Good Bye, Tram

  

Today  I join Rain´s Thursday Art & Dinner Date with the prompt "White".

We really did have snow a couple of weeks ago, a wee bit, not enough to build a mini-mini-snowman, though.

Hence, circles... With 6C / 43F it is unlikely we build a snowman anytime soon.

I cannot remember a white Christmas other than in the 1970s...

I remember a white Easter, though, we built an Easter Bunny. With huuuuge feet. 

 

 

Was already dark, Bro and I weren´t that fast...

Standing by my side (left) is our dog Inka, a German Shepherd, the cat I never got...

 

For the dinner-part...

 

 

Yes. Jamie Oliver says frozen is cheaper and more fresh.

But... I love having Adriano Celentano on my ear and go from scratch and also....

 

Rosenkohl you call Brussels Sprouts and... I have to say good bye to my Brussels Tram and Alstom tomorrow.

And I want to do that in style.

 

 

And will you believe it. I proudly tell fK I go from scratch.

"You pulled them off the stem?" - "What?!!!!" 

 

fK grew up on a farm and laughed her head off that I had to google how Brussels Sprouts grow!

 

 Did YOU know?! I was baffled. In my defense... I grew up in a town.

The internet series: 

"Habits of the 1960s that would be unthinkable today 

 

Bicycle safety

 

People participated in cycling events and recreational activities without wearing a helmet."

 

It´s still mandatory... But with these darn e-scooters and e-bikes I gave up cycling... too dangerous.

 

Henry 🦁 

 

Not a fan, Henry?

 

 

Trains, Trains, Trains

Pic taken when I went to Dortmund. 

In the background you see.... according to my Mom ... the draftiest train station of Northern Germany. 

 

 This is for Tom´s Signs2.

 

Off soon to ESE and later teams-meeting with mM.

Actually I want to go back to bed right now.

 

Maintenance of trains will hopefully be my subject of my final work.

I have to "fight" for that today and hopefully pick the better one. Think mM? Wish me luck.

I could throw up right now. 

 

Henry 🦁

 

Happy Day!

 

 

What a WEIRD day! If you read last very sad post, let me tell you what happened today:

fK picked my hardware and myself up.

We found mT2  and I gave him all my stuff... nearly: I can keep headset, keyboard and mouse.

mT2 and I chatted forever, long enough till out of the blue mMN turned up, I met him on the BYO summer-festival.

 

 (in case you are new: f stands for female and m...  well, male)

Luckily I am very afraid of fire, hence mMM wanted me in the Fortescue project (which we did not get): Iron-ore trains through Pilbara, Western Australia, running on batteries.

mMN works with... batteries. And I knew a lot. Turned out he is fK´s teamlead.

We talked till my teamlead, mMS, turned up, he said, let´s talk and invited mMN also.

I told about my plans becoming technical editor and that, if the job-agency pays, it may take up to twelve months.

mMS said, "perfect, if that works I guarantee to get you back!"

He went on, "write them an e-mail with this info, mMN and myself in cc  and if they refuse, the two of us go there in person!"

He.Wants.Me.Back!!!!

I can´t be that bad!

I said, "well, Ingo plans already another  6-weeks-holiday in Perth our winter next year...."

mMS: "No problem!".

So, e-mail, soon, fK will proofread, then mMN will proofread and then it goes to the job-center.

 

Then I met mK for whom I worked with a DB-project and he said, too, he´ll get projects and will want me back, too.

Life is a ...

fS looked very, very sad when I gave her my token and wondered why I smiled!

I said, "maybe you have to give it back to me next January, February" - she said, "some good news, finally, I get so many token back it is no fun no more...".

I still can´t believe how very lucky I am (sadly the pressure is very high, too, I´m not 20 anymore...)

Need me on a construction site? The ESE-baseball-cap in first pic is a construction helmet by UVEX. Too small for fK.

The kale? From fK, too, I wanna try kale-chips in the air-fryer.

What a day!!!

Henry 🦁

 

 I feel good....

Sad Day

Today is a very sad day for me.

For 17 years I was saying company cgs is so great!

I had nice colleagues and customers at VW where I was rented out to.

We had quarterly meetings, 2 were fun events, Christmas always with our partners.

My boss was fatherly.

He became thinner and thinner and more serious and finally sold the company.

 

The new boss, only 37 at the time, non-reflective lenses so you hardly saw his eyes, mentioning the stud he owns in South Germany all the time, looking up who brought in money from VW and those, like me, who lost their project tin the Diesel-affair...

Two of the best quit, that bad was the atmosphere. The last year was "horrible".

I for final left at 06:00 a.m. and sent Ingo later to deliver the keys and get that signed.

Brunel/Siemens mobility - I was relieved to leave, kinda. It was a team of women only and apart from one it was fighting against each other.

 

 

But now?

Apart from the super interesting subject, railway, working 100% from home, I made friends there.

 

Yes, fK said, "you don´t get rid of me", and fE and mM said they want to get me back (this is unofficially).

But it was so hard to dismantle all hardware.

fK soon will pick all the gear and me up. 

I hope mM finds a bit time for me so I can tell him about my plans considering the further training - just... as the job center did not show up for the online meeting last week and delayed it to 24th I cannot even say if the training will be possible (I for sure do not have € 8-12 000 for a "maybe").

 

Yes, my contract lasts till March 15th, I was lucky I even get a severance pay.

A huge wave of direct terminations is on plus a longer hiring freeze and hence that likely will be my last day, too, the 15th of March.

I know, things could be worse. Financially I am safe.

But my heart so is with this company, it´s people and projects.

Being happy is more important than having money.

A sad day...

 

Talked felt forever to my admin mT, he gave me tips.

On... EVERYTHING, including my Halfbike, cooking and what to tell my teamlead today. 

At midnight we said good-bye, boy am I tired!! LOL.

See, why I have a hard time leaving?

Henry 🦁

 

 Let´s see what the day will bring...

 

For Toms´s Signs2 just scroll down...

Short Mish-Mash

 

This was taken in March. Two tough guys, brrr, barefoot!

I took off to the left here, who knows where they were heading for?

Does the dude have a plan or just walks on... it is quite a way for a place for the night if you have no money and it was still pretty cold, too.

Maybe the dog warms him up at night. 

 

 

This week was like really tough, I want to finish the translated docu for one train. WANT!

Sub-teamleader allowed me to work on Saturday, customer said NO to that. Even more stress, hence I am tired.

Just a mish-mash today.

 

 

There was a note: "For free, but please don´t take the rack!".

In the evening the rack stood inside.

We have a good neighborhood.

Neighbor M... he has trust!!!

In the hall opposite our door for days I saw this:

 

4 steps down is the main door to the street and many leave that door open for hours, for anyone who passes by to see.

This bike is not secured.

It was not stolen.

 

I luckily forgot where I found this (@Ingo if you remember don´t tell me):

 

 If only we had space!!! This is MY childhood!!!

We played in the street, our parents had no idea what we did or where we were.

There were no mobile phones and no protection gear and yet.... still alive. 

Tomorrow: Mega-stress. I have till Wednesday lunch time to finish as much as I can.

No time to translate all the technical drawings, the customer´s customer will NOT be happy.

Mass instead of class - customer wants it that way.

Now... I try to relax and cook pizza-sauce.

Have a happy Sunday.

Henry 🦁:

 

... love my work.

You´re Safe With Me?

 

Pics taken in Ghost Town Cook in South Australia´s Outback.

 

 ... I hope!

OK, 98% we have the project Fortescue and my section is... don´t laugh: FS - Fire & Smoke.

Me. Who flips at the word fire. Or smoke. I´m officially in there!!!

My colleague explained to our teamlead he wants me in this project!

And the other men are OK with the decision, also.

 

Pilbara, here I come (well, sadly only virtually). 

Maybe it´s only April, maybe longer who knows, wish me/us luck! 

 

 

Can life get crazier?

The train we let through in 1999... I´ll work on a newer version!

 

3km long, 141t iron ore per wagon...  it is HUGE.

The INFINITY train!!!!

All the way from the mines to Port Headland the train has to brake as it´s downhill, so the motor is a generator and fills up batteries that take the empty train back.

No diesel required!!!! Green energy. 

 

And, well, the danger of fire. 

Daytime temps  ~ 43C/110F, plus the tracks get hot, too, the braking train and all that on batteries, weeeeeee....

 

So exciting!!! And with nice colleagues!

 

They say:  

"We’re part of the problem.
We don’t shy away from the fact that we are a heavy emitter. In fact, every year we emit 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere from our Australian iron ore operations and Fortescue marine vessels. This is why we have committed to eliminate fossil fuels with a target to achieve Real Zero terrestrial emissions (Scope 1 and 2) by 2030, without carbon offsets."
 

And we are hopefully a tiny part of this!

This is for Tom´s Signs2.

 

Henry's 🦁  alter train-ego, the Wedge-tailed eagle 🐦

 

 Pic taken in Train Station Adelaide before we took off with the Indian Pacific.

 

The Self Balancing Monorail

 

This is very clever, a super-engineer, that Louis Brennan! Scroll down for a video, if you like - there is an ad in the middle, skip it, and be amazed!

 

Wiki says: "The gyro monorail was never developed beyond the prototype stage.

The principal advantage of the monorail cited by Shilovsky is the suppression of hunting oscillation, a speed limitation encountered by conventional railways at the time. Also, sharper turns are possible compared to the 7 km radius of turn typical of modern high-speed trains such as the TGV, because the vehicle will bank automatically on bends, like an aircraft,^[1] so that no lateral centrifugal acceleration is experienced on board."

 

Amazing, isn´t it?

I am glad, though, that our trains run on two rails... 

Henry 🦁

 

 

For sprints he can make up to 74 km/h. Scary, huh?

T STands For... Trains Once More

 

 

... how about you? 😉

Yes, I cannot resist a drink that asks me this! Hence my Ticket to Elizabeth´s T:

 

 

It promises "best authentic drinks, damn natural taste - BAD by Bad Pyrmonter", a business here in Lower Saxony.

Certainly they had to switch to English for the joke. Reckon not everyone gets it here. BAD in German is the bathroom. And a town that has "Bad" in front means the climate is good.

Alas, was not that yummy.

The journal:

 

Monday: Seminar, work and a bit Sport.

My life is so exciting...

Admin T will ask boss-admin if he can work with me as the boss ignores me considering the move to Sharepoint.

Got out Gurri. It´s cold... Well, we´ll make people smile again 😘

 

Tuesday: Seminar - luckily just before the break... no internet! By superluck reached Ingo at work. Why the heck do I always wait to learn about the essential till catastrophe hits?!!!

Can you relate? 

Missed 7 minutes which equals 20 minutes with a normal lecturer!

Managed to "get" colleague K for tomorrow. We work great together and he´s off to holiday soon, phew!

Learned they want me in this project till February. 

I don´t get it. It´s but intranet.

But what the heck... 100% working from home!!!

 

Evening: (2 sessions of sport and then) Serial (Bad) Weddings. I just LOVE that movie!!!

Wednesday: Aaaaaand finally it happened! After the seminar my mushy brain sent a message to a car. 🤪

Worked so long for (nor at) VW and had to write the name of the model "Touran" so often, I did this. His name is Turan.

I have at least the VW-excuse. He said, happens more often to him.

From that we came to model "Lupo" and with that to Walt-Disney and what we watched as kids, that we had only four programs, three West and one East-program.... you get the picture 😁 Not lonely here!!!

3 sessions of training.

Thursday: Last day of seminar, work and 4 sessions of training.

Thanks to Ingo I have a set of Faber-Castell and thanks to River I know I can buy single ones!

Friday: Two very productive meetings at work.

The company I work for is great.

I had -30 hours and 19,5 days of holiday. Usually you are allowed to only take 10 days to the next year and have to get rid of them till end of March.

The seminar was 50% freetime.

They made the company take 100% > makes -18. From those they will turn some into holiday and the rest I am allowed to take into it-does-not-matter when 2024 as they count them in from January on :-)

4 sessions of training.

Weekend: Saturday: I slept in. It was grey, grey, icky, cold, grey. Later the sun came out!

Ingo made Sauerkraut with salmon ham from the oven. Did all the shopping, too!!!

Thank you, Ingo! - Dunno. This started with COVID, that we went shopping separate. Sad.

Do you still have changed routines from the COVID-days?

I did 2 sessions of training meanwhile. Other .. Ingo got Star Trek - The next Generation on BlueRay and we binge-watched. In the original, horray! That can take months, btw!

Sunday: Löwenzahn & Die Maus, other a superlazy day with more binge-watching.

 

Munch-wise:

 

And arty-like:

 

 

Can you believe I had to wait 51 years to taste this?

And then I didn´t like it, so at least nothing missed 😁

(Ingo insists on the Euro-cent in the pic so you see it´s but 8*10,5 cm/ 3,1*4,1 inch - I got this idea to really go at it thanks to Christine, btw!

 

Henry 🦁

 

 Happy T-Day everybody!