Dominosteine

December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

DominosteineThe word Dominostein is used to describe a small baked sweet that is eaten at Christmas time in Germany.  It is made up of two or three layers, the base being Lebkuchen, the middle fruit jelly, and the top layer marzipan or persipan.  This is then covered in a thin chocolate coating.

Dominosteine are a relatively recent invention.  They were created in Dresden in 1936 and were popular during the Second World War as a form of sweet due to the small amounts of ingredients needed to make them.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

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Filed Under: Christmas, Food & Drink, German Words Explained, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , ,

Ein neues Buch mit Bildern von den kanarischen Inseln

December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Im letzten Monat erschien ein neuer Bildband über die Kanaren.  Auf 52 Seiten findet man sehr hochwertige Fotografien von den kanarischen Inseln. Das Buch heißt “Exposing Canary Islands I” und ist von dem Fotograf Philip Scheidemann. Beispiele von seiner Arbeit und mehr Informationen über das Buch finden Sie auf seiner Homepage: philipscheidemann.com

Filed Under: Bücher, Lanzarote Tagged With: , ,

Am I stupid?

December 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I’m sorry, but I really do have to ask that question.  With the price of oil falling, the price of petrol at the pumps has been falling too.  Yesterday, 95-octane “super” was down to 1.109€/litre.  On the other hand, when I went to fill up for bio-ethanol the other day, the price had gone up to 0.979€/litre.

Now, for the purposes of this calculation I’ll forget that I get a discount from my dealer on that price.  I remember working out a long time ago that I need about 20% more bio-ethanol to drive the same distance than normal petrol, and at a quick guess this appears to be about right.

So 0.979€ + 20% = 1.175€!  Hang on, that means I’m paying more for trying to be environmentally friendly!

Actually, with my discount I’m probably paying about the same as everyone else at the moment, but if the price of bio-ethanol continues to rise, it will only be a matter of time before many people start to calculate how much of a premium they are prepared to spend before changing back to traditional fuel.

Filed Under: Bio-Ethanol Tagged With: ,

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