31.7.2010 von Jean Jacques.

  Once a year during the summer in Hannover, a merry band of artists gather up and set up small stages in the Herrenhausen gardens. Thousands of visitors turn up every evening for the month long performance to meet up with friends, picnic and basically have a good time.

It is a very popular venue, although I am glad I have missed the last 3 years. It tends to be a little too repetitive and I was getting a little fed up seing the same acts.

I was also a little annoyed at the extroardinary length one has to go through to get tickets. And there is something seriously wrong here. Because of the apparent popularity, tickets must be ordered months in advance so that they can be dispensed based on whatever rule by the organizing body. For sure at least 99% of the requestors will not get one of these prized ticket.

No surprise though. Assume you have a party of 10 deciding in February that it might be a good idea to go in the summer. What usually happens is that every single one of the 10 will request at leat 15 tickets each hoping to a few. I know, that is the way we do it.

The problem with that is that the organizers are claiming a huge demand. How they distribute the available places is a mistery. Prices of course go up as well. All a bit crazy for something which is nice but not worth all that effort.

Anyway, as usual one of of got the 15 tickets and we made it.

Having not been for the last 3 summers, they were at least 3 new artists. The atmosphere is good though. Crowds have a pre-set itinary and rush from one stage to the other, usually getting lost on the way. As a result, it is rarely possible to see more than 3 shows.

But who cares, the atmosphere is good, plenty of drinks available if you are not driving ,I was this year, and the whole evening culminates with a good firework to the tune of the latest hit from Mozart or such like.

I’ll probably end up there next year again. I think I will order 100 tickets in advance.

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10.7.2010 von Jean Jacques.

I have not had a chance to comment on the place till today (August 25th). This is mainly due to the fact that my main computer (yes, the infamous iMac) is still on the waters somewhere between Shanghai and Bremen. It was my understanding it was due to arrive end of August (yesterday in fact) but no news up to now. The second fact is that, despite the fact that I love my new iPad, I cannot make blog entries with it. I can put a title but no way will it let me do more than that. I guess I have to thank Mr Steve Jobs for that and his aversion to Flash Adobe… I shall have to enquire with WordPress as to which solution they are working on and basically when they will switch to HTML5 (if that is the issue of course). Basically one is being controlled by a handful of people like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates to name just a couple. Not sure this is acceptable but there is little one can do. And I do not think Linux is a viable alternative.

In a round about way, this brings me to Langkawi. The idea was to have a few days holidays in between departing from Shanghai and coming back to Germany.

I arrived at the hotel late in the evening and after check in, was brought to the chalet (looking for a better word) on what I would describe as an elongated golf cart. It reminded me of one of my all time favorite TV series “The Prisoner” in the late 60s (17 episodes between 1967 and 1968 to be precise). Only those who are old enough ta have watched it will understand of course. I felt really in the “village”. When the portier / driver, who was more than a friendly chap, said if there were any queries, he could be contacted via reception and that his number was 14, that did it for me. Did I make the point?

 Nice enough resort, well kept, clean but not too much action available despite the fact that it was in the middle of football world cup.

That particular island is fine, but basically it is a collection of hotels and resorts. There was no real night life outside that I could see. Even the main town was a bit of a disaster to say the least despite the fact that it enjoys a “duty free” status.

So basically I spent a week reading, reading and reading a bit more. This is where the iPad came to its own. I think I read 7 or 8 books including the Stieg Larsson Trilogy, which I really enjoyed by the way.

I have in fact downloaded the film “the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” only  last night. So you all know what I am going to be doing this evening. Actually this is another first for me, I have rented the HD film version on iTunes (4.9 GB). Good thing I can connect the iPad to my rather large HDTV.

Anyway, those who know me, know that I travel light. Very light in fact. Imagine if I had to carry those usually thick 8 paperbacks. Where would I put them? I now know why I have read so little in the past 3 or so years. But now it has changed. Thank you Mr Jobs for the iPad. It works for me.

So all in all, Langkawi was fine, but a bit boring. Good thing I needed to decompress and had a lot on my mind to try and sort out. Wich of course I did not.

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