Me Singing

No no, don't be afraid, I'm not posting a video of me singing... Probably pretty funny though..
Quite recently, while hanging around in the internet I discovered the most amazing voice for a long while.
The girl is called Esmee Denters, dutch and like 18-19 years old. It all started up for her with posting a first video in the internet with her singing in front of her computer. That one actually got pretty big in the internet and she got invitations to TV shows and all those things.
Later on, the artists, whose songs she was singing, got to know about her, listened to her and now she is performing with them. As far as I know, she just signed a deal with a record company..
Good to see that not only commercial pop idol TV superheros make their way into the music industry..
So put up the volume and listen...

WEGMAISSELN

Again, again it was time for the maissels weissbier festival. This beer festival is one of the biggest parties in Bayreuth and has quite some potential (ordentlich Potenzial).
Every year the organizers invite some great bands or artists from the past and give them a little chance to play in front of an awesome crowd (US!!). After inviting Bonnie Tyler last year, we had the great pleasure of being entertained by uriah heep this year. They made some well-known songs like lady in black (and so on).
We had extremely much fun and enjoyed the party with Drew & Xavier (from Cornell) and Aline (from France). Drew made all the long way to stay in our lab for two weeks and he came at exactly the right time - the beer party time..
See some pics below

Photos online

Check out some more pictures of my Australia trip following the photoalbum link...
Mainly sydney, surroundings and tropical northern queensland.

Watch the TV ad here.. They don't mention the stinger season.. I wonder why.?

Back in Bayreuth

Well, Well, my holidays are over and I'm back in Bayreuth. Fortunately, it was pretty sunny the last days and thus the change from Australia wasn't too hard... still pretty tough.. :-(

One of the worst results of my australia trip is that I am officially broke.. I've been spending like almost all of my money there. And the rest got invested into electronic gadgets in singapore. I'm now a happy owner of a Thinkpad T60 notebook..

Find some pictures from Singapore below..

Bread and water for dinner tonight, donations are welcome... :-)

Tsunami and more

As we learned yesterday night in the news, a tsunami warning had been issued for the east coast of Australia. And indeed quite a few people in cairns jumped into their cars and went to the hinterland (a nice aussie-german word). Even BONDI beach was evacuated.. I guess there were still some surfers in the water waiting for the most perfect (and probably) last wave of their life.

Brave and without any news of the earthquake, we had anyway started our trip to the outer reef in the early morning. The sea was pretty rough and so we were strongly advised to take medication against sea-sickness. Well, it didn't help much for some people, and half the boat sat outside on the dive deck, seasick and really annoyed.. Laurence joined them.. Fortunately, once the boat stopped its mad ride, people recovered fastly.. Cheers

However, once we were there and jumped into the water, the trip was really worth it. Sharks, Clown fishes (NEMO!!), sea turtles and plenty plenty of colorful fish and corals. It was a really amazing day, we enjoyed it so much.

Below you can find some pictures of some past events..

ASIAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Some friends and I during the Asian Chamions league match Sydney FC vs. some guys from japan. forgot about their name(maybe urawa reds).. was great fun, except that the Aussies messed it up and the game ended in a draw, whereas they led 2-0 before..

CHINESE GARDEN

A shot inside the Chinese Garden. The Chinese Garden was offered to Sydney by their Chinese partner city. Now you have to pay an entrance fee to get in and see the gardens..

So, MAKE SOME MONEY. However it's really worth it. A wonderful garden architecture..

BLUE MOUNTAINS

Some photos from the Blue Mountains Tour..

Oz-Trip

At the moment I'm a bit lazy with posting new things on my blog. And this is, damn it, due to my computer which is completely fuc..... It just stopped working and I have to buy a new one in Singapore. poor me.. :-( But we all know how it is with a new toy for the guys... We love it...

So hardcore bargaining in singapore to get a cheap one...

At the moment, Laurence and I are travelling around Australia. In the last days we visited Sydney (Zoo, CBD, Shangri-La Bar ( cocktails on the 34th floor, very nice), Bondi Beach, Coogee Beach, restaurants, bars...:-)))). Besides, we had a wonderful trip to the blue mountains with fancy animals in the wild and very nice scenery. I hope to get some picture online soon..

Since yesterday we are in Cairns to enjoy some diving at the great barrier reef and to visit the rain forests around here.. Hot Air ballooning is planned for tomorrow... Will certainly put some photos online of that trip. I'm excited about it...

Salif Keita

Yesterday, we had the great chance to see a concert in the world-famous Sydney opera. The concert was given by Salif Keita. Salif Keita is one of the most well-known African artists. He was one of the main artists contributing to the Roll Back Malaria festival, hosted in Dakar in 2005.

And indeed, we enjoyed a wonderful concert of a singer with an outstanding voice, sometimes very strong and powerful, sometimes very clear and soft. I think we particularly enjoyed all the up-beat songs..
Well, it really was a great time and I think many of you would have liked it. So, have a look at the links and enjoy the music, of course only if you are into that kind of sh...stuff. :-)
Cheers
PS. I know you love it evis?! ;-)

MARDI GRAS

Last Saturday we had the big and famous MARDI GRAS parade here in Sydney. So, Karina, Raymond and myself went there to watch the spectacle. The parade is something like the Christopher Street Day in Europe, meaning a parade in which the gay community celebrates itself. The streets were full with a lot of nicely dressed men, drag queens, old men in leather outfits and plenty of lesbians. The whole parade is lots of fun and party, many trucks with music and dancing people pass by. However, the gay community also tries to draw the attention to problems like equality and discrimination.
Great evening, crazy people and a really good atmosphere. have a look at the photos.
I try to assemble a complete little film out of the many videos I took, but that will take a little while..

Queen Mary 2

A couple of days ago we went alltogether to the Woolloomooloo bay to see the cruise ship Queen Mary 2. On this particular day the Queen Mary 2 met the Queen Elizabeth 2 (at circular quai) for the first time after a long long while in Sydney. The Queen Mary 2 is truely a big big ship as you can see in the photos..

For this special occasion massive fireworks were blown into the air. Since there were two boats, there were also two fireworks of exactly the same kind, like twin fireworks.. Cruiseships of this kind must be good business.

After the fireworks we went to have dinner in a chinese bbq restaurant, where an old chinese man chopped all the grilled ducks and porc (and probably his fingers for the special taste...) with great pleasure and pasion into little pieces. pretty good....

Cheers to the MSG mafia

29th APS in Tasmanien - Searching the devil

I spent the last week in Tasmanien for attending the 29th Australasien Polymer Symposium. The conference was actually very good and i met a lot of nice people. But enough about business, let's talk about Tasmania.
I think we all loved Tasmania. It is a wonderful island, a kind of natural paradise with weird animals and beautiful landscapes. Hobart, the capital is located in the south and has a nice harbour area and the famous salamanca square as main tourist sites.


However, leaving Hobart and exploring the island is basically the best you can do. So we hired a car and went to the Mt Field National parc, which hosts some of the tallest trees in Australia, has beautiful water falls and lakes. It is located straight in the center of Tasmania and is only 1 hour drive away from Hobart. It is really worth going there as you can see in the pictures.






On the way we found a wildlife park with coalas, kangaroohs, wallabies, emus and the deadly deadly tasmanian devil....



It was actually very nice seeing all these animals and feeding the wallabies. Later on we actually found some in the real wildlife, togethere with tiger snakes and platipus..

On Saturday we had decided to do some white-water rafting on derwent river. The river originates in the national parks, thus the water is very clean, you can even drink it. And since it was so hot, we just jumped over board from time to time to cool down on this very hot day. Simply a great ride down the river..




Great time there, 30th APS I'm coming....

MORE PHOTOS ARE HERE

http://picasaweb.google.de/andwalther
some are actually videos, like a jumping kangarooh or a moving wombat.
a little square at the bottom left corner indicates videos.

My office

Tomorrow it is time to depart to hobart in tasmania for the aps conference starting on sunday. So, everybody is getting the presentations and posters ready. Today i just want to show to all of you what a lovely view I have from my desk.. It is a really wonderful view of downtown Sydney..

These days it is a bit cloudy outside, but still pretty warm.

Besides, one of my lab mates, Tony, got a new massive tattoo on his back. Have a look.
You can see a bit of the office space behind him, if you're interested :-) ..

Fight these little bastards..

Today I have officially declared war against the mosquitoes in my apartment. After being bitten by these little bastards a hundred of times, I went to the supermarket and bought basically everything which is available. I am now supplied with the finest chemical warfares and I'm gonna use them. I have even bought an outdoor spray which is usually used to set a perimeter around your house.
I'll keep you informed about the battles.
Cheers

Melting Pot or Salad Bowl

At last I have some kind of internet access and so i can post something about my first week in sydney. In fact i wasn't really jetlagged and so i could enjoy my first weekend in sydney straight away. I went down into the city and went up the Sydney tour which guarantees you a magnificent view over sydney.




Afterwards, I went down to the Opera, which is in fact a real masterpiece of reinforced concrete, and stayed there for a while just enjoying the nice view back to the city and the harbor bridge.



Sydney appears like a very nice fusion of old and new, european, asian and american influence and the people here are extremely friendly and helpful. The combination of old and new architecture works out much better here than in London..

My first night out in sydney started with an indian restaurant near the uni in Randwick (delicious) and then we went to the Sydney Opera Bar, which is definitely a place to be. It is just wonderful to enjoy a cool drink while looking at the opera and harbor bridge. I also met Andrew and his pimped :-) colleagues there. As it turned out, they are all very nice, which was a bit unexpected for the new stars of the business world..
Well, finally I went up to andrew's office. Deutsche Bank tower, 22nd floor, view to the opera. Thank you - good night.

More soon from the melting pot..

Hangin' around at singapore airport is like...

...like being captured in a large shopping mall. So in the end it is not too bad. I have like 6 - 7 hours of transit stop here and i am really hanging around now after having checked all the nice shops (and buying some stuff..).
I was already close to booking myself a room and having a little nap here. all pretty cheap. But then i discovered that there is not only free internet, which is not so common in many airports, but even better, there are laptop places.. so you can blog something, or work maybe.. I prefer posting something..

in the middle of the shopping area there are two nice ponds located. and i think there are at least 50 - 100 k€, materialized in koi fishes, swimming in there. even some very nice golden ones. probably robbing a koi here might be the most expensive thing you can rob..




I think I'm gonna eat some sushi now!!
:-)

So where the bloody hell are you??

I'm on may way.. soon.
Well, for those who don't know why I have chosen "So where the bloody hell are you?" as title, it is actually taken from a German tv ad, advertising Australian tourism. At the very end of the clip, there is a pretty girl on a fabulous beach saying this.



I think I am going to search for this beach...

While writing this, I have just discovered
(on wikipedia,
)
that the campaign has a budget of Au$180 Mio.. Wow, that better works. It obviously has worked for me. I am very much looking forward to going to Australia and to see a lot of the beautiful places there..

Besides, the campaign seems to be popular in Australia too. Some different versions have appeared already. Have a look at the three ashes cricket tournament ad. You can really feel how much the English are welcome downunder.. :-)Pretty funny!!



I am now spending my last days in Bayreuth. The time is pretty nice as I'm finally getting rid of all the stress i had in the last weeks. I have the stuff (da polymer-CTA for chemists) which I need to take to australia and so I am enjoying time with friends. On tuesday we will have my farewell schnitzelparty in Oskars..

Cheers mates..

PS. Patrick, your blogg's linked now...

The estonians shoot a reasonable amount of bears every year

For this new year's eve I went to finland and estland to see some of my friends. It was a very nice and enjoyable trip although there is actually no snow and temperatures are also pretty high.

Helsinki turned out to be quite a little and calm city with a rather little city center. However, they offer an absolutely delicious salmon and you meet nice and open-minded people. Concerning the salmon, it makes really a difference whether you buy some farmed salmon in the European shops or whether you get it straight from the source.. Hum, Yummie

On new years eve, the fins showed their party side with fireworks all day and night long, salmon bbq, reindeer soup (reindeer is tasty) and some drinks.. well, mostly imported french wine. We had a wonderful party there. Thanks Johanna and Aude!

And that the fins like to drink, party and consume some drugs can also be seen in the bars.
First of all you are asked to leave your hidden bottles at the entrance and secondly the toiletts have blue lights. So if you want to shoot up some H, you just cannot, because you cant see your veins in the blue light.. Party on! :-)

Since Tallinn, the estonian capital, is just 1h 40 min away by cat ferry, we decided to hope over there.

Tallinn looks pretty much like a central European city with a nice and old city center and some russian or lets say better estonian influence. It used to belong to the hansa community, which was a union of many sea cities in the north and baltic sea in the late medieval time..
You can find plenty of fancy bars and restaurants, wellness spa centers and old medieval restaurants.

Especially the latter are pretty interesting as all the waiters and waitresses are dressed with old clothes, old music is played and one can watch a sword-fight within the restaurant while having dinner.
So of course we went there! and what do you eat in a medieval restaurant???
Well, there is bear on the menu.. and after asking the waiter about whether this is real bear or just a joke, he replies:
" We, the estonians, shoot a reasonable amount of bears every year!"
HÄ, what actually is a reasonable amount? 50, 100 ?? are there so many bears left?? Crazy people..