Am back at home in England. Good to be here, but looking forward to getting back. Will post more inc. pictures from the Italian deli when I get back, 6th Jan.

Went to Baden-Baden at the weekend. Very pretty, but didn't have time for a bath, you need three hours free. I'll definitely be back there in January though. I did try the water, hard to drink at 67 degrees C, and very very salty indeed. There's a sign saying not to drink more then 400ml a day. Yeah no kidding.

The supposed capture of saddam has allowed the German radio to use the word "Doppelganger" a lot. Apparently, 1 in 3 Germans under the age of 25 believes the 2001 attacks on NY/Washington were carried out by the CIA. Then again, it was someone on the BBC who said that, so you can never be sure..

Sausuage of the week is Thüringer bratwurst. There's a stall selling them in the Karlsruhe Weinachtsmarkt. I recommend the 'spezial' - with onions, ketchup and mayo.

Went to a party at the teacher training college last night. There were no tickets left when we got there, and my tandem partner and her friends already had tickets, but I managed to sneak in through a combination of pretending not to speak any German to the bouncer, and then a ridiculous hand-to-hand transferral of the entry stamp. Very entertaining. The place was absolutley rammed, nose-damagingly rammed I thought, though I managed to escpae without injury this time. Unlike the Uni. Karlsruhe parties I've been to, this one was at least 90% natives. The music was.. well, schlimm is probably the best German word for it, but I had a good time thanks to the excellent immediate company and general good feeling of knowing my thesis will be handed in in a few days.

Snow all gone. Very cold.

snow! snow snowdy SNOW! SNOW! Not living on some pokey little island any more, this is real central european early December SNOW!

I've been working on my thesis for 10 hours a day for the last 7 days. Fortunately, it's quite a lot better now than it was a week ago.

Top thesis writing related songs:

• 1. Blue Orchids - Work
  
• 2. Hotel X - Work Song
  
• 3. Jim Hendrix Experience - The Burning of the Midnight Lamp
  
• 4. Er..
  
• 5. That's it.
  

I haven't drunk any beer since Munich. Have drunk quite a lot of coffee though.

Added a few more pictures to the Karlsruhe collection.

Brought the Munich photos in. I have to get back to work now..

Uploaded the photos from Nürnberg. There are some good ones. The Munich ones will have to wait til tomorrow.

Our weekend in Nürnberg and Munich was fantastic. It was good not to think about my thesis for 48 hours.

I have some great photos, but have not had time to sort them out yet. I brought just 4 with me to work today: Nürnberg viewed from the castle, the toy guitars on one of the stalls in the Christkindlesmarkt, me and my Spanish friends drinking Glühwein in Marienplatz in Munich, and a late night illicit visit to the Munich Olympic stadium. I'll hopefully have the rest ready for tomorrow.

Nürnberg - the city is really beautiful, which is all the more amazing when you see pictures of what it looked like after the war. The hostel we stayed in had a book of photos - practically every old building was reduced to rubble. Most of the main old churches have been completely restored, and some around the edges of town left in ruins. One of them, I think it was St. Sebald's, had a cross that came from one of the towers on the old Coventry cathedral inside as part of a peace exhibition, which was nice. You can't really take good photos of the inside of these places, or at least I can't manage it with my camera, but there was really incredible art and architecture to see. One notable thing was that even in the protestant churches, they have still preserved very carefully all the statues and paintings from pre-reformation times. No Oliver Cromwell around to burn them all.

Christkindlesmarkt The Nürnberg Christmas market is also beautiful. It's huge, it's centred on the old town market square but also extends all over the old part of town, with stalls for toys, ornaments, books, sweets, sausages, Glühwein, slippers, and carousels for children and stalls with displays of model railways.. it's just great. You can watch all these little kids walking round pointing at things with wide open mouths, it really gets you in the mood for Christmas. And it's the total antithesis of big town Christmas shopping, with crowds and stressed out people and unfriendly, tired staff. Instead, everyone is relaxed and is taking their time, stopping to drink Glühwein and talk to their friends, and the stallholders are all friendly because they are trying to sell their own stuff. The atmosphere is really nice.

München Munich is also a really beautiful city. Some of the churches in the old town are absolutely stunning. There's a small church with a beautiful interior called the Damenstiftkirche, and another with a packed rococo interior that is really breathtaking, called the Asamkirche. The architecture of the old town generally is very grand but tasteful - when I put up the photos tomorrow, dear reader, you can judge for yourself.

Hofbrauhaus This is where you really get to grips with Munich. It's a tourist trap to an extent, an enourmous beer cellar with large benches and tables and 1-litre glasses as standard and beer brewed on the premises. Really good stuff, plenty of Bavarian singing and thumping the table and waving your glass in the air. The other guys on our table were all very friendly too, 5 Germans and a Swiss. Though there were a lot of tourists there, they all seemed to be German tourists, mostly with organised package tours and tired looking tour guides trying to convince them to stop drinking and come back to the bus. The guy next to us was from Cologne, he'd flown down for the football game the previous day and was getting seriously into the Bavarian way of doing things. All the singing and the waitresses costumes were pretty daft, but it was great to be in a place where you could actually see hundreds of Germans enjoying themselves! You don't see it a lot in Karlsruhe. I felt about 3 times better about Germany when we left the place, somewhat unsteadily, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

In the guidebook Eduardo read that Bavarians drink 1700 litres of beer each every year! We didn't believe it at the time, but by the time we left the Hofbrauhaus, we believed it. In fact, we didn't just believe it, we knew it to be true.

Am in a hostel in Nuremberg. The city looks great, but we unfortunately just went to the worst pub in Germany. Bad beer and lots of large obnoxious American kids. The Christmas market looks good though, will hit that tomorrow..

Saw Fiona on her way through last night. She's finished her Calculemus visit to Saarbrücken and is driving down to look at Switzerland for a few days before going home. We went to a brew-pub place where they serve unfiltered Pilsner. Very traditional. A lot better than the stuff the main Karlsruhe brewery, Hopefner, make. Theirs is more like B*dw*iser or something. The other local brewery, Moninger, is much better.

Was good to get out for a bit. Have been working most evenings on my thesis. It's going ok but I am getting tired of working on it.

Yesterday, for some reason I was charged with acquiring fresh coffee beans for our department machine. In the local style, instead of saying 'could you pick up some coffee on the way in tomorrow, here's a fiver', I was given the address and phone number of a single espresso beans boutique, and instructed to buy 2 kilos of 'paradiso' blend and nothing else. For this I had to shell out €48, which I thought was a bit steep. However, I was won over when the secretary gave me a bottle of Swedish liqueur for my troubles. Of course they pay the money too, though they do everything by electronic transfer here, which I don't quite trust for some reason.

In Germany they still have this thing we used to have in the UK where you can only get your cash out for free from certain banks. It's very irritating. The charge for getting money from another bank is something truly ridiculous like €4.

Went for lunch with my boss here today. We haven't spoken all that much since I arrived, because I've been busy writing up and he's been busy writing EU grant proposals. It was a good lunch. He has plenty of ideas for new research.

This weekend I was mostly working, though I went cycling yesterday in the forest. It's a bit sad there now, 90% of the trees are deciduous and all the leaves are gone. It feels sort of Christmassy though. They've just pruned some of the pine trees (only 25 chopping days til Christmas) and there are lots of pine cuttings around that people were collecting, presumably to take home for Christmas decorations.

It's just me and chapter 10 in the department this afternoon.

Did a little Christmas shopping this morning. I tried to pay for a €35 bill with my EC card (that's like a Switch card in the UK), and the lady said I needed my passport - huh? I'd sooner carry 35 Euros in cash around with me than my passport, if it got nicked it would be a huge hassle to get replaced, and it would probably cost at least 35 Euros anyway. They would have accepted a driving license, but not one without a photo on. I still have one of the old British paper ones. So, in the end she just accepted my card anyway, since it was Saturday and there was a big queue, but she gave me a bit of a lecture about it. I think I'll stick to the folding stuff in future.

I had a coffee at a department store espresso bar. I was served by this chap who clearly felt he was in his ideal job. He was maybe 60, and looked like a bit like Grandpa out of the Munsters, with an ancient and ill-fitting waistcoat and bow tie and thinly gold-capped teeth. He told me he liked his job because he met people from everywhere. He said he got one impression of people of a certain nationality from television, then a completely different one when they actually came and talked to him at his coffee bar. Sounds obvious, but I agreed it's unfortunately very easy to forget. It was nice to speak to him after copping an earful from the cashier about my passport, or lack thereof. The coffee was good, too.

It seems England have won something. I'm pleased. There has been a lot of coverage on the BBC world service, but (obviously) no mention on German radio - imagine if the handball world cup was being played, and you were trying to get news of it on the BBC. It's pretty much the equivalent.

Went to Eduardo's Spanish 'Fiesta' at his student residence last night. it was good, some good spanish food and not quite so great drinks (red wine and coca cola? why do people drink that?). Student parties don't change much moving from Britain to Germany. A particularly nice touch at this one was to use a burnt cork to draw moustaches on everyone to make them look 'Spanish'. No photos though unfortunately..

Am thinking about whether to watch the rugby tomorrow morning. An Irish pub is opening early to show it. I think I slightly favour staying in bed.

Saw the football in the Irish pub last night, with Eduardo and a couple of German guys. It was kind of sad, first we watched Norway get gubbed (which made Eduardo happy), then Scotland going 3-0 down, then at half-time in that game we switched to watch Wales being outmanoeuvred in Cardiff. We didn't see any of the game that produced the big shock, Latvia beating Turkey on aggregate.

A lady came into the Irish pub and tried to order pizza, thinking the Irish tricolore was the Italian flag. The landlord said she was about the 30th person to do that since he opened last year.

The pictures from Hamburg. Some of them are a little dark, blame a mixture of me and the weather. There are none from the red light district I'm afraid, I decided not to take my camera on that gig. It was probably the right decision...

Beer of the week is certainly Jever, specifically their pilsner which is dry and contains a little more hops that most German beer. Very nice. It's Friesian, like the cow, i.e. it comes from the north part of Germany close to Denmark. I tried it first on Sunday night in Hamburg, but they also sell it in the best supermarket in Germany, which is conveniently situated about 5 minutes by bike from my flat.

In German, you can use the same word (gelegen) for 'convenient' and 'situated'. So the Supermarkt ist gelegen gelegen.

Litigious society In Germany, the Krankenkasse (health insurance) companies are generally facing a cash crisis, so one thing they are very keen on is suing other people to claim money for treatment. I had to fill in a form explaining to them how I broke my nose, and then they've been trying to reach me here at the office to speak to me about it. Today I was in when they called, and I had to explain that I hadn't taken the guy's name who had bumped into me, principally because although he was being a bit daft I didn't really think it was his fault. It also didn't occur to me, I certainly wouldn't think about doing it in Britain. Anyway, she accepted my explanation in the end, though I could tell she was a bit disappointed. I'm quite relieved, I didn't fancy having to foot the bill myself or go through a court hearing or something.

Hamburg is a great city. I had a very good weekend hanging out with San, Tina and Heinz, and taking in the town. I took some pictures, so I'll write more when I've put them up, hopefully tomorrow.

Nachtzug The night train was ok, I got some reasonable sleep and it was quite comfortable. There's a huge bar wagon where some people choose to spend the night rather than actually sleeping. When I got to my sleeping car, a huge German woman was fast asleep on three pillows on the bunk opposite. It became clear that one of these was my pillow. I had to steal one from the next compartment, but I felt ok about that since Karlsruhe is the last stop before the long overnight haul, so nobody else would be needing it.. They come round and wake you up at Hamburg to make sure you don't miss your stop which is nice. Unless you wanted to get off at Hannover, 2 hours earlier.

Reeperbahn The famous red light district in Hamburg is justifiably famous, I can assure you. It's huge, crazy, loud, full and pretty funny. We were there at about 2:30am, and it seemed to be just about in full swing. We went into a dance bar (not a strip bar - I mean the customers dance) at what turned out to be just the right time; when we arrived, it was just full, but when we finished our beer, everyone was leaving. It was unusual for (what I've seen of) Germany as it was full of people of totally different ages and styles, all dancing together and mucking around and having a good time. We also saw some very seedy looking places, a grim looking 'British Pub' that I wouldn't go in if you paid me, a specialist condom shop and, right in the middle, a large police station. A truly unique place, full of tourists but still well worth seeing.

No time to post much today, have been trying to finish chapter 8. And 9.

Worked out how to get RealPlayer through the firewall today, so I can listen to John Peel in the office

Inshallah off to Hamburg tonight...

Had a long, long conversation with a retired lady in the Italian deli this morning. She obviously didn't have much to do with her day. I kept trying to leave for work, but then she would ask me about where I worked etc. She had been to London in 1960, and had lots to say about it, things she did and didn't like, and her daughter and granddaughters who live there now. She was nice though.

Got the night train tickets, so Friday night I spend in a Liegewagen with 5 sleeping Germans. Hopefully sleeping anyway. There's a separate bar, so hopefully it'll be quiet in the sleeping wagen. Then Saturday morning I arrive in Hamburg just in time for breakfast. Should be good, I'm looking forward to it. If it works out well I might take the night train somewhere else. They go to Amsterdam and Vienna.

Got my first payslip today. The total tax: 47%. That includes such gems as €50 a month 'church tax' and €98 a month to pay my bit towards the bill for Germany's 5 million unemployed. I feel myself drifting towards the right wing even now.. I worked out that in the UK, after income tax and NI,I would take home €850 more per month. Clearly these kinds of comparisons are somewhat artificial, but I will try to remember this when I'm working in Britain and think I'm being taxed too much..

Ok, money moaning finished. Tonight I'm going to try to get some tickets for a night train from Karlsruhe to Hamburg on Friday night. I have to stay for my German class Friday evening, and I'll miss the last fast train, so the night train looks like the best option. I bought a German railcard on Sunday, which will hopefully make it a bit cheaper (I'm not sure if it's valid for Nachtzugs). I'm quite looking forward to it, there's something quite cool about night trains. I have to get to Hamburg to meet San Yuan, a Taiwanese friend who's in Europe for a conference.

Some pictures from the weekend: first, Durlach, a little village on the edge of Karlsruhe that has now become a commuter town. The centre of the town is still very pretty though, and has some original buildings which escaped the fate of Karlsruhe's old town, i.e. being reduced to rubble in the war. The light wasn't very good on Saturday so I didn't take many pictures.

Second, Heidelberg, which Fiona and I visited on Sunday. It was sunny and unseasonably warm - we had lunch sitting outside. The town was full of tourists, many of them American soldiers from a NATO base nearby. In the evening, it seemed like the whole town had come into the central area to window shop, despite everything being closed on a Sunday. One shop that was open was a Chirstmas shop, selling scary looking little model Santas and avant-garde nativity figures. I bought an advent calendar with a picture of some very fightened looking shepherds painted from an angel's-eye-view. They have a Christmas market starting on the 26th November, so I might well go back then to buy some pressies.

Thanks to Megan, my bike now has an additional safety device.

Added the missing Rhein pictures and put up some pictures of the forest in the north of Karlsruhe. NB - the latter are likely to be interesting only if you like pictures of trees.

Had a great weekend, cycled to Durlach on Saturday, went out with Eduardo and two Bulgarian girls on Saturday night and then took a train to Heidelberg on Sunday where I met up with Fiona. Heidelberg is very pretty, at least in the old town area, and we had a nice day walking round the castle and eating apple strudel.

Saturday night was particulary cool because the four of us had no common language to speak. One Bulgarian spoke Bulgarian, German and English, the other Bulgarian girl just Bulgarian and French, Eduardo speaks Spanish, French and English and me English and poor French and German. So I ended up speaking a mixture of three languages, we had a very nice time but it was sort of exhausting as well.

Got to do a lot of work this week so better get on with it...

Some slightly random pictures from our trip to the Rhein a couple of weeks ago. There's a nice group photo missing, I'll try and add it tomorrow.

Far more interesting than my banal witterings is my sister Jenny's weblog, which aside form having a cool name, also includes the texts from her univeristy radio programs about life in the Middle East, e.g.

...as I came to know more Syrians, a common, wildly romantic streak became evident. This romance is embedded in Arab culture, going back before the time of Islam to the ancient Arabic love poetry, which many modern Syrians, including taxi drivers, shopkeepers and students, know off by heart. This beautiful and passionate writing may be described in two parts according to the Cornell Library:
a) a fleeting glimpse of the beloved's face on a deserted campsite, allowing one just enough time to compare her eyes to those of a cow; followed by
b) a hair-raising ride on one's camel with one's tribe to try to forget how beautiful she is.

Went to a party at Eduardo's residence last night to celebrate finishing my post-doc proposal. Just the small matter of my PhD to do now... Eduardo lives in a 12 story student house which would not look out of place in the worst parts of Croydon or Sighthill. Inside, it's like something out of the DDR, there is lots of exposed concrete which people have splashed random bright paint on, wires hanging out of the walls, the lift smells awful and opens straight into the kitchen rather than into a hallway... it's all a little odd. I started the evening by catching a little of the MTV music awards from Edinburgh, which looked absolutely dreadful, and then we went down to the bar. It was dark, smoky and cheap. The music included some ridiculous German drinking song which made all the boys get on the dance floor and link arms and sing along. Frightening stuff. Despite this, and the insalubrious surroundings, it was a nice evening. It was interesting to see a student residence here, it's in many ways the same as Churchill House in Edinburgh, except that instead of everyone speaking bad English, everyone is speaking bad German.

Cycling without hands It seems like just before I arrived here, German men discovered that it is possible to ride a bike without having your hands on the handlebars. Now they are obsessed with it, and feel they must show everyone this wonderful new trick. They ride all over the place with their hands in their pockets and stupid smug expressions. Yeah, well, anyone can do it in the Schloss gardens, let's see you try it on the six-lane aptly-named Kriegstraße...

Toll Collect German pride recently took a knock here, when the delivery date arrived for a government-commissioned system for tracking lorries on the autobahn using satellites. The Swiss apparently already have such a system working, but it would have been unacceptable to buy theirs, so instead a consortium involving Daimler Benz and Deutsche Telecom (I think, sue me if I'm wrong) was set up to build a new system. The German government was so confident of success, they took the old system of toll collection out of service on the day the new system was supposed to come on line. But of course it wasn't ready, and still isn't, causing the government to lose millions of pounds a day. It turns out there's no provision in the contract for late delivery compensation either, though a deal has apparently now been thrashed out. Yesterday, in Der Spiegel, I read a survey asking people who they thought was to blame. The majority blamed the government, perhaps for agreeing an unrealistic contract of for switching of the old system. Few people wanted to blame the big German firms. I think when this happens in the UK, e.g. with the air-traffic control system that was very late, we all blame the company straight away.

DB The German railway is not what it used to be. The idea of perfectly punctual trains is now a thing of the past, though people are very reluctant to let go of the idea. For example, when you buy a ticket that involves changing trains somewhere, ten minutes is allowed for you to make your connection. But trains are now frequently more than ten minutes late, which means you miss your connection, and then end up hours late, even though the delay on the line was only a few minutes. They could change the timetables to allow for more slippage, but nobody wants to do this, as then they would have to admit the trains don't run on time any more.

Apparently, according to my friend Anusch, DB put a clock in a station showing in total how late the departing trains were, the idea being to counter the growing public opinion that the trains were all running late. But it turned out to be too embarrassing, the trains were running much later than they thought, so they took the clock down.

The banadges of are off my nose. So now I have German shoes, a German jacket and a German nose. It's not a bad job, you can tell it's been broken if you know where to look, but it won't cause little children to scream and run away or anything. No more so than before anyway. The HNO Arzt I saw this morning was a really good chap. He told me he worked in North Wales for a year. Still, he spoke German to me which was nice. He said I spoke good German, which is a first - probably because I've had a lot of practice at explaining how my nose got broken.

Weather beautiful again today. It was warm enough at lunch time to sit in front of the Schloss and watch leaves fall. A lot of people had the same idea.

There isn't a Starbucks in Karlsruhe, but there are about a dozen outlets of German coffee shop barons Tchibo. They sell the usual [thing]acino coffee, but also have a selection of household items such as saucepans, pillows, socks. This seemed kind of weird, until I realised it's basically a ploy to get around the restrictive opening hours here. Cafes can stay open as late as they like, but a housewares shop has to be closed early, until recently it was something ridiculous like 5pm but over the summer that was changed to 8pm. A lot of shops still close early, usually about 5 minutes before I arrive, but I'm glad I wasn't here when everything closed at 5.

Anyway, Tchibo are slowly taking over Germany. A week or so ago I heard on the radio they had bought the cosmetics company Nivea. How that fits into their plan for world domination I'm not quite sure, but if it means wider availability of soothing aftershave balm, count me in.

Ok, time to catch up on a few things.

The Operation

Having the operation was quite an experience. It was a serious crash course in medical German for one thing. I also got to experience the German healthcare system, which I think is ranked second best in Europe. It's pretty good. I was on a ward with just two other people, and there was an urn for free tea and coffee just outside. If you pressed the button for a nurse, one would come pretty fast, but they did have a habit of promising to do something, and then never coming back, which happens a lot in the NHS too. It took ages to actually leave, since there was only one doctor left in the evening and she was called to assist in an emergency operation. Eventually she came and passed me fit to fly the next day, then I had to wait another half hour before a nurse could come to take the tap out of my arm that they'd use to put the anaesthetic and the drip in. I was glad to see the back of that, it didn't hurt but it makes you feel odd to have something sticking out of your veins.

Today I got a letter from my health insurance company asking me to describe the accident so they can decide if they want to sue somebody..

Bank So Postbank finally sent me a card one month after I opened my account. They have machines here that you put your card in, and then they print you off a statement, without you having to type your PIN in. So, if you find a card on the street and want to decide if it's worth nicking, it's very convenient. However, they don't really seem to have debit cards here, so a stolen card is not as useful as you might think. Instead they have a strange electronic cash payment system. You take some money out of your account, charge it to your card (the same card), and then you can pay from that cash in shops etc. It strikes me as very inconvenient, you have to go back to a cash machine to charge your card (so you might as well just get some money out) and you then have to remember how much money is in your account and how much money is on your card. There's also no danger of getting any credit interest when you move the money to your card, not that you seem to get any while it's in your account either. Once you have the money on your card, it's more secure though, since when you pay you must enter your PIN, which is harder to get right than a signature.

Ryanair Germans haven't got used to budget airlines yet. The flight back here was 90% Germans, and they formed a slightly disorderly queue in front of the boarding gate about half an hour before the plane we were going to take had even touched down. Clearly the prospect of having to find your own seat is still causing some concern. They all took ages choosing where to sit, despite it only being a one hour flight in the dark, and ages stowing their hand luggage, causing the flight to take ages to get ready. This was in contrast to the easyjet flight from Edinburgh to Stanstead, where nobody even stood up until the flight was called and then they boarded up the front and rear steps at considerable speed.

I'm sure this naivete won't last. There is a German budget airline operating out of Cologne now, and they will probably come up with some ruthlessly efficient way of reducing turnaround time before you know it.

I was the only passenger on the bus back from the airport to Karlsruhe, which meant I got to talk to the driver about Ryanair, Edinburgh, Germany and the latest revelations about Princess Diana. I had to feign interest in this, since I didn't know how to politely say I didn't give a damn about Princess Diana, and I don't even know what this butler chap has been saying about her. When I got back to Karlsruhe, I couldn't see my bike, and thought it might have been half inched, but it turned out that while I was away about 200 leaves had fallen on it from the tree next to where I locked it up. They had camouflaged it against the leafy background. There are now leaves stuck in the bearings, the chain, the dynamo, the mudguards.. it looks like I just drove through a tree.

Clothes I bought some clothes today, exactly the same kinds of things that I would buy at home, but inexplicably I now look German. I am being assimilated.

Am back in Karlsruhe, but am v.busy with grant proposal. Will write more later.

Have been paid and got bank card. Bought some shoes on the way to work - my old ones had large holes in the bottom.

Got an appointment to see the HNO doctor tomorrow, should get the bandages etc. on the nose removed. About time too. I've started staring back.

Laura's wedding was great, in a beautiful old Scottish manor house owned by the Gladstones (as in Victorian prime minister Gladstone). The groom and his mates, whom I'd never met, seemed like top people. They were mostly from Dundee or thereabouts and were friendly and funny. Was very good to see a bunch of my Cambridge mates too. The food was absolutey stunning, there was plenty of the local whisky, distilled about a mile down the road, and some excellent singing in the bus on the way home. Everyone was very well looked after and the unanimous verdict was it had been a very fine wedding.

Hopefully going to the Pear Tree pub quiz tonight.

Good football manager quote, this one from Dave Jones, currently boss at Wolves, after this weekend's game:

"It's fair to say the crowd booed them off at half-time and then I booed them into the dressing room."

(from BBC sport. Wolves lost 2-0 to Boro, which is a lot better than Palace managed, but we'll say no more about that..)

Op went ok, nose now somewhere near middle of face, made it out the same day and got over to Edinburgh yesterday. Skipped to the front of the Ryanair queue as a self-selected medical priority.. The operation was a failry unfomcortable experience, but it doesn't hurt so much now, and the docs and nurses were generally pretty friendly. I kept trying to get them to pronounce 'Steel' the English way (i.e. not 'Schteel').

I'm here for a wedding at the weekend and will go back to Germany next week. Will write some more later.

Ok, going in for the op tomorrow morning. Eduardo is coming along too, which is fun becasue he speaks even less German than me. Will be good to have someone there though, and kind of him to offer. Had to sign several pieces of paper, one saying that even if I like my new nose even less, tough.

Can't eat anything after 10pm, so going to get some dinner now. Then will write down everything I know about security protocol analysis, Galois style

Wish me luck!

So I thought living abroad for a year might change me a bit, I didn't anticipate it would change my face. On Friday night we were in a club/bar place in town and the German kids on the dancefloor went a little bit crazy to some skate/punk type tune. I've seen some pretty extreme dancing in my time (the Fugazi gig at Brixton academy springs to mind) but there was enourmous pleasure being taken in aggressively shoving each other about that I've never seen before, especially following on from a sequence of silly songs including Madonna and Michael Jackson. Anyway, one guy came flying backwards across the room and hit me between the eyes with the back of his head. I realised pretty early my nose was broken, and the x-rays confirmed it in the hospital later. So I had to get up early Saturday to go back to the ENT clinic (or HNO as it is here). German healthcare is almost efficient, but not quite, e.g. they asked me to cycle to the other building, pick up the x-rays myself and then bring them back to the ENT doc. They sat me in the scariest room I have ever been in in my life, surrounded by 2000 medieval looking nose torture tools and several tanks of gas. I felt quite uneasy. But the doc didn't do much, he just said, yes, your nose is broken. They have to re-set it under general anaesthetic. It's a five minute procedure, but they like to keep you in for 24 hours. This doesn't fit very well with my plan to fly to Edinburgh for a wedding on Wednesday. So, I go back to the clinic this afternoon, hopefully to arrange to have it done very early Tuesday morning, and then get let out late Tuesday night. There's a chance of three days of bleeding apparently, let's hope that doesn't happen...

On Saturday, Alex, Fiona and I went shopping in Karlsruhe. Retail therapy, though not so easy when I still haven't been paid. I bought a fleece pullover on my visa card anyway. Fiona and Alex really got into it, though the scary thing was, though they bought all their new clothes in different stores, when they tried them on at home they co-ordinated perfectly. In fact, they looked like they were modelling this season's collection from one shop. I took a picture of them that I'll put up when I get the opportunity. Karlsruhe's nicht so schlecht for buying clothes, better than it is for clubs anyway.

On Sunday Alex set off for Berlin frühmorgens, and Fiona and I went to the Schloss. It's all a museum inside, and it was really very impressive. For €3 you get to see an enourmous amount of statues stolen from Strasbourg cathedral while the Germans owned it, and a load of other altarpieces and icons taken out of German churches (presumably because they were too valuable, but maybe to protect them during the war?) dating from 1200-1500. They've arranged them really well in the museum to look impressive.

Also in the Schloss is some furniture from when it was the seat of the Duke (that's the best translation of Großherzog I can come up with). Pretty amazing stuff, also going round it with Fiona is quite comical as she keeps saying things like, "ooh, my Grandma's sofa is just like that", when you're looking at an early 1800s chaise longue covered in gold leaf, or, "that reminds me, I must get the scratch on my writing desk fixed", when you look at Großherzog Karl Freidrich's Schreibtisch. It's funny because her grandmother's sofa probably really does look like that, and her writing desk probably doesn't look that different from Karl's.

There was also a collection of the Großherzog's hunting equipment, including what must have been duelling pistols:

"Would you like swords, pistols or daggers?"
"I choose daggers!"
"In zat case I will take ze pistols.."

Very nippy here last night, and the trees have all decided it's winter. There's no wind, it's a perfectly clear day, but the leaves are falling from the trees like rain. It's pretty spectacular to watch.

Not much time to post as am very busy with work stuff. Have second German lesson at 5, looking forward to that, then Fiona and Alex are in town tonight. Might be visiting a spa somewhere over the weekend - Anusch, a chap in the department here is going with some friends, and Fiona also has some idea about going to bathe in Baden-Baden because that's where her grandparents met or something(!)

So, the actor playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's "controversial" new film, "The Passion of Chirst" has apparently just been struck by lightning on the set. I suspect a publicity stunt.

Went to watch the rangers-united game last night in an Irish pub on my street. Yes, I know, but all the other pubs were showing Stuttgart against Panathinaikos, which didn't sound too exciting. It was a good game, too good to be decided by that ridiculous Phil Neville goal. The pub was a bit weird though. There was some loud Californian at the bar moaning about Germany, and a few other ex-pat types who'd dropped in for the game, but the clientele was mostly German. Beer is ordered in whatever language you find to hand. There were a large number of regulars, most of whom drank Guinness, and a bilingual pub quiz, but there was something a bit phony about the whole place. Apparently it's only been open a year or so, so maybe that's something to do with it.

Very sad to hear that Elliott Smith has died. I liked his music a lot. I only saw him live once, in September 1998. He was great that night, I'd never heard of him at the time, but I bought his record the next day. My favourite recording of his is probably his first solo album, Roman Candle.

My Italian is coming on at the rate of one word a day. I now agree a one word summary of current weather conditions with the ladies in the Italian deli when I arrive for my coffee. Today: freddo. Chilly.

Went to my ruthlessly inefficient German bank again today. Still no sign of a bankcard, nearly four weeks after opening the account, but she assured me it's unterwegs and should arrive tomorrow or Friday. Whether I'll have been paid by then is another question. Signed another 4 random pieces of paper for the university this morning - the amount of paperwork really is absurd.

Yesterday evening, outside the organic supermarket of all places, I was handed a sheet of what turned out to be thinly disguised right-wing propaganda. No, not a copy of the Daily Telegraph, worse than that: a leaflet claiming that Karlsruhe was a stronghold of the extreme left, and that Nationalisten also had a right to march through the city centre, and to prevent them doing so was a violation of human rights. Hmm. I'm sure this is is the view of the smallest possible minority, but it still left me feeling quite uncomfortable.

In a welcome development, it's Italian week at the Mensa. This means Italian food every day, and also a stall selling little glasses of Italian wine for €0.60. Bellissimo.

First German class last night was a lot of fun. A good international group doing a variety of different things, and the teacher, Heidi, seems pretty cool as well. I think most people in the class are at a similar level to me too. Lots of homework to do this week.

The forecast for Karlsruhe at the weekend in -6 centigrade. Wha? I better get paid soon so I can go and buy a lot of warm clothes. The paperwork here is just insane. Today I had to sign six different pieces of paper for my contract, that's after they've seen my passport, permit of stay, registration with the police, health insurance registration, CV (one printed copy and one fill-in form), masters certificate, and bank account details. This takes my total number of pieces of paper signed since arriving to 3.2 trillion.

Friday night was good, the curry turned out ok and the Rioja was indeed fine. We tried some Dunkel Bier mit Hefe in a pub later - that's dark beer with yeast. My verdict: dark beer good, yeast not necessary.

On Saturday I went on a trip to see the Rhine with Eduardo and two more Spaniards, Ignacio and Marivi. We cycled over a big road bridge, and were quite disappointed not to arrive in France. It turns out the border only reverts to the river a bit further south. We were still about 7km from France, I think I'll try and get there another time. So, we rode south along the east bank of the Rhine, stopping for a little lunch, before making our way back through some leafy suburbs of Karlsruhe. It was only 4 hours, but it seemed like we'd been away all day. It's great to have a bike in this town.

I took some pictures on the trip. I'll put them on the web tomorrow.

This Sunday was the first on I've spent in Karlsruhe, I've been away for all the previous ones in Berlin or in the Schwarzwald. In Germany, everything is closed on a Sunday, so how do they sell Sunday papers here? I eventually bought a paper from the 24 hour garage round the corner. I also got some fresh Brötchen from a bakery that was about to close at midday. You don't want to be caught short of Brötchen in this country. Walking home with a paper and some fresh bread rolls, I felt the satisfaction of knowing I had accomplished about all a man could accomplish on a Sunday in Germany.

What everybody here does on Sunday in lieu of commercial activities is to go to the parks. I took the bike out again to explore the northern part of Karlsruhe, which is a big forest where Karl (yes that Karl) used to go hunting. It's lovely, especially with the leaves turning colour. I also rode past a quite serious Sunday league football game, a Mexican restaurant conveniently situated in the middle of the woods, a waterworks and a canal. Pictures of some of these tomorrow. n the way home, the Schloss gardens were as busy as the main shopping street on Saturday, but with a rather more relaxed atmosphere. There's a real feeling of Sunday being a different kind of day here that we don't really have in the UK any more, at least not in towns the size of Karlsruhe. People say "Schön Sonntag" to each other, i.e have a nice Sunday. It's quite cool. It's also a good excuse to eat take-away, since you can't buy anything to cook. I had another excellent kebab from the shop downstairs.

First German class tonight. Hope the other Fremdspracheranfängers are a decent bunch.

It turns out the three ladies who run the Italian deli are sisters. This is kind of obvious when you see them side on. They all have the same nose, so to speak. They're from Calabria, right down in the bottom south west corner of Italy, which sounds like quite an exciting place. I think they were trying to tell me there's no electricity and you drink spring water straight off the mountains. One of them also told me that Genoa, where I'm going next April, is a very nice city.

The Hausmeister "fixed" my shower by banging a lot of limescale from inside the nozzle into the shower baisin. The water comes through a bit better now, but it's inexplicably still not hot, like it was the first few days I was here. He suggested I descale the outside of the shower head as well. The water here is really hard. In fact it's well hard. It tastes beautiful, but even when you boil water in a pan it leaves scale.

Nozzle. What a silly word.

I'm entertaining Eduardo for dinner tonight. He wanted some good English food, so I'm making Indian. Finding the spices was much harder than it is in Britain, the ethnic non-Germans here are mostly Turkish or Arabs. So, it's easy to buy seasonings to go on middle eastern and North African dishes, but I can't find Tumeric anywhere. Eduardo comes from the Rioja area of Spain, so he's bringing round a bottle of what he promises is the finest red wine Spain has to offer, which should be pretty good.

Watching cricket in Bangladesh sounds like a lot of fun:

...former captain Nasser Hussain was caught behind off Talha Jubair for 22.

He could, however, have claim to have been slightly distracted after play was held up when a killer cobra was found in the crowd.

Several spectators averted a possible attack by battering the four-foot snake to death with chairs.

(from BBC Sport)

Ever been surprised by the "People who bought this also bought.." links on Amazon? Well some chap has written some code that tracks through these links to find a path between any two items. For example, you can connect people who bought Clocksin and Mellish's Programming in Prolog with people who bought Britney Spears' Baby One More Time in 14 hops. It's the fatal plunge into Celine Dion that does it.

As promised, a picture of the bike. Nice, eh? This morning, when I woke up, I was quite excited to get up so I could ride my bike into work. It's like being about 13 again.

Went to register for my German course at lunchtime. It was like trying to register at the Tower of Babel. A mixture of bad German, bad English, Spanish and Hindi was being spoken in a crowd around the door to the office where you pay your money. Eventually, I figured out that the crowd was mostly made up of people who had either registered too late, or didn't get drawn out of the hat to go on the course they wanted. So, they were trying to get themselves on the waiting list for the 2pm deadline, when the places of people who hadn't turned up to pay would be allocated to whoever was around. At this point, I checked the list on the wall, and found out I had got lucky and had been assigned a place on DaF 3, so I went in and paid and left the unluckier ones to sort it out for themselves. It seems a bit mean to not provide enough places for visitors. Presumably, these people have all paid their fees to the university somehow, they ought at least to give them a chance to learn the language without paying private rates. I've no idea whether British universities are any better though.

Added a couple more Karlsruhe pictures. Not of my bike yet though, be patient. Instead they show the street I'm living in and a couple more random things.

The guy who looks after a block of flats in Germany is called der Hausmeister. They like the word Meister here, and I can see why, it's has an excellent sound. When the German's women's team won the world cup, they became Weltmeisters. Every year, readers of a certain German football magazine vote for the player they think was best in the air (i.e. with headers and stuff) in the past season. He then gets called der Luftmeister.

Anyway, to get back to the point, our Hausmeister is called Mario Stankovich, and likes to be known as Stanko. I've just arranged a visit from him tomorrow morning to look at my currently lauwarm shower. He doesn't speak a word of English, so it will be tough for me. I predict a lot of hand waving and contorted facial expressions - a bit like what happens when I get in the shower at the moment.

My new bicycle, which I just collected, is a thing of great beauty. It's strictly one speed, pedal backwards to stop, but it has working lights front and back powered by a dynamo, and a bell, which is required by German law. Very cool indeed. It's also blue, and quite clearly intended for girls. I'll take a picture of it before it gets stolen.

Added some pictures of my flat including furniture to the Karlsruhe pictures page.

The man from the bike refurbishers just called to say my bike is ready, so I can get it tomorrow. The first German caller on my mobile. It's a lot more difficult to talk on the phone than face to face in a language you don't know well, but it worked out ok in the end. This time, we'll try to get off the tram in the right direction.

Another thing that's different here is the way you top up your pay as you go mobile phone. You to a phone shop (in Germany, mobile phones are called "Handys"), and key in your phone number on a pad, then pay the man behind the counter the money you want to add. This is another way they have of keeping track of where the owners of pay as you go phones are. When I bought the SIM card, I had to show my passport and proof of address, which is pretty extreme. In the UK, I think you can still just hand over the cash and walk away.

Forgot to mention yesterday that over the weekend we camped close to Emmendingen, where I broke my arm and had 12 stitches my head in 1996. We looked for the ruined castle where I came a cropper, but couldn't find it. There are about 1000 ruined castles on the outskirts of Emmendingen.

Built my furniture last night. I didn't have a big enough screwdriver, so I went to the 24 hour garage round the corner to look for one. Everything else closes by 8pm in Germany. The chap in the garage didn't have any Schraubenziehers to sell, so he lent me his own one which was nice of him. I told him I'd have it back in an hour, so I had to build things at considerable speed. Furniture requiring you to put self tapping screws into tubular steel should be banned by EU law. Anyway, it's all up now and looks kind of nice. My flat feels much nicer. Picture tomorrow.

Random things: saw a red squirrel in the Schloss park this morning. The people in the Italian deli have started making my espresso when they see me crossing the street outside - are obviously well versed in art of retaining regular customers. And Germany won the women's world cup final on Sunday - it's a big talking point here. Ok, back to work.

The German evaluation test was ok. It was 30 minutes multi choice, and was largely grammar points rather than comprehension, e.g. getting you to fill in the missing pronoun or article. They recommended I take DaF Intensif 3, which is the third part of their four part programme. That will be ok I think, the people who are doing the top level filled in their tests and walked out after 10 minutes, which was a bit intimidating. The courses start in a week's time.

My office mate Eduardo is quite glad that Spain drew Norway in the Euro 2004 play offs, even though Norway beat Spain in the first phase of the last European finals. Scotland got Holland, they'll need some luck. Eduardo has the excellent habit of using the word "fine" to mean very good indeed. So if you describe a good game of football to him he says "oh, that is very fine!". It reminds me a lot of Hemingway's Fiesta, particularly since Eduardo is from just outside Pamplona. He has lots of stories about bull-running and drinking from wineskins. He is married to a Basque woman. They got married the night before the Fiesta started, and then he left the next morning to go to the Fiesta.

Made this collage of Paris photos while I was in Berlin. Didn't really work out quite as well as I had hoped, but there are some cool bits. I really like Jarred and Sarah's photos from their honeymoon in Paris, particularly this one.

Spent the weekend exploring again. First I caught a train to Strasbourg, which was a pleasantly scenic journey, good views of the Schwarzwald hills around Baden-Baden. It was a lovely bright autumnal day, a real shame I left my camera at home. On the bridge over the Rhine (Strasbourg is just the other side) there was a cormorant sitting on each strut, looking down into the river for fish. At the station I met up with Fiona and we hit the city.

Strasbourg is extremely pretty. It has an area called Petite France where all the houses are in the old Alsacien style, with steep tiled roofs and grand dark timbers. The streets are too narrow for cars, and nothing seems to go quite in a straight line. There are plenty of tempting cafes and little bakers selling Flammkuchen (a sort of savory Alsacien snack). The cathedral is also worth seeing. It's a magnificent gothic structure, started in about the 12th century, with one tall spire, and a huge clock on the inside that tells you the season, the time of sunset and your approximate position in the universe. Looking around inside was very moving. We also climbed the tower which gives you a great view of the city. You can see how none of the tiles match on the roofs, but they just mix all the colours up anyway. You can also see the European Parliament building in the distance, though that looked like the architect's model had fallen over just before they started drawing up the plans.

At the Strasbourg tourist information office, I asked the lady where Ikea was. I thought it would be a bit of an odd question, but she said, "Ah nonnnn, c'est pas bizarre, c'est normale!". Perhaps every second query is for Ikea. We drove there to try and get some cheap furniture for my room. I have a pet hate for Ikea's pine effect furniture, so I went strictly for joyfully coloured plastic and folded metal. I still have to build most of it, but I'll stick up a picture when it's done. So the Swedish multinational has claimed another victim.

We spent the night camping next to a vineyard just outside Freiburg. We were right next to the vines, just next to some trees. It seemed an ideal spot until the insomniac farmer started driving up and down the vines in his tractor. We were sure he would sling us out, just after we had put up the tent and started cooking, but I guess he wasn't expecting to see anyone around, so he drove within about 20 yards of us without seeing and went away. Then it was a perfect place to camp, nice flat ground and really quiet. My new folding chair was also very handy.

On Sunday we went into Freiburg, which is also very pretty, though it turns out almost all of it was reconstructed after the war. We went to the Stadtgeschichtmuseum, where the history of the city is recorded. There was a photo showing how after the war the cathedral was practically the only building standing. We got a guided tour of the museum, including an exhibition about St Augustina, who was blind until she was baptised and then she could see. She lived as a hermit in a cave just outside the town, hiding from her nobleman father who was trying to marry her off. The lady who showed us round was really nice. She spoke nice easy German but without being patronising, and by the time we left I felt I knew the town inside out. It has a history that basically involves being invaded at some point by every major European power. The other chap on the tour was a German and he was also very patient. I think he actually quite enjoyed watching us learn about the town. It makes you feel good to randomly meet nice people, especially in a foriegn country.

We got out of the museum just in time for mass in the cathedral. It was pretty good, though either the acoustics where we were sitting weren't very good, or most people didn't know any of the words to the hymns. Lots of people were clearly foreign tourists, so I guess that would explain it. The sermon was about Edith Stein, now St.Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was a Jewish woman who studied and Freiburg Uni., converted to Catholicism but was then to Auschwitz by the Nazis where she died in the gas chambers. It was good to be in the cathedral for a service.

We had a very good beer in a brew-pub after mass, and then drove to St Peters, a little Schwarzwald village with an incongruously fine rococo church. It used to be part of a Benedictine abbey. It has enormous frescos of scenes of the life of St Peter, and shows him holding big keys of heaven and curing lepers. They were really great. The representation of St Peter was much more convincing than it often is in earlier art, the artist didn't seem ashamed to make him look like the kind of man who was stubborn and occasionally rash like the character in the gospels.

After so much religious tourism I was feeling a certain amount of church-fatigue, but I felt we were getting close to the character of the area. Every village you drive into has a sign showing you what the mass times are for the churches in the town. The catholic ones seemed to always be at the top, but they showed protestant service times too. Also, they really don't open anything except the real tourist shops and restaurants on a Sunday.

After a bit a of a walk around the surrounding scenery, we drove home as scenically as we could manage, until we got spectacular-view-fatigue, and I drove the car home up the Autobahn. It was my first time on a road with no speed limit, but in a Micra laden with cheap Swedish furntiture, there was no danger of me breaking any speed records.

Now I need to prepare for this afternoon's German test...

So I went to the streets supposed to be full of furniture, and not a sausage. Either nobody in these streets throws anything away, or there's more to these days than I currently understand. Oh well. What I did find was a woolworths, a French supermarket and a shop called 'Pfaff'.

One thing I can't find is a desk lamp. I need some kind of light to have on the mezzanine bit of my flat so I can read in bed. All the shops here are full of plenty of equipment for burning your house down, i.e. unstable looking candlesticks, high-octane candles and storm lamps, but the idea of harnessing the power of electricity to create light seems an unpopular one. The nearest thing I've found is a 10-watt table lamp in the shape of a cartoon aeroplane, price € 10. I think it would be too dark to read by though..

So some people have commented that I look very miserable in this picture of me in my new flat. I was pretty knackered at the time, but also I always have a concerned expression when I try and use the timer on my camera, because it never looks like it's going to work (compare with this photo, also taken with the timer). Anyway, your concern is very touching

Right, tonight I have to find the Wäscherei, after a couple of drinks here, and then tomorrow I might be playing a bit of footy, while England throw away their chances of going to Portugal next year..

Just found out there's a Sperrmüll day (that's when people throw out their unwanted furniture) today in a couple of streets near mine. Unfortunately, by the time I get there it will probably be down to the dregs, but it's worth a shot. Perhaps I can fill my flat with cuckoo clocks, stuffed animals and broken Ikea furniture.

Negotiated with the Italian deli this morning for Parma Ham. I had to ask what 'prosciutto crudo' was in German, which is clearly quite a pretentious way to order your ham, but I got the goods. It looks really nice, and the people in the deli are really friendly. They speak this nice, slow German, looking me straight in the eyes while they talk. Perhaps they remember what it was like when they first came from Italy - they still speak in Italian to each other most of the time. Oh yeah, and for the curious, the German for Parma Ham is either Parma Schinken, or Rohe Schinken (?sp). It's all about the cold meats in this country.

Next week I'm going to the Sprachzentrum to take a German test to see what course they think I should go on. It's €100 for one semester, i.e. until next February, about 4 hours a week. Demand for places on the DaF courses (that's Deutsch als Fremdsprache - German as a strange language) is pretty high, they draw names out of a hat to see who gets on the course. Well, perhaps not literally, though I'd like to be there if they did...

So. MENSA. MENSA is German for the Student Union, except that all it does is food, and coffee if you're lucky. There's no bar or shops or owt, but the canteen is enormous. It's certainly the largest number of people I've ever seen eating at one time. The main dining hall is about the size of an aircraft hanger, and there are other dining rooms adjoining it.

To get food, you first consult the impressive electronic menu board. There are seven lines at the Karlsruhe MENSA, one of which always does SchniPoSA, which is Schnitzel, chips and salad. Note: sandwiches, jacket potatoes etc. are out. Large hot meals are in. Line 6 is the posh boy line, where they do fancy Chinese food and other more German delicacies. You choose your line and then it's very much like any other student union canteen, except that instead of getting the staff to put chips or beans on your plate, the process is speeded up with ruthless German efficiency, and you instead take a little bowl of chips or beans to go with your main course.

So what's it like? Well, about as good as any other student canteen. I'd steer clear of the Schnupfnudeln if I were you, but the Turkish pilau is quite nice. The tough thing is getting used to eating a huge meal in the middle of the day. And it's not even the middle of the day - for some reason, everyone wants to go early, to beat the rush. So you end up going for lunch at about 11:45am. And of course you end up queuing behind everyone else who's gone early. A highly informative cultural experience.

Ok, I'm off to look for a Schlafdecke, more tomorrow..

Update: My thanks (no, really) to Jürgen for pointing out that Mensa is not German for Student Union, but in fact Latin for table, as any fule kno. So that's why there's only food there (why aren't there only tables there? eh?). There should apparently be a real student union elsewhere on the campus. I'll let you know if I find it.

My favourite recent piece of football news:
BBC Sport: St Mirren Boot Out Mascot

"Paisley Panda was last season in trouble for gesturing to Queen of the South fans with an inflatable sheep..."

Ok, erstens things erstens, some links to some photos:

The journey here via paris

Some pictures of Karlsruhe (slightly random)

The Black Forest, or at least some of it. Pictures from an excursion with Fiona last Sunday.

Highlights of the week so far:

Trying to get a bike from a place on the edge of town where they fix old broken bikes and sell them on to (mostly) students. It looked so easy on the map that we (me and my Spanish office mate Eduardo) decided we didn't need to take it with us (the map that is - keep up) , but of course we didn't realise the tram would sort of double back on itself, so we set off in precisely the wrong direction. It was at this point (of course) raining torentially. After asking two people in Bauhuas (a sort of German B and Q) and several suited gents in a Mercedes dealership, we arrived about ten yards away from the original tram stop about one hour later. I asked the chap who runs the bike place if they sold boats or just bikes. It was my first ever joke in German. He laughed, but he was probably just being polite..

At the weekend, I watched a vintage car drive down the main street at high speed with four nuns in it, all (including the driver) holding onto their hats. Nobody else batted an eyelid. Huh? Lesson: never go out in Germany without your camera.

My flat

It's one room plus a shower and a WC (that's Vay-Say to you). The bed ist im Halbgeschoss, i.e. up a ladder. I'll take some pictures of it when there's a little more furniture. At the moment, I have a wardrobe which threatens to fall over at any minute (flat pack furniture is clearly only supposed to be built once), and a sort of wall unit bookcase thing. Nothing to sit on is the main problem. They have days here in Germany where people living on particular streets throw out all their unwanted furniture onto the pavement, any anyone can pick it up. You have 24 hours, and then the council removes the remainder. Quite a nice idea, I need to find the schedule or something..

In der nähe von meiner Wohnung is a club (downstairs, somehow not all that loud though), a cocktail bar, a tapas bar (opposite, with very good Fürstenberg on tap, €2.80 a pint), and a really cool Italian deli. They do very nice coffee in there, I've been every morning this week.You stand up at this table in the middle surrounded by beautiful fruit, veg, big joints of Parma ham, olive oils, coffee beans, fresh pasta. They're also very friendly people. I could quite easily spend a lot of money in there.

Ok, of course I'm really here to write my thesis, so must get back to that. Will post some more on the delights of MENSA, learning German, and The Best Supermarket in Germany later..