Manchester European Market is a gooood thing!

I bought:
Bavarian Alpkäse
German nougat (but not the proper Aachener stuff that I wanted - d'oh!)
Luxembourg potato cakes (so delicious!)
Glühwein
More Glühwein

Consequently, walked back to the metro station smiling merrily and benignly at everyone, thinking the world was a wonderful place. Which it certainly was. European Markets really do leave me like a child in a sweet shop. I had to choose between potato cakes and paella and Bratwurst/Sauerkraut (which I love), springbok burgers, ostrich steaks, Schnitzel (not the proper kind, or it would have been rather pricier than it was), crêpes, pretzels, a whole roast pig they were making into sandwiches, roast lamb...and seemingly endless stalls selling Glühwein. And then there were desserts - more crêpes, madelines and galettes and chocolate covered strawberries on sticks and nougat and nougat and Stollen and 'Dutch Christmas Bread', which seems, to all intents and purposes, to be Stollen by any other name...

So yes, I was staring around me with big eyes - there was also jewellery and glasswork and candles and little trinkets and sheepskin stuff. I got completely distracted in the place!

Oh, and the other news is, my Drosophila are hatching! Two have come out of their little pupae and are flying round the coffee jar this very afternoon. They seem quite perky at present, although one of them seems a bit stumpy, so its probably sterile. I think some more might hatch this time tomorrow. And their mummy is actually still alive; she must have been sitting in my room all night, as she came and landed on my wash basin this morning as I was brushing my teeth.

I am a fruit fly breeder. How cool.