brad

More Seville Photos

I’ve uploaded more photos starting near the bottom of the page. Just the Cathedral, Giralda Minaret, Alcazar palace and Plaza de America’s.

Shortly off to Granada to pick up my tent and have a drink with people, then up to Barcelona. Tournament in Geneva on the weekend and then back to Barcelona for the start of June and a couple weeks to kill before hitting the beach tournament in Portugal.

Quotes

I think I’ve said here before that I like quotes. Just after finishing the previous post, I looked at those I’ve jotted down in recent times. With a different context fresh in my mind, some took on new or added meaning. This list is definitely worth a read on its own merits.

(seen in Ubahn Erich Kastnar?? - I need to confirm author and quote)
Nur wer erwachsen wird und ein Kind bleibt ist ein Mensch
Only those who become adult and remain a child is a Mensch.
(For those not living in New York, watching Seinfeld or having Jewish friends or neighbours, a Mensch can be very broadly translated as a respectable person, tio, brother, mate, good bloke etc)

?source-dalai lama? spirituality-qualities of human spirit: love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony which brings happiness to both self and others.

Thoreau quoted in Covey: For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root

Einstein quoted in Covey: The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them

Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Plans are deliberately indefinite, more to travel than to arrive anywhere.

Great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why. One lives longer in order that he may live longer. There is no other purpose. That is what the ghost says.

If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.

quoting Einstein: In the temple of science are many mansions — and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them there.

I feel happy to be here, and still a little sad to be here too. Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.

p53. To all appearances he was just drifting. In actuality he was just drifting. Drifting is what one does when looking at lateral truth. He couldn’t follow any known method of procedure to uncover its cause because it was these methods and procedures that were all screwed up in the first place. So he drifted. That was all he could do.

P74 You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something.

only real learning results from hang-ups, where instead of expanding the branches of what you already know, you have to stop and drift laterally for a while until you come across something that allows you to expand the roots of what you already know. Everyone’s familiar with that.

p85 Schools teach you to imitate. If you don’t imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. Here, in college, it was more sophisticated, of course; you were supposed to imitate the teacher in such a way as to convince the teacher you were not imitating,

The idea that the majority of students attend a university for an education independent of the degree and grades is a little hypocrisy everyone is happier not to expose.

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow.

“You’re not very brave, are you?” Chris says. “No,” I answer, … “But you’d be astonished at how smart I am.”

p125 A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristics of Quality.

Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20-20 hindsight. It’s good for seeing where you’ve been. It’s good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can’t tell you where you ought to go, unless where you ought to go is a continuation of where you were going in the past. Creativity, originality, inventiveness, intuition, imagination…”unstuckness,” in other words…are completely outside its domain.

At the moment of pure quality, subject and object are identical. This is the tat tvam asi truth of the Upanishads, but it’s also reflected in modern street argot. “Getting with it,” “digging it,” “grooving on it” are all slang reflections of this identity.

p145 My personal feeling is that this is how any further improvement of the world will be done: by individuals making Quality decisions and that’s all.

Afterword: Degeneracy can be fun but it’s hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5
The ones who hated war the most, were the ones who’d really fought.

choices and caring

How do people choose what they care about? How do I choose what I care about? How should I choose what I should care about?

These questions scare me. Has anyone ever read anything that primarily addresses this? Forget for a second which choices we’re talking about (people/love, career, where to live, which charity to support etc.): how or how much we care affects how we do all the time consuming elements of our lives. Given time or hindsight I can generally tell whether or how much I care about something. Without this depth of experience its a best guess. Bringing what I care about and what I’m doing together seems like an impossible ideal if I have to wait for hindsight to validate every choice, always anticipating something I care more about may become apparent.

The good books I’ve read, on career choices, success and achieving more enjoyable experiences, deftly skirt this question by telling the reader to examine his/her experience and options and apply his personal preferences. To badly misquote Yoda, there is no how (try), there is only do.

“What color (sic) is your parachute?” is a well known and recommendable book dealing with the subject of choosing a career/job. It brings together a person’s likes, talents. skills etc. together in a number of exercises and expects at the end that enough options (fields, firms, contacts) should have crystallised for a motivating career choice. I think it is an excellent example of a commonly successful approach.

To relate this to where I’m at: having worked through the book over 2 years ago, I took away the following: MechEng/IT was a good choice of general education for me, I am capable of succeeding in a large range of careers, I’ve enjoyed many things once but nothing repetitively. I had the feeling the best options for me are new/different enough to be very hard to find. I slowly came to the idea that by doing something I cared about, nagging feelings that I should be doing something better would be less important. I didn’t/don’t care if BMW makes a better car. Its not helping anyone (unless you think the shareholders and owners are significantly better off). During this time, I’d worked in a team on one of the hardest and most fun jobs on the new 5-series, which a boss accurately described as once-in-a-lifetime.

A follow-up question was: what do I care about that fits inside traditional engineering? I’m yet to find a satisfactory answer. I know I like challenges and problem solving stuff. That gets me ticking. So I’ve been looking a little outside traditional engineering (not as actively as I should…distractions, other priorities everywhere).

The realisation that I can change and choose what I care about adds a dimension many may have knowingly or unwittingly taken, but one I’ve missed until now. It is possible to make a purely logical choice (people/love, career, where to live, which charity to support etc.) and then be disciplined enough to choose to care and make a habit of it. I want to know I’m going to care because its THE right choice.

How do people choose what they care about? How do I choose what I care about? How should I choose what I should care about?

Farmacia visit #3

Third time’s hopefully the charm. After enough coughing for this year (thankyou) and two nights bad sleep, it was time to head back to the pharmacy. This time, I’d skipped 14 chapters in my Spanish book to learn medical vocab and we were going to have a conversation, since I knew what I didn’t want and didn’t know exactly what I did want. The “I’m not sick, but have a sore throat” lozenges hadn’t worked, so I told him that. He threw away the box I’d brought back with me. I told him I did not want antibiotics, since I do not feel ill, I only want to treat the symptoms so I can sleep and cough less. Out came 30 400mg tablets of Ibuprofen. Not quite what the (I’m not a) doctor ordered. I told him that phlegm isn’t in my dictionary. “Flema” he said and it sounded right, so I agreed and it turns out the Spanish side of my dictionary does too. (He added “moco” as an alternative, which turns out to be mucus. Useful vocab this). To make sure all was understood I added that I mean in my chest now, not so much in my throat.

I now have 125mL of Bisolvon, a reddish syrup, which I’ve never heard of and so far hasn’t produced any better results than the honey rum. Chalk another one up for rom miel before I take my bedtime dose. I declined the throat spray he offered since I noticed the active ingredient was the same as the lozenges that aren’t helping. At least he agreed the cough syrup is better. It tastes bad enough that it should work. I’ve since gone back to chapters 11 and 12. Never did go to Malaga, still need to make plans.

Manners and Culture

The previous story reminded me of a topic I was thinking about a week or so ago. I noticed quickly in Granada that Spaniards rarely say the word “thankyou”. Almost every time the foreign students said thanks, the Spanish teachers sported a cheeky grin and said “de nada” (its nothing, or in Australian, no worries). In the ‘far more conformist than we admit’ communities most of us come from, this Spanish trait would be regarded as bad manners or, as Lady B liked to tell us, a bad upbringing. Its not an easy to separate cultural differences from our concept of manners. Many Germans find the American-style soppy sweet smile shop service superficial (can you say alliteration?). In turn, Americans (as well as at least this Australian, 1 Englishman and 2 South Africans), find Bavaria’s concept of service (if they find one at all) plain rude.

Two more recent examples. I was at the fine arts museum in Seville and walking around the patios (the museum is spread around 3 or 4 beautifully peaceful courtyards), when a Spanish lady approached me and asked where a certain room was. It was nice to understand the question and I put my thinking hat on to figure out the answer. It was a bit of a maze and I hadn’t been there for a while. On entry I’d grabbed a pamphlet in Spanish and English, so pulled out the Spanish one to show her a map. Problem was, I didn’t know exactly where I was now. I gave the directions I thought and said I wasn’t exactly sure. The previously talkative lady says nothing and walks off with the pamphlet. Thankyou very much, I’ll just get myself another one on the way out. (as it happens, my directions were right, my not quite suppressed sadistic side hopes she got lost anyway)

A little later, I’m at the supermarket buying muesli bars etc for the ride up to Madrid. I go to one cashier, who sends me to another one, since she’s closing. I’m in no rush, so lean against a wall and the guy in front invites me to overtake his trolley, even when I say I’m in no rush. I guess, for him its an obvious thing to do. I was grateful and said thanks (twice). He said “de nada”.

Is it rude to assume the first lady and guy with the dog demonstrated Spanish characteristics and the second didn’t? I think it is, but how should we appreciate cultural differences and allow for individuals to demonstrate nice-ness or manners (or the lack of it) within that? It doesn’t make sense to reflect my cultural expectation of manners on others. Should I keep saying gracias even when I know its not expected? I think I will (reversing a previous decision), but I don’t have the logic to back it up. Help me out here.

Frisbee Rugby with a Labrador

Strangely enough Frisbee wasn’t a reason I wanted a blog, but is getting into most entries at the moment. This story was too strange not to tell. So Flo and I jogged down to Parque de Alamillo (a really big, grassy park with playgrounds about 30mins from where we live) and were throwing backhands, when a Labrador (lab) appeared and started chasing the disc. Normally this results in playing dog ping-pong where the dog runs after the frisbee till exhausted without ever catching the disc. Not this lab, he wanted to play rugby.

In an instant, Newton’s laws had me sitting on the ground checking to make sure I hadn’t landed on the dog and not quite believing what had happened. The lab was fine, having run through my shins with plenty of momentum, he’d come out safely on the other side. (For the ultimate players, the disc was caught) I got up sheepishly and had a look at the dog ‘owner’ expecting some sort of laugh or apology. Nothing doing. Ignoring us he called the dog who ignored him and kept its eyes on the frisbee.

Flo said in Spanish that some manners would be in order, then dropped it and asked the guy to walk away since calling the dog wasn’t working. The guy responded aggressively and started to come over with the statement “the park is for everyone”. Indeed. It would have been fun to show the validity of this statement by spear tackling him. Before he arrived, we started ping-ponging the dog, he got the idea and followed Flo’s suggestion. The dog kept ignoring him and played nicely with us till we stopped throwing when the ‘owner’ was almost out of sight and waited for him to leave.

Beautiful dog, he just needed to be taught Rule #1.

This reminds me of the winter session in Edinburgh, where a little Jack Russell just wouldn’t stop chasing the disc. Eventually someone threw to the freezing dog ‘owners’ who dropped the disc allowing the dog, getting it for the first time, to run off with it. Ultimate has nothing to do with dogs, but they do add fun to frisbee.

midweek syrup

Wednesday nights in Seville are pretty good. Last night we farewelled Petrina who heads back to the states in a few days. The last remaining five were from Australia, Austria, Canada, France and the USA. There were four common languages, but it was only my fault when anything other than Spanish was spoken. Ths spaniards, more likely to have real jobs. had gone home earlier. We got back around 4am.

Unfortunately I’ve picked up yet another bug and am coughing my bronchials out althogh I feel fine otherwise. Everyone seems to get sick here, I don’t know what it is. The best medicine I (well, Stephan�) could think of was rom miel (honneyed rum) and I certainly don’t feel worse today, so lets chalk that up as a success.

Now that my presence on anize.org has somewhat stabilised, its interesting seeing the response from different friends and family world-over, some totally unexpected and most welcome. Its nice to know anyone who cares can just drop by any hour of the day and catch up on some of my life and now photos (lets advertise that again shall we… and now photos). Even better when those reading this drop me a line (yes, this is an unashamed plug for eMails and comments from you).

I’ll shortly be heading off for a run with Flo, tomorrow he’s planning on a daytrip to Malaga for the Picasso museum. Its a slightly weird plan, but I’m thinking about tagging along. Having recaught the Ulti buzz, I’ve now booked a flight to the tournament in Geneva next weekend, where I’ll play with the Canary Island guys. Flying EasyJet return from Barcelona means two things: 1) I need to get a wriggle on up to Barcelona and 2) I’ll probably spend early June there before heading across to Portugal. I’m not sure what to do about revisitting friends in Granada and Salobre�a. I also need to pick up my tent, so a plan will form.

Photo Site Online

Once again Volker, that absolute legend has been good to me. His server now hosts my photo gallery, which now contains loads of recent photos.

Many are only screen quality, upload times were otherwise too long and I’m sick of this Internet Cafe already. Photos from my last Saturday night in Munich, Granada, Alhambra, Alpujarras, Sevilla and the tournament in Madrid are up.

And the winner is Ultimate

I love this game. I love the people that play this game. Madrid was fun. I drove up with the Seville Frisbeellanas on Friday, enjoying the scenery far more than I remembered Valencia to Madrid in 1998. There are a lot of Olive trees. Seville camped about 10kms from the fields, while Granada and most other teams stayed in la residencia in the same sports complex as the fields and cafeteria.

Stephan� had recruited an Italian player who flew over to help them out this weekend. In a typical Ultimate circle it was Lorenzo, who I met at his first tournament in Lecce in 2001 and seen a few times since. All the Spanish information eMails coming out of Madrid were written by German Johanna who played on my team at that same hat tournament. He had no idea I was in Spain, she had unfortunately been warned. I like surprises.

Arcadio - who I stayed at in Las Palmas in February - was next and it was great to see him. Then Ivan from Tenerife who played on team Garoe in Las Palmas in Feb. My few words of Spanish were more than I had then. It was great to see how much he’s learnt, same goes for his whole team: Guayota (Tenerife) beat Patatas Bravas (Barcelona) in the final. Congratulations to both teams.

At the other end of the table, Granada Tapa and Seville Frisbeellanas squared off to decide the wooden spoon and which Andalusian team would win a game at this tournament. I’m pleased to say we swapped seeding as Tapas pulled out a close win (8-6??). All these guys had learnt and improved a lot over the weekend, had a great time and everybody won. This attitude was confirmed after the game in a marathon cheer session, including singing, dancing, games and photo sessions. It was no surprise that Frisbeellanas won spirit.

I could write a lot about all our games, but I’ll try keep it shortish. We started with only 6 players against Guayota. They made no fuss and matched us for numbers, cruising to a 11-0 win making very few mistakes. I knew then they are for real. I had to get used to the idea of being “the go-to guy” and playing savage (every point) all weekend (I played all but 3 points, one to wipe blood off a knee (Ibuprofen helped)). With 8 people, we scored 3 points in our second game against Patatas Bravas B. Not their best game, it was nice to see and play Pedro, Tina, Sofia, Gabriel, Andy etc. Portugal B were beatable, but we didn’t and I don’t remember the score: hi Sofia, Bruno, Ze Luis et al. Disct�rics A were memorable for the reunion with “Jerome”, who I hadn’t seen since Feb 2002 in Barcelona after which I tried to find him a team for Rimini. We played well this game, forced to think a bit since they always marked me straight-up to make long throws more difficult. Our tall guy (yay Josh), learnt to expect overheads (hammers) in this game. At the end of pool play, I was most surprised to be facing Portugal A, who having planned on challenging for the tournament had lost two pool games. There was never any question about the result (they’d beaten Seville 15-0), but I was so happy to play with Patrick, Michele and the others. Both teams used the game to relax, have fun and teach. I think it was 8-4 or so.

Dinner was fantastic with excellent and lots of food, plenty to drink and spontaneous singing, dancing and merriment. A few players had birthdays. The neighbouring bar provided booze (Atis Tirma had their own rum) and a dance floor. I was pretty tired and left around 2-ish.

9am and we had Portugal B again (not very clever scheduling, but hey). Unfortunately they were now only 5 people. We jumped out to a lead, but still managed to lose the game. When we started playing 7vs7, we clogged what had been free lanes, but lost (4-5 or 5-6) because I had a shocker. Everyone else played well. Spirit was still high. And then the long awaited game against Seville that I already covered. We were 8 people both days (Peter was sick Sat, Tao missed Sunday), they were around 15, so I think a big difference was familiarity with the people on the line and a bit of structure.

Oscar’s speech at the ceremony resulted in Miquey demonstrating break-dancing in front of the grandstand. He did an amazing job of it, we call him BigMiq for a reason. Onya Miquey.

DNA robot takes its first steps

From New Scientist: DNA walking

Volker will like this idea: automatically captioning photos based on sound bytes

DARPA rant

DFC’s post DARPA does it again just makes me want to spew. What are the intelligent people behind this (self-healing minefields) thinking when they do it? I did my honours thesis looking at humanitarian landmine clearance and without putting in one more landmine at current rates of clearance (this was 1997), it would take something like over 100 years and kill over a thousand deminers to remove them all. I don’t remember the exact numbers, I actually think they were an order worse than this.

My professor’s group had US army financial support, but they’re the problem not part of the solution. Anti-proliferation treatys etc not working. Whole thing sucks. RANT. How do you defeat such well financed stupidity?

Studying boy and Ulti in Madrid

My UWA eMail server is down right now, which kinda sucks. Last few days have been pretty quiet. Unlike Granada, Seville has grass to lie on, so I’ve been hitting it pretty hard when the weather played along. Mainly just studying spanish and not going out much. Pretty dull for a Blog.

Sunday found where the Seville crew play Ultimate and had a bit of a training and game. Not being able to communicate in spanish is big motivation for study. A typically international fun Ulti group - they’re gonna do some serious clogging when they play 7vs7 hehe. A Beer in the park afterwards (spanish people questioning why one person would drink the biggest glass himself… I’d guess it was maybe 0,6L - they should see a Beergarden where everyone drinks by the litre) and then back to Stephane’s amazing terrace looking over the river at Seville. Probably the best possible view here. Wow.

This weekend its up to Madrid for … whatever this tournament is called. I’ve been thinking of it as Spanish nationals, but Portugal come too, so maybe the “Iberian Championships”. Whatever, its gonna be fun and I’ll definitely come back having learnt some more casual spanish and having seen and surprised the odd familiar face. I’m considering whether to stay up that way a while or come straight back with the Sevillanas. This will be the first time I’ve pulled my cleats on since German nationals last year (July?), so I’m definitely gonna hurt afterwards. Granada Tapas are seeded last (14th), so too high expectations will not be a problem.

Everywhere's really the same

I’m talking about p3 (actually inside cover==p1) of the May tourist magazine for Seville. The biggest entry would be ”Sevilles’ best known meeting place; Flaherty Irish bar”. That could be anywhere: gotta love the Irish.

Fixing the news

The world should be a happy place.

Across the spectrum of people I meet from all over the world, most get along with each other easily. We have fun together, talk, share experiences and get along. Bad experiences come and go, (I’ve been blessed), but I’m yet to meet someone totally focussed on miserable communications.

So why is the news on TV (in every country I’ve noticed) only death, murder, war, terrorism, sadness and victimisation (once you take out the sport and weather). When I was a kid they used to kick off the news with a happy item. What happened to it? Are we supposed to be fascinated by all the bad news or distracted by it? Is there an agenda behind it or just something that crept up on us? Who else would like to see this changed?

As a side note, in Spain there’s not much self censorship going on, its all pretty gory.

More on Camera

So now that I’ve announced this blog to the german and english speaking universe, I can relax and answer Volker’s entry about his digicam with my own experience. I’ve had my Canon S30 since April 2002 and not used my Pentax M10-Z film SLR since. V is for Volker, B is for Brad.

Canon Rulz:
V1. On/Off switch can�t just be bumped to turn it on. B1. S30 turns on by opening the sliding cover which protects the lens. Good arrangement.
V2. Movies have sound! B2. Movies are more useful than I really expected. If I had more memory, I’d probably take more. I use Avery Lee’s VirtualDub to both edit and save with more common and better compression codecs.
V3. Shutter sound is audible, good for other people using it B3. All my sounds are off. Don’t need it. (The VCD goes black, if you’re using it.)
V4. Audio comments on pictures B4. Good, but not a big thing.
B5. Digital vs Film: Size: case fits in my pocket. SLR needs a bag. Film cost: I experiment more, since deletion is free.
B6. I like the menus and buttons. Good mix from point and shoot for “can u take this” to full control for tripod shots.
B7. Balance in the hand. Reason why I have a S30. It feels like a camera, without being much bigger. I don’t like the rectangular toy box ones.
B8. Generally good colour choices in Automatic mode - better than the competition.

Canon Sucks:
V1. Macro Autofocus often screws up B1. I don’t think mine’s too bad. Can’t remember.
V2. Flash on Macro overexposes like nobody�s business B2. This is so common - I think camera makers agreed not to do this right over a beer.
V3. Doesn�t display filesizes B3. You need this? I’m happy enough seeing the compression and resolution settings. I had to check mine doesn’t show size.
V4. Case is more scratched after under a month than my Coolpix after 4.5 years. B4. Pleasantly surprised with this one. A mainly plastic case, but little scratching, except in areas I expect it (tripod, cover)
V5. Can�t use slow-fill flash with manual controls only in automatic night-shot mode
V6. Dammit, autofocus will only focus on middle or the camera tries to decide by itself. The Canon let me select one of 5 areas to focus on.*B6.* I can ask for a middle focus, or its selection from 3 boxes across the middle. Moving the camera lets me get good results but its finicky.
V7. To shoot with manual-focus the screen must be on so if I await some show with manual focus I�m draining the battery the whole time. B7. Agreed.
B8 Flash always overexposes - so I always go semi-manual and tone it down some. This also seems common to other cameras.
B9. Purple/ blue flowers need serious playing to come out. Another common digicam problem. I eventually came up with using the setting “evaluate white balance” and if its not right I use Photoshop AutoLevels. Example

The best camera reviews I know, including raw photo tests. For people who want to learn what to consider, maybe start here

Bienvinido Andalusia

Firstly welcome to the Blog. For the curious among you, I did very little work setting this all up. If you look at anize.org, you will see that I’m not the only blogger here. Its a collection of pretty cool guys and the one running it was kind enough to bring me on board, so save any kudos for DFC. Errors are my work ;)

For hopefully the last time, I need to start by figuring out what you know. My last mass eMail, ‘a mad jumble from Granada’ on 05.04, wasn’t sent from my main addressbook but should have reached almost everyone, so I won’t repeat all that here: let me know via eMail if you never saw it and want to. I’m actually going to take a step further back in time to February. Why? Because my previous massmail ended in January and the Canary Islands were simply too good never to mention, especially considering Carsten and I managed to remember most of what happened. On a Thursday I went snowboarding. Saturday night we stood on a beach with 20 degrees C. It didn’t take long and we were on this beach in daylight soaking up some rays. Its Ok Neal - you don’t HAVE to believe it, but the next time you call my mobile and don’t want to believe me, I’m just as likely to be on a beach, even if YOU are at work. We visited Gran-Canaria and Tenerife and played a classic beach hat tournament. Fantastic beach weather, mind-blowing landscapes (it helped that I hardly knew anything about the place beforehand) and a great collection of people, most of my photos are hosted by Buddha

Munich had typical winter after that, with quite a lot of snow. A beergarden weather week (it reached 24degrees) was followed by more snow and that pattern continued until I got too busy to notice or wasn’t there. Busy??? With what? As mentioned in the previous update, I quit my job and was no longer working at BMW. Packing up Munich after over 5 years involved lots of goodbyes, the odd museum I hadn’t seen, cleaning, sorting and handing out to friends. Packing was done in a night and lets forget all the loose ends shall we. This time felt both busy and inefficient since I was trying to savour Munich and the people there during the end-spurt while balancing the chores within that. I think time will mellow it all into a collection of nice memories. One which already stands out was one of the first warm days with Natalie in Schloss Nymphemburg’s gardens, seeing some deer in the wood, talking and soaking up the sun on the grass. The unavoidable going-away party was memorable, which is good, since my camera and 2 fully charged batteries sat forgotten on my desk. Very dumb. NOW it was time to get a flight to Andalusia and a week later I was off and soon writing “a mad jumble from Granada”.

But what’s THE Plan? Are YOU sure you really want to as ME THAT question? Well here goes:
***I won’t work in Germany for at least two years’ after which I can get my pension back instead of waiting till I’m 65. This is very good travel (or otherwise) financing
***THE plan is to develop a long-term plan. This actually means figuring out what to DO and probably WHERE to live and even things like WHO I can spend lots of time with
***Travelling is always a GOOD plan and learning Spanish in Andalusia and maybe Barcelona one of my better ones
***If the plan isn’t better defined by July, it’ll be time to head towards South America

That’s the crux of it. There IS more to it then that, I suppose much of it will be written up on Anize as time allows. A hard-to-write-briefly point is Career. I want to find something where I have more of the feeling that I’m doing something good (Pirsig readers == having more quality) than I’ve had in the past. Not just something that has never been done before, or something fun that rich people will pay for: something that actually means something to me and HELPS others. This tendency (pattern) is slowly taking shape. You may get some ideas what I’m looking at by surfing to designfortheworld.org and its linked sites. Those thinking about their own “lateral drift” or careers, may also want to read the following two links: Finding one’s place - the transformation of employment and The Common Denominator of Success

So that wraps Munich up and takes us into the senses-in-overdrive, suck-it-all-up mode and the mad jumble material arriving in Spain. Two and a half weeks of Spanish course, Easter (Semana Santa) and getting to know a lot of nite-spots in Granada went quickly considering how little was slept. Its time for some free history, geography and tourism information. The basic gist is come here. Spain subdivides into numerous highly varying regions which also have some degree of self-government. Andalusia is basically a chunk out of Spain’s south, bordering Portugal, Gibraltar and the sea. For over 600 years, Arabs ruled parts of Andalusia, their last bastion being Granada which they lost in 1492. After Columbus came back from America, Spain was a colonial power and Seville its most significant city (its Cathedral is the third biggest in the world. I love this claim that the builders said something like “Lets build such a big building, that those who see it will assume we’re mad”). Famous Spanish symbols such as Flamenco, the horses and whitewashed dwellings have their origins here. Anybody not from here, wrinkles their nose at the idea of learning Spanish with the local accent. Bavaria taught me this will not be a problem.

Granada lies at the feet of the Sierra Nevada mountains (3482m), and is stunning in spring time, despite lacking grass to lie or run on (the only thing it lacks). Nightlife entails cheap drinks, free Tapas (with every drink), students, international students, walking uphill, music, dance, Arab tea houses, Flamenco, Salsa and runs late. Its impossible not to have a good time. Flatmates Ari and Jakub and an extended circle of Czechs, Finns and Germans made certain a good time was had and it did get late. I was lucky with the people I met, but unfortunately relatively few Spaniards. 9am classes were too early, but again I was lucky to get a group of good people. I’ve now had more formal schooling in Spanish than German and gone back to my preferred language learning technique of speaking/listening extensively in social settings and occasionally studying at home. The beach is one hour from Granada and its a jolly good one… by all accounts. The coldest spring in 40 years, meant I enjoyed the sunshine elsewhere. I have time. Pictures are better that words for summarising a city, have a look at the first two links on my Spain Photos page.

Eventually it was time to farewell Granada (temporarily at least). After another late night, I went out to the bus station not quite sure where to go to, but trusted my instincts and the tourist brochures I’d seen and went to the Alpujarras, ending up in Capileira during the annual village festival. On the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, closer to the sea, this area offers a lot to see and do and I recommend you do it sooner rather than later. I watched an expert paragliding and eagles soaring and am quite sure I don’t belong up there. I prefer to walk. You can taste the food here, its still produced naturally, locally and not sent to market to early. Yum.

I’m now in Seville for May, having arrived to catch the Fiera de Abril, a traditional Folk celebration. Its not right that over 90% of Australians who’ll have heard of the Oktoberfest wouldn’t know anything about Fiera. Bright dresses, arriving in horse-drawn wagons, traditional dancing of the Sevillana (a type of Flamenco) and many little tents rather than a few huge ones, with a similar set of amusement rides out back. I wondered what would happen if a tent put “Country Roads” on (ignore this if you’ve never been to Oktoberfest). I guess they’d smile, clap and dance some more.

Erste Monat in Andalusia

Es f�llt sich kaum als ob ich �ber einen Monat von M�nchen schon weg bin und gleichzeitig konnte es viel l�nger sein. Schon, komisch, wie die Zeit vergeht.
Sp�t am 21.03.04 buchte ich endlich ein Flug aus M�nchen, als ich merkte dass meine Todo-Liste gr��er und nicht kleiner w�rde und dass ich in einige Monate in M�nchen nicht viel produktiv erreicht hat. Zehn Tage Zeit statt sieben w�re vielleicht sinnvoller gewesen. Immerhin, habe ich unter Zeitdruck eine sehr produktive Woche erlebt und um 08:30 am 29.03 sa� ich in einem Flugzeug mit Ziel Malaga. Ich gebe zu, nicht alles in M�nchen fertig gebracht zu haben und mit etwas in voraus reserviert zu haben war auch nix. Vor sechs Jahren war es auch nichts anders. Spanisch kann ich auch nicht.
Von der Luft war es schon klar das Andalusia unter Wasser stand. Erdrutsche und Verkehrschaos waren �berall die Tagesordnung. Dies erkl�rt nicht wie es 75 Minuten gebraucht hat bis mein Gep�ck raus kam. Egal… jetzt endlich unterwegs…nimm einfach einen Bus nach Malaga und danach entscheide ob ich nach Granada weiterfahre oder eine Bleibe suche dort. Hola? Bus? Endlich habe ich einen Taxi nach Malaga Bus Station mit zwei Deutsche geteilt (Carsten und Justin). Damit waren wir auch zu dritt auf der Bus nach Granada - sehr praktisch. Urlaub geht Los! F�r die M�nner die sich an so etwas interessieren, die Thomas Cook Flugbegleiterin war gar nicht so schlecht (Hi Martin - bis bald ;)
Ich habe einen Monat in Granada verbracht und es konnte ohne Problem mehr werden, ich bin in der Gegend l�ngst nicht Fertig. Vor allem fehlte mir den Strand. Angeblich war dieser der k�lteste Fr�hling in 40 Jahre. Das Wetter war meistens gar nicht schlecht. Zum Vergleich, meine erste Monate in M�nchen waren auch die meisten Schnee in 100 Jahren.
Es war unglaublich wie wach die Sinnen waren die erste Paar Tage dort. �berall merkte ich Unterschiede und Gleichartigkeiten die mich �berraschte oder ich einfach sch�n fand. Vielleicht ist es nur in meinem Kopf, aber mir bringt es viel zu wissen dass ich es nicht eilig habe. Ich bin hier solange wie ich will und ich habe viele Gr�nde alles etwas mehr/n�he anzuschauen als ein kurzzeitige Tourist.
Der erste Mittwoch habe ich schon ein Paar Frisbee Leute getroffen und ein Sprachkurs angefangen. Mit viel Energie und wenig schlaf ging alles flott und voller Spa� zur Sache. Meine urspr�ngliche Gedanken waren am Anfang schnell umzureisen und schaue wo mir am meisten gef�llt. Ein Tag hier reichte um ein besser Plan auszudenken und zwar ein Monat in Granada bleiben (inkl. das Semana Santa Fest) und danach nach Seville (inkl. Fiera de Abril Fest). Schnell bin ich aus der Hostal ausgezogen und in einer der komischste Wohnungen der Welt umgezogen. Eigentlich ist der Wohnung selber ganz normal aber wie es da l�uft war super Lustig. Gen�gend gesagt. Wie in M�nchen, liegt meine Wohnung auf der 5te Stockwerk und neben der Fluss (Rio Genil). Gewohnt habe ich (die meiste Zeit wenigstens) mit einem Finnen (Ari) und einem Tschechen (Jakub), obwohl ich dachte ein Paar Spanier sollen da wohnen. Etwas verwirrt aber die Leute sind von der Besten. In diesem Freundeskreis geht’s ab. Nein, mehr als Du gerade denkst. Ich hatte meist Unterricht um 9, aber die Uni Studenten haben oft nur sp�t Nachmittags und die Arbeitslos durfte um 9 erst ins Bett gehen. Granada versorgt man mit kostenlosen Tapas mit jedem Getr�nk (~�1.50). Das Bier ist schon in Ordnung. Der Wein auch. Tinto de Verano auch. Und wenn man gerade kein Lust auf denen hat, gibt’s auch Rum f�r etwas mehr Geld (und das geht… in Ordnung!). Oder wir feiern einfach in einer Wohnung oder auf der Strasse (Botellon). Beim K�hlschrank aufr�umen haben Jakub und ich 5/6L Sangria und Wein in Besitz nehmen k�nnen. Habe ich es gesagt? Es ging ab! Granada ist wahnsinnig International. Ich habe sehr viele nette Leute kennengelernt, leider relativ wenig Spanier.
Wie alle Frisbee Leute es wissen, feiern kann man �berall, daf�r muss man nicht nach Granada. F�r diejenigen die noch nicht da waren, Granada liegt ganz nah an der Sierra Nevada (nur 30km zum Ski fahren). Ihr denkt vielleicht nicht von Spanien und Schnee aber mit 3480m, sind die Bergen ganz sch�n Weiss. Die Sierra Nevada dominieren/beherrschen die Stadtblicke viel mehr als in M�nchen, diese Jahreszeit besonders. Granada w�rde �ber 600 Jahre bis 1492 vom Nordafrikaner beherrscht und viele positive Arabische Einfl�sse sind geblieben und erhalten. Zwei, die nicht zu �bersehen sind, sind der Alhambra “Burg” (herrlich) und Albaycin Vorort. Viele Geb�uden haben Innenh�fe in Arabische Stil und/oder Sonnenterrassen. Auf Terrassen kann man auch feiern.

Gen�gend W�rter �ber Granada. Einige Fotos habe ich in Netz unter gestellt. Die erste Seite ist allgemein Granada und der zweite sind ‘nur’ den Alhambra. Noch besser, besuch es selber.

Irgendwann m�sste ich Granada verabschieden. Nach einem heftigen Abend w�sste ich wieder nicht wo ich gehen w�rde. Die Alpujarras Tourismusbrosch�re war einfach zu gut zu �bersehen und als n�chstes kam ich in Capileira an, v�llig unbewusst gleichzeitig mit der j�hrliche Dorffest. Die Alpujarras liegen auf der andere Seite der Sierra Nevada von Granada, auf der S�dhang zwischen Gipfeln und Strand. Die Strassen sind super Geil. Der National Park, der Vielfalt der Geographie und Fauna und wenig Einwohner machen diese Gegend zu ein besondere f�r Mensch und Tier. Adlern im Gleitflug sind hier keine Seltenheit. Hoch in der Bergen d�rfte ich die Sterne bewundern deutlicher als je zu vor in der n�rdliche Halbkugel. Dann gingen die Feuerwerke von unten los! Hier kann man wandern, Mountainbike fahren, klettern oder Gleitschirm fliegen. Die wundersch�ne D�rfer sind komplett aus traditionelle wei�e Geb�ude mit Lehmd�cher und Schornsteine. Beim essen schmeckst Du dass die Zutaten sind nat�rlich in der Gegend produziert und nicht importiert.

Nach einige Tage hier, war ich wieder Fit f�r die Stadt und bin nach Seville f�r Feria de Abril gefahren. Dieses Volksfest hat wenig mit dem Oktoberfest zu tun. �hnlich gro� aber mit viele kleine Zelte, Sevillanas (ein Art Flamenco) wird getanzt und Sherry getrunken. Wie ein Reisef�hrer sch�n geschrieben hat “Eine Woche lang feiert Andalusia seine Liebe zu Pferden, Musik und sch�nen Frauen”. Und das geht auch in Ordnung.

Oops

The link to the new photos in the Alhambra entry wasn’t new at all. Good-ol copy-paste error. Its now right - and the photos are worth taking another look here.

Volker Photos

Nobody ever objected to me posting these, so seeing as Volker�s photo site was speaking of quality, I think I will share these now.

This is Quality.

Granada-Capileira-Sevilla

Goodbye Granada (for now), wow Alpujarra and Feria or Bed in Sevilla or Seville.
24.4.04 14:32 another farewell party
24.4.04 14:11 Sal�t Lady B
24.4.04 14:20 free spanish classes
26.4.04 20:45 Tranquilo en las Alpujarras
27.4.04 22:00 wasted day
28.4.04 20:09 Feria in Sevilla
2.5.04 15:00 Crook

24.4.04 14:32 another farewell party
Last night was cool. Farewelled crook Nadia & Tereza with an afternoon coffee & tinto. Internetted & the Finns were starting out at the flat. We must have got out around 1. Melanie & Oscar came back to Duo which was sweet. Finally finished the �5 Camera film. Will be fun getting developed. Mel Z: Wenn ich bis ende Mai dir kein CD geschickt habe, erinnere mich daran. Tuure’s mates leaving 2pm & drank like their last night. Ari & I got back after 6. Got to know Vanessa & Jan�t(sp?)-yet more fun, interesting people.
24.4.04 14:11 Sal�t Lady B
Man that was funny. I woke up hearing Lady B cleaning up the living room after last night (good: we don’t have to). I packed & put my bags out. Resting on the couch my plan is to wake, shower & maybe breakfast when Ari wakes. Instead, something like:
LB:”When you leaving?”
B:”Dunno exactly. Some time this arvo.”
LB:”You must leave at 12”
B:”sure” (watch says 12ish)
LB:”You must leave at 12”
B:”? I’ve left the room???”
LB:”You must leave. To the street”
B:”I don’t understand”
LB:”yes you understand”
B:”I must leave the appartment? I don’t understand! Why?”
LB:”You must leave at 12. You only pay until 12”
B:”I am out of the room, the room is cleanable, its no problem”
LB:”its not a problem for you, its a problem for me.”
B:”why?”
LB:…nonsense “it should look nice”
B:”!!! I’ve been here 3 weeks, nobody new is here now, there’s no reason why you need my stuff gone now”
repeat… B:”I don’t understand this. Its crazy!”
LB:”Go!”
B(getting nowhere & realising there’s nothing new to understand. in English):”forget it”
LB:”I’ll call the police”
B(I had to laugh at the idea):”call”
She called her daughter & came back for more whingeing. Around now I started feeling sorry for her if she has nothing better to do. After at least 30mins, Ari must’ve woken. He has far more spanish.
45 minutes later we weren’t much the wiser. There was absolutely nothing for her to gain from the whole fuss. She had her money & wasn’t getting more. She whinged that I’d paid too little (every cent was agreed beforehand), that a weekly price is 6 days not 7 (the school already got paid a day extra since normal price is arrive Sun leave Sat. We were fully in placate mode. She whinged all sorts. Eventually Ari asked blatantly what she wants. Me to leave. We had a conference…asked if showering & getting my stuff from the kitcheh was ok if I left straight after. Ok but rapido. So I did. The end result was I left 75 mins later than I otherwise would have :)
Now drinking a fanta & figuring out where to go. Will head to the bus station & see whats convenient. Currently favouring Alpujarras (�rgiva, Pampaneira, Bubi�n, Capileira) or the beach rather than the direction Jaen, Cordoba, Sevilla. Get out of a city for a bit. Maybe get a place in Sevilla for a month ~May.
24.4.04 14:20 free spanish classes
Gustav gave me some sweet info yesterday. The place where they teach language teachers needs guinea-pig pupils and offer classes for free. Great Idea! In Granada they have classes starting in June. Other places probably have the same deal: go look for it.
The last few weeks have been way too expensive for long-term travel, where money=time. I guess I’ve gotten used to short jaunts from Munich & spanish school wasn’t cheap. Now I can hopefully learn more on my own & later in summer or perhaps even in South America try this out. Speaking of S.A. Vanessa mentioned family contacts in Peru (Lima and I think somewhere else).
26.4.04 20:45 Tranquilo en las Alpujarras
The Alpujarras are a sensational destination, although I recommend visiting soonish before it loses some of its charm due to growing tourism and foreign ownership. Geographically, its a region on the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountains from where I was at Wednesday. Squeezed between 3400m and the sea are winding roads, gorges, terraced slopes and towns full of traditional, square, white plastered, clay roofed buildings with distinctive chimneys. Alpujarra’s higher reaches are a national park, full of wildlife. I’ve seen a couple eagles soaring overhead and there’s supposed to be vultures around. If the conditions are right, you can see Morocco’s Atlas mountains. I don’t recall seeing the stars this clearly anywhere in Europe (inc. Alps, Norway or Sweden). If you like hiking, rock climbing, horse riding, mountain biking or driving slaloms, you should be ok here. You can sit in front of a fireplace with wine or on a sunny terrace with locally produced, natural tasting food & a beer. Its better with a vehicle.
So how did I get here? Saturday I made it to Capileira, since my bus destination Bubi�n didn’t have any affordable beds free. I was rather pleased to find Capileira was celebrating its annual fiesta & the unadvertised campsite had a �11 bed going (thanks to the anon. english couple for the ride). An overdue siesta was replaced with a 2hr conversation with the rather spiritual Nieves. To be more precise…a 1/2hr conversation which currently takes 4 times as long and a lot of patience. Some Spanish guests then shared dinner they’d brought and it was fiesta time. Typical small town bash, especially the barn dance…which still reminded me of Pingelly although the music was a lot different, every baby, kid, teenager right through to pensioner was out past 3am and I didn’t see a keg. I was exhausted.
Recovery sleep & Sunday a lazy day which started by repairing bits of the hosts ill Windows ME PC & then lunch & spanish in the sun. I came back just as Peter was going up the road/track with paraglider Carlos to bring the car down. Sweet. After that there was nothing to do except lie in the sun and read. Bring deck chairs. After Pizza, we went back up the track to see the stars away from the village lights. Awesome. On the drive down, we pulled over to watch some fiesta fireworks going off below.
Today was more tranquilo. Went up into the national park, then lunched and had one of those ‘only when you travel’ conversations with the nice neighbouring table Flemish couple (Antwerp). After walking to Pampaneira & back Luis made Tortilla & its time to diarize & read. The fire crackles and 6 month old campsite dog (Coco/Loco) next to me agrees its couch time.
27.4.04 22:00 wasted day
Oops - the last bus from Orgiva to the beach leaves 8something am. This is bad considering I got up at 9 and was planning on getting there in the afternoon. While grabbing lunch and hatching a plan (to get to either another Alpujarra town or the beach depending on where I could get a ride to…and from there to Seville in the next couple days) Jessica oferred a ride from here to Seville tomorrow. Easy…but cancelled, so I’ll be on that early bus. These things happen when you go with the flow.
28.4.04 20:09 Feria in Sevilla
Sevilla/Seville depends on language: don’t be surprised to see both spellings. Regardless how I spell it, I’ve arrived. Its ”feria” time, the spring festival described as ‘Andalusia celebrates for a week its love of horses, music & beautiful women’. I’m looking forward to it, walking from the bus station, I saw plenty of the last in fancy bright dresses. Apparently Sherry is the drink of choice. Meeting Stephane and the frisbee crew later.
On a different note, I finally finished ”Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” on the bus. A very impressive book, probably not for everyone, but there’s a lot in there to think about and plenty of quotables.
2.5.04 15:00 Crook
Feria was good, but I haven’t seen any of it since the first night. Been not very well in bed and now losing my voice, but hey, I got to read, Zen & Motorcycles again. I’m about to print out my insurance certificate and claim form… something I should have done before I needed them :) Soon to be read here - “how farmacies in Spain simply give out Antibiotics without a doctor or proper instructions on how to use them”. You heard it here first.