Jay's Questions

Questions by Jay:

1. Whose the last person you've helped, but didn't have to?
I think this was one of the common curtsey kind of helps, like holding open a door or picking something up a person dropped. I try to do such things, not only because you get usually a free smile. Though, I like to get smiles and it's a really cheap way to get it.

2. Whose the last person you loved but didn't want to?
3. Whose the last person you hated, but couldn't help it?
I'm crap at both loving/hating on a casual basis. In my vernacular we do not even say "I love you". "I like you" is the most we stammer. I actually had to learn to use "I love you" (though I still hardly do in my dialect). I'm getting off track... The one I love, I really want to love and I hope that this will last till eternity. It happened though quite often that I dislike certain people without any apparent reason. This mostly at work, probably since I have the most social interaction there. Or as a friend of mine put it: "I really tried to be more tolerant, but there are just too many morons in this world." But I only dislike these people, I don't hate them. Morons are just not worth to get too much of my emotions.

4. What means most to you, but could do without?
My daily fix of newspapers.

5. At the end of the day what can you do better, and will you try to?
Loving and caring.

6. Can you ignore want and acknowledge necessity?
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. It is not always easy to distinguish between urge and importance. But I don't think I overemphasise want.

7. What is fucked up in your LIFE that you CAN change but never will?
I'm pretty content with my life. I don't think I've got incurable baggage.

8. What is fucked up in the WORLD that you CAN'T change but will try?
For all gays to live and love without fear.

9. Would you denounce your convictions to save the life of one person/millions?
Even Galileo Galilei abjured, cursed and detested his opinions. And my convictions are far weaker than his. I can be quite a wimp. I reckon, I definitely would.

10. Would you follow your convictions if it lead to the injustice of one person/millions?
What do you expect from somebody working in the arms business? (Not that I'm in this business out of conviction, or is money equal to conviction in this case?)

11. Is your life about giving or taking?
La vie n'est pas un long fleuve tranquille. There are waves. Right now, I'm more on the taker side, but I've been a giver, and it might come back again.

12. If you died tomorrow, what footprints have you left?
I did plant some trees, not enough though.

Many Thanks Indeed!

Many thanks indeed for all the well wishes to our first anniversary and the lovely present by Mr.Mac :) I hope you will get many chances to repeat this. By the way, the video I posted made Toño to contemplate taking up tango classes again.



In other news: we might be on telly tonight. No, it is not because of our anniversary. During our holidays at Mas Du Soleilla, a journalist made a portrait of our host and we were filmed tasting wine and slurping oysters. Toño even had to give an interview. The journalist filmed for three days and I have no idea if any footage of us made it into the 12' feature. If you want to find out by yourself, it'll be on Cash TV, tonight at 10:20pm Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) on the channel SF2.

Saturday Flowers - Anniversary Bonus Edition

A year ago, Toño & I used this pen...



...to register our partnership in that room with the red chairs. Reason enough to sneak out of bed early this morning and to travel to the farmer's market to get the above bouquet for Toño :)

Celebrations we be continued at tonight's premier of Madama Butterfly at Zurich Opera House. Unlike for the market, I will get shaved until then.

Well, it's a year now and I love this song. Just ignore that it's sung in the past tense ;)

Scarlet

While I was ironing, I put on old records and got kind of lost in memories. I don't listen quite often to Swiss music, but it happened today. There is this one song from 1992, which is IMHO like one of the best love songs ever. It's is called Scharlachrot (scarlet):

Die isch ja filmryf, die Szene i dere Frytignacht.
Dr Mond isch es wysses runds Loch
u luegt zur Wösch us wien'i.

Hie bini lang elei gsi u ha Fläsche ghöut,
Schtunde zeut i däm viu z'grosse Bett
u ha gseh wie sech d'Wäut wacker dräit...
nume nid um mi!

U jitzt bisch du cho, grad jitz, woni's nümm hätti dänkt,
u luegsch dry, wie wenn's öppis z'gwinne gäb
für die u für mi:
Im schlimmschte Fau nume'ne Nacht!

I boue mir mini Tröim uf
rund um di,
u male se scharlachrot a.
I brönne mir di Name
z'mitts i mis Härz.
Chönnt schwöre, dass i ewig blybe
we üs nüt drzwüsche chunnt.
-- Büne Huber

That could have come straight from a film, this scene on that Friday night.
The moon is like a round white hole
and is scowling like I am.

Here I was alone for a long time, emptying bottles,
counting hours in this far too big bed.
and have been watching how the world revolves valiantly...
only not around me!

And now you came, just now, when I had given up hope,
and you are looking like there is something to win
for you and for me:
At the worst only a night!

I'm building my dreams
around you,
and I'm painting them scarlet.
I'm burning your name
into the middle of my heart.
I could swear that I will stay forever,
if nothing cropped up.

Thankfully, I could also brand a name into my heart: Toño. And today Toño is celebrating his birthday. Unfortunately, there no present big enough to express my gratitude to Toño. As a humble attempt, I dedicate today this song to Toño

Starting Something Good

6 years ago after the summer holidays I went to my first crawl class ever. A year later, Toño joined us. That is were I met him for the first time.

Well today, the swim summer break is over. At 19:30 pm in lane 1 normal swim practice will be resumed. I'm looking forward to it.

STARTING SOMETHING GOOD
envoyé par KALCLARK - Futurs lauréats du Sundance.

GTM Films & TV Shows collage including scenes from: RUNNING WITHOUT SOUND-THE LONG DAY CLOSES-PARIS, JE T'AIME-ALMOST NORMAL-DREAM BOY-BOWSER MAKES A MOVIE-MERCI, DR. REY-DARE-SOUS LES VERROUS-FORGIVE & FORGET-BOY CULTURE-THOMAS TREBUCHE-AND THEN, CAME SUMMER-GROUP THERAPY-ALTRAMONDO-TOM CLAY JESUS-DOORMAN-BUMPING HEADS-COMME UN FRERE-DANNY IN THE SKY-LE CLAN-SKINS-THE TOILER & THE WAYFARERS-THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH-ANGORA RANCH-2.37-APRES LUI-ANTONIO'S SECRET-DEFENSE D'AIMER-UNITED STATES OF TARA-VACATIONLAND-TOUT CONTRE LEO-PRESQUE RIEN-3 DAY WEEKEND-THE HISTORY BOYS-A SIREN IN THE DARK-JUSTE UN PEU DE RECONFORT-EATING OUT 2, SLOPPY SECONDS-RED DIRT & RUNNING DEEP. Song: Start of something good From the "Britannia High" OST

111 for 1111

4 years, 8 months and 6 days ago I started this and have now reached my 1111^th post. So I use my lunch break to make a 111 random stuff that might but must not necessarily has to be mentioned in the 1110 preceding posts. Here we go:

1. I arrived in a home birth.
2. I was born in a house that was built in 1613.
   
3. My mother milked the cows on the eve of the day I was born.
   
4. The midwife held me out of the window and announced to the black smith across the street that it is a boy.
5. The midwife ended as an alcoholic but I don't feel responsible.
   
6. I did not have a name then.
7. My family could not agree on one.
8. My mother wanted to have Kurt
9. Nobody liked that
10. My mother then suggested that I have to be called Michael
11. My paternal grandmother announced that she does not condone a "Michel" in her house.
12. Michel aus Lönneberga (original title Emil i Lönneberga) turned then out to become my favourite TV series and I would have loved to be called Michel.
13. My brother is 12 years older.
14. My sister is 9 years older.
    
15. My brother and sister then suggested the name Urs, which was not opposed.
16. I was then baptised Urs Michael.
17. I don't think my father did involve himself in the decision process.
    
18. I eat a flower when the Soviets ended the Prague Spring on my first birthday.
19. I grew up on a farm.
20. I like climbing trees.
    
21. I fell on a hoe when I was 4 and missed the temple by a whisker, though I still got a decent hole.
22. I squashed a finger and lost the nail in a potato harvesting machine when I was 5.
23. Thanks to the scars I learned to distinguish between left and right.
24. I still check my finger if I have a doubt about left and right.
25. My driving instructor did not like this behaviour.
26. I have scar on my forearm which look like a suicide attempt but I got it from a wine bottle that broke when I tryed to uncork it.
27. There are 3 scars in my face,
28. one from the surgical removal an abscess,
29. one from the surgical removal of a basal cell carcinoma; and
    
30. one from a barrier that hit my forehead.
    
31. The barrier hit was my only work related accident,
32. besides of being exposed to several electric shocks.
33. They were all my own fault but they did not cause any harm (I think).
    
34. I broke my left shin and foot while skiing when I was six.
35. I later broke my right arm while snowboarding.
36. and my skull and right foot when cycling.
37. I went to a primary school that did not have a catholic teacher for 200 years,
38. since traditionally the protestant pastor was also head of the school board.
39. I made my first experiences with another boy with the son of the first catholic teacher in the village after the ban was lifted.
    
40. My great-great grandfather fought the Catholics in the Sonderbund war.
    
41. My great-great grandfather also bought the house in which I was born.
42. Nowadays, the Catholics and the Protestants share the same church in the village were I was born and raised (on a time-sharing agreement).
43. Since I was not a gifted farmer I moved to the big city (Zürich) when I was 15.
44. My sister would have been a great farmer but my parents did not let her learn that profession,
45. but my brother was the one who took over the farm.
46. My mother is 77 and my father will turn 86 next week.
47. They still work on the farm.
48. I caught them once during a horizontal limbo and got very confused by this.
49. Well my father caught me once too while messing around and he did not like it either, since I was supposed to feed the cows.
50. My father told me once that he was caught in the bed of our neighbour's fiancée (when he was still a bachelor) . The neighbour then had to marry a less pretty girl.
    
51. In Zürich I lived in 3 different houses, all within 1 km.
52. I did not share an apartment until I was 35 (Tigresa, we should do this lunch thingy soon, travelling might pick up again).
    
53. My mother once claimed that Zürich has tainted me.
54. She meant this with respect to my political views (not my sexual habits).
    
55. I made an apprenticeship as electrical draughtsman.
56. I have degrees equivalent to a bachelor degree in electrical engineering and business administration.
57. I'm a certified Senior Project Manager.
    
58. I have had 7 employment contracts,
    
59. but have only worked for two different employers.
60. I earned my first money catching mice and splitting wood.
61. I needed the money to fly to Canada when I was 15.
62. I used up to 80 traps to catch mice,
63. but I never beat my father, whose mouse per trap ratio is twice as high as mine ever was.
64. The mice were fed to the cats.
    
65. We had up to 15 cats at home although my mother suffers from a cat hair allergy,
66. though a busy street next to the house kept the cat population at bay.
67. The only personal pet I ever had was a guinea pig.
68. It died after I gave it a bath (it did smell)
69. My sister's horse put me in bed for a week.
70. I wanted to go straight and the horse preferred left. It won by knocking me out.
    
71. The name of the horse was Whisky. It was my first bad experience with whisky.
72. I got drunk the first time with my fellow boy scouts.
    
73. I fell numerous times riding horses and cows, but got only severely hurt once.
74. My brother ended in hospital with an open fracture of the leg when he was a wee boy after an accident with horses
75. He was home one week when he broke the other one while chasing a cat.
76. I saw the film True Stories by Talking Heads 10 times within 5 days in the cinema because I loved a song so much.
77. There used to be a time when I saw around 60 films a year in the cinema.
78. Now I hardly see 6 a year in the cinema.
79. I made a film with some friends when I was 17.
80. I did run in the contest of the Swiss Youth Film Festival :) but did not win the big price :/
81. I was not allowed to set off fireworks when I was a boy,
82. because my father once ignited an expensive dress of a bystander.
83. I prefer briefs to boxers when wearing trousers.
84. I prefer boxers to nothing while sleeping.
85. I like cooking but Toño is the better cook,
86. however, I'm the better pâtissier.
87. I usually make lunch and Toño dinner.
88. On weekends, I do the shopping while Toño is running. He then has to cook with whatever I shopped.
89. The one that does not cook does the dishes.
    
90. Toño does the cleaning, I do the laundry.
91. I take care of recycling for paper and card board, Toño takes care of recycling for glass.
92. Those roles are not engraved in stone.
    
93. I met Toño in crawl class.
94. I first spoke to Toño under the shower, when I told him that I'm learning Spanish (I know, quite lame pick-up line)
95. We both accuse each other of having seduced the other,
96. Toño claims I did it with my eyes,
97. I claim Toño did it by kissing me.
98. So it must have been a mutual seduction.
99. He did know all about wine, I needed advice, this and swimming brought us together,
100. Like a new passion was born out of two others (this is as poetical as I get)
101. We got engaged in a bus in Mexico after we spent Christmas with Toño's family.
102. We did not want to mix bureaucratic processes and waited with tying the knot until Toño received his Swiss citizenship.
103. We tied the knot in the wrong order.
104. We first went on our honeymoon (Mexico again),
105. we then held the reception,
106. and registered our partnership months later.
107. Toño is the most amazing thing that ever happened to me.
108. Toño has high standards and it is not easy to live up to those.
109. Toño has changed me a lot.
110. Toño has made my life so much more colourful.
111. It's good to be in love and being loved :)
     

Out of Egypt

Yes I'm about to leave Egypt in 3 hours. Although this trip was badly planed (read about), I really enjoyed being here. Alexandria is a hospitable place and sea side towns often has this certain je ne sais quoi. But I'm also looking forward to spend the weekend with Toño. Inschallah, I will be able to kiss him awake tomorrow morning :)



Coincidentally, my current travel book is called Out of Egypt. It is the memoir by André Aciman on his family history and youth in Alexandria. André Aciman is the author of Call Me By Your Name, which is one of my favourite books.

Toño in Montaza

In order to get some kind of exercise today, I went for a walk to the gardens of Montaza palace here in Alexandria, Egypt. I did not have to go far since they are right across the Corniche from my hotel. Though crossing the Corniche equals half an hour of jogging if one measures the amount of (cold) sweat the body evaporates while doing so. The car drivers here behave like I normally cycle. Whatever, this is the palace I'm talking about:

Btw, these pictures get so much bigger when you click on them.

Montaza Palace was one of the palaces of the former Egyptian royal family. It was built in 1892 by Abbas Hilmi Pasha, the last khedive of Egypt, and it is surrounded by a lovely park. I more kind of strolled through the park since the exercise was at the beginning and the end. And so I had time to enjoy all the plants, which kept reminding me of Toño.

Like the five-petaled hibiscus, which is the national flower of Malaysia. A place to which Toño sent me numerous poems when I had to travel there regularly.


Or the delonix regia, which so flamboyantly displays flowers in Toño's favourite colour (and the Lada reminded me of Russia).


Of course, each bougainvillea I see anywhere in world reminds me of Toño, and there were plenty of them in the park. The bugambilia (as spelled in Mexican Spanish) is his favourite flower.


Who can look at an agave without thinking of Mexico? And Mexico is the place Toño was born and raised.


It was really worth crossing the Corniche twice.

Quien golpea mi puerta

If I recall correctly it was in 2005 and I was in Malaysia, when Toño sent me the poem La pregunta by Pablo Neruda. In this poem Pablo Neruda told me what was happening. Toño was knocking at my door, knocking it down to enter my life and to live in my soul. Toño was neither a passenger nor a beggar, he was the one I was waiting for.

Poema La pregunta
de Pablo Neruda

Amor, una pregunta
te ha destrozado.

Yo he regresado a ti
desde la incertidumbre con espinas.

Te quiero recta como
la espada o el camino.

Pero te empeñas
en guardar un recodo
de sombra que no quiero.

Amor mío,
compréndeme,
te quiero toda,
de ojos a pies, a uñas,
por dentro,
toda la claridad, la que guardabas.

Soy yo, amor mío,
quien golpea tu puerta.
No es el fantasma, no es
el que antes se detuvo
en tu ventana.
Yo echo la puerta abajo:
yo entro en toda tu vida:
vengo a vivir en tu alma:
tú no puedes conmigo.

Tienes que abrir puerta a puerta,
tienes que obedecerme,
tienes que abrir los ojos
para que busque en ellos,
tienes que ver cómo ando
con pasos pesados
por todos los caminos
que, ciegos, me esperaban.

No me temas,
soy tuyo,
pero
no soy el pasajero ni el mendigo,
soy tu dueño,
el que tú esperabas,
y ahora entro
en tu vida,
para no salir más,
amor, amor, amor,
para quedarme.

I ♥ Water

I ♥ water. I ♥ to drink it. I ♥ to look at it (the bigger the water the better), I ♥ to stay under it (happy when it rains), I ♥ to swim in it (this is how I met Toño), and I ♥ to take a dip in it.



Have a great weekend and enjoy all the water you can get.

The Laundry Roses

My derioulsy beloved Toño is a man of many talents, among which is his faculty of letting me discover that there is a (kind of) romantic in me. Not that I'm now writing poems. I have no idea what forces are required to let me develop those sacred skills. It's just that I can't look at these roses without getting goose bumps and thinking of Toño.



I've got those roses with my laundry. The hotels of the Taj group put a rose onto every basket with the washed, ironed and nicely packed undies and shirts. Yesterday, I was in my room when a couples of baskets were delivered. I took the roses, put them into a water glass and got myself a medium to be with Toño. Then I know, that there are certainly some flowers in our resident as well as at Toño's office.

Since I'm not a poet at all, I have to resort to Pablo Neruda, a master of this art, who wrote the “The Herbalist’s. Rose,” devoted to flowers, branches, and vegetal growth:

La rosa del herbolario

Dejo en la nave de la rosa
la desición del herbolario:
si la estima por su virtud
o por la herida del aroma:
si es intacta como la quiere
o rígida como una muerta.

La breve nave no dirá
cuál es la muerte que prefiere:
si con la proa enarbolada
frente a su fuego victorioso
ardiendo con todas las velas
de la hermosura abrasadora
o secándose en un sistema
de pulcritud medicinal.

El herbolario soy, señores,
y me turban tales protestas
porque en mí mismo no convengo
a decidir mi idolatría:
la vestidura del rosal
quema el amor en su bandera
y el tiempo azota el esqueleto
derribando el aroma rojo
y la turgencia perfumada:
después con una sacudida
y una larga copa de lluvia
no queda nada de la flor.

Por eso agonizo y padezco
preservando el amor furioso
hasta en sus últimas cenizas.

The herbalist's rose

I consign to the ship of the rose
an herbalist's decision:
whether to honour the rose for its strenght,
or the wound of its odor:
whether all is intact, as he likes it,
or stiff as a corpse.

The terse ship will not say
which death it prefers:
the prow thrusting itself
through victorious fire
crowding its sails and ablaze
in its clustering beauty,
or wilting away under its regimen
of medicinal comeliness.

I am that herbalist: friends,
flinching from every complaint
because I can never agree
how to resolve my idolatry:
the rose's investiture
burns love on its banners,
time flays from its skeleton
the juice of a scarlet aroma,
the perfume's tumidity:
then, with one blow of the weather,
a great cupful of rain,
nothing is left of the flower.

Here I am moping and mowing
to preserve the full fury of love
till the last ash flickers out.

Lovesong

I came across this song this morning. It still gave me goose bumps and made me longing for Toño even more.

Postponed Romance

It's all ready more than we could have hoped for. Who had thought that the Obama Inauguration brings romance back into politics?

I would like to join in singing At Last... but most likely, I'll be stuck in India for another week.

Having The Blues

Yes I also listened wept to The Speech. However, soon after it was over the blues kicked in. What is the point of listen to this alone in a hotel room with a box of tissues (I tend to be carried away lightly), when there is a man in your life you want to grow old with gracefully. Call me greedy, but I want more. I want his hands on me. All over me. Now. Subito!


Sinéad O’Connor - I Want Your (Hands On Me)

Insufficient Substitutes

Today, I will again embark to India. In the next two and a half weeks I will be again parted from Toño. First, we will do some firings off Mumbai and then there will be a sales pitch at Bengaluru. A frugal consolation will be that I will have plenty of opportunities to indulgence in my love for tandoori food. Truly a insufficient substitute.

Coincidentally, today opens the Bollywood inspired Swiss film Tandoori Love. But I reckon that I don't miss much. The reviews are far from exuberant. Again seeing Tandoori Love is an insufficient substitute for indulging in tandoori love.

The Wedding Banquet #1

Do you remember this? There was also a first wedding banquet on June 7, 2008 - exactly half a year ago in the courtyard of my clan's residence. My then almost 85 year old father even cleaned the 395 year old house with the hose to impress our friends and relatives.



Toño's & mine job was to bring the location, a tent with tables and last but not least the guests.



We made a Wine & Dine (& maybe Dance) and all parts in that were organised by our friends Alicia and Thomas...



... such a brilliant chef, loads of wine and music.



We hopped that they could engage Chris Trewer as our chef - and they actually did. We were once at a wine and dine to the theme black & white. It took place in an atelier of a painter who made huge paintings in black & white only and Chris Trewer served a stupendous menu in black & white. Chris Trewer was Gault Millau's Swiss discovery of the year 2000, he then cooked Zurich's restaurant mesa into Gault Millau points, before he opened his own place.

Chris Trewer prepared a six course menu in the tractor den, during which his oven broke. This did not knock him out of his stride, he just did everything on the barbecue. His menu was combination of Thurgau cuisine (my heritage) and Méxican cuisine (Toño's heritage). The same concept was applied by Alicia and Thomas for the selection of the wines. Only the champagne came from France.

Aperitiv

Thurgau bread roll with herb dipp
Tortillas con salsa de frijoles negros picantes
Thurgau sauseages on a skewer
Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, Champagne Bonnaire

Starter

Ensalada de camarones con nopales
Sequana 2006, Weisse Assemblange, Wolfer, Weinfelden, Thurgau

Soup

Sopa de huitlacoche
Chardonnay 2005, Bodega Santo Tomas, Ensenada, Baja California

First Main Course

Thurgau style dumplings with sauerkraut, pears and apples
Burgherrewy Blauburgunder Auslese 2006, Wolfer, Weinfelden, Thurgau
&
Tempranillo & Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, Bodega Santo Tomas, Ensenada, Baja California

Second Main Course

Mole poblano de guajolote con tortillas
Burgherrewy Blauburgunder Grand Vin 2006, Wolfer, Weinfelden, Thurgau
&
Terra Don Luis Selección 2003, Vinicola La Cetto, Ensenada, Baja California

Dessert

Plums Thurgau style in a glas
Müller-Thurgau edelsüss, Wolfer, Weinfelden, Thurgau

Photos by Thomas, Beat, Tigresa & gomad.ch

Flashback to 2008

Passing through the gates of a new year, it seems appropriate to pause for a moment and to look back on the year called 2008.

Best Film

I definitely lacked visiting the screening room in 2008. So far I haven't seen 'Son of Rambow', 'Happy Go Lucky', 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', 'Milk', 'WALL-E', 'The Wrestler' and 'Slumdog Millionaire'... Thus, some might be better than my selection. But unfortunately, I did not miss 'Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild', a concoction I only remember with sovereign contempt.
Nevertheless, there were some I saw and loved, non of which was clearly outstanding. Thus, I go for three: Burn After Reading made me laugh most, The Bank Job was the most entertaining, and The Dark Knight was the most thrilling.



Best TV Moments

Also here, I can't decide. The Wire had been running for a while, however I discovered it only in 2008 (thanks to Mr.Mac), but so, I could watch it all in one go. I loved it, not only because of Omar ;). The other strong piece of entertainment was the Glenn Close show a.k.a. Damages. Both series have in common that there are neither good nor bad guys. Everybody has some skeletons in its closet. I'm watching Mad Men right now - a hot candidate for 2009.



Best Sound

Hot Chip's One Pure Thought came close, however, Blind by Hercules and Love Affair remained the hottest track on high rotation in 2008. The best album was Jim released by electronic music maverick and turntablist Jamie Lidell.



Best Book

I did not read much fiction in 2008. One has those phases. Thus, an autobiography made it on top: Things The Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Oliver Everett (the mastermind who's Eels). It's about things not only grandchildren should know. Stick to yourself against all odds and you might prevail in this adventure called life.



Best Drink

Pepsi-Cola Retro was release in México in February 2008. It is made of natural ingredients. Such as the colour is created by caramel and coffee, and the taste comes from cola nut extract. However, my favourite is that it does not contain any artificial sweetener.



Best Slogan

Yes, we can! There are no excuses no more.



Best Poster Boy

Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, who won the gold for Australia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 10m Platform Dive. Yes, he's gay and Australia announced him as the 2008 Sports Performer of the Year.



Best Holidays

Of course this was our premature spring-break honeymoon at Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo in México. We did thing in the complete wrong order: honeymoon, reception, registration.



Best Dinner

This was served by Chris Trewer on June 7 in the court yard of my clan's residence to friends and family. It was our reception disguised as Wine & Dine (& maybe Dance). Chris Trewer, who happened to be Gault Millau's Swiss dicovery of the year 2000, served six courses influenced by the cuisine of Thurgau and México, which were accompanied by eight wines from Thurgau and México. He even had the chutzpah to make mole!



Man of the Year

Toño, who said Yes, I do on October 17.

Next Year in Mumbai

This is my last working day in Mumbai. Early tomorrow morning, I will be heading back for two weeks of desperately needed cuddling with Toño. Nevertheless on January 5, I will be back for a lot of sailing time off Mumbai.

Unlike Los Españoles

With all those dangerous things out there in mind, both Toño and I signed life insurance contracts.

The Wedding Banquet #2

On October 17, we tied the knot. Although we had had already a big banquet in June, we could not resist the temptation to spend some more on fine food and invited some of the friends who missed the first occasion to Rigiblick, which does not only offer a nice view but even better cuisine.

Menu Spice
***
Amuse-bouche
***
Duo of tuna and swordfish mosaic with wasabi and ginger, and deep fried swordfish on tuna sashimi salad
***
Fillet of lamb roast saddle with Bengali marinade on an apple salad with chilli and yoghurt
***
John Dory fried in rice dough on Indian-inspired bouillabaisse with limes and turmeric
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Medaillon of veal fillet with pineapple icing on mung bean and vegetable curry with green mangos and banana pancakes with coconut
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Selection of cheese with fruit-nut bread
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Dessert surprises
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Home-made chocolates und friandises

The Wines
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Champagne Perrier Jouët Grand brut
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Rheinriesling Tradition, 2004, Schloss Gobelsburg, Langenlois, Kamptal
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Haberlehof Pinot bianco, 2005, Alto Adige doc, Alois Lageder, Margreid
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Chardonnay Reserve, 2005, McLaren Vale/Padthaway, Chapel Hill Winery
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Gigondas ac, 2004, Domaine de Cabasse
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Mitis, 2002, Amigne de Vétroz aoc, Jean-René Germanier, Vétroz