Done

I just wanted to let you know that I have finished the last chapter of my thesis 5 minutes ago. Now only the conclusion is missing! Wish me luck! If anyone still wants to read it for a bit of spell-checking, let me know, but I have to hand it in by Friday - but I am also happy to give you just a few pages! You can choose between Theory, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials and Narnia!

Yippy!!!!

Something to divert me from having missed my deadline again....

We had a very enjoyable evening yesterday, even though it kept me from finishing my thesis. But it was definitely worth it. It included a lot of work, as you will see, it cost me a whole day and I felt so stuffed afterwards, that I could hardly sleep.

In Germany there is a TV show called

As my flatmate is a great fan of it, Jasmin and me decided to give her a voucher for "The Perfect Dinner" for her birthday. She was allowed to invite two more friends and of course we did not tell her what the dinner would consist of. So last night was THE day and to stop her from sneaking, she had to leave our flat by 2pm and was not allowed to return till half past six.

And this is what we managed to do:


1. The decoration
As our living room has red and fawn wallpaper, we descided to use these colour on the table, too. Looks good, doesn't it??? I especially like the servicing, which took Jasmin to fold only one minute each - don't even ask how long it took me to do only ONE!


















2. The starter
To great the guests I allowed some of my precious "Archers" (a peach liquor from England, that you unfortunately cannot buy in Germany :-( )stock to be served - with lemon and ice of course.

Now for the food. We served "Lamb's salad with an orange juice dressing and Parmesan cheese and Puff Pastry snails filled with cream cheese and ham". That was absolutely delicious (at least we think so...) and it looked quite fancy as well!

3. The main course
As they are all very fond of cocktails, including myself, I mixed some nice things, but do not ask me what exactly I mixed, I only know there was some wodka, gin, rum, baccardi and various fruit juices involved.

Some of you know that I am very fond of Asian cooking and so we decided to experiment a bit, combining various recipes and just wait to see what happens.

I bought some chicken breast the day before and marinated it with joghurt, masala, garlic, salt, peper, curry and tomato puree. I left this overnight in the fridge. This is the traditional way of making a Chicken Tikka (but I left out the food colouring!), which is definitely my favourite Indian dish.
So yesterday evening I fried onions, fresh garlic and ginger and hot chilies in a pan, added the meat and left it to simmer for 10 minutes. Then I topped it up with coconut milk (which I took from a Balinese recipe), added some fresh herbs and spices and left it for another 10 minutes. Before I put it on the table I added some lemon juice, which gives the dish the perfect final touch. Et voilà:

"Balinese Chicken Tikka with Curry Rice and Naan Bread"

4. The desert
Together with a nice "Tia Maria on Ice" we presented a "White Chocolate Cream with Blueberries"

(without words)

Deadline missed

Well, today is the day of my personal "deadline" to finish my thesis. And what have I managed? I have to be honest - half of it (52 pages) are completely done, the other half still needs some thorough work over the next 5 days.

So my final deadline moved to next Sunday, which will be the 18th. I have to have it at the Copy shop for binding on the 30th at 5 pm! Anyone bored over the weekend and want to do some spell-checking and the like? Everyone welcome ;-) I have 50 pages to offer and about the same amount to come soon.

Those who don't know already, the topic is: "The narrative creation of fantasy worlds in the novels of J.K. Rowling, P. Pullman and C.S. Lewis"

I have to admit the first 30 pages are hard reading, as it this time-consuming theory bit, but the rest should be light reading for those who like Harry Potter, His Dark Materials and the Chronicles of Narnia.

So wish me luck, that I don't catch this stupid influenca or something (but I hardly leave the house, the only person who could contaminate me then would be my flatmate) and can work my regular nightshifts for the next week or so.

For those who have already written their thesis, is the panik-like feeling of not finishing on time normal or is this as we say in German "house-made"?