For all the people asking me what an AIBO is ... *g* (Check out: http://www.sony.net/Products/aibo/ for more information!!) - They are soooooo damned cool!  

A lost picture: Sandra & me on the way back to Sydney ... Her last day in Sydney - but afaik she reaaaaallly liked it...

What a cool time ... Babsi & Uli here in Sydney!! So much fun!! They are still around in Australia... Take care ... (There is still a bottle of wine in my fridge!! - You have to come back!!) *g* 

Updaaaaate ... Long time ago ...

Hello World ...
No that is not the first attempt to create a first application with a new technology ;) ... I just didn't know how else I could start the new blog!!

I hope everything is fine and you all enjoy your way of life so far. Over here - far, far away from home I am still working as usual and starting to enjoy that amazing city. Life and time are changing and I already started to build my own litte friend-circle around Sydney. It is indeed a lot of fun, going out, smashing parties (special thanks to Irene for all the amaaaaaazing parties until late at night - I left saturday morning at 6:30 am!!) and just meeting new people here. To be honest it is more difficult than I thought at the beginning. A lot of the people you meet over here are really nice, but conversations are most of the time just on the surface. But still I like it ... So much !!!! I've just extended my contract within my old appartment. Means: I am still stuck directly in the city, but also that has a lot of advantages. I don't need a car (hehe ... I am not able to play the "driver") and you are so close to everything. Ok ok ... it is expensive and the real reason was that I couldn't find a better apartment in the meanwhile. I had a look at other apartments (most of the time furnitured ones) and they were really crappy ... Holy ... Old / ugly and not my style (if I have one) at all. Anyway ... The owner is happy to rent his apartment for another 3 months to a stupid german and I am happy not to sleep on the street.

Ha ... another funny story: Maybe it is because of my dedicated use of the so called brain, but I just realized that it is stupid to pay for an apartment on a weekly basis. Unfortunately they always do it over here like that. If you think about it, you will recognize, that in the end you are paying 13 month instead. That suXXs!! Really pissed off now :~( ...

My fight with Anita - you may know her from the first part. I am still searching for the "customer-is-the-king" way of thinking. I don't think they know what that is, but anyway.
There are just so many thinks different over here. Please don't ask me if this is an advantage or not: I don't know - I am still trying to figure that out.

Yeah ... I've changed projects and I am currently working in the city ... This means 10 minutes to/from work. That is lovely *g* ... Colleagues are nice and I am still learning every day. I've had an interview, where a 32 year old guy tried to join our company. Unfortunately I had the damned job to take over the technical interview. Sounds like a lot of fun, but it is not - believe me!!So - there we are - he had a MBA and 2 Bachelor degrees ... Where the hell did he take the time to do all that stuff?! Lessons learned here: Some people are sooooo keen on getting thousands of certificates, but are not able facing the client or solving something in a team. The funniest part is, that not long time ago I was in the role of the poor little guy, who was asked stupid questions, fighting for every cent and in the end wondering what they may talk once I was outside of the room?! I always try to be very nice - and I assume people who know me will support me herewith - but unfortunately in that case I was lost. It was really a pleasure to read his CV and he would have been such a nice person, but - honestly - he was not able to answer really simple questions. I felt so sorry for him. I know, i know: life is hard. On the other hand, today I am proud to announce, that we've hired 2 new consultants and they will start soon within our little family.

Let's change back to the important things in life: Pleasure. I went to the cinema last week and watched the german movie "The Downfall" - wow ... what an intense movie. At the end I have to admit, that I kinda liked it, as it always reminds you of the things happened earlier in this world. Especially recognizing that someone like Hitler's secretary was really a part of that movie made it a little bit more realistic. She just died 2 years ago!

Hmm anyway I was soooo frustrated that I had to empty my brain afterwards. With that hidden agenda, I went to see my friends and we had a lot of fun. (I think I've mentioned the party somewhere a little earlier!)Friends of mine (I met them in Manila settled down here in Sydney last december) and they are now living just on the other side of the harbour bridge. (You can imagine that it is a good excercise to reduce the alcohol by walking back home.)But wow - wow - wow ... Such a nice place. Not even that I can think of being able to just afford the door bell - it is just an unbelieveable nice "home" ... further on I think it has one of the nicest views of Sydney, facing the Harbour Bridge and the Opera. After that I recognized, that I should start saving my money instead of spending it for stupid gadgets (After Xen announced the idea of buying the AIBO, I am still fighting with myself to get one as well).I met very interesting people there and I am already looking forward to go out with them soooon again.

Last week I also had some visitors from Germany in my apartment. After cleaning up my apartment for about 2 days (You can not imagine how dirty it was) - I was finally able to welcome them in a fresh & clean environment. I even got compliments for how clean it is *hehe* ... So we three went around in the city, enjoyed the night life of Sydney, went shopping and had all in all a lot of fun. To come back to my "clean" apartment: It was clean for the next 15 minutes, until they both opened their suitcases and took out about 15 pairs of shoes and made one line from the door up to the living room! I tried to compete, but as you can imagine: Men will always lose ;) After discovering a lot of nice little places, drinking 7 bottles of red wine (in 6 days) + further alcoholic drinks, they both sytarted with their big tour, heading north to discover the beauty of australian men ("uuuuhhhhh there is another surfer ...") and hopefully sometimes some exciting, and nice places within the landscape.

I will post some more pictures soon :) ...

There is another big event coming up soon, but unfortunately I might not be able to be there *sniff* ... Oetzi's & Kathl's wedding.
I would have loved to fly back to see them getting married as it is one of the most exciting events in this year. (Once the wedding was announced, all the people started to talk about it ...) Even if I can not be with you at this glorious day - I wish both of you all the best and we will do the big party then later on.

I've already asked for my holiday in September to go back to Germany to attend to a bigggggg party there. Do you know already what it is?! Yeah of course: The famous Oktoberfest *yippie* ... James and Xen already announced, that they will come over and we will have a great weekend there. Racing the "Autobahn" - going shopping (Xen: please come with an empty suitcase) and of course doing all the intellectual stuff like experiencing how alcohol affects the way of talking and decreasing the ability to move the body correctly. That is a quite interesting theory and I am searching for a solution since a long time already.

What else happened:
Great Barrier Reed: Not sure if I've mentioned it already, but I was out on the GBR for a couple of days at the beginning of last month. Great trip!! Even so diving - as it is supposed to be the best place in the world to dive - NO ... Honestly spoken I think the Philippines are at least on the same niveau. Nevertheless, We had some really amazingly nice dive trips there. One night dive where we were able to swim without torches, because the moon was so bright, everything was covered in that bright-blue-black color. Diving through tunnels, discovering sleeping turtles or just passing by sharks - looking at you with that little red dot in their eyes, reflecting the gleam of the torches. THAT WAS SOOOOO COOOOOLLLL.

Even so I am getting sea sick quite easily, I was able to fight against it. Beside of the first long trip (4 hrs) - the boat was going up to 45 degrees and almost everyone spend the time close to the reiling. So we've spent 3 days on that boat, with a damned cool crew and a lot of nice people. After going out until 4 am in the morning and catching the plane (which I would have missed without the help of ED - THANKS AGAIN!!!) I had to go back to work. I still thought I was on the boat and the waves are just shaking my head around and around. buahhh...

Finally four - yes 4 loooong days afterwards it was over.

That's it folks ... Talk 2 u soon!!
Take care & grEEtz
Ste[ph]an

James in Sydney .... What a great time!! On the pictures: Ana, Charles, James and me ...  

Some snapshots from Germany ... My cute sister, my cousin, friends of mine and of course ... skiiiiiiiiiing ...