T STands For Pressies

 

With this coffee Ingo only wanted to show but then gave me I join Elizabeth´s T.

Lesson learned - my stomach hurt for hours.  No coffee for me.

 

The journal:

 

 

Monday: Flew by. Boss mL had his good-bye I learned from fK.

Tuesday: Dear Monday-host Sami popped in via Whats-App. fK called, too.

Ingo brought in and used a new vacuum-cleaner that is FREE (of cable)!!!!!

My job to get rid off of all old stuff we have (amongst three "old" vacuum-cleaners).

Wednesday: Always good to have friends from the East, fK not only translated but spoke what´s written on the Ukrainian card I received. Sounds nice.

 

 Wasn´t that much money, but it ended in Ukraine at those who fight for the Western world...

Neighbor mA goes out for coffee (by himself) at least once a day, I see on FB - I think my choice is better? I mean... look at all the peeps... kids, who smile and have only one leg or none etc, etc... soldiers, who made it "home". Send Putin to the front. Not kids. I am old. 16-19-year olds are kids in my eyes.

 

fL - I just thought of her and voilà - message via LinkedIn - new job hopefully come May! 

TV: Lost places, Finland standing up against Russia. Over and over again.

Thursday: Doc. Gave him a hard time with my ear-piercing: "No, you cannot do that yourself!  Even I with two hands have a hard time. Pop in any time you need my help." He also assumed my numb feet might be caused by my scoliosis. After Easter I can try a new neurologist (he is "but" a surgeon). 

Tried to get a Quesadilla. "You´re too early". Went to the small pizza-shop, the dude wasn´t feeling like serving me. Bought a ready-to-go-salad at REWE, which was crap.

The Simpsons... singing. What is it with the darn musicals now? The Simpsons was a clever series and now... bleh.

Friday: fK: "Bringing daughter to school - pop in at your place?" - "if you can stand me in mask and PJ... tea?" - "I wanna see YOU, don´t care about masks or PJs 🥰". Her wife/girlfriend must´ve thought I´m starving, she sent her with two more jars of Vegemite!!

And I still have so much! fK tasted. "You got something else?" 🤣 "Marmite?" LOL. Offered her salami, all good. Fitting; later GDR on TV. 

Weekend: Saturday: OMG.... Ingo´d ordered high-quality ham. Today he found a brochure from them, I had a look and went, "WHAT?! KATZENleberwurst?!!!" - liverwurst from cats????

I love horse-sausages and in Italy saw this:

(Did not, SIL and big Niece would´ve "killed" me). 

Horse, yes, but cats??? There was no "Z", it read Katenleberwurst - a Kate is a hut where meat is smoked. Thank you, brain for making this really icky!

But then I remember I had bunny, was yummy. And Lamm-ragout - lamb, which is a baby, too. I ate kangaroo, emu, croc (the latter don´t, you can munch the sole of an old shoe as well) , dear deer, elk, pig, cow, fishes, squid, lobster, tasted like, uh, chicken ...... 

Some animals you would not eat?

Mr. Burns/The Simpsons come to mind: monkey.

On my list: Insects.

Ingo:

Sunday: The "mini-OP" is bigger, woke up 02:30, hurting, got up 03:30. Went on the swing later for a "nap". Ingo... LOUD in the kitchen. We´re together some 30 years,hearty stuff in the evening.

11:15 a.m. ...

 

It was yum (full portion shown), but... why as very early meal?

At least the DARN neighbors from above finally fell silent. They wanted to hear Ingo´s every yelled word.

Plan: à la The Simpsons: record some "fight" from a docu-channel, ... "something" mean and play it LOUD. Neighbors above shut up.

To the side: TWO BIG dogs in the condo, one "crying" endlessly. 

Poor doggy! 85m² should NOT be allowed. But they OWN it. Dog and condo.

What a week.

The series:

"Are these the worst decisions in history?

 

 

Thalidomide scandal

 

Thousands of pregnant women were prescribed thalidomide in the 1950s and early 1960s. It was marketed worldwide as a safe, over-the-counter sedative for morning sickness. However, it was discovered that thalidomide caused malformations in the fetus during pregnancy, resulting in babies being born with severe birth defects. By the time the drug was withdrawn, over 10,000 babies worldwide had been affected by the drug."

 

I remember I was 14 and by myself in railway station Hanover and there were many of them. 

 

 Henry 🦁 

Nah, that´s for strong stomachs - I pass.

T-STands For IT´s Halloween-Time

 

My monstrous ticket to Elizabeth´s T!

Who... who´ll travel `Straya soon... could resist this drink?! 

 

The background might be a tad confusing... I think Thursday I´ll show you part is real!

 The journal:

 

Monday: Productive work day. Was so into work, missed half a meeting!!

M said not to worry, we just spoke Friday, phew.

Met K in the city for a croissant and a cuppa (see - another soul who is not into sweets much! She had a Laugenbrezel, also salty).

We said good-bye via hug and later she let me know she arrived home safely.

Reckon she is a friend now?

I´m an introvert, so making friends is really tough for me... the hug came from her, too...

1 session of training. Oh, come on, I walked a lot...

 

Tuesday: Was so into work, nearly forgot to WhatsApp my T! Got a lot done.

4 sessions of training and more Trek.

Wednesday: Good day. Very productive meeting(s).

Panicked for no reason. Female teamleader wanted to talk to me. I feared she has a "present job" for me, where I have to work at the customer, not from home.

Instead she told me female sub-teamleader M is very content with me and my work 😁

And I´m allowed to work longer hours till my minus ones are gone. 

Even P, one of the two super-bosses agreed to this. Scared me a bit that he was involved...

(we´re a company of ca. 400 peeps)

 

Also she found it´s reasonable to not join the Christmas-party.

Just imagine I catch COVID there and that just before our long holiday...

4 sessions of training.

Thursday: Asked colleague J to have a quick look at the three designs I provided for him.

He skipped the chit-chat and we were done in under 5 minutes.

I call that a very productive meeting!

Got loads done, too.

4 sessions of training.

Friday: Work never gets boring. Soon I´ll have to test a new lecturer.

Actually I don´t want to. I know already way too much!

See, I´m VERY afraid of fire.

Glad I have an ex-firefighter who was even a breathing apparatus wearer as pro right here...

Still... afraid.

For ALSTOM I had to translate a document for firefighters.

Now a whole day on fire protection on trains.

 

Come January we´ll be on a train all the way to Frankfurt...

Why ever my teamleader thinks I belong to a group of 5 out of 400 is beyond me.

But, well, meeting 4 new colleagues - it´s a present-seminar, not online.

Had to get reminded a long weekend is up. Gah, I get forgetful! Sadly weather will stay icky.

4 sessions of training.

Weekend: Saturday: Slept in. We made kale (Grünkohl) one of the few good things in the icky season! Sadly Ingo used way too much butter.

4 sessions of sport. In a row. Feet hurt! Only mid-end November I have the app at the dr...

Sunday: One more hour of sleep presented by stupid German government.

2018 they said we give up on Summer-/wintertime and stay in summertime. Might take two years. I´m not that good at math, but...

Ingo filled out visa-forms. Post to come.

Other Löwenzahn, Die Maus, well, quiet. Die Maus:

Munch-wise... I DID (!!!) take a pic of the kale, but it´s gone"!

Hence an homage to my late Grandma:

Halloween, right? 

 

 

"Art-wise":

 

So for the pumpkin:

 

And Ingo came home with these just now - aren´t they just eerie-sistible!!!

 

 

Ingo picked the one where the poor pumpkin was deeeeep inside, so no one bought these flowers otherwise... Ingo has a good eye on those who need help!
Do you have an idea how much I love all this and Ingo´s attention?

 

Last not least:

 

Henry 🦁
 

I was right there, above Mr. Pumpkin with the witch-hat!

 

P.S Lisca made me do this post by accident.

 

 

T STands For Wonderful NighT

 

 

My ticket to Elizabeth´s T, a nice summer-drink.

 

The journal:

Monday: I had nothing to do, really. We still wait for Barcelona!

So... Braunschweig book. Aka I am here, you can call me anytime if you have work, all work is done so far!

I plain hate such days.

You could say, hey, how cool is that?! But I don´t feel fine doing private stuff at work.

I managed to repair the Spanish document on my own, and that was that (I was a tad proud of myself). Sorted my notes so I´m faster in the future...

It makes no sense to "learn" about Word/Excel without a problem.

Did that at Siemens, never needed any of it. 

It warmed up to 26C/79F > more reading on the balcony after Ingo came home to put up the heavy sun-brolly. Three Braunschweig crime-thrillers in one day.

Are there Perth crime-thrillers? I need to find out!

 

Tuesday: Called the tax-office for help. A super-mega-friendly man helped me out VERY BIG! For the condos I have for rent in another city I had to call my half-cousin. He´s actually an as#hole.

Super-friendly and .... quick!!!

Lost one table and had to retype again.

But Teamleader3 had a look on the doors and was very content! 😁

For a change I translated from German to English for Spain. 

It is and stays chaotic. At least never boring!

Slowly went back to training, 2 sessions.

 

Wednesday: Had to translate to English - in a .pdf and no, I don´t have a pro-tool for that.  Means I had to squeeze it all in, looks like a kid pimped it!

And I found out how to alter text-fields in MS Word, yippee, again something to share quickly.

(Most of us come from different fields and help peach other).

 

Door bell. Our colored, nice, young postie, "for Sch...???"

That is why I kept my surname, LOL.

Ingo got something REALLY cool, I´ll share soon.

3 sessions of training.

Then watched Schindler´s Liste on TV (found the book in the street before and read it).  

 

Thursday: I finished the documents and waited for teamleader3 who has a new task for me. Nothing, nada, thought the poor fella fell sick.

Luckily ALSTOM teamleader allows me using ALSTOM university.

One video was especially interesting, I will share soon.

 

Lunch time, Ingo, who had a day off, informed me there is a docu on trains, that´s what I watched. On my lunch break. 🚊

 

02:15 teamleader3 went green in teams and called.

Said ALSTOM teamleader told him off for working - in Hessen, where #3 lives, they have a public holiday and despite he works for our company in Braunschweig he has to take the day off, he told me, laughing. In fact, he laughed a bit crazily the whole time!

3 sessions of training. AND!!!! 26C/78F!! Ingo got new, smaller sunbrollies and I had some balcony-time! Weird weather.

 

Friday: I usually start my day with visiting Tom. What do I find? Jupps, railroad! 🚊

Later bad news. Barcelona pauses documentation/translation.

ALSTOM-teamleader told me first, said he definitively wants me back when this is resumed and he tries to find out if I can stay and go to Tram Cologne.

We chatted for over an hour.

He also will ask a former colleague if it can be arranged we visit the making of the ALSTOM Midland-Line in Perth! (Chances are low, though... I´m external!) 

Then he informed teamleader2 and teamleader3 who called me to say I might join my Russian colleague, who really is a nice guy. It would be signalling but likely documentation only, which is rather boring. Not a chance (I assume) to learn about the technical details.

His last words: Do not worry, enjoy the weekend. (I write this on Friday, so more to come next T-Day).

And we obeyed and started with a BBQ.

3 training sessions - crazy how the body resumes so fast!

At night Ingo said, come outside. We took Henry (candle light) and - with long clothes, enjoyed the evening on the balcony - as.only.ones. - again!!!

What is it with the people here???? Nights like these are a PRESSIE!!! 

 

Weekend: Saturday: The egg-glass is out. Ingo went grocery-shopping and again came home with flowers 💐

 

 So, now the flowers travel from private-pc to work-pc to balcony and back...

 

I had cleaning day again, oh, I hate it. But! I found iron ore rings from 2015 when they were $1! Last time they were $7 and I was  like really sad when mine I bought anyways broke (that goes super-quick!).

Later we had BBQ again.

 

 "Art":

 

 

I´m not really content but Ingo liked it.

Food:

 

 ... from the balcony. I prefer them plain, though.

I expect the Smurfs coming by for a meal...

Henry 🦁

 

With this: Happy T-Day!

 

 

T STands For Sleep a LoT

 

Let´s start Elizabeth´s T-Day with a refreshing drink, shall we?

A hint of Spring, kinda, against the ever-grey days!

And if you care again... the journal and I try to not exhaust you ;-)

Monday: Teamleader and I checked out how something in MS Word works.

Everyone knows only bits and pieces and we share knowledge... 

After a (longer) while I got like really hungry (got up shortly before 05:00 am and it was way past 09:00 am) and mumbled, "oh, put the butter on the heating..." - he interrupted: "QUICK!!!! Get it OFF!!! NOW!!!"

 

When he was into flat sharing (we´re one age) this happened to one of his mates. At first it smelled yummy, but like very soon... not so much.

Here it was truffle-butter, too! 

Gosh, that must´ve been a very bad experience, LOL!!!

Exhausted yet?😂

Later tenant S called me. 6 times (exhausting!). 

She is so sweet. Next time she comes to Braunschweig we´ll meet. Her stove broke and she expects guests in 2 weeks - this is urgent!!! It is!!!! And she tries to get best price, too - the coffee will be on me then (and certainly the stove). All the rest her "partner" will do. Is there an age from which on you skip the word "boyfriend"? I talked to him, too. Twice. Whilst being at work.

She repeated how nice my Mum was and, after Mum´d passed we somehow were in the place and my Brother talked to Mrs S, pointing at me, that I took the role. I can´t remember, I was beside myself still (and likely at the car already)... My Brother is like really strong...

Bakery... Cutest handwriting, see:

And "the other lady" was there. She is sick and told me her story.

Sometimes I wonder if something is written on my head saying, "worries? Talk to me!".

I hope I could cheer her up a bit, she smiled when I left.

Actually she should be retired, but cannot afford it. Poor Germany. But I don´t wanna get political now...

 

Tuesday: After 12+ work-hours and Ingo asking me 3 times to stop I quit work for the day.

Not finished. Gack!

What do I write down officially? 8 hours. Aw, well we all run nuts. Team, did I ever mention?

To-be-Teamleader said "Thank you" - more motivation 😀

And very happy I can work from home and not drive 40 km on top, looking endlessly for a space to park my (now non-existing) car!

No training, but Ingo let me know "Lost Places" is on TV and I got a Valentine´s kiss 😘

Wednesday: I may copy The Padre, I have "ice berg clients"! Who, WHO THE HECK translates "pseudo code" and variables??? 

AGAIN!!!!

Documents straight from hell!!!!

BUT - I now have TWO Excel-magicians!!!! "The new one" said, "we learn on the job", and hell, do I learn a lot!!! It is great and satisfying!!

Best job in my life!!! Hell or heaven it´s wonderful.

But first time (since April) I used the function "do not disturb me" in MS Teams!

And no one cared, LOL. 12+ hours again, but I got the job done without help, yipeeee.

 

Thursday: 10+ hours, but the rest was rather chit-chat. Teamleader showed me an iso-drawing of a bogie. 

P.S. reckon my sketch is real bad. This is a bogie, "a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle - a modular subassembly of wheels and axles." (Wiki)

I said, Ingo and I were at InnoTrans Berlin and the bogie on display was "closed". Why don´t they show the details?!!! Teamleader: "No one cares!" - "I do!!!" - "Yes, you!..."

How can you not be interested in the things you work with?!

 

We also talked about diversity. It´s kindy, how people behave!

Excel-magician #1 speaks rather... unclear. Teamleader revealed he wears hearing aids, that´s why and colleagues don´t care, they refuse to take the headset and speak LOUD over the speaker, when in the office together.

Reasons???? They "sweat" under the headset, it itches etc, etc. That.is.worse.than.kindy!!!

 

Friday: We still run nuts. Our Spanish P said, it now is "ALSTOM VS ALSTOM - who wins?"

As a The Simpsons-fan I certainly without thinking blurted out "who thinks of the CHILDREN?!!!!"

You could identify the other The Simpsons-fans on the dot 🤣

9 hours. On a Friday.

Weekend:  

Saturday: Ingo did the grocery and cooking. I am... knackered.

I got the sweetest "unborn" flowers!

 

Food, see here hence:

 

Sunday: Woke up, Ingo by my side, breathing softly, cuddling up, bliss (we both can snore like devils). I looked up at our clock - 6:00AM???????

I forgot to take a shower and Ingo should be gone to work since over an hour, me at the work PC NOW!!!!

And then I got it... it´s SUNDAY, not MONDAY. The stress really gets me. And even if. I could´ve jumped and ran to the work PC and start getting "the delta".

Reckon Teamleader said for a reason I´m a manager.

Yet.

The project is at stake.

Documents we cannot translate to German cause Spain  didn´t deliver in English we will just pass them on that way. No,I´m not drunk we have this mess for real.

Some we have in Chinese, French, we have people in India, Poland, Switzerland, Austria and... I think that´s it.

German suppliers translated to English for the Spanish guys and now re-translate to German for Frankfurt.

We hope for the best.

Wish us luck!

Had a nice chat with J. on Friday btw. He said the tram is safe, just the documents are chaos.

And why I greet pantos... he really laughed. (He near to never laughs and is like very young).

What a week. I slept a long deal.

Art-wise I´m in for Erika´s Red with...

 

 

Henry 🦁

Happy T-Day!!