German stereotypes

On time, no..
Rude, no..
Organized, no more than the next person..
Uptight, no.
Efficient, no, as above.
Smoke, yes
Tall, yes
Outdoory, yes

In all honesty the German Baverians I've been meeting seem incredibly kiwis like.

Munich

Ok big call I know but I think Munich is actually my favorite city (hands down)

I'm not lying

Or exaggerating.
We just spent 7 hours in Ikea

smoking booths

only in Europe

photos from the entrance to our place

yes this is a hundred or so year old stairwell..

Anthony, wait till you see Munichs Spielzeug museum

Toy Museam!

small cars, bmws, and electric charging stations

Europe is cool

mmm 10 litres of beer

Digital SLRs photos are pretty

pretty and pretty cool.

Two photos, made at the same time just using different presets.

Gravity Angels

Way back at in the beginning of my career i had the wonderful oppertunity to with some of the best developers and artists in Australia on fatally flawed computer games called Multipath Movies. Such great titles included Xena, Superman, Ace Ventura, and GRAVITY ANGLES!
At some point someone made a straight (non multipath) version of Gravity Angels, here you can find the trailer, featuring state of the art 90's technology, like 1500 polygon characters :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF4A5Vv-iWU

 
 


Photo of the river and the Spa house, both very close to our new apartment.

Also a photo of a cool bicycle for MarkP

Life and liberty

Right now we are traveling on a train back from Zurich. It's great to have quiet trains with Internet access. We are returning from a weekend with Nadjas Spanish relatives where we spent the days eating Paella and (I'm not kidding) singing La Cucaracha and at night La Bamba :)
Next weekend we fly to the top iand of Germany to Sylt to visit my dad, his partner, and my little sisters.
Munich continues to be fun to discover. Our new apartment is right in the heart of Munich in one of the best suburbs. Building built in 17something, and French restaurant downstairs. It's wonderful being right next to the river, near beautiful lakes and mountains.
Slowly learning a little German, lang lang way to go still.
And being a papa rocks!
Best thing ever.

Nadja's views on naked Germans

OK, some Germans, not all as the stereotype may suggest, love taking their kit off. They do it anywhere that offers a patch of grass or that can by some stretch of the imagination be interpreted as "nature". They call this Freikoerperkultur (free body culture) and it has led to various interesting stories in the international press. One fondly remembers the naked German hikers who descended on the tiny ueberconservative canton of appenzell http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8019766.stm (this is a remote part of Switzerland where people still dress in traditional attire, even on normal workdays, including cow bell earrings for the guys). On the banks of the beautiful river Isar, one can observe many of that particular species, the naked Teutons. What I find most amazing about this unabashed nakedness is that people actually manage to talk to one another without seemingly noticing whatever is dangling in front of them. I mean COME ON, and this comes from a seasoned sauna user, it is virtually impossible to talk to a naked person in front of you without noticing their bits, even if you'd REALLY rather not. That's why sauna's are great. The light is dim, it's so hot you have trouble thinking clearly anyway and you usually sit next to one another or on some kind of bench that makes it easier to ignore one another's privates.
Anyway, on the pebble-covered banks of said river, naked Germans were frolicking in all shapes and sizes, literally, and I couldn't help noticing (for above mentioned reasons) that most men were sporting Brazilians, and I am not talking about some beautiful eye candy hanging off their elbow! Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for equality of the sexes and all but you are already naked, why take it that step further? Why discard even of that little bit of obvious inhibition nature has so graciously endowed us with? But of course that's just me.
Regarding the Brazilians, male version, it might just be some weird European fashion. Any ideas anyone? More about other fascinating European habits later.