Alpha Core

There isn’t much time for christmas feelings this year, because we are busy with packing for our moving to Leuven in January 2011.

While Tom and I are spending the holidays in Hamburg, our christmas tree preferred staying in Leuven. As if that weren’t bad enough, Sinterklaas was deterred by the thirty packing cases, which are blocking all entrances to our apartment.

So let’s just enjoy the days off and hope our presents were delivered directly to Leuven.

(Source: www.im-salzkammergut.at)

This promotion video for Earth Hour was made by WWF Belgium. For once, the dark side saves the planet on March 27, 2010 at 8:30 pm.

This year we didn’t want to upset Sinterklaas again by putting up our Christmas tree before he had left to Spain on december 6th. By concentrating on Sinterklaas’ schedule we almost got into conflict with Santa Claus’ schedule, who wants to arrange our countless presents under the tree on december 24th.

This actually sounds a little schizophrenic as the dutch Sinterklaas seems to be the basis for the figure of the North American Santa Claus. We anyway try to please both and have our presents delivered by the Weihnachtsmann or the Christkind, whoever  we prefer to believe in.

In winter it barely snows in Hamburg, usually once a year. And most often the few lovely white snowflakes immediately transform into dirty slush when they touch ground. This year, however, things are different. It snowed for several consecutive days and with temperatures below -10 °C during the night conditions are perfect. For a lot of other places this is probably a really good joke, but we are proud about a 5 cm thick layer of snow. I even built a small snowman on our balcony.
To savour the snow-white beauty even more Tom and me made a day trip to the Baltic coast where we enjoyed the whitest beach possible.

The sad truth is that my snowman is melting silently away while I’m writing this post…

Today I took part in my very first flashmob! The general idea of a flashmob is that a large group of people assemble in a public place, then suddenly perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. There were five of them planned in Hamburg in one day: a contact lens search, a train, a high five freeze, a circus act and a regular freeze. I took part in the circus act at the main railway station in Hamburg and it was a lot of fun! I can be seen juggling some balls in the upper left corner in the movie from 2:14 until 3:18:

On Saturday August 29, 2009 is the party I’ve been waiting for for over half a year: Bass Planet. Who’s coming? Westbam, Hardy Hard and Lady Waks from St. Petersburg (Russia): the reason I’m looking forward to this party so much. The second dance floor is being taken care of by local DJs Phoenix & Martink.

The party is taking place in Edelfettwerk (Hamburg, Germany) on Saturday August 29th. Doors open at 10 p.m. and the party is open-ended. Entrance is 6 EUR before midnight and 10 EUR after midnight. Read more

We went to see the Queen Mary 2 leaving the harbor of Hamburg (Germany) at 8:30 p.m. (CEST) on August 15, 2009. Here are some impressions taken from one of the accompanying boats:

Are you bored on a Friday evening in Hamburg? There’s a great weekly party called The Uniscene Experience in Halo you should check out if you’re into dance music.

It’s a nice location with 3 dance floors offering dance classics, house, RnB, techno, electro and tech-house. Entrance is for free for students, otherwise it’s 6 EUR. We had a great time! Read more

This picture was taken during our stable fest at the beginning of August 2008. In the course of this the riders, and amongst them Noli and me, sported a short show for the audience.  I’m carrying the German flag, representing the dressage riding, whereas the riders in the background, riding western, are carrying the American flag. The audience was thrilled by our performance and Noli, me and the other riders and horses had a lot of fun as well.

Below is a movie we took in Oevelgönne of the Queen Mary 2 arriving in the harbor of Hamburg (Germany) shortly after midnight on July 30, 2008 while some other, smaller ships are passing by and welcoming her with their horn. The Queen Mary 2 replies with the most impressive one though. Too bad it was so dark that we couldn’t take any good pictures.

During the Hamburg Cruise Days (from July 30 until August 3), there’s also some other great ships to see in the harbor aside from the Queen Mary 2. Check out the website for an impression.

(Source of the picture)