Do You Care What I Like?

If you do, my list of top musical things from 2009 appears below. If you'd also like to see what my excellent former colleagues and cohorts found enjoyable last year, please peruse this fine newsletter, as compiled by my compadre + the dude currently finding Starburst lollies under my ex-keyboard, Lil Pat. Nice work Pat.

Top Releases + songs

Nite Jewel – Good Evening
The xx - xx
Jack Penate – Everything Is New
The Mess Hall – For The Birds
Miike Snow – Miike Snow
Health – Get Color
DZ – Ruined My Life
The Middle East – The Recordings Of The Middle East
megastick fanfare – brain tooth
Bat For Lashes – Daniel

Kid Sister - Get Fresh
Super Wild Horses – We Don’t Believe It

Gigs I lost a little bit of my mind at

ATP Mt Buller… all of it
PJ Harvey + John Parish, Future Of The Left, The Bronx, Nite Jewel + Spindrift at SxSW
Seekae remix EP launch w/ megastick fanfare, Parades, Ghoul + Bearhug
Ivy League FBi fundraiser w/ The Mess Hall, Red Riders, Cloud Control + more
Spunk FBi fundraiser
Talons + SPOD at Clare’s bday warehouse party

Top Four Mongolian bands I expect to see a lot in 2010
Khusugtun, Altan Urag, Starfish, Mohanik

P.S. If you enjoy the musical selections of Mr Martin Doyle as expressed in the Ivy League newsletter, do take a stroll to Dusty Fingers, Dirty Palms. It's education + inspiration all rolled into one lovely page on the internet.

I Ate This In Berlin #2

My expat friends living in Berlin say they are BIB* when they get home after being out of town. I am now BIUB# after spending a week IB^. (I am currently working for an NGO. Acronyms are becoming my life). I had a lovely time with the beautiful Ria + Chris and ate + drank many delicious things.

At a delightful xmas market we drank glühwein with Harriet. Not too much though - spewing warm red wine is no fun for anyone.

We drank Russische hot chocolate (go for one part cocoa and 17 parts vodka and you're on your way. Hello Moscow).

Christo gave a duck a bath before roasting it for xmas lunch. That duck sat on my knee in the train on the way home from the market. It had a bony butt. Its mother should have told it to eat more.

I saw these in the local booze shop. Of course I purchased them. Wouldn't you?

*Back In Berlin

#Back In Ulaanbaatar

^In Berlin

I Ate This In Berlin #1

I am in Berlin, Germany this week. It is like being on summer holidays, only there's snow instead of sand and glühwein instead of sangria. The temperature is an almost tropical 3°C as opposed to -45°C in Ulaanbaatar. I came here excited by the prospect of lots and lots of fresh vegetables and fruits from mystical islands. Instead I got currywurst.

Cheer Up Charlie Winter Warmer Recipe

Partly inspired by Indira's excellent Saucy Onion and partly the result of a very uncomfortable sleepless night, here is my 'Cheer Up Charlie Winter Warmer' recipe, also known as 'Colonic Irrigation For Those On A Budget'. If you ever watched the original version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, (and hopefully fast-forwarded through the torture of said song) you may recall Charlie and his bed-sharing grandparents survived on cabbage and Wonka Bars. My soup pays homage, sans the golden ticket...

INGREDIENTS

1 x cabbage
1 x onion
Garlic cloves (however many you like, depending on the evening's plans)
Chilli
Paprika
Assorted root vegetables found in the fridge / cupboard
Salt + pepper
Water
Random stock cubes purchased at the market (I like these because they have pictures. I assume one is chicken and one mushroom. For obvious reasons).


DIRECTIONS

1. Head to local store.
2. Recoil in horror at sheep's heads sitting in open fridge type contraption.



3. Bypass sheep and find a nice head of cabbage instead.



4. Head home and assess fridge and cupboard situation. Usually there will be a random potato or carrot floating around. Peel and chop those suckers. Chop up the onion + garlic too, then fry them with some chilli. Chuck in the chopped cabbage and random vegetables, give them a quick fry, then throw in boiling water, stock cubes, paprika and whatever else takes your fancy.

5. If you want to give the soup a decidedly Mongolian edge, consider throwing some buuz into the mix. The Buckets would lose their Wonkafied minds over these things. While the soup is doing the business on one hot plate, steam some pre-bought mutton dumplings on the other. If you don't own a steamer, never fear - a strainer can serve more than one purpose.



6. Throw the buuz into the soup when it's fully cooked, stir + serve. A tasty winter treat for those on a budget / living in a country where a tomato probably costs more than a whole sheep.

Diseases May Now Spread After 9pm

Yes, we can rejoice - the H1N1 curfew has indeed been lifted. This actually happened last week, but I failed to mention it because I was too busy not being in the house after 9pm. I will miss meetings and training sessions where participants looked like this:

WHY SKYPE IS GOOD

It is Sunday afternoon in Mongolia, the day after we hosted an excellent party for Clare's birthday at our happy home. I have not left the house, the floor is sticky and I'm still wearing a nightie. I have spent the past three hours on the couch, on an amazing date with my friend Grace who lives in NYC. It is approximately 3am in NYC and Grace has been drinking beers. She convinced me join in. I now have to go have a shower before I go watch some ballet. I LOVE SKYPE.

Happy Birthday Clare!

It was Clare's birthday today, so we had cake. Mongolian cake is special. See below.




I chose the cake because it had elephants, a fence and some fetching green grass. The woman in the supermarket tried to explain what kind of cake it was. I did not understand. Then again, I don't quite know how to describe this exceptional baked good in English either, except to note that it had a layer of green and a layer of orange on the inside too. I do admire colour co-ordination in a cake.

We are having a party at our house on Saturday night in Clare's honour. If you or one of your sheep herding uncles resides in Ulaanbaatar, do come along... with fangs.

Getting Out Of Town

We got out of town this weekend. Given that we are currently residing in one of the most polluted cities in the world and side-stepping frozen vomit is par for the course on a morning walk to work, it is very nice indeed to get out of the city every now and then. It was also Laura The Lovely's™ birthday, so 11 of us packed into the back of a van on Saturday morning and schlepped to a ger camp 50km out of Ulaanbaatar.



Some people shot arrows. Some people got shot at with arrows. I was not good at either so I shot some vodka instead.



We walked to the top of a hill. And then back down. Although it really looked like this:



It felt a lot like this:



There was an ovoo up there.



Something died to get involved.



I rode a horse through the snow with the help of this champ. We did have to take a break while he had a snow pee though. I averted my eyes. We had only just met.



We slept in these lovely gers.





And a snow dog had his morning stretch to welcome daylight with me. His fur was frozen. Poor dog dude. Amelia swears she saw a snow cat around somewhere too.



More pics on Flickr.

Next week Clare is going to teach me to ski at Mongolia's first and newly opened ski resort. Yes, I have medical insurance.

The ARIAs... Doing It Mongol Style

So it was a public holiday in Mongolia yesterday, an independence day of some description. This meant I went to the gym, ate an egg white omelette, and had a lovely Skype date with Meg. GOOD TIMES. Day got better though, because some clever cats organised an afternoon gig to buck the 9pm curfew. Legends, I say, and our first chance to finally see some local bands. Here are a couple of them:

Yes, homeboy is wearing a face mask while playing bass.

Yes, that is a roll of tape

While watching said bands, news came through that my homie Josh Pyke won an ARIA award. CONGRATULATIONS JOSH! He is a gem among men + musos alike and deserves a trillion awards.

Me and my friend Sam had a celebratory vodka in Josh’s honour.

Yes, that is 100ml of straight vodka. That’s how they roll in Mongol town…

Oddly enough the DJ in between + after bands played Empire Of The Sun, The Vines + Jet. AU represent much?

After the vodka, we required some eatings. So we ate buuz, Mongolian dumplings of goodness containing mutton and maybe some onion. Sorry Hungry Jacks veggie burger, you have been usurped by these little pockets of joy.

P.S Please buy this Josh Pyke DVD here. It was the last thing I worked on at Ivy League and it’s pretty cool.

Mongol Mania

Although we have found ways to circumvent the 9pm curfew (these guys are particularly good at it when they're around), I have been indulging my 'cultured' side a little more of late. This weekend just gone I did many things.

I learned to make felt from wool:

I made a giant bow


I may choose to wear it like this... but probably not.


I purchased a traditional instrument called a 'tovshuur':


I will attempt to play it over the next few months (or just allow it to sit in my room and look pretty.)

I saw some well crafted + thought out Mongolian street art:


I considered purchasing a hobby fish:

Stuck And The City

So we're kind of in lockdown here in Ulaanbaatar. Swine Flu aka H1N1 has sent officials into some kind of porked out spin. Schools are closed, public transport outta the city has halted and everything closes at 9pm. Markets have been shut down, galleries too, and you can't play sport after 9... or something like that. Even more interesting is the revelation that horsemeat may help to keep the flu at bay. Because not much else is going on, here are some photos. A whole stack more over on Flickr.

Recycling... the Mongolian way

I got my legs waxed this afternoon. It was quite the experience. Instead of using fabric strips, as is generally the case in other waxing salons, the waxer used strips of paper torn from magazines to rip my hair out. It took a good couple of hours and hurt a heck of a lot. If this is standard waxing practice in Mongolia, I doubt many women utter the words 'one Brazilian please'.

On a more positive note, I also got a manicure for $5 and made a friend who was getting a facial while my legs were brought up to speed with the latest gossip straight from the pages of the local rags.

Perhaps Mongolia is really ahead of the times when it comes to recycling?

Raccoonwear

Today I bought my winter jacket. Today I wore a raccoon around my face for the first time.



He died so I might retain my ears this winter. Cheers lil buddy.


Tomorrow is my first full day of work after a week of language classes and half work days. Here's my business card in Mongolian.



No, I can't read it either.

Where The Streets Have No Name

I am going to a house party tonight. I realised how interesting directions are here when I went to write them down just now. No, the streets don't have names, but there are landmarks... From the email:

DATE: Friday, 30th Oct

TIME: from 9pm

WHERE: Our apartment

Directions from the main Trade & Development Bank (with the mosaic clock): Walk one block north, cross to the north side of the intersection, turn west and walk about 75 metres past the 5 little hexagonal pod shops and along a 3-storey pink building (past Nara Japanese restaurant, the hunsni neg grocery store and then the Mongolian National Fast Food Restaurant). Our balcony is on the third storey at the far western side of that pink building (above the Goyol
Korean Restaurant). Entrance around the back. Third floor, blue door on the right.

GETTING IN: we don't have a doorbell or doorcode ... so please call us on one of the numbers listed below so we can let you in.

I will report back tomorrow as to whether I ever actually make it there or freeze in a gutter, bottle of Chinggis vodka in hand, when it hits tonight's low of -14, as predicted by Weather Underground.

P.S. Please note tomorrow's expected low of -22. Welcome to Happiness Land.

Swine Flu... Mongolian Ninja Style

Swine Flu hit Mongolia just after we got here + people have been freaking out. Schools have closed and every second person is wearing a face mask. We have decided the masks are better used as face warmers + to keep out the impending winter air pollution. Last night we had a black-out in our area (happens a whole lot apparently) so me + my flatmate Clare kicked it ninja style by candlelight.