It amazes me from time to time how quick things change. My little brother, who I could hold in my hand and his head would rest on my forearm eleven years ago, will tomorrow take his first flight alone to visit us here in Hamburg (which, by the way, is an awesome thing - Lufthansa has a service that takes great care of alone-travelling children - they even have special lounges for them with toys, computers and staff, and a stewardess brings them safely to - and from the plane).
On a totally unrelated note, we went go-carting today, and it was loads of fun. Did two 10min-rounds indoors and one outdoors… it is just great being able to drive like you normally only can in the realms of a gaming console!
Now we will open the weekend with a farewell dinner for Hanno, who’ll be going back to the US tomorrow. Just right on the occasion, due to a political party meeting in his hotel, there is about one thousand one hundred demonstrants (100 right wing people, and 1000 left wing counter-demonstrators) surrounding the place, which means he cannot leave on foot, only through the nearby train station, and has to undergo severe security checks upon returning to the hotel. That will sure give him a story to tell back home 
Blogged with Flock
Oh, this weekend was fun!
We had Brandi over from Berlin and rescued Hanno from a boring weekend in the hotel. We went out on Friday and Saturday, and we even made it to the Fischmarkt this morning (pics coming up later). I almost need another weekend to relax from all the events 
I was not quite happy with the design of the blog for a while, so today I updated wordpress and went back to K2, because it is simple, good to read, and very well maintained. The archive function is awesome - just click on “Older” on the top of the page to see its magic. Over the next days, I will re-add the flickr sidebar and some other stuff.
Now we are off to watch a movie and enjoy the rest of the evening, so if you’d excuse me, I have some relaxing to do!
Today, we were visited by the naughty electrician.
After we had moved into our new apartment, which is in a house from 1850-1900, we realized that the electric wiring in some rooms was not quite right. In the living room and the bedroom, the switches were not connected to the cables in the wall. In the hall and in the dressing room, there was not even a lightswitch. In some places, the ground carried electricity… not being experts on that stuff, we called the people who organize maintenance for our house to get an electrician. Today, only some six weeks after our requests (and about five follow-up calls), the electrician showed up.
Picture Dr. Doolittle without the hat, with a mustache and a wicked, crazy grin. Making dirty jokes. And repeating them occasionally, even though no one listens. Needless to say, I did not quite trust that guy instantly.
After two hours, he had…
… made the light in the living room work (yay!)
… killed a lightbulb in the bedroom and then realized that the wires carry 400 volts (instead of the normal 220)
… made about 20 references to that fact that he was looking forward to the end of his shift
… burnt him self really bad on on of our fuses, because it had corroded and gone mighty hot
… filled a whole sheet of paper with things that where not quite right with our wiring
… told a colleague on the phone that basically, the whole apartment needed new wiring, and sounded quite happy about it
… taught us that you can touch whatever wire you want to, as long as you have shoes with rubber soles and do not touch anything conducting at the same time.
When he left, I was stressed out.
And tried to remember some of the jokes he had made - they might come in handy!
