Edinburgh

Sarajevo

Copperhead — 2007-06-09T18:14:00Z

Dobra večer,prijatelji!

We made it to Sarajevo by bus (a trip of hellish 13 hours - new record!!) two days ago. My girl is giving a concert here in two days (at the Bosnian Institute) & we are staying with her parents. Very nice people who gave me a hearty welcome.
Tina showed me around the old town of Sarajevo today - a lovely place to be, with a lot of cafes and so on. But it is very busy, too.

Hopefully i will see a bit more when Tina has finished her concert - she is really deep in preparations now.

It is quite funny as i try to communicate with Tina's parents; we don't speak a language the other understands.
But I'm lucky 'cause Tina's brother is fluently in English and it's very kind of him to do the translation work - thanks, much appreciated.

Ugodan većer,

C

PS: Siegi, I'm pretty sure, this time i' ve done it all correct with your postal code, otherwise i owe you a beer on friday

Krk

Copperhead — 2007-05-02T07:54:00Z

Hi!

I took a short holiday on the croatian island of Krk (see Album Krk) the last weekend, which was quite nice, indeed. Cloudless sunny sky, the sea (which was at the swimable temperature of 63 F /17°C, brr; but who dares, wins as they say).

As some of you might know,I was never one of those guys writing cards (that's the reason for this BLOG). Still i decided to write at least one to Siegi, but it went wrong right from the start.

First of all i bought the card and a stamp and got it in a paperbag. I took out the card on the way to the beach to store it away in one of my pockets and threw away the paperbag. Ages later it came to my mind that with the paperbag i got rid of the stamp, too - lol.

On the beach, I wrote some nice holiday babbling on the card, realizing that Siegis postal code was not on my mind.

No problem- go home buy a stamp, look up the address in your cell phone and send the card.

I went home got the stamp and sent the card, done and done.

I guess you already checked that I did not fill in the postal code, a fact I stumbled over one day later, an hours distance from home. Sorry Siegi, but if you ever get the card i have been very lucky, cause the whole postal code reads like:

Mr Siegi O... Scotland/Europe LOL

Enjoy the Pics

Greetings C

Concert

Copperhead — 2007-04-02T08:26:00Z

Hoi chummers!

I attended a concert (classical music) last Wednesday. Tough it was quite nice, it was a challenge for the hosting organization (I won't mention names) - a challenge they did not master very well.
The Announcer was so busy with self-praising the hosting organization, that she really saw no importance to introduce the artists by name (lol).
The funniest thing to me was, that the day before the janitor of the venue had no idea that there would be a concert next day.
Although he knew that F&B for the high- ups of the hosting organization were already in the fridge (LMAO).

I won't mention the salary discussion afterwards in detail.

Greetings and a happy Easter time!

C

Play that funky music..

Copperhead — 2006-09-20T07:22:00Z

Hi chummers!

Yesterday I attended a 'Phunk' Gig, an aquaintance of mine and his band, the NEW GROOVE COALITION
played.
The venue was the LUFTBAD in the Luftbadgasse in the 6th precinct, a nice location with a separated small ' concert area'. So you can join the musicians live, or stay outside und watch through a panorama window.

The band spread hot vibes during their session (thanks to their vocalist), perfectly including the audience in the performance.

Various guest vocalists, changing of instruments in between the band members, the intimate ' club gig character' and the company of nice people (thanks to Rosie and Marksman for joining me) made it a really cool evening.

CYLA

C

On the beach..

Copperhead — 2006-09-07T16:41:00Z

Hi!

Today I took the (probably) last visit to the lake for swimming for this season [ Album On the beach].
And it was marvelous - sunshine, no clouds - great.

The water has an estimated temperature of 70 °F or 20 something centigrade (first time I was swimming this season, it was not that warm).

So I had quite a nice afternoon. Hopefully the weather stays this we than the season could be prolongated to the last weekend in september.

If not, then today was "Badeschluss".

Greetings

C

Biking in Bgld

Copperhead — 2006-09-03T11:45:00Z

Hoi Chummers!

First of all i'd like to apologize for the bad quality of the photos [Album Biking], but my cell phone was all that i got.

Nevertheless it was a beautiful day, with a really warm afternoon. Despite using sunblocker, i burned my skin again (maybe in involuntary attempt to equalize skin and hair color).
If the week stays with that temperature a saison closing event at the Neufelder See might be possible.

In the end the tour was about 25 -30 km long, including a few stops and some delicious eggs with bacon roasted in lard, yummi.

Thanks to my parents for inviting me there.

You can't always get what you want...

Copperhead — 2006-08-29T07:46:00Z

... but if you try sometimes you would might find...

Life is not fair!!

Some start a new work, some still have holidays (another 2 weeks) and still OTHERS go to the Isle of Arran to drink & buy (and hopefully get me) some wonderful SINGLE MALT Whisky.

I should have stayed there.

To be honest, anybody gets his fair share of amenities and I will not complain, starting my new job today. I think it will be great fun.

CYLA

C

Home, wet home

Copperhead — 2006-08-25T10:46:00Z

Why, by the nine hells, have i left E-Burgh?
Nice city, nice company, and warm sunny weather.

24th August 06, 0430 hours, E-Burgh. Still an hour before dawn, but no morning chill and NO rain.

24th August 06, 0730 hours, London, Stansted: Heavy rain :-(

During the 30 yds from the plane to the terminal building i got reasonably wet, lol.

25 th August, at an unknown time before dawn, Vienna: Heaviest rain!! I got out of my slumber ' cause the rain drops kept hammering on the tin roof of the parking lots next to my window with deafening volume.
But in this moment between the dreamlands and conscious awareness I thought "Rain in E-burgh, at last"...

CYLA

C

This is the end...

Copperhead — 2006-08-23T13:18:00Z

Hoi Chummers!

As announced, here the photos from the tattoo [Album Military Tattoo].

Should you ever be in E-burgh in August, try to get a ticket for that show, it's amazing.
Enjoy the photos.

See you, C

... End of file .....

The Military Tattoo

Copperhead — 2006-08-22T16:38:00Z

Hoi chummers!

Tonight we' ll be off for the Military Tattoo, a parade of sack pipers from military regiments dancing performances and so on. It will take place at the Castle Esplanade and I was lucky to get a "come back" ticket yesterday, 'cause all the shows were regulary sold out and the end of January.

Photos follow, see you in a few days.

Sightseeing

Copperhead — 2006-08-21T10:14:00Z

Hoi chummers!

A Castle roam, at last (and with plenty of time, lol).

Yesterday we made it to Craigmilllar Castle, a nice hulk at the outskirts of E-burgh. Very famous 'cause Mary Queen of Scots made it her "refugee camp" after her secretary Rizzio was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
There are also rumors that she planned the murder of her second husband with her later third at this location.

The panorama from the L-shaped Tower House is quite impressive [Album Craigmillar]

Easter Road and the Vaults

Copperhead — 2006-08-20T12:50:00Z

Hoi!

Hibees 3, Motherwell 1, this was the result in the end at the Easter Road Stadium. The most outstanding attribute of the Hibees is their lack of "Killer Instinct", otherwise the must have scored 2 more goals, at least.
Nevertheless it was a quite entertaining match particulary
concernig the goal of Motherwell scored in the last minute of the game. The ball came into the Hibees penalty area (the second or third time during the game), and what happened?
Brown(Hibees) started a dribbling within the 5 yds sector instead of simply kicking the ball away. The result is, as they say, history.

Subsequently we visited the home turf of The Scottisch Malt Whisky Society which is luckyly "members (and their guests; thanks to Siegi) only", The Vaults in Leith.
In the very comfortable interior [Album Spirit] you can chill out with free coffee (or tea) and taste the one or another Single Malt.

In reality it was so relaxing, that Siegi forgot to pay his bill, lol.

PS I forgot to mention the nice half time parade of the HIBEEs U13 girls who won the league championschip, the cup und the league cup last season - respect!!!

Culture II

Copperhead — 2006-08-19T11:22:00Z

Hoi!

Yesterday I experienced the "real" Scotland. A foggy, rainy day in E-Burgh. But all gone at the moment (around 65° F now).

So it was Festival time again. On the menu:

"What I heard about Iraq", a summary of known facts and quotes from the beginning of the Invasion up to now.

They had a really good Rumsfeld impersonator and overall it's recommendable.

Today: Football live at the Easter Road Stadium.
We will witness a home victory of the mighty Hibees over Motherwell...

Hibs, Hibs Hooraaaaayyyy!

Report follows!

Culture

Copperhead — 2006-08-18T09:08:00Z

Hoi!

August is festival time in E-Burgh, with the E-Burgh, the International, the International Book,..., and so on festival.

And the "independent" festival, the Fringe. A nice idea - ages ago at least - cause anybody can perform on this festival. Nowadays, as the Fringe is a quite large event on its own, for the visitor it is a little bit tricky not to get lost in the various acts and their different venues, lol.

Nevertheless we managed to see a classic by D. H. Lawrence:

"Lady Chatterly's Lover" adapted by Kangaroo Court.

Set to the mid-eighties, when GB was in the steely grip of the "Iron Lady", the actors do a really nice job.

I guess it not to be easy to keep on acting (especially nude), if you are surrounded by the audience (which is only 3, 4 ft away) on three sides - respect!!

And Lady Chatterly is a real h..., but see for yourself.

[Album Culture]

Edradour Distillery

Copperhead — 2006-08-17T08:17:00Z

Hoi Chummers!

As promised the report on our distillery trip

EDRADOUR claims to be the smallest distillery in Scotland
(a glance at the photos [Album Spirit] will show you, they are probably right) with a year's total output of 90.000 bottles ( they have more visitors per annum) of a really nice
Highland Single Malt. EDRADOUR has 3 producing employees, and the single malt is hande-made, so to say.

The distillery is in the vicinity of Pitlochry (90 mins northterly of E-Burgh); in Pitlochry is the only production of HEATHER gems ( they craft jewlery out of "Heidekraut")
in a combined process of drying, vacuum dyeing, pressing, grinding and laquering.

So in combination with the distillery this was applied chemistry all over.

As for Blair Castle: refer to earlier entries concerning our time management, lol.

Late again, we could not even take pictures of the castle curtain walls (another day, another castle).

On the other hand we got compensated by visiting QUEENSVIEW [Album Spirit] at LOCH TUMMEL.

Back in E-burgh (South QUEENSFERRY) we took a visit to Siegis favoured fish & chips outlet, which was really worth it
for the food and the scenic view across the FIRTH of FORTH [Album Spirit]. Enjoy!

Greetings

C