Life is much better down where it’s wetter

Posted on November 10, 2010 by mpfl

… take it from me!

As different aspects of life take over, I find it difficult to find the time and energy to write posts for this blog. I must admit that maintaining three blogs, Facebook and Twitter makes it feel like I’m repeating myself sometimes.

All that aside, the purpose of this post: scuba diving is awesome.

I learnt how to dive on my recent trip to Cairns. I sincerely hoped that the exposure to diving there would result in a lifelong hobby and I’ve recently made that happen by signing up to upgrade my dive certification to Advanced Open Water. Furthermore, I’m going on a night dive tonight off the Ammunition Jetty at Woodman’s Point here in Perth. I’ve only been on one night dive and I’m extremely glad to go on another one!

There are many things about diving that really fascinate me. The first is that I’ve always loved being in, around and under water, but was never really good at swimming (I failed Grade 3 swimming several times before my parents stopped sending me to swimming lessons). The feeling of serenity and weightlessness when being underwater is very calming.

Secondly, diving introduces you to a whole new world. The animals you see down there are completely different to the ones you see topside. Fish will let you get a lot closer before running away, as well. I imagine that humans are a smaller perceived threat.

Thirdly, I can combine it with the other new hobby of mine: photography!

I’m really keen to go diving regularly and I’m stoked that I’ve finally managed to kick myself into doing some in my own city. Only going diving when you’re on holidays can make dives few and far between…

My next trick is to sort out how I can easily take dive equipment to dive sites on my bike. I’ve just ordered a versatile bike trailer and I’m hoping to design a method of pulling ~50kg of dive equipment without it coming to grief on a sharp turn or when I have to brake suddenly. The added bonus of getting a bike trailer is that I’ll be able to carry a carton of beer home on my bike

Burgeoning hobby

Posted on August 29, 2010 by mpfl

So I’m trying, and failing, to avoid developing an interest in photography. This weekend I went to the Perth Zoo and also Kings Park and managed to take some pretty nice photos with a borrowed Canon EOS 400D. It was lots of fun, working out how to use the camera. I took around 1500 photos in total, but culled them way down to about 30 photos that I actually liked.

Something else new that I’ll be learning soon is scuba diving. To mix this with the photography, I bought a waterproof housing for my point’n'shoot Canon Ixus 100 IS. Hopefully I’ll get some nice shots!

At the moment, I think I’ll buy a DSLR after I get back from my upcoming trips. I can’t really afford to spend the money before, even though it would be advantageous to have a nice camera with me. However, I like travelling light and carrying a “real” camera plus accessories would just annoy me.

I’m also interested in astrophotography and also microphotography. Unfortunately, I don’t own a telescope, nor do I own a microscope. I’m also not too flash at preparing slides, either! I’ll work something out… I know lots of scientists

Brisvegas, baby!

Posted on July 16, 2010 by mpfl

My current job involves me being on the forefront of library and educational technology (if you like, you can read my work blog).

There’s a national library conference happening in Brisbane in September, and I thought I’d go! I’ve never been to Queensland, so I’m going to tack a two week holiday on the end of it. I know a few people over there and I’m looking forward to catch up with them.

My wallet smarted at the conference registration fees, but then breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed that Virgin Blue’s happy hour sale today included flights to Brisbane – only $189! Whoo!

Anyway, photos will be plentiful when I come back and I’m sure I’ll be tweeting and foursquaring my way across the state come September.

Not quite dead

Posted on July 5, 2010 by mpfl

Well, my journey came to an end a few months ago. Got depressed, et al, didn’t feel like updating this blog.

I’m going to fiddle around with things and see how I can use this blog/domain for my new life back in Perth! I’m already planning a few trips, so “Rambling journeys” seems like it’s still an appropriate title.

For those keeping score, things I’m currently up to:

Living in Subiaco, a delightful suburb of Perth
Working at Murdoch University
Dating (that’s about all I’ll say on this topic in this blog)
Being involved in a community garden in West Leederville

London calling

Posted on January 20, 2010 by mpfl

Ullo ullo ullo, what’s all this then?

I survived my Ausflug to London, and did not end up spending NYE floating in the Thames, clutching a bottle of vodka. In fact, the whole trip was rather sedate and terribly polite. Londoners are a total breath of fresh air, compared to Berliners!

I bought the absolute cheapest tickets that I could find, which meant that I spent more time on public transport getting to and from airports than I did in the air itself. Furthermore, my flight to London was delayed by an hour. I love Ryanair.

Regardless, I’ve been back for a couple of weeks, now. This means, of course, that the whole trip there seems like some sort of distant dream.

London is a great city. I could certainly see myself living there. I probably even stand a greater chance of employment there than here in Berlin. In fact, I registered with a recruitment agency that specialises in finding jobs for librarians while I was there. Wish me luck!

What did I do? What did I see? Lots of things! Museums! Architecture! A big black box where someone warned me before I smacked into a wall! There’s some photos over in the Photos section. I’m feeling a little too lazy to make this post a properly enjoyable one.

So move along, nothing to see here.

PS many thanks to my awesome hostess Lisa, who put up with me for a week.

Baby, it’s cold outside

Posted on December 18, 2009 by mpfl

Goodness, it’s been over four months since I updated! So much for blogging about my journeys…

To be fair, I haven’t really done much travelling. My focus was on finding work, and now I’ve found some! I’m doing translation and customer support for a computer games company in Berlin. The pay isn’t much, but it’s enough to keep me off the streets.

Travel is on the cards, however! On the 27th of December, I’ll be flying out to London. I’ll be returning on the 3rd of January. I’ve never been to London, so I’m quite excited about it. Maybe I’ll decide I like it better than Berlin and move there

I’m also quite curious about where I’m going to spend NYE… Maybe floating face down in the Thames, clutching a bottle of vodka?

Of bikes and dogs

Posted on August 13, 2009 by mpfl

Coming from Perth, there are two things that are immediately noticeable about the way people live here in Berlin. Bicycles and canine companions are far more visible. Every single major road will have either a bike path, or a shared bus/bike lane. Dogs are also allowed in shopping centres, restaurants and on public transport. In Perth, only assistance dogs are afforded the same priveliges.

Unfortunately, I have observed that the popularity of dogs and bikes leads to some tensions. Let me tell you some stories…

The most common type of bicycle in Berlin is a city bike. They have big, padded seats with springs, fat tyres and frames that remind me of exercise bikes more than a “real” bike. They’re built for short-distance trips to the shops or to friend’s houses. The problem, though, is that they are incredibly slow. I’ve never seen anybody ride one faster than 10km/hour.

On my recent trip back from Potsdam, I was riding along one of the narrow bike paths along a major road. These paths have very little room to manoeuvre. I was cruising along at between 20-30km/hour. My heart rate was up and I was thoroughly enjoying the sweatiness. Suddenly, there was a middle-aged woman on a city bike in front of me, riding in the very middle of the lane.

She either didn’t notice me or didn’t care, as she made no effort to give me any space to overtake. When it was safe, I nipped onto the adjacent footpath and quickly passed her. I didn’t think any more of it. What really got me was what she did next…

I came up to a red light. Bicycle lanes have their own traffic lights, and the white line at which you have to stop is generally about 2 or 3 metres away from the intersection. The delightful lady that I had previously passed rode off the cycle path, onto the footpath and forced her way through the pedestrians until she was at the kerb of the intersecting road. When she had a green light, she crossed the road, went back onto the cycle path and was in front of me again. Of course, I had to overtake her again. Unfortunately, this happened several times.

Her behaviour irritated me a little. I suppose that you, dear reader, will have some sort of opinion based on what sort of cyclist you are. Needless to say, I felt that she was extremely rude, inconveniencing cyclists and pedestrians alike.

Now, my dog story. I wasn’t personally involved in this one, but it’s certainly a good example of how Berlin’s variety of people and lifestyle sometimes don’t mesh very well.

I was sitting in Alexanderplatz, waiting for a friend. She was running late, so I enjoyed the chance sit down and watch the people go by. I was approached by no fewer than two beggars, but that’s a topic for a later post.

There were many people sitting around me, including a reasonably well-dressed white woman with a large white dog on a lead. I’m afraid I couldn’t identify the breed.

Suddenly, her dog started barking – I looked up and noticed three bohemian looking gentlemen, complete with dreadlocks, numerous piercings and well-loved clothing walking by. Accompanying them was another large dog, a brown one of also unknown species.

The brown dog looked at the white dog, sniffed the air and made a couple of steps towards it. The bohemian gentlemen just ignored the barking dog and kept walking. The brown dog decided to follow their lead, ignoring the white dog. It was a perfectly happy and harmless encounter, until the well-dressed lady started yelling at the bohemian gentlemen, telling them to keep their dog on a lead. The gentlemen yelled back and the whole thing degenerate into an argument at 4km/hour.

I found the whole situation quite amusing, really. The brown dog was incredibly well behaved and obedient, and certainly didn’t need to be on a lead. If anybody needed any kind of lead or muzzle, it was the owner of the white dog.

Right! That’s enough storytelling for today. Not many pictures either, I’m sorry. Next week I’m flying to visit my grandmother in the Rhineland. There are bound to be many pictures of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

Touristing Berlin

Posted on August 3, 2009 by mpfl

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. It has been over two weeks since my last post.

The past two weeks have been reasonably eventful. Some of the stuff I’ve gotten up to:

Offered a job as a walking tour guide
Commenced training as walking tour guide
Stopped training because I realised the job was utter shit
Showed a friend around Berlin
Incremented my age (in years) by one
Invited to an interview in Vienna

The biggest benefit of doing the training to become a tour guide is that I went on a few tours and visited a few parts of Berlin I probably wouldn’t have, normally. These include the Sachsenhausen concentration/work camp.

Sachsenhausen was not specifically a death camp, although many thousands of people still died there. It was initially set up to be a prison for political prisoners, and a way to encourage German Jews to leave the country. It was also the site of experimentation into efficient methods of killing. Most of the dead, though, were Soviet soldiers (The USSR never signed the Geneva Convention, so Soviet POWs were not treated humanely by Nazi Germany).

A quick visit from an old friend resulted in a whirlwind tour of Berlin’s Greatest Hits including the Brandenberg Gate, a Bugatti Veyron, the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Schloß Charlottenburg and some other places I can’t remember.

We also attempted some urban exploration. We hopped over a wall surrounding an old 19th century building called the Eierhäuschen. We spent about an hour trying to find a way into the main building, but only managed to enter some cellars that didn’t lead up to the rest of the house.

We wanted to visit the Spreepark – an old East Berlin amusement park that closed down a few years ago. Unfortunately, our visit was short-lived as we spotted some other people and didn’t want to find out whether they were legitimately there, or just exploring like us.

My God! Help me survive this deadly love

On Saturday I celebrated my 28th birthday (my 2nd birthday in Germany – the first was my 18th) with my family. It was a fantastic evening; one cousin gave me a bottle of vodka which we managed to empty over the course of the night. My other cousins gave me a bottle of Cointreau, which will not be wasted in a similar manner.

This morning I was, once again, woken up by a call from a potential employer in Vienna – they had already called last week to make sure I was really interested in the job. I managed to score an interview, so I’ll be visiting Vienna on the 11th very quickly. A lovely Kiwi couple I met here will also be in Vienna that day, so we’ll wander around the city after the interview is finished.

I’ve also planned a trip to visit my grandmother in the Rheinland. It’s a supremely beautiful part of Germany – there’ll be plenty of photos.

Accidentally Potsdam

Posted on July 13, 2009 by mpfl

I decided on the weekend that I would take my bike out and do what I bought it for – some mountain biking. However, I stumbled upon a path that led me to Potsdam, City of Kings and Emperors!

My day started relatively lazy, and it took a lot of motivation to put on my cycling clothes and go somewhere. I had previously decided that I’d go to the Grunewald and see what the tracks there were like. I figured they couldn’t be as bad as the MTB track that I cut my teeth on – the one that gave me scars.

I kitted up my trusty steed and, being lazy, hopped on the S-Bahn to get to the Grunewald. It would involve about twenty minutes of travel and two changeovers to other trains.

I got to Westkreuz train station without many problems, only to discover that the train line I wanted to take wasn’t running at all! A friendly driver recommended I catch his train to the Messe Süd station, as that wasn’t much farther from Grunewald than the Grunewald station itself.

My iPhone led me the way along towards the Grunewald, and I stumbled across this:

One of the famed cycle roads of Berlin! No cars or pedestrians allowed, only cyclists! I was intrigued and wanted to know where it headed, so I decided to follow it. Sure enough, I eventually came across a sign.

My uncle’s girlfriend had already recommended I visit Potsdam, because it’s very pretty. Less than 10km away? Child’s play! I had only already cycled 10km already, so another wouldn’t hurt.

The cycle path was heaven to ride on. Of course, many roadies overtook me, but I was still cruising along at around 30km/h (on an MTB, with knobbly tyres). Unfortunately, the path didn’t not go ALL the way to Potsdam, and I eventually had to share roads with cars and paths with pedestrians.

I passed the Wannsee on the way and tried to master the art of taking a photo of one’s self. I was somewhat successful, but you shan’t see the countless terrible photos I took. Thankfully, a kind tourist was kind enough to take a photo of me when I stopped just after the bridge into Potsdam itself.

I wandered around Potsdam, occasionally checking a map on my iPhone, and discovered that there was a large park not far from my location. I meandered along, trying to find it, and came across Sanssouci Park, locationof Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Eastern entrance to the Sansoucci Palace gardens

The only problem was that I wasn’t allowed to enter the gardens themselves because I had a bike with me. I wasn’t even allowed to wheel it along! I wasn’t going to let my bike out of my sight, so instead I decided to find some lunch.

Once again, with my trusty iPhone, I located some nearby restaurants and one immediately caught my eye, Café KieselStein. They claimed to be organic, vegetarian and smoke-free.

After a hearty lunch of red lentil soup with chestnuts, spinach and potato bake with feta, an organic wheat beer, espresso and a piece of chocolate truffle torte, I felt re-energised and revitalised and ready to tackle the ride home!

Entree! Red lentil soup with chestnuts and fresh parsley

Turning, once again, to my trusty iPhone, I calculated a route that would take me home along the shortest route possible.

Berlin has cycle ways along every major road, so I simply assumed that this path would get me home without many issues. Thankfully, I was right (even though I accidentally rode the wrong way for a few kilometres). Unfortunately, I did not have the presence of mind to take any photos on the way home…

As it is, I got home, eventually, and hopped straight under the shower.

The result of the day? A pleasant, unplanned trip and 53km of cycling.

Selling myself to the highest bidder

Posted on July 11, 2009 by mpfl

After a rather slow start, and a very enjoyable weekend with my friend (not my sister) Tamara, I’ve really started applying for jobs in earnest. I’ve been doing this from the comfort of my home office:

The Airport Express I brought is a boon, as I can leech my uncle’s wireless from every room in this rather large house. Incidentally, my new camera arrived, which is why I’m able to show you these lovely photographs.

I’ve applied for a wide variety of positions, including:

English language trainer (already been rejected)
Librarian
Library technician (sort of)
Library assistant
Tour guide (and pub crawl guide)
Customer service representative
Web analyst

All of these jobs, other than the Customer service assistant, are located in Berlin itself. The three library jobs are the sum total of library jobs for which I’m actually qualified. There’s a couple more, but I would need either a degree in agriculture, be able to speak some eastern European languages or have years of experience leading a team of people.

The Customer service representative position is with an international games company, and is situated in either France or Ireland. I was going to wait a little while before applying for it, but I’m starting to go stir crazy. Can’t go out without money, can’t get money without a job.

Wish me luck!