Australia unoccupied?

Last week I noticed that the "Occupy Wall Street" movement had hit the Gold Coast! Since I was heading down to Brunswick Heads anyway I thought I should at least offer a few hours of my time and take a few pictures. Moral support alone is overrated.

When protesting one needs to dress appropriately so that both your fellow protesters, spectators and most importantly the police can identify what group you belong to. Luckily I have a red Che Guevara t-shirt for just such an occasion. Sporting Che you can blend into any left-wing cause seamlessly.

                                                        I saw this Video on YouTube

but when I got down there on Saturday afternoon I saw this.

A public event less well attended than an Australian Chess Tournament!

Meanwhile the beach was well occupied.

 Surely "Occupy Byron Bay" will be different. Off the top of my head I cannot think of a better place to attract a crowd of protesters and when you see the You Tube Video it does indeed look like Byron does it better. Drums, party atmosphere, lots of people with time on their hands...

but when I got down there,

I saw only one person who might be a protester, the guy with the Guitar...maybe? Although slightly disappointing I chose to look on the bright side. Obviously life in Australia is so good for the vast majority  that we don't really have anything to complain about. The Human development index confirms this assessment. Australia is in second place overall, just a fraction behind Norway. Without the winter!

While I was musing on the sweetness of life in OZ a report came on the car radio that Qantas had grounded its entire domestic and international fleet! From what I can gather the CEO Alan Joyce spat the dummy when he couldn't get everything he wanted.   

Doubleroo opinion. Qantas should be instantly re-nationalized and Alan Joyce and any others responsible for the grounding should be arrested and charged with economic terrorism. Nothing is as entertaining as a good show-trial. :-)

Queensland Inter-School Teams Chess Championship

This the best Schools in the state of Queensland battled for titles in Brisbane at Somerville House, a prestigious Girls School with a long and good reputation for encouraging and promoting Chess. Here is a picture of the School with one of the successful teams showing off their trophy.

The tournament was excellently organised and there was a large turnout from many different regions. Some teams were local (Brisbane), others from the Gold Coast, Toowoomba and Bundaberg. Everything was still wide open until the very end but the dominant teams in both the primary and secondary level were from Kings and Grammar.

Brisbane Grammar won a last round nail-biter against Somerville to win the Secondary School division while Kings held 2-2 against Grammar to win the Primary division. Don't quote me on that because I am working from memory. I have not been able to find the exact results on any website.

 
The Somerville Girls acquitted themselves very well and were fighting for one of the top places going into the last round. Amongst the coaches were International Master Moulthun Ly, a promising younger player, Veteran IM Steven Solomon and WIM Alexandra Jule pictured below going through the game of one of the competitors...and having lunch. No rest for the wicked :-)

 
Many thousand school children and students play chess in Queensland and there are many events for them to play in. Parents and teachers support these events as does the Queensland Chess Association  and the Gardiner Chess Academy  . This is Graeme Gardiner who spends a lot of his time helping to organise events like these.

As you can see there are a lot of people enthusiastically involved in Junior Chess. So why is it that Junior events look like this

and open tournaments look like this?

IM Steven Solomon receiving first prize at the Wendy Terry memorial a few weeks previously. A solid performance by Steven who out-rated his nearest rival by nearly 300 elo points. Hardly any adults compete anymore and much of the tiny field was made up of juniors. Something is happening in the transition between School and Adult life. Anybody got any ideas?

A week in Kuala Lumpur

When it rains it pours in KL. One moment the sun in shining and the next.... Driving is not easy I imagine but the locals are used to it. Since the city is divided into pockets the only way to get around is by Car or public transport. There are few footpaths, no bicycle lanes and the public transport system is underdeveloped to put it kindly.

longtime friend and colleague Peter Long runs the Polgar chess academy together with his wife Luisa and between meals I was allowed to torture some of the students.

Interest in Chess is quite high and increasing in Malaysia. The benefits to the minds of youngsters are well known and being increasingly documented. On the weekend the centre was full of young minds eager to learn so by the time Saturday evening arrived we were all very hungry. The choice of restaurant was left up to Sarah. "Fatty Crab" of course.

Luisa, Peter and I raised no objections.

There is not much available except crab (chicken wings) but that is superb. Unfortunately for Peter he had to spend half the time de-shelling crab for Sarah :-)

Another great way to spend a few hours, especially if the weather is not perfect, is strolling around one of the many modern air-conditioned Malls. Now the Malls here are like little cities. If you were to live in an adjoining apartment you could work, go to the Gym, shop, eat, visit doctor, dentist, whatever. I am sure you would never have to leave the building to have a rich, fulfilled life. You could even play Chess! This Mall is the Venue for the Malaysian open every year!

Time to go out and take some more pictures for you.

Spitting the dummy

Last week a serious of unexpected events made me wonder if I wasn't running around in ever decreasing circles and if so then what actions I could undertake to avoid reaching the inevitable, undesirable destination.

 I have heard tell that in similar situations people turn to chemical remedies, be they legal or not, or consult therapists. Now the first option can at best temporarily obscure the underlying causes and at worst damage ones health even occasioning death if administered for an extended period or in incorrect dosages. The second option is completely beyond me. Paying to talk to a stranger. What? No friends?

There is a third lesser utilized option that I believe shepherds have used for generations whenever they saw danger approaching. Getting the flock out of here.

Monday morning I booked a ticket to Malaysia. One problem solved. While on stopover in Dubai I bought a new laptop, a Samsung RF511. I had been missing my chess programs, preparing for games and watching shows like "The Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report" but more than anything else I missed Blogging! Another problem solved. The next day I arrived in Kuala Lumpur International Airport where I was picked up by my old friend Peter Long and taken to eat Roti Channai with various Curries and dring Teh Halia. I immediately felt happy and relaxed and knew I had made the right decision.

First let me bring you up to date. Shortly after my previous post Nina and I drove back to France and visited her brother in Paris.

A famous fountain near the centre who's name I have now forgotten. Can anybody help out?

This is the "Tour de Saint-Jacques". Easy to remember. I love Scallops.

Paris has everything. Even a beach.

After a pleasant weekend in Paris enjoying the hospitality of her brother Pierre, Nina, Francoise and I headed back to Vendeness sur Arroux. We took a little shortcut on the way to take some pictures of my favourite house in all of France.

This is an old fortification built in the 13th century. The same family still lives there. Amazing.

Here is the story for all you Francophiles.

This is when my replacement Computer, my old Fujitsu short-circuited so I didn't take any pictures of our family camping holiday in the Morvan forest. On the 26th of August I left Francoise and Nina at the Camping ground and headed to Schwarzach, Austria for a tournament. I still have not finished installing my chess program's or entering the games so for now here are some pictures.

This is the Goldegger see where I went swimming frequently. It is about 10km away.

Schwarzach down below.

A wonderful old house behind the "Hotel Post"

After the tournament which could have gone better I headed to Croatia. My first stop was Zagreb where I had some things to do. It was interesting to see friends from my Uni days nearly 30 years ago. A few days of catching up and making appointments later I took a few days off to see Zadar.

The City gate. Zadar is a very ancient city with a long history, great beaches, restaurants and tourist attractions.

Like the five wells.

Roman ruins outside the excellent Archaeological museum.

The 9th  century church of Saint-Donatus.

And a charming little harbour with a nice fish restaurant.

Watch out for one thing though. Along the harbour there are lots of stalls offering "Kornati" excursions. You will be told how you will be taken to a spectacular natural park of which you are shown photo's. Lunch, drinks and everything else is all inclusive. The reality is...

After a three-hour boat-ride where everything except water, lemonade and cask wine is incredibly expensive you get dropped on a rock (Island) like this, get a couple of little grilled Mackerels with a Salad and then get to enjoy the trip back. All this for only about 50 euro and a wasted day. On the bright side I did meet some nice people who were equally bored and disappointed.

Next post, Malaysia :-) 

Nina in the Uttinger Labyrinth

I have been trying to write this post for several days but have encountered one obstacle after another. My HP laptop is not usable anymore because the screen freezes or fuzzes up unless I hold it at a specific angle with pressure with one hand and keep adjusting to keep contact. So I had to first transfer the photo's from my mobile to the HP, then use an external hard disk to back up and then attach the said hard disk to my 4 year old Fujitsu-Siemens to write this Blog. That nearly worked. The hard disk backed up in zip format for some reason. Ok, so today I just transferred the pictures and that worked. One day was spent updating all the software on the laptop I hadn't used for a year.

Please keep in mind that I only have a few hours a day to actually do anything that requires concentration. Anybody who has entertained a 4.5 year old during school holidays will know what I mean. It is a lot of fun but also exhausting. Anyway, enough whining, let me show you what we did on Tuesday (I think).

It was a glorious, sunny day, one of the few we have had so far this summer. Claudia invited Nina and I to join her and her friend Silke, her son David and his school friend Marvin on an excursion. 

We drove to Herrsching on the beautiful Ammersee to meet up with Silke and the two boys to take a Paddle-ship over to the other side of the Lake. Before we got there we had our first "memorable" incident. With hundreds of people either waiting for the Ship or just enjoying the lake-front Nina took a few steps into the water and yelled out (in French) "look Papa, I'm peeing in the Lake". Then "oh, my undies are all wet", took them off and threw them at me.  Where is that damn Ship! 

It was a wonderful day. Many people were enjoying the water.

Claudia and Nina enjoying the sights.

This was our destination. The Labyrinth in Utting.

Hurry up Papa!

Lots of Sunflowers

The first attraction was a haystack with tunnels underneath. It took a while to get Nina to lose interest and move on.

The Tipi's were not so fascinating. She has been Camping often.

The View from the Castle was great, climbing up and down even better.

Groves? Pumpkins growing on the sides.

The whole Idea of the Labyrinth is to follow a map, find all the Animals and stamp a piece of paper to show you had found them. Too much like hard work. We wandered around haphazardly and found them all anyway. Here the Elephant.

Duck

David showed us where the Sheep was.

On our way out we found the Mole

Outside was a Giraffe

No, we can't take any of these plants home Nina. To finish the day Nina went for a swim and fell out of a Tree. Then it was time for a Curry-wurst with Chips and an Ice Cream. If you want to entertain a Child near Munich on a sunny day I can definitely recommend this area.

Nina Wohl's first Art exhibition

Since the tournament in Condom I have had the pleasure of entertaining my daughter Nina. She is now on holidays and enjoying Germany. I am learning how to keep a four and a half year old occupied because if you don't they get bored and turn into little monsters.

The first days were quite easy because the weather was reasonable. Rowing on the Woerthsee is one fun activity. "Look a Pirate Ship"

The "Captain Bluebear"

Yelling "don't run through the puddle" didn't help much. Another lesson learnt. Always have a dry change of clothes in the car. The next lesson was to have paper and colours at home for rainy days, like the rest of the week. Here is some of her work.

"Autoroute"

"Lapin"

"Train avec une Coffret"

"Jardin avec les Chevre et des Oiseau"

"Pantalons"

"Truc pour les animaux"

"Feuilles"

"Jardin"

And lastly the Artist with her new friend and adviser Mimi. Any suggestions on other ways to entertain Nina are very welcome :-)