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In the past week I have seen (and eaten) as much Asian food as I normally don't get in 3 months. On both Tuesday and Wednesday we visited an excellent Thai restaurant in Basel. On Saturday we went to a great Mongolian place, the Lotus Palast in Osnabrück where one was able to select from an extensive buffet. Today we had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant (LAN) in my home village. It was really excellent but next week I am looking forward to eating a nice nice pizza again.... :-)
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morrissette has released an acoustic version. This album features all the original songs (Ironic, Head Over Feet, You Oughta Know, Hand In My Pocket, etc). A special website is available at http://www.alanis.com/jaggedlittlepill/. My personal favorite so far: Not the Doctor. Strange, as I always disliked that song from the original album.
Today, holiday traffic converted some Autobahns into a parking lot. It's a bad thing if you're caught right in the middle of "things". In this sense, things mean Dutch Caravans and German family limousines - both stuffed to the top with baggage, beach equipment and possibly a roof rack on top.
I can tell you - it is no Fahrvergnügen to get to a meeting in Frankfurt. From Düsseldorf, tt took 4 hours to get there - 1.5 hrs longer than normal (which already includes some traffic congestions in my favorite city Cologne). Do I sound bitter? Do I sound annoyed? Not really, but if I were to write a review of German Autobahn right now it would not be fantastic. I will stop my clichéd rantings and leave you with a quote from Texas Highwayman dot com. This puts the experience it in a nutshell:
The Autobahn is the pinnacle of the German driving experience, perhaps the ultimate in driving altogether. Virtually all of the world's serious drivers have heard of it and longed to take their shot at conquering it. German cars are known for their precise engineering and craftsmanship; the Autobahn completes the driving equation.
Some people are disappointed the first time they drive on the Autobahn. They come with visions of a twenty-lane superhighway where cars are barely a blur as they whiz by. In reality, the Autobahn looks like the average freeway, and despite rumors to the contrary, not everyone is traveling at the speed of sound. And the stories of unlimited speed are only half correct-- many sections of Autobahn do have speed limits.
"[...] not everyone is travelling at the speed of sound" - I betcha...
Today, German president Köhler announced he would dissolve the parliament. New elections are now scheduled for September. In a great new mini-series "What did you do during a historic event?" you get a first, hands-on view of what Naturelich was doing:
My weekly Badminton match had just finished. It was an awful game. I did not hit a thing right and was not in the mood to get exhausted to much. My opponent and I both decided to have a monster pizza. Because after you are physically active you need to eat a lot. We don't want to loose weight here! We therefore sat down with an Apfelschorle and a nice pizza. Above the pool and fußball-tables they had a TV set running. We therefore saw Köhler's announcement but did not really hear a thing. And stupid TV did not even have subtitles for the hearing impaired (e.g. a tabloid like: Köhler says YEEEEESSSS).
So it was not before 21:00 hrs that I go the real story. The election is up and if things go the way everyone expects Germany will get the first female chancellor in history.
To commemorate this, the Rolling Stones have already written a song a couple of years ago which puts my feelings in a nutshell :-) ...
Angie lyrics (c) Rolling Stones
Angie Angie
when will those clouds all disappear
Angie Angie
where will it lead us from here
With no loving in our souls
and no money in our coats
you can't say we're satisfied
but Angie Angie
you can't say we never tried
Angie you're beautiful yea
but ain't it time we said goodbye
Angie I still love you
remember all those nights we cried
All the dreams we held so close
seemed to all go up in smoke
let me whisper in you ear
Angie Angie
where will it lead us from here
Oh Angie don't you weep
all your kisses still taste sweet
I hate that sadness in your eyes
but Angie Angie
ain't it time we said goodbye
With no loving in our souls
and no money in our coats
you can't say we're satisfied
But Angie I still love you baby
everywhere I look I see your eyes
but there ain't a woman that comes close to you
come on baby dry your eyes
Angie Angie
ain't it good to be alive
Angie Angie
they can't say we never tried
Here are some photographs from the concert in Cologne.
Love of my life
Please link to this page - do NOT transpublish the images.
The stage
The stage (again)
Love of my life
Close up
Solo Brian May
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Queen + Pau lRodgers on stage together with Cologne's We Will Rock You musical cast
Today I enjoyed one hour of badminton. It was a very long (read: hot) hour. The sports center opened their roof for the heat to come and join our game. It was about 27°C although it felt like the temperature increased by .5 degrees every 5 minutes.
Naturelich is really improving his play (although V is still faster and better than me but it is not as bad as the first few times). We enjoyed several really cool rallies. I was just glad to reach the shower alive.... :D
I have added an abbreviated index view for my category archives. Those category archive pages have become really long. As many entries in this blog contain one or more images, these archives cause a lot of network traffic on the server. In addition the site rebuild process takes a while.
I have used hints by jotsheet blog who provide an optimized the category archive template.
I am off to Barcelona for the weekend enjoying a stay at the Hotel La Florida.
These two pictures show the view from the room over the city. During the three days here we did not have the chance to see much from the city. We took a three hour sightseeing bus tour through the city and enjoyed (an equally long) dinner at the Barceloneta restaurant. I could have eaten Tapas all night long. They were just marvelous. The rest of the days we have been pretty stationary inside the hotel. We are now sitting near the pool on the terrace enjoying the nice view over the city. The weather has cleared up only a few hours ago. Friday and Saturday was rainy or at least cloudy. The flight home leaves at 20.40 tonight so I will only be home at twenty-three-something.
Today, the greatly anticipated concert by Queen + Paul Rodgers was held in Cologne's Rhein Energie stadium.
We arrived pretty early at 18:00 hrs and bought some tour t-shirts. They're kind of a must as you don't know whether Queen will ever tour again. Almost immediately after we had picked our spot inside of the arena the heavens opened and rain poured down on us. We got ourselves a rain"coat" for EUR 3,- each which helped a little. But not much. Really. It was not (only) us, the entire crowd was really bothered by the ugly weather. It stopped raining for a while but dark clouds were right above us. Probably that's why Queen + Paul Rodgers started playing at 20:00 hrs. As always on this tour, there was no supporting act. Unfortunately, both facts kind of lead to a very boring kick-off. The crowd was not heating up at all. Brian May and Paul Rodgers were looking at each other in disbelief. The crowd was simply quiet. Some friendly applause after the song, but almost no one sang along, or clapped their hands or anything. Maybe most visitors were just to old for that and had forgotten how it is to participate in a rock concert. Anyway we tried our best to cheer everyone around us up but it did not really help.
The concert was floating forward until the rain began again. The sunlight was almost gone now and darkness surrounded us. Maybe both wet and darkness inspired some people to go along. Because all of a sudden the mood was changing and the crowd got more enthusiastic. Finally. Pheeeew. It would've been a disaster if they had not.
The rest of the concert was fabulous, although Paul Rodgers seemed to have some problems with his voice. But anyway, it was a great thing to see Queen live - at least once in my life...
A particular special was We Will Rock You. Since the German version of the musical is hosted in Cologne, the actors joined Queen for this song. It was kind of cool to see so many people on stage - their outfit was really great. They also added some additional spice to the song.
Click below to see the setlist. I will also add some pictures, once they are provided to me by a special someone... :-)
Welcome to the month of July. This Quintilis Veer's Clipart wallpaper serves as a new desktop background. Is this really a play on words? Maybe it's just too obvious for me...
... can lead to some issues...
I was thinking about providing alternative blog entry titles for this one:
...more suggestions are welcome...
Naturelich blog just turned one year old. It all started on July 4th, 2004, slightly after midnight with a rather distorted post.
The 4th of July in history:
What do computer nerds do if they break up with there girl friend? Here you go...
http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/tetka.html
But try to be nice to her!!
The Live8 concert in Berlin has started. Die Toten Hosen started off. In Germany, the event is broadcast by Phoenix.
Make your voice heard by clicking here.
Here are more supplemental pictures to the U2 concert in Gelsenkirchen. Read Naturelich's original entry here.
The stage
The stage (2)
The crowd
After the show
I just tuned in to AOL music. They feature an All Metallica radio stattion. 24/7 Metallica. The station is also going to play rare B-sides and live material from the Madly In Anger World Tour. The first four songs I tuned into were Master of Puppets, Sweet Amber, Overkill and Blackened (LiveMetallica.com, Denver 31st March 2004) . Quite an interesting mixture. I am pretty sure, listening 24/7 to Metallica is pretty dumb - even for hardcore fans. The live tracks and B-sides will be a clear incentive to turn in every know and then. It's good to know that someone is always playing one of your favorite songs....
Click here to launch All Metallica radio (requires installation of an ActiveX plugin)