You keep what you kill

 Finally, getting rid of the last piece of G**gle in my life. :-) 😃😄😇😊 This blog has moved to a new address: https://christiankohl.net So change your bookmarks, I'm too lazy to apply a redirect here ... . No more updates will be found here and at some point in 2022 I will delete this site entirely. The new site is still work in progress, to be finished ca xmas 2021. Cheers!

 Codename: Gran Culo con Agulo. 151,22km, 6820m ascent, 7090 descent. (Not counting the countless times we walked from Parador de la Gomera down to the city centre and back :-D .) Mostly around 20 degrees, sunny with a few clouds, perfect weather for hiking. Warm nights near sea level, more chilly up in the mountains. Sounds like the perfect vacation? It was. Except for the getting there and back, but that was to be expected. We live in a shit country (Germany) and unfortunately in a city that is not only the capital of Germany but also a shit capital. In Berlin, losers from all over assemble. In Berlin, everyone can fuck things up and they seem to be proud of it even. Because they are all just fucking losers maybe? Who knows. But. The. Thing. Is. They built a new airport. It's a 1990s airport that was "finished" and went live autumn 2020. Yes, it is as bad, probably even worse than it sounds. Of course it is not an airport, but a shopping mall with gates attached. And ...

 I readily admit to being blown away by this fantastic new song by Lorde. It's the perfect summer tune, I'm dancing naked through the Tiergarten each day to celebrate it! :-) https://youtu.be/wvsP_lzh2-8 Enjoy.

 ... there are no German bombers in the air. There are no German bombers, there are no German bombers, there are no German bombers in the air! Cause the RAF from England shot them down, cause the RAF from England shot them down! Fuck off and go home. :-) 

 While the British government has recently announced that they will delay further easing of Covid-19 related restrictions because the delta-variant that' spreading rapidly, UEFA still lives on a different planet. They are now blackmailing the English gov't to make special allowances for ca. 2500 VIP guests for the semifinal and final in Wembley, to exempt them from quarantine and other measures. If the gov't does not comply, they will move the final to the great democratic country of Hungary, Budapest. Isn't that great? So, two things.  1) I wish that all the UEFA decision makers, VIP guests, and executive members develop a disgusting rash in their genital regions that burns all summer. Plus they should really catch Covid, maybe that will cure their ignorance. But these guys are probably vaccinated since December last year already. 2) Great Britain is a nuclear power. No more Empire, but you still have nukes. So use them please. Nuke UEFA the fuck out! I'll donate s...

... Covid's coming home. That should be the anthem of this year's European Championship tournament. There is no pandemic. At least not when it comes to soccer. Well, that is what our minister of the interior, Heinrich Himmler,  sorry, Horst Seehofer, has announced yesterday. For the upcoming European Championships, all quarantine requirements etc. are waived. And not just for the players, basically for everyone remotely involved with the event. Hahahahahaha. That's great. Especially given that even the heavily monitored teams are already reporting positive Covid-19 cases left and right. So it's a great idea by "The Führer" - let's spread that shit again for real. Kill them all! Kill them all! Kill them all! My personal takeaway:  It's stupid to hold such an event in the first place. But it's big money, so it happens. But I haven't followed previous ones and I won't follow this one. Just hope that the German team fucks up.  This is a really ...

 Especially since us nerds all know how dangerous Beholders can be. ;-) Ugly business, that. Some nice things: We watched "Magnus" this weekend and I was positively impressed! Trashy, in a good anarchic way. Give it a try, but it's probably not for kids. ;-) Very funny, though.  https://youtu.be/IdrP8hjXR5k Then. Also. We. Had. A. Few. Days. Of. Real. Snow. In Berlin. Last week. Who would have thought that I'd see this again before I die? Very happy. I liked last week's weather much better than this week's ... . The good thing about snow is: It looks pretty, feels good, and Wooster goes craaaaaazy. Schnappi, too, of course. It's the only snow crocodile in the world. And the most dangerous one in the Northern hemisphere.

 ... ist natürlich nur ein Songtitel von Rage against the Machine (die mit Che Guarana als Sänger), niemals etwas, was ich als Lösung für sämtliche Politiker empfehlen würde. Obwohl, vielleicht wären so Hinrichtungen von korrupten Schweinen, übertragen im Pay-TV, eine Chance, den Staatshaushalt zu sanieren? Für die Anfang reicht vielleicht auch mit einem Schild um den Hals im Kofferraum ... ach ja, das waren noch bessere Zeiten damals. Heute kommen sie alle komplett ungestraft davon. Gründe gäbe es jedenfalls genug. Momentan auf Grund er Aktualität natürlich ganz oben das komplette Versagen unserer Führerinnen und Führer beim Handling der Sars-Cov2 Pandemie. Den Sommer komplett verschlafen, den Herbst mit Wahlkampf verbracht und dann im Winter aufwachen und nackte Panik. Nichts gelernt aus dem Frühjahr. Das Schlimmste an dem ganzen wird uns ja erst im Oktober 2021 ereilen, wenn die dann neue Regierung wieder die Ideologie der schwarzen Null predigen und umsetzen wird. (Dabei sind d...

 What goes on? Erst mal: Public Enemy, neues Album, sehr geil. Auch auf Bandcamp verfügbar. Dann. Buhu, böses Corona immer noch da. Irgendwie wünsche ich mir, wie immer oder immer wieder, die Ausrottung der Doitschen, weil sie einfach zu dumm sind. Aus dem Morgenthau-Plan ist damals leider nix geworden und damit fing das Unheil an. Die westlichen Alliierten haben die allermeisten Nazis und ihre Freunde wieder ans Ruder gelassen, unter anderem Label und mit besserem Make-up, das konnte also nichts werden. Dann gab es auch leider keinen Atomkrieg, der hier mal tabula rasa gemacht hätte. Nun ruhen alle Hoffnungen auf Covid-19 und nach anfänglichen Verirrungen sieht es so aus, als das wir dieses Mal bereit sind, dem Ding eine bessere Chance zu geben als im Frühjahr. Wird aber nicht reichen, es sterben leider größtenteils die falschen, denn die Reichen und die Politiker kriegen halt im Zweifelsfall auch die 100.000$ Behandlung. Ich lese ja viel quer im Netz und bin immer wieder erstaunt...

I'm going to use the word thing a lot in this post. For the intellectuals, you can substitute it by entity in your great minds, if that makes you feel better. Or just shove a book up your arse. This is probably the best thing, ahh, music video ever made: https://youtu.be/cNi11qFO_k0 Straight and to the point. And while we're at it, this is another great song from the same album. (Unfortunately, the rest of the album isn't quite as good, so a bit medium-rare ... . Too artsy-fartsy.) https://youtu.be/b6Iv0R5Hi20 Speaking of music in general. Some good things have happened despite our little pandemic. Run the Jewelz have published a fantastic new album, IV. One of the best US rap things in the last 25 years. Public Enemy also hit us with a new album thing, What you gonna do when the grid goes down? Much better than their last two albums, they must be over 100 years old by now, but Chuck D still rules and hits the nail on the head. Including an updated version of "Fight th...

 I'm always shocked whenever I see a business like a band, cafe, restaurant using facebook as their only web presence. It's so sad. Why do you do this? Why can't you at least have a single HTML page with opening hours and contact data? And why facebook? That's embarassing and since I consider it my civic duty not to deal with fascists I'm blocking facebook (plus subsidiaries like instagram, what's app ...) on all levels, firewall, browser. So I'll take my business elsewhere, thank's for nothing. But do you actually reflect what you are doing? Having a presence on a tool run by fascists for fascist purposes is bad enough, but making that you're only presence? Not good. The same goes for buying music in digital format. I prefer vinyl with download code. In absence of that, mp3 or flac. I want to buy music, no subscription spotify ripoff bullshit. But it's more and more impossible, I'm not using google, amazon, apple and there are few alternativ...

 Doitschland steht wieder da, wo es vor 100 Jahren aufgehört hat. Nur dass "die USA" (Bill Gates) dieses Mal den Versailler Vertrag ersetzen.  Henry Morgenthau hatte so recht. Die hätten 1945 einfach einen riesigen Kartoffelacker aus diesem braunen Drecksland machen sollen. Oder Atombombentestgebiet. Naja. Es ist noch nicht so lange her: 2015 begaben sich wenige Protestierende auf eine Wiese vor dem Reichstag und errichteten dort symbolische Kreuze als Protest gegen die tödliche und menschenverachtende Flüchtlingspolitik der Bundesregierung. 91 Festnahmen (https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article142872505/91-Festnahmen-nach-Sturm-auf-Reichstagswiese.html).  5 Jahre später toben Nazis und andere Spinner durch Berlin, verstoßen gegen jede Menge Auflagen und Gesetze, nehmen bewusst massenhaft gesundheitliche Schäden Dritter in Kauf und versuchen, den ollen Reichstag zu stürmen. Und die Polizei? Mehrere Hundertschaften waren gerade bei Rossmann und DM und haben die Vor...

I was in Singapore a couple of weeks ago, when they raised their threat level to "orange". And I was impressed how well-organized, smooth, and professional they handled the situation. And by "they" I mean the government, the local authorities, individuals, businesses, etc. Remarkable. Very clear communication. No bullshit. Clear instructions. A clear, well-rehearsed plan that was carried out, across the whole country, within a few hours. And then I'm seeing the clowns that act as politicians and "leaders" here in Germany. Very embarassing. I'd have been surprised if they'd performed better, but still ... . At least Andi B.Scheuert, the transport clown, hasn't had an opportunity to mess up yet ... oh wait, he was just found to have used 12 million € dedicated to bikes for his beloved cars. Well, at least he's consistent in his truly bavarian amalgamation of corruption and incompetence. In any case, if you're looking for fresh gin...

So, we went to see Stormzy the other day at Columbiahalle. I was really looking forward to this concert and it took me a while to make up my mind and come to a verdict. At the end of the day, I must say, that the performance was good, but all the rest was really embarassing and, to be frank, a rip-off. Let's start with the positive: Stormzy in good form, the parts that he did himself are really good. I like the music, his style, his voice. Girlfriend also liked the fact that he took of his shirt. :-D But the negative: The sound was absolute shit. Seriously, I don't get it, I've been in this business myself for many years. How on earth can you fuck up the sound when it's just one mic and DJ in the first place? Embarassing. Then there were lots of people smoking in the venue and security did nothing about it. Very Berlin unfortunately. Also, wayyyyyyyyy toooooooo muuuuuuuch playback, my friends. Either get a band or a proper DJ set, but this was, except for rare ins...

Mehr fällt mir dann auch nicht mehr ein dazu. Das Brot ist bestimmt gut, aber was für ein Bullshit. Ich hoffe, ihr nehmt auch jeden Tag eure Anti-Covid-19 Globuli. Und desinfiziert die Theke täglich mit gependeltem Wasser. Selig sind die geistig Armen. Ich hab übrigens auch manchmal spontane Gärung, danach riecht es dann meistens streng.

Below some more pictures from GBI, our new favourite spot in NZ. Well, so says the Reisebegleitung at least, I still rate Ohope a bit higher because there is real fruit ice cream in Whakatane, but not on GBI. :-D Medlands Beach is simply the best, but the other views are not too bad, either.

Things kinda got out of hand, no reliable internet for more than a week. So I'm giving up on chronological order here, switching to pure stream of consciousness. Call me James. Fuck yeah, we did some nice hiking this time. The track I've posted earlier, the loop track around Punakaiki, is not even an "official" track, but one of the most beautiful daywalks we've ever done. I just learned that Tilda Swinton has two husbands. Anyway, since then we did a couple of more walks, one of them a nice 4-day adventure called the Heaphy Track. No huts this time, since the Reisebegleitung can't sleep in them. So we brought a tent and we're so in love with it. I never slept that well on multi-day hikes before. No more huts for me, too! The Heaphy is a beautiful and easy track, not really strenuous. The only downside is that you're in Sandfly territory all the time and especially the Heaphy Hut and Campsite is horrible. You can't eat, you can't talk. Bes...

Paradise exists. We've found it. Great Barrier Island, in the Hauraki gulf at Auckland's doorstep. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Fantasmogoric. We're staying at the lovely Medland's Beach Lodge, which is right on Medland's Beach. Ocean views from the bed, beautiful sunrises. And perfect wave after perfect wave on a flat, sandy, lonely, safe beach. Doesn't get much better than that. Well, add the super relaxed and friendly locals and at least two very nice cafés, one of which does great pizza in the evenings, too. Lots of forest, lots of (young) Kauris, lots of birds. I wanna stay here.

I just saw that the Komoot embeds are not working, so here's another try. Paparoa NO Croesus Track (partly): Paparoa NP/Punakaiki Loop: Nelson Lakes hikes:

St. Arnaud was really good to us, I must say. Wonderful region, and the town itself is undeveloped in a nice way. Just one word of warning: Stay away, stay the fuck away, from "Dine Hard". The worst food I've ever seen. Disgusting. The Alpine Lodge, on the other hand, much better food. Or take the 20k drive East on the road to Blenheim and stop by the two food"trucks" in the middle of nowhere in the Wairua Valley - good stuff, good ice cream, too. After four days, we were off to Greymouth via Reefton. The real-fruit ice cream in Murchison is nothing to write home about, so skip that one. In Reefton, we stopped briefly to visit my bros at the " Bearded Miners ", then headed further West. First stop: Southern breakwater in Greymouth, were there's very nice stroopwaffles and rich hot chocolate (made from real chocolate, not powder) to be had at the "Lifeboat". Then we backtracked to Cobden, to find our accommodation for the n...