Guat!

Nice feature here in the hotel, you find something that needs to be fixed, write in this form what it is and hang it on the doorknob outside.
I also like that you can say, my room needs no cleaning while I´m here.

But back to fixing.
My new bag lost a bolt and the shop sadly couldn´t replace it.

Just fix it, no? :-)

Other... today was really, really hard.
I´m the only one who´s new to SQL, it´s kida hard to compensate.

Feels a tad unfair, too. No, actually it is.
Bet # was learning the last weeks to be fit for a basic training...

But the trainer is really good and motivating.
And I´m truly in Bavaria - after each chapter he exclaims Guat! with a fat "a" (which means "Gut", good).

Just wished I could really work with SQL when I´m back!

And that the weather goes back to normal, too! Must, with April ending, no?
Cold, cloudy all day. Bro just called me and said on Sunday fell 60 ml/m²! Weird, huh, it even was in the news...

Green Is As Green Does

Title from a T-Shirt Bro gave me as a souvenier. Kermit the frog in the role of Forrest Gump :-)

Sunday I went to the train station - and saw a train taking off towards Munich directly.
I really, really wonder why our secretary has booked me on a train that detours via Hannover instead :-(
Which, certainly, was late. What else do you expect from Deutsche Bahn?!

In Hannover it was as Ingo suspected: # was already waiting for me.
I wonder.... he didn´t see me!

In Munich I took a taxi and after some everlasting 6-7 hours I entered this green room :-)

Also the bathroom is with some green:

Sadly just a shower, no tub...

But at least with a huge TV:

Soft or firm cushion? I chose firm:

How about a cuppa?

Only two disturbing things, a)...

Ouch, no?
And b)...

Is it that dangerous inside the hotel?!

Hope not so!

I feel quite at home with the colors after all - red and green, just like our kitchen :-)

As for the training - we´re just three peeps!!!
But the trainer is really good and # keeps mostly quiet, too.
Lunch was yummy and when back home I found an sms from teamleader, asking how the training is and if # is still alive ;-)

Seven handwritten sheets I put into a readable form afterwards - wow, does my right hand hurt!
I´m just not used to handwriting anymore!

The weather is ugly, just another excuse to stay here!

Leaving Germany, Kinda

Hmmmm, El Gaucho - do I have to say more?

So I packed for Munich yesterday - well, it´s actually a little town near Munich. And guess I won´t even visit Munich itself. I don´t like that area, don´t understand the people. It´s not really Germany, but Bavaria, right?

But I certainly found t-shirts I never wore before!

I won´t now, either, 15C predicted...
While I was at it, I put the winter-clothes up, the summer clothes down and threw the real old stuff out - guess what:

Space!!

The weather was good, so we went to the other shopping center via river Oker.
Ah, I love Spring!

Got a proper mask for teamleader:

He just loves soccer!

We´re so dang dumb, btw. Ingo has so many hours on the plus side, he could´ve easily taken three days off and join me in Munich - so many problems´d be solved.

Instead I´m sitting here, nervous with a hurting belly, ready to call the taxi.
I truly hate travelling alone, and even more alone with #.
Over 5 and a half hours on the train, no one to look after my luggage, so... better not drink anything - it´s the little things, right?

The Original

This lion is the only (!) good graffiti at the old market hall, sad, huh?

And these...

as well as this one...

are lions surrunding our real Henry.
Or are they?

I have no idea how to handle kids, so, when Bro and SIL got stuck in our little flower-shop and I was left alone with little Niece, all I could think of was telling her that the Henry she sees there:

... is not the real Henry.
She looked at me, stunned - she remembered what I told her: Henry takes care of us, so she certainly isn´t afraid.

"Why?"

Well, I was clever enough to not talk about pollution and all but said, the real Henry is very, very old and tired, he is in Burg Dankwarderode, right over there. And he´s really happy this Lion now does his job.

I have no idea what a 3 1/2 one gets, last month she probably wouldn´t have, but guess what?

After we made a compromise - running to see the little lions and running back to her now waiting parents with her screaming, "it´s a compromise!" (too sweet - and how come she understood that word?) she was so proud to tell her Mum that this is not the real Henry and why.

Wow, I really was very impressed - so much, obviously, I even forgot to mention it in the post on their last visit!

Yesterday I worked half an hour over my time cause teamleader needed my help (oh, you sure are right, you are absolutely right - thanks, man, it was just a tiny thing!).
Really weird, we host a B2E-portal for our customer, Volkswagen. You know, they make those things on wheels, cars...

Around easter 2002 we started a little call: Send in your favorite easter-recipe.

We have now 10 categories and 1928 recipes, still growing and it sure is weird when we talk about new technology, programming and using words like lamb chop, Pizza and fruit-cake!
Those recipes haunt me! And I can´t even cook!

Anyhows, just 30 minutes longer and instead of 45 minutes it took me 75 minutes to get home :-(

So... no yoga but city it was.

View from Schadt´s:

And on the new, long way home, river Oker:

Gotta go grocery shopping. And pack. Off to Munich tomorrow.
Half a Sunday gone and when I come back Wednesday at 09:30 pm I sure will be too tired (or angry) to dance into May. (May 1st is a public holiday)

Let´s hope there are some nice people and that # understands I don´t wanna spend time with him.

It´s really sad, I´m like my Dad. Overdo it once with me it´s hard for me to get back to normal, but overdo it more than let´s say 100 times there is no way back to normal for me.
And since January last year this happened more than ... a million times.

It´s an SQL-basics training. He works with SQL every day, even my boss asked, me, yes, but him, why?

So he can say: I do it different (aka better) a gazillion times - I so hope I´m wrong!
Let´s hope I stay sane. I want to be wrong, really.

But for now: Let´s have a great Saturday, right?

Just Opposite Forrest Place You Get Him

A tad over/around 20C and all hell broke loose today - pic sure doesn´t show Forrest Place but our little park nearby.

Everybody was out and about, BBQ-ing and celebrating warm weather - yes. Don´t rub it in, I am aware you have way over 20C in Perth...

Which is how I came to mention Forrest Place, huh?

Yips, me in the pic - just having arrived from German cold temps running into the water :-)

Well. When we met Grace and Pat the last time (for only this visit, I hope) we shortly before went to

Australian Geographic and I got this guy for in case you get angry - squeeze him!!

You can probably guess for whom this poor fella stands. I have the best colleagues but one. Let´s just call him "#".

Actually this green guy was meant to go to Bro, who is a mid-30-one between much older peeps and no good customers - times have changed.

But, turned out... teamleader just loves to play with this greeny - he gave him so many faces, my, I wouldn´t even be surprised if he´d greet me in the morning!
Sadly... the mass shrunk, was replaced by air - more ways to get creative for a while, huh?

Apart from that teamleader even managed to make me understand - and memorize - Offside (Abseits) in soccer (I really dislike soccer, I´m a true (American) Football-fan):

Yes, we had fun! :-)

Yips. We sure are IT, huh?

Today he remodelled the green guy again (old pic from yesterday):

Hm. With the material vanishing, all the air, the green guy gave in - RIP - actually just like a little rip in the skin - he´ll have to last longer anyways! :-)

Awww.

Teamleader exclaimed, "damn, I broke him!! Awww! Where can I get a new one??? When is your birthday again??"

Oh. :-)
I laughed, but he was kinda serious.

So I said...

"Perth. Just across Forrest Place, in the mall."

Aw, well. Gotta get a new one (for him), ... in Febuary 2015?

YesYesYes, I know, lucky me to have guys like those to work with - I treasure them for sure (most)!

", rüber" was the subject in his last mail to me.
"," = "Komma" = "komm mal" - "come" - "rüber" = "over here".

Well. He was a tad surprised to hear me calling instantly, "Yes, SIR!", on my way to his office (awww, an old joke, he´s just too young!)

OK, so.
Gotta remember to buy another Green-Head when being back in Perth, right?
Being thankful for the work I got, despite all the negative stuff it´s FUN in the aftermath every day!

The Big Sis To Be In Sugarshock

Full pics again here
So, Saturday Bro and his family came for a visit, we met in town – and, little Niece has changed 100%!
Not shy at all this time – not even towards Ingo!

Pic at the big kid´s toy - fearless (and Daddy right behind her).

Her speech has improved lots, too, how come she can make such a huge step in such a short time?!

Ingo got angry when we lost him in a shop (guess he was tired of all the very slow walking, too), and said harshly he´s going home now!

Niece didn´t understand the trouble and I just said, sometimes he´s stupid like that. She looked at me as if she couldn´t believe it. One “why”, one “sometimes he just is like that” and the matter was done. Thank goodness the endless-why-phase is over.

Here at Ringerbrunnen - no fear of other, bigger kids!

She enjoyed being carried around by me lots – boy, how do parents manage?! Not easy anymore!
And by the time we arrived home everything was ok again.

Funny thing was: She asked where my car is – why is that important to a three and a bit-old girl???

Well, nearly everything was ok.
She got her first Easter-pressies.
Awwww. The disappointment was rather huge – the very cool animal-crayons… she got the same from her Grandma. The fact that they were left at the place where they go for holidays and now she has a second set for home didn´t help much.
Not better: The cool lunchbox from IKEA. Umm. She has that already, too.

Only good surprise: The content, the pudding-lion made by Ingo for the little Lion (by zodiac sign) and the mice.

So I said, sometime you have to give me a list of all that you have already, which she agreed to – she seemed to understand that I couldn´t have known!

Note to self: Also ask with the little stuff!

She had fun with our cow - and after all the gummy-bears she got in the city already from Bärenland she had the energy, too, endlessly...

(Video)

All the last times, at our place or at theirs, she refused to say good-bye as if then we would stay together.
Lesson learned, she jumped into my arms for a good-bye and then happily turned around and jumped up to Ingo even!

And kept waving and shouting “until next time!”
Concept of visiting understood :-)

Such a cute age.
Well, at least for Aunties.
According to her parents the Easter Bunny should´ve left her out of his pressies – to which she looked really guilty ;-)

Was a nice arvo, but, man, not a 24/7 for me!
Being just the Auntie is cool.

The lion, or rather the rest of it and two mice made it home and Bro sent a pic: "Thank you Uncle Ingo" :-)

Working With Knights Under A Full Moon

Finally it´s getting lighter when I drive to work - not only beautiful to watch the sun rising, but also a relief for a nightblind person like me!

And it goes so fast now!
Yesterday I forgot yet again to prepare my cam to take a pic of the beautiful full moon I see when I arrive in the little village where our IT is situated - but today I sure did - and it´s clearly not as dark as yesterday anymore!
Beautiful, no?

As mentioned before we are some funny bunch of peeps at work.

It never gets boring it seems, now someone brought a bow...

... and arrows, neatly put on the "target", a framed pic of a Volkswagen...

Funny enough the "boss", who is rather humorless, has a horse as door-stopper ever since - the chief-knight, so to say ;-)

Yep, love (most of the) guys at work.
I wanted to leave early today, got teamleader´s ok (certainly).
And then was so much immersed in work I totally forget the time.

Thanks T I left early... some whopping 15 minutes at least :-)

Looong weekend now, yay :-)
Cold, but mostly sunny.

Double-Half... On Two! Even If Naughty...

Minus 0,5C this morning - you call that spring?! I was freezing!

But with the sun getting to work finally again it turned into a beautiful day and so, after cleaning - or rather freeing the condo from feathers from our old cushions (they were just plain everywhere, the feathers, not the cushions...!) - and having some stupid phone calls due to a stupid and unwilling concierge (being a half-cousin of mine, too), I decided against yoga and stuff and we went to the city.

Anyway, my. Guess all the work from cleaning plus the anger made me real, real hungry!

What a "deal": Doing something for your health (or rather against your fat) visa Currywurst Pommes!!!

But, my, it was yummy.

See first pic - we usually share a Currywurst at Schadt´s, right?

One plate, two sets of cutlery, something you get only at special places like Schadt´s!

Really, is it just Germany?
You´re not that hungry but you´re not "allowed" to get a kid´s/retiree´s menue cause you´re neither :-(

At Schadt´s we always got to share.

Can you imagine my looks when I saw our waitress arriving with two plates?
I thought we got a Currywurst each!

Oh. hello!

She´s from Poland, smiled at me like I was a naughty kid and said: "I do know (you always share)! I can think, too! ;-)"

We shared a Currywurst but got a plate each - guess it was more pommes frites, definitively twice the salad, we paid for a normal serving.

She said, when I thanked her once again for the idea (we´re on the casual "du"): when she shares with her Hubs it´s no "sharing" - he takes the best pieces. Awww, well.
No such danger over here :-)

Am I thankful for peeps like her :-)
Caring, thinking, funny!

The Gauss-Bridge is under construction, so we have to take another route.

We now walk past the old market hall (my diploma, btw) and certainly cross river Oker here, too.

Aww, beautiful how the scenery is mirrowed in the water, no?

T said to me today, "awww, wish it was Friday today!"

He said, "stop being like #", when I answered, "gah, would be stupid to sit here on a public holiday, no? ;-)"

Ahh. Off to work tomorrow and then: Easter! - Have a happy one :-)

Hmmm. Maybe I ask Bro to bring a Ten Without Ham?

Would be perfect to this post - just not for my faitness...

Addendum: ... my. Can you imagine people eat what´s on our both plates alone??? Seesh.
Quite frankly... I nearly managed back then when we went to the canteen together every Thursday!

Addendum II: In the aftermath... I should´ve gotten up and taken her in my arms for the thougt.
I am Fourty-Two years old and still shy - I have to get over this and follow my (slow) heart!