Shalwyn Wedding

My cousin got married at Shalwyn over the weekend. Shalwyn in the KZN Midlands is surrounded by fields and hills and makes for a beautiful setting. 

After a hilarious ceremony and some unique cupcakes for tea (Banana and Bacon anyone?), we wiled away the afternoon and watched the sun set over the hills.

The reception food was wonderful, Lamb Shank, enough for two people per serving and enough dessert to send anyone into a sugar coma.

The table settings required months of prep, mainly my cousin eating his way through mayonaise, honey, beetroot and anything else with a big enough bottle to masquerade as a vase. The end result is a quirky rustic sea of greenery.

Ringing in the New Year

A wedding on the 1st of January is definitely a nice way to start 2011 and especially when it happens to be in Hout Bay overlooking the ocean.

A new year starts with a new set of challenges, thesis chapters to complete and new dancing steps to learn. Hope everyone had an awesome party to ring in the New Year and made a few New Years resolutions (that aren't going to be broken by the end of the week)

Breakfast..More like Brunch

Today is going to be a series of emotional farewells as we all leave to our various homes. People have been getting teary-eyed all morning. Preeti (my flatmate) and I opened the first floor balcony up for breakfast this morning. The event turned into breakfast/brunch as various people woke up from partying most of the night away.

We had to hijack Ben's kitchen to deal with the massive amounts of food we all brought to cook. The idea was to finish up everything in the fridges...and I ended up with more food than I started with.

The menu for the morning: Pancakes with cinnamon and sugar, Turkish bakery bread (so good), boiled eggs, American style Austrian bacon, donuts, croissants and McDonalds! Quite the feast.

More I have to finish packing before my grand European contiki :)

Asia Day

Asia Day was a gastronomic delight as food from every corner of Asia was prepared for us to feast on. As with Africa Day the food queues were really long as people asked questions about the food and how it is prepared etc. I saw a lot of heaped plates.

I can't even begin to name all the food prepared. I can however name some of the countries represented: Japan, China, Korea (mmm... bbq), Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Nepal.

As with any Asia party, the traditional costumes were beautifully colourful, sort of like birds of paradise. I really wish I had managed to organise a sari for the evening.

The Asia staff and students organised a series of cultural exhibitions which included a play written by one of the staff. Though plagued with a few sound issues, they performed beautifully and it made for some fun.


Cultural Program:

• IIASA-YSSP Musical Group “Pro-Tempore“ : The Snow at the Feet of the Maharaja.
  

The staff and students have been practising in secret for weeks now to present a play. Various members of Forestry were talked into playing bodyguards for the beautiful queen. Our YSSP coordinator even sang for us :)

• HSC: Flash Mob Dance



• Elena Rovenskaya : Belly Dance

• Suchi Subramanian : Bollywood Dance
• Subramanian Family : Indian Melodies
• Haiguang Hao : Tai Chi




• Sarthak Gaurav : Indian Rhapsody

Africa Day!

Africa Day has arrived :) The food is all cooked (and there is lots of it) and we're getting into the party mood. The African YSSP participants and adopted African students are going to be frantically setting up for Africa Day this afternoon. If you see a stressed organiser, lend a hand!

Russian Invasion

Today we had a new addition to the YSSP social calendar: Cheburashka Wednesday. The Russian and Ukrainian participants and staff laid out a party full of food, facts and fun.

I was late in arriving due to a supervisor meeting and missed the quiz but got to see the games and they provided great entertainment! Musical chairs, egg and spoon races and find the clothes peg on the body while blindfolded.

I'm not going to even attempt to spell the names of the various dishes on offer but one was similar to pasta filled with meat, another was potatoes stuffed with cheese or meat and cooked on coals. The coals were manned by my fellow IME member Sergey who confided that the meat filled potatoes were better because that is more traditional Ukrainian :) and having tasted both I now trust his judgement.

We now have 2 more continental themed days ahead: Africa and Asia. Bring on more good food, music and fun!

Africa Day Announced

Africa Day preparations are well under way, the recipes decided, the music coming together and soon the vuvuzelas will arrive all the way from South Africa. Aapo made the coolest poster to promote the event, one that truly embraces the colour of Africa. I'll be sure to post the recipes after the event, its going to tour of our favourite African cuisine.

I'm melting

I never thought I would be one to complain about the heat, I've grown up in it but this last week has been a rather warm experience. My temperature widget keeps telling me the maximum temp would be 32C, so imagine my surprise that the current reported temp is actually 37C... This would be fine is there was in fact airconditioning in the office but these palace offices missed that technological advance in favour of open windows and puny fans. People have taken to working in the conference rooms, the only airconditioned rooms in the building.

Last night was the second potluck dinner at the Simmering dorm, lots of food, even more mosquitoes and a thunderstorm with hail to end the evening. I made Dark Chocolate Mousse with Peppermint Liqueur, a change from Orange Liqueur which I couldn't find and after sourcing Amarula from the UN Commissary I made some test Springbokkies.

Springbokkies:

1 part Peppermint Liqueur

1 part Amarula Cream Liqueur (could use Bailey's Irish Cream)

Pour over the back of a teaspoon to retain the individual layers.

The other experiment of the evening was a recipe I found for Chocolate Vodka from the Food show Cooked. Its based on the Long Street drinks we all know and love.

Chocolate Vodka

1/3 bottle vodka

200g plain chocolate

Stand the vodka in a container of warm water. Chop the chocolate into small enough pieces to fit into the neck of the bottle. Slowly swirl the vodka and the chocolate will melt into the vodka as it heats up. The recipe didn't say shake afterwards but it seemed to mix it up properly. Comments from the guinea pigs say that dark chocolate might be better (I used milk) and some milk/cream. I do have 2/3 of a bottle of vodka to try it again...

Bratislava

Yesterday I ventured to Bratislava, Slovakia. It is 55km from Vienna which meant an hours train ride. My fellow explorers included Blake, Markus, Aapo and Alma. We arrived at 9.30 AM, and decided to have a stroll around the town before meeting the bicycle group for lunch at noon. Cue failed communication take 1.

I took my role as "Minister of War" very seriously and led the group through the guided walk in my guidebook. We managed to see practically all the sights listed by lunch...

Some of the memorable sights are a few whimsical statues of a Napoleonic officer peering over a bench in the Main square (with the French embassy right behind him). The Schoner Naci greets visitors to Kaffee Mayer with a smile and a top hat.

Cumil or "the Peeper" grins at the tourists from an open manhole. There is even a Man at Work sign just in case you had failed to notice him.
The last statue caused much hilarity as a Paparazzi peers around the corner of a building. Pictures of the photographers taking pictures of the paparazzi.

The other strange sight was a cannonball lodged in the wall above the chocolate shop (wonderful chocolate truffles...they were yummy).

Eagerly stepping into the traditional Slovak pub for lunch we thought the bikers would be impatiently waiting for us but alas no. No sooner had we sat down that Jack planks down with a sigh. The first question that springs to mind is where are all the others? Well he left them early on into the ride and they would probably stumble in in about an hour. Oh well, we'll have lunch an wait. Tick tock, tick tock and 1pm arrives and no bikers. Cue first sms, they'll be there at 3.

We took off the Castle we'd reserved to see after lunch and had a look around. The view encompasses Old Town, the Danube and the part of Bratislava you'd rather not see, the Communist built prefab housing.

After our climb we rewarded ourselves with afternoon tea and some more sightseeing. We bumped into the Jakaranda Children's Choir from Pretoria, they told me I don't sound South African...

Since we'd seen all the sights we did them again and then tried some off the beaten track streets and ended up on a grassy patch next to the Danube. Why hello Mr killer mosquito, I would love to be eaten alive. Suddenly the shady patch didn't look so great.

Moving on to the UFO (I'm not kidding, its called the UFO) we suddenly meet the Team Bicycle, at 4.30 PM. We rose into the UFO to take in the famed 360 degree view offered by the observation deck. After a drink and some dessert we parted ways to the park or the pool and met up for drinks before dinner.

We rushed through Old Town to a restaurant (and hence the touristy sights for the third time) before catching the Twin City Liner (Catamaran) home at 10.30 PM.

Jazz hands and funky feet

Yesterday is a story of many places, many things and much hilarity. It started with a mad dash to Vienna Rathaus (City Hall) for the start of Imelda May's free jazz concert. Vienna is filled with cheap (free) cultural experiences in Summer with free opera viewing on the big screens, film festival and Jazz festival of which last nights performance was a part.

Imelda May wasn't spectacular, more Country than Jazz but it was still nice to sit back and listen to while soaking up the ambience. The Rathaus itself is spectacular and I will get to taking the tour on of these weekends. The bars and fast food restaurants look appealing too, so maybe a stop for a quick drink one night wouldn't hurt either :)


For those of you in Vienna, I took a 'short cut' through the Volksgarten, it is absolutely stunning to take a stroll through. Its open til 10pm daily according to the sign. With all the major lit at night, Vienna is just as alive and welcoming as during the day.


After a not so quick stop back in Simmering for an online planning meeting for Umonya (does anyone know any CS contacts at WITS?), I high-tailed it back to basically the same U-Bahn stop to watch the football at the University grounds, an area filled with beer stands and many TV screens. Our group had a pretty even split of supporters, but the octopus was right, Spain did prevail.

We moved on to a Scottish Pub (Highlander Pub) a few blocks away for a commiseration/celebratory drink depending on the person. I happened to read the food menu...Chilli Con Carne was not Scottish when I last checked, then again neither is Guinness which takes up most of the signage space.

The highlight of my night was not actually any of the above, but the impromptu Samba and Salsa lesson for Avery and Markus at midnight on the U-Bahn platform. I think there is some potential there :P

Schloss Restaurant

I have previously mentioned the cafeteria that we eat in most days, originally built as a 'house' for the Princess of the Emporer who lived in Schloss Laxenburg (my office building). This building has the same architectural style of high ceilings, chandeliers and artwork galore. I thought I would share with you some snapshots from our not so humble 'food court'.

Warning: There Be Lions. Munich had them and I seem to be noticing them around Vienna and Laxenburg, lots of statues of lions. Its not only in Africa...


The photo on the right shows the Oval Room, the main dining area (there are many small rooms within the Schloss Restaurant).



This could be mistaken for a piece of art on the wall but is in fact part of the scene from the ceiling.

The next shows the meeting room complete with mirror topped table. Some of the YSSPers booked it for a lunch meeting. It felt very wrong to eat off plastic trays in such a fancy room. They even put fresh roses on the table for us that day.

Finally a photo at dusk over the back garden of the Schloss Restaurant. The yellow building positively glows as the rays of the sun disappear behind the clouds.

Bathing in Baden

Summer in Vienna beautiful yet hot. The answer: Baden, home to the thermal baths, pools and the largest beach in Austria (more like the only). A few intrepid YSSPers trekked to Baden by train (we thought we were going on a bus but we got there eventually).

Baden is a picturesque town past Modling (which is past Laxenburg). We stopped off for a nibble before swimming. Coffee here is served with love. The nibbles turned into 1 giant pizza that we couldn't finish.

We wondered through Baden to get to the baths, which meant a few cute alleyways and a beautiful town garden filled with roses, flower beds, archways and a pond. It really was a little slice of tranquillity.

The historic baths are a heaving mass of people especially after walking through a mostly deserted town. The baths are split into warm areas and cool areas with connecting walkways. The one end also features supertubes which brought out the children in all of us. When was the last time you went down a supertube?


We finished off the day with scrumptious Greek dinner near Landstrasse. Today was meant to be a slow, relaxing day before another hectic work week. It certainly delivered but I did indeed learn something today as topics over food and in the swimming pools covered philosophy, literature, politics, public goods and trains. I seem to be learning more over coffee breaks than in seminars.

Stars and Stripes

We're really being given a chance to implement Buzz Hollings 'Work Hard, Play Harder' philosophy this week. After yesterday's pancake feast we were tantalised by the offerings of the American contingent: hamburgers, hotdogs, brownies, popcorn and apple pie.

Carl directed this occasion with an exuberant flare and earned the nickname Captain America, pictured here with our YSSP co-ordinator Sheila.

The program today included lots of food, games and a quiz on obscure American History (Ben, Sheila and I came second after a tie-breaker), take that all lecturers who said informative guessing doesn't work on exams :)

The games made for every interesting viewing: water toss, 3 legged race and dizzy bat. The first two probably don't need any explanation but dizzy bat is rather strange. Its a relay race where each team member has to run to a pole, out their forehead on the top of the pole and run around the pole 6 (or however many specified) times and then run back to your team. Many a person starts running after the circles and suddenly the ground comes up to meet them, very amusing to watch. I got to be a team judge (which meant no embarrassing moments).

Canadian Breakfast

Today I am an honorary Canadian. I helped out at the Canadian Breakfast organised for the staff and students. The menu: pancakes (crumpets), bacon and maple syrup (with some whipped cream if you're calorie deprived). We slaved over hot grids over a coal fire to cook enough for about 150 people. That is a lot of pancakes.

We started the fires at 7am (the sun was just rising over the IIASA building when I got off the bus) and stepped into our designer aprons (I've discovered pancake making is rather messier here than at home). Stephan become Captain Butter. Pancakes made with butter are sooo good.

There are a few honorary Canadians amongst the staff that help the legitimate Canadians toil away making pancake batches. I even managed to convince a few other YSSPers to become honorary Canadians once they had eaten to help flip. It became quite a game of teaching the inexperienced the art of waiting for the bubbles and flipping for the perfect golden brown.

Today marks the start of the second month of YSSP. 1 month gone and not much in the way of results. Its been an interesting week, lets hope things are smoother from here on out (and that I find some dancing soon).


Tomorrow is American Day to celebrate 4th of July (a little early I know). We've been told to expect hotdogs, dizzy bat and games...
And finally in honour of my finely honed skills of making letters and animals at home: YSSP 2010