Rum and Nutmeg

I got to travel for my first time to the Carribean - a place of many islands and spices. I had a meeting in Grenada because they are the Chair of AOSIS which is the Alliance of Small Island States, a coalition of vulnerable small island countries that have been negotiating long and hard to make sure their voices are heard to stop the threat of climate change. AOSIS were also largely responsible for ensuring that developed countries take on legally binding targets in the Kyoto Protocol. With so much to lose AOSIS has been preparing for the road to Copenhagen and my job is to support them through scientific and technical advice along with my colleagues.

Visiting the Carribean was amazing, as we flew over Barbados it was unbelievable to see how flat of the island is. We also toured around Grenada and saw the devastation that Hurricane Ivan caused in 2004, most of the homes were destroyed and the the impact on the forest is still noticeable. Hurricanes don't usually come to Grenada because they are so close to the equator. They are still trying to recover (although the Chinese did build the cricket stadium in time for the world cup -South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka all played there!)

The Prime Minister, who opened the meeting, gave a really inspiring speech about the need to get a good agreement in Copenhagen in line with the AOSIS request to stay below 1.5degrees C. Australia only just recently signed up to the 2degrees C target that the European proposed back in 1996 as part of the Major Economies Forum but this will still be too much particularly for coral reefs which will suffer a lot due to ocean acidification when the pH levels in the oceans rise due to the accumulation of CO2.

The meeting was really successful and I left the spice island with rum, nutmeg (the national spice), full of local fish and hope that we really will get an agreement in Copenhagen because there are some hardworking and inspiring negotiators who want to make a difference. All it will take is political will to get there - because the technology is already available (and I'm not talking about nuclear!)

Sweden

While Kirsten's workload has been somewhat 'horrendous' lately, we managed to have a beautiful weekend in Sweeden with friends....without the laptop or iphone! Well there was actually some use of the iphone, but it was to google the rules of jacks/knuckes so we'll let that one through to the keeper.

Sweden, as always, was wholesome and lovely...lots of home cooked meals, organic beer, organic gardening, a visit to the sea, wild mushroom gathering and smiling faces all round. We felt inspired and humbled by Jane, Peter, Alma and Kirra's garden and lifestyle....and are now planning a little path through our garden after seeing their new cobblestone path (in progress).

...and yes, we're proud to say we did play jacks/knuckles - which all you who grew up in the 80's should remember - and reminisced how this simple game was the humble competitor to Donkey Kong, Oil Panic and Octopus. It may not have stood the test of time quite so well as Nintendos have...but surely it's the reason our hand eye coordination and motor skills are so finely attuned?

In keeping with a subtle 80's theme, Peter put up some 'wicked' windsurfing sails above the new patio - note the colour combinations and spider web print - he was pretty stoked.

Kirsten is now in Bonn for two weeks and I'm knuckling down for the last two weeks of my german course before we cycle from Berlin to Rostock...but more about that next time.

A Spanish interlude

I (Simon) just had a wee trip to Spain... 'just' 20 hrs away on a few forms of public transport but well worth every painstaking and cramped second. I had a sleeper for the overnight leg of the trip, which reminded me of bed sizes in Beijing - and I'm pretty sure the average height of a German is a touch taller than the average height of a Chinese. Anyway, it was a catch up with old school buddies, and we managed to score some great waves which were not typical for summer. We first went to Bilbao and then headed to the far north western corner which is full of little nooks and crannies that are protected from a variety of winds and full of potential surf spots. It was a very solid 6 foot on one day, and after two waves and a few massive sets we decided to let the ocean calm down a bit before venturing back out. The next day was 3-4 foot and beautiful - but unfortunately Pete's board sconed him on the head...5 hrs and 5 stiches later he looks a little tougher than he used to.

The trip was everything a road trip shoule be....including a run in with the law...nothing serious, but I'll share that story in person ;-)

Berlin, Berlin

Hallo von Berlin

Hello from Berlin

We've been here for nearly 2 weeks and we've managed to settle in to our new apartment, start work in Potsdam, find the postoffice, find the local volksgarten (park) and its beer garden, start learning german (Simon that is), buy an old bicycle, find some coffee shops and the video shop, watch the new Transformers movie and then get totally shocked when they had an intermission...we'ce also cycled in the German summer rain of course.

we've got a few pictures up on the site, but this is just a short intro, until our next post...

bis bald

Simon und Kirsten