the religious background.
More interesting is the question I was asked at work “why do you fast”?
Sure, first of all it is time to lose some weight. But the likelihood of putting on more afterwards is there and therefore my main motivation is not to shed some pounds. Would be nice though.
I do not go months without food or drink but go for a 3 day fast. First day only water, 2nd day only fruit juices and water, 3rd day only vegetable juices and water. A friend recommended that to me.
“In natural medicine, fasting is seen as a way of cleansing the body of toxins, dead or diseased tissues, and giving the gastro-intestinal system a rest. Such fasts are either water-only, or consist of fruit and vegetable juices.”, Wikipedia
Hopefully that sums it up better than I could. It gives you rest, it takes up energy, it cleans your body and get rid of all the “crap” in your body.
You can achieve a detox also by changing your diet which I did already and will continue to do. However, fasting is also for the mind. It is about finding peace, de-clutter your life, rest and think about what you like to do and what you like to change. Reflection is a big part of fasting. And, if you did not have enough willpower then you couldn’t do it in the first place.
I am very proud of my partner who is fasting for the first time. She was very tempted to give up but together we manage. It is only 3 days and then we slowly get back to normal, a break-fast meal and possibly one glass of nice wine. And back to our healthy diet because otherwise it would not make sense to do it in the first place if you decided to eat “Schnitzel” and “Sausage” once you finished the fasting.
Have a peaceful and reflective bank holiday weekend!
fasting buddha
ballueder
sitting upright
August 20, 2008 in cb consulting, health, motivation, personal | Tags: alexander technique, back pain, comment on back pain, how do you solve your back problems | | No comments
Anyone ever heard of the Alexander technique for back pain?
Have a look and let me know what you think!