Joke & Will's Wedding

Joke and Will are happily married!!! I was very honoured to attend the marriage of Joke and Will in Jokes home town Kortenberg nearby Brussels. It was a greet weekend in Belgium. I had the opportunity to meet the many interesting friends and family of them. Everything had a special touch and it was great to be there. The family prepared the wedding party a week long. On Friday the final arrangements where done before Joke "kicked" will out. Will had to stay the night before the weekend out and we had a mellow pre-party at a friends house. I had long discussions with the friendly Belgians about one of the most well known specialities of Belgium: Beer!! There are up to 3000 different beers in Belgium! So I had to drink a few that evening to check if Belgium beer is really good - And it is! After a couple of beers I was glad Will took us back home to our sleeping place at Joke's grandmother.

The wedding was held on Saturday morning at the town hall. It was a short but friendly and warm ceremony that only lasted for 15 minutes. After that we had brunch at the wedding party at Jokes parents. At the evening the party was going on and over 170 people decided to come. The evening was a mixture of dancing, eating, drinking, smoking shisha and meeting nice people. It just became a little bit chilly late night but we where happy that the weather was so nice. Blue sky and no rain at all!

Sunday was dedicated to sleep long and then go for a little exercise. The remaining people from the party helped together to clean up the garden and help to get everything stored away. That also was a great experience we've shared!

For Will and Joke this was just the beginning of a stressful but exciting time. They soon move to San Francisco where Will got a job at Freebase. I've already got the info that there is a good caving area nearby. I'm looking forward to meet them in a cosy cave and explore the wonders of nature.

The Summer Is Over!

I've posted this picture above from last week, Thursday. It has been taken after swimming for the last time in this season. Temperatures have now dropped to 7°C in the morning and a daytime maximum of 13°C. It's getting now quite uncomfortable going by bicycle to the company and its getting even worse in winter. I already wonder how I will handle this. I'm thinking more and more intensively about a year off and travel around the world. This is a dream I had since the early 90's. The company I'm working for at the moment is quite challenging for me because it's a kind of job I've done in the late 90's. So I'm now thinking about how to prepare a long term travel and how to get it started. When I have made my mind I will announce my plans. The good thing about a long travel is that I can visit my friends all over the world that I have not seen for a long time.

Today I will try to get my friends together to play beach volleyball for the last time. We have to start early because the sunset is at 19:00. We have been playing the whole summer every week on Wednesday for at least 2 hours. It was really a lot of fun and I was lucky to play almost every week.

I'll try to bring now more life to my blog. Over summer I have been too lazy to write when I come home at the evening....

Reality Is Illusion

This week was quite refreshing at work. I’ve expected to feel blue after the festival and all the nice people I’ve met but it turned out different – movie time! My company has decided to produce an image film about the company, products and solutions. The product is a box that provides video conferencing and wireless connection to medical devices. In a setup with a call centre and medics online patients can have easy access to medical assistance. My part was to provide technical assistance on the set and I even got a short role. I’ve acted as support expert who takes a call and handles it in a professional way. It was great fun – I love to be in front of a camera – much more then to be in the background.

This experience was a nice fresh-up for next week. On Tuesday I will be on set at a first class private hotel in the city centre of London. An Arabic investor from UAE (United Arabian Emirates) has recently taken over the Cromwell Hospital and is interested to present it as a leading institute. I will present a telehealth solution for UAE-TV and we’ll produce a 15 minute feature that will be nationwide broadcasted. It will be hard work but also great fun – I look forward to it.

Beside the TV feature I also want to take the opportunity to visit some good friends in London – I really hope to meet Chris this time. There are so many stories to hear from his trip to South America. Again the day is too short and its already past 1AM again – Time for my bed...

Back To Life, Back To Reality

Wow - I've missed to write even a single blog entry in May. It's not that it was boring - There was so much going on I've almost lost track. To get started again I just want to focus on the main topics:

Spring Festival
The festival is the main event of the year for me. I love music so much and with all the action going on here in little Graz it’s “almost” the best thing that can happen to me. This year we had great headliners at the opening concert on the first day. The location of the concert was on top of the “Schlossberg”. This exclusive location was the perfect place for an exclusive opening. My job, as in the former years, was to host our artists – mostly the headliners of the day. I had a great time with Roni Size and Represent and with a bunch of Brazilians from the Brazilian night. I hope next year I’ll be able to welcome much more of my dear friends ;-) I have already posted the pictures on Picasa – Have a look!

Job Change
I’ve decided to change my job at the end of April. After reviewing what I have archived and the opportunities to come I’ve accepted a job offer from a friend. I really was sad to quit the “old” job because of my gorgeous colleagues and the interesting and international business.

I work now at Zydacron – A start-up company that produces medical devices for tele health. There is a lot to do in this company because the whole development team has quit and the business has to get started again. I’m working now at the support department and it’s really a challenge for me – I hate this technical focussed jobs! As I love challenges I give it a try and hopefully I can “reorganise” myself quite quick and go for another challenge.

Upcoming
I have already some plans for the next weeks. Today I had my first shot in a commercial about my work at the new company. That will be part of a marketing video of the company.
Next week I’ll be in London at an exclusive hospital to shot a short feature about the tele health product for an Arabian TV station. Later next week I will travel to Norway to a special place where elderly people live in a community – also using the new product.
I also want to be in the near future in Paris for the “Fete de la musique” and in Belgium for caving. I really hope at least something will work out. Now as I have some time for blogging again you’ll can expect to be well informed again.

Late Night Shift

Finally I'm finished for today or better tonight. I've been busy editing the artists sections of the springfestival homepage. I'm checking every single link on the page and trying to give the page a unified format. That is not as easy as it sounds! The feedback of the artists regarding the info we’ve requested from them is as different as the many different individuals sending them back.

As every year also this year we have a unique design for the festival. The cooperate identity can be found and compared on the homepage with the versions from the previous years. This year we have a black and white cow. She appears not only on the website – she will also show herself on the flyers, booklets and merchandising articles. The theme last year was also very amusing for us – instead of the cow we used our senior security guys. The three of them appeared in their favourite leather jackets they are known for. For the audience it was very surprising to see the guys from the flyers in real life on the door.

Now it’s just one more month to go and there is a lot of preparation work to do – and of course also some promotion events. I’ll report a bit later how they have been – probably as successful as the events in London and Ljubljana earlier this month.

London gets us punked!!!!

Saturday started quiet and peacefully. After breakfast and saying good-bye to Elli we went sightseeing in London. Around Oxford Street Gerald bought some records and Marcus and I walked around and discovered hidden treasures of the city. At the evening we decided to have a nice, typical English dinner and then, after a good night drink, return to the hotel.

After eating an overpriced steak we walked home through Oxford Street. Suddenly we mentioned a long line of stylish people queuing to enter a posh club: Punk
A few seconds later we had drinks in our hand and shaking to the music with the party crowd. We spent hours there, had a couple of drinks and a very good time.

The disaster begins: After leaving the club we intended to walk home. Unfortunately no one of us was in the mood to pay attention to the direction we were going. The outcome was a nice little walk about over 1,5h until we took a cab to find home. At home we wanted again a snack from Mc Donald’s but it was already closed. So we decided to go to sleep for an hour and then leave the hotel for the airport. After oversleeping a bit and rushing to the reception we had to deal with the payment for almost 45 minutes. The credit card payment was a big problem for the inexperienced stuff. Beside of the payment issue we had to recognize that we forgot about the switch to summer time. Because of this switch we were one hour late! The next decision was to take the Stansted Express instead of the slow bus. We bought the tickets and the train station where we got the hint that we have to go to the Liverpool station to get the train. After a few stops in the tube we got informed by staff at the Liverpool station that the Stansted Express is suspended because of a burning train on the tracks. We got an advice to take a bus instead. The stop was just around the station. At the bus stop there where so many people waiting for the bus that we had to go to Victoria station for another bus company. Taking the tube again we wanted to change the line and learned that the Victoria line is suspended because of maintenance. Again leaving the station we got an advice to take the bus service for the suspended line. Of course again we got lost and didn’t catch the right bus so we took a cab instead. The taxi brought us to Victoria station and I asked the drive how much he would take to Stansted airport. He just laughed and told me that it would be over 100 Pounds and it would not be much faster as the bus. Of course we had again problems at the bus station. The first problem was that the scheduled bus didn’t arrive. The second was that the delayed bus was short of seats because the first bus didn’t appear. Luckily we got on the bus and arrived later at the airport. Too late for our flight! We checked the flight schedule and learned that there was an easy jet connection to Ljubljana. Lucky to get the flight we checked in. Again there were problems: I have been carefully searched at the security and later even crosschecked by a dog. I then learned that it’s not a good idea to say “fuck off” to an officer. Luckily I didn’t get any big problems and a few hours later we landed in Ljubljana. Our journey was of course not over yet. We couldn’t find anyone to pick us up from Slovenia so we had to take the train. For a value price we could organise a 4h ride with the train over Maribor to Graz where our trip finally has successfully ended.

After all, the weekender was a great experience for us. Not cheap but full of adventures and a great time

Springfestival Launch Party Review

I'm now back at work in Graz. The sun is shining and I'm lazy today after this excessive weekend. Because so much has happened I will split the report in two parts.

Friday after work I took a taxi to the airport. On the way Markus and Gerald joined me for the trip. Gerald is a DJ and Markus is event manager and graffiti artist. We arrived at the hotel in London at around 8PM. It is conveniently located between King’s Cross and St. Pancras. There we met the rest of the crew who have already been in London for a few days.

The meet and greet took place at the first floor in the AKA. We had a fantastic overview of the main floor. Different to Austria the main floor was full of party people at 9PM! Soon we had lots of artists and friends in the venue. It was great to meet all these nice people again. Later the evening the first floor was opened to the public and we also moved to another location. Rainer Trüby and DJ Marky played in the club “The End” in the basement of AKA. “The End” is a medium sized club with two floors. Of course smoke free and equipped with a loud sound system. The music at this evening was not the best but good enough for a nice party. Around 4 we left the venue and took a taxi to the hotel, or better – to Mc Donald’s beside the hotel. After a heavy good night meal we went to bed and expected the best for the next day.