Weirdness

Whilst in Greece people and nature are suffering from the greatest heat in 100 years... I had to put on the heating this morning in the office!

I´m sitting here in a T-Shirt... that I wear under a long, thicker pullover! Summer, where are you? Don´t you know that my holiday is just starting???? Come on back here!
I planned so many outdoor-activities!

Moonlightshopping

I´m still planning our holidays in my town. On Saturday the 7th the shops are open ´til midnight. Not only that, amongst other things they will build up three telescopes to watch the sky. But I doubt you can see much ´cause of the city lights (Ingo has my fathers Celestron C-14 telescope and since the new filling station is there, some kilometres away, it´s no use anymore, it´s too light now).

Anyway! On that night you can buy this one, it´s a key ring and you get an engraving for free (ok, I can do that myself, there is a machine for it at my families´ place) - but bottom line: Isn´t that just beautiful???
(The lion is the symbol of Brunswick due to Duke Henry The Lion who also lived and reigned here, here (german) you see the original monument)



Just what do I want to have engraved there?

Australia and Italy

... the connection will never break for us, Ingo´s spell will remain, I guess!
(The navigation is not up-to-date, I will work on it. You can go on ´til July, though, using the "back to..."-button)

Here in Paul Baggaley´s blog I found this article about Coffee Downunder, amongst it it says, "What is unique is that, outside Italy, the Australian and New Zealand café markets are the only other 100% espresso-based markets in the world! Yep, Ingo, here you have it, again...

Whilst roaming around in the world here, I also found the "Tim Tam Slam! on Daniel Bowens site. Sad thing we couldn´t take the Tim Tams Deanne gave us here to germany to try that! Looks like making a real mess! :-)

Holiday resumee

Will you believe that?! I am eating shrimp/prawns! ME!

It was a nice little holiday in Husum, though a little bit Theodor Storm-weighted...
It was just weird! Husum is very far in the north, usually no good weather. That weekend whole Germany was drained in rain, but we had the sunniest days! Too much actually, my sun-allergy broke loose.

We made a guided tour, visited the museums and learned about low and high tide and the Halligs. Ingo had the time of his life, considering the food, he had fish all the time.
The meals were so big, a juniors´ size was too large for me. The Labskaus was the most delicious one and we went to share one meal with Ingo having the Rollmops (I tried, eeek!).

Hmmm, yummy:



The apartment was nice, too (though we were hardly there) - first time we had fresh flowers!

On the last day we went to see the seals. We were only allowed to see the grown-ups, though. I put some pics here at flickr.

Holiday planning

(you can click to enlarge)
That´s what I´m doing at the moment. The first two weeks of July we take off for a holiday in the Kitchen of Ideas.

I admit, I live here for six years now. So far I only attended two guided tours, the regular one with my working team and the "tour of curiosities" with Ingo. We also went on a boat-tour, the Oker runs through town and the guide told us interesting storys on the way.
That we wanna do again, it was just great!

Since we´re City of Science 2007 there are also experimental tours through town available, we wanna attend, too. We will visit some of the research centres that are open to public. With the "night-watchman" you can make a tour through the old Magniviertel. There are many museums we haven´t visited yet. Some adventure parcours (ok, actually for kids, but I bet fun for us, too). There is the small local zoo to discover and much more.

On my research I found this very big sounding piece describing the town I live in and want to get to know better:

---

Delicious knowledge from Braunschweig...

Did you know that in the research region Braunschweig...

• ...the time is made? As well as the measuring units metre, kilogramme and volt?


• ...”Carolo”, the smallest powered unmanned aircraft in the world, was developed?


• ...a remedy for cancer was discovered?


• ...Europe’s second largest research airport is located?


• ...patent applications for the large number of inventions per year put Braunschweig into the seventh place nationwide.


• ...4 % of all employees are academics, the highest ratio in Europe.


• ...science, economy, culture and city are “cooking” together, namely using innovative recipes and ingredients to provide excellent cooperation?

---

Sounds like a great town for a holiday!

On their site I also found this interactive, three-dimensional research landscape, where you can discover the region’s scientific, research and teaching institutions, really interesting (to the right).

Well, get back to planning now, there are so many places to discover...

Helios

They built the world-best field robot, the students of the TU Brunswick, this article (german) says!

They showed their robot, Helios, on the championship in the Netherlands. Students from manufacturing systems engineering, electrical engineering and computer science worked together on the project.

Helios went through 12 swingleing rows of corn on his own. Next he had a parcours of 36 rows with handicaps in the way.
The third challenge was finding and destroying weeds - here the students got creative: instead of using pesticide they sprayed deodorant, well...

For the last challenge the students were free to choose what to do and I think it´s kinda sweet as well as uncanny with what they came up:
They built a garage for the robot, that they positioned beside the field where he works. In bad weather or when the job is done, he self-contained seeks his "shelter". He opens the door, goes in, closes the door and docks at the recharger, all by himself.

Ummm. Somehow I expect a light in there and maybe TV or Internet. Poor Helios, sittin´ there all alone.

Solar Hot Dogs

The school kids in my neighbourhood heat their sausages now with solar energy, what a good idea!
On the environmental childrens day they also sold Hot Dogs (german). At the end they could hand over 100 Euros to the school council , the money goes to partner schools in El Salvador. It´s the tenth year now that they take part in the environmental week.

Quality

Awwww, what is this?!

I just went to the fridge and found my poor seahorse and the equally poor shrimp (or crab?) hanging upside down like this (you can click to enlarge if you can´t find the poor things - I just realize I can throw the note to pick up my colleague away, too... why was that so late anyhow?! 7:45?! I´m just too well-tempered...)!



Now, alright. It´s nearly eleven in the evening, I have the window wide open and it´s still hot and sticky, just like last year (deep inside I go YES!!! - but for real it´s a little scary, not normal).

Is it bad quality what I bought? Or is it really just too hot for the material produced for Germany?

Here is the crab, looking still happily in the camera, not knowing it´s hanging upside down, what do crabs know, anyway? (click to enlarge this one and see my brother "eating"!!! :-) - blue frame - I´m happy you can´t see who´s in the green one! Umm.. don´t click the first pic... outch... me? nahh ...):

I need a BREAK

I do love summer, really. But sometimes it´s hard when you cannot close the window. 5th floor to the south, the heat comes in.
The last working days the town sent people here to trim the green.

You remember the "old" days when you used a rake to gather greenery and leaves? Ohhhh, looong time ago. They use blowers now. For those they need compressors. One guy works with a hedge shears, the other - about five men or so! - blow the stuff away. For days!
You know those vehicles that clean up the roads? They´re here, too. Beeping and making a hell of a noise.

How are we supposed to concentrate on our jobs?

And you can´t see any progress, really!

Pure employment-creation measure, that´s it. So they can say, the number of unemployed people has decreased.
Though they really, really GO ON MY NERVES, I feel sorry for them. Making a stupid, progressless job, annoying people and for what? For making better numbers in politics. Some even don´t wear ear-protection!

Pleeease, go home guys!

The guys above us who shift furniture (or whatever) really are enough already...

Highway-Songs

I just found this study (german) of a polling firm. They searched for the top ten-songs heard while driving: 27% of german and 36% of european people listen to Queen´s "Bohemian Rhapsody" making it number one in this hitlist!

Yay for Freddie Mercury!

Safe ´n fun

Ingo couldn´t understand my fear of the training for drivers. I understand that now! Though... he never had had an accident, never was just a passenger in his own car...

My brother and I went to the training. I was the only woman who had an attendant - I was the only woman who paid for that training. All the others got it as a present and none of them had ever had an accident. They looked at me in a pitiful way, because my voice was shaking when I told the trainer about the accident (we were to say why we were doing the training).

First we practiced slalom driving.

Next full braking. I was so afraid of that. I thought the car would go anywhere! First we tried at only 20 km/h.
I was the only one who really did it! My brother made me feel confident.
Next at 40, then at 70 km/h.
There was a girl who had an old car without anti-lock braking system and she didn´t get it done. The trainer asked me to show her! No more pitiful looks for me!

In Hannover they have very modern facilities. We had water fountains, that suddenly shoot in the sky and you have to brake and navigate at the same time, they simulated driving on an icy road. They even simulated how it feels when somebody drives into you - that was really tough! In the end I managed to get the car back on the road - but that was only at 35 km/h and I knew when and from which side the bang came. In reality I would be lost, it really felt dramatic!

After I lost my fear, it was really fun, my brother was just right!

It was a training for women only and man, we really had a "blonde" woman there (I don´t wanna harm anyone, but she really was that woman from the stupid jokes about blonde women!). Gosh, she was so stupid!

But apart from that it was very good, very helpful and really fun. I only hope I never have to use any of this newly gained skills!

Up and away II

Nearly 11 in the evening. I´m sitting here with the fan on - directed on my computer - no sun but warm - hot! -, wet weather over here.

I arrived Tuesday evening and have just packed again, leaving tomorrow.

My brother was here this evening again. We had serious and also fun talk and a Pizza. I just overworked all the pics from our little holiday in Husum (will probably post about it next week), will go to Ingo tomorrow after work and on Saturday I´m off to Hannover with my brother...
The training for drivers is on schedule. I chose the one "for women", how a male colleague advised me. I´m so very much afraid already. My brother said, hey, it´ll be fun. He takes the whole day off (it´s from 09:00 to 06:00) despite having a new girlfriend - I hope she doesn´t hate me already...

Ingo would just make me nervous - what if I simply don´t have the courage to do what is expected for me to do? Fun???? Nahhh....

Well, I´ll see. I always hold a huge distance to the car/truck in front of me anyway now and I seldom go faster than 100 km/h since the accident on my birthday in January. You´re not faster in matters of time anyway on such short distances like 40 or 100 km - but you save money.
Maybe the accident was a good thing after all (and I got a better company car for the same price and in my favorite color! Though it "hurts" when my colleagues say, hey, when you get to dislike this car, too, simply crash it...).

Aww... if it was only Saturday evening already! On the other hand... I did some .. over 8000 km since then already on my own. We´ll see.
I turn off the computer now, grab a book and try to get calm for the night (cool won´t be possible... it´s stuffy. But better that than cold!)...

Up and away

Stuff is packed, plants are watered and I´m off now to Ingo.
Tomorrow morning we then head off to Husum (german).

Weatherforecast says warm to hot, but rainy. Aw, well. For people with a sun-allergy that sounds actually good.
Have a hat and Aussie-Sunscreen with me anyway.

I hope we´ll have a lot of fun, I´m already curious to see the seal-babies. We go the upbringing-station in Friedrichskoog (german, but with pics) - I guess they´re also called abandoned seal pups, which we call "Heuler".

Well, I switch off everything now and hope not to run in another traffic jam (in some parts of Germany there is a public holiday tomorrow)...

What a challenge

If I was young again... well. I would probably miss some of the greatest things that had already happened in my life - and I don´t want to do that!!!!

But for once I would know what to study! Brunswick offers a new course of studies at the technical university, "Transportation Design" (german). It´s all about mobility and traffic.

How will the cars in the future look like? Will they be as eco-friendly as bus and railroad or even like push-bikes? Will we fly for prices you pay for a taxi? How do you behave clever in a traffic jam (I needed 1 3/4 hours for 40 kilometres today due to a new construction site! Argh!). What kind of instruments might help us navigating best through traffic, how can you get rid of unnecessary traffic?

Experts from civil engineering, engine construction, electrical engineering (a job for Ingo?), information engineering (I could probably hop in, too?), mathematics (not at all my thing), computer sciences, economics and social science are involved!

They can use the Braunschweig Research Airport, the only one in Germany, and heaps of innovative companies are with them, too!

What chances!

What an exciting and helpful job!

(Pic from Braunschweig Research Airport, hope that´s all right to use)

I know this!

I was browsing along and stumbled over a photo site using HDR or High Dynamic Range, which makes pics look amazingly dynamic, and I thought, hey, I know this view!



Yep, that´s Riddagshausen, part of my town, those guys (german) are sitting here! (You can click to enlarge their pic). Just browse around in their categories (Kategorien) - it´s worth a look!

Riddagshausen is called the "gem" at the border of Brunswick (german) - when you see the galery, you wouldn´t believe I can get there by bike easily...

The HDR-people say soon they will give instructions on how to use that technique in an easy way - maybe I get a clue - I think it makes fantastic pics!

I´m walking....

If that happens to you here... no worries. Chances are likely that some brunswick guy will stop and help ya.
(Is the ad known over the borders of Germany? To "I´m walking" a man is walking to the next Shell-patrol-station with an empty jerry can).

Just as happened here (german). An elderly couple, the Hellers, ran out of petrol. The man couldn´t refill the tank, since his money card was out of order.

So, his wife took a jerry can and made her way to the side of the highway.
People paced by.
A guy from my town, Muesluem Soezer, stopped and send his colleague to give her the five litres of petrol he had in his jerry can.
The woman came towards his car and he asked, if she needed money for a refill.
He gave her 30 Euros and his business card.

When her husband tried to give the money back, he failed. Obviously Mr Soezer had given a wrong account number.

Mr Heller went to the german and the turkish brunswick newspapers to find his helper. Now even TV shows interest in the story.

Mr Soezer, doesn´t understand all the fuss about it. He said, "I just did something normal - I helped".

I dunno.... If I was alone in the car, I would not have stopped. It might be a trick (ok, that woman was over 80 years of age, but who knows? And, btw I am definitively for a drivers test from age 60 on, like I think it is in the US). Would I drive with someone, would I helped out, trusting those people to give me the money back? 30 Euros is some money! That would be around 48 australian or 40 us dollars.

Would you give so much money trustingly away to strangers? Would you have stopped at all?

I sure would be so very much thankful for help but would I go to the newspapers to find my helper? I wouldn´t have guessed a newspaper would be interested - but even TV is!
So now I know newspapers would probably help in such a case.
And I know there are helpers outside, not everybody is bad! :-)

Jam

Rather not this one, but traffic jam made our lives not so funny this weekend! It took me over two hours to get to my family - it´s only some 105km!

It took Ingo one hour to come there, too - for some 8km! Yes, eight kilometers!

So many construction sites on the route, it´s simply unbelievable. Back to work today in 1 3/4 hours, I just hate it!

And it looks so stupid! Car after car after car is standing on the highway - in both directions! On Wednesday I drive back - I will not take the highway for the last part!

On Wednesday? Yep, Ingo planned a little holiday, we´ll be off to Husum then - a town at the North Sea. We´ll even go on a cutter and shell prawns. Well, Ingo will. I´ll probably only watch...

Funny Friday

And it is funny, with what Sarah came up!

I sat here in my morning break and could only read bits at a time, otherwise I would have started to giggle sillily. Have a look!

Soon I´m off to my family and then to Ingo. Seems he´s got problems going online. So, after quite a time now we will probably have an "offline-weekend", ah well.