Deutsch again!

Hallo zusammen,

ja ihr lest richtig. Ich habe mich dazu entschlossen mein Blog in Zukunft in Deutsch weiterzuführen. Warum das denn?!? Ganz einfach, wie ihr ja wisst bin ich von Natur aus faul und das Deutsch schreiben geht halt doch einfacher von der Hand. Außerdem wird diese Seite fast ausschließlich von deutschsprachigen Mitmenschen gelesen. Und zu guter Letzt merke ich dass langsam aber sicher mein Deutsch darunter leidet, dass ich den ganzen Tag nur in Englisch kommunizieren (außer natürlich mit Finlay).

To all my English-speaking friends out there: This is you chance to protest against me writing in German. Speak now or forever hold your peace!

Ja was gibt’s Neues? Für alle die es noch nicht wissen (und ich glaube das sind sogar einige):

Nat und ich erwarten in 2 Wochen Nachwuchs. Wir bekommen ein kleines Mädchen und sind tierisch gespannt und aufgeregt. Sobald es in der Sache was zu berichten gibt, wird es auf dieser Seite stehen Für alle die sich jetzt wundern, dass wir erst jetzt mit der Sprache rausrücken: Wir hatten unsere Gründe, die meisten wissen warum. Außerdem geht mir in letzter Zeit der ganze Facebook ‘ich erzähle jedes Details meines Lebens’ Wahn gehörig auf den Keks.

Auf Grund der Geburt kommen auch meine Eltern im Spätsommer zu Besuch. Wir freuen uns schon sehr auf das Wiedersehen. Auch bzgl. eines Berlin Besuchs unserseits gibts etwas Neues: Wir werden definitiv 2012 nach Berlin kommen. Wann genau steht noch nicht fest, aber ich hoffe wir schaffen es 4 Wochen Urlaub zusammenzubekommen.

Als letztes vielleicht noch dies: Ich werden den Blog wohl demnächst auf eine eigene Domain umziehen. Einfach um mehr Freiheit bei der Software zu haben und so kann ich Bilder etc selber hosten und muss nicht auf Picasa, DropBox zurückgreifen. Wozu hat man den ein paar Dedicated Server unter seiner Kontrolle

Lieben Grüß aus dem recht frischen Brisbane!

Birthdays Galore

Last weekend was full of kids birthdays. First on was Pierces 3rd birthday at Jackies house. We had a great pool party and thankfully the weather was still warm enough to jump into the pool.

Next Party up was for Finlays Cousins Charlize and Connor. Charlize celebrated her 4th birthday and Connor his 6th.

Below you’ll find two link to some photos from both parties.

Pierces 4th birthday

Charlize & Connors birthday

As you can see, I switched to Dropbox to store the photos online. Dropbox is a great service that offers 2GB for free. If your interested in a Dropbox account, I would appreciate it if you use the following link to sign up. This way you are referred by me and I get an extra 250MB per person who signs up (Up to 8GB).

Sign up for a free Dropbox account

Thailand 2011

Hi everyone,

We are now back in Brisbane for over a week and I finally found a couple minutes to write a blog about our trip to Thailand. To make a long story short: It was fantastic! 3 weeks of beautiful weather, dream beaches and pure relaxation. My parents and my brother Kolja were there and it was great to catch up. We spent the most of the time on Phuket, Thailand’s biggest island. From there we also took a boat trip to Phi Phi Island. I can honestly recommend Thailand to everyone for a holiday.

Unfortunately work got us all back already and the trip seems to be ages ago.

Anyway, here are the pictures of our trip:

Thailand 2011

We got power back!

Hi everyone,

After 24 hours without power we finally got the power switched back on. What a relief!

Yesterday at around midday suddenly the power got switch off for our neighbourhood. It came a bit unexpected since we were told that only suburbs with their substation endangered by the flood water would be switch off. But after a little drive around the neighbourhood we realised why: not far from us (maybe 500m – 1000m, but fairly below our height) the streets were already flooded. This meant that we only have one way out of Chapel Hill and that is through the north. We then tried to get some basic supplies (bread, milk, ice, etc.), but what we saw at the local shops was just amazing. People everywhere, buying everything in panic! No milk, no ice, no bread, hardly any canned food and also no petrol at the local petrol stations. Just crazy!

Thankfully we had quite some stuff at home, but with no fridge most of the perishable foods will be off by today. We spend a very dark night with no power but did alright.

The next morning (today) we still had no power. We left very early and drove up north to get at least some food and somewhere. Luckily we found a petrol station which still had petrol and also some packs of ice.

After a couple of hours at home again, the power came on again. To be honest we expected it to be off much longer but it looks like that the predicted flood level won’t be as high as they thought and the authorities started to switch power on in areas where it is save to do so.

Now we’re just watching the horrible pictures on the TV in disbelief. Absolutely amazing how the power of nature ruled over Brisbane and humanity can only watch it happening and isn’t able to do anything against it….

Ok so much from us for now. Thanks for all the calls and the wishes. We are fine, but our thoughts are with the many people who lost family members, homes or basically everything.

Please donate for the victims if you can. (see link in blog post below)

EDIT: Here is a link to a constantly updated picture gallery. Unbelievable images.

Brisbane Flood Photos

Flood disaster in Brisbane

Many of you probably heard of the developing flood disaster which is currently unfolding in Brisbane and Queensland. At first it looked like Brisbane would be spared, but after some devastating flash flooding in Toowoomba and because of the constant heavy rain, Brisbane got hit today.

Firstly let me tell you that we are OK. Fortunately Chapel Hill (as the name suggests) sits on high ground and there is no way flood water will reach us here. But that doesn’t make it any better for those directly effected. So far it is predicted that about 6000 homes in Brisbane could be directly effected by the flood. Unfortunately we haven’t reached the peak yet and the worst is still to come. The highest flood levels are expected for Thursday with levels that are going to be higher than at the historical flooding of 1974.

Once again, we are fine here and are out of the immediate danger.

I also would like to provide a link to the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal. Many families lost everything. If you feel like supporting the many many people and families effected by this disaster, donate at the following link. Every Dollar (or Euro) helps. Thank you!

Queensland Flood Relief Appeal

Christmas in tropical north Queensland

Hi everyone,

We just returned from our Christmas trip to Townsville. The weather wasn’t too bad although it rained quite a bit, but I guess that what you get if you celebrate Christmas in tropical north Queensland. The food was beautiful though. I think I gained at least another 10 kg!!! That means it’s time now to lose some weight … well let’s see how that goes

I attached a link to pictures of our time in Townsville:

Christmas 2010 in Townsville

Ahh nearly forgot: HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone

 

Heatwave

It’s still the middle of winter here and the temperatures should be in the low twenties but this weekend is just hot! We have about 31 degrees here at the moment and the next two days are expected to be even hotter. If thats ‘how winter is over here, I don’t know what to expect for the summer.

Brisbane Weather

Anyway Finlay loves it, he sits in his little shell filled with water and is splashing around. And I sit in the shade and enjoy an ice-cold beer. What a life!