Read the story line carefully...before!

A couple of days ago Max asked me if i wanted to join him and some friends to see a play called Rock n Roll at the Duke of York's Theatre. I said "Yeah, sounds good". I didn't even bother to read the story line or any other information about the play because the name "Rock n Roll" sounded promising enough to me :)

The play won the "Evening Standard Theatre Award 2006". Ok, I didn't like that. Usually, when the newspapers like a movie or play, I don't like it and vice versa. I also found it a bit odd that 90% of the audience was 55+. Ok, I have to admit, I was expecting a musical until the first minutes past, although I couldn't figure out where they put the band ;)
The only rock music you could hear was during the scenes (years) when they played an important songs from this year (not the whole song though).

Anyway, although I didn't understand everything the play was quite good. Back home I tried to find out more. Let's see what wikipedia says :

The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the democratic movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Taking place at Cambridge University, England and in Prague, the play contrasts the attitudes of a young Czech Ph.D student and rock music fan who becomes appalled by the repressive regime in his home country with those of his British Marxist professor who unrepentantly continues to believe in the Soviet ideal.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org)

Ok, next time I ll check before, even if the name is great. :D

Allergy Advice

Eating my cornflakes this morning, I had a look at the milk bottle:
"Allergy advice: contains milk!". Wow, I didn't know. I wonder if it's just stupid bureaucracy or did someone really sue them for not putting it? I think the advice should be bigger, you can hardly read it... ;-)

We love to queue...

Ok, I don't, but apparently all other people like to form queues. I am not suggesting to jump the queue, I hate when people do that, I 'm talking about situations when queuing can be avoided. One example: a traffic light with two lanes: in 9 out of 10 situations you will see all cars queueing in one lane, while nobody is using the other lane. Why?

Another example: We went to see 'Casino Royale' yesterday in the vue in North Finchley (I really enjoyed it, I think Craig is a much better Bond than Brosnan) . We were thinking of buying online, but they charge you 60p booking fee per ticket, so we thought 'screw it', should be alright Wednesdays. But no, there was this amazingly long queue, damn. Hang on, why is nobody using the ticket machine? Let's try...

"Please choose the film!"
Beep
"Please choose the amount of tickets!"
Beep, Beep, Beep
"Please pay with your debit/credit card!"
Beep (You didn't even need your pin.)
"Thank you. Take your tickets and enjoy the film."
Total amount of time: 20 seconds.
Estimated queuing time: 20 minutes.

So, I think there's no other explanation, people love queuing!

Proud Sponsor of Camden Council

Well, I decided to pay my ticket, because I didn't want to risk to pay 100 quid. I probably should have complained though. I am really annoyed by this. So have a look around, there must be some park bench named after me...

Paying is very convenient www.camden.gov.uk/pay (new bookmark :p) Really nice page., a bit like amazon.
"Which payment would you like to make?"
Fuck, I don't want to pay anything, I didn't do anything wrong.
But obviously this option wasn't displayed.
You even have a shopping basket. I couldn't believe it. Ok, you can pay your council tax and stuff like this as well, but it felt wrong for paying a parking ticket. Do you want your ticket wrapped in gift wrap paper? That's 2 quid extra...

Watch out...

Camden parking attendants might fine you if they don't like the colour of your scooter! At least, I don't know why I got fined today. I arrived too late today to get a parking space in front of UCL, so I had to park in Malet Street. There is a parking bay for motorbikes, which was nearly full already, but I found a small space at the end and I squeezed in there. I exactly fit in there. When Ettore said: "Hey, we can move this scooter here and then you can fit in here.", I replied: "Nah, that's fine. They won't fine me. It's alright. It perfectly fits." Ok, the next time I say something like this, please slap me in the face.

I left office at 11pm and I was very happy to get the gap between two raining phases. When I locked my bike at home, I found the notice. "We had reasonable cause to believe that the following parking contravention had occured: we don't like your face, the weather is horrible today and we are a bunch of grumpy man who like to fine people to annoy them!"
Ok, it didn't say that, but it should have. It said: "Not parked correctly within the markings of the bay or space."

I have 28 days to pay 100 pounds. 100 quid !!! I can't believe it. But then my heart made a little jump: there is a discount. You pay only 50 quid, if you pay within 14 days. Hooray. Thank you, Camden. Service charge not included I guess...

I love deadlines...

... I like the whooshing sound as they fly by (Douglas Adams).
Haven't written anything lately. Two reasons. First, nothing really stupid happened to me, second I am very busy writing up my thesis at the moment. Deadline is the 29th, so I hope, that I don't hear the whooshing sound :-)

I am really thinking of de-restricting my scooter. I was overtaken by a bike, and I mean bike not motorbike. Ok, we were going downhill, I was already going 60 km/h and he was a really sporty guy (wearing lycras :o) , however, it really hurt. What made me feel a little bit better was that I overtook a Porsche Carrera two days later. Ok, it was in a long queue going 10 km/h but it's the overtaking event that counts, isn't it?

Band practice tomorrow, I really enjoy playing in a band again. I don't think we'll ever make money out of it, but it is great fun. We agreed to practice three songs currently:
Knocking on heaven's door by Guns N Roses
Better do better by Hard-fi
Song 2 by Blur
Guns N Roses' "Appetite for destruction" was the very first music album I ever owned and Song 2 really reminds me of the time when I was 16 and started to go clubbing. Music always reminds my of the time and place where I heard it first. I should have "Soundtrack of my life" :-)

Ok, back to work now, I can already hear the whooshing...

number-plate-man retired

Finally, my scooter is fixed, yeah! I don't have to wear my number plate on the back anymore.

Ok, I have to start at the beginning. In the night 15th/16th July some wankers tried to steal my scooter. They dragged it about hundred meters away and tried to open the lock and the steering lock with a huge iron bar. Although they didn't manage to break the lock, they caused a lot of damage to the scooter like twisting the handle bar, breaking the seat lock and the most annoying part: they ripped off the number plate including the attachment for it.

I called the police and they recorded the attempted theft. The next day I called the insurance to report the incident and they sent me the claim form and asked me to do an estimate at a garage.
The garage faxed the estimate and I sent back the claim form on the 21th. First class to speed up the process!

So far so good. Took several phone calls the week after until they finally processed the form and the cost estimate from the garage. Another week later they asked me to bring the scooter to the garage again so that an engineer can have a look at it. This was the 1st of August when I remember it correctly and another 5 quid for me taking the tube to uni and back...

The most annoying part was to get the insurance to fax the repair authorisation to the garage. In the week starting from the 7th I called the insurance several times a day, everytime talking to someone else and telling him all the details. The music in the waiting loop is really crap. And then you have dialogues like:

me: "I brought the scooter to the garage last week and your engineer had a look at it."
she: "Alright, give me a sec."
5 min later...
she:"Was it an attempted theft or was the bike actually stolen?"
me: "-_-"

And all the time I was driving around with my number plate sticked to my back. People sometimes started conversation at a traffic light like:
"Dude, you have a number plate on your back!"
"Really? I didn't know. Thanks!"

Finally, the insurance faxed the authorisation and the garage could order the bits and pieces. The appointment was scheduled for today.

Of course the police stopped me yesterday (!!), even using the siren. They asked me why I was wearing the number plate on my back and checked my driving license, road tax and insurance. Clearly, they hadn't seen someone like me before. One of them made a call starting: "I have a stupid question, I have someone with a number plate on his back here...". Apparently it was kind of alright, since it was clearly visible. However, they didnt fine me and just asked me to get it fixed asap. I told them that I ll bring it to the gargae tomorrow anyway. Don't think they believed me ;-)

Anyway, after a lot of weird looks, random conversation at traffic lights, one guy taking a picture of me and be stopped by the police, number-plate-man officially retired :-)

una vacanza italiana

This week, Andy, Selma and I visited Ettore and Elisa in Italy for a few days.

My journey started on Monday morning at 2am after 2 hours of sleep. I had to go to Stansted using three different busses including some time in Kentish Town. I really hate to hang around anywhere with luggage in the middle of the night. I met Beppe in the bus to Liverpool Street and we arrived way too early, so that we had to wait for about an hour for the Stansted bus.

We arrived at about 5am at Stansted. Never saw the airport so crowded at this time. With the new security measures, the hand luggage was reduced to a transparent bag with wallet and passport in it. Looked really stupid. No liquids were allowed and you had to take your shoes off at the security check. Must be great to work at the security check these days with people taking off their smelly shoes.

With three hours delay (because our plane spent the night at Luton) we left Stansted. Although we had the theory that airlines distribute small children all over the plane to annoy everybody equally, our flight was pretty quite. After two hours we arrived in Bologna Forli. A really tiny airport compared to Stansted, 4 planes a day, but I like that.

Luckily, with Beppe we had an Italian speaker and he managed to get us to the train station and into the train to Ancona. The train was really packed, because one of the most important Italian holiday called Ferragosto was one the 15th. We had a chat with an Italian/Canadian woman who told us things about the cities we were passing. The train track is built along the coast, very nice.
At some stop, people came in and left again after one minute. Then our "guide" discovered that they took her wallet. So she had to leave the train to talk to the police. Not a nice expierence :-(

Elisa and Ettore picked us up from Ancona and one hour later we arrived in Tolentino where we met Ettore's parents and grandparents. In the afternoon we had a nice walk through the city. Parts of it reminded me of an old Counterstrike map called "cs_italy". I know, I know, that's geeky, but look for yourself :D
In the evening we had our first tasty Italian dinner followed by home made cake to celebrate Andy's birthday. Actually, there was always cake, but at this time I didn't know that :D

The next day, we got up early to get to the beach in time. Since it was Ferragosto we expected it to be crowded. The place was called Portonovo, really nice beach, but have a look at the pictures. Of course, coming straight from the office, I got a really nice sunburn ;-)

To cool down, we spent the evening in the mountains with food, wine and live music. Yes, great place Tolentino, beach and mountains very close. Very convenient.

Wednesday, we visited Ettore's other grandparents in the mountains in a place called Croce (hope that's right, Ettore) They showed us a parts of the village and also how they make their own wine. Of course we were invited for cookies and wine :-)
We spent the rest of the day driving around in the mountains and relaxing at a lake.

In the evening we had yet another dinner and and amazing chocolate cake. Don't know what the technique is called to compress chocolate so efficiently, but I was suprised that there weren't any satellite cookies in its orbit...

Thursday was already the last day and we planned to take the train around 4pm. So we had some time to do a bit of shopping to bring some Italian food and wine back to England. After some time in a supermarket we visited a winery. Although with our 4 bottles of wine we probably haven't been the biggest customers, they invited us to have a look around. So we got a free tour and saw how the first grapes were picked and processed and also the huge barrels in the basement.
Afterwards it was already time to say goodbye. We took the train back to Forli and from their with one hour delay the plane to London Stansted. Of course, upon arrival in London it was raining :-(

I really enjoyed my time in Italy. Great fun and tasty Italian food (A LOT ;-) Having a grandma that used to run a bakery is really dangerous. Especially, when she's producing the same amount of cakes after retirement. But now that I am back, I miss cakes after lunch and dinner...

Thanks Ettore, Elisa and Ettore's (grand)-parents for these lovely days. I felt very welcome. The only thing that has to get better next time is my Italian :-)

Shit, a motorway!

I am proud to present another story of me getting lost on the scooter. Max, Erdem and I had an appointment at 7pm at Bell Lane, North-West London (here) to have a look at a rehearsal room for the band. Ok, no problem, I own this huge A-Z map, so quick look at Google map and a highlight it in the map. Tottenham Court Road, Marylebone Road, a lot of traffic, terrible but normal at this time.

Here, I realised that I left the map on my desk. Great. However, I had the picture in my mind. Turn right at Brent Cross shopping center, easy, right? Unfortunately this junction was much bigger than on the map with at 17 possibilities to turn off. Of course, I took the wrong one, the North Circular. Big road for a scooter with really everybody faster than me which was quite scary. I was about here, when I first called Max and told him, that I've no clue where I am. The problem with this big roads is that you can't turn easily. I knew I was totally wrong, but you have to drive and drive...

It some point I managed to turn aroud and took the North Circular back. Then I made the biggest mistake near here. Instead of staying on the North Circular I ended up on the M1 towards Luton. Did I say that the North Circular was scary? I was wrong, the motorway M1 is. I realised immediately, that I am totally wrong, but you're not I allowed to turn and all I could do was hope that there was a junction soon.

After 20 really scary minutes later (maybe less, but it felt like 20) I arrived at a Service Station near here. I was really glad, because I could buy some petrol and ask for help. I just hoped that there was a way back to London that didn't include the motorway. The staff at the petrol station was very friendly and directed me back to London using the A41/A1 which is still a big road, but not a motorway. Eventually I arrived here and from there I knew where I was. Phew!! It was already quarter past eight and I was just to be alive, so I decided to head back home. What a ride!

I learned two things:
1) Never be too lazy to go back and take the map
2) I need a faster scooter ;-)

The Missing Screw - revisited

Hooray, I finally managed to fix my skates. I know, took some time, but after the last screw disappointment I was kind of unmotivated...
I looked up a hardware store on the web and was thinking if I should give them a call before going there, but then I thought, "Are you selling screws?" is a stupid question, it's a hardware store. When I arrived there, the shop was shut down. Of course! Next time I'll call. Luckily, next door there was a similar shop, but they didn't sell screw. However, the guy behind the counter was very helpful and drew a map for me to get to a bike store called "bike fix". And I had luck, they had the missing screw. Yeah!! Spent 20 min in the shop to fix it (was a bit tricky) and they girl provided me all the tools. Very nice, although she thought I was Dutch ;-)

On my way back, I passed the Post Office near Russel Square station. That made me realise that I (or men in general) never pay attention to their environment. I was looking for a Post Office this morning and ended up near Oxford Street. The one in Russel Square I passed for about 5 month nearly every morning when I arrived with the tube and it's much much closer!! Damn.

Unfortunately Londonskate was cancelled today due to the rain. As we were already in Hyde Park we decided to skate a bit. Nice skate-stroll through the park including getting lost near Kensington. We skated through Kensington Palace Gardens. Nice street, many really posh and expensive houses there.

Are we lost?

I was invited to a BBQ party on Saturday evening so I met Stef and Max at UCL at 5 pm to get some stuff from Tesco for the party. Spending about 15 min deciding if we should bring beer, wine or spirits we went for spirits and wine. Took another 15 min to choose the right vodka. With the cheap one you can only clean your car and risk to become blind. Too expensive and no money for meat left... After we chose one, we dropped it. Of course after we paid it, but the lady at Tesco was quite nice and gave us another one.

Since Stef doesn't like the the Tesco wine selection, we had to walk to oddbins. 15 min walk from Tesco, just around the corner. Heard that quite often... Anyway, we walked around the area of Marylebone High Street and I have to admit, it's a really nice area with lots of shops, restaurants and bus. We took the Jubilee Line from Bond Street to Cannary Wharf station. Nice view there. Out of the tube with the station 10m behind us, Max' first question: "Are we lost?". "Yes, indeed, we have absolutely no clue where we are, let's light a bonfire and have the meat right here!" ;-)
Finally we arrived at the party, which wasn't that easy. We had a map with street names, but the street had no names. The bonfire suggestion came up more than once. The party was really good. Many people there and everybody brought meat and drinks. Actually, we wanted to take the last tube back, but then decided to stay longer and go by bus, because we had a great time.

Guess we left at about 2 am and walked to the next bus stop to wait for the D-whatever. Busses starting with a letter don't have the best reputation in terms of reliability I was told. We waited fot quite a long time (at least it felt like this). The bus was for Trafalgar Square and passed Londonbridge. After about 15 min without a sign of the bridge I asked the driver: "Are we near London Bridge?", "bla grrr bla grr!", "I see, so I get off next stop then?", "bla grrr bla grr!". After this inspiring conversation, I found myself at 2.30 am at a bridge that clearly wasn't Londonbridge. I could spot the Tower, but very far away and my stupid brain told me that I was eastbound from the Tower, with Londonbridge westbound which of course wasn't true. However, with this distance in my mind, I took a cab to Londonbridge. Still a long ride, but not as long as I expected it. Stupid brain! After I waited 30 min for the 43 bus I spent another 45 min in the bus before I finally arrived at home. What a journey! I hate taking the bus when I had drinks.

19,53 £

I was at Saintsbury's to do some shopping yesterday. After the cashier started scanning my items I realised that I forgot to draw some cash before. Ok, actually I thought there was enough left, but apparently I invested to much money in pints on Friday. However, I checked and had 19,32 £ in my wallet. Hmm, not too much. Quick check, yes, another 21p in my pocket. That's 19,53 in total. Shit. I didn't have my credit card with me, only my German debit card and they always charge me for using it here. After the cashier scanned the last item I saw the total sum: 19,53 £. Not kidding! I should have played lotto this day!

TfL hates me

I decided to use TfL this morning to have some pints this evening after a long week. Two options: walk five minutes and take the bus for 1 £ or walk for 15 minutes, pay 2 £ and take the tube. The bus usually takes ages in the morning, so I went for the tube. I topped up my Oyster Card, walked 15 minutes to Bounds Green Station and waited 15 minutes for the Piccadilly Line to arrive until they announced that the there's currently no service. Great! So out of the station again, hopefully they didn't charge me for my joyful time in the station!
I was not in the mood to walk 20 minutes up to Muswell Hill again, so I took the bus. I tought as I wanted to spend 2 £ anyway and they (hopefully) didn't charge me, I can spend the money on the bus. When I touched my Oyster Card on the reader in the bus, I could read that they did in fact charge me for this fantastic stay in the hot, smelly station. 1 quid! Grrrrr. With the bus from Muswell Hill to central London I spent 3 quid in total for a journey of about 90 minutes. Of course that's quite good concerning money/minute, but that's not what I was looking for!

Not a fucking problem

On my way to uni this morning, a motorbike and a car collided slightly but not too bad. The car driver got out of his car and the guy with the dismounted. Then they started to shout at each other.

Bike: "You were using your fucking mobile."
Car: "Your fucking motorbike hit my fucking car."
Bike: "Fuck blah, fucking blah mobile"
Car: "Fucking bike blah, fuck blah."

After exchanging several arguments, all including at least two forms of fuck, enough was said and the problem was solved. Both guys continued driving.

Just want to recommend some bands. I was at a gig Saturday evening with Max and Steph at ULU. Unfortunately not many people around. The bands were quite good though and the guy, who announced the bands was fantastic. Whenever the bands had to rearrange he played some songs on his guitar together with a excellent beatbox performance. Great. I quite liked the first band called "Rotating Leslie" and the last one called "Officer Kicks". So check them out!

Afterwards we went to "Maison Touaregue", a Moroccan restaurant/bar in Greek Street. The bar downstairs is open until 3 am. It's quite cozy, you can sit on a sofa and smoke the water pipe and listen to some sort of 80's/90's disco music, which honestly is a bit out of place. I would appreciate some music that goes with the sofas and the water pipe ;-)

Flash Gordon around

I was outside in front of our building with Mo for short break, when a man drove by with his bike. This guy was wearing lycras and we were complaining about that. What's the point in lycras other then showing your balls to everybody around? Anyway, Mo was pointing at him and saying something like "why the hell is he wearing lycras?" when a grumpy old man passed by and muttered: "Yeah, sick! Fucking Flash Gordon, isn't it?".

Road Holes

Going by scooter is really convenient in London. The only thing I hate: road holes. I am not talking about the small bumps, I mean the ones where a small kid can easily fit it. It's ok if you can spot them early enough to avoid them, but if you're right behind a car they appear suddenly. This morning I hit a road hole that deep, I couldn't see the sunlight for a sec ;-)

What would Chuck Norris do?

You probably know the webpage Chuck Norris Facts, right? Some time ago I ordered a t-shirt with saying "What would Chuck Norris do?" at the front and my favourite Chuck Norris fact: "Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits." at the back.
I was wearing this shirt on Saturday while shopping in Muswell Hill. After I left Saintsbury's and passed a cafe a man was running towards me. He asked me to turn around, because the front of the shirt made him curious. After he read the back he burst out laughing, said thanks and went back to his cafe table. I had to laugh too and was so distracted that I forgot to remove the lock through the wheel of my scooter. This made leaving the place quite hard ;-)

Deutschland Dankt

Malte Münchert and Andre Doerk, two web-designer from Berlin try to collect one million personal "Danke" (thank you) messages, print them out and send them to the German football team.
If you want to leave your message visit



Great idea, I can just say "Danke" for attractive football and a great atmosphere that changed Germany and I guess also the way other countries think about Germany.

London or Rome?

A great World Cup has ended. We watched the final match at ULU and went to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square afterwards. Crazy. For a moment I didn't know if I was in London or Rome. So many Italians (maybe some fake Italians too, that just wanted to party ;-)
People were celebrating with auto and or scooter parade, jumping in the fontain at Trafalgar Square and nearly took over the National Gallery. Great atmosphere. However, the one in Rome was probably still better, I guess :-)

Football Hates Me

I think I'm done with football. Germany kicked out by Italy, my sweepstake team Portugal kicked out by France. That means I am broken-hearted because of the Italians and bankrupt because of the French. That's it with watching football.

We usually play football in Regent's Park once a week, but we haven't played for a couple of weeks. Last Thursday, we played again and I stepped on the ball and twisted my ankle. Damn. My ankle looks like a tennis ball now, so that's it with playing football. Football hates me these days...

Devastated

What can I say? It was a great match, both teams played very well.
However, I am devasted now. A goal in the last minute of the extra time. Horrible. The last time I felt this way was when ManU scored twice in the additional time during the Champions Leaugue Final in 1999. I can't believe Germany is out. At least, I can spend more time on my thesis now.
However, I am really proud of this German team!

On my way home with the scooter, I was waiting in front of a red traffic light, Elisa & Ettore next to me. On the other side there was a guy on a motorbike. He asked us, if we were Italian. I told him, they are and I am German. He tapped me on the shoulder and said: "I am sorry man." :-)

Now I'll support my sweepstake team. Go Portugal, go go go!

Totally nervous

Less than two hours left until kickoff and I am already very nervous. I can't concentrate on work anymore and I am absolutely not hungry. I always feel the same way before an exam, but this time I enjoy it :-)
I hope Torsten Frings will play in the final on Sunday...

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ok, that's it. Actually, I can't write more to explain my feelings about the match yesterday, but I'll try. For me it was thrilling, exciting and I probably lost two years of my expectancy of life.
For people not Argentinean or German it might be a bit boring at the beginning since there weren't lots of opportunities to score. Both teams defended very well and didn't make many mistakes. You could feel the respect they had for each other. However, I was very very tense and I had to stand up, because I was too excited to sit down.
Germany didn't manage to win against a "big" team since October 2000 when Didi Hamann scored the last ever goal in the Wembley stadium and they won 1:0 against England (yeah!). Since then, a lot of draws, not to mention the terrible defeats against England (1:5) or Italy (1:4). That really hurt ;-)
After the 0:1 the team showed a great will and came back. For sure, I am not objective, but I think that the game was well-balanced. If you don't agree, feel free to leave a comment ;-)
A win in the penalty shoot-out is always a lucky one, but it's hard to beat Germany in shoot-outs. Talk to an Englishman about this fact ;-)
However, now that they won against one of the best teams in this World Cup, I am really optimistic that they can make it.

Money Saving Tip #1 - London Busses for Beginners

A normal bus journey in London is 1,50 £. If you pay with your Oyster Card it's 1 £, and if you use the bus off-peak which means after 9.30am, you pay 80p.
Since there are two World Cup matches today and it's Friday, I decided to take the bus today and have some pints tonite. So why not going after 9.30 am and save another 20p?
You can take the 134 bus from Muswell Hill directly to Central London (for 80p). So far, so good.
When you get into the bus, make sure that the display says: "134 Tottenham Court Road" and not "134 Muswell Hill Broadway". Otherwise the bus driver will ask you to leave at the next stop and you pay 80p for 200m and another 80p for the remaining journey. Grrrrrr.

The Missing Screw

Couple of weeks ago I started skating with LondonSkate. Every Wednesday skating two hours through London. Last time I lost the screw that is fixing my brake. As I wanted to skate today, I tried to fix the brake before. So I tried to find a skate shop. There is one next to Marble Arch tube station called the Club Blueroom.

For the first attempt I took the scooter and tried to get to Marble Arch. The thing in London is, you are never allowed to turn in the direction you need. If you need to turn left, you are only allowed to go right and so on. Really annoying. After 20 minutes I got lost and decided to go back which took me another 20 minutes,

So I decided to walk to Tottenham Court Road station and take the Central Line to Marble Arch. After 5 minutes I found the skate shop, but they couldn't help me. The suggested a hardware store around the corner, but it was already closed. I didn't want to spend more money on the tube and decided to walk back and looked for a shop in Oxford Street that sells screws. Nothing. No screws at all. Carrying my rollerblades around, no screws and all the people in Oxford Street... You probably know the feeling when you are already really annoyed and people in front of you change the direction three times in two seconds or just stop moving, I really hate that.
After all, I spent more than two hours for a bloody screw with no results. Eventually I just removed the whole brake and practiced to skate without brake.

Thunderbolts and Planes

On my flight back, the plane was struck by a thunderbolt. There was a big bang and I could clearly see the thunderbolt. It was a bit scary but I was relieved when the crew didn't panicked. A few minutes later the captain made an announcement that the instruments were still working and that planes are designed to cope with thunderbolts. Even a Ryan Air plane ;-)

World Cup Atmosphere in Germany

The atmosphere in Germany is just fantastic. So many people watching and celebrating football together. Everything and everybody is decorated with colours and flags. It's too bad that I am not in Germany for the World Cup, but at least I could watch the Ecuador and the Sweden game at home. I am really optimistic after these games :-)

The first thing I saw back in my city yesterday was an Italian car parade. Lucky Italians. I am pretty sure they are practising diving. Probably you know this video ;-)
You don't miss a goal when you are using the train during a World Cup match. A staff member will announce half time and final results of every game. Great service.

One Night at Stansted

I went back to Germany last week. My flight departed at 6am and so
I spent the whole night at Stansted Airport. There were a lot of people there, most of them sleeping next to their luggage. I could never sleep calmly at the airport. Must be a paradise for pickpockets.

I killed the time with drinking coffee, reading, wondering
around and watching football. People were playing 5-aside outside
at the parking area using two big columns each side as
goals. 2am in the morning - football everywhere these days!

The pressure in the cabin is changing during a flight. I realised
it, when I opened my bottle later again and spilled water over
me and my neighbour. Sorry about that.

See the red light... or the open window.

You might think going by scooter is quite risky in London. So much traffic, so many busses, cabs and other crazy scooters. Well, of course but I like it. Overtaking all the cars at the right light, great. Sure, sometimes it's quite close and a bit risky but it's fun. However, on Sunday, I experienced a new origin of danger for scooters: children puking out of a car window. Honestly, I am not quite sure if it was real puke that nearly hit me while overtaking a long queue, but at least it was a lot of fluid. Since then, I always have this picture in my mind when I overtaking car queues. So guys, watch out for open windows. Puke can hit you everytime and everywhere and then you'll have to explain that smell...

Next Round (against England?)

After a thrilling match (for me), Germany reached the round of the last 16. So many chances and a last minute goal. Fantastic. "The celebrations were as unbridled as they would be if Germany actually go on to win this World Cup. Maybe they will." (The Independent) The atmosphere in Germany must be great these day, I am really sorry, I am not there.

I was watching the England game today. The atmosphere in the pub was much better than last time. England scored in the last minutes as well and nearly everybody in the pub was relieved. Ok, everybody but Sylvia who got Trinidad & Tobago in our Sweepstake. She was teasing Andy the whole match for every missed shot.

Earlier this day, I had a chat with Elisa about supporting the national teams. She said that she'd always support the teams of her friends as long as they don't play Italy. She couldn't understand that some of us supported Ghana during the last match against Italy. I tried to explain to her that I wouldn't support Holland even if I had a Dutch girlfriend and Andy agreed and said he always wants Germany to loose. These are the rules, we didn't make them...

World Cup Impressions

Yeah, finally, the World Cup started. The opening game was quite fun, many goals and Germany beat Costa Rica 4:2.

Saturday we went to see the first England match in the ULU pub. I was a bit disappointed about the missing atmosphere, but maybe the game was just too boring. I am sure they can do much better than that.

The best atmosphere so far was Italy vs Ghana. Probably more Italians around than English people during the England match.
I don't like it when Italy scores first since they are the masters of Catenaccio. Usually, the game becomes quite boring then and ends 1:0 ;-)
However, it wasn't that bad this time. They scored twice and eventually deserved to win the game, although Ghana did quite well.

What I really like about watching the World Cup in London is that no matter what team is playing, you always find people from this country supporting their team.

The World Cup Sweepstake

Andy had the idea to do a World Cup sweepstake. All 32 teams are put into a hat and then everybody participating in the game picks one team randomly. The person with the team that wins the World Cup wins the game.
People can be quite disappointed from a piece of paper with "Trinidad Tobago" on it.
Or as James put it:
"I am not very comfortable, handing over 3£ to Chris and getting a little piece of paper with the word 'Togo' on it in return."
Anyway, it's World Cup time and I am really looking forward to watch the matches with people from so many different countries.

Sylvia: "You're so lucky, you got your country."
Andy: "You're lucky, you didn't."

London Zig-Zag or 'Scootering' to Work

I picked up my scooter yesterday. Hooray, no more traveling in a smelly, packed tube or bus. Driving on the left side is easier than I expected it. Just follow the guy in front.
I managed to go home in under 20 minutes yesterday. Tube and bus is usually is about 40 minutes. And it was very convenient. I just followed this Italian scooter. Very easy.
This morning I left my place at 7.35 am and arrived at UCL at 8.22 am.
My route this morning probably looked like the way home from pub after 11 pints. Instead of going through Camden I took Holloway Road, passed Angel and got lost near King's Cross. 20 Minutes later I was in Mornington Crescent, but honestly, I can't figure out how I did that. Eventually I arrived at UCL. Anyway, it was fun and I won't make the same mistake tomorrow (hopefully).
Things I learned this morning,

• I hate one ways


• Green traffic light and me the only one driving, not good


• UCL is NOT Central London


• Angel is nice for going out but terrible for driving in the morning


• King's Cross building isn't that beautiful anymore after the third round


• I have to drive more like the Italian way ;-)

Guns N Roses in London

I read in the Metro this morning that Guns N Roses will perform a gig this Wednesday in London. Great, my very first favourite rock band is coming to London. Ok, Axl Rose is the only original band member left and I am waiting for more than 10 years for the new album called "Chinese Democracy", but I really consider going. Who wouldn't like to see a live performance of songs like "Paradise City", "Sweet Child O Mine" or "Welcome to the Jungle"?
Check here for details

Thames at Night

If you find the time, talk a walk along the Thames at night. It's really impressive. Take the Tube to Embankment and then cross the Golden Jubilee Bridge. Pass the London Eye and walk until you reach Westminster Bridge. Thanks to Ettore for the pictures.

Speaker's Corner and Hyde Park

Since the weather still was very good today, I decided to go to Hyde Park. I haven't been to Speaker's Corner for a while. It's great to see so many people discussing and having arguments. Of course you see a lot of weird people there. It's every Sunday afternoon, just take the Central Line to Marble Arch. Take a ladder or a box, a fancy dress and have your speech.


"Shut up. You will address me as master!"

What a difference the sun makes

Wow, what a beautiful day today. You realise how much you missed the sun on these days. Hopefully, this weather will last for some time. I was walking around Muswell Hill. With all these shops and pubs, it's like small town. And you can get a great view over London...



I strongly recommend to visit the church in Muswell Hill Broadway. They both look nice, but only the first one has a pub inside. It's a impressive location for a pint...

Yet another blog...

Finally I decided to create my own blog wether the world needs it or not...