29oct2011 - dapeng outing
saturday. that day i had an outing arranged for my department to a nearby seaside resort (approx. one hour drive from shenzhen). my staff committee organized everything and they did a great job. everyone was happy. a smooth bus ride, rental of bicycles, open-air bbq by the beach, drinks, food ... and the weather was perfect. 20 degrees, sunshine and blue skies. i was very happy as 90% of my staf attended, showing that the spririt in our team is well alive. can't wait for next year.

04oct2011 - silk dinner
tuesday. having tried all restaurants at our hotel, we ventured out into the kamala beach area that evening to look for a place to have dinner. we came by a nice hotel that looked really expensive and which had a thai restaurant called silk. the decoration was beautiful and I wondered how expensive this would be. still, we decided to go for it. only five tables were occupied and we could enjoy an excellent service. the food was the best thai food I ever had and the price was ridiculously cheap. a bottle of st. pelligrino water, two starters, two cocktails and two main courses = less than hk$ 500.00 in a
5* place! food - the best reason why to love thailand!

04oct2011 - pa thong beach
tuesday. for sure one of the most famous beaches in the world, but most likely not for such good reasons. ok, it was a rainy day so things tend to look a little more sad and greay after all, but even on a sunny day it is not what i expected. i have seen much better beaches. also all the stands that sell fake products and the bars with hordes of 'professionals' does want me to scream 'phuket is nice'. the weather aside, I can at this point still not understand what people love about phuket.

04oct2011 - the rain doesn't stop.
tuesday. i know that it is the rainy season in thailand, still that usually means that there is 1-2 showers per day and it is easy to deal with it. this year, however, it seems that thailand is hit really bad and many areas were flooded. phuket was not flooded, but it rained heavy every day so there was little time to enjoy sunshine at the pool. well, after many good vacations with always good weather, guess i had to run out of luck sometime. no sunburn on this trip!

03oct2011 - who you looking at?
monday. when you live in china as a foreigner you sooner or later get used to people looking ... staring at you. Well, some people, especially when from out of town, do not regularly get to see foreigners, so they like to have a closer look. When we arrived in phuket, most hotel guests were actually foreigners, so one may expect that things will be normal just like back in europe. but no! it seems like many people have never seen a mixed couple before. what makes things worse is that my wife does not look particularly chinese, so some weirdos have that "hehe, where did you pick up that day girl" on their face. not that I really care, but still, then I prefer the looks of chinese people when over here in shenzhen.

02oct2011 - kamala, phuket
sunday. for sure i have been to thailand before, but never to phuket. Since everybody is so fond of it, vivien and me hit the agents and booked four nights and at a hotel in kamala beach that has a strict 'no-children' policy. hey, with all the chinese families travelling, believe me, you do not want to be around all those little brats. seriously, some of these kids clearly do not know how to behave. Anyways, everything is set to be a very calm and relaxed vacation. no children, deluxe room, private whirlpool on the balcony, kingsize bed, a 47" TV and a DVD player.

01oct2011 - golden week
saturday. the P.R. of China is celebrating it's 62nd birthday this time around, which is marked by the so called 'golden week'. all china will basically come to a hault and people will pack their bags to see their families at home or simply go travelling. a whole country is on the move and there a good chance to get away on a short holiday. let's be honest, with so many people flooding all kinds of places, attractions and shopping malls - you better get out of here. happy birthday china!

23sep2011 - getting cooler
saturday. the mid-autumn festival is behind us and the weather has changed in recent days. after a day of massive rain and thunderstorms a cold-front has taken over and made things more comfortable. okay, it is still 25 degrees during the day and we still need to run the aircon at night, but hey, at least you can walk to the office from the MTR without sweat running down your back in streams.

12sep2011 - mid-autumn festival
monday. time againg for the 'mid-autumn festival', which is also known as the 'chinese lantern festival'. families come together i order to enjoy a big dinner together, look at the full and usually very bright moon and eat some traditional 'mooncake' as a dessert. it always give a small break prior to the next big holiday, 'chinese national day' or the so-called 'golden week', prior to which my business goes through one of its peak seasons.

04sep2011 - nanhao
sunday. spent the weekend with my staff on a company outing to nanhao island, which is a 30 minute ferry ride from shantou, which itself is about 'only' four-and-a-half hours drive from shenzhen. in other words i spent half the weekend on a bus wasting away. well, at least everyone seemed to have a had a good time - the most important thing.

28aug2011 - 8 years
sunday. 8 is the lucky number in the chinese culture since it is pronounced similar to "ba", which means fortune. so, lucky me to have found vivien and that she could stand me for 8 years so far. let's stay luck and have many more years to come. let's see, maybe we get extra lucky this year.

28aug2011 - dragon treasure
sunday. as part of our VIP package we had two free tickets to a multi-media show called 'dragon treasure'. the original price is hk$ 30.00 and i was more than happy that my tickets were free of charge. let me put it this way: if you live behind the moon and you seldom leave your house - you may find this show exciting as many of the people from the chinese tour groups that were in the show with us. if you don't live behind the moon, you would have more fun watching the clock tick for 15 minutes.

27aug2011 - 200 euros per hour!
saturday. after having dinner at the hard rock cafe we hit the casino for some gambling and with a little luck, some of our lucky number and some smart betting we managed to win 1000 yuan (100 euros) in just half an hour. not a bad payday. so we figured we earned enough and called it a day. at least we now had enough money for lunch the next day and the ferry back to shenzhen.

27aug2011 - house of dancing water
saturday. that evening we had ticket for the show called 'house of the dancing water' of which i have heard many people talk. let me say, we were not disappointed. well, i did not get the story really and i can not see how motorcycles, a chinese fisherman, pirates and zombies fit into one setting ... but the stunts, acrobatics and the stage were one of the coolest things i have ever seen. 90 minutes action-packed, water-spashing and high-flying. you got to see this. one advice though - book a reserve tickets like we did. you don't want to sit too close to the stage or you will get wet. well, some chinese were clever and brought umbrellas and opened them until security stopped them.

27aug2011 - poolside
saturday. first thing we did was to check out the awesome pool of the grand hyatt to refresh ourselves considering the very hot and humid temperatures of the south china summer. what a nice pool. long, deep and clean. well, sounds almost like the title of an adult movie. anyways, worth to go there.

27aug2011 - city of dreams
saturday. to celebrate 8 years of vivien and me, i booked a package for the newly opened (okay, in 2010) city of dreams at the cotai strip of macau. we checked in our grand deluxe king suite and got ready to spend an awesome weekend in macau. let's see if this will be a nice dream or a nightmare. ;)

27aug2011 - macau immigration sucks!
saturday. trust me, having travelled back-and-forth between guangzhou, shenzhen and hong kong, i have crossed a border many many times, but i have never been as pissed off as when entering macau that day. someone could expect that a city that is focused on tourism would find more efficient ways to deal with the influx of visitors. it took me 1,5 hours to pass through immigration. the worst ever. apparently this is common, since when i googled for 'macau immigration', many similar pictures as the one on the left came up. unless i will have a really good reason to macau, i will not come back.

26jun2011 - universiade madness
sunday. shenzhen will host the 2011 universiade in august. now you will ask, what the hell is that? well, it is (based on the number of participating athletes) the second biggest sporting event in the world. now the whole city is still under construction and everything is now on high security. as for the shenzhen metro, every piece of baggage needs to be scanned. after we crossed the border we were asked to put our suitcases (25+ kg each) through a scanner that was not on ground-level and could barely fit a handbag. i asked them "are you serious?". yes, they were. anyways, the inspectors than had quite a struggle to put our suitcases through the scanner. i did not move a finger. sorry, this is a border crossing so you can be sure that people have luggage. next time, buy a bigger scanner, stupid!

24jun011 - 30rock flight
friday. thank's to emirates airlines' excellent entertainment system 'ice' you never get bored. 1000+ hours of tv on movie onboard the a380. nice! so i spent almost the whole flight watching season four of '30rock'. now that's a way to kill 10+ hours from dubai to hong kong.

23jun2011 - hamburg
thursday. we drove to hamburg that day to spend the day with our friends in winterhude before flying back to china from hamburg the day after. aaah, if the weather would have been better and we would have had more time ... hamburg has so many things to do. well, gotta keep this agenda for next year. see you again in 2012. as much as i hate to admit it being from bremen - hamburg is a beautiful city!

23jun2011 - baguette tradition
thursday. we didn't visit the schlachte this year in bremen, so we left out on a tradition, but we could not miss out on our tradition to at least once have a baguette at our favourite baguette shop in the viertel. so after we packed all our stuff into the car in order to head to hamburg, we made a pit-stop for a delicious baguette. some things simply have to be checked of the list each year we travel to germany.

22jun2011 - spargelcremesuppe
wednesday. that night i decided to invite my parents out for dinner at our local favourie restaurant - nobel. we enjoyed good food, especially 'spargelcremesuppe' (asparagus cream soup) and the good service there. what my parent's probably enjoyed most was that this time their son paid for it. after all, this was to say thank you again for hosting us during out stay in germany. see you next year.

21jun2011 - viv b'day bbq party
tuesday. that night we gather with 15 people at my friend gerrit's house to celebrate vivien's 31st birthday with a bbq party. we got lucky with the weather and had a good time out on the terrace 'grillin' away and catching up. happy birthday, vivi! it simply feels good to come home and get to meet our friends to realize that they are alwaysl there and always your friends, even after all these years. one of my eyes wants to smile, the other one wants to cry. sometimes i really miss living here.

20jun2011 - bremen city
monday. no trip to bremen is complete without extensive shopping in the city. of course, bremen is not internationally recognised as a shopping paradise, but for us it is to some extend. we can simply get many things here that we can not buy in china, e.g. cloths in sizes that fit the average large-size european. anyways, don't always need a reason to support the german economy.

20jun2011 - benz e-class!
monday. went to pick-up my rental car that morning. got a bigger one than i ordered (free upgrade) and happily drove of the yard. then i realized that someone had smoked in the car and that it smelled worse the longer i sat in the car. so i drove back and complained. the lady said i could wait for them to clean it and i replied politely that they have more than one car in the yard and that she could simply give me another one. she checked, confirmed and gave me a brandnew white mercedes benz e-class (free upgrade). guess my sixt membership car paid off here. sweet!

19jun2011 - auf den hoefen
sunday. that night we hit the city and met with old friends for dinner in our usual restaurant 'auf den hoefen'. always good to meet friends to enjoy some good food. can't go wrong. the only thing that has chaned now is that we do not talk about school or parties anymore, but about building houses, our jobs and babies.

19jun2011 - shietwetter
sunday. the heavy rain on the last day clearly indicated that it was time to leave the island and had back to bremen. i got soaked on the way to the island's train station, still, managed to dry myself under hand-dryer in the men's bathroom. felt like mr. bean, hehe. anyways, goodbye langeoog, we had a good time despite some rainshowers. we will be back, not next year, but sometime not too far in the future.

17jun2011 - bike cruise
friday. that night we decided that vivien needs some more practise in riding here bike, so we decided to burn off some of those dinner calories through a cruise around the island. fresh air! nature! not many people! this is truly relaxing.

17jun2011 - langeoog open
friday. the weather wasn't too good, so we decided to get on our bikes and cruise down to a restaurant that also holds a minigolf course to hold our 'langeoog open'. well, i didn't win, but i didn't loose either. like i said, this is a small island and besides staying on the beack or riding your bike, well, there is not much else to do.

16jun2011 - sandcastles and rain
thursday. spent the morning on the beach to do some maintenance work on our 'sandcastle' before being chased off the beach by some rainy weather. damn, in 20 years we did not have such bad luck with the weather here. funny thing here is that i left our rain jackets back in china and did not bring any long pants. i call that optimism.

15jun2011 - bike n' ice
wednesday. after returning from the beach, we took our rental bikes (two really cool american-style cruiser bikes) and altogether made a little trip around the island. afterwards we stopped in the main street to visit one of the many ice-cream parlors to enjoy some excellent italian icecream.

15jun2011 - beach, german style
wednesday. the next day we hit the beach early to enjoy a sunny day on the beach. we rested in our 'strandkorb' (= beach basket), played 'boccia' and built a wall around our area. well, for sure, this is typical german beach vacation style. aaaah, good to be here and totally swich off your brain. hehe, left my company notebook back in china. ;)

14jun2011 - langeoog
tuesday. that morning we went on a trip to langeoog, one of the east-frisian island at the german north sea shore, together with my parents and my sister - you could call it a family reunion. since i was little we regularly kept coming here in the summer or for the easter holidays. a small island, long beaches, fresh air, no cars, peaceful, quiet and no chance you will get lost.

12jun2011 - a day in the desert
sunday. in the afternoon we were picked up by a 'desert rangers' toyota landcruise 4x4 at my friends house and driven outside of dubai (along with four other german tourists). after we got out of the city, we joined a couple of other 4x4s at the side of the road, deflated the tires a little and then went offroad into the dunes. while we tried to hold on to the rollbars in the car, our driver did not even put on his seatbelt. he simply put on his shades, cranked up the music and kept dashing over the dunes like he did never do anything else in his life. what a ride! one of the top10 things i ever did in my life. after 45 minutes we arrived at a camp, where we were greated to dates and arabish coffee. afterwards we had time for henna painting, sheesha smoking, quad riding, camel riding and other things. finally, we were able to enjoy and arabish dancing performance, belly dance (nice lady!) performance, free soft drinks and a desert bbq. finally, we were taking back to our home later that night and only paid approx. 30 euros per person for the whole thing. definetly the highlight of our dubai visit!

12jun2011 - mall of emirates
sunday. woke up and started the day with a breakfast at the mall of emirates to fight off some of the jetlag. dubai here again continues to impress in size and style. who would build mall next to mall in such a small place and also included a 'ski slope' in the desert. you guys are crazy, ey, but as long as you have the money. ;)

11jun2011 - burj khalifa
saturday. right connect to the dubai mall is the 'burj khalifa', with 828 meters the highest building structure in the world. i am telling you, you need to move back very far to get that monster on a picture. anyways, we had reserved tickets online (hk$ 250 per person) and visited the open-air visitor platform. wow! very high, very stylish and very surreal! may have been even better if the view would have been better. stupid sandstorm! anyways, afterwards we met our friends downstairs and had dinner near the 'dubai fountain' before ending our first day in dubai by falling dead into bed.

11jun2011 - dubai mall
saturday. later that day we hit the dubai mall and were impressed by it's size, aquarium and wide range of high-end fashion shops. everyone here seems to be rich. brands, wherever you look. ferraris, bentleys, porsches ... who drives a mercedes? what an artificial world.

11jun2011 - nice arab food
saturday. after we crashed for two hours on the bed, my friend andrew drove us to the palm jumeira (impressive!) and afterwards to a sukh near the 'burj al arab'. there we had some delicious arab food and did some souvenir shopping, of course. dubai was off to a good start, like it so far.

11jun2011 - free hot water
saturday. it is funny to get a special lecture before using the bathroom at my friends house. "do not turn the tap all the way to hot! you will burn yourself!" really? well, the ground and air outside are so hot in the summer, the water already arrives at a comfortable temperature in your shower. no need to heat it. so, basically hot water is for free. well, you need to save some money somewhere in order to pay for you aircondition bill, right?

11jun2011 - dubai
saturday. arrived at dubai, my third time here, but the first time i do not only stop-over at the airport but actually get to see the city. first task: duty free shopping! why? well, you can't buy any alcohol in dubai outside the airport and 5* hotel bars. crazy, huh? of course i can't show up empty-handed at my colleagues house, where we will be staying for two nights. next task: breakfast. still got some time till my colleague will pick us up.

10jun2011 - smelly thai people
friday. travelling remains an adventure, mainly because of all the people you meet on airports, planes and trains. example, the lady on the airplane that does not know how to lock the door and people keep bumping the door into her while she sits on the bowl. anyways, this time some other people ate the cake. we were queueing for the underground train at hong kong airport that connects the terminals. the train arrives, we board and look back, there is a group of approx. 50 poeple queueing outside the screen doors. suddenly their tour guide, yells something and all these people run into the train while screaming. oh my god, these people looked so dirty and smelled so bad. the worst smell of sweat i ever had to experience. they were thai, based on their name tags and the fact they boarded the same plane as us (dubai via bangkok). well, i was shocked and it was proved, travelling remains and adventure.

10jun2011 - online checkin!
friday. whenever i go travelling, i always try to check-in online the day before. you may not always be able to pick your favourite seat, but still, it for sure speeds up check-in at the airport with your luggage. for sure i did so this time as i knew that the emirates a380 flight to dubai is always full. a monster queue! still, noone queued for the counter dedicated to "online checked-in" customer. so, vivien and me checked in faster than everyone else. wonder what happened to all the other people in these highly technological days. if you don't know how to check-in online, maybe they also do not know how and ATM works? can someone help these people? or better not, then i have the edge here. ;)

06jun2011 - dragon boat festival
monday. time again to eat those rice dumplings, row your dragon boat and celebrate the 'tuen ng festival', also known as the 'dragon boat festival'. aaah, gotta love those chinese public holidays. this one i will spend at home to clean up my office, emails and update my webpage. ;)

04jun2011 - hangover II
saturday. went to hong kong that afternoon to watch 'hangover II' after having been a huge fan of the first move. i must admit, i couldn't wait to watch this one after considering 'hangover I' as one of my all-time favourite movies. was it as good as the first one? almost! can't wait to buy the dvd and get all these quotes burned into my brain: "so long, gay boys", "toodeloo, motherf###ers", "you wanna f### on me", "what the hell happend last night" ..... as you can see, i love this movie series.

28may2011 - hung hom
saturday. we returned the favor and visited finn and joey this weekend in hung hom, our old home and where our whole lovestory started. we met in the polyU student halls in hung hom, which at that time was next door to an empty public housing complex 'hunghom peninsula', which was recently turned|developed into a private up-scale complex 'habour place'. funny to walk the streets i first arrived in hong kong almost 8 years ago.

22may2011 - oct loft
sunday. thanks to our friends we found a little oasis within this buzzling city. this place is just what i was looking for. someone had the brilliant idea to turn an old factory area into a home for artists and added some design shops, coffee shops, galleries and a noodle shop to it. not crowded, civilized people and a definetly a nice place to chill on a weekend. wish i had found it earlier.

22may2011 - splendid china
sunday. we made attempts to visit this park many times but always had something get in our way - a typhoon and an earthquake. so, when finn and joey visited us this weekend, we were determined to go despite all this rain pouring down on this day. was it worth it? well, some of the displays were beautiful and it was nice to experience a them park almost by yourself. there was nobody there, because of the rain. what do we learn from this? when it rains, go out and when chinese people do not copy something (like disneyland), it actually turns out quite nice. not a must-see, but worth spending a few hours walking through this beautifully land-scaped park in the middle of shenzhen.

23apr2011 - pizza hawaii
saturday. our last dinner in hawaii, so what shall we eat? vivien wanted pizza. yes! of course! pizza hawaii! how come i didn't think about it. well, not sure if it was because of the fact that we were in hawaii, but this pizza tasted especally delicious. too bad we fly back tomorrow, could stay here one more week easily. i'll be back.

23apr2011 - waikiki beach
saturday. after our walk we rented an umbrella and two chairs right in the first row on the beach to enjoy the sun and some swimming. nice beach and for sure one of the most famous ones in the world, but it does not beat the maldives. ;)

23apr2011 - waikiki
saturday. stuffed with pancakes we walked down waikiki for some souvenir and surfgear shopping at the international market. very touristy, but still worthwhile.

23apr2011 - iHop
saturday. we had enough of hotel breakfasts and decided that morning to have it a 'ihop' (international house of pancakes). the best pancake ever after the ones made by my wife. ;)

22apr2011 - pearl harbour
friday. we finally returned to pearl harbour and were taken to the uss arizona, which was sank on december 7th 1941 when the japanese attacked. a bomb hit the ammunition chamber and the vessel exploded killing 1,100 people. she went to the ground and is still lying there today with the bodies of 900 sailors still inside of her. so, after all, it is a grave, not a tourist attraction. today, almost 70 years after the attack, there is still oil leaking from the hull as she was refueled with 1,5 million gallons of oil the day before the attack. the wildlife obviously doesn't mind as we saw a stingray swim by. what i did mind is that two japanese tourists took funny pictures over there, which is even more disrespectful considering that their people did this. i mean, i wouldn't take funny pictures at auschwitz, would i?

22apr2011 - pali lookout
friday. after breakfast we cruised down to pearl harbour to see the uss arizona memorial, but only got tickets for 3 hours later. so we hopped back in the mustang and drove into the mountains towards pali lookout, from which you have an amazing view over the island. well, if you paid for the parking either in coins or via credit card. i had neither, still the park ranger let us park for free. now that was nice.

21apr2011 - zippy's
thursday. after a day on the road we freshened up at the hotel and cruised waikiki looking for a zippy's fast-food restaurant. it serves fastfood hawaiian style, kind of a combination of sushi and fastfood. anyways, if barack obama and bill clinton like it, i better go try it as well. hmmm, good stuff. by the way, I was the hero to find it tracing back the way when we first arrived waikiki via taxi from the airport.

21apr2011 - waimea beach
thursday. after the sun lost some it's power we returned to waimea beach Tobit the waves. ok, i am not a surfer, but for sure i had to go for a dip. man, those waves are huge and strong. unbelievable. one minute you can still stand, one minute the water is 9 feet deep, one minute later the wave knocks you off your feet and tosses you right onto the beach. feels like a washing machine.

21apr2011 - north shore
thursday. we left waikiki, quickly got out of honolulu on interstate h1 and soon were in the country side cruising by lush green hills and vast pineapple plantations. after a little pitstop at the old surfer town of haleiwa we checked out waimea beach, banzai pipelne beach, sunset beach and chinaman's hat before stopping for fresh seafood and shaved ice.

21apr2011 - mustang!
thursday. that morning i tried to exchange my rental car, but still no 2-door jeep wrangler available. of course, it is a popular car. so, they gave me another choice at the same price: a brand-new ford mustang convertible. yeeehah, another classic american car for me to try. zoo much power this car! perfect too cruise up to the north shore.

20apr2011 - waikiki cruise
wednesday. after dinner we popped in a CD into our wrangler's stereo, rolled down the windows and cruised down waikiki beach at night. aaaah, what a pleasure, especially since i do not get to drive in china.

20apr2011 - bubba gump
wendesday. after a long day of shopping, during which we totally forgot about lunch, we returned to honolulu for dinner at bubba gump. good stuff, especially the seafood, despite the staff being tooooo attentive and therefore annoying.

20apr2011 - waikele outlet malls
wednesday. one day of shopping was not enough as we still had the waikele outlets on our agenda. so we cruised there in style with our wrangler. an amazing place with amazing discounts for coach, ralph Lauren, levi's and many more. need an example? an already red-priced coach handbag can take off an additional 40% and then another special 30%. at coach we finally shopped products worth us$ 1,300 but only paid us$ 500. what a bargain

20apr2011 - wrooooom...wrangler
wednesday. picked up my rental car that morning - a white 4-door jeep wrangler. yeehah, one of the american classics i always wanted to drive. well, actually i wanted a 2-door, but this one will do for the day. maybe i can change it tomorrow when we are planning to cruise to the north shore of hawaii.

19apr2011 - not an american
tuesday. having lived in the US during 1995-96, i originally thought that i would pretty much have an american accent. after all, people always perceived me as an american. now in hawaii, people always immediately recognized that i was not american. most guessed me simply as european or as from australia. guess I can live with that.

19apr2011 - fake friendliness
tuesday. wherever you go, into a shop or at the breakfast buffet of our hotel, you get greeted in a friendly manner. yes, it is very nice, still an odd feeling remains as some people overdo it. it appears all too fake in the end. more fake friendliness = more tips?

19apr2011 - ala moana mall
tuesday. just 5 minutes walk from our hotel was the world's biggest open-air shopping mall in the world with its 290 shops and restaurants. open air? yup, you walk under blue hawaiian skies around the 4 stories of the mall to enter the shops. uh oh, credit card be ready, this is going to be a long day.

18apr2011 - time travel x 2
saturday. we departed hong kong on 22h that day and arrrived in honolulu at 17h the same day. whoa, we travelled back in time by crossing the dateline in the pacific ocean. besides that, i also felt like traveling back 15 years when i first visited and lived in the US. funny, some things haven't changed.

18apr2011 - homeland security
monday. after 911 we are all aware of what the US have done to protect their borders an air traffic. so after succesfully applying an ESTA i was still prepared for a thorough check upon arrival in guam, which is a US territory. well, i expected worse. still, all my fingerprints were taken and at both checks in guam i was asked many many questions, still the staff there was relaxed and very friendly.

18apr2011 - american flightcrews
monday. traveling around in asia you get used to flight crews usually being comprised of young and beautiful women. yes, certainly a stereotype, but a pleasant one. well, apparently continental airlines did away with this stereotype since their flight crew is all old and ugly. well, t least they are 'fake friendly'. by the way, they charge for headsets and alcoholic beverages. wtf?

18apr2011 - hawaii
monday. funny story how we ended up booking a vacation in hawaii. well, originally we wanted to visit beijing, but after having the brochures of our travel agent lying untouched on the coffee table for a week, we knew that we had to find another destination. why hawaii? well, we wanted to shop in the US and we figured this would be the closest US territory we could think off, not to mention that i always wanted to go there. aloha, waikiki beach here we come.

19mar2011 - crowns
saturday. last month i broke a tooth while eating and had to visit a dentist in hong kong(!) to fix it. he recommended two ceramic crowns, which i got installed that day. amazing what they can do these days. after all, the bill was even more painful than the treatment, even the insurance will cover most of it. guess i should have become a dentist instead of an engineer.

17mar2011 - paddy's day in shanghai
thursday. had to fly to shanghai for business on that afternoon. i wanted to fly from hong kong, but had to take the cheaper domestic flight from shenzhen instead. well, ok. after i arrived the airport at 15:00 for my 16:30 flight, the lady at the checkin told me the flight was delayed. ok, that is no surprise i replied. then she said the new time is not confirmed and whether i still wanted to check in. i asked here what my options were and whether there are other flight? she said "no". so then i checked in anyways. when the flight time approached, the announcement stated the flight would be delayd to 18:50. well, at least i can sit at the gate and do not have to wait in the plane. that happened to me before. so later they gave out free food (didn't take that catfood) and drinks. finally we boarded at 18:40 and the plane took off at 20:00 from shenzhen. i was therefore monster-late in shanghai and missed dinner with my friends. after brommel picked me from the airport with a rental car, we cruised through shanghai and hit an irish pub for celebrating "st. patrick's day" with hundreds(!) of other foreigners. wow, haven't seen that many foreigners in asia outside hong kong's "lan kwai fong". given the circumstance, still a fun trip.

16mar2011 - japan and the salt
friday. we are all of course well shocked what happened in japan and feel with the japanese people. i know that if one country can overcome this, it would be japan. people are so brave, calm and full of discipline. tourist report that everything is calm and orderly. i don't want to think about what would happen here if a 9.0 magnitude earthquake would hit here. well, apart from that 99% of the buildings would collapse. anyways, a hong kong resident who just returned from japan said that the chinese and hong kong people are more panice than the people in tokyo, who live right next to the plant. how come? so, it is not surprising that all chinese quickly stormed local supermarkets to buy many bags of salt after a rumour stated that salt will help against radiation. what? how? well, as long as everyone in china still believes every word that is in the media, i guess things are okay. ;)

11mar2011 - weser jade port
friday. since 15 years or so, longer since i have been in this industry, german authorities were talking about a future deep-water port in the north of germany. after years of arguing between bremen and hamburg about the location, bremen got his way and planning started for a port in the city of wilhelmshaven. now, some more years later, it is about to be completed in august 2012. interested to hear the latest news, i of course accepted an invitation of eurogate (the futue operator of the port) into the shenzhen shangri-la hotel for a lunch presentation. sweet, friday lunch in 5* hotel paired with some exciting news and the chance to meet all carriers, to whom i am a customer. ah, one more thing to show everyone what a small world this. during the reception i ran into a guy called 'thorsten meyer' and I said this name sounds familiar. he replied that there is many people with the same name in northern germany. well, after i gave him my card it turned out that he was an old colleagues from when i worked with the carrier evergreen in germany (back in 1999). it's a small world and we had some good fun chatting away over lunch having plenty of red wine. the friday afternoon afterwards was easy to pass. ;)

feb2011 - changes in the family
february. change is the only constant, someone once said and i feel just like that these days. many senior colleagues and friends left our company's south china family for other positions or simply to seek employment with another competitor. every day the list kept getting longer and the feelings with some staff were very negative. i was trying not to fall into the same mood, but somehow did for a few weeks. well, after all i realized that every family may have it's good and bad times, still you wouldn't just quit on them like that, right? again, change is the only constant. after all, change can be good as well.

feb2011 - chinese new year
february. another year has passed and i am another step closer to complete my full cycle of chinese zodiac signs. in 2015 i should ne done. anyways, the "year of the tiger" is behind us and we welcomed the "year of the rabbit" in traditional style with our family in hong kong. lot's of food as usual, red pockets and some good family quality time. still, it's turning into routine and loosing some of its fun, so i am seriously up for flying out next year for a vacation, no matter how expensive the tickets may get. ;)

07jan2011 - annual dinner
friday. our company held its annual dinner at a hotel that evening. the motto was 'wonderful life' and 'team - together everyone achieve more'. with approx. 200 people it was the crazy party as usual with funny games, lucky draws, performances, good food (for real) and lots of wine and beer. again, i did not win anything in the lucky draw and did not get voted a 'best dressed' on the catwalk. anyways, i got sunburn from all the camera flashes when taking pictures with my 90 staff alone. well, that's what you get when you are the only foreigner in the place. good fun! all good fun! looking forward to next year. ;)

05jan2011 - getting older again
wednesday. one year has passed once more and i am now 32 years old. not that i bother, but i just realized that i lived now in asia for about 8 years altogether. time is flying. well, i took the day off to spend it with my wife, who baked me a delicious chocolate cake and bought me an awesome shanghai tang travel wallet. love you, baby! your older hubby. thanks all for you calls, emails and greetings on facebook. cheers!

31dec2010 - new years - russian style
friday. we rang in the new year 2011 in hong kong russian style. my friends's wife is russian, so we had a multi-cultural new years dinner at 'ivan the kozac' in central before heading down to the ifc for seeing the fireworks at midnight. well, the view could have been better if someone would have listened to vivien and me. anways, afterwards we (some later) down to wan chai to meet up with some other friends. there we partied the night away in 'dusk-till-dawn', 'joe bananas' and 'amazonia'. certainly a night to remember and one of the most-fun new year's eves in recent years. happy new year everyone!

24dec2010 - xmas in shenzhen
friday. we had a relaxed christmas weekend with old friends from guangzhou (now living in germany) shirly & ivo visiting with their daughter alizee for the holidays. raclette, german cakes and cookies made this a relaxed christmas to remember. well, still, next year we shall be in germany again to get some snow.

16dec2010 - xpat xmas dinner
thursday. a year has passed and it was time again for all our company's south china expat staff to meet up for our annual christmas dinner, which this year was arranged as a wine-tasting. while i didn't taste much differences, i certainly enjoyed the wine and first of all the time spent with some friends|colleagues of mine.

11dec2010 - saoguan hot spring resort
saturday. spent the weekend on a company outing to saoguan, which is in the very north of guangdong province near hunan province. despite the good fun, hotspring and nice food, we had some real back luck with the weather and actually spent the whole weekend (more or less) on a bus. anyways, a good past-time, but now i need the week to help me relax after this exhausting weekend.

04dec2010 - south china football tournament
saturday. that day my company held a football tournament in futian to bring together colleagues from shenzhen, hong kong and guangzhou. while i am not a player, i still went there to represent shenzhen and also to see some old hong kong and guangzhou friends, which whom i worked before in the past. despite from being very late, it was a fun day out in the sun, followed by a nice dinner and a late-night phone call. ;)

03dec2010 - turkish delight
friday. not having seen our good friends mustafa and duygur for more than a year, we finally made it happen to meet again when vivien and me travelled to guangzhou that evening. always good to spend time with them, especially since duygur is such a good cook and always prepares tons of delicious turkish food. hmmmm, really make we want to go back to istanbul.

26nov2010 - the float
friday. we finished off our stay in langkawi with a private luxury dinner on a wooden deck over the sea. the perfect environment for an undistured celebration. aaah, sometimes you need to spoil yourself to something good and memorable.

26nov2010 - lazy relaxing days
friday. we spent the last two days in langkawi doing nothing but sleeping, swimmimg, sunbathing and eating. aaah, what a paradise. noone and nothing to bother us. no emails, no mobile phones ... nothing. too bad we have to fly back tomorrow.

24nov2010 - made in china
wednesday. we were hoping to find some nice tradional malay-style souvenirs in langkawi but were left bitterly disappointed by the fact that 99% of those souvenirs can be bought at the guangzhou wholesale market. i saw them all before! come on, at least try to be original.

24nov2010 - langkawi cruise
wednesday. that morning we rented a car from the hotel to cruise around langkawi island, which has like only 11 traffic lights. after getting used to left-lane traffic and refueling the car (super cheap!) at a local gas station, we turned up the volume and cruised down the streets of langkawi. aaah, a good feeling to drive again - one thing i miss the most living in china. on our trip we visited the langkawi aquarium, where i took a picture with a python snake and made a cable-car trip up to the highest point of langkawi. well, the view would have been great, i suppose, if it would not have been so foggy that day. anyways, cruising just made up for everything that day!

23nov2010 - pool buzz
tuesday. after checking in at the westin we spent the afternoon checking out the various pools of our hotel. sweet, especially since the infinity pool came with a in-pool bar. one-two margeritas later my pool buzz was complete and out langkawi stay off to a good start. aaaah, china is sooooo far away right now. ;)

23nov2010 - langkawi
tuesday. after one hour on the plane we touched down in langkawi, which is certainly a sharp contrast compared to busy koala lumpur. it is even more relaxed, hard to believe, but true! all green lush hills, white beaches and blue skies. it doesn't feel touristy at all since you don't really see them out on the street. like this place already/

22nov2010 - friendly malaysia
monday. one thing that really makes me happy about my trip to malaysia is the people here. everyone seems so relaxed. everyone is so friendly. ok, they really live of tourist in the most spots, but still they are exceptionally friendly. seeing my mid-term future here in asia, i could certainly imagine to live here.

22nov2010 - kl tower
monday. after breakfast we headed out to the kl tower to get a bird-eye view of the kualak lumpur. i simply love to check out high-rise buildings and towers wherever i go. anyways, we were not disappointed and were able to get a good view of the city. anyways, not too many other things to see in downtown kl.

21nov2010 - street food
sunday. after lunch at madam kwan's, spending the afternoon walking around the city centre of kuala lumpur and checking out the petronas towers, we walked around the golden triangle area for some street food. there is no better way to get to know a country than checking out its street food. don't recall in detail what kind of different dishes i had, all i remeber that they all tested excellent. already love malaysia!

21nov2010 - kuala lumpur, malaysia
sunday. we decided to mark our wedding anniversary with our 'second honeymoon' trip to malaysia. we booked two nights in kuala lumpur followed by four nights in langkawi, so it will be a 1|3 sighseeing and 2|3 relaxing holiday. let's go and check out what malaysia has to offer. how come it's called koala lumpur? i though koalas were from australia. ;)

20nov2010 - wedding at sea
saturday. our friends joey and finn got married that day and invited all guests to a cruise around hong kong after the ceremony. certainly a special way to mark a special day like this. despite the weather being good, unfortunately vivien was a little seasick, which casted a little shadow over our experience. still, a trip and day to remember.

19nov2010 - 1 year (water)mark
friday. vivien and me celebrated our first wedding anniversay together at the watermark restaurant, which is located on top of the star ferry pier in central, wherefore it has an amazing view over the entire victoria harbour. just the perfect venue to mark such a special occasion. happy anniversary! love you!

06nov2010 - treadmill
saturday. recently i discovered running as a good way to get in shape. i never really liked it until i recently hit the gym and ran for 30 minutes. now i have well increased the speed and i am running now usually for close to one hour. the only bad thing here is that i always depend on the opening hours of our estate's clubhouse and the luck that the treadmill is not used by someone elso. not to mention the CNY 20.00 i need to pay each time. so i spent some time thinking and easily found that my own treadmill would pay for my wife and me withing 4 months. so we went out and bought one at metro for less than 300 euros. keep on running, baby!

04nov2010 - shenzhen bierfest
thursday. my boss invited me and some other colleagues to go for the german bierfest (oktoberfest) in shenzhen that evening. well, it sould have been his party, but i turned out to be pretty much the target for "gambei!" attacks as i was continuously asked to raise my glass and down it (in one go). anyways, good fun as usual, even though not as nice as the bierfest in hong kong or guangzhou, but in the end someone had a little too much beer and .... well, to say the least, tomorrow will be a bad day.

30oct2010 - hong kong zig-zag
saturday. while my wife was still deep asleep i headed out from her parent's tsing yi apartment that morning to get some things done in hong kong. hereby i must mention that i wore loafer, shorts, a light sweater and sunglasses that morning, while most hong kong people wore scarfs, coats, boats and long pants. eveyone looked at me funny. well, i ended up looking funny at them in the afternoon when the temperatures reached 25+ degrees on a sunny autumn afternoon. anyways, first i went to casio's repair centre in kowloon bay to get my underwater-camera fixed (still got warranty), which was not easy to find. then i headed to mong kok, had a coffee at langham place, showed some tourists where to go, had lunch with vivien in mong kok, walked around all mong kok (bought three jeans), took the mtr to tsim sha tsui, shopped there, walked over to harbour city, shopped here, took the mtr to tsuen wan for a birthday dinner and finally got back home to tsing yi around midnight. so, i spend 15 hours zig-zagging around hong kong. what a day!

28oct2010 - best steak ever
thursday. people always seems to remember where and when they had a good steak. i do recall i had an excellent one in london's picadilly circus on a business trip in 2008. well, most probably would think of a good steak to be found in the US or in argentina. well, i thought so and seriously was surprised when i was treated to the "best steak i ever head" at the shenzhen westin hotel's grange grill, where my wife and me celebrated our 86 months anniversary. an amazing steak and side-dishes, excellent service and a 25th floor view overseeing shenzhen's nanshan district and the 'window of the world theme park'. okay, it was very very very pricy for chinese standards, but still, it was the best steak i ever had (so far).

24sep2010 - mobile phone miracle
sunday. unbelievable what happened to me on that day. when I arrived my in-laws apartment in tsing yi yesterday I realized that my mobile was missing. i must have dropped it on the bus from sheen shui. for sure somebody would have found it and will sell it off sooner or later. there was no need for me to bother calling my number, since the sim card was from china and I do not have roaming in hong kong. we tried anyways and the number was out of service. further, the phone was locked through a pin since I already lost it two months ago in a van on a business trip and luckily got it back, so no one could use the phone to try and reach out or access my data. when i got back to shenzhen the next day i unpacked my luggage and decided to x-check whether for some funny reason my mobile would hide in my suitbag. wow, the number rang. my phone must have been on the mainland at that time. we kept calling the number and tried to see if my phone was ringing or vibrating somewhere. well, nothing. suddenly on the fourth and final try a woman picked up. i handed the phone to my wife and she talked to the lady and her husband, who just returned from a weekend in hong kong. they found my mobile on the bus, but could not do anything since there was no signal and it was locked. they were just about to have dinner and asked us to meet them somewhere in a restaurant in downtown buji. no clue where. so we hopped on a taxi and the driver (the first two refused us since they were about to get off dut and did not want to drive all the way to buji) knew exactly where to go. so we got to a busy shopping street somewhere in buji, found the restaurant, called the lady again and she came out to give me my mobile back. i gave her a bottle in return and she said "no need". she said it was no big deal since they all have mobiles already. well, my nokia e71 is of course not as sexy as an iphone4. anyways, this is truly a miracle. i am a lucky guy, especially to have such a good wife to help me recover my mobile. without her, the phone would have been a total loss.

23sep2010 - chinese wedding
saturday. my wife's cousing, well, now also my cousin if you will, got married that day in hong kong. i must say, due to the fact that the super-typhoon just turned away at the last second, they are one lucky couple. it was actually a beautiful day in hong kong, cool, dry and sunny. so what else is there to say about the wedding? the food was good. i was the only foreigner at the party. the wine was good. i learn my other two hong kong cousings work in the same industry as me and .... yes, my cousing used metallica's "sad but true" as a walk-in song at the wedding banquet. that shows some serious style (not like the usual kc & jojo)! rock on, you two!

22oct2010 - super typhoon megi
friday. this week storm megi, which was categorized as a super typhoon with wind speeds of 185 km/h was approaching hong kong. it was supposed to be the strongest typhoon since 1990 and everyone was on red alert. signal 1 and 3 were quickly raised and everyone braced for the worst. and then? nothing! a little wind and not a single drop of rain was seen here in shenzhen as it turned away the last minute. stupid observatory, don't get everyone excited for nothing.

17oct2010 - futian walk
sunday. that morning (with my wife still deep asleep) i grabbed my canon dslr and headed out for a morning-walk around the futian area. i must say, i really like to see those skyscrapers and monumental, or should i say colossal) government buildings in the area. certainly no understatement to be found here. gotta keep on exploring the area more and more.

15oct2010 - "kamsahamnida"
friday. i had a terrible work-afternoon that day. first i met with my boss in the lobby of the ritz-carlton for a coffee, strolled through the shenzhen logistics fair to meet some carriers for chat, had a beer in the lobby of the shangri-la and the finally followed an invitation of the carrier 'hyundai' for a dinner party at the same hotel. nice food, better wine and some nice chats with korean colleagues. i even learned some korean that day. kamsahamnida! thank you!

06oct2010 - china customs
wednesday. we spent the days in hong kong for some shopping and also bought a wii fit (balance board) in sham shui po for about hk$ 500.00 or so. the next day, when we carried it back across the border in its original carton, the customs officer stopped me and said "passport". i replied (not loud and more to myself), how about "passport please". anyways, he said i needed to pay tax. i said "okay" and asked "how much". he didn't know, asked his colleague and they somehow pointed at some board (all in chinese) to calculate CNy 1500.00 x 10% = CNY 150.00. i replied "what?". that guy did not even know what a wii fit was, how much it costs and how he should tax me. his boss (a lady) was also not much smarter. so i started yelling at them to ask them whether they knew what all the hundreds of people (behind us walking by) would do in hong kong? shopping! so i challened her why she doesn't tax the people carrying their newly-bought gucci and louis vuitton bags across the border? i yelled a little more and finally she gave up and let me go. maybe next time you tax me for my used underwear as well!

04oct2010 - lychee park
monday. even though shenzhen is said to have little sightseeing sites (since only a mere 30 years old), i decided that there must be at least a few places to visit rather than spending most time at home or around the futian area. so i dragged vivien to lychee park, which was not an amazing afternoon out but at least worthwile. the park is nothing extraordinary, but it is funny to see that in the common open space of the park hundreds of peopel gather to perform tai chi, chinese opera, traditional western dance, karaoke, badminton and whatnot. worth to have a look.

01oct2010 - china national day
friday. it was national day again in china and everything was shutting down for a golden week of holidays. everything? well, not exactly...rather the opposite. the main shopping districts of shenzhen (e.g. dongmen) were flooded with people and i went there to take a look. certainly crazy to do so, but still amazing to see these large crowds of people and streets decorated with hundreds (!!) of chinese flags.

22sep2010 - mid-autumn festival
wednesday. it's that time of the year again when people run around with well-decorated bags carrying mooncakes as gifts to friends, family and business partners. and i must say that i have acquired some taste for these mooncakes, which nowadays come in many varieties. anwways, can't eat too much of them. too sweet, too heavy, too fat and too much colesterol. ooooh, i am so healthy. ;)

10sep2010 - make a change
friday. vivien and me experienced how efficient the british consulate and hong kong immigration department work by chaning vivien's name through a new british passport and hong kong ID card. both things were quickly done, which left some time for dim-sum, shopping, coffee and a drink with colleagues in wan chai. aaaah, gotta love organized hong kong.....and of course my lovely wife, who took on my last name. feel so proud and happy.

09sep2010 - guangzhou
thursday. had to travel to guangzhou that day on business and also to apply a new german passport at the german consulate (yes, I could not do it in hong kong). well, acutally a nice place and i remembered all those good times i spent there. also i saw that the city has changed a lot, well, which is not uncommon in china. guangzhou is getting ready for the asian games in november and the city has been transformed quite a bit. well, china is moving at it's own speed.

23aug2010 - hong kong in tears and anger
monday. 21 people were held hostage in a tourbus in manila on monday, of which 6 people were released during the day. everything was calm until about 20:00 when manila police attempted to storm the bus. things took a turn for the worse as the shootout caused 8 hong kong people their lives. i watched live on tv with my wife and we witnessed how unprofessional, unorganized and stupide the manila police mishandled the crisis. it was terrible too watch. now hong kong mourns its dead fellow citizens and grief quickly turned into anger. many things are written on facebook such as SWAT equal to "sorry we aren't trained". it is simply unbelievable. i am personally sad feeling so close to hong kong through all these years. makes me not want to go to the phillippines and wonder about my personal safety here in asia.

20aug2010 - hong kong on business
friday. i spent the day with a customer visiting their local supplier foxconn (they havee 400.000 staff in Shenzhen!) and then heading for meeting in hong kong. after the meeting we had a boat-trip to lamma island for seafood followed by some drinks in wan chai. aaah, a very nice evening since also many of my hong kong colleagues were around that night to hang around with. afterwards i stayed in a hotel nearby and luckily did not have to travel home still that night. feels weird staying in a hotel in a city where i usually have a private home to stay. love hong kong!

15aug2010 - dafen again
sunday. we had some friends over that weekend and we planned to visit a local theme park called 'splendid china' on sunday morning. unfortunately the day was declared a national day of mourning due to the flooding tragedy in gansu province, wherefore all pleasure activities in china had to seize and parks remained closed. last time our friends came over we had a typhoon approaching. bad luck, i guess. so we decided to visit the artist village of dafen again where vivien and me bought a total of 10 paintings for just 35 euros. kinda love that place. maybe i should become an art dealer.

08aug2010 - a day at the pool
sunday. we had some friends over that weekend and we spent the day at the pool of our apartment complex. it was just one of those perfect days. drinks by the pool, some chat and in the afternoon an awesome chinese dinner prepared by my dear wife. no wonder i gained so much weight in the 7 years i have been over here. anyways, not easy to make friends here since everyone is always busy busy buys.

06aug2010 - 8k-hk theme park
friday. once upon a time there was a lady in hong kong who came from a very rich and influential family. let's call her amina. one day she slapped a police officer and got away with it. another day she slapped another police officer and got away with it again. just recently she drank some wine, jumped into her car, drove home and hit a pole on the way. when the police arrived and asked her to take a breathalizer test, she refused, cursed and slapped a police office again. this time, she got away with one year probation and a HK$ 8000.00 fine. well, other people usually get jail sentences at the first offence already. anyways, what does this tell us? if you own hk$ 5000.00 you can pull the emergency handle on the mtr if you want to talk to the train driver just for fun. if you have hk$ 8000.00, you can go ahead and slap any police office you want to. oh, hold on, make sure to come from or marry into a rich or influential family first. may justice be served!

01aug2010 - hongqiao airport
sunday. as if domestice flights in china were not tough already, hongqiao airport really ate the cake. first we were impressed by the new terminal 2 facilities, then amused by the fact that the floors in the carpark are not numbered, but named after fruit and then pissed off at all the additional security checks that were put up due to the shanghai expo. my luggae was weighed, screened, we were checked for explosives, checked for weapons, etc. man, do i look like a terrorist. well, that let's me have an idea. maybe i should dress like one. let's see what happens then.

31jul2010 - captain's bar
saturday. after a long day out in the sun we needed a drink, so we headed for the captain's bar near the bund (on which we were stuck in traffice for half-an-hour). amazing that there is a youth hostel with a roof-top bar from which you can see the bund. craz stuff. anyways, we were pretty beat after a road-trip, so two drinks had to be it.

31jul2010 - brommel and the bismarck
saturday. a tribute her to our mr. brommel who drove the bismarck (nickname for our huge buick van) safely along the chinese highways. it was amazing to see how well mr. brommel obviously had adapted to the chinese driving style. overtaking on the right, cutting, pushing, turning ... a true master! brommel, my thanks and my respect for this! thanks for the wild (but safe) ride!

31jul2010 - west lake
saturday. hangzhou and its west lake are one of china's most favourite tourist attractions. the lake, which was created by man, is certainly a beautiful place and the scenery is nice, but i thought places like yangshou are more breathtaking and places like xian more amazing. anyways, a beautiful day and we were lucky with the hot weater (39 degrees), due to which less people dared to go outside, or should it say unlucky since we sweated like pigs in the sun.

31jul2010 - hangzhou road trip
saturday. that morning, brommel, ken, ray, vivien and me headed out from shanghai towards hangzhou on a road trip. we reached hangzhou after approximately two hours on a brandnew highway. anyways, the journey by car was the whole purpose of the trip. how often do you get to drive around china just like that. sweet!

30jul2010 - french concession
friday. so we hopped next onto a taxi and drove down to the old are in shangai called the french concession with it's old colonial-style house, alleys, small restaurants and bars. the place was of course crowded with ... no, not chinese tourist, but many foreigners. we sat down in an outdoor terrace area to enjoy some cocktails, a waterpipe and some chilled-out atmosphere. i must say, shenzhen does not have such places, even hong kong has little such places like those.

30jul2010 - shanghai food
friday. that night we met our good old classmate (from hk polyu) lisa (is also vivien's bridemaid) in shanghai (where she is originally from) to have some true and traditional shanghainese food. she took us to an old restaurant near nanjing road where her parents got married about 31 years ago. well, it seems the place was not decorated since 31 years as well, but the food was simply the best ever. unbelievable food. plain, simple, sweet and shanghainese. hao che!

29jul2010 - brown sugar
thursday. after dinner we headed down to xintiandi (shanghai's party district) to a club (originally from taiwan) called brown sugar. nice one. stylish and brandnew club interious packed into a retro-chinese style building. i really like the xintiandi concept, yes, even though it is quite touristy. anyways, grabbed a few coronas and enjoyed the awesome live-band. especially the lead singer (brown sugar allstars!). that guys is good (and crazy).

29jul2010 - tajapanese dinner
thursday. that night my colleague took me out to a japanse restaurant owned by his old taiwanese friend. that's why i would call it tajapanese dinner. anyways, i know it sounds odd, but it seems that there are many taiwanese in shanghai that run all kind of clubs and or restaurants. anyways, if you know the owner, service and food are always top-notch. gotta love those busienss trips!

29jul2010 - flying scrap metal
thursday. domestic flights in china are always an adventure. you get to experience the funniest, odd and sometimes scary things. people not wearing a shirt, people sleeping everywhere, people yelling at flight-crew if their choice of mineral water is not there, flight crew that is impolite and can not speak english. sometimes even the captain does not present the best english in announcements either. wonder how he talks to the tower and flight control. anyways, we made it safely with shanghai airlines from shenzhen baoan to shanghai hongqioa. the plane was and old and dirty (!!!) boeing 767. this must have been purchased second-hand from the us, since all signs were brandnew. aaaah, hope the nuts and bolts will keep this piece of scrap-metal together on the way back as well.

29jul2010 - shanghai
thursday. i had to fly to shanghai for some meetings on that week. what a good chance to meet some old friends and also bring my wife (how nice of me, eh?) along. so i was smart enough to schedule my meetings for thursday and friday in order to spend the weekend in shanghai. last time i was there was exactly two years ago, still i expect that the city must have changed a lot due to the expo. by the way, i am not planning to go there since i could not stand these crowds and having to queue for 3-4 hours for a pavillion.

18jul2010 - junk trip
sunday. i am a lucky bastard! why? well, i arrange a junk trip for a client on that day, which almost got ruined by the frist typhoon of the season. since monday i was watching the typhoons track on a daily basis and luckily the forecast got better each day. as sunday came, the typhoon had passed hong kong and left behing blue skies, a few clowds and sunshine. so much sunshine, that the sun really beat us up on our trip to lamma island and repulse bay. man, what a summer, what a weather.

17jul2010 - tjen & lan kwai fong beerfest
saturday. tjen (schwaki, tjenser) was on a farewell visit to hong kong before returning to bremen for studies. after a dinner in soho we then headed to lan kwai fong to have a beer on the beerfest. too bad that it poured buckets from the sky that night and it was too packed there. well, the purpose was to meet an old friend. take good care, save travels and success with your studies in bremen! i am a little jealous. ;)

09jul2010 - lh via munich
friday. in these years always flying back and forth to asia i have taken almost all big airlines (lufthansa, klm, british airways, emirates, singapore airlines, swiss, thai, china airlines, china southern, dragonair... bla bla bla). some are good, some better. i don't really care about the food, but i can not stand if there is no personal screen and you need to watch a movie (based on their schedule) on a 5" screen some 10 meters away. lufthansa was always an airline like this. they simply don't care. the planes are full anyways. well, the flight via munich has a new entertainment system. so if you ever fly to germany via lufthansa, make sure to book via munich. a340 is so much better than 747jumbo.

09jul2010 - last brunch
friday. one last chance to hit the city for brunch with my old buddy gerrit. nice to sit in a cafe with your shades on when everyone in the city seems to be working. our vacation comes to an end as we need to fly back still today. vacations in germany are always too short and this year it felt especially bad. usually i will feel the urge of going into the wide world again after just 10 days in bremen, but this year thinges are different. maybe it's been too long, maybe the weather was good, maybe it was all my friends getting their own places ... anyways, bremen will always be my home. see ya next year.

08jul2010 - bbq
thursday. no summer is complete without a proper bbq. that evening my aunt, her friend and some other relatives came over to have bbq with us on the terrace. aaah, these are the things you really miss when living over here. kinda difficult to have a bbq on the 27th floor balcony. makes me want to move back to my house in guangzhou.

07jul2010 - public viewing
wednesday. of course i would not miss the chance to watch germany play spain at a publich viewing event on bremen's domshof marketsquare. 20.000 people, sunshine, peaceful atmosphere, pride, excitement ... and in the end a joint depression after the game. well, germany played an excellent tournament and it was an exciting summer. spain was sadly just 1% better than us, same like 2 years ago. anyways, vamos espana! now please go all the way and beat the dutch as well.

07jul2010 - baguette & icecream
wednesday. germany vacations have their little routines. one of them is having a baguette as our favourite baguette-shop near the central hospital in bremen. we love it sooo much, that we actually had the idea once to copy them and open our own baguette-shop in hong kong. anyways, we simply have to go there as well and we always have to have an ice-cream at the historic market-square in downtown bremen. yes, we are getting older, so we need routines in our daily lives to get through the day. ;)

06jul2010 - never again
tuesday. if you look a little down this page, you can see that we spent the 20-21|june at the OCT east theme-park in shenzhen. so far so good. while in germany we heard on the news that there was an accident in a chinese theme-park. oh oh, could it have been the one we just went to? after returning to hong kong we learnt from our in-laws that it was indeed that park. one attraction (while we also took a ride on) had an accident at six people ended dead and for seriously injured. damn, i was on the same ride just two weeks ago. never again will it go on any ride in a chinese theme-park.

06jul2010 - strandperle
tuesday. to finish the day we drove down to the standperle bar in blankenese (nice neighborhood!) to watch the sunset near the eble river (opposite the container-terminal) and have a nice cool beer. i hate to admit it, but hamburg is a nice city. still, my wife (as a neutral observer) prefers bremen as it is less crowded and simply more cozy. there you go!

06jul2010 - fish!
tuesday. walking makes hungry and we soon headed to a steakhouse in hamburg city. after sitting down we realized that we were not really up for steak, but craved something typical for hamburg - fish! so we got up again (a little emberassing) and walked to daniel wischer's fishrestaurant. "pannfisch, bratkartoffeln und dazu ein glass fassbrause." hamburg tastes good! life is good!

06jul2010 - alster walk
tuesday. our friends shirly and ivo (from guangzhou) are now living in beautiful hamburg, so we had to pay them a visit. we drove there by car (despite all warning by friends about the traffic conditions and roadworks these days) and got there smoothly. after a coffee at ivo's place in winterhude we took a walk along the aussenalster to hamburg city. perfect weather! what a day. by the way, nice neighbourhood at the aussenalster. one day i will have a house there.

05jul2010 - schlachte vol.II
monday. you can't stand on one leg, so in due course one visit per year to the schlachte is not enough. not that i need an excuse, i simply love this place. we met that night with an old friend|classmate and his girlfriend to have dinner. good to see you again! wish you all the best for building your new house. see you next year.

05jul2010 - shopping day!
monday. while everyone is working - what would be the best past-time? of course, shopping. we spent the whole day and our whole bank-account in the bremen city. well, actually shopping was very cheap the year. the euro is considerably (20%) weaker than last year and therefore we can buy at least 40% more. ;)

04jul2010 - schlachte vol.I
sunday. no visit to bremen is complete without me inspecting my former living room: the schlachte. 32 degrees, sunshine, bars, the river, friends, good food, becks beer, chill-out music. aaah, bremen, meine perle. good to be home for a while and get to enjoy your beauty and the company of my good old friends.

03jul2010 -mom's 60th
saturday. my wife and me recently joined the 3-o club, so only naturally my mother joined the 6-o club that night. her birthday was actually the day before, but the party was held only on that night. neighbours, family and close friends who were also happy to see me again (as i am naturally not around that often) and also meet my wife after having only seen our wedding pictures on the computer so far. happy birthday, mom!

03jul2010 - crushed argentina!
saturday. everyone was nervous when germany was up against argentina that late afternoon in the quarter-finals of the 2010 world cup. turned out that there was no need. germany have diego maradonna and his 'boys' a severe 4-nil beating. au revoir france, ciao italy, goodbye england, adios argentina ... and next we say adios spain on our way to the cup. well, let's see. for sure this team has already exceeded my expectations and i am so happy to feel this unity and spirit in germany these days. while i always had a strong pride and feeling of nationality, this has only recently (since 2006) emerged publicly in germany. it feels good. thanks mueller, schweini & co.

02jul2010 - housewarming
friday. just as i rolled into my parent's driveway, my mom just got off the phone with some friends who wanted to invite me for a housewarming party at a friends new house. see, things have changed considerably. a-levels, graduated, startet working, girlfriends, fiancees, married, planning children, buying life insurances, buying or buidling houses ... we are getting older. nice house gerrit and nina! can't wait for the next bbq party at your place. see you next summer!

02jul2010 - home
friday. that afternoon we arrived my parent's house to a warm welcome with a fresh homemade strawberry cake and fresh strawberries for tea-time under the trees in the garden. aaaaah, it always feels good to come home, especially during a super-summer like this.

01jul2010 - frankfurt
thursday. another beautiful day on the road. after breakfast we headed onto the autobahn and drove to frankfurt to visit our old friends bianka and simon, who recently received a bundle of joy call henri. so we did a little sightseeing in frankfurt, had dinner together and spent the rest of the time chatting away. thanks for letting us stay over. wish you three all the best and a smooth build of your house. take care and see you again soon, somewhere on this small planet.

30jun2010 - neuschwanstein
wednesday. afte checking in at the hotel we quickly got our tickets. really quick. took less than a minute as smartass soenke (me) was so clever to reserve them online beforehand, so i did not have to queue up with all those tourists from japan, usa, korea, poland, russia, china ... you may now think that such a castle visit is just for old people and tourists, but i can tell you it is definetly a site worth visiting....wenn ich koenig von deutschland waer!

30jun2010 - bavarian country roads
wednesday. the next morning we hit the road and our car's navigation system routed us safely through bavarian country roads from munich to oberschwangau, the site of the neuschwanstein castle. aaah, what a nice drive up and down those serpentines, hills and mountains. almost forgot how beautiful bavaria is, especially with 30 degrees and not a single cloud in the sky.

29jun2010 - hofbraeuhaus
tuesday. after a long day of sightseeing and shopping in beautiful and sunny munich we quickly refreshed at the hotel before heading to the world-famous hofbraeuhaus to meet a former hong kong colleague of mine, who recently moved to munich (well, two days before we got there). nice location, excellent food, absolutely great beer ... but arrogant and unfriendly staff. hey, i thought you bavarians are famous for your hospitality? anyways, wish you a great start in munich, justina and manuel. take care and come back to asia soon.

29jun2010 - good morning bavaria
tuesday. yeah, munich. we arrived munich around 5:30 in the morning, picked-up the rental car, checked-in at the hotel and then walked around deserted munich downtown around 9:00 in the morning. after just a little while we decided to kick-off the day at the viktualienmarkt with a typical bavarian breakfast: white sausages, sweet mustard and bretzels. good morning bavaria!

24jun2010 - brass monkey pub
thursday 02:30am. of course i would not miss the decisive group game of germany against ghana, despite being in taipei and the game being broadcasted at 02:30am. my colleagues scooped me from the hotel at 02:00 in the morning and we headed over to a bar only 3 minutes away from my hotel. the bar was packed with foreigners and taiwanese people alike, all cheering germany on to a 1:0 victory over ghana and a spot in the final-16. go germany!

22jun2010 - taipei
tuesday. that morning if had to fly to taipei on a business trip, which luckily is only 1,5 hours away from hong kong. after arriving at taipei i quickly passed through immigration, picked up my suitbag and walked into the arrival hall. there is was greeted by a well-dressed (suit and vest) gentleman with my name on a sign. he took my luggage and walked me over to his lexus limo (black, black leather seats), gave me some water and drove me to my downtown hotel. wow, so cheap for such service. then, who would expect that in some downtown taipei backstreet such a nice hotel "les suites taipei" is hidden. 5*, good service, great food and at such a low price. unbelievable. what else is there to say about my taipei trip. nice colleagues, good meetings, even better food ... love taiwan. it feels more friendly and more relaxed than china. more scooters. more english! people don't stare at me. their putonghua sound very clear. buidlings are not that high. i didn't see anyone spit on the floor. people smell better. people dress better. in short: i could well imagine to work here once my china assignment is over.

21jun2010 - vivy's big 3oh
monday. my wife vivien is now officiall also a member of the big 3-o club. happy birthday! hope you enjoyed the family outing on this weekend to celebrate it. love you!

20jun2010 - spa adventure
sunday. as part of our hotel package we held a spa coupon for the interlaken spa. no, not the one in switzerland, but the one belonging to the interlaken hotel, which is part of the oct east theme park. it is open till 2:00am, but the problem is that it is 5km (within the park) away and that the last shuttle departs at 11:00. that makes no sense, right? anyways, money solves all problems in china, so we found a private van to take us back after the spa when we call him. on the way there we still had to take the shuttle, which is also used by the staff of oct east. of course the queue was mess and we fianlly managed to get on such a shuttle after 15 minutes waiting. on the way there my brother-in-law almost got in a fight with another passenger before we finally arrived at the spa. wow! in the end it was all worth it. the spa was empty and we six had about 4 pools (from which you can watch the world cup on huge screen), 4 saunas and whirlpools all to ourselves. thank god our adventure came to such a good end.

20jun2010 - oct east
sunday. to celebrate my wife's 30th birthday, we decided to have a family outing to the oct east theme park in shenzhen. despite it being an overall nice trip, i can tell you that this will be the last time i visit a theme park in china. why? well, the ideas are nice (mostly copied), the design is nice (mostly copied), but the execution is poor and the maintenance is even worse. so no matter how nice the thing was when it opened, you can be sure that the chinese will wear it down in a matter of months. sorry to say that, but it's true. finally, not to mention that it is not fun to queue up for an attraction for 30 minutes standing next to a group of chinese tourists that obvisously didn't think it was necessary for 2 weeks despite the 30 degrees outside and the 90% humidity. oh, one good thing. as usualy someone tried to jump the line, and this time, the very first time, i saw the staff kick someone out because of that and refuse entry. there is hope! maybe!

14jun2010 - beat the socceroooooos
monday 02:30am. the game-times for the 2010 world cup in south africa are just as bad as the ones in germany four years ago. this again means we have to get up sometimes in the middle of the night to watch germany play. well, this time i travelled to hong kong on a sunday evening, hung out with my friends and colleagues till game time at 2:30am and we were rewarded by an impressive 4-nil wil over australia. bring on the world cup, we feel like the champions already. schlaaaaaaand!

21may2010 - vivy wonder
friday. my wife vivien (vivy) had a eye infection the other day and had to see a doctor in due course. while being treated, the doctor also examined her chances (upon her request) to have her short-sight corrected via laser-sugery. the doctor did some test and stated that she could do it. appointment set, money paid and a few days later vivien was under the laser. just hours after the surgery she was alread able to see clear and will never need glasses again. the only thing is that she needs to wear some goggles to protect her eyes for two days, well, which make her look like stevie ... aeh, vivy wonder.

15may2010 - dafen art village
saturday. my colleague and friend manuel came over from hong kong that afternoon and we hopped on a taxi in lo wu (20-30 mins) dafen. dafen is a village in buji (longguang, shenzhen) that got famous through small workshops copying world-famous oil-paintings. this small industry has since turned into a major one and small workshops turned into big galleries. you can buy all kind of paintings there at very low prices. copies of famous painters, modern art as well as custom-made paintings and drawings. a cool place, and if my walls weren't full with frames and paintings already, i would have gone on a shopping spree there as well.

14may2010 - visa again
friday. next week i will have my one-year anniversary working in shenzhen, which also prompts the extension of my work-visa. aaarg, evey year the same shit. get a statement from my estate, register with the police, apply a new work-permit, apply the visa-extension ... da da da , bla bla bla. damn, this whole process it so annoying and a pure revenue-maker for the chinese government. well, at least the authorities in shenzhen are much more efficient. it takes approx. 10 working days here, in guangzhou it took 4-6 weeks.

08may2010 - season finale
saturday. that night werder bremen defeated our old rivals from the hamburger sv 1:1 in the final game of the season. this helped my beloved werder bremen to secure the overall third place and participate in the qualification for the champions league 2010-11. always fun to watch football in wan chai's typhoon bar with a bunch of friends and colleagues. thanks that I live so close to hong kong. a drink in wan chai is never more than 1,5 hours away.

08may2010 - sold the gold
saturday. at our wedding party we got a lot of gold from vivien's family, which is a local tradition. we decided to keep the gold for a while to see how the price of gold would develop before we sell it. well, the price soared recently and we sold off the gold at a profit of +25%. sweet. now i wish i had my own fort knox in the basement, but i don't.

07may2010 - farewell
friday. i travelled to hong kong for a farewell of my long-term boss and supporter who left the company after 23 years (18 years in hong kong). more than 100 people who shared his parh attended from the seafreight department. crazy, funny, emotional and after all sad. you will be missed, john!

24apr10 - moved to a new crib
saturday. it's done! we moved from our new apartment with in the same estate, but different tower and 10 floors higher. i am really happy with our new place - nicer floor, less decoration, 10 floors higher, better kitchen, nicer view, nicer bathrooms ... everything better. well, except the price, which soared by 50% within a year. whish i had the money to buy my own place here, prices will keep going up.

26mar2010 - hong kong sevens!
friday. not like i have a ticket, but i (truly by coincidence) am in hong kong this weekend and it is sevens-time. that means the city will be full of party-goers and fun-loving people. besides that, i also like to watch the sevens. amazing stuff! have been planning to go there for years. really got to get my hands on some tickets next year! ;)

26mar2010 - hong kong travel pass
friday. when i cross the border into hong kong (and i do this a lot) i always have to spend a lot of time. not really at the chinese side, as they have a special line (thanks!) for foreigners, but at the hong kong side where i have to queue up with all the mainland visitors. well, i don't have a full hong kong visa anymore. before i apply for a dependant visa through my wife, i applied for a hong kong travel pass and i will be able to pick it up this week. it took them less than 2 weeks to process it. not bad, eh. hong kong is efficient. so now i can queue up with the hong kong residents and use the vip channel at the hong kong airport. aaaah, hong kong, my second home! gotta love hong kong!

24mar2010 - homeless city
wednesday. shenzhen has 14 million citizens. not a small city! 2 million of them are local people from the area. 12 million come from all over china, well, and those who come from other parts of this world, like me. so it is basically a city of the homeless. noone is really at home here. that explains why the people here are so agressive and money-focused. they are just here to earn a buck and then head home to their village or city. damn, loyalty is really difficult to find here. very disappointing!

20mar2010 - the blind side
saturday. wenoticed that sandra bullock recently one an oscar as best actress in the movie called 'the blind side'. so when our beloved around-the-corner-dvd-lady had it on her table, vivien was quick to pick it. the story is amazing and it gets even more amazing in the end when the story turns out to be a real one. wish there was such people in this world. stop racism!

20mar2010 - new apartment
saturday. woohoo, we spent the whole day looking at apartments in the same estate where we live and found three nice ones. not a bad quota! now we just have to quickly close the deal after reaching an agreement with the landlord. the new apartment has less decoration, nice kitchen, nice bathrooms and it on the 27th floor with a view over futian. yeehah, please pray that i can get this one!

08mar2010 - kicked out on da street
monday. my rental contract im shenzhen will soon run out as i approach my one-year anniversary here. since moving is always trouble in china - i mean first of all to find a decent place that is not totally overpriced, not to mention dealing with agents and landlords, changing your address and registration with the police, set-up the internet and all that crap - we were hoping to stay in the same apartment for another year...but our landlord wants to move in himself. thanks a lot, buddy, now i gotta go out and go through all this crap by may 8th. damn.

01mar2010 - your plane has landed!
monday. sad but true, but we had to leave the maldives again. after talking to the swiss manager of our resort, we were able to check out late that day, since our plane would only depart around 17:00 and it did not want to check out at 11:00 as usual. so, we kept relaxing in our villa until about 16:00 when the phone rang and someone said: sir, your plane has just landed. i must say, one of the coolest phone calls i ever got.

28feb2010 - 5* service and empty pockets
sunday. yes, staff in 5* hotels are usually very friendly and attentive, but i would surely say that maldivians are particularly friendly by nature. they have all been more than friendly, polite, attentive and will always greet you and talk to you. people recognize you, call you by your name and you never need to carry any money with you. simply pay with your room number and signature. aaaaah, so relaxing. i never want to leave here.

27feb2010 - spa!
saturday. a honeymoon would not be complete without a spa day, so we booked a session with head massage and facial treatment. well, of course not as cheap as over here in china, but certainly nice and very relaxing. open-air spa, palm-trees, atmospheric music .... aaah.

26feb2010 - snorkeling
friday. the hotel provided free snorkeling gear for every villa, so you simply have to walk down the stairs for your own personal sea-access and you can dip right in a blue world full of corals and fish. supercool to visit the world of rays, fishes in all colours and i even found nemo. the investment for an underwater digital camera definetly paid off.

25feb2010 - angsana velavaru
thursday. we arrived in velavarul with the plane touching down right in the atoll next to the hotel. the coolest arrival! we were greeted and then had some breakfast before we could check into our villa. we rented an in-ocean villa (fully detached from any land) with our own sundeck, two floors, own pool, etc. this is going to be great!

25feb2010 - airtaxi
thursday. time for the third plane in a row. after flyging hong kong to singapore and then to male, we finally had to take an airtaxi (waterplane) from trans maldivian airways from male airport to the vatuu atoll. i was especially looking forward to this part of our journey! man, that would be a job for me. the pilots were well-tanned, no shoes, shorts, short-sleave white shirt and ray ban sunglasses. so after the shortest security briefing (less than a minute) we boarded this little tin-can and took off. now that is real flying!

24feb2010 - airboss a380
wednesday. yes, the airbus a380 is already around for a while, but i never had the chance to take one yet. so, i was of course very excited to take the singapore airline's a380 from hong kong to singapore on that day. so our honeymoon already started with a first highlight. i must say, a huge 'bird', nice interiour and a very smooth flight. well, i am an european, so i'd always prefer airbus over boeing, if you ask me. boing boing!

24feb2010 - honeymoon @ maldives
wednesday. better have a late honeymoon than never, right? after the wedding, some settlements and my business trip, it was time for vivien and me to escape from this world to the beautiful maldives. yes, expensive and all, but honeymoon is only once in your life, so not the right time to be cost-concerned. thank god that i just shook my middle-ear infection in time for the honeymoon. my plan for the honeymoon: 33% of time in the water, 33% in the sun and 33% in bed. ;)

22feb2010 - middle-ear infection
monday. the cold that i caught while in europe was almost cured, when the cold weather in hong kong during the chinese new year pushed back and it turned into a full-on middle-ear infection. in due course i travelled across the border to hong kong to see a doctor twice during the chinese new year. what a start into the year of the tiger.

14feb2010 - year of the tiger
sunday. this is now my seventh chinese new year! yes, i saw the year of the monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rat, ox come and now it is time for the tiger to arrive. after a poor year 2009, everyone is of course looking forward to a strong tiger to bring fortune in 2010. so, let me wish you, your families and loved-ones a happy chinese new year. kung hei fat choi! gong xi fa cai! ...i was wondering, do you think that exxon, kellogs and tiger beer see better profits simply due to the year of the tiger?

08feb2010 - germany by train
monday. that morning it took the train from bremen to duisburg, where i met with local colleagues to visit one big customer in the area. after the meeting, a lunch with the client and a quick stop at our duisburg office, i hopped on a train again and took the ICE to frankfurt airport. i must say, travelling by train is really nice and the germany rail operator DB has really stepped up its service.

07feb2010 - brunch
sunday. despite my now serious cold, i pulled myself from my bed and went for brunch my my best man gerrit, his wife nina and my close friend leif at the bolero in bremen. so good to have good friends around whenever i come home to my beloved bremen. can't wait to come back to bremen in the summer 2010 as this visit visit was simply too short.

06feb2010 - got a cold
saturday. i guess i have lived in china for too long. it's always warm here, so it just took two weeks in europe's cold winter climate and i got myself a hefty cold. when i still lived in germany, i seldom got such a cold. damn. i guess for the future i should only plan my europe trips during the summer or fall. brrrr, i hate cold-wet bremen winter weather.

05feb2010 - werder bremen
friday. oh, finally I was able again to watch a match of my beloved werder bremen live in the beautiful westerstadion. thanks to my best man arne! usually i return home to germany in the summer or on christmas during the bundesliga off-season. it was super-cold and i literally froze off my feet watching the match (not a good match), but werder bremen left the pitch as the winner over hertha bsc berlin that night (2:1). oh, wish i could do that more often.

03feb2010 - sparta rotterdam
wednesday. spent the whole day in the car visiting some customers in the netherlands before i went out for dinner with some rotterdam colleagues. afterwards i got invited to watch a football match of sparta rotterdam, for which my company is a big sponsor. heated seats in the VIP area, free drinks, free food. nice! just what you need after a long hard day working. ;)

01feb2010 - lugano
monday. that morning i got up really early and took the train from pfaeffikon to lugano in southern switzerland to meet a client. it was a beautiful 2,5 hour train ride across the alps. a lot of snow and -15 degrees up there, but an amazing scencery! after arriving in lugano i took a 5-minute (25 CHF = 17 EUR) taxi ride to my client's office. after a good meeting and a nice lunch in lugano, i headed back towards zuerich across the alps. what a beautiful country!

30jan2010 - zuerich walk
saturday. took the train to zuerich that morning and spend some time walking around the old city centre of zuerich. what a beautiful city! everything is clean, fresh air, beautiful old buildings, the mountain scenery in the background and expensive cars wherever you look. i could well imagine to live here since it is the city with the highest living standard in the world. well, if at the same time it wasn't so expensive. a coffee already sets you back a fortune. well, that's the price you have to pay, i guess.

29jan2010 - party in zuerich
friday. after our presentation to the management board and our HIPO graduation it was time to blow of some steam. we took the train to zuerich and kicked things off with a big dinner at the zeughauskeller in downtown zuerich. all 'refreshed' after a big schnitzel and two liters of beer we strolled through zuerich looking for a place to party. well, we were not the only ones. every place was packed and long cueues outside. we ended up in a small club|bar where the atmosphere was rather mellow. well, if there is no party there, you bring it yourself. not a big issue when you have a group of 15 people from usa, kenya, turkey, france, germany, taiwan, hong kong, china, brazil, south africa and mexico with you. we quickly took charge of the dancefloor and it turned out to be a fun night. my crecit card bill will kill me next month. ;)

29jan2010 - board presentation
friday. after spending two days working on developing a strategic growth initiative, it was time to present it to the management board of our company. quite a tense experience, but we pulled it off and performed well. afterwards we graduated from the program and got a handshake from our CEO. a nice experience, since you simply don't get to meet such people that often and so up-close.

28jan2010 - snow
thursday. we seldom ...eh, never see snow in south china and during my last few christmas visits to germany i was rather unlucky with seeing any snow. so i was even happier when i saw loads of snow come down on us during my visit to switzerland. everything so white, clean, quiet - like covered with powder-sugar.

27jan2010 - fondue
wednesday. what is switzerland famous for? bank accounts, mountains, snow, fresh air, high living quality, chocolate, watches and ... fondue! so we of course had to have a cheese fondue with bread, potatoes and kirschwasser. delicious!

25jan2010 - schindellegi, ch
monday. time for the final module of my company's high potential training. this time in schindellegi, which is just 40 minutes out of zuerich, switzerland. if you ask me, i guess i would also build my company's headquarter (if i had my own company) in schindellegi, not only because of tax benefits, but simply due to the beautiful landscape. switzerland is simply beautiful, but we will not have much time to enjoy the scenery as we have a busy week ahead. let's get to work.

23jan2010 - savognin
saturday. after landing in zuerich in the early morning hours i hopped on a train to chur in southern switzerland. arriving in chur i met with my old friend pasquale, who took me to savognin for some winter-fun. i quickly dropped my luggage and i rented some winter-gear and we headed right up the mountain for some sledding. sunshine, beautiful white snow, blue skies - what a day! rivella (famous swiss soft drink), lunch on the mountain, tea with alocohol - life is good. the only downside was that i didn't have proper winter gear and i was not able to rent any snowboard pants, only boots, so i ended up with literally frozen jeans and everything underneath it. oh yeah, and after we got a little lost on the sledding track, we ended up going down the skiing track. crazy! don't tell my mom. we closed the day with a nice swiss cheese fondue before i fell into bed dead-tired that night. must have been the jet-lag paired with fresh mountain air and the high altitude. what a fun day. thanks pg!

22jan2010 - perfect timing
friday. i got invited to a cocktail reception of hapag lloyd that afternoon at the ifc in hong kong. perfect timing since i had to fly out from hong kong to zuerich that night anyways. so i left the office after lunch, grabbed my stuff, headed to hong kong, dropped my luggage at the in-town check-in, went upstairs, had a couple of drinks, afterwards had dinner with my wife and then hopped on the airport express to the airport. europe, i'm on my way!

02jan2009 - avatar
saturday. what a hype around these blue smurfs ... eh, naiv(?) or whatever these blue frogs in the movie avatar are called. anyways, i watched the movie in a 27-d theather in hong kong and actuallt to found it to be quite okay. well, but if you ask me, lord of the rings was far move impressive than these smurfs ... eh ... avasomething.

31dec2009 - welcome 2010 in hong kong
thursday. we will travel to hong kong to celebrate with friends in soho and lan kwai fong. no better place than hong kong, my second home, to welcome the new year. i personally look positive into the new year - it will be a good one. plans are being made for trips to switzerland, netherlands, germany, maledives, korea and again germany, so travel-wise it will be a busy year. oh yeah, busy ... i threatened to turn my mother into a grandmother. so we will get busy on that soon and hope that there will be a tiger-baby soon. happy new year everyone!

31dec2009 - looking back at 2009
thursday. what a year! a huge global recession, a first black US-president, a promotion and a wedding. while it was certainly not a good year economy-wise, which may have had its toll on many people, i must say i had an excellent 2009. i took on a new challenge in shenzhen, settled in well and to top of the year got to marry the sweetest and prettiest lady of all. if 2010 is only half as good as 2009, then it won't be a bad year.

28dec2009 - haute cuisine in shenzhen
monday. we celebrated our 76th anniversary in a french restaurant in shenzhen's mix city. it had louisXIV-style decoration, nice food (very arty and small portions) and excellent service ... well, yes at a high price compared with chinese standards. anyhow, happy to have such locations around in case you need something different than rice and noodles. ;) just kidding, so happy to have my dear vivien cook chinese and western food very well. no wonder why i can't loose any weight.

26dec2009 - booked the honeymoon
saturday. don't mean to brag, but we went to hong kong that afternoon to book our honeymoon for february 2010. destination: maldives! well, figures we had to go there before they disappear in the indian ocean if we can not get our climate under control. anyhow, we will fly the A380 from hong kong to singapore and then spend 5 nights in a beautiful in-ocean villa (the picture on the left is our hotel) surrounded by nothing but water. can't wait!

25dec2009 - she jie zhi chuang
friday. the above chinese words translate into 'window of the world', which is a theme park in shenzhen that brings the world's attractions to local citizens in a miniature format. so we wera able to travel from china to london, paris, italy, germany, cambodia, usa, india, japan and egypt in only a matter of minutes. not a must-see attraction, but in the end quite a fun trip. well, i suppose it would have been a different 'more crowded' experience if china also had a public holiday on that day.

24dec2009 - christmas in china
thursday. since i couldn't be with my family in germany this year, we invited our hong kong family over to shenzhen to celebrate christmas with us here. vivien put on her best cooking skills and made an incredible dinner with gluehwein, lamb chop, casserole, caesar's salad, pumpkin soup, potato salad, bruchetta ... and followed by cake. delicious and it was a really nice dinner. besides that, christmas in china is not officially celebrated in china and we do not have any public holidays, still the chinese people have embraced it and celebrate it in their way - just as colourful as on the left hand side picture. merry x-mas everyone!

19dec2009 - winter solstice
saturday. guangdong and hong kong people celebrate the winter solstice with a traditional dinner on the 22nd of december. well, it is actually celebrated all over china in one way or another. still, i was told that in hong kong it is supposed to be even more important that the chinese spring festival (chinese new year). well, i don't believe that! anyways, that day i travelled to hong kong with my wife to have dinner with 'my hong kong family'.

13dec2009 - teppanyaki
sunday. that night we went out to 'da yue' (big fish) restaurant to enjoy some japanase teppanyaki food. nothing better than to sit around a big steel table where a jap...aeh...chinese master-kung-fu-karate-teppanyaki-chef prepares freshly seafood and meat at lightning speed right in front of your face. wonder how this looks and tastes if you get this done by a real japanese chef in tokyo for example. well, cheap and good over here, just gets a little crowded sometimes.

06dec2009 - shangri-la nikolausi
sunday. do you know nikolausi? well, in germany we have "nikolaus" (a guy that just 100% the same like santa claus) to come to the children overnight to put candy (if they behaved well) or a root (if they were naughty) into they freshly-cleanded boots that the children leave outside their door. i am not sure about the history on this mr. nikolaus. well, the bigger the boot, the better. anyways, vivien and me took this special occasion to enjoy dinner at the shangri-la hotel in futian. they have the best lamb-chop and chinese soup. life is good. still, i wish we could spend christmas in germany with my family.

28nov2009 - first class shopping
saturday. vivien and me spent our anniversary pursuing hong kong people's favourite past-time: shopping. we went to harbour city, zara, armani, h&m, shanghai tang, chanel, gucci, rimowa and burberry. guess we had some money left from the wedding. ;) hehe, well, in chanel and gucci we just did window shopping. still, seems the economy is getting better in hong kong. there were long queues in front of louis vuitton, gucci and prada. people here still have money for this stuff ... well, most of them are nowadays from the chinese mainland. how things change, huh?

24nov2009 - return to normal and busy again
tuesday. after a hectic, busy, emotional and happy week life has returned to 'normal'. we are back in shenzhen and i was back in the office fighting with my email backlog. well, now there is even more things ahead that are still to be done: vivien's name change and all matters related to it, application for hong kong frequent traveller card, combine our bank accounts, get wedding pictures, send thank-you cards, plan and book honeymoon, have a health check-up ... and (hehe) start working on a tiger-baby for 2010.

21nov2009 - wan chai with friends
saturday. that night we met up with some colleagues|friends from hong kong, singapore and tokyo in wan chai for some malaysian food and drinks afterwards. this puts a nice and relaxed ending to a very busy, emotional but happy week. it feels good to have friends around to spend time with and celebrate life, the asian way of life, this wonderful city and of course our fresh marriage.

21oct2009 - killing time in stanley
saturday. that day my parents and sister we to fly back to germany, but we still had some hours left to kill in this beautiful city. so after the bus tour we grabbed a quick coffee at starbucks, called vivien over from the hotel and hopped on a cab to stanley market. after a stroll across the stanley market we took some pictures at the sea side and also grabbed a bite at the stanley promenade. well, stanley is always worth a visit. after returning to the city a few hours later it was time to say goodbye.

21nov2009 - bus tour
saturday. that morning my parents, sister and me walked from our hotel over to the hong kong convention centre to take a bus-tour through wan chai and causeway bay. yes, very tourisity, but ey. anyways, we booked an english tour (of course) and were the only four passengers on the bus. so you may call this VIP. nothing i haven't seen before, but still a very nice tour, especially on the open roof-top of a double-decker bus. guess i love hong kong, so of course i also married a hong kong girl. ;)

20nov2009 - nomad's
friday. after the sypmhony of lights we walked along nathan road into kimberly road to have dinner at nomad's mongolian restaurant, which is a always a perfect choice when you are hungry and you have people with different food preferences. why? well, you can all you eat and they will stir-fry the ingredients based on your own composition. nice! ey, but be easy on the garlic. ;)

20nov2009 - symphony of lights
friday. that evening we all (friends and family from germany) met at the wan chai pier to take the star ferry across the victoria harbour to tsim sha tsui. upon arrival we enjoyed hong kong's symphony of lights, which is a laser- and light-show that lights up the already (without light) impressive hong kong skyline. even if have seen it literally a hundred times, still can not get enough of the hong kong skyline panorama. love this city.

19nov2009 - thank you!
thursday. it was a very emotional week in hong kong and there is a lot of things on my chest and i have to thank a lot of people. where to begin? words can hardly express how i feel inside.

first if would have to thank my parents for bringing me into this world and always supporting to me in what i did. without their love, support and encouragement i would not be the person i am today. without their support i may not have entered university, not made my way to hong kong and i may never have met my beautiful wife in due course. i also have to thank them of course for making this long way over here to hong kong to share this special day with us. i also want to thank them for accepting and welcoming vivien so warmly into our family. no matter where we will be on this planet, i will always be thankful and we will always be close. at the same time i always want to thank my sister for making her way over here and that she stood by her big brother on this wedding day. this day would not have been complete without you.

i also want to thank my new parents (in-law) as well as vivien's family for the warm welcome into their middle. i am happy to see that love can build bridges over long distances as well as cultures. we are united as one mixed family now and it feels good and special. this means a lot to me.

next i would like to say thank you to my best men arne and gerrit for being the best friends i could have. thanks for making your way over to hong kong, standing by my side as well as the kind gift you prepared. thanks of course also to nina, jenny as well as lars and stefan to spend this very special day with us. this day would not have been complete without you.

at this time i of course alsy want to thank all those friends and family from overseas that were not able to attend. thanks for your cards, gifts, greetings, flowers, video greetings and emails. we will share the pictures of this special day with you soon.

a big thank you of course also to our local friends from guangzhou and hong kong for attending our wedding. thank you of course as well to vivien's friends and old schoolmates to come to our wedding. this day would not have been complete without you.

at this point i also want to say thank you to my colleagues from hong kong, guanzhou, shenzhen, tokyo, singapore and shanghai for coming to the wedding. you are more than good colleagues - you are close friends to us. this day would not have been complete without you.

thanks of course as well to the 'mc brommel', the bridemaids chloe & lisa as well as vivien's brother leung and those little angels karen and sienna for their big help on the wedding day. thanks for your support and taking some worries away from us on that day. this wedding would not have been as smooth and perfect without you.

last but not least, i of course would like to thank my sweet and beautiful wife vivien for her love. many things i achieved in the past six years i could not have achieved without you. actually, we achieved them together. from now on there will be less 'i', but more 'we'. we are a team. you gave up a lot yourself and always stood by my side when we lived in hong kong and when we move to china. i am thankful for the past six years with you and i am so proud on this very day to be able to call you my wife. it feels so good. i love you.

...hope i got it all covered. words still can hardly express how i feel these days. thanks to all of you for you support, greetings and wishes.

19nov2009 - afterparty @ penthouse|skylounge
thursday. after the wedding party we got changed and headed over to the penthouse skylounge in wan chai (29th floor) to have a little afterparty and some more chance to chat and mingle with our friends. we had some more cake and drinks and it didn't take long for the different families, groups of friends and cultures to mix while playing drinking-games. it was the perfect setting to conclude this wonderful day overlooking the victoria harbour at night and we ended up staying until 3am before leaving for our hotel beds.

19nov2009 - we are married
thursday. after more than six years we tied the knot at our wedding party on that night in the oasis room of the renaissance harbourview hotel. the decoration was beautiful, the food and service was excellent and we had the chance to enjoy the beautiful view overlooking the victoria harbour with our guests. after a tea ceremony and extensive picture taking my dear vivien was walked down the aisle by her father and handed over to me in front of the stage. we exchanged our vows, signed the papers in presence of our fathers and held our speeches in english as well as german and (yes!) cantonese. it was very calm, romantic and at the same time emotional - the perfect wedding. our parents were moved to tears and the wedding was all we dreamed of. everything went smooth and we can not thank vivien's brother as well as mc brommel enough for their great support on that night. our thanks of course also to all my best men, our families, friends and colleagues (from hong kong, germany, tokyo, shanghai and singapore), the bridemaids as well as to sienna, karen as well as everyone else who shared that special night with us.

19nov2009 - still relaxed
thursday. standard hong kong weddings are kicked-off with a test for the groom to get his future bride, which is followed by a tea ceremony, dim sum, photo taking and mahjong before the actuall ceremony and wedding banquet. that usually takes the whole day from early(!) morning onwards and is very stressful. vivien and me both agreed that we wanted things to be a little more relaxed. due to our excellent planning and organization we were still able to enjoy a relaxed cup of coffee at starbucks just four hours before the wedding banquet. well, i am sure i will be nervous a little later, but so far it has been the perfect wedding week and this wedding can only be a full success if you get to do things in such a relaxed way. this will be a day to remember!

18oct2009 - happy valley
wednesday. after getting off the tram we went to the happy valley racecourse to watch the night races, which are usually held every wednesday. i didn't have the chance to go there for a long time, so i of course had to take my friends and family there, even though the wedding was just the next day. despite my best efforts in gambling i didn't win anything. well, guess bad luck in gambling means good luck in love, right? can't wait to get married tomorrow!

18nov2009 - tram
wednesday. in the evening we headed out towards happy valley to watch some horseracing and hopped on the old hong kong tram. and old and fun relic from the old hong kong days that is still in operation today, and not only as a tourist attraction but also as a normal mean of public transport. you can't go wrong to spend 2 hong kong dollar for such a special ride through hong kong island.

18oct2009 - we are family (soon)
wednesday. luckily i didn't have a major hangover from my bachelor party as we had to get up quite early in order to have a big pre-wedding dim sum lunch with both families in tsing yi that afternoon. vivien's parents, her brother and grandmother were there along with my parents, my sister as well as my aunt and uncle, who arrived the day before. quite funny and interesting experience as everyone hugged vivien's grandmother, which she was not used to since chinese usually avoid such close physical contact. so it was somehow a mixing of cultures and we had a nice lunch and both families got even closer than they already were before. of course my parents and vivien's parent met already before when they were all in hong kong during november 2006. everyone was happy and proud, so nothing stands in the way of getting married tomorrow and unite both families.

17oct2009 - bachelor bash
tuesday. that night we started at my favourite bar 'typhoon' for a little bachelor tour around wan chai. we had such a good time (started at 6pm) and so many pints of beer that we simply forgot about dinner. at the same time vivien was partying with the girls in lan kwai fong. better keep things seperated. after typhoon we went to laguna, neptune II and ... well, i just remember the security reminded me several times that i was not allowed to take pictures in neptune II. after that we wend to ... don't remember. finally I managed to get my guys over to lan kwai fong's insomnia bar to meet up with vivien and the girls. we all arrived in safe physical condition, however the lack of dinner and the pints had take a toll on us. some more - some less. well, everything was okay and it was a worthy bachelor party night in hong kong. two more days in freedom! ;)

17oct2009 - dim sum
tuesday. at lunch time i took my friends out to experiences traditional chinese dim sum in a wan chai restaurant. we tried all the local specialties, even chicken feet and i got the impression they really liked it. well, simply do not believe all the nightmare stories about chinese food and open yourself up in order to give something new to your tastebuds. well, of course we didn't order all the crazy stuff. ;) well, how could i let them leave hong kong without trying the most famous local food?

16nov2009 - shopping spree
monday. what would hong kong be without shopping? well, my parents of course wanted to do some major shopping as well, wherefore i took them to pacific place and mong kok's ladies market. after a couple of tiring hours in the mad shopping crowds in mong kok, we headed back to wan chai to have dinner at 'coyote', where we also welcome gerrit & nina, who arrived on that day. three days left. getting a little excited, or should i say nervous? not nervous about the idea of getting married, but hoping that eveything runs smooth.

15nov2009 - parent's in town
sunday. with the wedding only four days away, the first guests (my parents & sister, arne & jenny, lars & stefan) arrived hong kong that weekend and we met up in 'fat angelo's' restaurant in wan chai for dinner. it feels soooo good to see your family and friends again and i can not thank them enough for making their long way to hong kong to celerbrate our wedding with us. the next few days will be very busy and it will be very hard to get everyone together at all times (impossible!), but I hope i get to spend as much time as possible with them while they are over here. at the same time we are of course excited to stay in the hear of wan chai at the renaissance harbourview hotel for a week. funny feeling to stay in a hotel in hong kong, since we used to live here and|or always stay at vivien's familiy. we took a van that morning to move all the stuff to the hotel and now we really enter the hot phase prior to the wedding. just four days to go!

14nov2009 - family day
sunday. the wedding week is ahead, so we packed all out stuff and moved to hong kong to prepare for our big day. on the first day after our arrival we had a big family day with vivien's grandmother celebrating her birthday and her brother celebrating his graduation from university. puuuh, ate too much chinese food that day. well, looking forward that this will actually be my family as well pretty soon.

04nov2009 - shekou blitz
wednesday. that night i had to go out for dinner with a client of mine in shekou. funny guys! we had dinner and drinks in a restaurant, then drinks in one bar, then drinks in another bar (bottle of jim beam), then drinks in antother bar, then ... and so on. i ended up home around 4am and the next day was kinda unpleasant to be in the office. anyways, i am much closer to the client now and that's what counts. while i know many guys in this industry who go out like that regularly, I could not take this too often. guess i am getting old.

03nov2009 - naked man
tuesday. that night i had to pick up a visitor from the shangri-la hotel in lowu. since i can see the hotel from my office window, i decided to walk 10-15 minutes from my office to there. not that that was a mistake, but i had quite an interesting experience. after passing underneath the railtracks that pass right by our office, i came upon an intersection where i had to wait for the green light. i was dreaming a little away listening to my ipod when suddenly a guys walked buy - totally naked. no shoes! nothing! well, obviously that guys was not mentally sane, but still ... a crazy sight. not a pretty one either! well, you never know what happens next in china.

30oct2009 - bachelor party #1
friday. that evening I went out with my colleagues to have a little bachelor party. we started off at v-bar and ended up in lowu for some drinks and karaoke later. nothing totally crazy, but simply a little warm-up before my real bachelor party in hong kong on november 17th.

28oct2009 - trattoria da angelo
wednesday. that evening we took a taxi to shekou to go out for dinner and celebrate our 74 months anniversary, which would also be the last anniversary as girfriend and boylfriend. next month at this time we will be married, how exiting is that? it is incredible how fast 14 months after our engagement flew by. so we had dinner at a very nice italian restaurant callded 'trattoria da angelo'. they have two branches in shenzhen, one run by the father (futian) and one by his son (shekou). excellent food, fresh ingredients imported from italy and excellent service. always happy to find good western restaurants in china. will come here more often, but then as wife and husband.

18oct2009 - wedding coming up!
sunday. please expect that i will most likely not be able to do any more entries in the next couple of weeks. why? our wedding is only one month away and i will be in and out of hong kong all the time to make some finishing touches on everything. will post all the details and pictues after the wedding. i am excited to spend a whole week in hong kong with friends and family and get married. can't wait!

08oct2009 - closed the pool!
thursday. the estate management closed our outdoor swimming pool from today and i really can not understand why. yes, it's past the mid-autumn festival and it is getting cooler over here, but in the afternoons we still have 25+ degrees and sunshine. so why can't i go into the pool. come on guys, have some common sense!

oct2009 - china's golden 'mid-autumn' week
before and after. china has two big holidays: chinese new year and the gold week at the beginning of october, when china celebrates its national day. based on old traditions both of these holidays are very long (more than a week) so that migrant workers can return home to their families. due to this more than 200 milllion people are on the road. this time it's even worse with the national holiday falling together with the mid-autumn festival. all this stir-up now causes everyone to be very busy before and after the golden week. it was pure madness. can't we just have many small holidays? that would be less of an impact and i would have more time to write on my webpage diary as well. well, okay, i spent some days in hong kong with vivien's family and shopping, too.

31aug2009 - back to reality
monday. i am back to china, back to shenzhen and also back to work. reality got me back and i got almost 2000 emails in my inbox. well, that's what you get for not checking emails during vacation. well, either you ruin every day a little by checking emails or you wait for the big backlog when you are back. either way, that's what you get for being out of the office.

28aug2009 - viertelfest
friday. after a romantic dinner to celebrate our sixth anniversary, vivien and me walked along the riverside towards the viertelfest. a last few moments of enjoying bremen's beautiful summer atmosphere before we have to return to busy, hot, humid and crowded china. well, always good to be home, but now let's go back to china and get ready to be married.

28aug2009 - 6 year anniversary
friday. just one year ago i proposed to vivien and she said yes. at that point we felt that our wedding would still be very far away, but now, one year later, our wedding is a mere three months away. don't get me wrong, i am not getting worried about being married, just the fact that there are still so many things pending. six years, more to come and i simply can't wait to get married.

27aug2009 - ambiente
thursday. to round up a nice day, i invited my family out for dinner in a local restaurant. i could not stand living in hotel mama anymore with at least spoiling my parents a little bit. yes, of course they are always happy to host us when we are back in germany, but still. aaah, these vacations just fly by too quick. soon we will fly back to china. at least my family will come over soon to see vivien and me get married ... and we shall be back nexy summer.

27aug2009 - in the garden
thursday. that afternoon we spent with my uncle and aunt in their beautiful garden in weyhe, near bremen. there is just nothing better than sitting in one's garden while enjoying fresh local plum-cake with whip-cream and tea. i will for sure never get tired of this and will always look forward to going back to germany. well, but first of all i am now looking forward to all my family and friends attending our wedding in hong kong.

27aug2009 - insurance
thursday. apart from used-car salesmen and insurance brokes, we as humans have no any other natural enemies. well, that's my opinion and if it wasn't due to my mother, i would probably never really thought about certain things at my young age. still, yes, it feels good to take care of one's future by buying an insurance product that provides retirement, life insurance and disability insurance in one go. thanks mom for being so annoying. ;)

26aug2009 - schlachte
wednesday. my old living room - bremen's schlachte. you don't know what it is? well, it's one of the best bar streets in the world right next to the weser river. we met some friends, had dinner (yes, again) and many more drinks that night. why is called my living room? well, i used to live 10 minutes by foot from there and had my o2 home-zone (genion) laid exactly on that are. so even i was accepting calls on my mobile, people could reach me under my fixed line there as well. so my mom always called my home and asked me what is all that noise in the background? where are you? in my living room ...

25aug2009 - katzencafe
tuesday. eating, drinking, shopping - the standard things we do when on vacation in germany. some on this day. after shopping some more in the city we met with nina and gerrit at the schlachte and later in the schnoor-area for dinner and drinks. nice food, nice drinks, nice company - it doesn't get better than this. yes, yes, booooring you may say. is that all we do when in germany? yes, you are damn right.

24aug2009 - shopping
monday. this day was dominated by shopping in the city for just these kind of things that we can not find in china - polo shirts, dvds, candy, handbags, belts ... haha. but, no kidding, some things end up cheaper over here. don't ask me why. it always feels strange to buy something over here in germany that is actually made where we live - in china. still, some things you really can't get locally in china. guess i am a true hong kong-chinese already - nothing but shopping on my mind.

22aug2009 - wedding
saturday. that day we went to one of my best friend's wedding, which was the actual reason why we made our way over to germany in the first place. i would not miss any of my friend's wedding, no matter how far. after the afternoon in the church it was time for a big party and many of my old classmates where there as well. sadly i was still bugged by the jetlag that night. anyhow, a nice wedding and this was now definetly the last one before my own wedding in november.

21aug2009 - bremen city
friday. that night we went to the city to meet with one of my best friend's arne, his girlfriend jenny and 'larsi-baby'. it always feels good to come back to germany and your friends are there to have a dinner and drinks with you. no matter where i will end up in this world one day, i will never stop loving the most beautiful city in the world - bremen. ...oh, and apart from your partner and family, friends are the most important thing in the world. priceless!

21aug2009 - country roads
friday. next day i pushed my rental car across some country roads south of bremen on a very sunny and warm day. what a nice drive along these curvy roads. on the way to my aunt's house we stopped at the lloyd's factory in sulingen to buy some of the worl-renown shoes. afterwards we also bought some shirts and candy, then had coffee at my aunt's house before heading back to bremen. oh, how i love these country roads!

20aug2009 - super jetlag
thursday. arrived in germany after a long travel via dubai. i jumped into my rental car and enjoyed (as usual) the feeling of driving again (since i don't have a car in china). then coming home to mom's cooking and having dinner on the terrace of my parent's house on a nice and warm late-summer evening. perfect! well, soon the jetlag spoiled the fun and forced me to retire to my old bedroom to get some sleep. i fell asleep so fast and so deep, that i didn't even hear the major thunderstorm that started just 30 mins after i went to back. no matter what people say about jetlag and that it's psychological - and all that crap. don't believe a word. it always hits me hard when i fly westbound rather than eastbound, while some people say it just the other way around. anyways, jetlag sucks!

20aug2009 - off to germany
thursday. after coming back to germany usually around christmas time, vivien and me will visit bremen in the summer this year. why? well, it's too hot in china these days, one of my best friends is getting married and i simply need a break from work before we enter the budget and peak season. can't wait to hit the schlachte for some drinks with family and friends. i am on my way! yeehah!

14aug2009 - shenzhen buzz
friday. my colleagues asked my out to celebrate ( a promotion) with them drinking in a local bar. we ended up in "le nest" in the luohu district and finished off two huge bottles of chivas at our vip table. what a fun night! however, i ended up being rather drunk and tomorrow will be marked by a major hangover. anyways, once a while you have to blow off some steam.

08aug2009 - sushi maker
saturday. vivien and me made our own sushi at home that night. how did we do it? well, you need rice, salmon, cucumber, tuna and whatever else you may like on top of you sushi and sushi-making tools that you can buy in every jusco in hong kong. yes, it takes some time and the first ones you make look rather ugly, but once you got it they turn out really nice. homemade sushi - the best! (no one got hurt nor poisoned during the process.)

05aug2009 - freegate
wednesday. as i mentioned earlier, china has blocked the facebook portal since the day some riots erupted in xinjiang province at the end of june. however, thanks to freegate i am now able to work my way around this censorship and use it again. the free will and creativity can not be stopped nor censored. against censorship!

04aug2009 - sick
tuesday. after not having been sick for more than 2 years, apart from a little sniff or cough here and there, i got hit hard by a sore throat, coughing and high fever that week. after getting treated at the shenzhen 1st hospital that afternoon, i spent almost the rest of the week in bed. damn, now that means all the work is left undone and i will be busy catching up on 500+ emails. damn,

july2009 - loooooong time - no time!
all month. first of all i am sorry that i have not been able to update my webpage recently. some busy weeks lay behind me and i never found the time to sit down and add some diary entries. so maybe i just write down a few things in one go as i actually don't really recall what happened on what date anymore. >>> i managed to obtain my new china visa recently, which is quite a process. i even had to do an interview with the shenzhen police to justify to them that my company really needs to hire me as foreigner and why not a local manager. anyhow, that went well and shenzhen authorities were surprisingly efficient. in between i had a real downer as my long anticipated business trip fell victim to .... issues and the fact that the economic crisis still forbids us from travelling much. to make myself happy again i went to hong kong for some shopping and learned that any price can be negotiated. no matter if on a street market or a brand-name shop, they can still knock-off up to 20% of the price. sweet! now i will have a nice pair of sunglasses and a new polo-shirt to go with me to germany in august. can't wait! what else? well, the chinese government decided to block facebook from the end of june due to the riots in xinjiang provice. i hoped that it would come back on quickly, but unfortunately it looks like they will keep it blocked forever. i hate them for this! come on, just want to share my life with friends and family. what else? oh yeah, i watched my first movie in a movie theater in china - transformers 2. nice one, but after that i went right back to my habit of buying DVD copies. found a nice shop(!) in dongmen and i must say the quality gets better and better here. for every two movies vivien and me watch we buy three new ones, so we shall never run out of movies to watch at night. yes, that's all i do these weekdays. get up, work, come home, have dinner, check emails, go for a swim, watch a movie, sleep. on the weekends i am more happy now since hong kong is so close. it is so quick to travel over to hong kong for partying and shopping. sweet! that of course only in case there is no typhoon like two weeks ago. how come they only come on weekends? anyways, this one was a direct hit and the winds and rain were quite heavy. weather, yes, we are in the middle of the rainy season. it is very hot every days and also very humid. aircondition becomes your best friend. finally, i am getting excited to travel to germany in august to visit familiy and friends as well as to attend a wedding party. soon it will be my turn. in four months i will be a married man. wow, that's close. i am not scared and actually can't wait. hmm, let's see how i feel on that acutaly day, haha. >>> hope i will find more time in the next few weeks to update. if not, it will be another essay entry from my side soon. take care my friends! enjoy the summer!

23jun2009 - shenzhen's party zone
tuesday. attended a gathering of the german community in shenzhen at the intercontinental hotel's galleon bar, where i have already been last friday with my boss and a customer. nice hotel! nice bar! no, let me correct that - awesome bar! it looks like a real pirate ship on top of the hotel (30m above the ground). outdoor- and indoor-seating, waitresses dressed like cpt. jack sparrow, live music, drinks ... sweet! shenzhen is already outperforming guangzhou's nightlife - and there is more to come. love shenzhen!

21jun2009 - vivien turns 30 minus 1
sundday. vivien's family came over for the weekend (ey, hong kong is not that far) to celebrate vivien's 29th birthday. as per hong kong tradition, apart from having a swim in the pool, the celebrations turned into an eating marathon: dim sum, cake, snacks, dinner... happy birthday, baby. next year will be a big one! don't worry, for me you still look like 25. love you! (check out the image on the left. what do you see?)

13jun2009 - t&c wedding
saturday. cookie fung + timo blok = cookie & timo blok! we celebrated their wedding at the american club in tai tam. really nice. many old colleagues, familiar faces, good food, good drinks and quite an emotional ceremony. oh oh, next wedding will be my own!

12jun2009 - bachelor party
friday. travelled to hong kong to party with my colleague|friend timo before he is getting married the next day. we set of in wan chai, had dinner in happy valley and then went through every single bar in wan chai again. damn, i forgot how expensive hong kong was. well, soon it will be my own bachelor party. can't wait!

06jun2009 - shek....wow!
saturday. vivien and me took advantage of a sunny day to travel to shekou to relax a little. we were told that it is a nice place - and we were not disappointed. what a nice place! fresh air, modern buildings, beergardens, bars, restaurants, seasview.... okay, it's quite far away from the city centre, but with a taxi no problem at all. i am really starting to like this city!

28may2009 - 69 months and dragon boat festival
thursday. today we celebrate the dragon boat festival in china. at the same time vivien and me celebrate 69 months of being together. soon we will hit 6 years and just three months later we will be married. wow, how time flies. anyways, we had a nice and relaxed day at home (after i checked through my work emails) and headed out for a big dinner that night - the first time we can really explore shenzhen after our apartment is finished. we are off this saturday, but need to work on sunday to make up for the lost friday. well, holidays always come back to bite you in the ass.

23may2009 - modern shenzhen
saturday. shenzhen is a very young city and it took an amazing journey over the past 20 years. from a small fishing village to a special commercial zone to a modern metropolis with more than 13 million peope. most of them are not local, but come from all over china. what a melting pot of local cultures. the malls are brandnew, modern and host the world's most famous brands. skyscrapers pop out at all corners of the city and it seems like it's never sleeping. this city may not have much history, but it will have a great future.

22may2009 - getting things done
friday. after changing a million light bulbs (chinese people here like neon- and energy-saving bulbs with the white light), since i didn't want my apartment to look like a hospital, changing locks and door-handles, fixing the shower, opening a bank account, installing the internet, unpacking all boxes, hanging up curtains, fixing the washing machine and aircon - we can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. tomorrow we gonna hit IKEA and soon our place will be ready. puuuh, moving is always stressful.

21may2009 - busy workweek
thursday. my office has been without a seafreight manager for quite some time, so after my arrival it seems like all issues are suddenly brought up to my attention. at the same time if need to get to know all my staff and teams as well as meet with several clients and carriers - not to mention all these administrative things. puuuh, what a first week already. well, guess i need to get on top of things first and then it will get easier and better.

18may2009 - seafreight manager
monday. this morning i took my new job as a seafreight manager in shenzhen. a first day in a new job is always exciting! i got to meet all other management collagues, my secretarty linda, my team leaders and my overall 72 staff. well, hope i will get to know them all quickly and that i can manage to remember all their names. i'm getting old, you know.

16may2007 - settling in
saturday. we arrived shenzhen and are now of course facing a big mess. some things still need to be fixed and arranged here and there while we also have to unpack 100 boxes or so. yes, the moving company can do that, but it's simply faster to do it yourself. otherwise you have to explain them where every single cup or DVD goes. anyhow, the first week will be stressful as usual and we hope that this will be over soon so that we can sit back and explore and enjoy life in shenzhen.