Kung Hei Fat Choi!

And so we start the 4703rd year of the chinese calendar. Yes, as of today, we are living in the year of the dog (woof!). What else does one do to celebrate the new year? Check out this link.

And to celebrate such occasion, we have accordingly brought in a special pet. "Welcome back to Mainz" goes out to Paolo (el sardo, el cerdo...) !!
He is currently awaiting his bus from Hahn airport, and assuming the bus driver decides to stop there this time (not like my trip last year), he should be arriving here within the next hour.

For those of you still believing that the quality of food here in Germany is still one of the best, have a look at the following site (in german) about all the problems with sale of out-of-date meat, that you probably hadn't even heard about (they do well about keeping all this news with the realms of the national border).

And now for something completely different.
A well known preservative maker carried out their annual survey on the subject of S (make sure the children are outside) E (close the curtains and stop the neighbours peeking in) X (lay down the rug in front of the warm fire). And the 2005 year's results show...
...well you'll just have to check the site out here and find out for yourself :)

And last but not least, if you're feeling like stargazing over the following week, and the weather is just not being kind, don't dispair. NASA has created a great diversion, in that they've sent a spacesuit out into space relaying a message every 30 seconds. You can listen in to it as from Feb 3rd, tuning in to 145.990 MHz FM (may need a special radio to pick up such a frequency). They even offer certificates to people who here the message, and prizes if you decipher the picture. So get your antennas pointing skywards now !

Well, the snow's stopped falling, the ground's still frozen, and the sun even comes out for a bit (although now it's nightime anyway). So, wrap up well, and tune in again, same time (plus or minus a few days), same place (virtually).

Bye for now

I'm sorry Lou

In my list of erasmosian movements, I commited an awful mistake. Yes, I'm sad to say that I forgot to mention Lou.
After a few chats with her I did in fact know all the latest news. Unfortunately, with a mind like a seive, I forgot it when it came to writing it down. Now I hope I'm making it up to her :)
She is currently teaching in Madrid, making sure the youth of today gets brought up proper.
Last weekend she went on a bit of an outing, to the Pyrenees with another member of this special group, to whom I've given the nickname of "friends" (the group, not the member). Yes, Albé was also there, obviously showing his male prowess by climbing the highest mountains without any gear, and in fact, without any clothes (that's how man he is). Lou has promised me that I'll get a look at the photos soon, although upon second thoughts, could you leave out the one's of Albé please...

What else has been happening? Well, you've no doubt heard about a couple of whales this week. Firstly, one decided to go for a short holiday to London, and visit the Queen, or Tony Blair (actually, probably not him). After doing the sightseeing tour of the houses of parliament (but not opting to go up in the London Eye) the whale got a bit stressed out by all the commotion (or the parking tickets it kept getting) and died (late addition: apprently it died of dehydration).
Of course, when a whale dies on the shores of the UK, the queen get's to bagsy (first offer) the corpse. In this case, I don't think she wanted any more blubber in Buckingham Palace.

Another whale also made it into the news, but this one was dead before it became famous. Greenpeace decided to take the (naturally) dead whale corpse, and leave it outside the Japanese Embassy in Berlin, demonstrating that whales also die naturally.

On a leaving note, did you know that websites like Google store personal information, which is now being requested by the US government? I thought not. 77% of people didn't know that, but it's true. And it gets worse; the MSN and Yahoo! search engines have been told to hand over user search requests, and they caved in without even trying to resist. Something for you to ponder about.

Surf safe...

Catching Up With The Jones'

No sooner had I put pen to paper last week (ok, finger to keyboard) than a flurry of responses to my new year's mail came in. So in no particular order, let's round up what's been happening...

From my gap year, Olaf and Valentina are expecting a child (ok, Valentina's expecting it, Olaf will just pretend to be pushing when he/she is born :)
Arjan and (insert wife's name here) are also doing fine, working across the desk from Olaf.

Regarding Erasmus friend's...Elisa has gone back to Madrid after finishing her work in a bank in Frankfurt.
Miquel has finished his physics studies and is now considering his possibilities (whilst using every opportunity to complement Ana :)
Gloria is still in Munich teaching away, Elena P being not far away across the border in an austrian village working as well.
Luca is finishing off his master's thesis, Mavi spent New Year's in Cuba (lucky her!) but is now back to teaching children how to do maths in Valencian...
Jaume is doing a doctorate in Valencia, as is José (Marques).
Albakra is preparing for his final exams, whilst working away with his heavy metal. Albé is also working, although I'm not sure where...
Javi is doing a masters and working his way up the ladder to become a certified spaniard (well, ok, to become an embassy representative of said country). Elena C is also in exactly the same situation (they even have the same russian class...).
Juanfran has gone down south (not Australia, rather southern Spain). He now works and resides in a town not far from the border with Portugal (probably eating fish all day long).
Carlitos, Roberto, Ali and Luigi are all still doing their bit to help out german nuclear physics research, whilst Fernando is teaching students in Valencia, and Paolo is doing his doctorate there.
Laurent is currently in (insert current dangerous country here), Leanna is in Rio , Jordi is recovering from a bout of the flu and Olga is getting ready for more psychology exams.

From uni, Kathy is back from her stint in Fiji and Australia and is now settling back to the Londoner's way of life (read, party).
Scott, Andy and Andrew are all continuing with their doctorate's, wondering when it will all end...
Helen is busy being famous on TV shows and the like, promoting physics.

My parents are finally ready to move onto a narrow boat, and are renting out their house in the lovely city of Bath (for more information, please see the contact page :)

So that's the current state of things, updates will be posted when the rest of you get back to me and tell me what you've being doing.

And with that, I'll love you and leave you (only in the metaphorical sense).

New Year's Resolution

Okay, might as well get it over with now. Those of you who have been wondering why I haven't written here for such a long time can let it all out (although why nobody thought to email me asking what was the matter, I do not know...),

Yes, I am finally back at it (the writing that is). After nearly half a year of break (and no, it wasn't a holiday, although I wish it was) I have started the year off by resolving to devote more time to writing here, and hopefully bring up the quality of the posts :)

So what have I been up to during this period? Well, I know I'm not that good at remembering things (probably the reason I find it necessary to write here :) but a few of the reasons could have been lots of work, moving house, red tape, no internet connection, and being operated on.

What's much more interesting is what have you all been up to? I know various people have taken the Christmas opportunity to go back home to see their family, whilst others have decided to move completely, changing jobs, studies and marital status...

But enough of the past, it's 2006, so let's look to the future...

This year finds many of my old schoolfriends tying the knot, with Amir, Will and Nick all deciding this summer is the time to get hitched, before their other halves have time to think it through :) Also this summer will see my brother Dug getting together with the lovely Gem. I'll of course try my best to get the best snaps of said occasion, however if he goes through with forcing me to wear that bright pink suit with green neck-tie I might have to make other arrangements...

As well as marriages, this year sees many new entries into the family scene. Yep, Gemma, Mar and Clara are all expexting little nippers later on.

So what else are we to expect in the next twelve months? You might not have failed to notice that the World Cup 2006 will take place in Germany. What does this mean? Well, firstly that the flight prices are going to go through the roof. The big cities will also be overcrowded, and the TV is going to lose any other interesting programs it had preprogrammed. Of course, the question remains unanswered as to whether the host nation will get very far, or whether England repeats it's 1966 show and brings football home again...

Now I think it's time to let you get back on with your Saturday afternoon shopping (in Germany - shops close soon) TV watching (in the UK - some important premiership matches on at the moment) or just relaxing (rest of the world).

See you soon...