More pictures from the end of 2007

My courtyard in the snow


Alvarina freezing



View over the valley from my window

Mom and I

Anto and Dott. Cara, the surgeon that saved my hand

Anto the day after the operation

eating pizza with my hand-injured fellows at the hospital

view from the hospital

my roommates eating the gourmet hospital food

After the operation...

Antonietta, one of my roomates

My roomates (Alessia and Simona) at the hospital

With Paolo and Giulio in Venezia

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Ciao ragazzi,

I hope you are all fine and enjoying Christmas holidays withyour beloved. Here in Sardinia it has been a 24-hours non-stop eating with family and friends, just like at Kioloa last year with some of you (still remember that with joy). I wanted to congratulate with Kia and Raul for getting the jobs and with Kiri for having her first paper published. Well done, Canberra survivors! All the ANU will be proud of you!
Life in Italy has been fine, apart that I have been hospitalized tohave surgery to my left hand a few weeks ago. Luckily all is fine now, the hand will be functioning well soon, according to the doctors (but when I see that idiot that broke my finger in Canberra I am going to chop his head off!!).
A trip to Venice before the operation and snow in my village after helped to cheer me up. And the great news is that I got a very good consultancy job in Laos for twoi months. So, in January and February I will be useful for society again, after 3 months of easy-cozy life in the Sardinian countryside. Just what I needed before heading back to exciting Canberra to finish my PhD. Paula and Marteen, please hang on there, do not leave!
Enjoy some pictures I took over the last few months.

I send you a big hug and wish you a fantastic 2008. May the New Year bring you all you wish.

Anto

Venezi: Biennale of Art. by Cheri Samba (Congo)





Venezia: Biennale of Art. Spanish pavillion


Venezia: unexpected visitor at the Biennale


Venezia: Biennale of Art: with my sister and brother-in-law


Venezi: Biennale of Art: diving into the lagoon




Venezia: Anto with Giulio (right) and Paolo (left) at an opening of an architect studio on the Canal Grande



Venezia: gondolino on the Canal Grande

Merry Christmas from Raúl and Kiri!!

It's alive!!! It's Alive!!!!

Heyyy!!!

Today has been a good week! We managed to resurect the two furnaces we have here in the lab from the dead! When I got here, they had 2 hight temperature furnaces sitting there which did not work. Not so anymore! Thanks to the skills of doctor Frankenstein here, and his lovely assistants (actually they did mot of the work) managed to bring them back to life after a year or so of them gathering dust! This means I might be able to start running experiments after the new years!! Yay!!! And the cool thing is that in here you can get diploma students to run the experiments for you! Double yay!!!

Hugs and merry Christmas to everybody!

Raúl

Myself, Vera (left - PhD student) and Julia (right - Diploma student) pretending to be operating the furnace.

After a long while (e.g. a year), the furnace finally fires up to 1300ºC!!!

Green car!

Hey!!!!!

I know this is not exactly about my life in Bonn, but I thought I could share this with you guys. Check this Austrian blog out, which shows different models of green, emission-free electric cars, hybrids, solar cells, and highly efficient batteries. It is important that people are made aware that there actually exists technology in the world that can run without the use of fossil fuels. I also recomend viewing of "Who Killed the electric car" to further understand why it is important to know that these breakthroughs exist. The website is called Green Car and you can access it by clicking its name.



The very Swedish Volvo ReCharge, a plug-in hybrid. Richardson and Kia should think of this one :P

Ave Johannes!

To Caesar what is from Caeser, to Johannes what is from Johannes...

When I was writing my Marie Curie Application I had no idea in how to write or where to start... That was when Jo-highness came to help... Danke Dude!!! You're the MC king!

Radiaction

Survivor Canberra is also culture!

Today we will start the Survivor Canberra-pedia... And Today's topic:

Marie Curie: Born in France in 1885, she was a daughter of a prostitute and a soldier. The harsh life of suburban Marseilles made her tough. In the streets, she made her living singing in the streets together to Edith Piaf. With the advent of radio, Marie was hired as a sound effect technician. Knowing almost how every sounds on the street (as the street was her home for many years), Marie Curie was a great asset to the Radio Nacionele de France. Her daily show 'The paw of the Dragon' was a great success in the 1930's. It featured the story of an american ninja that go to Japan to fight a Karate competition, but he get in trouble with the Yakuza for not allowing one of their pupils to win the championship. Until today, the same techniques she used for producing the sounds of a ninja fight in the radio are used in Bruce Lee and Charlie Chan and Charlie Chaplin. She invented the genre 'Radio-action' and patented it. That was the moment her life turns. She sued the American military to use her term (radioaction), that was only created for fictional and peaceful proportion when they (the military) justified the genocide they commit in Japan. She won the case and dedicated most of her fortune to Libertarian causes.

One of the recipients of the Marie Curie money was the Founder of the MLS (Movement for the
Liberation of Sweden from the monarchy and system bolaget), Omar Al Naves (pictured). However, the later ran away with the money and there are anecdotal evidences that he has used the funds in Alzheimer's disease Research.

It's Official!!!!!!!

Hey guys!
It's now super-official, my first paper is in PubMed, in ePub! (PMID: 18041784). Thanks to my (old) lab! Richardson and Kia, Monique and Bruce. I'll have a mug of Glühwein for you all to celebrate tonight ;) Miss you all stacks! I am now officially a real scientist!!!

Well, that turned out crap. You can find it on PubMed for real in any case!
Best!
Kiri

Nach Freiburg

As promised here are some pics from Freiburg! Expect further contributions from P&J and Kiri as well.
It was really nice to see them, and Freiburg is a very picturesque medieval city next to the Black Forest. Laila for a change didn't cry at the sight of me and we actually got along pretty well. ;-)

Little Laila contemplating a styrofoam ball

Pinar, Johannes and Laila, our gracious hosts in downtown Freiburg.

The Christmans Markt near the City Council (Rathaus). It was completely packed full of people to the point we could barely walk. Yet we had plenty of yummy food (wurst anyone?) and gluwein.

Laila and J.J. Letzkus in action through the throng of people in the markt.

Germans like their Münsters big and very high! Hmmmmm...

The Black Forest!!
P&J's street. Really cool with enormous 19th Century houses on the hillside.
Another markt, this time next to the Münster



The ICE high speed trains that I have spent 15 hours in over the last few days. they are really the best way to travel through Germany, especially if you are lucky enough to go 1st class because it was cheaper that weekend! :P
JJ Letzkus and Laila posing for the photo.
Some nice houses in pastel tones in a small town next to Freiburg
View to Downtown Freiburg from the black forest. You can see the Münster from there... well it said so in the sign there, because apparently it wasn't obvious enough just from the view.
Kiri the Green papparazi! She likes trees, especially if they are green. The advantage of being a green papparazzi I am told, is that your famous tree doesn't move all that much :P

Mi casa es su casa!

Hey!!!!

Just some quick pics of my new flat here in Bonn. No furniture yet, so it is quite empty at the moment. I have just arrived here to start working, and good thing too because I am poor enough that I would have to consider prostituting myself to the highest bidder (which wouldn't be much). Hope everything is good with you guys and I hope to have to house ready for visitors sometime in late January to early February. Visitors hey! It means I need someone to visit. ;) Kiri is coming to give the flat "a woman's touch" in a couple of weeks so she will be the first visitor.

Hugs,

Raúl

The bedroom. With my improvised single bed in the floor.

The kitchen which is quite cool and open to the....
Living room! It's quite spacious and I am getting a futon sofa/bed for visitors to enjoy.

Nelson as the new liberal leader!?

Hey!!!

Just a couple of things. Firstly?! Brendan Nelson as the new head of the Liberal Party!??!! Fuckin' awesome!! They couldn't have chosen someone more inept for the job! That's great news for Kevin O'Ruddo! Me and Kiri are going to spend this weekend at Johannes and Pinar's place and have a Ruddfest on behalf of you guys that are left in Canberra!

Secondly, myself, Kiri, Kia and Richardson are eagerly waiting for news of your life in Canberra and the US. Please post more often, even if just to complain about how shitty your day was. ;)

If I can get my camera to work we will post more of J&P and Laila early next week as well as pics of my new flat in Bonn and of the city itself!

Cheerio!

Viva Rudd Zapatta!!

Raúl

Go labour!

But f**k Nelson.....

theage.com

what an asshole!
So glad he's not it power.


Sorry, can't let the Australian politics debate go.

But hurray for the new environment minister, Peter Garrett!!

YAY!!!!

After 11 long years, Australia has finally seen the light! Mr John Coward has been thrown out on his ass, including likely losing his own electoral seat. To an ex-journalist, Maxine McKew.

The lovely Maxine! My new personal hero.

A file photo, Coward vs Rudd ;)

And here's the dynamic duo; on the left, our first female deputy prime-minister Julia Gillard, and Mr Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia, and instigator of what the newspapers are calling the "Ruddslide". The government has so far lost miserably, their coalition of right-wing parties getting 58 seats, with Labor on it's own getting 83. Labor gained 28 new seats, with the liberals only taking two.

In case you care, he is a website you can check on the results from, but with only a few minor seats left to count it's well sorted ;) http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/

Finally makes me proud to be an Australian, lets hope he lives up to the hype.

Kiri

Rain, snow and elections

Need some rain in Canberra? It's pouring down in Uppsala outside my window!
I guess it only took me 3 month to "forget" the Australian view of rain.... as something glorious!
Now its just wet, hard to bike in, gray sky and frustration over NOT having SNOW!!

I demand to get the snow back (it was so beautiful a week ago). Hate unreliable weather, and global warming...

Please all ozzies - remove mr Coward from the power this week end!!!

Saving energy

Just as our black blog consumes less energy when displayed on a computer compared to pages with white background, there is now possible to use Google with a black background.

www.blackle.com


Maybe you knew all ready, but I just read it in a magazine and just wanted to share the info.

I walk in LA!

Dear all. Great to see that everyone is doing well and congrats to Kia and Raul for jobs!

What happens here? The slogan for LA is visible on many taxis: "No one walks in LA". Which is exactly why I walk everywhere. I don't even own a bike, let alone a car. This city, which angels left a long time ago, contains some oddities like freeways that are mainly used for parking huge amounts of cars... The bushfires and bone-dry rivers kind of remind me of Australia, but lets be clear, if you think you had a "miserable existence" in Canberra, you ain't seen nothing yet! My main hobbies are not showing up to work on time, and not writing to my friends blog despite many invites...

The most exciting thing so far has been seeing the Finnish band Nightwish live at the House of Blues!! With their new Swedish singer they are now the best band in some universe. But don't take my word for it, check out their new album. You may also have heard the sad news from Finland - yet another pathetic youth demonstrated the destructive power of an unstable mind - where a school shooting claimed the lives of 6 students, the school nurse and the principal. Since the purpose of the shooter was to gain publicity for his 'revolution', let no more be said about him and his thoughts. ever.

Just last week I experienced an encounter with the world famous US cops. After helping a colleague with some fieldwork in Mexico, we were rolling out our sleeping bags for the night and gazing the stars. Just when we cracked the beers open, two police cars with search lights turned up demanding us to explain our existence... Despite the fact the we were not the burglars they were looking for, and our car was the wrong colour etc, they still searched through our stuff and car. They even thought that someone was hiding in my (empty) sleeping bag on the ground... after I kicked it in the air they finally gave up


Anyway, take care youz all. If you happen to drift in this direction, you'll probably find me cursing in the basement of UCLA Geology surrounded with the pieces of a blown up ex-mass spectrometer...


sorry no photos... who takes pictures of traffic jams anyway??
Antti

Berlin!

Well, I can now say that I have seen the most depressing city in the world. It was great! Absolutely loved it. We went for the weekend and subsisted almost entirely on the most fantastic doner kebap in the world. And partied all weekend, will have to go back and see some more scenery. ;)

Here are some pics though...

On our way! My first trip on the Autobahn!

The Allianz Arena, famous from the world cup

Couple of friends modelling Berlin's beautiful underground, with lovely plastic seats with a design we hypothesised would clash with every piece of clothing not made of the same material.

If anyone saw the Bourne movies, AlexanderPlatz should be eerily familiar...

The world clock in the same square, tells you the time, even what it is in canberra.

No prizes for guessing what this is a part of ;)

Some of the local (ahem) colour ;)

One of us (Totte the Swede) demonstrating the weather - it was lovely.

Part of Berlin's massive central train station, the trains even come in through the roof.

The tree-lined street near where we were sleeping.
The million mile traffic jam - 5hrs to get there, 11hrs to get home, though that might also have had something to do with getting pulled over 3 times in less than 5 km so we could get searched by the cops.
And finally, something you don't see often, someone hanging their head out the window smoking on the autobahn. Only really possible in massive traffic jams - don't try this at home :)

All in all, a great time was had by all. Will be going back I think, it's a pretty awesome city, but in the meantime Raul will entertain me in München :)
Miss you all!
Kiri