Saaga

Lately we’ve become quite keen on bike riding. We’ve had our bikes for a year now, but didn’t ride them much until a couple of weeks ago. But the weather has been so nice that we decided to dust the bikes off and go for a ride along the Rhein. Since then there’s been no stopping us and I’ve ridden to work and back 3 times this week, as well as a couple of other leisure rides. Riding along the Rhein is really nice. On our side of the river there is a big park where people play football and sunbake as soon as the weather gets above freezing. On the other side of the river there is a dyke which runs along the river bank and has lovely trees growing along it, so it’s nice and shady.

The lovely bike path on the other side of the Rhein:

Riding to work is a bit less romantic and I have to ride on the road a little bit. Most of the way there are bike paths but there’s a little way when I’m mixing with the big boys. But not to worry, Steve made me buy a helmet and I also got some padded fingerless glove things, so now when I go bike riding I feel like one of those special needs kids who has to wear padding just to walk around. Nobody in Germany wears a helmet, so I do feel a bit special.

Here’s a picture of me and my lovely bike. Sorry, I’m not going to post a picture of me wearing my helmet - you’ll just have to imagine it.

In Germany for your second wedding anniversery it is customary to give your wife a copy of Monopoly by Parker games and in return she should give you a black Tee shirt with a skull emblazoned on it. We chose not to break any local traditions while we are here.

Yesterday we went with our friends Jan and Catherine to The Rursee in Heimbach. It is basically a lake (one of a string of four) created by the damming of a river. We had a swim and hired a boat to row around the lake. I discovered that rowing a boat is a skill that you can lose, unlike riding a bike or falling off a log. I sucked at rowing the boat, but Jan was quite patient and did not once suggest that he take over. However, he very quick to take over once I decided to give him the chance.

In the photo you can clearly see that , Jan is trying to act as an outboard to help us go a little faster.

I wonder what other skills you can lose through disuse…

The Germans take full advantage of the sun when they get it and this day was no different. They were so desperate to sun bathe by a large body of water, that they were camped out, enjoying themselves on the concrete boat ramp.

I suppose if they don’t get enough cosmic radiation now, then later in life they won’t be naturally orange and therefore will stand out.

I just got rid of 16 spam messages that weren’t there last night. The thing that worries me is that at least half of them were on posts where I had disabled the ability to comment. I am looking at some proper spam protection and want to implement it asap. I have seen the mathematics one which asks you to do a simple sum before you can post and then there is the kitten one that asks you to click on the pictures of kittens before you can post. I think I will use one of these.

I look forward to the apocalypse, where I am in my fortified compound with all my fellow survivors and we are interviewing a fellow who wishes to join our merry band. I would ask him what he did in his former life that could help our fledgling community and he would cough into his hand and in a low voice mention that he wrote spambot software for a mobile ringtone company. He would then bring his eyes up from his boots and ask in a plaintive voice if we were going to let him in.

My answer would be two fold; the first would be aCaChunk! sound as I chamber a new round into my shot gun…

Every Germany game that we went to we sat next to these two brothers called Rico and Kevin (Rico was the fainting guy). Now they have sent us an article allegedly taken from their local paper. It talks about how they went to all the games and what a great experience it was. They mention us and we’re in one of the main photos - check it out! (Click on the photo for a better view of it in Flickr)

I just wonder if it’s a real article or they’ve just done a good job of doing up a fake one. Anyway, they were nice guys and it’s a cool article.

I hate Italy (well, their football team anyway) x 2

Unfortunately we’re bloody well going there on holiday in October.

Here is the final poster. I wonder if the security guys will take it off me at the check point.

I have a whole bunch of ideas for signs to make for the German vs Cheatily semi final on Tuesday in Dortmund. The sign will probably get taken off me at the security station if it is too big, so I am going to try and make it about A3 size. The question is; which one of the following should I make?

This one;

This one;

This one;

This one;

If someone has a better idea please let me know. Also, if anyone makes a good jpeg of their own sign design I will post it here.