Let there be light!

I have mounted all kinds of lights in all kinds of places in the flat over the weekend. All of them worked except the one in the living room which was just flickering and the one the bedroom which did the same. It was a gradual process which reminded me of the Kepner-Tregoe methodology which could have probably saved me hours in the process. Also the RTFM methodology was successfully being implemented.

So after mounting the lamps in the living room and the bedroom they were not really working but only flickered once or twice. It took me a while to discover that instead of light switches I had dimmers and from there it took me a couple of phone calls and my mum finally reading the manual that neither me or my dad read completely to figure out that the nice energy saver light bulbs from IKEA are not compatible with the dimming system. A quick 10 minutes later the energy saver bulb got replaced by a real energy waster (80W) and now I have light in my bedroom. The living room is without light at the moment as I only had one of those bulbs left, but it’s okay as it can be done later.

Lessons learned:
- Apply Kepner-Tregoe (would have found out about the dimmers sooner)
- RTFM (would have found out about the incompatibility sooner)

i like to ride my bicycle

I went to the "Odnungsamt Fahrradversteigerung" (auction) today. Every couple of weeks (you can check on their website for dates) they auction off the used bikes they have picked up. There were around 60 different bikes ranging from complete wrecks up to "fell of a delivery truck straight from the bike factory" condition.

Basically you can go around the bikes, look at them, check out the brakes, the wheels, etc. and then they walk around bike by bike and auction them off. So there were 4 or 5 city bikes in relative good condition for the around 200 people there. Obviously I wasn't very optimistic.

Then the guy picks up the first bike - a mountainbike - and asks for a starting bid. Nobody says anything. So I am thinking: "well, for sure I will not end up buying the one I want, at least let's be part of the game and go for this one". So I say something along 5 or 10 euros - honestly cannot remember (see story from yesterday). Nothing happens for a while until another guy starts bidding. And we continue bidding. I am thinking about stopping at 50 euro. We are at 70 and the guy next to me hesitates.In the end I get the bike for 80.

The guy holding the auction says congratulations and the people start clapping and all i can think is I want to leave! I didn't even want this bike! But then I look at it and thinking - not too bad actually. It's totally not what I wanted and the price is not what I wanted to pay but it sure looks okay. So I pay, take it out of the garage and start riding it home.

Luckily the Ordnungsamt was not on top of a mountain (there are not so many of those in this city) so that the missing brakes on the bike didn't give me a heart attack. They sold me a bike without brakes! Shit shit shit.

So I start walking home with the bike on my side and I pass by a bike shop. Sometimes I really have to wonder about the world around me. So there is this bike store totally next door to the place and I am not the only customer there with a new crap bike and they don't open on saturday for repairs. The shop is open so you can buy everything but they will not repair it for you. So I activate my inner McGyver and do all by myself. New brakes, new metal string to operate them (no clue what it is called but McGyver also never explained anything, there was this music in the background when he performed his magic so just start humming and don't worry about the what I did).

So now I have a mountainbike in my living room that needs to be cleaned and then either used or put up on ebay - we will see.

Note to self - couple of things to remember for the next bike auction:

1. start high: it was pretty unrealistic to think I would get the bike for 5 euros. I should have said 40 or 50 euros to start the auction, then maybe the other guy would have remained silent. It is the same principle that works on ebay for articles starting at 1 euro causing a much higher price.

2. don't go alone to an auction. I could have used a second person shouting "that bike doesn't even have brakes" or something similar to stop other people from bidding

3. check the bike before bidding for it. especially check the brakes and especially check the brakes before riding it!!!

forgetting things ...

i went to ikea today to buy some more small things. rented a car from hertz (they have a cool offer for 3, 6 or 9 hours) and bought most of the things i wanted - mostly lamps. parked the car at the train station and came home. of course forgot to throw in the key before coming home so i had the pleasure of going back to the train station. the funny thing is that i remembered at all to give back the keys. i wonder what is going on inside my brain when i forget things and what brings back those memories?

in any case i didn't forget to get one of those billy anniversary books. but of course i forgot to refuel the car before giving it back too...

a day at the pool is a day well spent

thank god there is a pool here. it is warm like hell. there are all kinds of bugs annoying us all the time but thank god there is a pool...

gabor (78kg) vs. fiorentina (1.2kg)

no comment necessary ... other than thanks ulli for the pictures :-)

vacanze

The last couple of weeks have been nice – have been enjoying the summer a lot. Visited Spain for the Benicassim Festival, went to Sicily for a wedding. In between these wonderful couple of days work has been like hell though. Not the traveling part – that part I like (surprise!) but the workload being so high for so many months without a proper break has affected me more than I thought it would. And so I am looking forward to the next 3 weeks with even more excitement than usual. Not that I would lie on the beach for 3 weeks – I chose a rather active way of relaxing instead. One week in Tuscany and two weeks in Rome. In between weekends all around the place. The two weeks in Rome I enrolled to a superintensive Italian course. Let’s see if it can make me say grazie instead of gracias when I buy my next gelato tomorrow!

Boarding the night train in Frankfurt to Milano after a couple of hectic hours packing I am sure I have too much clothes with me – business as usual ;)

In the compartment there were two Italians, I guess they were sisters as they looked much alike, and a Dutch girl who was desperate to talk after having spent more than 5 hours alone reading a book having boarded the train in Amsterdam. I wonder how much of the five hours she has spent consciously though as a hint of a certain Amsterdam smell welcomed me when I opened the compartment door.

Before going to sleep in the train I have my first proper Italian discussion with another couple who are going to Milan. She speaks German, he speaks Italian only. Guess which one of them was talking to me. So now I know that Tuscany is expensive (caro) but you can eat very well (mangiare). When he says “mangiare” – he points to his belly with the side of his flat hand and smiles. I guess the next couple of days will be nice!!!

my ipod nano is not broken - it just became a shuffle

I managed to drop my ipod after almost 4 years of incident-free operations. the screen is broken but it still plays my FIB-The-Killers-Playlist.

I don't like the new ipod nano design so I don't know what to do. Oh well, there are rumors of a new ipod nano with a camera. maybe the design will change too. It's time to wait ...

My blog is not dead just resting

to be continued ...

the summer is magic

so we are going to basel tomorrow and i had a day off. there is no connection between these two things other than that i had a day off today and tomorrow we are going to basel. so anyway - the day was spent throwing away half my things, buying some boxes for the move, sleeping, experimenting in the kitchen, jogging (i don't know what is wrong with me - gym on monday, jogging on tuesday, jogging today again?), going to a spanish festival thingie in the city, missing the last pulpo (the lady kept smiling at me and shouting something along the lines of "magnana" - wtf), coming home, watching an elephant in a porcellan shop (literally - thank you german tv) and then passing out on the sofa wathing along came polly with the classic happy hippo story. and now i keep listening to this song for no apparent reason. all in all i would say, life is all right these days.

kyle reese is chekov

I finally gave in and we went to see the new terminator movie fantastically titled "terminator - salvation" in the turmpalast. I must say, the movie was quite good even if we had to imagine the surround sound as the cinema is not really capable of such fancy things as dolby surround or similar. the movie had pretty much everything in it you would expect from a terminator movie - which I will not list up here so not to spoil it. I was a bit unhappy though with the quite unethical ending, but fine. and yes, will probably buy the dvd when it comes out (right after the star trek dvd)

oh yes, and i am totally looking forward to the transformers and harry potter later this summer!!!

Terminator - salvation

That's it. With my luck I am currently not watching the terminator movie in the sneak. Instead I am sitting in the train back to frankfurt from berlin. Berlin was great. More or less 3 days with family & friends, sun & rain, east & west, the city is still a great place to visit. And so again I am coming back to frankfurt full of memories (hope my alzheimer's has a little mercy with me and I can keep some for longer this time ...) of people and places to visit. Next weekend it's our london weekend, but before going there I have some preparations to make, like organizing the painting of the flat and the tickets for the festival in spain for july. Sometimes I think it would actually pay off to hire someone to take care of these things for me. Or maybe to have a house elf like dobby. Which reminds me, the new harry potter movie is only a couple of weeks away - july 16th I think!!!

Family weekend in berlin

Am on the run again. Sitting in a train to berlin to spend a couple of days with the parents and miki. Listening to the killers again - the day & age album is simply great, am totally not getting tired of it. I remember I never wanted an ipod or a portable music player so I didn't have to listen to the same thing over and over again but now I don't mind at all ( 1:0 for the ipod marketing people I guess:)
Anyway - the past couple of days have been quite boring work-wise as I didn't have to travel but could so take care of a couple of things at home and catch up with friends. I didn't sleep as much as I should have though thanks to discovering a new computer game and also thanks to a book I got as a birthday present (thanks ute!)
Looking out of the window on the train I see sunny fields, rivers, hills, some people fishing, some hiking, small houses with happy people running around, a highway with cars stuck in traffic, all good. And the two girls in front of me chatting about leipzig remind me that leipzig somehow was forgotten but is now definitely back on the list of places to go next.
Are we human or are we dancer? Definitely both these days!

500 euros and the summer can come

i am still a bit jet lagged from the new york trip - or spent too many hours last night playing the world of goo. either way i had a visit from the movers and got a good offer for moving all my stuff for 500 euros to the new flat. i think i will take this offer - they will send a letter in the coming days and then it's booked. I now need to contact the painters and then the move is on track i think...

on other news here is a song i love since i saw it on germanys next topmodel and i think it has big potential to become the summer song of the year - even if it is quite old already. it is certainly my summer song of the year

barcelona and the world of goo

another day working from home and i used the time to put in an ad for the move to the new flat. 5 companies called me within an hour and i have already 4 offers ranging from 360 to 700 euros. amazing - most of them don't really guarantee that price however and i have one more company coming by tomorrow to actually look at the situation. we shall see ...

we then watched the champions league final - pretty boring except the two goals if you ask me - at jack and jasmina's place. afterwards we played a new game on the wii called the world of goo which was really funny. reminded me on the lemmings from when i was young. and so when i came home i went online and bought it!!! it is soooo addictive - you have to save as many cute little goo balls as possible in every level and when you do so you can build up a tower using them. here is my current tower:

i will try to go to bed a bit sooner today ...

from modern to spanish

we wanted to go to the städel to listen to some music and have some drinks but ended up crashing a great party for the spanish tourist industry in the other side of the building - so as a small gesture of good faith here is a link to their website to say gracias at least: www.spain.info


the food was great, the people smiling, the music nice. oh, and before that, the actual event in the städel was not bad either. some modern music where i always wondered how the musical notation looks like - i mean how do you describe in a formal way to hit the double-bass with the backside of your bow 7 times? I just wonder that's all...

did i mention that i love frankfurt?

the promotion

this movie could have been so much better. it was all right, even funny at some points, but too slow and not dirty enough.

i [HEART] new york

New York was fantastic - I am not sure any more that I want to live there any more, but it is still an amazing place to visit. Here my new york things to see / talk about list / list for next time so I don't forget to visit the one or other next time:

- new museum (235 bowery / prince str)
- katz's deli (houston str / ludlow str)
- orchard street / ludlow street boutiques & cafes
- b&h photos store (9th ave / 34th str)
- metropolitan museum (5th ave, 82th str)
- armani store (5th ave)
- cafe habana (elisabeth str / prince str)
- urban outfitters (628 broadway / bleeker str)
- the open house gallery (201 mulberry str / spring str)
- flying A - (169 spring str)
- strand book store (828 broadway / 12 str)
- back room (102 norfolk str - between delancey and rivington)
- the annex - www.theannexnyc.com (152 orchard str / rivington)
- the slipper room (167 orchard str / stanton str)
- for more always check the nyc superguide at the superfuture site

oh, and three more things for next time:
1. book another hotel that doesn't save money by not operating the elevator in the night or ask for a room on a lower floor than the 6th one
2. don't forget the earplugs for the plane
3. don't take so many clothes (i will never learn ...)

Neeeeeeeeeew Yooooooooooork

Of course it's cool. Of course I broke the rules Of course we didn't get to see letterman live. The rest is not of course. Great weather - almost too warm. Bought a filter for my camera, 4 shirts from french connection, a t-shirt, a shirt and shoes from another shop, two books, very new york style sunglasses, have been to a lot of galleries, fell in love with so many people I cannot really describe, missed susan sarandon / geoffrey rush by 10 seconds and saw a weird totally unexpected sexy burlesque show - all in more or less a day and a half. Now sitting in a place listening to techno music and writing this while slowly sobering up. Little big brother is a great guide and I love to be here together. To be continued...

That famous smell

Another advantage flying with air india is that it feels (and smells) like india. I totally forgot about the hilarious boarding scene in milan last year but it came back instantly when people attacked the plane. Which made me think that I need to go back to india once more actually. And I also wonder what we are going to get for lunch.
I am now going to turn off the mobile hoping to speed up our departure because we are already late. Next stop is new york!

Due to popular demand

I am flying back to new york. It was exactly a year ago that I went to new york for a long weekend and here I am again at the airport waiting for boarding. This time I am not going alone and will stay in a proper hotel (at least that's the plan). The only similarity I could live without is the less than 3 hours of sleep I got. On the other hand I had a wonderful evening at sausalitos so I don't really care. Let's see if I manage to see david letterman this time ...

stupid dumb useless crap

And I thought the sneak preview has reached the bottom with last weeks movie. I was wrong.

On the other hand - the restaurant on top of the Fleming's Hotel is really nice (and expensive which is normal for Frankfurt actually). The ceasar salat was one of the best I have ever had in my life. And the tomato with mozarella di buffalo was also one of a kind. Totally worth going for the food and the view. Check it out here.

getting it together

posting again after a long long time at the end of a fantastic weekend. today i met with my new landlord and finally got the contract for the new flat. it will cost more than what i wanted originally but i simply didn't find anything better and cheaper so i guess it's just going to be perfect. plus the other funny thing was that i also happened to see two more of my former landlords walking around in the city. i officially declare this day the day of the landlords.
the weekend was simply crazy (similar to some other ones recently). it started with a lot of sleep, followed by another party at florent watching (more or less) the eurovision song contest and then crashing another party next door which was the real highlight of the evening / morning. all in all an amazing weekend. and now i am looking forward to new york, berlin and finally london - although in a different way than this guy

room full of cups

the big advantage of having a museumsufer-card is that you can walk into the schirn 10 minutes before closure, get a ticket and check out part of any exhibition. Or in this case the whole exhibition - which consists of a lot of trophies standing in one room. there are of course numerous possible interpretations one could find, some more relating to one's life, some less. i personally liked it a lot - standing in front of hundreds of trophies asking yourself what the important things in life are.

am still glad to not have paid 8 euros only to see this.

ghosts of girlfriends past (sneak preview)

"i'm gonna keep it forever"

i don't know what is more harmful for this world - this movie or the horror / slasher movie from last week. makes you think ...

notic nastic saasfee*pavillon

frankfurt is great. and it is getting better. now we have finally discovered a new place called saasfee*pavillon, hosting a bit more alternative event than the usual posh ones. we will return i am sure ...
this time it was a performance by notic nastic, with glowsticks in the darkness. great great great

london star trek

tried to see "waiting for godot" in london but it was sooooooo sold out that there were only 1 ticket returns and as i was second in line, i didn't get a ticket in the end. there was a guy from romania with his girlfriend with only one ticket and he was offering people 150 pounds for a ticket but still couldn't get one.

i wasn't too unhappy though as i had a backup plan - to watch the new star trek movie in the empire cinema on leicester square. needless to say, the cinema was great - superb sound system, great view and a working air-condition system. the movie was extremely good - action-packed, sexy, funny and very much connected to the original movies. it was also great to walk around in london after the movie and breath in the atmosphere. looking forward to our london weekend in june!!!

oh, almost forgot - saw a fascinating small dispay of a collection of portraits of fabiola, a christian saint in the national portrait gallery. the original painting fromthe nineteenth century is now lost but the artist (francis alÿs) has collected copies of the original portrait over a time period of 15 years from various flea markets. It is really fascinating to watch all these different and still somehow related works in 2 big rooms.

The Last House On The Left

another hopeless night at the sneak - expecting to see star trek and then they show a shitty remake of a horror movie that nobody really wants to see. we left at the middle of the movie. and then i read on wikipedia (which totally spoils every movie so careful ...) that there is a big twist in there at the second half. but i think it was still the best decision. and so we discovered that there is a paternoster in frankfurt in the fleming hotel which is next door to the cinema - with a nice restaurant on the top floor which needs to be checked out once the summer is here ...

Writers block

Life is good. Inspite the fact that I had to come to london this week for work, life is still great. Just said 'servus' to helen mirren and russel crowe at leicester square at the empire. Okay, it was probably not exactly mutual as I was one of twohundred and they just smiled on the way from the cinema doors to their cars, but still ... I LOVE THIS CITY!

All it took was finishing work at 5:30, calling the shuttle service, checking in the hotel, changing and coming downtown. The killers in my ears, my head full of memories of last weekend I have a big smile on my face humming 'are we human or are we dancer'. Now all I need is a cinema close to heathrow that shows volverine tomorrow evening to top it off. Good night!

back in frankfurt

slumdog millionaire

I am getting tired sitting around not doing too much in Bristol. This has been going on for quite a while now and I wouldn't mind taking some time off. So for a change from stayin in the hotel or having a big dinner as an evening entertainment we decided to go to the cinema and watch slumdog millionaire. A great movie, altough I am not sure it will get as many oscars as everybody predicts. Still fantastic to see such an entertaining and enlightening story on the big screen. Hmm, maybe it's time to return to India soon ...

another great video from the guys at TED

hmm, maybe I should send this one to our HR department. Or just wait until the next compulsory online ethics training course.

FROST / NIXON

There was nothing interesting at the movies so we went in to see this one. A total must-see, even if you are not into politics. Loved the comment about Vienna and Paris. And for one second I actually thought of buying a new pair of shoes.

still freezing cold around here ...

back in bristol

am back in bristol this week and am tired again so it's time again to write something that I will regret having written again tomorrow (as usually when i write stuff from the bristol hotel while being too tired to think straight)

the last couple of days & weeks have been quite challenging. work wise but also on the private front. there are changes coming - mostly forced upon me but in both cases there is also an inner feeling and urge to change some of the things around me.

and so creating albas present made me realise that the life i live is not so bad as it sometimes felt recently - and that the issue seems to be that i am back in my old trap of simply not appreciating things around me as much as i should. hmm, weird to see this thought actually materializing in front of me - even if only virtually. it feels weird to let people go again. and even though it's not the first time it happens, it just doesn't get easy. had a fantastic weekend all in all and even though i spent half saturday blaming myself for not having such a good time at the party on friday, i now know why. and it's okay...

cheesy quotes like "change is coming" are not going to work here even though they are buzzing in my head. and slowly i realize that in spite of all i am having a great life. so without too much ado i am posting this wonderful song here and go to bed to get some sleep (yes, it was used as an ipod ad, but only the beginning and it creates such a different atmosphere if you listen to the whole song, so do it)

the most beautiful of them all

Sitting in the plane on my way home to Frankfurt. Clouds underneath – like ocean waves moving slowly, the sun rising slowly in front of us on the horizon, reflected in a slight orange colour in the far distance. I can’t think of a nicer view this morning. In fact we are just leaving the waters and I can now see snowy fields underneath. I admit it’s a rather Candidesque view of the events of the last couple of hours but still it pretty much reflects my state of mind at this very moment. Note to self - fly more often during sunrise

tears for fears and that girl from bananarama

Another shameful handling of a Lufthansa flight cancellation at Bristol airport. So basically I was supposed to take the usual Friday evening flight out of Bristol. Obviously I failed to impress the weather gods so that they decided to send some fog over to the airport in Bristol affecting most flights. The issue being not so much taking off but landing. Some smaller planes simply lack the right equipment to land in such conditions. I was warned already during check in to check the screens for announcements so I did just that. The KLM flight took off on time and the Lufthansa flight was counting down properly with messages like “boarding in 30 minutes”, boarding in 25 minutes”, and so on while another plane got redirected to Cardiff airport and some others were announced to be delayed. I got informed at the information desk that our plane was indeed in the air and it would land in 10 minutes. Then right on schedule the Lufthansa flight status changed to “boarding shortly at gate 8” so that is where I went. I informed my parents that they shouldn’t worry, turned on my ipod and breakdanced to the waiting area in front of gate 8 in great expectation. Then suddenly the sign went from “boarding shortly at gate 8” to “flight has been cancelled”.

Having experienced a plane cancellation I was very much looking forward at the chaos outside at the ticketing desk so I was not surprised when I arrived at the usual scene. Passengers arguing with the hopelessly understaffed Lufthansa ticketing desk while airport personnel was handing out checked in luggage. One lady behind the counter, two in front of it trying to explain it and one coordinator running around talking to various airport personnel.

I have to say, at this moment I was furious not because of the cancellation but because of the useless and stupid information we have gotten – or not gotten – on time. After about an hour of queuing and fighting off an angry bus driver who was supposed to take everybody to a nearby hotel for the night I managed to reach the desk and rebook my ticket to fly home from London Heathrow instead of from Bristol in the morning. This way I got a direct flight instead of one via Amsterdam. I was ready to take the train when one of the – now more relaxed – ladies offered to organise me a taxi to London. So in the end I was given a taxi ride worth around 200 GBP to the Park Inn in Heathrow, where they gave me a room, free dinner and a bed to sleep in.

In all fairness the handling of the situation was not so bad as last time when they had to cancel the flight and I was quite happy with the solution. I also met another friendly taxi driver called John who took me to Heathrow telling me all about the singer of Tears for Fears living in his mansion just outside Bath and a girl from Bananarama who was actually from Bristol. John used to work in the British Army travelling the world before he became a driver. He told me how he liked his job a lot as he meets lots of different people.

We arrived in Heathrow just after nine, found the hotel and I managed to check in via phone for my early morning flight talking to a highly entertaining giggly person on the phone. Just what I needed before going to bed. Good night!!!