This morning I smelt a disgusting stink when getting up, quickly dismissing it as “the kids have set the rubbish chute on fire – NOT AGAIN“. So I wasn’t too alarmed when three firetrucks pulled up in front of the house. But quickly it turned out to be much more, as the ladder was brought up and the firemen wore gas masks and oxygen bottles, and the smell became more, not less intense. fire brigade in front of Fidra Court We got a bit more alarmed when a fireman on his ladder rushed by in front of our window on the way up.

Wednesday was an incredibly bad day for me with nearly everything going wrong which could go wrong. The only highlight was that I finally was able to make it to report from the protest at the Edinburgh city chambers, against the privatisation of the social care and support services. Report and pictures as usual on Indymedia – UK for pictures and Scotland for local report and networking. I even brought the camcorder along but it was a bit too dark for filming. Nevertheless, hopefully, I’ll have time to produce a little video, but not more than 2 minutes long with a voice-over only.

During my work experience at the Nuremberg based newspaper’s online department, I produced eighteen video clips with my colleague. My favourites are still the “Dogdancing” video and the “Life of a Stuntman” video. Although the last videos are technically and editorially the best; the Square-Dance video and the presentation of the rare Kolitrappen chick in the local zoo.

Reading the local Bavarian paper on the internet, my attention was drawn to a video clip about the cold war nuclear bunker in Nuremberg. I did not know there was a nuclear bunker in Nuremberg at all, let alone underneath the main pedestrian shopping zone. Compared to the secret bunker in Crail in Fife, it is a civilian not a military bunker though. In 2006 the German government decided that it was unlikely that the bunker would be needed anymore in future and therefore gave up its maintenance, handing it back to the local authorities. In the case of Nuremberg, the local fire brigade ended up with the obligation to look after the building.

I just got into watching old movies with the 1981 Australian “The killing of Angel Street”, describing a community struggling against commercial property development in the 70ies in Sydney. It is based on the history of activist Juanita Nielson , who was murdered because of her opposition to the high-rise developments. The film is now hard to get. Yesterday I watched marxist (?!) filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville”, a classic 1965 film about a totalitarian, de-humanised and computer-controlled society. It came with a pack of videos some artist dumped on us in a tidy-up action, along with Luis Bunuel’s 1964 “Diary of a Chambermaid”.