Sunday night chit-chat

Today has just flown by and it's hard to believe that it's nearly nine o'clock. I put dinner into the oven at twenty-five to eight and then started doing other things and forgot to add the rice half-an-hour later. Oh well, it's gone in now and I can just wait another twenty minutes to eat. Gives me an excuse to have a starter.

I took a few photos this afternoon and can't decide which one to use this evening, which means you're getting three or four. Makes up for last week having none.

This is the Oberlandesgericht or higher regional court in Dusseldorf. Walking past here last year I noticed that there was a Stolperstein outside it. These are small plaques set into the ground in memory of those who were shipped off to concentration camps. It's a project that started a few years ago, I believe, and now you can see these "stumble stones" in many towns. Some might think it a bit macabre but I think it's a nice, very real memorial for these people and don't think it does any harm at all to have a reminder of the past since the only way to learn from it is not to forget it.

Here's a close-up of the one in front of the court. These stones are just a couple of inches across but none the less informative (and chilling) for that.
It says:
Here worked the lawyer Dr. Leo Wolf Lichtigfeld
JD 1889
Victim of the pogrom of 1938
Deported 27.10.1938 to Lodz
Dead 29.7.1942



On a lighter note, walking further down the river I got to the Museum Kunstpalast, one of the big art museums in Dusseldorf. I will make it into the actual museum one day but for now here's a friendly looking fellow in the grounds outside that I sometimes sit near to read on a sunny day. The sculpture is actually quite wide and quite slippy and it's kind of funny sometimes to watch people trying to climb on its back to pose for photos.

And now for some chit-chat.

What are you
Reading
I've read almost nothing this week so this hasn't changed since last week

Watching
Am thinking of watching Wrath of Khan when dinner's ready. Seeing the new film last week left me wanting to watch or re-watch the older films.  I saw Star Trek The Motion Picture yesterday. Need to get my skates on if I'm going to have enough time to do it without having too late a night though.

Listening to
The dehydrator going in the kitchen and Dublin's Sunshine on the (internet) radio. Since Stephen Collins is in Star Trek The Motion Picture I have of course ended up with the theme song from 7th Heaven in my head all day. Trying to get rid of it with a bit of easy listening.  "Oh would you like to swing on a star...."  I think it's working.

Cooking/baking
Trying out a Chinese-inspired chicken casserole. Made up a marinade with garlic, ginger, soy sauce and honey and after marinating the chicken for a couple of hours I put a chopped up onion and a few carrots along with some vegetable stock, a couple of teaspoons of five-spice powder and a few dried tomatoes just for the hell of it into the pot and put it into the oven. I've added some rice to make it a one-pot dish but it's out-of-date rice so I'm hoping I haven't spoiled it! I also have strawberries in the dehydrator.

Happy you accomplished this week
I had two lovely nights out this week that were thoroughly enjoyable so I'm glad I didn't bow out just because I was a bit tired. I also made my first ever homemade pesto and my first ever homemade hummus, the former very successful, the latter not a huge success but nice enough to eat. Importantly, I finally managed to finish and submit the test translation I was sent for the translator's course I'm going to start in the autumn. And today I actually managed to nearly get my tax returns done. I thought I had everything I needed but I'm missing one thing (which is probably on the Table of Doom somewhere), realised I can submit for the charitable donations I make in Ireland so need to phone them to get a confirmation sent over and have one other question I need answered so need to ring the tax office tomorrow. But it feels fantastic to have gotten this far. And I stuck to my mini-detox all week and really didn't snack between meals, which is a huge deal for me. Oh, and I nearly forgot that I've kept pretty well on top of the basic housework the whole week long as well (except for the ironing but that's nothing new). And made further progress in decluttering a bit by getting all the stuff that has gathered on the kitchen table/sideboard over the last month or so cleared away.

Looking forward to next week
Looking forward to getting back my test translation and hearing what the guy has to say (but also a bit trepidatious). Will probably be going to Frankfurt to visit friends next weekend and then coming back early on Sunday so that I can go to see Wagner's Valkyrie. Very excited about that since it'll be my first time seeing a Wagner performance.

Thankful for today
Long evenings and good friends.

Bonus question: if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Has to be potatoes.  Love, love, love me some spuds.

And just for fun, I'm going to finish up with another photo I took this afternoon. We all know by now how much I love clouds, don't we?

The sun was blazing down and all of a sudden went behind a cloud so I had to whip out my camera to try and get a photo or two, even if the sun was still strong enough that I couldn't actually see what I was taking

And that's it. If you fancy joining in with Sunday night chit-chat, post away and head over to Half-dozen daily to link up.