Oy, Mupfens threw us a bone! 🙂

Ok, not sure if that’s the correct way to put it…in German, Stöckchen are sent to blogs in order to make them a bit more popular and it also gives people the chance to get to know you a bit better. The fact that not just me but also Karsten answered the questions probably tells you how narcissistic we are :-). The rules are:

So, here are our answers for Mupfens:

Are you sometimes paranoid without reason?

Karsten –Paranoid – yes. Whether it is unreasonable is, I guess, debatable. Most of my paranoia are based on the – in my opinion quite real – threat of financial problems and being unable to provide our little family with what it needs. Alternatively my paranoia are the usual – did I leave the stove on, did I forget to do this or that – which in my case is also a quite reasonable response, based on personal experience. The more work, the more paranoid do I get in the daily struggle: an example: Once I rode my bicycle home after work, when after 10 meters I got a shock because I had realized that I did not fasten my seatbelt, until another second later I realized that I was sitting on a bike and therefore should be fine.

Freddie – Yes! I belong to the species that leaves the flat and wonders about the stove, the water kettle and the electric iron. It didn’t improve with pregnancy and breast feeding dementia. I also have to check on my daughter when I wake up at night to see whether she can breathe easily.

Which topic is close to your heart and have you already written about it?

Karsten – A topic I love would be science and I haven’t written about it yet as I usually allow my wife to write the blog articles (“I allow my wife to write”??? What is that supposed to mean??)– maybe she allows me to be guest-author once too (like now)

Freddie – One topic that always bothers me is the way people in Western societies think of and treat refugees. I am aware that the whole refugee issue has many different aspects and it is not that easy to generalize, but in my opinion people should show a little more empathy. It would do no harm to be aware of the fact that we do have a pretty nice life compared to many other countries in the world. And it would do no harm to be aware of the reasons why people seek asylum – because I am pretty sure that most of them don’t just do it for fun. And would do no harm to be a little more friendly, to say hello or smile and to listen a bit. I haven’t written about it yet, but I will.

What food would you live on if it doesn’t have any consequences how much you eat?

Karsten – The only food for some reason I never tired of, when eating it for weeks on end, was Döner Kebap in all its variations 😉 

Freddie – Noodles. Sushi. Triple chocolate cookies.

Do you have a favourite game? (PC, console, board game, pen and paper)

Karsten – On PC I guess my all time favorite is still Monkey Island (I-III), but I haven’t had the time to play PC games in ages. Boardgames however are still very much enjoyed and my current favorites there are Brändi dog and Arkham Horror.

Freddie – Pc: Monkey Island and Drakensang – but there is no time in my life right now to play computer games, because if I do it’s hard to stop. Board games: Settlers is an all-time favorite. And right now we are addicted to BrändiDog.

In which epoch/age do you think you should have been born? (Enlightenment, Ancient world, modern age, future)

Karsten – While I would have definitely answered with enlightenment during my adolescence, I will now go with present. Being born in a country, in which I am only the second generation which never experienced war on our territories that sounds very nice to me. Also, I would miss the luxurious washing machine, dish washer, computer and all the other stuff that allows us not to worry about households all the time, but sit down with a book and relax for 12 hours a day and sleep the other 12 (I obviously am kidding… seriously, where does all the time go, we save.. or how where our grandparents able to get anything done back in the days?) Also future scares me with the expected climate change. So present is far from perfect, but from my point of view as good as it gets.

Freddie – I am very happy with the present. But I would love to be a fly on the wall during the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages in Europe and the beginning of the 19^th century in Germany and Great Britain.

If you would have to describe yourself using just three words, what would they be?

Karsten  – Chaotic, Curious (as in inquisitive), caring

Freddie – Creative, smiling and tired

What caused your greatest adrenalin rush?

Karsten – Probably one of my several bikecrashs – this was the one where I was driving down a hill with around 40 km/h when my front tire within 1 second lost all its air and the bicycle became almost impossible to steer – that time I was lucky though.

Freddie – The blue fire megacostar and the Silver Star (Europa Park). Never again! I am too old for that stuff!

Your favourite recipe?

Karsten – Ha, I am not falling for that question again. Last time I answered that was in Kindergarten and we had just been to the states before (I think it was Maine), and friends hat served us lobster. So back in kindergarten I happily announced, when asked, that my favorite food was lobster – from which point on the kindergardeners treated me like I considered myself an elitist snob (from their point of view). So I will now say, that I do not actually have a favorite food anymore (which is even true), but that I do love tarte a l’onion with new wine in autumn. One recipe that is very close to how I do it is:

http://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.com/recette/332929-tarte-a-l-oignon-en-direct-d-alsace

I prefer pastry dough over yeast dough – only difference to this recipe is that I add caraway and bacon as well. Oh, and I really love semolina, last time I cooked it in milk (obviously), added lemon zest, marzipan, a bit of vanilla sugar (with real vanilla), additional fresh vanilla and a bit of orange juice and it was absolutely delicious.

Freddie – Uh, that’s difficult. Sushi in all it’s variations. Thai chicken. Chicken Marbella. Various noodle recipes. Asparagus. Germknödel (yeast dumplings with plum butter inside and poppy seeds and melted butter on the outside). And so much more. If you want to have recipes, write me a message 🙂

What advice/skills would you give a child for its further life?

Karsten –You will meet many people in your lives and lots of them will be intimidating and/or want to harm you or at least get the better of you for their own benefit. Does not let that keep you from being nice to everyone in the beginning and do not judge people based on their appearance and certainly not on their origin. In the end, it usually pays of to be nice and if it doesn’t, than those were people you don’t want in your life anyway. And finally, if you can choose, always choose family, time and happiness over a well paid, but frustrating job.

Freddie – The ability to enjoy and treasure even the smallest things in life. A lot of empathy, but at the same time enough self-confidence to make and defend her own way. A happy childhood. And good health.

Is there something that immediately makes you see red?

Karsten – Definitely – main two things are people who listen to music in public on their mobile or other devices, without using headphones – particularly when they listen to gangster rap or other aggressive music that you certainly don’t want to bear for 6 hours in the train, and secondly people who throw their trash into the environment. The worst there are people who litter (cigarette butts or other stuff) 1 meter next to a trash can, but couldn’t care less, as when the toxins in the filters easily enter water bodies and can cause harm to aquatic (and other) organisms. 

Freddie – Several things. Karsten knows most of them. They include unnecessary acquisitions, loud neighbours and people who think that the whole world wants to listen to their music.

The actual difficulty now is to name 11 new blogs! I have only started the blog in January, so I don’t have a lot of blogs that I follow (and that have less than 200 followers). And those who I thought of have recently answered questions themselves. So I will throw the bone to just a few: Cécile et Nicolàs (great smoothie makers!), Family4Travel (a blog about traveling with children – especially regarding couch surfing) and Mamatanzt (to add an English move to the dance). If you feel challenged by our questions, however, feel free to join 🙂 Our new questions are: