restless.

the lack of inspiration

2010-01-01T11:22:00.002+01:00

i was clearly lacking inspiration. i was never a real regular blogger, but i felt the need to share insights and views from time to time. in the last months i had nothing to share. i was stuck. too busy focusing on my day-to-day challenges. i now suddenly realize what i was missing. the habit of getting inspired - reading, watching or listening to stories that touch, move and/or impress me. it allows me to dream and hope - about possibilities for what the world and my life could look like. it shows me that big things are possible. it helps me to go beyond my daily routine. break out of usual thinking patterns. and grow as a person. i do not believe in new years resolutions, but if i would have to choose one it would be: take time off your regular routine and get inspired.

thinking about the last time i felt really inspired it was because of two books i read on my trip: the five people you meet in heaven by mitch albom and three cups of tea by greg mortenson.
so: what brings you inspiration? what have you read, watched or listened to recently that made you feel inspired?

2009-11-28T15:28:00.001+01:00

temporarily disabled

2009-09-07T20:52:00.000+02:00

what word would describe vienna?

2009-08-16T09:22:00.006+02:00

a passage in a book is stuck in my head. the plot plays in rome. liz, the main character, has been living there for a few months. liz says to her friends that she cannot put the finger on it, but she knows that rome will not be the city where she will live forever. her friend, guilio, tells her his interesting theory: every city has one word that characterizes it; one word that summarizes what the city is about. and if your own word does not match the word of the city, you do not 100% fit. rome's word, guilio says, is "sex" and the vatican's "power". liz nodds and says: well, then new york city's word would be "achieve".

interesting theory. so here is my thought: what would be the one word that describes vienna?

work vs. personal lifes

2009-08-09T18:09:00.001+02:00

i skimmed through an article the other day. literally skimming, as i cannot remember the title or topic of the article. but one sentence got stuck in my mind. "for some people it is hard to switch from work to personal life; and changing clothes might help switching between those roles." should mean that people tend to take work attitudes to their personal life. i guess this is true if you have a very demanding job where e.g. toughness is needed to get things done. that certainly won�t be helpful when meeting friends.
anyway. the main thing that got me thinking was the changing clothes part. in wellington my home would be just 10 minutes from work / city centre, so it was a normal thing for me to do: to go home and change clothes. while reading the lines in the article i realized how much i like(d) doing that actually. how it helped me to leave work issues at work. i hope i have enough time in my new job to keep doing that.

a year minus one

2009-08-03T10:35:00.000+02:00

29 more days to go until i start working again. has been 11 months since i left my job in new zealand, and in a month a new life chapter will start. a lot of things happened in those 11 months. i feel i have been blessed with the experiences i made travelling, the people i met on my way and my friends i re-connected to coming back to austria. i feel time just flew by me like a speed train. still remember my last week in new zealand; my first day of travelling in melbourne; the day i stepped on the boat in cairns; stepped out of planes, buses and trains; the first weeks struggeling to understand spanish and few months later converse almost fluently; the incredible scenery and majesty of things....
and this last month in freedom - august 2009 - will be the perfect end of 11 months "limbo". spending it with friends in different places; realizing that the world is small enough for us to play around but big enough to collect memories.

stainless steel

2009-07-15T13:51:00.001+02:00

it happens pretty fast in life. yesterday i was telling everyone that flat hunting will have to wait until i find a job. and today i am already looking at them. went to the first flat sighting yesterday. looked pretty good on paper - big room, big flat. but i walked in and felt like in a shoebox. no wonder if the last experience of flatting cannot be matched that easily: vast space, stainless kitchen area, bathroom in top condition (heated towel rack!), top location and great flatmates. it hit me that i have to get used of paying a lot of money for very little space. we are in vienna and not in wellington after all. i have the feeling finding the "right" place for me will not be that easy. welcome to phase 2 of re-integrating.

flight safety instructions by kiwis

2009-07-03T12:49:00.004+02:00

i so miss the kiwi accent!!

and the body painting is pretty cool too :)

mj

2009-07-03T10:59:00.001+02:00

i thought i would actually not write about him, but yesterday nights music choice in the nightclubs made me think about it. there were endlessly long mj medleys with video messages "we will never forget you". a bit pathetic i thought. pathetic not in the context of him as a great musician or entertainer. but pathetic in the sense that all media coverage about mj in the last ten years was anything else than about his music. why do we honor him after he is gone? why could we not honor him while he was still alive? after all, he probably died thinking he was a failure (or similar) - is that what we want people to believe when they die?
even though i do not believe that there is a life after death, i would like to wish that mj could see the world right now. how people are lining up to pay there respect to him. how media put him on a podest with elvis. and how the nightclubs play his music like he was still a star.

a cup and the news

2009-06-14T21:14:00.002+02:00

i have never become a fan of reading the news online. there is just something about reading the newspaper in print. sitting down with a tea (in my case no coffee) and reading the newspaper from front to end. there is something about the time and space involved and the luxury of having the time.

spontaneity

2009-06-14T21:04:00.003+02:00

there are things you cannot predict, like how the evening will turn out and what your mood�s going to be, until you went out. it has proven in the past and it has proven last night. you just so easily forget. turns out that reasons do not hold up against spontaneity. and the fun that comes with it. that is a promise to do it more often.
hold me to it.

informieren und dann bitte zur wahl gehen

2009-05-23T17:26:00.003+02:00

auch nach drei jahren hat sich in den wahlkampfstrategien einzelner parteien nur wenig geändert. doch was speziell im Rahmen der bevorstehenden EU Wahl am meisten ärgert: keiner versucht wirklich wichtige inhalte sprechen zu lassen. und so bleiben wir weiterhin im dunklen über die kernthemen der EU. viel mehr sieht man - wie immer - aktiven populismus auf der einen, und reaktionäre aussagen auf der anderen seite. und es wird wirken.
für interessierte bleibt hier nur selbst initiative zu ergreifen und nachzuforschen. www.wahlkabine.at ist da ein guter ausgangspunkt.

und damit nur ein aufruf von meiner seite: bitte zur wahl gehen!! eine wahlbeteiligung von 20-30% wäre wirklich eine schande.

conversations with the mob

2009-05-14T10:01:00.002+02:00

http://www.westlicht.com/index.php?id=12877?=default

Megan Lewis leistet mit ihrer Arbeit Conversations with the Mob einen wichtigen und vor allem auch nach wie vor aktuellen Beitrag zur Geschichte Australiens und der Auseinandersetzung mit den australischen Ureinwohnern. Westlicht � Schauplatz für Fotografie präsentiert dieses ausdrucksstarke und erzählerische Werk vom 31. M�rz bis 31. Mai erstmals außerhalb Australiens.

how my legs gave me superpowers

2009-05-04T16:19:00.001+02:00

highs and lows

2009-04-27T19:31:00.001+02:00

it is proven: job hunting is frustrating at times. it needs endurance and patience. but: it is definitely not necessary to waste a single minute on being desperate, sad or any other negative emotion. show faith. accept the lows. and cherish the highs. i got it all today. the high and the low.

15%

2009-04-24T20:03:00.003+02:00

visited 35 countries. only 15%. i need to plan again. 85% to go.
money money money all the things I could do if I had a little money its a rich mans world

perspectives

2009-04-18T15:00:00.003+02:00

it was a bit of a shock coming from round-the-clock doing things to nothing. from my every-day-working live in new zealand i smoothly swapped into travelling. and on my travels there was no boring minute - there was not even time to think about boring minutes; there was just so much to see and do. and then i came home. to being unemployed and low on funds. first two weeks moved by fast: visiting relatives, unpacking, organizing things, starting writing applications, meeting friends, reading books. but then there came the phase when you get bored. you literally do not know what to do the whole day. the phase where you think about what to do. you get crazy. after 3 or 4 days in that mood i decided i need to show acceptance - that is what i have chosen and that is the situation now. and suddenly it shifted. i saw new things to do; things i always wanted to do.

must love dogs

2009-04-18T14:59:00.004+02:00

my family got our third family dog last year. a labrador; currently 11 months old. i always loved dogs, but how they were part of my life was different. our first two dogs were "farm" dogs - they were not allowed inside the house and did not get very special attention. well the current dog is different. he is allowed (almost) everything and he lives in the house. to make my point: it makes a difference. i loved our former two dogs and cried when they died, though the grief was a distant one. the current dog is treated like part of the family. he greets you first thing in the morning or even when you come home late at night - he is around you the whole day. i also take him when i go for a run and i train with him - every day. and so, before you realize: you love that dog.

my top memories of the last six months

2009-04-07T19:01:00.003+02:00

diving the great barrier reef, australia
during my certification process in new zealand in freezing 12c waters, i was horrified at times and doubted the sport scuba diving. i am not a fish after all. but i was wrong. i got pretty close to being a fish and dived the reef five times. just incredible.

snorkelling with a green turtle, australia
my animal highlight. seeing a huge green turtle swim by my side for about fifteen minutes, without her being afraid or scared, was breathtaking.

strolling around every market in ecuador
ecuador was the first country I got contact with the indigenous population and the colourful markets. it left its mark. i went to every market in every city; watched the traders; asked about unknown items and tried the strangest colours of milk shakes imaginable.

pouring with rain on the inca trail, peru
not doing any preparation on different seasons, i ended up hiking the inca trail in the rainy season. and was pretty lucky actually. nonetheless: best memory of that trek was the afternoon, when it started to pour very heavily. we hadn�t made it to our camp yet, and to get there we had to climb stairs � for 2 hours continuously!

standing on top of the world, bariloche, argentina
the view from cerro campanario is not describable. sorry.

mariposas and waterfalls at the iguazu national park, argentina
those little colourful butterflies were all around the park - one just had to stop and watch. and of course the sheer power of those waterfalls - my ultimate number one of my trip.

ten things i learnt while travelling south america

2009-04-07T18:58:00.002+02:00

1. sleeping anywhere and anytime when necessary. especially on buses.
2. dividing big numbers without calculator (currencies).
3. always know your food.
4. bring toilet paper everywhere.
5. packing backpacks 101
6. when to trust strangers � and when not.
7. telling your life story in less words.
8. there is never enough time.
9. if you get lost, ask two (or more) people for directions.
10. don�t save on clothes for your travels - if you only can take 4 t-shirts you better take good ones.

awareness and presence

2009-03-30T12:54:00.001+02:00

"if you think you are so enlightened, Ram Dass said, go and spend a week with your parents. that is good advice. the relationship with your parents is not only the primordial relationship that sets the tone for all subsequent relationships, it is also a good test for your degree of presence. the more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to rellive the past again and again."

so true, so true.

ipod while travelling

2009-03-17T14:27:00.003+01:00

yesterday a friend asked me if i listened to my ipod a lot while i was travelling. i was not. i thought about why not, and remembered the incident that made me decide not to listen to the ipod at all while away. i was in ecuador walking from my hostel to explore another city. and for the first time i decided to take my ipod. do not remember which song played, but i do remember feeling strange. i was walking around a new, unknown place and i was completely shut off from the world. i could not hear the noises, the people, my thoughts - just that song on my ipod. a very powerful moment for me in which i realized i need to have all my senses open to appreciate the new culture, the new place. and an ipod is just not the thing to take.

how many friends do you have?

2009-03-11T17:44:00.003+01:00

not for real of course. on facebook! read this wonderful article just now, and have to confess that i also recently started to 'defriend' people from my contact list.
i realized the power of facebook during my recent travels. instead of exchanging emails, you ask or get asked "are you on facebook?". well, yeah i am. and there you are. no chance of not connecting as a "friend". facebook friend to be precise. for sure there are people you meet while travelling (quite rarely) with whom you are sure you will keep in touch. and then are those, you know you had a good time with, but you won't keep in touch. defriending. but when do you defriend? if we would assume to defriend someone one hasn't talked to for ages, what would that make your friend page look like on facebook?

skyr

2009-03-06T16:19:00.002+01:00

schmeckt wie fruchtzwerge gemischt mit frischkaese.
http://www.skyr.is/

icelandic naming conventions

2009-03-06T16:16:00.003+01:00

from wikipedia
...

for example, a man named jon stefansson has a son named fjalar. fjalar's last name will not be stefansson like his father's; it will become jonsson, literally indicating that fjalar is the son of jon (jons + son).

the same for daughters. jon stefansson's daughter katrin would not have the last name stefansson; she would have the name jonsdottir. again, the name literally meaning "jon's daughter" (jons + dottir).

...

so you find people in iceland not by their last names, but by their first names in the telephone book. good that there are only 300,000 people in iceland.