Olive Me

The rule in my company is: You wanna have one day off, you apply for it one week in advance.
Last Monday night Ingo asked me if I can take Monday off...

Customer said ok, so teamleader said ok, too :-)
So right now we´re still in a long weekend together - could get used to that!

First pic? On the way to our bakery. A bottle with a rest of beer from a party on Friday night.
Ingo said, jokingly, aww, can I have a sip? (ewww) just the sec a man came around the corner and answered with a big grin, sure, help yourself :-)
Ewww. It´s a men´s world, no?

But first we saw this in our hall:

No one around - and it can take up to 15 minutes to find a place for your car - dunno if I´d be willing to trust no one helps himself here?

Haven´t been at real,- for quite a while.
Since our company has around 50 employees but no canteen we get food-coupons instead.
Our Rewe nearby takes one coupon per person only.
At real,- you can use all you got - and with one cash out girl even non food articles, we found out.
We also found out she thought this is from the welfare office - like heaps of people think and look at us in a way... :-(

Anyhows, we took some better stuff from there like...

Jamie Oliver Classic Italian :-)

I took the walnut and red pepper pesto, well, let´s see.

There was also food from South Africa:

And those cute olives:

The Easter bunny looked over my shoulder so I bought Niece these cute crayons and an egg holder:

Back home Ingo called El Gaucho to ask if we can get two seats for the night - we know what we want and we´re done in under an hour.
All he said though, was "Good Afternoon! ... yes ... yes... thanks!"

I was like ???

It was "our" waiter, he recognised Ingo´s voice!

It´s not that we´re there that often, first time this year.

Sunday we went on a short walk, short cause it was cold!

But spring is on the way!

Blossoms:

Ahhhhhh..

For dinner we had beans and pototoes with sauce.

Was yummy, but the moment I tasted the beans I remembered my Mum rolled them into ham or something, sad I can´t ask her what and how.

Today we slept in, and later it´s off to the city again.

Tuesday a work day and Wednesday I have a day off cause I see my doc.

So, I am A Cozener

There you have it. I am a cheater! Take a close look!

K. So, I just went to our Grocery-Store Rewe (German), the one with the slogan "A bit better every day" (yes guys, please get a bit better on my behalf!!!)

I shopped for 7 euro something and wanted to pay with a Sodhexo worth 5,11 euro.

Dunno bout your place, here in Germany there was a time where these "meal tickets" were given to people who don´t work (long-term, like not wanting). Instead of money. Because when those people were given money, they bought liquor and cigarettes from that and came back asking for money for food. This was too humiliating for them, though, so they got money again (being sarcastic, see?)
Those people certainly had no good reputation, they were lazy, filthy and other negative things you can come up with.

Many people still think this is the case.

So.. can you guess the other customer´s look when the cash-out girl took my "ticket", studied it and said: "No! I cannot take it - it´s already expired! It says 2010!"

Yeah, filthy ole me wanted to trick that supermarket!

I said, slightly angry already: "No, they´re valid three months into the next year!", being 90% sure about that. Not 100, though.

Cashout-Girl looked at me. Then: "I gotta ask my boss", and left!

Yeah, the person who stopped the whole cashout, me. More angry looks.

Finally she came back: "My boss, she doesn´t know, either. I cannot take it, sorry!" (she was sorry)

Hello?!

#1: if they both don´t know: take the darn thing (it´s only 5,11 euro!), risk to loose it and get to know about the stuff you offer to take!
#2: obligingness, we call it "kulanz" - what is more worth, a lost or at least very angry customer or some stupid 5 euro???

Sadly I was too angry and ashamed to THINK at that time.

I grabbed 10 euro with shaking hands (ANGRY! also bout myself, for not being sure 100%) and left rather running.

Side note, one I´d often like to scream at the people who give me the "filthy, lazy bugger-look":
I´m a graduated engineer, in the same job for 9 years. The company has no canteen and this is their way to make up for it! The company pays half the price of each voucher.

Man, ever get THAT angry that your hands tremble and your brain stops working? And afterwards everything falls into place, once you´re OUTTA the darn situation?
Can you train to prevent yourself from that, be always smart and clever?

I put a complaint to the store.
But certainly I have to stay polite. Because... legally they could say: One voucher per shopping - and I don´t want that, certainly.
So I was rather (hopefully enough) polite and sent them the direkt link (German) with the passage copied out.

GAHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

Am I happy I still have half a Pizza Flintstone waiting for me, guys!

Pic-Attack

... or: Where Are We?

Our Monday-Ritual (since ending that darn weekend-relationship and starting real life) is: Walk into the City, go to Subway and have a Footlong, on Sodhexo.

When we came to Kohlmarkt we saw a real cool "ad":



This little garden is made by a tree nursery (not that it really worked - don´t remember the name, sorry guys, cool idea, mission no success!).

When you turn around you see this building with that beautiful sun - cam could capture it. The real sun is on holiday, just like me :-(



Right beside that you find:



Yes, Braunschweig has a Starbucks, too. Not only one, hey, we´re cool, right?
Are you in for a little tour?

This is the Katzenbrunnen, cat-fountain:



Certainly we also have Pizza Hut. Sadly different taste that I knew/like...



Maybe it´s a good thing it´s not as tasty, I seldom go there. Ok. I was there once.

Pizza-Hut, Starbucks, ok, those are names.

But then I started wondering... where are we?
Let me show you and keep in mind that this is Braunschweig, Germany.



Nope, no wood, you get clothes here.


Same here, clothes:



Please... take a step back, will ya?



Umm, no, wait, come on in! This is German. Backen, to bake. Cakes and pastries is what you get here.
Confused?

Right beside that you find this ad:



Just an ad from a photo-studio.

Don´t be confused. They didn´t forget the "s" - you get clothes and toys only - no fresh food, "people"!:




Some more German Shops:



It even says "sale"...

The Phone House? The Store? Aha.... um... just why?



Oh, right:



"Haar-Express" sounds too boring, right?

Off-topic: Our Brunonia:



We´re still to climb up there (hello, sun? Where are you?)

Back to topic:



This man just makes this pic, huh?

But maybe we´re in Hanoi?




Or Italy?




Oh, come on, step aside a bit, huh?




Guess where you find Saturn, in Space? No, in




the basement.
Hello? Basement??? Im Basement???
Im = in the. Argh!
Is that cool, did I miss something? Right, I´m getting old!
This is also why I nearly made a big jump at Saturn when I suddenly met this guy:



As mentioned before, Mondays we have a sub. Just why is the sign in English? Why is everything else in German there?



Surprisingly, though, I never saw someone smoking a cigarette in there. Or something else.
Theory I: People speak English.
Theory II: People assume that since smoking inside restaurants in Germany is not allowed, they should not do it in there either.
No idea which is the right one... Any guesses?

Off-topic: Our Main-Theatre:




Have been there once, with Team-Leader/Friend. Didn´t like it, the person behind me kept breathing in my neck, uahhh....
Anyone willing to go there with Ingo? He wants to, I don´t. For a reason, huh?

Last bite for today:



Ok, I admit: I´m a freakin`ole babbitt.

But what do you think, isn´t it kinda weird they give their German Shops English names with no reason?
And, mind you.... in many of those shops you´d have a problem if English is your only language.

But! What the heck!!!

We own an apartment in this beautiful town! Soon! Like hopefully this week for very, very real (we still need to see the notary).

Any German-named shops for no reason in your place?
Are you a babbitt, too?

People Hated Me Today

The company I work for has a size of about 50 people.
Since most of us have to work at the various customer´s places there is no canteen.

At my customer´s place, Volkswagen, there is a canteen.
We are declared "guests" there and pay an extra-charge of 50% (since 9 years!!! Guests, huh?). I very seldom go, once in a few moths, on a Tuesday for a mini-Currywurst - Volkswagen is famous for it´s own brand - including the Volkswagen-Ketchup :-)

Other I have boring bread I prepare the night before (add in "awwww").

The guys who work at my company´s place have a bigger choice of lunches, it´s in the city, and there is something we all get!

We all get Sodhexo-coupons (German) to make up for the "inconvenience".
Some restaurants like Mc Donald´s, Subway, Burger-King ... - and some Grocery Stores accept them.
Those coupons work like this: The price they´re worth is taken from the money that you get by contract, before the state gets it´s hands on it. Before the money for Health Insurance etc etc goes away, hence I pay only 2,50 €, about half of it´s actual worth.

One is worth 5,11 €.

Yes, 5, 11 € - that was once 10 German Mark.
8 years and they still didn´t manage to do something about the darn 11 cent!

So, since no restaurants etc are around the office-complex I work at, I run errands with that.

So I did today.
The cashout-"girl" was the dumbest cashout-woman I ever had to encounter. I call her D-COG, cogging (the way I know it!) isn´t far from this, anyways.

I had quite heaps, worth 64 something. I gave her 12 coupons since they aren´t allowed to give any money out.

"Oh, 5,11??? I only know 5 straight ones!"
- glad you know the system at all!
She started to calculate - in her head, and man... she was too dumb.

I said, you can use the register and add 5,11 each time, that´s how many of your colleagues do it.
Got a blank look and she seemed again to try to add it up in her mind. Mind... mind... mind you, can you finish this???

She then tried to scan a coupon. I told her this doesn´t work.
But I´m just a dumb customer, right?!
She tried again. And again Lady!!!! Listen to me, I told you how it works! Just like REAL MONEY!
She asked her colleague - by now I had many hateful looks on me, as you can guess!

Colleague said, use it like real money, just type it in.
She tried to scan it. Stared.


I´m not lying or exaggerating!

She tried to scan it. She tried to sca...

I add a funny pic here, to help me and also you getting over this:



Her colleague, I only call her COG, logically (you´ll see why), came over after closing her lane. She typed it in, hit a button ("cash", I suppose! Huh?!), said, see, like this! She stayed put to make sure D-COG is able to repeat this.
Took a sec, then D-COG took the second coupon. Typed 5,11, hit the button, tried to scan the darn thing.
COG: Don´t scan that!

One sec went by.
D-COG took the third, typed 5,11, hit the button... you guess it, huh? Tried to scan it. COG: "Don´t scan that!".
This happened FIVE times in a row!!!

People who witnessed this, shook their heads in disbelief, the rest by now hated me like very deeply.

After the 5th try and the 6th coupon (remember, COG showed her once - I counted to make sure all goes the way it should), D-COG finally really did pick it up and stopped trying to scan the darn thing.

I add a pic of some of the stuff I bought, to keep you from screaming or pulling your hair, k? The story STILL goes on!


(I´m on holiday now, maybe I try and cook with those.)

Finally - done! Ups! 2 coupons left, only 3-euro-something to go!!! WTH?

Now D-COG AND COG looked startled.

I said, did I miscount? I´m sorry. You´re not allowed to give out cash. Give me back those two and I give you money.

COG said, ummmm, what do we do now? I´m not sure if we may give out money... Hello???? Am I invisible/inhearable???

Guessing... (if looks could kill, all three of us would be dead by now).

COG picked up the phone to ask what to do, was told what I told her.

And got yet another guess!
Let´s recount!!!

12 coupons - see, I was right.
But, to make sure, D-COG repeated this twice with COG looking on. (I´m nearly dead for sure by now!!)

12 coupons. All right, all good. I hand over a 5-Euro-billet...

Hey, ya know... do you think there would´ve been a personal attack on me if I´d said, "oh, wait, I bet I have 3,48 (or such) on the cent, just let me look?"?
And then search, unsuccessfully and then...

I handed over the darn 5 euros, got some money back and left. Like a beaten dog.

And no! I wasn´t there the first time. I go there for about 9 damn years!!!!

Are coupons like that common in your place, too? Do you suffer or witness the same once in a while? I´m a graduated Engineer and I get this as a bonus. I AM working - people assume I´m not working and am getting these coupons as a substitute from the state - instead of money. You cannot buy alcohol or cigarettes with these, you know what that means...
Let me know if you can relate, gahhhhh...h