Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Nuremberg

I went to visit a friend (Sandy) in Nuremberg (in German: Nürnberg, or as the locals say: Nämberch).

Nuremberg is two hours north of Augsburg and is the second largest city in Bavaria (after Munich). They have lots of history, an impressive city wall and a big castle. Nuremberg is also known for gingerbread, sausages, and handmade toys. The famous Christmas market was already over, and no snow here today.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Weber Hütte

I spent a sunny winter day with my parents in the Allgäu, to visit a friend, Hannelore, with her sister and daughters. They own a cottage, Weber Hütte, situated in the Wertach Valley landscape conservation area near Nesselwang. In Weber Hütte, two self-contained apartments (for up to 12 respectively 8 persons) are available for rent throughout the year. In summer you can go for walks or mountain hiking, e.g. to the nearby Alpspitze. In winter the area is attractive for winter sports.

While Augsburg has no more snow at present, the Allgäu is picturesquely white. The reason is altitude: we're here at 900 m above sea level. We went for a lovely walk over snow-covered fields against the backdrop of the Alps, and alongside the rippling Wertach river. I think it is safe to say this is one of the most beautiful areas of Germany.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

My photo book

I have to show you another book I made, and this one was a great creative act on my side.

It is a selection of my finest photos of my Australia travels 2009 (including Fiji) in the style of a coffee table book (Bildband), 30x30 cm, 100 pages, hardcover, with texts in German. I spent 5 full days designing the book and am very proud of it.

I made the book through a German company, Fotokasten. My insider tip is to buy a coupon from Tchibo, you can save considerably compared to the regular price. The printing and binding quality is good and they have a very friendly and fair service. The only negative I can say is that the software crashed a lot while I designed the book, probably because I had used so many big photos.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Aah, how nice it is to be home for Christmas and to celebrate it in the traditional way. In winter, with a real Christmas tree (Nordmann Fir) with real candles (in addition to electric ones), with my parents, granny, sisters and nieces.

Yesterday at Christmas Eve we lit the candles and sang German Christmas carols by the piano. Then we had dinner (Schweizer Käsefondue with Schichtsalat, yum!). Time to unwrap the presents. The cat -- my parent's pet is a fat, good-natured white male with the absurd name of "Pixie" -- liked his present too, a piece of sausage. To our shock, he gulped it down with the bow (mit der Schleife) before we could stop him! But he seems all right -- it will go the normal way.

The evening ended with church. I don't usually attend church, but made an exception because my mom performed in the Gospel choir. From there we walked home in the 'silent night', with a torch (Fackel) to light the way, for the mood. Unfortunately we did not have white Christmas because it had thawed. Well, you can't have everything. Today we're going to have turkey for lunch (with potatoe dumplings and red cabbage) and then we'll celebrate with my elder sister and her family.

Merry Christmas to everybody!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

This blog as a book

Today I have received a book I had ordered last month from a company in America, contents: this blog's postings from the first (18 October 2008) through to 26 November 2009.

Through blog2print the process is very simple, you basically just tell them your blog address. They import the text and images, automatically format and layout the whole thing, and when you order a copy, the printing and binding is done by a printing-on-demand company called SharedBook.

It's good to have my diary with all my memories, experiences and thoughts of this exciting year in Australia not only online but also in printed form. The book has 163 pages, A4, hardcover, and the printing quality is good.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Advent

Es treibt der Wind im Winterwalde
die Flockenherde wie ein Hirt
und manche Tanne ahnt wie balde
sie fromm und lichterheilig wird;
und lauscht hinaus. Den weißen Wegen
streckt sie die Zweige hin - bereit
und wehrt dem Wind und wächst entgegen
der einen Nacht der Herrlichkeit.


Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

The wind it drives, through winter woods
a shepherd of this snowflake herd
and where a pine knows, soon it could
stand pious, bright, out in the world
and listens, down these trails in snow
her branches reach out for the light
and fights the wind, where she will grow
up for the highest, holy night.


(Translation by

Friday, December 18, 2009

Winter in Königsbrunn

Frost has come, and it still has not thawed in my home town. This morning we had -10 degrees! Here are some photo impressions of the current winter land. Now everybody hopes we might be lucky to have a white Christmas -- but meteorologists say they still can't predict it.

Hoarfrost (Rauhreif) on the grasses ↗

This is the pine forest at the Königsbrunner Heide. In the middle of this beautiful ice covered forest, I heard voices: the local forest kindergarten "Waldwichtel". They are out here with the children playing (in warm winter clothes of course) at any season. Hats off! (I mean, kudos, Respekt!)

And this is one of the swans on the Ilsesee (Lake Ilse). I went to the lake to check if it has an ice cover, but it didn't - not yet.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Omi's birthday

Today was my granny's birthday. The 96th! We had afternoon coffee and two homebaked cakes -- yum! And of course a bottle of sparkling wine to drink to her health. My parents were there, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, his mother, and my two nieces, Sarah and Lisa. And a lot of people called on the phone to congratulate the birthday 'child'. I'm very happy and lucky to have a grandma who is still that amazingly fit at her age.

My working visa preparations are going well. I have nearly all the required documents ready to lodge the visa application. I'm very tired; I haven't caught much sleep in the past days and my days have been very busy.

Monday, December 14, 2009

A job offer!

Breaking news: I have received an offer for a 6-month fixed term contract in Sydney, starting in January. Details are confidential, so I can't share them here.

So now it suddenly looks as if I may be back to Australia in just a few weeks! I'm very excited, but I'm also in great stress now because I need to apply for a sponsored working visa and there is not nearly enough time. I'm in the greatest hurry to get all documents together for the visa application... I wish they had told me earlier.

Boy, I can't believe it!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

First snow!

While Australia swelters in summer heat, we have had the first snow in Augsburg today! I'm happy; I love snow.

Here is the view from my window. Temperatures are just over zero, so it will probably not stay but melt away soon.

I'm doing what we do here in the Advent season: baking Christmas cookies, known in Germany generally as Weihnachtsgebäck or Plätzchen, or in Swabia as Loibla. There are hundreds of traditional German varieties. One of the best known is probably Lebkuchen. Here I'm making a kind that's made of Marzipan, similar to Bethmännchen but with hazelnuts instead of almonds.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Miniature Sydney

It's a small world... or so it seems. I happened to meet an Australian here in Augsburg who happened to have moved into the room my sister used to live in. Kane (from Melbourne) sent me a link to a website where I found pretty cool stop-motion videos of a miniature world version of Sydney. Or so I thought.

If you have a few minutes, watch one or two of the videos *before* you look here, here, or here. I find this very amazing.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg

On Wednesday I met with the members of Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg for their annual Xmas dinner. I was the surprise guest and everyone was so happy to see me again! Lots of big hugs and hellos.

LTR: Ursula, Ziggy, me, Ulrike, Elisabeth, Priska, Renate, Astrid. Lenke is not in the picture as she took the photo. You may remember the name Ziggy from her many comments in this blog.

Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg is a group of volunteers who organize and run charity projects in Augsburg to popularize and raise funds for the international aid organization Plan. See plan-deutschland.de for their German and plan.org.au for their Australian office. Blue in the map: donor country, yellow in the map: project country of Plan.