Mirrors

So i have found a place here in Vienna where they have security checks that are more or less the same like in the living compounds in the KSA. I incidentally came across that place - the one here in Vienna, not the KSA... i was going to an electronics store picking something up. One of those small shops that give you almost 25% off just because you purchased online before coming there. Anyways. Got out of the shop. Saw a nice inscription on the building next to it. Was in Hungarian, that is why it surprised me. Old building - by which i mean 100 to 150 years old. Something about some Hungarian person that had been living in there. And next to it was another old building. I had been slightly aware of the security around it - a big fence and when you go into the first one by car you are stopped by these things that would even stop your regular tank. And then they have these mirrors to look under the car and check if someone forgot a bomb there. And of course lots of policemen standing around the whole area in general (in the KSA those were way-more-lazy-looking army men, waving all cars through most of the time...). But anyways, i am in Vienna, in what i like to call a free country so i basically ignored these guys and looked at the building. It had some interesting ornaments, well, not directly ornaments, but little statues and stuff. One particular head caught my interest. Funny face. So what i do, obviously, is the following: i take out my camera to take a picture of it. Of that head. Even though the zoom on my compact camera is not that strong, but good enough to get it. Lighting was also good, about five o'clock in the afternoon, beautiful sunset light. Just when i'm about to shoot, i mean, take my picture, i hear "sorry sir, no pictures here" in plain English. Caught me by surprise. I was so stunned that i actually put my camera back into my pocket instead of taking that picture. The voice was of a woman standing there, apparently she had come outside to smoke a cigarette. I took a closer look at the whole setting and saw the reason for all the fuzz: that building hosts the US embassy.
Really pissed me off, someone in Vienna telling me that i cannot take a picture in public. Fuckin' hell, i'm not in Lomography since '98 and back out of all those stupid places where public photography is forbidden in whole countries or people are scared of cameras so that someone in the middle of Vienna tells me that taking pictures is forbidden. So there you have it, one more thing that is bad about terrorism (besides all the obvious ones, like, people who think they have the right to torture and/or kill others because of some higher spirits or whatever madness). It created a ban on photography in my home city. Bollocks to that.

And since i did not make a photo of that funny head i will now leave you with some nice and harmless tourist pictures, taken here in Vienna, at the Strudelhofstiege, Schönbrunn and Steinhof.











Oh, and just in case you were wondering where you will find me during the next two years: i'll be working here in Vienna. And finally using my brains again, lots of it.

1.April 2000

Today marks the last day of my "extranjeros" card validity. Which means that until today i am/was officially registered in my beloved city, Madrid. People following this blog might know that i was not living in Madrid since July 2003. And that i got this card three weeks before i left the city for good. It was necessary for staying in Madrid, legally, but they never asked me how long i was planning to stay and just gave me a five-years-valid card. So long, Spain. We'll see if i get back to living there. I would certainly like to.
Getting this card also meant that they scanned my fingerprint. Bastards. Well, at least it won't be oh-so-shocking when i travel to the states the next time. Mind you, that was in 2003, and they scanned my fingerprint for legally living in another EU country. Back then there were some discussions in Austrian media complaining that a right-wing party here wanted to get fingerprints from all immigrants. The Spanish did not discuss, just took my fingerprints. Well, well.

And no, this is not an April's fool joke. About the titel of this blog: i'm referring to this 'classic' Austrian movie. Science fiction, made in Austria in 1952. Supposed to be political satire about the still occupied Austria. With UFOs landing in Schönbrunn. Hilarious. Just bought the DVD.
"Die Sonne scheint auf alle gleich, warum nicht auch auf Österreich?"

New videos

Hello there,

it is about time that i will present you with some photos from my month in South America. But not yet. Just uploaded some videos. Like that one:



That is from Oruro carnaval. Wow, that was great. Will blog more later. For now, just enjoy the videos if you like. Here.

Cheers.

Happy Pi Day!

March 14th, so, happy Pi Day to everyone! And to make this entry a bit more interesting, i present you my 'travel map'. Been updating that in countless boring hours during the last year. Now i've been to five continents so i thought i might put it here. Of course it does not include all places that i have been to - some of them are simply not recognized by the application even though they are written on the map when you zoom in. Pity.
Five continents: back in the old days that would have been all, right? Too bad that we got seven continents right now. At least last time i checked.

Happy celebrations everyone! And if you want to take a look at art+math, take a look at this exhibition that i visited last night.

• Create your own travel map or travel blog


• Visit TripAdvisor.com

Flash

Hi there,

just experienced something that i felt i had to blog about: yesterday
was the first time that i saw a thunderstorm here in La Paz. First
from inside a building, and then driving through the city by taxi. The
center of the storm was quite close, counting the seconds from flash
to thunder. And the lightnings felt quite close. I don't know, i guess
that is because i am at almost 4000m altitude, closer to the clouds.
But now to the most impressive part: When we stopped because two of us
had to leave the car, lightning stroke. To be more precise, it stroke
ten meters in front of me, into a tree. All the lights went out in the
neighbourhood and i saw a glowing part of a tree falling down. The
thunder was there immediately and REALLY loud.
Well, that's that. First time i experienced a flash that close. At the
time i was sitting inside the cab, so according to all physics
teachers i know i was perfectly safe (except for falling trees and the
likes). My two friends were standing outside of the cab and told me it
was quite scary for them. I guess so.

--
Cheers
CGA

Die Grillsaison ist eröffnet

Hallo allemiteinander!

Nachdem hier in Suedamerika ja Sommer ist, wird natuerlich auch
gegrillt. War seit meiner Ankunft in Bolivien viermal Grillen
bei Freunden hier =)
Sehr gemuetlich, leckeres Fleisch und so. Natuerlich nicht die
gesuendeste Ernaehrung, hat aber saugut geschmeckt. Hehe. Und eifrig
getrunken wird natuerlich auch, ist teil der Lebensfreude.

Mahlzeit!

--
Cheers
CGA

Bogota

¡Hola!

Just a short blog entry: yesterday i arrived in Bogota. I am being hosted by a nice friend of a friend and so far really like Bogota. I had a great view over the whole city, day and night view. About eight million people live here, more or less as much as the whole Austrian population. So it is a big city for me =) Also went to the Botero museum, a nice park and a huge university campus, through the old city, etc etc i have seen more or less all the places show on the pics of the wikipedia page, just on my first day here. Except for the hailstorm ;) but i heard about it...

In short, i am enjoying the life that i have again! Oh yes, and the first two weeks in Bolivia were grrreat tambien, Oruro carnaval was incredible, pics will follow when i get to it...

Hasta la proxima
CGA

La Paz

Hi again,

Now i am in an internet cafe in La Paz. Arrived safe and sound. And having a really relaxed time here, starting to get comfortable in South America. More will follow later, just to make you a little jealous: Next weekend, from friday to monday, i will enjoy this carnaval.

¡Hasta la proxima!
Ç¿?ñ
CGA

Lima

Hello there,

Not much to write, just a short update: I took a flight to Amsterdam and from there continued with a 13h flight to Lima, Peru. Now i am here at the airport, waiting six or eight hours for my connecting flight to La Paz, Bolivia. Lima looked impressive from above, i mean, it is big, as far as one can see.
I also saw a beautiful sunset, sun going down into some hills on an island on the horizon. Other than that i am tired but excited, waiting for my flight. Looking forward to three weeks of meeting friends, speaking Spanish, and generally enjoying life in South America.

Right now sitting in an internet cafe at the airport, sipping Inca Kola =)

Cheers.

Zombie

28 Days Later.
30 Days of Night.

Both titles of horror movies. Zombies, vampires. I had more of that. I
mean, i had 35 days on the rig. 35 days of doing night shifts. With at
least once a week having to stay up for 24 hours or more. I haven't
literally turned into a Zombie or Vampire - those fairy-tale creatures
don't really exist, remember - but i guess i got close.

First it took more than a week before i saw the sun again. Not because
it wasn't there, but when i got up it was already dark and at the end
of my night shift it was always way too misty to see the sun. I was
told that it eventually came out during the day, clouds opening up
etc. but i had been asleep at those times. I only got to see the sun
when i had to stay up way past my shift time. Which happened, as
written earlier, about once a week or a bit more often. Still, i
didn't see beautiful sunshine during those 35 days at all. So i felt
all the more relieved when we finally got word that we could take the
chopper to leave the rig. Was in the late afternoon, so with all the
preparations to be done to finish my job there i was staying up all
day - my usual sleeping time. Also, to be able to get into a normal
sleeping rhythm after coming back to town i wanted to stay awake. When
the chopper finally came at about five PM there was beautiful sunshine
all over the water. Check the pics. I realized that i hadn't seen such
sunshine in more than a month. What a waste of lifetime. Well, but
that was the last time.
Chopper ride back was uneventful, i managed to get a seat with enough
legspace for my feet so no pain and other than that was reading a
book. Earplugs in, protective headphones above them, noisy still. Good
to concentrate on something else like the content of a book.

Oh yes, and about the picture with me and the local guy: What a funny
little fellow. He was the geologist on site and showed up as soon as
we were using more tools and hence took more complicated measurements.
I had to print him logs and send data once during my shift. Funny
thing is that he didn't speak a word English. Just Chinese. So i
printed the logs, brought them over (15m walk across the deck) and
emailed him the data. Then he came over to our unit. Started talking
and gesturing with his hands. I smile at him and say "well, that is
very good to hear but i do not understand a word of what you are
saying". And then i guessed what he might want from me and tried to
help him. Funny little fellow. I asked him if i could take that
picture. Made him smile, and of course he wanted me to email him a
copy - or at least that's what i was guessing from his gesturing. He
was also the only guy on the whole rig that i explicitly went to for
saying good-bye when i left. I wish i would've been able to understand
what he told me after i waved good-bye :-)

And for all the German speakers: Yes i really thought it was quite
funny that there were so many people on that rig running around with
hard hats that had "Team CACT" written on them...hehehe.

Cheers
CGA
-in travelling mood, time to get out and around the world.

Futurama

Interestingly enough: Most people who will read this are in and around
Europe. Here it is already 2008, back there it is still 2007. The nerd
in me is happy. So far i've only seen this from "the other side", when
calling my aunt in New Zealand, and she was already in the new year,
me being back in Europe still in the old. She still got to the new
year six hours before me, though.

Other than that not much to write about. I'm still sitting on an
offshore oil platform, working through since December 9th. They made
nice efforts to make it more endurable - for tonight's dinner (31st)
they had a special buffet similar like what they did on the 24th.
Today it was lobster time. Nice. On the 25th there was a "lucky draw"
show. They had one box with all the names of people present on the
rig. When your name was picked you had to come to the "stage" and pick
a paper from a second box. That paper told you what your price was.
Some people got socks. Other people got 'better' things. If you got a
better prize you had to perform something - some had to drink a coup
of milk or vinegar or two bottles of water and then do a little
exercise.
I didn't have to perform anything but still got a 'medium good' prize.
A swiss army knife. Very nice. It looks like it is a real Victorinox,
if not it's at least a good copy. Too bad i already have a better one,
bought in Switzerland in 1993. The one i got here has a few functions
less hence it is a little thinner. And it came in a nice box, also
including a Victorinox peeler and table knife. Very nice gestures of
the rig team, i gotta say, putting up a show and everything. Right now
i'm still stuffed from dinner (call it breakfast if you like, i ate it
just after getting up, doing night shifts, remember).

New year's eve, a time when people like to look back and think about
the future. And i got lots of time to think during this boring job.
Enough is enough. Even if it is just a number, new year being a
randomly assigned date (e.g. the Romans started the new year with
Julius, i mean, July, no? I'd check if i had proper access to
wikipedia), i still like 2008. Seems like there will be some changes
happening in my life, for sure some interesting times.

__________________________________________

And of course my job kept me busy throughout the whole of January 1st
and prevented me from blogging this "from the future", i mean, from
2008 when it was still 2007 in Europe. Well, well. At least i made
some calls back to the old year before all the stress started.

Anyways, the future is bright and interesting even though we never get
to see anything else than the present ;-)
so a happy new year to you all, whenever you may celebrate it (hint:
when we next meet might be a good time),

Cheers
CGA

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.