Buurefasnacht 2007

After John and Bérénice arrived yesterday, we went to Basle together and walked around town before going up to Bar Rouge at the top of the Messeturm (Trade Fair Tower). We had a beer there before taking the tram to Riehen's famed Mongolian restaurant. Unfortunately, the place was packed with no spare seats, so we walked back to Weil over the border and settled down at Restaurant San Remo. At the end of our meal a "Clique" of Gugge musicians came in and proceeded to play a few renditions before settling down for a beer or six.

I didn't have my camera with me then, but today I did. And the procession was rain-free! It started at 1.30 p.m. prompt this afternoon. Pete from Blansingen joined us shortly after. I think a lot of fun was had by all. The unique aspect that sets Weiler Fasnacht apart is that it combines the Waggis (see 2nd, 4th and 5th photos below) and Guggemusiig of Basle with the Schwäbisch-Alemannisch tradition of South West Germany. Here are some of the results:










































John and Bérénice said goodbye at around 4 p.m. at the end of the procession and are now driving back to Walldorf as I write. That was an enjoyable day.

Sod's Law

After five working days of glorious sunny weather, heavy showers and gusts of wind have now arrived just in time for the weekend. It's early afternoon and it's been raining the proverbial cats and dogs over the last couple of hours. Friends John and Bérénice from Walldorf are due to arrive within the next hour or so. They're coming to watch the hopefully rain-free Fasnacht procession tomorrow. As Bérénice has never sampled the delights of Basle, I thought we'd first venture out there later this afternoon. Just wish the weather would perk up...

Fasnacht begins

I've just returned from the Rathausplatz in Weil, where Buurefasnacht kicked off tonight with the "Guggemusik Monsterkonzert". I made my way down there at 7 to watch a few of the performances with some good friends. All the bands had masks on, which, for some reason, they would all take off after the first song. This is unlike Basle, where taking your mask off is a no-no. Judging by some of them on stage, I think everyone would have been better advised to keep their masks on. In any case, it detracts visually from the whole spectacle. A "poor man's" Basler Guggekonzert, then? Probably. Musically, the bands seem to keep it together better in Basle, plus the costumes are superior.

I took a photo though:

Annual report season

It's that time of the year again. When translators work silly hours in order to meet the demands of corporate clients who are publishing annual reports. And it's the same story every year. Firstly, we receive a detailed timetable from the client in early January as to when we can expect the first texts to arrive and when we're expected to deliver our translations. We then reserve work capacity accordingly. It then turns out that client is late in sending us the texts to translate, yet still expects us to meet their "non-negotiable" delivery deadline - which this year was 16 February. Over the last three weeks it was touch and go, but we managed it in the end. The worst aspect of this year's mad rush was having to correct the additions the CEO himself had made to translations that had already been delivered. I'm told the guy's Swedish and he may "speak better English than German", but it would have saved a lot of blood, sweat and tears had he got a native English speaker to do that job for him instead of leaving it to yours truly to decipher the results of his meddling.

Anyway, bar the final proofs - which will no doubt involve more ironing-out of the client's "corrections" - it looks like we're in the clear now, as far as this year is concerned, touch wood.

Ulla kommt

According to the Weiler Zeitung, a delegation of German civil servants from Berlin - including one of Germany's most well-liked politicians (not!) the Bundesgesundheitsministerin (Health Minister) Ulla Schmidt plus high-ranking officials from 27 different European countries - will be gathering in the nearby spa town of Badenweiler (pronounced "Baaadehweeeleh" in the local dialect) from 25 to 27 Feb for some conference knees-up going by the name of Gesundheitliche Prävention - hard to translate but roughly it means prevention is better than the cure...

To get these fonctionaires in the mood for some hard negotiation, they're all coming to Weil on Sunday 25 February to witness the annual carnival procession, or: Buurefasnachtsumzug. I hope they like it.

Your official blog carnival correspondent will, of course, be reporting on the event in full digital technicolour.

Beautiful day

Went on a walk today: from home in Weil, over the Tüllinger Höhe and then down the other side to Lörrach. Took some photos along the way (see below). Up the steep path from the Weiler Schlipf vineyard to St. Ottilien Kirche at the top of the hill, then through Ober-Tüllingen, followed by a gentle descent down to Lörrach on the eastern side of the hill. Stopped off at Zum Wilden Mann in the centre of Lörrach for a wheat beer then caught the S-Bahn back home.

The weather was dry, sunny and perfect for walking. On the way down to Lörrach, I went past the holiday flat in Lörrach-Tüllingen where I lived for two weeks in April 2000 when I first arrived in Germany. The (mostly) fond memories of that time came flooding back, and I remembered how apprehensive yet excited I felt back then. For a moment, I wished I was seven years younger.

One new discovery I made in Lörrach today was that there is now a new English pub situated opposite the Maharaja restaurant called "Hang Out", which could be an interesting new venue to keep in mind for the future.

Anyway, I arrived in the centre of Lörrach and went into Zum Wilden Mann for a cheeky wheat beer and a read of the book I've currently got. Near the end of my stay there U2's Beautiful Day started playing through the loud speakers. It cheered me up no end. No particular reason why, but it was nice to be nostalgic for a moment.

Anyway, here are the photos:

Looking out north-west to the Vosges in the distance














German vineyards, Swiss hills in the distance














Looking over Weil from St.-Ottilien-Kirche














View of Lörrach from the same vantage point

Sonnenmännchen

This is the Sonnenmännchen.

Quaint and friendly it may look, but it's also the marketing logo for wine in Baden. If there ever was a sadder indictment of the Badischer Weinverband's marketing strategy, this is it. "Von der Sonne verwöhnt" (Sun-blessed) is the Sonnenmännchen's slogan. All well and good, but while other German wine regions, such as the Pfalz, attract international attention thanks to intelligent, no-nonsense wine marketing, Baden, on the other hand, try to flog their wines with the aid of Jörg Kachelmann the weatherman and a cuddly toy. It speaks volumes.

Herr Dietz

Last Wednesday morning as I left the flat just before 8 - cutting it fine as usual for the bus - I started jogging down the road towards the bus stop 60 metres or so away when some bloke in a long, dark coat approached from the opposite direction. It wasn't until I'd just passed him that I realised that the man in question was non other than Herr Wolfgang Dietz, Weil's Oberbürgermeister supremo. Being a proud Weil citizen, I wanted to run back and shake his hand, but I thought better of it and got on the bus instead.

Climate change

According to the newspaper article below, it looks like this is corner of Germany most likely in future to feel the full cataclysmic effects of global warming.

Being a wine bore, however, I'm personally preoccupied with how German wines will taste like in 30-40 years time. Will the delicate style of riesling wines that sold for more than Bordeaux at the turn of the 19th century soon be a thing of the past? Will wine growers down here in Südbaden be ripping up their Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) plots and planting red grape varieties like Syrah (Shiraz), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot en masse instead? You may chortle, but Hanspeter Ziereisen, a winemaker from Efringen-Kirchen just 6 miles down the road, is already making waves internationally with his Syrah grown on his premier cru site Efringer Ölberg. For information about Ziereisen and more besides, read Jancis Robinson's article: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/winenews060624

Rückrunde

The Weiler Zeitung have sent me their paper free of charge over the past fortnight to try and get me to subscribe to them. While it it a decent paper, I doubt I'll take up their offer, if only because I often don't manage to read it when I get back in the evening because I'm doing other things. And in any case, the newspaper already has a dedicated website where I can browse the local news to my heart's content.

Nevertheless, the Weiler Zeitung truly is an upstanding newspaper for local people, and one supplement did catch my eye a couple of days ago: the fixture list for the second half of the season (Rückrunde) in the local amateur football leagues. SV Weil is the name of our local team, so, courtesy of the Weiler Zeitung, I present you, dear readers, with SV Weil's remaining fixtures in the 2006/2007 Verbandsliga Südbaden season:

*All matches on a Saturday (3.30 kick-off) unless stated.

3 March (yes, you read that correctly: following an inexplicably long winter break that began back at the beginning of December)
SV Weil vs. SV Stadelhofen
10 March
SV Linx vs SV Weil (Linx are the league's fat cats, run-away leaders and favourites to get repromoted to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg. If Weil get anything from this fixture, I'll eat my (c)hat)
17 March
SV Weil vs FC Teningen
25 March (Sunday 3.00 kick-off)
FV Gamshurst vs SV Weil
31 March
SV Weil vs SC Pfullendorf II (reserve team of one of southern Germany's most well-known amateur clubs)
7 April
VfB Bühl vs SV Weil
14 April
SV Weil vs Kehler FV (Kehl is another town near the French border with a pedestrian bridge over the Rhine, though I won't bore you with that one)
21 April
Offenburger FV vs SV Weil (Offenburg are favourites to clinch the second promotion spot and are currently 8 points ahead of third-placed Pfullendorf)
28 April
SV Weil vs Freiburger FC (used to be Freiburg's best-supported team before the days of SC Freiburg and their gloryhunter following)
6 May (Sunday 3.00 kick-off)
FC Wollmatingen vs SV Weil
12 May
SV Weil vs FV Donaueschingen
19 May
SV Weil vs FC Denzlingen (note: Denzlingen, Teningen and Bötzingen are all local rivals of Freiburger FC)
26 May
FC Bötzingen vs SV Weil

Cricket

Yes, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Went to Basel Cricket Club's weekly indoor training session this week for the first ever time. Was toying with the idea for a good while, but always lacked will-power due to it being on a Friday night. However, since the summer, when I injured the meniscus on my right knee for the upteenth time playing football, I'd been seriously considering giving the Beautiful Game up and trying my hand at something else. Last night was now the moment I may have kissed my promising career goodbye as a midfield fantaisiste who can play the killer through-ball yet also lobs "hand grenades" à la Paul Scholes (and even tracks back to help out his defence).

It dawned on me over the last few months that the meniscus problem is terminal if I carry on with football - a weak spot that I've had ever since I badly jarred that area in a 50:50 tackle back in the late 90s. Sad to say, but footy has probably run it's course with me. I now want to try out a different sport, and cricket is that sport.

Last night was fun. There were about a dozen of us who turned up at the school gym hall, and we played quick limited-overs games with five fielders plus the bowler of course. Being indoors, the rules were somewhat improvised. For example, if you hit the ball on to the gym wall at the back it was six runs. If you hit the wall on the sides, it was two runs... or maybe four - I can't quite remember! I bowled a couple of overs, and apart from a freak first delivery, I think I did ok.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to training again next week.

Subway

Subway, the food chain, is set to move into Weil this coming May. In fact, it will be moving into Weil's best and only specialist porcelain shop, Harr. I'm not sure what will subsequently become of Harr, but it's a shame that such a good shop selling high-quality products is now going to make way for a fast-food store.

However, I have friends from Heidelberg who visit me sporadically and will no doubt appreciate the option of nourishing themselves on Subway's legendary "footlong" baps.

Schwingungsmessung

That's the word Weil's authorities used to describe today's event on the new pedestrian bridge. Around 600 lucky participants were asked to gather on the bridge at around 2 p.m. and walk around on it. The aim of this exercise was to measure how much vibration this would create on bridge. The original opening of the bridge was scheduled for 31 December, but this date has had to be put back to allow the relevant measurements to be completed which are necessary for safety reasons.

Anyway, I sauntered on down at around 4 p.m. and was able to walk across the bridge and over to the other side in Huningue, France. Being the first time I'd ever been in Huningue, despite the town being situated just a few stone's throws away, it was a funny feeling finally reaching the French side of the river. A bit like entering West Berlin from the East for the first time - hm... well, not quite, but it did feel funny. On first impressions, Huningue looked rather grim near the riverside, although the centre of town with its square and cenotaph was better.

Anyhow, photo time now. These pictures were taken from the bridge and from the French side:

Walk in the January sun

Well, what a glorious day that was.

With the weather ridiculously mild for this time of the year (14/15C) and with the sun shining, I decided to go on an afternoon walk to clear the cobwebs. Being currently on holiday, I can afford these luxuries.

I didn't intend to go far, but in the end my legs took me as far as the village of Ötlingen. Here are a couple of photos I took along the way.

We three kings

It's "Heilige Drei Könige" (Epiphany) today - and a public holiday here (but not in Basle) - so all the shops are closed. Although it's Saturday, the town has that Sunday feeling, with less people out and about plus the odd Swiss-registered car whizzing past, its occupants wondering why all the shops are closed.

Just spending a relaxing time and watching the FA Cup on telly. I did take the opportunity this afternoon though to go on a walk and use my new toy camera. Here are some of the results (including images of Germany's only "double roundabout rolled into one"):

Christmas on the Fylde coast

Returned to Weil on 4 January following Christmas spent with my parents at home in Lancashire. I spent a full two weeks there and really enjoyed being with my family and just relaxing. Here are a couple of scenic photos I took while I was there:

Ribble Estuary sea wall, sand dunes and Irish Sea in the distance











Fairhaven Lake

Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

This is most probably my last post for 2006, so I'd like to say a belated Merry Christmas to you all, dear readers, and all the best in the new year!
Simon

Communication problems

Following the earth tremor of 8 December, Weil's mayor, Wolfgang Dietz, wrote to Barbara Schneider, one of the city councillors in Basle, to express his concern on behalf of the upstanding citzens of Weil that Swiss officials couldn't be bothered to inform anyone on this side of the border about what caused the quake. Herr Dietz and Frau Schneider have a bit of previous, shall we say, dating from a couple of years back when they were in opposing camps during the Germany vs Switzerland "Zollfreie Straße" controversy (long story, will cover that one another time - suffice to say that the Swiss didn't have a leg to stand on).

Anyway, this time Dietz socked it to Basle again, lambasting the lack of communication coming from the city. The first he heard of the little matter of geothermal activities in Kleinhüningen having been the trigger was through the press, he said. The tremor had also caused a great deal of unnecessary worry and agitation among Weil's residents, so reports said. Dietz wasn't alone in expressing his concern: his counterpart from St Louis (F), also gave Basle a pièce of his mind.

My personal view of all this is that seems a bit strange for the Swiss to bang on about romantic notions of tri-border cooperation when they can't even stick their finger out to inform their close neighbours about the background to last week's events. Incidentally, a fortnight or so ago a free brochure landed in my letter box entitled "metrobasel". It was full of glossy pictures and "visions" of how cross-border cooperation can be harnessed to consolidate Basle's economic prosperity. It had plenty of quotes from Basle's councillors, academics and captains of industry, talking about ambitious rail and building projects etc., but notably not a peep from anyone either from France or Germany. I then saw the list of the project's official partners at the back of the brochure and it read like a who's who of Basle's corporate movers and shakers. Now, there is a temptation to be cynical here and suggest that Weil and Lörrach, or Huningue and St Louis for that matter, weren't even consulted about this important project either.

Earthquake!

Basle was raised to the ground by an earthquake in 1356.

Basle is on a fault line, and seismologists say that a major earthquake could hit the region again at any time. In the time I've been living in Weil, several notable earth tremors have been recorded. Most times they occurred at night when I was fast asleep. The only time I actually felt something was November 2005, when there was a quake measuring 5.4 on the Richter Scale. The epicentre was in Waldkirch (D) near Freiburg but could be felt here. Windows started to shake and it was a bit scary.

Anyway, another tremor occurred at 5.50pm on Friday 8 December. However, the difference with this one was that it was "man-made". According to press reports, the epicentre was directly under the border area of northern Basle (Kleinhüningen) and Weil. It turns out that it was caused by a Deep Heat Mining project located in Basle only 100m or so from the border. There had been several more minor earth tremors in the 24 hours prior to this quake, and these have continued up until today, albeit barely detectable.

Although the quake on Friday evening only measured 3.4 on the Richter Scale, it felt worse, by all accounts, because the tremor occurred only 5 kilometres below ground - most natural tremors are a lot lower (15 to 20km). I say "by all accounts" because I was totally oblivious to it. By my reckoning, I'd just come out of work and was on a tram in the centre of Basle at that time and didn't notice a thing. A colleague said she felt a tremor earlier at around 5pm - which I also didn't notice.

Ho hum. Anyway, here is an article about it in German which I've scanned (click to enlarge):

Frankfurt

Went to Frankfurt last Thursday to take in the UEFA Cup group tie between Eintracht Frankfurt and Newcastle United. Joined up with Scott from Zurich on the train, then Rob and John from Mannheim onwards. The four of us later met up with others who had travelled up by car.

The time prior to, during and after the match was punctuated somewhat by Rob. He'd done some digital photo work and produced a collection of photo stickers of your's truly showing the email address of this blog at the bottom. Aided and abetted by John, he then proceeded to distrbute these stickers liberally throughout Frankfurt's public transport system. If you are surfing this blog for the first time after having spotted one of these stickers while going down a U-Bahn escalator in Frankfurt, I can only apologise for photo in question, hope you have recovered from the trauma and welcome you to my blog.

The match ended 0-0.