Gravis - Never again

Some of the Germans with a soft spot for macs will have come across "Gravis", retailer of Apple products. Take my advice and do not buy any products there, they do not know what they are selling, and never ever try to mess with their so called "customer service".
The ethernet plug of my laptop somehow "broke" in India, so I asked them what to do. They kept my beautiful PowerBook for more than a month just to tell me now that the damn insurance is not valid outside Europe.

Anyways I will get my PowerBook back next week, though the ethernet still won't work.

Easter Holiday in Berlin

Another nice weekend at Cambridge is almost over. Yet I have finally booked my flight to Berlin. Will stay in the German capital from 4th (late eve) until the 11th (early morn) of April and will be happy to see all of you guys over there.
During this period, my UK mobile wont work, so try the German mobile number 0049 179 5479093 then.

Last thursday Teresa directed me to a cool Austrian Design Party at the Barbican Centre's Garden Room. Great location with loads of trees, plants, designer chairs, architects and free Austrian Egger Beer. Great fun.

Got a job

Have finally found a job at escp, from next week I will be working in the team to build up a "Centre for Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship" at ESCP London. My boss "Chris" is a very cool American guy and the other colleagues include our Indian friend Kinshuk.
Looking forward to working with you! Cant be for the money alone, as thats only 6 pounds per hour...

coming down to party

Mr. Stephan Farmer, from Berlin, Germany was this weekends guest of honour. His visit somehow coincided with getting drunk and heating up Shoreditch's parties.
First episode was about mowing the lawn of "woodsmans" nice house in suburbian "Golders Green" and having great pasta and Carlsberg "on the tube" (ya, SOMETHING like on the rocks). Paddys city flat in Goswell Rd than evolved to being our basecamp for buying carling (yess, British light beer), smirnoff and sharing Lola's Frigeo Brause (Thanks that was awesome!). Though we had spotted this great space close by it was just too cold to enjoy it there.

Anja, Meryl, Caro and many more joined our tour starting at the Old Blue Last, Bar Music Hall (at least from the outside - butthead bouncer) and famous 333. This pic shows dietz-golec on the left witnessed by the bauer-förster-countryside-connection. The right pic Anja, Lola and Stephan.


Saturday saw the prolongation of the party-time in Cambridge. St.Patrick's Days pubcrawl with Julia, Sarah, Suzy and other corpusles, followed by the great house party in extraterrestrial "alpha rd". John made red strawberry cocktails, Sarah promoted white sangria with Peach Schnapps (wie konnten die Engländer nur Schnaps und Likör verwechseln) and Julia gave a guided tour along the locked doors of an alien flat. Yes, I am rich too.

a fun flatshare

Vice says "First day at university means weeding out all the dickheads and finding the few people you can actually tolerate." Those three people are some I have found: Tolerable, though they are French and have funny accents, which proofs that they are really cool ;-) The Hoxton whores and their Kingsland pimp make the best "coloc" in town - aehm metropolis, of course.

Additionally, the hospitality of Olivier, Meryl and Julia is simply supernatural. What else can drive you to offer a fantastic couch - which isnt used for sitting on it anyways (right pic) - in a stylo IKEA flat in funky east-london to a lazy German gipsy like me. Thanks a lot, you are the best!

back to the uk

A weekend trip with Julia to Weingarten, here on the upper part of the map, to visit my parents and relax in beautiful Oberschwaben. Saturday we chilled in an incredible Spa and Sauna Place in Meersburg (middle left of the map) and sunday we have been to the small island of Lindau (bottom right of the map) with its Lion Statue and Lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour.


Sunny weather and clear skys made beautiful views of the Alps possible. From our Ryanair Jet as well as from the waterside.
Although Islamists threatened with Terror in Germany, we somehow managed to get back to the UK safe ;-)

Indians in Italy

Our cultural analysis at MDI had already shown a close proximity between the Indian and Italian Culture. Hence our two Indians (Akshay and Anirudh) in Torino seem to have a lot of fun.


Watch here and there for further infos.
Hope u make it to London in the next months, guys! Apart from that u are always invited to Berlin (e.g. for Easter) and Oberschwaben ;-)

Cambridge

Though Ive been here most of the time during the last two weeks, it needed a visit of Teresa and her friend to do some sightseeing. This pittoresque town is full of history; mostly academic but with all its architecture, traditions, sports etc.
On the pics: St.Johns College from the outside, an eagle statue in its church.

Julias College is called "Corpus Christi". So she was rowing for the "corpus" boat, during the 120 year old LentBumps. Watching was a lot of fun and less tiring than rowing the 2-3 km long course on the cam.

Music, Arts and Architecture

London is - obviously - all of that. Probably you are bored by Fosters Mega-Phallus already, but its the spot where I always board the nationalexpress-bus to Cambridge, so I just had to click it. Julia's room at the college there is somehow my home right now. Thanks for always welcoming me in your room there, sweeety!

The current examples for music and arts will hopefully be new to you. Somehow London HAS to fulfill the trendsetter-expectations: The 'black lips' and the Islington Art Fair.
So far when I stay in London during the week I can luckily sleep in Jo (a friend of my sister) and Teresa (his sister) 's apartment next to Euston Station. Thanks a lot for the great hospitality!

Last week Teresa invited me for the concert of the 'black lips' - an upcoming alternative band from Atlanta - at 'Bardens Boudoir' a unpretentious and very hip pub in the far north-east. Great show and funny music, some of which can be found here as well. A great evening anyways.
The Islington Art Fair is in an old factory in a tiny little road, and I discovered it by accident when I visited Manja during an open space discussion at the hub, not far from tube 'Angel'. Some interesting mirror arts, great comics and this picture or installation featuring liquid colour.

Contact Details

Not that much time so far for blogging!

Thats maybe the most important thing for now: I've got a new (British) mobile number.
+44 7726 454833

Have seen about 15 rooms in different flatshares during the last week. Picked one of the cheapest in an appartment with three very easygoing people: a theatre manager, a teacher and a fashion designer. Its in Highbury, just around the corner of the new Arsenal stadium. Only problem is that it will only be free from the end of march :-(

Until then I will have to do some couchsurfing and come back to Cambridge more often ;-)