You may have not recognized, how happy you have been today. With every single detail of your thesis that you corrected and improved, with every minor spelling mistake or format problem that you could eliminate, your relaxed smile that was rarely visible during the last weeks returned step by step.
It seemed as if a rose that was left dry for days and suffered from drought, was given fresh water and re-opened its blossoms again.
And immediately it released its tantalising scent that was kept hidden behind its grey soft leaves.
I hope so much your happiness lasts for ever, not only untill you see your parents on Wednesday but maybe even untill you return to Munich.

Enjoy the evening, the night, the quiescence or the music, be careful with your blossom leaves, so they don”t brake under the pillow.

Michael

PS: About the movie “The Town”, Ghazal: don”t think that I have disclosed any detail of the plot. I just told you it has an happy-end. But the happy-end comes in a complete unexpected (and maybe even un-believable) move. Maybe you prefer to use now the probability terms and call such an unexpected event “against all odds”. I don”t think that I have told you too much to spoil the excitement. It is a great movie, it is a crime story I like, its very masculine in healthy way: it is about gaining for wealth, fighting for freedom from poverty and about the an eternal dream to leave behind the misery. The violence done by the gang during their bank robberies is never an aim, it is something that the system and the society are producing by keeping the majority of people in poverty.
At the end, when all the violence finishes, the love between the two main characters survives.
What is bad about this ? We always dream that this will happen, don”t we ?

What a funny coincidence that today, just a couple of days after you speculated about finding a house for us on the moon astronomers from Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C announced the discovery of the first extra-terrestrial habitable planet in the universe. For sure, the moon is much closer to the earth, to your family and friends, and you probably can even spot Sweden from there if it is “Full-Earth”. According to the U.S. astronomers, however, the living conditions on “Gliese 581g” as the planet was named, should be much more convenient than the surface of the moon. O.k., I have to admit, you have to spend more for transportation (Gliese 581g is about 20 light-years or 190 billion km away from europe, moon “only” 380 000 km), but I would be ready to spend some extra money for the flight tickets, but have a nice environment instead (like on earth, the value of a property mainly depends on the three factors “location, location and location”). Talking about the living conditions there, of course one cannot expect exactly the same as on earth, but I guess we could easily accomodate to them. For instance, the seasonal year is only 37 days long (whether there ARE seasons like summer and winter here on earth is not known yet). There are, however day and night, that”s for sure. And the day-and-night rhythm seems to be much more human (first estimate is between 25 and 35 hours) than what you have in northern Sweden with their 180 days polar-day followed by another 185 days darkness.
There is one problem, and thats the mass of Gliese 581g: Since it is about 3 times heavier than the earth, physics unavoidably will give everything there a 3 fold higher weight. So the first weeks up there would be quite exhausting, walking, standing or dancing will be a tough physical exercise, untill our skelleton, joints and muscle strengthen and got used to carry this extra weight. The good thing and the best way to get around this stressful gravitational stress is the existence of water up there on Gliese 581g. Calculations show that there will be plenty of lakes, oceans and beaches, and the water should be crispy and cristal-clear. There just was no messy industry or agriculture or human sewage to spoil the water). And swimming, you should know, we would not feel our extra weight any more because of the (hydrostatic principle discovered by Archimedes).
Anyhow, whether you believe him or not and whether you like spending most of your day in the water, it is good that neither you nor me have any weight problems here on earth. This is for sure a good pre-condition to relocate to Gliese 581g, and maybe they even want to see a health-certificate for this when you ask for entry visa up there.

Hope you sleep well, and maybe in your dream discover some extra “must-sees” on this planet.

Take Care,

Michael

PS: You don”t have to prepare you luggage right now. And for sure: You first have to finish your MSc project and got the degree, because this improves your chances to make a scientific career on “Gliese 581g”.

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hi michael,

what ???? I don”t wanna go to this extra-terrestrial planet ! I just made up my mind, and after struggling with myself again and again and weighing every pro and con, and talking with my family in Sweden I declined to consider a future here in Munich. Thats 980 km away from Stockholm, and I wont accept any further distance. Not the moon (“only” 380 000 km ha, ha, ha) let alone a planet that is so far away, that even the light needs 20 years to reach stockholm. So then, everything the U.S. astronomers discovered now only shows how this planet was 20 years ago. Things can change so rapidly, michael, just have a look on our earth and ourself: 20 years ago we didn”t had mobile phones, but instead Freddy Mercury and Frank Zappa were still alive. You have been in east-berlin working in the station-bistro and I was a 4-year old baby-girl carried around europe on the arms of my beloved parents. How can we be sure that during the last 20 years no massive industrialisation started on this strange planet, or that global cooling down turn all the lakes and oceans into ice-skating courses ? Thats my last word. This planet is not an option for me.
And by the way, I came along this marvellous horse range this morning, on my way to the lab. It was a mystic scenery, how the horse appeared slowly from the morning mist..
When I was a kid, my dad used to read me persian fairytales, in which a white camel played a role, because it rescued Zartusht (or Zaratustra as you call him) from the deluge. I think you mentioned this legend also on your blog entry form July 16th. I fell in love with this camel, and the horses I met this morning reminded me of it. I think their physical strength and mental calmness are similar, and that makes both of them good companions to men. There was a display on the horse farm, and as much as I understoud german, they offered to give you one of the horses for riding out, if you agree to take care of it and clean it and feed it, it wont even cost a lot. So this, I have to admit, was one reason for me to consider staying in Munich.
I doubt that there will be horses on this far planet, therefore I also don”t want to go there.

Hope you understand my concern, michael.

Have a good night, and good dreams.

/ghazal

Before you escape into dreams, give your ears (and your soul) something extra to enjoy (It is not a lullaby, though):

Now here you go again
You say, you want your freedom,
Well, who am I to keep you down ?
It”s only right that you should
Play the way you feel it,
But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad,
In the stillness of remembering what you had,
and what you lost.

Sleep well, Take Care, Michael

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hello michael,

thanks a lot for the link to this nice song. Although I have to admit the lyrics are tough, can”t imagine that this beautiful woman Stevie Nicks wrote and performed this song, that has so firm statements about staying and leaving. The last words :
“Like a heartbeat drives you mad,
In the stillness of remembering what you had,
and what you lost” . I understand this well enough. Sometimes you lose things or people or even yourself, sometimes you are happy and find them again. Sometimes even a stranger finds them and brings them back to you, and brings even something extra for you (like when you brought back the bike that had been stolen, and you had filled the luggage rack with flowers. This was so nice, I did not want to bring the flowers to my room, much more liked to keep them on the bike and drive around and show the people.

I found another great song by Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Listen to it, and enjoy the evening and the night.

/ghazal

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Hi Ghazal, Are you still awake, or drifted away into dreams guided by Stevie Nicks song about dreams. I think the very special style of Fleetwood Mac has its roots in the almost family style of their band-members. The most visible and hear-able members were Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (guitar and vocals), who were a couple, and John and Christie McVie (bass and keyboard), who were married. Mick Fleetwood (drums), who founded the band in 1967 and gave it his name, was the neutral and stabilizing point in this melange full of tension and conflicts. In this sense, Fleetwood Mac was a prototype for Abba. I think the fact that both bands could not leave their very privat feelings off the stage, but brought them to every concert, gave their songs a very authentic style. When they sung about relations, about obsessions or devotions, it sounded not just a live concert, but as if they reflected in their songs emotions in real-time.
There is a nice interview from 2004 with them.

This is perhaps my last message for tonight, sleep well, my dear.

Michael

Enjoy the evenig, sleep well
/ghazal

A month ago the same moon looked down to us, and for sure could not turn away its eyes from this spot on the Isar river banks, where we were sitting at the bone-fire the whole night through, whispering secrets, feeling the heat of the august sun that was stored in the pebbles on which we layed down. Since then, I call the Isar the Moon river, and every morning I pass the river on my way to the institute, I do a short stop there and slide a flat stone over its surface, as you have shown me to do.

Full Moon 24-09-2010

Are you o.k. ? Are you still studying so late at night ? Don”t miss your dreams, some actors therein might desperately wait for the main character, the blue-eyed persian cat.

Sleep well, Take Care

Michael

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hi michael,

I dont know if it was the picture of the moon you send in the evening, or my fear to meet some strange people in my dreams: either of the two did not let me sleep. but didn”t you once said that the full moon itself can also directly interfere with my emotions. maybe it is this what happend. finally, I went out for a walk over the fields behind the guesthouse, I think it was already 6.30 a.m. could see the moon, but not a house there . I did a photo of it, have a look. If you find a house on it, show it to me. Does it mean you”d like to send me to the moon to live there ?
Have a nice day (I may come a bit later to the lab today, hope thats alright).
Take Care, michael
/ghazal

PS: If you click on the photo, there is a nice song about the moon. I only know its by Pearl Jam, don”t know the title.

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Hi Ghazal my Dear,

You came here on your angel journey half a year ago, arriving from somewhere far away. How could I ever send you back alone ? If, however you would suggest to take me with you somewhere in the universe, I would get my luggage ready today. A nice house on the moon could be a first step.
By the way, the moon is not only fascinating by its yet poorly understoud influence on females psyche but can make man equally crazy. Have a look at this alternative record of what the first astronauts said when they put their feets there.

Enjoy the day, recover from the sleepless night,
I”ll tell everybody you work on your thesis.

TaKe CaRe
Michael

Did you enjoyed the music that I gave you ? I don”t know if it matches your taste. The “Friday Night in San Francisco” concert was recorded in 1983, and was very popular than and still is considered a mile-stone in popular music, although it is rarely played nowadays in radio. But I think when you were born, it was always on air. There is a theory saying that music, that was around during somebodies early childhood influences your taste for the rest of your life. Maybe you know that there is one hypothesis saying that even the unborn embryo in the mothers womb is already very much exposed to sounds coming from the outside, and that there is an unconscious memory to the music from this prenatal period of life. If this is true, than you might like this “Friday Night in San Francisco”, assuming that your mom listened to it when she was pregnant with you.
The other two records are by singers that belong to two different generations. One made her big debute also about 25 years ago, the other is much younger (first appearance on stage in 2008). I would be very curious if you can tell who of the two (one is Asa and the other is Sade) is from the 20th century and who is from 21st. Of course you might click on their webpages (which are also stored on the CD) and look it up.

Yours Michael

PS: These hype around Football World-Championship is awful, don”t you think so ? How can get people so occupied by the question which nation kicks a ball more frequently. I have the battle for a ball every morning with my dog, but would not build my whole mental energy around this game.

Greetings your Michael

PS: I attach images of two of the world-most-famous archaeologic objects that attract millions of visitors every year to the Berlin museums. My favorite is the Ishtar-gate from Babylon. I saw visitors from Iraq here in the Pergamon-Museum, who bursted into tears when they saw it:

Ishtar gate from Babylon

The second is the bust of Nefertiti, the un-unoffical miss-universe since 3000 years.

Iconic bust of Nefertiti

It is always a pleasure to get a massage from you, even though it is a sad one saying that you have to stay at home today. I hope everything is o.k. with you.
When I cought Prof. T. yesterday “red-handed” requesting a project-description from you, I might have appeared a bit angry. In general I always complain if others try to set up a new agenda during a running MSc project. He was perhaps looking for me earlier, but maybe could not find me.
He might have little understanding of privat matters, but I don”t want you to sit the whole weekend and prepare the project description, while your friend is here.
I will write you a single page in short, key-word like form of the project, and maybe you just “decorate” it with your own words. Don”t misunderstand me, Ghazal, I have absolutely no doubts you could write the paper yourself easily, but I”m sure you have other plans for the weekend. So maybe you can use the short outline of the project that I am going to send you.

Take care

Michael

Lady in red on ONYX Bike

Have a nice evening, see you tomorrow.

Michael

I completely forgot that on Monday all museums in Germany are closed , including the castle Oberschleissheim. Therefore we have to postpone our visit to it. I probably wont come to the institute today at all, since we got relatives visiting us unexpectedly. I hope you are not too disapointed to hear this, but we can go to the castle another day later this week. I might bring a bike for you tomorrow, and we can pass along Oberschleissheim on your way home.
I very much hope that you had a nice long weekend, wherever you spend it, and that you will be back on Thuesday with fresh energy.

Michael

PS: On Saturday, whole Bavaria (and some bavaro-philic parts of the other german tribes) fell into sever agonia, when the Munich football team lost the Champions-League final. For me, football was never a very emotional thing, in particular without any local or national identification. Therefore, my sadness about the lost game was rather superfical and short-lasting. And what made it even easier for me was the fact, that two days before, another german team has won a Champions-League final: this time, it was the ladies team from Potsdam (i.e. the former residence town near Berlin, where I grew up). This womans football team is called “Turbine Potsdam”, since it was founded as a sports-club for the workers of an electric industry branch. The coach is still the same since 40 years, and they are all like underdogs. It is like the story of an emigrant in the US, who from a dishwasher-boy made it up to the richest man in the country. Do you know, that womans football is so popular in Iran ? I ones saw a TV-program on it, and found it fascinating how people try to struggle for freedom and how they develop the most clever ideas to get around political suppression.