The many birthday messages I received by phone, e-mail AND Facebook leave me stunned and overwhelmed. In the good old days you would respond to a birthday card by calling the sender or by sending him a card back. So last year and the year before I tried to answer to each and every Facebook message individually but this is not possible with the amount of messages I received this year. Therefore, I am including all of you in this single response. A warm thank you goes out to: Laura Thiel (danke für das beste Geschenk, das ich je bekommen hab), Enno Lenze my smartest and funniest Facebook friend!, Noel Cubar from Cebu, Catalin from Romania, Matt Kirchner my Baghdad friend, Oliver Rasch with and his brave daughter, Sina Küenzlen, my step-nice, her father Arne, my sister Sabrina and my awesome nice Mia, Nico Nehez, the Protector, Simon Mathyl who is the only one who sang for me, Edel and Jer from Ireland (they love the Japanese cars), Patrick Murray and Uli Radke who share the same birthday (many returns for you too), Diawar Aboubacar whom I have met in Mali, Abdul Qudus who has had tough times because of a certain German, Abdullah Arghandiwal, my best friend in Kabul, Marion Breede in RT, Uwe Tress and Udo Sauerbaum, my comrades here in Dubai, Schmaldreas Jolig, Robert Kraus, Richy, Marty James USAF in Austin, David Spandiary, who better brings a Glock to a knife fight, Vincent Mainzer, who is born to serve (or was it surf?), Oliver Braun from Bonn, Stavi Papalitsa, Andrew Preston ESQ in Mexico, Hanane Aberhatschi in Bonn, Benjamin Oppl, the former Jets player, who now lives in Dubai, Jörg Grünewald, my apartment predecessor (landlord wants me out by end of the year), Edith Thiel in Bonn, Rouwen Thiel in Aachen, Aaron Woodin in New York, the Cts Limo team in South Florida, Harry Schlund on KöWi, Julia Exner, the fittest female cop I know, Mümü Werson Sagner, who lives her dream, NATO , Roland Martin in Bonn, Krishna at the SAFI in Kabul, who always looks after me so well, Eitan Atia, the pitbull, Kyrill Kreidt at Daimler in Q8, Andreas Haarshaus and Conny, his sister, both of whom I have not seen for 30 years, Ulli Ries in Ibiza, Bahram Zamani in Siegburg, Jana Hora, the Madonna look-a-like, Mike in Dallas, Habib Tawakkolian in Bonn, Caroline McClelland and Nick Cox (I hear you are back in the UK), Joe Empl in Austria, Schwulis, Moritz in Sitzerland, Julia Tocher and Kristina Simrova (my birthday is the 10th and not the 8th :-) ) Jürgen Schenk in Bonn, Alfredo Martinez, the artist from NYC, Holger Veh (thank you for your support in all these years), SIXT who offered me a special deal on the F-Type on the occasion (which I did not take), Walt Duran, the obsessed Bayern Munich fan, Terry Horvarth at BDS Tactical Gear, Achim Wolf in Germany, Peter and Chris Klawitter in Kabul, Luna Madi in London, Kaja Doege and Emma, Niedal in Saudi (are you still not fed up?), Stefanie Flynn in Alaska, Le Goran Bronisch, אייל אבידוב (guess from where he is), Barbara my aunt in OWF (not WTF), Jörg Gunnar Baron from the good old SHAPE times, Kathy Jahani (where do you live now?), Tobi Epping in Bonn, Claudia Klenke and Hans Klenke on Treasure Island FLA, Olivier Koch in Bonn, Heike Hahne in Bonn, Robert Zaun and Steffi Broel, Petra Amtenbrink (I love the lamp), Frank Schneider who also played with the Jets, Thomas Grabka, the crisis-zone photographer, Abid Ali at SAFI in Kabul, Christian Oeser, Robert Trenkel in HH, Axel Müller (New Orleans?), Heike Behrens in Bremen, Helen Becker in Bonn, Alexandra Gilles in Bonn, Oliver Sacher who is also a SHAPE veteran, Schwester Esther Arentz, Frank “Moin Digger” Poppelbaum, Nico Hess in Switzerland, Jorge Caspers, Carsten Sieg, the Marathon Man, Isa von Gustke, the skater girl, Jens Geil (ja, so heisst er wirklich), John-Patrick Breijs who went to see the Rolling Stones in Berlin yesterday, Saeedyunus Hashmee, my good friend in Kabul, Nats Cuschie and her sister in law Jasmine, Christina “horseback” König, Horst Schnitzmeier, the movie man, Bernie Nussbaum, who often posts smart stuff that makes me laugh, Rizwan Tayab in Islamabad, Elaine Schöffel in Bavaria, Nathalie Kraft in Siegburg, Chrisi-Schmidt Bens (Vodka für alle), Patricia Mühlhausen, my cousin, Inka-Maria Kunz, another SHAPE vet, Julia Strelow, my cousin in HH, Willi Bellinghausen, the entertainer, sweet Sandra Neubert, Maren Klaeger in Munich, Sandra Maria Elsner in Berlin, Petra Gebbert and Franko Ukpabia (it was nice to have you here), Nils La, Rod Casiño Limpot in Cebu, Swenja Middelhoff, Valerie Gumpenberg, Matias Slagt, our man in the Netherlands, Hilke Langhammer (careful with that cat and the birds), Charles “Charley” Voggenreiter, Brian Campos in New Mexico (probably as hot as Dubai at this time), Sushil Lodhi in India, Stefanie Werner in Düsseldorf, Mario Lorenzo Baumann, mein Gladbach-Fan-Kumpel, Muhammad Usman in Islamabad, Leonard Michaelis in California, Adam Gaczewski in NYC, Ice Drac in Mohave Valley, Wilhelm “Willi” Klein in Bonn, Thomas Sturm, a TRASCO vet, Mayanja Abu in Uganda, Uwe Schesnik Nighdy in OHZ, Holger Grahl in Düsseldorf, Aaron Kincade in Aurora, everyone else I have not inlcued and…..my dear mother, Annette Cloer.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 07:31:13 +0000