The third quarter

Well that went quickly didn’t it!

The last three months began and ended with milestones. The end of August was summer holiday time, the end of November the exact opposite as the last corner on the road to Copenhagen has been taken. Although a story doesn’t have to start at the beginning (Jean-Luc Goddard) we’re gonna start there anyway.

August was a beautiful month. Robyn and Dave visited us for some summer fun in Berlin with bike riding, playing in kid’s playgrounds and beer gardens all playing a prominent role in daily activities. Kirsten and I then rode to Rostock (from the outskirts of Berlin) on a dedicated bike trail that runs from Berlin all the way to Copenhagen! The weather was perfect and every day was, in a word, awesome.


September saw the theoretical arrival of autumn, but summer persisted much to everyone’s delight and we had gorgeous weather. I left for the first 10 days to go to the UK for a bike course and it rained heavily for 8 of those days. The lake I was camping on rose rapidly and came very close to my tent....I had ducks at my tent door almost every morning which was a bit unsettling but finally the rain stopped and out came the ‘current bun’, some warm weather and many happy campers (excuse the pun). Mum came over at the end of September and we had a great two weeks sight-seeing in some of the capital cities of Europe, as well as a 75th birthday party of a long time family friend in Amsterdam which was a truly amazing event. Mum took some great photos which I'll add soon.

October was a month of visitors, and saw the arrival of the colder weather - including the first snow! Mickey came for a few days and found some great purple high heel shoes in an Op shop, I’ve heard they’re a hit at the office. We ate nice hot German food in our local warm beer hall too – and stopped frequently for coffee in small Berlinesque cafes. Paula left warm sunny France to come visit...and Berlin turned on its first Baltic breeze for a very chilly 4 days. She borrowed a few of Kirsten’s clothes to warm up...and I got confused once or twice, at least peripherally. We also ate German food in our local beer hall and had many cups of coffee in gemutlich cafes. Jane and Peter came over for Kirsten’s birthday and we had a more organic Berlin experience. Botanical gardens and arboretums were day number one which was really cool. We got a little homesick when we saw Grass Trees and Acacias in the glasshouse – but a jazz band in a Berlin bar later that night helped us to get over that!

November has been a more ‘homely’ approach, as Kirsten knuckled down to work every week day (and every week night) and most weekends. She went to Barcelona for one of the final preparatory meetings before Copenhagen...and came back pretty exhausted but still full of Special K zest. Her colleague/friend Claire moved in with us for the month and our lounge room became an extension of Climate Analytics workspace ... it was just like an extended sleepover – although the fun to work ratio was severely disproportionate. The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall happened over the month of November, and there was some really amazing stuff going on. Hard to describe the mood really, but we feel lucky to have been here for the occasion. We went to one of the first bridge openings on the 9th and heard Angela Merkel and Mickhail Gorbachev give speeches about that day so long ago (or not so long ago). Check out the giant puppets (that were moved by Cranes!!) that searched for each other through the streets of Berlin over 3 days (representing the reunion of east and west). There were also various remnants of the old wall moved to various parts of the city....and while I'm no expert in automotive engineering, I'm pretty sure this little fella is no ant when it comes to carrying heavy stuff around, and these wall segments are as heavy as they look. I guess the Traubi (famous DDR plastic 'ish' car) wasn't up to it.

December arrived and Owy and Morven brought over some Scottish cheer which was great fun. They fully embraced German culture and Owy is now fluent at asking for three tickets. Morven re-discovered her high school German too, and spoke sehr gut Deutsch mit viele Leute. We went to a local bar and I won a CD for working out the most covers of heavy songs played slowly and melodically – Owy could have won but he must have slept through Nirvana’s hey day. Just kidding Owy ;-)

...and now the serious stuff. Copenhagen is underway and Kirsten is there giving it her best as we all knew she would. The hours logged to date already resemble an international phone number, but she’s still going strong. Her passion, commitment and uncompromised ideals have made her a fully fledged climate policy nerd, and nerds are cool these days in case you’re behind the times. I’m a very proud Hausmann! Please send her some best wishes if you get the chance :- )

Have a fantastic festive season wherever you are – we miss you all.

Tschussi und bis bald, Simon and Kirsten.

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