frankfurt connection

Hereafter

2011-01-24T21:57:00.001+01:00

So yesterday I finally managed to get back to my good old gym & sneak preview monday night routine. After an hour on the cross-trainer, some sit ups and a quick sauna visit I was ready to go to the Metropolis Kino to watch another crappy movie at the sneak preview. I also watched the Germany vs. Hungary handball match in the gym before and was happy Hungary won – although I don’t know exactly why…

So anyway the screening started at ten past nine, they showed a couple of trailers first and then the movie. They showed the trailers for The Transformers 3, the new Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor, Gnomeo & Juliet and Gulliver’s travels – all pretty cool movies to look forward to. Even though they will very likely never show any of these at the sneak preview but hey …

And then the screen went black and the main movie started with an opening screen of some people on a beach and the title: Hereafter. No names of actors, director or anything.

A French couple talking with subtitles in English. Some booing followed and then a tsunami happened (the tsunami hitting the village was pretty spectacular even if some of the special effects were too obvious). Some more storylines got introduced and from then onwards the movie became first quite boring, later a little bit predictable, later super-predictable in a very slimy romantic way except the ending which was either totally ridiculous or it’s just me and I am too stupid to understand why this had to happen. After a while I started to think about who could have made this movie and was pretty sure it must have been a woman – the style was very slow and spiritual and focused more on feelings rather than action, also sometimes it was just too much romanticism and little logic (sorry ) and then the movie is over and it turns out this is a Clint Eastwood movie? Wtf? I was really surprised. He has shot some really weird but amazing movies in his last years but this movie just didn’t fit. I am still trying to understand what story / message he wanted to tell with this movie as it is just so not like his other movies.

I would not recommend to see it in the cinema. It might be a perfect Tuesday night movie at home on the couch but I wouldn’t spend money on it to see it on the big screen. Oh, and yes – I will be back for the sneak preview next Monday.

ti sento

2010-09-16T23:02:00.006+02:00

good to write you again my blog. i have been thinking for a while how to start blogging again and already wrote a couple of things that all ended up in the draft section and tonight i thought why not just start typing while listening to matia bazar - just can't stop listening to this superold song (well it's not so old as technically i am older but anyway) here is the youtube clip:

anyway this week has been a bit crazy. after coming back from my superlong 6 weeks vacation (well only 5 plus one more week working from italy from my kitchen office there but it felt like 6 weeks so it's okay to call it that i guess) i came home to get viktor and check on my flat before driving to düsseldorf on monday. it turned out the flat was pretty much flooded. i shot a picture - here it is ...

the dark spot in the middle is where water is dripping from the ceiling. i opened the door and the water started flowing out. totally like in the movies except that the water was not 3 meters high but only 3 milimeters but basically it was the same effect. in the meantime we know that the water is coming from the walls of the house where it leaked from a broken pipe above my flat. the walls are now full of water and the gods of the water pipes have elected my flat to become the chosen one for the water to escape the walls. the water is still leaking from the ceiling after 4 days and i have no idea when it will stop.

so anyway after that a couple of more nice things happened like arriving at midnight into a hotel in düsseldorf with my room being cancelled and all hotels completely booked out. since then i know where the beautiful city of Dormagen lies.

and now i go back to sorting the pictures of the summer because they are fan - tas - tic just like the song so here we go again with the same song to close my very first new blog post. and this concludes our tour to the past week. there is the door ...

Let there be light!

2009-10-18T11:05:00.001+02:00

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

2009-10-17T11:13:00.002+02:00

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 ...

2009-10-16T22:13:00.001+02:00

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

2009-08-24T14:09:00.000+02:00

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)

2009-08-23T21:37:00.001+02:00

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

vacanze

2009-08-22T10:23:00.002+02:00

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

2009-08-18T17:47:00.000+02:00

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

2009-08-06T10:26:00.001+02:00

to be continued ...

the summer is magic

2009-06-12T23:46:00.000+02:00

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

2009-06-04T21:28:00.001+02:00

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

2009-06-01T21:11:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-29T17:29:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-28T23:58:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-27T23:47:00.000+02:00

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

2009-05-26T21:47:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-25T21:42:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-24T22:58:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-22T07:05:00.002+02:00

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

2009-05-20T08:08:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-20T07:19:00.003+02:00

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

2009-05-18T21:19:00.002+02:00

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

2009-05-17T23:38:00.005+02:00

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

2009-05-14T17:48:00.002+02:00

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)

2009-05-11T21:45:00.001+02:00

"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

2009-05-09T23:24:00.000+02:00

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

2009-05-07T22:05:00.003+02:00

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

2009-05-04T21:58:00.001+02:00

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

2009-04-21T23:14:00.002+02:00

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

2009-03-04T13:04:00.000+01:00

slumdog millionaire

2009-02-17T20:55:00.000+01:00

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

2009-02-16T19:08:00.000+01:00

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

FROST / NIXON

2009-02-07T21:22:00.000+01:00

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 ...

2009-01-30T20:06:00.000+01:00

back in bristol

2009-01-27T00:09:00.003+01:00

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

2009-01-10T08:09:00.000+01:00

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

2009-01-09T23:07:00.001+01:00

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!!!

such a perfect day

2008-12-25T23:50:00.000+01:00

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

2008-12-22T23:56:00.000+01:00

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

2008-12-17T21:59:00.001+01:00

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

2008-12-16T01:13:00.004+01:00

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

2008-11-20T19:05:00.005+01:00

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

2008-11-17T09:36:00.001+01:00

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

2008-11-13T22:44:00.004+01:00

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

2008-11-12T20:28:00.001+01:00

2 more days!!!

depressing

2008-11-11T22:36:00.000+01:00

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

2008-11-10T10:13:00.003+01:00

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

2008-11-06T23:13:00.004+01:00

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

2008-11-06T21:18:00.004+01:00

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

2008-11-05T21:13:00.000+01:00

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

2008-11-03T21:56:00.000+01:00

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

2008-11-02T23:24:00.000+01:00

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

2008-11-02T14:35:00.000+01:00

karaoke

2008-11-01T23:46:00.000+01:00

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

2008-10-31T23:23:00.000+01:00

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

2008-10-29T15:13:00.000+01:00

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

2008-10-27T21:18:00.001+01:00

ebay lesson 137

2008-10-26T22:14:00.007+01:00

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

2008-10-21T20:40:00.000+02:00

another bastos blunch

2008-10-19T14:10:00.000+02:00

showing off

2008-10-12T08:26:00.000+02:00

perfect day

2008-10-11T11:52:00.000+02:00

seven hours to vienna

2008-10-09T16:58:00.000+02:00

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

2008-10-06T22:05:00.000+02:00

time to go home after the crepes

2008-10-05T13:51:00.000+02:00

vive la france

2008-10-04T14:45:00.000+02:00

keyhole view

2008-10-04T13:17:00.000+02:00

photowalking tours (the city)

2008-10-03T11:49:00.000+02:00

chin chin versailles

2008-10-02T22:08:00.001+02:00

bonsoir

2008-10-02T14:49:00.003+02:00

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

2008-09-29T21:49:00.001+02:00

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

Paparazza @ Photokina

2008-09-28T11:27:00.000+02:00

MURAKAMI in MMK

2008-09-26T20:00:00.000+02:00

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

2008-09-23T23:16:00.005+02:00

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!!!

2008-09-22T21:23:00.000+02:00

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

2008-09-15T21:27:00.001+02:00

u-o-l-y-i-e

Moni - Portrait

2008-09-14T10:48:00.001+02:00

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

back again

2008-09-12T00:38:00.003+02:00

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

2008-08-30T16:37:00.002+02:00

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!!!

2008-08-29T23:40:00.000+02:00

das wird teuer ...

2008-08-28T08:07:00.000+02:00

Ahoo & Jan & Hamburg

2008-08-23T22:34:00.001+02:00

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

2008-08-15T11:53:00.000+02:00

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

vacation

2008-08-15T00:23:00.003+02:00

I am in Vienna and actually should already be in bed because in less than 6 hours I have to catch a bus to catch a train to ...

Aaaanyways - I took a day off on this historical day. Exactly 7 years ago, on August 15th I moved to Germany. I had a drink in the evening with my friends, went home with Claudia at around 1 in the morning, packed a couple of things and took a plane in the morning to Frankfurt. The rest is history as they say. The plan was to stay 2-3 years and then move on. The first 3 years I was working during the week and traveling to Vienna mostly on the weekends, only after we split up and I started spending more time in Frankfurt have I started liking Frankfurt and meeting people. I changed company once, changed jobs five times, am currently living in my third flat in Frankfurt (not counting the hotel I stayed the first 3 weeks of course) and using my 5. camera to take many many pictures of my life. Only recently am I beginning to get bored with the city but am still reluctant to move and start over somewhere else. Still I am slowly accepting the feeling inside me that there is some kind of a change coming. The feeling reminds me of the matrix movie when Leo asks the oracle about his decision to save trinity - really he is not looking for a decision but for the reason why he has made that particular decision. Ok, I am either overworked or high on some drug they mixed in my tomato juice on the plane - as normally I am not writing about this kind of stuff ...

The plan for tomorrow is to go to Budapest in the morning, have lunch with my grandma, who I haven't seen since February, then meet with an old friend and take the evening train to the lake to see my parents. I will either come back with them on Sunday to Vienna or stay a bit longer and come back only Tuesday. We will see. Then there is a dentist appointment on Wednesday to clean my mouth with sand and then I fly back to Frankfurt in the evening.

So what else is happening these days? Nothing much - expect the Olympics in China. The opening ceremony was fantastic; the rest is pretty boring to be honest. I used to like watching the swimming but recently it has become very boring due to the stupid speedo full body suits everybody is wearing - I mean they all look the same now. It's like throwing robots in the water and letting them swim. Plus they are breaking each and every record! It's like the swimming pool is too short and nobody is noticing or something. (I wonder how they are measuring it is really 100m? hmmm). Maybe the athletics part will be more exciting. I wonder when that is gonna start.

The other stuff is pretty boring too - the Chinese are winning everything. Only a few exciting things happened as a Chinese rower missed his race because he overslept, a Hungarian weightlifter broke his elbow while lifting - obviously - too much weight. Oh, yes. And the little girl singing at the opening ceremony wasn't really singing - her sole task was to look good as the one with the nice voice was apparently too ugly to be on TV.

However I am glad that beach volleyball became an official sport at the Olympic Games. At least this way Mr. Bush got a perfect photo opportunity - and look what happened. I mean can you imagine any other politician in the same situation? I don't think so.

it's all legal

2008-08-11T23:47:00.000+02:00

there is a god.

ok, before I get too philosophical, a couple of really cool things just happened. They showed the new batman movie at the sneak preview and so I am very happy. Plus I went to another speed dating yesterday and had a really fun evening. Got also a couple of matches so we will see. This time there were some really young girls there so I kindof felt old, but only kindof - I mean, 22 is legal, right?

Other than this work is as usual - a lot of the same old stuff. I need to slowly do something about it.

Weekend was great - started going to fitness center again, did a bit of shopping, went to the hairdresser, spent some time on the decks of two beach clubs on top of some of the city park houses, went to Bonn for a birthday brunch, etc. all in all a great summer with friends.

Had two life-threatening experiences with the bike the week before. First I got lost in the woods around the lake in a misty weather, which was really creepy. Then my brakes broke on my way downhill while speeding like hell. I managed to get out of the woods in Walldorf in the end and managed to brake with the front wheel brake without making a triple flip with the bike.

Went to the zoo for a photography course the weekend before - it was fun but didn't learn too many new things.

Have booked a trip to Vienna for next weekend - I will also visit my grandma in Budapest and the parents at the lake. then 3 more days in Vienna - maybe a visit at the Rathausplatz or the sneak preview, it doesn't matter what, Vienna will be cool :)

Now I go to bed and dream about things to come...

i like it when it rains and thunders

2008-07-30T23:59:00.000+02:00

another new york movie

2008-07-28T23:34:00.003+02:00

Just came back from the sneak preview and thought I drop a couple of lines. I liked this movie a lot - and not only because of Sienna Miller. There is nothing new about showing people around Andy Warhol taking drugs and living on the edge but it is one of the few films that shows Andy and / or any great artist in a somewhat less good light. The movie is very much like Basquiat but this time the story is really not about Warhol but Edie Sedgwick - who is perfectly portrayed by Sienna Miller. The factory, New York, Paris, horses, central park, Chelsea Hotel, etc. It's all there!!!

I haven't posted too much last week because I was working. And was working too much actually. After almost two weeks of working (including the weekend) I started to feel like Ben Affleck in Paycheck (another great movie by the way) only without all the money and the girl waiting for him. Anyways - I stopped working on Friday and we went to see Get Smart - which was just perfect for a Friday night. Then party on Saturday at our place, Clubkeller later on (gotta remember to go back on a Saturday as it was just perfect) and Sunday was spent at the swimming pool, eating good old Sunday Steak at Buena Vista and then watching Mamma Mia, which was just great. The singing is fantastic, especially Mr. ex-Bond is just, well, I don't know what to say. You should figure it out for yourself :-)

And now the hot summer has finally arrived so I am sure there will be more movie nights approaching as our second floor is somewhat hot so that it is not an option to stay at home in the evening. We shall see ...

illegal

2008-07-22T02:17:00.000+02:00

just finished watching the new batman movie - totally illegally from the internet (didn't download, just watched online). The quality was miserable but at least I got the story. I never did this before and I don't intend to make a habit out of it and I am pretty sure I will go and watch it again in a cinema as soon as it comes out so it shouldn't be soooooooooooo illegal. I just couldn't wait a whole month until it comes officially to Germany just because some smartass marketing person decided there were enough other good movies already in the cinema this summer and this way they could get more money out of the summer movies. end of story. punkt.

just finished - thanks, mimi!

2008-07-16T02:09:00.000+02:00

a-a-a-choo

2008-07-14T23:34:00.000+02:00

the 90's flashing by

2008-07-13T23:23:00.000+02:00

and now for something completely different:

dreaming

2008-07-12T18:48:00.002+02:00

link to stripgenerator

blog clog

2008-07-12T11:56:00.003+02:00

I have to admit I have been pretty lame lately. No blogging, no more picture uploads on flickr, no more other stuff. I don't know why - the main thing is that I am back in Frankfurt and my PC is up and running again. I have to check the old hard disk for any data that might still be there and then we will see. The weather gods seem to be on my side so there is a slight chance that I will spend some time at home this weekend. Oh, one more thing. I have read this book on the plane to Vienna last weekend. It is a very nice book that I can totally recommend.

Spain - Germany

2008-06-28T08:23:00.004+02:00

I am back in Vienna again - after flying to FFM on Tuesday evening and flying back yesterday. Wednesday evening we watched Germany - Turkey from our living room stadium. I really need to brainstorm on this idea of turning the living room into a stadium for such events by using the beamer and the TV and potentially my TFT. We are only missing one sofa and then there shouldn't be an issue. Well, we will see...

It was my mum's birthday yesterday so we will celebrate that with a fantastic BBQ today for lunch (well, there go my diet plans...) and I will most likely meet up with some people in the city tonight. Tomorrow I would like to spend some time at the beach, and by beach I mean the "Alte Donau" and then watch the game somewhere.

I just got another email from facebook with another personality hint. This time I feel that I will probably have to start inviting my friends more for dinner and also start making more public speeches:

This email was sent by Compare People. You can disable emails here.
---
Your friends have voted on your strengths and weaknesses:

STRENGTHS:

most organized
best catch
most creative

WEAKNESSES:

best public speaker
best dinner companion

So, what else happened recently? It is very funny how people in different cultures have a different way of queuing up. I remember learning about queuing in my English class in Hungary. The first thing we learned was that it was not called queuing all around the world. Of course I don't really remember any more all that stuff so I had to look it up in Wikipedia:

The term "queue" is used more in British English, while the word "line" is used mostly in American English. Most of the United States "get in line," whereas New Yorkers tend to "get on line." Canadians use the term "line up." In the United Kingdom the expressions "form a queue" or "queue up" are most common.

The first queue related incident happened about two weeks ago when Estelle and I were shopping and we did the infamous "queue in two lines at the same time" cheat. Of course a guy behind Estelle felt totally offended by the concept and I couldn't be bothered to explain him that if he was standing behind one of us, he must have arrived after us at the counter so that he should have just shut his big mouth and let us pay first, but anyway. Maybe I learn karate or kickboxing and then go back with Estelle to repeat the experiment.

Then yesterday I noticed there were two cash machines at the airport and both were busy so I decided to form a single line in the middle. Of course the next 2-3 people who followed didn't get my idea and when I went to the next machine, the fight started on who was here first at the other machine and who was queuing properly and so on. People can be such fantastic guinea pigs ...

Hmmm...

2008-06-27T23:54:00.000+02:00

I just finished reading "Flowers for Algernon" - it shocked me twofold. First because the whole story takes place in New York (is this a sign or something?) and secondly because I knew I read part of the book when I was in school but I only remembered at the last chapter that I have read the whole book once.

Please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.

the power of facebook

2008-06-24T23:25:00.002+02:00

Just recieved an update from facebook from the "Compare People" application:

This email was sent by Compare People. You can disable emails here.
---
Changes in your ranks:

#6 person who can drink the most (lost 1 place)
#7 most famous (gained 4 places)
#8 most studious (gained 10 places)
#10 nicest smelling (lost 2 places)
#12 most powerful (lost 1 place)

So what does this mean? According to my friends I need to drink more (no surprise there), I am getting more famous (very good) and I study too much (don't know what this means). I also stink and am not as powerful as I could be. I go take a shower now and will then brainstorm on my masterplan to become ruler of the universe. All of them. Good night!

over

2008-06-20T00:53:00.001+02:00

out of order

2008-06-20T00:22:00.003+02:00

just a quick update again. When I came back from Barcelona I realised that my vista pc won't boot and now there is a message saying that the hard disk is more or less kaputto. So the nice little dwarfs will send me a new one in about 10 days. Oh, and because I never created those system recovery DVDs, I have to purchase them for 40 Euros. Another lesson learned ...

So I am afraid there won't be an update in the next couple of days. No tales of my New York trip, or the weekend visit of Preeti and Sameer in Antwerp. The story of the extremely cool trip to Barcelona last weekend will have to wait a bit as well.

Ok, I admit. The real reason is that instead of blogging I am travelling again (I am in Vienna and will stay here until Tuesday) plus there is the football cup that I am kind of getting addicted to. I want to see Germany vs. Italy in the finals. So there it is, I said it. Good night!

Ouch but I like it

2008-06-15T11:02:00.001+02:00

Barcelona is great. A fantastic city with great people, amazing food, fantastic shops and a nice beach to top it off. the last days have been great. The radiohead concert, seeing Mario, meeting Leire and Jorge, getting sunburned on the playa, eating pulpo and more. Now that we are packed, we will go for desayuno and after that I have to find a nice way to spend the remaining day. I am pretty sure something will come up..