29 Januar 2008
Karaoke!
Recently, the first Karaoke box opened in Frankfurt . Of course, we were there - and promptly met a television team. Check out their short film here. 
Yes, their equipment is far less sophisticated than it is usually in Japan - but that's still much better than nothing.
22 Januar 2008
Cheers!
Sorry, lots of work these weeks ...but new posts soon to come.03 Januar 2008
Happy New Year to all of you (year of the rat in China, but not in Japan, though the two countries use the same chinese zodiac. In Japan, it's the year of the mouse - aren't rats kawaii enough?)!
Sorry for the long silence; but we continued our way to my parents' place to spend the end of the year there almost directly after coming back from the airport. But here are finally some impressions from the Algarve (extreme south of Portugal).
Sunshine, and at least 15°C, every day - twenty degrees warmer than what we left in Frankfurt. It felt like a very advanced spring! So directly after arriving in Silves, our headquarter (45 min away from Faro airport), we started our daily routine of spending lots of time on sunny café terraces (and eating lots of typical local food like pizza and spaghetti and icecream ...).
Silves is a beautiful little town in the Algarve hinterland. In former times, it was even the capital of the independent Algarve kingdom. We were surprised of the storks nesting on almost all old towers and chimneys of the town.
Chilly nights and cool mornings; no chance to use the swimming pool neither at dawn, nor later.
Breakfast on the terrace - with delicious portuguese bread, salted butter and fresh mandarine juice, made from fruits coming directly from these trees. And finally some time to read -paradise!
Not far from Silves, another house with a view; we knew the owner, who infortunately passed away two years ago, quite well and had several times the chance to spend some beautiful days there (always dreaming on how it would be to finally hit the lottery jackpot and buy the house to live there, since he wanted to sell it for years).
Apparently his children decided to keep, we heard they rent it as a holiday home.
Somebody put this page at the entry of the house - has anybody an idea what language this is and what it means?
Second breakfast: Pasteis de natas et galão at a small café in central Silves, managed by an old couple, who today looks exactly the same as 12 years ago, during my first Algarve stay.
The picturesque southern coast being only a few kilometers away, we spent lots of busy hours on several beaches, building sand castles (note the convenient bucket).
Huge contrast of coastal holiday homes (note the hung Santa Claus on the top of the third):
