A typical breakfast
Fruehstuecksvielfalt.
What’s for breakfast? Everything!
Plum.
Oatmeal.
Green Tea.
German Pumpernickel with jam.
Homemade Bananacake.
Die Missy goennt sich was
Seit einer gefuehlten Ewigkeit wuensche ich mir eine neue kleine Digitalkamera, vor allem seit ich meine “alte” Canon Powershot S45 meinem Vater vermacht habe, kurz bevor ich nach Australien ausgewandert bin. Das ist nun schon zwei Jahre her. Seit dem schaue ich staendig, was es Neues auf dem Markt der qualitativ hochwertigen Hosentaschencams gibt. Mit anderen Worten: das Fraeulein suchte sich dusselig nach der eierlegenden Wollmilchsau.
Eine digitale Spiegelreflex hab ich ja schon, aber die nehm ich halt immer seltener mit, da sie einfach zu klobig ist und ich sowieso bisher noch nicht komplett in die manuelle Fotografie eingestiegen bin (bedauerlicherweise).
Zum einfach mal schnell ein paar Eindruecke festhalten ist eine kleine Kompakte voellig ausreichend.
Natuerlich muss diese kompalte Kamera alle (meine) Wunsch-Kategorien bestens erfuellen, und ich glaube, das lange Suchen hat ein Ende gefunden. Ich habe mich entschieden, mich mit der Canon S90 anzufreunden. Eigentlich dachte ich ja, dass es eine IXUS wird, aber leider scheint es die IXUS 870 IS nicht mehr zu geben (mit der liebaeugelte ich zuletzt) und eine andere IXUS kam nicht in Frage… Als ich bereit war die 870 zu kaufen, war sie bereits schon wieder veraltet…und vor allem nicht mehr als Neuware auffindbar.
Durch Zufall bin ich vor Kurzem auf die Powershot S90 gestossen….eigentlich klar, dass die mich reizt, denn sie richtet sich mehr an den anspruchsvollen Knipser (mich, haha!), und ich kann somit in der S-Klasse der Canon Kompakten bleiben. Wie schoen! Wie ich las, ist die S90 eigentlich fast eine IXUS (weil so klein) jedoch mit gehobener Qualitaet (der Powershot Reihe). Prima!
Da der Urlaub immer naeher rueckt (nur noch drei Wochen, dann gehts los!), habe ich die Kamera gestern holterdipolter online bestellt und hoffe nur sehnlichst, dass sie noch rechtzeitig vor Abreise ankommt (da sie einen weiteren Weg vor sich hat… 
).
So wird sie dann aussehen:
[photo by Nimages DR]
Herrjeeminee, ihr koennt euch gar nicht vorstellen, wie aufgeregt ich schon bin. 
Nun bitte alle Daumen druecken, dass der Expressversand auch wirklich seinem Namen alle Ehre macht.
Something minor
But – Ouch!
I’ve been bitten by a mozzie (Aussie slang for mosquito) on my left big toe last year in…November I think it was. I still see the bite. It is slowly, very slowly disappearing. How mean to bite on top on my big toe anyway. Well, almost half a ywar later I am quite happy that the bite is not red and infected any longer; it seems to finally heal.
But then.
Today is cleaning day. My day off. Rent inspection is coming up this Thursday. The sun is shining. Good mood and lots of energy to clean the house. I’ve cleaned the windows and the fly screens, and we left the doors out back and out front wide open.
Sitting on the couch for a tea and cake break (yes, I’ve started baking again), I see a huge mozzie flying behind Nathan’s neck. He is not concerned, as usual, so I further sip my tea and continue what I was doing. A short while later, I feel that something stings on my right toe. I look down and see that mozzie sitting on my right TOE! Ouch! Damn it! Why always me????????? I shook it off and it landed straight on Nathans big left toe, where it died a Cola smack attack. Sorry mozzie, but I’m too allergic to your bites and don’t want to suffer another six months from the dangerous toe bite disease. 
My toe felt like a needle was still sticking in it. Ten minutes later the area around my new bite swelled up, showing me that mozzie got me before I got him.
There can be one single mozzie in the house and for sure I will end up with a bite. Thinking of that, I really need to make sure that I take the best mozzie repellent to Bali/Indonesia next month. I don’t want to risk getting fat itchy and infected bites all over me OR even Malaria.
I have started to take a Vitamin B supplement as I’ve heard that a high level of Vitamin B1 or was it B6 (?) can be a good mozzie protection as well. I tried this method back in the days when I went camping in Venice and can say it has worked well. I think it was vitamin B1.
Any recommendations for an insect repellent (that I can get in Australia)? I don’t even care if it is full of chemicals, as long as it works for those 2-3 weeks when we will be in the Indonesian bushlands….
Apr 20, 2010 • A-life & English •••• 0 comments »Noong haw
Ngoo lây gûh duh.
A bit of Shanghainese, which means ‘Hello, I am here.’ The circumflex needs to be 180 degrees, but I don’t know how to do it with this (Mac) keyboard.
Or simply :P 你好，我回来了。(Hello, I am back.)
Shanghaiboy reached Perth Airport after a long day of travelling from the far lands of China back home to Australia. Exhausted and tired he got picked up from the airport at 11.30pm last night. But before falling into the freshly made bed he gave me a few of the more to come little presents from China! Ohhh…photos will follow. So pretty…!
The mister’s luggage is still in China and will be delivered tomorrow morning (hopefully). Somehow he has no luck with luggage travelling WITH him. Maybe he has just bad luck in picking the good airlines, although this time he could not choose the airline, because the university did. Whatever happened, the luggage with more gifts will be here tomorrow.
However, I am glad that the airplane brought him home safe, after reading that only a few days ago a Cathay Pacific airbus had an engine failure and only landed safely at Hong Kong’s airport (only eight people injured, it said) because the pilots were doing a great job.
Happily reunited:
Regret
Only one more night and my ‘shanghaiboy’ will be back home! I don’t know if it was the hot chicken from Coles (apparently without preservatives and artificial flavourings) or the [3] chocolate packages that made it through my stomach…what? who’s whispering? no one? ok…., but my skin was sooo beautiful yesterday and since this morning I got a kind of reaction with bumps on my neck and a few on my lower cheeks. 
Personally I think it was NOT the chocolate, but the chicken. Whatever BBQ-glaze they put on the chicken or whatever else was IN the meat, my skin says “thank you”. I have been eating very healthy lately. With the chicken I had broccoli and couscous, which can’t make me break out. No, if it was the chocolate, I would have had the break out last weekend already…or beginning of this week.
I am drinking lots of water to get the toxins out, hoping I look better tomorrow, when I pick up my loveman from the airport. I know he will ask “honey, what have you been eating? looks like you have a bad skin reaction.” Sigh…one day I will be Vegetarian…or I will know what exactly makes my skin break out.
Got it!
12.15am (or quarter past midnight…I should be sleeping), I saw it sitting on the wall. My little friend. Grabbed a long wide plastic container from the kitchen and moved closer to the object. Of course it saw me coming and it started walking down the wall, to the tricky corner of carpet and wall where it would be almost impossible to catch it. Beast! Then it was on the carpet, but Nathan’s metal rods (form another art project) were lying on the floor, being in the way…it was hiding underneath the overlapping plastic wrapping of those rods. Didn’t want to crush it, so was carefully trying to put the container over it. IT JUMPED AND RAN ZIGZAG as if preparing for the next Olympics, but luckily only inside the container. GOT IT! Yay.
Guess what I am talking about.
Boring? Nah!
Who knew that I would be that busy and so extremely occupied when my better half is over there in China. I didn’t even manage to write one or even a few blog entries. How slack!
I was sooo looking forward to having a quiet night for myself tonight. Last week went by as if it was only one day, because I didn’t really have “me” time. I have worked a lot, I haven’t slept much, but I’ve seen friends and did all kinds of things from my to-do list. Yeah.
First off, I’ve got my vaccination for next month, when we are going on holiday to Indonesia. Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Diphtheria, Tetanus. These were really needed anyway and I have been traveling the last years without anything in my body. Well, it worked out, I guess, but we are planning on going to the “lonely” places on the Indonesian islands…so better have the basic protection…for the “just in case” case. I didn’t get the Rabies shot, which protects against the wild monkey bite. I just hope the monkeys don’t chew on me. 
I am more afraid of Malaria…I hate mosquitoes. Their bites swell up the size of egg-yolk on my skin.
Anyway…besides the aches in my upper arms (two in each arm), the vaccination seems to have not caused any side effects. I paid only $130, which was way cheaper than I thought. Vaccination for Indonesia – check.
What else did I do?
I’ve played indoor beach volleyball (first time with 6 people in our team, still we’ve lost…puhuu). Sport activity – check.
I went to a German networking event and met some new people and got home with five German books, which a husband of an intensive reading wife wanted to get rid of. Socialising – check.
I filled up my fridge with the best delicious and healthy foods (bought Mozarella or here known as Boccocini the first time, cause I didn’t know they have it here!) and also cooked a nice dinner for a friend and besides…pssst…honey, please close the browser window NOW…..besides the chocolate that I could not resist, I ate very good foods (I know my loveman is always concerned that I eat “right” when he is not around). Stay healthy – check.
I made awesome tips in my second job; $45 last Saturday and $50.80 on Sunday, which topped my highest tip so far, which has been $41. I need to mention that tipping in Australia is very unusual and most people (90%) don’t tip. BUT, there are many travellers who are used to giving tips AND there are many happy returning customers at place where I work…and of course I provide the best of service and I like to have little chats with my customers, which is the nice side of the job. People from all over the world in one place. Yesterday several groups/guests thought I am French! How funny is that??? Well, I AM a quarter French, but not that I have a French accent? I often get compliments that I have a very lovely/cute accent. Second most popular guess is Swedish. No one ever says German in the first, second, third, or fourth place. Moneymaking – check.
I have watched “Frequency” and very much liked it, but missed my other couch potato. Entertainment – check.
Last week I received a letter from our Real Estate Agency that another rent inspection will happen on the 14th. Ahhh, have I told you what they want us to do before they come? A loooong list of maintenance and cleaning inside and outside the house. I don’t even know if I would get the lawn mower going; that old thing. Also, I would not be home when they come into the house and I don’t like that. Nathan’s glass sculptures are everywhere and what’s if they accidentally brake something? No. I asked for pushing the visit another week forward and it seems as if they’ve accepted it, although they weren’t too happy about it, because they visit eight properties in my neighbourhood on the 14th and need to make an extra trip on the 22nd. Well, I think my “my partner is a glass-artist-story” scared them off. Ha! Enough time now to do all this:
It started raining today. Too bad, because I wanted to mow the lawn tomorrow! 
Avoiding conflicts – check.
A good friend gave me an beautiful black Hennes&Mauritz skirt, which she ordered in Germany, which a German friend took with her to Sydney where she married and where she gave it to my friend, who was a guest at the wedding. THIS skirt has travelled quite a bit. I only need to give her about $15 because H&M is just a great cheap shop that is greatly missed here. Beauty enhancements – check.
Just for the records…..I saw a cockroach running across the living room while my friend and I were sitting on our couch. I THOUGHT IT IS WINTER (almost) and WAY TOO COLD for the beasts….sigh. I’ve only seen one during the whole long summer, I think. Can’t be that they NOW come in. No, we didn’t catch it. Reminder of changing bait – check.
What else planned for this week?
I will give my car a good wash (overdue) and might get a haircut (if I get an appointment). I need to buy new cockroach bait as well. I won’t play beachvolleyball tomorrow, because I feel more like relaxing and finishing my current book so that I can start one of the new German books. No computer tomorrow night either. I have a date with my couch, a bit of wine or tea, my blanket and my book. I write this here to warn myself. ;o)
Okay, and before this entry grows endlessly I better go to bed and get a few hours of sleep. That’s what I’m looking forward to….SLEEP, togetherness and together falling sleepiness on couchiness when my shanghaiboy comes back. Three more nights to go!
Apr 13, 2010 • A-life & English •••• 2 comments »Happy Ostern
Happy Easter and beautiful holidays! I will have a five day long weekend; from Friday until Tuesday, which is my rostered day off anyway. Fits perfect with Easter Monday. Though it is sad that Nathan won’t be here to hunt chocolate eggs. He is flying out to China tonight, which means I will have to deal with myself for ten long days. Sigh…Well, I might find time to blog a bit. 
FROHE OSTERN und schoene Feiertage! Ich habe nun erstmal 5 Tage frei; Freitag bis einschliesslich Dienstag, welcher eh mein freier Tag ist. Passt also perfekt mit Ostermontag. Nur schade, dass der Herzmann heute abend/nacht nach China fliegt und ich es somit nicht nur Ostern, sondern insgesamt zehn Tage mit mir allein aushalten muss. Vielleicht schaffe ich es ja dann mal, mich meinem Blog wieder etwas mehr zu widmen.