Mission accomplished! The two tasks are done. - Unfortunately that was it, apart from them, my to do list is still exactly as long as before the weekend.

I just loooove grocery shopping! It would be even more expensive fun if I had somebody here who could cook with me things of all those things I don’t buy because I don’t know what to do with them. (For example fish, seafood and all the exotic ingredients.) Actually this shopping tour was already a bit exceptional as I abstained from some of my usual choices: Leech (good for soup, sauces, Chinese style dishes), mushrooms, eggplant and courgette (good to combine with minced meat and for pasta). Here’s my complete list of yesterday’s raid through Safe-on-Foods:

• 3lb carrots
• 3lb potatoes
• 2 chorizo sausages (These first three are meant for a so-called Garden Stew, one of zitali’s and my cooking favourites. Unfortunately I forgot to buy herbs and soup cubes.)
• 1 head of salad
• 475ml bottle Caesar salad dressing (Am thinking of adding some bacon - yummy!)
• 180g can of tuna (emergency reserve for another week like this one.)
• 2 apples (Golden Delicious)
• 2 nectarines
• 378ml can of pineapples – always good for a curry or a sweet and sour (or rather hot) chicken.
• 2 peppers (1 green, 1 red) – peppers, like carrots are a must for my fridge.
• 390g broccoli – I’ve hardly ever bought broccoli, but I like it, so why not include it into some Chinese style dish or the like.
• 2 packs of instant noodle soups (spicy chicken, oriental) – Sometimes it just has to go as quick as possible, and a small meal for 33c isn’t bad either.
• 370g imitation crab salad (flavoured Pollock) – just looked nice so I picked it.
• 180g piece of herb & spice cheese – ditto.
• 1kg brown sugar – safety for two more months..
• 1l milk (Homo - by accident. When I realised the choice at home I at first wondered: What on earth was I thinking when picking it. But as soon as I had opened my fridge I knew the answer: Safe-on-Foods’ Homo is yellow, just like Safeway’s Partly Skimmed which I bought last time.. And by the way, Safe-on-Foods too does not sell real full fat milk.)

Total: CDN $35.91 (ca. 25€) – Not bad isn’t it? Converting it now, I’m actually quite surprised. In general I have the impression that Edmonton prices are a little bit higher than the Austrian, especially what concerns cheese and ham. (Shall I give you the price of the individual items so that you can compare? :-)

That stuff should bring me through the whole week, right? So I thought as well, after I had put all these things into the basket. And suddenly I realised: There is no whole week this week. Thursday in the middle of the night early morning David and I will already be flying to Vancouver and we’ll return Monday evening. So better prepare yourself for a couple of days without your favourite blog. (Although your endurance in reading is flattering, don’t complain now; rather ask yourself how many days have passed since you last wrote me an e-mail and use the days accordingly! :-)

Do you also want to know what I had for dinner? I had one of my "Put some more or less random things together and see how it works out" – creation. I bet you all know this situation: You suddenly have an idea of something you could paint or do by handicrafts. You develop the idea in your mind. Than you try to put it into reality, and realise that your hands just can’t follow your mind. The mind’s great picture ends into a feeble experiment. That is sooo depressing, isn’t it? (Usually with my cooking experiments it’s something in between. The results are quite edible – at least for my not very spoiled palate – but I don’t feel confident enough to cook them for somebody else.) However, there are also these scarce occasions when it just works out. This, fortunately, happened yesterday.

I inherited a glass of sour cherry sauce from Lilla. Actually the label says it’s meant for dipping, but I thought, I should try to experimentalise a bit: Chicken meat, carrots, onion, curry, salt, pepper, a bit of hot chilli – and sour cherry sauce, apple pieces and nectarine pieces. It would be David’s nightmare because he hates the combination of fruits and meat – but I was very, very satisfied. Yuuuuummmyyyy! In the end I think it didn’t taste much of the cherry sauce, apart from the fact that the sauce was as sweet as I wanted it to be. Well, maybe I’ll try dipping plain meat net time. Or what about trying to include the sauce into the batter or.. (Actually I quite like cooking, I would just need some professional guidance...)

I was at sitting at "Ala's" computer, right next door, when Lilla left the office yesterday evening. I could so feel what it felt like: That moment, when you've emptied your office, which from now on won't be your office anymore. You step out. You have a last look back. You breathe in and switch off the light. And although you can't really believe it you still know that all those little things you've just done, you did them for the last time. You are leaving this behind and you are leaving forever. It is over. Over.

It's such a strange, strange feeling: Lilla was the one unlucky person who had the den office without a window, without daylight. The room's wall towards the building's main corridor is partly a glass front, closed by blinds. As a consequence, already when approaching the institute I could see whether the room was lit (Yippie!) or not, whether she was in (Yippie!) or not. The light was a warm welcome, a promise that it was worth to enter the institute. I still can't fully believe that for the next two weeks this window will always stay dark, and even afterwards the light won't be the same again..

Furchtbar ist es mit der Zeit: Ich habe das Gefuehl das Wochenende ist gerade erst vorbei und auf einmal ist schon wieder Wochenende. Was an sich eigentlich das perfekte Leben waere - wuesste ich nicht, dass alles, was ich in den dazwischenliegenden, so schnell verfliegenden, Tagen erledigen wollte, noch immer unerledigt ist.

Inklusive einer beaengstig langen Liste zu beantwortender E-Mails. Und bezueglich Wochenend-Aktivitaeten gaebs auch Stoff fuer vier oder 5 Berichte. Das nur die beiden angenehmsten unerledigten Dinge. Den beiden wichtigsten werde ich mich gleich heute abend und morgen (nach dem auschlaaaaafen) widmen.

Der Abwasch.

Das Foto ist von vorgestern, aber es sieht heute noch immer genau so aus. Und vor dem Wochenende hat's auch nicht viel anders ausgesehen. Dazukommen kann naemlich nichts mehr, weil das bereits das ganze Geschirr ist.

Einkaufen.
Abendessen bestand dieser Tage aus der verzweifelten Suche nach essbaren Resten im Kuehlschrank. Im Gemuesefach herrscht seit dem Wochenende gaehnende Leere - abgesehen von Zwiebel und Knoblauch, mit denen allein man halt wenig mehr anfangen kann als Spaghetti Aglio e Olio. (Hatte ich eigentlich eh schon ewig nicht mehr..) Das Tiefkuehlfach bietet einen aehnlich tristen Anblick. Abgesehen von der Rubrik "Wann kriegen wir endlich wieder Fleischhhhh!" (© Lord of the Rings II) - Huehnerfleisch, Faschiertes, Speckstreifen, Wuerstchen - beschraenkt sich die Auswahl auf Toastbrot und Eis. Die zwei Packungen Cereals sind auch schon aus, was bedeutet, dass ich seit der Loesung des "milk probleme" bereits 950 Gramm davon vertilgt habe. Zucker ist auch noch immer aus. Gestern, am Heimweg von Eric war's gerade 5 nach 12, der Safeway war schon zu - aber ich hatte ja fuer heute noch eine Ein-Heferl-Tee-Menge Honig uebrig.. Hier uebrigens ein Teil des gestrigen Abendessen bei Eric (Beilage war ein exzellenter Salat und das Dessert Chips): Ich entschied mich dafuer, Brahma mitzubringen. Was waere passender fuer einen Besuch bei Eric als brasilianisches Bier? Das (die vier um genau zu sein) tat gut! Wenn ich's recht ueberleg: Was brauch ich da noch Lebensmittel zu Hause..

Taeusche ich mich oder gab's da nicht mal jemanden, der es in seinen ersten Tagen in Kanada tatsaechlich wagte, auch nur die leise Hoffnung zu aeussern, hierzulande die Disziplin seines hausmaennischen Wirkens verbessern zu koennen?

Ala has left yesterday. Lilla will be leaving tomorrow. These days are sad and confusing. Lucka is returning home next Saturday while David and I will be visiting Vancouver but in the week after the four new ones will arrive, even before David leaves. So I think these days are the ones when the gap is most obvious. Despite what I said on Sunday, I am sad.

I like(d) them, each of them for different reasons and in a different way, depending on what my inner voice told me and depending on the amount of time I spent with them. Time. Time was so short. In fact, one feeling invariably applies to all of them: I wish, I had more time and could have got to know them better and I don’t want them to leave. Each of them as a person of his/her own, of course, not as a group. Because what I said on Sunday is still true. With these people it’s a bit like with different kinds of liquor. Enjoying them separately is a pleasure but mixing them all together causes headache.

I didn’t see Ala anymore before she left, but she left me a moving little farewell card. The flattering personal lines I will keep to myself, however, I want to share a quotation. I’m I bit puzzled why she has chosen it, but I like it very much:

“Always set a high value on spontaneous kindness.
He, whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.”
(S. Johnson)

And now I have to leave. Last supper lunch with Lilla. I’m sure I will barely recognise her flat as it must be fairly empty by now. Packed suitcases and bags all around. The thick scent of farewell. Melancholia...