(9:42)
Will be following... Erst die Arbeit dann das Vergnuegen.

Just a soccer vent afer I've just read the online news and sportsnews: Today evening the verdicts in Italy's football scandal will be officially revealed. Gazetta dello Sport claims it already knows the verdict:

"The verdict will be this: Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio will be relegated to Serie B," claimed the Gazzetta confidently. "AC Milan will stay in Serie A but will not be allowed to take part in the Champions League." (The Guardian)

Well if Gazetta was right, isn't it a surprise that exactly AC Milan - Berlusconi's club - is not sentenced to Serie B?

(13:48)
Korrektur: erst die Arbeit, dann das Vergnuegen, dann wieder Arbeit.

But as I don't know whether I'll have time later I have to use part of my lunch break.

As for today: After work I'll have a coffee and maybe an icecream (Edmonton's best according to Lucka) with Lucka, Darius and Ala. And for the evening Lilla has invited me to visit her flat (Basement as well) and she'll cook dinner for David me and herself.

Tomorrow: I'll sleeeeeeep looooooooong (or try to) to make up the weeks sleep deficit. Therefore, I unfortunately will miss having a walk and visit to Fort Edmonton Park with Lucka and Darius. But sleep is just essential. Even more as tomorrow evening Eric will celebrate his 25th birthday so I assume it will be a long night involving lots of mineral water and maybe, maybe, one or two drops of alcohol.

Actually I wanted (and still want to) buy him a little present. What's the ideal gift for a soccer freak? I was considering looking for a nice jersey. Actually if I had more time I might have ordered a jersey of the Austrian national team. He once asked me whether I have one and was quite surprised when I laughed and answered that I don't. Ehm - does anyone of you know anyone who has got an Austrian jersey and would actually wear it, for example for soccer training or playing? Eric may have been right when he said I should have brought one with me because it looks nice with that eagle and people would find it interesting. Well I think it's not particularly stylish, but the colour of the white old (now away) jersey - not the new red (home) one - should suit me (well maybe it's difficult to see where the jersey ends and skin starts but anyway). Furthermore I had my first name flocked on the back it would make things easier for the guys on the soccer pitch. I realised once again that pronouncing and remembering my name seems to be a bit difficult for them.. But on the other hand 60 Euro is quite a lot - for an Austrian jersey. So apart from the fact that it's too late to order one for him I don't know him that well to spend that much money. Something small and nice and funny. But not an Ueberraschungsei? Hmmm.. Otherwise I'll pay him a couple of shots in the evening: They are small, taste nice (or we pretend they do, otherwise why would we drink them?) and will make him do funny things (oh maybe that's why we drink them?).

Sunday: I haven't made any plans for obvious reasons. Or to put it another way: Sometimes sleeping and recovering might be a plan challenging enough..

Btw: When checking the ÖFB web site I saw that on August 18 Austria will play against Hungary. Unfortunately Lilla will already be back in Budapest by then but I still have to tell her that old old joke of two people meeting: "On August 18 is the Austria-Hungary match." "Oh great! Against whom do we play?" I'm sure she'll love it!

Die Postkarten-Silber-Medaille geht an:

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Sollte am Ende also doch Blut dicker als Bier sein?

Dass das Rennen um Gold knapp ausfiel, liegt im uebrigen an den Spaniern, die 12 Tage fuer die Karte brauchten, waehrend die oesterreichische Post, die gemeinhin – offenbar zu unrecht – auch nicht fuer ihren Schnelligkeit bekannt ist, 5 Tage schneller war!

Die Haltung der Finger soll uebrigens meinen Bart andeuten, der diese Woche ungebremst und unfreiwillig wuchs, unfreiwillig meinerseits (wie der Bart darueber denkt weiss ich nicht, aber er scheint hoechst freiwillig gewachsen zu sein) und zwar deshalb, weil ich seit letztem Wochenende verzweifelt und ergebnislos meine Schere gesucht habe. Gestern hatte ich schon fast aufgegeben, bis ich nach Erhalt der Karte – welch Geistesblitz - auf die Idee kam, ich koennte mal im Schreibtisch, in meiner zweiten Federschachtel nachsehen. Und da lag sie, unschuldig und silbrig schimmernd. Das muss letzten Freitag beim Putzen passiert sein, was einmal mehr beweist: Aufraeumen bekommt mir einfach nicht..

Wie schnell man sich ans Plastik gewöhnt.. Ganz, ganz früher hob ich immer größere Beträge vom Konto ab und lagerte einen Teil daheim, man weiß ja nie, wann man das nächste Mal auf einen Bankomaten stößt, insbesondere bei uns daheim in der Pampa, äh, idyllischen, beschaulichen naturbelassenen ländlichen Idylle. Danach, in Städten gibt es ja doch einige Bankomaten, hob ich kleinere Beträge ab, die ich aber immer bei mir trug, für’s Einkaufen und so. Zuletzt hatte ich oft kaum mehr Geld dabei, Bankomaten zum schnell was abheben gibt’s ja überall und für’s Einkaufen nutzte ich oft einfach die elektronische Kasse.
Jetzt geht’s ein Stückchen weit zurück in die gute alte Zeit: Prinzipiell kostet hier jedes Mal Geld vom Bankomat-Behebung oder im Bankomatkassen-Nutzung Geld, 50 Cent. Ich habe zwar ein Package, das mir für einen Fixbetrag im Monat eine größere Anzahl an Behebungen gewährt, wie viele hab ich jetzt nicht im Kopf, aber auf jeden Fall muss ich darauf acht geben. Aber das ist noch nicht alles. Die Spontaneität leidet des weiteren darunter, dass ich nur von den Bankomaten meiner Bank kostenlos abheben kann – bei denen von anderen Banken werden ungefähr 1 Dollar 50 an Spesen verrechnet. Leben die hier hinterm Mond? Naja, aber was soll man anderes erwarten von einem Land, wo man als Handybesitzer – mit Kanadischer Wertkarte wohlgemerkt – Gebühren zahlt, wenn man angerufen wird oder ein SMS empfängt! Was nebenbei bemerkt einer der Gründe, ist, warum ich mich noch nicht weiter um eine Wertkarte bemüht habe. Aber zurück zu den Bankomaten: Weiß ich, wo in Edmonton „meine“ Bankomaten verteilt sind? Ich werde also wohl wieder zum Ausgangspunkt zurückkehren und seltener, dafür aber größere Beträge abheben. Auch wenn es beruhigend ist zu wissen, dass ich im Notfall sowohl fremde Bankomaten als auch Supermarktkassen benützen könnte – ich kann es nicht ausstehen, Geld zu verschwenden, wenn es sich mittels eines kleinen Maßes an Planung vermeiden ließe.

Alas, there I stood yesterday, in the Safeway with only 15 bucks. Well, who cares, I only needed bread for breakfast. But as it always happens (at least when I go shopping) I see this and that and in the end I leave the supermarket with 5 or more times more items than I intended to buy. I don’t really mind because I’ll enjoy them, it’s not as if I’d buy stuff which is useless (as, for example, owning 10 pairs of shoes). Well, but yesterday that obviously was no option. When was the last time I’ve been to a supermarket and added the prize of all the items, just to be sure I can afford them? First stop: Bread. Buy two packages for 3 Dollar. Fine. Well, actually I also wanted to have cereals, manly by means of drinking coffee and tea a single person can’t really finish off a package of milk before it goes bad. Even not if I’d by semi-skimmed or skimmed milk (“white coloured water” as Lilla likes to name it) Especially not, if the smallest unit is half a litre. I know that packages of quarter a litre are being sold somewhere but as to now they remained hidden to my eyes. OK, by 2 for 7 Dollars. Perfect! And then I went to check out the pizzas because it was already half past 10 in the evening (I actually had expected that the supermarket was already closed but it’s open until midnight – Hurrah!) and I thought they might have special prices to get rid of them. And so it was: One package with two pizzas 7.99. Buy one get one free. Excellent! Excellent? Wait! Clatter-Add-Clatter-Count: 3 and 7 makes 10 and 8… Shit! I checked my wallet once again: Maybe 3 Dollars in coins? Usually it’s full and heavy with change which I hardly manage to get rid of. But of course – the law of the falling bread with jam – not today. Almost empty. The last, futile hope: Maybe a hidden Fiver somewhere? Nope. A decision had to be made: Cereals or Pizza, that is the question, as William S. would have put it. For a moment I also considered the creative option: I leave the bread, take Pizza and Cereals (exactly 15 bucks) and have the latter for breakfast. But cereals only? Would that be enough until lunch time? To cut a long story short - or, to be more precise: to put the long end of a long story a little bit shorter - I took the bread and the pizza (11 Dollars), which provided yesterday’s dinner (one pizza) as well as today’s breakfast (bread) and lunch (a second pizza). And the cereals I will buy another time. Today? Maybe not. The remaining 4 Dollars had been almost halved by might afternoon coffee (1.60) and actually one of the 2-Dollar coins is brand-new and shine so I’d prefer to add it to my collection. Therefore, the funds currently available make up... ... exactly 78 Cent. Well, it would be an interesting experience to see, what I can buy with that money. But I think I prefer looking for a cash machine…

1. Das hier ist nicht bloss ein Ei. Das ist ein kanadisches Huehnerei der Klasse “Large”! Pah! Diese Huener wuerden sich schaemen, wenn sie saehen, was ihre oesterreichischen Artgenossinnen leisten. Ich moechte nicht wissen, wie hier die Klasse “Klein” aussieht. Ich vermute, man wuerde sie bei uns als Taubeneier verkaufen. Von wegen in Amerika ist alles groesser! (PS: Das Foto ist etwas gar unvorteilhaft in Bezug auf die Groesse des Eies - aber es ist wirklich vergleichsweise klein!)

2. Das hier sind nicht bloss zwei Bueroklammern (die ich heute vor dem Institut am Boden fand). Das koennte mein neues Haus sein - sofern ich bereit waere, dafuer schonungslos abzukupfern (was ich nicht bin) und dafuer kreuz und quer in Amerika herumzureisen (was ich auch nicht bin)! Aber jemand war bereit dazu! Hier ist der Bericht ueber Kyle MacDonald und das der Link zu seinem Blog.

3. Last, but not least at all: Der Preis fuer die erste Postkarte nach Edmonton geht an: Tatatataaaaaaa:

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Sie ist gestern angekommen (die Karte, nicht Leticia) ! Vielen lieben Dank!
(PS an alle: Die Silber- und die Bronzemedaille sind noch zu haben.. ;-)

Our kamikaze mission was quite successful, apart from the negative fact that Italy won and from the fairly positive fact that we did not suffer the consequences commonly meant by “kamikaze”.. Eric nearly achieved it though. While Eddie and I were dressed neutrally, Eric wore his French jersey. (That guy really seems to have a matching shirt for every great match!) We had just entered the café “Tra Amici” when we encountered a rocker pirate with a massive moustache, clad in an Italian flag. He glanced at Eric, immediately noticed that his shirt was the wrong blue and the wrong emblems and said with a strong Italian accent: “Eh, What are you doing here!?” Eric answered a couple of words when the pirate suddenly reached into his pocket and swiftly took out something smooth and silvery. At first sight I thought it was a knife, but it was only a lighter, with which he pretended – quite realistically – to attempt to burn Eric’s jersey. That was kind of eerie. Tra Amici? Well that was not exactly my definition of being among friends..

< image "0589-Amici" deleted >

But after that initial thrilling moment it was perfectly alright. Of course it was mostly Italy-fans but also 4 or 5 Dutch as well as a couple of other people who more or less just came here for the atmosphere. However, I was fairly disappointed by the Italians. It’s always said they are the so crazy and passionate about soccer and maybe they are - in Italy or elsewhere – but definitely not inside "Tra Amicia". Seriously, they were no match at all for the English. First of all, the volume in the café wasn’t immediately put on when the two teams entered the pitch – you couldn’t have had that in the Elephant & Castle without loud complaints including a sample of (in)famous English curses. Secondly they didn’t even turn on the sound up for the national anthem – can you believe that? Italy playing in the final and they give shit about the national anthem – that’s sacrilegious! However, nobody – apart from Eric and me – seemed to care. Oh I tell you, it gave me the goose bumps every single time they played “God save the Queen” and whole crowd in the Elephant and Castle stood up as one man and sung the anthem with all their heart. And I am dead sure – in such a situation – the anthem being played but no volume – one of those hardcore English fans would just have started to sing and the others would have joined. I think there are two reasons why this didn’t happen here. On the one hand it was a final – and as everywhere the hardcore fans are diluted with bandwagon fans (like Eric, Eddie and me) who want to enjoy but not create atmosphere. On the other hand I suspect it might be due to a different pattern of immigration. The English supporters were almost entirely first generation; you could here that. In contrast many of the Italians (they definitely deserve a medal for the female supporters...) where so young that they definitely must have been second (or third) generation, who may be proud of their roots but nevertheless are rather Canadians than original Italians. At least so I would guess. Anyway, it was the same during the match. Yes it was packed, yes it was some atmosphere but still rather tame. Cheering, singing, clapping? Only at key scenes but not spontaneously during the match just for fun - as it ought to be.

But of course the exaltation was ear-deafening during and after the penalties. We left quite quickly and very keen on food (By then Eric and I had already had 5 beers - 0,33 but still) so we walked just a few of blocks, from Little Italy to Chinatown, where we enjoyed nice Vietnamese food. Afterwards we were hanging around Churchill Square (in front of the city hall) where a street festival was taking place including musicians, comedians, fortune tellers and the like. But I wasn’t too impressed, too tired and not really in the mood. As it had been raining when the match ended – heaven crying with us – we did not play soccer. Instead we had a rest at our homes and afterwards the three of us and Eric’s girlfriend went out (two more beers, large ones this time, with fresh raspberries on top, interesting, but no flavour inside the beer though).