Ms jb, feeling that her friend Ingrid (Frank the Potter's missus) had been hard done by in missing Act 2, schemed with famous potter and friend Steve Fullmer - he won the prestigious Fletcher Challenge award twice - to provide adequate compensation.
This is it.
Click on the image for more detail and you'll see the stage of the theatre, draped with curtains and Igor, having done a runner, sitting stage right stark naked but for his ballet shoes with a firm grip on a bottle, the assumed reason for his absence.
In the audience, you'll see 2 people turned towards the viewer.
That'd be Ingrid and Ms jb.
Here's Steve telling his story
And here's Ingrid getting all emotional on inspection. The words "crazy", "amazing", "wunderbar" feature quite frequently....
If there's a patch of open space in Mainz, they'll either have covered in in cobblestones or the busy chappies from the city's gardening department will have bagsed it and will turn up at regular intervals with a truckload of new plants and proceed to send the original inhabitants to Plant Heaven.
Repeat at regular intervals.
This one is just behind the Dom and right next to Helen's "Not so Moveable Type"
So you think you're all modern and 21st Century with your underfloor or ducted heating...
Yeah right.
The Romans beat you to it by about 2 millennia, mate.
This is the remains of the Roman Baths in Mainz, located in the park between the Maison de France and the Proviantamt - it's been waymarked by some industrious person - and gives a good idea of how ahypocaust works.
Central furnace, raised floors, heat is transmitted through the channels and warms the floor to a cosy 25ºC.
One of them is fairly new at the job, so he hasn't cottoned on to the fact that you have to constantly wail and moan about what a tough life it is and how they pay you a pittance and all the hours you work (yeah, right - 250 hours a year. I used to rack that up in a month....) and the students are disrespectful and he should be back in industry where he could be earning a MINT and getting some RESPECT.
Not like MFTP, who has been doing it long enough to have it down to a fine art.
But this is how the Profs used to live in Mainz in the 19th century.
Very elegant French Classical houses, with ancillary buildings for - get this - livery stables and servants' quarters.
Maybe they do have something to moan about after all......
"Struwwelpeter" - Shock-headed Peter or Scruffy Peter (Mark Twain's translation) - is a character in a book of 19th century children's' stories, subtitled "Pretty Stories and Funny Pictures" in English.
Dr Heinrich Hoffmann was a physician in Frankfurt who was underwhelmed by the choice of children's books at the time.
So he wrote and illustrated some stories for his own children, was pressed by family and friends to publish them and the rest is history.
People get carried away by this Euro 2008 business.(Some are blissfully unaware of its existence, but that's another story...)
Overnight, park benches (these are at the Vertical Village) appear in the colours of participants' national flag.
It's the Phantom Painter. (Well-placed sources tell me that my mate Christoph had a hand in it...)
France was first, following closely by the locals, who made sure that everyone knew that it wasn't a dyslexic Belgian flag by stating the blindingly obvious.
A retaliatory strike by the Romanians is expected within days.
This is Marek, a cool young guy from the end of the road.
I was pottering about in the garden the other evening and he was there in a flash, big smile on his face, telling me about the "Go Africa - Ein Tag für Afrika" project they're involved in at school (They're doing a 15km run or something similarly strenuous)
"So you'd like me to sponsor you, then?" I ventured.
"Yep", he said.
A done deal, and afterwards we had an interesting chat together with Ms. jb about school and stuff and then pointed him across the road to Famous Reporters Birgit and Hans-Willi who are generous to a fault.
Trinkhallen (drinking halls) are ubiquitous in Germany.
One of the ones close to the Hauptbahnhof in Mainz definitely leaves its mark, though.
Patrons flip off their bottle caps onto the road where they're promptly - weather-dependent, of course - integrated into the road surface by a combination of pressure and heat.
Sounds a bit like metamorphic geology to me.
A new research project for Professor Dr Heliospheric, perhaps...?
Mixed marriages are tricky things at the best of times, but sporting events tend to apply unusual stress to any relationship.
We don't have a problem at our place - New Zealand's soccer team has only ever qualified for the World Cup once (in 1978), the All Blacks will never play Germany at rugby and the most recent hockey encounter made a whole column inch on the third page of the sports section. (6-2 for Germany, if you must know.)
But when it comes to Euro 2008, you bound to run into problems.
Here's a classic example - German wife, Austrian husband, deciding match last night to determine who makes it into the quarterfinals.
Someone slept on the sofa last night, that's for sure....
Odile Landragin is legendary in these parts for her stunning herb and aromatics garden.
So legendary, in fact, that the local paper has assigned her the elevated status of Official French Fan for the duration of Euro 2008, which involves getting your picture in the paper and making wild forecasts* of the score of the upcoming matches involving Les Bleus.
(*In her case, not very accurately, but anyway...)
She also has an army of helpers who jump into the breach when she's off doing lectures on herbs ("It doesn't HAVE to be mint" is one of them) or is otherwise engaged.
They go under the generic name of the "Fleissigen Lieschens" or "Buzy Lizzies" and here's one of them whom we bumped into at one of the participants at the Open Gardens day today, selling some quite unusual plants.
Mukunuwenna (Alternanthera sessilis), for example, a Sri Lankan (Ceylonese to the rest of you..) staple that's a sort of leafy vegetable (use it in salads) and is good for the kidneys and eyes according to TCM.
Or rasberry sage (Salvia spec.) which has red flowers and tiny aromatic leaves. Great in fruit salads.
I wish she'd had something for the brain, because mine's definitely shot and I can't for the life of me remember her name (It's Sibylle, by the way)
But I just smile and bellow "Lieschen!" in a joyous voice and she appears to be quite happy with that...
In my book, it's OK to be a tad mistrustful of big Life Science companies.
A big companies, actually.
But I have a very soft spot for Boehringer-Ingelhem, with is headquartered just down the road in Ingelheim.
They sponsor an annual exhibition of a major (as in Picasso, Warhol major) artist and charge a pittance for admission.
The curatorship is stunning - I thought last year's Picasso exhibition was skilfully presented, but the current Miro exhibition (the 49th) just knocks yer socks off. A whole wall dedicated to the "Archipel Sauvage" series of water-tint etchings.
... when your national football team beats the team of the country you're living in.
Which is what happened the other night when Croatia comprehensively and deservedly stuffed Germany 2:1 in the Euro 2008.
Which is why Denis, the cool young guy who mans the asparagus and strawberry stand at the top of the hill, is wearing Croatian strip and has a wry smile on his face.
"But you should have seen me last night at 10 o'clock......." he said.
Reminds me of when I was working in England in the early 1970's and England desperately tried for 90 minutes to score a goal - a single goal - against Poland to qualify for the World Cup.
Didn't happen and when I got into work next day, all anyone said to me was "Don't talk about the *@#%ing football".
These manicured rows of lavender are squeezed in at the back of the Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) in Mainz and between a jumble of flyovers and access roads.
As soon as shearing's due to begin, the temperature drops.
29ºC on Tuesday, 22º yesterday and we'll be lucky to see 18º today.
It's the "Schafskälte" - "literally "Sheeps' Cold" - the cold snap that pops up around 11 June with a regularity of - get this - 89%!
There are a couple of meteorological old wives' tales like this - the Frigid Saints in mid-May (Pankratius, Servatius, Bonifatius and the "Chilly Sophie) and "Siebenschläfer", the equivalent of Groundhog Day.
This is how much of the asparagus is grown around here.
(That'd be "Spargel", the blanched stuff that you have to peel, as opposed to the green stuff that you don't).
They cover the mounds with plastic sheeting that's black on one side (to absorb the sun's energy and warm the soil) and white on the other (to reflect the sun's rays and regulate the growth) and they switch them around as needed.
Too much messing around with Nature for my liking.
We'll stick with Lydia Bugner, thanks all the same..
Big event at the moment is the European Football Championships (rest of the world read: soccer) being jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria.
They don't have a chance of winning, but it appears to have been their turn. (Good at skiing, though).
Germany played Poland last night and the local business people here in the rural metropolis that is Klein-Winternheim got together and sponsored a big truck with a thumping great screen which was parked on the Andreas Square between the Town Hall and the church last night.
Klaus Hafner, the stadium announcer for Mainz 05, the local professional team, turned up to do the MC honours and the evening turned out very nicely, with Germany stuffing beating the Poles 2:0.
7 year old Sophie from up the road turned up on one of her frequent visits the other week to proudly inform us that she'd won the Reading Contest for her year (Year 2) at our local primary school and that she'd be going on to the regional contest.
And would we come along?
Please?
Would we ever!
So off we toddled to the school in Nieder-Olm yesterday for the next (and final) round.
Years 2 through 5 took part with 3 kids in each group and it was an excellent event.
Excellent enough to attract the Mayor on his day off for a photo op.
I'd like to say that Sophie (on the left in the white pants and red sandals) won, but she was second.
To the BIG KID in the blue and white striped shirt.
There's the Federal Horticultural Show - the Bundesgartenschau - held biannually and it's such a huge prestige object that cities are queueing up to apply for the honour of hosting it in 2021...
And then there's the State Horticultural Show - the Landesgartenschau - held at varying intervals, depending on which state's prepared to go into how much debt how often.
Rhineland-Palatinate has a 4 year cycle and this year, it's Bingen's turn, a city on the Rhine and just a short drift down river from Mainz.
Advertising all over the place for it, and I was pretty impressed by this floral display of the show's logo in the Roseninsel in Bad-Kreuznach the other day.
Rue - Ruta graveolens - is one of those herbs that you'll rarely find a use for.
It featured prominently in Middle Eastern and Roman cuisine in ancient times, but it is decidedly bitter.
It's also phytophototoxic, which means if it rubs on your skin while you're sweating in the sun, you'll end up with an itchy tattoo Good thing that it's decorative, then...
"There's fennel for you, and columbines:
there's rue for you; and here's some for me:
we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays:
O you must wear your rue with a difference..."
Thus spoke Ophelia in Hamlet IV.5..
However, there IS a use for it
Green pea soup
Boil 300gm of deep frozen peas in 1 litre of vegetable and chicken stock (50/50) for 5 minutes. Strain and puree.
Fry a finely chopped onion in butter until soft, mix in 1 tbs. of wholemeal flour and add the stock.
Add the pea puree and 1 tsp. of brown sugar and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
Mix in 3 tbs. of creme fraiche and chopped mixed herbs (Lemon balm, salad burnet, chives, parsley, oregano, thyme, rue, sedum) and top with croutons.
You can tell how good my dentist Klaus Höffler is by the fact that he doesn't need to do a lot.
When my old dentist retired in 1998, I spent quite a bit of time strapped down in Doc Höffler's surgery while he compensated for a fairly "conservative" past dental philosophy.
[Read: "Neglect"]
But since things patched up properly, it's been piece of cake.
I go for a check-up every 6 months, his people ultrasound away any tartar build-up, he pops in for a quick look-see and that's it.
"See you in 6 months" he says.
My kind of dentist.
Of course, brushing twice a day and flossing regularly helps, I guess...
The tradition of the "Strausswirtschaft" dates back to 794, when Charlemagne (King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor) issued a Capitulare de Villis , decreeing that vineyards were allowed - with a couple of restrictions - to sell their own wine.
Probably one of the first examples of disintermediation and serious market manipulation, but the word is that the vintage was looking pretty good that year and they needed to empty the barrels for the new harvest.
All the vintner had to do was to hang a wreath of vine leaves - the "Strauss" - above his gate, declaring that he's open for business.
And the tradition has continued since.
They're only allowed to serve their own wines, they can only be open for 16 weeks a year and - since 1771 (when I assume they started encroaching on someone else's territory) - can only serve simple (but mostly hearty) snacks.
Most of the vineyards around here split their season into spring and autumn.
Which is excellent.
You get last year's vintage shortly after it's been bottled in spring and the new wine (or Federweissser) - pretty much straight out of the barrel. (It's basically grape juice in an early stage of fermentation, unfiltered and creeps up on you, if you don't watch out.)
And of course the serving wenches are a sight to behold.
Can be, anyway.
This is Isabelle Gres, Klaus Gres' wife, from their eponymous vineyard in Appenheim
Or nutter, decidely a few bolied eggs short of a picnic and away with the fairies for most of the time, depending on which camp you're in.
Probably a bit of both.
Big retrospective being hosted in Mainz currently in the Christuskirche (Christ Church), The Landesmuseum (State Museum) and the Rathaus (Town Hall) and it's worth the admission of €9/$14.
Excellent models of many of his architectural work - all soft curves, no 2 windows alike, bright colours, roofs covered with vegetation - and his graphic works - stamps for the United Nations, proposals for flags, conservation cause posters.
This is the wall of school kids' interpretations of his work.
Remember Igor Mamonov, the absentee ballet dancer?
