What else?
On Wednesday there was a demonstration at out Uni against educational cuts from which mostly the languages are affected. I didn’t care so much, cause I’m leaving in April and it’s also not my department who is suffering most. But nevertheless i found it right that people resist against the government when it comes to cutbacks in the education system. So, me and Claudio were walking around the main court in search for a place to eat our cake that we found on some table and was left from some charity funding action… It was then when we saw these demonstrators sitting in the gallery, blocking the way and shouting “No Ifs, no Buts, no Education cuts!”, surrounded by security guys. We decided it would be a good place to sit down and eat our cake… Alongside shouting in order not to cause a stir: “No Ifs, no Buts, no education cuts!” mampf mampf… “No Ifs, (mampf) , no education (mampf mampf)!” …
Then a guy, working for some newspaper, came to me and asked me stuff:
“Whats your name? What do you study? Why are you here? Why are you protesting?”
I didn’t tell him I was only looking for some place to eat my cake, instead I told him something like:
“well it’s good to protest against the cuts, although I’m not directly affected by it, since I’m from the earth science department…bla bla… Who knows one day the could also cut money for my department bla bla…”
later claudio told me that he saw a newspaper in the hands of this guy called “the worker” or similar… with obligatory symbols of a hammer and sickle on it.

what else?
i was considering with claudio to plan a trip to wales for 2 or 3 days for some trekking in the mountains…. but since we both have little money to spend, it could just end in talk (im sand verlaufen)…

so far so good.

bye bye till next time
gabriel

Hmm shit happens I thought. Went to a carpenter to buy wood and tools to do-it-myself legs for a table I found in the attic of my house. It’s a fuckin red table, though without legs… But London is not Germany, the “Baumarkt” wonderland. So it was quite hard to find sth. On my way back; don’t forget I was afoot, I decided to try a shorter way home and ended up in nicely circling around the main route which cost me 10 minutes more than the normal way.

OK, don’t worry too much, I thought, finally you are at home and you can build together your tale. After screwing 15 minutes for the first leg I realized that there’s no point in  screwing on cause it was already screwed up! The nice screws were of such bad quality that the cross on top of the screw became a round depression. There was no point to push it further in or get it out again… nice! These bastards could have given me plastic screws and they would have been better than these.                                                                                     Now the table lays on my floor, one leg stretching in the air.

I feel quite depressed now. But I have to go to uni. I don’t know if this is the right day to dare a step out of the house again. A meteorite could slay me or I could be struck by lightning. But wait it’s not even raining.                                                                                                                On the other side there’s Murphy…

P.S. replace every ‘nice’ with ‘fuck(ing)’

EDIT @10 pm:

The day is almost gone and I’m still alive   I just heard a song from Cat Empire, my favourite one, that cheered me up and made me think again how brilliant it is. Especially the part from 3.57min is godlike!!! It makes you feel a strong urge to move and dance. I’m now alone in the computer cluster room of the UCL, so maybe I will do so .

If you guys happen to know other songs that are similar to this, either in way of the genre (gypsie, funk) or better in the way how the whole song develops, beginning quite slow and in the end getting faster and faster before it explodes finally. This question is especially directed to you Martin!   I have big faith in your music proficiency.

Cheers

One reason for the low prices at Sainsburys could be that they obviously have no advertising agency. Last evening I had dinner at a friend of mine. As dessert we had Sainsburys vanilla ice cream, 2 liters. My expactations concerning Sainsburys packages were not very high since I was used to the basic products which consist usually of an orange writing on white background. The ice cream wasn’t of the basic category so I could hope for more creativity. And behold, the product designer seemed to be very smart:

Why should they pay loads of money for some top-10-chart-newcomer who is, half naked, licking the ice cream with the tip of her tongue?

Why engaging some hollywood veteran for millions of pounds to let him speak one time the products name even if he’s not able to pronounce it in the right manner?

Why speaking about the bush?

Yeah! Let’s be straightforward and tell the customer the truth, that this ice cream is just yummy! And to highlite that use a big arrow pointing to the ice cream and write in it the simple fact: ‘Yummy‘ . There’s no need to create unconcious associations when you can have it so easy…

My new Adress:

The police writes you should call the  ‘confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline‘. It’s like the MI6 would call you for some help: “There is this difficult case with Saddam Hussein and we can’t find any weapons of mass destruction in Irak. We were wondering if you have happened to see any?”  

In a city where dozens of CCTV cameras are pointed on you, making you feel nervous when you are scratching your balls in a gloomy backyard, the police is obviously not able to evaluate the riskiness that was emanating from this guy. A disturbing thought.

Todays run was a real torture. Though the landscape was beautifully covered with a white blanket, running was anything but walking on air. The -4 degree cold winter air was flushing our lungs so that it was hard to breath and combined with pain. The uncondensed snow didn’t make it easier, every step was a slippery adventure.

But what keeps me motivated is the great feeling afterwards, when you sit in the park cafe, totally relaxed, your muscles still tingly from the blood flowing faster. Then enjoying the best tea I ever drunk here in the UK and meanwhile reflecting the past run, realizing that it was a struggle but in the end worth it.

Thank you!

P.S.From now on, I try to write more often some posts, but keep them short so I don’t loose hours on them.

I haven’t written for a long time. I will do better this year, it’s a new years resolution!

I wish you all a “Happy New Year 2010“.

Me and some friend from my hall were at the Southbank to see the Fireworks. It was really amazing. Earlier that night we could watch the partially eclipse of the moon. Then we rushed to th Thames to get a good site for viewing. We had to wait more than 3 hours in the cold night. Meanwhile everybody wanted to go into the only shop on our site (Westminster bridge),

so that there was queuing of 30 minutes to get in. The owner of the shop seemed to have made some special new year prices since the indications of the price on the racks were removed.
Queuing for the Dixxies were approximately 30-40 minutes, so after starting to drink happily to brave the cold, and having waited the first time for the toilet, we understood that drinking and queuing were inevitabely interconnected. So we reduced our alcohol input in order to enjoy the fireworks relieved.

But the long waiting was worth it! Just watch the movie on youtube.

The explosions were so heavy that you could feel the vibrations. The whole London Eye was chock-full of explosives and firing constantly so that you thought that it will fall into Thames immediately. Sadly the spectacle was over after 9 minutes.
And punctually when the fireworks have ended, it started to snow.

Cheers
Gabriel