Buon Natale!
14 years ago
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Friday, July 09, 2010
http://www.michgerber.ch/musik.html
The Sound which goes with the pic:
http://www.michgerber.ch/musik.html
http://www.michgerber.ch/musik.html
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Hangover
Apparently too much vodka, too many bleenies with caviar & too many russian Ladies....
Poor aprkus...
Poor aprkus...
Food + Wine
Quite funny if you invite some friends over for dinner and you find the setting of the evening the next day on a blog in japanese :-)
If you have a look at the author of this blog you would not think that eating is one of her biggest hobbies, but check it out yourself: her blog Food+ is amazing!
While Mari was blogging, Carlo was talking about it. But he is slowly catching up. And here it is, the second 'product' of the family. Food+ finally got a smaller brother: Wine+
Good work Mari & Carlo!
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Pain & Fun
What a sunday morning.... quite a neutral start, first highlight the excellent coffee combined with the fact that my sunday newspapers are already in my letterbox. But than... the sports part of "Sonntagszeitung": Federer in the Wimbledon Final - nice , Cancellara in the "maillot jaune" - nice, the budget of "my" Soccer team: 7-8m CHF - hmmm.... ticketing income: 6.4m, sponsoring income: 4.3m let's add.... 6.4 + 4.3 = 10.7m.....
ALL other clubs in the first Swiss Soccer league have a higher budget than just ticketing & sponsoring income added but my bloody fcsg not... okok, one could say that they need to get rid of some debts. But the truth is that the owners of the new statium make a lot of money and the club which fills the stadium gets the debts... GRRR..... why bother supporting this money-wasting team?
Because it's THE team, green-white, the love of us "East-Enders" of Switzerland - one of the only things we can be proud of (actually... not really).
Hard to explain, hard to understand.
To be honest: I'm actually not proud of my club and it's management at all... but I'm bloody proud of my brother! The missing link? For ages he's now travelling to each and every game of FCSG to comment for a radio-station, more or less without being paid for. Him and his mate Jaan Schaller became kind of cult in St.Gallen and already three years ago the main newspaper of St.Gallen wrote an article about them: "Keine Ahnung von Fussball" pointing out their very special way of commenting games not just focussed on the game but more on the fun.
Jaan Schaller & Lukas Bollhalder
First I thought nobody really listens to them: a "real" soccer fan probably wants 'serious' commenters and everybody else would not listen to them as they couldn't care less about soccer... but it looks like I'm wrong and not the only followers of their show. Even the 'hard-core' supporters have a thread for them on their forum with some funny pictures.
Maybe one day his 'fame' will go beyond the "East-End" of Switzerland and he will not just write in the local newspaper about his parking fines, his balcony, about tipping in the supermarket, the open air or why it sometimes it is better to order fries instead of sausages.
However, I'll not stop supporting him!
Monday, June 01, 2009
My Name: Bollhala and yes, I'm a jackass!
The quote:
The greatest sport ever. PERIOD. Misunderstood by jackasses who have never seen or been to a game.
The truth: I've seen it, iI've been there:
Memorial Day, 25th of May 2009, A beautiful warm evening and you are in NY. So what is your plan tonight? Right, you ignore whatever a reasonable person would suggest (like your girlfriend) and you take a 30min train ride out to the Citi Field in Queens ($2). In the packed train you promise that you'll immediately go back to Manhatten if no tickets below $20 are available.
You'll end up in a long queue in front of a ticket office roughly 2hours before the game starts and you promise again to the reasonable person next to you in the queue that $20 is the max you'll spend for a ticket - you end up paying $69 for one ticket. As a result the reasonable person does not speak to you for the next 3 hours (she pays you a beer though ($7.50)).
The first two hours she can't speak to you as you keep on talking to her: "Serioulsy, that sport is great! What you've seen on TV is not what you will experience now! Baseball is completely different live! Much more exciting than on TV! A happening! You'll have fun! And you might even become a sports-fan! And if not for the sport than for the athmosphere! And for the food! You'll see there's a huge variety of food available! And I read in the program that the Broadway-Cast of West Side Story will sing the anthem before the game!" - It's true, that's what I read - even 5mins before the anthem it said it on the big scoreboard (unf. I was too late to take the pic of it...)
However, the guy who wrote the program as well as the guy responsible for the scoreboard both forgot (like me) that on Memorial Day only one thing counts: the soldiers and the respect for the veterans.
As a result a soldier sang the anthem and the line up was broadcasted live from soldiers in iraq (their relatives got the chance to greet them live out of the stadium - all shown on the huge screen). A few airforce-planes flew over the Citi Field before the game and during the game you saw in every break during the 9 innings members of the army on the screens.
The seventh inning however apparently needed to be streched and Seargeant Elizabeth Quinones sang us the "Amazing Graze" (at least that's the song I recall).
What else can I remember? 3 more beers (3*$7.5 - needed to show the ID twice to proof my age (yeeha)), 1 hotdog ($4.50). Hotdogs & Burgers were the only food available if you wanted to queue for less than 30mins (didn't make the reasonable person joining me on that game happier). The game? Ended up 5-2 for the Mets which means you saw seven times within those 3.5 hours (most probably it took longer) a guy running around the bases. The rest of the time one team stood still on the field while two guys were throwing the ball to eachother and a guy stood between them swinging a stick but only hitting air or if hitting the ball the ball did not go into the field (and very rarely got into the field but landed directly in the glove of a guy standing there - which somehow was bad for the stick swinging guy). The stadium was full though (more than 40'000 people) and the crowd was screaming, waving, clapping and leaving 20mins before the game ended.... (A probably more accurate summary can be found here).
The atmosphere however was not even close to a 2nd league soccer game in St.Gallen...
At the end I fully understood why the reasonable person was pissed off of that evening before it even started... she (once more) was 100% right!
The quote:
The greatest sport ever. PERIOD. Misunderstood by jackasses who have never seen or been to a game.
The truth: I've seen it, iI've been there:
Memorial Day, 25th of May 2009, A beautiful warm evening and you are in NY. So what is your plan tonight? Right, you ignore whatever a reasonable person would suggest (like your girlfriend) and you take a 30min train ride out to the Citi Field in Queens ($2). In the packed train you promise that you'll immediately go back to Manhatten if no tickets below $20 are available.You'll end up in a long queue in front of a ticket office roughly 2hours before the game starts and you promise again to the reasonable person next to you in the queue that $20 is the max you'll spend for a ticket - you end up paying $69 for one ticket. As a result the reasonable person does not speak to you for the next 3 hours (she pays you a beer though ($7.50)).
The first two hours she can't speak to you as you keep on talking to her: "Serioulsy, that sport is great! What you've seen on TV is not what you will experience now! Baseball is completely different live! Much more exciting than on TV! A happening! You'll have fun! And you might even become a sports-fan! And if not for the sport than for the athmosphere! And for the food! You'll see there's a huge variety of food available! And I read in the program that the Broadway-Cast of West Side Story will sing the anthem before the game!" - It's true, that's what I read - even 5mins before the anthem it said it on the big scoreboard (unf. I was too late to take the pic of it...)
However, the guy who wrote the program as well as the guy responsible for the scoreboard both forgot (like me) that on Memorial Day only one thing counts: the soldiers and the respect for the veterans.As a result a soldier sang the anthem and the line up was broadcasted live from soldiers in iraq (their relatives got the chance to greet them live out of the stadium - all shown on the huge screen). A few airforce-planes flew over the Citi Field before the game and during the game you saw in every break during the 9 innings members of the army on the screens.
The seventh inning however apparently needed to be streched and Seargeant Elizabeth Quinones sang us the "Amazing Graze" (at least that's the song I recall).
What else can I remember? 3 more beers (3*$7.5 - needed to show the ID twice to proof my age (yeeha)), 1 hotdog ($4.50). Hotdogs & Burgers were the only food available if you wanted to queue for less than 30mins (didn't make the reasonable person joining me on that game happier). The game? Ended up 5-2 for the Mets which means you saw seven times within those 3.5 hours (most probably it took longer) a guy running around the bases. The rest of the time one team stood still on the field while two guys were throwing the ball to eachother and a guy stood between them swinging a stick but only hitting air or if hitting the ball the ball did not go into the field (and very rarely got into the field but landed directly in the glove of a guy standing there - which somehow was bad for the stick swinging guy). The stadium was full though (more than 40'000 people) and the crowd was screaming, waving, clapping and leaving 20mins before the game ended.... (A probably more accurate summary can be found here).
The atmosphere however was not even close to a 2nd league soccer game in St.Gallen...
At the end I fully understood why the reasonable person was pissed off of that evening before it even started... she (once more) was 100% right!
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Promised
Yes Gena,
I promise to visit you in Singapore if you stay there at least until the 7th of May 2011!
Have fun and try not to beat the whole SG Tradingfloor bloody! One bleeding trader here in CH was enough!
I miss you!
Lars
I promise to visit you in Singapore if you stay there at least until the 7th of May 2011!
Have fun and try not to beat the whole SG Tradingfloor bloody! One bleeding trader here in CH was enough!
I miss you!
Lars
Monday, January 19, 2009
Per Carlo II ... and for Aprkus
the suspenders are not yet properly in place and the shoes to small.... and the front is only visible on the 23rd!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
3 weeks ... gone to fast
Wow, that was quick....
Here we are, sitting in Patra, trying to kill time... After two Ouzo and one beer I needed a break (our boat is only leaving in 5 hours, and more booze now would probably make sure I enter the boat to anywhere but not to Venice)....
So why not update this poor blog a little bit...
First problem: how to change settings of the browser from greek hieroglyphics to latin letters? Many thanks to my office colleagues who changed the settings on my office pc so many times everytime I forgot to lock it that I`m now a semi-professional in changing it back (special thank to Aprkus - the builder - he will fix it if he can or wants). Second problem: whz is y and z mixed up on this bloody keyboard #%$( - whatever... thanks to bloukous for teaching me that lesson! A third "thanks" to didionre for the "whatever"..
But I guess as usual I'm loosing the point here...
In fact I need to say thank you to a few others first:
Thanks to SAC for driving me down and across the Peloponnes so savely! (I love you!)
Thanks to my father for the car!
Thanks to Lambros mother for the appartement (I'll need to pay you a new mosquito-protection shutter, sorry! But at least I was the laugh of Zacharo when I "ran" out to the balcony with the mosquito net still closed...)
Thanks to Lambros for his tips and friendship!
Thanks to Kaliroi, Kia Maria, Giorgia and Tassia for the unbeatable hospitality!
Thanks to my team @ ubs for holding the shop together and letting me go for 3 weeks!
Thanks to the "poor other half" for emptying our letter box (I'm looking forward to see you dressed up as Frank n'Further !)
Thanks to the intern for holding "welcome drinks" a second time as soon as I'm back!
Zakynthos - Zacharo - Pylos - Mani - Monemvasia - Nafplio - Diakopo ... All of it was worth it! Excellent weather, great food (but why the hell do they have to serve those horrible fries all the time?), beautiful views, nice hikes, friendly people. There were many highlights (more of them probably later with pics) and I can recommend our trip to everybody.
I can recommend as well to take a three week break! I know a little bit what happened in the financial world the last few weeks, but more or less I managed to "switch off". I can't even remember my office passwords anymore... nice!
End yes: we let our bycicles at home and I'm still a smoker.... :-( but hopefully only for a few more hours! I'll give it another try (attempt 137)!
I'm looking forward to see you soon (not so much to have my 99th month-end starting on monday...) !!!
Here we are, sitting in Patra, trying to kill time... After two Ouzo and one beer I needed a break (our boat is only leaving in 5 hours, and more booze now would probably make sure I enter the boat to anywhere but not to Venice)....
So why not update this poor blog a little bit...
First problem: how to change settings of the browser from greek hieroglyphics to latin letters? Many thanks to my office colleagues who changed the settings on my office pc so many times everytime I forgot to lock it that I`m now a semi-professional in changing it back (special thank to Aprkus - the builder - he will fix it if he can or wants). Second problem: whz is y and z mixed up on this bloody keyboard #%$( - whatever... thanks to bloukous for teaching me that lesson! A third "thanks" to didionre for the "whatever"..
But I guess as usual I'm loosing the point here...
In fact I need to say thank you to a few others first:
Thanks to SAC for driving me down and across the Peloponnes so savely! (I love you!)
Thanks to my father for the car!
Thanks to Lambros mother for the appartement (I'll need to pay you a new mosquito-protection shutter, sorry! But at least I was the laugh of Zacharo when I "ran" out to the balcony with the mosquito net still closed...)
Thanks to Lambros for his tips and friendship!
Thanks to Kaliroi, Kia Maria, Giorgia and Tassia for the unbeatable hospitality!
Thanks to my team @ ubs for holding the shop together and letting me go for 3 weeks!
Thanks to the "poor other half" for emptying our letter box (I'm looking forward to see you dressed up as Frank n'Further !)
Thanks to the intern for holding "welcome drinks" a second time as soon as I'm back!
Zakynthos - Zacharo - Pylos - Mani - Monemvasia - Nafplio - Diakopo ... All of it was worth it! Excellent weather, great food (but why the hell do they have to serve those horrible fries all the time?), beautiful views, nice hikes, friendly people. There were many highlights (more of them probably later with pics) and I can recommend our trip to everybody.
I can recommend as well to take a three week break! I know a little bit what happened in the financial world the last few weeks, but more or less I managed to "switch off". I can't even remember my office passwords anymore... nice!
End yes: we let our bycicles at home and I'm still a smoker.... :-( but hopefully only for a few more hours! I'll give it another try (attempt 137)!
I'm looking forward to see you soon (not so much to have my 99th month-end starting on monday...) !!!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
correlation
Due to the current situation in the markets the planned electrical power outage will not take place on 20 September 2008.
We will inform you in good time of the new date.
We will inform you in good time of the new date.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Porta Alpina - let us be brave!
At the beginning I thought that's just another stupid idea: the tallest building of the world in the middle of the alps...But end of june my father convinced me to go for a hike in the mountains over the weekend and to have a look at the construction site of the worlds longest tunnel Gotthard in Sedrun. (http://www.alptransit.ch/pages/e/). After an introduction at the visitor centre (http://www.basistunnel.ch/) we all got our helmets and orange jackets as well as a radio and went by train into the tunnel where they are digging the biggest hole into the mountains ever.
My father waiting for the train into the mountain
The construction site was impressive but what stayed more prominent in my memories was the discussion we had with our guide about the "Porta Alpina" (http://www.visiun-porta-alpina.ch).
To build the 153km of tunnel in a reasonable time, they "attack" the mountain from different construction sites. About in the middle of the tunnel is Sedrun, where a tunnel first goes 990m horizontal into the mountain and afterwards elevators bring the workers 800m down. The idea of some people is to make a train stop in the middle of the tunnel and build in proper elevators for visitors and tourists. This investment would cost about chf 50millions (compared to chf 10billions of the tunnel) and the elevators would become the tallest building of the world:
To build the 153km of tunnel in a reasonable time, they "attack" the mountain from different construction sites. About in the middle of the tunnel is Sedrun, where a tunnel first goes 990m horizontal into the mountain and afterwards elevators bring the workers 800m down. The idea of some people is to make a train stop in the middle of the tunnel and build in proper elevators for visitors and tourists. This investment would cost about chf 50millions (compared to chf 10billions of the tunnel) and the elevators would become the tallest building of the world:
People complain about the costs of those elevators and they think not enough tourists would use the train to visit the alps to run the porta alpina cost-effective.For me trains are the future. And visions important. Let's be brave. For once!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Tell me why I don't like Mondays
What a day....
Within the last 6month 3 out of the top 5 US Investment banks went "bust".
And I'm feeling sick as well....
Within the last 6month 3 out of the top 5 US Investment banks went "bust".
And I'm feeling sick as well....
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The bleeding (green white) heart
What a said sunday....
I'm sitting here in my living room, alone... my love far away. Ok, in fact she is 'only' 36.73 km away - I could be there in less than an hour. And after one week of working and not coming home in the evenings she'll be back on monday. I miss her and I'm looking forward to see, smell, feel her again in about 25hours.
But on Sundays there's always as well another love. A love which is gone by one league for at least one year: "My" soccer team FCSG (http://www.fcsg.ch).
On a rainy sunday like today I have to watch now ACB vs. YB on tv - who play in the top league infront of a few hundreds supporters, while "my" glorious team (the oldest in Switzerland) manages to fill its brand new wonderful stadion every time at least with 10-12'000 fans.
But unfortunately not in front of tv-cameras.
I thank my brother that he helps me to more or less overcome those sad moments. He's commenting all FCSG-games for his show 'Adrenalin' on the radio station Toxic.fm (http://www.toxic.fm/) together with his colleague Jaan Schaller and thanks to them I know now at least that it is half-time against Thun and that we are playing crap but leading 1:2... yehaa!
And soon, soon they play again at home and I'll be there, in the stadion, with my love, my other love.
I'm sitting here in my living room, alone... my love far away. Ok, in fact she is 'only' 36.73 km away - I could be there in less than an hour. And after one week of working and not coming home in the evenings she'll be back on monday. I miss her and I'm looking forward to see, smell, feel her again in about 25hours.
But on Sundays there's always as well another love. A love which is gone by one league for at least one year: "My" soccer team FCSG (http://www.fcsg.ch).
On a rainy sunday like today I have to watch now ACB vs. YB on tv - who play in the top league infront of a few hundreds supporters, while "my" glorious team (the oldest in Switzerland) manages to fill its brand new wonderful stadion every time at least with 10-12'000 fans.
But unfortunately not in front of tv-cameras.
I thank my brother that he helps me to more or less overcome those sad moments. He's commenting all FCSG-games for his show 'Adrenalin' on the radio station Toxic.fm (http://www.toxic.fm/) together with his colleague Jaan Schaller and thanks to them I know now at least that it is half-time against Thun and that we are playing crap but leading 1:2... yehaa!
And soon, soon they play again at home and I'll be there, in the stadion, with my love, my other love.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Sand in Sand we stand
I'm not a photographer (as you all can see) but just travelling by bicycle, tram, bus or on my feet (sometimes a boat or very seldom a plane comes in handy as well). And sometimes I pass sceneries were I'm happy I have my little camera with me. Like end of August 2008 in Rorschach where we 'accidentally' passed the Sand-sculptures festival (http://www.sandskulpturen.ch/) :
Friday, September 12, 2008
For BlouKous & the fisherman
Enjoy your weekend in the Water!
Im gone fishing
I got me a line
Nothing I do is gonna make the difference
So Im taking the time
And you aint never gonna be happy
Anyhow, anyway
So Im gone fishing
And Im going today
Im gone fishing
Sounds crazy I know
I know nothing about fishing
But just watch me go
And when the time has come
I will look back and see Peace on the shoreline
That could have been me
You can waste a whole lifetime
Trying to be
What you think is expected of you
But youll never be free
May as well go fishing
(by Chris Rea)
Im gone fishing
I got me a line
Nothing I do is gonna make the difference
So Im taking the time
And you aint never gonna be happy
Anyhow, anyway
So Im gone fishing
And Im going today
Im gone fishing
Sounds crazy I know
I know nothing about fishing
But just watch me go
And when the time has come
I will look back and see Peace on the shoreline
That could have been me
You can waste a whole lifetime
Trying to be
What you think is expected of you
But youll never be free
May as well go fishing
(by Chris Rea)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
46° 28' 33'' ; 7° 39' 54''
Switzerland is full of secrets... and you will see them as soon as you open your eyes (don't really know if that's really the idea of a secret).
Up till recently it was only us Swiss talking about our own secrets but now it looks that also our neighbours seem to become interested. And on the 26th of August the german magazin "spiegel" revealed the location of the war-bunker of our government (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,570501,00.html).
Two days before this article I passed quite a funny building on my one-week bicycle tour following the river Rein from it's source to the Rheinfall - not that this building is in any way related to a Swiss army bunker - I guess they would throw me into jail imediately if I would say so... :-)
If you are interested into Swiss Army Fortifications (many of those old ones are not in use anymore and can be visited) look at the following pages, I'm sure you'll find a 'hole' close to your place:
http://www.schweizer-festungen.ch/links.htm#Museumsfestungen
http://www.bunker-suisse.ch/
http://www.festung-schweiz.ch/
http://www.fort.ch/flashsite.html
Up till recently it was only us Swiss talking about our own secrets but now it looks that also our neighbours seem to become interested. And on the 26th of August the german magazin "spiegel" revealed the location of the war-bunker of our government (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,570501,00.html).
Two days before this article I passed quite a funny building on my one-week bicycle tour following the river Rein from it's source to the Rheinfall - not that this building is in any way related to a Swiss army bunker - I guess they would throw me into jail imediately if I would say so... :-)
If you are interested into Swiss Army Fortifications (many of those old ones are not in use anymore and can be visited) look at the following pages, I'm sure you'll find a 'hole' close to your place:
http://www.schweizer-festungen.ch/links.htm#Museumsfestungen
http://www.bunker-suisse.ch/
http://www.festung-schweiz.ch/
http://www.fort.ch/flashsite.html
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Last Supper
After two wonderful days in Vals (ok, if fact it was only one, as we needed one day to cycle there) the time came for our last dinner... ("per Carlo"):
My girlfriend started with "Fetamousse mit Guacamole und Grissini"
As a warm starter we ordered "Spaghetti mit Pesto"
Followed by "Duo vom Freilandlamm mit Schalottenconfit und Rotwein-Reduktion"
Speaking about "Rotwein", we decided to go with something more 'exclusive' that evening and ordered a "Schwarz Rot 2002" which is probably one of the best - if not the best Zweigelt Wine(s). Produced by Johann „Hans“ Schwarz, Fleischhauer aus Andau im Seewinkel with friendly help of Mr. K (which stands forAlois Kracher (quality) and Manfred Krankl (know-how)). I did not regret this choice!
And last, but not least, we finished with a "Apfel-Strudelteiggebäck in der Tasse serviert mit Vanilleschaum und Glace".
If you want to do you a favour, go to the Therme Vals, enjoy the nature, the beautiful spa and don't forget to try Urs Dietrichs kitchen!
yummy....
My girlfriend started with "Fetamousse mit Guacamole und Grissini"
Whilst I enjoyed "Carpaccio vom geräuchten Bisonfilet mit pikanter Erdnusssauce"
We than got the soup (which were in fact 2 soups each) "Creme und Essenz von Rüebli und Pfälzerkarrotte" followed by our own salads from the big salad bar.
We than got the soup (which were in fact 2 soups each) "Creme und Essenz von Rüebli und Pfälzerkarrotte" followed by our own salads from the big salad bar.
As a warm starter we ordered "Spaghetti mit Pesto"
Followed by "Duo vom Freilandlamm mit Schalottenconfit und Rotwein-Reduktion"Speaking about "Rotwein", we decided to go with something more 'exclusive' that evening and ordered a "Schwarz Rot 2002" which is probably one of the best - if not the best Zweigelt Wine(s). Produced by Johann „Hans“ Schwarz, Fleischhauer aus Andau im Seewinkel with friendly help of Mr. K (which stands forAlois Kracher (quality) and Manfred Krankl (know-how)). I did not regret this choice!
And last, but not least, we finished with a "Apfel-Strudelteiggebäck in der Tasse serviert mit Vanilleschaum und Glace".If you want to do you a favour, go to the Therme Vals, enjoy the nature, the beautiful spa and don't forget to try Urs Dietrichs kitchen!
yummy....
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