Spring again! But did I move backwards or forwards in time?

G´day,

And yet another special Hello to my congregation: Hello Emily, Josara, Julia, Cord, Daniel, Andrew, Scott, Bill (thanks for the CD!) and Jan. I'm now back since 9 days and I was too busy to blog. Well a lot of things happened, most of them good, some were not so good but expected and some stuff really pissed me off. One of the best things is that it's spring here...That proves it...
The trees are blooming...
The flowers are blooming, tooMore flowers...More blooming trees...

Having spring again got me thinking that in terms of summers I had in my life I'm much older than I actually am. I had three summers in a row when I was in Bolivia 99, another three summers in a row when I came to Australia first time in 2006 and then three summers this year. So I could honestly say I had three more summers than most of the people of my age.

But is the summer in the northern hemisphere first or the summer in the southern hemisphere? If you look at it from the meteorological dates the summer in the southern hemisphere would be the first in a year. Summer begins meteorologically speaking on 1st of December and continues until 1st of March, so at the beginning of a new year the southern hemisphere is first, summerwise. But with spring it's different, the northern hemisphere is in the lead there as they are the first to have spring in a year.

According to this logic I have travelled backwards in time but unfortunately only meteorologically so I can't see of any use knowing the winning numbers for the lottery in this year's summer...damn

Well, apart from time travel I have been to the gym and found this sign:
This got me puzzled, I know how to use my towel but it is still beyond me how I should "use" my towel. Do they want me to "use" it as an euphemistic way to express having non-consensual sexual relationships with it or should I just pretend to use it? The possibilities are endless...

Friday Josara and me went out on Brunswick Street where we met Dorje
Well, we had a few...ah while I'm at it can I just recommend Dorje's blog http://dorjex.wordpress.com/ for those of you who like to read a very entertaining, funny and well-written blog...We had a great night and I am happy that both of our lives have turned out for the better after we made certain decisions in the women department...good on us!

Yesterday I went and met up with Katie and Jimmy, those two guys were so kind to let me live with them last year around that time and it was quite fun to re-visit their house.
Well anyway it feels quite surreal to be back in Melbourne, it's as if I have never been away. Ok, some streets have changed a little, the occasional shop has vanished and new ones popped up but all in all it's a 24/7 deja vu...love it!

Ok, that's all for today, have fun, take care and cya

International airports - a comparison

G´day from Australia,

And an extra special "Hello" to my congregation Emily, Josara, Julia, Cord, Dan, Andrew, Scott, Bill and Jan. It's now Sunday morning and I'm back where I belong. This is the same tree I photographed on the morning of 20th of April when I left Melbourne. 166 days later it's still there...

As advertised in the headline, today's blog entry is on airport qualities, especially how they serve the smoker's needs. First contestant Schipol, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Schipol is a quite nice airport. Best thing was the really helpful guy at the BMI desk who managed to organise that I could check my stuff in even though it was still two hours until the BMI check-in desk would open. I said good-bye to my beloved Les Paul in her new flightcase which made up more than half of my baggage allowance...As I have stuffed the case with socks, undies and t-shirts until the guitar couldn't move at all it weighted 17kgs... I was a little nervous if I would see her again in one piece as we all know how luggage is treated by the airlines...

Schipol offers several smoking boxes so the addict can indulge in his addiction. Apart from that I liked the fact that you could buy cold beers in the duty free shop for a reasonable price so I could kill the waiting time smoking and drinking...All in all Schipol is nothing special but a decent airport, no complaints what-so-ever... London, Heathrow on the other hand is plain and pure shit. When I asked at the information desk where to find the designated smoking areas for transit passengers I was told that there aren't any. At first I thought they were kidding as last time (3 years ago) they had smoker's rooms but the guy at the desk told me that Heathrow is now a smoke free airport. If I wanted to smoke I would have to go outside. And in order to be able to go outside I had to get through immigration and customs. I was not sure if they'd let me in again once I checked out but the nice customs officer asured me that if I had a valid ticket nobody would prevent me from getting my flight. I believed him and went out into England for a smoko. The good thing was that I could indeed check in again but when I went to search for another duty free beer they didn't have any! I could have bought any sort of liquor but no beer...The fact that Heathrow provides a "multi-faith prayer room" didn't comfort me but confused me a little. I mean, how does multi-faith work exactly? Do you have to be a catholic jew or buddhistic moslem? Anyway, I wouldn't be qualified to enter as being an agnostic is not faith at all. Even atheists have a faith as they believe that there is no god but agnostics don't believe anything...Well in the end I was happy when I could board my plane and leave the shitty airport there. In my worst airports of all time Heathrow has earned a second place after JFK which is the worst airport I have ever had to spend a night in but that's a different story...Once we were airborne and on our way to Singapore I found that I am addicted to the wrong substance. They even provide needle disposals on the toilet, so a heroine addict doesn't need to suffer withdrawal but a smoker does! The world isn't fair!

After the Heathrow experience I was a little anxious if Singapore would be as hostile to smokers and after 13 hours of non-smoking I was quite ready to risk smoking on an airport toilet but then I remembered that I was going to Singapore where they arrest you for spitting your chewing gum in the street and so I reconsidered the toilet smoking plan as I didn't want to end in a Singaporean jail... but the apprehension was without any reason. Singapore is smoker's paradise!!!

Best smoker's area ever...not a disgusting 2 square meter booth but an awesome outside area with a bar and lots of cactuses. Choice! Even the quite high beer prices couldn't spoil it...Singapore airport get's 10 out of 10 points!

The last leg was not that long, only 9 hours and then I reached Melbourne. I went through immigration and reached the bagguage claim thingy and asked the guy there if my guitar which was "odd shaped" luggage will also arrive on that convayor belt and he said "No worries, sure mate" and so I waited and waited and waited until all bags, suitcases and stuff was claimed and I had my bag but no sign of my guitar. I started to get worried so I went back to that guy and told him that I miss my guitar and he looked at me and asked if I had already checked the "odd luggage" desk? I pointed out that I had asked exactly that half an hour ago and I would be delighted if he could point me into the right direction which he did and Lo and behold! There was my flightcase. And inside it, entirely unharmed was the first true love of my life.

With all my stuff I went through customs and was a little disappointed that nobody looked at me twice but on the other hand I had waited long enough to finally be back in Josara's arms and there she was! Then we went home and I reckon in terms of jetlag it's best just to stay awake during today and go to bed early tonight. Well that's all for today, I'm looking forward to have a walk with the dogs later today and I really look forard to have a nice cold Coopers Green tonight and some nice Aussie food...mjam...

Ok, have fun, take care and cya later!

A night out in Münster at the Nieberding summer party (incl. video)...

G´day,

And "Hi" to my congregation Emily, Josara, Julia, Cord, Dan, Andrew, Scott, Bill and Jan. Last night was my last saturday night in Germany for a long time (until start of December!). I was at the Nieberding summer party and I walked into my past a lot as there were heaps of people I know from way back...
Josie, part of the Pep Stalkers and Christian doing the homosexual thing with Bertie...
Well I was thinking that it had been a good idea to go there by car so I was unable to drink...
...and I gave Christian this awesome sofa-ashtray I found in the basement as I knew he would appreciate it...I would like to get a picture once you have installed that...
Josie
Carsten, former bassist of The Holy Chao...
David, former guitarist of the fabulous band "Weeed" who had the same practicing room as The Holy Chao...he plays with a Reggae-band now...
Christian looking cute...well instead of at 7pm the Pep Stalkers started to play at 10.30pm which resulted in Bertie being reasonable drunk. It was undoubtful Punk Rock, highly entertaining...


The Pep Stalkers live on stage...

Ok, so much for now, take care, have fun and cya

Done my democratic duty and more Frauke pics...

G´day,

And another special greeting to my followers: Emily, Josara, Julia, Cord, Dan, Andrew, Scott, Bill and Jan. Today I was voting. On the 27th of Sept is the next Federal election and as I´ll be in Australia then, I went to vote today. The ballot paper was a little on the long side, so I had to take two pics to show it all...
The upper part of the ballot paper. For the federal election you have two votes, on the left side you vote directly for the candidates from your district, this vote is only counted in your district. The district votes determine who will become the member of the Bundestag from this district. On the right side you vote for the party which is a Germany-wide vote. The results from the right side establish the composition of the Bundestag. Well it´s a little complicated if you really want to know how the German elections work, klick here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Germany
Ballot paper part 2. There are only five parties who (seriously) have the chance to get more than 5%, CDU (Christion democrats), SPD (social democrats), FDP (liberals), Grüne (The greens), Linke (Sozialists). The other will get something between 0.00000001% and let´s say 2% and any party under 5% is considered not elected. I´m curious what will happen with the Pirate-Party which are new this time. I hate the nazis but I like that we have three Nazi-parties NPD, DVU and Republikaner so the canibalise themselfs which is at east better than if they would unite to get all right wing votes for one party... And please note that the Coldplay-listening vegan nutcases also have a party, Tierschutzpartei but I recon they get less than 0.3%..
I belive in Green...

After I voted I went to Gaby for a coffee and big news...since three days Frauke is walking...
standing...
Sitting and looking sceptical, well Frauke was a little on the lively side today so most pics I took only showed a blur...
Even though I really like all the kids my friends have managed to get and I wouldn´t want to give the impression that I have any favorites...I like Frauke...

Well, that´s it for today...I still have two drafts on which I am working but they are not ready to be published yet...take care, have fun and cya...