Being a woman

In Germany that still means getting 22% less money for the same job a man does.
This german article gives examples:

Computer scientist, male: 3971 Euro - female: 3590 Euro
Cook, male: 1863 Euro - female: 1505 Euro

We could want to have a family.
A man can care for a child, too, and many do so!

And we don´t sell our skills well enough. Ok, but doesn´t the proof of good work compensate?

Hot Bananas

In Krissy's blog I read that in Carnarvon, 10 hours north of Perth, Bananas fell off the trees due to the heat, 47.8 °C! In '95 we visited Munro's Plantation. I couldn´t imagine running around with a machete chopping down bananas (those that hadn´t fallen yet) in that heat!

Pfff.... way too hot!

On googling a bit I found a great article on the plantation. Bruce Munro originally was a motor mechanic, strange to come from there to bananas, but good thing he did so. `Cause he started off with the thought of opening the plantation up for tourists. And it was really interesting! I don´t remember though, that there was a banana-café. But maybe that came later.

The article also describes how business is done there - way different from how it is done here and I prefer the Aussie way. Here people are rivals in business. Over there they are colleagues and help each other, we made the experience not only once. And in this article is another example to be found.

Munro helped a colleague, Bryan Carvill, to establish his own banana business. The bananas in Carnarvon, or the Gascoyne Area, are smaller than those from Queensland (not obvious for me those days), but Carvills wife came up with the "the smaller is better marketing concept" and they are now successfull with "small lunchbox bananas". They are even getting premium prices for their fruit in the Perth market! What a story!

Darn. If I had enough money and if it wasn´t so terribly dry and hot, I´d love to go there right now and have a small, sweet banana.

Then I´d go to the second hand book shop, grab a good book, buy a chair and make it to the Old Prawn Jetty. If I was so rich, I certainly would take Ingo, too, buy a fishing rod and all the stuff needed. I even know where the store is. I bet Ingo would´t catch any fish; it´s simply too hot. So we´d go to Chicken Treat and have an Hawaiian Pack each.

Heaven!

Should I start to play Lotto? ;-)

Btw... Italian males over there, seek for shelter. Ingo might find you and might want to end an old curse...

Fun

Whilst working on my book of '99 (can put it online on the weekend) I had the TV on as a background-noise. "What about Bob" with Bill Murray was on :-)

Afterwards there was "Boston Legal". I don´t know this series but when I saw William Shatner was starring, I kept tuned. He played an elderly lawyer who was in an interview at the Larry-King-show. Afterwards a younger colleague waited for him to talk about it.

"Shatner" said: "Being me is fun - is it fun, too, being you?"

Tough one! But: Yes! Most of the time, it is!

What about you?

More than life

When there was playing "There must be more to life than this" from Freddie Mercury on my player in the car, I had to remember, yes, we have to find out about it. Today my father would have turned 69. What did he have from life.

Work, basically. We shouldn´t live to work but work to make a better living.

On googling on the subject in my morning break I found this pic:



This is a paving stone in memory of Freddie Mercury, an installation in the entrance of the Federal art and exhibition hall in Bonn. I have been near Bonn some years ago with my brother as he studied in Cologne nearby. If I had known I would have payed a visit to this. There is another stone in Dortmund - just in case I get there some day, I have to remember...

What do I have from life?

I found this note in my Monday-lunch-box, prepared from Ingo:



Thank you, man! And dito :-)

The tear he mentions refers to the horseradish he put on my lunch.

Weekend Pics

Maybe a little too proud on my town, but at flickr I put some more pics about good Brunswick-stuff.

It´s really cool to have so many opportunities to put your stuff on the net.

I look forward to getting internet access from home soon, too. Here at work in a lunch-break it´s a little uncomfy to do all the private stuff.

Oh, one pic I gotta share here: Know Elmo from Sesame Street? He had become a mascot and Ingo´s grandma made the same socks for him as she made for me, well, just smaller:



Isn´t that too cute? The socks have real heels and toe-parts! My heel- and toe-parts are from another wool here, so there was enough left over for the little socks.
Well, she always makes great socks for us :-)
Though I´m glad when summertime will be back!

Yum

On Sunday we went to El Gaucho again, to one of the best restaurants in Brunswick. Actually I only wanted a cheap Pizza. We went to the take away Pizza restaurant and, well. We could see the staff and they could see us. And nothing happened.
More potential guests arrived. Nothing happened. Finally one of the staff came into the sales room. He didn´t greet us, only went to a shelf and started looking for something. We left. And he didn´t care.
So Ingo called El Gaucho and asked if there are two seats left and went on, ok, we hop on our bikes and will be there in no time.

When we got in "our" waiter welcomed us with "oh, it is YOU! There is one other couple who always comes by bike and we weren´t sure who will come this evening." He gave us a handshake and a big smile. There were some "rich" people who gave us strange looks, like, hey, they can´t afford a car and are greeted that way?
They gave us even stranger looks when our waiter said, "as usual without sauce?".
Yeah. Strange looks from people who not only order french fries (in a steak house, noooo), but also order ketchup! I bet the cook had to cry when he got that inquiry...

And it was yummy, as usual! :-)

And although - or maybe because! it was a great weekend, my stomach hurts and I can´t eat.
I miss Ingo...

ITIL

Wo-hoo. After two days studying at Brunswick airport I am now officially ITIL-certificated.
Just that they got my name wrong. "Flawia" really looks odd! Gotta ask my colleague Flaviu if they mis-spelled his name, too.

And just that I cannot use all the great knowledge at my customers´ place. But I had to go through the training course, since maybe one day my costumer may want me to be certificated for ITIL.

Don´t know what ITIL is?
I have forgotten most of it already, so, well, forget it.

What was interesting, though: It was strange to learn new things that way again. Has been quite a while! And I met "new" colleagues. One belongs to the company for as long as it exists and I finally met him...
And though I probably will never see him again. We all felt like a unit. Strange thing, that is!