R.I.P. display

About two weeks ago i dropped my camera. Accidentally out of my pants
when picking them up in the morning. Fell about half a meter, maybe.
But fucked up the display, as it seems. Now it only displays some
psychodelic colours. They move a bit but mostly stay the same.
I have this camera - my first digital one - since March 2005. And just
took over 20000 - in words: twenty thousand - pictures. I haven't
counted, but the camera has an internal counter that resets to zero
after ten thousand pics. Anyways. 20000, now no more display.

This is kinda insteresting for me because it brings me back to where
i've been before: Lomography. I took thousands of pics when i was
seventeen (and after that) on good old analogue films. Still miss the
colour produced by that chemical process. And by the lense of the LOMO
camera. If you don't know what i'm talking about,
nevermind(www.lomography.com might help). Basically some Viennese
students discovered this ~1980 camera in the nineties and started
talking pictures in a new way. It's surprisingly different to what
people used to do with cameras. And it's one of the reasons i took
even more pics, thousands of pics, always finding cheap ways to
develop them. Back then, pre-digital, that was costly. 39 to 42 pics
per roll of film. And me being a teenager without fixed income.
Anyways, it also disturbed some people how one can take pics without
looking through that tiny little hole in the camera to see, as they
presumed, "what will be on the picture". As if that little hole would
tell you so much about it... it just blocks most of your view of the
beautiful world around you.
And now i'm back to taking pictures without "seeing what i shoot"
first, hehe. No more display. Kinda annoying that i have no way of
seeing when the camera memory is full. But since the display is fucked
i might as well empty my memory card each time i connect to the
computer. That was more visible in the good old LOMO, turning the roll
of film (or not if you want double exposures) manually after each
shot. Anyways. Fun, fun, fun. As soon as i get more things to shoot in
front of my camera.

Other than that not much news to write about from my side. I'm
offshore since December 9th. Meaning that i am writing this from a
platform somewhere in South China Sea. Got my helicopter ride. Taking
off the first time was fun. Other than that it was like expected -
loud and boring. Being offshore the first time has its fascinating
aspects - when you walk on those fence-like things and have the water
thirty to fourty meters below you. On the first day i saw some fish
down there. Must've been about one and a half meters long, judging
from the height. Other than that i was doing night shifts most of the
times. Getting up when it was already dark. And in the mornings it was
misty almost all the times. When i told a colleague that i only saw
the sun after more than a week he was surprized. Then i realized that
ususally the clouds open up a bit during the day and the sun comes
through. Just that i was asleep at those times, mostly.
I'll most probably be here until sometime in January, so "Guten
Rutsch"=happy new year to everyone. 2008 should bring some interesting
changes, hmmm.

And by the way, a friend of mine wrote me "I hope that you live only
from love and air over there" and this link (in German, sorry)
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,522693,00.html
I feel like i would prefer to eat nothing at all as long as i'm in
this country. But one has to survive. Food as such is not bad here,
offshore. Just what's in the food, apparently all over China,...
disgusting. So much for that. Back in good old Europe i had the
feeling that even if i bought cheap food products they had to follow
at least a certain standard, given all the food laws and standards.
But of course i can't count on European standards around here, i'm a
bit far off...

--
Cheers
CGA

"I'm an alien, i'm a legal alien,

 i'm an alien in..." China.

Und jetzt alle zusammen:
Bin ein Friesenjung, bin ein kleiner Friesenjung
und ich wohn immer hinterm Deich.

-hach war das schoen, Otto - Live! nach ueber zehn Jahren, damals am 26.Oktober in der Wiener Stadthalle.

Zur Erklaerung: Ich war ja nur einen halben Tag in Peking. Aber mein Pasz dann fuer fuenf Tage. Ich hoffe, er hat was zu sehen bekommen, im Gegensatz zu mir... Na jedenfalls, dieses braune Buechlein hab ich bekommen. Schaut a bissl aus wie ein Pasz, old school. Und ein "legal alien" bin ich jetztn hier.
Ok, das war ned wirklich eine Erklaerung der ersten paar Zeilen, aber zumindest des Bildes.

Cheers.

Merry Blues

So, it's that time of the year again. If you still haven't found a reason to drink yet, here it is! I'll never understand people who need reasons :-)



Mind the shocked reindeer on the bottom left. That whole thing is on the twenty-storey office building accross the street of my house. It seems that all Santas around here enjoy their beers.
And that's part of the seasonal decorations at Seaworld around the corner. Nice, looks like pure happiness. Take that, KSA...

Cheers!
CGA
-drinking the official beer of the 2008 Olympics right now...

Everything's funny

"Hello, i'm the white guy."
oder
"Hello, i'm the biggest."

Letzte Woche war ich ja in Zhanjiang. Da war es nicht allzu schwer, einen unique selling point zu finden. Ich hab dort einen "freshwater survival course" a.k.a. offshore survival course gemacht.
Die Chinesen haben mir ueber Zhanjiang gesagt, das sei eine Stadt, in der sie alles essen. Nun, fuer mich essen die meisten Chinesen schon recht viele Dinge, die ich noch nicht gegessen habe. Aber spaeter mehr zum Essen.
Was noch dazu kommt, ist, dasz in der Stadt nun wirklich kaum mehr wer Englisch spricht. Sogar in dem Hotel war nicht immer wer an der Rezeption, der/die mich verstanden haette. Manchmal habens bei mir im Zimmer angerufen, da hab ich dann gar nix verstanden und bin runter zur Rezeption gegangen, dann gings irgendwie.
Wie ueberall in China gibts auch in der Stadt massenhaft Leute. Und mit meinem Gesicht scheine ich was besonderes zu sein - auf der Strasze schauen einen alle an. Die meisten laecheln einen an. Die ganz mutigen winken einem zu und sagen "Hello!" nur um dann zu lachen. Mehr ist nicht drin, denk ich. Aber sehr freundlich kommt es einem vor. Einmal wie ich vom Kurs ins Hotel gekommen bin stand das Room Service am Gang und die nette junge Dame hat gemeint "oooh you are very handsome". Hat sie sicher ein paar Tage gebraucht, um den Satz auf Englisch aufzutreiben. Hab irgendwas geantwortet, woraufhin sie natuerlich nur in Kichern ausgebrochen ist. Bin mir sicher sie hat kein Wort verstanden.

Der Kurs war natuerlich in Chinesisch. Drei Tage im Klassenzimmer, dann praktische Uebungen. Ich habe meine persoenliche Dolmetscherin bekommen. Die war motiviert, sprich, hat mir nahezu staendig uebersetzt, was gerade gelehrt wurde. Ein Kollege hatte weniger Glueck, seine Uebersetzerin hat nur jede halbe Stunde einen Satz von sich gegeben. Ziemlich unsinnig, auf diese Weise im Kurs zu sitzen.
In meiner Klasse waren circa 50 Leute. Ich war der groeszte. War das erste Mal, dasz ich in einer Klasse der groeszte war :-) man bedenke, bin nicht uebermaeszig grosz. Nur halt groeszer als die meisten Suedchinesen.

Genug geschwafelt, jetzt kommen ein paar Bilder. Habe ja schon ein paar Videos auf youtube gestellt, hier also noch mehr vom Kurs.

Eine neue Fluglinie (Shenzhen Airlines), zwei neue Flughaefen.

Bild im Training Centre. Das kommt also noch auf mich zu...

Fruehstueck im Hotel. Ueberall Bedienstete in gelben Uniformen. Die schwarzen waren rarer, wohl ranghoeher.

Seltsames Getanze oder Aerobic? Siehe das. Nachts vor dem Gebaeude neben unserm Hotel. In dem Haus haben anscheinend nur weibliche Teenager gewohnt. Keine Ahnung welchen Zweck das Gebaeude hat.

Das erste Mal beim Pool vorbeigehen. Seltsam gruenes Wasser, im Hintergrund die Hubschrauberattrappe.

Breathing apparatus training. Einer der wenigen Kollegen, der Englisch sprach, neben mir.

"Da drueben, ein Notfall!" War ich froh, dasz sie zumindest 45er Schuhe hatten, in die ich grad hinengepaszt hab.

Die halbe Klasse mit breathing apparatus.

Mit diesen drei tapferen (ich bin der zweite von links, falls nicht klar zu erkennen an der Koerpergroesze...) bin ich mit Atemgeraet durchs dunkle Haus marschiert. Wir haben den Ausgang im ersten Stock gefunden, juchuuuh. War aber kein Feuer zu loeschen oder Leute zu retten, das kommt dann erst im Fortgeschrittenenkurs.

Im Rettungsboot, vgl. das hier. Da passen 25 Leute rein. Musz ganz schoen klaustrophobisch werden, wenn man da mehrere Tage am Meer treibt. Hat natuerlich auch Motor mit Sprit fuer 24h. Wir durften alle einmal fahren, so fuer drei Minuten. Durch den Hafen von Zhanjiang.

Happy survivor.

Ausstieg ausm Boot. Juchuuuh, gerettet!

Anstellen zum Feuerloeschtraining.

Kleineres Feuer.

"Ich werde Feuerwehrmann, ich werde Feuerwehrmann!"

Ich bekomme nahezu taeglich solche SMS. Von China Mobile, nehme ich an. Ist wohl Werbung fuer irgendwas. Da mein Mobiltelephon keine chinesischen Schriftzeichen anzeigen kann verstehe ich da nur Quadrat, Quadrat, ..., Nummer, Quadrat, Quadrat, ...
Nicht, dasz ich mehr verstehat wenn das Telephon die chinesischen Schriftzeichen anzeigen koenntat...

Das ist Tee. Gepreszt in Scheiben. War in einem Teegeschaeft. Interessant, die Form. Und wie sie einem den Tee da zubereiten.

Letzter Tag, gewoehnliches Erste-Hilfe-Training.

Soweit zum Training, mehr zum Essen in der Stadt folgt noch.

Schoenes Wochenende Euch allen, ich musz ins Buero fahren was Hakeln, ja super,

Cheers
CGA

The Capital

So i've been to Beijing. As you know - maybe better than me - it is a
great city with a very long history and many interesting places to
visit. So you might expect an interesting story of my stay with lots
of nice pictures of what i've seen there.

Sorry, can't give you that. Business trip. I was there less than 24
hours and i didn't get to see anything interesting. Arrived late at
night, got to the hotel, some hours of sleep, then got up, Chinese
breakfast at the hotel, did another medical check, then lunch at the
hotel, and flight back. That's it. No time for nothing...
That was the third medical since i got to China. As the old man in
Johnny English says "they've taken some of my blood"... was for the
visa procedures, that's why i got to Beijing. Only came back to Shekou
on early monday morning, sleepless. Did my laundry of the week in
Zhanjiang and went to sleep. In the afternoon the office called me -
wake-up calls, you might say - and in the end it turned out they would
send me to Beijing in the evening. Three hours flight, i was really
sleepy. Managed to read about thirty pages of the book i'm currently
reading and slept for the rest of the time.
Curiously enough, the flight back took four hours. We arrived 45
minutes later than planned. Plane was smaller, maybe that's why the
flight would have been longer even according to schedule. I was less
sleepy on that flight so i managed to read more :-) oh yeah, and the
return flight made me feel packed like sardines in a can. Those seats
are designed for smaller people i guess. I fit in more or less with my
knees hardly touching the seat in front of me. But then the guy
sitting there decided to lean back his seat which also moved the whole
seat back. I had to spread my legs to fit in somehow, very
uncomfortable. And the guy in my back decided to bang his head against
my seat for the whole flight - don't ask me why, no idea.
When i got out of that plane my knees hurt, yee-haa...

So much for traveling, now i should be in Shekou for about a week.
Definitely got to return to Beijing sooner or later, on days off, to
really see it.

--
Cheers
CGA

Some more videos

Hello again. Today i finished my one-week-offshore-survival course here in Zhanjiang. Was fun. I will blog more about this week. Just to give you some impressions i uploaded several videos on youtube. Enjoy.

And since it might be that time of the year again, here's an interesting view on Dicht ins Dunkel for all Austrian readers.

The Weather

So, now for the most boring of all topics - the weather. Back in
Austria i was starting to feel a little cold, beginning of November
and all. Here i am way closer to the equatorial and the climate is a
little more tropical out of my perspective. Meaning that it's warmer
and a bit humid. I still run around with just a t-shirt. Outdoors. In
November. That is quite nice :-)
When i arrived here in the base i met three Brazilians. They're here
'on loan', i.e., just for a limited amount of time. Nice people. One
of them was about to go to a rig in the north of China. It's way
colder up there. He was not too happy about facing around zero degree
Celsius - really cold for him. So we talked about temperatures in our
home countries. He told me that even the 20 deg C were cold for him -
wow. I mean, i'm running around in a t-shirt in winter, that is warm
for me. Other background, other perspective.
All in all, about the weather: if you want to check what weather i
have right now and you don't find the reports for Shekou or Shenzhen,
just check for Hong Kong - it's the same. About 20 to 24 degree each
day since i got here. Some days a little less but then again a little
warmer. Almost too warm to physically work outside. Which, of course,
i had to do since i am a mechanic. Advanced mechanic maybe, but still.
Dull job. Definitely not what i studied for...hmmm.

So many little things and impressions that i can share with this blog.
I should blog more often not to loose them. Some more random lines:

One night we wanted to go to a Italian place near our house (i.e., in
Seaworld, the entertainment area around the ship). When we were in
front of it we lost our appetite for Italian food. Nobody eating in
there and the menu didn't look inviting. So we went for Korean food
next door. Can't recommend it. Reading the menu was the first time for
me that i saw dog food as an actual dish. Almost everything they had
was fried. We ordered one of the only things that were not listed as
fried food and a salad. Before they brought that they served us nine
little dishes with different vegetables. Nice. So, starters included.
Then they brought the salad. It was fried. Fried salad. And the main
dish turned out to be fried, too. Beef. But mainly fat, no meat. On
rice. As i've said, can't recommend it. Not planning to go there
again. Enough other choices.
I've tried another Italian place they have. Was nice. Some Penne and
Pizza. And an Irish pub. Nice atmosphere with a mixed crowd, expats
and Chinese. And a life band that seems to be part of the bar. At
least their name is painted on the wall where they play on the first
floor.

About Seaworld: I've learned that the boat there was a French
smuggler's boat that got caught. Now it has a hotel inside and several
bars. The night after the Korean food we tried the bar on top of the
boat. Löwenbräu. German name. They brew their own beer, comes in
three variations. It's niiice, i like...

Oh, and last weekend we've tried the shooting range behind the boat.
For about four Euros you get a golf club of your choice and fifty
balls. One of us could actually golf a bit and explained to us how to
hit. We were four. Was fun. Next day i had a muscle ache, of course.
Two months without sport =)

Something sweet about the local habits: it is really hard to tip them.
Anyways, everywhere you go there seem to be loads of people. So, also
loads of waitresses and waiters at each restaurant. Most of them don't
speak English. So you pay and they bring you the change. It might have
been nice and you would like to leave them a tip. So you try. To leave
some money on the table and go, just when they're not looking. No
matter how small the amount is, even if it's just three RMB, they will
come running after you. Because they think you forgot some money...
well, we tried. They're nice.

Right now i am for a week outside of Shekou, in Zhanjiang. One hour
flight from Shenzhen. On freshwater survival course. It's fun.

More will follow,

Cheers
CGA

First China pics

"The home is where the hear is i've been told...". Inside the ferry from HK to Shekou.

First lunch at work. Chicken, nuts and some vegetables, all in garlic sauce, plus rice. I didn't order cutlery, so far i was brave. You might say i'm on a chop stick diet.

In the supermarket: Hmmm, which noodles do i want, green, blue, pink, red or yellow? No idea what difference is. Of course it's written on them. In Chinese.

Advertisement on the ground.

Chinese cabbage. Hoehoe.

Germknödel. Like those Austrian yeast dumplings. But these come in different colours.

Teletubbies gone to war. Baaaad taste, tell me about it.

Chackie Chan's shampoo. Keeps your hair nice and black, according to the package. But i don't want black hair!

Chinese liquors. I guess.

They do pack a lot of different things on those bikes...

In my elevator: Keep cleaning :-)

Seaworld at night.

Night view from my new room.

Morning view from our balcony.

I now work in a country where i can drink beer for dinner. Marvellous!

Inside Walmart.

Me in front of a lot of dried and packed things.

Dried Meat.

ps: have you ever wondered what your name would be in Chinese? Try this.

Arriving in China

So i got to China last tuesday. Interesting. I finally got into a totally different culture. I took the ferry from Hong Kong to Shekou. (i'd link this to Wikipedia but that is blocked here. Aaaargh.) Ferry takes one hour, just driving along the coastline. Looking at those green hills.
At Shekou ferry port a driver was waiting. Not with my name, but with the company name. Didn't speak a word English but was very friendly. Brought me to the hotel they had booked for me. They also didn't speak English at the reception, but managed to find someone who does. Quite allright. The guy who helped me carrying my luggage up to the room also turned on the TV for me - i didn't ask, he wouldn't have understood. Chinese channels. And then he left. I just wanted to turn down the volume a little. So i got the remote. Lots of buttons. All with a Chinese character next to it, no symbols. There were only two with "up and down" options. So i assumed that one of those would be volume and for channels+-. 50% chance to get the right one. Of course i tried the channel one first. Which changed the channel of the TV. But the TV programme was coming from a satellite box. Good luck finding the button for changing back to the video input channel. Only ~35 buttons to try...

I took another night walk before i went to bed. Next to the hotel there was a public sport ground. Football, basketball, public fitness grounds etc. And: a skating ring. Old-school skating. Like you know from old American TV series. Cute.

It took them two days to get me a place in the staff house - great. Remember, back in Saudi it took eight months(!). I now live on the sixteenth floor. Next to sea world. No dolphins or anything like you might expect, they just put a real boat up on the ground and built loads of restaurants and bars in and around it. It's the top expat spot in town. So i guess it's a little more expensive. But still cheap for Middle-European standards. Flat is quite nice, living room, balcony and all. Three person flat, got an Australian flatmate who transferred here with me from Saudi. The third one might be an Indian arriving next week. We can have some nice parties at that place. And we will :-)
The flat was furnished, including the kitchen. Four plates, four soup bowls. And four Chinese soup spoons. And chop sticks. I like eating with chop sticks, but we agreed on buying some metal cutlery. So we went to WallMart to get some stuff. My first time at Walmart. Didn't get to one when i was in the states in 2004, neither during one of my many visits to Germany. Not that they're particularly special - except for some Walmart exclusive Star Wars toys, of course...
We got there with a bus for about 15 to 20 Eurocent, but having bought a couple of things we wanted to take a cab back. Of course the communication problems persisted. Try telling a Chinese cab driver you want to go to Seaworld where the McDonald's is. I was told that everyone knows that. No way they will understand you. I should have said Hai Shang Shi Jie. Obviously seaworld... which just reminds you, always, really always, have a piece of paper with you that has the name of the desired location written on it in Chinese. Always.
That time we took the bus. 20 cent instead of 1.5 Euros for a cab.
Btw, that seems to be our magical bus line. There are many buses going from our station, but that one line goes everywhere we need to go: The base, our place, the Walmart, Shenzen,...

Pics will follow with the next blog entry.

Cheers
CGA

Du Röhre

As you might have realized from my last blog entry, i now have a youtube account. For uploading videos and embedding them into this blog. I will not go into video editing or anything, just upload some quick shots if i feel it's better to take a short video instead of a photo. And since i forgot to embed it into the last post, here's one more video for you:



I know it's crappy. Just wanted to get the whole scenery into one shot. Unable to do it with one photo. But not much to see on this video.

On the road again

Hello there,

this is me, in Asia again. I traveled to Hong Kong, through Zurich. Booked a Swiss flight. Got onto an Austrian Airline machine. Interesting. Before, when i had booked AUA, i never got AUA, so Swiss is the key... anyways, just about an hour to Zurich. With a small little Do&Co meal, nice, so that's the remains of Laudaair in Austrian Arrows.

Zurich. I like that airport. Somehow futuristic. I especially like the underground train without a driver, i.e., driven by fuzzy control. Took some pictures again.
They added some screens on the side of the track, but i couldn't follow too much of that because i was just to fascinated by the front screen, i mean, the windshield. Sitting first row without a driver. Here's a video i made so you can join the excitement :-P


Flight to HK was okay. Swiss A340. Everyone's got her/his own entertainment system, a small screen and a cable remote that looks like a crossing between a SNES controller and a mobile phone. I tried one of the games and crashed the system. Hung up. And still ten hours of flight in front of me. Well, the nice flight attendants could reboot my machine without stopping all others, too.
Fortunately. So i could watch some of the movies:
Harry Potter 5: i had missed it in cinemas thanks to living in the KSA where there are no cinemas. What can i say. Still happy i didn't read any of the books. I know, the story will be better/deeper there, but still. It's so random, unconnected, feels like only kids won't notice. But still, the movies are fun. You can see that there's a lot of money put into them. They look polished and are entertaining. The end battle with loads of wizards and the camera flying around them - well, that's something i would have preferred to see on the silver screen instead of that little LCD 20cm in front of my nose in the plane. But well, at least i managed to see the movie. Airplane movies are good for catching up on what you've missed.
Then i watched the Simpsons Movie again. Niiice. Looking forward to the DVD. Till then i'll watch the season six and nine DVDs i got with me.
In the end i started watching Live free or Die Hard. Thought there was enough time. But after the first 20 minutes they cut off the entertainment system, too close to HK already. Guess i'll get the DVD of that one. Hehe, my first Die Hard DVD that might be. Maybe i'll wait for a nice box set, if that'll ever happen (there were some problems with different distributers in Europe for the first three, hence no set so far).

Anyways, arrival in Hong Kong.

This is HK airport. First person i talked to here was a nice lady who asked me to remove my baseball cap. Because they scan the temperature of your head before you go through customs. Interesting.
One of the first things i have noticed was that they drive 'on the wrong side', i.e., on the left. Heritage of being a UK colony... i'll see if that is different on Chinese mainland. But left or right, got to my hotel safe and sound.

Yet another hotel room. 21st floor, no impressive view.
Well, the lobby.
My first meal in Hong Kong. Soy and regular milk, tea and water. Interesting sizes, like 278ml packages and so forth.
Did a night walk before i went to sleep.
Now that's a skyline! My hotel is on the opposite side of Hong Kong Island.
The thing on the left looks like a concert hall. Kinda reminded me of the Sydney opera, the way it is put there in the harbour. One minute later they turned of the lights.
Street lights.
Chinese...
Hong Kong dollars. On the smalles coin you can find Elisabeth II :-)
Continental breakfast.

That's all, folks!