I am SICK… *bäh*

It all started with a slight headache yesterday morning which I wasn’t too worried about. But it increased during the afternoon and I ended up with this really bad headache which I never had before!!

But I tried to distract myself and went to this birthday / housewarming party. It was really nice and it worked – I got distracted! But after I went home it all came back :-( and additional to the headache I got this funny feeling in my stomach… food poisoning maybe… so I was waiting for “both ends” but nope…

[“both ends” – this is a really funny description of being sick and stuff is coming out of both ends of your body… I hope you know what I mean :-)]

After a really bad night I am now laying in my bed with fever and doing nothing. In fact all I wanna do at the moment is laying in my bed, I don’t feel like reading, I don’t feel like using the computer [apart from writing this blog :-)], I just wanna lay in my bed doing nothing and waiting for the fever to go away :-)

WLAN!
I finally managed to get it working last night!!! Instead of sitting in a small dark corner of our house close to the router (we just have a 1m LAN cable) I can now sit everywhere with my laptop!
I love it! I am happy! [Sounds like a typical nerd?! :-)]

Nope - No Spring...
According to http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDW12300.shtml there will be rain the whole week :-(

Forecast for Monday
Showers, heavy at times with the chance of a squally thunderstorm at first.
Showers easing by the evening. Fresh to strong and gusty SW winds easing this
evening.

Tuesday - A shower or two but lengthy fine periods. Light winds. Min 7 - Max 18
Wednesday - Afternoon, evening shower or two. Min 6 - Max 19
Thursday - Showers. Windy. Min 11 - Max 18
Friday - Few showers. Min 9 - Max 17
Saturday - Few showers. Min 10 - Max 19
Sunday - Few showers. Min 7 - Max 19

Garden pictures II
I hope the trees are right and we are having spring soon!

Short dusk and dawn
The closer you get to the Equator the short are the dusk and dawn periods.
I am used to very long dusk periods especially during summer time in Germany. I love sitting outside when the sun sets and you have this crepuscular [yes, I looked that up in the dictionary :-)] light for nearly hours.
But here in Perth these short dusk and dawn periods are sometimes a bit scary. The other day and went home from uni while it was still light outside. I had a shower and when I finished I though – hang on… who switched of the lights?!
Or this morning when I went to Curtin before 7am [I took Ian to the airport, otherwise I wouldn’t get up that early!!! ;-)]. I just went downstairs to copy something and when I came back someone had switched on the lights outside :-)
I think especially in summer time I prefer a longer dawn period. And they should also introduce daylight saving time in WA like in all the other Australian states – but this is an another topic on its own…

My first time – Squash
I went and played Squash for the first time in my life 2 days ago. And I think I like it…
After I figured out how to serve properly it was actually good fun! But I ran a lot and missed a lot of balls but it was alright for the first time.
But when I woke up this morning… oh…. I am soooo sore!! Especially my right arm :-)

The weekend in short…

“I am a sex addict” – Perth International Film Festival (http://www.cavehzahedi.com/films_sex.html)
Really funny and unusual movie, a bit like a documentary, low budget movie – but really good!

“Makeover” at the BodyShop.
I got this gift voucher from Ian for my birthday. It included a “makeover”, which is a bit like a make-up course where they make your make-up and teach you some tricks. The voucher also included 50 bugs to spend on make-up which was even better :-)

Yummy seafood paella at a friends place!

“Antikörper” (Antibodies) – Perth International Film Fesstial (http://www.revelationfilmfest.org/index.cfm?objectid=FD3CAB56-65BF-EBC1-200107417E7F5BA5&navid=D9761779-C09F-1F3C-C809B0FDEF313ED9)
Again a really good thriller! And it was in German!!! And the movie also played in a nice little village in Thüringen, which is where I come from! It really felt a bit like home :-)

Riding 40km on a road racing bike around the river in Perth!!
Yes, one of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_bicycle
I am still sore today… ;-)

Amal’s Birthday

I am sharing an office with Thorsten (from Germany) and Amal (from Bahrain). It was her 27^th birthday yesterday. So we surprised her in the office with new ear phones (her old ones were broken) and some sweets and invited her for dinner.

So we went to a restaurant that had Afghan / Iranian food. It was really yummy and not spicy / hot at all. It was some type of Turkish bread with cucumber yoghurt and fresh tomatoes and cucumber as entrée and rice with chicken, lamb and mince meat as main course. After that we all had a piece of birthday cake :-)

My first Rouladen!

For the non-Germans :-)
Rouladen is a German meal consisting of bacon, onions, mustard and pickles wrapped in thinly sliced beef then cooked. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouladen)

So I made my very first Rouladen last weekend and they very sooo yummy. I haven’t had them for so long! And of course I made Klöße (dumplings) and Rotkraut (red cabbage) as a side dish.

We invited some friends over for dinner and introduced them to this traditional German dish. They finished it off in no time!! … and I was hoping to freeze the leftovers… ha well… I am happy that my first Rouladen cooking went so well!

I Love Sunflowers!

And this one just grow accidentally in our garden at home in Germany. My mom just sent me this picture the other day.

It is the result of the bird seeds we use to give the birds in winter time. One of those seeds actually managed to escape the birds :-)

Online chatting to a librarian....
That's what I call advanced! At Curtin you can use MSN or Yahoo to chat to a librarian (https://auth.lis.curtin.edu.au/askonline/index.html). I tried it already and it works really good. If you have any library-related questions just chat with them! In case they are not online you can even send them a SMS. I really like this!

Germany - Italy (0:2)
... no comment...
At least I don't have to get up at 3am Monday night to watch the final...

Where do I live ...
My parents asked me that the other day after I showed them Google Maps.
And so here you are:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=274653
Just click on that link and you will find the route to uni that I take everyday on my little scooter. It starts at the house in North Fremantle where Ian and I live and ends at Curtin University.

This is an overview of where I exactly live in Perth. The Curtin University is about 20km away from there.

Every morning I drive along the river and enjoy the view over Perth city and the luxurious villas built along there.

A close view of our house on the left. It is just 200m to the river!!

A close view of the New Technologies building at Curtin where I work. My office is right at the corner of the building on the top (4th) floor.

I just got a delayed birthday letter from Katja and Jörg (friends from uni back home in Germany) with this great photo attached to it!

They are my German support during the World Cup! :-)

So everyone fingers crossed on Tuesday night (actually Wednesday morning 3am Perth time) when Germany plays against Italy in the semi-final!

To my Dad
Hope to see you all well again for Christmas!

My Birthday Party

Actually, I didn’t want to have a birthday party… All the people here that I know are either friends of Ian or people from the uni. I get along with Ian’s friends quite good! They are all really good guys but they are not (yet) really close friends of mine. Same with the people from uni because I just know them for about 2 months.
A party with those guys would be different from home where I would invite all my close friends who I know for a long time already.
But I am very glad that I decided to have a birthday party anyway! In fact I was really looking forward in the end. Because such a party is the perfect opportunity to get to know these guys better.

So we had a BBQ yesterday. And I was so happy about the weather because the forecast said some showers for the morning but it was a beautiful warm and sunny day instead and no rain at all.

We prepared some salads and yummy self-made apple strudel, borrowed 2 big BBQs from friends and made the front yard ready for lot of guests. In fact there were about 20 people. It was really a nice little party! I am really glad I did it!


The guys from uni made such a great present for me!! The made a gift basket with lots of German food. There were German sausages, German chocolate, mustard, gherkins, dumpling mix, German jam, ... everything very, very yummy!! And because they know that it I get quite cold on my scooter every morning when I ride to uni, the collected some money so I can buy myself some gloves. That was really nice of you! Thanks a lot!


And I also got a great Aussie presy (present) – Ugg Boots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugg_boots). They are not particular good looking, but they are very comfortable and soooo warm - I love them! I am getting more and more Aussie :-)
I also got more Explorer socks, a bicycle computer (so I should start to ride now...), a very nice olive oil decanter, wine and the LoneyPlanet for New Zealand.