Blaue Weihnacht

Heute ist schon 'Boxing day' und wir haben unser erstes Weihnachtsfest unter blauen Himmel, Sonnenschein und 31 Grad verbracht. Heilig Abend ist den deutschen heilig, also haben wir bei Christine, einer deutschen Kollegin, gefeiert.

Wir haben eine 3 kg Gans in den Ofen geschoben, 3 Stunden gewartet, in der Zeit eine Schwarzwaelder Torte 'versucht'. Naja, es hat gut geschmeckt, aber die Lagen sind dann doch einzeln zerfallen.

Die Gans war garnicht so leicht zu zerlegen, Christine hat mit der Schere in all Richtungen geschnitten, guten Appetit.

Our first guests were Shona and Andy, and the car. A Lotus. Well, I had to document that moment. Shona is our secretary and takes care of the daily routine at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, I work for them.

The table was completed with Sueli, our former financial administrator at the Oceans Institute. She has now a new job. She brought her tasty vegetarian food, an italien speciality.

Wir hatten auch einen Weihnachtsbaum, etwas anderer Art. Sah mehr wie ein Herbststrauss aus. Christine hat Plaetzchen gebacken fuer jeden, nun habe ich also einen Ersatz fuer Martin's jaehrliches Weihnachstpaket das wir sehr vermissen.

Geschenke hatten wir auch, am 25.12, ausgepackt vor dem Beach Ausflug. I got an Eco T-Shirt in a green pot and my coffee perculator made of stainless steel. Andrew got the Tom Tom (kind of Save Dutch Economy act) for our lovely Ford Ka. And he got his new snorkel kit, all included, ready for Ningaloo Reef, our big coral reef at the western coast.

Yes, we did it, we spend Christmas Day at the beach in our new tent with Tapas. We used Andrews new Tom Tom to find Swanbourne beach, a lovely place. Weather was great and I even plunched into the Indian Ocean, at least 25 degrees warm water. No sharks this time, I stayed 5m from the shore to be sure. Few beaches are closed because of shark sightings.

Well, that was a rather different Christmas. We missed one tradition in Australia, the Chrsitmas Sales. All over Australia the shops sell everything for 30% less.
The North and Victoria were not so lucky with the weather, they were hit by a strong Cyclone with hail as big as golf balls.
We are off to Melbourne soon and hope that the storm has passed.

Merry Christmas!

Just doesn't feel like Christmas

Iedereen is volop bezig met Kerst-inkopen en afgelopen week konden wij aan de Uni van de ene naar de andere Kerstborrel hoppen. Hier begint de borrel zo rond 12.00 'smiddags tot ..???. Jens zit bij 3 verschillende instituten, dus heeft hij 3x een Kerstfeest. Afgelopen donderdag hadden wij gezamenlijk de Kerstborrel van de School waar wij samenwerken (School of Eart and Environment) gevierd. Het was aan een baai, achter de campus van de Uni waar de Swan River stroomt. De opkomst viel erg mee, zo'n 90 personen.
I finished my X-mas shopping yesterday. So I can relax and enjoy the festivities now. On X-mas eve we're visiting Christine, a colleague from Jens of Oceans Institute, together with 2 others colleagues. We plan to cook a goose! But all the decorations and X-mas carols still can't put me in the mood...cause the weather keeps getting warmer and hotter. That can't be Christmas??
I'll leave you with some photos of our X-Mas party down at the river.

Chris was here

Our first visitor has come and gone; a week we had the company of Chris, our friend from Nijmegen. Unfortunately he visited us alone, since Ryan is busy with the end-of-the-year-dealings at his office. We are pretty sure he liked it, cause Perth is in many ways similar to Nijmegen, just a little bit larger, slightly younger and more crowded. But the lay back attitude is the same and the people over here dress as bad as in Nijmegen, or maybe even worse. But...at least they are friendly which can often not be said for Amsterdammers.

The weather was great, not too sunny and a nice breeze in the evenings. Swanbourne Beach was a short drive (yes, we have a car: Ford KA, year 2000 with 70k on it), but you needed to shelter ones self from the hard wind that kept blowing sand particles. Next time, we're taking a tent with us as protection from too much sun and wind (and maybe a shark shield, cause there have been a few -fatal- attacks lately)

Talking about sun, this week we're getting our first taste of spring:

Preparations have been made: we bought a portable fan which will be on most of the night in the bedroom. Also we've fitted a removable bug screen to a window, so we can leave it open during the night. Living room has airco, so no problems there.
Last weekend was also Pride-weekend, with a parade at night! Probably, because of the weather conditions here, it's better to have the parade starting at 8.00 pm. It was actually not bad at all. The evening gave it a special dimension, together with the city's exuberant X-mas decoration.

More photos of the parade will follow, cause there still on Chris's mobile phone and he's currently in Kuala lumpur. Hmmm...wondering what he's doing there??!!

Beaufort Street Festival 2011

Wir konnten am Samstag das erste Nachbarschaftsfest geniessen, das Beaufort Street festival auf unserem 'Coffee Strip' nicht weit von zu Hause. Die Strasse war sogar abgesperrt fuer Autos und das in Australien, wow. Kunst, Kultur, Musik und viel Kulinarisches entlang ein paar hundert Meter Strasse. Viele Tausende waren unterwegs bei bestem Sonnenwetter. Wir haben es genossen, zumal der Fruehlung in voller Bluete steht, was man entlang jeder Strasse bewundern kann.

Abends sind wir noch zu den Musik Buehnen gegangen, fuer ein Bier mussten wir anstehen schoen in der Reihe und dann nur im abgesperrten Gebiet austrinken. Schon ein echter 'Nanny State' dieses Australien, man wird so richtig an die Hand genommen sobald Alkohol im Spiel ist. Hmm, muss es wohl einen Grund geben.

Mit dem nahenden Sommer steigt die Zahl der Festivitaeten. Schon naechste Woche das Freemantle Festival, dann das Uni Festival welches bis April dauert. Auf dem Uni Campus gibts dann Open Air Cinema, 'fully licened' fuer Alkohol und Picknick unter Suedlichen Sternenhimmel. Natuerlich nicht umsonst, die Dollar muessen reichlich fliessen. Also, an Kulturfestivals fehlt uns echt nicht.

Koalas in the Wild

It is already some time ago that we, for the first time since arrival, travelled to the other side of the continent together. First a day trip (7 hours flight) from Perth via Brisbane to Townsville in Queensland. I was already in Queensland for a mountain retreat meeting of our research group, a kind of team building exercise. We slept in small wooden houses in the middle of the mountain rainforest and all discussions and presentations outside.

After the retreat I met Andrew on Magnetic Island, our main destination for a long weekend. Our goal: Spot Koalas in the Wild. Magnetic Island is a small tropical island 20 minutes by Ferry off Townsville. We stayed in a lovely apartment close to the beach with Rock Wallabies (a small kanguru) and Possums (Beuteltier) in the Trees around us. But the most exciting experience we had was the 2 green frogs in the toilet every evening. Dont ask me how they got there.
Well, second day we went off to the Koala track and yes, we spotted the Koalas, an entire family with baby. Watch for yourself how cute they are.




We have already adopted a koala, we are now proud parents of Kane, born on the 9th November 2009, the 20th anniversary that the Berlin wall came down. What a coincidence.

CHOGM - Birthday party

Vandaag vier ik mijn eerste verjaardag in Perth. Helemaal alleen! Dat is, thuis ben ik alleen, maar op straat is het een heuse feest. Het is ook een nationale (in Western Australia dan) vrije dag. Vanaf vandaag begint de Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) hier in Perth met als voorzitter en uber-opperhoofd Queen Elizabeth II. Vrijdag t/m zondag is er van alles te doen in Perth. Natuurlijk veel buiten activiteiten, want onze lente is in volle bloei.

In honour of this event, probably the last time that the Queen will visit Oz land, they produced a golden coin of over 1.000 kg. Might have been better to take the money, AUD $ 53 million, and put it to good use on the public transport sytem here in Perth. Within the CBD you're able to access all places very well by (free) public transport, but as soon as you need to travel > 3 km out of the city the necessity of a car surfaces. Also after 7.00 pm weekdays or weekend, the frequency of public transport slows down to less than once every hour!

We hebben ons zelf wijsgemaakt, dat een auto toch echt noodzakelijk is, dus hebben we een oude Ford KA uit 2000 laten kopen in New South Wales (de staat waarin Sydney ligt) en op de transport hier naartoe laten zetten. Over een week zullen we de auto vanaf een depot in Perth kunnen afhalen. Chris komt op 14 november voor een kort bezoekje, dus kunnen we de directe omgeving met hem per auto gaan verkennen.

Now it's time to leave home and enjoy the festivities in the city, which has been closed of for most transport since Monday, due to security reasons. Well because of CHOGM i had the oppertunity to see (not meet) Premier Julia Gillard on Tuesday and the husband (Prins Phillip) of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday while they were visiting the University of Western Australia. So much for exciting highlights...

Perth Rocks......with oldies

Just 2 blocks behind our apartment is the NIB Stadium Perth, where they host special musical events. We received a letter from the city telling us that there is a line up of events during the coming weeks and also on the weekend which may cause some noise nuisance and also problem with car parking. In order to reduce the nuisance they provided each household with free parking vouchers for your visitors. Without these tickets in your window shield you risk a fine.
We of course thaught it would not be such a big deal; after all when you look a the list of artist, most of whom you automatically assumed that they were death and gone for ages, how many people will visit. Artists like Def Leppard,Stevie Nicks, Meat Loaf, Rod Stewart are just some names from the very distant past. So who's gonna visit them?? So wrong we were!! Like rats they flocked from all over to see these mummy's perform. Conclusion: Perth rocks with oldies.
And now rumour has it that Madonna is visiting Perth, yet another old bat.
ADELE.....where are you??????

Daytrips around Perth

In the past few weeks we were lucky that the weather was good on the weekends: sunny but not too hot. So we made a few daytrips in the direct vicinity of Perth.
First destination was Heirisson Island in the Swan river, just 40 minutes by bike from downtown city. On our way there, and due to a not-planned detour -we got lost!-, we cycled through a beautiful area, with a lake and cafés along the waterside.

Heirisson Island is inhabited by the gray western kangaroo (sometimes on bikes):

Watch the short clip we made of the kangaroos. From the island we had a great view of Perth's skyline, something that locals are very proud of:

Daarop volgend weekend zijn we naar city beach gefietst: 12km enkele reis. Op de weg heen was het zoeken naar een geschikte fietspad, maar dat viel vies tegen dus zijn we over het trottoir gefietst. We hadden praktisch het hele strand voor ons, want veel mensen waren er niet. Immers het is nog winter!!

Ook de directe omgeving hebben we verkend en een hele leuke café ontdekt dat enkele straten achter onze woning ligt. Lekkere koffie en gebak, maar wel erg duur, zoals bijna alle tenten hier.

Maar goed, als we krap bij kas zijn, dan kunnen we 24 uur per dag terecht bij onze nieuwste aanwinst, die 1 hoek verderop is geopend; voor een kopje koffie of voor de lekkere trek. Het wordt waarschijnlijk onze new hangout!

En als we platzak zijn, dan blijven we gewoon op ons balkon thuis hangen, want de bloemetjes zijn al buiten gezet.

City to surf Perth 2011: 12 km in < 1 uur

Hij had de finish nog niet bereikt, of er waren al plannen voor de halve marathon van volgend jaar gemaakt. Zijn running mate en partner in crime, Roger, is speciaal voor de 12 km loop effe uit Sydney overgevlogen. Om vanmiddag 4 uur weer terug naar huis te vliegen. Gewoonste zaak (in hier Ozzie-land) om 3.300 km te overbruggen om met je maatje te hardlopen... dan nog koffie doen en foetsie in een taxi naar de luchthaven voor een 4 uur vlucht naar huis.
En gelukkig dat ze waren:

Jens & Roger

 Ideaal weer om te hardlopen: 21 graden en licht bewolkt. Het was een redelijk groot evenement voor Perth met zo een 30.000 deelnemers. De route verliep vanaf de binnenstad naar City Beach aan de Indische Oceaan. Alles ging  ordentelijk en gemoedelijk. Chapeau voor de organisatoren want er was aan alles gedacht.

bij de start

Iedereen kon zich als vrijwilliger aanmelden om te helpen met van alles. Maar de stad had ook gehandicapten opgetrommeld om mee te helpen. Ze hielpen bij het inzamelen van de chips v.d. deelnemers. Een goed voorbeeld voor vele andere steden (hopelijk). 
Tja, wat de officiële tijd is, weten we nog niet. Maar volgens Jens's horloge heeft hij de 12 km in 57 minuten gerend. Toch een redelijk goede prestatie voor een oud-atleet....toch??
Maar het eist natuurlijk zijn tol, want op het moment dat ik onze blog bijwerk, hoor ik gesnurk op de achtergrond:

Sponsor my team! Raise funds for East Africa!

Next week sunday the 28th August I will run the City to Surf 12km race to raise funds for charity. My team is the Amsterdam team! Just one week to go and we need more contributions to reach the 500 $ target.

Please donate, bitte spendet, donaties gewenst at: http://www.everydayhero.com.au/amsterdam_team


Donations also possible to my German or Dutch bank account, I can transfer it here in Australia. Just ask for the account number.

Donations go to ADRA, an organisation that helps developing countries in crisis.

The crisis in East Africa has been two years in the making. Failed rains, 240% increases in food prices and ongoing civil unrest has now pushed an estimated 12.8 million people to the edge.

95,000 children have died in Somalia and Kenya during the last three months.

8,000,000 have been forced from their homes, their farms and their futures.

We're watching a tsunami is slowmotion, and the wave has not yet broken. Things will only get worse.

In Kenya, ADRA is restoring water supplies and trucking emergency water to two schools and a regional healthcare facility. Emergency food rations are also being provided to families with young children.

In Somalia, ADRA is supporting remote pastoral communities through food and water distribution. In addtion, ADRA is providing essential items such as jerry cans, sleeping mats and mosquito nets - meaning they can stay with their lands and communities instead of taking dangerous journeys to crowded refugee camps.

Please donate at: http://www.everydayhero.com.au/amsterdam_team

Danke sehr, hartstikke bedankt, thanks a lot!

Wallaby in 5000km

This week I travelled to Townsville in tropical Queensland to visit my research team colleagues at a remote place near the beach owned by the government. I always thought that NIOZ on Texel was remote, now I know better. For the people here its totally normal to travel 50km to work and back every day.

Townsville ist eine relatief kleine Stadt, 140000 Einwohner, hat viele kleine Hotels und Restaurants, eben eine typischer Strandurlaubsort. Von hier aus kann man mit Booten zum Great Barrier Reef fahren und auf die vielen Inseln mit Holiday Resorts.
Zumindest gibt es langs der Starndpromenade die Possums zu sehen (kleine Beuteltiere die recht lustig aussehen), vor allem Abends kommen die aus den Baeumen, sind so gross wie ein kleiner Waschbaer.

Well, one thing is great, Wallabys along the street towards the AIMS institute. Wallabys are the small kanagroos that often live in rocky terrein.

I spotted the wallebys even on the parking area next to the institute or in the garden. They seem really shy, run away as soon as you are getting to close.
It took me 2 month in the country to spot the iconic animals in the wild. Andrew was missing out on that, but hopefully in one of my next trips he can join.

Dicht beim Institut habe ich viele Wallabys gesehen, das sind die kleinen Kangaroos, nur ca. 1m gross wenn sich auf den Hinterbeinen stehen.
Das eine Wallaby hat sogar seine Hand gehoben zum Gruss.

Das AIMS (Australian Institute for Marine Science) ist das wichtigste tropische Forschungsinstitut in Australien und auch sehr bekannt weltweit. Hier wird alles erforscht rund ums Korallenriff. Das Institut steht etwas verlassen in der Naehe vom Strand. Die Mitarbeiter kommen nur mit dem Auto hierher, allerdings gibts Fahrgemeinschaften, das ist schon was besonderes in Auto Land Australien.

Es gibt direkt am Strand eine Anliegeplatz fuer das Forschungsschiff, manchmal springen hier Rock Wallabys rumm, ne Schildkroete steckt den Kopf aus dem Wasser oder ein Krokodil kommt vorbei. Letzteren bin ich zum Glueck nicht begegnet am Strand, das Warnschild hat mich schon etwas gewundert. Ich hatte aber mehr Respekt vor Schlangen, die gibt es hier zu Hauf und extrem gefaehrlich. Also nie in der vollen Hitze ueber Tag durch den Busch laufen....na ja, das macht man ja normalerweise auch nicht.