Greg & Tanya In Berlin

Greg and Tanya stayed with us on the tail end of their European Tour they were a bit touristed out and we had to work, plus the weather pulled a bait and switch on us which meant we spent a lot of time indoors drinking and not so much time running around looking at stuff. This is not a bad thing ;-)



Was very good to sit around drink p1ss and talk sh1t and be able to properly catch up on our friends lives. Not to mention generally have a great time.

Was really awesome to see you guys and we hope you had a great time too.

English is deadly

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Australians, British or Americans.
2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Australians, British or Americans.
3. Africans drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Australians, British or Americans.
4. Italians drink large amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Australians, British or Americans.
5. Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Australians, British or Americans.
   

Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you!

One...

Today marks exactly one year since we've arrived into this city on 24 January 2006. Every time some mark like this comes along, the Russian in me likes to 'подводить итоги' (ie. drawing out conclusions).

We came here to travel and have done a lot... London, Cluj-Napoca, Budapest, Praha, Leipzig, Dresden, Frankfurt am Mein, Paris, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Copenhagen, Milan, Venice, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas... we also managed to pop by to Melbourne for two weeks... still, I have a feeling that I'm missing something, but hey!

Jack has landed an awesome job. I have been learning German - overall things have been good. I guess I have realised how much I actually miss home (being Melbourne) and of course our friends. Wherever you guys are, and whatever you are doing - just to let you know that you are the best bunch in the world and we miss you!

It is funny how difficult it is at times to appreciate what you have and the saying "you only miss it when it's gone" is so true. What am I trying to say here? Perhaps on some level get across the dual-ness of the whole situation - life I guess.

Today, just like this day last year, is the coldest day this winter...

not another one!!

So after thinking that the baby frenzy is over another one is in the oven. Daniel and Chie were over for dinner last night and while making some jokes about pregnancy tests announced that they are indeed waiting for one. Bringing the total of pregnancies in Berlin to two (Inna and Frank are waiting for one as well) and one in Australia (Derryn and Carmen). And just in case you are wondering yet again, as mentioned before - WE are NOT pregnant!

Guess who... :)

down to Earth...

nope - this time no rambling on about airport security or other (very important) world problems.

simply an update on my work....

It's been a whole of 9 (nine) days and coming to the end of second week. So far I've done bits and pieces - some D/XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ajax and XML tutorials and some "real" work. The real work so far has been reasonably simple, and considering that I haven't done any programming for 2,5 years now it's probably the best option for everyone involved.

My immediate team has four (including me) people - Timo (team lead), Wibke (cool programming chick with signs of former piercings, namely along the perimeter of her ear lobe) and Boris (no not Russian, but half American). They're all fairly easy going and generally patient. So far I've been doing allright understanding what I need to do and people in general, when they're talking to me that is. Meetings, on the other hand, are a totally different story. If I get the general gist of what's happening- I'm a lucky camper, 'cos most of the time I'm sitting there and once in a while thinking to myself "damn, I know that word!".

Oh, and we get brekky every morning. Full on selection of breads, hams, cheeses, cereal, fruit (a humble little plate the contents of which disappear VERY quickly) - the whole German shebang. And there is a huge selection of teas in the kitchen - which is great for us Ruski tea lovers.

So the main question so far is - do I like it? It is certainly different from spending my days at home, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is AWESOME. 'cos I simply don't feel confident enough - whether with my programming skills or my German. Plus so far I've been mainly having lunches on my own, which doesn't boost self esteem - need to find a lunch buddy. Cathy and Courts - how I miss you guys!!! :)

................................................................

And as I am finishing off this post - the hurricane Helga (or whatever silly German name it has) is being slightly ruthless outside... and even though our windows are inset with the balcony of about 1 meter, they were soaked - meaning the rain was pouring sideways.

AND the day after tomorrow Greg and Tanya should be arriving in our noble town.

A N D I think I'm tired of the colour scheme on this blog, so sometime in the future (I won't say "near future") it will have to be abused into being something less vomity.

How the fark...

... can we put up with this.

Hicks might be innocent and he might be guilty but after 5 years in that hole its no longer the point. When the US of A - self appointed "peace keepers" (and I do use the term loosely) can issue a manual for trying detainees at Guantanamo that "statements obtained through coercive interrogation techniques if obtained before December 30, 2005, and deemed reliable by a judge."

Judge: "Is it true that he confessed to being Santa Claus while being tortured?"
USA: "Yes your honour."
Judge: "Do you think this is reliable evidence?"
USA: "Yes your honour, we'd made sure to attach the electrode to both his testicles."

What makes 2005 a better year for torturing people than 2006? Does this mean we should release rapists and murders if their crimes were before that with an "Oh well, bad year that 2005"?

It's getting to be too bad and its time I stopped shutting up about how p1ssed off this makes me. Australians (and others) - write to your government, write to theirs, make some farken noise. You (or me) could be next - they don't need a reason, they need scapegoats.

Rant - 1. a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion

I know, I know... we've been complaining to every man and his dog about the moronic "tightened" security procedures in airports, but this encounter has to be one of the pearlers. Flying out of London Luton and going through the security gates we dutifully took out our 20 x 20 clear plastic zip lock bags with our liquids inside. A female security officer inspects Jack's deodorant of which there is "100 gr", and she proceeds with "I am not sure that you're allowed that on the plane, because that's 100 grams and not 100 mililitres..." to which Jack's reply was "ummm... last time I checked 1gr equals 1ml and that's something everyone learns in primary school". The male officer standing next to the woman said "You know I think you should trust him - he sounds like he knows what he's talking about." .... *pause for comprehension* WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO??????!!!!!!!

PS: "Babel" the new movie from Alejandro González Iñárritu is great - go see it!

I'm back in the USSR... well in Berlin actually

After almost two months of travelling we're back in the German capital. The weather is drizzly and generally cold and wet. We'll be in Berlin this coming weekend, but the next one we're travelling to Oldenburg where we're going to celebrate three birthdays - Jack's, Jack's Mum's Emmi and her twin brother's Theo (they're both turning 60).

Thank you very much to everyone who sent us christmas cards and emails - it was very wonderful. Here is a picture of our Christmas tree (well branches of one anyway).

In other news - I have a job. Well it's a Praktikum (work experience) for three months as a front-end programmer. And the way it works - they want me to work very hard for very little money (400 EURs a month)... we'll see how that goes, eh? :) It is full time and it's for a company Aperto, which is actually walking distance away... or three stops on the U-Bahn. I start this coming Monday... a bit nervous. I haven't actually done any programming for more than two years, but hopefully it'll jump straight back into my head once I start. This will be good experience work-wise and also speaking the lingo, plus extra pocket money!

New Year in London Again

The end of 2006 was spent in London again, much like last year - "Same same but different":

• same drunken louts,
  
• same great time,
  
• different year ;-)

Here be evidence!

The star of the season - Catherine Joy Dorer with various attachments:



Generic good times:

Clive working out the instructions for the pram

Denya in my hat

Jack and Matt in their commie t-shirts

Denya doing what he does best - working out the meaning of life :)

New Year's Eve:

Paris - 22nd to 26th Dec

We spent the public holidays and some frequent flyer points on Paris.

It has quickly become one of our favourite places in Europe after Venice and Prague... for me probably even nicer than Prague. We did the main touristy things:

- climbed the Arc de Triumf (please excuse my horrid spellings of names, etc.)

- walked along Chemps d'Elysee

- went to the Louvre

- looked at the Eiffel Tower (didn't climb it 'cos it was too foggy - see pictures)


- went to Versailles (and the Lonely Planet guide is right - it's damn miserable in winter)


- went up to Sacre Ceur and wondered around Monmartre


- went to Père Lachaise where we paid our respects to THE Rocker himself



- saw the Notre Dam

- ate pancakes ( you can't actually see from the photo, but the pancake is on fire)


.. and took a bunch of artistic pictures:

Inside Galeries La Fayette


Jack in the Louvre

Eiffel Tower at night

... and a bunch of silly ones:

This one is called "Find Polina"

And this is in front of the Louvre at night

And in the Roden Museum

Adrian and Vanessa in Berlin

Adrian and Vanessa were in Berlin for a few days we managed to catch up with them a couple of times. First off it was drinking at a bar/pub - the name of which escapes now for various reasons... And then the next day we met up in a camping/hiking gear store at Rathaus Steglitz - the name of which also escapes :) Then we had lunch at a Thai place and discussed such pressing topics as vegitarianism, Saddam's execution (then only a possibility), and why Adrian is so annoying :))) sorry dude - just kidding. It was great to see them and listen to stories of Georgia and their future travels in South America (thus potential stories). Here are two snaps from the bar...

Melbourne - 2nd to 16th Dec

So here's where we find a few minutes of spare time, and try to fill in all the gaps in our blog. Photos will follow when we're back at home and have access to them ;-)

So we fly out from LAX on the evening of the 30th Nov, loose the 1st of Dec crossing the dateline and arrive in Melbourne totally p1ssed off. That's what you get from a) flying United (nobody should ever fly this airline - we never will again), and b) stoopid security regulations transiting in Sydney.

On the United flight the food was terrible, stale frozen bread, completely molten butter terrible service, no sound on the first movie, no vision on the other three movies, no entertainment consoles and generally just a pain in the arse. So we have now endured 16 odd hours of this, arrive in Sydney where we all have to get off the plane, go out through security, up a flight of stairs and through security again to get back into the very same gate lounge in order to get back onto the very same plane. So the guy looks through our bags and it turns out that the two bottles of grog that we bought in the US duty free cant be taken onto the plane, even though they've just been on it for 16 hours. Offering to drink some out of each bottle did not really appease young Mr Mohammed the security guard. We yell at each other for a bit before we compromise in getting the bottles into a backpack and check them, crossing our fingers. I then demand to see his supervisor, who is not the brightest spark and cannot tell me anything about why we are subjected to this stupid proceedure. Happily the head of Sydney Airport Security happens to be just nearby and she foists me off onto him. Our conversation goes something like this:

• Me: Why are you subjecting people to this ludicrus process, given that we have all just come off of an international flight and will be getting back onto the same plane.
• Him: It's a government regulation
• Me: Which regulation
• Him: I don't know
• Me: Then how do you know it is even a governement regulation
• Him: Well the government sends us these things
• Me: So the government sends you 'things' which you don't really know what they are and you as the head of security in a major Australian airport find that this is 'good enough'
• Him: Look we're just following the governement regulations
• Me: But you've just said you don't know which regulations, so how can that be true. You're just pissing people off unnecessarily after long flights.
• etc...

It turns out there is no one you can complain to about this and no one who will be able to tell you which regulation this is covered by. *sigh* It feels so much like 1984 again ;-)

So anyway after a very painful start, Anya was kind enough to collect us and our belongings (Thanks Anya) and drop us off at Julia's place where we were staying (Thanks Julia) while she is in London. We unpacked a bit and got ourselves cleaned up and went out to Lamb's go Bar for a spot of serious drinking with a whole bunch of people. A very fun night indeed.

Caught up with a whole lot of people for dinner and drinks and breakfast and drinks. Waaaay too much drinking on this trip. We had morning tea with Tim, Emma, Joshua and their latest new arrival Olivia. Was very cool to catch up and see them all and good timing with their new baby too ;-)

Over the weekend we went camping. We were going to go up to the Cathedral Ranges, but given that they were pretty much on fire we went the other way out to Brisbane Ranges National Park. This place isn't too bad at all, very close to Melbourne, toilets, tank water, good fireplaces and campsites. Would have been nice if it had been less than 40 degrees celcius, but what can you do. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to get out there and join us, was a good toasty time had by all. For future reference, the best way to get there is up the freeway to the Fiskville CFA exit and come in from that side - much quicker than driving all the way across the park, and paved roads too.

I hooked up with my old manager from IBM and finally returned their laptop and got the rest of the money they owed me out of them. An hour well spent on that front.

We also ate at Cafe Armenia - which not only still exists but in newer and better premises at

Cafe Armenia
179 Booran Rd Carnegie
(03) 9578 8151

Well worth a visit, helps if you speak Russian, but the new staff member has a reasonable grasp of English too.

Saw Tim D's new house and two gorgeous puppys. Got the car serviced and basically ran around like crazy.

It was way good to be back, unfortunately also way too short. Was great to see so many of our friends and have such an awesome time with them all. Thanks guys - we miss you again already!