31july2007 - goodbye hong kong
tuesday. this morning i handed back my apartment to the landlord and left hong kong with a suitcase, a trolley, some cloths-bags and my notebook. it somehow breaks my heart to leave hong kong, but as i am only two hours away, i don't feel too bad. there are new challenges ahead and i am looking forward to work in china and further pursue my carerr. luckily me beloved girlfriend vivien will follow in three weeks, so i won't be alone in china for too long. bye bye hong kong - i will be back!

30july2007 - on the move
monday. at 9:00 (sharp) that morning 5 packers from santa fe showed up at my apartment to pack all my personal belongins and furniture to be shipped to guangzhou. it took them five hourse to pack everything and i was really happy that i didn't have to do it. sure, such a comfortable move is not cheap, but certainly something you can get used to. now all my things will be loaded into a 20' container and shipped by sea to china, where i will get them delivered after i get my new visa. this is schedule for august 10th, but hey, this is china and you never now.

29july2007 - at the bayside
sunday. me, vivien and some of our closest friends met that night at the bayside in stanley for dinner. another day, another farewell, but why complain? i am fortunate to have met so many nice friends here in hong kong and i am sure that i will meet them again all over asia soon as we are all expatriates. will miss all you guys, keep in touch!

28july2007 - hong kong family farewell
saturday. that night we had a dinner with vivien's family to celebrate her dad's and her uncle's birthday as well as my farewell. this is now also my chance to say thank you to her family, which has been so kind to welcome me as a foreigner into their midth and to let me experience so many local chinese festivities and customs. farewell everyone, see you in guangzhou soon.

27july2007 - timo in town
friday. my good friend timo and his girlfriend cookie flew in from qingdao that day, which created the perfect opportunity to meet old friends again before saying goodbye to hong kong. we all went out for drinks at typhoon (again, haha), dinner at the outback steakhouse and afterwards headed for lan kwai fong for some more drinks. hope we meet again soon, hopefully in qingdao next time.

26july2007 - guangzhou
thursday. i had to travel to guangzhou again on that day to prepare for my transfer next week. i inspected my house prior to the handover and made some arrangements like getting a resident card, cleaning of the house and changing of the locks. do you know how much it costs me to have my house cleaned? one day (a full day) costs 50 RMB, which equals to about 5 euros. one day! can you believe that? well, on one hand it's nice to get such a service so cheap, but on the other hand it makes you wonder how ...

25july2007 - farewell part 5: salmon wanted
wednesday. hong kong people love japanese food - especially seafood and everything that involves salmon. (well, hong kong people actually like ALL foods ;)) my boss ivy and our staff took me out for a nice farewell buffet dinner at todai restaurant in tsim sha tsui. puuuh, so many nice things to eat. i will for sure gain some weight these days, but hey, it's farewell time - i can diet later.

24july2007 - farewell part 4: typhoon again
tuesday. well, i can't do without this havana club rum these days when it comes to celebrations. my former boss eva lai and some of her, well my-ex staff, took me out for snacks and drinks in a place of my choice - well, it came all down to typhoon again. love that place. thanks eva, catherine, carol, danny, kit ... i will miss you guys!

23july2007 - farewell part 3: typhoon
monday. since i already had a nice lunch that day, i skipped dinner and headed right from some drinks in my favourite wan chai bar. why is it my favourite bar? well, my colleague and friend 'dr. moth' succesfully implemented havana club rum there, that's why. apart from that it is a bar with a really nice atmosphere, so next time you happen to come through wan chai, i strongly recommend you make a pit-stop there. cheers!

23july2007 - farewell part 2: dim sum
monday. celebrations in hong kong always involve food, wherefore three of my colleagues (who won't be able to join my farewell dinner on this wednesday) took me out for dim sum for lunch on that day. it was really sweet of them to do so and makes me realize that i wil miss hong kong and my staff a lot.

20july2007 - farewell part 1: wan chai blast
friday. my colleage andreas, who is leaving for sydney this weekend, and myself invited a bunch of colleagues out for some drinks at the bulldog's bar in wan chai. the atmosphere was good, the drinks cold and the night long. afterwards tjen, stefan and me took a little tour around wan chai's famous 'establishments', during which i realized that i had a little (really, just a little) too much bacardi-coke, jaeger-bombs and gin-tonic. anyways, a night to remember.

16july2007 - china living permit
monday. in the afternoon i had to travel to the police station near my house in panyu to get a living permit. together with the dolmetcher and an agent i was able to get it, even though it took me quite some time at the station. i almost missed my train home, but in the end i was able to return home with a brandnew chinese living permit, which will enable me to open a bank account in china as well as sign such important things like a mobile-phone contract. wei? wei?

16july2007 - china health examination
monday. in order to get a china working visa, i had to have a health examination in guangzhou that day. i took the early train (without breakfast as they had to draw my blood) and arrived guangzhou around 9:00am. the driver picked me up and took me to the clinic together with a dolmetcher. they checked my bood, urine, ears, eyes, nose, moth, blood pressure, weight and height. beyond that i had an aids-test, ECG, ultrasound and an x-ray. in germany it would cost a fortune, but in china it's onlu CNY 390.00 (40 euros). luckily the dolmetcher managed to get me on the "fast-track", wherefore i only spend 1,5 hourse there. not as bad as i expected!

15july2007 - you missed it!
sunday. this entry is for all those people that stated "that they would visit me in hong kong". ey, no hard feelings from my side, but you should realize that you missed a great chance to visit one of the world's most amazing cities. you missed free accomodiation and a free insider-tourguide such as me. well, your chance has passed as i will move to the mainland by the end of this month. to all of those (gerrit, michi, jenser, rolfer, aaron, maja, kieran, arne, mona, jurgen margret, timo, milchus, ... my parents, everyone!) who came by - it was a pleasure to be your host. feel free to visit me in guangzhou, china. ey, it will be worth a visit, too!

14july2007 - tai long wan
saturday. one week after i first came to hong kong in 2003 we went on a weekend trip to tai long wan near sai kung in the new territories. as you can see on the left, we found breathtaking views, deserted beaches and crystal-clear blue water. this weekend we took the company boat there and for me the cycle closes with my departure being only two weeks away. i will miss hong kong.

12july2007 - southern comfort ... winds
thursday. hong kong is experiencing a month with the lowest pollution levels and highest visibility for a whole decade. why? well, these few weeks we always have winds from the south that bring blue skies, some white clouds and hot temperatures to hong kong from the south china sea. northern winds usually bring pollution from shenzhen and guangdong province. summer has finally arrived and it feels good and clean.

07july2007 - restaurant with a map
saturday. in guangzhou my colleagues took me to a restaurant which happens to be the biggest buffet restaurant in asia. you literally need a map to find your way around the buffet, which includes western, italian, german, french, japanse, thai, spanish, korean and kantonse dishes (just to name a few), and those maps are acutally provided on your table. it is acutally possible that you will not find your way back from the buffet to the table and there are rumours that some people never came back after going to get some food! our table was so far away from the main buffet, when i picked some ice cream at the dessert buffet, it had almost melted by time i got back to the table. the food was nice and the restaurant had a nice atmosphere. i couldn't prove it is acutally the biggest one i asia, but it is for sure big .... or let me say huge.

07july2007 - looking for a place to live
saturday. after having found a nice house to live in on my last visit to guangzhou, things fell apart during the week as the landlady wasn't able to provide the proper documents for the arrangements. as a result, i had to travel to guangzhou again and have a look at some more houses and apartments. in the end i found another beautiful home and i hope this time it won't fall apart as i have only three weeks left till my departure from hong kong.

01july2007 - fooligans on tour
sunday. finn managed to get us some free tickets to a football game between fc bayern munich and sao paulo fc that day, which was officially sold out. thanks a lot fin, you are the greatest! so we took the opportunity, dressed in our favourite non-fc-bayern football shirts and made our way to the stadium. we had a good time drinking some beers and boooo-ing former werder bremen player miroslav klose, who just days ago transferred to bayern munich, every time he touched the ball. hong kong fans are usually neutral, just wanting to watch some great football, wherefore we were quite and attraction showing so much anti-fc-bayern spirit. in the end we almost go in a fight with some stupid-drunk bayern fans before we headed home to have a bbq at bjoern's place. what a nice afternoon! ey, arne, did you check your mailbox?

01july2007 - hksar 10th anniversary
sunday. 10 years ago hong kong was handed back by the british to china, which was remembered through huge celebrations all over hong kong throughout the day. the tv showed programme after programme reflecting on the past 10 prosperous years, all buildings showed chinese flags and expensive light decorations, parades were held, a football tournament was played and the biggest ever fireworks display light up the hong kong sky. as i always say: come to hong kong and experience it yourself! you won't regret it

23june2007 - blue skies, a junk and a sunburn
saturday. the sun has been burning down onto hong kong from marvellous blue skies all week, wherefore everyone was thrilled when the weekend arrived and we were a able to take our company junk for a trip to clearwater bay. even though the trip was a little short, only six hours, it was certainly enought time to get almost everyone a nice sunburn. even though i put on suncreen on most of my body, i was able to burn my arms, back and legs. well, sometimes you gotta pay a price to get a nice tan, right? anyways, what's red will turn dark and it was still an awesome day with blue skies, a junk and a lot of sun.

17june2007 - i like guangzhou
sunday. after having spent a weekend in guangzhou, i must say that most bad words told about this city must have been spoken by people who have never been there. based on what people tell you, you must think that it is the most crowded, dirty, polluted and most criminal city in the world, but when you go there you will find out that is not much different from any metropolis with 11+ million inhabitants, which all have their problems. well, i have seen enough to say that i like it so far, wherefore i am not worried but excited in taking this step of moving to china. make sure you visit me and experience it yourself!

16june2007 - deep sleep
saturday. after a long day in guangzhou me and my girlfriend returned to the hotel and fel right asleep. at that point my girlfriend, who finished working her night shift at the hospital that morning, was up for 26 hours straight. without her and her ability to speak chinese the trip would have been much harder for me, wherefore i am really glad she pulled all her strength together and accompanied me on this trip. at the same time i am also more than happy that she will quit her job and come with me to china. thanks baby, would would i do without you?

16june2007 - hainan chicken
saturday. on that evening i got to meet my new boss diana, who is the branch manager of our guangzhou office, and her husband. she took me and my girlfriend to a really nice restaurant in tianhe that serves hainan-style food. hainan is an island in the south china sea, wherefore the foods is quite exotic and almost carribbean-like. absolutely delicious. so if you come across a restaurant that serves hainan-chicken, make sure you give it a try.

16june2007 - living nice in china
saturday. after checking out tianhe the van drove me and my girlfriend vivien out to panyu, which is about 30 minutes away from the city. it is a really nice living area in which we found a newly developed estate (picture on the left) with really nice apartments and houses. the rents here are so incredibly low, well compared to hong kong at least, which is another reason why i am happy to move to china. i saw some incredible houses and hopefully i will be able to rent one. gotta love china for that!

16june2007 - checking out tianhe
saturday. the office of my company is located in tianhe district in the eastern part of guangzhou, which is one of the main business districts. it is also one of the areas in south china with the most foreign money invested. in some areas it looks almost like hong kong or any other metropolis around the globe, wherefore i am confident that it won't take me long to adapt to this new environment. apart from being a nice area, the apartments in the area were not so nice. s###holes doesn't fully describe it, but some apartments were really terrible and i would like to spare you the details for now. well, we have such areas in germany, too, don't we?

16june2007 - vip treatment
saturday. in china you can't get around as easy as in hong kong, especially if you don't speak cantonse or mandarin - just like me. as a result my company arranged a van with driver to pick me and my girlfriend up at the train station to take me around the city for the whole weekend. he showed us the city, took us for lunch and took us to see many many apartments - a really nice guy. so this whole treatment, including a five-star hotel, made me feel somehow like a vip. aaah, i wish it would always be like that.

16june2007 - visiting guangzhou
saturday. my company arranged my first trip to guangzhou in guangdong province on that day. me and girlfriend went there by train, which takes about 1,5 hours from hong kong, in order to look at some apartments and houses. on the way there you travel through shenzhen and region surrounding donguan, which is the basically the world's biggest and fastest growing economic zone. in numerous factories all kinds of goods such as toys, electronics, garments and shoes are produced 24/7. so if you buy something in a store near you next time, check the label on the back and if it shows 'made in china', the chances are high it has been produced in this area. impressive, interesting and also worrying!

12june2007 - visiting ipod city
tuesday. i had to travel to china that day to visit one of my customers for a warehouse tour. i also got to see the plant of our customer, who produces chemical products, which was an really nice extra to this trip. apart from that i always enjoy travelling to china, so did i this time, especially since i got another taste of china that day....at this point let me say that most of you might know what an ipod is, but not everyone might know that it is produced in shenzhen, north of hong kong, wherefore shenzhen is also called 'ipod city'. ey, this might be a top question for the show 'who want's to become a millionaire', no?

11june2007 - the ink has dried
monday. the ink has dried as i have officially signed the contract for my new position in guangzhou. it feels really good to take the next step and move on to another level. i can't wait to move to guangzhou and take on this new challenge as seafreight manager for europe.

10june2007 - all weather warnings
sunday. me and my girlfriend vivien were actually planning to travel to guangzhou that day, but when we woke up that morning, we found that all weather-hell had broken loose and all possible weather warnings such as the amber rain signal, thunderstorm as well as flood warning were in force. we finally decided to stay home and spend the day indoors. well, i guess the rainy seasons has arrived in hong kong.

08june2007 - seafreight dinner
friday. my boss, the general seafreight manager in hong kong, invited all managers and assistant managers out for dinner and drinks that night. upon arrival we all got mixed up among the departments and had a really fun time chatting, joking, eating and drinking. ey, food and drinks taste even better when they are for free, right?

03june2007 - hot weather in hong kong
sunday. hot weather is no stranger to hong kong, but these days it's really hot. the thermometers showed every day more than 30 degrees and the sun keeps burning from the clear skies in hong kong. the humidity is quite low for hong kong standards, so you can well call this the perfect summer weather. the only bad thing - we have to work all weekdays and at 7:00 pm the sun simply drops into the ocean. hail to the person that invented weekends. get your tan on!

26may2007 - nomad's mongolian bbq
saturday. my friend simon asked a bunch of people to go out for dinner at the mongolian bbq restaurant nomad's in tsim sha tsui. apparently the restaurant is mainly liked by foreigners and tourists as there were only about 10% locals. the concept of the restaurant is really cool as you pick all of our own ingredients and they fry it for you right on the spot. nomad's in hong kong - check it out!

24may2007 - clifford estates
thursday. as i am moving to guangzhou soon, i have started to look for apartments and houses on the internet lately, where i found a nice estate with a showroon in hong kong. me and my girlfriend visited the showroom that day and were amazed by the estate, the size, the faciltities and the prices. can't wait to move to guangzhou and experience something new.

23may2007 - peccato
wednesday. after shopping in central i took my girlfriend for a nice dinner in soho. she craved italian food, so we ended up in a small coyz restaurant called peccato. the choices of food were limited, but the food was among the best italian food i ever had. wow! so if you are looking for a nice italian restaurant in hong kong - pay this one a visit. unlike all indian people in hong kong, i won't say that this one is the best, simply because i don't know if there's a better one around. or have you guys tried all indian restaurants in hong kong - i don't think so! by the way: peccato is italian for sin

23may2007 - hennes & mauritz
wednesday. h&m is famous all over europe and lately it has been hong kong's turn. they opened a huge shop in central a few months ago and so far people has been lining up around the block to get in. why when you are living in one of asia's fashion capitals? anyways, i took a look at the place and realized that i am still much bigger than the average hong kong guy - thank god! well, in the end i bought two polos and a shirt, but it's still h&m. take it easy!

22may2007 - first legal download
tuesday. i have the feeling that we are all getting older and more mature? why? well, some friends of mine got married, some buy apartments and some of us download music legally from the internet. so did i for the first time on apple's itunes. can you believe to download music and paying for it? well, there's always a first time for everything.

22may2007 - emergency exit seat
tuesday. i got really lucky to get an emergency exit seat for both flights that day, which gives you so much more leg space to enjoy. thanks to that i had a more or less enjoyable flight home, well, as good as it gets flying economy. geez, hope these days will be over one day soon.

21may2007 - mixed feelings
monday. it is time again to leave germany and again i am full of mixed feelings. of course i am sad to leave my parents and friends behind, but at the same time i am thrilled to return to asia and take on my new job in guangzhou. at the same time i am of course happy to see my girlfriend vivien again, who i have missed a lot during my two weeks at home. for my next visit to bremen in december i will take her with me.

20may2007 - family day
sunday. the last day of my visits to germany is traditionall reserved for the family. that afternoon i visited my aunt and uncle and spent the evening playing cards and chatting with my partents. i really cherish those moments and yes - there are too few.

19may2007 - dinner at gerrit's
saturday. it was also my friend gerrit's birthday on may 16th, but he was away for flight training in berlin, wherefore we got together for a small and little late celebration that night. his girlfriend nina prepared some excellent food and we had a really nice evening. aaah, it always feels so good to see old friends again, but i just realized that night that in two days i will leave germany again. aaah, time always passes so fast.

19may2007 - haha schalke 04
saturday. it was the last day of the german football season and as my beloved werder bremen blew their chance last week, there was only stuttgart or schalke left to win the title. well, i do not like schalke at at all, wherefore it was a pleasure to see them NOT win the title again, even though they have been leading the table for most of the season. now they have not won the german title for 49 years - how great is that!

18may2007 - haake bash
friday. no visit to bremen is complete withou a proper tasting of bremen's beer brands, which we did at the schlachte that night. rounds and rounds of haake beck beer went down our throats and we (joris, markus, arne, leif, lars, aaaron, maja, ralle and me) had a blast. one thing we should not have done though - having the final long island ice tea afterwards. ouch, i will have a headache tomorrow.

18may2007 - visiting old colleagues
friday. bremen has a new trendy and chic address for office spaces - the speicher 1 in the old europe port district, which is also the new home for my old colleagues from evergreen line. it's an old warehouse building, whose outside walls were fitted with large windows and whose floors were stripped, giving the space a pure and industrial look - nice! i was amazed by the location and how much office space per person is available in germany, compared to asis of course, and spent about two hours chatting with old friends and colleagues. good to see you guys again and maybe we even get to work together again in my new position.

17may2007 - bremen beer race
tuesday. later i went to the bremen university's lake to visit the unofficial bremen beer race championship 2007, which was kinda organized by my friend lars. do you know what a beer race is? well, let me explain - it's simple. four persons have to walk around the lake as fast as possible while finishing a total of 30 beers. important: all bottles, all caps and all teammembers must return altogether. more important: you are not allowed to throw up on purpose - only if you really have to. the winning time was 22 minutes, which averages about one beer evert three minutes per team member and I did not participate. why? well, the competition (all still students!) was simply too strong.

17may2007 - my old living room
thursday. the next morning i headed for the schlachte, a stretch of bars near the weser riverside, which i always used to call my living room. why? well, through my mobile phone provider in germany i located my homezone there and during warm summers we spent always ever evening there. so if a person called me on my home number, i could still be sitting there having a beer and tell everyone i was home in my living room. nice, huh? well, i went there to meet with arne and mona to kick of the unofficial father's day in germany. prost!

16may2007 - clear skies
wednesday. driving home that night i saw a magnificent clear sky above bremen, which believe it nor not, is not a common site in hong kong. this is not necessarly because of the pollution and haze, but rather because of the massive amount of light generated by the city all around the clock. what a nice sight!

16may2007 - birthday in weakhousen
wednesday. my old mate arne celebrated his birthday in his brandnew apartment in bremen schwachhausen, which could translate to weakhousen if you like. aaah. again, another chance for me to meet old friends again, celebrate togehter and share old stories. arne, i hope the elephant living on the floor above you is not mad anymore, haha.

15may2007 - visiting lifesavers
tuesday. a home-visit is not complete without having visited my old colleagues from the german red cross rescue service in weyhe. it was one of the most exiting things i have ever done and i will always remember those days and the colleagues i worked with. even now, almost five years after i stopped working there, i still feel the connection to this job and i will always admire them for what hard, dangerous and challenging job they perform each day.

14may2007 - poker with the duke
monday. on my way home i quickly stopped at my friend's house to say hello and ran into a poker session. as i like poker a lot i was quick to join, but didn't last long as i didn't get any good hands. anyways, the purpose was not to win money but to meet some old friends again. david, all the best for you in the wild wild east - you know what i'm saying!

14may2007 - bodega de aaron
monday. after having a few beers with my old mate joris in the beck's bistro we trotted on down to the riverside to have some final drink at the bodega del puerto, where we were joined by aaron and maja. aaah, there's nothing more refreshing than some cold drinks and meeting old friends again. cheers!

14may2007 - beck's bistro
monday. some places in bremen are filled with emotions as well as good memories, wherefore i met my good old friend and classmate joris that afternoon in the beck's bistro near the bremen market square. we met there many times before but especially after passing our oral examinations in order to become a shipping salesman in 2002. if you come to bremen, make sure to stob by there to enjoy a refreshing beck's bier! you'll love it!

14may2007 - shopping in bremen city
monday. hong kong is world-famous for shopping, but there are simply a few things you can only get in germany or bremen. i took some time to stop by at my old colleagues from ansons's to buy a belt, stopped at the werder bremen fanshop to buy a polo shirt and also bought all three seasons of my favourite german comdedy series stromberg! yeah. i wish i would have been able to find some gift for my girlfriend and her parents, but i couldn't make up my find. well, still have a week time to find something.

14may2007 - getting a baby benz
monday. to be more flexible during my stay in germany, i decided to rent a smart in order to have a small car to drive into the city whenever i want without having to ask my parents whether they need to use their car. when i got there in the morning the people from sixt didn't have a smart for me, wherfore they gave me a brandnew mercedes a-class 150 for the same price. no matter what has been said about the baby benz in the past - i really like this car!

13may2007 - at the hospital
sunday. my good old friend and former living-mate stefan "steve" borchard shocked me and all of my friends when he was admitted to the hospital on friday morning due to being suspected to having suffered a stroke. after hearing that he was feeling better and that he was able to have visitors, me, arne and leif went to visit him in the hospital that afternoon. of course it would have been nicer to see him again while having a few beers, but after seeing him do good that day took away our worries and i am confident that this was not a stroke and that this whole thing will clear up fast. all the best, steve and get well soon!

12may2007 - back in elsfleth
saturday. 15 months after receiving our engineering degree me and some old classmates of mine returnde to elsfleth to join the annual celebration of our university, which traditionally (keep in mind, this school was founded for maritime studies!) involves a lot drinking. well, having left the school many months ago, there are not many people left you know apart from some close friends, which made the whole event rather relaxed compared to the years before. well, i still managed to down some beers into my jetlagged body before taking a taxi home with my friend around 4:00am.

12may2007 - werder blew it
saturday. me and my friends went to a local bar to watch a game of our beloved team werder bremen, which at this point still had a chance to win the german league title. aaaah, i don't really want to talk about it. in the end werder bremen blew it with a loss against frankfurt and stuttgart will most likely be champion this year. well, at least it's not schalke, haha!

12may2007 - rainy days
saturday. everyone here told me that the month of april passed without a single drop of rain in bremen while temperatures have been around 25 degrees, which is hard to believe these days. it has basically been raining since i got here and there is basically no big change in sight. well, i guess i won't get a suntan within these two weeks.

12may2007 - jetlagged
saturday. for those of you who have been on long flights between different continents before, then you might know this problem - jetlag. in the past i didn't have much trouble with jetlag travelling between asia and europe, but this time it got me really good. during the day i can hardly stay awake and during the night i can't sleep - terrible. hey, home come some people tell you travelling westbound is worse than eastbound while some people say the complete opposite? who tells the truth?

11may2007 - warm welcome
friday. at the airport my parents as well as my good friends nina & gerrit gave me a very warm welcome, which made me quickly forget all the rainy weather upon my arrival in bremen. it feels good that i can always come home to this town and that i will always have some old friends waiting here for me.

11may2007 - customs inspection
friday. i arrived in bremen at 8:00 am that morning on a flight from munich which mainly carried businessmen on their way to meetings, wherefore i basically the only one having to pick up my luggage from the belt. apart from that it seemed like the customs' officers at the bremen airport didn't have much to do, wherefore they pulled me aside and made me open my luggage. they even found a little souvenir from paris ... aeh ... china, but since i cooperated well and it was the only thing i carried in my luggage, they let me go. puuuuh, thank good - otherwise this would have been a terrible start to my vacation.

10may2007 - return home
thursday. after 15 months i am flying back to bremen to meet my family and friends again. it has been a long time and i am thrilled to see them all again as well as simply walk around the streets of my beloved hometown and breathe some fresh air, well, the air should at least be cleaner than in hong kong. at the same time i will miss my beloved girlfriend vivien and my second home hong kong during those two weeks.

09may2007 - a big step
wednesday. after only 15 months (after obtaining my engineering degree in january 2006) of working in hong kong, my stay here will soon come to an end. by july/august 2007 i shall promote to a seafreight manager for export to europe in our guangzhou office. it will be a big step and a big challenge for me to work on the mainland, but as my girlfriend will soon follow me to china, i am confident that i will be a succesfull as i have been in hong kong so far. i miss hong kong already, but i am more than excited to move to a new place, gather new impression and experiences as well as meet new interesting people. china be ready for me!

06may2007 - shopping in shenzhen
sunday. my friend simon, my girlfriend vivien and me travelled to shenzhen for some shopping on that morning and we were quite succesfull thanks to our local 'supplier' jacky, who hooked us up with all desired products in a very efficient manner. so after only two hours at the lo wu shopping mall we were able to travel back to hong kong. ah, one thing i almost forgot - i used the e-channel at the border for the first time. as a hong kong resident you can cross the border to china by simply iserting your card into a slot and putting your thumb on a fingerprint-scanner. cool, huh?

26apr2007 - oh oh oh werder
thursday. my friend tjen and me went out at 2:45am that morning to watch our dear werder bremen team play in the 1st leg of the uefa-cup seminals against espanyol barcelona that morning. ey, we got some spirit! well, things didn't turn out too well with werder bremen loosing 0:3 and having our sun-tanned goal-keep tim wiese sent off with a red card after putting his kung-fu skills on display outside the penalty box. how stupid can a man be? oh oh oh werder, i guess we need a miracle next week when we play in bremen.

26apr2007 - two new residents in hong kong
thursday. hong kong has just welcomed its two new panda residents, which were given to hong kong as a gift from the beijing central government to celebrate the upcoming 10th anniversary of hong kong falling back under chinese rule. the male is called "le le" (= happy) and the female is called "ying ying" (= gracious) and the hong kong public will be able to see them in hong kong's ocean park from july 1st - the hong kong sar establishment day.

21apr2007 - boat trip
saturday. some friends and me went on our first boat trip of the year and open the swimming season in the south chinese sea. we left fenwick pier around 1:30pm and headed for deep water bay after taking a little tour by the container terminal in kwai chung. on the way we passed the octopus, which according to my internet research, is the 5th largest yacht in the world (2nd largest in private ownership), it belongs to microsoft co-founder paul allen, is 126m long and has two helicopter decks including a hangar, various little speedboats and jet-skis as well as an 8-man submarine. after all, it's a little bigger than the boat of our company, i guess.

20apr2007 - am/pm vs. 24h clock
friday. does anyone in the world understand why the US adopted a clock system using am and pm to indicated which part of the day it is? i never did. well, the mentioned system caused me to oversleep that day, wherefore i had to take a half day annual leave. i woke up at 10:00, 10:00am that would be, and realized that i was late for work. i called my boss and she adviced me to come back after lunch before asking me for the reason of me oversleeping. well, i set my clock to 7:00pm instead of 7:00am. anyhow, the problem is fixed now as i switched the setup of my alarm clock to the 24 system!

19apr2007 - the pool is open!
thursday. it's been warm enough for weeks already, in german terms, to go out for swim in the outdoor pool, but chinese people seem to be afraid of the cold in case it does not come from an aircon unit, wherefore the outdoor pool at my building did not open until that day. so, be aware of the white shark (me) as the hunting season is on, no matter how cold the weather is.

18apr2007 - gambling in happy valley
wednesday. my colleague bjoern and me had to take out one of our customers darren for dinner and some horseracing that night, which is more fun than business with that guy. so we had an excellent time at the racecourse and we all gambled like crazy. in the beginning we all won large amounts before loosing it all again. in the end only one party wins - the hong kong jockey club, well, and the three philippinas at the next table, who kept snatching my comments on the horses and made a good buck of it. damn it!

15apr2007 - same city / different world
sunday. my good friend bjoern came up with the idea to go to stanley to enjoy the day out in the sun with some beers and a snack, which i though was an excellent idea with my girlfriend having to work all day. who want to sit at home all alone when the weather is so nice, right? so i took the bus to stanley, which takes quite a scenic tour from central via happy valley and repulse bay to stanley and half an hour later i was in a completely different world away from all all the crowds. it's like a different planets with its street bars full of westerners, palm trees, beaches, dogs running around and people simply relaxing in the sun. four words: same city / different world

14apr2007 - f#@% sony ericsson
saturday. a few years ago i already owned a sony ericsson phone and i was quite unhappy about its performance and quality, wherefore i swore myself never to buy one again. well, last year i was stupid enough to get me one again, the k601i, which kept letting me down again and again, wherefore i returned back to using a nokia phone. one advice for all of you: stay away from sony ericsson!

14apr2007 - kowloon shopping spree
saturday. did some serious shopping on that day in mong kok and tsim sha tsui that day. i bought some shorts, underwear, dvds, ties, glasses for my mom and a new mobile phone. after all, hong kong is and remains the shopping capital of the world. you don't believe it, well, then you better come here and experience it yourself.

13apr2007 - beer weather
friday. hong kong had some excellent weather during that late week, which means the skies were clear, the sun was shining and the humidity was low at 70%. in other words, it has been the perfect beer weather, wherefore me and two colleagues decided to down some of those at a bar on top of the central ferry terminal near the ifc. what a scene with a breathtaking skyline in the back, ferries arriving and departing every minutes and helicopters flying all around from the office towers and the heliport. ey, and by the way, hong kong has only about 170 clear days a year, so the perfect beer weather is not too often.

13apr2007 - tic = this is china!
friday. i had a meeting for one of my new clients on that day during which i had to explain several seafreight-related topics as well as some local regulations on the chinese mainland. as those are of course different from what my customer is used to in the USA, he asked me how come some of those regulations are that strange and formalities take so long to be arranged? well, the answer is simple: this is china - things are different here. so i decided to keep this handy abreviation 'tic' and i hope soon everyone will know what i mean when i say: tic, this is china.

09apr2007 - the need for speed
monday. my girlfriend's brother bought himself an used car (mitsubishi lancer) and took us for a spin from tsuen wan to tsim sha tsui, which made me realize how much i miss driving a car myself. driving is actually one of the things i miss most living in hong kong, apart of course from my family, friends and my mom's cooking. driving in hong kong, or should is parking, is simply too expensive as space is rare. apart from that the gas prices are among the most expensive in the world and who want's to sit in a traffic jam every morning when the subway takes you to work in half the time? aaah, i hope soon i get to own and drive a car again, either in hong kong or china.

07apr2007 - long easter weekend
saturday. the ching ming festival and the easter holidays brought a long weekend to hong kong, which i mostly spent relaxing, going shopping, going to the gym, getting a haircut and gettning some new pants and shirts made at my tailor. aaah, wish all weekends were that long. happy easter everyone!

05apr2007 - ching ming festival
thursday. hong kong celebrates all main chinese as well as western holidays, wherefore this year the ching ming festival holiday enabled us to start into the easter holidays one day early. on the ching ming festival day chinese travel to visit their ancestor's graves to pay their respects and burn little incentives and gifts. my girlfriend and me joined her family to visit the gravesite of her uncle and grandfather and afterwards we went for some dinner and bowling at the hong kong police club. graveyards in hong kong are very interesting sites as hong kong is famous for it's lack of space, which becomes very apparent even at the site where people take their final rest. well, things are different here.

01apr2007 - hong kong sevens
sunday. hong kong went completely rugby-crazy on this weekend when the hong kong rugby sevens were held. the whole city was more or less infected with rugby fever causing the party districts of wan chai to run at their full capacity in terms of beer consumption. rugby ethusiast from wales, england, scotland, new zealand, australia, south africa, etc. came to hong kong to celebrate a huge party and see samoa beat fiji 27-24 in the final. hmmm, i wish i have had a ticke for the sevens, well, maybe next year.

30mar2007 - wild wild west
friday. wild wild west was the theme of kuehne&nagel's 2007 annual dinner party held at the regal aiport hotel. some colleagues and me dressed up as cowboys and had the most awesome time partying with more than 600 colleagues. in the end i didn't win (again!) any price in the luck draw, but at least me and my two colleagues snatched a well-deserved third price in the best-costume competition. after all, a great party!

29mar2007 - langham place
thursday. i went to see a customer for lunch on that day and afterwards took the chance to take a look at their office located on the 40th floor of the langham place office tower. from the office tower you have the most awesome view of the whole kowloon peninsula as well as of the hong kong island skyline in the distance. well, if i would work there, i guess i would spend more time looking out the window than looking at my computer screen. aaah, don't tell my boss, please.

26mar2007 - hong kong is a sauna
monday. winter is definetly gone as the temperatures are now constantly higher than 25 degrees and the humidity stays around 95%, which has the result that hong kong has become one big sauna these days. as you can see on the picture, i am constantly sweating my ... off here.

23mar2007 - hkstla anual dinner
friday. me and some colleagues were invited to the hong kong sea transport & logistics association's anual dinner on that friday night. well, a rather unusual event, where i was the only gweilo and where some guests showed their karaoke singing skills.

21mar2007 - willim in hong kong
wednesday. my friend and old classmate marc, who works for beluga shipping in beijing, came to hong kong for a business trip on that day. as i haven't seen him about six years, i was happy to meet an old friend again. we got back in touch through a colleague of mine who works in beijing as well - it's a small world. bernte forever!

17mar2007 - night doctor visit
saturday. i told you it was cold in tokyo and in the end i caught a cold from always running around tokyo being a little underdressed. well, afte returning to hong kong i had some problems with my ears and went to see the doctor right that night, which only cost me around 180 hkd including medication, which considering the day (saturday) and time (11:30pm) is quite cheap, huh? aaah, gotta love hong kong and i happy to be home again even though i had a good time in tokyo.

17mar2007 - do i look like a terrorist?
saturday. when i passed through the security check at narita airport that day i got into the wrong aisle and caught a trainee who took her work maybe a little too serious. i had to take off my shoes and had to step on a special platform for further checking. she inspected every square inch of my body with the metal detector and even felt behing my belt to see whether i carry something dangerous. well, i do, but that is a different story. anyways, do i look like a terrorist?

16mar2007 - night out in roppongi
friday. on the last night we went out with my friend and tokyo-colleague mathias in the party district of roppongi. we had dinner at the hard rock cafe (yes, i am a tourist!) and headed into some local bars for some coronas afterwards. nightlife in tokyo is interesting and one thing is for sure - japanese like to drink! since the subway is no longer in operation after midnight (strange for such a metropolis!) we had to take a taxi all the way back to shinjuku, which set me back around 2.300 yen and is quite expensive compared to hong kong. anyways, it was a nice evening. good to see you again mathias!

16mar2007 - tokyo vs hong kong
friday. whenever you visit a new place or town you ask yourself if you would like to live there or not, right? well, let me take this opportunity to compare tokyo with hong kong. japanese people are very polite, friendly and helpful. they are also very disciplined as they don't push, rush nor talk on their mobile phone on the subway. they all dress very stylish, observe good hygiene and have excellent eating habits. hong kong loses to tokyo in most of these and i must also say that, apart from vivien and based on my observation, tokyo girls are in general prettier and better-dressed than those in hong kong. both cities drown in thraffic but the public transport in tokyo is a nightmare as it is very complicated and quite confusing. the rents in both cities are skyhigh with tokyo being still far more expensive. tokyo would sure be an interesting place to live, but i would still prefer hong kong over tokyo, especially since almost nobody speaks proper english in tokyo. how did japan become the second biggest economy in the world with only a few people speaking english? unbelievable.

15mar2007 - stream of starlight
thursday. after finishing some shopping in palette town we took a ride on the stream of starlight, which used to be the biggest ferris wheel in the world standing at 115m tall. a full circle takes around 16 minutes and offers you an amazing view of the bay area and tokyo.

15mar2007 - toyota city showcase
thursday. on odaiba you can find the palette town shopping mall which contains the mega web and its toyota city showcase, which is the biggest car showroom in the world. you can see all present toyota models and you can also take them for a virtual or even a real test ride around the complex. amazing to see such a showroom full of cars that many times are not available outside japan.

15mar2007 - tokyo bayside
thursday. tokyo is running out of space and has expanded towards and into the bay area. we took a monorail from shiodome across the beautiful rainbow bridge to odaiba, where you can see the famous fuji tv building as well as many huge office complexes and shopping malls.

15mar2007 - kaminarimon 'thunder' gate
thursday. that morning we went to the kaminarimon gate in asakusa, which is famous for its huge lantern with the chinese character (used also in japanese writing) for thunder written on it. behind the gate you can see a large pagoda as well as a temple and shop for all kinds of souvenirs and local snacks.

14mar2007 - tokyo disneyland resort
wednesday. yes, we also went to tokyo disney land resort for a full day, which after all is not much different from the one in hong kong but bigger. anyways, vivien and me had a good time, it was not too crowded but a little too cold for me. well, that's enough disneyland for a while and i have no plans to visit the US anytime soon.

13mar2007 - tokyo city view
tuesday. if you visit tokyo you must go to the toky city view on the 52nd floor of the mori tower in roppongi, from which you have the most incredible 360 degrees view over tokyo. the 1500 yen are well spent as you will see something you will never forget in your life. the city seems endless and its lights create a beautiful atmosphere at night. this is a must-see!

13mar2007 - sushi on tokyo's champs elysees
tuesday. not far from harajuku are the districts of aoyama and omotesando with their high-class department stores and branches of chanel, dior, gucci, prada, fendi, louis vuitton, etc. the main street of this districts is the omotesando-dori, which is often referred to as the champs elysees of tokyo, where the architecture is world-class and the prices are sky-high. after all, tokyo's citizens have a lot of money and they like to spend it on expensive accessories. almost every girl in tokyo has a brand-name handbag from prada, lv or gucci and they are all real. this city has class and style!

13mar2007 - harajuku girls
tuesday. some of those who have carefully listened to some gwen stefani songs in 2006 might have heard her sing about her harajuku girls, which referes to her four dancers from japan, which are usually dressed rather 'crazy'. harajuku is a shopping district in the heart of tokyo where mainly young people go shopping for crazy cloths, accessories and shoes. you will find the craziest people there dressed as goths, cowboys, schoolgirls, lolitas, punks, urban comboys or simply undifineable. this place is must see!

13mar2007 - meiji-jingu shrine
tuesday. after having enjoyed the view over tokyo we walked through shibuya towards the meiji-jingu shrine, which together with its surrounding parks and gardens forms a beautiful small oasis in the middle of hectic tokyo. at the shrine my girlfriend and me placed some wishes and were even able to witness a traditional japanese wedding procession.

13mar2007 - clear tokyo skies
tuesday. the cold temperatures had one advantage - clear skies over tokyo. as a result we were able to enjoy an awesome 360 degrees view over the city from the tokyo metropolitan government offices in shinjuku that morning. we could even see the beautiful and still completely snow-covered mt.fuji in the distance. what a sight!

13mar2007 - freezin' tokyo
tuesday. having lived in hong kong for a few years now i more or less turned into a sissy in terms of weather and temperatures. everything less than 20 degrees is to be considered cold and therefore tokyo with around 5-14 degress was freezing. brrrrr.

12mar2007 - noodles in soup with pork
monday. japan is famous for sumo, geishas, sushi and yes - noodles. we found the place that serves the best noodles in soup with pork sliced to thin that it melts in your mouth - delicious, and it's cheap too. well, first of all you have to place an order to someone who speaks absolutely no english, but having lived in asia for a few years now, that was not such a big problem. watch the garlic, haha.

12mar2007 - tokyo - shinjuku - kabukicho
monday. me and my girlfriend vivien flew for six days/five nights to tokyo that monday morning and arrived at our hotel in the shinjuku district of tokyo in the afternoon. the district is one of the main business districts with many bright neonlights, high-rise buidlings, skycrapers, shopping malls and restaurants. but there is another thing this area is famous for - kubukicho, the red light district of tokyo, which hosts the notorious sex-industry of japan as well as the homo-sexual scene of tokyo. hmm, what a place to stay at, but hey, this is definetly the centre of tokyo.

11mar2007 - a comeback?
sunday. take that, you might still remember these ugly high-pitch-voice british boys from the 90's, had a new video on mtv asia that afternoon. are they having a comeback? why? are they running out of money? mom, i'm scared, please say this is a just a dream. i can't stand this mark owen, makes me wanna throw up! why, god, why?

10mar2007 - lorenz's wedding
saturday. my friend, former evergreen colleague and present colleague lorenz yeung, got married on that day to his girlfriend ann marie that day and invited me and vivien to his wedding reception at the renaissance kowloon hotel in tsim sha tsui. a nice wedding with around 100 people, lots of gin-tonic, nice food and a chinese-singing performace of the famous mc brommel. thanks for the invitation lorenz and all the best to both of you on future way together.

09mar2007 - passing out
friday. my girlfriends brother (right one in the picture) finished training with immigration department to become an immigration assistant, for which quite an official ceremony was held at the immigration department training institute in tuen mun. congratulations sze leung!

03mar2007 - too much talk
saturday. we payed poker that night again and someone (me) did too much talking. having had a little alcohol i got kinda too talkative which cost my friend simon, who bluffed during that round, to loose about 30.000 in chips. next time i will keep my mouth shut, i promise.

28feb2007 - queen mary 2 in hong kong
wedneday. the queen mary 2, which happens to be the bigggest cruise vessel in the world, paid a visit to hong kong that day on her 80-day around-the-world tour. she arrived in the morning in kwai chung and left around 8pm in the evening through the victoria harbour. so me and some colleagues staid in the office and saw her pass by our office in front of the kowloon skyline - what a vessel and what a sight!

28feb2007 - tax cut in hong kong
wedneday. this man on the left, mr. henry tang, is the chief financial officer of the hong kong special administrative region and he has a lot to smile about these days. hong kong had a very succesful economic year with a budget surplus of about 55 billion hong kong dollars, which will result in tax cuts for all hong kong citizen for the coming year. ey, can you believe it, where else in the world are already very low taxes lowered even further rather than increased?

28feb2007 - 41 months and going
wedneday. me and my girlfriend vivien are together for 3,5 years now, which is the longest relationship i ever had. ey, i don't know how she can stand living with me for such a long time, haha, but we are still going.

27feb2007 - touring shenzhen
tuesday. i spent the whole day touring shenzhen and our company's warehouse facilities in shenzhen that day, which included visits to three warehouses, a port tour and a visit to a local shopping mall to entertain one of these customers. it's always nice to leave the office and travel around, but damn sure it's exhausting.

25feb2007 - house warming
sunday. my friend simon moved to a new place in hung hom that weekend and invited us all over for a little house warming party. it's a really nice place called the harbourview horizon, which is available a quite an affordable rate. okay, 1000 euros a month for about 60 square metres would be considered crazy in germany, but in hong kong that's quite a bargain. well, i guess that's the reason why soon some more of my colleagues will move there. let's face it - hong kong island is simply too expensive and kowloon is not that bad after all, right?

22feb2007 - hong kong world carnival
thursday. me and my girlfriend vivien as well as her brother and his girlfriend went to the hong kong world carnival that night on the tamar site in admiralty. being situated between many scyscrapers directly at the waterfront towards the victoria harbour, it proved to be quite an impressive sight and fun experience. after a long time i again got to enjoy some fun rides and bumper cars just like in the old days back in germany. i had a good time even being able to win some plush animals for my girlfriend, but it certainly reminded me of the 'freimarkt' in bremen and made me a little homesick. aaaaah.

21feb2007 - it's gonna be a good year
wednesday. the first days of the year of the pig turned out to be quite succesfull. it won some money playing poker with my friends, i won some money gambling at some chinese dice games with my girlfriend's family and won some money playing card with them on that day. after all, i think and hope that the year 2007 will be full of fortune (the chinese symbol on the right) for me.

21feb2007 - laisee day
wednesday. one good thing, maybe even the best thing about the chinese new year are the 'laisees', which are little red pockets full of 'lucky money'. you will get them from married persons once you wish them a happy new year. puh, thanks that i am not married yet, otherwise it will be my turn to hand out the cash.

19feb2007 - lunar new year lunch
monday. me and my girlfriend vivien went to visit her family that day to celebrate the chinese new year having a lunch together - a tradition. i am really glad to be so well accepted by her family as a 'gweilo' and being able to experience all chinse new year traditions firsth-hand. kung hei fat choi!

18feb2007 - got a pokerface?
sunday. the next poker session was held at my place on that night. this time it was simon, tjen, stefan, martin and me battling it out for the cash. even though i still need to practise my pokerface, i still managed to rob my friends of 150 hong kond dollars that night. not a bad start to them new chinese new year, huh?

18feb2007 - welcome the year of the pig
sunday. it's the 18th of february, which apart from joris' and melanie's birthday, marks the beginning of the chinese new year. this time its the year of the pig and there a piggy decorations in all forms and sizes to be found around hong kong. so, let me wish all of you a happy chinese new year (english), ein frohes neues jahr (german), kund hey fat choi (cantonese) and gong xi fa cai (mandarin).

14feb2007 - valentine's day
wednesday. everybody knows what this day is all about - buying flowers, perfume and chocolate for the ladies. the ladies think this days i especially for them, but it is actually the best thing for us guys. it means we only have to remember one day a year (apart from the anniversary and your girls' birthday of course) on which you have to buy something. if your partnes complains about wanting more attention you can simply reply: ey, it's not valentines day. just kidding. anyways, my girlfriend awaited me at home after a long day in the office (workshop) with a nice dinner and some ... haha, you wish.

13feb2007 - chinese new year fair
tuesday. i walked with my girlfriend vivien over the chinese new year fair in victoria park (causeway bay) that evening. it is a chinese tradition to attend these fairs prior and during the chinese new year holidays to stock up on little gifts, toys, crazy things and especially on flowers and plants such as peach blossom and mandarine trees. luckily me and my girlfriend went there quite early, so they place wasn't that packed.

13feb2007 - early valentine's day
tuesday. i actually had plans to take a half-day of on valentine's day in order to spend it with my girlfriend vivien, but those plans we crushed by my bosses scheduling a whole-day workshop on order management solutions on that day, which i had to attend. so i switched my half-day off to tuesday the 13th and celebrated an early valentine's day with my girlfriend. hey, that is the best thing you can do! the restaurants are less crowded and they don't charge these ridiculous prices like on valentine's day. call it the 'early (love)bird special'.

10feb2007 - lucky speed cat
saturday. after having no luck the night before i certainly got lucky on this very saturday. i planned on buying a pair of puma speedcats in black, which would nowadays cost you about 350 hkd. i had a pairs of these before in 2003, which at that time cost me 450 hkd compared to about 80 euros (800 hkd) in germany. well, after shoping around in tsim sha tsui i got really luck and found a pair (the last one in the shop) in size 44 (rare in hong kong) for incredible 165 hkd. call that a bargain, huh?

09feb2007 - unlucky poker night
friday. i was out of luck that evening playing poker with my buddies andre, stefan, tjen, bjoern, simon and his father that night. damn, these sharks (especially simon and his dad) took around 170 dollars out of my poket. i actually had planned to win some money to buy me some new sportshoes over the weekend, so i guess this will have to way a week or two.

05feb2007 - got yourself a gun
monday. as i love all kinds of mafia-related movies (goodfellas is the best!) and tv programmes, i got hooked on an hbo tv-series called the sopranos. maybe it's my desire for being a powerful and ruthless boss or maybe i am already half-italian as i had too many pizzas during me time at the university - i don't know. anyways, i might never find out, but you guys should definetly check this series out. kapisch?

03feb2007 - education & career fair
saturday. companies in asia are constantly recruiting and training new staff, so does kuehne&nagel, who asked me to attend the education & career fair organized by the hong kong labour department on that weekend. quite a fun experience apart from now having feet that kill me. ouch.

02feb2007 - busy week
friday. it has been a busy week for me as it was the end of january and as we are running towards the chinese new year holidays, prior to which all vendors in china want to get their cargoes out to destinations all over the world. closing all files of the past month, running a pick-n-pack project, handling a claim, trying to resolve some operational problems and meeting a customer made me put in quite some overtime in that week and beg for the weekend. hope these chinese new year holidays come soon!

01feb2007 - service anniversary
thursday. on this very day it has been exactly one year since i joined kuehne&nagel as an assistant manager. time flew by so quickly as i kept learning how to manage logistics operations in the transpacific and intra-Asia trades. i have one more year left on my contract and who knows what will happen afterwards. one thing is for sure though - time will keep flying.

19jan2007 - poker
friday. the poker fever, which apparently spreads around europe these days, has finally hit us in hong kong. stefan (aka dr.moth or the havana club implementation guy) bought the chips and succesfully launched our first hong kong poker session that evening at his place. after we hiked to his apartment on the 19th floor, as the elevator broke down in his building, we all chipped in 100 dollars and got our game on. in the end steinmann, dr.moth and me had to battle it out for the money. dr.moth lost is in the last game and henrik and me decided to split the money. henrik made 400 bucks and me 100 bucks plus that night. hope we play again soon.

19jan2007 - going biometric
friday. my passport will expire soon and is full of chops as well as hong kong and china visas, so it was time for me to apply a new one, which from now on has to include my biometric data. well, that means extra trouble and for sure extra costs. i ended up paying 965 dollars for a ten-year 48-pages german passport, not mentioning the money for taking the passport pictures twice, as the first one didn't match their picky biometric criteria. what a pain in the ass!

16jan2007 - a worker's life
tuesday. i travelled to china that morning to visit the company foxconn in china, which operates a huge factory in shenzhen, china. they are one of the biggest employers in southern china and employ (i heard different numbers) around 70.000 workers in shenzhen. they produce for apple, dell, hp, acer and many other companies and their factory site is swarming with thousands and thousands of workers. simply impressive, amazing as well as somehow scary and sad.

11jan2007 - hong kong's air pollution
thursday. 2006 was one of the worst years for hong kong in terms of air pollution. they skies are never blue anymore and usually a big brown/grey cloud sits on top of hong kong. air pollution ratings often reach 'extreme' and people run around the city covering their face with mask, not because of SARS, but because of the bad air. for a few years you can for sure live in hong kong and with this problem, but for long? even shanghai has better air quality than hong kong! well, guess its time for a change.

10jan2007 - renminbi on the rise
wednesday. interesting news in hong kong today. the chinese currency renminbi yuan (CNY) is now worth the same/more than the hong kong dollar (HKD). what does that mean? well, in the past you could always show in shenzhen (china) and they were really happy to accept HKD as they were worth more, but from these days on shoppers will have to exchange the money first. at the same time mainland shoppers will have more purchasing power in hong kong. well, as you can see, china and its currency are on the rise!

06jan2007 - happy hour club
friday. the holidays are over, i had my birthday yesterday and everybody is returning from their vacations - a good time to enjoy some afternoon drinks together with the guys in wan chai and talk about girls, cars and football. like sex and the city, but for guys, haha.

05jan2007 - birthday with the king
friday. what to eat on such a special day like my birthday? hmm, how about a burger? that sounds good! so where to get a good burger? of course at the king? so where can i find a burger kind restaurant? only on the peak. hate to admit it - yes, i went to burger king on my birthday and it tasted really good.

05jan2007 - happy birthday
friday. oh my god - i turned 28 years on that day, which from my point of view is getting too close to 30 - aaah! well, at least i still look like 25, haha. happy birthday to me! thanks for everyone who remembered my birthday by calling and/or sending emails. miss you guys. hope to see you soon again.

01jan2007 - smoke free hong kong
monday. since today a new regulation is in place in hong kong which forbids smoking in restaurants, bars, karaoke bars, public parks, playgrounds, beaches, all workplaces and all public buildings. since i don't smoke this will not affect me much, but serious smokers will now have to smoke either at home, on the street or in especially designated zones. ey, come on - playgrounds, workplaces, restaurants and public workplaces is allright, but bars, parks and beaches - give them a break!

31dec2006 - new years eve
sunday. we (finn & joey, benjamin & carmen, simon & bianka, stefan, vivien & me) went out that night to welcome the new year 2007. first we had dinner at a thai restaurant in pacific place before heading to wan chai to look for a suitable venue to wait for the countdown. we ended up in xperience in wan chai, paid a lot of money, enjoyed an open bar, fooled around with all kinds of party gadgets before welcoming the new year. happy new year everyone!

30dec2006 - queue at louis vuitton
saturday. when i walked down canton road on that day's afternoon i could not believe my eyes - there were probably 100 people in a queue at the louis vuitton store. is it just an attraction or are the people actually going in there to buy something? well, in case you look for a louis vuitton, go to shenzhen where they are cheaper, haha. ey, every woman in hong kong has an lv bag, so how can you tell which one is real? and for those people who just go window shopping at lv - get a life! one thing to mention though - hong kong has lv, prada, gucci, armani, boss and versace - bremen doesn't even have a starbucks. well, who cares.

28dec2006 - curse of the golden flower
thursday. me and my girlfriend vivien went out to celebrate 40 months of being together that day by having dinner at our favourite sushi restaurant and watching a movie afterwards. that evening we watched the highly anticipated chinse movie 'curse of the golden flower', which was one of the best movies i have seen in 2006. even though it is in mandarin with chinese subtitles, the movie still amazes through its excellent main actors (gong li and chow yun fat), the custumes (especially those of the ladies ... ) and the sceneries (forbidden city) in the movie. this movie is a must-see and i am sure that this will not be the last chinese movie to make major headlines.

24dec2006 - christmas
sunday. this year i again get to spend christmas in hong kong away from my family. again, it's that time of the year to get a little bit sentimental. i'm not kidding. christmas is of course the time of the year to spend with your loved ones, which makes me miss my friends and family back home in germany. of course i am really happy to spend christmas with my beloved girlfriend, but still it feels like something is missing. i am really looking forward to fly back to germany with my girlfriend next december to celebrate christmas back home in bremen. well, merry christmas from hong kong.

22dec2006 - winter solstice - part b
friday. in the evening me and m girlfriend vivien went to the police club in price edward for the her familiy's traditional winter solstice dinner. ouch, now i will have to go on diet right after the christmas holidays - that was just too much food.

22dec2006 - japan, we are coming
friday. after work me and my girlfriend vivien went to the travel agent to finalize our japan vacation booking for march 2007. in the middle of march we will spend 6 days in tokyo to go shopping and dining. after having seen china, taiwan and thailand, japan is definetly the next hot spot that i want to visit in asia. still have vietnam, singapore, india, korea and malaysia on my list. ouch, who's gonna pay for this?

22dec2006 - winter solstice - part a
friday. winter solstice, which we don't celebrate in germany, is some kind of 'holiday' celebrated in hong kong every 22nd of december. ey, if you wanna know more about it, look it up on wikipedia - i don't have time for this. anyways, in hong kong that means that we get off work two hours early - gotta love the winter solstice!

21dec2006 - crowded
thursday. i had to do some last minute christmas shopping for a gift exchange at my department, wherefore i took a half day off in the afternoon and went to mong kong for some crazy christmas shopping. mong kong is already overcrowded on a normal day, worse on weekends and an absolute nightmare in the days before christmas. love christmas - hate christmas shopping in mong kok!

16dec2006 - havana club implementation
friday. this entry is in honour of our friend and colleague stefan moth, aka dr. moth, who managed to succesfully implement havana club in several bars around the wan chai area. why do we think that is special? well, you can't buy havana club in normal retails shops or supermarkets, wherefore we mainly rely on supplies brought in from friends throuh the duty free shops at the airports, which did not fully meet our demand. so some weeks ago stefan asked some bars for havana club, they purchased it from their wholesaler and now we can enjoy havana club anytime. and the best thing is that other people don't really know about this, wherefore it is all ours. thanks stefan - you are our hero!

16dec2006 - xmas fondue
friday. my friends and colleagues melanie and bjoern invited me, vivien and some other close friends to enjoy something like a christmas dinner together that night. why so early? well, most expatriate working in hong kong will leave the city during the coming week to visit their families at home, that's why. this year i won't be able to fly home, but no need to be sad as my parents have just been here and i get to spend christmas in hong kong with my girlfriend. melanie and bjoern, thanks for the invitiation and the excellent swiss cheese fondue! next week i will have to be on diet, thanks a lot!

15dec2006 - sushi vip
friday. me and my girlfriend spent enough money at genki sushi restaurants over the past weeks fof us being awared a vip status for the next years. yeah, three years of discount for cold salmon, rice, green tea, crab and other japanese delights. gotta love sushi, especially when you are vip!

15dec2006 - hot pot dinner
friday. my girlfriends family invited us over to have a hot pot dinner that night. hot pot, for those of you who don't know it, it's boiling water with herbs and seasonsings, meat, fishballs, vegetables, wan tan and all kinds of other delicious things that can be thrown into water. if you come to hong kong, i will take you to have some. another reason to come to hong kong - delicious!

15dec2006 - freezin
friday. winter has arrived in hong kong with temperatures around 12 degrees, which caused the hong kong authorities to issue the 'cold weather warning'. unbelievable, but if you have lived in hong kong before, you will know that these temperatures together with a monsoon and the high humidity can feel really cold. well, at least the picture on the left was not taken in hong kong.

08dec2006 - xpatriate xmas dinner
friday. me and all the other expartriate staff of kuehne & nagel hong kong were invited to the anual christmas dinner that day, which was held at ole!, a spanish restaurant in central (near lan kwai fong). altogether a fun evening with lots of beer, wine and sangria. afterwards we headed back to wan chai where we had some more havana club (which is presently being iplemented in wan chai by dr. moth) at typhoon. cheers and merry christmas everyone!

05dec2006 - stayed up for werder
tuesday. tjen, stefan, henrik and me stayed up that night to watch our beloved and glorious sv werder bremen loose sadly against fc barcelona in the sixth game of the champions league group stage. a draw would have been enough to advance to the group stage, but barcelona crushed werder's dreams in front of 96.000 people in the stadium and millions of people following this broadcast in 67 countries. werder put up a good fight in the second half, but it was simply too late and they got unlucky in several situations. well, bremen will go into the uefa cup and i have a day off tomorrow to catch up on my sleep.

28nov2006 - kanye west in hong kong
tuesday. me and my friend stefan went to see kanye west on live on his 'touch the sky tour' in hong kong for his only concert in asia. the concert, my first one in hong kong, took place on the south-tip of the kowloon peninsula, which created the most amazing scenery with the hong kong skyline in the back. an awesome concert! ey, and all those people who don't know kanye west, of which i have me a lot these days, please note: kanye west is one of the most celebrated hip-hop/rn'b artist in the world who has won several grammy awards over the past few years. so if you don't know him, make sure you refresh your music knowledge.

18nov2006 - king pin
saturday. before attending a big family dinner of my girlfriends family at the hong kong police club, we and some other members of her family played some bowling. in the first two games i lacked some luck bowling a 112 and 135, or should i say skill, but in the third game i really got my game going. i scored 4 strikes in a row, spared three times and ended up with my personal record high of 175 points. see if you can beat that, huh!

09nov2006 - departure to lt cortesia
thursday. i took my parents to the hong kong international container terminal that early morning where they boarded vessel lt cortesia. after taking a little tour of the vessel,my parent's 400 squarefeet cabin and having breakfast on board it was time to say goodbye to my parents. after two exciting weeks in hong kong they will now have three and a half weeks to relax on their voyage to hamburg. how i wish i had the time to join them on that trip. i will miss my parents and i wish them a nice a safe voyage home. it was a pleasure to be your host in my city - hong kong.

07nov2006 - aqua spirit
tuesday. after returning from happy valley we went to my favourite bar in hong kong - the aqua spirit on the 30th floor of one peking tower. forget the felix in the peninsula hotel - aqua spriti will beat that anytime. if you can deal with the cover charge of hkd 120 per person you are in for some excellent cocktails, chill-out music and the most amazing view in the world. don't miss it!

07nov2006 - happy valley racecourse
tuesday. hong kong is chinese, chinese people love gambling and gambling equals to horse racing - so a visit to the world famous happy valley racecourse is a must. i took my parents there to enjoy one of the weekly night race meetings for some cheap beer, hot dogs and some betting action. i was not really lucky that day, but in the end my dad's win covered up for my loses - thanks dad. anyways, we had a good time at the happy valley.

06nov2006 - german bierfest
monday. if you are in hong kong during the time of the marco polo german bierfest, make sure you go there for some nice beer and a good german atmosphere. as the chinese are quite playful people, you will be able to see them play a lot of funny games, which is certainly entertaining. one more reason to go there - they finally got some good beer there. after years of jever and veltins the bierfest is this time sponsored by the one and only good beer in the world - becks bier from bremen. prost!

06nov2006 - dim sum
monday. as my dad could not get enough of the delicious dim sum, we went out to have dim sum one more time with vivien's parents. gotta try dim sum when you come to hong kong. i simply love this stuff.

05nov2006 - junk trip
sunday. on this hot autumn day i organized a junk trip for my parents and my friends. we left central at noon and headed for repulse bay after taking a detour through the kwai chung container terminal. after taking a nice dip in the south chinese sea we sailed to lama island to round up the day with some delicious seafood.

04nov2006 - needed a break
saturday. after a long day in macau we all needed a break. we all slept long, watched some tv, chatted and played some cards - and i finally had the chance to recover from my cold. puuh.

03nov2006 - buffet in 360° cafe
friday. me and my girlfriend invited my parents for dinner in the 360° cafe on the macau tower, which is an amazing restaurant 230m above the ground that turns, you might have quessed it, 360° in two hours and leaves guest with the most amazing view over macau. you gotta see this! make sure you have a reservation before you go there.

03nov2006 - trip to las macau
friday. of course i took my parents to macau, which from now on i will call las macau as it starts to turn into the las vegas of asia. i haven't been there for two and a half years and now the place has new casinos and weird attractions everywhere. if you go there you can visit miami, amsterdam, new orleans, rome, china and tibet in one day. a beautiful city which is flooded by mainland chinese gamblers and which is about to loose its charme. make sure to visit it as soon as possible - it's getting americanized.

02nov2006 - got a cold
thursday. somehow i got quite a cold these days. the constant temperature changes simply make it unavoidable sometimes. outside it's freaking hot, inside it's freezing cold because of aircon-mania - especially in buses, the mtr and restaurants. it drives me nucking futs, but thanks to the product on the left i shall recover quickly - good stuff, highly recommened by dr. soenke ok.

02nov2006 - wong tai sin temple
thursday. a visit to hong kong should include a trip to the wong tai sin temple on kowloon side - one of the most famous temples in hong kong. perfect for a relaxed afternoon, which me and my parents needed after four full days of excitement.

01nov2006 - happy buddha
wedesday. the buddha is a must-see when you visit hong kong. it's an amazing and same time spiritual place. don't miss it! my parents liked it a lot - so will you!

01nov2006 - ngong ping 360
wednesday. me, my parens, vivien and vivien's parents took the newly opened skyrail (cable car) to ngong ping valley on lantau island, which is near the po lin monastery and it's giant buddha statue. this was an amazing ride and i can highly recommend it! well, go on a weekday and make sure there is no typhoon warning like on the day we went. hey, one more thing, don't waste your time and money to see 'a monkey's tale' and 'walking with buddha' up there, but the 88 hong kond dollars for the return ride are well spent.

01nov2006 - meet the tsos
wednesday. my and vivien's parents met for the first time that day. we went for dim sum, which was also a first time for parents. thanks to the talkative father of vivien, the meeting turned out to be a fun experience for everyone. puuh, that turned out quite well considering that my parents surprisingly speak no cantonese and vivien's parents speak no german. strange, huh? hey, my dad even tasted some chicken feet!

31oct2006 - night market
tuesday. but the day wasn't over yet. after a nice drink in mes amis we walked down nathan road to jordan - my old home. there we paid a visit to the temple street night market and shopped some more. well, enough shopping for today!

31oct2006 - suit fitting
tuesday. my dad's suit was ready for the first fitting on that evening. i guess my dad had a once-in-a-lifetime experience - the making of a taylor-made suit. what is expensive all over the world is affordable in hong kong. another reason to love this place. don't leave hong kong without it. need a taylor - i hook you up. did i mention i also had four new shirts made? ouch, my credit card won't like it.

31oct2006 - mong kok shopping
tuesday. did i say shopping, well, my parents liked it a lot in mong kok. they were quite stressed by the huge crowds there, but the endless shopping opportunities on the ladies market made them have a really good time. gotta love mong kok and the ladies market!

30oct2006 - stanley market
monday. we started the second day with a visit at my taylor before heading for stanley. there we enjoyed some german food at the king ludwig restaurant before going shopping on the stanley market. as you can see on the picture, my parents were quite exhausted from shopping with two shopping monsters like me and my girlfriend vivien. well, they will become shopping monsters in the next two weeks too - that's for sure in hong kong.

29oct2006 - the peak
sunday. after a refreshing drink we took a taxi to the peak to enjoy the magnificent view over hong kong before taking the tram and an open-top bus back to central. gotta love the peak, even if there are thousands of tourists up there.

29oct2006 - hong kong island
sunday. where to start in showing hong kong to my parents? well, we went to tsim sha tsui and took the star ferry from there to central. we walked through central, hong kong park and the zoological garden. it was quite a hot day, wherefore we soon stopped for a cool becks in a nearby biergarten. it feels good to show my parents this amazing city, but they seemed a little culture-shocked. well, nobody said that hong kong is a good place for a relaxed vacation - there's simply too much to see!

28oct2006 - parents arrival
saturday. my parents arrived from germany that day - what a joy. i hadn't seen them for 9 months and i am really happy that they came to visit me in hong kong. they will stay for around 11 days and me and vivien took two weeks off from work to show them our hong kong. why they will stay for around 11 days? well, they will leave on a container vessel and the schedule is not fixed yet. cool, huh? after more than two years in hong kong i will be a tourist all over again for the next two weeks. wanna know which place you must see in hong kong - take a look at then entries for the coming two weeks and you will be fine. let me be your guide through asia's world city. oh, not to forget my beloved girlfriend prepared a wonderful traditional chinese dinner for us that night - gotta love her for that.

20oct2006 - hard working week
friday. i started a my new job during that week, which proved to be quite a challenge already. a lot of new things to learn, things to arrange and problems to fix. i put in quite some overtime hourse that week and the first benefits showed alread on friday. so hard work does pay off! good to know.

14oct2006 - brementastic
saturday. my beloved football team werder bremen took the top of the german bundesliga table on that day after defeating vfl bochum 6:0. six goals scored by six different players. now that we got that spot, we won't let leave it till the end of the season. well, at least i hope so. hey, and which place is hamburg?

14oct2006 - lantau boat trip
saturday. we sailed out to enjoy the last days of the summer at a beach on lantau island that day. after spending hours of swimming (outside the shark nets) and having some ass-bomb-competition (weird translation) we headed for some good seafood and ... aeh ... also beer on lamma island. the picture on the left shows how excited one can get about having seafood after drinking too many tsingdao. prost!

13oct2006 - farewell
friday. i brought some cake for my 45 staff on that day to give a small farewell party. afterwards it was of course time to take plenty of pictures of me with all teams, departments and staff. cheese.

12oct2006 - farewell lunch
thursday. 15 staff of my department invited me to have beijing duck for lunch on that day. now i'm beginning to realize that it will be quite sad to leave them.

10oct2006 - japanese dinner
tuesday. i took my boss eva and my colleague catherine out for dinner to a japanese restaurant in olympic2 that night, where we were later joined by my girlfriend vivien. originally being planned as a casual dinner, the dinner almost turned out to be a farewell, as this will be the last week in the transpacific export seafreight department.

07oct2006 - mid-autumn festival
saturday. another weekend, another holiday - the chinese mid-autumn festival or also known as the moon or lantern festival. there's a nice story behind it, which you may wann look up on the internet, but basically it's about meeting friends and eating mooncakes, which also have a nice story to them. anyways, the beaches will be crowded all weekend, mooncake tastes rather strange, my girlfriend has to work and i will spend the festival on the couch or in the pool.

01oct2006 - chinese national day
sunday. the chinese national day got us a long weekend - yeah. the chinese people still keep the nice habit of giving the next weekday off when a public holiday falls on a sunday - thanks a lot! it marks the beginning of the golden week in china, which reaches till the mid-autumn festival next weekend. what does that mean? many chinese people will flood the tourist attractions and disneyland in hong kong and i will have a quiet week at work as all the factories in china are closed. sounds good, huh.

28sep2006 - transfer/promotion
thursday. effective october 16th i will get my own section in our seafreight export intra-asia department, which is a great challange but opportunity at the same time. i will lead my own team of eight people and manage the shipments of 7 major clients (tyco, lexmark, acer, asics, etc.) within asia. on one hand i am quite thrilled to get such a change, on the other hand it will be quite sad to leave my former department in which i enjoyed working so much.

23sep2006 - tjen's birthday
saturday. my friend tjen celebrated this birthday on that evening at his apartment, where we all watched the important bundesliga game hamburg against bremen, which werder bremen won 1:1. let's see how long it takes tjen to see this diary entry on my webpage and complain about the picture on the left.

10sep2006 - men on tour
sunday. bjoern, tjen and me went on a mens tour on that very sunday, which was orginally planned as a trip to the opening of the horseracing season. instead we took a bus to the peak, had lunch at burger king and made our way down to staunton's in soho to kill some coronas. cheers!

02sep2006 - tuk tuk
saturday. when you a western walking down the streets of bangkok you will always here somebody yelling "tuk tuk", which means he wants to take you on a ride in this little moped taxi and rip you off afterall. a thing you must do in bangkok, even though it appears to be quite dangerous. aaah, what the heck.

02sep2006 - chatuchak weekend market
saturday. hong kong is full of markets and night markets, but what i experienced in bangkok really knocked me off my feet. a market as far as your eyes can see and where you can buy anything you can imagine: cloths, fake cloths, shoes, souvenirs, furniture, food, decoration items, art, toys, snacks and yes - even animals!

01sep2006 - traditional thai food
friday. thailand is definetly not a place to go for a diet as you are constantly tempted by all these delicious foods around you. that night me and vivien went out to a really traditional thai restaurant and enjoyed the excellent thai cuisine. delicious but not good for your figure.

01sep2006 - dolphin kiss
friday. ususally my girlfriend would freak out seeing me kiss another girl, but that day she made an exception and let me kiss a pretty girl. i have always dreamed of getting up-close with a dolphin, and it finally became a reality. what an experience.

01sep2006 - sanctuary of truth
friday. i visited the sancutuart of truth in pattaya, a massive temple made completely out of wood. an amazing place where you can getted stunned by the temple, take a ride on a speedboat and enjoy the company of dolphins. and yes, you should visit that place as well.

01sep2006 - elephant trekking
friday. i love elephants, so of course i didn't miss the chance of going elephant trekking in pattaya. an amazing thing to ride on the back of an elephant, so here you have another thing you must not miss when travelling to thailand. did you know that elephants eat for 16 hours each day? just like me.

31aug2006 - ladyboy show
thursday. watched a ladybody show in pattaya that night - an amazing experience. it seems like people in thailand take this ladyboy thing quite serious, wherefore you should not miss such a show whenever you come across one.

31aug2006 - thai massage
thursday. many people might think of a thai massage as something naughty, but it is actually something rather rough. not the soft massage you might expect, as you can see on the picture on the left, but this rather rough massage made me feel very relaxed in the end.

31aug2006 - hard rock pattaya
thursday. we left bangkok for pattaya on that day and arrived at the hard rock hotel in the early afternoon. i expected more and was a little disappointed - probably because the marriot resort & spa in bangkok is one of the best hotels i have ever been to.

30aug2006 - massage and spa
wednesday. me and vivien booked a three hour spa in bangkok on that day. 30 min foot massage, 30 min body scrub, 30 min milk bath and 90 min massage made me feel like freshly reborn. just what i needed to recharge my energy in order to take on shopping in bangkok.

29aug2006 - crazy bangkok
tuesday. there are thousand words to be spoken to discribe bangkok, but one word just discribes it's best: crazy!

29aug2006 - siam ocean world
tuesday. me and vivien visited the siam ocean world aquarium in siam paragon shopping mall - the world shopping phenomenon, where she got eaten by a huge killer shark. luckily she must not have tasted to well, wherefore the shark spit her right out again. thank god. no, but honestly, that place is not really worth a visit unless you are a child. ocean park in hong kong is ten times better.

29aug2006 - grand palace
tuesday. visited the grand palce in bangkok in bangkok - a must see if you ask me. an amzing display of heritage, culture and gold. don't miss it, even though it seems boring compared to many other things bangkok has to offer.

28aug2006 - scirocco
monday. me and my girlfriend went to celebrate our three year anniversary in scirocco restaurant in bangkok on that night, which i located on the 63rd floor of the state tower. from this open air restaurant you have the most awesome view of bangko - something you must not miss when visiting bangkok!

28aug2006 - off to thailand
monday. me and my girlfriend vivien flew to thailand on that day to do some relaxing and shopping. having heard many stories about bangkok and pattaya, the places which me and vivien will visit, made me curious on what i will experience in beautiful thailand. let' see.

24aug2006 - party with msc
thursday. me and 20 other colleagues got invited to join the celebration of 10 years msc in hong kong on that day. the party was held in the grand hall of the hong kong convention centre, which is an amazing venue. nice food, many important people and lots of drinks makde this a night to remember. it would have been even more memorable if i had one of the amazing prices of the luck draw, but i didn't get lucky that night.

19aug2006 - diego superstar
saturday. i watched the werder bremen game on that night at my friend's house. werder bremen defeated bayer leverkusen and bremen's new portugese player emerged as the new superstar of the german bundesliga. watch out for this quy, my new favourite player after miroslav klose.

11aug2006 - bundesliga is back
friday. even though we had a summer packed with world class football, it feels good to have the bundesliga back with a new season. as werder bremen has bought some excellent new player, I expect a lot from them. looking forward to an amazing bundesliga season, which is made even better through participating in the kicker management game.

11aug2006 - burger king is back
friday. sensational news for hong kong on this special day - burger king opened his one and only branch on the peak that day. so far the only burger king was to be found after passing the immigration at the airport, which theoretically is not hong kong territory. thank god for this new option, so we don't have to visit one of the 250 mcdonalds branches all the time.

10aug2006 - young professionals cocktail
thursday. me and five of my german colleagues joined an event of the german chambre of commerce to do some networking. the evening would have been quite boring without having some colleagues around, but still we met some nice new people from the field of logistics.

10aug2006 - duckfeet for lunch
thursday. i got invited to have lunch with an ocean carrier on that day. we had dim sum and my host ordered duck feet for everyone. well, it is certainly an uncommon food for us european, but hey, you gotta give it a try. believe me, duck feet are really delicious - even better than chicken feet.

07aug2006 - vendor meeting
monday. me and two colleagues had to travel to shenzhen in china to hold a vendor meeting for one of our US customer, which was the first time for we to take part in such an event. always a nice experience to travel to china and learn new things.

05aug2006 - german food
saturday. my girlfriends family has always been so kind to invite me to have traditional chinese food, so it was finally my turn to let them experience good german food. since i am not much of a cook, i invited them to the king ludwig beerhall restaurant in stanley for a lunch buffet, which is some of the best traditional german food you can get in hong kong. make sure to pay a visit to this beautiful restaurant and enjoy excellent food. guten appetit!

28jul2006 - business in china
sunday. working as an assistant manager in KN for almost half a year now i have to spend more time travelling with customers to china, especially shenzhen. my passport is full of visas and chops, wherefore i will soon have to get a new one before the present one expires. jesus, who thoug that could happen? and by the way, the sky in shenzhen is not always as clear as in the picture on the left.

21jul2006 - milkman - 2nd run
friday. the milkman stopped by again after spending about two weeks travelling in china. andre enjoyed a two-day-stay at the obininsula before heading back to germany and the usa. ey my friend, hope you come back and work in hong kong again soon - the city needs you!

19jul2006 - putonghua ma?
wednesday. ni hao (chinese characters on the left picture) to my second putonghua (mandarin) class at the ymca hong kong. having been lazy over the past few weeks i had quite a struggle to keep up with the pace as our teacher stepped up her speed a bit. well, putonghua is not easy, but fun - and i have a lot of stuff to repeat. aiya!

15jul2006 - german video night
saturday. as my friend and colleague tjen brought some good old german classic movies for me from germany, we decided to round up some german colleagues in order to have a german movie night at my place. we watched 'bang boom bang' and 'der letze lude', two movies which defined the german movie and will continue to have a major impacts on future generations. did i mention we seven guys killed 19 big bottles (0.7l) of tsingdao during the first movie? cheers, or should i say prost.

09jul2006 - milkman in town
sunday. my old friend and classmate andre "the milkman" milschus came to visit hong kong during that week, wherefore we headed out to lan kwai fong to chat and have some cold drinks. we had an excellent time listening to live music in the cavern while killing one ... diet ... aeh, coke after another. good to see you again, man.

03jul2006 - xin los angeles
monday. i got invited that day to visit the china shipping container vessel xin los angeles on the start of her maiden voyage in hong kong. she can carry up to 9.600 TEU and is presently the largest container vessel in the world - quite an impressive sight. check out the picture of the week section of my webpage, where you will find a larger picture of that big girl.

25jun2006 - get your tan on
sunday. the sun was blazing on that very sunday, wherefore i spent the whole afternoon by the pool getting my tan on. only 1.5 hours were enough to get a tan like shown in the picture on the left - well, i actually burned myself a little bit. next time i will wear sunscreen, mom, i promise.

24jun2006 - skittz!
saturday. me, my girlfriend and some friends watched the world cup game germany vs. sweden in a bar in wan chai called skittz. normally being a really creepy place, it can be quite a nice atmosphere if you watch a germany game there with 200 other germany fans of which at least 75% percent wore a germany shirt and/or germany colours. in the end germany won 4:2 and advanced to the next round of the 2006 world cup.

21jun2006 - vivien's birthday
wednesday. my beloved girlfriend vivien celebrated her 26th birthday on the longest day of the year 2006... and there is specially one thing i like about her the most - the older, the more beautiful she gets. haha.

16jun2006 - thailand, i'm coming
friday. me and my girlfriend Vivien got the tickets for our upcomeing thailand trip that day. we will spend three nights in bangkok, two nights in pathaya and finally one more night in bangkok. the fact that six nights in a 5-star hotel, breaksfast, massages and flight costs you less than 400 € makes you wanna scream for joy. i am really looking forward to this trip at the end of august.

15jun2006 - coffee day
thursday. i stayed up last night to watch Germany against Poland at 3:00am, which caused me to be tired all the next day in the office. the only i was able to survive was to poor tons of coffee into me, which made this a coffee day to remember. to make things worse - in the evening i had a mandarin class with a final test - uaaaah. well, i didn't do to bad, I guess. let's wait for the result next week.

12jun2006 - black rain
monday. it rained so heavy that monday morning that the hong kong authorities raised the black rain signal that morning, something i never experienced before. if i would still have been home once the signal was issued, i would have gotten a day off, but since i was already in the office i had to stay inside until the signal was lifted. damn. the rain was actually so heavy that it was completely dark outside (black!) at 11:00am, which was quite an impressive sight.

11jun2006 - boat trip
sunday. thanks to my boss and the company i was able to organize a private boat trip for me, my girlfriend and our closest friends that day. we took off around 11:30 and headed for shek o beach in the south of hong kong island. since the weather was rather poor and everyone had a little hang-over, this boat trip will be remembered as a more relaxed one. well, a nice trip after all.

09jun2006 - friends in town
friday. ben, carmen, timo and cookie (picture) flew in from shanghai and qingdao that day for a wedding party in hong kong. a good opportunity to see old friends again, watch the world cup opener and go on a boat trip. hope that in return i get to visit them in shanghai in qingdao as well - as soon as my back account let's me. haha.

09jun2006 - world cup opener
friday. i organized an event for me and about 30 colleagues from KN to watch the world cup opener Germany against Costa Rica that night in champs bar in causeway bay. lots of beer, good company and a 4:2 victory of our team made this a night to remeber.

28may2006 - department boat trip
sunday. me and the staff of my department went on a boat trip to celebrate their good performance of the year 2005. even though the weather was a desaster, we managed to have a good time playing cards, swimming and eating some delicious seafood near clearwater bay.

27may2006 - hot frog dinner
saturday. me and some friends gathered to have a hot pot dinner in causeway bay that evening. for 100 HK$ we had all you can eat and drink, which included lots of beers and all kinds of things you can drop into the pot. that evening i got to try frog, which tasted surprisingly delicious. it tastes like chicken! sorry kermit.

24may2006 - hong kong disneyland
wednesday. me and my girlfriend checked out hong kong disneyland on that wednesday, which was my first ever visit to any of the many disney theme parks in the world. you might wanna ask how it was, right? well, it looks nice, it's rather small, it's surprisingly cheap and overall well worth paying a visit to.

21may2006 - bad forecast
sunday. i'm not good to talk about the hong kong observatory today, which is actually quite famous for it's accurate weather forecast for hong kong. for saturday and sunday they forecasted mainly and sunny fine weather with temperatures around 25°C+. after all we got 20°C and lots of rain, wherefore i had to bury my plans of going to the beach on sunday. thanks's a lot you loosers - it's all your fault.

18may2006 - chunking mansion
thursday. after my madarin class, me vivien, sam, finn and joey had dinner at the taj mahal restaurant in the notrious chunking mansions in tsim sha tsui. it is one of the creepiest buildings in hong kong, full of little shops, creepy people, dark corners and dirty staircases. after climbing a dirty staircase to the third floor we were rewarded by some really nice indian curry, which among insiders is rated among the best in hong kong. how can such nice food be served in such a creepy buidling. unbelievable.

17may2006 - sissy typhoon
wednesday. the typhoon chanchu (means pearl in chinese) prooved to be quite a sissy. we just got a little rain and a slightly rough wind on tuesday evening and wednesday morning. really not a big deal, even though typhoon signal number three was raised. i didn't even have to use my umbrella on my way to and from work. what a sissy!

15may2006 - uuuuuaaaah, typhoon
monday. big news in hong kong today. typoon chanchu is approaching hong kong and typhoon signal one will be hoisted tonight. everybody seems to have nothing else to talk about anymore but about the typhoon. it is expected to be the strongest one ever to hit hong kong during may, even though it will pass hong kong in about 200 km distance. well, maybe it will make a turn towards and give us more things to talk about. will keep you posted. typhooooooooon!

13may2006 - ha ha hamburg
saturday. werder bremen defeated ha ha hamburg in their own stadium to take the second place of the german bundesliga, which equals to the direct qualification for the uefa champions league and approximately 12.ooo.ooo euros of secure income for the next season. while bremen can now relax hamburg will have to qualify against such teams as inter mailand or arsenal. well, everybody knows who is the number one in the north of germany, right?!

12may2006 - sprained ankle
friday. i, the greatest sports guy ever (watch out, sarcasm), sprained my ankle during the warm up for the tournament by stepping on the ball of a deflected shot. damn, that hurt. it ruined my weekend, cost me 200 dollars and made it impossible for me to go to work on saturday. damn, i actually wanted to go since i really had stuff to do. now i can't play football for six weeks - doing sports is just not healthy, believe me, it hurts.

12may2006 - blue anchor boys
friday. we, the blue anchor boys from kuehne+nagel hong kong, got invited to play in a football tournament organized by the british chamber of commerce that day. the tournament was played on the pitches of the hong kong football club inside the happy valley racecourse. unfortunately we didn't last too long in the tournament, as we got unlucky and were kicked out in the first round. damn! well, at least we got a nice barbeque and free drinks afterwards, which eased the disappointment of the whole team. by the way, the picture on the left is not us but a rather a nice picture i found under google by typing in football in the picture search.

06may2006 - meYer in town
saturday. my good old friend an former colleague matthias flew over from thailand to visit hong kong for a few days. we took advantage of this by meeting with heiko, patrick and nike to enjoy a few drinks in lan kwai fong that night. it's always good to see old friends again, especially crazy one's like this guy.

06may2006 - clearwater bay boat trip
saturday. 30°C, sunshine and a company-owned boat a the perfect ingredients for a relaxed day at sea. around 20 people, mostly from KN, left central in the morning with the KN boat to head for clearwater bay beach near sai kung. we spent about 4,5 hours swimming and sunbathing while the boat was anchoring near the beach. who needs shark barriers, we swim in the sea anyways! after all, a nice boat trip.

05may2006 - buddha's birthday
friday. hong kong has 17 official working holidays of which the day marking buddha's birthday is one. this friday we all got a day off, which cut this working week to three day's after having the labour day on monday. I spent almost the whole day in mong kong shopping shoes, cloths and accessories with my beloved girlfriend vivien. a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. well, but thanks buddha and happy birthday to you.

30apr2006 - outdoor pool
sunday. the outdoor pool in my apartment building opened today - really nice. so keep your eyes open, because the white shark(me) is loose again. so pay a visit to the obininsula in hong kong and you get to enjoy this pool as well. see ya.

29apr2006 - norasia advantage cup
saturday. me and my colleagues/teammates of the KN blue anchor boys football team joined the 3rd csav norasisa advantage cup. since it has been raining for three days in a row, the pitch was in such an awful condition that i wouldn't have called it a football but rather a mudslide tournament. some of us spent more time in the mud than on our feet, which caused us to be eliminated after the group stage. one win agains UPS, one draw against kerry logistics and one loss against expeditors, but free buffet, drinks and souvenirs. hey, at least we showed some team spirit for KN.

23apr2006 - black rain
sunday. when you come from bremen you are pretty much used to any kind of rain, but black rain in hong kong is certainy an experience. on sunday night a thunderstorm came out of nowhere and dumped more than 200mm of rain per squaremeter on the western district of hong kong island. as a result the black rain signal was hoisted which brings normal business life to an standstill, since black rain and related land slides pose a major threat. unfortunately the black rain finished by the next morning, so that i had to go to the office as usual on monday morning. just like the typhoons, it doesn't get u anything.

22apr2006 - bad pizza
saturday. we had dinner in lan kwai fong that night, during which i had a 4-cheese chicken pizza at the california restaurant. really nice, really delicious, but in the end a desaster. about one hour after the dinner i had to run for the toilet at the club for three times. quite embarassing. so i had to call it a night and returned home early. grrrrr.

22apr2006 - genie(r) in town
saturday. my good old friend pasquale genier (on the left) flew over from ho chi minh city this weekend to do some business in hong kong. of course we took advantage of this and 'arrested' some beers in lan kwai fong. unfortunately the evening ended quite early with me spending the rest of the night in the bathroom. why? check above.

20apr2006 - mandarin
thursday. on this thursday i started my mandarin course (putonghua) at the YMCA in tsim sha tsui. i am really motivated to learn the language of the chinese mainland, but the first lesson already indicated that this won't be easy at all. so many different pronounciations and tones - that's gonna be a lot of work. well, i will push through and really learn this language, no matter what. hope these efforts will pay off.

08apr2006 - still in the race
saturday. after a 3:0 deafeat over table-toppers bayern munich, which i witnessed live on chinese cable tv at a colleagues home, my beloved sv werder bremen is still/back in the race for the title again. well, we are still three points behind hamburg and another four points behind bayern munich, but it's still five games to play. never say never, coz we are still/back in the race.

07apr2006 - haha, only a substitute
friday. german national footballteam headcoach juergen klinsmann finally announced what many german football fans hoped for years - oliver kahn is only gonna be number 2 from now on, which means that jens lehmann is number 1 goalkeeper in the 2006 world cup in germany. well, i don't really like jens lehmann either, but it's good to see that constantly over-motivated and arrogant goal-monkey spending some time on the bench. well done jurgen!

05apr2006 - ching ming festival
wednesday. the ching ming festival, during which traditionally all chinese people worship their ancestors, brought us a publich holiday during the middle of the week. excellent! we spent the day having a barbeque at a friends house, which after all proved to be too hot to be relaxing at all. well, we had 30°C+ that day. as i said - summer is back in hong kong.

04apr2006 - summer is back
tuesday. summer is finally back with the temperature rising above 27°C these days. feels good to have it warm all day long. but when do you realize that the summer is really back? well, you will know that summer is back when sweat runs down your back all the way down to ... while you are just slowly walking to the office in the early morning. it's to leave the suit jacket at home in the morning. how is the weather in germany? haha

02apr2006 - memoirs of a king kong
weekend. i spent this weekend relaxing in my beloved new apartment. on saturday and sunday i watched memoirs of a geisha and king kong, which in the end adds up to memoirs of a king kong. that would be an interesting movie after all, don't you agree?

30mar2006 - chiwan port
thursday. i followed an invitation from the ocean carrier APL to visit the port of chiwan in shenzhen,china. for me having seen many ports all over the world this was not very exciting, but one fact is amazing after all. on a site, on which 10 years ago you could only find a small fishing port, you can now find one of the fastest growing container terminals in the world. today they already handle more containers than bremerhaven for example, which can be considered quite an amazing development. well, this is china - they do certain things at a differend pace. let's see where this ends...

11mar2006 - ricky martin in hong kong
wednesday. my old friend kieran from germany, who looks somewhat like ricky martin and is currently living in thailand, visited me for four days in hong kong and got to experience this amazing city himself. being able to accomodate him at my place gave us enough opportnuity to shop, eat, drink and party around hong kong. kieran, thanks for stopping by. hope you had a good time, i certainly did.

10mar2006 - kn anual dinner 2006
wednesday. kuehne+nagel held its annual dinner on that day, an event where all staff from hong kong and southern china gather to celebrate a succesful business year. it is just crazy to experience a dinner with 600+ people with all kinds of games, foods, drinks and a lucky draw. sadly i didn't win any of the business-class round-trip tickets to any destination in the world. damn! hopefully next year. but i got a headache the next day from all the beer that i killed during the dinner. ouch!

24feb2006 - new apartment
friday. after taking on a new job i have finally been able to find an adequate accomodation for me an my girlfriend vivien in hong kong. it's located on kowloon side in the island harbourview near the olympic mtr station. since the rents are sooooo freaking high in hong kong, you could probable rent a big house in europe for the money ipay for my new apartment now. well, at least i finally have a nice place to go home to which has a three pools, squash, badminton, golf, sauna, whirlpool and gym. not that ireally have time to use all these facilities, hey, but at least they are there. the best thing after all is that inow have enough space to accomodate guests from germany, so come on over.

01feb2006 - new job
wednesday. today i started my new job as an assistant manager for seafreight export transpacific in kuehne+nagel ltd. hong kong. i already wrote my diploma thesis in this deparment from august 2005 till january 2006, wherefore i am really happy to return to this department. it will be a challenge for me to achieve major improvements in terms of productivity and efficiency as well as an excellent opportunity to gather further experiences in working with local staff and obtain further forwarding knowledge.

30jan2006 - leaving germany
monday. an exiting but most of all sad day. this time i will not leave germany for a few months and know the actual day of my return. this time i will fly to hong kong with a two year contract in my pocket not knowing when I will have time to visit my home again. this time i don't know when i will see my friends and family again which caused a lot of tears at the airport. it's is hard to let go and leave all of you and especially my family behind, but i am actually excited to move on. i will have a new job, a new challenge, a bright future in asia and two homes - bremen and hong kong. my home will always be germany, my home will always be bremen, my family will always be my family and you my friends will always remain my friends no matter how far away i am and how often we can see each other. i won't feel lonely in hong kong since i have the sweetest person here with me - my girlfriend vivien. but still you are all invited to visit me here and experience this amazing city with me. i will miss you all!

27jan2006 - elsfleth engineering
friday. my diploma thesis turned out to be really good, wherfore i was awarded the title of 'diplom wirtschaftsingeneur (fh)' in the course of international transport management at the university of applied sciences oldenburg/ostfriesland/wilhelmshaven today. a proud day after four years of sometimes more and sometime less hard work. a chapter of my life ends while a new chapter opens. the time of learing is over and the time of working begins. in just three days I will board the plane to hong kong to start my new job there. four years flew by so fast and I will actually miss the city of elsfleth and my university. of course I will miss most of my classmates, wherefore we will take this day and party till we drop for one more time. who knows when we all shall meet again. one thing is for sure - we will meet again in this small world and especially in the industry of shipping, forwarding and logistics. take care my friends of the elsfleth class of 2006.

13jan2006 - back to germany
friday. after five and a half month boarded my plane towards good old germany again. i am happy to see my family and good old friends in bremen again. i will just spend about two and a half weeks at home before starting a my new job in hong kong, for which i just signed my contract two days ago. the only sad thing is that i will have to leave my girlfriend alone in hong kong. overall it's a strange feeling. in the past i always bought souvenirs in hong kong to take home with me to germany. this year i am planning to buy some souvenirs in bremen to take home with me to hong kong. i know already that i will miss bremen, family, my friends, schlachte, beck's, werder bremen and all the other wonderful things that make bremen worth living in.

30dec2005 - it's in the pouch
friday. after months of hard work, uncountable extra hours spent in the office and many sleepless nights i completed my diploma thesis and sent it out via pouch to my lecturers in germany. a great feeling, since a lot of pressure was taken off my shoulders and mind. i did my part and now it's up to my lecturers to evaluate my work. now i just hope that my pouch arrives safely, otherwise i might run late on the deadline for the submission of my paper. tnt, please don't screw this up.

sorry for the big time-gap
i received some complaints that my diary has not been updated for quite some time. well, due to writing my diploma thesis i have been unable to update my diary. but now that i have a life again i will keep updating my diary again on a weekly basis.

22oct2005 - relaxed boat trip
saturday. we took the company boat on a trip to lamma island to enjoy some delicious seafood. it was just the perfect relaxed saturday boat trip. as you can see on the picture, i was not the only one who liked the trip.

20oct2005 - bierfest again
thurday. well, i couldn't let this bierfest pass with only one visit of me. this time i went with bjoern, melanie, sam, timo, vivien and cookie. the same old fun, food, music and games. if you happen to come to hong kong at the time of the german bierfest, make sure you don't miss it.

16oct2005 - company outing to ocean park
sunday. ...i woke up with no headache, but with an incredible thirst. who knows why? well, we had to get up early, since kuehne+nagel paid all staff and families a day in ocean park. since i've only been there once, of course me and my girlfried took the opportunity to enjoy the pandas, the rides, the dolphin show and not the food. it was a fun day. at this point i need to thank my girlfriend vivien, who held on to that day, even though she just got off her night shift on 7am that morning.

15oct2005 - marco polo german bierfest 2005
saturday. my friend matthias and me went to the marco polo german bierfest 'to let the female pig out'(weird translation from german). it was just as great as two years ago, when i first got to experience the biggest german bierfest in asia. at the bierfest we met a rich guy from taiwan who kept paying for pitchers and pitchers of beer. after the party was over we hung out with the band, emptied some more pitchers and got home at ... well, i don't remember. tomorrow will be a headache day.

09oct2005 - shopping maniac
sunday. i spent the whole weekend during the hong kong thing - shopping. not that i spent a lot of money, but i actually bought a lot of things and walked for hours through the streets of mong kok and entered into at least 50 shops. my feet hurt so bad, just wanna get to bed and relax. the worst thing is that you're supposed to relax on the weekend in order to charge your batteries for the week, which was impossible this weekend. well, tuesday is a publich holiday i won't have to go shopping for another month. thank god.

07oct2005 - summer is gone
friday. these days the temperature and humidity dropped to a nice level. the temperature is down to about 25°C with humidity at about 70% and blue skies all week. finally you get to walk around hong kong without sweating your something off. hey, if you plan on visiting hong kong, come here in october and november, so you'll be able to catch the best weather and also the famous marco polo german bierfest, the biggest oktoberfest in asia, starting in one week. can't wait for that one.

04oct2005 - german unity
tuesday. damn, we didn't get to celebrate the day of german unity yesterday, but we got our share of the fun one day later. we, that is me and a few colleagues of kuehne+nagel, were invited to the grand hyatt hotel by the german general cosulate to celebrate the day of german unity. nice hotel, some very important people of the hong kong government, a little boring atmosphere but excellent german food and beer. and the best of it - it was all for free. prost!

01oct2005 - a perfect evening
saturday. hey, you know this guy on the left? well, this evening made me smile just like him. first me and my girlfriend vivien watched the anual chinese national day fireworks display from my office, followed by watching live an amazing win of werder bremen against hertha bsc, followed by a fun visit to lan kwai fong, where i enjoyed some good beck's beer and later some free drinks in the lux, where i met my old friend poe from hong kong polytechinc university, who works there as a bartender. in the end we enjoyed a crazy minibus-ride home to jordan. and after all, the guy on the left was the matchwinner of werder bremen's win and happens to be on my kicker-team. as you can see, this just was a perfect evening!

01oct2005 - indian national day
saturday. the whole of china celebrates the chinese national day on this day, which me and my girlfriend Vivien turned into our indian national day. for lunch we had some indian food at city super followed by some indian kebap for dinner at wan chai. well, one thing is for sure, tomorrow i'll have a ring of fire.

30sep2005 - workflow soenke
friday. for my diploma i have to do some serious process mapping, which occupied all my week. monday to friday i spent about 40 hours preparing a full-container-load workflow with microsoft visio. things got actually so bad that i started dreaming about workflows and people started to call me "workflow soenke". it can't get worse that - well, it can. next week i will have to prepare the same thing for less-than-container-load. nooooooooo!

25sep2005 - typhoon ruined my weekend
sunday. it's typhoon season in hong kong, and as usual, they always arrive on the weekend. just like this one, who cause a typhoon signal no.3 and heavy rain for the whole weekend. the weather was actually so bad, that i went to work on saturday. but it got even worse! me and my girlfriend vivien were stuck at home fighting the large amounts of water coming through the aircon at our bedroom-wall. this was definetly not a weekend to remember. hope the next typhoon comes with signal no.8 during the week to give us a day off and make up for this weekend. ey, don't bitch about the weather in germany!

18sep2005 - mid-autumn festival
sunday. it's mid autumn-festival in hong kong this weekend. you don't know what this is all about? well, me neither. all i know is that people like to carry lanterns and eat mooncake, which is a really heavy, high-calorie and for european people rather strange-tasting cake. allright, it has something to do with the full moon on that day, while the mooncake has something to do with a revolution in china a long time ago, during which this cake was used to distribute secret messages among the people, which were hidden inside the cake. enough of cultural education for today. after all, the best about this festival is that we have a long weekend, since monday is a public holiday. hey, one last question - why do they call it mid-autumn festival, when it has more than 30°C outside. in germany we would call it: mid-we-wish-it-would-be-that-hot-of-a-summer festival.

16sep2005 - farewell to friends
friday. after work we all gathered in one of our favourite bars in wan chai to give a farewell to two great colleagues: mathias ruebke and benjamin schatzl, who will be leaving hong kong for tokyo and shanghai. well, this is how it works in hong kong - they come and go. sooner or later it will be my time as well. but one thing is for sure - we will all meet again in this small world. unti that day - all the best for you guys.

12sep2005 - i won't carry that
monday. ey, this diary entry might be nothing new for hong kong people - but for people from the service-desert of germany it will! since my nearest supermarket is more than 500 meters away from my apartment i decided: i won't carry all these groceries through the hot and crowded streets of hong kong anymore. so how you gonna get all that stuff home without a car? well, log on to the supermarkets webpage, place your order online, tell them when to deliver and pay only about 2€ extra for the delivery. supermarkets were yesterday - delivery is today, especially when it has 30°C outside and you live on 11th floor.

10sep2005 - believe it or not
saturday. you might believe it or not - "the john mcenroe of football"(me) did some sports that day. me and my teammates from the kuehne+nagel hong kong football team played against some local chinese colleagues in a farewell game for mathias ruebke and benjamin schatzl. in the heat of 30°C+ and blazing sun we played for 90 minutes and managed to win 4:0 against our local colleagues with me scoring the first two goals.