Bear with me while I'm trying to manoeuvring through the life in a country that most people from outside know as the home of chocolate, cheese with big holes, accurate watches and a quirky language. And in case you haven't noticed: Cuckoo-Clocks are German!
Finally I got myself a macro lens. And of course I had to try it out immediately. So what better to do than taking the camera to the shop and then leaving for the zoo's giant Masoala building?
At first I was a bit worried since I always struggle keeping the camera still. And with a macro lens of that focal length (105mm) and that aperture (f/2.8) you get a depth of field of only one or two millimeters at miminum distance. See the berry, that's only about 5mm big:
After having taken the usual pics of the cameleon and the turtles, I thought it was about time to see something new. It didn't take me long to find a couple of crested couas, and one was kind enough to pose for my camera:
And then something very unusual happened: Normally the lemurs in the masoala building hide in the trees or climb up and down the roof, so you don't really get near them. But today an aloatra gentle lemur appeared upfront of my camera and climbed down the tree very slowly, letting me take several pictures. Things don't get much better than this!!!
It truly was a disastrous weekend for Switzerland. Nothing but bad news...
Let’s look at the WEF: Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkish Prime Minister) left the meeting after a rather loud discussion/argument with Israel’s Prime Minister Ehut Olmert on Thursday evening, and shouted at the audience that he’d never return do Davos anymore. The WEF ended on Sunday evening, with more new questions than old questions answered.
Sports: Men’s Ski-Downhill and Woman’s Super-G on Saturday were cancelled due to fog. Of course no-one wants the athletes to race downhill at speeds of 100+ when you can’t even see the front tips of your own skies. Unfortunately these two races are the only ones of the weekend where Swiss athletes would have had a chance. In the Slaloms the Swiss didn’t even win a flowerpot...
Australia: Roger Federer lost the final of the Australia Open against his all-time rival Rafael Nadal and broke down in tears. Not that tears are a bad thing! I like athletes who show emotions! But Roger’s emotions just showed what the country felt overall after this weekend.
So is there really no good news at all? No.
Uhm, wait a minute! The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl on Sunday! And their Quarterback, Big Ben Roethlisberger, is Swiss! Well, at least he has a Swiss name... Telling from reactions of dozens of journalists all over the country (Switzerland, not the US) you could think the guy really is Swiss. The facts are slightly different: Ben’s great-great-grandfather Karl left Unterfrittenbach in the bernese Emmental (that’s where the cheese with the big wholes comes from) in 1873 for the US. It was the time of the industrial revolution, when unemployment was very high in Switzerland and the government gave everyone CHF 100.—who decided to leave the country for good.
When the Steelers won the Super Bowl the last time in 2005 (where didn’t really matter), Ben was invited to visit the small village of his ancestor in the Emmental – before that he probably couldn’t even point out that tiny little cheese-and-chocolate-country on the map...
To cut a long thing short: The Swiss feel so bad after this disastrous weekend, that we have to be proud of a Football Superstar with Swiss roots, who’s even more American than President Barack Obama...
