Happy New Year

Einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr ;)










Let the party begin...

Brandenburg Cheese Salad

I started already the preparations for the New Year's Eve even though we are invited to the party.

But still... I have to experiment a little, if not for this party, then for the afterparty ;)
Here is a very simple salad, light and refreshing...

400 g emmental cheese, 2 sauer apples, 2 pears, 50 gr nuts, 400 mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon sweet mustard

Cut the cheese in small cubes. Peel the fruits and cut them also in cubes. Mix the fruits with the cheese and the nuts. Add the mayonnaise mixed with the mustard. Mix well and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
For a different taste add 10-15 red grapes.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Serdanu Style...

Here without you...

This week's soundtrack:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all :D

Waiting for Santa...

Christmas Greeting

Here is the lovely Granny O'Grimm wishing you a Merry Christmas :)

Raducu the flying boy

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
No... it's Raducu Spiderman :D
Hurray, I finally get to photograph a boy, not only girls for the Perfect Baby...

Juanes - Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor

Do I have to say something? Nope :D

Simon's Cat Snow Business

Simon's Cat Snow Business was published today.
This cat is totally amazing, he's like my cat's twin brother or something :))

Golden Globes Nominees

And the nominees are...

Best Motion Picture -- Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sadibe, Precious

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Julia Roberts, Duplicity

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Mo-Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz, Nine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Best Animated Feature Film
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Princess and the Frog
Up

Best Foreign Language Film
Barria
Broken Embraces
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
The Maid

Best Director -- Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture
Up in the Air
It's Complicated
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds

Best Original Score -- Motion Picture
Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are

Best Original Song -- Motion Picture
"I Will See You," Avatar
"The Weary Kind," The Crazy Heart
"Winter," U2, Brothers
"Cinema Italiano," Nine
"I Want to Come Home," Paul McCartney Everybody's Fine

It seems that I have a lot of catching up to do this Christmas ;)
I'll let you know my favourites :D

Breaking Benjamin - Breathe

I found these guys through a friend's blog (thanks Muntzi) and I decided to share them with you all.

Photography Exam

Hurray, hurray!
I'm now officially a photographer with a degree (actually with a diploma ;p)
Of course I got some answers wrong at the exam (but who cares, I mean when you see a photograph you do not ask yourself what photoshop tools the photographer used), but luckily I got a perfect 10 for my portfolio, so I'm a 9.25 :D

P.S. I'm sure my Milka ad helped a lot :))

Nobel Prize

Five Nobel Prizes were instituted by the final will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist and industrialist, who was the inventor of dynamite.
The five Prizes are: Physics, Chemistry and Economics, Literature, Physiology or Medicine and the last one - the Peace Prize.
Each "Nobel Prize Award" consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and a monetary grant. The grant is currently 10 million SEK, slightly more than US$ 1.4 million.
Four Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on the 10th of December, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
The Nobel Peace Prize is presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, also on the 10th of December.
For more information and this year's winners go to the official website: http://nobelprize.org/

Portfolio

I finally finished my portfolio for my exam on Friday. Hopefully I will pass the exam. If not it would be a funny situation - a photographer who is not able to pass a simple photography exam...
But I am quite confident, especially after I finished my ad.

P.S. None of the hearts survived the shoot. They were absolutely delicious ;)

You took something perfect and painted it red

I have been so busy these past weeks that I had no time to write anything.
Unfortunately I still haven't got time so I'll just keep posting music and videos for a while.
Right now I just love this song, I heard it today on my mp3 for 50 times at least.
The words are absolutely beautiful, or maybe it's just the mood this song gives me...

And I’m alright
Standing in the streetlights here
Is this meant for me
My time on the outside is over
We don’t know how you’re spending all of your days
Knowing that love isn’t here
You see the pictures
But you don’t know their names
Cause love isn’t here

And I can’t do this by myself
All of these problems, they’re all in your head
And I can’t be somebody else
You took something perfect
And painted it red

No sympathy
When shouting out is all you know
Behind your lies
I can see the secrets you don’t show
We don’t know how you’re spending
All of your days
Knowing that love isn’t here
You see the pictures
But you don’t know their names
Cause love isn’t here

And I can’t do this by myself
All of these problems, they’re all in your head
And I can’t be somebody else
You took something perfect
And painted it red
When you took something perfect
And painted it red

You take the best things from
Then everything gets empty
That’s not a world that I need
Ooh, you take the best things from me
Then everything gets empty
That’s not a world that I need

And I can’t do this by myself
All of these problems, they’re all in your head
And I can’t be somebody else
You took something perfect
And painted it red

When you took something perfect
And painted it red
You took something perfect
And painted ït red

Discovery Channel

This is such a beautiful way to start the week, don't you think?

Saint Nikolaus

Did I behave this past year for Saint Nikolaus to pay me a visit? Do I deserve gifts or a rod? Maybe both?
I remember 9 years ago today I went to my first ever rock concert in a club. The venue was Georg Elser Halle in Munich and the band was... of course Reamonn :D
They were just starting, their first album was a success, everybody knew Supergirl (although in the beginning I thought U2 was singing it, I wasn't too far from the truth - there was an Irish lad involved...)
Loved the show, I couldn't imagine a better Saint Nikolaus than Rea.
After 9 years they are still amazing...
Here is the improved version of their latest single - Aeroplane.

Link:

Whiskas

Finally the Christmas commercials have appeared.
Beside the Tuborg one, this is my all time favorite ;)

The Last Lioness

I read today a touching story in the newspaper: it's about a lonely lioness who sought the company of humans when she lost her pride...
Below is the article from Daily Mail. The documentary will be shown on National Geographic Wild on 11 January 2010 at 9pm.

"It was a cry of such loneliness and despair that everyone who heard it that night vowed that they had to act - and act fast. The lioness named Lady Liuwa was so lonely that she had come to humans, camped in the Liuwa National Park in Zambia, looking for company.

The gutteral roar was the unmistakable call of friendship. She was the last surviving lioness in Liuwa - and her loneliness was enveloping her - her dreams of belonging to a pride and of motherhood long gone.

The extraordinary story of how Lady turned to humans for companionship and love - and how they, in turn, fought to find her a family - has become one of the most moving wildlife films of all time. It began in 2004, when Namibian filmmaker Herbert Brauer arrived at the National Park to make a wildlife programme.

As he began filming animals from his open-topped truck, he noticed a single lioness in the distance, watching his every move. Local rangers told Herbert that her entire pride had been slaughtered by poachers. Lady had somehow managed to survive, and was now the last lion left in the National Park.

From then on, the lioness appeared to be waiting for him as went about his work. She began to tentatively follow the filming truck, sitting at a distance and watching as they focused their cameras on the wildlife. Then, one day, she made an extraordinary move. Bounding up towards the truck, she suddenly dropped down onto her back and rolled over, purring deeply. 'I was so shocked,' says Herbert, 'that it took me a couple of seconds to realise what I was seeing. Here was a wild animal who was greeting us with an unheralded display of friendship.'

But Herbert quickly realised that there was more to this behaviour than a simple show of affection. Lady was lonely - and the film crew were her only company. 'She began to follow us each day,' he says, 'and would sit happily nearby watching us complete our filming. You could sense her contentment that she had found company at last.

'It's the most unnatural thing in the world for a lion to be relaxed with humans around. Her only experience of humans had most certainly been a violent and destructive one - with memories of the poachers who had killed her pride. But, despite this, she was willing to trust us, and accept us.'

Then one night, as Herbert and his crew relaxed outside the tents in their camp, they heard a noise in the bushes. Slowly, but surely, Lady walked towards them. To a man, everyone froze. But Lady appeared oblivious to the tension. She simply stopped ten yards away from Herbert, dropped down on her vast stomach, and purred deeply.

'As soon as I saw her, I was strangely unafraid,' he says. 'I somehow sensed that Lady had come into camp just to find me. When she dropped down and relaxed, we all realised that she just wanted to be near us.'

And so an extraordinary ritual began. By day, Lady would roam the wilds, always on the lookout for the film crew. At night, once they had returned to camp, she would creep in and settle down to sleep just yards from their tent. Humans had become her only comfort - and, despite every wild instinct in her body, loneliness was driving her closer and closer to the only friends she knew.

In 2007, another fresh face arrived at camp - Craig Reid, the newly appointed Project Coordinator for Liuwa National Park. Craig, 37, recalls, 'As soon as I arrived, Herbert - who had returned to the Park to monitor Lady's progress - and the other rangers told me about Lady, who had become a local legend.

They said that she would come into camp at night to say hello, but nothing could have prepared me for our first meeting. As I stood outside my tent, a huge lioness appeared and strolled up casually to within ten metres of where I stood - I was frozen to the spot. All my years of experience taught me to be extremely wary of lions, but it was clear that she was totally relaxed and happy. She looked me up and down, and then settled nearby, rolling and purring. I had never seen anything like it in my life. It was clear that she viewed humans as her friends.'

Our story might have ended there - as a quaint tale of a lion who enjoyed human company. But one night, Craig and the rest of the camp heard Lady give a distinctive call. Craig says, 'She was calling out to us in a low roar, a special sound which lions produce when they want to make contact with other lions. It was clear that she was calling us - a cry of friendship. But it sounded so lost and so mournful, and that's when we all realised that this lion was desperately lonely.'

Haunted by her cries, Craig and Herbert hatched a plan to find her a mate and bring him back to Liuwa. In September 2008, a team set off to find a lion for Lady. The expedition, to the Kafue National Park in central Zambia, which was 400 miles away, started well. A glorious and fit young male was spotted on his own - and sedated by the vet with a dart gun. He was then loaded onto the back of a truck and taken on the long journey to Liuwa, where the team had built a special, safe enclosure.

Craig says, 'Lions have extremely strong homing instincts, and we couldn't just let him loose in case he tried to find his way home. Our plan was to leave him to wake up beside some food, and then spend a few weeks letting him become used to his surroundings - and hopefully Lady, who was roaming the outer park.

'We were all so excited for Lady's sake. It was like a truly personal mission. We all desperately wanted her to be happy, and to end her awful loneliness. When we went to bed that night, we were all physically exhausted, but buzzing with excitement about the future.'

But when Craig and his team rose the next morning and raced to the enclosure, tragedy had struck. The healthy young lion had woken from his sedation, panicked and choked to death on regurgitated food. Herbert was distraught, and the entire crew fell silent as his healthy young body was cremated. Craig says, 'It was absolutely devastating. We had put so much into bringing this lion to Lady, only to find him dead. Of course, we felt so guilty. We all felt that we had let Lady down, and that a beautiful young animal had died unnecessarily. 'We don't think Lady had ever seen the young male lion. But that night, she came into camp and started to give soft cries. I don't know if it was our imagination, but she seemed so mournful. It was almost as if somehow, she knew that her chance of companionship and motherhood had died. Her sorrow just added to our own horror.'

The team decided that they must try again. This time, they chose the rainy season, some eight months later. 'We decided to take two young male lions this time,' says Craig, 'because Liuwa is overrun by hyenas, who might snatch any cub that Lady gave birth to. With two young males, she would have more protection and the three of them might form a natural pride.'

It was a muted team, their nerves jangling, who made the journey to Kafue National Park in May this year. Craig says, 'All we could think of was the tragic outcome of our previous attempt. We brought the two males back, and placed them in the enclosure, hoping that the fact there were two of them might make them panic less.' But when the lions awoke, the initial signs were not good. Confused and agitated, they threw themselves against the electric fence surrounding their enclosure. The crew could only watch, horrified, as the lions injured themselves.

Then, something extraordinary happened. Out of the depths of the wild stepped Lady, who stopped - and stared. 'We didn't have a clue how she was going to respond to other lions,' says Craig, 'because we had never seen her interact with her own kind. We sat and stared at Lady - and she sat and stared at the new arrivals. Her presence seemed to calm the young lions, but we were all so nervous.' That night, for the first time in years, Lady failed to appear in camp. Craig says, 'We raced to the enclosure the next day and there was Lady, sitting watching the two lions, and looking incredibly happy.'

The plan was to keep the young lions within their enclosure for several weeks, so that they could become used to the territory and reduce the risk of them attempting to find their own way home. But, on day six, disaster struck once more. 'When we arrived at the enclosure, there was a hole in the fence and the two lions were gone,' says Craig.

'We felt physically sick. We knew that if they tried to make their way out of the park to get home, they would almost certainly be shot dead, either by the poachers who roam outside the park, or by terrified villagers. We immediately sent out a search party. Luckily, one of the lions had been fitted with an electronic collar while under sedation, so we were able to pick up a radio signal half an hour later.

'It had to be the longest half hour of my life. We raced to find the males - and suddenly we saw them. They were both sitting under a tree - and there, a few metres away, was Lady. As we sat and watched over the next few hours, it became clear that Lady wasn't going to leave her two new friends. If they got up and moved, she followed. If she moved, they followed her.' Lady turned and looked at the crew, before turning back to face her new friends - who appeared to have accepted their new home after quickly forming a new pride with Lady. From that moment on, her interaction with humans ceased. She was no longer alone.

Craig says, 'We still see Lady with the two males. We've seen them mate, and we are hoping that Lady will fall pregnant soon, because, at nine years old, her biological clock is ticking. We would love her to have a cub and to experience motherhood. We will never forget her purring, rolling and playing, and the incredible friendship that she shared with us. Now, we just want her to be happy with her new family.'

Leek soup with hot dog and mustard

100 g leeks, 2 hot dogs, 400 ml water, 1 Maggi French Onion Soup Mix, 1 tablespoon sweet mustard

Wash the leeks and cut them in big chunks. Cut the hotdog in small slices and fry it in a little bit of oil. Set aside. Fry the leek in the same pan, add the water and the Maggi Mix and boil for 15 minutes. Mix the soup, add the mustard and serve with the fried hot dogs.

Nový Měsíc

Movie night tonight :)
The gang is back again, hurray, hurray!!
And what a better way to celebrate than a ... vampire movie :D
Unfortunately no popcorn fights could occur because I reserved the wrong seats and we were separated by an aisle, but we actually wanted to watch the movie. What movie?
Well...
Yes, it's Nový Měsíc (that's New Moon for the inexperienced in Czech language ;) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1259571/
The long awaited sequel of Twilight is here! And guess what: it's better than the first movie :))
The special effects are more spectacular and the slow motion movements are coool.
The cinema was divided in Team Jacob and Team Edward and I think Team Jacob had more fans... At least the cheering was louder when Jacob was around.
If you haven't read the books you might not like the movie or understand most of the scenes, or as Adi said: when does he bite her? And when he discovered it won't happen any time soon he was a little bit disappointed :))
But all in all it was a good movie. Now we just have to wait for the next episode :P

World AIDS Day

U2 covered "I believe in Father Christmas" by Greg Lake (1974) last year, for Bono's Product Red campaign to fight AIDS in Africa.