doing it for the team! plus, it's a bit of a laugh...and an itch!

"Movember's primary campaign objective is to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues, specifically prostate and male mental health. We want everyone to know that most cancers are highly curable if caught in the early stages therefore Movember aims to increase early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment. This will ultimately reduce the number of deaths from cancer.

"Movember aims to change the face of men’s health and reverse this way of thinking by putting a fun twist on a serious issue. Using the moustache as a catalyst, we want to bring about change and give men the opportunity and confidence to talk about their health more openly.

...and here comes the money shot: don't forget to donate

in my nomadic life thus far, i've opened my fair share of bank accounts. after doing a bit of research and looking at comparisons on canstar.com.au, i walked into a local bankwest branch and opened not just one but two accounts in under half an hour. and here's the money shot: i only needed to show my passport. none of the so often catch-22 kind of prerequisites. for my everyday transaction account, i chose the hero account. i am curious to see what its online banking is like.

furthermore i applied for my TFN - tax file number. without a TFN it is possible you may pay more tax than necessary.... and we can't have that, can we!? so under 20 minutes i applied for my TFN online. we'll see how that goes, but for the moment i am optimistic.

letting the cat out of the bag: i have emigrated to perth, australia. my emirates flight EK420 to perth arrived yesterday the 25th of April 2012.

it's been on the cards for a while, even whilst married to paula. however, earlier this year, the so to speak ball really got rolling when i visited perth and thanks to my mates matt and andrew met a few recruiting companies and potential clients. not your typical holiday, it was great interviewing and of course being interviewed by the IT folks in perth. what wasn't easy was doing all of that dressed in a suit and tie whilst one heat wave after the other was causing air conditioning bills soar to new heights. the best part of the suit dressing business was getting out of it and heading to the beach to try and cool down in the indian ocean.

after accepting the job offer, which included the skilled migrant visa sponsorship needed for me to be able to work and live in australia, it was only a matter of almost two months for me to pack up shop in germany, ship the necessary to perth and not forgetting turning up for work on the 30th of April. i was pleasantly surprised how quickly the company sponsorship visa, also known as a visa 457, came through. sure it took me a while to fulfill all visa application requirements, but only a couple of weeks after submitting the application, we received the good-to-go. and that was pretty much the point of no return. after that moment, the packing and shipping chores to perth defaulted to a higher urgency. it kept me busy for most of april and relatively speaking, i didn't have that much packing to do. as for the moment i am not shipping any furniture. for starters i moved in with my good mates matt and katrina. but several boxes are making their way to perth...fingers crossed.

even though i am truly looking forward to my new job (permanent employment... can you believe it), seeing my perth mates frequently and everything else the gorgeous perth has to offer, leaving germany and austria wasn't easy. them mates and my parents and my nan will be dearly missed. but thanks to skype and the occasional decadent emirates flight back to munich, will hopefully ease the longing.

to beat the eventual forgetfulness, i am hoping to document as many initial experiences as possible. they might not come in the form of a blog entry like this one, but certainly as a tweet, a flickr or instagram photo, a foursquare check-in or all of the above aggregated on friendfeed.

how exciting!

the last two years have been tough. paula and i separated and our marriage ended with a divorce only a few months ago. whilst also working way too much, it wasn't much of a surprise that burn-out symptons were starting to show. it's not something i wish upon anyone and i am thankful i was able to take a lengthier time off. during my stay in south africa and australia i was able to slowly start getting better. so with all that and so much more, i am looking forward to 2012. i have a feeling that it's going to be a good one again. so here's what i am hoping to achieve:

• visit australia and research the possibility of emmigrating
• learn how to surf
• learn more about finance
• find better ways to invest and secure assets
• continue to visit the gym at least 3 times a week
• continue to eat and chew well
• continue to find a medical practitioner or ways to heal my daily aching screwed shoulder
• watch less telly and read more
• work on another groovy and grails project
• ...and of course to have a blast with family and friends

until july 2011, i'll be taking a timeout visiting family and friends in south africa, namibia and australia. except for my timeout period @6footplus tweets, foursquare check-ins and the occasional twitpic & flickr photo uploads, my online & blogging presence will be limited.

spur of the moment pics taken with my mobile phone:

after sharing our enthusiasm about the new mercedes benz look gracing so many of their models, balazs and i spontaneously drove to the impressive show rooms here in münchen to have a closer gander.

i just love the new more mean look. gone are the round headlights (E class), in are the more squarish headlights. what i am really looking forward to is the new c coupe. some serious eye candy i would say!

axel, bob and i snowboarding at steinplatte again.

> snowboarding video in high definition (HD) at vimeo

in a quest to feel better, i've started reading feeling better by david d. burns. from the offset, i was stunned with what he describes as cognitive distortions. boy or boy can the mind play tricks on us.

below i've quoted david d. burns' ten definitions of cognitive distortions. i found them very helpful and i bet your mind has played at least one of these distortions on you.

ALL-OR-NOTHING THINKING: You see things in black-and-white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

OVERGENERALIZATION: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.

MENTAL FILTER: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that colors the entire beaker of water.

DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE: You reject positive experiences by insisting the "don't count" for some reason or other. In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion.
a) Mind reading. You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don't bother to check this out.
b) The Fortune Teller Error. You anticipate that things will turn out badly, and you fell convinced that your prediction is an already-established fact.

MAGNIFICATION (CATASTROPHIZING) OR MINIMIZATION: You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else's achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable qualities or the other fellow's imperfections). This is also called the "binocular trick".

EMOTIONAL REASONING: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: "I feel it, therefore it must be true"

SHOULD STATEMENTS: You try to motivate yourself with shoulds and shouldn'ts, as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything. "Musts" and "oughts" are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct should statements towards others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment.

LABELING and MISLABELING: This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself: "I'm a loser". When someone else's behaviour rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to him: "He's a goddam louse". Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly coloured and emotionally loaded.

PERSONALIZATION: You see yourself as the cause of some negative external event which in fact you were not primarily responsible for.

besides axel getting a concussion (scary stuff) from unexpectingly catching an edge, chris, axel and i had a good snowboarding trick practice session at steinplatte (waidring, austria). it was the first time for me attempting such size of jumps. looking at the videos it doesn't look like much. but i can tell you my knees started shaking every time i gave it a go. for starters i only tried to not paddle too much in the air and of course land the jumps. next time i definitely wanna try to get some more air-time by actually jumping off the ramp and not just relying on the approach speed giving me the air. and of course getting me a portion more guts to pull it off ;-)

> snowboarding video in high definition (HD) at youtube
> snowboarding video in high definition (HD) at flickr
> snowboarding video in high definition (HD) download (temporarily)

a bunch of us skiing and snowboarding in söll, austria

> sunset ride in söll in high definition (HD)
> powder run in söll in high definition (HD)
> flickr photos from söll

• Beers by the river (@ The Lucky Shag) http://t.co/d55KKf8d (posted )

• Not quite the München #Oktoberfest but close enough http://t.co/50Q7yGlU (posted )

• At least I didn't have pesky snakes #perth @ Herdsman Lake Wildlife Centre http://t.co/sXGizmGN (posted )