viernes, 27 de agosto de 2010

el blog de oscar, the sort of marie claire for men

Bert, a friend of mine, told me that my blog was a sort of “marie claire” for men. That was an interesting remark. I once read in a Nick Hornby book that woman’s magazines have been publishing the same content on each issue for decades: you will always find a diet, tips about fashion, an article on health/beauty and another one about sex.

By taking a look to my blog entries, I can surely recognize many of those themes.

Eating and drinking are essential parts of my blog entries; I simply cannot imagine my blog without recipes or experiences about the best thing on earth: food!

Health and beauty have also been issues in my blog. My anti-ageing body lotion is one example; my problem zones are also well-known by the blog readers.

Fashion is something I do care, but I have never written about it. However, I change my profile picture almost each time I write an entry. Gimm and Lea, two friends, told me years ago that I had a fixation for ugliness. I agree, and many of my profile pics have shown me from my ugliest angle. Take as an example the pale guy on the beach ;-)

The last theme of a woman’s magazine my blog should cover in order to be a woman’s magazine for men is sex. I am afraid I will never reveal funny experiences with the opposite sex (there are only funny things), but I was once close to do so. When I was in Nicaragua, Sarah convinced me not to write about those “not existing activities”. I am glad I didn’t, however, I think that my non-existing sex life is implicit in many of my entries; just recall the “emotional chastity”, a friend of mine loved those two words put together and used them as a message on her skype account.

Thanks for reading el blog de oscar germes, the sort of marie claire for men...even if you are are a she :-)

viernes, 13 de agosto de 2010

I wasn't the palest person in Sitges, but surely the whitest man

Long time no blog…I will start with a mushroom experience two weeks ago: Alethia, a girl from Mexico; Verena from Innsbruck, an English guy who was raised in Kenya and myself went to a forest near Innsbruck to gather chantarels, a yellow mushroom which grows through all Europe; well at least I know it grows in Cataluña, Germany, Slovakia and Lithuania.

The four of us got together three kilos of mushrooms (it is allowed to take up to one kilo per person). It was enough to cook for some 10 people, and we did it. We prepared a chantarel stew, in German called Eierschwammerlgulasch. The main ingredients are chantarels, white wine and crème fraîche (Verena used less cream to maintain the mushrooms taste, but I prefer it creamier). We also prepared Knödels (bread dumplings/albondigas). Those are peach-sized balls made out of dried bread cubes, eggs, onions, garlic and loads of fresh parsley.

The dinner was fantastic: we were ten people in my backyard. As starters we had grilled cherry tomatoes with fresh-grated parmesan, green beans with balsamic and chilli and grilled spring onions with lemon juice.

That was on Sunday; on Thursday I flew to Barcelona and stayed there until Tuesday. It was my first time since January 2007, when I was there with Hannes and Verena (after that trip Verena and I broke up). The last days in Barcelona were great; I stayed with my good old friends Sara and Carol and also met David twice. In Barcelona I also met my mom, who is now chilling in Innsbruck for some weeks.

Since my mom was in Barcelona only once in 1970, she wanted to see the city’s tourist spots (those I wanted to avoid). Carol and I came along with her so see Gracia, el Borne, el Raval, el Barri Gotic, we were also in Montjuïc, Parc Güell and the Barceloneta.

On Sunday we spent the afternoon in Sitges, were I swam using my underwear (I forgot my legendary swim trunks in Innsbruck); that day I was proudly the whitest man on the beach, but not the whitest person, there was an unbeatable girl, I think she was English, on her early 20's and was whiter than milk.