good old Dunners

I should have known, I really really should have but the weather was so GOOD at Easter, when it is usually puss, that I foolishly thought it would do the same for me again. Ha. I doubt my 3/4 pants will ever get an airing and I am still frantically hurling clothes out of my wardrobe in search of my stripy Kathmandu polyprop goodness. If this is all the weather has I might as well have stayed in the UK, at least it has central heating. But then I wouldn't be with the whanau so I guess I'll just have to cowboy up and cope. I'm sure I'll be better once the rain clears long enough for me to walk on my beach.

*grumble* *grumble* woe is me etc... ;-)

But on the bright side- I just found out that one of my friends is pregnant which is SUPERAWESOME and when I think of that I couldn't be happier.

final missive

I HEAD HOME IN TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's so soon it's surreal. I'm glad I only fly out on Monday evening because it gives me the whole day to pack and clean my room etc.

Oh I can't wait.

Mum, Dad, J, see you soon. Beach here I come! Break out the jandles and the sunshine, this girl is coming home.

easy on the eyes

I have a widget that gives me a new Calvin and Hobbes comic every day. Sometimes I just have to share them.

In fact I think today shall just be a day of eye candy.


www.aoj.ca


I think this guy's drawings are amazing and I particularly like the perspective on this one. www.byroglyphics.com Look in the gallery section for more of this style of thing.


www.imphead.comI've long been a fan of fantasy art. I envy these people their imaginations.


And finally, the simple pleasure of line art should never be taken for granted. www.explodingdog.com

Möchten Sie eine Tüte damit?

I thought an entrée of Calvin and Hobbes was suitable for a Monday. There's nothing like laughing at some naked mischievous Calvin ass. Hee hee.

So this was the weekend of Berlin. Dude, if I thought Belfast was bleak, Berlin takes the cake. 'Austere' is my word for Berlin. I mean really, it shouldn't have surprised me. A lot of the city has only been rebuilt since the 90's and unification so it's a weird mix between 'new' 90's architecture and buildings that have been rebuilt in imitation of what used to be there. The whole place feels quite bleak and a bit artificial and leaves me quite cold. The other thing of architectural/arty note, at least for me, were the memorials to things from the war. They were totally different from other ones that I have seen which, once again, if my brain was working, would not have surprised me either. Usually war memorials are tributes to the soldiers who have given their lives. They've commemorative, maybe uplifting and a bit inspiring. Not the German ones- and rightfully so really. One was a large stone room, all grey concrete slabs and high ceiling and I was already weepy before I got in. I'm not really sure why, this wave of emotion just hit me. And when I got inside I was looking around this massive, bleak, grey room and was ready to bolt, it was getting a bit much. In the middle of the room was a large bronze statue of a person holding/sheltering another one half on their lap and the only light on the room was a hole in the ceiling which cast light on to the statue. It wasn't pretty and it was slightly abstract but as I made myself stand there, I could feel my distress gradually dissipating. There was a sense of peace and comfort that gradually took its place. This is not to say that peace etc radiated from it because they didn't. It just fascinated me how somehow I could stand in this grey, bleak room and gradually it felt like things weren't quite so bad. And as I came out and thought about it, it seemed totally suitable. Another one that got to me was the holocaust memorial. It's a large square of undulating ground filled with a grid of grey stone columns of varying heights. As you walk in to it, the ground drops away and the columns get higher. From the outside, it doesn't look like it takes up that much room but when you're walking through it, you're glancing down row upon row of grey columns and it seems to go on forever. It feels like a graveyard and becomes quite overwhelming, like it will never end. Again, totally appropriate. I took photos of neither because at the time, it didn't feel appropriate. These are images I will carry in my mind and feelings I will remember forever.

[On a side note, how art is used to commemorate things of war and conflict (finding this hard to articulate) fascinates me. Before coming to Europe, I was used to triumphant statues of fallen heroes and plaques with names written on them . Then I go to Belfast and they have massive murals on walls glorifying both martyrs and terrorists (sometimes the same, sometimes not) which is a totally different slant on things and now I have the sombre, almost dark, not at all glorifying memorials from Berlin. It's fascinating.]

But now for the photos, the bit people really care about:


Me in front of the Brandenburger Tor. Day one in Berlin was overcast and cold and really did nothing to create a good first impression.


The Berlin wall. This is not apparently the prettiest section, the ones in the west are better but this was the bit we got to see. The bits that aren't still standing are marked by cobblestones and you can follow the whole line of the wall, all 150km (ballpark estimate) of it.


This was taken in the most amazing chocolate shop ever. This was a huge hulking santa made of mini santas. Oh the cunning artistry.


Day 2 in Berlin was much colder, probably because it was crisp and clear. It was sunny although I still didn't find the city beautiful, it was a much better day. Lotte and I wandered around markets and had mulled wine and it was fab.


What caught my attention on this cathedral was this sign. Siehe, ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an der Welt ende. Which I translate to be 'I will be with you all until the end of the world'. I don't know if it's a quote from something and I'm not a person for poetry and as previously demonstrated, am not religious, but I thought that in German it read very eloquently and was a very nice sentiment.


This is the ground above the bunker of Hitler where he ended his life. Apparently it's a car park because the walls of the bunker were built so thick that they couldn't be demolished and no building could be built on top of it. So it's doomed to be a carpark until the end of time in all likelihood. Part of me thought it would be nice to make it a garden but that might be falsely interpreted as a celebration or glorification of Hitler. I see it as being the complete opposite of everything he stood for. You could take it to be- here beneath us is the final resting place of one of the largest atrocities of mankind. Because of the death and destruction and intolerance (I could go on, I'll stop here) that he stood for, we choose to wipe that memory away with new growth. Come here in spring to contemplate the daffodils poking up and the buds appearing on the trees and think about new life, come here in winter and sit on a cold concrete bench and look at the bare tree branches and the grey sky and the horrible accommodation blocks that enclose the space and feel gloomy but remember that spring will be coming and soon this grey and brown patch will be green and thriving and life carries on. (Gosh, look at me being all wanky. I think those memorials had a greater impact than I thought.)

On these columns, the chipped away parts are from bullets. We're looking at history folks. Apparently there is conflict as to whether the columns should be beautified and replaced or left as they are. I say keep your history Germany, leave them where they stand.


And this is the mob who went, minus, of course, me. Because I'm taking the picture, duh.
So essentially it was a weekend of sightseeing but mainly wandering around markets and trying out my German. It’s well rusty, I haven’t spoken it in 8 years, but I still got by just fine and could translate for my friends. I felt quite a sense of achievement from that which is cool because me and German/Germany… well lets just call I a rocky relationship…

the way things work
And I'm sorry but was there something in my last entry that somehow got thrown up by Google because 55 hits? It seems a freak anomaly. But on the other hand, it's made my clustermap look a whole lot more populated so I shouldn't really complain. *slight pause* I just checked my blog for comments and it would seem that my rise in hits are in fact due to Damien. It would seem he did a massive spamming of Hi5 people and if most of them googled him or that link, they would have come across my blog (apparently) which explains my rise in hits. It's a funny world.

of puppies and ducklings and weird shit

This picture was forwarded to me by a girl at work and I don't know if it makes me a bad person but I find this bloody hilarious. Apart from teh obvious duckling-down-the-drain, there is the bewildered look of the mother in the final frame. I can just hear her going, "Wha' happen'?" Oh the slapstick of nature. It's hard to beat.

Yesterday we had a visitor to the office. One of DIVE's sales staff is now based in Manchester and when she came down this month she brought her new dog Bailey. He's even been added to the meet the team page and has his own profile. "DIVE's new advertising assistant Bailey Sturgeon joins us from the Warrington Animal Welfare rescue centre. The 18-month-old scuba dog has just started shallow water diving. His other hobbies include chasing frisbees, chewing plastic ducks, running, dribbling and playing catch in the DIVE office. 'Woof, woof!' he says." Oh we're a bunch of softies here. Being inventive, we gave him a plastic duck to play with and now poor duckie has been chewed to something almost beyond recognition. At our new offices, we are split over 2 floors and we've decided that ours is the cool floor. Bailey sure thinks so. On our floor there are toys and people who will run around with him and give him water and behave pretty much like dogs themselves. He's coming in again this afternoon and I can't wait- I was a special favourite (maybe because I was the one who sacrificed the duck in the first place...)


The weirdness of the internet
In the past month I have had a couple of Hi5 requests from people I do not know. It's a bit strange to check your email and have some random asking you to sign on to their friend list when you don't even know them. I also had no idea why these people were contacting me. I thought maybe they're blog fans? (And yes folks, it would seem that I am that egocentric) but then I realised that YEARS ago I signed up to Hi5 at the request of someone I actually knew and it turns out my profile is still on there. But has current age and location which means I did update it within the last year which is strange because I reallyREALLY don't remember doing that... Anyhue- amnesia aside, today I got my strangest Hi5-related thing yet. Apparently I had a message from a guy called Damien which read:

hey, whats up? just came across your profile at the search page and was wondering if youd wanna chat sometime?
where ya from.. things ya like to do..
if ya wanna know more about me and see more pics go to myswtpages.com/damien
hope to hear from ya
damien

It seemed innocuous enough and I'm in carpe diem mode so I checked out myswtpages.com/damien and I have only one thing to say- oh my Holy Jesus, WTF?! This is the first picture I came across so of course I had a good giggle. LOTS of buff posing shots but imagine my horror when you click on some of the pictures and get told that you have to be over 18 to access the site! OMG! You know what that means- naked pictures! Man bits on camera! Ooooo yicky. So now I am suitably repulsed and amused. Damien, if by some chance of the web you come across this, I'm sure you're a lovely guy but you're just not for me. I like to view man bits in person and not via the internet. (Although if we overcome this, I feel there may be other irreconcilable differences we will not be able to overcome. Hence "irreconcilable".) So that's my excitement for the day.

things that make you go, "BABIES!!!!!"

My latest check of what's new on with Homestar Runner brought me to this I mean oh my God how cute are these?!! A teeny tiny girl squad?!! It's just so bloody cute I'm going all gooey.





The only thing cuter than this is Josh, my friend Sam's new baby. I'm sure she'll be fine with me sharing his image with the world. I mean he's CUTE. It's always such a pleasant surprise (relief) when friends have genuinely beautiful children. I know Kitty would argue that all babies are beautiful but some just don't twinge my heart strings. But Joshy's a honey. Look at those big blue eyes.

the looming dark

It's 16:15 and it's dark already- I'm tellin' ya- that's just not right. Not one bit, not a little, not at all. The only silver lining to this nasty gloomy cloud is that I FLY HOME IN 14 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for all those exclamation marks, they may have been slightly excessive but I am quite excited about it. Never mind the sun and the sand, I get to see my family. I get Mum hugs and Dad hugs and I get to annoy Julie by limpetting on to her at any chance I get. I just tend to sit down beside her and latch on. She may complain but I know she loves it really. Heh heh heh.

This weekend I'm heading to Berlin with 8 other females to see the sights and go to the Christmas markets. (So everyone back home be warned- it's cute but kitsch Xmas decorations from Berlin for Xmas.) Eight females. I'm sure we'll be fine.... Actually we've already decided we'll split up to do whatever we want to do during the day and the make a time to meet up for dinner. I'm quite looking forward to bundling up all nice and cozy and wandering around markets and sipping mulled wine. I have to admit that nothing feels quite as festive and 'Christmas-y' as a northern hemisphere Xmas. It's just different. Not that I'm complaining about getting to see both sunshine and daylight in 2 weeks- oh no. Bring it on. Lots of sun. Please? Pretty please? Oh go on Dunedin, I know you have it in you...