Online... again

Toronto is back online... and this is my new home...

Picture taken from the ferry to the ilands...

Offline...

I was told yesterday that I am an internet addict. I strongly denied that but have to admit it is not so wrong.

 

How many things do you nowadays do via the internet? From banking over communication (VOIP and email) to looking up things in dictionaries. So I have to admit that my modern life is somehow based on the internet.

The other important thing is obviously my blog, which I was supposed to keep updated. Now I have finally moved into my new condominium and I am expecting my furniture and things today but I will be without internet at least until the weekend…

So I hope I can post something in the beginning of next week. Obviously my podcast has to wait a little as well.

 

Take care!

South Africa

Don't worry, I am still in Toronto! But walking alonge some streets I suddenly came across this:

As you can maybe see it is about South Africa. You find names of plenty of SA towns.

So I assume Canadian trups were fighting with the English against the Boere. Must be bad to have to fight in a country far away from home for something yu have no idea about.

And I think the Canadian are facing the same problem nowadays with their guys in the Middle East

Kai in Toronto - Video Podcast

I always dreamed of beeing a movie star! At the moment I am not too sure if I will manage, but I will try to setup my own video podcast. Midterm goal is to have it available via itunes!
That would be so cool...
I started with my first video about my washing machine. Not exciting? Sorry, it was a video I had available to test the start...
Check the link at the side or follow this LINK.

You can now also subscribe to my RSS feeds to be updated automatically!

Cheers!

Crash...bang...boom

It actually happened some days back already but I never found the time to post this story. It was weird enough though to be worth a story...

So once upon a day Lütke and I were driving through Toronto searching for an office. It was about 4pm and usual traffic was building up. (Toronto is very bad regarding traffic, and rush hours are a real pain!)
The street with 4 tracks ahead of us was completely blocked and movement was hardly seen. This is when we noticed the guy sitting in a minivan next to us. He was constantly shouting out of his window, showing the car in front of him fingers, swearing and then hooting. We were surprised because we didn't see the other one doing something wrong. We were even more surprised, when we moved 2 meters forward realizing that a very old lady sat behind the steering wheel of that car.
But this guy went on with his rampage. Eventually he notices the gap behind me... so he suddenly accelerated with full power, screaming tires and came to stop right behind us. So far so good... But now this guy suddenly started all over again with his freak show. Hooting, showing me fingers and so on. I didn't know what was wrong! But to tell you the truth, I did get a bit frightened. We were basically trapped since traffic wasn't moving at all.
When it got really bad, eventually the cars in front started moving a bit forward, the lane next to us even a couple of meters. The guy behind us had noticed that too! So suddenly we heard a roaring motor screaming tires again and the van behind us accelerating forward. He missed us by an inch or so and got to the other track. I thought he would stop right next to me to tell or show me something even worse. But no...
He accelerated full speed, went next to us in a 45 degree angle.... and kept going! He went right up a 20 cm high curb, onto the footpath, further onto the lawn - straight into a lamppost! *CRASH*

The car smashed right into it with the airbag exploding *BANG* and the guy crashing into it *BOOM*! We saw everything in detail because it happened right next to us!

Moment later the guy got out of his car and looked like he just had a wonderful dream. He wasn't himself. A couple of seconds later he seemed to realize what happened and looked completely puzzled as if he was surprised why the lamppost was there. (It is the guy with the yellow t-shirt!)

He was then back to life and saw us. That's when he pointed at us and came for us! I am not too sure if it was my South African training or pure fear but I didn't wait for the fight. This time it was me accelerating right into upcoming traffic! I took a chance and speed up a couple of 100 meters onto a turning lane. It led to a huge shopping centre and I turned into it because the guy was still running towards us.
We drove around the entire shopping centre and looped back. That is when Lütke took all the action photos.

What a crazy story! My heart was racing and I yelled at Lütke that this was not supposed to happen in Toronto, Canada! Johannesburg, yes I know but here...
All Torontonian we told this story were extremely upset, it was the first time they heard of something like this. Maybe that is a good sign!

We believe the guy was high! Somewhere on a trip... but anyway.

Wow...Toront is Kite-able

Unbelievable,

Last night at about 5pm I just looked out of my window (from where I can see lake Ontario in a distance…) and noticed many white spots on the surface. First I wasn’t too sure what it was but then I realized it had to be white crests. That again meant there had to be a lot of wind.

The very same moment suddenly to colorful spots could be seen in the distance as well. – Kite surfers!

Since Lütke and I had basically finished what was necessary we decided to call it a day. So I ran around grabbed my kite, board, wetsuit and my new bought pump and made my way to the elevator. 3 min later I was in my car fighting my way to the beaches. The only big hassle was the traffic at this time of the day down town Toronto.

But I made it to the Cherry Beach and saw 2 kiters on the water and some others rigging up on the beach. So they did exist! There are kite surfers in Toronto. I got a chance to talk to some of them and got some very useful insider info. But that wasn’t enough, now I got my stuff and 15 min later I was kiting lake Ontario for my very first time. First time Kiting in Canada in general!

It was so great to surf on the water and to constantly have the beautiful view onto Toronto skyline. I mean the water was incredible cold – probably about 14°C so that you don’t want to be in it, rather on it. So jumps and funny things I stopped and exchanged it for a loose ride on the lake

The moment the sun touched the city and went down, turning the entire scenery into a red glowing picture it was just heaven on earth…

What a trip

Last Wednesday Lütke and I had to travel to North Carolina, USA. Since it is quite a distance we obviously booked a flight to be there a bit quicker… It turned out that driving the 1400 kilometers would have been as fast!

 

4:30am:               My alarm goes off and pulls me out of a sleepless night

                               A quick shower and a Coffee and off I go.

5:15am:               I meet with Lütke at the car and we leave for the airport

5:45am:               We arrive at the airport and park the car.

6:00am:               Right on time at the check in.

6:10am:               A long queue at USA border control.

(Travelling to the US is different than to any other country.
Leaving your parting country you will go through US border control!
So they don’t wait until you arrive there…they check you right there.)

6:45am:               We are still lining up and the line hasn’t moved at all.
Meanwhile we hear that the system is down.

6:55am:               We inform one of the ladies organizing the queues that our plane is boarding NOW!
The reply is that we must stay in the line.

7:10am:               A lot of people were pulled out of the line to get a quick route…not us!
We contact the person again: “You stay in your line…the plane will wait!”

7:30am:               I contact another officer: “Oh, you’re too late, you plane has left already!”

7:45am:               Back at Check-In. We rebook for a later flight at 2:30pm! More than 6 hours from now!

8:00am:               We go to a little coffee bar and have breakfast because the queues are still extreme.

10:00am:             Finally the lines are shorter and we risk it to go through the controls again.

10:30am:             With the system back it took less than half an hour to get through.

                               Now  we are in the launch and do a little bit of work.

2:00pm:               We leave for boarding.

                               At the gate we get told that the plane will be delayed by 30 min due to technical problems.

2:10pm:               Back in the launch. We get told that our flight has been completely cancelled.

                               We are booked on the flight at 5:30 this evening.

2:15pm:               We are back at the gate to ask about our checked in Luggage.
It was dumped onto the normal conveyers so we have to find it in arrival hall!

                               This means we have to go through Canadian border control and then customs!

                               And we never ever left the country…

3:00pm:               After queing up again at Canadian border control I suggest to Lutke to apply for his visa at immigration.
We are not in a hurry so why not take a chance…

3:30pm:               Lutke received his visa without any hassles! That is the first good thing that day.

3:45pm:               We find our luggage and go through the same procedure again:
Check-In / US Border Control / Security

4:15pm:               We are back in the launch and have 2 beers each.

5:15pm:               Finally we are boarding. 15min late but we are I the plane.

5:30pm:               After nearly 12 hours we finally leave the airport!

8:15pm:               We arrive in Atlanta.

9:00pm:               The rental car is there and we have our luggage.

11:45pm:             We do arrive at our final destination after 2.5 hours of driving.

12:00am:             I don’t remember if my head ever touhed the pillow…

Toronto

Toronto wil be my new home for the next comming years, if everything goes according to plan. So from now on I will once in a while upload pictures that I take to show you the beauty of this place...

Like this photo taken out of a plane in the early morning.

Proudly...

...Canadian!

This is the magic paper that guarantees me a 3 year stay in CANADA!

So I am almost a Canadian now! :-)

Leaving Hamburg...

Yes, the first big step is done. Tuesday evening 16:30 an old rusty, grey container was closed and shut - filled with my entire belongings.
It was a funny feeling to leave my old street with my flat beeing empty and that funny container filled with my stuff. It was basically like leaving all my things on the street...

I actually took a lot of fotos but didn't bring my camera so that I cannot load them up right now.

It was a few long and exhausting days before that Tuesday. I wanted to pack most of my things on my own. It doesn't feel right to have foreign guys going through your private things. I never thought I had so much rubbish. I constantly dumped bags filled with waiste. And still had so much left to pack.

Now I am in Toronto! I will soon share my firts impressions with you. It will be a strange feeling again. If one day an old rusty, grey container arrives here and when the doors are opened my goodies will be there...

Spiderman?

Who else could it be? We are on the 16th floor of a skyscraper, so normal spiders wouldn't come so high, would they?

Canada is now 140 Years old

Obviously the time before the white settlers came does not count...

Happy Canada day!

It has been quite for a long time...

...but this is about to change...

In Hamburg

A short note because I forgot to anounce that I arrived at home.

So now: I AM BACK IN HAMBURG!!!!

But it will not be for long...

Life sucks...

I am sitting in my hotel in St Catharines, Ontario, Canada. I have injured my knee and outside a snow storm is chasing past. Not too bad, I thought to my-self. I will simply ly on my bed, cool my knee and play with my little Playstation. But, NO!!!! There is a huge TV in my room but the hotel management decided to disable the video input in order to make people pay for online games and videos!
Are they crazy! Who would ever pay 5$ just to play extrem old N64 games!! I have the state of the art machine stting here - AND CANNOT USE IT!!!!

... I think I will go to a hardware store and get a screwdriver. Let's see if I can't convince this TV to do what I WANT!!!

N33 43.908 W84 44.413

That is the global position. It is THE position. The place where I got my PLAYSTATION 3!!!!

It is unbelievable. I was literally running into hundreds of shops to search for the PS3. It was not available. Sold out since Christmas.

So on our trip from Canada through the United States I kept begging my colleagues to once in a while stop at a 'Best Buy'. (For the German readers: It is like our 'Mediamarkt. But since it is in the US it is obviously 10 times bigger.) The first 2 stops were totally unsuccessful, we were even lauhged at for asking such stupid questions. After 4 hours of driving, in the middle of Georgia, Chris (the guy driving) wanted a break. So I quickly checked on my GPS for an other 'Best Buy' shop. To my surprise there was an other location, just 20 miles ahead of us. So I convinced him to have a break there.

In the shop - as usual - the shelves where the PS3 was suposed to be was empty. A shop keeper who saw us direkted us to the informtion counter. 'My heart was racing! Could it be that they had one?' So after queing up we finnaly got to the counter: Kai:"do you have any PS3?" "I am not too sure, I will have a look", the clerk answered and turned away. 2Min later she came, appologizing that they didn't have any. I was not surprised since it happened sooo many times in the past few weeks. When we were about to leave suddenly another clerk turned around and said: "But we jut got a few. Did you check in the Storage?" Turning towards us: "How many do you need?" I couln't answer since I was too stunned. One f my coleagues replied: "Only one. We are married!"

She walked away and 5 minutes later she came back with 2 PS3 boxes! The delivery had just come in a few hours before and it was the only two they had!!

So here I am in my hotel room with a brand new PS3. Most of you will not understand, but I feel soooo happy and proud! The weekend can come...

The coldest I have ever been...

I was extremely surprised when we were driving up to Timmins from Ottawa. Even though the heater was on maximum I always had a bit a fresh breeze from behind. Turning around I realised that the windows in the back were actually frozen from the inside. A beautiful pattern of ice flowers and cristals arose in the back...

What You have to keep in mindis, that the heater was at MAXIMUM!!! So we were cruising until we had to refill fuel. When we stopped the car and I opened the door it was like being hit with a hammer. It is not describable. The cold was so intensive that my face and hands fellt numb just after they first hurt as if I was in the cold for hours.

In the partol station we actualy found out that it was -31°C!! This is by far the coldest I have ever experienced.

We later tried to figure out what happens when gets just a little bit colder and you then try to pee at a tree or so... Would the jet start freezing in the air until it hits the 'little one'? That's were I prefered not to think about it anymore.

Ottawa

We left Vancouver for quick domestic flight to Ottawa. It was only at the airport that I actually realised it would be a 4,5 hour flight with 5500Km. Off coarse we also crossed 3 time zones. Well, that is the moment when you realise "Canada is quite big!"

From VC with approx. 10°C we landed in Ottawa where the temperature was at -4°C. AT THAT TIME!!!! It was actually quite nice with a bit of snow.

To cut a long story short: I ended up in an ugly old hotel, in a room with a heater, which did not work. I did not see much of the city but had the time to walk around downtown the next morning. I was surprised that I felt so extremely cold outside, my hands were freezing, my lips completely dried out and my nose was glowing in purple red. It was only later that I found out that the temperatures had dropped over night from -4 to -20!! Now I understood why I was cold and decided it is ok - I am not a sissy! ;-)

Pictures of cold Ottawa:

I feel like a real jet setter

This Sunday our conference started but we decided not to go too early. So I had a wonderful morning. I got up at 7.30 an instead of getting dressed I got into my swimming gear and went to the pool. It is outside but the watertemperature is fantastic. So after trimming my mussels with a couple of strokes through the pool I got my self a well earned break in the jacuzi (for the Germans: Whirlpool). Fantastic to ly in warm bubbling water and see the skyline of VC and watch water planes taking off.



After a nice long shower and a good shave I got dressed and went down to the lobby to walk about 400 metres to the next "STARBUCKS COFFEE". I got my self a wonderful grand latte and a muffin and walked back to my room for breakfast...

Now I was ready for the day to come...

Impressions of Vancouver

This Saturday was fantastic! After the long hours of flying with adapting to a time difference of 9 hours I realy needed a break. And I got it...
Just when I went down for breakfast (20 CAD for a bit of coffee, toast and fruits) the clouds cleared up for the first time.(and as I had to see, the last time as well) From my seat I had I wonderful view on the mountain in the distance covered in snow. Very much like the picture below, even if that one was taken later during a walk.

Downtown living area. The photo was taken from the pear, so these houses are just at the waterfront.

The next one is the view from my room, just when the sky cleared up a bit.

A new part of the world...

So far my stories always had to do with 'south'. Since I mainly traveled to southern Africa this was obvios. Now that time is over and I am ready for something new. I will no longer be responsible for sales in Africa. From now on I will be traveling northern America for my company.
So, now I am sitting in Vancouver, visiting a complete new world. And already the flight was something special - I flew over the magnetic north pole. Wow, it's been my first time. Why didn't I have a compass with me? Would have been interesting to see if it had started rotating eventually.

Hmmm, maybe on my way home...