Schwelmo's Welt

Bank Wank

2009-03-05T00:17:00.002+13:00

Life is getting greener in Europe as we are approaching spring. That means in the Southern Hemisphere it will get darker. I hope for the Southern Hemisphere that is not also true for the financial crisis (or whatever you want to call it...crisis of the system would be truer I guess). However, most of my little money is still there...so please don’t fuck it up too much!
Just to give you an idea, about how high regarded the NZD in France is. I am not getting paid here at the moment, so every little money has a higher personal (but lower communal) value as it had a few months ago. Therefore I decided I change some 150+ NZ dollar and some Czech Crones into Euros (well yeah, not much but everything counts). In France banks don’t have casch or deal with cash.....cash is deal with only by (supposedly) bulletproof machines which are also very stubborn towards violent threats (so no income source for desperate like me). However, you can make an appointment to change money. Which I did. You have to tell them how much and what kind of money. Which I did...ah...Anna did as her French is more suitable for that. The date or shall I say rendevouz went like that :

After waiting 30 min we got asked to come into another room. In an air tight bomb safe room somewhere in the back of the bank there was me Anna, the woman from the bank , about 150 NZ$ and a few thousand Czech Crones. All conversation is how I remembered, but might have been changed through translations or is partly guessed.

“Bonjour!”
“Grrrrr!”
“We have an appointment to change some money into Euros.”
“Yes, I see. How much money you have.”
“A it is not that much.. it is some 100reds NZD and a few thousand Czech Crones....and actually five Sloty.”
(I take the money out of my pocket, and but it on the table)
“Ah...je suis desolee. We don’t take it. “
“Oui...ah what?”
“We don’t take that. Au revoir!”
“Au revoir? We called you to change the money and told what we have.”
“Oui, we only take dollars. Au revoir.”
“Yeah, you mean American dollars??? Those are dollars ...we told you on the phone when we made the appointment.”
“No, only American dollars, or Canadian and Australian dollars. Or the English pound. Au revoir.”
“ Ok. So where do we go to change second class money then? “
“Je ne sais pas. Try a different bank. We don’t take it. Au revoir.”
“...but you are a fuckin bank...” (Just a thought....and also thought in English).

Since New Zealand doesn’t seem to be a real country with real money (at least from the French point of view) I missed out on 50 EUR. Guess I need to find a new hobby as trying out all the different beer in the world might be appropriate for jobless people, but is too expensive. Who knows...I might do some more frequent blogging instead.
, originally uploaded by Schwelmo.

a butt's life

2009-02-23T02:29:00.001+13:00

a butt's life, originally uploaded by Schwelmo.

...I gave up...4 weeks and counting!

Eating out in Anger(s)

2008-09-29T10:27:00.001+13:00

, originally uploaded by Schwelmo.

My first experiences of (vegan) eating out in France were both encouraging and disappointing. Encouraging because I did find four places in Angers to eat; actually 5 if you count the market where we were able to buy vegetables, olives bread and wine which makes a great brunch (can’t tell you that we had wine for breakfast). Two were Indian places, which are somewhat disappointing as they not really taste like Indian food. Apparently French don’t like it spicy. However, they like their meat dishes. Everything needs to have something dead in it. Even in the vegetarian couscous. I actually looked forward to couscous and there are places where you can get vegetarian couscous. But even they are made with beef stack. In all (two ;-) ) places we asked. They had the attitude that it is vegetarian as there is no meat in it (fish is a vegetable anyway). As my attitude to vegetarian is different couscous is off my list for now. Looking at the menu cards it probably will be ratatouille, falafel, ratatouille, falafel for me. Beside finding an acceptable place to eat I also will have to adapt my eating times. You only get food between 12.03 and 13.37 o’clock and then from 19.13 until 21.56. if you are hungry in between...well you are fucked! You it what and when, however the restaurant decides for you.
Hope i have kitchen in Nancy. ;-)

Kangaroos in Aotearoa

2008-08-29T07:02:00.001+12:00

McCanada, originally uploaded by Schwelmo.

In Toronto I was amused that McDonalds arches have the Maple leaf in their Icon. I am not sure if McDonalds is trying to pretend to be Canadian or if Canada wants to be more like McDonalds. However I had this little conversation with the franchise manager when I took the picture:

"Hey man, you want to take a picture of me?"
" No, just taking a picture of the arches. I thinks it is funny u got the maple leaf in it."
"Oh... so not from here. Where you from?"
"I am German but I lived in New Zealand for the last 5.5 years."
" Ah New Zealand that is cool! Your first time in Canada?"
" Yeah, thought I visit on my way back to Europe."
"Oh yeah, that a great time of the year to visit. Hope you like it. So you don´t have a kangaroo, or a crocodile in your arches over there?"
"No, just the arches. But I lived in New Zealand but I don´t thinl Australia has anything in it."
"Ahh...right New Zealand. Which City? Melbourne."
"No, Melbourne is in Australia."
"Brisbane, Sydney or Perth?"
No, I lived in New Zealand....different country."
"Ah...Auckland."
" I didn´t live in Auckland, I lived in Palmerston North."
"Oh..that´s great man! You know the former boss of McDonalds was Australian. But he died on a heart attack last year or so."
"Oh...too much of your food, aye?"
"Haha , I think it was too much of the competitions food."

He was a very nice guy and obviously you don´t need a geography degree to run a McD franchise. But why does the McD boss eats the competion food?

Mann kann Euch auch nicht einen Augenblick alleine lassen

2008-07-06T12:18:00.001+12:00

Mann kann Euch auch nicht einen Augenblick alleine lassen, originally uploaded by Schwelmo.

Abandoned for now

2007-11-15T10:15:00.000+13:00

Haven't done a post in ages...probably will not for a while as well. Might more frequently upload pictures, which you find here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56246838@N00/

I might come back one day.......

2007-08-28T16:11:00.000+12:00

I am sick of being reminded about that Nazi shit all the time. I am sooo bored with it!!
Those British derived countries apparently don't get enough of it. See the Hells Pizza ad. They even have a vegan pizza at Hells but (not because I think you cant use Hitler in ads but because I am sick of it and the vegan pizza doesn't taste good) I will not buy it anymore . There are better ways to advertise with mass murderers.

But those fucking stupid wankers in Muegeln and elsewhere keep the remembrance of the racist German and the Nazi burden alive! Thank you...Idiots!!!!

Very West in Australia

2007-07-30T15:07:00.000+12:00

Well, my first day in Western Australia and it is raining. Thats why I spend time in a Internet cafe. On my flight to Perth my luggage was randomly checked twice and Iwas randomly checked once. Very interesting that they always randomly check the same people. And I even didn't wear my "US bombs the world" t-shirt. Not so randomly is actually a scence which you always (at least I always saw) on an New Zealand airport. Everytime the arrival or depart from at least one Pacific Islander is honored with a friend or family member playing and singing along to a guitar. I like that. It has charme. Although I think it is funny that they usually play the smallest guitar they can find and in addition it is played by the biggest guy at the airport! But better they have a small guitar than a to small t-shirt.
To my delight and suprise I also saw some German third division football on the flight! FC St Pauli- vs. Fortuna Duesseldorf ...wow! My number 2 and number 1 club! They showed a little creport about the St. Pauli fan scence and all the game scence they showed was against Fortuna Duesseldorf. Interestingly, one of the game highlights they showed was a St.Paulianer running over a Fortuner player and knocked him out. I think they don't get the game. It clearly is a rugby nation!

Shaved

2007-07-18T17:12:00.000+12:00

I handed in. I should be glad and feel free. But I don't. I am still tired, no excitement. I guess I should have started working straight away. But thats what my bank account demanded.
But in two weeks (...actually less) I am off to Western Australia! Yay! Sunshine, desert, beer, beaches and Sarah! should be good, even only for 12 days!

The confident look of someone who is soon losing his beard

2007-07-09T15:12:00.000+12:00

…and handing in!?! My beard got far to long. For a while I thought I need to convert to Islam just to justify my look. I was suppose to print and hand in on Wednesday. It became Thursday, than Friday. I printed. I looked great bright colours a lot of contrast. A closer look revealed they are too dark. If there are some black boxes in my thesis (most likely), at least they should not be the pictures. So I learned, there differences in jpegs. You can have CMYK and RGB. Some printer like that the other like the other. Further if anyone of you needs to print a thesis with pictures…optimise your screen settings, before you create the pictures. Mine seem to be pretty off. I guess that why everybody is asking me where my red tattoo is…although there isn’t any red in it.

Anyway I am looking forward to shave, having time off and only need to worry about the thesis before my defence. And man I will be worried.

Anyhow starting to work here a bit and then I will go to Perth for 12 days.

I learned the last weeks:

Beards make you look old and fat!

They are itchy and sting.

If your moustache got the right length you can scratch yourself inside your nostrils.

Internet it a time waster!

You can get used to Marmite and even enjoy it.

I am opening a vegan-punk-rock-café-live-music-art-pub-restaurant. Some day, somewhere else than in Palmy.

New Zealand winters suck!!! Especially if you are inside. This country would be able to fulfil the Kyoto protocol by insulating there houses and put double glasing in every building. They could be rich by selling there saved carbon emissions. Then they also would have a power shortage every winter. That is fucking stupid. I know you are tough Kiwis and can endure the cold…but that is FUCKING STUPID! Have a look at the map! You are not in the tropical areas of the world!!!

And than there was a tornado in Taranaki. I remember every time you see the American tornado “victims”. All desperate and winy in the interview after, non-stop crying. The reactions here were somewhat like:

“Mmmmh…yeah that really sucked, bro. My roof is gone, and its raining. That really sucks. I nearly cried on time.”

“Yeah that tornado was in my bathroom and then I ran into my bedroom and it followed me. That was pretty scary.”

“Yeahh we can’t stay here. No power, no roof, no water! That sucks, but nothing we can do”.

…waiting for the printery call…

2007-06-29T11:24:00.000+12:00

Just to reassure you...

2007-06-13T14:20:00.000+12:00

.. I am still alive. No I haven't finished my thesis. I am sorry that I missed the G8 protests and will miss the Rugby World Cup in France. I actually planned to be at both. But the writing goes awfully slow. And I hate it. What doesn't make it easier. Further I hate my computer. It keeps freezing, shutting down randomly and basically does everything to annoy me. It does it very successful. My revenge will be terrible though. As soon as I have enough money to buy a new one (maybe a Mac if getting really rich) I will either burn it or destroy it running over it with my car. My car was cheaper, is more fun and lasted longer!
Anyhow, for those who don't know...I got a job for a few months when I am finished. I got a Visa tillo March'08 and let a beard grow until I handed in.

If you truly and really miss me you have to live with pictures of me, which you find at Dan's photo page. HERE
Yeah, I know I am a poser and narcissistic!!!

Complaining and angeben

2007-04-13T13:24:00.000+12:00

...there is something in New Zealand winters I don't like. It is colder inside the house than outside. This complicates the writing (u see I looking for excuses) as my finger getting cold and dumb. I tried to keep them warm by putting them into my pockets but the writing did not work then at all.
I managed further to perfectionated procrastinating. I found making muffins and doing the dishes is very good for that. It also keeps your fingers warm.
But I do some progress...yay! I got my first publication published...(<- showing off). And I also played in the New Zealand national Handball Championships (<-more showing off). It was actually called "Wellington Central Region Tournament". But since all New Zealand teams were there I make the Nationals out of it! ;-) ..ha and I scored 3 times.

Seitan and Tofu- or me pig hunting

2007-03-28T12:33:00.000+12:00

Since a week we got two new flatmates. David, my new French flatmate decided to get under the pig farmer and bought two Kune-Kune's, which living now in our back yard. They are very, very cute! But I am afraid David is seeing only bacon and ham in them. Unfortunately I can’t convince him to train them as truffles pigs. Mainly because I don’t think there are truffles in Aotearoa. He is even refusing to give them names. He doesn’t want to get attached. (And anyway, didn’t your mother tell you not to play with the food.) I think, I call them Tofu and Seitan, with Tofu being black and Seitan ginger. So this Xmas I will eat neither Tofu nor Seitan. There are lovely animals and actually a kind of very self sufficient way to transfer your rubbish into meat. Apparently they are also highly intelligent. Tofu and Seitan have probably a very nice live compared to most of their specieskind-meat-producer. They are only as big as a little dog and have a bout 8 m2 and a little shed, can lie in the sun or shade under a tree. They also have a lot of apples which fall from the apples trees around them. Awwhh…sounds like paradise! But from day one they were checking out the fence for any gaps. You should not cage animals! And today they managed to escape, not wanting to become bacon! Run Forrest, run!

Unfortunately I didn’t think they would survive long outside, them being babies (6-8 weeks old) and it being bloody cold at night. There are also a lot of cars in Palmy. We saw Seitan on the street and tried to catch him. But did you ever tried to catch a pig with two people on an area bigger than a football field (or at all). Plus having bushes and trees around? However, at one point (scared by a minivan) Seitan decided to go back into the backyard (No trace of Tofu since we detected they escaped). That was easy, we thought. Only noticing that Seitan was this time escaping into the bush in the back of the house. I followed him, as I thought, once in the bush he is gone forever. I managed to catch up with him. I talked to him (running after a pig in flip-flops in the bush is fucking useless) “come on. you die here. come back, be very nice to David so he doesn’t eat you and use you as a truffle pig” I also made him coming close to me sniffing my hand, but I couldn’t grab him as I was standing in flip-flops in the mud holding myself on a branch with one arm not to fall. Anyway, somehow he didn’t trust me anyway and decided to run back into the neighbours bush, backyard, garden, drive way, on the street into our front yard. I was following. In our garden we finally managed to corner him. We put him down with two people (Man, they scream!!!) into a box (Man, they can jump!) and back into the re-enforced paddock. So I spent my whole afternoon in chasing my flatmates Xmas dinner, that all being vegan! What the fuck was I doing? And not only that! At night Tofu came back in. He was probably spending the day in the pub and now queeking and complaining in front of the cage as he couldn’t get back in!

I could have spend the whole day writing….but that would be boring!

Pic1: Seitan digging a new escape tunnel, while Tofu "steht Schmiere"

Pic2: Seitan waiting for cuddles

Moko

2007-03-13T14:16:00.000+13:00

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hold
The unfamiliar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

Ink not mink!

quick hello

2007-03-06T14:31:00.000+13:00

I don't feel like writing. Especially since I should write my thesis. So I just link you to other peoples pages.... lazy me.

Somebody burnt my flatmates car down...to steal a radio?!?! Wankers! See here

Black Seeds, Katchafire, Open Souls, Rhombus and others played in Palmy. See here..and read here

under pressure

2007-02-14T18:27:00.000+13:00

I should admit that I am not a woman. That means three things:

I am more hairy. I can’t get pregnant. I can’t do two things at once.

Today I tried the latter. I need to write my stupid thesis. So I stayed home to write as I had to eat I decided to cook something as well. A thought a chickpea curry would be nice. And my new place has a pressure cooker. Beautiful, I thought. I can cook the chickpeas in there and they should be ready in 30 min for further use. I filled 4 cups dried chickpeas into the pressure cooker and added sufficient water. When I looked at the lid it said something like “before use refer to the manual”. At least I think, because it was in French. The language of love and something I do not speak. “Ah, fuck it. I used a pot before. And anyway stupid French.”

I closed the lid, turned on the heat and went back to writing. And lost track of time (can you believe that , I was writing). I smelled something burned after a while. I ignored it but jumped started into the kitchen 2 minutes later where I was greeted by a black/brownish liquid coming out of the ventil. “Wow, I created oil out of chickpeas! I a gonna be rich!” Then I remembered: oil is out of animal sediment (is driving a car vegan?). Plants make coal. And that what I found later in the bottom of the pot.

I am sure the manual would have said “reduce the heat when water is cooking”. Well, enough water was still in there as it kept coming out brown, smelly and sticky. I took the pot outside to release the pressure (took 5 min). The next 2h I spend cleaning and sorted out the burned from the non-burned chickpeas. I had toast for tea…

If somebody wants to know, burned chickpeas in a pressure cooker taste like roasted chestnuts. But I would not recommend repeating that experiment. Buying chestnuts directly is probably much cheaper than a pressure cooker.

Support your local dealer...ah director

2007-02-07T16:08:00.000+13:00

If you in Wellington/or Palmy...and have spare time...

go and see the play Antigone's death.

2 weeks in pics

2007-01-24T10:14:00.000+13:00

Happy Birthday Dad!

2007-01-09T15:38:00.000+13:00

It's my dad's birthday today. Of course I forgot to send anything in time. As he is a frequent reader and translator of my blog I sent this way some virtual cake (out of VwV) and respect and love!

"Happy Birthday, alter Mann!"

Frohes Neues

2007-01-03T14:43:00.000+13:00

I wish all of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Even it’s already a few days into 2007 and most probably the first resolutions are broken. I mean in the end that’s what they are for, aren’t they. So my resolutions are: to start smoking again, not to have a tattoo, having less sex than last year and quitting my PhD. And maybe drink more. And looking for jobs in Palmy.

Likewise resolutions, break old traditions and create new ones. Keep the good ones of course. With the good ones I don’t mean female genital mutilation, foie gras, getting rich on the stock market or FC Bayern Munich winning the German championship.

I hope you had a good year and wish you a better to come. Ahh... and a better summer than the one we have in Palmy…15 degrees….that’s a joke.

Sending out to you love, peace and respect!!

Another vegan blurb

2006-12-08T18:34:00.000+13:00

I know I, I know. I didn’t sound very positive lately. But I started to think that thing gonna get better. Honestly, I mean on a world wide scale. Ok the US declared war on terror made the world a more dangerous place and operation Iraqi Freedom turned into a total disaster. But at least the American public changed and even George Doubleevil Bush had to admit he was wrong. One day he might even say " I am sorry!", after he starts drinking again.The same happened with climate change. While there was a denial over the last decades, everybody seems to agree know that it is happened. It is not positive that we are drifting into a big mess, but at least people are aware now, can get prepared and do something about it to make it less dramatic. Yay!

And something else changed. 2 years ago I went to a book shop to look for a vegan cookbook. What happened was that I first had to explain the people what vegan is and then had to spell it. Ok that was maybe partly due to my pronunciation. Anyway, they couldn’t find any in their computer. That meant, there wasn’t even one in stock somewhere in NZ. I ended up to find a book which was called “Vegetarian Cooking without fish, dairy and gluten”. I found it in the health section. They use eggs in their recipies (but say you can replace them with egg-replacer (very logical to repace eggs with egg replacer, don’t you use milk replacer if you wanna replace eggs). So it actually was a vegan cookbook, but as nobody knew what it was they had to sell it as “Vegetarian Cooking without..”. Anyway, as I am a proud non-owner of a credit card (the truth: I don’t get one not being a PR) I couldn’t even order some in the internet. I went to the same bookshop, 22 months later and I found 3 different vegan cookbooks (I bought “How it allVegan” and “Vegan with a Vengeance”) , plus a lot of vegetarian ones with particular vegan options. Yay, the world seems to move in a right direction. Then I realized I am mainstream! I can see myself defending myself against “you are only vegan because it’s fashionable”. But hey that means I can go out for dinner soon and order a vegan food everywhere, just like you get vegetarian options now. And tattoos are fashionable as well…

It is not easy to be a Summer in PN

2006-12-04T11:28:00.000+13:00

Yay! Summer official started on the 1st of December. This 4 days now even though I announced summer about 3 months ago. (BTW: I am still smoke free). But the summer is still new. It needs to practise a lot. It kind of tried on Saturday but gave up on Sunday morning. But since then the rain is warmer. I wonder if Palmerston North, PN is just a synonym for "permanenter Niederschlag".
As I am talking about the weather you can guess that nothing happened. I am getting realy stressed and nervous about finishing the whole PhD thing. But no motivation, really short tempered.....etc.. thats why I am moving before Xmas. A place on my own where I can only piss myself off and be pissed of by myself as well. Only for 6 weeks but I hope I get some work done....to getout of here to Somewhereelse. I heard Somewhereelse could be a nice place. For example where Pete is right now.

Picture is made by Dan. On a sunny (but very windy) day in Wellington, when we went to see "Allah made me Funny". I would give it the title "Current Mood" (I am actually kind of smiling ).

Ficken für den Frieden

2006-11-23T16:18:00.000+13:00

...und natürlich gegen Rechts!

I mentioned before I only want to celebrate days which make sense to me.
Here is another one

22.December. And it has even scientific prove.....honestly

PS: Applications only with foto ;-)

Possums are (no) Scapgoats

2006-11-15T14:16:00.000+13:00

I might be more an Aussie than a Kiwi…and that after all those years.

A few weeks ago I saved a possum, I mean I did not kill it. I hope you realized, that this very dangerous what I am doing here. Making public in New Zealand that I let get a possum away on purpose. The archenemies of every Kiwi (I mean the people and the birds) seem to be possums. I think even New Zealand Vegans and priest (actually, that I know for sure) kill every possum they see. So if you don’t here from me for a longer time than I might be in serous trouble or finally started non-stop writing. The preferred way to kill a possum is by driving over it. It very easy, as they stop on the road and basically look into your car light until you smash their head. That might be a bit stupid, but they are no cowards running away. You might call that attitude (that’s what cat owners apparently like on their cats, even I think they are just to stupid to learn and that is mistaken by attitude [gonna get in trouble for that as well]).

Anyway, back to my possum… After a late night at Massey (that is the Uni not a pub!!), I was driving home, while I saw a possum crossing the street. It looked cute..but somehow stoned, while it walked like a bodybuilder. Possum have short front legs so it looks like they have very broad shoulder, when they walk. It stopped in the middle of the road and looked into my front lights, awaiting its death (stupid…bodybuilder like ??). If I would be a Kiwi I would had exhilarate and mad the possum “platt wie ne Flunder”. I thought about the noise it would make and all the intestine and blood, fur and bone pieces stucked on the road and my car (I just got new tires as well). And, anyway, what did that possum do to me? Its no his/her fault/choice to be a possum anyway. So I slowed down and stopped. The possum acknowledged its future and thanked me by nicking twice. Then it went slowly with even broader shoulders to the other side of the street. Maybe it was a bit arrogant and thought it was tougher than my car.

Anyway, I was proud of myself. When I told other people they reacted with fury and misunderstanding. While possums are endangered in Australia they are considered to be a pest here. People, owning domestic cats, told me “don’t you know they kill native birds?”, people feeding ducks and pigeons in the parks said “don’t you know they transmit diseases?”. Farmers who cleared their land from native forest, to have more space for sheep and cattle, are suddenly concerned about the native bush destroyed by possums. Yeah right!

The main excuse is “theyu are not native so its OK to kill them.” But so aren’t cats (Do you drive over cats?), dogs, European ducks, sheep and cows, trouts or deer. And ..ah humans. You don’t drive over humans do you. Even they brought pretty much every pest (including possums) to New Zealand and killed most of the native birds (“When was the last time you saw a Moa?”) and bush!

And unrelated to that I finally found a beer which I really, really like. Coopers Pale Ale (See on the picture with some beautyfull stirfry, with noodles and Vegan Oyster Sauce)

It is bottle fermented, family owned and Australian!

PS: I do think possums are a problem…but I will not kill them. I also think they look cute.

WorldVeganDay Out-- or avoiding writing

2006-11-05T15:55:00.000+13:00

You find some more (better) pictures at Dan's Flickr site. And also here in francais.

About 3 weeks ago I decided finally to write my thesis. I thought I really have to do it. Otherwise it might be to close to be finished before my visa is running out. And then I thought that it really sucks writing for 24/7 just when summer starts. I also can’t go away over summer. So I came up with following selfish plan. After 3 weeks of writing (HAVN’T WRITTEN A WORD YET) I deserve a holiday, not a big one but at least one holy day. OK, I am not religious, but the 1st November is World Vegan Day. Ahh, and I am eat Vegan! So I send out that email to ask if there would be anyone interested to go spending a day somewhere “far enough away from Palmy that it doesn’t feel like Palmy, but close enough to go back to work the next day” and also celebrate World Vegan Day with a Vegan picnic, drinking vegan New Zealand brewed beer and throwing Frisbees and kicking balls. As I am the only Vegan I know here, I also thought I might get some food, which I didn’t need to prepare myself. Yeah., finally other people cooking for me! And the only thing I had to do was sending out a bloody email to ask if people are keen. And they were! A lot of people seemed to like the challenge of cooking with a handicap. (Actually I hope that it isn’t that alienated anymore for some). And also a lot of people are waiting desperate for summer and doing something with it. So I actually got heaps more response as I expected, when I decided at the Saturday in three weeks ahead will be good weather and people will cook especially for me. While you might call it selfish I think it is the most Buddhist thing I ever done. Five or 6 years ago I went to see the Dalai Lama giving a public lecture at Eden Park in Auckland. As far I remember, he said it is good to be selfish. If you are selfish, you are looking for your own happiness. But you only find true happiness (and we are all looking for true happiness and not schadenfreude (why do they only take bad words from German into English?? Why isn’t there actually an English word for Schadenfreude, that they have to take ours..are we that bad??)) , if people around you are happy as well. So you help them and try to make them happy. I kind of think a lot of people did actually had quite fun to cook something vegan (maybe the first time in their life) and to have a reason to go out of Palmy, even just for a day. The latter is probably the main reason why people were so keen. I should have done similar things before (it always depends, what YOU make out of it).
But I feel a bit under pressure. As I am the only Vegan , I should know how to cook Vegan (which isn’t that difficult). But I did a big mistake. I made stuff I never cooked before. I made a parsnip-carrot-cashnew roast. (by the way: does anybody know what parsnip are in German and are there parsnips Germany??). Parsnips have a kind of anis taste, which you like or hate. I also made a vegan pizza. But instead of doing a pizza I made before, which was very yummy.,….very, very yummy…. I tried out a completely new recipe.
Not sure about the taste (how do you want convince people that vegan food does not need to be bad, pale , if you cook something you never tasted before) …willl see tomorrow! Especially the “cheesy topping” which cost a lot of money did not convince me. But I had fun cooking, listen to Punk, Heavy Metal and a bit of Soul very loud on my mp3 player. I especially recommend Sepultura while doing the dishes, or maybe Aretha Franklin. Parliament didn’t work at all. I haven't thought about "Fresh Fruits for Rotten Vegetables" from the DK's which actually seems to be appropiate.
Part of the fun might have been the six pack beer (“Royal Dutch Post Horn Lager” beer), which I haven’t checked to be vegan or not.
The good thing with vegan food is that is automatically ”halal” and “kosher” (das nenn ich mal Bruecken bauen zwischen den Religionen) . I asked my Muslim flatmate, if it still will be kosher…ahh …halal (it’s the same anyway), if the cook was drunk. He said, it would. He also told me that meat (not from a pig of course) is halal as long no human being had sex with the goat, sheep, chicken, cattle or fish (sex with fishes??? You are sick, people!). While this might be a problem for a lot of Muslims in Australia, Scotland, New Zealand and Greece ( “IS YOUR SHEEP/GOAT REALY A VIRGIN, MATE??”), I am quite sure nobody had sex with one of the vegetables we are eating tomorrow. Well, kind of sure. Don’t wanna think about it at least….., but then …NO.

I also decided only to celebrate days which are important to ME. So there is no Christmas (OK there is as I have a day or 3 off and all other (Western) people do something,) ……..25th of November is BND….”Buy Nothing day”! ("Wer jetzt noch kauft ist selber schuld." "Spend a day without spending!") And also “Day against Violence Against Women”. Maybe we can combine it, having a gathering only with things we didn’t buy which don’t harm women. But then I don’t really like shoe parties!

Oh, I realize that I am actually quite drunk…..well, that is cooking.

Yeah, that was fun. Even though it was a bit hard to get out of bed (due to the Post Horn Dutch) I got up early and started to worry as the sky looked a bit cloudy and especially dark near the mountain range were the picnic was suppose to be venued (making up words here, I think). It turned out to be warm and sunny. Most found the way somehow, with some deciding to take a longer scenic gravel road (OK, apparently the description of directions was kind of bad). Spending a nice afternoon playing picnic cricket, soccer,drinking beer and getting sunburned (again). There was also yummy food, and thanks for the effort guys and girls!! With pizza (which turned out to be very nice, partly because of Do’s herbs in the base), Tabouleh, frozen smoothies, selfmade hommous, a tahini banana tart, vegetable roast and marinated Tofu! And falafels which haven’t been eaten, but I am sure they were great. Yeah! And I could eat it all! And especially Jen’s brownies! I loved them! Thanx again!

When I was just thinking about leaving the Kiwis arrived as well. More beer, salads and sausages for the BBQ! !!!!!!!!!!!! And a bit after my flatmates came. The ones without demand for kosher, halal food. My Pakistani flatmate would have been handy to
explain us cricket....

I start tommorrow. ..yeah right

2006-10-23T13:38:00.000+13:00

I am currently trying to avoid writing my thesis. Not that it would make any sense as it will get more and more stressful as longer as I avoid it.
But how do write if you can't have cigarette breaks. You can replace it with coffee breaks but that hurts your tummy after the 6th one. So instead I do baking. As you see I made fantastic almond-orange-lemon-poppyseed cookies, out of a hazelnut cookie recipe . Yes, they are vegan and yes they were supposed to look like the ones in the magazine. I blame our oven for the slighty burned color. I also blame the oven for the failure of the "Creamy Cashew -Almond Nut Loaf" you see with a perfect Granny Smith apple. It actually wasn't a failure as it tasted terrific. It just did not keep the shape. Anyway I took it with me on a hike. Something I haven't done since months (February I think). Going for a hike is also very usefull for avoid writing your thesis and/ or papers. But the hike was good. Even I did not feel the benefits of not-smoking at the very steep part.

One other favorite time killer is searching Vegan-blogs for recipes. Then I get hungry and go home and cook again. Like this Malaysian Tofu-Curry. I have no idea if it is any similar to any Malaysian Curry but it is delicious ( and keeps you away from smoking/working). My flatmate found a little green caterpillar in her portion so it wasn't completely vegan.
Writing your blog is also great for avoid working. And then there is still our backyard................

I am not addicted... I am not addicted.... I am not addicted

2006-10-10T09:42:00.000+13:00

I stopped smoking! Six days without any cigarette. ..not yet, day 6 just started. (Ok, I had 4 puffs on other peoples cigarettes). There wasn't any particular reason to give up. Unless I said last year I would stop by the end of it and a year later I thought it might be time. And (so far) it is fucking easy. I only had yesterday the feeling I need to brake something or somebody, or lightning an atomic bomb. I didn't,that was somebody else (hey, Kim ILL Jong, since you showed the whole world your penis enlargement you might also start to feed your people!) I was close though! It just would have been changing one destructive behaviour with another one. And I am on a cold turkey. No nicotine gums or patches, thats cheating!
The main problem is: I love the smell of tobacco! Or maybe it is just the addiction, which makes me think I love it. But I don't get nervous/excited/on turkey/ driven by desire, if somebody smoke a filter cigarette. They stink! But tobacco is different. So I guess it is not just the addiction to nicotine. I try to remind myself that it is actually a bit like coffee, which never (or very, very rare) taste as good as it smells. And the other thing is, smokers are good people. Most of the people I am hanging out with (or did hang out in Germany are self-rolling) tobacco smokers. I like hanging out with them, that will be a challenge for a while. Maybe I will start to ask you to blow into my face, or better (if you are female and good looking) blow directly in my mouth! Maybe we could also hold hands as I really need to do something with my hands now. I realized on Saturday that it is not much better having beers in your hand instead of cigarettes.
And it makes it even more expensive than smoking!

Picture: A picture from the past. Bushfire while I was in Cairns and still smoking. Two things completely NOT related.

Finally some Cairns/Melbourne pics

2006-09-26T18:34:00.000+12:00

Here they are

Spinach and nothing

2006-09-23T15:42:00.000+12:00

I am happy not to live in the states. For a lot of reasons. I think there are actually quite a few reasons, why it could be fun to live in the States. At least for a white, non-moslem with a interest in rock music, who is also a vegan. It doesn’t need to be Texas. But right now the US facing a epidemic. There is a fear of spinach, prepacked and looking healthy, but it might be deadly. Poeple die because of eating spinach (Somehow I think it is funny). The spinach is full of E. coli O157:H7. This is a nasty bug. It makes you shitting blood and causes liver failure. Popeye wouldn’t be able to take a fight after eating some of this, I guess (but he wasn’t eating fresh spinach, instead it came out of a can. Have you ever seen spinach in cans?? Its bad enough they do it to beer.). Anyway now you shouldn’t eat spinach in the US. But the very interesting thing is E. coli O157:H7 is a bacteria living in the guts of animals. The main problem with it until now was contamination of meat, undercooked mince etc. If you were unlucky you could get it even as a vegetarien from handshaking with your meat eating friend (not washing his/her hands) or using MacDonalds toilets. Eric Schlosser tells a very interesting story about O157:H7 and the meat industry in “Fast Food Nation” (recommended read, but for people to lazy, they just made a movie out of it). So how did it get onto spinach? I haven’t heard anything about that, but I suggest using pee and poo from animals to fertilize the spinach fields has something to do with it. Or it comes from the flooding of ..maybe New Orleans, I am sure they still haven’t cleaned it up. Anyway, dear meat eater, eat what you want but don’t mess up our food as well. Please!

Meanwhile in New Zealand:

A study showed 1 in 5 New Zealanders has some sort of mental illness. That actually did not surprise me. There are quite a few people I know of how taking anti-depressives and similar things. I would like to know the figures of other countries. Not really mentally straight are the doings of New Zealand politics. First Don Brash (National Party leader and conservative Sexgott) got blamed of having an affair with a business women, who benefits from some funding, tax money, I don’t know. It shouldn’t be surprising that conservatives have a closer relation to the business world than others. And they might even sleep with them. So be it! That’s what you do if you like each other (at least sometimes). Well, to fight back the National Party (not officially I think) accused Helen Clarks husband to be gay. Well, who cares? Does it matter for the country? Is it maybe even better if the prime minister doesn’t get distracted when she comes home and can concentrate on her work? Anyway, being gay is apparently the heaviest insult you can get in New Zealand. …. Grow up!

Me personally haven’t been up to any exciting things. On Thursday we tried to go to a different pub than the Winchester. Everything else was empty, had crappy beer, was closed or you didn’t get in with a hoodie (apparently it defines you as a gang member). So we ended up at the Winchester. We tried hard not to. Then I realized …I need to get out of Palmy, quick and more often. And I need to get l..d. but that I knew before. Tonight I will go to see Shapeshifter, a NZ electronic music band. You see how desperate I am….?? Tomorrow there will be a Handball mini-tournament. So that is finally a weekend being different. I am looking forward to it . And the sun is coming out… oh no its gone…there she is..was …again. Here she comes… or not it is raining … and windy…but sunny.

Statisch

2006-09-15T18:47:00.000+12:00

I just wanted to let you you know that I hate statistics. Well, I don't understand statistics and some wise people said, you only hate, what you don't understand. I don't understand Rusian but if it is spoken by a beatyful lady I am sure I like it. But I do not understand statistic and I do not like it. Basically I hate not to know what I am doing. There are hundreds of webpages, books and computer programs available (Nowadays you even don't have to do the calculations). But, which test do you use for what, when, how and why. I can answer the when. That is when you have to.Or they make you (they are everybody -thing taking part in that big conspiracy against you and your dreams. I wanted to be a rockstar and now I am doing statistics, see what THEY did to me). And I can answer you the how. You just put numbers into prepared webpages or excel sheets and press ENTER on you computer and that is it. But then you get those nice data (=numbers) which try to tell you a story. But I don't get their story. I don't understand them. We are not even speaking the same language. This might be, because I don't know which statistic I should use for what and why. I think that is why I hate it. But my results looking good, I guess. Its just a feeling I did everything allright. But feelings and statistic don't mix, do they? And I am not even doing real statistic.....I am stucked. Time for the weekend.

2006-09-05T18:33:00.000+12:00

Are you sick of eating bad meat but can’t be bothered to become vegetarian? Stop worrying now. The FDA and Intralytix just came up with a solution. No more “Gammelfleisch” or bacteria poisoned meat. In the US they just approved the use of viruses which will kill bacteria in meat.

“The special viruses called bacteriophages are meant to kill strains of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, the Food and Drug Administration said in declaring it safe to use on ready-to-eat meats prior to their packaging.

The viruses are the first to win FDA approval for use as a food additive, said Andrew Zajac, of the regulatory agency's office of food additive safety.”

The company Intralytix also plans to seek FDA approval for another bacteriophage product to kill E. coli bacteria on beef before it is ground. Well, that’s a great idea considering the number of E. coli in stomach flora (although phages should usually work against bacteria very specific but I am not sure if it is strain specific). There is a possibility that bacteria can get resistant against phage (the viruses). As there are truckloads of bacteria on meat, which due to the progressive and modern farming methods already have a high antibiotica resistance we can make now superbacteria out of them. But I am sure they have intensively test everything and are not hurrying to bring their second product on the market. And why was everybody afraid that the bird flu virus could change and mate with the human influenza virus...?? Well, I do not understand enoug about viruses, so maybe I am just against progression.

Ah, in case you think that you’ll just avoid the food products that have been treated… they’re not going to label the products. :-)

I liked this comment on the topic....but I am biased. Look at printer friendly version

Altbierlied

2006-09-01T10:44:00.000+12:00

Everybody loves his home country
That's why we obviously love the beach along the Rhein (the coast)
Where the old castle tower (watch tower at the square) is standing that is where we are at home
As we cannot be without beer we quickly shout out:

[Chorus]
Is it the forest here? (No, its the Manawatu)Where is the Altbier?
We in Düsseldorf have the longest bar (Palmerston North don't have many decent bars) in the world, yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah
Well, are we in the Woods? Where is the Altbier?
Where is the hero that orders a round with his money?

Let's go for a guys tour along the beautiful Ahr (Manawatu)
Let's drink burgundy only (can't drink in public), well that's obvious
But once midnight comes around what we want is clear
After a glas of beer from the Altbier barrel the whole group starts to sing:

[Chorus]

...back again

2006-08-29T15:11:00.000+12:00

Well, I am back in Palmy. Nothing really seemed to have changed. What you would expect in a town like Palmy (been only 10 days away, anyway). Oh… it seems to getting closer towards spring as it is warmer than Melbourne and I found a rotten chicken wing in laundry, which must either be part of the famous French cuisine or a traditional Pakistani storage method.

The Cairns Conference was kind of successful. I think I left an acceptable impression and got a kind of a job offer in Perth. Perth is about as far away as New Zealand from anything else but has better weather. Anyway, I first finish here I guess.

Cairns in winter has lovely 29 C but it was freezing at night. Beside that, it is a touristic place with the same kind of non-quality clubs as in Palmy. You can’t swim in the sea cause of crocodiles and jellyfishes. So there is a pool in front of the sea. Die spinnen, die Australier! They have funny smoking laws as well. In a pub you are not allowed to smoke anywhere else than in a designed outside smoking area. OK in the tropics I can live with that. But you are not allowed to eat or drink in that area. So you can’t bring your chips into the outside area and have a beer and smoke with it.

In Melbourne (Victoria) you were allowed to smoke everywhere, even inside pubs. They seem to be more open minded there anyway as they have sex toys as handles in the trams. (And the “locals” I asked about that were only disturbed by the colors as they didn’t match).Yeah, they have trams! A public transport system! And it works! And there is a street called “AC/DC Lane”! How cool is that!

I was kind of surprised how big Melbourne is. I lived to long in Palmy. There are about a million of vegan food options, so I could even go out for dinner. Everyday at a different place. I even had vegan cakes. There are a lot of subculture groups and a lot of beautiful women in every color. I think I would like Melbourne.

I didn’t know too much about Melbourne before besides it is full of Italian people. Seeing the World Cup-cheating-designer players in every window was a bit of a down-side though. On the plane to Melbourne I thought I would make pictures of the famous opera house. Than I realized that the opera house is actually in Sydney. So I decided not to tell anybody as they might think I am an American.

Peace out!

Off again

2006-08-18T11:07:00.000+12:00

While big grey clouds covering the New Zealand sky, I am preparing to go to Cairns in Australia. I am getting accused to be constanly on holidays , but I actually have to work there. I will try to say some clever things to probably more clever people (well not sure about that, but they have titles) at a conference. Well, my talk is at the first day of the conference so I will find time to spent at the beach and will have a short holiday in Melbourne seeing a friend... and maybe looking for a job over there. They pay fruit pickers much better as in New Zealand!

There and back again

2006-08-07T09:28:00.000+12:00

I am back in Aotearoa, the land of the big white cloud. That it deserves its name became quite obvious as soon as we reach the airspace of Auckland airport. Due to fog we circled for 1.5h over the sea. Every 15min the pilot told us: “We can’t land right now. Due to bad visibility but we are expecting to land soon. We have enough petrol to circle for another 2h..1.75h…1.5h.” I got worried when he said: “I would land but the visibility would make it illegal to land right now but it is clearing by the minute. We have enough petrol to circle for another hour and if we can’t land then we need to go to Sydney.” Sydney??? Was he kidding? That’s a 4h flight! How does he make it with petrol for 1h?

Anyway, we could land early so that I didn’t need to find out. My French seat neighbor actually seemed to have another explanation (no...just a funny accent) as she asked: “ Wee caant land becoise of the fuck?”.

After the Biosecurity check at the airport I soon realized that the domestic airport was completely unable to deal with the fog situation as no plane could land or start before noon in Auckland or Christchurch. I wasn’t even able to get in the airport to check in again as the people from the 9:30 flights were still lining up (it was 2pm). I probably would have helped if their open more than only half of counters. Anyway I somehow made it and catch a train from Wellington to Palmy. By then I was so tired that I just tried to keep awake until the ticket officer checked mine. In the time between I saw him coming into my wagon at the other end and reaching my seat I fall about 10 times into (a second) sleep.

Having my own room and bed again what feels good. But it is raining and cold and I miss you guys in Germany heaps! Good to caught up with you!

I could give you a complete description about my time in Germany but that would bore you and it would make it too long to read. But I want to say I loved to see each of you again, realized that not much changed between most of us and more important: Nobody turned into a completely asshole. And all the new partners of you I met seemed to be very cool as well. So I see, I don’t need to look after ya. I would have loved to spent more time with each of you. But that’s life. You should go when its best and I really enjoyed the last three weeks. The wedding of Buzzer and Kati was a real good ending. I couldn’t have wished for a better one (Big kisses also go to the secretary without glasses!). I didn’t want to leave after. I just left the country because I couldn’t drink as much beer for another day! Tomorrow I will look for a detoxification opportunity or just go to the pub. Anyway, on the plane I decided that I don’t want to wait another 3 years to see you again.

After I stopped shitting in my pants (I still hate flying) my trip to Singapore was eased by my neighbors which were very nice and we basically talked for 12 hours (one a 30 years old beautiful Serbian women, married to a 50 year old German diplomat, who is responsible for all Germans in Indonesia, East Timor and a few other Islands. Themselves living in a high security area in Jakarta, not having a real relationship as he was quite busy the last year (Tsunami, Earthquakes, Civil Wars, Volcanic Eruptions). They can’t get out without bodyguards and even there are 17 million people living in Jakarta they don’t have any contact to Indonesians. Apparently the air is so polluted that you don’t see much of them anyway. After she told me that she always has huge accidents (ran over by busses, trains etc.) without major injuries and I got worried again that our plane might crash and she would be the only survivor).

In this time in Singapore I got a bed without bugs, which was good but didn’t make want to stay in Singapore even for the 30something hours. Unlike in Germany or New Zealand I really feel in Singapore that I don’t belong there. Actually it made me feel not to belong to this world. So I spent my time with lying awake at night watching movies with plane crashes, looking at strange fruits in a weird city and having beer and noodles with stuff in vegetarian restaurants. I have to say stuff as I do not really know what I was eating. But it was really nice and I even looked for a bookstore to find some recipes (bought a T-shirt instead). They assured me it was all vegetarian and even vegan. But it was called vegetarian “chicken” ,“sharks soup” , “shrimps” etc.. I don’t know I guess a lot of it was a kind of Seitan (“Praise Seitan”) or marinated and/or smoked Tempeh or Tofu…it definitively was not fish/meat.

I seem to be kind of hooked now as the first breakfast I made here was noodles with veggies and tofu! I loved it!

Big hugs and kisses!

P.S.: Viele Baeume, eine Strasse! Allee, Allee!

How the fuck could Italy become world champion??????

Tschuess sagen ist doof

2006-08-01T00:17:00.000+12:00

Das wars schon wieder.
Bin morgen auf dem Weg zurueck. :-(

Palmy rockt in Duesseldorf

2006-07-22T22:08:00.000+12:00

Black Chrome from Palmy played at "Die Hoffnungshuette" in Duesseldorf as part of their 19 days Europe Tour. I was there as nearly always when they play (in Palmy) but this time not alone (or with Dorit)

;-)

Update

2006-07-18T23:34:00.000+12:00

There are only 2 weeks left now and then I have to go back. Somehow I am looking forward to it, but on the other hand it is really sad as well. I have the feeling that I didn’t use my time good enough. Every meeting with friends feels already like a good bye. Last week I went to Zeeland in the Netherland finally filling my desire to be at a beach at temperatures about 30 degrees. That was nice but very quiet. If you have a look at the nice buildings you see why it is called Zeeland and not New Zeeland. Thats something I often miss in Aotearoa because it gives a certain flair. But therefore we got empty beaches in the land of the big white cloud. By the way, I tasted the worse beer ever: Palm. Don't try!

The weekend we went to Hamburg to celebrate the “Jungesellenabschied” (Hens night for boys). That was great but exhausting. We started with a nice boats trip in the harbour crossing big container ships under blue sky emptying a big keg of Jever (beer). A lot of drinking until 9.30 in the morning followed. Of course being in HH you visit a strip club and there I noticed a real disadvantage to be vegan. I had to stay in the second row of the table that I don’t come into the danger to suck cream from the strippers breast. They don’t have soy cream in strip clubs. That might be an opportunity to make some money if I am sick of science. A strip club for vegans and lactose intolerant people! What ya think? Who is in? But who knows how many dirty tongues licked the breast before…I don’t wanna know! Might be really healthy to be vegan.

Next week I will go to the former GDR because I never been there. Than it goes further towards Berlin for the wedding and two days later I am on the way back. That was quick!

Black Chrome from Palmerston North is playing in Duesseldorf...I might go and support my local music scene. But on the other hand I already seen them about 10 times and for way less than 5EUR. Was always great fun though!

Final Comment

2006-07-15T02:35:00.000+12:00

The World Cup is over. We got an honorable (but pointless) 3^rd place and somehow Italy got the cup. I am happy for all the nice Italian football fans but I don’t like Italy to be the world champ. Fortunately for Italy it is not about what I like. ;-)

For me Italy doesn’t play nice football, but hey I am German and I can’t say that we pleased the world in the last decades with good football. If its true that Materrazi said Zidanes mother and/or sister is a terrorist hure, he should be suspended. But we will never find out, I guess. In his defense he said “I am an ignorant, I even don’t know what a terrorist is.” Maybe, he should be suspended for half a year and send back to school. But nowadays it is very depending from your point of view to define a terrorist, so he actually might have said something very wise and true. What I dislike most is that the Italian team also played for people like Paolo DiCanio (who I really like to play with in the PlayStation game, but only because he doesn’t do his fascist greet after every goal I score with him), Silvio Berlusconi (well, what should I say) and Calderoli, former institutional reform minister in the government of ex-president Silvio Berlusconi, who described the French national team as "blacks, Islamists and communists" (which actually is not really an insult for itself), and his apologies sounded like:

"When I say that France's team is composed of blacks, Islamists and communists, I am saying an objective and evident thing."

"France is a multiethnic nation, given its colonial past, of which I would not be proud," he said.

"It's not my fault if certain people were puzzled to see a team which lined up seven blacks out of 11 players... and if certain players prefer Mecca to Bethlehem."

He hailed Italy's defeat of France in the World Cup final as "a victory for Italian identity". Italy won against "a France team which sacrificed its own identity by lining up blacks, Islamists and communists to get results."

If somebody out of Germany had said something similar you would read it on the top page on every newspaper of the world for the next 3 weeks.

Anyway I am glad for Scudy and Kimboz and every other Italian who thinks different. I think Zidane did a stupid, but as usually technical perfect, headkick and led Italy to their 4^th World Cup win. There would have been better ways to revenge insults (maybe at least wait until the game is over ;-)).

The other things I took from the World Cup: African teams need goalies and forwards. England and Swiss were competing for the penalty incompetence with a win for England as they are able to repeat this art again and again. The Asian teams were all disappointing as well as Brazil. But then again, Brazil is a mythos mainly made by Nike…I think.

Germany tried to play football. That was refreshing and hopefully we keep it this way. But we should be careful not to do it like the Dutch and Spanish, playing nice and never win anything.

That’s enough World Cup for the next 4 years! Looking forward to the European Cup…might get tickets this time.

Scheiße!

2006-07-05T12:36:00.000+12:00

Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Und dann Italien! Unfortunately they deserved it. And there are so many Italiens in Germany you didn´t feel much of a difference. I still don´t like them. Allez le bleu!

Ausgerechnet Italien

2006-07-04T19:54:00.000+12:00

Tonight is the night. Semifinal against Italy. After we somehow beat Argentina, who were in the first half the clearly better team (but in the end we deserved to win) we are now playing against the football mafia Italia. Somehow Italia managed to become the most unpopular team in Germany. Even with the ladies. This is kind of difficult as Holland played in the tournament as well and (for me) it is usually enough if we get further than our little orange neighbors. And Argentina are not really popular as well. (For the English: Even you consider us as our archrival nobody really cares about England. In the contrary England has a big supporter group in Germany (as long as you don’t play against us). And right now everybody is feeling sorry about you (the penalty statistic is getting ridiculous) which should hurt you even more ;-))

Anyway, even I don’t wish Scudy&Kimboz anything bad…I just couldn’t stand seeing Italy in the final. Those slimy, winy underwear models falling at every little touch and themselves playing as fair as the Argentinos. Players who mainly played for teams which are heavily involved in the last Italian referee/corruption scandal or/and are owned by Berlusconi. Our best defensive midfielder got suspended after an Italian TV channel (Sky..just a guess but I think it must belong to Berlusconi) showed pictures of a little fight between Frings (the German player) and one of the Argentinos. The Argentino said he couldn’t feel any touch but after the pictures were broadcasted (2 days later!) Frings got suspended. Of course without any intervention of the Italian football association, yeah right. I just don’t wanna lose against Italy. But the statistic is against us. We never won against Italy in any World Cup or European Cup. We were close in 1970…lost 4:3 in extra time but didn’t get 3 ..THREE.. penalties in the so called “Game of the Century”. We will see tonight. I hope we win otherwise I have to live with the teasing from Kimboz for the rest of my time in Aotearoa. It probably wouldn’t be much better for if we lose against France in the final having French flatmates. So from now on every match we lose will also be a personal defeat.

Support your local brewer!

2006-06-29T23:14:00.000+12:00

This post was actually a comment on Dans blog but I thought this might be also interesting for broader public. He was complaining about Monteiths Summer Ale missing American (minor breweries) beers. Well, my only memories on American beers is that they either were way too thick and dark English style ones (also warm and too much of a caramel taste) or the waterly world cup sponsor like Budweiser. I remember I became friend with Rolling Rock without finding it too fancy. Think he is right with the New Zealand beers being not very…?? exciting. I still like Monteiths Golden or Original. Being German I think it is his right punishment as he bought a beer not brewed after the purity law and containing extra honey (being vegan that can't be right for me as well). But let me warn you! Since I drank Kiwi beer for the last 3 years my taste for beer seemed to have changed. I drink and enjoy beers I never liked before and are a bit dissapointed with some of my former favorites. Of course they are much better than Tui, Export, DB or Ranfurly. But you also might have a wrong idealized memory of your favorite beers which will lead to disapointments...the same might be true for women ;-(

Anyway, Guiness in Germany (even it seemed to be brewed in Dublin) is disgusting. And as Dan pointed out right: The Beers of the small local breweries still meet all of your expectations (every Duesseldorfer will kill me for that, but I even enjoyed Koelsch. That was when I realized somehow my taste must have changed remarkably).

Where were the Swedes Dan??

2006-06-28T01:25:00.000+12:00

Hello from the World Cup party in Germany. Fortunately I overrated my influence on the German team so they came to an easy win against Sweden (“you are just a furniture deliverer!”), without me watching it in a pub. But my Mom washed my tricot so there is a new unknown factor for the next one. But it shouldn’t have anything to do with me. Right now (the last month) there is a really good atmosphere here…well if you can stand drinking and singing people in football shirts, flags, face paint and stupid heads .. ah.. hats. I still can, but I was (too) often enough far enough away from the epicenters. Oceania is out, but the good thing is that Italia had only enough money left to pay for one gifted penalty against the Aussies so in the next round it should be a fair game. ;-) They probably spend most of their money to the referees in their own league.

I spent the last week eating dust at the Hurricane festival, where I could see such fantastic Bands as Seed, Manu Chao, Panteon Roccoco, Karamelo Santo, The Hives and The Strokes (and a lot of crab and average). That was fun and well spend money. I would spend way more to see the Germany:Argentina game on Friday but there are other people with more money which I can’t compete with. Fucking FIFA, I want a black market back!!! There should also be a first-buy-right for people who can show football tickets they bought at least ten years ago and NO tickets for companies…but well, it’s a big entertainment business. Still like the game and the happiness and sadness of the most people is still real and not sponsored by Coke (or is it?). Apropos sponsoring…it is shocking to see how crazy people are about freebies from everything. People running after advertisement people giving pink plastic gloves or pink stress balls away. If it at least would be opium..but rubber gloves for the people?? I much more prefer the “bread (beer) and games” strategy of the World Cup. I actually love it!

By the way going to concert with 170cm body size during the world cup is even more difficult than usually. Beside that most people are taller than you, they also wearing the stupid hats and flags (and plastic gloves) mentioned above. I still could see what I wanted except for Muse, as the festival had to be stopped because of a big thunderstorm. There are no festivals without rain. That gave my the questionable pleasure to walk through a 30cm high mixture of dust, a lot of water, vomit, pee and what-do-I-know-else collected in the venue for 3 days, resolved and mixed. So far I got neither herpes nor worse…I think. I am still wondering why on the trucks which were use to clean the toilets was written 'beer recycling'..whats with the purity law?

I am still not really back!? Its about time that I arrive before I leave again.

That's it!

2006-06-21T19:26:00.000+12:00

Schade Deutschland alles ist vorbei! I might overate my influence and we don't deserve it but the game on Saturday might be our last. And its not that I would like them to lose and have to face Dan-sven the Swede in Palmy. But I am going to a festival over the weekend and can't watch it in a pub...you think, so what, but here is my pub watching record:

World Cup 2002

GER:KSA 8:0 (4:0) Pub

GER:IRL 1:1 (1:0) not seen (in plane)

CMR:GER 0:2 (0:0) Pub

GER:PAR 1:0 (0:0) Pub

GER:USA 1:0 (1:0) Pub

GER:KOR 1:0 (0:0) Pub

GER:BRA 0:2 (0:0) private BBQ, how stupid of me…the final

European Cup 2004

Germany 1 – 1 Netherlands
Latvia 0 – 0 Germany
Germany 1 – 2 Czech Republic

None of them in a pub! Bloody New Zealand! ;-)

What you do without tickets!

2006-06-20T05:46:00.000+12:00

Celebrating with Ghana beating Czech Republic. Supporting Ivory Coast inm Togohaus. Trying to get tickets reckonizing you are not alone. Celebrating with the Aussies losing against Brasil. Waiting that we can kick out England.

Erste Woche

2006-06-16T00:59:00.000+12:00

I am already back since a week. Time is running fast as older you get shocking! Even with a big personal disappointment I enjoy my time. We had about 30C for a week! In Germany! Well, was supposed to have a summer holiday anyway! The World Cup is fantastic and after the Poland game I also think we have a real chance..but time will tell.

I have been in Berlin for a few days as I mentioned before. Beside that the fantastic Wellingtonian Fred Freddys Drop a played a great gig I was glad to see friends which I haven’t seen for 3 (or 1 year). Nothing changed, it was as you never have been away. Even we all had different lives, joys and problems. In a way it is weird but very good to know.

But some things are strange in Germany. First, people are friendly. I don’t know if it is the weather, the world cup or my bad expectations as everybody told me (and I completely agreed) how rough we are. But maybe they got special classes before the World Cup. I was really surprised and confused when a visit a shop and the clerk didn’t stop talking to me. Still having a jetlag at this time I couldn’t deal with it and kept it short.

The country (including cars and Kebab shops) is full of Schwarz-Rot-Gold (yeah gold not yellow Dorothee).

Soy milk is available in every shop but in nearly no Café; except in Berlin. Apropos Berlin. I actually spent allmy time in Kreuzberg and Charlottenburg, but if the weather is great Berlin is beautyfull. So I made plans to open my live-gig-vegan-(local beer)-restaurant-pub there. But they already had 50 restaurants/pub providing vegan things. So I better finish my studies until I find another place. I might check out Cologne this weekend (where I also hope to get a ticket for Ghana: Czech).

I know, I said that in Germany we would never put artificial flavours in beer. But to my horror every brand has a lemon, apple, lime and/or cola mix! Blasphemy! The ads are all with beautiful young slime woman in bikinis. The typical beer drinker (in Germany)! So you know why they put the sweet stuff in good beer. That’s directly led me to the world cup and Brasil. A great number of girls chose to become Brasil supporter. This is thanks to the Nike advertisements! (Some are Italy supporters as they apparently look better and that is David Beckhams fault who brought all the Womens weekly readers into the Soccer world). But luckily the world cup is not (yet) a Nike TV spot where Brasil is allowed to do everything and the opponent is due to stand, watch and admire the ballet. After the problems Brasil had with Croatia I think they will lose against Australia. Australia will tackle them hard (hey they even injured two Dutch in a test match before) and Ronaldinho & Co. will be surprised that somebody doesn’t show the respect they are used to from the TV clips and play station games.

Enough football! Gonna watch the All Blacks against Ireland on Sunday as well!

Let me know when the weather is better in Aotearoa than I come back!

I will put some pics up soon!

Singapore

2006-06-05T19:47:00.000+12:00

Victim of capitalism

I had the wonderful idea to stay in Singapore on the way to Germany. Well I thought it might be wonderful. Just to break up the trip and ease the jetlag. I had three seats in plane for myself and could lie down (but not sleep), yeah! And this time they even didn’t forget my food and I didn’t need to rely on bananas from the personal stuff of the stewardess (this happened last time). In Singapore I made my way to the smoking zone, stepped outside and then thought “what the fuck am doing here”. It was so hot and schwuel that I even didn’t finish my cigarette. The next day I was lost, I didn’t know that breakfast wasn’t included in the Singapore stopover stay. So I went to buy some bananas saw an elephant man (a man looking like the elephant man in the movie not a man on an elephant) which delayed my breakfast further. Then I took the subway as nobody could tell me where the free transportation for the Singapore stopover is. Of course I haven’t had a plan what I wanted to see and took a ticket to a station recommended from a ticket seller (as he would care just putting me into a train to somewhere away from him). I went out of the subway towards the surface excited what I will see. I saw nothing, being just in the middle of skyscrapers. I didn’t even got an idea in which direction I should go. Usually I think I am not to bad in orientating myself in cities. But with the sky being mostly blocked by buildings, not being able to watch around corners, no idea what to see and why, and having a jetlag, I was lost. I felt a bit like Bill Murray in “Lost in Translation”. Even English is the official language here nobody really has it as his native language and I guess maybe only half of the people speak English (or better Engrisch). And from them only half understand Kiwi English in a German accent.

I don’t like Singapore (City Centre (as that is all I got to see)). It’s all so new in the city center. It’s a bit like it has first been built as an empty polished ghost city and then the people have been moved in. It is not grown. Or better its grown so fast that people couldn’t keep up. And everybody tries to sell you something. Being white and a tourist you get known a lot of people. They are friendly (but not in a New Zealand way)

It usually goes like this:

(Optional after trying to ignore them: “Hey Sir! Sir! Sir! Sir! Hey stop, Sir! Yeah you, Sir.”)

“Hello Sir, Where from? England?” (Do I look English?? Insault! But anyway..)

“ I am German.”

“Oh, Guten Tag! Wie gehts?”

“I am fine, thank you. How are you? “

“ I have been to Frankfurt/ going to Stuttgart/ my friend lives in Germany/ worked for a German company/ have a lot of German customers/once drank a German beer/ drive a German car. Pick one

Where in Germany you are living.”

“ I live in New Zealand.” This is followed by another 20 seconds small talk about New Zealand, studying etc.

“How long you in Singapore?” “ –Fill your answer here or run away—“

“You come see my shop. Come I show you my shop. You need suit? Camera?”

“No thanks. I don’t wear suits and my suitcase is full (even there are no suits). I do have a camera!”

“We have the best and cheapest suits in the world, handmade!”

“Yes, but I don’t wear suits! And I don’t have money anyway (Thinking: Piss off!)”

“But you need a suit (camera) for graduation ceremony in New Zealand.”

“They wear robes in New Zealand. You wouldn’t see the suit.” (Anyway, a suit in NZ? They still wearing gumboots). The suit makers usually give up then.

“I do have a camera. I can make pictures! I will not buy anything.”

“But for very cheap we can give you a lenses you can put in front of your camera to improve the focus or wide-angle”

“You want me to glue a additional lenses on my camera??”

”Yes.”

“ I am not buying it.” “Ok, fuck off.”

I heard the “Fuck off” only once and it was mumbled. What was he thinking? Wasting my time and his. Even I am a tourist and Singapore is build for selling doesn’t mean I spend money that I don’t have on things I don’t want. If I want something I come to you and ask you to show me something. Milk another cow!

Couldn’t wait to go back to the service desert Germany where no annoying clerks bother you (the other way round you need to play seek and hide with them if you want something from them). After meeting about 200 people trying to sell me something I was thinking to smash the next capitalist slaves face, but as you get a 1000 dollar fine for public peeing I thought there might be the death penalty for violating the core of Singapore’s culture. So I didn’t do it. Instead I went to see some Buddish and Hindu temples. Which was interesting even I didn’t understand what they did in the Hindu temples. It is kind of funny that opposite both Hindu temples I visit there was a shop selling shoes. (You have to leave your shoes outside the temple before entering). The Buddish praying was explain to me by the only Singaporian I met who didn’t try to sell me anything so I kind of knew what they were doing. According to the Singaporian logic I now can sell Sauerkraut, Lederhosen and Kukuswatches to every Chinese I met here in Germany.

The next day I woke up realizing that bedbugs bite a perfect Southern cross at my throat and the whole Milky Way on my arm. So honestly I was happy to leave Singapore. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Singapore (and the Albert Court Hotel for that matter).

After one our in the plane (I got my vegan meal with cheese and milk!!!) I tried to figure out how I could remove the seats in front of me but somehow made it through the next 11 hours and arrived in summer. I thought. 13C degrees and gray clouds! So nothing to be jealous about. I am still happy to be in the land of the big gray cloud!

Tschuess!

2006-05-30T11:32:00.000+12:00

Ich mein "Auf Wiedersehen!"

2006-05-25T17:37:00.000+12:00

I am pretty much on the way back to Germany. This will be probably my last post before I go. Even my Visa arrived. So that’s all sorted. Haven’t been back for 3 years so that’s all exciting. Some people I haven’t seen for even longer. I am quite proud to have still (occasional) contact with a lot of people I left back in Germany. So I hope to catch up with all of you while I am on holiday in my country of origin. I am a bit shy to call it home…I mean it is in a way, but in the end home is where your heart is (schnulz) and as I spend my last 3 years here and my life basically is filled with people in New Zealand I might actually be more home here, but on the other hand I am still missing family and friends in Germany (as well as beer, insulation, bread and cultural opportunities (nightlife, concerts …people, diversity)).

I am really looking forward to see you again but I am also happy that I will come back here and don’t have to say good-bye forever yet.
The first gig I go to in Germany will be Fat Freddys Drop in Berlin. I am trying to avoid a cultural shock so I start with bands from Aotearoa in Europe. But maybe I must taken by hand to cross streets and cities in case I am scared of so many people. And I might be disappointed if the cashiers at the supermarket don’t ask me how my day was or even don’t say “Hello!”. But I am sure I can cope.

The weather here gets slowly nastier (cold and wet) so I can’t wait to have summer instead of frozen feet and sitting around an electric heater for the next two months.

I also like the idea to watch some football instead of rugby, rugby league, netball or cricket (not that I watched the last 3 anyway).

.....did I mentioned that I hate flying

2006-05-23T19:38:00.000+12:00

Still no re-entry Visa, still unbeaten, still coming to Germany.

2006-05-12T15:48:00.000+12:00

I just got an 3 month Interim Student Permit instead of my Visa... apparently the Medical test I did last week and paid $300 for is still missing. I am sure they just wanna scare me, because "Note: this interim permit does not provide you with the ability to re-enter New Zealand if you leave and travel overseas".
Still planning to fly at the 1st of June!

Sport History

2006-05-08T14:56:00.000+12:00

I just found out that playing Handball in New Zealand is more fun than playing soccer. While my football team seems to be on an historical losing strike(0:6, 1:2, 0:3, 2:4, 2:7), I won my first Handball game ever. Not onlyme of course, the Massey Handball Team.

This was not only my (and most of my teammates) first Handball match. It also was the first Handball match of a Palmerston North team. And we won. This is probably more due to the lack of talent of our opponents, but who cares. In football our opponents celebrating the victories against us as well.

And it is just a myth that they exchange the cross on the watchtower in the square with a golden Handball and putting up flags with our team logo.

Is it 1984?

2006-05-07T13:42:00.000+12:00

I finally got my Visa stuff done. Not exactly complete done but I should get it soon. The most interesting result was coming out my medical check. I was just on the border of a healthy protein level in my blood. Not surprisingly as I live on a vegan diet, but it was the upper limit. So much about lack of protein.

Anyway, reading the newspaper yesterday I learned I could be a potential terrorist threat to New Zealand (??? Blow up sheep? Peeing on Kiwifruits? Breeding possums??) and therefore the SIS (Security Intelligence Service) might be watching me. Not only me basically all Massey science students. Of course “it will not be focused on certain groups like foreign students”, vegans, males or blondes. Yeah right.

I think in Americas war on terrorism every country which wants to be regarded as an important partner needs to show some actions. Because they couldn’t find anything else in New Zealand they spy on science students. Welcome to the world of paranoia and mistrust New Zealand!

Well, I guess it would be more helpful for the people of New Zealand if their Tsunami reaction and precaution would be a little bit more paranoid. After the earth quake in Tonga there was a Tsunami warning for the NZ east Coast but the
authorities didn't act in New Zealand. People have been called from the USA
and then they called all the folks they knew in New Zealand and they called
and they called and so on..
Consistent the authorities did not tell anybody that the danger is over
before 1 or 2 h so that people stayed worried. Looking forward to a real
Tsunami!

Meanwhile I guess I will look for people with beard and turbans in our lab. Unfortunately the SIS couldn’t specify how the terrorist making “Anthrax in cans” look like so I just go with the picture the press is giving me.

Old men and pot

2006-04-24T15:59:00.000+12:00

We had another great football game. We lost only 0:3 but as we had only ONE shot at their goal it felt like we lost 6:0, what I actually thought we did until somebody told me better. At least it was sunny. So sunny, that I got sunburned, which actually doesn’t mean much here. We played against the Military team in Linton and I thought we would play against a group of very fit young fellows. To my surprise and relief they weren’t and actually asked us if we could play with flying subs as they weren’t in shape. Well, more than us obviously. The other great relief was that I didn’t had to sign anything to get into the base, so they couldn’t trick me and send me to the Solomon islands or Afghanistan.
Last week I found out that in Wellington with “The Specials” and “The Skatalites” two Ska legends were playing in one week. Wow, first it takes “The Skatalites” 42 years to come to New Zealand and then they play in the same week as “The Specials”. So after the football match I went to Wellington to see “The Skatalites” in concert. I mean who wouldn’t take the chance to see a legend live in action especially if it means you GET OUT OF PALMY. As I found out: beside me nobody, so I went tired and dehydrated and put down with the lack of enthusiasm of others alone to Wellington. I first was worried not to get a ticket but then I remembered,…”I am in New Zealand. As long as it isn’t a Rod Stewart concert or somebody else who was married to a Kiwi you will be save.” And I was. But only because I was early because at the time “The Skatalites” went on stage it was packed. Even half of the band was at least in their end-sixties they play for 2.5 h. Seeing them you could have been thinking that smoking weed all your life keeps you fit and active even in your seventies (maybe that was the only thing what kept them going for 2.5 h…being lost in the room time continuum). Just before I sadly witnessed that smoking weed actually does not keep you active. I was talking to some guys and a beautiful girl outside over a beer and cigarette. When I told them I live in Palmy since 3 years everybody felt sorry but not sorry enough to buy me a beer…you have to live in Levin for that. But they offered me a cigarette and I said no thanks as I just lit one of my own. OK, I was tired and realized 10 seconds starring in their faces that they actually smoked a herbal one (which I like even less than herbal tea). They girl was saying how pissed off she was that she missed “The Specials” the Wednesday before and how happy she was to see “The Skatalites” today. Then she said ”I feel kind of faint”, her knees could not hold her weight anymore and she fall down (in her friends arms). Her friend took her home and 2 minutes later “The Skatalites” started! Poor girl missed out on the Skatalites as well....
As a difference to other NZ concerts everybody was dancing. Number 34595 of the Batacuda samba group was there as well. Unfortunately her face was not as impressive as her body so I danced behind her. It was a great gig, except for their cover of “The Rivers of Babylon” which is one of the (personally) most hated songs in music history (about one level with “Happy Birthday” from Stevie Wonder). Back home I tried to play a bit bass guitar (even after not much sleep as I shared a dorm with some young “Kiwi experience” traveling English pissheads) as I have seen I still could play on stage when I am old.

Fit for the World cup

2006-04-08T18:46:00.000+12:00

Since two weeks I am officially part af a soccer team. The first time since 13 years (fuck I am old). I signed a contract (only that they know I will pay my fees..unfortunately they do not pay me for playing which is understandable). I got my own shorts and socks and I even could choose my trikot number. I will play with the 13 on my back for Palmerston North End. We play in Baby-blue with white socks. A complete optical joy. Unfortunately the socks were bought in a "one size fits it all". If I would wear them the way the manufacturer intended it, they go from my feet to my hips with the heel of the socks about the high of my knee. And no I am not the smallest guy in the team.
As my technical skills are very limited and my fitness is not that great neither I play only in the 3rd team. Our team arrived today to 80% hangovered. So our biggest success was that nobody spew up. Our team seems to be the towns collection of chain smokers, unfit older players, bad young players, bodycontrol-dylexics and even one asthmatic (!). About 4 out of 13 players actually can stop a ball. The first game last week was lost 6:0 but I didn't play. So this was my first game and because of the lack of talent in our group I was allowed to play for 90min! Whatever I susposed to have done that was a harsh punishment. The last 20 min I just tried to make telekinetic contact to the ref to stop the game earlier.
Anyway apparently we improved compared to last week. I played offense had the honour to score the first goal of our team this season. But before you are getting too proud off me..I actually did not really shot it by myself. Somebody shot the ball against my hip and from there it went into the goal. Our own goal. (Football wisdom # 12: never have your own striker in your own penalty box) I actually think I also scored their second goal (me and their striker slided about synchron towards the ball and one of us pushed it over the line) but their striker was so happy about HIS goal that I did not mentioned it to anybody.

To my defence I also got the assist of our goal. Annoyed the hall out of their defence player and got even called a cunt. From the other team . My team was nice to me . Even I managed to shoot over the goal from about half a meter in front of it. After the game they told me I played well and did good work. (Don't tell anybody, but I don't think they get the game). I am suposed to play 90min again next week.
For the ones who didn't get it we lost 2:1 and are probalbly "Palmerston North End-of the-table". But hey 1:2 is an improvement to 0:6 isn't it??

PS: Did I mentioned that we played against about 14 years old boys???

Otaki

2006-04-03T13:53:00.000+12:00

Despite of the feeling I should work non-stop even on the weekends I decided to go for a little tramp this weekend. Saying “weekend” is a bit disproportionate. We left Palmy on Saturday at 5pm. So we arrived at the campground at 7pm. I don’t want to blame only the French, but I kind of now why they never started a war. They were always too late and the other parties just started without them being sick of waiting. Anyway it was still worth it. We went to the Otaki Forks near Otaki (both named after the river Otaki as you probably figured). Otaki Forks is the main western entrance to the Tararua Forest Park. I wasn’t to convinced as if you pass Otaki on the way to Wellington it doesn’t make you want to stop there (Unless you wanna buy cheap woman underwear at the factory sell which I usually don’t). But as always in New Zealand you need to know where to go and look off the beaten track/main roads.

Carel and J-Lo provided a superb dinner and we drank some cheap vegan wine (3L cardbox for $16). But I soon figured out that camping in a 3 person tent on your own doesn’t keep you warm at night. Even eating curry before and wearing long johns which I accidentally bought (I wanted a long sleeve shirt, but back home I discovered I only got two long-sleeves which were stitched together). At least I wasn’t wet. Dorbert, from the mountains of Paris, wanted to show us his Bushmen qualities and ended up falling in the river he was trying to pass (in Paris they have bridges).

Because I was quite cold and the NZ Cadet school (which camped there as well) decided to drill their new cannon fodder at 7am I got up early and we had an early start (at about noon) to do the Waitewaewae Track to the Loghauler. We didn’t made it to the loghauler though. But it was quite enjoyable and as always I ask myself why I didn’t do that more often. I really like the green of the native bush here. And one day I want to do the complete walk through the Tararua forest park. Just from the map it looks amazing.

PS: Palmy lost the cross! Unfortunately they planning to put up a new one.

Tagging Cattle

2006-03-20T13:14:00.000+12:00

New Zealand has the 3^rd highest homicide rate in developed countries. That’s a problem and something which should be worked on. As solution it is in discussion about tagging school kids. That means they get a number and their details of every New Zealand child, including welfare and health concerns, would be entered into the database, to be shared by schools, social agencies and health authorities (apparently that is the current system in the UK). The aim is have all the information combined and prevent possible child-murderer doing their business. I personally think it is bullshit. The money they would need to spend for the administration and security of the data could be invested into child care and education and would do a far better job I think. But maybe the kids nowadays should just get used to be observed and controlled in early years so they are used to it and it will be easier to control them as adults. And I guess kids grow up with a higher self-esteem if we just call them by numbers. “Hey 4563, have you seen 8765?” It clearly improves the respect towards the other number ah..human. Sorry that news made me very angry. I had a nice weekend though. Even I spend some time at Uni. There was that festival of culture where I met 48901, 34529, 2857, 00843, 23109 and 33876. 5694 did even some Indian dancing and at night there was Battucada from Wellington. Which were really good. And 34595, one of their samba /caipoera dancer, had an incredible nice butt and body.

The good, the bad and Palmy

2006-03-16T15:43:00.000+13:00

I am getting a bit nervous as my visit in Germany is coming closer and closer. Funny, when I bought my plane tickets I was getting a bit homesick. I haven’t really been back since 3 years, except for a 10 day break which was exhausting as I was telling the same stuff to different people 24/7. I was happy to sit in the plane (being on my own) flying back to “Suicide City”. It is funny. Palmerston North is trying hard to get itself a profile, trying to introduce icons and a common motto to help people identifying with this little town. What sticks for now is John Cleese “Suicide City”. He was much more successful with his naming than all the previous professional attempts. And he had a much lower budget (none) to come up with a label. The city council tried hard with i.e. “Youngheart-easy living”. That didn’t last (I think it is not used anymore, is it??), even they named their first division football club “Younghearts Manawatu”. There is probably no easy living in a suicide city anyway. But there are a lot of young people in this city what would at least support the youngheart bit. Subsequently the new advertising campaign is “Palmerston North-Student City”. That is pretty much as crab as the other campaigns before. It basically says the city is here because of the University and the people of the City are here because of Massey as well. The definition the whole city as “Student City” implies no life/city in the semester break. How do they want people to identify with this city if they base it on the students, which are not from here, only here for half of the year and as soon as they are finished go somewhere else. And by the way, the student city has an entertaining program which only exist of bad 80-popcharts disco pubs, where under 23 year old drinking alcopops until they spew up. A student city should offer something more exciting. (John Cleese was here during the semester break so he missed the “student life” and was fully exposed to the suicidal tendencies in Palmerston North.) But I think this is the problem with young, not slowly grown cities. There is no history, especially no common one between the people living here. And people usually don’t stay here for long (they mostly move away and don’t commit suicide) so there is not a big chance that this will change very soon. And the icons they choose for the city are pretty exclusive as well. I mean they exclude a lot of people. First there is that clock tower on the square (the square is a place in the center where retards driving their boyracer cars in circles and try to pick up similar retarded girls….they are mostly under 18 so they might grow out of it). While the tower itself might have an ugly fascination it is decorated with an illuminated cross. The illumination of that cross is a pure waste of energy, but more important it shouldn’t be there at all. The Square is a public place, a place for all citizens. So the dominating feature should not be something which only appeals to people with Christian beliefs. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mind crosses on top of churches but not in a public place/building. Another chosen icon are the windmills on the ranges. Unfortunately they are not in Palmy. That wasn’t very clever neither.

The newest one is a bird, the Pukeko. A bird I never saw in and around Palmy. But I never went bird watching.
Funny, on the nzbirds.com webpage they say:

“I have come to the conclusion that Pukeko are suicidal. I so often see them on the side of the road, dithering, darting backwards and forwards, looking for an opportunity to cross, only to come back later to see them squashed on the road. They seem to have no road sense at all. However, the ornithologist WRB Oliver had other ideas when he said, “The Pukeko is a bold and fearless bird. It has learned that trains and motorcars are harmless and takes no notice of them.”"

Well, why do I get nervous. The thing is, I like Palmy. I like the speed of life. I like the people here. Nobody is taken himselves too seriously (except at Uni as everybody thinks his subject, research blah blah is the most important). People are pretty down to earth. A lot of foreign cultures meet and connect here. Even this might be directly caused by the “nothing to do here”. The most positive thing you here about Palmy is : “It is pretty central so you can reach everything in 2h” (= ”I like it because it is easy to get away from it.”) But anyway, I am used to it now and everybody who lived here for a while does enjoy his or her time. I am just not sure why (people of Palmy, maybe you know why!).

I am nervous if I am not sure I can cope with the life in Europe anymore. I sure I can. But I am not sure if I want.

I am braver than John Cleese

2006-03-08T15:01:00.000+13:00

Here is what John Cleese thinks about Palmy. Found at stuff.co.nz

No one likes to hear unkind comments about their hometown but like it or not, all places in New Zealand are created equal. What appeals to one person is guaranteed to be hated by others – especially those impossible-to-please notorious nitpickering celebrities. British comedian John Cleese's recent website comments about Palmerston North have offended mayor Heather Tanguay. Cleese, of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame, stayed in Palmerston North last November as part of his My Life, Time and Current Medical Problems tour. Cleese called the city "the suicide capital of New Zealand" and said "if you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick." Cleese didn't stop there, saying the "weather was grotty, the theatre (where he performed) was a nasty shape and the audience was very strange to play to". Cleese said he had a "thoroughly bloody miserable time" in the city.

Snob!!!! I give him the weather though.

Suits and Kilts

2006-03-07T09:57:00.000+13:00

Last week there was Karneval in Duesseldorf. That means a million visitors, everybody is dressed up, completely drunk and dancing on the tables to very bad music. Four days non-stop. I am not a “Karnevalist” so I don’t miss the Karneval at all (but the Altbier involved). I must admit I always took part while I was living in Duesseldorf. But hey, I didn’t really have a chance. You have to leave the town to stay out of it. In Palmerston nearly every party is a dress-up or theme party. I am not sure if I like it or not. Even the Massey student association (Musa) turned their orientation gigs into dress up events. Some very good bands like Kora or Rhombus played this year and then they make a Toga party out of it. It does not really make me go if I need to wear a Toga. And how do you look cool in a toga?? Who is shaving my back?

I am still hoping the nightlife in Palmy will somehow improve. But instead I heard the Guvnor’s the only place with some live rock music in Palmy closing its concert part. Mainly local punk and death metal bands performed there and most of them have more school band quality but some are quite good (i.e. Black Chrome or Black Pudding). But it was still an alternative to A) The Celtic (Winchester), B) to incredible bad 80s music and charts which is played everywhere else (except in A)) and C) Karaoke (where people mainly sing stuff mentioned in B)). On the other hand Death Metal and Punk concerts are a bit like doll up parties anyway having their own dress codes as every youth movement. So it looks like next year (if I am still here) I need to dress up if I want to see any kind of gig (I should work so I don’t have time to go to any show anyway).

Recently I found myself dressed up “frequently”. I was invited to a wedding (actually I kind of sneaked myself into the wedding as somebody’s partner couldn’t go and I was the substitution date). I decided to wear a suit not to stick out too much. I got this marvelous tie for 50cent that somebody knotted for me a year ago so I was able to show off. And I actually like it. Maybe partly due to the Johnny Cash movie (“walk the line”) we have seen the day before. Of course you need a guitar or a gun to look proper in a suit. I pulled out Dorberts guitar (guns are stupid and not so easily available) and decided I have the right look to pose on stage. I borrowed a bass again and currently learning to play a little bit. Even I still can’t play shit I look pretty professional (only when I wear a suit of course). The style is everything Yvan!

I went to a 30s birthday. As the birthday child was Scottish it happened to be a Scottish Theme party. So I had the pleasure to wear a kilt. I was wearing it the whole day and consider getting me own kilt. But I haven’t figured out my colors yet. But it is very comfortable and I quite like the look. You even don’t need to shave your legs, I think. Unfortunately the summer seems to be over. I shouldn’t have worn that kilt all night and day. I got a cold now. I better wait till summer before I buy my own one.

Somehow everybody seemed to connect Scottish with bad haircuts as well (it look a bit like a Heavy Metal gig). So it was a gathering of 80ies mullets in kilts. I am a bit worried as I heard too often it looks quite natural on me.

The ladies were quite attracted by that. I am not sure if was because of guys in skirts or because of the mullets. I am a bit afraid it might be the latter.

This is a Haggis. Scottish delicacy. It is normally made with the following ingredients: sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver, windpipe and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately an hour. Apparently it is good. I found a vegan recipe for haggis . I can’t tell for sure as I haven’t tried neither of them, but just the ingredients of the vegan version sound much more appealing to me.

Just in case you ever wondered how moths fly around a light.

Putting the Fun into Fungi

2006-03-01T13:20:00.000+13:00

Just a short post. I am 31 now, enoyed a great weekend somewhere in the middle fo nowhere at the Rangiteki river. More maybe later because I am working even some of you don’t believe it. Somebody even accused me to have started blogging to extent my time in Aotearoa as I spend too much time writing instead of working. I wouldn’t mind to stay a bit longer so she might be partially right. So I am working. I need some results as I am supposed to go to Cairns for a conference. If the avian flu hasn’t killed me after my trip to Germany I might do some swimming with sharks and crocodiles over there.

Aarrrgh!

2006-02-22T16:24:00.000+13:00

I was thinking to quit smoking. I am actually been thinking about it a while. But right now I think I shouldn’t stop. I know it is not healthy, but that doesn’t stop most people from drinking sugar packed fizzy drinks or eating junk food. And I don’t want to advertise it in any way....so if you haven’t started yet DON’T, ever! But I do believe that everybody should be able to do what he/she wants…Ok, sometimes I want to kill somebody who really pissed me off and I shouldn’t do that and should not be allowed to (and I never did). And you shouldn’t be allowed to bomb other countries without or faked reasons or at all. And you should not be allowed to get away with it. And you shouldn’t get away with torturing people just because you are bored, stupid, were never really accepted and your parents did not love you. Even you are in the middle of a desert and do not know what you are there for. You should be allowed to draw cartoons and being satirical.

What does this have to do with smoking?? Well, Maori party decided (this is not true I just found out: one member wants a complete smoking ban, so please replace Maori party in this post with "one member of the Maori party") they want totally ban smoking. You wouldn’t be allowed to smoke anywhere. It is forbidden to smoke in pubs here, I kind of understand why and I am used to it and do not really mind to go outside if I feel like a puff (actually we usually stay outside and the non-smokers follow after a while. So that the pubs are pretty empty inside and packed outside.) even if I would stop smoking I do not care what other people do to themselves or in their home, garden, car. It is not of my business. If you enjoy smoking, do it. I know you will say something about how unhealthy it is, passive smoking and damage to the society. Well drinking alcohol is unhealthy and eating (red) meat is the second highest risk (after smoking) for cancer. Nobody wants to forbid that. Well, you find people who want to forbid meat or alcohol.

Being obese is unhealthy and damaging the society. Driving a SUV is unhealthy, uncool, blocking my view at interceptions and killing school kids who are too small to see if you are driving out of the school drive way. I would love somebody forbids them (and actually would love to drive one as I am sure its fun). Anyway, I think it is not the Maori partys business if you smoke or not!

At the same day the EU made “great progress in securing the safety and FREEDOM of the EU”. The parliament decided to save all telefon calls (incl. internet connections) with owner of the connection, time, date and number of the receiver for 6-24 month. EVERY call! War against terrorism and other crimes! Thank you, I feel much saver and free now. Thank you for trusting us! Maybe you should read our letters as well. At least Ireland and Slovakia said no.

And the job of storing the data is left to (Deutsche) Telekom, which weren’t able to make a telephone connection at my ex-girlfriends place for 3 month.

Hey, where are we going?? What kind of world we wanna give to (y)our kids? Nowadays-even actors get into trouble by doing their job.

One day somebody tell a friend via email or telephone that he is drawing a cartoon while he smoking in his lounge and will be arrested by the police, which was informed by the Maori party (who globalized their non-smoking program by then). And all that for his own safety in the name of national security and fight against terrorism.

5 years ago

2006-02-17T17:02:00.000+13:00

I am getting 31. Thirty one!! Can you imagine that?? This is already over 30! Well, when I think back what I thought about 30 when I was a kid and I compare it with my status now…it is nothing like it. I imagined having a house, car, job and family including kids. Well to tell you the truth I have a car. Its real granny like but it brings me from A to B and back (where A is Palmy and B something else {beach i.e.}). I don’t have a job but getting paid to study. I live in a house but share it with others. I am still flatting and I can’t see a family coming up. But I am reasonable happy! While growing up I learned that you could be happy with not many material things. All you need are a good group of friends and family. You need something to do but not necessarily earn much money. Just enough not to worry. I feel privileged to been grown up in a western society country not to worry about starving, being able to say what I want (even if it doesn’t make sense) and the opportunity to go to school and University (well, while I was going to school it mostly sucked). Most people in this world are not able to afford a car, not to speak about education and I guess that will not get much better.

If I compare my life now and 5 years ago not much went worse but a few things improved. Five years ago I was on the other side of the world. I had night when I have day now. I was flatting with 3 other lovely people on a main traffic street in Duesseldorf. Now I am flatting with 3 other lovely people in a house with garden in Palmy. Five years ago my birthday was in one of the coldest and rainiest month of the, now it is in summer. Five years ago I was vegetarian. Now I am vegan. Five years ago my belly was smaller. Five years ago I needed to drive 3.5h to the beach and it was in Holland with ugly buildings and lots of Germans around it. Now I drive 30min to share the beach with Germans and Kiwis (and French, Italians, Chileans, Belgians …) but not as many. Five years ago my nose was blocked with diesel dust now its pollen. Five years ago my English didn’t really exist. Nowadays it is fine after two beers. Five years ago I had a girlfriend but wanted another one. Now I am still looking for another one. Five years ago I was worried to get bald. Now I am worried to get balder. Five years ago I had a bike accident. Now I might lose a tooth because of this. Five years ago I started smoking, which I still do. Five years ago I mainly drank Alt, now it is Guinness. My music changed from 80% punk and 20% Ska and reggae to 50/50 and a bit of country and Irish. Five tears ago my hangovers became increasingly bad nowadays it is still getting worse. Five years ago I had contact with most of the people I call friends. I made new ones and hope that in five years not too much will change as well.

And anyway…what kind of society is it where kids imagine having a job, family and a house with 30?? Stupid bank and insurance companies ads!!!!!!!!!

A long way

2006-02-10T16:16:00.000+13:00

Just got this email:

> Have phoned cafe and they will accomodate you both but they need to
> know
> wether Arne is chicken free and/or egg, no milk, no tuna/fish???
> What is his vegan status?? - apparently it differs

I think its amusing. To my own occasional frustration I am still free of any chicks.

Water

2006-02-07T13:13:00.000+13:00

I am not crazy. A week before Xmas I noticed the water smells funny and taste disgusting. Not that the tap water in Palmy is usually a pleasure to drink as it has the chlorine aroma known from swimming pools. But this time it was tasting earthy and moldy. I asked my flatties which couldn’t confirm it. So I thought that’s it. I am over 30 old and getting crazy. “They wanna poison me! It must be aliens or the FBI” (actually its probably Coke). I tried not to mention it anymore. Just in case they really think I am crazy and sent me to the next Sanatorium where I have to live with 3 Jesuses (is there a plural of Jesus?) and 2 Napoleons for the rest of my life. And I went away on holiday for 2 weeks so I did not taste the water.

When I came back it was worse. Not only that. Other people went crazy as well. Yvonne started to taste it as well and a few others. As that were to many people to be crazy it must be the water. And finally, one month after I thought the water is more odd than usually I got the official confirmation “ I am not crazy”. It came in form of the headlines “Moldy taste makes citizens paying bottles water” and ”City battling toxic algae threat”. In the first article they said “ we don’t know what is causing it but the drinking water is safe”. ????? The first thing they did was to filter out the muddy taste. It doesn’t smell that bad anymore, just normal bad as before. But if I could smell it before Xmas what did the people do who are responsible to look after it between Xmas and last week? Holidays?? Probably.

As we know the drinking water is becoming a worldwide shortage problem. Nobody of us does really care as we think we can use the water from the tap. But did you notice that Coke, Nestle and a few other companies already own the bottled water market? Here in New Zealand (bottled) water is more expensive than petrol. Everybody is complaining about the high petrol prices but nobody seems to care about the water. And they hide it. Coke is selling water under the names “pump” and “Kiwi Blue” (pretending to be local). Sometimes they try harder as seen in “The Corporation” where a company even owned the rain water in Mexico (? not sure where exactly it was. Watch the movie). Anyway beside of maybe getting paranoid. I enjoyed the water at the beach this weekend! More about it when I have more time. But check out Yvonnes

size compared to the wave!

PS: Check out the vegan cookbook (Links). No excuses not to invite me for dinner anymore! ;-)

Matters of Perspectives

2006-01-31T09:48:00.000+13:00

It is hot. Really hot. Difficult to work but don’t want to complain. Right now I will destroy your illusion about the freedom of the Internet. You have been watched! By me. I know when, from where and how often my webpage is accessed. I get your IP address too. Well, you might say as long you don’t do anything illegal you don’t care if you are watched. Like surveillance cameras are just there to protect you. Yeah right! People who rate security higher than freedom don’t deserve either of them. Take care!! Nevertheless I am hoping that you will come back to my blog and I promise you I won’t use the information against you! At least not by me but maybe by the people who saying they protect you by stealing your privacy.

Thanks to this “spy software” I got to know about a new country called Nauru. The only country in the world without an official capitol. According to the German Wikipedia site it’s the country with the fattest people in the world. They live of phosphor (ancient bird shit) and can food. There is a close connection to Germany as well. The only Airline which flew to Nauru went out of business as they couldn’t afford to repair their only plane. But check out by yourself (en/ger)! I am pretty sure they are lovely people. “Kia Ora” to everybody in Nauru visiting my blog. I love you and if you have a holiday home I will bring my own can food!

The last to weeks have been beautiful and I don’t know why I should ever leave Aotearoa. 30 degrees, 30 minutes to the beach. Lots of sun, lots of music. Nice people. Relaxed people. Well, asked me again in 3 weeks when the students come back to Palmy, or in Winter when I am sitting in the lounge wearing a wool had and jacket inside the house and I probably can’t tell you what I am doing here. The reason for both is probably very simple: I have to leave because sometime my scholarship is running out at sometime and I have to stay in winter because I am getting paid. Right now I am enjoying it. And I finally checked out my body board this Sunday. I sucked! Yvonne told me that it isn’t very difficult; you just had to hold it and lay on it in the water. Well, I was allright with floating on the body board, but I really sucked in catching any waves. So I might still need another summer to practice. But there are other things to think about when I consider staying. Sometimes I think some of the women of Nauru moved to NZ. But then again it could be just Palmy. This is a theory which always seems to be supported if I am somewhere else. Last weekend I went with Carel and J-Lo to Petone to the Jackson Street festival. Fat Freddys were playing and Batuca da. Beautiful day and beautiful people. I am sure half of them were actually from Palmy and everybody looks beautiful when it is nice and sunny (so my impression might be wrong). But sometimes it can actually drive you crazy if people are too relaxed. I also miss the different opportunities for going out (“What’s wrong with the Winchester!”) and the existence of subcultures. I like rugby but I miss football.

Even it might get a bit cheesy…I miss my friends and family back in Germany, the people I love. But I know when I finally leave Aotearoa it will be pretty much the same the other way round (who is playing music then?). And nobody will ask me for my ID when I am buying beer anymore. Soon I will be 13 years over the legal drinking age, but I still get asked sometimes. I dunno why. Either people just look much older here or I don’t dress according to my age.

Pictures: Somehow dead animals were involved in this weekend. We used (actually abused) a nearly dead Weta for taking pictures and scaring Yvonne. Carl showed how Belgian catch dead fish (they collect it from the beach). We found a giant shark and a skeleton of a giant fish on the beach (take Kapitit Island in the background as reference). I went sun bathing and swimming in the Tasman sea on Sunday with Trina, Scudy and Kimboz, and Saturday with J-Lo and Carel. The other pics are impressions from the Petone Jackson Street Carnival near Wellington and from the free Anika Moa concert in Palmy which we missed (didn’t really matter).

Long weekend in the city of flies

2006-01-25T10:28:00.000+13:00

We had a long weekend with Monday off because of Wellington anniversary day. The original plan was going to Wellington to see some X-games stuff but somehow I did not make it. So I spent my short-holiday in and around Palmerston North. It turned out to be a good one. We had a very international dinner with Chilean, French, German, Scottish, Irish, Belgian, Italian, an Unborn and Kiwis gathering in a Japanese restaurant lead by a women with a Dutch accent (apparently she was born and bred in Palmy…but I wouldn’t admit to be Dutch neither). We confused the hell out of her in having special diets (Gluten free, Lactose free, Vegan, shared dishes…..) but they managed somehow and the food and Sake was good.

On the next day I went with my flatmates Yvonne and Dorbert (names are altered) and some friends to see other friends playing their last gig in a vineyard near Masterton. It was bloody hot. we enjoyed having beer in the vineyard (the wine wasn’t vegan and mostly white anyway…and a cold beer is always good on a hot day).

I considered doing some gardening and realizing it was too hot for that. So I went on a mission to buy some fly strip. This would have been the advantage not to spray poisonous stuff everyday. Once trapped it should stop them mating at your head and sucking on your food. It also would prevent us to stain the wall with the inner body content of insects. I tried hard but Palmerston North was out of fly strips. Not one. Sent fly strips (und Schwarzbrot und Altbier)!! Apparently people bought it in ten packs. At least Palmerston is very popular under flies. Probably because it is so windy here that they don’t need to fly by themselves.

As I am flatting with French and live in a Celtic dominated country it was kind of unavoidable to watch “ Joyeux Noël”. I heard it should be good and I enjoyed it. At Xmas eve during the 1^st World War the Scots played their pipes, the Germans, which happened to have a Opera singer in their battalion, brought some classical music and Christmas trees and after they agreed to a cease fire the French brought Coffee and Champagne. They even had a football match (which probably the Germans won in penalty shootout). It is pretty much the same in our flat. Except that I don’t like Champagne, have my own coffee, the music providers are more the French, Dorbert doesn’t play football and we don’t celebrate Christmas. But we don’t shoot at each other and quite often listen to Celtic tunes in the pub. We went off to the pub to do exactly this. First we were greet by a completely pissed Kiwi which thought my flatties were from Uruguay and I am a Kiwi. He was (a white ginger haired, Irish) Maori and wanted to say hello with a Hongi. I outed myself as not being Kiwi by giving him more a head kick. As he was drunk he didn’t mind that much. He was harmless but annoying so he was friendly asked by the usual patrons of the pub to leave get some sleep and to shut up. The way was interesting “ You shut up know and get the fuck out off here. You are pissed and annoying. Go get some sleep, leave us alone for today. I promise you if you come back tomorrow I’ll buy you a pint and we are the best mates. But know you fuck off. Come back tomorrow at 5 and I buy you a pint.” “Mmmh…Can I go to the loo before I leave then?” “Yes.” He left after (apparently visiting the women toilet) and I don’t know if he came to get his pint the next day. Inspired by his leave one patron picked up his guitar and started playing and singing. It turned out to become a long session. A wide range from traditional Irish and Scottish folk songs over Janis Joplin, Pogues, The Band, David Bowie and the unavoidable “Sweet home Alabama”. I was a bit disappointed with the performance of The Clash, but I will not complain. Dorbert did a good job in slowing the spontaneous session down by picking up the guitar not knowing what to play. He was asked for a French drinking song but couldn’t play or remember one. At this stage I was happy that I never learned an instrument and not be able to sing so nobody could expect a German drinking song from me.Suddenly P and S turned up having their fidel, flute and harmonica with them and joined in. Our “one pint” after the movie turned into six and we went home reasonably drunk. It just fitted great into the spirit of the movie we just seen before. I am terrible disappointed to be a total musical retard. I think the “Musikalische Frueherziehung” (early musical childhood education) did no good for my rock star dream. “Musikalische Frueherziehung” actually means “being forced to play Glockenspiel (carillon?) and Blockfloete (recorder flute?) with the annual highlight to perform terrible dressed in front for the whole family at Christmas”. As the repertoire you get teach is especially for the just mentioned occasion, you lose your interest after 2 Christmas and can convince your parents after 2 further Christmas. For the kids: keep playing or you will regret it later.

The next day was terrible hot. Fortunately the hang over wasn’t too bad. I could convince Yvonne to go to the beach. That was great. The water did its job. It was refreshing. It even didn’t matter that the beach was full of parked cars. Kiwi nature experience sometimes just exists out of taking the car to beach and sit in there hiding from the sun. As I got sunburned again I have a fair idea why they do it but I still do not like it.

Back home I got 115 episodes of “???” (deutsch/english)audio books. So can do at night again what I did after my “Musikalische Frueherziehung” lesson failures. Yippie yeah! And next weekend should become another very musical one as Fat Freddy Drop playing for free!!

Save the World - cut a tree

2006-01-20T17:22:00.000+13:00

I was glad to hear: Trees are cleared of causing climate change.

The sad thing was that scientist thought it was necessary to release that information, because of the public and media reaction towards their discovery that plants do produce methane.

In example week ago the “BILD” (I do not link that. It’s the most read, daily released, conservative piece of shit in Germany. It is sometimes actually quite funny, but people tend to take it serious. A bit like FoxNews, I guess.) titled: “Climate Shock Is it the trees own fault? (Pic.) Not only dead trees breathe out the dangerous Methane also living plants (in background)”. I think it is pretty nice to explain to their readers that the living plants are the green ones at the backs. So they can figure out that the brown cut ones at the front are the “breathing dead trees” ones. It doesn’t seem to be completely clear if trees are plants, only dead trees breathe out methane and if dead plants breathe at all. Bad, bad trees! They deserve to die. At the end it might be there own fault, anyway. Lucky us, that climate change does not effect us. We probably should all kill more trees. I am sure I heard about many people which got killed by trees in storms when they fall on them. Bad trees! And there was that drunken, speeding driver who got killed by a very evil tree which was deliberately standing in the way of the car beside the road.

When I am grown up I want to be a BILD journalist.

I never thanked New Zealand for the bringing the World Cup to Germany! Thank you!

With flip-flops you realize how far your pee can spread

2006-01-14T12:34:00.000+13:00

(public toilet wisdom)

I just thought to come up with a stupid headline and think I did pretty well. It might be too much sun I had on my 2-week holiday. My best friend L. came down with his girlfriend K from Germany. I haven’t seen him for a while (2 years) and was quite curious to see how it will be. Nothing changed, what’s a good thing. Even the contact we had was restricted to a few emails before he came down I couldn’t notice a difference to when I left. Well, I guess that’s how it is between friends. I was also excited as I had a good reason to leave Palmy for a while and actually see something of that beautiful country I live in.

We had a good start as their luggage got missing and we stayed a night in Palmy to wait that their stuff got delivered on the next day. To sweeten our stay we went to a BBQ at friends place where I promised K.and L. some live Irish music. This way they also could see some of my friends here. We drunk beer and too much whiskey (I think I must have been forced as I don’t like it). Subsequently our early start was delayed to about 4 (pm).

On the way to Mordor (Tongario National Park) I accidentally bought tramping trousers in XXL and realized “no more whiskey for me” ( as I have size S here). The next day we did the Tongario crossing which was crowded, full of Germans but beautiful. Even it was cloudy I was quite happy this time as it cleared up when we came to the Emerald lakes. Last time I did it I only could see 2m in front of me (it is not fun to walk through a white wall for 17km).

We spent New Years eve at the Rhythm and Vines festival in Gisborne. 18h to Kiwi Reggae. I loved it, sunshine, beautiful girls and wind (well that wasn’t so good). K. and L. bought 3 Cds of the bands playing, decided to get married and we listened to Fat Freddys Drop for the next 10 days non-stop so I figured they liked it as well. The Maori population is quite high on the East Coast and we runned into some from the local "Coffee Tongue Iwi".

After that we visited the gannet colony at Cape Kidnapper (Toelpel unter sich). We walked there. It’s a 6 h walk (return). When we came in sight of the gannets and their chicks we tried keep our distance and not to disturb them. Perlen vor die Saeue! Just at this moment the trucks arrived. Each with three hangers carrying about 40 tourists. Cape Kidnapper ADVENTURE tours, yeah right! Well I don’t think they actually deserve to see it. OK, if you are a retard under 6 or over 67 or (genetically) overweight person then that’s might be your only choice. But about half of them were in their mid-twenties, some having rastas or wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. Yeah guys, that’s against the establishment, FUCK YOU! The trucks driving you there release probably more oil into the sea as you had dolphin on your last tuna pizza after your “swimming with dolphins” ADVENTURE. I know, the guide told you that the chicks die once they fall out of their nest, because the mother stop feeding them. But I guess they just get stucked on the wheels of all this squads and trucks driving there. I still enjoyed it!!

We had a terrible rainy drive to Wellington and 2 Guiness (after the drive). The next shock came when we took the ferry to Picton at 3am. We got told not to take any pigs, pig semen or embryos to the South Island (It had something to do with saving the New Zealand agriculture). So I asked them where I could get rid of my 20 kg pig semen I had in my boot and what to do with the embryos on the back seat (don't click that link if you are not feeling 100%). As they didn’t had any storage place in the terminal we throw it into the sea (just kidding, we sold it to McDonalds. Kidding again we didn’t had any semen or embryos, or did we? You shouldn’t go to McD anyway. For more convincing reasons read/see: Fast Food Nation, No Logo, McLibel, Supersize Me, McSpottlight).

On the South Island we stayed 2 nights in Havelock refusing to eat green mussels. We stayed at the Blue Moon a backpacker with a lovely and very chatty host who show us the local glow worms. Glowworms in Aotearoa are actually worms, not as our Gluehwuermchen, which are fireflies (I think..help me, Pete). Well, I would show a picture but the only one who took one used the flash (it was not me!).

I ordered a vegan breakfast at the Black Cat Café. It ended that I bought some baked beans at the supermarket next door and they heated them and put them on toast with no butter. A long way to go (actually only to Nelson, see below)!

In Havelock I also realize that he only French sentence I can speak fluently actually doesn’t help you to get into conversations. I warned her she will be offended, but she insisted to hear it.

After some sea kayaking in the Malborough Sounds, which started in good weather and ended that we got picked up half way as rain and wind were against us, we went on to Nelson. At Zippys I got some real vegan food (yummy Chocolate Cake and Muffins, mmmh Muffins).

We spent 2 nights at the Abel Tasman NP just to hang out at the beach (I walked it already twice so I wasn’t too keen to walk it again). We saw dolphins and a sexy lady from East-Berlin. (As I have seen dolphins before I was more moved by the latter).
K. and L. got a rental car and got hit (after 10 min driving) by a young girl. Unfortunately she was so stupid to make a runaway so that the cops deal with it now.

I went back home and they on. Somebody painted a beautiful sunset into the sky while I was

waiting for the ferry. Good design but not very intelligent. One highlight was that I got told I have a bit of Kiwi slang, but it probably just meant I have a funny mix of German and Kiwi accent but still don’t speak no English.

Back home we had to de-flea our flat. After that I went to the Celtic (For those who have seen “Shaun of the Dead” … the Celtic is like the “Winchester”). On the way I met one old flatmate, two friends on the supermarket car park and one of my old students. So the 20min walk took me about 1h. At the Celtic were the same people I left there 2 weeks ago including my 2 French flatmates. Looks like I am at home in Palmy!!!

It’s rainy and windy. Nothing changed.

Not quite true. I just heard Tana Umaga stepped back from the All Blacks. That's a shame. I loved watching him. Partly because he looks funny but mostly because he was an awesome player and captain. But I think he has chronical hayfewer and lives near a pollen factory. Maybe he is just always stoned. Have a reason to see a Hurricanes match now.

Holiday impressions

2006-01-10T13:55:00.000+13:00

Just some pictures.. not in the mood to write something..yet ...;-)
And somehow I got problems to arrange the pictures in a nice way.

Give Germans a chance

2005-12-23T13:25:00.000+13:00

Sometimes it would be good to have a tape recorder on you. Especially if you a bit drunk. That way, you would be able to recall all the wisdom and sophisticated discussions you had (or you probably just realize how much crab you are talking). We might be able to ask the FBI for our records anyway. However, I just discussed and solved all problems of the (developed and developing) world with my Islamic flatmate. We basically agreed to get rid off transnational capitalism and fundamentalism of all kind. But this sounds to simple and does not match the deepness of the discussion we might have had (@ pete: I think the world problems can be solved in a pub).

Yesterday I went for a beer with a guy from Duesseldorf I met here. It surprised me a bit that I didn’t mind that he was German and so didn’t he (also he was complaining that there are too many Germans around). I had to think again that Germans might have a problem with their own identity. Since I am living here for about 2 ¾ years I met truckloads of them. If you meet another German in foreign country it gets a bit funny. Everyone kind of expects to be the “only one” and is not very enthusiastic to meet a fellow country man. Well, that’s what I felt as well. I thought coming down here I would have an exotic bonus and all the girls would fall for me because of my funny accent. However, after two weeks I gave up on that, as everybody asked (usually after I said “Hello”) from which part of Germany I am from without me mention being German. So the accent isn’t exotic at all (nowadays I sometimes get asked if I am French, which is probably because my French flatmates spoiled my pronunciation). But back to the point: Germans seem to try to avoid each other (in the long term it doesn’t work anyway). Other Nations seem to be more delighted to meet each other. Spanish people even forget that they are Basque or Catalan and drinking together and talking about dancing. French, even when they say they are not that keen to meet other French, starting vivid discussions about cheese, wine and Gaenseleber which can and goes on forever. (US)Americans are a bit different as they always pretend to be Canadian and have troubles to explain each other where exactly in Canada they are from, without actually ever been there. The Irish, Scottish and Welsh meet to take the piss out off the English. The English do the same with the Germans and French. (By the way they are pretty obsessed with the WWII and keep talking about it. They usually shut up when I tell tell them I don’t care about WWII but I am proud that we won the World Cup 3 times without getting help from any Russian Linesmen. I actually met a Welsh guy who served his AirForce time in Weeze (Flughafen Niederhein). He told me that in the 80s when they made their low flight exercises over the Niederrhein and Ruhrgebiet they had sharp atomic rockets on. OOOh scary. I guess we are lucky none of them came ever down and I still hope he was just kidding…..)

Only we are like “Oh gosh, not another one”. “Where are you from?” “Germany.” “Oh yeah me too. Well, see you later.” Everybody seems to have a good reason why she/he is more allowed to be here more than the other. Well, it took me a while to get over it but I was very delighted to get to know that very cute one (Thank you!). We probably need to realize that our planet is inhabited by 6.5 billion traveling individuals. There are nice people and bad people everywhere so don’t make your mind about person from a meaningless citizenship. At the end my best mates are from Germany and I am happy if they come down here.

That’s just what I think to have observed between German, but it might be very biased by my own thinking and experiences!

Well maybe a short introduction

2005-12-22T17:14:00.000+13:00

to Palmerston North

I thought i put some random pictures on the page to show what I have been up to in the lovely and sometimes uninspiring city of Palmerston North.

..where I live and where I go out. Thats for you Gyus in good old Germany. You might be able to imagine why I miss the historical buildings and crowded stadiums, which seemed to be quite unimportant back home. But let me tell you, it makes a difference. I should say the pictures are unfair. There are a few nicer looking parts in Palmy and not all the woman looking that scary (all the time). And I met a lot of very nice people here which make me enjoying my time. Well, the stadium crowd really sucks. I got a taste for Guiness and changed to a vegan diet, so I was delighted to find out that Guiness in Aotearoa is vegan and I can go on spending my money for it. Not that I am in the pub everyday, but as there is only one (decent) pub I easily made it on the board.