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.