I must say.. technology is grand!

I’ve been using the above tools with little difficulty. One may argue that Twitter is not needed and is made redundant by Facebook, but I disagree. Twitter is forced to be short and too the point. It also doesn’t mess around with sending hugs or invites to join the ninjas to fight the pirates. I see Twitter as mainly a one directional conversation focused on the here and now. Facebook has become diluted in it’s quality of useful information about your friends.

Anyway, I’ve set Twitter to be updated by my Blog, I’ve also set Twitter to update my Facebook. I have a minor issue at the moment getting Facebook to update my Twitter. Once this is complete, I can use any of my tools to do what I need to without anyone missing out. Facebook status updates (via Facebook) have now become redundant anyway for me since I can describe more on my blog (which gets sent to Facebook) or do a short update via Twitter.

I am now looking for a way to put my Twitter feed  and Facebook feed on my website (functionally easy, but have to consider the design).

Also, my iPhone is saving me heaps of time!

• PDF documents (german phrase books, maps)
• Images (photos of google maps, receipts, menus, train maps, fruit prices etc.)
• Voice recording (German pronunciation, shopping lists, easy note taking, live gigs etc.)
• Camera (nice to have one on holiday)
• Google Maps (can’t get lost now)
• Web connection (find anything anywhere!)
• ENG-GER Dictionary (LIFE SAVER)
• Twitter Apps (update social status quickly and easily)

Sitting in the flat feeling guilty for not getting much done in my day was depressing. The choice to stay in ALL day and night or go out at night became easy. I had planned to go to an outdoor swing session in the mall near Marienplatz but it was raining. Eventually I realised that there are no places to eat from around here and that I have a monthly train pass. So I headed in to the Innerstadt and had a nice surprise.

It turns out, Friday nights (maybe others) are really popular for shopping. There were heaps of places open late (till 11pm?) and also heaps of street acts and in store performers to attract customers. My adventure went as follows:

• Ein wenig sharf Chinese essen (little sharp/hot chinese meal)
• A free glass of champagne in the underground of Karstadt along with some indian performers/belly dancers
• Outdoor performance of near naked women for a wonderbra? Ich behüten nicht die wonderbra aber es war wunderbar.
• A guy doing some card and magic tricks inside an electronics store (awesome magic!!)
• Some random looking guys singing in tune outside a clothing shop
• 3 ladies singing into a microphone inside another clothing shop
• A live country(?) band
• A strange space person conducting an interesting light/sound show down an entire lane!

To top it off, I also obtained some interesting nut things coated in honey and roasted. I had to ask a girl standing near by what type of nuts they were, but she couldn’t say it in English (possibly almonds). I loved the expression on her face when I told her I was from Australia. It’s almost as if she won the lottery! Even as she disappeared with her friend the first thing she said is “… Australien!”

So next week I may do the same thing… wonder down the main streets pretending to buy stuff and ask girls what to eat (?).

Everyone was wet but worth it

Honey nuts (almonds?.. mandeln=tonsils or almonds)

Bavarian Dresses

2 interesting experiences with German people:

I went to a bank to ask some questions about opening a bank account.. A guy came round who spoke english and asked me if I want an account for savings or investments. I replied “You don’t have a normal bank account here?”. He said

“That is not what I asked you, please answer the question.”
.

hmmm… fair enough, I did answer a question with a question.. which I hate when other people do it.. and getting right to the point can be a good thing.. but I think he was rather blunt about it. He did however come out side and show me where to go for another bank that had savings accounts, so I think it was just his personality but it didn’t really bother me.

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I was walking towards Marienplatz looking for some fruit. I’d looked at a few fruit stalls but didn’t really see what I wanted, and when I did, there was a large line. I came to one and stupidly asked:

“Hast du drei Nectarines” (Have you 3 nectarines)
.

when I should have said

“Ich mochte drei nectarines bitte” or “Haben Sie Apricots” (Sie is polite form, du is impolite).
.

Looking back I realise the confusion I was in. I couldn’t see any apricots nor remember that word for Apricots… I saw some nectarines and thought I’d have some of them. (Obvisouly) She instantly spoke English to me, recommended that I don’t have the nectarines because they are not ripe, but that I take the peach she offered me for FREE! She said they were too ripe and were going to be tossed anyway. Was good for me! I wanted to go back and ask for 2 more! I also offered her some money for the peach but she wouldn’t except it…

That really made my day. It was unexpectedly polite, kind and generous.

Gone are the jet lagged days since staying up to 1:45AM and getting up at 10:20AM… bumma. I was much more productive when I was getting up at 6AM.

Last night I went to Chord on Sonnesstr. (Sun street) for Swing Dancing. Sehr gut!

I joined an intro class to see what it’s like and also practice my Deutsch. Was great! It’s always funny when I get about 5 sentences in a row in Deutsch and understand about 5 words.. but I’m having more and more conversations and getting some encouraging comments about my Deutsch!

Swing and the city: http://www.swingandthecity.com/

The female swing teacher (Christine) by the way knows Swing Patrol and the dude (Scotty) who’s currently in the UK. Her demo partner (Florian?) is actually from Sydney.. so that’s cool. Thursday is the big night here with a live swing/jazz band every 2nd week. I’ve been recommend Sunday as well for dancing in the Hof garten (park).

I ended up teaching some of the newbies a few things which was fun! Hard to take swing dancing photos.. but here’s one of the inside of the Chord venue (bit of a wall in the way).

BTW, Lindy Exchange on 17th September… YAY! And it coincides with Oktoberfest!!!

1 Flasche Rot Wein: €1.99

1 Brotchen: ,40c

1 Dose Gulaschsuppe: €1.29

Total meal: 3.68

Spending time talking in German, eating and drinking German food… priceless!

Fountain near Marienplatz (32 degrees)

I had to cool off, so naturally I went through the fountain!

My first beer in Munich

Very German

Hi all,

So far I’ve watched 3 movies, talked to an Italian girl and played cards, got some tips about Oktoberfest (like the good apple cider) and got over plane food!

My next challenge will be to sleep on the plane for the 13:25 flight to London. The last flight was 7:45.

It’s really humid here, in the airport at Singapore Changi!

Boarding now!

Prior to Departure (healthy)

Height: 178cm
Body Fat 16.2 %
Weight 67.7 Kg
Water 61%

Bag weight 19Kg + 10Kg backpack = ~100Kg total of Dan goodness!

Stress levels: high
Freak out level: moderate
Ability to think straight: difficult

Bookmark this category
Here goes nothing!!

The Hofs!

Daniel Pettet ph +61 409 970 305

DYNAMICDAN.COM – Technology Made Fresh Web Sites (CMS), Flash Games,Prototypes

Ok.. the not so fan of the online social evolution has become immersed!

I now have a twitter – facebook connection updating both automatically, and a blog – facebook connection updating facebook automatically as well! But where should I send people?

I would like to send people straight to my blog from Twitter or Facebook.. but then more people use Facebook… although, anyone can access my blog!.. Hmmm.. So long as they are all connected, I can use them however I want. Although it seems now that Twitter will only be useful for me if I am following others… Otherwise, it’s just a copy of facebook for those tweeting non-facebook fans.