The Basslink cable was cut this morning in order to repair it. Concerns that this could cause Tasmanian internet speeds to go to shit appear to have been well founded (see #basslink on Twitter). In my case, my NBN wireless has gone from 21Mbps/5Mbps to 1Mbps/4Mbps, i.e. my download speed is a twentieth of what it was before, but my upload is about the same. So I may as well post some photos, right?

I spent the second half of February at SUSE Mission Control in Nuremberg, which was one of those relatively infrequent but wonderful opportunities to spend time in person with the people I work with. So it actually wasn’t a holiday (we were all there to do SUSE Enterprise Storage stuff), but I did take a few photos. Here’s the ones that didn’t come out too badly.

First, enroute via Singapore, the butterfly garden and some helpful advice on books.

The station closest to the hotel had a pretty thing on the wall.

The hotel itself had friendly staff, nice food, pleasant table candles, and a whole bunch of pictures of people named Paul on the walls (my favourite was the non-human one).

It was fairly cold. Maybe 1-7 degrees C most days, with an occasional attempt at a snow flurry. So I got to be the Purple Ninja.

One day on the way to the office, we found the centre of town.

On the weekend, I found a lightsaber I will never be willing to purchase.

There were plenty of churches, statues and other interesting pieces of architecture.

I also discovered that beer coasters have far more structural integrity than playing cards.

The interior decor is sometimes a little odd.

The Cascade beer at Kater Murr is completely unrelated to the Tasmanian beer of the same name.

A random body piercing shop sadly didn’t have any spare grommets for my ear piercings, but did have a very cute little skeleton.

I also found a Lego shop…

…and some buskers. The panda didn’t do much (although the kids seemed entranced), but the Jewish Jazz Trio totally rocked.

On the way back through Singapore I found an interesting machine. Usually you have to pay good money to experience pain with pleasure, but this thing was free. On reflection I’m not sure the terms “pleasure” or “pain” are appropriate – I think it’s pretty much just weird robot massage.