nightshopping..
..deserves a bustling night? Last Friday, Munich reluctantly crawled out of its small town shell and had its first long night of shopping – stores were allowed to remain opened until midnight. Oh My! I hadn’t gone night shopping since my days in the sunshine state. It made sense in Florida to shop in the evening – it beat the blistering daytime heat and the crowd hysterics. However this evening in Munich proved just the opposite.
For some reason the whole event just had to coincide with a poorly planned night of cultural fanfare. This has to do with Munich having a hard time getting out this old fogey attitude about open hours for businesses. Already 10 out of the 16 states in Germany are cool with doing away with the opening hour rules. But Bavaria is bull-headed against the change. Integrating a streetfest into the whole schabang was the compromise.
Sure it was nice to see street performances like a jazz trio or Flamenco music and dancing. However I think it just distracted from the purpose of the evening. Shopping. One can see impromptu performances with more magic on any given beautiful evening in the city center. And whoever organized the “Nachtschwärmer” performance in the Karstadt near Karl’s Tor needed his head examined. Why did it take place inside the store and not in the cool open air in front of the store? If you weren’t in the first two rows near the tiny ’stage’ or looking from the five floors above you could only bob your head to the drums and see an occasional foot from the aerialist act. The whole show wasn’t even conducive to shopping because it stopped up the escalators and aisles with on-lookers.
Still it was a wonder to see a brightly lit Hugendubel or Sport-Scheck busy with people looking at books or trying out the latest rock-climbing gear. 
There were people carrying shopping bags but the majority of us were just browsing and awed that we could be in the stores after dark and still we are months away from the winter solstice.
In order to fully participate in the spirit of the evening I did by something after normal shopping hours. I bought a banana. Just because. I waited in line with the other night owls and actually felt a little bad as the middle-aged cashier looked down at his watch with a sigh and then at the long line of customers. As much as it’s fun to shop at night, I question if it is all that necessary. I didn’t even need the banana I could have waited until the morning. I’m pretty well adjusted to the 9am to 8pm Monday thru Saturday constraints. But if its good for business, I’ll be there with my curlers on.
Like
All’s quiet
Lately, I’ve been crazy tired and every morning I’ve felt like I’ve been hit by a car. Sleeping with a pillow in any position gives me a pain in my familiar shoulder hotspot. I felt like this last week even with the Muffin-dog duty but she forced me to stay active. I miss the little pup. We had a rough day Thursday when a horse walked by. She went bezirk especially since the rider stopped the horse for about a minute to train her pony at the expense of Muffin’s sanity. Muffler was pissy and resistant the rest of the evening and I subsequently had had it with poch patrol. After a super walk the next morning she stayed an angel next to me on the way to Jay’s even with the cooing from others. I wanted to hug her for being so good. But she probable understood my appreciation with a good chunk of Leberkäse.
Alex stayed home today due to lower back pain. The pain stopped him from finishing our Sunday bike ride. I needed to turn around from exhaustion. When we got home, I gave him a 45 minute massage to his lower back and left butt cheek. He even took an elbow – he was that relaxed. The massage helped quite a bit (stopped him from wincing) but his muscles were still tight. This morning he visited my Orthopedic doc and got a little chiro-gyro action and two shots to relax the muscles. He’s feeling great now, no more pain. Yeah!
We’re locked in doors. It’s 33°C [91°F] outside – a burning inferno with no AC. But I’m still a happy camper. For once I’m free to walk about with no socks 
Graffiti Friday 2
Another graffiti spotting bordering on art. You too can discover it in the Isar traversing pedestrian tunnel near the Volksbad. I normally race my bike through the tunnel to get to the Englischer Garten so it was a change to park the bike and really take a look at the Kunst that spans the arched ceiling. I noticed it a year ago when the world cup just started -thus the Graffiti theme. Good times! If you happen to walk or ride by the Volksbad don’t forget to breath in the Menthol from the saunas deeply.
Happy Friday Everyone
“Konzert” and “Kiste”
Horray! We got to see a rare European appearance of Modest Mouse last night and loved every minute of it. There were two drum sets and three percussionist, who produced beats that totally kicked, and there is always entertainment when one guy alone can play a cornet, synthesizer, string bass, and bass guitar. It was a last minute decision and tickets were still available. In the next week, they are playing in Frankfurt, Köln, and Berlin tonight. Tickets are available through ticketbox.de Oh, if a front stage mosh pit and over two dozen people successfully crowd surfing isn’t your thing, you’d be better off downloading the music instead.
After hitting the sack late last night, we were awoken by ring at the door at 8:50 am. It’s a holiday today, who could it be? Oh, it’s just our friendly neighborhood farmer delivering our bio fruit and veggies. We learned about Ökokiste.de from a guest at a birthday party and decided to try it out. Or, lets say Alex was gaga for this new way to shop, I’m still neutral on the bio-craze. But wow! These farmers are punctual and the produce looks great. The cherries taste excellent, bananas also wonderfully sweet. But now I’m faced with vegetables I’ve never had in my kitchen before or grew up with as a child. Anyone got any good suggestions for preparing beets, kohlrabi and rhubarb?
