33 Degrees

Yesterday was a fruitful day. As we had a few errands to attend to, I had to wake up a little earlier than usual. I am not an early riser so I was already feeling grouchy when I dragged myself off the bed. Went to the bathroom and discovered an angry pimple-like red rash on my cheek! Great start to my day! Showered and had breakfast in my cranky self. Herr Rieger remained cheerful, trying hard not to be affected by me. Smart of him! Left the apartment and were met with a full blast of heatwave. 33 degrees, especially in a car without air-condition. Perfect! Turned up the volume on the radio, trying to forget the heat we were surrounded in. It actually worked. Felt better after humming to a few good tunes.

First destination: WMF. We wanted to try our luck in exchanging our pan, bought a year ago. Either we abused the pan unknowingly or we have no clues how to care for one, because even eggs stuck on it. My Ikea pan works better than it! Since WMF products provide lifetime guarantee, so there we were. To my surprise, we were told a brand new pan will be sent to us. No fuss, no questions asked. And guess what? Our old pan was actually bought during a sale. What a deal! On top of that, we managed to get a sauce ladle which we have been looking for the longest time. It matches our cutlery. Happy!

Next, met Steffen and Isa at Ikea. We needed some furniture to convert our spare room into a study room. After almost 3 hours of shopping, all of us got what we came for.

The heat was unrelenting once we were outside. A few minutes into discussion over where to go for dinner, we decided impromptu to BBQ at Steffen's and Isa's place. Cool idea! We were to get meat while they the side dishes.

We ended up with 10 pieces of assorted meat fillets, 2 fish fillets, 2 kinds of salads and at least 6 assorted bread to share among the 4 of us. Despite that, we finished almost all of it as the food was simply delicious! However, by the time I was working on my last piece of meat, I desperately needed a cup of espresso. After I drained the whole cup at one go, my tummy felt less bloated immediately. Espresso is something which I've grown to love ever since I got here.

The weather cooled down significantly in the late evening and it was very pleasant to sit out and chill. It was also the first time I got to learn more about Steffen and Isa after my one and half year here. Isa and I share a number of similar traits. No wonder both of us are capricorn. Of course Steffen and Herr Rieger have a lot to say about that. Good that they now have each other to confide in about their sometimes unreasonable the other halves.

We stayed well into the night and left feeling good about the day.