2024 ~ the end

2024 was wow! What a year! A(nother) tough one. Too many wars. An automotive crisis. More flood catastrophes. And Dubai chocolate. WTF.

Bye, bye 2024! 👋

But hey, a lot of good things happened as well. Sometimes, we need to decide to focus on the bright side of life. I for example hacked my Social Media algorithm to positive news. It worked (fuxx you, Mr Zuckerberg)! 💪🏻 Or like one of the attacked men in Solingen: he decided to not be mad but rather thankful for being alive and “dancing his life” from now on, which I think is very inspiring.

Let’s go, this was 2024:

In January, farmers demonstrated and blocked roads & autobahn in Germany. Me in the middle of it on the way to Hildesheim for a business trip. The subjects of the protests are the abolition of tax breaks of on farmers and the policies of the federal government.

Demonstranten, darunter viele Landwirte, blockieren in Nordfriesland eine Fähre mit Wirtschaftsminister Robert Habeck.

The German “Kaiser” passed away:

Franz Beckenbauer wird am 12. Januar auf dem Friedhof am Perlacher Forst in München beigesetzt.

2024 was a summer of sports:

The European Soccer Championship was hosted in Germany. So much fun, despite the German team being kicked out by Spain in the quarterfinal. The last tragic minutes of the game: Germany equalised in the 89th minute to send the game to extra time at 1-1, only for Spain’s Mikel Merino to score a 119th-minute winner. However, the game could have been set on a different course had Germany’s appeals for a penalty not been waved away when the ball struck Marc Cucurella’s hand in extra time.

Fair or not. The sadest moment for Germany: hand game or not. Germany is out. At least everyone knows now the players name: Cucurella. Germany is (still) sad.

The Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France: we may not remember the Games for Germans medals… but for the beautiful scenery. I mean who plays beach volleyball in front of the Eifel Tower ♥️

Simone Biles leads U.S. women’s gymnastics team to Olympic gold, kicking off Paris ‘redemption tour’ Biles earned her eighth Olympic medal, becoming the most decorated American gymnast in the history of the Olympic Games 🇺🇸 🥇

We needed some positive news. The Olympic Games provided that over the summer. Thanks!

That’s how bronze 🥉 looks like: Gabriel Medina scoring 9,90 out of 10 – highest score ever being given. Congratulations 🏄‍♂️

2024 was a year of fighting for democracy. In Germany, more than a million people demonstrated pro democracy and against the AfD. Let’s keep fighting!!!

2024 wasn’t a good year for Boeing. Loosing airplane parts in the air and a whistleblower sharing insider info about production problems.

Die Deutsche Bahn gibt bekannt, dass ihre Vorstände für das Jahr 2023 keine Boni erhalten.

Alexej Nawalny – one of many hero’s this year. Putins biggest critics died in a Russian prison (likely murdered…) in February. He was only 47 years old! He was tormented but he didn’t keep silent. Thank you 🙏 we’ll never forget you.

> 20 diplomats in Germany who acted covered up as Russian agents. WTF!

It was a year of music. So many concerts. So many wonderful musicians. One of them Taylor Swift. She finished her marathon tour with 149(!!!) shows, the last one in Vancouver, Canada.

The ladies are taking over the music stage: Taylor Swift, Adele, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Pink… and so many more female rock stars. They are not only dominating the charts but producing and selling their own music!

The British Royals had a bit of a stressful year: cancer, family fights and web shitstorms. Hoping for a better one next year!

The hero of Taiwan: Roger, an 8 year old Labrador helped finding people after one of the strongest earthquakes earlier this year. His first career as drug supporter didn’t work out, but he turned into a hero now. Everyone deserves second chances! 🐶

Europe is back in space: “Ariane 6” made its first flight. Yeah! 🚀

US president Joe Biden is quitting and handing over and supporting Kamala after a TV debate with Donald Trump in July. Good choice!

Mona Lisa keeps smiling, despite the latest incident earlier this year: 2 members of a French activity group smashed pumpkin soup over the painting of Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris. Why? To make us aware of the global miss leading situation in food production. Ok… that’s France.

Cannabis – a plant changing Germany. It’s now legal to plant and smoke the weed. Guess who had plants in the garden…

A lot of people are wondering: what did the German politicians smoke? Cannabis was legalized and the German coalition shattered 🌱

Volkswagen: anniversary for the Golf and a huge crisis for the brand itself.

…and our VW Bus broke down 😥 Goodbye Bulli!

Maybe a new business model… self-driving electrified rumba… 😉

Politics – a scary change of parties in the East of Germany, Sarah Wagenknecht making her way from an outsider to winning votes, and we all remember who won the election in the USA: Trumps comeback. He even survived 2 attacks.

“Mr President” and his kids. It’s probably a matter of time until he’ll fall out with Donald. China, get ready! 🤣

On fire: FC St. Pauli celebrated its promotion to the German soccer league. Congratulations ⚽️

Polar lights not only at the North Pole but also in the north of Germany. Beautiful!

War and no end in sight: Ukraine. Nach Russlands Überfall: Der 18. November markiert den 1000. Kriegstag in der Ukraine.

This church survived both world wars and the October revolution but not the Russians 😥 windows are smashed, ceilings came down, a fire inside the church destroyed a lot.

Notre Dame is renovated and opened its doors again: Trump was there, too. Of course!

Iceland 🇮🇸 has it all: earthquakes, geysers, volcanic eruptions… all pretty normal for Iceland but since 2023 a little out of control. Hello climate change!

Keine Straßenblockaden mit Sekundenkleber mehr: Die „Letzte Generation“ will anders protestieren.

France, a female oriented country: introduced the “guaranteed freedom” for abortion. Of course that was done on March 8th, the International Women’s Day. Next goal: make it a law in all European countries 🙏 Thanks, Macron!

2024 was also a year filled with celebrations… my 40th birthday & our 10-year anniversary.

…and the Oscar goes to Ken… I mean Ryan Gosling. Neither Barbie alias Margot Robbie, nor Greta Gerwig (Regisseur of Barbie) got nominated… at least Ken showed his disappointment.

Oasis is back together. On Tour in 2025!

Heroes 🦸🏻‍♀️: Marlene Engelhorn, a German-Austrian inheritor, decided to give away 25 million euro to different organizations. Wow! That’s very generous.

What’s that hype about “Dubai Chocolate“?

Die Tiroler Variante der Dubai Schokolade… die Stubai Schokolade.
Zutaten: Die grottigste Milka Schokolade mit Kuhflecken und einen billigen Bauchspeck in Würfeln drauf.
Erfolgsgeheimnis: Für den Scheiß das hundertfache verlangen und dann ist es rar und wichtig und schon stehen Schlange vor den Läden. 💡

Floods in Spain, Valencia. Hello climate change!

Talking about politics: Ende der Koalition: Kanzler Olaf Scholz (SPD) wirft Finanzminister Christian Lindner (FDP) raus.

Another hero, maybe even person of the year 2024 🦸🏻‍♀️: Gisèle Pelicot

December 19 is a historic day, marking the end of the Mazan rape trial with a verdict. If 2024 « belonged » to any one person, it was #GisèlePelicot, whose 50 rapists – including her husband of five decades who was drugging her with anxiolytics before recruiting men to rape her some 200 times, over a ten-year period – were found guilty today in Avignon, with a 20 year sentence for Dominique Pelicot. During this lengthy trial, which began on September 2, Gisèle Pelicot who is 71 years old, emerged as a feminist icon making headlines on every media outlets across the world.

Today, after the sentence, she said she had never regretted her decision to allow the trial to be public, stating: « I’m thinking of the unrecognized victims, I want you to know that we share the same struggle. When I opened the doors to this trial on September 2, I wanted for society to be able to take up the debates that followed. I am now confident in our ability to collectively grasp a future in which everyone, women and men alike, can live in harmony and mutual understanding », finally adding: « I want to express my most profound gratitude to all the people who supported me throughout this ordeal. Your testimonies deeply moved me, and gave me the strength to come back every day to face those long days of hearings ».

What a year! Continuously wishing for Love & World PEACE next year!

Another year almost over! May the rest of 2024 be a good one and the new year be your best one yet!

Happy New Year, everyone! 🎆

Or… we can hang tight to the energy it’s bringing. All I see is, “wtf 4” and I’m gonna go ahead and make that my motto of 2025. “I should really cook dinner… wtf 4? I’m ordering pizza!” “Maybe I should tidy up? Wtf 4?! I’ll just watch another episode.” 😁

Silvester. Ein neues Jahr beginnt. In Washington wird am 3. Januar der neue Kongress vereidigt, zweieinhalb Wochen später der US-Präsident. Donald Trumps zweite Amtszeit beginnt am 20. Januar um 12 Uhr mittags.