• Shared today on Twitter

    Late breaking news – guess who’s coming Down Under next month?! https://t.co/Ehou8Js5FQ @NDC_Conferences https://t.co/PE5ph5rzsz


    @trashyhonky @stufromoz You really want me to belt out some showtunes? Because that could happen. *dusts off Martin Guerre cast recording *



  • Shared today on Twitter

    One of my (woman) colleagues today asked if anyone had tips for staying productive in spite of massive despair and rage. I’ve got no good answer, beyond homemade baked goods from the Snook and staying off Twitter as much as possible. 😡 #roevwade https://t.co/wBVnXfwEGL



  • Photo Post

    One of my (woman) colleagues today asked if anyone had tips for staying productive in spite of massive despair and rage. I’ve got no good answer, beyond homemade baked goods from the Snook and staying off Twitter. 😡 #roevwade

    One of my (woman) colleagues today asked if anyone had tips for staying productive in spite of massive despair and rage. I’ve got no good answer, beyond homemade baked goods from the Snook and staying off Twitter. 😡 #roevwade

    One of my (woman) colleagues today asked if anyone had tips for staying productive in spite of massive despair and rage. I’ve got no good answer, beyond homemade baked goods from the Snook and staying off Twitter. 😡 #roevwade

    One of my (woman) colleagues today asked if anyone had tips for staying productive in spite of massive despair and rage. I’ve got no good answer, beyond homemade baked goods from the Snook and staying off Twitter. 😡 #roevwade


  • Shared today on Twitter

    RT @dankois: Delighted to announce that my plane was showing THE LAST DUEL but the closed-captioning was from KNIVES OUT https://t.co/Et5vL…



  • Shared today on Twitter

    @alex_casalboni Oh no! I hadn’t realised. Hope recovery is swift…


    RT @starwars: @WillBrozInc @rileyanntoine No gatekeeping in this galaxy.


    Blog post! It’s time to start documenting our 2022 travel. First up was my solo trip to Seattle in February, where I finally got to visit the Amazon Spheres. https://t.co/KQaFMn7KhZ https://t.co/KTnSGxUTHd


    Another blog post! I also documented our weekend in Madrid eating tapas and checking out art in early March. 🍷🖼️
    (Two blog posts in one day? What is this, 2004?!) https://t.co/XfXT6Wk395 https://t.co/yuSkVQUUCd



  • Shared today on Twitter

    Removing Twitter/Tweetbot from my Home Screen has definitely reduced how often I open it. I don’t start the day by doomscrolling. I do miss all of you a bit, but this feels good.


    Meanwhile, we caught up on Better Call Saul. My heart. 💔 That is the most beautiful show, even when it’s showing something tragic and terrible. Give Vince and his team and all the actors all the awards.


    @paultook Right now I’d say it’s as good. It benefits from our knowledge of BB, but not in a gimmicky fanservice way. I appreciate that.


    @paultook Except it raises as many questions as it answers!!



  • Photo Post

    The forecast is for rain every day next week, so I made sure to get out for an afternoon ride. #vitamind 🚴‍♀️☀️

    The forecast is for rain every day next week, so I made sure to get out for an afternoon ride. #vitamind 🚴‍♀️☀️

    The forecast is for rain every day next week, so I made sure to get out for an afternoon ride. #vitamind 🚴‍♀️☀️

    The forecast is for rain every day next week, so I made sure to get out for an afternoon ride. #vitamind 🚴‍♀️☀️

    The forecast is for rain every day next week, so I made sure to get out for an afternoon ride. #vitamind 🚴‍♀️☀️

    The forecast is for rain every day next week, so I made sure to get out for an afternoon ride. #vitamind 🚴‍♀️☀️


  • Shared today on Twitter

    I’ve removed Twitter (well, Tweetbot because official Twitter sucks) from my phone Home Screen and laptop bookmarks in an effort to begin the weaning process. I’ll probably end up using it just for work stuff. It’s probably a good thing ultimately, but I still resent it.


    RT @awsdevelopers: 👩‍💻 Did you know you can attend the summits across Europe without leaving home? Build On X is a new series streamed live…


    @gordon_j Just not a fan of that person and don’t wish to support anything he’s a part of.



  • Shared today on Twitter

    I suppose at least Guy-Who-Killed-Google-Reader is no longer #1 on my personal list of People Who Ruined the Internet. 😠


    RT @AWSCloudANZ: Want to deploy fraud detection models without previous #MachineLearning experience? Join #LearnwithAWSExperts on 27 April…


    Join us at https://t.co/Vp850qwkkl in 10 minutes for the next episode of She Builds Tech Skills EMEA! Today we’re talking about machine learning and the recent PyData Berlin conference… https://t.co/J5DmpKnW8f



  • Frühlingsfest!

    Frühlingsfest!

    A few weeks ago I was riding my bike across the Theresienwiese when I noticed yet another fair being set up at the far end. I pootled over to get a closer look.

    Frühlingsfest

    I didn’t have to wonder long before I figured out what event was coming up…

    Frühlingsfest

    Frühlingsfest! Aka Munich’s Spring Festival. How exciting. It opened a few days after we got back from Amsterdam, so we went over in the evening to check it out.

    Frühlingsfest

    It was mostly your basic midway amusement park with rides, games, and food stalls.

    Frühlingsfest

    However, it also had two of the big festival beer tents! (By comparison, Oktoberfest has fourteen.) The Augustiner Festhalle was super popular with a large crowd waiting to get in.

    Augustiner Festhalle

    I was delighted to see how many young people were wearing their Tracht. Tracht refers to the traditional folk costumes worn in German-speaking regions (mostly in Bavaria, Tyrol, and Austria). For men it’s mainly lederhosen, and for women it’s dirndls.

    While I was marvelling at the outfits, something caught my eye in the distance. “Does that… say… Beer Carousel????”

    Bierkarussell

    Indeed it did. “Bierkarussell.” An honest-to-goodness rotating beer carousel. We knew we were going to have to try it out, but we needed to line our stomachs first.

    Half-meter bratwurst

    How about a half-meter bratwurst? Perfect. Okay, now back to the beer.

    Bierkarussell

    The Bierkarussell looks like a traditional carousel, except there are no horses and there’s a circular bar in the middle. The patrons stand around the edges and it rotates very slowly around and around. We went for the full “Maß” (1 liter) of Helles (lager).

    Happy Snookums

    The rotating was making me a bit dizzy, so eventually we stepped off and found a spot on the side to stand and drink our beers. A very happy drunk Bavarian guy toasted us every time he came past. It was hilarious.

    The very next day I spotted an email from the local Democrats Abroad Munich chapter inviting us to join them in the Hippodrom tent for Bavarian-American Friendship Day. I immediately reserved two seats. Of course, if we were going to party in a festival tent, we were going to need our own Tracht…

    I had previously waffled on whether to buy Tracht. It’s an actual folk costume, and I wondered whether it would be cultural appropriation. (Neither of us have German ancestry.) I asked a couple locals though, who said that it was absolutely fine. The only rule they mentioned was to NOT buy the crappy shiny Halloween costume versions they sell in the cheap shops near the Hauptbahnhof to the tourists. Instead we went to Trachten Rausch, not far from where we live. They were pretty busy with folks buying outfits for Frühlingfest, but within minutes we each had a guy pulling stuff off the racks for us to try on. I got a pink dindl with an apron and blouse, and the Snook got lederhosen, a checked shirt, and knit socks. (Each outfit ran us around €200.)

    And then it was time for the big day! We got dressed up and made our way to the Hippodrom. Holy moly – it was overwhelming. A band was playing and thousands of people were eating dinner and gulping down giant steins of beer.

    Hippodrom

    We found the Democrats Abroad tables pretty quickly. It turns out that many of the tables at the front of the room were for various American expat groups.

    Reserviert!

    The tent was so big they had a screen so people in the back could see the stage. (As you can see, not everybody was wearing Tracht.)

    Hippodrom

    Karena took a photo of the Snook and me in all our Tracht glory…

    Me and Mr. Snook

    We settled in and pretty soon we flagged down a server for some beers. PROST! 🍻

    PROST!

    The evening kicked off properly with a lovely speech from United States Consul General Timothy Liston in honour of Bavarian-American Friendship Day. He wore Tracht too!

    United States Consul General Timothy Liston

    We were enjoying ourselves a lot!

    The band were mostly playing classic pub rock covers (in English), but I’m not sure if that was special because of the day. Maybe normally it’s all Schlager? At any rate, they were awesome. We learned very quickly that every 20 minutes or so the singer would yell “Die Krüge hoch” and everyone would raise their glasses and sing a little drinking song…

    It’s called “Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit,” and it means “a toast to well-being.” It’s followed by a count to three and then “DRINK!”

    With all that beer, it was time for some food.

    The Snook went for the roast pork with dumpings, while I went with meatballs and sauerkraut. I find it frankly astonishing that they manage to have table service in such a huge place. And there’s no credit cards – it’s all cash. (Note to self: Write an Ocean’s 11-style heist movie where a daring band of criminals knocks over multiple Oktoberfest tents in one night!)

    Table dancing

    We each had a second Maß of beer, and that’s when everybody started to really cut loose. People were up on the benches dancing and singing along to the band. My phone is full of videos of us acting like idiots and belting out Neil Diamond and ABBA songs. As I’m sure YouTube would flag those as copyright violation, instead you get a photo of the Snook and a couple dudes’ bums. 😂

    End of the night

    Here we are at the end of the night. Yeah, that was a good time!

    Mr. Snook

    Thanks to the Democrats Abroad for hosting us! Now we’re just counting down the days until Oktoberfest and we can break out the Tracht again… ❤️



ABOUT

My name is Kris. I’ve been blogging since the 90’s. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I spent most of my career in the tech industry.

No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.


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