Still on holidays ...

Dear All,

Great to hear that winter is coming up in Europa Spring arrived in Canberra. Kiri did you already put the skis on? Congrats on the job Raul, so this means we will see soon pictures of Bonn? Sorry took that long for posting again, but surviving is a full-time job without you guys, so we are trying to make the best out of it ... Richard by the way your bike is still in the same spot where you left it, amazing to believe.. but no one has tried to steal it. Kia any nice good-looking Swedish (girl or boy) that would like to come and enjoy the beautiful and fantastic city of canberra for a while to work in the lab?? Is so boring... (Maarten has included the "boy" i mean "girl")

Ok all, have fun

Maarten and Paula


Wombeyan caves, Blue mountains













Wenthworth Falls, Blue mountains

















Champagne pools, Rotorua,
New Zealand









"Mt. Doom" for the
lord-of-the-ring fans
Whakapapa, N.Z.






Brother on top of some mountain,
Mt. Tongariro

Raul hat einen Job - WORKERS UNITE!

Arbeit macht Frei!!! Raul got a job and did not tell to anyone... At least, not to me... F...ucker... But I know he deserves and I am nearly as happy as I would be if I got a [good] job! Well done!

Wedding

It's almost a month late. But here are a few photos from our wedding in the Rockies (Gold Hill, Colorado to be precise). Alex and I are currently stuck overnight in the Washington DC airport and I figured I'd better make use of the wireless here.

The wedding was great. We had such a fun time partying with everyone from 11am to midnight (even though neither one of us could get any sleep the night before). The most amazing part was seeing a room full of friends who had never met and were getting a chance to for the first time. We wish you could have all been there too, but hope you'll find Boulder on your way to someplace in the near future.

Love, K&A

Bonorva: Sunset from the kitchen window at my mom's place

With Paula and Kia on the last night in Canberra

The last night in Canberra

Ischia Island: at the site of "La Madonna di Zara", where the Virgin Mary is supposed to have appeared to three local chldren. My aunt told me I should go there to ask for a miracle for my finger...Obviously, it did not work!

Ischia island's Catholic fervor: local believer at the "Madonna di Zara" site. The Virgin Mary is supposed to have appeared in this forest...

Ischia island: crosses by the sea

Naples: city center with Vesuvius Volcano in the background

Naples: Piazza Mazzini by night

Pompei: Roman eroticism on a mural at the brothel. Clients could learn how to do it from the paintings...

Pompei: You won't believe it: this is the (fallic) sign to the brothel on the main road of Pompei. Among the romans, sex was seriously an open matter! If you follow the fallic arrow you will really find the place to please your senses straight away...So smart!

Naples: political graffiti in 2007: against every form of power

Pompei: Roman political writing in 100 B.C.

In Naples' old city with some friends from the conference

Subway in Naples: the 500, a Fiat car from 1960s, has become a legend in contemporary art

Still alive!

Ciao All, It is nice to hear that you are all doing well. Sorry for such a long silence since you and I left the Capital. A lot has happened...The first of the many events was the fracturing of my finger dancing salsa at Joannes' farewell party. Raul, I came to see you but you had already gone. So I thought I had to animate the party dancing salsa. I animated it so well that I broke my left ring finger! Hence I spent all night and the next morning at the emergency waiting for a bloody doctor to come and see me. Raul, sorry I could not even say goodbye to you by phone. I returned to Italy with a cast that did not keep my finger straight. As a consequence the finger is fucked and the option of having surgery seems to be the only possible way to fix it...So please guys, keep you fingers crossed for me as I cannot cross mine at the moment!Apart from that I am well and have been enjoying a lot being back home. Naples was fantastic, I had the best pizza ever. What a crazy city! Pompei and Ischia (an island off Naples) were great too!I will post some pictures of my trip to southern Italy asap on the blog. I have been back in Sardinia since a month. HOw nice to hug my mom and friends! And to see that my cat and dog had not forgotten me! They are both as fat as they were when I left them.Working and writing at home has been good so far. The quiet natural environmet helps a lot. No distractions at all in my small village in the middle of nowhere in Sardinia.I have enjoyed the pictures you posted on the blog. They are so cool!Kia and Rich your new house looks nice and cosy. The blu sofa is great!OK, ciao for now. I will be in touch soon.Huge hugsAnto

SNOW!!!!

Hey everyone,

Well it's snowing in October! Started on Friday, and has been going rain/snow/rain/snow ever since. Mostly it's not hanging around for long, but today everything is dusted with white as the snow has been falling constantly since last night.


This might seem a little unexciting to most, but this is the very first time I"ve ever seen snow fall, so I'm terribly excited about it. The people in my lab were laughing at how excited I was all day on Friday - until I had to ride home in it of course, when it decided to turn the consistency of a sno-cone and i got soaked and frozen ;) Here are some pics:



Of the view out of my window, note snow on all the rooves - oki so it's just a little bit, but it's only October!

Taken whilst standing in my front garden, (in my new ski jacket) and I'm a little miffed you can't see all the snow falling, it's pretty regular, but at least you can see it on the plants ;)

And of course, the ubiquitous snowman - though ice-man might be more appropriate ;) This is the same table I sat at last weekend for a lazy sunday breakfast in the sun.

So whilst it may be colder in Boulder, it's snowing mucher in muenchen (you try and rhyme muenchen!) People have already been skiing up in the mountains for a couple of weeks :) Hopefully I'll be able to get up there sometime soon and learn to snowboard. Or ski. Or both, or whatever.

Bis Dann!

Tchuss!

Kiri :)

More, more Lisbon!! And without pictures of me.

Dear all,

I have been spending my mornings exploring Lisbon so I can document it for you. I am leaving all the cool places in and around Lisbon for when some of you guys and/or Kiro come over and take some photos with actual people.

Enjoy,

Raul

A peacock, a very common bird in the gardens of Lisbon (in this case, Campo Martires da Pátria).

The Medical Sciences Faculty of the New University of Lisbon

Santana Causeway in Lisbon, a very quirky narrow street that goes down along the Bairro da Encarnação. You can see the Tagus River in the background.

Overview of S. José Street in downtown Lisbon. It's where all the theatres are. It's quite cool although packed with tourists.

It's colder in Boulder!

Hello!

Things are going well (albeit colder) here in Boulder. The first ski resort opened up last week. Alex and I have gotten our season passes and hope to make it up to the mountains next weekend. I wanted to put up more photos, but our intermittent internet connection (ok, we're stealing wireless from the neighbours) isn't good enough for multiple photos. So I'll post more from a coffee shop later. But I'll leave you with
a couple to give you a laugh.

This is of a sign posted on the main road near our house.



This one is from the world's larges hotsprings in Glenwood Springs, CO (near Aspen). They had this huge sign with information about the hotsprings. Where are the UNITS? Alex was aghast.



More later!

P.S. Kiri, I had shmellows with your sister last night.

Hej my friends!

Just wanted to tell that we are showing A Dog's Heart to everyone we meet here (almost!). We went to two dinner parties this week end and brought the DVD both nights. People are so impressed and it's fun how different each one find it.
I have to say I like it more and more for every time.... I don't know if I'm getting a bit nostalgic....

I miss you guys! Lucy and Marteen how are you holding up the party at "John Chang school of medical research"?

Raul - you have to post pics of your self too! And Kiri, keep up the posting, it's so nice to see that you're having fun in Munich.

I got an email from Antonella - a one mile long one so I haven't answered yet (sorry Anto, haha, but I love it ;-)..... ) and she seems to have a wonderful time home in Italy.

I also got a hilarious email from Antti - so I can report he is doing good even though he doesn't take the time to post here.... (pressure, pressure!).

Take care and viva la revolucao!

More Lisbon!

Due to lack of pictures from our contributors in the US and Australia, I decided to play the tourist in Lisbon card once more and grace you with some additional photos of our fair city.

Enjoy,

Raul

P.S.- Kaori I know you are in your Honeymoon and the like, but you could put some of the pics you had on facebook in the blog as well (?).

"Bica" Street elevator. It carries people from down there close to the river up the narrow and steep street that connects "uptown" to the riverside area.

Statue of D. João das Regras with S. Jorge Castle (of the 7th-8th Century) in the background.
The ruins of the Carmo convent. It's from the 13th century (I think) and was partially destroyed during the 1755 earthquake. It's considered tabu, apparently, to reconstruct ruins that mark a major event in Portuguese history, such as a catastrophic earthquake that destroyed most of the city and killed 1\3 of it's population.


The inside of the main Church area of the Carmo convent ruins (the roof colapsed during the ensuing fire).

Detail of the ruins

The usual dude with baby and sword routine looking very angelical (i.e. pedophile)

Portugal at it's best!

View of the downtown area from the top of the Sta. Justa Elevator.

View of Downtown - Mouraria (old town) - Castle area

View of the Sé de Lisboa, a former mosque of the 9th Century Mourish ocupation. When Lisbon was retaken by our first King (D. Afonso Henriques) in 1150ish, it was converted to a Christian Church.

Pedro V Plaza in the Rossio area (downtown) with the Maria II theater in the background.