Category Archives: Family

Family, Nerdy

#niblingAdventure, Teil 2

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Den ersten Teil der Dokumentation vom #niblingAdventure findest du -> hier.

Wir steigen in die Geschichte ein an dem Punkt, wo die Eltern des Bruderkindes (also mein Bruder und meine Schwägerin) – zu Recht – fragen, wann sie wissen sollen, dass alle Karten da sind.

Gut, die Tatsache, dass es 3 Hinweise auf der ersten Hinweiskarte waren, war wohl nicht ausreichend offensichtlich. Merken wir uns 😁

Dann wurde das Rätsel tatsächlich geknackt – nach Einholung von Hinweisen. Dabei haben die Eltern leider die Information beim Kind gedropped, dass ich mit dem Rätsel zu tun habe 😭

Also schnell hin korrigiert auf, “Ja, ich hab damit zu tun, weil ich bin da halt Mitglied, aber! ich bin nur die Kontaktperson. Ist ja klar ersichtlich, dass die Karten nicht von mir kommen, oder?”

Whew.

Und dann auch die guten Nachrichten direkt hinterher: der Code wurde geknackt, und das Kind möchte gerne mehr davon 🎉

Es folgte: eine Hinweiskarte (danke an ln für’s spontane Übernehmen der Aufgabe!).

Foto einer Postkarte mit Text: Manchmal muss man sich auf etwas stützen, um einen Code knacken zu können.

Manchmal muss man sich auf etwas stützen, um einen Code knacken zu können.

Und dann: noch eine Hinweiskarte?

Eine schwarze Karte mit längerem Text in Spiegelschrift.

Wir haben deine Nachricht erhalten. Unsere geheime Organisation freut sich darauf, dich kennen zu lernen.

Unsere diversen Agent_innen werden dich bald kontaktieren.

Dein Deckname lautet “Nibling”.

Wir wünschen dir viel Erfolg und Spaß!

Danke an rixx für die wun-der-schöne Karte, und dankeluto für die Idee zum Decknamen. Eigentlich komplett logisch.

Und am vereinbarten Ort, nach Nennung des angegebenen Code-Wortes, gab es für das Kind dann tatsächlich: eine Box.

Und darin: ein Buch..?

Fotos des Buchs "Meine Freundin Roxy - Roboterzähmen leicht gemacht!" von Kenza Ait Si Abbou.

Rätselhaft, das alles, sehr rätselhaft.

Wenn du wissen willst, wie und wo das Kind dieses Box erhalten hat, folge diesem Link zur Hinweis-Seite für Teil 2. Es ist eine gute Geschichte, ich empfehle die Lektüre 🙂

Family, Nerdy, traveling

#niblingAdventure, Teil 1

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Update, 30.5.2022: Ich hatte nur von 2 der 3 Rätsel-Karten Fotos eingefügt. Das ist jetzt korrigiert.

Irgendwann einmal hat eines der Bruderkinder gesagt, ich wäre “die coole Tante” (die Kids haben 5 Tanten oder so, also ist das schon eine Auszeichnung). Und ich hab den Titel nicht für nichts, sondern mach mir damit schon Arbeit.

Und diesmal will ich das auch halbwegs sinnvoll von vorne weg dokumentieren.

Alles begann mit einer schlaflosen Nacht in Hamburg in der Karwoche 2022. Eigentlich wollte ich schon schlafen, aber mein Hirn war dagegen und lief ein paar Extrarunden. Plötzlich: “Hey, du bist ja die nächsten 2 Wochen unterwegs. In 3 verschiedenen Städten. Da sind einfach nur Postkarten für nibling doch langweilig. Wie wäre es mit einer auf mehrere Karten verteilten Nachricht?”

Okay, Bulletjournal auf, Notiz gemacht. Nächster Schlaf-Anlauf.

Hirn: “Es könnte ein Rätsel werden! Mit einer Extra-Karte mit Anweisungen!”

Nächste Notiz, nächster Versuch.

Hirn: “Mit einer Geheimorganisation statt dir als Absenderin! Und hier sind gleich 4 Ideen für eine Reihe von solchen Rätseln! Mit Höhepunkt im Sommer, wenn du dort auf Urlaub/remote office bist! Und womöglich sogar mit Chaos-Beteiligung..?”

Noch diese Notiz, und das Hirn war endlich fertig mit seiner Story, und ich hab endlich schlafen dürfen. Uff.

Die nächsten Tage habe ich dann damit verbracht, die Details auszuarbeiten.

Und das ist es dann geworden:

Das Kind hat 4 Postkarten bekommen, von verschiedenen Leuten beschriftet (danke Marei, Piko, Nico und Jonas!), damit einerseits eine Art Gruppenarbeit sichtbar würde, und andererseits möglichst verschleiert wird, dass die Karten von mir kommen.

Eine Postkarte enthält den Hinweistext:

Manchmal  braucht man

  • alle Teile
  • einen Blick für Details
  • und vielleicht ein bisschen Hilfe

um einen Code knacken zu können.

Auf einem schwarzen Tisch stehen eine heiße Schokolade und ein Kaffee. Danben liegt eine offene Packung Mannerschnitten, und die Postkarte mit dem Hinweistext. Der Adressbereich der Postkarte wird durch ein gelbes Federpennal verdeckt.

Und die anderen drei Postkarten enthalten … Buchstaben. Und Satzzeichen. Und vielleicht eine Zahl. Aber sonderlich gut lesbar ist das alles nicht:

Von der Hinweis-Postkarte sowie einer der Code-Postkarten habe ich die Vorderseiten leider nicht abfotografiert. Die braucht ihr zur Lösung aber auch nicht 😉

Falls notwendig: auf dieser Seite gibt es zuerst ein 3 Hinweise, und dann die Lösung.

Wer dieses Konzept übernehmen will — go for it! Ich würde mich freuen, wenn ihr mich daran teilhaben lasst, beispielsweise über Fediverse-Postings (oder Tweets) mit dem Hashtag #niblingAdventure, oder über direkte Mentions, oder per Mail 🙂

Family, Outdoors

Bavarian Kitsch: Garmisch-Partenkirchen

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One day out of the 10 or such that I spent at my parents’ place during the holidays, we took a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a town in Bavaria. We had a nice afternoon walking through the old town, taking a closer look at some of the buildings (including the incredibly old library, and the newly renovated church), and had coffee and cake that could have been a full meal.

The initial plan also included to search for some geocaches, but as my Dad wasn’t too excited about watching me look for tiny containers “for nothing”, I decided to rather have a nice afternoon with my parents 🙂

And of course, I took a couple pictures, so you get something out of it, too!

The poem on the wall reads:

Dreifach ist der Schritt der Zeit,
zögernd kommt die Zukunft hergezogen,
Pfeilschnell ist das Jetzt verflogen,
Ewig still steht die Vergangenheit.

Keine Ungeduld beflügelt
Ihren Schritt, wenn sie verweilt.
Keine Furcht, kein Zweifel zügelt
Ihren Lauf, wenn sie enteilt.
Keine Reu, kein Zaubersegen
kann die stehende bewegen.

Möchtest du beglückt und weise
Endigen des Lebens Reise
Nimm die zögernde zum Rat
Nicht zum Werkzeug deiner Tat.
Wähle nicht die fliehende zum Freund,
nicht die bleibende zum Feind.

In short, it says that time has in 3 different velocities: Future arrives hesitantly, Present flies by fast as an arrow, and Past stays ever the same. There is no way to speed up the lingering, no way to slow down the rushing, and no way to move the stagnant. So if you want to be happy at the end of your life, don’t make the Future your tool, but rather your advisor, don’t be too fond of the Present, and don’t make an enemy of the Past.

Family, Feminism

Feminism for kids: Frozen

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When I visited home these past holidays, my brother and I, his wife and son, plus some of her family, went to the movies and watched “Frozen”. The German title is “The Snow Queen”, as if it was just a movie version of the fairy tale, and what I had heard about it before had only referred to the movie NOT being true to the fairy tale. Also some of the comments I had read led me to believe it would only be a nice kids’ movie, but not as girl-power-y as, e.g., “Merida”.

But, oh wow, how wrong I was 🙂

I won’t be spoiling it all for the readers who haven’t seen the movie yet. To you, I say: go, watch it. It was good fun, also in German (well, I had to watch it in German, due to my company 😉 ), even with some unexpected turns and all.

So, to let you know what I LOVED about this movie, let me quote the short conversation I had with my nephew on our way home:

Me: See, in most movies, the girls need a boy to help them get out of trouble. But that’s not true. You saw in this movie, that girls indeed CAN get themselves out of trouble, right?

Him: Yes, right. There is this one girl in school, she never needs help when fighting with the boys. She is a pretty good fighter!

Cute. Next time I’m home, I hope I’ll have time to watch some more movies like that with him 🙂  Any recommendations from your side?

Family, GeoCaching, Outdoors

Personal Best!

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Together with my sister in law and her son, but also on my own, I managed to find nearly 30 geocaches within one week 🙂

Here are some pictures:

On Wednesday, when my sister in law had the day off, we went to Füssen (Bavaria) to try and complete and trail of 18 geocaches in a small forest southwest of the city. We didn’t do the whole trail, though, because we had to be back for lunch 🙂 Still, I climbed 3 trees, nearly fell down one of them, scratched and bruised my arms and overall  had a great time.

Family, GeoCaching, Outdoors, The Big Hike

TBH, … again ;)

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I really wanted to finish my hike from last year. But due to University schedules, and incredibly hot summer, and weird working schedules, I haven’t been able to prepare as much as I wanted. Also, the BF, who wanted to come with me on this trip, won’t have the time to do so. So the new plan was to just go for a 2 day-hike with my Mom while I was back home for a week.

And with the assistance of my brother, his wife and son, TBH became WOAR: Whichever Outdoor Activity, Really. I just wanted to get outdoors and get some fresh air.

And really, that was what I got: 2 days hiking along river Lech with my Mom, one day with lots of rain, the other with cloudy weather, and 2 days of geocaching with my brothers’ family.

And, as pictures say it all, here’s a little gallery for you!

CouchSurfing, Enjoying Vienna, Family, Work / University

Two nutshells

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I like recaps. They give me the possibility to think over stuff I’ve done. Also, I’m not one for blogging all the time, as you might have seen. It’s more like sitting down once a month (or every 6 weeks), thinking about what I’ve accomplished or what has happened since the last time I wrote – and then write about it.

So here is my 2012 in a nutshell.

I finished my first semester as a student at University. Not very successful, but also not without success.

We had an awesome winter with lots of snow, and I went skiing both with my parents and Georg, and there was terrific traffic chaos everywhere (I remember pictures of roads in Tirol and Vorarlberg, covered in 1-4 meters of snow!).

I spent 3 weeks in the US and Canada, making new friends and relishing every minute of it.

When I came back, I bought a bike, Maya, and set on discovering Vienna by bike. And: a cat café had just opened in Vienna, and the BBC featured me in a fluff-piece about it 🙂

I decided to go for a 10-day hike in my holidays.

I finished my 2nd semester as a student – again, not as successful as I could have, but good enough.

There was, of course, Vienna Calling 2012.

I did a lot of hikes in preparation for The Big Hike, and worked at Vienna Zoo during summer break. Also, in August I moved in a shared flat with Stefan, and had a lot of doubts about me being at University.

Then, autumn already. I was incredibly motivated, and did a lot of work for University. Georg moved in with us (yes!), and then … somehow … already it was Christmas.

There was big get-together with old school mates (from more than 10 years back), meeting and visiting relatives and friends, and after one week, I was happy to return back to Vienna.

So this was 2012 in a big nutshell (coconut like).

2012 in a smaller nutshell: it brought lots of new friends, finally seeing old friends again, discovering Vienna anew time and time again, seeing new things in Austria and also visiting new places all over the world. And of course, lots and lots of new things learned.

Let’s hope, 2013 will be like this – or even better.

CouchSurfing, Family, Outdoors

Easter Holidays!

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I will spend a part of my Easter vacation at home!

Arrival time will be some time in the evening of Wednesday, April 4th. “Take-Off” back to Vienna will be in the afternoon of Sunday, April 8th.

I would LOVE to once again meet up with some of the lovely people from home, couchsurfers and non-surfers, so PLEASE let me know if you have time to spare.

How about a nice little bicycle trip to Lechtal? Or to Füssen? Or how about hiking up to Schlosskopf? Or Fort Claudia?

According to the weather forecast, there will be slight rain all week long, but who cares; I’ll bring my rain gear 🙂

Hope to hear from everybody!!

Family, Outdoors

Hahnenkamm, der [noun]

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All over the Alps, people never were very creative when naming their villages, mountains and meadows. “Au” is one of the most commonly used name for parts of villages near rivers (it means floodplain), for example. Also, “Ried” (meaning marsh or reed) can be found all over Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

And then there is “Hahnenkamm”, which is of course used for mountains that resemble the shape of a cockscomb. The most famous of these is situated in Kitzbühel in Tirol, and another is the local mountain of my hometown. And that’s where I went to go skiing for some hours with my mum. It’s only 5 minutes by car, and after last year’s renovations, the area has been improved big time 🙂

Like the pictures? If you want to see it in real, just come by 🙂

Family, Outdoors

Skiing, again.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Telling my partents about my exaxt itinerary (well, as exact as it was at the time), my mum insisted on my coming home before leaving for the US. So I last-minute arranged a train ticket to Innsbruck, a couch to crash on, and made my mum happy by telling her I was free to go skiing somewhere around Innsbruck on Saturday, 4th of February.

My train arrived at 10 pm, and after a short journey through town, I was at my friend Barbara’s where a all-prepared couch was awaiting me. In the morning, my alarm went off at 7 am to make sure I would be ready when my parents arrived. We had decided to go to Kühtai, a medium sized skiing area 25 km southwest of Innsbruck, located 2020 meters above sea level. When we got out of the car, we nearly froze immediately. A really strong wind was blowing, and according to diverse sources, the temperature was – 25° Celsius. To put on our skiing boots, helmets and so on, we went inside – otherwise it would have been way too cold.

My skiing jacket includes a kind of thermometer, but obviously it is either 10 ° off, or it just couldn’t bear the cold.

Due to the wind, the cable car was shut down, so we had to stay at the one chair lift with a bubble that is available at the area. This also restricted us to 2 variations of the same slope, but it was still okay as we had anyways only planned on skiing for half a day, and there was nearly noone around. The snow was powdery, the sun was shining, the air was clear, … and after 2.5 hrs we decided to stop by the one hut along the one slope to have a hot chocolate and some Gulaschsuppe.

The hut was awesome, they had a tiled stove heating up the whole place to a cosy 20 ° (plus), there was a lot of wood used in the rooms, and decoration was suiting the name: “Zum Kaiser Max”, which shows the connection of emperor Maximilian (I.? II.? I always forget) with the area. This guy loved to go hiking, hunting and fishing, and in Tirol you can do it all. He made Innsbruck his seat of power and also came to my home town once in a while.

After this relaxing and re-warming break, and some more skiing, we got out of our boots (which took some time especially for my mum) and helmets and took another way – through Ötztal valley instead of Innsbruck – back home.