Martin's Aussie Blog

This is the end

2010-08-27T05:06:00.003+10:00

...my friends! The end of this blog.

Thank you all very very much for following my stories and pictures, and for your many comments and e-mails throughout my journey of the past 2 years. Your attention and encouragement means a lot to me. I was never alone, wherever I was, because you were always with me.

The "Aussie Blog" is finished here. But I will continue posting on a new blog --> Martin's Tuckerbag. It will be somewhat different -- I can't tell you exactly how. You and I will see. A new section of my life will unfold.

See you there!

Welcome home party

2010-08-09T06:01:00.006+10:00

I had a wonderful "Back-From-Down-Under Party" on Saturday.

Nearly 40 friends came to celebrate my return home. And we were really lucky with the weather: On Friday and Sunday we had quite a bit of rain here, but on Saturday afternoon it all cleared up and we could sit outdoors in my sister's garden all night.

The decoration was German-Australian, as you can see in the pictures. Everybody brought some food: we had what is known in English as a potluck party. We also lit a bonfire, let it burn for a couple of hours and then barbecued the marinated meat and sausages on a tripod grill right above the embers -- the good German traditional style of BBQ, not the fried-on-steel-plates-over-gas-flames way the Aussies prefer. All the food was really yummy. Thanks everybody for your fantastic contributions!

After dark, we had party lights, candles and sat around the fire, singing songs until 3 a.m. And the big surprise of the night was a magnificent fireworks!

Back to Germany

2010-08-05T06:21:00.004+10:00

I have safely arrived back in Germany.

Everyone's happy and excited about my return and I can also say, it's good to be back. I'll be living again in my parent's house until I've found a new job and a new place for myself. It's summer here with long days, and everything is lush and green.

We celebrated my sister's and my birthday today, and the breaking news is that I'm going to become uncle of a new baby in January 2011! Her first one. That is so wonderful and I'm so happy for my sis. The news got me completely by surprise too! They had all kept quiet about it for the last month so they could tell me in person when I arrived here.

All packed up...

2010-08-01T11:12:00.003+10:00

...and ready to go!

I had a nice last evening together with my friend (and colleague) Gaetano, my housemates Anna, her boyfriend Mathias, Jade, her friend Elena, Gavin, and his girlfriend Carol.

We had dinner together at our place -- the first time we cooked for 8 people in this house! -- and afterwards went for a drink to the Orbit Bar in Sydney, which is a revolving bar in the 47th floor. It has an awesome view, as you can see! And that's the happy ending of part 2 of my Australian Adventure™!

Tonight's my flight back home to Germany.

Hans

2010-07-29T21:11:00.007+10:00

One of the happy coincidences that just happen magically was that I got to meet in person an interesting man from New Zealand who has the same last name as me, Hans Maurer. He is a German emigrant, a relative of Heidrun who I mentioned earlier in this blog. We actually came to know each other through this blog here. And perhaps Hans and I are also related; we just have to find the 'missing link' between our genealogical trees...

We had a good conversation over an excellent dinner in a French restaurant he recommended in Port Vila, a house with historical significance: it was in this very place that the constitution of Vanuatu was negotiated 30 years ago, as a brass plaque on the wall tells.

The steering wheel above is from the vessel in the picture to the right, the Coongoola, on which I went on a day cruise to a remote beach on one of the smaller islands. A nice boat. 61 years old. Arr!

Vanuatu

2010-07-29T20:16:00.007+10:00

Only been back to Sydney for 2 days and off in an airplane again! This time I went to...

"Vanuatu? Wo ist das denn?" was the question more than one of my German friends asked. The small country is seldom heard of. I first learned about it a few years back when I administered our Plan website for which we had a (free) .de.vu domain; the "vu" stands for Vanuatu.

The Melanesian island group is located roughly between Australia, New Guinea and Fiji. It was formerly co-governed by the French and British, known under the old name 'New Hebrides', and has been independent since 1980. This week they celebrate their 30-year existence as a nation. The emphasis of the word Vanuatu, by the way, is on the second 'a'.

I came here in order to relax for a few days in warmer temperatures before heading home, but it's not as warm as I had hoped. Overcast with clouds, very windy, rough sea and too cold for swimming. That was a bit disappointing. But it is still a good getaway here, and it is a little warmer than Sydney. I'm staying in a small resort near the capital Port Vila on the island of Efate and have a big self-contained bungalow all for myself.

The island is tropic and volcanic and there are beautiful creeks with waterfalls coming from the inland mountains. This image shows me at the picturesque Mele Cascades. You can walk up alongside, and in, these rapids of crystal clear water and get as wet as you like! Very pretty place.

Kata Tjuta

2010-07-22T12:06:00.005+10:00

Kata Tjuta is Uluru's 'sister'. It's also a red sandstone formation and only 30 km to the west, which is why they made a national park that encompasses them both. Kata Tjuta is also called "The Olgas", but that's a silly name.

People say that the two, Uluru and Kata Tjuta, are connected underground. My German friend Heidrun, who had visited them in March, told me that the Earth's solar plexus chakra is located just in the middle between the two. In any case these two 'islands floating in a sea of sand' are, like any good pair, both similar and opposite in a number of ways.

Kata Tjuta is bigger than Uluru in terms of size and height. But while Uluru is one block, Kata Tjuta is many, it's divided in 36 dome-shaped objects. This means you can walk into those gorges between these walls. It feels as if you were going into a body, the womb of a fertile earth mother.

I did the short Walpa Gorge walk and also the long Valley of Winds walk. It was really very windy there, and quite cold! But an amazing surreal place to be in.

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

2010-07-21T21:52:00.006+10:00

Finally, my last big highlight of my travels in Australia: the world-famous Australian landmark, Ayers Rock, or as it is known now: Uluru!

It is located in the "Red Centre" of the continent, in the deepest outback, far from any coast. By car it would take me 2 weeks to get there. But by flight it is so easy to reach, there's a direct flight from Sydney to Ayers Rock Airport.

The rock, a massive object made of red sandstone, eroded by wind and rain for millions of years but still there, is a marvel the way it rises in the otherwise flat landscape. It is also famous for its red colour in the sunrise and sunset. This is the classic view that you find on thousands of postcards.

As you see, Uluru is majestic from a distance, but it's also awe-inspiring and fascinating when you get close up and can discover its concave and convex shapes, its smooth and coarse surfaces, varied textures, streams of water, holes and caves. I did the full walk around Uluru, which is about 10 km. I did not climb it -- the Aborigines don't like people to do that and besides, it was forbidden due to weather conditions (wind, chance of rain) when I was there.

I arrived on Monday and stayed for two nights in Ayers Rock Resort. On Tuesday I got up really early, 2 hours before sunrise, to drive (in my rental car) to the best viewing spot, and was rewarded by one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen in my life. Isn't it just amazing?

And then on Tuesday I visited Kata Tjuta, which will be a separate posting.

Last day at work!

2010-07-16T10:32:00.005+10:00

Finally -- it's my last day at work. I made it. Yay!

Two more weeks before I'll fly home. And two final highlights coming up -- stay tuned on this blog! *sings* Uluru -- I'll soon be seeing you...

Sold my car

2010-07-10T13:24:00.003+10:00

That went quick! I put up an ad on Gumtree and waited this weekend for people to call me... and the first who saw it bought it.

So now I'm on foot again... and one less worry.

The photo shows last night, our new Korean housemate (Jade) made a special Korean dinner for us! I need to explain how that goes, I've never had something like this before: You make a kind of wrap. You take a lettuce leaf, put a Perilla leaf on top, then comes some rice, fried pork belly (Samgyeopsal), bean paste, and Kimchi. Roll it into a ball and stuff it into your mouth! Yum. And then you make the next one and so on...

Paul was right

2010-07-08T08:15:00.000+10:00

Paul the Octopus was right. :(

Manly Scenic Walkway

2010-07-03T20:22:00.000+10:00

Today we had a nice day, cool but sunny, and I went for a walk on a bushwalk trek known as Manly Scenic Walkway; it's along the coast inside the harbour on the north shore between Manly and The Spit. It is very pretty; the water is so blue and the view of North Head, South Head and Middle Head, and out to the open sea is awesome. There are always a lot of sailing boats cruising in these waters, nice to watch.

There are also some idyllic small bays, overhanging sandstone rocks, and ancient aboriginal engravings to see.

Improv Theatre

2010-07-03T19:46:00.008+10:00

On Friday night I've been to an improv (improvisational theatre) show, called Scared Scriptless. Most of my friends in Germany know me as a big fan of improv, so I'm sure you may have already wondered whether there is any here in Sydney too. Yes, there is.

They did a theatresports show (9 players in 3 teams, one host, one timekeeper and one light-man for a small audience of about the same number of people). The players and the host did a fairly good job; although I must say I think 'my' group in Augsburg (Deschawüh) is just as good as them. For a city the size of Sydney you might expect a bit more, but I think improv is particularly big in Germany, which is why I'm spoilt (verwöhnt).

It's freezing

2010-06-29T17:34:00.004+10:00

Oooh is it cold now. This morning we had frost. And a layer of ice covered the cars parked in our street.

They said Sydney, being at sea level, does not get frost, but this is apparently not true.

Last year at this time I had escaped to Fiji for 2 weeks...

Computer crash

2010-06-25T10:52:00.004+10:00

Yesterday night my laptop computer was infected by a virus. I did have anti-virus software running (avast), but it could not block or remove the virus.

It looked pretty bad and I decided to wipe the hard disk and reinstall the computer. And then, this morning, I had an idea how to turn the problem into an opportunity. Why not try to install Linux instead of Windows? I had a setup CD for Ubuntu 9.10 here.

This is something I wanted to do for a long time, so I should be thankful to the virus for giving me the trigger. I haven't worked with Linux for many years, and never with Ubuntu, so I will need some time to familiarise myself and find out how things work. But the first and most crucial obstacle is already taken: I successfully managed to connect to the Internet.

Rudd is gone

2010-06-24T15:39:00.003+10:00

Normally I don't post political news here, but this is an exception: Australia's prime minister Kevin Rudd has resigned this morning after he had lost his party's support to his deputy, Julia Gillard. She is now the new prime minister. Some things happen very fast here in Australia, when they happen.

At work and after work

2010-06-23T18:37:00.007+10:00

This is the view I have from my office window, taken on a sunny day. It does look surreal in a way, doesn't it? Just office buildings in all sizes and shapes, and no people visible -- although thousands of them are there -- just a lettering that says 'people'.

This strange place is North Sydney.

A different sight! Here's me with some of my colleagues on a Friday night after knocking off (Feierabend) in a pub in Sydney. We're all software specialists, but other than that we're very diverse. My boss (not in the picture) was born in Australia. All others come from somewhere else: from England, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, China, Germany (me) - and the Indian colleague was here for a short time only. And this cultural mix is very typical Australian.

By the way, that beer with the nice red colour is James Squire Amber Ale. It is brewed in Sydney and named after James Squire, a convict who was transported to Australia on the First Fleet in 1788. After serving his sentence, he became a free man and was the first to successfully brew beer with hops in Australia. His death in 1822 was marked with the biggest funeral ever held in the colony!

FIFA

2010-06-20T18:51:00.003+10:00

Yes. I did go to the outdoor screening of the FIFA games in Sydney at Darling Harbour.

The two girls in the picture are Anna and her friend Kathrina. The match we watched was last Friday night, Germany-Serbia, which didn't go too well (0:1). Oh well. You can't win all of the time.

It wasn't as overcrowded as on the matches when Australia plays, so that was okay. There are lots of Germans here in Sydney, with black-red-gold flags and all. But also a surprising lot of Serbians -- who were, of course, beside themselves with joy at the end.

Long weekend at Schonegg

2010-06-14T19:28:00.009+10:00

The rain is over and this Monday is a public holiday, Queen's Birthday. I spent the long weekend visiting my friends in Country Guesthouse Schonegg, which I'm sure all you blog readers know by now, it's 300 km from Sydney near Canberra. It was a very happy weekend; everybody had been looking forward to my visit, especially the children, Mathias and Katja, and so had I. Knowing that it might be longer until we meet again is sad to think, but we made the most of the time!

We enjoyed perfect winter weather, sunny and blue skies! We played soccer, board games, and a cooking competition called Mystery Box Challenge, from the popular Aussie TV show MasterChef. You get a box with surprise ingredients and one hour time to cook something from them. No recipe books or computer permitted. The box contents is the same for all contestants, and you can use up to 5 additional ingredients. That was great fun, and of course a great learning experience too. When the time was up, we presented our creations to the jury (Richard and Evelyn) and received scores in different categories. And lo and behold: I won the prize apron! :)

I was also invited by Evelyn's mom for Sunday lunch, and she had again made something very special for me: a self-baked cake in the shape of my initials (MM). She is such a dear! From her you can learn deep and simple truths, such as that the joy you give to others comes back to you -- and that the sky is like an ocean, with the clouds like waves. Evelyn's dad was up and about too, which was really good to see.

In the evening, Katja, Mathias and I made a campfire in the garden, with a perfect improvised tripod and pot to make hot punch. And of course we also made damper on a stick (Stockbrot) , marshmallows, and fire-baked potatoes, under an ice-cold clear starry sky.

Oh, and Germany beat Australia in the soccer worldcup 4:0, but that you surely already know!

Penrith and Castle Cove

2010-06-06T17:30:00.005+10:00

Wow -- we had 1½ days without rain! That was good. I spent a very nice Saturday in Penrith (50 km west of Sydney), playing guitar with Peter and enjoying a walk at the banks of Nepean River and watching people go down the artificial Olympic whitewater (Wildwasser) slalom course in rubber rafts (Gummibooten). It's a bit like the Eiskanal in Augsburg, but bigger and the course is in a circle, the water being pumped up at an amazing volume of 14 m³/s. From the finish, the boats can get conveniently back up to the starting point on a big conveyor belt (Förderband). Sorry I can't show you any pictures of this, I didn't take my camera with me.

But what I can show you is another pretty spot called Castle Cove. It's quite close (11 km) to Sydney's center but it's a very idyllic and unspoilt place. The 'castle' is a private residential house built in the 19th century by an Australian parliamentarian, Henry Willis.

Vivid Sydney

2010-06-02T20:43:00.003+10:00

There's currently a nighly illumination of the Opera House. The event is called "Lighing the Sails", part of the festival "Vivid Sydney".

The colours and patterns are projected onto the white "sails" of Australia's iconic building with giant projectors from across Circular Quay bay. They move slowly and change every few minutes. That looks spectacular, of course!

Rain...

2010-05-29T11:03:00.004+10:00

That's pretty much all I can write about at the moment. The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain. And elsewhere? In central Europe, massive floods. In Germany, very cold and miserable. And here in Sydney it's been raining every day since I came back from Broome two weeks ago, except for two days. Life is dreary and in this weather I need all my efforts, and lots of hot drinks and baths, to keep my spirits up. I wish they had a Therme here like those we have in Germany.

For some cultural uplift, I visited (again) the Art Gallery of NSW. It's not too big, but free entrance, and features a nice selection of classic art, which I like better than the modern art.

The rain photo above is (c) by dejan markesevic.

Goodbye Broome

2010-05-17T21:06:00.006+10:00

Here come some last pictures from Broome.

The first is of the brightly orange coloured crabs in the mud of Roebuck Bay, where the Bird Observatory is. They hide quickly in their holes when you come closer.

Then comes a photo of what I think might be Broome's most beautiful beach: Reddell Beach. Peter and I went there on Sunday morning before he dropped me off at the airport.

Then we visited the port, where a nice breeze blew.

We also saw nearby Gantheaume Point (with the lighthouse and cliffs). At very low tide you can see dinosaur footprints there, but we were there at high tide, so we could only look at the plaster model of the dino footprints.

Finally we visited the Japanese Cemetery (Japanischen Friedhof) of Broome. The town had a considerable Japanese population because of the pearl diving and pearl farming industry.

My flight back to Sydney went via Perth and took about 8 hours in total. I took this photo just after take-off in Broome, an aerial view of Roebuck Bay.

My stop in Perth was only for 1 hour, so no time to see anything of the big city in Australia's west, other than from the air.

Now I'm back in Sydney. It's cold, dark and raining here. Brrr.

Cape Leveque

2010-05-15T11:15:00.006+10:00

My Western Australia wilderness adventure continues: Peter and Toni kindly lent me their own car so I could go by myself on a two-day trip to explore the area north of Broome, the Dampier Peninsula.

The first photo is Cable Beach at Broome. This is the Indian Ocean. The beaches at Australia's west coast are differerent from those at the east coast: they are usually much longer stretches of beach uninterrupted by bays, headlands and rivers. Cable beach is 22 km long, so it will take you a while if you want to walk it... Further south is Eighty Mile Beach, which is actually not 80 but 140 miles (220 km) in length!

I enjoyed driving the four-wheel-drive Nissan Patrol! The 2.8 tons car ran smoothly and was comfortable (with automatic gear and air-con) and good fun to drive. I had everything I needed with me for this expedition: water, a tent, air mattress and blanket, a battery-powered refrigerator, food and drink, a gas cooker, a foldable table and chair.

I camped the first night at the very remote Middle Lagoon, a tranquil and picturesque campsite by the sea managed by an aboriginal family. I saw a most beautiful sunset there while collecting firewood, so I hurried back to get my camera!

The second day I reached the very tip of the peninsula, called Cape Leveque, and stayed at the popular tourist resort Kooljaman. I also visited the aboriginal villages Lombadina and One Arm Point (with a hatchery where you can see how they breed fish, shells and turtles).

Look at those marvellous red-white sandstone rocks, eroded by time, wind and water. The weather turned overcast and rain kept coming and going from Thursday on, so swimming and walking was a bit limited. I returned to Broome on Friday because the weather forecast had predicted heavy rains and I've been warned that the roads might then be flooded and hard to drive on. It turned out I was very lucky to have come back in time: today (Saturday) Cape Leveque Road has been closed for traffic, and I would have been stuck up there!

Broome

2010-05-12T10:11:00.006+10:00

Endlich Urlaub! I took one week off from work and hopped in a plane (6 hours flight) all the way to the far north-west of Australia, to Broome in Western Australia. On the way I had a 2-hour stop in Adelaide, for breakfast with my friend and last year's travel mate Cori!

The climate in Broome is much hotter than Sydney, and dryer too. Much of the ground is dusty red sand. With day temperatures in the 30s and night temperatures around 20 C, it's perfect weather for a camping holiday.

Another reason why I chose Broome is that I'm visiting my friends Peter and Toni there. The two have taken up a job as wardens of Broome Bird Observatory. The area is a mekka for birdwatchers as hundreds of different bird species live here, or make stop here on their journeys to feed at the nutricious mud flats before going on the long way to Asia (Siberia) for breeding.

Peter and Toni could take three days off from work and we three drove together into the great Kimberley, an area the size of Germany with a total population of 35.000. We passed by the coastal town of Derby, noteworthy for its high tides of up to 12 metres, and made stop at the Boab Prison Tree, more than 1000 years old hollow boab tree that has actually been used as a prison in the wild 1800s.

After a 350 km drive east, about half on bitumen and half on dirt roads, we reached our destination, Windjana Gorge. This gorge, carved by a river, cuts right through the Napier Range, a massive mountainous rock formation that stands as a geological curiosity with vertical walls in the otherwise flat landscape.

The scenery is magnificent. The gorge is also quite lush with vegetation. It's best to start early in the morning for the walk before it gets too hot in the afternoon. In the river we saw about 10 freshwater crocodiles. (They are not dangerous if you leave them alone.) We also saw a gecko and many birds.

We camped for two nights in a campsite just outside the gorge. Peter and Toni have a camping trailer, and I slept comfortably in a little tent. We sat around a campfire in the evening with guitar and songs. This is the real life!

Near that place we also visited Tunnel Creek National Park, where a creek runs through a natural tunnel in the mountain. It is possible to walk through this tunnel, which is 750 metres in length. You will be waist-deep in water (so best go in swimwear) and you should bring a torch (Taschenlampe) to experience this amazing walk -- it was a fantastic adventure! There are bats in the tunnel and stalactites that look like they might break off any minute.

The creek on the other end of the tunnel is very pretty too and perfect for a bath! (No crocs here.)

Le Concert

2010-05-05T08:41:00.003+10:00

I watched a good movie in the cinema last night: The Concert (Le Concert). If you have a chance to see it, I can recommend it. A splendid comedy and beautiful classical music (Tchaikovsky). The film was released last November in France and this week in Australia; the planned release date in Germany is 29 July 2010.

Half-time

2010-05-01T18:48:00.003+10:00

It's 1st of May, and for me it means: half-time for my six months work in Sydney!

Here's two photos from our house. First, the record number of Lorikeets we've had on our back-house balcony so far! (They like the two branches that I mounted for them to land on. But normally just one or two come, not nine at once.)

And this is a rhubarb pie that I baked last week.

Jenolan Caves

2010-04-25T21:43:00.009+10:00

Deep in the Blue Mountains is a place where the magic is underground. It is a cave. But not just one. Literally hundreds of them. Embedded in limestone, connnected to each other by narrow passages and an underground river, they form the system known as Jenolan Caves. They are among the oldest caves in the world -- more than 340 million years old.

The first surprise that you get on arrival is that the main road goes right into a giant cavern, and through it! It is a natural tunnel called Grand Arch. After you've passed it you see a few pretty buildings, the big one is Jenolan Caves House, a hotel built in 1898 in Tudor style. This is where I slept for the night.

Tourism at the caves has started soon after they were discovered in the 1800s. Today there are more than 10 different guided tours you can book, each going into different sections of the caves. I arrived in the evening and decided to do one tour at night and one more tour the next morning.

What shall I say? The caves are amazing. To me, places like these are like cathedrals. Cold, still, old, mystical and awe-inspiring. Structures of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, straws, flowstone, and my favourite: those beautiful "shawls" that look like drapery hanging down -- or sometimes like bacon. They are only 5 mm thin (the width of a drop of water) and translucent. The material is calcite, dissolved from the rocks by rain water and deposited at the ceilings, walls and cave floors in layers upon layers, millenia after millenia. Pure calcite is white; the pink-orange-brown colours are caused by iron oxide.

Unfortunately the caves have suffered destruction from tourism. Especially the early visitors would with no hesitation break off whatever structures they could reach to take home a souvenir. The damage they have done, especially knowing how slow these crystals grow and how rare they are, is unbelievable. And all this despite the fact that the caves were officially "protected area" since 1866. In the interest of making the caves easily and safely accessible for visitors, they have poured tons after tons of concrete in, chiseled rock away to cut deep pathways, and of course installed electric lights. Today, 250,000 visitors come every year.

This giant cave opening is of a cave called "The Devil's Coach House". Compare the size of the path and the street lamp to get an idea how big it is. The ceiling must be 30 metres high.

It was an unforgettable trip. Now I'm back home, tomorrow I'll relax and let the impressions sink in.

Blue Mountains

2010-04-25T20:45:00.004+10:00

My first trip with my new car took me into the area west (inland) of Sydney known as the Blue Mountains. It wasn't my first trip there, but my first trip alone and with as much time as I wanted. This weekend is a long weekend in NSW; today (25 April) is Anzac Day, the day where Australia and New Zealand commemorate their war heroes from the battle of Gallipoli (Turkey) in World War I. Reminds me a bit of defending Germany at the Hindukush. Anyway, because it's a Sunday the government gave us the Monday off, bless them!

So I hopped in my car and went westwards, rejoicing to get out of the city and into the peaceful quiet nature! Only -- a few hundred thousand Sydneysiders had the same idea. The road all the way to Katoomba was jammed and Katoomba itself was swarming with hordes of people -- mostly the loud and insensitive ones.

I mean -- look at these amazing views! The endless canopy of trees in front of you. The tranquility once you get away from the street. Those soft slopes, vertical cliffs, magic creeks and waterfalls. A network of well-maintained hiking tracks that connects all these points. And then you meet people on the way back -- obviously city folk that have arrived just 10 minutes ago -- making loud and stupid chatter and asking you -- I'm not kidding -- whether there was anything else to see. It's hopeless...

Anyway, the Blue Mountains are not what you would probably expect. They are at 1000 metres altitude, so it is a good climb up coming on the road from Sydney -- but you don't get to see any "mountains". Once you get to Katoomba you reach the edge from where it goes down, not up. The landscape is a kind of high plateau that has been partially eroded, like a canyon land.

Can you see the face in this rock?

A car, finally!

2010-04-18T09:46:00.003+10:00

I feel like a new human being; finally I'm mobile again! I bought this 1996 Hyundai Accent (X3). It was cheap and I hope to sell it again in 3 months with not too much trouble or disprofit.

Yay - now I can finally go to wherever I want to go on weekends! Today: just the beach.

A new guitar

2010-04-14T18:39:00.006+10:00

I finally bought myself a guitar again. This time I didn't find a good used one, so I ended up buying a new one, a Washburn, spending more money than I originally wanted. I also got a mount for the wall to have it in quick reach. The mount is really cool, I kind of like it better than the guitar!

So now I can play and practise again. Something for the winter nights. It's shocking: these days it gets dark already at 5:30 p.m. I come home from work in the last glimpse of daylight, or if I'm a bit later, in full darkness already. And we have just mid-April. How will it be in June?

Bagpipe fiddle rock

2010-04-11T18:47:00.008+10:00

On Saturday I was on a really good concert. It was a CD launch party of the band Highlander. They play celtic rock in its Scottish variant -- a fusion of modern rock music and traditional scottish-celtic music. They are very good: play the YouTube video to get an impression!

They really rocked the house! I bought the new released CD and also got all the band member's autographs. The concert was not in Sydney but at a sailing club at Lake Macquarie (Australia's biggest saltwater lake) 1.5 hours drive north from here (the band is from Newcastle). It was thanks to Peter and Toni that I learned about the event, thanks to Lucy, a new friend who kindly lent me her car that I could go there, and thanks to Wolfi and Petra, two other friends from Rosco (German Aussies) whom I met at the gig that I had a bed for the night. What would I do without my friends?

Return plans

2010-04-07T09:39:00.003+10:00

My company has asked me if I wanted to extend my contract to the end of the year, or at least until October. I told them I needed to think about it, which I did, and now I informed them of my decision. And that is to decline the offer because I want to go back to my home country in August, for private reasons that have nothing to do with my work.

I think that's the right decision. I'm sure I'll find a new challenge in Germany.

Easter

2010-04-04T08:04:00.005+10:00

What you see in the photo is a little Australian curiosity, the Easter Bilby. You may know that the Osterhase is known in English as the Easter Bunny, so it's a rabbit (Kaninchen). Now unfortunately rabbits have at some point become a serious pest in Australia. From this background some Aussies felt that a native Australian marsupial, the bilby, in German Kaninchennasenbeutler, should be given the Easter Bunny's job as the friendly chocolate egg bringer.

This is already my second Easter in Australia. Last year at this time I was camping somewhere at the southern NSW coast. This year I spent the long Easter weekend (Friday and Monday are public holidays) at Rosco Club. My friends Pete and Ange gave me a lift in their car, and my friends Peter and Toni gave me their home to live in. The weather is a mix of couds, rain and sunshine. Easter is the landmark of autumn here and you can feel the cold coming. The heating season begins now.

There's a lot of people at the club this weekend, and Pete and I played live music for them on Saturday afternoon, with two guitars and amps and microphones. They also made a fish&chips dinner for 80 people on Friday, organized lawn games, sports matches, an Easter Egg Hunt, etc. They're good people here.

Farewell to Mom&Dad

2010-03-27T09:33:00.010+11:00

My parents have flewn home to Germany. Everything went well, they returned their rental car and made a one-night stopover in Sydney where we could say goodbye (for the next 4 months).

They greatly enjoyed their holiday here and (despite the rain) got some good allover impressions. Here are some of the photos they took on their Queensland trip.

They also met the cute Rock Wallabies at Granite Gorge, Atherton Tablelands. You may remember the place from my visit last year.

And this funny sign shows what comes from machine translations. :D (Explanation: a marine stinger, or just 'stinger' for short in Aussie slang, is a type of jellyfish (Nesselquallen) that you do not want to touch -- their sting is dangerous and very painful. They can 'be present' but they are certainly not 'a present'.) The French, by the way, is said to be no less funny than the German...

Cyclone Ului

2010-03-21T21:20:00.004+11:00

You may have heard the news: this weekend, further north, a cyclone named Ului came from the Pacific and hit the Queensland coast.

It looks like my parents should be in safe distance. Ului did most damage in Mackay and has lost strength. My parents are further south, in Bundaberg at the moment, and have booked a tour for tomorrow at Fraser island. They may see some high sea though.

Addendum (Wednesday 24th): They are in Noosa now (Sunshine Coast) and have beautiful sunshine, so everything's fine.

Patonga

2010-03-21T20:16:00.007+11:00

This weekend I went out of town and into nature, which was great.

I went together with my housemate Anna to camp at Patonga beach, which is located 1.5 h drive north of Sydney at the mouth of Hawkesbury River, surrounded by two big National Parks, Brisbane Water NP and Ku-ring-gai Chase NP.

I love the name of the place -- Patonga! It sounds just like a South Sea island. The beach is a serene spot, with calm sea, good for swimming, and a lovely view. In the distance you can see Barrenjoey Head (with the lighthouse on top, at Palm Beach) -- some of you might remember I climbed this headland last year in the very last trip I made with my campervan.

I still haven't bought a car (but I still plan to buy one), so we hired a rental car and shared the cost, and Anna had bought herself a tent, so we could go on a campsite. It was very full on the campsite, being a late summer weekend, not raining and close to Sydney, but luckily the beach was not overcrowded.

The weather was sunny and hot -- 31 degrees or so. We spent most of Saturday at the beach, and in the evening we went on a walking trail to a spectacular lookout high above the sea.

On Sunday we went separate ways. Anna took a ferry to Palm Beach. I went on a river cruise from Patonga to Bobbin Head, going through the ramified (vielverzweigten) river and creek system. The waterways are sea water: they are drowned river valleys, also known as rias. They were valleys in the last Ice Age when the worldwide sea level was 120 metres lower than today, and were flooded when the sea level rose again to its present level. I think Sydney harbour must have looked similar before the location became a city.

Sorry, this is a long post, but I have another two photos I want to show you. First is this beautiful shot made in the evening light. I love these warm colours.

And the last picture for today is this super-iridescent beetle, which I found sitting on our tent as we unrigged it this morning.

North Sydney

2010-03-19T08:30:00.004+11:00

Today I share with you a photo of North Sydney, which is the suburb where I work. The old building with the clocktower is the Post Office, from 1854. The modern skyscrapers were all built in the 1970s and later. You can't see my office building on this picture, but it's just behind the towers in the middle. The street is Pacific Highway.

This week brought real pleasant weather and I went out after work three nights in a row, with Lucy, a new friend, Anna, my housemate, and Gaetano, a colleague from my office. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and we had a good evening at an Irish Pub with nice live music -- vocals, guitar, fiddle and flute. (I got to buy a guitar again too!)

My parents in Queensland are heading South towards Brisbane. They called me from Rockhampton last night, happy to have made a good distance, and said the weather is gradually getting better.

More renovations

2010-03-14T18:33:00.011+11:00

This weekend I painted the wall in my room (plain white), and also hung up two pictures. It's good to make little improvements.

Sunday afternoon finally offered the opportunity of regeneration. I tested the beach nearest to my house, Greenwich Baths, but it's not very nice, so I don't think I'll go there often.

My parents are seeing Cairns and surroundings. I wish I could join them. Although they have bad luck with the weather in Queensland, it rains there every day at present, which is a pity.

Monday

2010-03-08T21:54:00.008+11:00

On Sunday afternoon it started to lightly rain again and we drove on to the coast to Batemans Bay, and stayed overnight in a motel near a town called Ulladulla. That motel was surprisingly nice, they had a sauna and a good swimming pool which we used before sleeping.

I had taken one day leave this Monday, so I had an extra day to spend with my parents, which was really good. It greatly enjoyed showing them "my" Australia and explaining all the things I've learned last year! It's their first visit to Oz and through their eyes I can see it all again like a first impression.

We had no rain today, it was cloudy and later became sunny again. In the morning we did a bushwalk along a walking track above the cliffs of Ulladulla, starting from the lighthouse. Then we drove back to Sydney, which we reached in the afternoon. We had a brief visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens and, being quite tired, skipped the rest of the City.

Tomorrow early morning I'll drive them back to the airport, where we can return the rental car, and then they'll fly to Cairns and I'll go back to my work.

My parents in Sydney

2010-03-05T14:18:00.007+11:00

Inspired by my adventures in Australia, my parents have come to visit Oz on a three-week holiday trip. They safely arrived yesterday in Sydney and will be here until Monday, then fly on to spend the rest of their travel in Queensland.

On Friday it was raining hard in Sydney. My parents went into the City, saw the harbour on a ferry ride, visited Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, the Maritime Museum, and in the evening I joined them for dinner and showed them the Opera House.

On Saturday it was sunny and hot. We hired a rental car and drove out of town, visiting Featherdale Wildlife Park where they could experience a close-up and hands-on encounter with all the typical Australian fauna, such as the Koala.

We then drove on to Murrumbateman to our friends from Country Guesthouse Schonegg. It was a happy reunion! They all welcomed us with greatest warmth and hospitality and we had a lovely dinner, then a relaxing night and a good breakfast at the recommendable Pear Tree Cottage (we couldn't stay at Schonegg as all their rooms were booked out), and ended our short visit with a fantastic Sunday barbecue lunch (beef, lamb and kangaroo!).

Mardi Gras madness

2010-02-28T10:53:00.009+11:00

Every February, Sydney hosts a festival called Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It's the biggest event of this kind in the world and a giant tourist attraction. I went there to see it, but it was so horribly crowded that I couldn't see anything of the parade itself. There were just thousands and thousands of people, some costumed and most drunk, and it was not enjoyable to be pushed through those masses of jostling (anrumpelnde, schubsende) people. In fact, it was pure madness and I wouldn't recommend to visit the Mardi Gras parade unless you can either participate in it or watch the spectacle from the safety of a balcony.

This weekend our fourth housemate moved in, a German girl named Anna. She's nice and we are both glad to have found a comrade in this place. Anna has just arrived in Oz, it's her first time here and she had not seen the house before, so she got a bit of a shock about the dirt and poor condition of the house -- understandably. We went to Ikea to buy some items for home improvement, and are painting the bathroom now. The Australians are lucky to have two Germans in the house...

Our wildlife guests

2010-02-25T21:10:00.004+11:00

Here are my two new friends! They seem to come every evening to our house and they looove a dab of honey, which they lick with their grey tongues off the plate! And they will also jump on my hand if I hold it still enough.

They are so beautiful, and what I like best is that they are free -- not caged like the parrots in Europe. They seem to have every colour of the rainbow, which is why they are aptly named Rainbow Lorikeets.

My new home

2010-02-20T20:39:00.004+11:00

I moved to my new home, a shared house (eine Haus-WG) in the suburb of Greenwich on Sydney's "North Shore".

I'm very happy because the location is fantastic. It's a quiet street and it's directly next to the beautiful remainder of untouched bushland that I had discovered three weeks ago (see This is Sydney too).

The house is built on a steep down slope (an einen steilen Abwaertshang gebaut). Because of that it is not visible from the street and on the other side (where my room is) it is in the height of the tree crowns. We get lots of birds there, and I greatly enjoy the "rainforest" feeling of that side. This photo is the morning sun coming in through my window, so this is what I see when I wake up!

The house itself doesn't have a view, which is probably why it is in not such good condition and needs some cleaning and repair, and this in turn is why it is affordable despite the good location. And when you walk just 100 m down the street you get a beautiful view of the harbour and the city in the distance (see photo).

From here I can get to work conveniently by train (or maybe also by bicycle). So all in all, I think the place is ideal for me!

Valentine's Weekend

2010-02-15T21:08:00.003+11:00

I had a really lovely weekend at Rosco, seeing my friends Peter, Toni, Pete and Ange again. They had a Valentine's day party at the club on Saturday night, with dinner and a live music band. More than 60 people came, and we had a great fun night with dance.

Peter and Toni are about to leave us, sadly, but for a happy reason: they have accepted a position as wardens of Broome Bird Observatory, at the far north-west of Australia, until November.

I spent Friday and Monday night inspecting potential rooms for rent. The good news is that it's not hard to find something, but the bad news is that you get poor value for money -- sometimes very poor. The options can be extremely different, each having its own pros and cons, so I need to give it a good think.

This and that

2010-02-11T23:52:00.006+11:00

The rain is over, for the moment, and it's hot again. This week I started looking for a room to rent. I haven't looked for a car yet because I might not need one: depending on where I will live, parking can be a problem and I might also go for car sharing if I need a car only occasionally.

Through Sydney LETS, I joined a contact improvization dance class that's on Monday evenings. It's fun, and I can feel the exercise is also really good for me. It's in Newtown and I can get there by train.

The coming up weekend is Chinese New Year (end of the year of the Ox, beginning of the year of the Tiger) and also Singles Awareness Day (Valentine's Day). I plan to spend the weekend out of town, in Rosco Club, seeing my musical friends.

Rainy days

2010-02-06T17:22:00.010+11:00

There's nothing really to do on a Saturday that has nonstop rain from morning till night.

Here's my view from my balcony onto the wet roofs outside.

I decided to go out for a walk no matter what. When I came back, dripping in my rain trousers and hooded jacket, I met another young man the elevator. "What a weather!" I said to him. "Well, I suppose if it's gonna rain, it might as well pour", he said dryly and I had to laugh and agree.

English for runaways

2010-02-04T21:51:00.003+11:00

Englisch wird die Arbeitssprache in der EU!

Danke Heinz!

Settled in

2010-02-01T08:44:00.003+11:00

On Friday I had my first day of work. I already knew the office and the colleagues from when I was here in January 2009, so the only difference is that my contract is now with NCR Australia instead of NCR Germany. My sabbatical year is over now and I'm happy to have work again.

On Sunday I moved into a nice serviced apartment that is just next door to my office -- for the next three weeks, then I'll need to find somewhere else to live, here it would be much too expensive. But boy, I haven't had so much space for myself since November 2008.

This is Sydney too

2010-01-28T08:07:00.006+11:00

I'm so excited about my discovery of a bit of real untouched remaining bushland right in the heart of Sydney.

I won't say where it is because this has to remain a secret! :)

It was so lovely to walk there. Just look at these giant fern.

Ronda

2010-01-27T22:40:00.001+11:00

Ronda Roo joined the Australia Day celebrations from her new home!

Australia Day

2010-01-26T23:38:00.005+11:00

Today was Australia Day, a public holiday in which Australians show how much they love their country while enjoying the day off. I walked over the Harbour Bridge into the city. Despite the heat (it was sunny, 31°C) the streets were crowded with people, and even the harbour was crowded with boats and ships.

The children did the right thing and jumped into the fountains at Darling Harbour. I just cooled my feet in there! :) There was a lot of live music playing all day. And I must have seen more than 50 different creative ways to wear a flag on one's body or clothing...

At night I expected a big firework, and went down to a nice spot with a view, ready to capture it with my camera and tripod, but the firework was only in Darling Harbour -- too far away -- and hardly to be seen from where I was.

Arrived!

2010-01-25T13:47:00.006+11:00

I have safely arrived in Sydney. Everything looks the same as I left it! :)

The weather is overcast, 20-24 degrees and humid. Good for taking a walk to explore the area. I'm staying in a hotel in Milson's Point (just north of the Harbour Bridge) for a week. On Friday will be my start of work. Until then I have a few days to relax, settle and adjust to Australian time.

I remember a year ago: my arrival in Australia, when I first set foot on this continent and didn't know anyone or anything and was so full of curiosity what this country would be like! Now everything is already familiar. The good and the bad, the blessings and curses of civilisation. Looking over Sydney Harbour from one of the points where this is possible, I try to block out the noise from the cars and machines, and imagine how the view looked 200 years ago before the white man came from Europe, took over and started building. There were trees everywhere, and it was quiet and serene.

To think that we spend so much effort and money on building -- and the best places in a city (whether it's Munich or New York or Tokyo) are the gardens and parks. People, buildings and cars are good so long as they have the space they need not to be in each other's way. My belief is that the problem is one of density. And the challenge is to reduce density to a healthy level without adverse side-effects.

Goodbye friends and family

2010-01-23T04:13:00.002+11:00

My last posting before the flight! Goodbye everyone in Germany and thank you so much for all your help and support. I will miss you all and can't wait to see you again in half a year.

Parting is sad, but my parents plan to come to visit me in March in Sydney, so I'll see them again soon!

The farewell picture was drawn by my niece Sarah (10 years old). The guy on the winner's rostrum (Siegertreppchen), number 1, is me!

Heidrun

2010-01-23T04:03:00.004+11:00

Heidrun is a new friend from my home town. She was born with the same family name as me (nee Maurer) and is maybe a remote relative of me -- we are still trying to connect her ancestry tree to mine, back in the 15th or 16th century.

She has moved to here from the Rheinpfalz and now lives just a few hundred metres from my parent's house. But our connection came just recently through a relative of hers, Hans Maurer from New Zealand, on the other side of the globe. Hans in turn had found me by coincidence through my blog because I had mentioned my great-great-grandfather Konrad Maurer a year ago. And then we found out that Hans's father Heiner had already been in letter correspondence with my father years ago because they were both doing research on their family trees.

Heidrun, now, will come to Australia herself in one month, and meet Hans in Melbourne because he happens to come to Oz for a business trip in March. Such is the small world we have nowadays!

I got my visa!

2010-01-21T16:44:00.002+11:00

Good news, I finally got my visa and now I can fly back to Sydney in two days, to arrive Sunday the 24th.

I'm very busy now -- got to organize a couple of things so all will go smoothly, hopefully.

Skiing

2010-01-17T05:43:00.008+11:00

Alex and I went alpine skiing today - yay!

We were really lucky with the weather: the sun shone, the sky was blue and the snow was excellent. We were at the ski area of Ehrwald in Tyrol at the southern base of the Zugspitze. Zugspitze is the highest mountain of Germany - 2,962 metres - and is right on the German-Austrian border, less than 2 hours drive from my home town.

After skiing, on the way home, we warmed up in the saunas of Kristall-Therme Schwangau near Füssen. The spa is creatively decorated in the themes of crystals, grottos, swans, and King Ludwig II of Bavaria who had built the nearby world-famous castles that are now tourist magnets.

My mother has come home from hospital and is getting better.

Still no news about my visa.

New snow

2010-01-11T06:49:00.004+11:00

No news about my visa or flight, I'm still waiting patiently.

Bad news: yesterday my mother fell sick and by evening I had to take her to hospital. Diagnosis: appendicitis (Blinddarmentzündung). They have operated her today; we will learn more details tomorrow. The picture at the lake was taken a few days ago when she was still well.

Winter has brought snow again to Augsburg. I tried sledding (rodeln) on the newly created 27-metre hill in Königsbrunn but it was a bit rough, we'd need a few more centimetres of the white matter for a smoother ride.

Peter von der Herrenwiese

2010-01-05T20:27:00.006+11:00

Meet my good friend Peter, who is a musician from Harburg specializing in the live performance of medieval music on festivals and events.

His website is herrenwiese.com -- have a look and hear an audio sample, but be careful to turn your volume low, the music starts playing automatically!

(Funny, somehow all my musical friends have the same name, Peter :)

Ulm

2010-01-05T03:16:00.011+11:00

I went to Ulm, an hour's drive west of Augsburg, to see a friend, Gregor, who came from Mannheim to see me before I'm gone again. His friend André from Gersthofen joined us. On a sunny but freezing cold day we had lunch and then climbed the steeple (Kirchturm) of the famous Ulm Minster (Ulmer Münster). It is the tallest church in the world, with a steeple measuring 161.53 m.

To our regret the tower was only accessible to the height of 70 m. But we still had a nice view from there, down to the pretty town with the partly snow-covered roofs. The river in the background is the Danube. And look how big the old houses are: some of them have three or even four storeys under the roof alone.

Inside the minster I admired the 15th century oak wood carvings in the choir stalls (Chorgestühl). The town in which Albert Einstein was born is definitely worth a visit if you get a chance to come to southern Germany.

Oh, and the U in Ulm is pronounced not like the English u but like the "oo" in book (IPA: ʊlm). And if you can say this, try to say "In Ulm und um Ulm und um Ulm herum"! ;)

Goodbye 2009, welcome 2010

2010-01-01T20:42:00.010+11:00

A very exciting year for me is over. In the Chinese calendar, 26 January 2009 - 14 February 2010 is the Year of the Ox, and I'm an Ox person. I completed 3 cycles of 12 years. My granny who was born in 1913 has done 8 such cycles: she's an Ox too, as I just realized.

I was blessed with a fantastic travel to a far away country I've never been before, Australia. I plunged myself into the unknown and put my life skills to the test. I saw a thousand picturesque places, marvels of Nature, fascinating animals. And above all, I met and befriended wonderful people. Thank you, Universe.

The four children here are Sternsinger who visited our house this afternoon (Jan 2nd). This is a custom in Germany in the days before and around Epiphany. The kids are dressed up as the Three Magi and one of them carries a star on a pole. They sing a song, say a rhymed blessing and collect donations for charity. And they write the traditional blessing formula with chalk above your door: 20 * C + M + B * 10.

In English they are called "Star boys", but in this case that would be a misnomer as all four were girls. :)

Nuremberg

2009-12-30T03:46:00.002+11:00

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.

Weber Hütte

2009-12-28T06:42:00.007+11:00

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.

My photo book

2009-12-26T19:56:00.005+11:00

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.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T20:40:00.009+11:00

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!

This blog as a book

2009-12-24T00:23:00.004+11:00

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.

Advent

2009-12-20T01:05:00.005+11:00

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 Canis Poeticus)

Winter in Königsbrunn

2009-12-18T21:37:00.003+11:00

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.

Omi's birthday

2009-12-17T05:49:00.004+11:00

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.

A job offer!

2009-12-14T20:49:00.004+11:00

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!

First snow!

2009-12-12T23:13:00.004+11:00

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.

Miniature Sydney

2009-12-07T08:05:00.003+11:00

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.

Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg

2009-12-05T03:48:00.004+11:00

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.

Mount Kofel

2009-11-29T03:19:00.007+11:00

I went mountain climbing today in the Bavarian Alps, together with my friend Alex.

The mountain we selected is the Kofel at the well-known town of Oberammergau. It is 1342 meters high (4403 feet) and it took us 1.5 hours to climb from the base (840 m) to the peak.

We had beautiful weather, sunny and 8 degrees Celsius. The weather is unusually good for end of November in Germany. As you can see, there is no snow, only a tiny little bit on the peak. Most of the walk is through forest. Only the last 100 m of it is real climbing where you need your hands.

And here we are on the top! From there we had a wonderful view of the surrounding peaks, the Ammergau (the Ammer valley) with Oberammergau and Unterammergau and Ettal.

If anyone wants to do the same tour, here is a good description (in German) that guided us.

What's happening

2009-11-26T20:20:00.005+11:00

Sydney had a record heat of 41 degrees Celsius last Sunday, I was informed by my friends. Wow. Here in Germany everything is going its normal uneventful way. Towns are being Christmas-decorated and the first Christmas markets have opened.

After one week my cold is getting better, and my jet-lag finally too. I live with my family, see friends, share my stories of Australia and catch up with what has happened here in the year of my absence. I have also said hello to my friends and ex-colleagues at my former company in Augsburg. Many of them informed me they have regularly read this blog!

I should also mention that my Australian phone number is no longer valid. I have a new German mobile phone number, if you want to know it please e-mail me. Otherwise I can also be reached on my parent's land line at the moment.

I will post again when there's any news to report.

Back in Germany

2009-11-20T19:26:00.005+11:00

I'm still jet-lagged and tired, and feel a cold coming. The days are short already, sunrise at 8 a.m. I have to sort out my papers, find various things I had put away in boxes, register at the employment bureau, reapply for health insurance, etc.

Leaving Australia

2009-11-16T23:13:00.007+11:00

Goodbye Australia! I hope to be back soon.

Monday: 10 hours flight from Sydney to Seoul. I arrived in Seoul in the evening; Korean Air gave me accommodation in a hotel (Best Western), 25 minutes from the airport. It was 0 degrees Celsius outside. They are building big streets, bridges and skyscrapers. Driving is on the right. Reinforced concrete (Stahlbeton) wherever you look.

Tuesday: No time for any sightseeing, the bus took us back to the airport. On the flight to Frankfurt (11 hours) the aircraft had technical trouble and we had to turn around and return to Seoul. I got on another machine and finally arrived in Frankfurt 6 hours late, at 11 pm local time. No chance to get to Munich the same night, so I followed the directions for another night in a hotel. Many bows of apology from the Korean Air staff. Due to a Messe (trade fair) in Frankfurt they took us to a hotel one hour's drive away, a Steigenberger near Neustadt an der Weinstraße, where we arrived at 2 am.

Wednesday: I considered the option of doing the rest by railway instead, but then decided for the flight. After only 3 hours of sleep I had to get up and get on the bus again. There was further trouble at Frankfurt Airport. I missed one Lufthansa flight and the next one was delayed. I finally arrived in Munich on Wednesay at 11:20 am, after 60 hours of travelling. My parents and Moni had come to meet me, holding up a huge sign that said "Herzlich Willkommen Martin!" and waving a big Bavarian flag. The lost son was welcomed home like a star!

The weather in South Germany was gorgeous: sunny and not cold at all, a beautiful day. And then the next surprise waited for me: they had prepared everything for a Weisswurstfrühstück right next to the car parked outside the airport terminal. With warm Weisswurst sausages, sweet mustard, fresh pretzels and cool Weissbier in real Weissbier glasses! I was overwhelmed.

In the afternoon I saw my dear Omi (granny) and Anja with Sarah and Lisa, and we sat in my parent's conservatory (Wintergarten) and had coffee and afternoon cake, just like we had always done.

Lisa, Sarah, Moni, Mom.

Farewell party

2009-11-16T22:54:00.004+11:00

We had a farewell picknick party with 8 friends. We all went to Balmoral (the nice beach in Mosman) and used one of the picknick tables for an open-air dinner with chicken, salads and a huge pavlova dessert.

A photo will come later!

Hunter Valley Gardens

2009-11-13T12:53:00.006+11:00

I feel slightly better already, and remembered that people typically lament when they forget how blessed they are in other respects.

On that note, I want to share something happier: pictures of the Hunter Valley Gardens that Peter and I visited two days ago before I took the train back from Fassifern to Sydney.

This is a private botanical garden situated in the Hunter Valley, which is one of Australia's most famous wine growing regions. I was not interested in tasting or buying wine, so we went to the gardens instead. They were only built recently and opened a few years ago. The landscapers and gardeners have done an impressive job as you can see.

Everything is in bloom now. This picture is the Rose Garden. We were there in the morning, but the gardens must also look fantastic at night. We saw how much effort they spend on illuminations. They probably employ as many electricians as gardeners. And they are heavily busy putting up Christmas themed decorations in the gardens right now.

This is a Chinese Moon Gate. Maybe it symbolizes my passage back to the Old World?

Depressed

2009-11-13T04:04:00.005+11:00

I'm back in Sydney for my last 4 days in Australia. And I must reveal I'm in low spirits at the moment, as time forces me to draw my conclusions. It is 4 a.m. in the morning. I need to type this off of my soul.

It has surely been an exciting year, with so many fantastic impressions and pictures and memories and things to learn. I have had much time for myself too, much time to think. Not that I have come to any big new conclusions though.

I am very grateful, I have made so many new friends this year and everybody has been so wonderfully kind to me and helpful. My CV is good and so are, I think, my professional qualifications, my English and my character. And still I have not succeeded in getting an opening for work. I'm still in discussion with NCR Australia about a possible sponsorship and contract for next year, but as of now I have nothing whatsoever in my hands.

I have not made a new relationship either. Instead I have suffered. It was torture to be so close to several most attractive girls, but on a non-touch, mateship-only basis. I realize that I'm not just shy, and not just unlucky either. There's more wrong with me. Nature does not want me to find happiness outside of my solitary self.

I spent countless hours writing this blog, which I did for myself, to preserve the memories in a diary, as well as for you, my dear family, friends and readers, to let you participate in my journey, my impressions and thoughts. In a way this blog will be what remains after this one year of my life in Australia. In a few weeks I will have it printed and bound in hardcover.

I'm going home now, full and empty at the same time, and unsure what to do next.

God, I wish the next 4 days would be over already.

Wallabies

2009-11-11T19:20:00.003+11:00

I have some nice kangaroo photos to share with you... they were taken this morning at Rosco Club.

They are wallabies, which is simply speaking a small type of kangaroo, and their baby is called a joey.

(Compared to the little Rock Wallabies I saw in August at Granite Gorge, these are about double the size.)

Rosco

2009-11-10T13:32:00.011+11:00

I followed an invitation from Peter and Toni to Rosco, the nudist resort near Toronto/Newcastle where I had been staying a couple of weeks ago.

After several days of clouds and rain, the sun came out again and we got some nice weather. We played a lot of songs on guitar, had a barbie (BBQ), a campfire and did some bushwalking around the property of the club, watching birds.

Toni and Peter are enthusiastic birdwatchers and so I can tell you that this bird here is an Eastern Spinebill, a species of honeyeater, who feeds on nectar and small insects. There are many different types of birds here, and also kangaroos and wallabies, possums and lizards. There's even a wombat, but we only saw the hole of his burrow.

After the walk we had to pick leeches (Blutegel) from our feet! They thrive now after the rain. But they are easy to do in ("to do someone in" = ihnen den Garaus machen) with just a bit of salt.

Apart from the birds, Rosco is very quiet during the week. Although there are 96 campers (Wohnwagen) parked permanently on the club's 400m by 400m property, we are nearly the only people here at present. But we did our best to make some noise with Peter's guitars, bass guitar and amp. :)

I'm learning an instrumental piece, Tangerine Puppet by Donovan. Peter and I are working on some new songs, such as True Blue by John Williamson and Whenever It Snows by Tex Perkins/Don Walker. Both of these are very "Aussie" songs and I'm happy to take them home in my mind and heart -- as well as the meaning of the Australian words True Blue.

The other Peter (from Penrith, you remember) permitted me to sleep in his and Ange's camper while I'm here. And Toni gave me a present, a beautiful blue shoulder bag which she had sewn herself and embroidered with the picture of a Crimson Rosella, which is a red parrot that lives here.

While we're speaking of music, here is a (of course very incomplete) list of Australian bands and singers that should be well known even in Germany:

The Bee Gees ("Staying Alive", "Words", "To Love Somebody")
AC/DC ("T.N.T", "Highway to Hell", "Thunderstruck")
INXS ("Mystify", "Devil Inside")
Men at Work ("Land Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?")
Kylie Minogue ("Locomotion", "I Should Be So Lucky")
Midnight Oil ("Beds are Burning")
Crowded House ("Don't Dream It's Over", "Weather With You")
John Farnham ("You're the Voice")
John Paul Young ("Love Is in the Air")
Natalie Imbruglia ("Torn")

Yes, they are all from Oz. I find it impressive how much great music comes from a country of a mere 20 million people.

Australian houses

2009-11-07T13:54:00.004+11:00

I wanted to share with you a few examples of Australian residential home architecture that I find beautiful, interesting and inspiring. Very different ones of course.

A lizard encounter

2009-11-05T09:07:00.003+11:00

I went for a 2-3 hour walk the other day, to a point on Sydney Harbour called Little Sirius Point. There is a small patch of bushland left over, with a walking track. It is a good little getaway from the buildings and streets of the big city, quiet and with a nice view. It is located right next to the famous Taronga Zoo on the north shore of Port Jackson.

Australia is always good for surprises and I was delighted to see more than a dozen of big lizards along that way. They are called Australian water dragons (auf deutsch Australische Wasseragame). They hold perfectly still for some time, and then all of a sudden they run away extremely swiftly. When they run, they look funny because they stretch their legs to raise their body up high. They are also good climbers and swimmers.

An Indian dinner

2009-11-02T20:07:00.003+11:00

To celebrate the selling of my car, I invited my Sydney friends for dinner. To make something different for a change, I cooked Indian style -- rice and three different curries (a vegetarian eggplant curry, an egg-tomato curry and a chicken curry). We also had poppadums with mint and chili-yoghurt sauce, sparkling wine, beer, wine, and chocolates for dessert. Cheers!

The guests were (ltr) Michael, Treska, Chris, Helen, Michael, and one more Michael. :)

Springtime in Sydney

2009-11-01T10:51:00.004+11:00

Hooray! It is getting sunnier and hotter in Sydney now every day. Spring is here, and it feels like summer already. The Jacaranda trees are now in full purple bloom. Their colour is actually even brighter in real life than it comes out in the photo.

We are also already approaching Christmas again. Santa Claus invites the drivers-by for shopping. :)

(I think his face looks Indian, possibly.)

Yesterday I was in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney, where they had a Goth street festival (Under The Blue Moon) and a Halloween Party at night. Halloween is celebrated in Australia, but not nearly as big as in America. The Australians are trying not to adopt too much American culture too quickly. The above Santa Claus may suggest otherwise, I admit. Anyway, there are NOT pumpkins everywhere here at Halloween, not like in Germany. But maybe that's also largely because it's not pumpkin season here now.

Those people dressed in black fancy Goth costumes must have been sweating in the 30+ degrees afternoon sun. I did sweat, anyway, wearing black as well for the party later on. Which was nice, they had live bands and DJs, dance performances and neo-burlesque shows, only the music was too loud for my ears.

Bahá'í Temple

2009-10-30T15:18:00.004+11:00

I took the chance to visit the Bahá'í House of Worship near Sydney, one of seven in the world. I admire the Bahá'í architecture ever since I first visited one of their temples, the famous Lotus Temple in Delhi which is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent buildings in the world.

"Bahá" in Arabian language means the number 9, and a common symbol of the religion is a nine-pointed star. It is also reflected in the fact that Bahá'í temples generally have nine sides/corners.

The temple is open and free to be visited by anyone. The interior is white and flooded with light from all sides. The mood is friendly, solemn and calm.

I found it interesting that all the chairs are two-seaters. Partner seats, so to speak. By the way, there is also a Bahá'í House of Worship in Europe: in Frankfurt, Germany.

There are about 11,000 Bahá'ís in Australia and 5,000 in Germany. Their largest population is in India: 2.2 million, followed by 750,000 in the U.S.A.

Sold my car

2009-10-29T13:19:00.003+11:00

I have successfully sold my car today!

The new owner, an Australian with a Dutch name, has paid in cash and from this minute I am again on foot and public transport...

But I am happy, the deal went very smooth and I have one less thing to worry about.

Palm Beach

2009-10-28T18:16:00.005+11:00

Today I went for a day trip to Palm Beach, which is about an hour's drive north of Sydney and very famous among the high society who lives or has a weekend house there, I was told.

Palm Beach itself is a nice beach but not much different from the other beaches, except it's maybe less commercial. The ocean surf makes swimming impossible (only body surfing, between the flags), so there are mainly surfers on surfboards there.

The much nicer beach, I found, is the lesser known Station Beach which is on the inland side of the Palm Beach peninsula, called Pittswater, which you see in this picture. It is quiet there, not a sound, and very peaceful. All of a sudden I felt like on Fiji, a few months ago. However as far as swimming is concerned, Station Beach is not suitable for it either, because of sharks and jellyfish.

From Station Beach you can walk up to the lighthouse on Barrenjoey Headland. There are two walking tracks up to the lighthouse which have an interesting history: the steep and narrow track was built by two convicts in 18-something. A second way, which is wider and paved with massive stone blocks, was built for King George VI of the UK, who had planned to come to Australia in the 1950s and visit this place. But then the king's visit was cancelled for health reasons and the "King's Highway" was left in a half finished state.

From the lighthouse, which was built in 1881, you get a magnificent view of the area. This last photo is looking South (towards Sydney), with Palm Beach on the left, facing the Pacific (you see the surf) and Station Beach on the right (with the calm water).

I was told this spot was great for whale-watching, and this was currently the right season, so I looked out for whales but didn't see any.

Anton and Fabian

2009-10-28T18:05:00.002+11:00

I finally got to meet Fabian, who is from my home town and is currently studying business in Sydney for one semester. We knew each other remotely as children but have not seen another for 20 years (and he is 24 now). His eldest sister and my younger sister are friends, and his parents and mine are closely befriended too.

His sister was here in September, but left just before I came back and so we had not met. This week Fabian's father Anton is visiting, and so I managed to see him too. We met in the city for a beer. Today Anton flies back to Germany, and in a few weeks Fabian will go on a holiday trip to New Zealand.

I just noted...

2009-10-27T08:05:00.003+11:00

...that I've used the word 'beautiful' in 4 of my last 5 postings. I guess it shows I'm in good mood, and maybe also a bit romantic about Australia. I will miss this country a lot. And I will miss all the good friends I have made here.

Now that the spring has come here and everything is fresh and green -- to think that in 3 weeks I'll be sitting in an airplane back home, into cold and grey November Germany. But of course I'm also very much looking forward to reuniting with my family and to seeing my German friends again.

I have said goodbye to Evelyn, Richard, Magdalena, Wilhelm, Mathias and Katja, who were my "Schonegg family" in Murrumbateman. I visited Peter once more, the musician, and we had a wonderful BBQ dinner at his house, with his wife Ange and their daughter, and played some more music with guitar, sitar and banjo. He also gave me a lot of great music on CDs and a very special CD, a recording of our own music session.

Now I'm back in Sydney, staying in Michael's house as before. My car has not sold yet, so I reduced the price some more.

Sulky riding

2009-10-25T13:47:00.006+11:00

We met some people in Murrumbateman who had a horse and a sulky, a lightweight two-wheel cart.

They showed us how the horse is harnessed onto the sulky, and then they invited all three of us to go on a ride!

The sulky was a beautiful old one from 1905. The horse was very pretty too, a special breed from England.

Creative Carcassonne

2009-10-24T12:59:00.005+11:00

One of the most popular games I play with Mathias and Katja is Carcassonne.

After playing for a while we started making our own extensions. Very creative. In this game we used the "Yummy extension" (played with m&m's which are placed on the fruit cards) and the "Law and order extension" (with police posts on the roads and gallows in the cities).

Our other extensions include the "Canberra extension" (with shopping centres), the "Castle wall extension", the "Australia extension", etc... The white paper cards are just first prototypes -- Mathias will make beautiful laminated cards with green background later on.

Pink Pastry

2009-10-24T12:46:00.009+11:00

Katja made this nice two-colored bisquits:

Lemon Spiral Bisquits
(makes 40 bisquits)

75 g icing sugar (Puderzucker)
150 g butter, softened
1 lemon
200 g plain flour (Mehl)
2 tablespoons milk
pink food dye (rosa Speisefarbe)

Here is the recipe

They look yummy, don't they?

100 years Burrinjuck Dam

2009-10-23T09:13:00.007+11:00

Yesterday we had two catering functions for the celebration of the 100-year anniversary of Burrinjuck Dam (ein Stausee) in the Yass District.

As you can see from the water level, Lake Burrinjuck is not too full at the moment, despite all the rain we had. But it is still a pretty lake. It serves as a water reservoir for the Yass region and for generating electricity.

The lake is located a one-hour drive from Schonegg. Evelyn and I served 'morning tea' at the dam (which means coffee, tea, soft drinks and bisquits). There were speeches and some high society was there, as well as the press and a local TV team.

The second photo shows the spectacular view in the opposite direction, from the dam wall downstream.

In the evening the event continued at a different location, at the beautiful gardens of the Glass Artist Peter Crisp, with drinks and canapés. I had the honour of the job of the barman. :)

It was a magnificent location for such a function, with flowering lavender, sculptures, a lake with a waterfall, etc. Only the flies were a bit of a plague.

There was also a harpist, a young lady from Canberra playing her beautiful instrument.

Magdalena's Gugelhupf

2009-10-21T09:14:00.007+11:00

Yesterday night the whole Everson family and I had been invited over to Magdalena's (Omi's) house for dinner. She had put all her love into this event, planning it for days, cooking for hours, and she had even baked her special famous cake, a Kaisergugelhupf with cinamon and 4 kinds of fruit in it.

The cake is also known here now as the "German Language Radio Cake" because Magdalena bakes it traditionally every year for the annual meeting of the people who are active in the Canberra German Radio programme (FM 91.1). We were also given a premiere preview of the poem that she will recite on the radio, together with Mathias and Katja, on 14th November.

Now that the weather has become nice, I could take some more photos of the beautiful scenery here. This is a hill in the distance we can see from the Schonegg terrace, in the nice evening light.

Now I'm off to do some more mowing. The grass on our property has grown so enormously from all the rain that the mower hardly gets through!

Murrumbateman Field Days

2009-10-18T15:41:00.004+11:00

This weekend (17th/18th October) Murrumbateman holds its biggest event of the year, the Murrumbateman Field Days. This is a huge open-air event, a combination of agricultural trade show (landwirtschaftliche Gewerbeschau), handicraft/machinery demonstrations, market and funfair (Volksfest). It was really very different and interesting to see.

They have lots of machinery, but also lots of farm animals -- various breed of cattle, sheep, alpacas, goats, chickens and the list goes on.

This thing here was an old steam engine vehicle, blowing steam and whistling.

We had great luck with the weather: after weeks of rain the sky finally brightened up and it became the first nice spring weekend of the year. Visitors come amass from Canberra and surroundings. The whole event took place, as the name suggests, on a field, and vistor parking was on the grass too -- but well organized and no mud thanks to the good weather.

The Eversons had a stand on the festival as well, in a tent, with brochures of Schonegg for advertisement and selling homemade gourmet jams. And our freebie were samples of a yummy apple slice (Apfelstreuselkuchen), with a copy of the recipe by Katja.

Maybe some of you in Germany would like to bake it too? The recipe is above.

Here are some cute sheep and lambs.

And these funny-looking fellows are freshly shorn alpacas. They have very soft, high quality wool -- and they can be eaten as well and taste like lamb, I have been told. They have interesting long necks and attracive faces with beautiful eyes.

Campervan for sale

2009-10-17T09:13:00.003+11:00

My campervan is now advertised on the Internet, and the first people have contacted me to see it. If you're interested, here is one of my ads.

Prawn dumplings

2009-10-14T17:35:00.003+11:00

Today I had the pleasure of making prawn dumplings (Garnelen-Teigtaschen).

Richard had prepared the filling and I did the dumpling-making. The dumplings were then simmered in hot water for 7 minutes and finally placed in cold water to cool off. (Later they will be reheated when needed.)

Donkeys

2009-10-13T14:48:00.003+11:00

Last Saturday I visited a friend who lives on a farm 20 minutes out of Canberra.

She has several donkeys and two horses, and I could take some photos because it had stopped raining for half a day.