Christmas in Germany




I was very fortunate this year, along with Fordham and Kristen, to be invited to share the Christmas period with the Baumann family in Germany. Seelingstadt is a lovely little town in Saxony, East Germany, not far from the Czech border. Juergen, Doris and Anna (with Doreen and Coxy of course) treated us to an amazing Christmas day complete with Weihnachtsmann (Santa) a beautiful christmas fairy (Coxy, complete with shiny leopard skin posing pouch) candle powered turny Xmas bizzos, chocolate shot glasses and enough schnapps to kill a small horse. Doreen is well known for her magic with all thing eatable and drinkable and I can now see where it comes from. We ate far too much, drank far too much, sang too much, and were very much welcomed into the family, a fantastic feeling for those so far from home. We were also able to cut a rug at the local disco which was a real blast and even scared the b'Jesus out of the locals at the end with a horribly drunken, mostly unidentifiable version of the Haka.

I went down to Regensburg for a couple of days at the end of the trip and had a great time catching up with the lovely Nicole Leimbach, got to meet the famous Ramsey for the first time and generally chilled out around Regensburg with Nicole and her crew. Always a good time.

A'ight, till next

Havana de Cuba



The trip I took to Russia in Nov 05 was an amazing experience but, being an arrogant tourist, was a bit dismayed to see how quickly companies such as McDonald's and KFC had raced in to the waiting arms of the 'greener grass' minded. Their popularity was such that there were queues out onto the streets at every store. I felt somehow robbed of an opportunity to see a communist country working as such. It was at this moment that I decided that Cuba was one of the last places I would have the opportunity to do a 'before and after' look at a country shifting from a Communist regime to, most likely, a Capitalist economy with the impending demise of the once beloved Fidel Castro. Of course in order to achive this I would have to act quickly as Fidel is certainly not a well man as his failure to publicly show up to his own 80th birthday celebrations showed.

A slow period at work thankfully allowed me to squeeze a week in before Christmas so off I jetted with my housemate Andrea and a workmate of hers. With only a week we just decided to hang in Havana and not try to stretch the time too thin. There is not a great schedule of 'must see' tourist sites in Havana so the week was spent just mooching around the place drinking Mojitos and chuffing on big fat cigars. Not a bad way to live really! It was interesting to see the two economies and, infact two different currencies that exist to separate the privileged tourist trade from the meagre wages provided to the workers from the government. Highlights included the legendary Club Tropicana where the drinks are indeed free (or included in the price of admission, depending own how romantic you feel). A quick trip to the beach and hanging out with some of the very friendly, non solicitous locals were also fantastic. Definately worth a visit if you are in the neighbourhood.