Naturelich

The final day of my advent calendar. A sad day! I wish this could go on forever, but it can't (can it?)! I have found a delightful new assortment of tea. Some I have already tried, others lie still ahead of me. Today, I found a Neuhaus chocolate and a roibos called Oranje Trüffel (Dutch truffles). If you know what Oranje Trüffels are, please let me know by leaving a comment. I had first thought of a code name for products sold in Amsterdam. But then it occured to me: this has to be legal. Otherwise Dehlwisch would not be allowed to sell it in Germany. But I still can't figure what these truffles are. They smell wonderful and I shall try the tea soon. For now, I have to pack all my stuff! It's time to travel to Osnabrück - Christmas time, folks. Get some last minute presents and some old-fashioned non-digital photo material to take some enjoyable pix.

From now, this blog is closed down for a few days...

Happy holidays to all of you!!

Posted by Naturelich at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 23rd my beautiful advent calendar was again full of surprise: I found a Ceylon Elephant Brand. Never heard of this, have you? Well, me neither. It smells very strong - but not like elephant at all. Lucky me, I guess ;-)

Posted by Naturelich at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The fourth day in Basel. I am enjoying my stay here although I could use more time to buy some additional christmas presents. I always took pride in buying presents earlier than the very last day, but this year it just has to be different. We shall see what shops still have to offer. My homeflight is scheduled to leave at around 1700 so I still have a few hourse in the evening to attend to the household and to wrap some of the presents I already have. Additionally, I am very much looking forward to opening the remaining doors of my advent calendar (all but one, of course). Maybe I can enjoy another good cup of tea - for relaxation purposes.

Tomorrow I will take off for Osnabrück (after getting the last prezzies in Düsseldorf) where I shall enjoy Christmas with my family. Happy Holidays to everyone reading these lines...

Posted by Naturelich at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 22nd I found a Lapacho Vanille tea in my advent calendar. It is not a herbal tea! Unfortunately, I have not yet found the time to taste it but the smell is very very promising: vanilla, vanilla, vanilla...

Posted by Naturelich at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I found an Erdbeer Pfeffer (Strawberry Pepper) tea in my advent calendar. This is probably the strangest kind of tea I have ever seen! It smells like strawberry and contains peppercorns. Can you guess the color? Inspired by the strawberries I suppose Dehlwisch had to use red peppercorns! Interesting selection! Do you wanna know how it tastes like? Well, it actually tastes real good as the pepper gives some spice to the strawberries. Quite harmonic, although very much unexpected. A great recommendation for a special tea gift...

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I arrived in Basel yesterday morning and was surprised by all the snow at the airport and throughout the city. I was told it was snowing heavily on Sunday! Thus, I decided to visit the christmas market in the evening. Although it was rather cold (-8 C) the market itself was wonderful. Since this has already become a kind of tradition, I enjoyed a Klöpfer (a special kind of sausage). The booth were fabulous and have somewhat changed over the years (which cannot be said about all the christmas markets). It was also very nice, that the booth were arranged in a more dungeon-like fashion. This way, the wind was not able to penetrate the spot that much. In addition, it makes discovering new things far more enjoyable.

In a lucky moment I was even able to find another christmas present which is really beautiful. Although I can't tell you what it is...

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On December 20th I my advent calendar offered a good old English BreakfastTea. This one is for Sundays!!

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The keyboard issues have now been resolved. I am typing these lines and all future blog entries on my new Microsoft keyboard. It is again wireless but it is not as freaking incompatible as Logitech. At least that's what I hope!! We shall see. The keys have a nice touch and there's some additional multimedia keys on it. I was used to those on my previous keyboard, so I figured it would be nice to have them again! There's one diadvantage which I didn't realize when looking at the keyboard in the shop: the Delete, Home, End, Page up, Page down keys are different from regular keyboards. This still causes me trouble but I hope to get used to it sooner or later.

Posted by Naturelich at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, I found a Cinese white tea in my advent calendar door along with another Neuhaus chocolate. The tea is called Pai Mu Tan.
I already enjoyed the chocolate and have the water boiling for the tea. Happy fourth Sunday in advent!

Posted by Naturelich at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You wanna know what I had in today's advent calendar door? Number 18 ... and about one more week to go! So far, it has been a magnificent time and there is more to come: today I found an orange pekoe called Java Malabar. It tastes delicious... and I still have some Lompen left to sweeten it a bit!

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After having lost (or was it stolen?) my iPod I have just received my new iPod Photo 40GB! Cool thing with my email address engraved on it. This hopefully protects me from loosing it again. I believe it is definitely time to do something about the keyboard situation!! I need to get my music library onto this device! I have even bought an iPod car connector in order to listen to that stuff when on the road. Media Markt - I am coming!

Posted by Naturelich at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Naturelich - it had to hit me one day! I am experiencing keyboard problems on my main machine. So the posting frequency and length is obviously slowing down a little bit as I am unable to get the advent calendar pictures from that machine onto my laptop. Or: should I take the chance and get a new keyboard - one which again has a cable connection to the hardware?! Not too bad an idea, I can tell you...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I discovered a wonderful Mango tea in my advent calendar. I love mango!!

Posted by Naturelich at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The tooth which had caused me so much trouble earlier this month has been repaired. Upon entering the dentist room, I was immediately conftronted with aruond 60 different drills. Psychologically clever to let me wait for another 15 minutes with my imagination going wild. It is now fixed for christmas but I need to revisit my newest friend to get more stuff done. Not only this tooth needs more treatment, some others will get attention, too. If you are in church over christmas, please light a candle for them... ;-)

Posted by Naturelich at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 16th. The tooth day. A few more minutes before leaving to the dentist. I thought opening my advent calendar door #16 would cheer me up! And it did: I found a green Formosa Gunpowder tea. The leaves look quite like gunpowder. I wonder why this tea got it's name??? Anyway, I won't have time to drink anything for the next few hours. :-((

Posted by Naturelich at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I found a Darjeeling FTGFOP Badamtam tea in my advent calendar. As I did not have time to have a good cup of tea yesterday evening, I am now enjoying yesterday's Sanddorn Sahne tea. Very lovely, indeed!

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Next to another trip to Bonn, this day offered a Sanddorn Sahne Rooibusch (sea buckthorn cream roibos) tea in door #14 of my advent calendar. Only 10 more days to go...

Posted by Naturelich at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I discovered a Chinese Tarry Lapsang Souchong tea in my advent calendar. Unfortunately, as it was a very long business day I cannot try it tonight. Instead I shall enjoy a nice roibos tea from one of the other days...

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The Special Extended Edition of The Lord of The Ring: The Return of the King contains two hidden features.

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Sunday, the 12th. Half of the advent calendar has been opened, the second half to go! You wanna know what was inside? Well, today I got a Spicy Chai tea which goes with a lot of milk. How fortunate I was: lucky me had just bought two liters of milk, yesterday. So here I am updating this blog and enjoying a cup of Chai together with a wonderful Neuhaus chocolate. Excellent Sunday, I may add. Although I have to study for my psychology exam. A cup of good tea always makes studying easier. What a motto!

Posted by Naturelich at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been done! The first bunch of christmas presents have been wrapped! I cannot talk about the details but it took me a little while to cope with the huge number of presents: two, at the minute! But there is certainly more to come ;-) See you on 24th of December in my favorite shopping mall...

Posted by Naturelich at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is the day of the grand finale on the Lord of the Rings trilogy! The package arrived yesterday. I am having port wine to celebrate the event. What a long-awaited day. I can't wait to watch all the new scenes and the specials. As always, this is going to be hilarious stuff!!

Posted by Naturelich at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, my advent calendar surprise is a green Darjeeling TGFOP1 called Phoobsering. I am still wondering, whether this tea is Denglish. If it is I am wondering whether it contains a spelling mistake. The water for it is boiling, but I hope I won't start "pubsing" afterwards... ;)

Posted by Naturelich at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 10th, the wonderful advent calendar by Shelak & Raven contained a tea called Ostfriesische Broken Mischung (East-Frisian Broken Mixture), a rather strong tea - as Frisian and Naturelichans around the world love it...

Posted by Naturelich at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Having opened todays advent calendar box, I envision myself as Alfred Biolek saying the name of today's tea over and over again: Kürbissimo - with Alfred's funny lisp voice. Kürbissimo (Maximum pumpkin) is a rooibos tea with pieces of honeydew melon and apple plus sunflower + nettle leaves. The water is already boiling!

Posted by Naturelich at 8:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 8th will remain a memorable day. For the first time in my life, I was introduced to the devil of toothache. Hell! The tooth started aching the evening before. "Well, important full-day workshop scheduled tomorrow (in Bonn). Try to sleep and go to the dentist this week. Hakuna matata", I thought. In the morning and during the day it wasn't all that bad (although consistenly apparent). On the way back (at around 17:14 hrs) the devil of pain and agony hit me on the Autobahn. It was unbearable!!

Since I had not yet found a dentist in Düsseldorf, I was happy that my colleague was able to give me a recommendation. The good news was: the dental practice was still open and took me as an emergency.

Well, after a while it became obvious that the practice is rather famous for its presence on German television. Does Dr. Alexander Berstein ring a bell? No? Maybe The Swan or better the German installment on ProSieben? Well, although I don't know the show (and don't want to), a bell was certainly ringing in my had! For Whom The Tooth Bell Tolls... I was happy to receive an injection at 19:12 hrs which made the pain stop. He then took a Gates-Glidden-drill and my eyes closed. Ignoring sound, smell and everything else around me.

Our next date is on Friday. Please keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck...

Posted by Naturelich at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 8, my beautiful advent calendar contained China Rosen Tee (Chinese Rose Tea). I still have not tried this one, due to some other events happening today, but shall enjoy this delight over the weekend!

Posted by Naturelich at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December, 7: The day after Nikolaus. A very difficult day in every advent calendar's life. Expectations are rising, since Nikolaus has this huge wonderful goodie inside. The 7th door can only loose! Always - each and every year since I am capable of opening advent calendars - the day after Nikolaus has always been a great disappointment. The chocolates were smaller, or the engravements were not as cool as Nikolaus himself. Even in my sisters advent calendar which I probably was not supposed to open (anyway.)

So, you wanna know what I got today?

Well, I have become a beta tester now, as today's bag was filled with an Assam tea, second flush FTGFOP1, called Budla Beta. Apparently, a product not yet ready for release, containing lots of bugs and without the full functionality of a full release...?!

But...

...together with these Aachener Printen I bought from our local bakery store it is delicious. Maybe I should be a beta tester more often.... :) Happy Dec. 7, 2004!

Posted by Naturelich at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 6th, the advent calendar bag was reaaaaally huge (see above). Nikolaus probably thought I behaved well last year. No objections from me... :)
The bag held Honeybush tea (Honeybusch Süße Sünde = Honeybush sweet sin). I have never tried Honeybush tea before! Nikolaus therefore put some additional info into the bag: Honeybush herb tea is apparently extracted from a plant in africa and contains little tanning agents and zero "Teein". It contains calcium, potassium and magnesium and needs to boil for 20 minutes. Which leaves enough time to enjoy another Lompen - a special kind of black sugar. These Lompen(s?) (a very special kind of sugar) make the tea a very sweet experience. Thanks Nikolausi....

Posted by Naturelich at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PureJPEG - Filter Unnecessary JPEG Data

PureJPEG filters unnecessary data from your JPEG files, without changing the image. Some JPEG files are accompanied by additional information for classification etc. All this is removed by PureJPEG, thus minimzing the bandwidth requirements on your website. Maybe you have noted, the speed on Naturelich has increased, as I have treated all photos and images with this wonderful tool...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A spamhole has tried to put spam comments onto this site. Dumbass, I have therefore increase comment-policy on this site to only accept comments from people registered at Typekey. Sorry, folks, but I do not want to look through all this garbage. Spam sux...

Posted by Naturelich at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I visited Museum Ludwig's Edward Hopper exhibition yesterday. Hopper (1882-1967), most famous for Nighthawks (1942), focused his art on American civilisation. His paintings seem to tell a story. I found topics like loneliness, the "beauty" of American cities, non-communication, theatre/movies and a lot of others. The exhibition will continue until January 9th, 2005. From what I can remember, the following pieces are exhihbited:

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Today I found a Neuhaus chocolate candy and a Sencha Kaktus-Feige (prickly pear green tea). It's a wonderful delight from Dehlwisch... :)

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Today, I discovered an Orange Oolong in #4 of my beautiful advent calendar. My tea cabinet is getting more and more filled. Almost all drawers are full... But the weekend lies ahead and I will enjoy the one or the other pot of delicious tea. Enjoy and relax!

Posted by Naturelich at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparition, (c) by Blatte

My laptop is now equipped with a December wallpaper. This time, I have chosen a wonderful image from Blatte's page exoteric.roach.org: Apparition. The site contains many galleries with different kind of beautiful fractal images! It is absolutely incredible.

Posted by Naturelich at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever felt fed up of the ding and chord sounds of your favorite operating system? Well, here is your chance to see what modern technology is capable of doing with these...

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Wil Wheaton aka Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation writes his own blog. Among others, the blog contains sections with

Mmmmmmhhh..... Another day, and a wonderful new tea: Crème Caramel Rooibos. And I am already enjoying a pot! Yummieee!

Posted by Naturelich at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a beautiful morning. First thing to do after getting up was to open the next advent calendar "door": I found a Darjeeling autumnal Bannockburn FTGFOP1. Cool, another delicious tea which I will try this evening - oh, and BTW, the Oolong from yesterday way marvelous!

Posted by Naturelich at 7:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You can get Apocalyptica's Bittersweet EP at iTunes music store Germany. This EP features an additional exclusive song as compared to the regular single: it is called Quutamo. Great stuff...

More infos on Quutamo:

Posted by Naturelich at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to Jenny, he-who-forgot-his-digital-camera (Naturelich) has now the possibility to enjoy some great pictures from the listening event.
Jen has also given permission to publish some of her pics on Naturelich blog, but make sure to visit her site for tons of more pictures (section Apocalyptice Pre-Listening Köln). Thank you, Jenny :-))!!

Eicca and Perttu

Fan crowd

Eicca and Perttu (--evil--)

Posted by Naturelich at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yippieehhh! I just took the chance to open my first advent calendar "door"...

Today I found a very lovely Formosa Oolong Fine Champagne tea. Next thing for me to do is boil some water, guys. For those of you who are interested you can visit Dehlwisch to get your own Oolong tea... Thanks to Raven & Shelak !!! ;)

Posted by Naturelich at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)