Seriously now

Your help is kindly requested:
What is more correct:

...exports reached a volume of 4 billion euros
...exports reached a volume of 4 billion euro
...exports reached a volume of € 4 billion
...exports reached a volume of EUR 4 billion
...exports reached a volume of euro 4 billion

What would you expect to find written?

Merry Christmas to all of you! And happy holidays to all those who do not celebrate Christmas.

The heart is a curious thing. I learned about Keris' death yesterday - while we were assembled at the placement of Ratz' urn saying good bye to Ratz. The news reached us when we were still at the undertakers' hall. It reached us between a wall of urns and a sunlit atrium with flower arrangement and rocky fountain.
I felt curiously numb. The situation was so eerily unreal. It wasn't until today when I saw him smiling from a photograph Kirstin had posted that I suddenly started crying.
I shall miss Keris. When he was working in Germany he often came to stay with us for weekends, a most welcome guest. I remember cooking for us, going to concerts together, working on the first German filktape (Rika, Keris and Bear).
I shall miss him.

Those of you who read my last entry about the perfect house and the Lotto jackpot needed for it are probably dying to hear the result.
Yes, I played Lotto.
Yes, I won.
I now am EUR 5.- closer to the fulfilment of this particular dream.

Though, mind you, if I had a choice in dream fulfilment the house would not be my first choice. The problem is I am not getting palpably closer to the others either.

I have already once confessed my surreal reaction to go scouring the estate agents’ top price level housing lists whenever I feel somewhat downtrodden. It must be a slightly masochist tendency. I am a housing flagellant.
I don’t know why looking at houses that I shall never be able to afford would calm me down but it does. Very weird. Maybe it is because mostly those houses are showy and ugly and I would not want them anyway.
Today, of course, I found THE house. It is pretty exactly what I would have sketched if someone had asked me to make a list of everything I want to have in the ideal house. It is in the part of town that I like, it is big enough to house our fannish household and a Bear who cannot throw anything away. The cut of the rooms is perfect. The house is from the right period (around 1900 but renovated with up to date tech). It’s got a garden that is just small enough to enjoy without becoming a full time job. And it even has a small swimming pool. It costs just less than one million EUR.
So it is really about time I won that LOTTO jackpot.
Whip… whip… whip…
Thou shalt not covet…

As I don't speak Polish I consulted the Google Translator for the Polish publisher's information about me and my books - see below result in German and English. They must have milked the internet and invented the rest.
"Obsidian Hearts" in Polish. I am sure no one ever told them that the book was published in English - since it was not.

"In Bayern geboren, studierte Geschichte und Englisch an der Universität München. Sein erster Roman, schrieb sie in das Leben heimlich, im Alter von 13 Jahren, sorgfältig verbergen Datensätze. Große Leidenschaft war die Musik ihrer Jugend: sie sang im Chor, und nach einem längeren Aufenthalt in Irland mit meinem ganzen Herzen verliebte sich in die lokale Volksmusik. In den frühen 90er Jahren gab es eine Reihe von großen Erfolgen als Sänger und Songwriter - nicht nur für Musik, schuf die Gedichte und Geschichten.
Widmete sich Fiktion, weil, wie erklärt - fühlt sich weit weg von den literarischen Mainstream. Nicht gern süßen Feen und Elfen, zieht Emotionen, Abenteuer und schwarzem Humor.
Im Jahr 2000 begann die Arbeit an einem Roman "Obsidian Herz." Das Buch erschien ursprünglich in englischer Sprache (2008) - Ju später ins Deutsche übersetzt. Im Jahr 2009 wurde die "Obsidian Heart" der Deutschen Phantastik-Preis für das beste Debüt ausgezeichnet. Ju Honisch literarisches Schaffen ergänzt eine Sammlung von Kurzgeschichten, zwei Romane und eine Reihe von Fantasy-Anthologien in deutscher Sprache veröffentlicht.
Glückliche Frau, Schlagzeuger Celtic Chakra. Gemeinsam leben sie in Hessen. Offizielle Website des Schriftstellers.

Born in Bavaria, a graduate of history and English from the University of Munich. His first novel she wrote in the lives surreptitiously, at the age of 13 years, carefully concealing records. Great passion was music of her youth: she sang in the choir, and after a lengthy stay in Ireland with all my heart fell in love with the local folk music. In the early '90s saw a number of major successes as a singer and songwriter - not only for music, created the poems and stories.
Devoted herself to fiction because, as explained - feels far away from the literary mainstream. Not fond of sweet fairies and elves, prefers emotion, adventure and dark humor.
In 2000 started work on a novel "Obsidian heart." The book originally appeared in English (2008) - Ju later translated it into German. In 2009, the "Obsidian Heart" was awarded the Deutsche Phantastik Prize for best debut. Ju literary oeuvre Honisch complements a collection of short stories, two novels and a series of fantasy anthologies published in German.
Happy wife, drummer Celtic Chakra. Together they live in Hessen. Official website of the writer.

The Ratzi visit is over and people are disillusioned. The word in itself makes it clear that if you were expecting more than general blahdeblah you had illusions.
I don’t get it how people seriously thought that this Bishop of Rome would come to Germany and suddenly change things when it has been clear that his main aim in life is NOT to change things.
This man has had his spy system working when he was Cardinal in Munich, he was a type-cast representative of the Congregation of the Faith (the follow-up organisation of the inquisition) for years, and he has done nothing but rigid brand policy implementation ever since he got white-smoked into the Holy Rather-not-See.
How can anyone be disillusioned when he does what he has always done: throw his erudition into blah-mode and purr out the one message: nothing will ever change. Because change would imply that something may have been wrong. And nothing was ever wrong because that would imply that the Church made mistakes. But the Church cannot make mistakes if its head is infallible. So nothing must or can ever change. Q.E.D.
So take heart, folks. Don’t be disillusioned. You had no reason for illusions in the first place.
Oh. And the Church is not God. It is just an institution with a conservative PR department.

Sorry - content too Bavarian to explain.


Seltsam, wenn man über seine Vergangenheit stolpert. Aus aktuellem Anlass habe ich ein wenig um die Biermösl Blosn herumgesurft. Sie haben haben sich heute aufgelöst. Das Ende einer Ära, die aus guter Musik, wunderbarem Humor und gezielten Arschtritten in genau die richtigen Ärsche bestand. Ich kann heute noch das Lied der BayWa auswendig. Ich werde die Jungs vermissen.

Bin bei Rumsurfen auf diesen Artikel gestoßen und stellte fest, dass ich fast alle erwähnten Leute irgendwann zumindest flüchtig persönlich kannte. Im MUH (Musikalisches Unterholz – Münchner Kleinkunstbühne 70er/80er) bin ich damals auch aufgetreten – mit irischen Liedern. Da war ich noch in der Schule. Mit Willy Michl habe ich zusammen gemütlich Bier getrunken (das war, glaube ich, im „Robinson“ – weitere Kleinkunstbühne). Und Fredl Fesl hat mich mal im Probenkammerl mit einem spontanen Jodler getröstet, als ich in meine Gitarre weinte nach einem ziemlich verunglückten Auftritt der eben entstandenen und gleich wieder verschwundenen „Rambling Roguies“ (drei Schulfreundinnen und ich, die wir irische Rebellenlieder sangen). Die Biermösl Blosn habe ich unendlich bewundert. Tue es heute noch.
Tja, ich denke nicht, dass sich noch irgendwer an mich erinnert. Und die anderen? Fredl Fesl taucht nur noch selten irgendwo auf, die Well-Buam sehen nicht mehr aus wie frischgeputzte Konfirmanden (naja, immerhin der Stofferl hatte damals immer so gewirkt) und Willy Michl hat irgendwann mal gesagt: entweder werde ich jetzt berühmt oder Indianer. Er ist Indianer geworden.

Und ich? Ich schreibe Romane. Und gelegentlich singe ich auch mal was.
Schade, dass es keine richtigen Kleinkunstbühnen mehr gibt. Aber heute Abend ist Open Stage im FAB – Frankfurt Art Bar . Vielleicht sollte ich mal wieder hingehen.

Oder ich mache es wie Willy Michl. Es ist vielleicht sinnreicher als alles andere.

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