frauke at large

According to Wiki, snow is a type of precipitation within the Earth’s atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds … hang on … did I just read ‘a multitude’? Surely it’s meant to say: gazillions of snowflakes!!! … or at least that’s what it feels like at the moment. From the time of my arrival up until now it has incessantly snowed, creating a magical winter wonderland in which all you see is white!!! Occasionally the sun has come out and it has felt like St. Moritz, just without the hordes of tourists, but generally speaking Mr. Plow has had his work cut out … Am wondering whether it might ever stop!?

In the spirit of academically sound research (and trust me … this is rigorous research indeed; in fact we should get funded for this) and therefore the necessity for a well balanced argument, I must note that although Chinese signs are always a great source of amusement and hence provide hours of laughter … we (i.e. those who should know better) don’t always get it right either.

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If anyone ever had the chance to or was contemplating moving to China – I’d say: do it! It has such entertainment value.

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Our last few days in New Zealand were spent in Auckland … though we needed to travel through quite a few cow pastures and sheep fields before arriving back in civilization.

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On my way back from Australia, I took a short detour via the North Island – New Zealand. My anticipation for this place was huge as I am a big fan of ferns and particularly of tree ferns, which originate from New Zealand.

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Not quite sure where to start on this one: shall we dive in straight at the deep end and comment on the clear marketing campaign copy by The Australian: ‘Think. Again.‘, which is as similar as Apple’s ‘Think. Different.‘ campaign as similar can get (same punctuation, same font and … well almost the same words)? Or shall we comment on the funny word play in a crackers ad, that is so irritatingly good that I had to take a picture of it? Or shall we perhaps bring out the big guns and start a privacy rant over the fact that half of Melbourne is monitored to promote a ‘safe city’ whilst clearly annoying some of us privacy fanatics by infringing on our rights to shop without being monitored doing so?

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Spent last week at the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Marketing conference in Melbourne, which was great. Had not been back to Melbourne for ages and found that not much had changed but that I liked it a lot more than when I was first there. Discovered many nice restaurants, bars and cafes. Particularly enjoyed the many alley bars and small restaurants by the waterfront, which, due to it being summer down under, allowed for many a warm night outside by the water. Also discovered a nice rooftop bar with beautiful night views over the city.

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Could this be quirky packaging or simply a clever new marketing ploy to get young people into the habit of carrying cigarette packets around with them, in the hope that one day they will switch from sweets to cigarettes?

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What is it with this country and the constant noise!? It starts just after dawn, when the building site next to the campus resumes work – at 5.45am!

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There’s nothing this country can do better than put on a big show. And similarly, there’s nothing it lacks more than to be able to create ‘atmosphere’. Restaurants, on the whole, consist of big square rooms that are usually fitted with huge big neon lights on the ceiling to scare away – well almost anything. Transactions of all sorts are, by and large, functional and even the weather in Ningbo switches from summer to winter and back to summer almost over night, leaving little room for the gradual change of nature that makes autumn and spring so attractive (like the smells of roasted chestnuts, decaying autumn leaves and the air getting colder). And so the notion of ‘atmosphere’, as we would know it in the West, is often entirely non-existent and lost on your average local person.

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