German Wedding Updated

Hoi Everyone,

So here are some more pics from our German wedding in August. It's only a selection, includes a couple from the previous post, but also new ones from the professional photographer. There are lots more pictures from the guests, and they might come online sometime, but dont feel upset if you're not represented (or over-represented...)


The album is in Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105955852697062837044/GermanWeddingExpanded?authuser=0&feat=directl

Winterthur

Hoi Zäma,

Well, it's Winter, and I've been really slack at showing you anything of Winterthur, where I live in Switzerland. So I will start trying to make up for it now. Though I don't really have any pics of the town or house or housemates, here are a couple that I do have...

Starting with Winter in Winterthur and the Christmas Market, which the Europeans do really well: row after row of stands selling christmas decorations, general handicrafts, oils, candles, toys, cakes, jewellery. And of course hot food and hot wine (and also hot beer and hot caipirinhas - in fact you can put the word "Glüh-" in front of anything in Germany, heat it up and sell it at a christmas market! After a while though you see the same stuff for sale all over the place, also with very non-christmasy stuff that you see at every market at any time of the year in any city. Tie-died T-shirts, cheap silver jewellery, and dream-catchers anyone?


Last year was an unusually snowy year, leading to a white Christmas and beautiful snowscapes reminding me of Sweden. This year there's only been a couple of days of snow in the town which didn't stay around for very long. After the driest November since records began the headlines are like they were in Aus a couple of years ago - drought, increasing fruit and veg prices, cracked and dry fields, lakes without water, delayed start to the ski season... things arent looking good. But last year it was glorious!

The view from the telecommunications tower in Winterthur - with the Alps in the background

New York

I had a 23 hour stopover in NY in 2009 on the way back from a business trip, and managed to spend the day wandering around. Highlights were finding some good italian food and coffee in the East Village (not as easy as you might think in the US), and seeing a great gig at the legendary Blue Note Jazz Club.

The Edmar Castaneda Trio at the Blue Note. Very cool music - amazing to watch the physicality of Edmar's harp playing, and trombonist Marshall Gilkes can do things on the horn that are amazing. Great toe-tapping music with latino flair. I I hope I get Latino jazz harp playing angels if/when I go to Heaven!

Paquito D'rivera. He was joined at one point on stage by a bandoneon player (tango accordion) who was amazingly expressive and melancholic.

Something else blue that I'd never seen before. And couldn't eat because they were horrible. Maybe some things just shouldn't be blue.

Times Square

Empire State Building

View of the south and Wall St.

The "Seinfeld" Diner - a definite landmark on my to-see list! Unfortunately I didn't have enough time for a sit-down meal, but I would have loved to eat a Mars Bar with a knife and fork in there...