I almost forgot to post this tonight. I really should head to bed soon, because I won’t get that much sleep in the next few nights. I know there actually is no such thing as “sleeping in advance”, but I still should get a good night’s rest tonight.

2009-11-06: “Brotzeit” (Lunch) in Munich

2009-11-07: Mariensäule (Marian Column) in Munich

2009-11-08: Livingston on the train’s music program

2009-11-09: Autumn is almost over

2009-11-10: Leftovers from the Munich Weekend

2009-11-11: Coffeeduck for my Senseo

2009-11-12: Lots of lighthouses for my office

I was extremly busy with local Greens stuff and my brain is too tired to come up with some interesting stuff to write about. Next week will be insanely busy, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to deliver some interesting posts either. Monday: committee meeting + Green party meeting. Tuesday: Ingrid Michaelson concert in Cologne. Wednesday: work meeting till late at night. Thursday: committee meeting + Sunrise Avenue concert in Dortmund. Friday… nothing planned for Friday so far. Catching up on sleep, I guess ;-) No idea how I will squeeze in some posts, but I’ll try.

Nowadays every big sport event needs a mascot. Most of these mascots are rather boring and neither cute nor funny and most of all lack originality. Imagine my surprise and elation, when I first read about the mascot for next year’s icehockey worldchampionship, which will take place in Germany. I just liked the mere idea, without even having seen what the mascot looks like. Because the mascot will be “Urmel auf dem Eis” (= Urmel on the ice) and of course it originates from “Urmel aus dem Eis” (=Urmel from/out of the ice). Most Germans my age will remember Urmel at least by name. I have to admit I never watched it on TV myself. “Urmel aus dem Eis” was a very popular and successful TV program, first aired in the early 1970ies and in reruns later on. It’s a puppet play based on a children book and there are also other cartoon versions of the book, but the puppet play is probably the most known. Urmel is something between dinosaur and mamal and it was found (still in it’s egg, waiting to hatch) within a block of ice. Hence the name.

I was just happy that someone obviously had enough sense to look for a mascot that has some kind of tie to the “ice”. During the international hockey tournament in Munich last weekend, I finally saw and met Urmel for the first time. What can I say? It was love on first sight ;-) Which was most probably due to the fact, that the guy(s) in the costume know how to work a crowd in a sport arena. He was doing everything right, dancing, partying with the fans, starting the wave and basically just goofying around. It didn’t hurt that Urmel itself was cute, with it’s oversized jersey with the number (20)10 on its back. It seems like two mascots will be touring the German hockey league venues in the next few weeks. At least one was in Iserlohn on Friday, from where Bro3 reported back to me ;-) Some of our hockey friends talked to the guy in the costume and was told that there are basically just these two guys being Urmel at the moment. The second one was at the game in Nürnberg last night. So maybe Urmel also will be joining us in Cologne some day. Would be fun, I think.

Of course I couldn’t leave Munich without taking some Urmel souvenirs with me. I bought a coffee cup for my office (can’t provide a picture, because it’s at the office already) and a pendant for my keyring. Skoda (sponsor of the national hockey team) gave away Urmel poster (which I stuck it to my fridge). The “Urmel highlight” *g* was meeting it on the first night in Munich already. I was just on my way to the restrooms, but there it was and I couldn’t not have a picture taken, could I :-) ?

I almost can’t believe it myself, but I actually really enjoyed the latest Grey’s Anatomy episode. I know I wrote a long rant earlier this week and I won’t take anything of it back, because it’s still true. But this episode was quite good actually. Of course there were a few things I didn’t like, but that’s ok.

There are still too many Mercy Westers around. I probably wouldn’t mind it that much if they’d stay in the background, but I don’t like them to actually have major interaction with one of the old cast. Like the guy in Izzie’s storyline. The other two were hardly around, so I wasn’t that annoyed by their presence. Still don’t need them though.
I honestly don’t need Izzie Stevens either, but I’m afraid she’ll be back some time next year. I actually liked the basic of the storyline (her old mentor etc and how he’s problem was accidentally fixed), but I’m so over Izzie. The way she treated Alex is unforgivable in my eyes and she is such a self-centered person. She wasn’t fired, because Alex asked the chief to take it easy on her, because of her fragile health. By the way, didn’t she herself tried to reason a similar way with the chief when he fired her? Anyway, the thing is: she made a mistake which almost killed a patient and she still doesn’t seem to even want to admit to that. So can she maybe just stay away at the trailer park or wherever? I know I’m going to feel sorry for Alex, but on the other hand seeing him with Izzie won’t warm my heart either.

I know I should feel bad and sorry for Richard Webber and his returned alcohol problem. But I don’t think I’m there yet. This might (and probably is supposed to) explain why he was such a jerk recently, but I still dislike him for having been a douchebag. Maybe that will change if he’ll be stranded in a gutter someday, but until then… I honestely don’t care that much. According to the writer’s blog, Meredith realized he was not drinking a club soda at Joe’s and is therefore now the only one knowing his secret. To me it didn’t seem like Mer really made that connection, but if the writer says so…

Besides of those two issues I actually enjoyed the episode very much. Meredith is back! Yay! With this episode I just realized how much she was missed as the integral center of the show in the last few episodes. At least to me it felt like it. She was dealing with Izzie and Alex (I adore her bond with Alex) and Cristina and she stayed so calm and mature through all of this. Marriage seems to agree with her (Yes, I know they are not legally married, but still…) The Meredith/Derek moment in the OR was really sweet as well. Should I feel bad that I rarely miss George anymore? Probably because I got used to his reduced screentime in season 5.

Bailey was awesome in this episode. That’s the Bailey I know and love and it’s good to have her back. I thought the whole “affair” and “work husband and wife” talk was a bit silly, but Bailey still rocked it. She is more chief than Webber ever could be.

I was suprised that I actually caught myself liking the new cardio attending. I thought she’d be another of the too many doctors at Seattle Grace, but she joined the staff for a reason. Well two reasons actually ;-) But at least the head of cardio position was vacant (unlike the invasion of stupid Mercy West residents) and it’s nice to have another female attending around. Not so sure what to think of the revelations at the end. I don’t really want to see another awkward love triangle between her, Owen and Cristina. On the other hand, I don’t “ship” Owen/Cristina, so I don’t really care that much if they stay a couple or not.During the first few scenes I was with Cristina: She didn’t seem like a cardio-goddess or a qualified attending for that matter at all. But she quickly won me over during the attendings lunch in the cafeteria and of course when she actually was a cardiogoddess teacher to Cristina.

The cafeteria scenes were probably my favourite moments of this episode. I always loved the interns lunch hour in the first few seasons and I missed those during season 4 and 5. And it might not be the “Fab Five interns” lunch anymore, only the lonely three, but it was still vintage Grey’s and I loved it. And I loved the “Fab Five” attendings lunch just as much. The Mark, Callie and Arizona interaction was reall funny. Callie and Mark was great even earlier during the “work husband / wife” talk with her “Nobody’s talking to you” and his “Well there was [something going on] at one point” But my favourite lines were said in the cafeteria: You’re a terrible gossip! – “I’m an excellent gossip.” Who would have thought ;-)

So all in all: Enjoyable episode for me. It really feels weird to say that about a season 6 Grey’s episode. But I watched the promo for next week and I’m afraid I might have to add some more stuff to my Grey’s rant from earlier this week. From what I could gather in the promo I’m afraid Shonda aims to make it on the cover of the next issue of “Soap Opera Digest”.

There are a couple of posts still on hold, thought through in my mind or almost completey written down, but I just can’t bring myself to actually finish one of those tonight. My brain’s too tired. After work I spent 2 hours in a meeting with fellow town council members, people from the administration and some consultants. 16 guys and one woman. Me. Typical gender ratio in these meetings. Half of the population is female, why am I always the only woman in these rounds…

Today’s thought I’d love to share: I actually like the new Robbie Williams album a lot. The last two  albums were crap. I bought them both (I think, too lazy to check) but only once listened to the last one and just a few times to the one before that. The new one though…. sounds like good old times :-) Like it!

Will I ever stop worrying too much and worrying in advance? Stop coming up with possible disaster scenarios for something, when I don’t even know yet what that “something” is? Yes, I know, 100% cryptic. Without further ado today’s post, which contains the project365 photos of last week. I know I’m awfully late with this, because it’s almost the end of this week. Anyway, here they are…

2009-10-30: Watching hockey in Düsseldorf

2009-10-31: Indian summer in my Mom’s garden

2009-11-01: Revising school assignment

2009-11-02: Delivery from Amazon.com (still haven’t found the time to listen to the CDs)

2009-11-03: Ordinary view of the ordinary commuter

2009-11-04: Indian summer at the train station

2009-11-05: Can’t do without in the mornings…

I had just finished writing today’s post, but I think I’ll keep that for another day, because it just didn’t feel right today.

I have to admit I’m not a football (soccer) fan at all. I only watch it every 2 years when the national team competes at the world or european championships. Living in a football crazy nation, of course I know the basics about the teams in the premier league and quite a few players, especially from the national team.

So even I was shocked when I read about the death of our national teams goalkeeper Robert Enke just a few minutes ago. He was 32 years old, married and had just recently adopted a baby girl. His first daughter was born with a heart-defect and died at the age of 2 in 2006. Robert Enke was run over by a train, the police suspects suicide.

It’s just so incredibly sad. How desperate do you have to be to give up on your life? My heart goes out to his wife and family and all of his friends. Rest in peace, Robert.

This post is titled review of 6.08, but most of it will not be a review of this episode, but a rant about the writers managed to kill my love for something, that once has been my favourite show and highlight of my TV week. In my life as a TV viewer there always have been shows I absolutely loved. I discovered Grey’s when I wasn’t really attached to any other TV show ;-), so I could easily fall in love with this unique hospital drama. I had seen a few episodes on German TV and then spent the first days of my summer vacation in 2006 with catching up on the complete season 1 & 2 on DVD.
I couldn’t stop watching, because I cared so much about these characters. They were all very well written, the dialogues were awesome, the medical stories were interesting and I just loved to see these five interns dealing with their private and professional lifes. To see them become friends and a family. And of course I was rooting so deeply for Meredith and Derek and wanted to see them together and happy. I mentioned the well written characters: Addison was one of them. She was introduced as the “wicked witch from the east”, but after a while I couldn’t help myself. I liked her and cared about her and I found myself torn a tiny bit. I did want Derek to leave her and get (back) together with Meredith, but I also knew I’d feel really sorry for Addison for being left by her husband.

After the summer of 2006 I was very excited for the start of season 3 and watching the new episode was a top priority for me every week. I tried to read as much spoilers and watch sneaks and get every other information I could lay my eyes on. I definitely enjoyed season 3, even though there were a few storylines I would have written differently. For instance: Merdith and Derek never really talked about the drowning, about what Meredith experienced (or thought she had experienced) or about what that did to Derek. Thank God AriaAdagio wrote some brilliant fanfics about that.

I was probably equally excited for season 4, even though I already feared that the Meredith / Derek Drama would be further dragged on. I liked the “sex & mockery” in the beginning, but it became old after a while. Season 4 was a rocky road for them, but there was a house of candles in the end and the promise of a future without the usual relationship drama. I was totally fine with that. My shipper self was happy and that’s all that mattered.
But with Season 4 the writing (of storylines, characters and dialogues) slowly but surely started to go downhill. There were a whole group of new interns, being taught by our five 2nd year residents, which was just ridiculous. Bailey was a teacher, but Meredith, Cristina & co were still surgical babies and in no way fit to teach anyone. And I just didn’t want to deal with new characters, while the lifes of the the old ones I grew to love, weren’t fully explored yet.
There also was the disastrous George & Izzie storyline which basically ruined both characters for me. Erica Hahn was set up to be Callie’s love interest, but then suddenly demised. And there was Rose, who was written so clearly as a mere plot device, that it was insulting to any intelligent viewer. I cringed so often during the second half of the season, because the way Rose was written was just so bad.

Season 5 brought Owen and Arizona, which were nice additions to the cast, eventhough the hospital floors got awfully crowded. There also was Sadie and still to many of the new interns.  And Dr. Dixon and I don’t know how many more superfluous additional doctors. Looking back the whole Bailey storyline didn’t make any sense either, because her character didn’t really evolve. She went back and forth, ruined her marriage and stayed in general surgery after all. What was the point in that? There also was ghost sex… do I have to say more? Such a stupid stupid storyline. I loved Denny Duquette in season 2, but this definitely ruined his character for me. I already stopped liking Izzie in season 4, so she just got on my nerves with all of this.
Meredith and Derek continued to be in a happy, healthy and stable relationship so all was good on that front. I thought the post-it wedding was kind of cute and even though I’d love to see them legally married any  time soon, I don’t really care that much. Which has probably been the most surprising (and sad) realization for me to come to, while I’m watching season 6 right now. I cared so deeply for both of them and I still do, I enjoy watching them together, being “happy married them”, but that’s just about it. In other words: I don’t lose any sleep over the state of their relationship anymore. And once the show will end (in a year or two) I think I’m going to be just fine without Meredith and Derek on my TV screen.

I don’t know if the excitement and enthusiasm just wore off after three years of intense “shipping”. Which would be completely normal, I guess. Or if my annoyance and indifference towards the rest of the show just rubbed off on my view of the Meredith & Derek storyline. Because after eight episodes of season 6 I’m so so annoyed with this show that once was the highlight of my week. I enjoyed Derek’s episode last week, because there was so much of him to see and hear, but the rest of the episodes so far ranged from “more or less ok” to “just plain boring”.
In 6.08 there were actually just three scenes I enjoyed watching. Cristina and Meredith, because Meredith was so cute and happy. Meredith and Derek in their final scene. And the whole Bailey/Alex NICU moment. I would have loved Alex’s storyline, if I hadn’t been so annoyed by the Mercy Wester hovering. Argh! Go away! Derek’s and Mark’s comment were hilarious though. Yay, that have been the approximately 2 enjoyable minutes of 41 minutes of TV.

To me this episode was the bottom low so far for all the reasons I already complained in detail about for the first seven episodes. I can’t even bring myself to write about that again and again and again… it’s boring me to death. The merger storyline? The chief being a douchebag? The presence of new characters I just don’t care about? It’s making me mad and sad at the same time to see how the Mercy Westers are set up to be someone our beloved characters start to care about? Alex and the doe-eyed little one? Cristina and the football player? Why oh why? Why was he even invited to the surprise birthday party ?!?

Derek gets fired for doing a risky surgery, which saved the patient’s life. But Arizona is talked into a risky surgery, because there is a 25 million $ gift for the hospital?  Izzie who donated 8 million to the hospital for the clinic, is still sitting on 200,000 for medical expenses? WTF? Owen’s character seem to have gone through a complete makeover, because how could he be such a jerk towards Cristina. Being a hardcore and sometimes rulebreaking surgeon is how she is. That’s who he fell in love with. Why is he treating her the way he did?

I could go on and on about why this week’s episode was a new bottom low for me, but I honestly don’t know if that will make me feel better in the end. Maybe I just have to come to terms with the fact, that the show I fell in love with three years ago, doesn’t exist anymore. It’s  sad, but I guess that’s something I have to get used to. Of course I will continue to watch it, but it’s still not going to be the same as it once was. It’s such a sad thing to say about the show which once ruled my small TV fandom world.

I finished reading “The Book Thief” this afternoon, on the train back from Munich and for the rest of the journey I thought about how to adequately review it. But I just couldn’t think of anything I could say that would do this masterpiece justice. I’m still stunned by it’s brilliance. I think the key element was the narrative, but of course the story was heartbreaking in itself. I really have no idea how to express on how many levels and in how many ways this novel impressed and moved me. This acclaim from the “Guardian” sums it up pretty well:

“Unsettling, thought-provoking, life affirming, triumphant and tragic, this is a novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told. An important piece of work, but also a wonderful page-turner.”

I’m in Munich over the weekend, watching the German national hockey team compete in the Deutschland-Cup tournament. Hockey is of course ice hockey, for any German reader who might be wondering. But as it’s the only kind of hockey that matters to me, I’ll stick with the english distinctiion between hockey and field hockey.

Until 10 years ago I haven’t been much of a sports fan. Football (soccer) is huge in Germany, but I usually just watched it on TV during the world or european championships. And even than I thought it’s rather dull to watch. Of course I watch summer and winter olympics, but I would never have considered me a fan of any sport or team. That changed when my friend Hai_di asked me to accompany her to a hockey game in Cologne. She had just become a fan a few month earlier and I thought: ok, it might be interesting enough. We went and saw a 9:0 (or 9:1) victory and had a really great time. The atmosphere was great. Of course, because we had to jump up and celebrate a goal every few minutes ;-) But I basically liked the atmosphere in general. It’s hard to explain for anyone who has never been part of a singing and cheering crowd in any kind of sport arena. And I know some people are just not into being a part of a singing and cheering crowd. I never thought I would be either. But it is fun. Maybe because it meets some basic human needs? Feeling as part of a group or something? I don’t know, but I’m sure there are enough psyological studies about it.

Would I have become a football fan, If I had had my first experience of being part of a fan audience in a sport arena in a football stadium? I don’t know for sure, but I actually doubt it, because I’ve seen football on TV and like I said before, thought it’s rather boring to watch, especially compared to hockey. So, what is so special about hockey? What’s so captivating at a hockey game? Of course there are boring hockey games as well, but even those are in my mind less boring to watch than football game.

Hockey is fast! The hockey rink is smaller than a football pitch and skating is faster than running. The game can shift from defense to attack within seconds, because the playing field is much smaller and it only takes about five seconds to skate from the defense zone to the opposite goal. It’s the same speed as in basketball, which I think is an entertaining sport to watch as well. If someone had taken me to a great basketball game 10 years ago, I might have turned into a basketball fan instead ;-)

Part of my attraction to hockey might also be that it’s a very physical sport and not just in the sense that every sport actually is physical. During a forward move and especially in any defense action hockey players use their body in a more physical way than football or basketball players do. There is more checking and shoving and because they all wear protection gear, checking and shoving is not a big deal. Hockey is rough sport and I have to admit I love watching that. Maybe because I’m not a rough or gruffy person myself and I experience my rough sides vicariously through the players on the ice.
Watching a fast and rough game with thousands of cheering fans obviously very quickly turned me into a hockey fan. Not into someone with the most knowledge, but with a lot of passion. I still don’t know all the details of every rule (some of them keep changing every year in the German league) and I can not always jugde if the referee made the right call or not. But I make that up with the passion of telling the referee, that he sucked *g*

Bro1 has been a hockey fan for more than 20 years and I used to tease him about it until I became a hockey fan myself and a couple of years ago even Bro3 started to go to the games (of Bro1’s team, not mine, but still). Hai_diand I’ve been to the worldchampionship in Canada last year with Bro1 and his group of hockey friends and I’ve joined them again this weekend for the trip to Munich to see our national team compete. And I’m sure I’m having a great time, while you are reading this post ;-)