Monday, March 9, 2009

Miniature Toys: They are So Cool

The three of us — my wife, my son and I — went dining over the weekend to a place in Colaba we frequent. Food-Inn is also popular amongst foreigners because it is clean, reasonable, serves non-vegetarian food, gives good service, does not rush you through your drink/snack/meal and is open till midnight.
In the middle of dinner my son (who is just a year old) decided to turn around and stick his straw into a lady's blonde hair. Thankfully she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him (it helps to be cute some times). She was an elderly woman and she said something to my son in Italian or maybe French, I do not know. A minute later she turned around again and rattled a little plastic capsule to get my son's attention. He was now busy scratching the sofa's backrest and sucking on the straw at the same time. The gentleman she was with asked her to rattle it again. There was a tiny car inside the capsule and she wanted my son to have it. That was really nice of her. At first my son just gaped (this he gets from me), then looked away shyly. Finally he accepted her gift, we said our thank you's and they left the restaurant...smiling at us as they walked away.
That was really nice of them. Did I say that already? Who does that sort of thing anyway? Quite frankly, I was a little embarrassed at first. We give our boy a straw so he stays occupied. I did not expect him to run it into somebody's hair!

Anyway...that little car reminded me of the Easter chocolates a very good Berlin friend gave me years ago. Thanks Ms. D!! They were köstlich! One of them, in particular, was this huge chocolate Easter Egg. Beneath all that chocolate was a plastic eggshell and inside the eggshell were pieces of plastic (like a jigsaw puzzle), stickers and a tiny guide all neatly folded up. It was the coolest thing I ever got from someone.

With the help of the instructions I placed the stickers on the pieces of plastic and went on to put them together. Soon I had a little musketeer pointing his sword or "foil" at me. It even moves! There is a little roller that fits inside him which works with the arm piece (consists of the connector, sword and the hand) to make the sword arm move up and down. How cool is that? Below is a slideshow of how the musketeer was put together. The stickers are already on because I already did this years ago. I will upload a video of the little musketeer brandishing his sword as soon as I finish encoding it.



My Berlin friend just told me the Easter Egg chocolate is called Überraschungsei. This is the English version of the Wikipedia page — Kinder Surprise. "Kinder" is German for "children".
Take a look at Kinder Hobby — it is a collector's website of all the Überraschungsei he/she owns!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ashoo, I love the food at Food-Inn. It's much better than Kamat. The "egg" I gave you is called "Überraschungsei" (Kinder surprise egg). To be sure you are not anymore a child you should be able to add the pieces together without reading the instructions.
I still need the instructions.
Greetings from Hamburg/Germany. Daniela :)

Aristarkhos said...

Hey Daniela! :) Thanks. Now you know why I could not remember "Überraschungsei"

I used the instructions because I am known to mess it up. I would have cursed myself from there on. Prevention is better than cure. :)

U r welcome to visit any time.

Aristarkhos said...

Oh and yes, Food-Inn is much better than Kamat's. I always though you liked Kamat's food more. :oP
Next time we go to Food-Inn!

Anonymous said...

nice blog dude!! thanks for your message on shaistas blog. i'll read it to her when i can.

Aristarkhos said...

Thank u, Rizwan. For a moment i forgot that u had infact typed the poem for Shaista.

But your site is even more intriguing. Still trying to understand it completely tho. I just finished reading about how you struck upon the concept. So that part is clear...it needs a lot more reading. Will come back with a whole bunch of questions.

Droomvla said...

This is such a nice story. I'm sure your son (who inherited your persuasiveness maybe? lol) stole the heart of that kindly woman. Such a cute toy. :)

I'll look around if they sell this Überraschungsei here. And it's not because I'm still kid, but now I'm really curious how to put the pieces together. HAHAHAHAHA

Aristarkhos said...

U are never too old for such things. :)

Helena said...

Kinder easter eggs are the best! And they're already in shops here. Thanks for reminding me. :-) The little toys are kind of odd. I was always more interested in the chocolate. ;-)

Aristarkhos said...

Yes, I forgot to mention that the chocolate is also very good. :)

Droomvla said...

I couldn't find one here. :(

Aristarkhos said...

oh! :( I thought it would be available ur side...
Man, ive been feeling so lazy to put up a new post.
after changing the layout, i think im burnt out. :D

Goa: Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aristarkhos (@ghelabhai)