beautiful, quirky chelsea

chelsea is an awful poser place, but it has its beautiful, unusual and different corners. if you know where to look. like houses that are just a 1m-deep fassade, the first street of london, a magic forest, fantastic modernist buildings and a rainbow-coloured street that is clearly a left-over from swinging london.

b.b. boris

i just read for the first time about the events in qana on mazen's blog. nothing that would not sound like a cliche comes to mind, so i won't comment in this posting. mazen has said it all again anyway, in a very poignant drawing.

i originally wanted to post about the history of the word *bonk*, coined in 1986 by the daily star in a loose context with boris becker. or so google and my friend lee say. it was the year that b.b. won wimbledon (first or second time?). i'm impressed that leo.org has it listed! do you non-native english-speakers know what *to get a bonk on the nose* means? or what *a bonk* is in american english? a clue: nothing obscene, but may be used in a sports context. which brings us back to boris b. the timing seems not quite right though. boris was not yet known for doing women in broom cupboards then, so where's the connection in 1986?

helpless

another moving drawing by mazen in lebanon. his most all-in-a-nutshell yet, i think.


i'm travelling to the middle east again soon (not to lebanon or israel), and have feelings of happiness and anticipation about it, but i'm also scared. scared to see the mood has changed, that people are more cautious, nervous, maybe aggressive towards westerners. on the other hand, i'd hate to see that all is business as usual in jordan. that would be weird.

i shall see.

three more colours

3 colours: black

3 colours: red

3 colours: gold

the UN

UN-helpful
UN-decided
UN-able
UN-free
UN-equal
UN-necessary

a quote comes to my mind when i think of the united nations: *all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.*

three colours

three colours: blue

three colours: white

three colours: red

minimania und kein ende

diesmal alle minis des modells rote socken.



(kleiner scherz)

call me!

today is the day of unusual phone calls. my cousin woke me up calling at 7 am from damascus. the connection was so bad i could hear my own and my cousin's voice. though my voice was more nervous laughter than coherent speech. then lots of unknown-mobile-number and one withheld-number calls tried to get answered. sorry, i don't do disguise, and if it's important, you'll leave a message, right?

also wanted is the owner of mysterious number 16160000.

last but not least my dentist called. that was not strange. only painful. ouch.

thinking of lebanon

i cannot believe the mayflower hotel, the hamra district in beirut, the corniche, should all be raized to the ground. i lived there, had a beer there, walked there only weeks ago. and was annoyed about the traffic. i am cynical or just old enough to know that asking *why?* is not going to help. but neither is ignorance of what's happening. and not for the first time!

mazen kerbaj, lebanese artist, thanks the israelis in his blog for bringing back childhood memories. i follow his cartoons daily. i also try not to forget the real beirut, full of art, history, cafes, and happy small talk. everyone, have a look at the time out beirut magazine.

patriot act

ok ok. patriot *act* could in fact and for a german speaker in particular, imply a naked person in the picture, next to that lovely flag. but... dream on!

summer in the city

in case you were wondering where i'd been - with my feet in an ice water bucket! it's hot in london. the skirts go where they should not and the tube melts.

the latest summer pics for you:

it's hot. even the stones complain.
hair.
hair not.

and the ultimately final on the german-italian friendship:
look where the horse's ass faces. (ass, face... funny!) but that's not nice!

peace!

peace no peace. i'm shocked to see the news these days.
bombs on beirut, the airport in flames.
i was there only weeks ago.
it makes a difference to me.
lebanon strikes back. the holyland is burning again.
it is sick.
i'm sick of it.

beirut in may.

mon dieu!

never forget

found this in a shop window in bishops stortford, north of london, en route to stansted.


hurra! and i had feared after the world cup that the english had dropped the wonderful, their only, association with germany. thank you, english nation, for reminding us!

that's why the world needs interpreters!

babelfish experiment.

original:
*mit ihrem kopf in seinem schoß,
ließ er vor glück das lenkrad los.*

babelfish translation:
*with its head in its,
released he shot the steering wheel before luck.*

fish again, babel!

my interpretation:
*her head it gave him so much joy,
he moaned, they swerved, it was good-bye.*

how to improve football - number 5

today: one camera per player

every home viewer should be able to watch all the moves of their favourite, or most feared, player. therefore, cameras should follow every player individually, for viewers to select the calves of their choice with the remote. if that's not possible because there may not be enough space for all those cams, just point the cam at zizou and figo. i'll be happy with that.

the party is over

it was such fun to be german in london in the past weeks! a poem which i have nothing else to add to:

nach all den nächten, die voll sternen hingen,
nun diese dumpfe, trübe, nasse nacht,
als wär die arbeit aller zeit vollbracht
und niemals wieder hoffnung auf gelingen.

wohin die schritte weisen, da das ziel
ertrank im nebeligen grau der wege?
ich such nur noch, wo ich mich niederlege,
den stillen platz. verloren ist das spiel.

ich höre vieler menschen schritte tasten -
verirrte menschen, einsam, müd und arm -
und keiner weiß, wie wohl ihm wär und warm,
wenn wir einander bei den händen faßten. - erich muehsam, wir geben nicht auf!

weblog of the day: gianluigi buffon

their finest hour... not

on the itv news today: talk about battles, attacks, devastation. and because the news from the world cup were all so bad, they remembered and reminded everyone of the first world war victory (*the somme remembered*) straight afterwards.

some things will never change. i shall have an after eight now.

song of the day: gute nacht freunde (good night friends)

how to improve football - number 4

today: penalty-shootout

someone please teach the english how to hit a penalty.