I saw recently that the Swiss Army Knife is now available with about half a billion tools (87 to be exact). It weighs 1.5 kg. It apparently has 115 uses. What are they? Well appart from the obvious opening wine / beer, at 1.5 kg I would guess... heavy paper weight, brick or possibly projectile weapon. It is costing about AUD $1000, € 600 or £ 420. Now take a look at the picture below and tell me what it could really be used for... The thing is huge!!! I doubt you could consider it a "Handy" thing to have. I dont have all the creature comforts in the world so sometimes I have to improvise. Sometimes I use a lighter to open beer bottles or my old mobile phone as a hammer.

Link to the news story

I was thinking of 2 things for this blog.
1. What do you think this army knife can be used for?
2. What is something you have that can be useful that was not made for the purpose of what you do with it?

Browsing though the web today (as I usually do to fill the void that is my life) I stumbled across this news article that said that in a study it was found that men become dumber when around women with blonde hair. Now me personally I prefer darker hair women, but blondes are fun too. But I wonder could this be true...? Now well all know that men act stupidly around women they like and want to get to know. I have found myself in situations where I acted dumber because of a women, but to think that it was because of her hair colour...? I prefer to think that I was acting dumb because either 1. I was trying to impress her 2. I am dumb (more likely) or 3. She was just so much smarter than me (Likely as well) I noticed that the headline for the article was interesting as well. BLONDES MAKE MEN MORE DUMBER. Maybe because it comes from the fine journalists at Fox news.. or maybe they were doing it on purpose (not likely) but was the person writing the headline sitting next to a blonde?

What do you think? Add a comment or send me a message and tell me if you think that men act this way around women because of their hair or something else.

Today I managed to evade a ticket on the U-Bahn. Not bad considering these people are on a quota. I think it also helped that I pulled out about 10 used tickets and then my ID I still have from the Australian government. The girl looked at the ID then me and handed it back to me and said (in german) "have a nice day sir." I love playing the dumb, "I dont speak any language other than English game." Perhaps I get too much of a kick out of seeing people confused but hey... I enjoy it and I didn't get a fine.

Was at the U-bahn somewhere near Friedrichstraße and I saw this ad. Must say I love the honesty. It really appeals to honest beer drinkers.

For those of you who may have a little trouble with German. OHNE means without.
Perhaps this is the first backlash against all the new "Girl beers" being produced.

Well, how should I begin? The weekend was a football fiesta and by the end of it I was so tired that I was falling asleep druning the last game at 7:30 pm. Saturday midday (after the party) I headed over to a mates place to travel out to Köpenick on the S-Bahn. The weather wasn't too bad but with about 30 mins to play and the sun going down at 3:30pm it started to get a bit chilly. FC Union pitted against VfB Lübeck. A great match insued with the ref even taking a hit )for which he booked a player.) FC Union ended up taking the game 4-3. Then back to the mates place for beer and more football. This time it was the international matches we were interested in. After 3 more games the night ended late, with waz too much beer, bar snacks (tasty buggers) and döner being drunk/eaten.

Sunday saw a trip to Potsdam with 3 mates, watching Babelsberg and Düsseldorff battle it out. An even colder day, but with beer and bratwurst n had we were sure to succeed. Final score in that game 3-0 Babelsberg. On a side note, mz mates and I probably helped Babelsberg out a little too much. We had tickets behind the goals and were constantly taunting the goalkeeper Melka. If he went home and hit someone, it is probably because of us. Back to my mates once again, this time for home-made pizza and it was my time to shine and work out how to stream the final of the MLS (American (soccer) football league) from the internet for our enjoyment. I got it working with 5 mins to spare and the pizza was absolutely delicious. The game was a bit.... well drawn out and I started falling asleep but a good weekend was had by all in attendence. Now that we have had so much football, we will be going into withdrawls as there is a football drought this week. But I am sure that we will be able to drink our way though it.

Well the dinner with my friend last night turned out not so good. There wasn't enough tomato sauce in the mix for the pasta to stick to it... but perhaps next time. The party was loud and drunken. It was a house warming party for one of my friends. He has a 3 floor appartment in a trendy part of Berlin. Each floor has 1 room with the downstairs being a den with painted in red and orange with a TV and 2 matresses and a bunch of cushions. It reminds me of a makeout room that you would take a girl into at a teenage party. The ground floor is the kitchen and dining room, not bad and comes with a breakfast bar. The top floor is the bed and bathroom. Connecting all three is a set of stairs that are so steep that they border on dangerous to use. I cant believe that the drunk people at the parthy didn't fall down them. Left the party at about 0215h to go home and get some sleep for the football today.

Well it is a cold Friday morning here in Berlin (-2). Its snowing / sleeting / raining or clearing, Im not sure if it can decide what it wants to do. I have a big weekend planned but find that recently I have been having trouble sleeping. I always used to be a bit of a night owl but recently it has become ridiculous. I feel tired and lay down in bed, but just cant get to sleep. I wonder if writing some of my thoughts down will help me...? Going to a house warming party tonight and then tomorrow is a whole day of football action. 2 mates and I are taking the train to Kopernik to watch Berlins number II team play. Then back to a mates house to watch the International weekend. I dont really care too much about the scores, it is just a chance to drink beer and chat with friends. I'll let you know how it all turns out. But I must clean the house this afternoon as I have a friend coming over for dinner, I am making spaghetti

Cheers for now

I have had to cancel my trip to the UK and Ireland for reasons beyond my control. But I dont think it is that greater loss. I must say I didn't feel like going terribly much, especially in the past few weeks. Besides, I will get to see my grandparents at Christmas time anyway and I'm sure that i'll get enough of that lovely British weather then.

I have been asked to get my grandmother a Christmas Bauble from Germany. I am looking but find it so hard to find once actually writen in German, they are all written in English and made in China of course. When did they stop making real Christmas orinaments? Maybe its because of kids hurting themselves every year? I remember the good old days when we has glass ornaments that would smash into a thousand little pieces, or the christmas lights the had a shape similar to a medievil tool of war and would drive deep into your foot when standing on one. That was Christmas. I say stuff the saftey rules, bring back all the unsafe toys (remember unsafe = fun) and lets teach our kids that getting hurt is all part of life.

I would also like to take a moment to remember Christmas, the way only people from the southern hemisphere can do it. With a BBQ lunch of prawns (not shrimp), steak, chricken, pork and anything else that makes a sound when being killed. Running around the house playing the annual Christmas day cricket test against your cousins, pushing them in the pool, and then diving in on top of them. Ahh the simple things in life are often the best. As much as I hate the commercialism of Christmas I do love the spirit in which it is enjoyed (in most cases). Sometimes Christmas is a time to fight with family or resume some sort of family feud with a member you havn't seen for a year. I just wish that all families would get along for 1 day and enjoy it.

I had what can only be described as a mamoth night on Saturday. I dare not give to much of the details away to protect the innocent. So lets just say that many drinks, many laughs and a domestic ensued. I am still trying to make sense of what exactly happened. I can remember the whole night, and I wasn't that drunk, but the situation in to which I ended up is something else. I arived home at 0720h and I must say had one of the most restful sleeps that I have had in a long time. I have learned a new lesson here... Watch out for crazy women.

I feel lost, so lost. Within myself I have lost so much confidence that once allowed me to strut around like king shit, now I feel as though there is a part of me missing. I have new been in Germany for 8 months and while things were gong well to start with, I believe I have hit a hard patch from which I dont know if I can recover. Saying this now makes me all soppy and cry baby like, but I dont care anymore. My fun, excitment and joy here in Berlin has gone and although I am spending more and more time with friends, I have never felt so alone. I had to cut someone that I dearly loved out of my life because of secrets she was keeping from me. It has been two months since and the pain still hurts as much as it did the night I ended it. You know the feeling you gt when you loose someone close, the sick, I want to vommit feeling...? I pretended not to care about her when I did it, as if she was of no concern to me. I put on a strong face but it was all a facade. But all this time all I have done is think of her and its tearing me appart. I broke up with her because the last woman that I had feelings for was also keep secrets from me. She was cheating on me... like I could not believe (when I found out.) I just can't handle another one of them. I always get walked over by women and it was me taking a step up for the first time and trying not to get myself hurt. But look how this has turned out, once again hurt. And it was me that did it this time. Sure, I may have prevented getting hurt in the long run by the secrets she held but I just cant stop thinking of her. I guess it's my short term enjoyment beating down my long term missery. est le vie