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

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.

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.