Ok, so this is my favourite food of all times! My grandma's famous Serbian Rice Meat. We call it Serbisch-Reisfleisch in German which I think sounds nicer, nut the thing is, I've never met anyone who has tried it and not liked it!


And it's fairly easy to make too, so I wonder why I never tried myself before. Maybe I was intimidated. My gran used to give cooking classes and I've never come across a meal she didn't master. And trying any of er recipes and getting the food to her standard has never really worked for me. It took me ages just to get her pancakes right!


Anyway, I recently had to cook for my team at work (our department takes turns - every month, one of the teams has to cook lunch for everyone) and I needed something easy to make, cheap, crowd-pleasing and something I could make in large quantities and rehet easily. Cue Serbian Rice Meat!


Here's what you need:


500g mince beef (I used lean beef mince)
2 cups of long grain rice
1 cup of water with 2 cubes of beef stock
1 1/2 cups of water
1 tube of tomato puree
Salt
Coarse Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper

Here's how you do it:


Heat some oil in a pan. Sear the mince in the pan until brown. Either transfer to a deep pan or, if your pan is big enough and you have a lid for it, continue with the same pan. Add the rice and roast it for a minute or two with the mince. Add the water, beef stock and tomato puree. Stir well until the tomato puree is distributed evenly. Add some salt and black pepper and bring rice to a boil.


Once the mix is boiling and you can see bubbles, turn the heat off completely and cover the pan with a lid. Leave it for 20 minutes and do not lift the lid! After the rice has been standing for 20 minutes, stir well and add coarse black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste. Serve hot!


Now, my family loves this really spicy and you can add some paprika if you feel like it! Instead of just beef mince, you can also go half-half with beef and pork mince but that's up to taste.


This dish is also easily turned into a vegetarian version by using Quorn mince and vegetable stock and it tastes just as yummy!


Serbian Rice Meat is easily freezable and you can leave it over night in the fridge and make it for lunch / dinner the next day. If you plan on leaving it stand overnight, go lightly on the seasoning as the rice will absorb it and make it really spicy, really fast! Serve piping hot and add cayenne just before serving!

The latest issue of my travel magazine Shoestring is now online! Check out the entire magazine on Shoestring Travel Magazine

Here's the thing: I graduated with a really good degree. Since 2004 I've been doing work experience as reporter and photographer worlwide. I speak 2 languages fluently, two more on a more basic level.

I can write stories, take quality photographs, can do audio and video reports and have never misquoted anyone to my knowledge.

My final grade in my degree was better than that of a few (working) journalists I know.

Yet, I can't seem to find a media outlet willing to give me a go as either reporter or photographer.

I'm beginning to think that this is a racial issue or gender discrimination. I know my qualifications and my previous experience are good enough, and I doubt I would have nearly as many problems in Germany as I am facing in the UK.

No, I don't have any NCTJs. But I know many journalists, including editors, who don't have all of them either. Journalism has only in recent years become a profession you need a degree for. Whatever happened to talent and learning on the job?

Besides, I have done media law but wasn't allowed to sit the exam. If you want to know why my degree wasn't NCTJ accredited, please take the issue up with the University of Cumbria. I still wait for an answer.

Meanwhile I am being used by media outlets who never pay for all the work I give them but then don't hire me when I come to apply for an advertised job.

I just wonder how much more I need to do to deserve a break?!?

I heard a radio interview someone did who got one of the jobs I applied for... She kept interrupting her quite famous interviewee and it didn't sound professional at all... At least I know how to interview someone.

I just got another rejection letter, for a job as press photographer that didn't even require previous press experience.

My photo subjects include Barack Obama. How can that not be good enough??

I would like to know what else I need to do to get a chance to be a journalist!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

„Früher gab es noch richtige Musik!“

Dem kann ich nur zustimmen. Ich halte nicht viel von synthetischen Melodien, Boybands, Girlbands und Popstars. Für mich muss eine Band ihre Instrumente selber spielen können und ihre Songs selber schreiben. Sänger müssen Charisma haben und geborene Entertainer sein, die selbst das größte Stadion rocken können.

Playback bei Live-Auftritten gibt es nur wenn wirklich nicht anders möglich, synchronisiertes Getanze gibt es nur in Ausnahmefällen und auffällige Bühnenoutfits sind ein Muss. Echte Bands spielen Gitarrensoli, und wenn dann doch mal live ein Patzer passiert wird darüber gelacht und weitergemacht.

Leider gibt es solche Bands im Zeitalter von Lady GaGa und Justin Bieber viel zu selten. Für mich hat niemand Rock so verkörpert wie Freddie Mercury, der legendäre Frontmann der britischen Rockband Queen.

Am 5. September 2011 wäre Freddie, der 1946 als Farrokh Bulsara auf Sansibar geboren wurde, 65 Jahre alt geworden. Doch leider wurde Freddie nur 45. Im November 1991 verstarb der bisexuelle Sänger an Aids, einen Tag nachdem er sich öffentlich zu seiner Krankheit bekannt hatte. Berühmt für seine grellen Bühnenoutfits und seine Tenor-Stimme, die 3 ½ Oktaven umfasste, erreichte er schon zu Lebzeiten mit Songs wie We Will Rock You und We Are The Champions Kultstatus.

Aus seiner Feder stammen unter anderem Bicycle Race (I want to ride my bicycle), Don‘t stop me now und vor allem Bohemian Rhapsody. In seinen letzten Videos war ihm seine Krankheit deutlich anzusehen. Doch da er immernoch singen konnte, nahm er selbst da noch so viele Songs wie möglich auf, damit seine Band auch ohne ihn weiterleben konnte. Bands wie Queen hielten sich wochenlang in den Charts, hin und wieder sogar mehrmals mit der gleichen Single.

Ihre Songs sind weltberühmt, ihr Auftritt bei Live Aid 1985 im Wembley Stadium ging als bester Live-Auftritt aller Zeiten in die Geschichte ein. Wer ein Musical für und über seine Musik geschrieben bekommt, der hat es geschafft.

Das Musical We Will Rock You ist ein internationaler Erfolg. Wie sehr die Musik von Queen ganze Generationen beeinflusst hat sieht man, wenn das Publikum von 15 bis 75 Jahren textsicher und tonsicher jeden Song mitsingen kann und am Ende ruft: „Freddie, wir werden dich nie vergessen.“ Das sollen Deutschlands sogenannte Superstars erstmal nachmachen.

11. September 2001.

I've always been somewhat of a linguist. Therefore my latest decision should not come as a surprise: I want to learn more languages!

Next to my native language German, I currently speak English fluently, and basic French and Spanish. But that's not enough for me!

My plan is to learn as many languages as possible. Not because it would look impressive on a CV. I do this for the fun of learning something new, and I am not giving myself a deadline. As a travel journalist, I have always tried to learn at least some basic phrases in the countries I visited, out of respect for the locals.

I also find it interesting to see how a language developed, and compare it to others.

My love for languages had quite humble beginnings, though.

Aged 5 I asked my parents what simple phrases meant in English, so I could impress my godfather who was on a visit from the USA. I learned "how do you do?" and "what's the time?" and was mighty proud.

Then in primary school Yorckstrasse in Solingen, Germany, I had a British classmate for a while. Her name was Susan and we became close friends. If I had lunch at her house after school, her mum would make us count to 100 in English before we got our food.

I haven't stopped speaking English since. In fact, I liked English so much that I started courses for primary school children in Year 4 - back then, you only started learning English at school from Year 5 onwards. I became fascinated with English; so much so that when my secondary school, grammar school Gymnasium Schwertstrasse Solingen decided to offer a bilingual stream from 1997 onwards, I was one of the first to volunteer.

My entire grammar school career (9 years in total, from 1997 to 2006) I was taught bilingually. We were guinea pigs in many respects. None of the teachers had taught bilingual classes before, so being among the very first 60 bilingual students wasnot always smooth sailing.

For the first two years at the Schwertstrasse, we had 7 hours of English per week instead of 5 in the regular classes. In those extra hours, we read about history and geography, and we even wrote and performed our first plays, including Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood. My big advantage was that our English teacher was Scottish and therefore a native speaker. Everybody else learned from German teachers - and some of those teachers used to think that they were better than native speakers.

In Year 7 we started geography classes in English instead of German - History and Politics soon followed. The Year 7 class trip saw us staying with hostfamilies in Canterbury. At the beginning of Year 7 we were given a choice as is usual in German schools: we had to pick a second language and could choose between French and Latin.

I decided to study a language I'd actually be able to speak. So for the next four years, I had French lessons on top of all the English I already did. But unlike English, French was only taught in 2-4 hours a week, compared to over 10 hours (including bilingual lessons) of English.

Unfortunately, my school did not put emphasis on French. Although I sat and passed the TELC / DELF A1 exam, my French course never really gave us practice in reading or speaking the language. While I was reading The Lord of the Rings in English aged 13 (one of the first books I read in English cover to cover), I struggled to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone in French aged 16.

My first Spanish lesson came in the same year as my first French lesson. Together with my best friend, I signed up for beginner's classes at the community college. However, this was short-lived, as we kept mixing the two languages which had a negative impact on our exams at school.

When I turned 16, I moved to New Zealand for a year to be an exchange student. I would have loved to attend Maori and Japanese classes, but I arrived in the middle of the school year down there and was not allowed to join these language classes as I would have missed too much. But especially Maori intrigued me!

Within weeks of arriving in Auckland, I was able to sing the national anthem in Maori thanks to my friends, and one classmate made it her personal mission to ensure I knew all the words to the Ka Mate Kapa Haka (All Blacks rugby challenge). When I saw Italian classes offered at my school for night classes, I signed up and completed the 14 week course.

Returning to Germany, I found my English had improved while my French had suffered. A weekend trip to Paris revealed what I already expected: I would not be able to continue my French classes, if I wanted to skip Year 11 completely and go straight to Year 12. In retrospect, that would probably have been the better option.

Ever since Year 5, my plan had been to start learning Spanish and Russian in Year 11. Because I went abroad, I was not able to learn these languages at school, so I opted to fully concentrate on my bilingual classes, taking Geography, History and English all the way to A-levels.

It was my mum who saw an ad in the paper, offering lessons in various languages including Spanish and Swedish. I figured this could be a safer combination than French and Spanish, as there would be more of a difference between the languages.

The courses were great! Small classes, individual tutoring. For a while I made good progress. But then the Swedish classes got cancelled because the other students stopped showing up. And Spanish? There was only 1 other student, and he missed a few classes. But because of that, we kept repeating lessons that I had mastered weeks ago, and didn't proceed past lesson 5 in the book. I didn't sign up for more classes after that.

After graduating from grammar school, I went on a Gap Year. In Accra, Ghana, I learned to ask my way around in Ewe and Twi. In South Africa, I was amazed how easily I picked up Afrikaans. As a native German speaker, I can usually understand and read Dutch. But Afrikaans was even closer to my hometown's dialect. When I asked my dad to send me Maeck on Moer (Max und Moritz) in Solinger Platt, my hosts were able to read and understand it.

Travelling through East Africa, I picked up a few words in Swaheli, and learned standard Arabic greetings in Dar es Salaam. But the biggest challenge was Ecuador: I had to stay with a family that did not speak any English.

On Isla Isabela, one of the Galapagos Islands, I worked as the photographer for the Parque Nacional. My Spanish improved quickly - I had forgotten most of it when I arrived, and was limited to Hola, que tal. By the end of my 7 weeks there, I had worked as a substitute English teacher at the local Colegio, which meant I had to conduct my lessons in Spanish.

My Spanish is still not the best, but when I returned to Quito at the end of my stay in Ecuador, a friend commented that my pronouncoation had become Galapagueno.

While travelling I made the decision to study fulltime in the UK. I had always thought that a degree in a widely spoken business language would give me advantages.

During my studies, I took more language classes. It all started with British Sign Language. We got quite a few deaf customers in the shop I worked at part-time, and I figured a beginner's course in sign language couldn't hurt. I learned the Cumbrian accent, and soon noticed that the customers came to me for help and they also increased in numbers. Word that I'd be able to understand properly must have made the rounds.

During my second year at university, I got ambitious and signed up for evening classes in Mandarin Chinese and Russian. I am determined to learn languages that use different alphabets and signs. But after three lessons each, I fell very ill and was unable to leave the house for 7 weeks. This means I missed all my classes and because the new starts were only offered once a year, I had missed my chance.

Now I work in a multinational and multilingual company. Every day I hear my colleagues speak English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. I get to practise my French and Spanish again and have made the resolution to be at at least TELC level A2 if not B1 by the time I turn 25 in July next year.

There are many more languages I want to and will learn at some point in my life. These include, but are not limited to: Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Turkish and Latin. Yes Latin. As it is the basis of so many languages, I figured it can't hurt to know it. And yes, the way it looks at the moment, they will be self-taught.

At some point, I would like to be able to speak and understand all these languages at level B1 at least. "No chance" some of you might say. "perfectly achievable", I say. Give me some time and I will prove it to you!! Just don't expect it over night.

The university of Cumbria got some bad press in the News and Star today because of me.

Four months after graduation, I still don't have my degree certificate!! They sent the wrong one at the beginning of November, as that said I'd studied Travel Tourism instead of Travel Journalism.

I don't know why they used my coursemate's picture ... I didn't even give them the name, but at least the story is published now.

UoC can obviously afford bad press.

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/cumbria-university-issues-wrong-degree-certificates-1.783863?referrerPath=home

The second issue of my travel magazine Shoestring is finally online!
Read it here, enjoy it, be inspired and please leave feedback!

I'v been to the movies tonight. But instead of opting to see one of the newest releases, I went to see a classic. Well, a modern classic. The 25th anniversary, digitally remastered version of my favourite film Back to the Future!!

For the first time, I've had the chance to actually watch it on the big screen, at the volume it is meant to be played at. It's been 25 years since Michael J. Fox became Marty McFly, travelling through time in Doc Emmett Brown's DeLorean Time Machine.

At one point at the beginning of the movie, Doc mentions he'd like to see what the place would look like in 25 years (later this is changed to 30 because it's a "nice, even number"). And then it struck me - he was imagining THIS year! 2010! And Back to the Future II is set only 5 years from now! What was the future back then is the present now. What a weird thought.

Meine Kolumne über Laptops, die man ins Café mitnimmt um dort zu arbeiten und gemnütlich einen Kaffee zu trinken, wurde heute im Solinger Tageblatt veröffentlicht!

Laptops mit Latte Macchiato gefällig?

As you probably know, Shoestring travel magazine has its own website by now! If you haven't done so already, please have a look at www.shoestring-magazine.com and tell me what you think!

I've divided the links into different sections, to make it easier for you to find the relevant link. These sections are: Friends & Contributors, Networks, Gap Year Advice, Travel Companies, Books & Gear and Useful Info.

Please let me know whether you have a website you want to see included, from professional website to your own travel blog!!

I'd really appreciate your input!!

A massive debate has sparked in the world of journalism in the UK: It's about the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) and whether their examinations are really still needed, as leading colleges and universities drop the NCTJ modules from their syllabus.

And rightly so. The UK is the only country to have journalists trained at university coming out with degrees that are worthless unless top-up exams (read: NCTJ preliminaries) are being sat and passed.

My own degree did not provide me with full NCTJ qualification. The only exam I was allowed to sit was News Writing, and I see this as the most important exam. If you can't write at the end of a journalism degree, you chose the wrong profession. Simple as that. This should be the one exam that matters to editors... if they take somebody on who can take notes very quickly but cannot write a decent story, they simply picked the wrong employee.

Law was only briefly touched upon in my B.A. (Hons) Travel Journalism degree, the title itself a bit misleading, as it was Journalism and Tourism Management, rather than Travel Writing. However, due to the title, potential employers now think that I'm not up to gathering hard-hitting news.

No, editors would not be able to send me to court right away. But I do have the book, (I even dished out for McNae's instead of going for one of the cheaper ones that cover exactly the same) and these things can be learned. They do not necessarily have to be taught. Then again, where I come from, there are dedicated court reporters, and those that cover other local news.

In Germany, where I come from, you don't even have to study journalism to become a journalist. In fact, a pure journalism degree is frowned upon. All you have to do is get a Bachelor's degree in a subject of your choice. This is meant to provide the journalist with insight and expertise in one topic, and also shows editors that they are determined. Once you have a Bachelor's degree, you start as a trainee and you learn on the job. There is no better way of learning than learning by doing.

Work experience is the keyword here. But the NCTJ and UK editors are equally discriminating against foreign journalists who try to get a job in this country. When I tried to hand in my portfolio, my cuttings from a German daily newspaper which I work as a freelance for, were not accepted by the NCTJ. And that's after I translated it all into English. It's not the foreign journalists' fault that people in Great Britain tend to be rather ignorant when it comes to living abroad or learning another language. Just because the cuttings are in another language, doesn't mean they are not newsworthy! Besides, translating them in a way that still makes them clearly written, grammatically correct and newsworthy in English is quite a skill. Work experience abroad is meant to be a good thing. Shows that you can adapt, that you can write in a different language and that you tend to have a wider general knowledge because of your experiences.

I have studied journalism in the UK for three years. I have done work experience in Ghana, South Africa, the UK and Germany. Most of it in Germany, though, because I used to spend my semester breaks in my hometown. Which means, I applied the skills learned in England to journalism in Germany and guess what? It worked just fine. The NCTJ's excuse that the systems are not compatible is a lie, and even so: Some of the best books on journalism are written in America... surely their system is different too.

The one skill everyone keeps going on about is Shorthand. No other country relies on shorthand as much as the UK does. The way I see it: If you didn't learn to take notes in your own longhand or your own abbreviations during at least 16 years of education (college + at least a Bachelor's degree) then even shorthand won't help. You only need it for court. Plus, it is much easier to prove what you have written if you don't have to transcribe it first. You could show me a piece of shorthand and then tell me what it means - I won't believe you. I can't read it, the shapes don't make sense. I believe what I can see. "You need to have passed 100 words per minute". Rubbish. I have never misquoted anyone. And if they speak so fast that you would really need over 100 words per minute there's a simple solution. It's called a dictaphone! Voice recording. Even my mobile phone comes with the software. The easiest way of proving that somebody actually said it, is to play it back to them. I did an interview in 2008 with German comedian Ralf Schmitz, who is known for talking at approximately 220 words per minute. Even with shorthand, there would not have been a chance to keep up. So I took an audio recording and took down some notes to remind me of what questions I need to ask and the really important quotes. I managed to write the interview up in the way Ralf Schmitz really talks, because I had it all, word for word.

Try your shorthand at this:



Some editors I have spoken to do not have or do not use their NCTJ skills. Why do they then insist on their employees to have them? Surely they are meant to set an example?!

I have survived in the world of journalism in Germany just fine without any NCTJ's. In fact, the local news editor for the daily Solinger Tageblatt asked me twice to continue working for the Tageblatt, gave me a pay rise thanks to the quality of my work (yes, in Germany, even work experience is paid!) and all that without Shorthand, PA or what they're all called. And why? Because quality of work, professionalism, a sense for news and the ability to work to a tight deadline still matter there.

Let's face it: I am less likely to get a break in journalism, because the university did not provide me with NCTJ qualifications. I'll have to pay another GBP 400 just to do the course (which covers a lot of things I already learned in my GBP 9.500 degree) just to have a paper to show that I have skills that I could either learn on the job or teach myself through books.

The NCTJ qualifications are overrated. A strong and diverse portfolio should be what matters. A wide range of publications and a wide range of topics covered to show that you can deal with anything that happens in your patch. If what matters most to editors are your NCTJ scores then stop doing (unpaid) work experience right now!! It might look good on your CV, but in reality, it's worthless!

SHOESTRING Travel Magazine now has its own internet home and can be found at http://www.shoestring-magazine.com/.

The website is hosted by Blogger, which means that anyone with a GoogleID (including Twitter, Yahoo, Blogger etc.) can become a follower of SHOESTRING Travel Magazine in seconds and get all the latest travel news directly to their dashboard as soon as the site is updated!

Shoestring-magazine.com has been designed to host news and reviews to keep travellers up-to-date. As the magazine is going to be published quarterly (Issue #2 is due out in October!), news that happen between publications would not get a mention otherwise.

The new site also hosts a forum called "Community" which is free to sign up to. Here, travellers and readers can share and exchange experiences and tips and maybe even find travel buddies! You can even share travel photos and videos, and who knows, maybe you'll even inspire a SHOESTRING feature or get to write for the magazine yourself!

The Tips & Tricks section contains the advice pages from the magazine, such as "How do you plan a Gap Year?" This valuable advice is always accessible, and even if you can't open the link the see the full issue of SHOESTRING, as this section will conatin the pages in jpg format. This means, that for most of your travel queries, this section will become a one-stop-shop and the pages can be printed out so that you can take them away and refer to them whenever you need them.

Next to all this, the website will also be where the next issue of SHOESTRING will be published! The issues will be downloadable and printable and you can bookmark and share the site on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Technorati and Google.

The little red sign on the left of the website shows how many visitors are online at the moment, while the map on the right shows where SHOESTRING's readers are from.

Please become a follower on shoestring-magazine.com and on Facebook (search for Group SHOESTRING Travel Magazine), and help turn SHOESTRING into an international backpacker magazine!!

I have a favour to ask.

As you might know, I'm busy planning my travel magazine Shoestring, and I am still looking for contributors.

I have designed for Shoestring and would really appreciate it if you could print them and distribute them around university notice boards, halls, student bars or community centres. One of the flyers is in English (below), the other is in German (above). Although the magazine is based in the UK (due to me living here), the authors can come from around the world and talk about every country on earth.

Drinks with the team at the Lady of Mann pub in Liverpool, after the contract working for easyJet's German customer service at Arvato Services came to an end today.

It's been great working with you guys, and, after 3 years I really enjoyed being able to speak German in England! Keep in touch!