My Life - So Far

"Unbounded ambition makes an obscure existence simply impossible for me"
Lucien de Rubempré

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Italy V

Today it's Valentinas Birthday! Congratulation!
In retrospective, the holidays in Italy were pretty cool! It was always sunny and hot, you could get up and get on your shorts, t-shirt and flipflops without thinking if the weather might change. Then the food was delicious, homemade as well as in the cozy restaurants out in the countryside. And I could relax! I was working a bit for my bachelor thesis, but no that strict. So mostly I was reading books or just enjoyed the sun and the beach!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Italy IV

Once we made a trip to the most southern point in Puglia, which is located at Santa Maria di Leuca. Our way led us up to Otranto, a small beautiful town famous for the catacombs of Torre Pinta.
Another day we went to Lecce, a city with a population of 92'000 people. Lecce is famous for its many churches. And indeed, if you walk through the old town you see church after church! We had a coffee break and then went back to Veglie.

Usain Bolt once again set an unbelievable world record in the 200m with 19.30. 12 years ago, I saw Michael Johnsons run to olympic gold in 19.32... And I never though that within 20 years someone will break this record. But now Usain Bolt holds the 100m, 200m and 4x100m world record. And to now that he even can go faster, is nearly frightening! I guess with 2.0m/s tailwind and an optimal reaction time he could go below 9.60 and, noticing that he had -0.9m/s wind in the 200m final, below 19.20 in the 200m!

However, there is still a dark cloud over the Jamaican performances. There were virtually no doping tests before the olympics and the braces Shelly-Ann Fraser and Melaine Walker were wearing, are hints for the use of HGH, the human growth hormone.

Anyway, in TV I saw many places in Beijing that I've visited the previous year!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Italy III

A few minutes ago Usain Bolt set an unbelievable world record in 9.69 in the 100m olympic final in Beijing! Asafa Powell, whose former world record of 9.77 I've seen live at the Weltklasse in Zurich, didn't even win a medal. Second was Richard Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago in 9.89 and third Walter Dix of the United States of America in 9.91. I clearly remember the olympic final in Atlanta in 1996, when Donovan Bailey set a new world record of 9.84, and now we are at 9.69! Unbelievable!

But back to a new story about my stay in Italy. One evening we went to a kart racecourse, near Porto Cesareo. I've never drove kart before, but Valentina and her brother Pino together with Jeannine had already been on that track the year before. First, it was a bit tricky to find the right speed in double bends but in the end to race against the other three was very funny!

Besides, shortly after I returned from Italy, I met a friend from High School in the bus. We had not really time to talk in there, so we went to have a drink at Oberhof that same evening. The Oberhof is a lounge/bar which opened last fall and offers a cozy and calm ambiance to talk. A week later I invited Valentina for dinner at the newly openend restaurant Güterhof, located next to the Rhine. I always wait for the bus in front of that building, and even late at night, it's full to burst. When we arrived that evening, we first had to wait 15min until we got a table. Fortunately they offered us a drink at the bar. The meals were delicious and served with devotion to detail; and all in a charming atmosphere! Apart of that, the Güterhof is the first restaurant in Schaffhausen where you can eat sushi! Yamm!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Italy II

Italy is famous for it's kitchen, and indeed, it was delicious and very cheap. Whenever we were hungry we went to "Il Refugio", a pizzeria just around the corner. On weekends we went to beautiful restaurant located outside the town in the olive groves. One of them was Masseria Zanzara, a former baron country estate built in 1471. As the evenings were still warm enough, we always could eat outside in the cozy courtyard, surrounded by olive and palm trees. The days were much hotter, sometimes the temperature reached 39°C!

P.S. Today the 29th Olympic Games started in Beijing! The opening ceremony was just spectacular!

Friday, August 01, 2008

Italy I

The last three weeks I spent in the hot south of Italy! To specify, I was in Veglie, a town near Lecce in Puglia. It's Valentina's hometown and her grandparents and cousins still live there. It was just great to be in a sunny place that long, especially together with Valentina!
Helvetic has several flights per week from Zurich to Brindisi, which is the nearest airport. However, we went all the way down by car, which took us about 16 hours. And then we went to the beach - each day! We had exclusive sunloungers at Bassamarea Lido Club located near Porto Cesareo. It's a beautiful club, held mainly in with and light brown. It had a nice lounge in the center and a bar for drinks, snacks and ice cream. We even had our own parking lot for the very old BMW we drove down there.
One day we went to a photographer, which had already made fotos of Valentina some years ago. Early in the morning we went to the beach where we had an one-hour photo shooting. It was great fun and that same evening we could already have a look at the fotos!