Sunday, August 26, 2007

to play or not to play

The season for the Victorian state league is over for my team. We had a terrific game yesterday, which we unfortunately lost in the 5th set (19-21). Maybe it was my best game ever, it was just fantastic.
Now a new team is being formed to play in the Australian league. This team will travel to Sydney and Canberra to play against other teams from all over Australia. I joined the training today and it was just great (the coach used to play in the Chinese national team, it's just unbelievable). Anywho, they are still looking for players who are committed to spend a lot of time and money to play and I have to reach a decision until tomorrow. Hmm, would be a wonderful challenge, just to train and travel, but time and money are biiiiggg issues, hmm....

Saturday, August 25, 2007

thanks

I had a great birthday yesterday. thanks for all the text messages, mails, gifts, calls... and the time you devoted to me (and sorry to those where I haven't had time to reply yet :)

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

on my way up to Queensland

I'm about the leave the office and will fly up to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland tomorrow morning - my first holiday in Australia - yipieeehhh!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

In the gym

I've started gym training last week. It's related to my research but also out of personal interest to become better in volleyball (my goal is to jump higher than Mika, my 2.05cm tall colleague :). It's much more fun than I thought (thanks to my trainer Peter), but it's also far more difficult than I had assumed.
Anyway, my colleagues suggested that I should use myself as a case study and take a picture each day to track the progress. Not sure if that's a good idea :)

Monday, August 06, 2007

movie: forever never anywhere

Does this movie title ring a bell? The original title of the film is "Für immer nie am Meer". It's an Austrian movie by two of my favourite comedians, namely Stermann & Grissemann. (the trailer is on youtube)

I almost couldn't believe it, but I found this film in the program of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). The film was shown last Friday and the huge cinema was almost sold out. I didn't have high expectations, but I thought it could be nice to get some kind of experience from at home, listen to Austrian dialect, music and jokes. And the film didn't disappoint me. It felt almost like sitting in a comedy program by Stermann & Grissemann. I enjoyed it a lot and I think my two German-speaking colleagues who joined me might also had a good experience. But I'm not so sure if the subtitles in the film provided the same experience (I'm not even sure if it was the same for non-Austrians). Anyway, there must have been a few more Austrians in the audience, because a couple of people also laughed with me during the jokes that definitely only Austrians could get (or consider funny).

To sum up, I had a good Austrian experience here in Melbourne, and I think I can recommend the movie, at least to FM4 and/or Stermann & Grissemann fans.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Visitors to Melbourne

My mum and her friend Elisabeth spent the last week at my place and explored the city and its surroundings. In their few days they saw far more than I've seen so far (I'm still waiting to see my first kangaroo). We had a great time, but now I'm looking forward (to working and) my travels in Australia, which will bring me to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland (where I will meet (not only :) my mum again) and to Adelaide in the next half year. And of course I'm looking forward to welcoming friends from Austria in November (And I thought I would be far away and have time to study :)