Wedding

We had a wedding day in Berlin last month, and now busses found a new destination: Royal Wedding! :)

More news on the protest in Second Life

Yesterday on one of the IBM islands in SL, a woman told me about her blog. I checked it, and here it is. It's about her life and adventures in SL. Quite interesting. She posted a picture of me as well. :)
In real life, it's pouring down with rain 24/7. I got soaking wet twice today, luckily it took me only a few minutes to get back home and change into warm clothes. Summer seems to be gone for sure now. Sigh.

"Real" success for "virtual" protest!

We made it! 2000 joined the actions in Second Life, from more than 30 countries all over the world! A historical moment which we celebrated with champagne in UNI house (see pic, I'm the one in the back with curly red hair).
Read all the infos here, there are links to news from all over the world (we even were on tv), and enjoy the on-the-spot news, pics and videos on our blog.
I'm so proud I was one of them, even though I could never make it for long. I still was one of the first to be denied entry on IBM island, and I was there just in time to the second Mario happening. :)
Please sign our petition, and watch out for more to come!

IBM Union Protest in Second Life

I got mail this morning: The protest of the the italian IBM workers will take place 27th September 2007, all day tomorrow from 10 am to 10 pm, Berlin time. IBM employees from 18 countries will cover activities over the 12-hour protest period, and people from all over the world will support them. I will be online in the evening, to help a bit. More my shoulder won't allow me to do.
Have a look here and then come and join us!

Sunday of the Museums

It's Berlin art autumn these days, and even though it was one of the last sunny days for quite a while, I went to see a few exhibitons and museums. The "New Museum" - destroyed during WW II and under reconstruction now - opened for the public for only three days before the official opening in 2009, it's done beautifully! They had an exhibition of photos of the workers - what a wonderful idea!
The Nolde Museum close to Gendarmenmarkt opened up with an exhibition of pictures on Berlin night life in 1911. And finally I went to the Brice Marden restrospective in Hamburger Bahnhof, the Berlin musueum of modern art in a former railway station. I liked his last paintings best.
In this museum, I found Sarah Wiener's highly acclaimed restaurant, and decided I'll have to go there to try the delicious food. One of these days.
Yesterday it was autumn already, but still bright and warm, so everybody just went outside to soak up the last sunrays. Today it's grey and cold and rainy, perfect to stay at home, do some cleaning and sorting and in the evening cuddle up on the coach to read.
It's Alex's birthday today, I sent him greetings, and promised we'll celebrate next week when I'm back in Stuttgart. And now - off to some exercises at home to help my shoulder healing.

Travelling again

I wished I was! Only in my dreams, because I still have to see the doctors in Berlin regularly. Well, ok, in October I'll go to Stuttgart for a few days. But that doesn't count, it's my first home.
Friends have invited me to come and visit them in October: Quique from the middle of nowhere in Spain (Escalera) to watch deer and look for mushrooms in the mountain woods of the Alto Tajo, not far from Molina de Aragon, Theriel aka Don to his Halloween party in Helsinki, and Helge to his wedding with Monica at a paradise beach in Grenada.
If it wasn't for my shoulder, I would have taken a vacation this month anyway after the ver.di congress, and would have been able to travel to all of these friends and occasions! Life can be so unfair sometimes... :(

Big brother is watching you

To prevent "1984" come true in Germany with the new laws the government is trying to pass, more than 15 000 people came to Berlin center today to protest. And quite some police, standing and running around, in cars front, back and to the sides, and in helicopters above.
I was one of the ver.di crowd marching right in front behind the starter truck, and happy to meet a few colleagues. Ulli Maercks-Franzen, a friend of many years, held a speech to warn about the dangers for freedom of the press and consequences for journalists and media workers. Find more news and pics here.
We all hope the members of parliament will vote against the law.

Good news

Alex passed the last of his oral exams with best results possible (as he had done all the last times, too), and will start his thesis next month. Hopefully in May he'll have finished his studies. He's eager to travel to Southamerica for some weeks before starting to work.
Anna might start work already in November this year. She has two job offers, and is asked to come to the Bosch trainees' assessment meeting. She had been working at Bosch Feuerbach for three months, and did wonderfully. So they would like to have her in the company. All these appointments will be next week and keep her from learning for her exam, but we're positive she'll manage perfectly. She got news saying she passed her written exams with smashing 8,61 points, and her oral exam will be very soon, on Oct 2nd. I'll be flying to Stuttgart for a few days on Oct 1st, and Christel will look after the cats whilst I'm away.
Gustav and Emil seem to have less health problems, with all the treatment and love they get. I spend quite some money on the darlings, but that's what you do for friends, isn't it.
My health is slowly getting better, as well. Today was the last day of health treatment, and I had dates with three doctors, telling me I had done nicely, my shoulder would be fine again soon, but I should keep on doing lots of exercises at home and not start work before end of October. Sigh. Was that good news, too?

Autumn sun

After a week of cold, rainy days (and nights), spent with health treatments in the mornings, followed by malls and furniture shops openings (lots of special offers, like nice shoes by Everybody for me, peasoup with sausages for 50 cent at Möbel Kraft, and blockbusters at the world's biggest Media Markt causing mob hitting Alexa), the weekend topped it all!
The sun was getting out already yesterday, and shining beautifully all day today, Friday evening and all day Saturday I strolled along the art projects on Potsdamer Straße and recitals around Akazienkiez, and today a bit off the track from children's heaven Potsdamer Platz had a wonderful lazy afternoon at the riverside close by "Haus der Kulturen der Welt".
Next week will be the last with hospital treatments for me, but whether I will be able to start work again Monday after next, the doctors couldn't promise me yet. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm logging in to Second Life, when my shoulder allows me to, and wait for the first strike in SL ever to start. If you want to know more about it, and feel like helping the IBM strikers, check here. I'm the woman with the red curly hair at the UNI hut on Commonwealth Island, by the way... :)

Sent a message with Dylan

He passed this message to my kids on today. Nice, huh!

The future of german trains

To stop this nonsense, click here and join the action.

Autumn joys

Autumn is back. Body and soul are pampered all through the week, with exercises, massages and lessons on health to start the day with, and literature and music to end it.
Tonight it's the opening of "Schöneberg liest", "Last night of the Proms" on BBC3, later on tv, and tomorrow I'll have a curious look to some buildings on the "Day of the monuments".
Otherwise life is running smoothly and without much ado. Autumn is here for sure, grey sky with a few sunny spells, when everybody is sitting outside in the streetwalk cafes, turning their faces to the sun. First cold nights allow for candles, hot tea and biscuits after a nice hot bath with lovely fragrances. Time to pack away summer dresses and look for warm sweaters and boots. I found I needed a new coat and got a lovely one. Weird, whenever I wear it in posh shops, I'm greeted by the people working there like I had lots of money to spend. ;)
Now off to saturday market at Winterfeldtplatz to get some autumn fruit, apples and nuts, and a few flowers to decorate the flat with.

Balin

Not many news from me: I'm going to the healthcenter every morning (early morning!) from Monday to Friday, do workouts and wellness and lots of healthy stuff, and in the evenings at home I'm just tired from all the efforts to get well.
Gustav is really sick now, he has a broken spine on top of all the other problems, so he needs lots of medicine and good food and especially all my love, which of course he gets.
Inspite the hurting shoulder (the more so with all the exercises) I managed to get into Second Life to a union meeting last Thursday. Ahhhhh, I miss work and my internet jobs!
In the meantime, whilst the days are getting shorter, darker and rainier, and autumn is approaching fast, enjoy the movie and the song on Berlin!