Friday 19 September 2008

The world's scariest beer


This beer was kindly supplied by friend Rob from Heidelberg, who was in Poland a few weeks ago. At 7% vol alc., it packed quite a punch, but, my word, what a label.

Sunday 14 September 2008

Anyone for rounders?

I never thought I would play the game of rounders, but I've now done so twice in eight days. Not what I was planning, and not much good for my street cred either, but this is what happens when you're having fun.

Last Saturday I went to the Basel expat pub crawl which started off at Bar Rouge at around 8.30-9 o'clock and ended up at Redrocks at around 3-30-4 o'clock in the morning. Although I didn't know a single soul there to begin with, I soon started mingling. To cut the story of a long night short, I got to know quite a few new faces, some of whom meet every Sunday at Margaretenpark in Basel for a spot of post-hangover rounders - the "best sport in the world", according to the girl who suggested it to me. Now, I'm not sure I would concur with that verdict. It is, after all, a bit of a girly game. However, this is mixed rounders, so it's not all prancing round a few sticks. It's definitely a good laugh anyway, and it gets me out of the house on a Sunday afternoon.
....
In other news, I also went on a bike tour on Wednesday night with some of the same people plus some new faces. The route took us through Muttenz, Pratteln, Augst, Birsfelden and back to Basel and was around 25 km long. Our final destination was the Irish Pub, Paddy Reilly's, where we all drank a well-earned beer.
....
Friends John and Berenice was over here yesterday to take in the Altwiler Stroßefescht here in Weil. Unfortunately, it was raining the proverbial cats and dogs, but we had a great time nonetheless. In a quick change of plan due to the weather, we ventured into Basel, joined up with former colleague Karl-Heinz, and then watched FCB beat FC Luzern 2-0 at a slippery St. Jakob-Park (goals from Huggel and Chipperfield), before hitting the fest in Weil shortly before 9 o'clock. As soon as we arrived in the Notehobler tent, we got stuck in immediately with our 1-litre glasses of Spaten Oktoberfestbier and joined in with some timeless classics, before moving on later to the odd glass or four of Korn from our mate at the Trebbin bar. Oh dear. (Trebbin is one of Weil's twin towns, incidentally.)

After John and Berenice left at around midday today, I read the paper and then played the aforementioned game of rounders. A cracking weekend all round, really.

Monday 1 September 2008

It's been a Weil...

Well, just like last year, August has been rather quiet on the blogging front. There were mitigating circumstances this time, in that I had food poisoning for a good while. I'd never had food poisoning before, and wouldn't recommend it. However, I'm now more or less back to my old self.

Admittedly, August isn't the most eventful of months either. I did go to the Klosterbergfest on Friday evening evening in Basel, though. Very impressed, I was too. The theme of this annual street festival is decidedly latin (Brazilian), but also oriental. The only drawback was that it became slightly overcrowded once the sun went down.