Harbour Bath

København has this amazing bath in the harbour I heard so much about. The last time I was in København, I spent an entire Sunday looking for it. Well today I learned that I missed it by about 250 meters - i.e. I found it today.



Here are some more pictures of this jewel made of wood.

Of course, I was far too cold to take a dip. However, when I was approaching, there where some young blokes jumping from the stepped tower. They must had a key. When I finally arrived, they were gone and the gate closed. I found the bath but missed the chance to take it.

JDS, one of the architectual teams working on it, are planning a harbour bath for Dublin. This reminds me of favourite book At Swim, Two Boys. And talking of reminders: I'm missing the other one and long for a swim with him.

Shore Leave

The first week of work at sea is over. Yesterday evening, we were brought ashore in a rubber dinghy and drove straight to København, were we checked into a hotel in the heart of the red-light district. How cliché-ridden is that...

Sailing Again

I'm back in Denmark facing two weeks of sea trials. In other words, I'm again parted again from my deriously beloved Toño.

Hot, Safe and Fair

Finally something positive about condoms. Hot Rubber is introducing condoms made of Fair Trade latex.

Now you can shag around* knowing that the fabric saving your health is produced under human working conditions, without exploiting child labour and with the least possible impact on natural resources.



This is my favourite add by Hot Rubber from the late eighties. The tag line reads Who stays over night...

* not that I would do a thing like that...

Spoiled Boys

This summer, I managed to get twice an upgrade to business class on a round trip to Los Angeles for Toño and me.



Well, this weekend I've got my payback.

Toño's caring employer is the organizer of the award show for the cream of the crop of Swiss wines.

Yesterday was the award show, followed by a gala dinner at the 5-star Bellevue Palace in Bern. The dinner went over 5 courses and was accompanied by 10 short-listed wines. Toño did not only manage to get me on the guest list, we also got a complimentary room.

Good Citizen

I've fulfilled my duties as a citizen by sending my ballot on time.

I'd stopped pondering and put first all The Gays™ on my list and stuck then to the closest-match recommendation of the internet. There was one (1) correlation, i.e. on bloke made it twice on my list. To my surprise, my ladies quote is over 50%.

I reckon, I'm not much of a prophet by prognosticating that my ballot will hardly correlate with next parliament.

But till you feed us...

Switzerland, Europe's heart of darkness, is called to the polls in a week. Because I hate to get up early on Sunday mornings, I have to make up my mind now, so that the Swiss snail postal service can bring my vote to the ballot box in time.

Although we can't submit our ballot via the fabulous internet, I used an on-line service to make up my mind. Who wants to be a sheep that let itself influence by election propaganda. It has to be kind of objective. First I had to answer a bunch of questions and was then presented with a spider map, showing my political position.



I could also see where I am standing with respect to the candidates who are running for parliament in my constituency.



As you can see, I'm kind of a tree hugging leftist liberal. My position tells me that I should be a teacher or journalist. Far from it. I develop naval weapon systems. And unfortunately, almost all of the dots surrounding me, support the initiative which wants to prohibit Swiss enterprises to export any defence equipment. Switzerland has no sea. If we can't export, I'm out of work.

What I'm supposed to do? Shall I vote against my attitude or put people into power who want me to lose my job or make me to abandon my ship?

Macheath says in Brecht's Threepenny Opera: You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy. But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!

The Next Thing

There is this trend to combine chili with chocolate. Forget it! The truly flabbergasting experience lies in pepper covered with chocolate.



If you put one of these into your mouth, the chocolate melts away, giving you the sweet experience you're expecting. But then, as soon as you bite in the tiny ball, your taste buds are sent into another dimension.

50 Years

I would like to mark the 50-year anniversary of the Sputnik launch with the song Fred vom Jupiter, which always reminds me of the Sputnik telemetry signal.



In less than 4 years we can celebrated another 50-year anniversary.



Gagarin, who is always watching me at work, is patently waiting for that one.

Porcini with Knöpfli

As a tribute to autumn, I went for a porcini dish.



Actually a quite easy one with Knöpfli (or Spätzle).



But because I made everything from the scratch (except grinding the flour) it took quite long. But we don't have autumn every day.