connected

India is coooooooooooooooooooooooool. Everything is fantastic - especially the fact that I am on vacation. Spent the last two days overcoming the jetlag and tomorrow we will go to Baga Beach and look for a place to stay for the next week or so. If you want to send me birthday wishes (coming up next week) - my phone number is +91 99 703 720 26.

Oh yes, Maike - if you read this, can you please SMS me the name and address of the place in Mumbai we went to eat last year? I forgot to bring their card with me... If possible, a phone number would be also awesome (the word of today :-)

Greetings to everybody - watch this place for updates!!! And drink SNAPPLE - I did and it was, well, anyway ...

I ndia!!!!

Here we go again ...

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Watch this space for updates!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I remembered today my old buddy Nevres, who once told me that you should do something that you have never done before every year of your life. I don't know why but i remembered this today.

BTW let me introduce you to a new member of the family: The Exilim S770 - just in time for the trip to India ...


BTW - I am trying to finish blogging the last year of India before I go there again this year - it would be a pity if this year's memories would overwrite the ones from last year. Let's see how far I get - check it out in the Feb 2006 section.

85 & 14 - let's party!!!

I am 85 kilos heavy and have 14 emails in my Inbox. These are astonishingly low numbers considering the last couple of months. This calls for a celebration. Therefor tonight I spent hours and hours painting my blog completely blueish in the background. It was not an easy tasks - especially with letters like "e" and "a" I had to be very careful not to leave out the holes in the middle. But I am happy to report that I made it and I could not be happier with the result. (Yes, I know I am a geek - but to be honest I don't care at this point what you all think - instead I am just enjoying the ride ... plus I am soooooo excited about the coming days in Goa that I really am just plain happy :-) see?

The kilos can be explained very well by my recent fitness center presence. Since the marker hit the 90 kg mark around 3 weeks ago I have been going to the fitness center almost every day. I started with an hour on the cross trainer and have progressed from being dead at the end to a status where I am smiling at the end even though I had kept a heart rate of around 151 for about an hour (that is what the machine suggested to me at the cardio setting, so don't start questioning, the machine is always right, right?) Anyway - I went from a "drop-dead-worn-out" state after 60 minutes to a "let's-do-a-circuit-and-then-let's-do-60-minutes-and-be-happy-about-it" state of mind. Plus I have been doing sit-ups so my belly hurts like hell. Actually the belly is still there - the only difference is what the scale is telling and how I feel, not how I look - but it's a good start into spring, which starts tomorrow.

The thing is, I have been really enjoying the fitness center lately. I am doing my round on the machines first and then an hour on the cross trainer, listening to my iPod and watching shows like The Simpsons, Hogan knows best or Pimp My Ride. It's sports and culture at the same time - what else could I wish for?

The number 14 is a complete mystery to me as work has been really stressing lately - but I am glad about it as the control-freak side of me will not have too many things to worry about work during the next couple of weeks in India.

Alpha Dog - Sneak Preview

A very nice movie about a horrible tragedy that didn't have to happen. Fantastic actors, very slow and melancholic storyline - plus certainly one of the best stories recently shown in a movie. A mixture between Almost Famous, The Ice Storm and [insert favourite Mafia movie title here]. Plus Justin Timberlake dressed more or less in tatoos and a pair of trousers.

UPDATE - I know where I saw two of the guys before - The Girl Next Door :-)

a flaming chicken!!!

Stress Management

Yesterday we had a stress management session at work. It was very interesting - especially when the lady showed the symptoms of stress. I seemed to be having every one of them, expect the diarrhea part - which came in the evening... It totally reminded me of the Yoga weekend in Vienna a couple of years ago when they talked so much about a certain cleansing process and then we did some exercises and then I went home and spent the rest of the day on the toilet cleansing so to speak. Sorry for being so open about this, but it is amazing, what an effect it seems to be having on me if I become aware of certain things about what my body and mind go through sometimes.

So now I understand what is happening to me. It's stress. And so I am very happy that in only one week from now I will be on some beach in India surrounded by local people who will want to sell me stuff and I will be Mr. Cool and will just not care at all. I have to remember to watch "Office Space" before going there and also to look for a relaxing hypnosis - or at least a massage place. Actually massage sounds better...

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

(click here if you can't see the video above)

I got crazy today. In the morning Yara and I went to the Indian Consulate in Frankfurt to get our Visas. We have checked the website before to make sure we have everything that they need. then it turns out of course they needed more stuff than we had. They asked for a confirmation that we have lived in Germany for the last 3 years. Otherwise no Visa. No discussion, that is the rules (of course it is not written anywhere on the form or the website) - and we all know who wins these discussions. So in the end it took a detour for Yara back home to get her older passports and for me to the Bürgeramt to get a confirmation of the last 3 years spent in Germany and so we finished at 10:30 instead of 9:30 as planned. As an added bonus the S-Bahn was not on time so we took a taxi to the office. Total costs of India until now have so climbed to €591 including the Taxi and the Visa.

In the afternoon I went back again to pick up the Visas and queued for 40 minutes because they served 3-4 people who had tousands of questions or dared to discuss some things and some people even that submitted their Visa applications in the Visa collection time. They had only one counter open for like 70-80 people but whenever someone appeared at the other counter this person got served. I am a sucker and so I didn't go there. I was sooooooo mad. And when it was my turn, they asked me again for the confirmation because they kind of lost it. Thank god I had only given them a copy and kept the original in the morning - otherwise there would be breaking news on CNN right now about an Indian Consulate in Frankfurt burning down to ashes...

Dear consulate employees, I know I don't have my own Kingdom but I am trying to spend some time (and money) in your country and for me you are the face of that country and I don't see why I need to be treated like this. I just don't want to enter that building ever again. Next time I will do the whole thing via mail :-)

So, this being out in the open - I am now focusing on getting the whole GOA thing organized. To be continued ...

the LAME number 23

spolier ahead - don't read this if you intend to watch the movie "the number 23" with Jim Carrey (or with someone else ...)

They showed "The Number 23" at the sneak preview. This movie tries to be very SIN CITY and very conspiracy and so and in the end it turns out that the main character indeed killed all those people, wrote that stupid book and then forgot the whole thing after he underwent psychiatric therapy. I like Jim Carrey but this is just very lame...


On the other hand when I tell this to people they kind of become interested to watching the movie - maybe I just need that vacation ...

I am in love :-)

they threw her out in the last show but she has returned. The competition is back!!!

300 * w o w !

Just heard about this movie called 300 - the poster contains the number 300 written (actually more like splattered) with blood. The trailer is unbelievable - inspired by Frank Miller (Sin City) this movie is again setting a new standard. I guess it will be pretty brutal, but can't wait to see it.


Check out the trailers here or here.

UPDATE: Iran is not very happy about this movie.

Kane is back!!!

Command & Conquer is coming back! It might not be the biggest news for you, but for me this is like a dream come true and I am actually thinking about getting a new computer just to play this game. I remember playing through nights in my old room in Vienna with the headset on my ears because of my parents, who have never understood the game and always thought it was some kind of shoot&kill game just because there were units that said "Yes, Sir" all the time before they moved where the mouse showed. My brother teased me just as much actually - but this game was the first and best of this kind and I can't wait to try out the new version.


ps: watching TvTotal, just realized that Joss Stone looks just like Yara with her new haircut - only a bit more red ...

Volleyball anyone???

sorry for posting too many videos recently - i just think they are funny :-)

india is booked!!!