안녕하세요!
보시다시피, 해당 메일은 공식적이지 않으며, 불행히도, 여러분에게 좋은 의미가 아닙니다.
하지만 절망하지 마세요, 크게 문제되진 않습니다. 지금 모든 사항에 대해서 설명해드리겠습니다.
저는 귀하가 정기적으로 사용하는 로컬 네트워크의 전자 장치들에 액세스할 수 있었습니다.
지난 몇 달 동안 당신의 활동을 추적하였습니다.
어쩌다 그런 일이 일어난거죠?
당신이 Exploit를 사용한 해킹당한 웹 사이트를 방문했을 때 귀하의 장치가 악성 소프트웨어에 노출되었습니다 (이 필드의 전문가인 Darknet에서 구입했습니다).
트로이 목마로 작동하는 매우 복잡한 소프트웨어입니다. 정기적으로 업데이트되고 바이러스 백신은 이것을 탐지할 수 없습니다.
이 프로그램에는 키로거가 있습니다; 키로거는 카메라와 마이크를 켜고 끌 수 있고, 파일을 보내고, 로컬 네트워크에 대한 액세스를 제공합니다.
다른 기기에서 정보를 액세스하는 데 시간이 좀 걸렸고, 현재 저는 당신의 모든 연락처와 대화 내용, 위치 정보, 좋아하는 것, 즐겨찾기한 웹 사이트 등과 관련된 모든 정보를 가지고 있습니다.
솔직히 처음에는 나쁜 뜻으로 한 게 아니라 그냥 재미였을 뿐이였고, 취미였습니다.
하지만, 저는 코로나 바이러스를 경험했으며, 불행히도 직장을 잃었습니다.
그리고 당신에게 돈을 받기 위해 "내 취미"를 사용하는 방법을 알아냈어요!
당신이 자위하는 영상을 녹화했어요. 이 비디오에는 별도의 화면이 있어 당신인지 쉽게 인식할 수 있으며, 어떤 종류의 동영상을 선호하는지도 명확히 알 수 있습니다.
글쎄요, 저는 이런 행동이 자랑스럽지는 않지만, 살아남을려면 돈이 필요합니다.
우리 거래합시다. 내가 요구하는 만큼 나에게 돈을 지불하고, 나는 이 비디오를 당신의 친구, 가족, 그리고 다른 지인들에게 보내지 않을 것입니다.
분명히 알아두어야 하는게 이는 장난하는게 아닙니다. 이메일, SMS 링크, 소셜 미디어를 통해, 심지어 대중매체에 게시할 수도 있습니다. (해킹된 관리자 계정이 몇 개 있습니다).
그러므로, 여러분은 트위터나 Instagram의 "스타"가 될 수 있습니다!
스타가 되지 않을려면, 제 BTC 지갑에 비트코인으로 1,290달러를 보내주셔야 합니다:1GSNvvP7Fryj5kELdma3MW5aQsXXf9QtVr
비트코인 사용법을 모를 경우 Bing 또는 Google에서 «Bitcoins을 구매하는 방법»을 검색하거나 유사한 다른 항목들을 알아보세요.
돈을 받자마자 동영상을 삭제할 것입니다. 또한 당신의 장치에서 악성소프트웨어를 삭제하고 다시는 연락하지 않을 것입니다.
2일을 드리면 충분할 것 같아요. 이 이메일을 열자마자 시간 추적이 시작됩니다. 모니터링하고 있습니다!
마지막으로 한 가지 더 말씀드리겠습니다:
제가 TOR을 사용 중이라 경찰에 신고하는 건 의미없는 행동이며 비트코인 거래를 추적할 방법은 없습니다.
나에게 답장하지 마세요 (이 편지는 당신의 계정에서 생성되었으며 해당 사실을 모르는 사람의 실제 주소가 사용되었습니다.) 이런방법으로, 나를 추적하는 것을 불가능하게 만들어요.
만약 당신이 바보 같은 행동을 하거나 내 기대에 어긋나는 행동을 한다면, 나는 즉시 이 영상을 공유하겠습니다.
행운을 빌어요!
Sunday, July 20, 2025
협력 제안
Friday, November 21, 2014
Here is a link to Gloria's book online, for you to browse. // Hier ist ein Link, um Glorias Buch online zu lesen.
Here is a link to Gloria's book online, for you to browse. As there are plenty pictures inside, it is well worth checking out even if you do not read Chinese. <grin> Scroll to the bottom third of the page where you see the book cover with red rectangles below it. If you click on the big blue circle, it will open the book. Clicking on the right of a page, will give you the next one, the left – obviously – will bring you back to the previous one. Have fun!
Hier ist ein Link, um Glorias Buch online zu lesen. Es sind sehr viele Bilder enthalten, weswegen es sich auch lohnt darin herumzublättern, wenn man kein Chinesisch lesen kann <Grins>. Scrolle auf der Seite bis ins untere Drittel, wo die Titelseite des Buches zu sehen ist. Darunter müssten lauter rechteckige rote Kästchen zu sehen sein. Wenn man auf den großen blauen Punkt in der Mitte des Buches klickt, dann öffnet es sich. Wenn man auf den rechten Rand einer Seite klickt, blättert man um. Wenn man auf den linken Rand klickt, geht es eine Seite zurück. Viel Spaß beim Stöbern!
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Friday, November 14, 2014
Autumn is here again
Hi guys!
Wow, I didn't realize that is was Easter the last time I posted something here. : – ))) Time sure flies like an arrow! Needless to say, that I always looks forward to YOUR eMail and comments. I really would like to stay in touch!
First, we are fine here, all three of us. While I can still feel the aftereffects of the operation to remove the brain tumor, it is nothing more than a nuisance. Still don't want to climb ladders or scaffolding, but I think that is not really a problem although I am told that it will stay like that for the rest of my life.
We have settled in nicely into our new home and even bought a little house with the money we got for the boat. It is in the heart of Anglia, a truly beautiful place. It is being renovated right now. Business is more like a joke, being all work and trouble, with very little to show for it. Still haven't found an alternative. No serious problem, though.
I had just started to do a bit of programming again, but it took only four days for something to seriously go wrong with my left hand. Been seeing four different docs about it, but it looks as if programming is definitely out of the picture for me. I was never any good at it in any case <grin>.
Gloria is still teaching Mandarin-Chinese at the local school and that is going well. The kids absolutely love it. She was supposed to teach for the State of Schleswig-Holstein too, but that fell through twice. Aurora – she really doesn't want to be called Ulani any more – is now at a Gymnasium, the German equivalent of high school. She continues to do well and has made many new friends. She is learning to play the viola there and insists to go to ballet lessons on Tuesdays although that is by far her longest day at school. She is a very happy and carefree young girl with many traits of a teenager. She really only has one problem: Her horrible parents! ; – )
The amazing story this year was about Gloria's book "Guten Tag！你好，我家住在大海上！". It truly turned into a bestseller in the categories travel literature and child rearing. This was only made possible by the enthusiastic support of her publisher "聯合文學". She and Aurora spent the whole summer vacation in Taiwan doing numerous interviews, book signings and other events at TV stations, radio stations, magazines, newspapers and so on. Sometimes up to five a day and even while sitting in a taxi! It was all very exhausting – but also exhilarating. In Taiwan about 10,000 books have been sold up to day and China paid an advance for another 20,000. While the money is nothing to write home about, we are still very pleased by these developments. There might even be a movie deal in the works in China, but this is still very unsure and will take years anyway. The book was presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year and several publishers from other countries showed interest, but nothing definite has happened yet.
A side effect of all this was that more and more attention fell on Aurora, who didn't really welcome this part. Still, she went and practiced for a TED Talk in Hamburg, which took place on 8 November. In the beginning stage fright seemed to overwhelm her and we all feared that she might simply not do the talk after all. About 300 to 400 people were standing in front of the door, though. So she screwed up her courage and plowed right ahead. After all, she had spent about two months preparing for the whole thing. Although a technical glitch (not her fault) at the very end of her speech caused the slide show and prompts to stop, the talk was a great success. As the only speaker she got prolonged rhythmic applause after her talk, so that she had to go back on stage to bow to the audience. Very cool, that! We now have to wait for a month or so until the video comes out. I will share it as soon as it is available.
At the moment we are rather busy with the company, as Christmas shopping has started in earnest. Very noticeable! When there is spare time, Gloria is working on various projects. She has been offered to write another book on child rearing as well as a cookbook. She will go back to Taiwan in the next summer vacation, but at the moment we are not really sure whether Aurora will accompany her or not. Aurora and I might take off for six weeks of adventure travel on our own. Might be hiking, might be by kayak, bicycle, motorcycle or something else not completely boring. The arctic in Europe is a tentative goal, but there are so many options available that we simply can't make up our minds. We'll see.
Anyway, I am greatly looking forward to your eMails, phone calls, posts and comments. And if it is only a one-liner. 
Cheers!
H/U/G
Bingos-Tonstudio.de - Holger Jacobsen - Quellenweg 2, 24988 Oeversee, Germany
Tel: +4946388991220, +4915122583542, +4915224956687
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Thursday, October 09, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
Saturday, August 09, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Wednesday, July 09, 2014
This short promotional video will be shown at the press conference in Taipei when Yeh Liping’s book about our eight-year-circumnavigation comes out end of July or beginning of August.
http://youtu.be/saKWtyq8z6g 大海 - The Sea - Das Meer
Friday, April 18, 2014
Happy Easter!
Hi guys,
How is it going? Any special plans for the not too distant future?
Life in Frörup/Oeversee is OK so far. Still have a screwed up right eye from the brain tumor operation and have to take artificial tears every two hours and sleep with a watchglass bandage at night. Doc says that might be over in a year while my speech therapist is of the opinion that it might stay for good. Right ear is deaf for good and the sense of balance, too. Still, after the operation they told me that 2/3 of people never walk again.
Here at home we have renovated the basement, where Aurora's room and my study are located. We even got some furniture now, so that we can eat at a proper table and so on. Except for the usual Jacobsen-chaos it looks almost normal here now. The new company is a different story. The software I am renting is so complex that I am completely at a loss. I've had to hire programmers twice already and the user manual is about 6000 pages and worked on by a team continuously. Because of competition at eBay we can't set the prices we would like so that the profit margin is minimal. We don't have the same problem at Amazon, but there the financial barriers of entry were quite a bit steeper and the commissions are a lot higher, too. Dunno how all that will play our in the long run. Also, I haven't quite decided whether I prefer to scrape barnacles of my boat every two weeks or mow the lawn. <grin>
Gloria is teaching Mandarin Chinese at a local school and her book will be published this summer with major to do, press conference and all. The publisher is one of the biggest in Taiwan and most of Gloria's favorite authors are published there, too. The book will be a large format hard-cover with hundreds of photographs in it. Should work out pretty well although we don't hold our breath as to the advance and royalties.
Aurora is now the best in her class in almost every subject. In August she will go to high-school and fortunately she got accepted in the one of our choice. There she'll be able to learn Spanish as her "official" second foreign language the year after and also she'll be in the violin workgroup, although violin is not her instrument of first choice. Shortly before or after the summer vacation she will be invited to go to Berlin to a TV studio, where they will record a session in "Klein gegen Groß", where kids have to compete against adults in a previously agreed field. This wasn't our idea at all, but that of the director who had seen her in a video made by camerawoman Christine Schmitthenner in order to apply for a job. At first I seriously thought this was only an April Fools' joke.
Our two purebred cats continue to give us lots of joy. Schnurri is a "blue" British Shorthair tom who will turn one year old in June. Puschel is a two year old Maine Coon, which is nothing short of amazing. Had I known what these Coonies are like, I would have had one a lot earlier. She follows me absolutely everywhere trying to show her affection. These big cats can walk on snow without sinking in because of the fur between their toes, were used as hunting cats in North America, love to swim and can survive in up to -22°F. Usually both of these breeds carry a steep price, but it was not so in our case. We only paid a nominal fee, because Schnurri was desperately shy and people didn't want that. So the breeder couldn't sell him. Puschel was originally used for breeding, but as the only remaining tom was her father and the breeder didn't want another one, she decided to sell her. But almost everybody only wants a cute little kitten. Their loss was our luck. Recently Puschel gave us a lot of excitement with a false pregnancy. It was really hard to believe how many people wanted one of the kittens.
As you can see, even on land boredom is not one of our problems. We even got used to the cold and the climate in general in no time.
So, now your are again reasonably up to date on us. : – )
Cheers!
Aurora, Liping & Holger
Bingos-Tonstudio.de - Holger Jacobsen - Quellenweg 2, 24988 Oeversee, Germany
Monday, December 23, 2013
Wir wünschen euch fröhliche Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!
Liebe Freunde,
Wir wünschen euch fröhliche Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!
Für uns war 2013 das Jahr der großen Veränderungen. Noch letzte Weihnachten standen wir bei Powerboats in Trinidad an Land und feierten auch Aurora Ulanis 9. Geburtstag und das Silvesterfest dort. Wenige Tage später ging es ins Wasser, auf den Karneval und zum Frühlingsanfang ging es dann endlich los Richtung Norden, denn die Bequia Race Week und viele Freunde warteten. Als auch dieser Rummel vorbei war, ging es weiter nach Martinique zu unseren alten Freunden Karl & Libu auf der ROSINANTE in Martinique. Andere Freunde hatten wir zurück lassen müssen, teils wegen des horrenden Speedboat-Unfalls von Max und Sandy bei Hog Island (Grenada) und teils weil der Ruf der Arktis für Doug & Jill stärker war als derjenige der Tropen. Nun wissen wir nicht ob wir die VOLO oder die COMPAÑERA bald wieder sehen werden.
Karl & Libu kenne ich schon seit 1989 in Kourou (Französisch Guyana) und wir hatten sie auch vor unserer Weltumseglung in Trinidad wieder getroffen. Das Wiedersehen war natürlich einzigartig. Das Essen war gut, die Gespräche waren gut und auch sonst war alles bestens. Da mein Vater am 15. Mai seinen 80 Geburtstag feiern würde, beschlossen wir DHARMA BUM III bei Karl & Libu zu lassen, um nach Deutschland zu fliegen. Von dort aus geht das sehr einfach, denn Martinique gehört offiziell zu Europa, so dass Gloria nicht schon wieder ein neues Visum brauchte.
Die Rektorin der Grundschule Oeversee hatte sich freundlicherweise bereit erklärt, Aurora an der Schule teilnehmen zu lassen und dabei verschiedene Klassenstufen auszuprobieren. Das klappte alles ganz wunderbar, und wir beschlossen, dass unsere Tochter am 5. August dort in die 4. Klasse kommen sollte. Denn auch mit dem Verkauf unseres Bootes schien das Blatt sich gewendet zu haben. Als wir in Oeversee waren, sah Günter sich mit seinem Sohn unser Boot mehrmals an und befand für gut was er sah. Günter & Yvette aus der Nähe von Bargteheide besuchten uns in Oeversee und wir planten gemeinsam, wie es nun weiter gehen sollte.
Zurück in Martinique bastelten wir wie üblich an unserem Boot herum, um danach zurück nach Trinidad zu segeln, wo Günter & Yvette für eine Woche zu uns an Bord zogen. Wir kamen zu einer Einigung, womit dann erst einmal Schluss mit Scotland Bay, Brüllaffen und Dschungel war. Es galt sich mit einem lachenden und einem weinenden Auge nach acht Jahren (bzw. 25 Jahren wenn man die anderen beiden DHARMA BUMs mitzählt) vom Yachtieleben zu verabschieden. Ärgerlicherweise auch von unseren über 600 Büchern, denn die Frachtkosten von Trinidad nach Hamburg sind wahrhaft astronomisch. So wollte eine Spedition fast US$ 1.500 für den Transport einer Kiste alter Bücher (50 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm, 40 kg) von Port of Spain nach Hamburg haben!
Wieder in Deutschland, ging es dann gleich los mit dem Papierkrieg. Da fällt schon so einiges an, wenn man 31 Jahre im Ausland gelebt hat. So schlimm, wie es einem viele Leute weismachen wollen, ist es allerdings nun auch wieder nicht. Ich meldete uns gleich beim Einwohnermeldeamt, beim Arbeitsamt und bei der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung an, was alles problemlos vor sich ging. Das war auch gut so, denn auf mich wartete eine ganz besondere Überraschung. Mit Günter & Yvette hatte ich vereinbart, dass ich den Online-Teil ihrer Firma übernehmen sollte, um diesen dann weiter über eBay.de und vor allem Amazon.de auszubauen. Da merkte ich dann zum ersten Mal, dass nicht alles in meiner Heimat so war, wie ich mir das vorgestellt hatte. Vor allem das Finanzamt konnte man beim besten Willen nur als unfähig bezeichnen. Unterlagen blieben auf dem Schreibtisch liegen, Anträge gingen verschollen, alle möglichen Formblätter kamen doppelt und dreifach – es war wirklich katastrophal. So dauerte es tatsächlich über drei Monate, bis ich endlich meine Umsatzsteuernummer bekam. Dadurch wiederum verpasste ich das Weihnachtsgeschäft, was immerhin ein vielfaches des Normalgeschäftes ausmachte. Holg war sauer.
Die Überraschung war allerdings ganz anderer Art. Schon seit 1992 war ich auf meinem rechten Ohr taub und seit 2009 hatte ich zusätzlich erhebliche Gleichgewichtsstörungen. In Darwin und Bali war es so schlimm, dass ich wie volltrunken durch die Gegend torkelte. Dieses führe mich über unseren Hausarzt zum HNO-Spezialisten und von dort zum MRT. Die Magnetresonanztomographie zeigte dann auch ganz deutlich einen 3,5 cm großen Hirntumor im Kleinhirn, dort wo besonders wenig Platz ist. Mir wurde schon ganz anders... Zurück ging es zum Hausarzt, der mit der Neurochirurgie telefonierte. Sie wollten mich sofort sehen. Der Arzt dort untersuchte mich ein weiteres Mal, um sich danach mit dem Chefarzt zu beraten. Vorher meinte er noch zu mir: "Wir wissen noch nicht, ob wir sie heute wieder nach Hause gehen lassen können." Konnten sie aber doch.
Das war ein Glück, denn am 23. Dezember bekamen wir in Cuxhaven den Weltumseglerpreis von Trans-Ocean verliehen, einen schweren Würfel aus Kristallglas in dem per Laser eine Weltkugel und ein Segelboot mitten drin eingebrannt sind, während auf zwei Seiten Trans-Ocean und DHARMA BUM III 2013 eingebrannt sind. Der hat jetzt einen Ehrenplatz bei uns.
Am 2. Dezember kam ich ins Krankenhaus und wurde am nächsten Tag vom Chefarzt Professor Dr.med.Wolfgang Börm und Stationsarzt Bernhard Feldt operiert. Ich sollte zwar schon am frühen Nachmittag aufwachen, doch kam ich erst abends auf der Intensivstation zu mir, wo ich über Nacht blieb. Die Operation war gut verlaufen, wenn auch mein Kopf dem von Frankensteins Monster ähnelte und ich nach ein paar Tagen übelste Kopfschmerzen bekam. Inzwischen bin ich schon wieder zu Hause, wo ich weiterhin starke Schmerzmittel nehme, aber immerhin Weihnachten und Auroras Geburtstag mitfeiern kann. Am 3. Januar geht es für drei Wochen auf ReHa nach Damp an der Ostsee, denn meine rechte Gesichtshälfte hängt nach wie vor auf halb acht und mein rechtes Auge kann nicht vernünftig fokussieren. So weit so gut!
Gloria hat derweil die erste Fassung ihres chinesischen Buches über unsere Weltumseglung so gut wie fertig, während ich mit den Verlegern am Verhandeln bin, denn eigentlich möchte ich lieber einen Vertrag in der Tasche haben, bevor ich wieder so viel Arbeit investiere. Das wird sowieso alles noch eher spannend hier, denn wie unsere finanzielle Zukunft aussieht, steht nach wie vor in den Sternen. Eines lasst euch auf jeden Fall gesagt sein: Das Leben an Land ist ungleich teurer als auf dem Boot und von wegen wir können uns eine Weltumseglung nicht leisten stimmt einfach nicht! Wir wünschen euch, dass ihr eure Träume verwirklicht, dass ihr schöne Weihnachtsfeiertage und einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr habt!
Viele liebe Grüße schicken euch,
Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani Jacobsen - Quellenweg 2, 24988 Oeversee, Germany
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Two Months Back In Germany
Hi guys,
Now we've been back in Germany for more than two months and it is about time that I tell you what's happening with us. We experienced the worst shock before we even got there. We had planned to send our 600 books to Germany but found out that the post offices in Martinique as well as in Trinidad only do airmail these days. Not really an option. We tried to book additional overweight luggage online and in advance with Condor, but that is not possible in Trinidad. Next step was a freight forwarder, which was the winner of all. We asked for a quote for a parcel of about 0.5 m x 0.5 m x
0.5 m weighing about 40 kg. One quote from the harbor in Port of Spain to the harbor in Hamburg was for US$ 1,227! So, sadly we had to abandon our precious books in Trinidad.
We still had enough to carry, though. If it hadn't been for a Chinese chef who had worked in Port of Spain, we might have run into serious trouble. He put lots of our stuff in his luggage and we picked it up in Frankfurt. We expected our luggage troubles to be over by then, but unfortunately that wasn't so. I had strained a muscle in my lower back very badly, was hardly able to walk and had to see the doctor on an almost daily basis for a while. I am glad to say that all is well again now. : – )
One of the things that pleasantly surprised me, was the fact that we had no trouble to rejoin the German healthcare system. We just had to go back to the same place where I had been insured as a student and that was it. That took care of my most serious worry. Aurora Ulani absolutely loves the school and brought back a lot of As already. Even in her least favorite subject, which is math. Gloria and I had to go to the department of alien affairs in a neighboring city for several times and for a while it even looked as if they required her to take German classes before we could proceed any further. At which point she engaged them in lengthy discussions in German as to why she didn't like the idea (waste of her time and waste of her money) and subsequently the requirement was dropped altogether. She is now using the old textbooks of my sister in law from Chile. She might even learn a few words of Spanish this way <grin>. She now has the equivalent of a "green card" and doesn't have to go back there for one year.
All in all it wasn't all that difficult to get back into the system. True, we did have to go to numerous government offices, but it was mostly just the filling out of forms and copying of documents. Opening up the online shop is a different matter. The software platform plentymarkets is very versatile and adaptable – but that also means it is very complex. You don't usually buy it, but actually rent it and it is being maintained on the server of the developing software company. Unfortunately it is anything but user friendly. It will take me a very long time to get the hang of it and if you make a mistake, you always have to fear legal action from the competition. I was hoping to be ready with both eBay and Amazon for Christmas shopping, but now it looks as if I am not going to make it. That is too bad, as Christmas is the most important time of the year.
Another thing we have to figure out, is what to do with the money we got for DHARMA BUM III. Being back in the system does not mean that we have an old age pension or anything like that. My absence of 31 years from my home country makes that impossible. We do not want to leave the money simply in our bank account but the opinions of everybody including the experts vary to an astonishing degree. I tend to think that it might be a good idea to buy a house with the money and then rent it out. In this country the return on investment is very small, but still better than cash. Our friends from Taiwan are of the opinion that it is sheer lunacy to invest in Germany. If not Taiwan, than at least somewhere else in Asia. And maybe it would be better in any case to look at bonds, as the real estate market doesn't look promising at the moment. But Gloria's friends have always been high flyers and are born optimists. Then there is the apartment in Garden City (Taiwan). Soon we will have to decide what to do there as the contract expires. The price of similar apartments in the area went up by almost 70% since Gloria bought hers! Not re
ally a good time to get into that particular game at the moment. But somehow we absolutely have to make sure that we have enough money when we are not able to work anymore as we can see right now that we won't be able to make any reasonable amounts of money here. Lots of thought for plenty of discussions...
An old friend gave us three bicycles, so that we are able to make bicycle-trips in the neighborhood. At first Aurora Ulani didn't want to try out the bicycle and zoomed around everywhere on a little foldable scooter made of aluminum instead. After we promised her a toy, everything changed. It took her about one hour to learn to ride a bike and we can only say one thing: Bribery works! Last Tuesday she took the bicycle to ride to her ballet lesson in the neighboring village. Gloria and I never really wanted to get into that sort of thing, but she wanted it so much, all her friends are there and the costs are minimal. We bowed to the inevitable. Today she is having her first little party, which was completely her own idea. She planned and wrote the invitations herself as well as a program for different tastes as well as a timetable. Not our idea, I assure you! We wonder where those genes came from.
When the weather permits, we take a lot of walks through the forest, around the lake and down the river. It is very beautiful and it is a lot of fun to hunt for mushrooms. The other day Gloria surpassed herself by baking fresh mushrooms with spring onions and garlic in a Pyrex glass bowl. Absolutely delicious! There is one distinct drawback to all this gluttony. Our waistlines are expanding mercilessly... We have abandoned butter and margarine altogether by now. Delicious food will stay part of our way of life which is to be expected from a proper Chinese lady. Gloria even bought a deep fryer, as lots of vegetables need to be fried for seconds before being used in various recipes. On the boat I already vetoed a big Chinese gas jet burner which is normally used to bring the wok up to speed
and I am equally disinclined to have our house burn down here. A deep fryer seemed like the more sensible option.
Talking about the house: Our tenant upstairs is moving out all of a sudden on 1 November so we are moving in there. It is an apartment with a big living room, one bedroom and a huge balcony. Still too small for a family of three, so we will recombine the small place we live in now with the bigger one upstairs. There is a certain amount of reconstruction necessary, but it sure beats having to walk through rain, cold, wind or snow every time you leave your bedroom. In fact, once we have properly moved in, gotten our own furniture and decorated the place it should be very nice indeed. After all, we bought and renovated the house to our tastes in 1996 – with floor heating and all. We are really looking forward to living there!
We got a little car right after we got here, because out here in the boondocks you really need one. So we are living a very "normal" landlubber-life and I have to say that I agree very much with what sailing guru Bobby Schenk has to say about coming back and reintegrating oneself. People make much too much of it. It is way easier than living on a comparatively small budget on a sailboat for years. I also agree with another one of his opinions: That these days there are way too many people out there who shouldn't be there in the first place.
Right now we are very glad to have come back here, to spend time with family and old friends and re-discover the ways of the people in north Germany. Of course we miss our yachtie friends very much as well as the many beautiful places we have visited in the past eight years. Fortunately there is eMail and other electronic media, so that we can still stay in touch. In the next summer vacation Gloria and Aurora Ulani plan to fly to Taiwan. Gloria hasn't seen her family since she flew there from Langkawi and our daughter shouldn't forget all the Mandarin-Chinese which we so painstakingly taught her. We also continue to teach her Calvert School, because English is still her best language at the moment and we don't want her to lose it. Right now she is reading German translations of Enid Blyton by the bucketful. To be on the safe side, she has already joined two libraries, so we don't expect any problems in this department in the near future.
Very soon the autumn/fall vacations are beginning here. The summer is gone for good. In the shops you can buy all kinds of Christmas stuff, but our favorite "Glühwein" (warmed and spiced red wine) is not yet to be had. I am sure we will find it any day now. We've bought an electrical footpad for icy evenings (we do live in the basement after all) and wonder how we will like the first winter. At the moment everything looks real good and we just hope that next year will be just as good.
We do hope that you are well and are enjoying life just as much as we do!
Cheers!
Holger, Gloria & Aurora Ulani