Hoi All,
Somehow not all my links to the Picasa albums are working... you should be able to find me on Picase as the albums are all public, and I'll try to fix the problem soon.
New pics are up of Fassnacht in Wallerfangen, and of the new house we rented in Weil am Rhein before the move.
Ciao
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Terners in Europe pt 2: BergHolmPar
Hoi Zäma,
So it's New Year's Day, and I hope you all had a great night, and that 2012 is a great year for you all! We spent the night at a house party, and wandered into the streets at midnight to let off a few fireworks and see what everyone else was doing. I understand now why they are banned in (most of) Australia - lots of drunk people throwing burning balls of exploding gunpowder everywhere - it was a miracle no-one got hurt, though an ambulance did turn up next to us. A few cars and windows in the street were probably also feeling a bit sore in the morning. The smell, the mess, and the noise was almost uncomfortable - poor dogs would have nowhere to run - but it was fun though!
After a long and slow start to the morning I'm still sitting here in my pyjamas and finally uploading the rest of the holiday pics from the summer. This is part 3 of my parents European trip: Part 1 started after the wedding in Germany and Switzerland. After leaving us in Basel they flew to Rome to begin a 10 day bus tour of Italy, which they absolutely loved and was the highlight of their trip. I meanwhile went to work, which I absolutely didn't! The only stress for my parents came at the very end, when thanks to a general strike in Rome they were delayed by half a day, missing a connection in Oslo, and having to a very short sleep in an airport hotel before arriving the next morning in Bergen just in time to start the tour. Tired, stressed, and wet due to the atrocious storms, we were still able to do a quick "Norway in a Nutshell" tour of the fjords on trains, buses and ferries.
We then flew to Stockholm for few days, ate some herring,
and pretended to be Eskimos - getting the entire northern cultures thing wrong,
and then the Viking invasion raged on to Paris, the last stop before going home. Here we enjoyed the daily ritual of a Parisienne breakfast, coffee, croissants, and bagels(!). After Thai in Sweden, and Chinese in Germany, German in France wasn't so unusual...
Pics on Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105955852697062837044/FamilyEuropeanHolidayPt2NorwStockhParis?authuser=0&feat=directlink
So it's New Year's Day, and I hope you all had a great night, and that 2012 is a great year for you all! We spent the night at a house party, and wandered into the streets at midnight to let off a few fireworks and see what everyone else was doing. I understand now why they are banned in (most of) Australia - lots of drunk people throwing burning balls of exploding gunpowder everywhere - it was a miracle no-one got hurt, though an ambulance did turn up next to us. A few cars and windows in the street were probably also feeling a bit sore in the morning. The smell, the mess, and the noise was almost uncomfortable - poor dogs would have nowhere to run - but it was fun though!
After a long and slow start to the morning I'm still sitting here in my pyjamas and finally uploading the rest of the holiday pics from the summer. This is part 3 of my parents European trip: Part 1 started after the wedding in Germany and Switzerland. After leaving us in Basel they flew to Rome to begin a 10 day bus tour of Italy, which they absolutely loved and was the highlight of their trip. I meanwhile went to work, which I absolutely didn't! The only stress for my parents came at the very end, when thanks to a general strike in Rome they were delayed by half a day, missing a connection in Oslo, and having to a very short sleep in an airport hotel before arriving the next morning in Bergen just in time to start the tour. Tired, stressed, and wet due to the atrocious storms, we were still able to do a quick "Norway in a Nutshell" tour of the fjords on trains, buses and ferries.
We then flew to Stockholm for few days, ate some herring,
and pretended to be Eskimos - getting the entire northern cultures thing wrong,
and then the Viking invasion raged on to Paris, the last stop before going home. Here we enjoyed the daily ritual of a Parisienne breakfast, coffee, croissants, and bagels(!). After Thai in Sweden, and Chinese in Germany, German in France wasn't so unusual...
Pics on Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105955852697062837044/FamilyEuropeanHolidayPt2NorwStockhParis?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Terners in Europe pt 1: GerSwitz
Hoi Zäma,
My family arrived in Europe the day before our wedding, with a planned 4 week holiday afterwards to see a bit of Europe. Week 1 was spent relaxing and catching a few local sights before travelling south through Alsace, Weil am Rhein, and then onto Switzerland. Sissi my high-school friend from Aus also joined in for the first week of the holiday, before doing her own thing in Paris.
They were blown away by what they saw...
But the bad weather meant this was the best and only view of the Matterhon we had over the 2 days we spent at Zermatt.
More post-wedding pics on Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105955852697062837044/FamilyEuropeanHolidayPt1GerSwitz?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKfr-K7gv-vt7gE&feat=directlink
My family arrived in Europe the day before our wedding, with a planned 4 week holiday afterwards to see a bit of Europe. Week 1 was spent relaxing and catching a few local sights before travelling south through Alsace, Weil am Rhein, and then onto Switzerland. Sissi my high-school friend from Aus also joined in for the first week of the holiday, before doing her own thing in Paris.
They were blown away by what they saw...
But the bad weather meant this was the best and only view of the Matterhon we had over the 2 days we spent at Zermatt.More post-wedding pics on Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105955852697062837044/FamilyEuropeanHolidayPt1GerSwitz?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKfr-K7gv-vt7gE&feat=directlink
Boo, Sachiyo, Michael, and Zermatt
So to the first holiday snaps (from summer 2011)...
My friends from Japan, Kiyono ("Boo"), Sachiyo, and Michael arrived in Europe a week before our wedding to see a bit of Switzerland and Germany. Together with Christina we spent the weekend in Zermatt for a slice of typical Swisziness, some hiking, and potential snowsports.
Some pics are here in Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105955852697
The as-promised hotel room view of the Matterhorn
Thursday, December 29, 2011
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
Thursday, December 22, 2011
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...
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...
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