Gwendoline
November 24th, 2006Gwendoline is our cat. She lives with us in our flat in Haydngasse 7 in Graz. She is a real city cat – although she would also do pretty well in the countryside. She has proved that – climbing rooftops, catching mice, fighting rival cats. But she seems to prefer the city where she resides in the backyard, stretching out in the sunshine on the small piece of lawn, climbing up the apple trees. When she is hungry she leisurely ascends the stairs to the third floor, meowing in front of the door in order to be let inside. Then she makes straight for the kitchen to check her footplate, eats a bit (if there is dry food) or bolting her food (if there is salmon or chicken on the plate — she particularly loves chicken), goes to the toilet and then either goes to have her after-lunch nap in one of the beds or on her fur chair before she demands to be let out again in order to go back to her backyard. It is amazing to see how she has developed over the past 15 months. Her story is quite moving so I want to succinctly sketch it out here. Read the rest of this entry »
What a weekend or rather Saturday! We were invited to Großklein to play a match against the Groklein 99ers as a warm-up for the top match in the Landesliga between Großklein and Weiz. While only a few people had a look at our humble undertakings, the league match attracted a lot of attention with more than 500 spectators following a 0-4 victory for Weiz. Still our match was once again a very rewarding experience which took place on a beautiful November afternoon . And once again, with just 10 players on the fieldwe displayed a warming performance against a strong Großklein 99ers team. We drew 1-1 but could have pocketed the match if we had materialised on our chances while we had the strength to do so. At the end it was fighting for survival but we managed to hold a draw. Well done boys . Afterwards we watched a great league game and ended up at a Buschenschank in Neudorf, where we celebrated the close of the season. Still I had some regrets on the next morning and am still wondering what the heck they put into the wine . But nevermind. 
When Ernst called me in April 2006, I was one of the very few to be introduced into his secret plan. Indulging his penchant for instigating surprises he asked me for some strategic input to bolster up his plan for a wedding proposal which should take place on the Empire State Building in New York City with Lisa, his girl-friend, coming there unaware of what would happen. Since Lisa works for Campus 02 in Graz, we fleshed out a strategy that would direct her to New York City with a view to attending an international conference of open universities. On that conference she was supposed to introduce her university in front of a host of international university representatives. 