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How good is this? Claudia in front of a 42" display

About big screens. In this report we provide a rare insight into our — or better: Claudia's — daily work routine. The reason is that Claudia is doing research on various models of monitors, cameras, microphones etc to purchase equipment for her projects on Telepresence and Collaboration over a Distance. That leads to the strange effect that of all people she, who seldomly ever watches TV, finds herself surrounded by massive displays and high definition cameras with 5-digit price tags. Until now, we were happy with our 20-year old TV at home. Suddenly, we talk about "LCD versus plasma" and other entertainment-related topics. The approaching Soccer World Cup adds to our new passion of comparing prices...

Luckily, the new hype finds a sudden end since our "most beloved spare time activity", renovations, and the involved financial and time commitments, get us back into reality. This is a topic, by the way, which shall not be mentioned further this month. But we are hoping to be able to present more success stories with more of our popular before-after pictures in June :-)

It's Anja's turn (to sit in the front seat of the green double)

Anja in Sydney. The Mannheim clique sticks together. Claudia and Anja met at the University of Mannheim, where Claudia received a PhD in Computer Sciences, and Anja a PhD in Psychology. When Claudia's employer started to establish an evalution team for new media 18 months ago, Claudia got in touch with Anja, convincing her to put an application in for it. It took quite some time until the position was finally created for Anja, but on Saturday 13 May 2006, in the early morning at 5:30am (sic!) Anja touches down here at the far end of the world to be part of Claudia's team. The poor girl is still giddy from the flight when we take her out to Bondi Beach for a breakfast. We are the first customers in the cafe, at 7:00am on the spot (coming directly from the airport) we are at their doorsteps and order a typical Aussie breakfast: tomatoes, eggs, and smoked salmon. Alex is the only "other" person who followed our invitation to get out of bed at this time. You have got our admiration, Alex! On her second day in Sydney we get Anja out of bed early (no problems due to her jet lag) to show her Sydney from its most beautiful side, from the water. Which newly-arrived person to Sydney has got the chance to see the Opera House for the very first time, and from the water? Anja will stay with us during the first four weeks of her stay, until she will have gained a better overview of the city, and until her furniture will have arrived from home.

Laurie divides the floods

Laurie's swim from Shelley to Manly. Claudia realised her long standing goal in February/March when she crossed Bass Strait in a sea kayak. Her colleague Laurie has been dreaming of swimming from Shelley to Manly Beach for two years now. With a distance of approx. 800 metres, this stretch might not get him into the Guinness Book of Records. However, the course leads through the open ocean, along rocks, and through relatively deep waters. On the 21 May, we are set for it: Peter, Kevin, and Claudia take their kayaks and meet up with Laurie on Shelley Beach. Whilst Laurie accomplishes his dream, parting the waves with powerful freestyle strokes, Claudia and Kevin escort the swimmer with their kayaks, and Peter takes all the photos for the proof. The kayaks give Laurie the safetly to not be "out there by himself": One never knows if a shark happens to swim along, or if the swimmer happens to get a muscle cramp. In the safety of our escort Laurie traverses the waters quickly. After only 18 minutes he arrives in Manly Beach. Well done, Laurie, congratulations to the achievement of this personal endeavour!

Photography prohibited! Inside the concert hall

An evening at the Opera House. The Sydney Symphony gets our attention on the night that Petra spends celebrating her birthday in Germany. The tickets for "Shock of the New" were cheap. Considering the combination of ticket prices and title of the show, we were prepared to expect anything but not necessarily that we'd enjoy the evening. Plus, we had seen signs in the concourse of the Opera House that the Shock of the New would take 140 minutes — without any break! What we finally experienced that nigth was so different and fascinating that it literally took us away into different parts of the world: Classical symphonic pieces were broken up by chants of Tibetan monks. How a human being can produce sounds that low is simply a miracle! Japanese drummers exhibited a perfection of percussion and dance that was beyond our imagination. In between, a little bit of the Mozart Requiem, an Aboriginal Didgeridoo artist, a solo trumpet, and a (very) modern Cellist. Definitely a colourful evening, and the title matched it.

Concealed danger. Somewhere a shark is (certainly) lurking!

Smallest shark of all so far. On May 28 Claudia sits (well, paddles) for her kayak Sea Leader assessment. This is an official Australian certificate which enables her to lead kayak trips on the ocean or in the harbour. This assessment mainly tests emergency situations and how to deal with them: What happens when half of the trip members get sea sick and another paddler injures his wrist, unable to paddle any further? During this assessment, much time is spent in not on the water. That is why this exam had been set before the winter with its cold water temperature.

On this day on and in the water, Claudia encounters her smallest shark ever: The Port Jackson shark is approx. 30 cm long, 7 cm wide, and very inquisitive. Just off Cronulla Beach, it circles Claudia's boat, taking a good look at her and her boat. It even sticks his head out of the water (or is Claudia hallucinating after the many cold swims?) to investigate what big orange-white thing is paddling in its stretch of water. After all those big shark stories (see the biggest shark so far), this little one with its 30 cm length is a cute one!