anni down under

Rainy Saturday

annidownunder — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:05:43 +0000

When we woke up this morning the weather outside was really miserable, cold and rainy But then there is nothing better than staying in bed and / or reading a good book. I haven’t had a really good book for ages but the one that I finished reading this morning is “Going Postal: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett”. It is exciting, really funny and (important for me) easy to read. I usually lose interest in a book if it is too hard to read.
But this weather also motivated us to do boring things like shopping for a new kettle, a washing basket and door mats – exciting, isn’t it?! But we were really happy to find these things, especially our new kettle looks great!

annidownunder — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:46:00 +0000

German Language Course

I have noticed before that Perth is a really small place, but events keep reminding me of this Like the other day we went to a restaurant with a couple of friends. In one of the conversations we had, we discussed a possible German language course for Ian and some of his friends. It also happened that a young German couple with a baby girl was sitting next to us.
Anyway, a friend of mine recommended a German teacher to me, telling me that she has a baby and can only do casual jobs at the moment. So at a party a couple of days later my friend introduced me to this teacher and, you guess it, it turned out to be the young woman from the restaurant a few days earlier

annidownunder — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:30:00 +0000

This video was recorded at Ian’s birthday party the weekend after last.

annidownunder — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:43:00 +0000

End of Daylight Saving

It seems like the end of daylight saving is also the end of this years summer On Sunday morning we turned the clock back one hour and it looks like Sunday was the last summers day with temperatures up to 30C. Today it is raining non-stop and I got pretty wet riding my scooter to uni
The only good thing about the end of daylight saving is that the time difference between Germany and Australia dropped from 8h to 6h which makes phoning and chatting so much easier.

annidownunder — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:25:00 +0000

Girls Weekend

This weekend was full of girls stuff I went out for a girls-only-night on Saturday and it even happened to be a German-girls-only-night. We had dinner in a funky little Indian restaurant called “2 Fat Indians”. The name actually made us going there. But it was worthwhile, the food was really good. And this afternoon I went to a friends “Baby Shower” – actually my first one ever. She is 8 months pregnant and a bunch of her girl friends gathered for a nice afternoon with (German!!) cake and lots of talking about babies We also gave her lots of cute little baby presents. One of the girls there actually gave birth to a baby girl about 6 weeks ago. So we all had a go holding her
Ian on the other hand did lots of boys stuff this weekend which included wood working and a triathlon on Sunday morning. But hopefully by next year I will be able to do the triathlon together with him.

annidownunder — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:11:00 +0000

My Mouse

Recently my computer mouse stopped working. The cable close to the USB-plug broke slowly, which meant that the mouse would still work after a bit of wiggling, but after a while the cable broke totally. So I was looking for a new mouse and bought the only one that I liked in the shop – a small Microsoft laptop mouse. I wanted one that is small and light, which meant that it had to be one with a cable since all wireless mice have batteries, ie are heavier. But this mouse was crap! I want to use it on nearly any surface, not just on a mouse pad. But the mouse pointer kept jumping all over the screen on most of the surfaces I use – unlike my old mouse. So I took it back but was unable to find a really good replacement for my old mouse, plus my old mouse is not produced anymore
To cut a long story short, this weekend I bought a simple USB cable and cut off one end of the cable and the USB plug off my mouse. A little bit of fiddling with the 4 wires running inside the cable, soldering, insulating and my mouse is working again

annidownunder — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:15:00 +0000

Krav Maga – Women Self Defence

During the last couple of weeks I participated in a women’s self defence course. According to our teacher “The techniques are based on Krav Maga, an Israeli self-defence system taught to the military and adapted for civilians. The main feature of Krav Maga is that the moves are simple and practical, and designed to be used by men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes.”
It has been pretty good fun so far. We learnt how to fend off a knife attack, how to escape if someone is choking you or sitting on top of you,… There is always lots of giggling when we practice on each other and I don’t know whether I would be able to apply these techniques if I had to. Anyway, I did this course just for fun and hope that I won’t need to apply it ever!

annidownunder — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:34:00 +0000

Ian’s birthday

The last couple of days and weeks I’ve been busy organising a surprise for Ian’s birthday party yesterday. I wrote several spam emails to his friends in search for old pictures of him. I also got the baby album from his mum – he was such a cute baby In the end I got more than 100 great pictures which I then assembled to a 2 big A0 posters. And they were a success Ian loved them. We even hung them up in our living room now – at least until the renovations.

The party itself was great too! The location – Mosman Park Bowling Club – is just stunning, overlooking the river and the city. It was great to be surrounded by so many good friends!

annidownunder — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:33:00 +0000

Long Easter Weekend

Even though it is Easter I don’t really feel like it. We didn’t do any Easter egg hunts or bought each other presents or anything. We are actually rather busy preparing Ian’s birthday party tonight. We are expecting about 60 people! Hope everything will go well!

annidownunder — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:17:00 +0000

Be Kind Rewind

We went to the movies last night and watched “Be Kind Rewind“. Plot outline according to imdb.com: “A man whose brain becomes magnetized, unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend’s video store. In order to satisfy the store’s most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films.”
Reading this outline, I just thought what a stupid dumb film! But it was surprisingly hilarious! And there is now a whole fan community sweding there own movies! It is great [For those who haven't seen the film yet, a sweded film is a Hollywood movie reproduced with a rather small budget.]