such a perfect day

schifoan!!! schifoan!!! schifoan!!!

We finally managed to reserve an appartement for next week to go skiing. It wasn't as easy as I thought (note to self - do it earlier next year!!!) as the whole Gastein area is more or less booked out. The good news is however, that we managed to get the last appartement in Zell am See. I remember having been to Zell am See with P&G in my first year shortly after I joined in Austria for a company ski weekend. We went to some local pub with life music and lots of drinks (we had to wait for the German HR manager to go home at around midnight though ...) and it was simply fantastic. I think that was more or less the year of "Anton aus Tirol" and even though Zell am See is not in Tirol, but in Salzburg - it simply didn't matter when the whole pub went crazy singing that beautiful unofficial Apres-Ski-hymn.

I am now officially starting the countdown for my vacation - I hope it will start tomorrow afternoon.

ps: this just in - I have to attend a phone conference tomorrow afternoon from 3 to 4. Life sucks. But only tomorrow...

up where we belong

Just came home from doing some more x-mas shopping at the Cribbs Mall in Bristol. I enjoy taking taxis around here. The drivers always have interesting stories to tell. Last week I met a driver who actually competes in hot air baloon races all around the world. My driver today used to manage the Kelly Family a couple of years ago in the UK. Now he is a taxi driver but at the same time is a promoter for a new upcoming artist (he wouldn't tell me which one - he said he doesn't want to ruin it).

Shopping was great. Managed to buy some proper presents this time and even though I entered both DVD stores (HMV and zavvi) I didn't buy a single DVD. Of which I am really proud of. Like, totally.

I also managed to call Lufthansa today to check how I am going to fly home with my snowboard. Basically it works like this: if I manage to pack only 20 kilos, there is no extra cost for an extra snowboard. If with the snowboard the total weight is more than 20 kilos, I pay 35 Euros per trip and I can transport up to 35 kilos in total. But only if pre-registered via the hotline. Which I did.

Bad Gastein has currently 150 cm snow on the slopes, 80 in the city. Now all I need is accomodation :-)

the beginning is the end is the beginning

Wooooosh, Kawooooom, Satushhhh. Tschingggg!
This is my 500th post on my blog. Yeeeepeeeeeeeee!!!!

Ok, enough excitement. I am sitting in my living room in Frankfurt, the fireplace is making the usual fantastic sounds behind me and my back is being warmed as I write these lines - and yes, I am also sitting on the banana :-)

I am also watching Harry and Sally which is one of my favourite films (together with the other five thousand movies I like) and so I thought it’s time for an update.

This is my last evening in Frankfurt before going to the UK tomorrow and coming back Friday noon just to pack my stuff and fly to Vienna on Friday evening. Am very much looking forward to the holiday period this year to be honest as the last couple of weeks were spent with travelling from Frankfurt to Bristol and back and I am gladly going home to just do the usual nothing around Christmas. After a couple of days I will get bored doing nothing and so I hope to go to the mountains for some casual snowboarding and then I hope to go to Italy for New Years Eve.

It is too early to have any New Year resolutions or end-of-year looking-back statements so I will save those for later. For now only so much – I am very happy at the moment and very much looking forward to what is still to come.

on the road

just entered my hotel room in Leeds, turned on the TV and saw the scene from friends where Rachel and Ross break up and they play "with or without you" from U2 on the radio and it is raining outside and ... you know what I am talking about. And if not, it does not matter either. I remember those good old times of watching endless series of Friends, Melrose place, Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson's creek, etc. Although I don't remember a single scene from Melrose place or Dawson's creek, this scene from friends is stuck in my mind. I tried to find it on youtube but there are only user-edited versions of the song and some scenes. So I am not putting it up. Too bad. Instead I am putting up this one of this guy sitting on a chair that is going to break underneath his weight - listen carefully as you can hear the first crack around 11 seconds into the recording - totally ignored by him, which just makes this one an instant classic.

I have now been on the road for 2 weeks and altough I enjoyed the time in Bristol and the fantastic weekend in London, I am very glad to go home tomorrow. I will be taking the train from here to Bristol and fly from there because of some stupid ticketing constraints so it will be very much a wasted day. Except the fact that the train goes through Derby so I will seriously think about getting off and checking out the city where I studied for a year - for old times's sake. I found this totally retarded picture of me on my way to the uni from those times and thought I would put it up.

quick update from london

I am in london right now on my free day - just getting ready to go to the city centre for some christmas shopping and browsing and taking 1000 more pictures like this one that I took yesterday.
Had a fantastic weekend - came to London by train from Bristol on Friday, spent a relaxing evening at Helen and Paul's place, spent Saturday in the city walking around, having fantastic lunch at ping pong and walking at the river, visiting the Tate Modern also. In the evening we went to see The Phantom Of The Opera. Sunday morning was very well spent at Tescos for foodshopping. I could totally get used to do shopping around here, except the traffic afterwards.

I met up with Elisabeth, Peter and Rahul for lunch afterwards, also bumped into Estelle, Clara and Maylis and then went around for a couple of hours taking some random pictures.

A Sunday is not perfect though without a Sunday Night Movie so Helen and Paul took me to their local odeon cinema to see Ghost Town, which was absolutely fantastic - another movie capturing aspects of life in New York with Ricky Gervais playing himself, but in the funniest way possible.

Now I need to go and pack - hopefully everything will fit in my bags otherwise this will be an interesting day ...

shopping

I loooooooooooooooooove to be in the UK. Not only do people look decent but you have got the coolesst shops around. So after a pretty tiring day I went again to the Cribbs mall for a quick shopping trip before going to bed. I ended up buying a couple of DVDs and a nice book for my brother for x-mas (he is not reading my blog because he doesn't care, so I can write it without risking spoiling the surprise - ha!). I didn't buy any shoes or clothes because I might buy those in London this weekend but for sure I have a backup plan to buy those if the weekend doesn't go as planned. Now back to watching TV - they are showing the Thomas Crown Affair - the remake, not the original but it is OK as a bedtime movie anyway.

PS: I also love Italians - especially these two:

london - 2

2 more days!!!

depressing

Two stories hit the news today that shocked me both in different ways. The first involves a 13 year old girl named Hannah who is British and would like to die. She has been suffering from Leukaemia since the age of 4 and as a result of an early treatment developed a heart failure and now needs a heart transplant. She however decided that she did not want to get treated any more. Her parents supported her in her decision, but then the hospital called in the child protection agency who – obviously – threatened to take her away from her parents and treat her against her wish. The case has now been dropped by a high court after hearing evidence directly from Hannah. So basically it is officially OK for her to die. She has been all over the news explaining that there was no scientific evidence that the heart transplant would help her and that she has been treated all her life and she just wants no more. She is 13. Thirteen. And as she is thirteen, she also wants to go to Disneyland in the US - kind of as a last trip before she dies. Of course this is a big issue as no travel insurance agency would cover her so she cannot go. But that is not the story here.

The other story involves another 13 year old girl that just blew herself up in Baquba, north of Baghdad in Iraq killing 4 people. I don't have more background information on this. No cute little girl talking about it on TV - obviously. No picture, no name, nothing.

Both shocking in their own way and both showing the disturbed times we live in. In the case of Hannah, I am not her nor I am her parent or the high court judge involved and I am very glad about that. There are many things to consider however. There is the message to others of course. What about other children with terminal diseases? What about other grownups with terminal diseases? Would they have decided differently had they access to unlimited medical resources? Why are they giving up? Again - I am not judging here as I don't have the right to decide for them, just trying to ask questions about the moral issue here.

The 13 year old girl blowing herself up for something somebody told her would be worth it just makes me equally puzzled. I don't have a solution for world peace (surprise ;) and don't want to say how evil she was or how evil others were that told her to do it. Again I am not fingerpointing here.

Two completely different stories with lots of similarities though. Both girls were born in the same year. Both decided to die when they were 13. One directly killed others by making her decision; one might influence others in choosing to die by having made the same decision herself. The moral implications are very similar even though one of them is on TV right now smiling and the other is only mentioned in a newspaper article.

I could be completely wrong here of course - maybe I am just tired and I should stop watching CSI-NY while writing on the blog. Or maybe I should continue reading that book once I am back home. I am looking forward to another sunny day tomorrow :)

no regrets on a perfect weekend

I have sinned. Properly. I had a Schnitzel on Saturday evening. It was good. Obviously. So no more “I am a vegetarian” bullshit. I will have to look for a new definition of my eating habits.

When I started with the whole idea of eating vegetarian a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know why I was doing it or for how long. I was getting bored with eating lots of grilled chicken and steaks and wanted to see if I could actually live without meat. The beginning was quite interesting and enjoyable but I also had my difficulties adjusting when on my second day I casually threw some chorizos in my mouth at an exhibition opening and only after a couple of seconds of chewing those delicious pieces did I realize what I have done. A couple of weeks later in France I decided not to be anal about it and gave up teaching the French about this stupidity called vegetarianism and simply ordered meat (the tourist menu in Tours contained nine different main dishes, none were vegetarian).

In the meantime I have bought some new cooking books with some fantastic recipes. I now know how to cook green asparagus in two different ways – one more delicious than the other, I have substituted meat with aubergines for Schnitzel and fish (the expensive tuna and the cheaper salmon), cooked soups and different kinds of vegetables with rice and potatoes that I never knew existed before. But I also had my weak moments. About two weeks ago after coming home late in the morning after a great karaoke night – having been slightly intoxicated to be honest – those disgusting hotdogs in the fridge started flirting with me and the weak man as I am, I couldn’t say no. Only the next morning did I realize what I have done. All those weeks of acting vegetarian and dreaming of that particular first steak and then the first pieces of meat have to be sausages made of unidentified parts of pigs and cows?

I came home from Bristol last Thursday evening and was pretty tired. Friday was great, didn’t go to fitness centre but we went to see the new James Bond movie. (I really liked it, although I hate the fact that they didn’t give us the full story about Quantum). After that we went to Waxy’s for a drink, bumped into Noel and had a couple of more drinks. Then on Saturday morning we met up at Jacks place and said goodbye to the baby-shower weekend participants, then fitness centre, hairdresser (great fun as always, getting a head massage and all) and a very productive shopping trip (a book on Photoshop, a new suit because my older one got ruined by a smoker colleague last week, a very nice shirt & some shampoo). Met up with the very cute and very pregnant Blanca for coffee, met Jack, did some more shopping, got kicked out of Leib & Seele AND Schöneberger because they were totally full. In the end we went to a place called “Solzer” or something.

And this is where I return to the whole vegetarian theme. So once there, I decided to commit a sin. And this time I was prepared to do it properly. It was business time!!! So I ordered a Schweinshaxe. Well as it turned out, the gods wanted to signal me something because I was told that the guy at the neighbouring table got the last one they had. So I hesitated a moment trying to figure out the message of the gods. Could it be a sign? Shall I order a salad? It was a split-second decision and it was the right one. The Schnitzel was sooooooooooooo delicious that I didn’t have any regrets in the end.

I also managed to go to the Yoga lesson on Sunday, which was amazing. It is totally empowering and I feel completely energized afterwards. So much that I have thoroughly cleaned my room. As the weather was not the best, we didn’t do too much in the city, only met Blanca and Johanees for a nice afternoon cup of tea and spent the rest of the evening at home watching the first 8 episodes of Stromberg (I bought the DVD from Amazon together with the photoshop elements software a week ago).

So where do we go from here? I don’t know exactly. I am sitting on the airplane on my way to Bristol and will for sure continue living my vegetarian-like life. The days in Bristol will be fun as the canteen is amazing – I only fear the weekend ahead when I go visit Helen and Paul in London. I am pretty sure we will go for steak and I will be put to a test. But whatever the coming weeks may bring, one thing is for sure – I am looking forward to being at home for the holidays and being fed the best Schnitzel in the world - with a big smile on my face.

hello photoshop world

of course I am still awake - watching the stupid poker night on pro sieben with stefan raab and other idiots. Buuuuuuuuut at the same time I have started to play with Photoshop Elements and now know how to use the clone stamp tool. Probably the most amateur tool to use, but very handy. Can you spot the differences between the pictures? (I have mirrored the images to make it less obvious ...)

home sweet home

I am sooooooo tired. Just came back from Bristol a day earlier as planned because there was not so much to do this week - will probably go back on Monday. The flight was cool, as always, I managed to read a lot on the plane and picked up the photoshop elements software that I ordered a couple of days ago from the packstation. I have already started with it but don't really know what to do - I guess that will come once I have shot some pictures. With all those nice autumn colors outside it should be easy to find some stuff to shoot later this weekend.

I am so braindead, I need to go to bed before I drop off my chair. So I will just post this video I like from Lily Allen and that's it for today (one of the girsl on Popstars totally looks like her, that is how I remembered to look it up). Good night!

remember remember

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

James Bond Rocknrolla

they promised us a good movie when we left the sneak a week ago and it really was a good one! The cinema was pretty full in expectation of the new james bond movie I guess - but people were not disappointed it wasn't mr. bond killing all the bad guys this time ...

becoming more professional

Having seen this thing in action at the Photokina earlier this year the time has come to get more professional on the tools side and so I decided to order from amazon. Should be there when I return to Frankfurt this Friday - just in time for the weekend!!!

sunday shopping and cooking

karaoke

a form of entertainment in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music (and/or a music video) using a microphone and public address system.

sven väth 44

It was funny to see Sven Väth's mother having so much fun in Cocoon next to Sven while DJ-ing. Interesting side note - Sven Väth is married indeed - and his wife has a website under http://www.ninapeter.com/. The music I like ...

life backwards

Life would be much better lived backwards.

You'd start out dead and get it out of the way.

Then, wake up in an old peoples' home feeling better every day.

You get kicked out for being too healthy; go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day.

You work 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement.

At retirement - 18 years of age - you drive the sports car you can actually enjoy!

You eat what you want, you party... and you get ready to start school.

You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a baby, and then ..........

You spend your last 9 months floating peacefully in luxury, in spa-like conditions; central heating, room service on tap, larger quarters every day...

And then, you finish off as an orgasm.

I rest my case.

(thanks, jack)

it's a free world @ sneak preview

ebay lesson 137

just realized that I haven't written for such a long time - not because I feel bad, actually pretty much it is the opposite, but I have been quite busy the last couple of weeks. First some weekend trips (long weekend in France, then Vienna) - and now since two weeks I am working in the UK which is great except that I am travelling, working or sleeping most of the time.

So now that I have to go back to the UK next week, I had to sell my precious Leonard Cohen Tickets via ebay (*sick) because I cannot make it to the concert. Although I managed to sell them, I am not so happy as I think I totally sold them for less than I invested. The reason is, that I made up a bad description. It turns out that I forgot to mention the name of the city in the title. So when you search for something like "Leonard Cohen", you get a million results including CDs, posters, and my auction - so basically you simply do not stumble over it. When you search for something like "Leonard Cohen Frankfurt" - you get 3 results of competing auctions. And all of them went higher than my badly advertised one. So next time I know. By the way - this piece of epxerience cost me only 70 Euros - a fair price I would say ...

The other thing going on for the last 4 weeks has been me being more or less vegetarian. Ok, some of you know, that in my case this includes eating fish. There is a simple explanation for that. My definition for vegetarianism is the following:

If it can cry out loud (so that I can hear it) when it is being killed, then I cannot eat it.

I think it is a very practical definition that pretty much goes along the line of the good old does a falling tree make a sound when noone is around dilemma. I am happy I didn't actually study biology so I can pretend this actually works ...

another motivational video from the fitness center

another bastos blunch

showing off

perfect day

seven hours to vienna

took the train to vienna. got angry when we stopped at südbahnhof cause I could have boarded it there also this saving more than half an hour of my very precious time. watched two dvd-s (logan's run and sky captain and the world of something. what a crappy movie!!!) and read a book. also interesting to note, that half of the westbahnhof is gone. they are renovating it as it seems ...

pineapple express @ sneak preview

time to go home after the crepes

vive la france

keyhole view

photowalking tours (the city)

chin chin versailles

bonsoir

Just a quick note before switching off the PC. I have now been vegetarian since Monday and since Tuesday even without fish. I also cooked asparagus for the first time in my life - it was pretty good. I mean it is soooo simple, I don't know why I am not doing it more often. It is a great meat-substitute. I am now off to France for the weekend so I will miss the POPSTARS episode this evening, which I really don't care any more. Here is a great ad for whatever ...

why? I mean why? I really don't get it

this could have been such a good movie. Could have ...

Paparazza @ Photokina

MURAKAMI in MMK

Just a quick note on one of the best exhibitions in Frankfurt. If you live here or just visit and miss this one, you are an idiot. That is idiota in Italian by the way. I really mean it!

vegetarian

the practice of a diet that excludes meat (including game and slaughter by-products), fish (including shellfish and other sea animals) and poultry.

So after a wonderful brunch with Alba at Bastos on Sunday and another wonderful dinner sponsored by Jasmina I decided to go vegetarian this week. It went pretty ok - until tonight. I made another important decision last weekend - to go out more. I researched all kinds of websites for Frankfurt institutions, even created a Google calendar (on the right) and so I went to 2 exhibition openings tonight. The first one was in the filmmuseum. A photographer with the coolest name ever - Jim Rakete - and his portraits shot with 1/8 sec using an analogue camera. Great pictures, boring opening. The second event was in the Kunstverein - the exhibition was, hmm how to descibe - special? We ended up at the bar with some Spanish food. That is when it happened. I went inside, saw the chorizo and went for it. Only with the first piece in my mouth have I realized that I wanted to be vegetarian this week. After some consideration I made another very important decision. Who cares? And so we had a wonderful evening drinking lots of wine, eating cheese, chorizo and olives.

Here are all the pictures. I also got some ideas for a costume for Halloween ...

Oh, another thing. I am very much looking forward to this weekend, going to Cologne for the Photokina. I was considering to buy the new Nikon D90, but recently it seems that either I have been betting on the wrong horse or Nikon is simply doing a shitty job at marketing. Or Canon is simply better. In any case it is worth checking out below movie.

Natalie!!! Cinderella!!!

I don't know what to say. Let's just say, there have been so many good movies at the sneak recently, that I can totally forgive this one. Well, on the other hand, it had its moments. ;-)

süß

u-o-l-y-i-e

Moni - Portrait

another fantastic photo course. Click on the pic to see the rest ...

back again

I created this wordle based on my blog. hmmm, interesting. I am too tired to play with the colors, but I might do it later.

dragonboating

just came home from the dragonboat race. we finished an amazing 4. place. I am now going to bed but got this before and thought I would share this with the world ...

60s brithdayparty - love you guys!!!

das wird teuer ...

Ahoo & Jan & Hamburg

a wonderful weekend full of celebrations, lots of eating, drinking, dancing, smiling. Plus an added bonus - Hamburg. Got to go back there some time!!!

lecsó

I am happy that I finally took the time to tell the world (or at least the ones who read the blog) about the art of cooking a great Hungarian dish called "lecsó". At my last visit to Budapest I managed to visit my grandma and took the opportunity to take some pictures and little movies of her cooking skills. So here we go:

We will need:

• 1-2 onions
  
• a hungarian sausage (best made with spicy ones, but you can take whatever you want)
  
• 3-4 tomatoes
  
• 3-4 paprikas (also known as capsicum but I don't care and will simply call it paprika)
  
• some paprika powder (the spice)
  
• a hungarian paste called "piros arany" - which means red gold. it is basically a salty paprika paste that can be quite spicy sometimes
  
• 2 eggs

1. we start by cutting the sausage - of course at this stage it is CRUCIAL that you try lot. I would say, as a general rule you should buy twice as much as you need. At least if you cook like I do. Also if you don't want to try yourself, just call me, I will gladly help at this stage.


2. cut the tomatoes into small pieces. also peel them if you like.


3. cut the paprika into small pieces


4. have the paprika spice ready


5. if you are very thorough - like my grandma - wash the eggs


6. and then put the egg in a cup so it can be quickly used later on


7. we are ready to start. heat the onions in a little oil until they "sweat" as they say


As this takes a while, we have time to take a picture of my grandma. We call her "Dadó" because that is what I called her when I was very young and couldn't really speak but tried anyway. Now everybody calls her like that.


8. when we are happy with the onions, we add a bit of paprika spice and the "piros arany"


9. now it's time to add the remaining sausages into the pan. This is your last chance to try them before they will be too hot to be eaten before the lecsó is finished!!!


10. when the sausages start jumping around and making that wonderful noise which makes you more hungry, it is time for the paprika to join the party. Of course we have to help the party a bit by stirring it up


11. we have to cover the pan at this stage so that the water from the paprika stays there


time for another picture of Dadó:


12. we can now add the tomatoes and stir them under the rest


13. if you didn't forget to put the lid back on, this is how it should look like after a while:


14. it's time to let it cook openly


15. mmmmmmm - looking good:


16. next the eggs join the rest to bind the sauce a little


17. ta-raa! This is how it should look like just before serving:


18. and this is how it will look like just a little later - call me if you need help to reach this stage!!!


it is best served with white bread which can be used also to "clean the pan". Of course I couldn't take any more pictures because I was busy eating and at this moment didn't really care any more ...

You can find all the pictures and videos on my flickr page