Tag 1 an meinem Ferien-Ort. Das erste Mal dass ich die Umgebung bei Tag gesehen habe. Als ich am Freitagabend nach 20-Stunden Reise endlich angekommen bin, war es bereits dunkel. Ich erinnere mich nur noch wage an eine wahrscheinlich halbstündige Fahrt durch eine Stadt, die auch London oder Edinburgh hätte heissen können. Nahe ETs Haus hätten wir dann noch beinahe einen Waschbären umgefahren. Die Viecher haben offensichtlich gar keine Angst vor Menschen oder grossen Autos.
OK, Samstagmorgen. Nach 8 Stunden im Koma bin ich morgens um 6 aufgewacht und musste mich zuerst wieder zu erinnern versuchen wo ich war und andere wichtige Dinge wie etwa meinen Namen, wo oben und unten ist usw…
Nach einer angenehmen Dusche und einem wunderbaren Frühstück mit ET schauten wir erst einmal nach dem Wetter (ich habe bestes Sommerwetter aus der Schweiz mitgebracht) und gingen danach in der näheren Umgebung einkaufen. Wir waren wohl die einzigen in der ganzen Umgebung von Vancouver zu Fuss zum Einkaufen gingen - was ein normaler Kanadier ist nimmt sogar für 200 Meter das Auto…
Nachdem wir dann den Nachmittag an den Northshore Docks verbracht hatten sind wir abends mit ETs Freunden ein echtes amerikanisches Steak essen gegangen. Die fragen da nicht einfach danach wie durch das Fleisch sein soll - man muss sich auch noch entscheiden für wie viele durchschnittliche Europäer die Mahlzeit gerechnet sein sollte. Meine war für mindestens 2 gerechnet, entsprechend viel hab ich dann auch übrig gelassen…
Zum Schluss sahen wir uns noch das Abschluss-Feuerwerk vom Vancouver Festival of Light an. Ein gelungener Tag - und ich war danach wieder so geschafft wie am Abend zuvor nach meiner Ankunft.















Day 1 in my new holiday-resort. The first time seeing the environment in daylight. When I arrived here on Friday evening after a 20-hour journey it was already dark. I vague remember a probably 30-minute drive through a city that could also have been called London or Edinburgh. Close to ET's house we almost knocked down a raccoon. These critters don't seem to be much afraid of humans or big cars.
Anyway, Saturday morning. After being in coma for about 8 hours I woke up at 6 in the morning and tried to remember where I was and other important things like my name, where's up and down...
After a decent shower and a wonderful breakfast with ET we watched the weather-channel (I brought best summer-weather from Switzerland) and went shopping in the closer area. We were probably the only ones walking to the shops - what's a real Canadian takes the car for 200 meters...
In the afternoon we took a walk to the Northshore Docks and then went having a real American steak in the evening, together with ET's friends. They don't only ask you how you'd like your steak to be done - you also have to decide for how many average Europeans the meal should be. Mine was for at least two, as I could tell from the leftovers...
The day ended with us going to see the fireworks of the last day of Vancouver's Festival of Light. Through and through a good day - and I was bushed after that like 24 hours before...

Sprachen / Languages

Deutsch:
Schon John Wayne sagte: "Ein PFlight muss tun was ein PFlight tun muss." So war es natürlich nur eine Frage der Zeit dass ich einmal nach Kanada reisen würde um meine Brieffreundin ET in Vancouver zu besuchen. Und nun ist es endlich soweit.
Ich bin also in Kanada angekommen. Irgendwie war ich blauäugig genug zu denken, hier sei alles wie in einem Hollywood-Film, schliesslich sind die kanadischen Metropole meist keine 200 km von der Grenze zu den USA entfernt. Weit gefehlt… Das fängt schon bei der Sprache an: Hier wird Englisch und Französisch gesprochen - und nicht unbedingt in dieser Reihenfolge. Daran muss man sich erst mal gewöhnen. Auch daran, dass mit dem schweizerischen Schulstuben-Französisch hier nicht viel anzufangen ist. Eine kleine Anekdote dazu:

Ich stieg in Montreal ("Mo-real") aus dem Flieger und wurde an der Passkontrolle von einem äusserst freundlichen Zollbeamten fast schon herzlich begrüsst. Nach diesem Aufsteller dachte ich, der PFlight2000 sei nun bereit für Kanada. Also zum nächsten Hähnchen-Grill und eine Mahlzeit bestellt:

PFlight: "Hi! I'd like a Chicken Club Burger Meal."
Verkäuferin: "%?&?#@??$¤???"
PFlight: ".......hä?"

Das Kanadische Französisch lässt sich am Besten so beschreiben: Man stelle sich einen Amerikaner vor, der mit seinem furchtbarsten Akzent versucht Französisch zu sprechen, aber des Wortschatzes nur zum Teil mächtig ist. Wenn dann die Quebekians versuchen Englisch zu sprechen funktioniert es genau andersrum…


English:
As John Wayne once said: "A PFlight's gotta do what a PFlight's gotta do." So it was just a matter of time that I was going to visit my friend ET in Vancouver. And now this time has come.
So I arrived in Canada. Somehow I was stupid enough to think everything would be like in the Hollywood movies, as most of the major Canadian cities are located less than 200 km from the border to the USA. Wrong! Even the language: Here in Canada people speak French and English - and not necessarily in that order. You have to get used to that. Also because the French they speak over here doesn't have much in common with our Swiss French. A little story to that:

I got off the plane in Montreal and a very friendly customs officer welcomed me. This was good enough to enlighten my mood drastically and I thought I was ready for Canada. So off I went to the next chicken grill and ordered a meal:

PFlight: "Hi! I'd like a Chicken Club Burger Meal."
Chicken grill lady: "%?&?#@??$¤???"
PFlight: ".......what?"

The Canadian French can be described best as: An American trying to speak French with his worst accent and lacking some words. When Quebecois speak English this works the other way round...

Flying to Canada

I can’t believe it’s only one week before my first big leave after 2002. Then it was Singapore, now it will be Vancouver to visit my friend ET. I have no idea, what to expect. But I’m slightly nervous about 14 hours of flight. I received a few good advices from several people. But the customs-check...

The Girl

A couple of days ago I did a portrait-session with a work mate. Neither she nor I had any experience with this, so it was a First for both of us. The session went very well, she was extremely patient and played along better than I was hoping. Here are some examples - after some work in Photoshop.

The Birds

Although there are several building sites around our house and thus the noise level is rather high, I have spotted at least 3 bird-families raising their young. The cutest ones I find the swallows: Their five chicks have just fully fledged but still are a bit toddling. Today I got the chance to take a couple of heart-warming pictures.







I hope, you like those pics as much as I do!

At the zoo

Ok, it's been already three weeks now that I attended a foto-class at the zoo in Zurich. But I just focused on other things these three weeks. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag right now, since things are still in the making.

The course was actually really interesting, though my camera didn't play along. The teacher, a well-known animal-photographer in Switzerland, lent me one of his lenses, a 70-200mm F2.8 VR. But my camera wasn't able to focus correctly with that lens, and so all pictures I did with this one got blurred. Nonetheless I'm convinced that this is probably one of the next lenses I'll get for my camera - if I get to save enough money, since it costs about as much as the D300 itself... But next will definitely be a decent macro-lens. :)

But here you go: One of Masoala's giant turtles, taken with my own 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 VRII. The limited aperture-setting leads to slight motion-blur even though VRII is doing a very good job. You may not see it: That thing is about 1m long, far more than 150kg and close to 100 year old! I like the mirror-effect on the water pretty much... :)

10 years after: Bullet train hits bridge

Bullet trains got their name from their look. The first bullet train, the Japanese Shikansen Express, really looked like the bullet of a gun. Today those trains can go faster than 300 km/h, and in France they actually do. What can happen if something goes wrong was brought to our mind exactly 10 years ago at the small town of Eschede in Germany:

The wheel of the first passenger car of an ICE train lost its rim, which got stuck within the passenger cabin. Instead of engaging the emergency brake, the passenger sitting next to the site called a conductor. Meanwhile the rim grabbed a piece of a track switch, also slamming it through the passenger compartment, and then changed the setting of another switch – while the train crossing it. So now the train was rolling on two tracks. Just a few hundred meters ahead was a road bridge across the tracks, with a pier placed exactly between the two tracks the train was rolling on, still with 200 km/h. The pier got more or less pulverized; the bridge collapsed and buried car no. 5 underneath itself. The other 7 cars and the rear motor car jack-knifed like a folding ruler into the pile of the collapsed bridge and the completely flattened car underneath.

101 people died, more than 80 were injured, some of them so severely that they still can’t live without medical help. Those responsible for the accident have never been called to account. The Deutsche Bahn payed 30’000 Deutsch Mark for every lost soul – a cold comfort.
Let’s hope those lost souls rest in peace now.

Read the story here.