Unisieppari (Dreamcatcher)

My mom rediscovered an old violin from my granny on our attic today and gave it to me. It just has two intact strings, the sound post seems to be loose, it has some scratches (but just on the lacquer) and the bow looks already very tousled.
I think the best is to bring it to a violin-maker to see how much it would cost to make it playable again.

Anyway, it doesn't happen everyday that such a lovely treasure gets discovered that's why I made some pics of it :)

Jup, I'm finally at home but my and Alex' luggage just wanted to stay in London a bit longer...I hope that I get it soon in one piece...(her laptop with all our film and picture-stuff was in the baggage).
btw: Jup, it's the second time that my baggage vanished and went on travel on it's own ^^
The Sydney-airport is simply a horrible place when it comes to luggage.
The weird thing is that we were allowed to take at our arrival in Sydnay 25 kg of baggage and at our flight back they changed it to 20 kg! ARGH, I mean it's AAARGGGHHH #@§&%! So we had to send stuff back over the mail-way (each of us sent a full backpack home over airmail, we also had to reduce our hand-baggage because they only allowed 7 kg, in Hong Kong there are 9 allowed and in London there was only a size-indicator (like in Vienna)...it's horrible that every airport has own restrictions, it's ARGGGH, I mean we stayed a month there and of course did some souvenir-shopping, grr) :S . To say it with Depp's words: "That was unexpected and weird" ^^

But well, I had three good flights, a great stay in Hong Kong for 26 hours where we checked out the markets (like the Jade-market) and the harbour and had some nice walks through Kowloon.
In London we just had a short break (I#d loved to stay there, in 4 days a certain band has a concert there ^^ ) and a wonderful flight back to Vienna with great view on Paris and an extra free seat, hehe + extra 40 minutes flight because an orcan was just going on in Upper-Austria. So we passed Geneva flew at the Southern side of the Alps and over Lienz up to Vienna. We really didn't mind that, so we had 3 seats for us, I had a great view from the window and some time to read and taking a nap :)

I so enjoyed my stay down-there, I'm just repeating myself, I know XD
I'm just done now, hoping that my baggage and my mail-stuff arrives safely one day and that the jetlag doesn't hit me too strong, at monday Uni is starting again for me^^
And yeah, Alex is already planning an Outback-tour in 5 years (after Uni)...I think that explains our feelings for Oz the best :P

*huuge hugs*

At the Gold Coast we had a great appartement with  a nice surrounding, we had our fun in Surfers Paradise, although it was...rainy (of course). 2 hours after we landed there our dear fluffy rain-cloud had reached us^^ We slowly should start to think of a name for it...it was following us like a trained dog^^
But it's incredible how fast time is passing, i had so much fun at the Gold Coast. I'd never been to such Theme-parks before. Sea World, Movie World and Wet'n'Wild - the largest water fun park in the world --> it was so BIG FUN :D
I even survived a rollercoaster-ride at Movie World, where it went down 20 meters with 70 km/h *eek* normally I can't stand those, but Alex dragged me to that and I survived it...as a revenge I dragged her in a spooky-house, mhuhahahaha.
Fortunately the rollercoaster which speeds up from 0-200 km/h in 2 seconds was closed...phew^^
I also spent one great day at the Australian Zoo (which is well-known for Steve Irwin). Just unfortunately many of my pics of that got lost...my cam somehow ate them :S

Back in Sydney we first had to keep up with some sleep on tuesday^^. But n the afternoon we went into the city had a nice walk and watched Sweeny Todd in the cinema in the evening (I really loved this film, Johnny Depp did an awesome job with singing and performing in this bloody musical :D) and then we had a great day at the beach in Mainly. Yesss that means we had until now 2 sunny days here in Sydney! :D I even slowly start to get a bit of a tan (at least on my arms) but I'm still as pale as a Finnish a* on the rest of my body. Kinda weird when a German guy we met at the beach told me that he only went for a ride on his bike on a cloudy day and immediately got a sun-burn^^
Today it was cloudy and a bit rainy again, so we mostly spent our time in the Botanic Gardens, having lunch there and walking around and I went then to Paddy's market (it's very well known for it's veery cheap stuff and souvenirs) and got me a new baggage.
Tomorrow it shall become hot and sunny again and yeah...we gotta look what we're doing then :)

I updated my photobucket: http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b3/Traumcatcher/Sydney%201-2-08%20-%201-3-08/

Aussie's greetings!
*huge hugs* Tami

So FINALLY some photos...just I still don't get this <> - thingie^^

http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b3/Traumcatcher/Sydney%201-2-08%20-%201-3-08/

And what I forgot to add in my previous entry:
I simply love those so-called "Food Courts". You can find them everywhere in the shopping-centres and the princip of them is that you have many take-away "food-stations" of any kind (classical burger stuff like CFK, Mc Donalds, Asian Food like chinese, japonese, taiwanese, malaysian,..., Turkish, coffee-bars, fruit-bars, etc etc) and you simply go to what you like and get the food and sit down in the middle on a table and have lunch with your friend...i just love that principe XD

Finally a little new update :)

I know that I repeat myself again and again but Australia is really worth a visit :D I soo enjoy it here!
It's still a bit rainy, but the advantage is, that the temperatures are very comfortable through that (at least for me, most of the Ausies are On friday we had a nice long visit to Parramatta, it's a suburban area of Sydney (the first village founded outside Sydney) where you can visit some nice old farm-houses.
On saturady we had a nice shopping tour in Paddy's Market which is very well known for it's very cheap souvenirs XD I couldn't help to get me some road-signs, hehe (and they sell there large luggage for about 30 Dollars, that are less than 15 Euros!).  Then we had a nice walk through China Town and ended up visiting the National Maritime Museum. And by pure chance they had there an exhibition about Ötzi the Iceman^^. Of course we couldn't help to visit our fellow citizen who happened to become a South Tyrolean after a long quarrel about on which side of the Austrian-Italian barrier he actually was found). After that even the sun came out and we spent some time sitting at the water wondering if we get at least a bit tanned. My friend was so charming telling me that I just appear so pale because I'm actually transparent. Oh well, hehe...
On our way back on the fery we had an awesome sunset with the best view of Sydney you can imagine, unfortunately my cam was spinning around there, but my friend hoepfully shot some decent pics.
On sunday we were visiting the Rocks then where they had a really cute market. And afterwards we went to Darling Harbour were we joined in the Chinese New Years celebrations a bit. The whole city was simply crazy! You saw everywhere Chinese people in awesome costumes and artists everywhere in the streets. We settled down then somewhere near a stage where we watched some New Years Speeches and artistic show contributions.
btw: Happy New Year! It's the year of the rat ;)

On monday and tuesday we had a nice stay in Canberra. We had a nice and involuntary walk in the city (because we jumped off the bus a bit too early) but it was great so we were marching through a park close to the lake (me already forgotten the names, my name-memory is simply horrible, eek) where we had an awesome view over the lake on the city and also walked to the new parliament. It was rather a backbacking than having a walk. On tuesday it was raining like mad, it was rather like as if a lake was falling down the sky but we made the best out of it and yeah...How can be Canberra imagined? As a big wood with a parliament in it :P
Today we're mostly staying in our Sydney's home, having some rest and packing for tomorrow when we're already off at 5am.
The Gold Coast is screaming for us ;)

So huge hugs!
Tami

So today my luggage arrived...FINALLY!
I'm reunited with my so desired ...erm random stuff^^
It was highly annoying to phone after (and hanging in the waiting-queeue) the airline and insurance and airport for hours to find out what the hell happened with my baggage...but the good thing is that i get the money I had to spend on basic stuff rfom the insurance and also the airport is willing to pay me sthg, at least it's something.
Until the last minute they kept saying that they had no idea where it was but I'm just glad that it got found.
Just the handle got ripped off and the case is a bit damaged :S Home-travel will be funny, or I get a new one^^

Well, that were the unpleasant things...

It's still raining like mad here, the family I'm staying at told me that they never experienced such a kind of weather in february before (it's summer time there now, it's like as if it would snow like mad in Vienna in august^^)...it's simply weird.
But we're doing the best out of it, visiting museums, the Aquarium, the Wildlife park, shopping^^ and so on.
Tomorrow it shall become better over day, so we probably go a bit to the beach.
But yeah, except of that amazing weather which keeps the Sydneyians at breath, i already made the experience that this city is not very falling-water-proofed...especially in buildings with a glass-roof you shouldn't close your in Australia-made umbrell too early.
But except of the rain we have lots of fun here, we're not made out of sugar ;)

From monday to tuesday we're off to Canbarre and from thursday to monday we're visiting the Gold Coast :D
I'm already so looking forward to that, the Gold Coast is well known for it's cool Theme parks, hehe.

Some wet greetings from me,
*hugs*
Tami

So I'm finally in Sydney :D
I still have a bit of a jet lag and just ran around the whole day but I hope that that what I'm writing here is halfway understandable English :)
The family I'm staying at is so nice to share their pc with us, so I can stuck my cute little nose then and when in here :)

I had a good flight, a fun stop in Frankfurt and Hong Kong, where we went into the cities and had a bit of a look around and get some nice impressions from them. Frankfurt was very nice, it has a cute old Inner city and of course we couldn't leave without also paying a visit to the birth house of Goethe. Hong Kong is a hell of a city, very impressing with all those amazing sky-scrapers, and the skyline at night also has something :)
The flight to Sydney then was kinda sleepless because my friend was so hyperactive that she kept me awake the whole time but it may be forgiven, since she's a large Aussie-freak.
And since it was raining in Frankfurt and Hong Kong we were already really awaiting a nice sunny summer-time but once we left the airport after i found out that my luggage went on it's own holidays, to go to the car we were already wet through...every monsum could be proud of the amount of rain coming down here, it's simply unbelievable!
So my first action in Australia was to march to the next shop to get an umbrella and some painfully missing underwear and shirts. I hope that my luggage might arrive in the next two days or I'd have to purchase all the clothing and other stuff I need again :S

Today (as my 2nd day here) the rain got worse, but still we made a little "round-swim" to the Opera house and Harbour bridge and during a little rain-break  i got a very rare picture of both being covered in fog from a ferry (ok, I don't get this html-thingie):
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3/Traumcatcher/Sydney%201-2-08%20-%201-3-08/DSCN2125.jpg

Actually it shouldn't rain in february, the Australians also don't really get that weather...but latest in a week the weather shall become better and seen from the positive side we are not in danger of getting a heat-shock or sthg. like that because of our winter in Austria.

Well, the holiday seems to become very interesting, at least it's an adventurous start ;)

*wet hugs*
Tami

So my last evening and I'm already sooo excited about tomorrow, I'm so looking forward to the trip :D
Today we brought the luggage to the airport and on our way back we stuck in the traffic for an hour, but yeah we had a funny time in the car, eating sweets and singing to pop-songs^^

To the half-tree which crashed on our roof: it's still lying there because this damn reviewer of our insurance wasn't there yet :S

Something very sweet happened yesterday: one of my best friend invited me to a good-bye coffee and her mother gave me some towels (good ones she bought and never needed) for my hopefully-coming-soon-it's-planned-i-just-need-mobiliar flat and she extra hided a little letter with 50 euros (!) plus a litle greeting-card in it for the travel. It was so nice how she showed me the towels and had the letter lying on the towels extra moving it in front of my nose so that I HAD to notice it and put it together with the towels into the bag. Actually very evil, so  I had to come home before I could check what was inside of this mysterious letter^^...her mom is such a wonderful person who knows me since i was 4-5 years old...hihi, very tricky, I mean normally I would had never accepted such a kind of present...and so i had no choice :)

Tomorrow I have to leave the house at 5 am, flight is going on 7am then.
I'm looking forward to our first stop in Frankfurt (10 hours there), I'd never been in this city before and the day after tomorrow I'll be in Hong Kong then. :D

Well, I'm waving good-bye then :)
*hugs*

The past two days we had a bigger storm with sometimes orcan-strength going through Austria which caused many damage. We had the bad luck that two of our beautiful large (min 20 meters and going up, some are really large) old trees didn't manage the storm. One completely  broke leaning now against a younger one which slowly gets disrooted because of the weight. It neds to get removed quickly now...really a pity, it was a beautiful one with ivy going up the whole trunk.

The second tree was a large spruce which broke in the half and fell onto our roof!
I have no idea how big the damage is, you actually don't see that much because of the many twigs and needles, but since it's an old house with very thick walls and everything there might not happened that much...it's just sad for the tree, we had two large spruces standing behind the house, both looking like twins with uff maybe 20-25 meters height (?) and now one is halfed down.

Well, we have so many large old nice trees in our garden (we have a pretty large ground :)) It's always a shivering at storms if they might survive and NOT fall onto our house^^ We already lost many through bark beetles and now they're geting older and older...oh well

I need to go then to Uni, I have a zoologics-test today...

btw: Countdown t-4 days =D

I wanted to give image editing a try and set into my head that creating a wallpaper can't be that difficult. A fitting programme called "Gimp" (a free version of a photoshop-like programme) is quickly found and downloaded and after reading the first three advices i felt in shape to go on work. Pictures I wanted to use were quickly found and the wallpaper already started to take shape in my mind....and only in my mind. After some painfully hours i somehow got a slight idea, that the whole thingie cold be a bit more complicated than thought. In fact it's a pain in the *ss, but i never thought that this also is so addictive, once started it's hard to stop again, especially when you slowly explore out what is actually possible, really cool.
Well, after several hours (including some days), tries, figuring around and editing and editing i had my first cool results. And now I want to proudly present the 6th version of my first wallpaper :D

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3/Traumcatcher/Paintings/Antsa-WallpaperNEU1-1.jpg
(only the link, it's too large)