Hippo Gnu Ear!

Today I am eating canned Iranian leeks and beans on Indian basmati rice from the only grocer open. I wished him a "mutlu yillar" (Turkish for Happy New Year) and he smiled and pointed at the map of Iraq behind him. *doh!* It's sidi-sinnar... something like that.

Tonight, I'm nibbling on a Terry's chocolate orange (thanks Mom & Dad!) before I make the trek to the Schloss to see the fireworks with the rest of Saarbrücken. I've got my resolutions written, a timer to start jogging tomorrow and my room is tidy. I am ready for 2008!

Best of luck in the new year, in any language -

The Roving Bionic Engineer and Master of Space!

home sweet home

There's nothing like breakfast in Paris. Chocolate chaud or café au lait, fresh baguette with red current jelly to dunk in it, and all the time in the world. I strolled up the canal to Gare de l'Est rather than hopping the Metro, past fishermen, a tour boat and a man explaining the lock to his son.

me & "Green Mars" at Paris Gare de l'Est

After the leisurely morning, I was ready for the super-fast trip home on the Inter-City Express (320 kph, according to a fellow passenger). Now, I am happily unpacked and back in my native environment. Today's successes - brought the barbecue down from the attic, patched the screw holes in my wall and rescued some wilted herbs.

Tomorrow's plan - get ready for 2008!

Have a healthy and happy new year, and if you haven't made a fitness resolution yet, check out Jogging for 2.

the accidental tourist in Paris

What a comedy of errors - in the last 24 hours, I think I managed to miss every form of transportation. First, I was so relaxed on a permanently full stomach that I thought my flight
home was today - close, but no banana. So Plan B: find another flight, but I missed booking today's flight by 5 minutes! Plan C: lets try the coach. Up before dawn to catch the first train to Victoria Station, too slow on the button and missed getting off at Clapham Junction, so on to Waterloo, onto a city bus to get to Victoria finally, where I wait in interminable line-up for a ticket to (Strasbourg - no, Brussels - no, Luxembourg - no) Paris. Dash across Departures to try for the 8AM ... but check-in is already shuttered. Dozed off and ended up 5th on the stand-by list for the 10AM - last one aboard! *phew*

Onward to the ferry, well I suspect we missed one because of the thorough border crossing guards hauling off a couple of my fellow passengers, but at least I finally got to see the white cliffs of Dover and ride the Pride of Canterbury.

Across the channel and off to Paris! Dark by the time I reach Gallieni, onto the Metro, quick connection at Place de la Republique and out at Gare de l'Est ... only to miss last train going anywhere near Germany for the day by 20 min. drat. Half an hour re-learning enough french to find the closest youth hostel, and here I am strolling the streets of Paris with my camera on almost New Years Eve!

Paris is peeling façades and dirt-crusted sidewalks. It's also the City of Lights, alive with neon, pedestrians and bikes, even at night in the middle of winter.
Plan A would have been boring. This bodes well for 2008, the Year of the Mini-break.

boxing madness

This morning, Kathleen, Dorothy and I took our stuffed carcasses and went for a stroll along the Basingstoke Canal, past King John's crumbling castle to feed the crumbs of our feast to some ravenous ducks.




Kathleen and Ahmet have just found a new flat in a thatched country estate, complete with jacuzzi and pool. I think I'll be visiting them :-)

Kathleen packs the first box!

Christmas stuffing

Happy holidays, all!

While you're stretched out on the sofa like a beached whale, here's a little fun. Have you seen the new colourful bunny commercial for Sony Bravia (click on the Playdoh ad link)?
You may forget it's an advert for a tv ;-) NB: there are some interesting factoids to read while you wait for it to load. And you don't have to imagine what a fun job it was to make it - they also have a featurette on the same page!

Someone also had a lot of fun filming the Sony Balls and Paint ad.
Finally, here is a life-affirming, joyful video from a Canadian singer, Feist. Can you figure out how they made this?
You'll never believe it until you see the "making of"... be amazed, feel wondrous.

And have a wonderful Christmas - freuliche Weihnachten - bonne Fete - feliz navidad!

Does it get any comfier than this? I'm just relaxing with my good friends Kathleen and Ahmet outside London in the village of Hook, feasting on mince pies, Turkish asparagus and decorating a tree with Lindt chocolate wrappers.

There's lights to be strung, tinsel to be hung and gifts to be brung!

one small step for the Bahn...

I'm just en route to London via tram and train and bus to Baden Airpark. I will be leaving here in a couple hours with Ryanair, and not long after hearing my favourite announcement "Another Ryanair flight lands!" amidst great applause "... on time!" It always sounds lik they're quite surprised the plane made it at all.

Biggest surprise this trip was walking into the newly renovated Saarbrücken bahnhof. Wow! It's like Paris! only new!!

Then a coach to Liverpool and a warm and welcoming car ride to Dorothy's before completing the trek to Hook by train. The confusion of Victoria (tube, coach or train?) station at midnight, double-deckers on the wrong side, me at the pelican crossing . It's all a bit of a blur ...
Looking forward to another Christmas in London ... in my nifty new pj's :-)

Pony Express

Christmas just arrived in the mail. I thought it was already here in the glow of the Glüwein and clamouring Kris Kringles, yet the picture wasn't complete without a 20-pound care package from home. I can tell it's from home, even without the waybill, by the hermetically-sealed bomb-proof vault it came in. Half the fun is just getting inside. I brought the letter opener Dad carved for me, but it looks a bit undersized for the job. I also have a new pair of scissors ... hmmm. An ancient mariner once told me to start every job by "tooling up" - lucky my room-mate keeps a closet full of tools down the hall.
ta da! *phew* Wonder if I'm allowed to open the Christmas wrap yet? At this weight, it's definitely not flying to London with me tomorrow. Do I detect the aroma of peanut butter??

(For your viewing pleasure, in my spare time, I finally fixed the animated gifs for November's construction party. Note: it took less time to build the bedframe than to make an animated gif of building the bedframe!)

The Saarlander who ate bamboo

Bamboo grows wildly on our terrasse, undeterred by snow. A couple weeks ago I tasted bamboo shoots for the first time in a Thai restaurant here in Saarbrücken called (natürlich) the Bambus Garden.

Today I read more about bamboo and natural valves and lightweight structures. I found this interesting website with more than you ever wanted to know about grass families.

Tonight I slayed the last of the cabbage in Caribbean Shrimp Soup. The Cabbage that Ate Saarland is dead - long live the cabbage!

building with bamboo

Looking into natural lightweight structures today, one recurring example I found is bamboo, a grass that can grow a meter a day! I especially like the bamboo bicycle (1896).

Bamboo is coming into fashion as a building material in different regions, from Australia to Germany (check out the Bamboo Institute). Click on this photo for some other examples.

A closet, by any other name

I just finished hanging up my clothes.

Not your average, everyday closet, but something light and airy.

The idea for hanging nets was inspired by living on a boat, where air circulation is paramount. The tube nets and hanging shelves come from IKEA, where they have anything you can dream.
(I even got around to repotting my Livingstone palm, so my new bamboo has a proper home now. And I discovered a "lucky bamboo" stem is strong enough to carry a load.)

The Art of Engineering

Today I finished the 2-week course in Pro/Engineer and learned how to import a model into Solidworks, another 3-dimensional CAD program so I can run an analysis in a Finite Element Analysis program called Cosmos. (I have to say, for marketers of graphical computer programs, these guys don't show much on their websites!)

It's simple - I started with a 3-dimensional sketch of a simplified banana leaf (only half since it is symmetrical), then chose rubber as a flexible material and ran Cosmos to see where the highest stress is and how much. In this example, the "leaf" is loaded with a pressure across the top surface that gets bigger toward the tip. The green arrows show where this half-leaf is pinned (ie connects to the other half). The colour variation shows that the highest stress (red) is just past the last rib and the peak stress is higher than the yield stress ("Streckgrenze"), so I overloaded this one.
That is just a half-day work. The next steps are to add more ribs and determine a realistic load like a real banana plant (which grows up to 6 metres tall and carries over 30 kg of bananas!). The results of a more detailed analysis will compare different materials (like wood or plastic) and different cross-sections (more ribs, or different connections). We will see whether this is better than your standard truss construction, how long we can extend it and how far it will bend.

And whether it can support a Saarlandisch cabbage...

finishing touches

Another wee trek to IKEA, and I have put the finishing touches on my living space.
The bedroom has a bookshelf with lamp,


the living room has a carpet to keep the chair from sliding
And I finally have one incredible multi-purpose bed table!
I also have a laundry hamper ... but you will have to await the unveiling of the dressing room.Tonight's elegant dining includes: pasta in a tangy onion, garlic, ginger pesto sauce (with cabbage).

my neighbourhood eats

One lovely part of being in the middle of Christkindle Markt is the food. The scent of cinnamon from fresh hot crepes, enticing cherries drizzled over Dampfnüdel, giant woks filled with steaming vegetables - tonight I tried "champignons," mushrooms with a hint of garlic. There's not a lot of vegetarian fare here, but this suits me just fine.

issues

I know, I know - the animated gifs aren't, well animated. I have found a solution - I just have to upload them to a server that can handle it and link them in... soon.

update: Dec. 18 - it's alive! There are all-dancing-bells-and-whistles animations on the November construction pics - check it out!

sketchy behaviour

For the next 2 weeks I am learning Pro/Engineer, a 3-dimensional CAD program. I started with some simple mechanisms and have made it to a sketch of a pencil by the end of the first day (click on the picture to see a close-up).

With a few colours and patterns added, even a background and lighting, suddenly it looks a lot more realistic. (If you look closely, you can see the letters are even "carved" into the wood.)

Visitor from Space

My SSP05 friend, Liliana came to Saarland for a visit this weekend, and left here today a few pounds heavier, laden with Christmas shopping, and memories of Nutella-and-kirsch crepes, Zimt-kuchen (cinnamon cookies) and Thai curry from my favourite Bambus Restaurant.

While she was here, she became my Test Subject #1 for the launch of the new experimental bed. Preliminary evidence indicates that the air mattress/slatted frame combo merits a "comfy" rating. There is a potential hazard for sleeping in, though ;-)
Liliana departed this afternoon for her home in Brandenburg, where I will plan a pilgrimage in January to experience the delights of that region.

the Saarbrücken commute

There's something to be said for a city big enough to have a bustling market 3 times a week on my corner, but small enough to bike anywhere in 15 minutes.

I usually walk to HTW, about 25 minutes through St. Johanner Markt

over the Saar ...

on the Alte Brücke ...

I'm wondering if this is the start of another camino.

Construction Zone

Today our apartment is a flurry of activity. A friend of my room-mate is installing our new kitchen - the sawdust is flying as he cuts the butcher-block counter to fit. And in my room, the paper is flying, as I am about to build my new furniture. (click on pics for larger view)

1. The bedframe.

2. The comfy chair with footstool.
3. The desk.
So now I have living areas:
The comfy bedroom:
The decadent den:








The opulent office:












At long last, sleeping off the floor! All that's left is my dressing room - but I have to get hooks first.

The kitchen is starting to coalesce - Stay tuned!

Sunday morning

This morning I woke up in a grey fog. Literally - we are finally having a taste of "normal" November Saarland weather. It's not so bad - not raining anymore, and the sun usually peaks out a few times every day - and warmer than it was a couple weeks ago!
Perfect day for planting my windowboxes. It only took a couple hours, and now my room is a bit of a mess, but I'm surrounded by green ... and red and yellow. I refuse to decorate for Christmas before Advent (Dec. 2 this year), but I have a few more ideas up my sleeve to dress it up a bit. If only I had a match, I could light the lantern - a here we go!

Happy Winter Gardening Day! Anyone for coleslaw?

Further adventures in Ikea

Today, my co-worker Wolfgang and his family took me to Ikea to order my furniture. On the short drive to Lisdorf, I had fun tutoring their son in English (he is already learning French from his mother and Italian in school). In spite of pre-selecting the major items, it took several hours to navigate through the tempting aisles. In the end, we managed to cram all the accessories like plants and bedding in the car, and the furniture will be delivered Tuesday!

Building a bedroom is like the process of Evolution.
I'm thrilled just to be sleeping on actual sheets tonight!
(Today's menu: stir-fried cabbage.)

A chair, by any other name

I just put a new spin on "lightweight construction." Today, after churning through all my Ikea notes on beds and comparing them in a spreadsheet, I finally had a eureka moment. What about inflatible furniture? Dad told me he found his air mattress very comfortable - so I hit the camping section at Galerie-Kaufhof ... and picked up an extra-thick double flocked mattress with chambered construction. It even fit in my bike basket!

After test-driving all the wheeled chairs at Ikea the other day, I still wasn't inspired by office furniture ... but I've heard that sitting on one of those inflatable exercise balls helps develop your abs. What are they called now? And in German?? Anwendung- Aufgabe- ... Sitz Ball? Gymnastik Ball? I finally managed to explain it to the sports sales guy - and then I saw it! A Fit-Chair - an exercise ball on wheels! And it FITS ON MY BIKE!

With pump in hand, I grow my new furniture. One hundred ... two hundred ... 250 pumps and I have a nice firm bed. 60-80-100 pumps ... but this chair is never going to make it. The ball doesn't even inflate big enough to fill the frame! Back to the store ... nothing like an electric air compressor to really sttrreeeeettch it out!
Ikea is good, but ...

Do engineers dream of Ikea?

Today was a shopping day off work. (Hey, they have snow days in St. John's!)

25-km by bike along the Saar.

Tires flattened under the weight on the way back.

Need I say more.

I am overwhelmed. This was definitely worth it.

I made it as far as the bedroom section just as they announced 30 minutes to closing. Guess I'll be back...

Ok, I admit I biked to up to Saarlouis and took a humiliatingly-short 7-minute train ride home. I'll be dreaming of bedframes dancing in my head.

es schneit

Word of the day: der Schnee (snow).
There is a flourish of flakes on the rooftops,

A smattering of snow on the flowers below -
Yes, I am in Saarbrücken, where winter was described as "mild" during my interview.
Perhaps there is a subtlety to the word mild that was lost in translation. The forecast looks a lot more like cold to me.

I hope the spot of blue sky in my office window expands a bit.

The Cabbage that Ate Saarland

Last night, I wanted to make Caribbean Shrimp Soup à la James Barber for my room-mate. I don't cook much, but it is a sure-fire hit. The only trick is finding the ingredients in my new hometown. Ginger - der Ingwer - is not exactly common here, but I found it with a lemon in the random vegetables at Aldi on the way home. But no coconut milk, onions or cabbage. On to the next store - the Plus Markt near the bridge. They have onions and garlic, but no coconut milk and no cabbage. hmm. Next stop a produce market over the bridge - and I learn to pronounce Kokosnußmilch without spitting. But still no cabbage! In Germany? What about sauerkraut? Even their president was named Kohl!
So I truck up to the Saargallerie mall by the Bahnhof. There in the Rewe, I strike Kohl. Giant Kohl - the smallest cabbage they have is 3 kilograms!. And no, you can't buy a quarter. This thing is big enough to frighten small children.

After huffing up 8 flights of stairs, I have provisioned my temporary kitchen, and the soup is a winner! Now what to do with the rest of the Cabbage That Ate My Fridge ...