Italy

So, a quick update about our trip to Italy with Bel's sister.

The trip roughly went like this:
Darmstadt, Germany -> Innsbruck, Austria -> Venice, Italy -> Florence, Italy -> Innsbruck, Austria -> Darmstadt, Germany
and it was all by car...some 2800kms.

Out of all of it, the concensus was that our favorite part was Innsbruck, which was just supposed to be our little stopover on the way to fun.

I dunno, but it seems that the parts of Italy that we went to were too touristy for our liking, but that is probably because they were the major tourist places. But, I must say, that I did a bloody good job in picking the hotels and B&Bs that we were staying in! :)

Some tips about Italy for you:
1. One day in Venice is enough, in my mind.
2. Most restaurants charge a cover charge, and a service charge.
Usually this is mentioned on the menu in an obvious place, but some hide it near the back, where you don't often look until it is too late.
3. The drive like freakin' idiots!
Many times we saw ppl on a 2 lane road "lane splitting" the whole time (straddling the two lanes), or, you would be overtaking someone coming into a corner, and they would decide that they wanted the "racing line" and nearly squeezed you into a barrier. What makes it worse, is that trucks do it too!

So, here are some pics.


Top of the take off ramp at the ski jump in Innsbruck. Picture doesn't doesn't do it justice. Let's just say, I would wear my brown undies if I had to jump.

Bel and Sus at the top of the Cupola of the Duomo in Florence. You gotta climb this if you get the chance.

Venice at night. I think that this is an awesome pic...even if I do say so myself.

Yes, that is McLeods Daughters on the big screen in Florence. I have now seen this show in 3 countries, in 3 different languages, and it's still SHIT!

Some of the towers of San Gimignano. Once there were 72 of these towers in the city, but now only 15 remain. They were built for security, to see the advancing enemy. But, it turned into a bit of a competition between the rich families, who wanted to have the highest tower in the town.


"Cinderella's Castle", aka Neuschwanstein in Bavaria, Germany.

Bel, Sus, and the horses that pulled the carriage we rode back down from Neuschwanstein.

Tschüß,
'Brush

WIR GEHEN WEITER!!!

Belinda was off on a work trip, so I drove in to Frankfurt to watch the game last night in an Aussie pub. The place was absolutely packed with Aussies, Germans supporting Australia, Yanks supporting Australia, Hollanders supporting Australia, and one poor chick in a Croatian top.

The pub was a sea of green and gold, and rang with chants of "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! OY! OY! OY!" (which I lead...and subsequently lost my voice), singing of Waltzing Matilda, Keh Sahn, and a bunch of other Aussie tracks, and my new favorite "Who let's the Roos out? GUUS! GUUS! GUU-GUUS-GUUS!"

Now, I ain't no big soccer fan, but I didn't think I was going to be able to bear it, watching the first and the second croat goals slam and then trickle home. And then the pressure was even worse when we equalised with 10min to go. I thought I was going to die.

Anyway, mad probs to the Socceroos! Viel Glück! Viel Erfolg! Ich drücke euch ganz ganz die Daumen! :)

Tschüß,
'Brush

Birds

So I had forgotten that my sister is REALLY afraid of birds... not birds at a distance but birds that can flap and fly at your face, and poo on you.

So it was a brilliant plan of ours to take her to a few european cities - where pigeons live EN MASSE.

We both seriuosly had broken skin where her nails had punctured our arms as we had to cross large squares (I think San Marcos in Venice was the worst) or when a lone pigeon seemed to be flying our way.

The strategy in the end was either to edge around the flocks of birds, or for us to be on either side and propell her through...

Susan's usual strategy to avoid large flocks of birds and to never walk where their is poo on the ground so that you too don't get pooed on.

One day in Florence, after finally finding a very rare public toilet, which we of course had to pay for, she failed to follow the second of ther rules... and man did she pay the price...

I have never seen anyone get quite so thoroughly shat on. The loud shriek told us that something had happend, and apparently she felt that something had hit her with force, and she knew imediately what it was...

She had been hit across one boob, across the back of one sholder, on her foot (she was wearing thongs) and on her forhead.

(I am giggling as I write this)

As I attempted to clean her up with a tissue she shrieked at Brett to help her and get the poo of her foot. He responded with 'I can't' and a dry heave...

Considering her fear of birds and being pood on she actually coped really well

After getting her somewhat cleaned up we made our way back to the toilet where we explained to the man that she had just been pooed on so that we could reenter with out repaying. He was highly ammused and let us in. While we were in thrre a friend of his came to vist him and obviuosly got the story beacuse he kept looking at us and laughing, and as we were leaving he told Susan it was good luck ... :-)

but dispite all the warnings we had nothing stollen in Itally, so perhaps it really was good luck.

Es gibt immer Nach- und Vor- teile...

So, the good news is that we have found a new apartment in Friedrichsdorf, and we should be moving in there at the beginning of August. It means that instead of a 1.5hr train ride each-way for Belinda, there will now only be a 5min walk each-way to work. It is also closer to my work, so I will pay a lot less tax on the company car. We will also have a place to store things like bikes, so we can do some riding in the Taunus region, which is really nice for that kinda stuff.

The bad side of things is that we are leaving the apartment that we currently have, with the landlords who are sooooo nice to us. The lady here bakes us cakes, and really looks after us a hell of a lot. And, as Bel found out today, she thinks of us like a son and daughter, and cried a lot when Bel went down to tell her that we had decided to move.
Fortunately, and unfortunately, she already knew, because our relocation service had called her son to let them know, and he had in turn let her know. I wish we could have told them first in person, but at the same time I am glad that we didn't have to, because I reckon that I would have sooked too. Luckily for me, I was driving back from Essen at the time, and then I snuck in really quietly to avoid meeting them on the stairs...is that wrong?

There are always pros and cons...

Tschüß,
'Brush.

Blood Test

I had a blood test today (nothing wrong, just need soem vaccinations for work travel so doc was working out what antibodies I have) and all was done with the German precision and efficiency you would expect. It was basically painless YAY. I always lay down so that I don't fall down but afterwards she said to me 'You look fine, Sit up' and then after about 1 minute sitting, 'You look fine, you can go now'. I think because he english wasn't perfect it sounded gruffer than was meant, and she was right - I was fine, but usually doctors/nurses let me have a little lay there.

The weird part was though, SHE DIDN'T WEAR GLOVES!!!!

I asked a girl I work with if this was normal and she didn't think it was strange, she said the only time she has ever had a doctor actually wear gloves was in Ghana....

Now I don't even remember the last time I had an injection, let alone a blood test where they didn't wear gloves... And this isn't a country where they shy away from latex gloves - you HAVE TO carry some in you car.

...odd...

B

Sorrrrryyyyyyyyyy....

Sorry that we haven't posted in a while, we just spend almost 2 weeks in Italy while my sister is visting so we have been neglectful but we will give you all the goss very soon
B

Darmstädter Schloßgrabenfest

Every year there is a 4 day music festival held in Darmstadt, and it is all centered around the Darmstadt Schloß (castle), or to be more precise, around the Schloßgraben (moat).

We went in a checked out a few bands on the Saturday night, and they were kick-arse! I had never heard of either of them before, but that is the reason that you go to these free festivals - to discover and support new acts.

The first act was "The Capones" out of Munich. These guys are a high-energy stage act that do a mixture between Ska, Hip-hop, Reggae, and a few other styles. They were seriously cool.




The second group was "Cleave" from Austria. These guys were on Newcomer TV, and were voted by the viewers to play at the Schloßgrabenfest. These guys remind me a little of "Chevelle", and the lead singer has a really powerful but harmonic voice, IMHO. Funny thing is, that he speaks with an Austrian dialect (of German), but when he sings it sounds perfectly American. Kinda weird how singers do that. And, to quote Screws - "I can't understand you. Sing it to me!".




After these guys came the main act for the festival called Juli (July, in English). These are a guitar pop group that are getting heaps of air time here in Germany. I actually like some of their stuff, but I am sure that it is just because all the lyrics are in German. :)
We only listened to a couple of songs before we through in the towel. The crowd was way too big, and way too much pushing and shoving for my likes.

On Sunday I ordered both of the bands' albums over the web. Gotta support the lil' guy.

Tschüß,
'Brush

I am outraged!

An article in The Age has outraged me today.

Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalisation of child pornography and sex with animals <snip> The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.
<snip>

The party wants private possession of child pornography to be allowed although it supports the ban on the trade of such materials. It also supports allowing pornography to be broadcast on daytime television, with only violent pornography limited to the late evening.

Toddlers should be given sex education and youths aged 16 and up should be allowed to appear in pornographic films and prostitute themselves. Sex with animals should be allowed although abuse of animals should remain illegal, the NVD said.

The party also said everybody should be allowed to go naked in public and promotes legalising all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.

I can't believe that shit! They should be stopped! I mean, honestly, FREE TRAIN TRAVEL FOR ALL? JUST THINK WHAT THAT IS GOING TO DO TO PEOPLE'S TAXES!!!

Tschüß,
'Brush

The Da Vinci "Load"

On Tuesday night, B and I, along with someone from her work and one of their friends, went to see The Da Vinci Code at an "original language" cinema in Frankfurt.

The film itself wasn't too bad, though it didn't contain as much detail as the book. I think this would have been hard to do, given that the book spends a bit of time covering the history of The Knights Templar, etc.

The disappointing part of the film was really the ending, which they changed a fair bit from the book. I won't go into it, but let's just say that they made some really strange decisions, that make absolutely no sense.

But, back to the real part of the story - the film viewing experience.

We rocked up to the cinema, and found seats. The film was due to start at 8:00, but I think the ads started rolling maybe 10min after that...and kept rolling for the next 45 minutes! That's right, 45 minutes of ads and previews! WTF?!?!?! I don't even watch the stupid things at home, so why would I want to pay to see 45mins of these things?

Ok, so bullshit ads are over, and the film begins. It's a good story - particularly for us nerds - and we are really into it by time the film is about half-way through. Then, in the middle of a chase scene, the film suddenly stops, and we have an "intermission". When was the last time you went to a film with an intermission? For me, it was about 10yrs ago, in a dodgy little cinema that they set up in Ocean Grove during Xmas.
The intermission lasted about 10-15mins. Just long enough to spoil the mood, and let all the built up tension drift away. Nice work, idiots!

Maybe next time we will try the cinema in Darmstadt. They don't show films in original language all the time, but surely the experience will be better.

Tschüß
'Brush.

Everybody wave, Europe is watching!

Just letting you know that I am sitting here, on a day of in Germany, watching the Australia vs Greece game live on TV. If you are there, then WHAT ARE YOU DOING READING THIS?!?!? But if you are there, and you happen to be so lame that you are checking this website, then please wave!

Tschüß,
'Brush

Hunger

Three hundred million children are hungry and 18,000 die every day for want of food while the world remains largely ignorant about the magnitude of the problem, the UN's World Food Programme has claimed.

"If the headline in the media tomorrow was 'Forty-five 747s crashed today, everyone on board was killed and oh, by the way, they were all children', the world would be outraged," said James Morris, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

"I genuinely think the public doesn't understand how serious the issue is."

The world produces enough food to feed everyone, with 17 percent more calories per person today than 30 years ago, according to the World Hunger Education Service.

But the distribution is unequal.

extract from a Reuters article.

'Brush licks balls in Belgium...

Screws took this killer photo when we visited the Atomium in Brussels, Belgium. You can find out about the Atomium here.



Suffice to say, that this thing was designed and built in the 50s for the World Fair. These balls are 59 feet in diameter, and would rival the biggest ones that Freddy ever got near. :) The top sphere houses a restaurant that can hold in the order of 140 ppl. Whoever came up with this idea really had balls! :)

Nice work on the pic, Screwsy. There will be more pics and a report on Belgium to follow l8r.

Tschüß,
'Brush.

PS: For those of you interested in chemistry - it is actually supposed to be an Iron molecule, rather than a mode of an atom (please no-one respond and say molecules are made up of atoms so its the same thing...) B

A Slot is a Slott is a Schloß...

So, flying in and out of Sweden is a pain in the arse. It seems that I am cursed to have all of my flights out of this airport (and some of them in bound) delayed. The only flight that has been on time, this trip, is the one from Germany to Sweden, but then Sweden to Norway, Norway to Sweden, and now Sweden to Germany have all been delayed...so this is coming to you from the lounge in the airport in Sweden.

The hotel that I stayed in here was Hässelby Slott (Slott, like Schloß in German, and Slot in Danish, means "Castle"). But to say I stayed in the Castle would be wrong - I stayed in an annex building. Also, the Castle is more a pretty European castle, rather than a "nights in shining armour" style puppy. But, either way, it still dates back to the 1600s.



Unfortunately, the room that I stayed in was by no means "stately". In fact, walking into this room reminded me of walking into the Kapooka Army Barracks many years ago (minus one hot chick...). It had all the mod cons of the rooms in the Army Barracks too...but it did at least add a TV into the poorly furnished, minimalist mix. It was a big change from the hotel I had in Denmark, where the "sitting room" was nearly as big as our lounge room in Darmstadt. But, the room wasn't the worst of it...

Tuesday night I am hungry (kinda), and wanting (kinda) some dinner. So, I head over to the restaurant in a wing attached to the Castle. I walk in and ask the waitress for "a table for one". She kinda looks at me, says "one moment" and walks away. She walks back and forward past me a few time, going into the kitchen, leaving the restaurant to go to the bar, and then back into the kitchen. Turns out that she was looking for someone who spoke English.

Finally we find someone, and she comes out of the kitchen (with the other waitress in tow). She says "Can I help you?", and I repeat my request for "a table for one, please".
Now, one expects the normal response of "follow me", or even "where would you like to sit"...but instead I got "tonight we have fish". Um...ok..."That sounds good". "Would you like the 3 course meal?". (Quick recap - we are still standing at the door to the restaurant.) "No, I'll just have the main. I had a big lunch". And finally I get "Where would you like to sit?".
So, we go to the back of the "restaurant", and I sit down. No menu on the table, and at no point does a menu come. 5 mins later, after ordering an apple juice, the fish comes. After the fish I get some coffee, and finally the bill.

Now, don't get me wrong, the fish was fantastic. But it was kinda strange to never receive a menu, and to be in a restaurant that only has one dish. Add to that, that the first time I got to see what any of this cost was when I received the bill. Very very strange. Are all Swedish restaurants like this? No bloody wonder that the Vikings went marauding! They had heard of these fabled "menu" things, and restaurants that "gave you a choice", and they had to go find out for themselves.

Anyway, at least I get to go home tonight, and I get my car back tomorrow! :)

Tschüß,
'Brush.

PS: Just uploaded this now, and thought I should add that we were put into a holding pattern for 30mins above Frankfurt. :(

København

That, by the way, is the Danish spelling of Copenhagen, and hence the real and correct spelling. For those who speak German, the ø symbol is roughly equivalent to ö, or in English, half way between o and e.

So, the lead up to the weekend wasn't so great (see a few posts earlier), but the weekend in København was a lot of fun...we even got to see Mary!



I dunno, but in the conversations I had with her and Kronprins Frederik, they came across as a little..I dunno...a little "fake" maybe?!? (Ok, I confess, that is a wax model of her in the Louis Tussaud Wax Museum, next to Tivoli Gardens). Did you know that she earned something like $5M last year? And who says that Tasmanians will amount to nothing!?!?! :P

We also visited the Freiheit (?) Museum, which documents the Danish resitance to the Germans during the second world war. This "resistance" is kinda interesting, considering the King decided not to oppose the Nazi forces, and let them come into Denmark, in an attempt to save Denmark from the war. This gave birth to an underground resistance movement, which involved itself in acts of sabotage etc.
Anyway, here a 2 pics that I took...one for Sprocket (that's a real enigma machine), and one for Damo (that's a real SS uniform). Sorry about the flash, but they were behind glass:



There's also this really cool concept of "City Bikes" in København. These "free" bikes can be found in numerous places around the city, and, for a deposit of 20Kr into the locking mechanism, you can unlock them and ride them around the city all day and night. Bel and I used these to go from our hotel to the movies and back one night, and to visit some "alternative" colony thing the next day. Really cool idea, IMHO. Melbourne could benefit from something like this.

Anyway, here are a few more random pics of København, including a duck, a palace, the Changing of the Guard, and a boat.



We did actually see the statue of the Little Mermaid (nothing like the one in the cartoon...this one had her boobies out on public display...not something that Disney would want little kids seeing), but it wasn't impressive enough to photograph, IMHO.

Anyway, if you get the chance to go to København, I would recommend it. It is a busy mix of old and new, with a very "foreigner" friendly atmosphere. Just remember to pack a jacket.

Tschüß,
'Brush

Willkommen in Deutschland!

Heute morgen habe ich einen Anruf von Ben & Tansy bekommen. Sie haben endlich in Deutschland angekommen, und bleiben für ein paar Tage in München, bevor sie fahren überall in Europa (oder etwas wie das). Willkommen in Deutschland Benny, und willkommen zu Hause Tansy!!! Wir werden uns bald sehen, und ich freue mich auf das! :)

Bis bald!
'Brush.

Park it at work, so it will be safe...

First, let me say that I have the summer tyres on the car now, which includes the nice alloy wheels...and here is a pic that Screws took.



It was very nice of Screws to take the photo from this side of the car...and here's why.

Oh yeah, I quickly want to remind everyone that I do love her...

So, a few weeks back I was in Denmark for the week that lead into a long weekend. Bel and I had the idea that she could come and meet me in Denmark, and we could spend the weekend in Copenhagen. Good idea, right?

Anyway, we had decided that Bel would take the car to work on Friday, and then park it at my work, before catching a train to the airport. That way the car would be safe, and I could pick up the car easily when we got back. Good plan, right?

On Thursday, Bel called me to say that someone at her work said that we could park the car at a park-and-ride a bit closer to the airport. I didn't want to do this, because I didn't want the car to get damaged, so we decided to stick with the park-at-my-work-plan. Better choice, right?

So, Friday afternoon I am back at my hotel. I call Bel to check how she is going, and she is sounding a little flustered (she was lost in the carpark, frustrated at the nav system that took her a stupid way, and was thinking she was running late).
While I am trying to direct her to where she needs to go, I hear a *crunch*, followed by "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!", and then "I've hit something".

Let me paint a picture for you. The Tiefgarage has cream-coloured walls, and big fuck-off cream-coloured cement pilons. I also find that the roads in the Tiefgarage are a little tight, and you can see many scuff marks on the walls from where people have hit them while turning corners etc.

Turns out, that while we were talking, Bel had overshot at turn that she needed to take on the bottom level of the carpark, and was backing up to it, attempting to do a quick 3-point turn. (She is dictating this to me...Your Honour.) During the attempt, she backed my baby into one of these poles.

Now, people that know me, and how much I love my cars, would probably think that I would have gone spare at this point in time...and to be honest, I myself thought that I would have...but suprisingly enough, I didn't. When something like this happens to someone you care about, you are a long way away, and they are upset, then the last thing you give a shit about it a hunk of metal that gets you to work and back (albeit, a lovely, stylish, black beast of a hunk of metal...).

So, the car is now in the shop getting fixed, and we have a bullshit Hyundai Getz as a replacement (though, we have driven said Getz at 160kmph+ on the Autobahn...).

Unfortunately, I forgot to get a pic of the car where the dint was...which is probably a good thing. :)

Tschüß,
'Brush.

From Belinda - I would like to emphasise that I looked before reversing but did not see the poles as they are the _exact_ same coulour as the walls so I thought there was nothing there. And Brett didn't get mad at me at all (though there have been many jokes made) he was very good even though his baby was hurt (the car, not me)... B

Long time, no post

Hi all,

Whoa, it has been a while since I posted last - sorry. It has been for good reason though - I have barely been home for the last month. I had a week in Amsterdam, then a few days back home, then off to Zürich, then a week in Denmark, then back to Zürich again, and finally a week of vacation with Screws here.

Bel and I spent a weekend in Copenhagen, so I will make a posting with a few pics from that.

I will also make a posting with some pics from when Screws was "in da House".

Anyway, sorry for the delay, and the weeks of silence.

Bis bald,
'Brush

Donna Belinda Joy

So over easter we spent the 4 days at a friends parents' farm near the North sea. Its a dairy farm and they breed horse - show jumping horses etc. Fancy horse.

While we were there one of the mares gave birth to a beauriful girl foal - who is called Donna Belinda Joy!!!! Apparently with horses they are given part of their fathers name (her Dad's name is Don Fredericho) hence the Donna.

Here she is with her mum on her first day - she is probably 12 hours old here having her first ever play outside...




Here is Julius who is 15 days old - and quite a cheeky boy...


And here is Webcam who is about 3 days old, with his mum


The last day we weer the there they went to go get more ... to get the mares pregnant again - they said we could go with them but Brett was a bit freaked out by that so we didn't :-)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter all!!

We are heading up north to stay with a friend on her parents farm for the four days.

We hope everyone has a safe and happy easter

Love you all

xoxB

Ich bin doch nicht blöd!

Ich bin doch nicht blöd is the tag-line for MediaMarkt, which is like MegaMart, or something like that.

They have this really cool ad on at the moment, in the lead up to the World Cup, where they are pretending to have fans from other countries come into the store (I think). My favorite one is with the British couple who come in looking for a camera. This is roughly how the ad goes (the ad is in English):

Brit: We are looking for a digital camera.
Clerk: Here, take this one. It is very billig.
Brit: Thank you!
Clerk: Please!
Brit: Good bye!
Clerk: Yes, it is!

Now, if you haven't already killed yourself laughing, then you may need this explanation:

The Clerk obviously usually speaks German, and gets some words mixed up when talking with the Brits. The German word billig means cheap, and as you can see, he didn't quite translate it in the conversation.
Then, when the Brits say "Thank you!", he responds with "Please!". The German word for "Please" is Bitte, which you also use to mean "You're welcome". Case of incorrect translation.
Finally, when the Brits say "Good bye!", it sounds to him like "Good buy", and therefore he responds "Yes, it is!".

Now read it again, and I am sure it will be funnier. :) I wonder if this is what we sound like to Germans?

MediaMarkt - Ich bin doch nicht blöd!

Tschüß,
'Brush

PS: I just remembered that I did have a brain-fart at lunch today. The pasta that I had contained some Obst (fruit)...which I wasn't aware of when I ordered it (but it was pretty good). I could have sworn that it contained pears, so I asked the guy that I was sitting with "Gibt es Glühbirne drin?".
Now, the German word for pear is die Birne. And the German word for glow is Glüh (hence Glühwein etc.). Therefore, if you put the two of them together you get "Glow Pear". So, what looks like a glowing pear? A LIGHTBULB!!! That's right, I was asking my colleague "Is there a lightbulb in this?".

Ich bin doch DOCH blöd!