Pre-Christmas Quickie

Sounds dirty, but isn't. Ha.

Anyway, here's another sort of general update:

The office move went well. Compared to the other 2 companies that moved with us, we seem to have been the most organized - despite my presence ;-) All my colleagues were there and helping. We were pretty much settled in by the afternoon. There's still some work to be done on the building itself, though.

I'm not feeling very christmassy - again. But I did go to the famous Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt this year and had some Glühwein. Still have to make a photo calendar for my parents. Hope the prints will arrive today.

Wanted to go see a romantic comedy with my sister on the weekend but the 2 movies we had picked as options weren't on anymore. I'm talking about New in Town with Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. and Love Happens with Jennifer Aniston.

I've been listening to Milow a lot this past week. He's a singer/songwriter from Belgium and had a big hit with a cover version of 50 Cent's Ayo Technology. I watched a concert from Berlin that was streamed live on Facebook. He even did a cover version of Joni Mitchell's song River. Beautiful. He has a soft voice and good lyrics, I think.

It's freezing cold and snowed for the past 3 days. Still went to work by car after I had brushed off all the snow. The weather forecast says we'll get a rainy, mild Christmas. As always.

This is so random. I should start writing blog entries that focus on one topic. Damn.

Schneereport

Dies ist eine Antwort auf den Beitrag eines Freundes, den man hier findet.

Schönes Foto!

Also, da ich mich ja in Bayern befinde, kann ich auch ne Temperatur beisteuern: das kälteste, was das Thermometer in meinem Auto bisher angezeigt hat, waren -16 Grad. Das war Donnerstag so zwischen 8 und halb 9, glaub ich Aber seit ein paar Tagen ist es wenigstens schön sonnig mit spektakulären Sonnenuntergängen.

Viel Schnee in NRW scheint zu stimmen, hab gestern von ner Freundin aus BO gehört, dass wegen der Schneemassen Chaos herrscht. Hm, kann mir irgendwie nicht so ganz vorstellen, wie das Chaos genau aussieht ... man wird halt wohl mit dem Auto schlecht voran kommen oder so. Hier geht's, es hat nur Anfang der Woche 10-15 cm geschneit geschneit und seitdem nicht mehr. Und meine Auto ist brav, toi toi toi.

End of holiday

It's back to work for me tomorrow. Am nervous. And hope my car will start as it's freezing (-9 degrees Celsius right now). I un-dug it from 15 cm of snow yesterday.

Just wanted to report that I've seen 2 new films in the theatre over the holidays: Australia and Buddenbrooks.

Loved Australia from start to finish. Hugh Jackman is so good. Actually, the whole cast is, from villain David Wenham to Aboriginal boy Brandon Walters. Also loved the scenery and the epic-ness of it all - and the references to The Wizard of Oz which came as a surprise to me. Baz Luhrmann is one of my fave directors and I'll definitely get the DVD when it comes out.

The other film was a German one. Classic stuff, based on Thomas Mann's novel about a merchant family in Northern Germany in the 19th century. Can't say much about it. Good cast, nice costumes, but very depressing towards the end.

The next film I might go see is Twilight cos I've read all of the 4 vampire books by Stephenie Meyer. Am not too enthusiastic about them, though. Movie opens next week. We'll see.

Snow

As every year, I'd like to report the first snow. It started yesterday in the late afternoon. And it's almost gone again. Did look quite pretty on my car this morning.

Snow and wind caused my sister's flight to Rome via Zurich to be delayed so she was stuck in Zurich for the night. I kept checking her flights on the airports' websites all evening. My own Friday night thriller. Strange way to spend an evening. Later I acted as her travel agent trying to rearrange her flight back. What a mess. But I guess all that was better than worrying and not knowing what was going on and not being able to help her - which would have been the case without my DSL. Cool.

More music

A couple of new things I'd recommend:

Duffy - Rockferry (album). Although she might be getting a lot of Amy Winehouse comparisons, she's nothing like her. Okay, not quite true. They're both in their 20s and from Britain and have unique voices. But whereas Amy's a mess, Duffy isn't. Also, you shouldn't judge her by the single Mercy alone because for me, the rest of the album sounds completely different, which is good cos I'm not a big fan of Mercy as a song. The first 2 songs on the album (the title track and Warwick Avenue) are much better IMO. Beautiful and dreamy, with a 60s touch. Reminds me of Petula Clark's Downtown somehow. Just lovely.

Sara Bareilles - Love Song: She sounds like Sheryl Crow with a bit more piano or a more cheerful version of Aimee Mann. Nice catchy unannoying song.

What else? Have I ever mentioned that May is my favourite month? At least for now, hehe. The weather's been wonderful for more than a week. Clear blue sky, sun, and the trees are a bright green. And not too hot yet. Yeeha. : )

This and that

Changed the look of the blog again. The one before was just too pink. I like the brown but I tweaked the colours a bit. Don't really like the beige / light brown tone of the background at the left and right, but it'll have to do.

Been over to Cissa's blog (link on the right) - hadn't looked at it for a way too long time. Bad cyber-friend, me. Sorry Cissa. I miss you and the other former Baleheads but work and my stupid slow computer / internet connection get in the way (I'm only online for an hour or 2 on the weekend).

What else? Wanted to post a blogthing quiz yesterday but they were all way too stupid. What's your Mexican name? No, thanks.

Weather report: Snow! As I go to work by car, I'm not too enthused. But it looks nice outside with the trees covered in white. Also, German rail is still on strike. If this continues until December 8 I'll be very mad cos I'm going to meet a friend that day and we both already bought our train tickets. (We're meeting in a city sort of in the middle of where we both live.).

New songs: hm, not much I can think of except for Shadow of the Day by Linkin Park.

Flooded

Sorry for the lack of updates. The past week has been pretty crazy. The weekend before last the area here was hit by heavy rain which caused flooding. Both my parents and my sister were affected, i.e. the basements of their houses were about a meter under water. No fun, I tell ya. I helped them as much as I could which wasn't easy cos I had to work.

I might post more later about the details, but for now I'll just say the rooms are empty now and are being dried by some company that brought equipment for that yesterday.

Exhausted

This week the weather’s been quite hot. Not a good thing when you’re stuck in a stuffy office. But what's good is that we can dress pretty casually, which means walking around barefoot is not a problem. I don’t think they predicted very high temperatures for today, but I found it especially awful today. Really stuffy. You could sense there was a thunderstorm coming, and it’s going on now. We had the same thing yesterday afternoon as well. First darkening sky, then storm and lightning, then heavy rain. Of course this must come on the one Friday I wanted to leave the office earlier than 5 p.m. Damn. I feel like I haven’t worked at all today. This morning we had our weekly English class – which was a total waste of time for me, as most times – so I basically only got to my desk at 9.30. Then our server was down for about 2 hours so all I could do was clean up the closet and put papers in folders and stuff like that. There was nothing urgent to work on, though, anyway, so it wasn’t too much of a problem. Then after lunch I tuned into another Canadian radio station cos we’re in the middle of preparing a study for a Canadian client. Well. I did do some other things but it’s so unrewarding when it’s nothing major.

Blah. Very interesting stuff, right? What I really wanted to say is that I’m very exhausted and tired at the moment. I guess I don’t get enough sleep. Oh, I don’t know. I really need to take a few days off. Argh.

What's new, Pussycat?

1) It's become very very cold and it started snowing Tuesday night. Yesterday I didn't go to work by car, not so much because of the situation on the streets, but in my yard where no-one had shoveled the snow away and I thought I wouldn't be able to move my car. Going by public transport was okay. Today there was still as much snow, but I was brave and even managed to turn the car around and drive out of the gate. Yay for me.

2) My sweet little sister wants to go on holiday with me in the spring or early summer - and guess where? Stockholm! I took Swedish at college but have never been to Sweden. I was very surprised when she suggested it cos she normally wants to go to some sunny beach and not to a Northern city. Flights aren't too expensive but I can't decide which travel guide to buy.

3) I'm going to a TupperParty tomorrow. Makes me feel very housewife-y, hehe.

Nice weekend everyone! Over and out. : )

This year’s first snow

My stomach’s better so I went to the office as usual today. It’s now a quarter past 1 p.m. and it’s been snowing for about half an hour. The flakes are getting bigger by the minute. And the temperatures were below zero last night. So, the lovely and way too warm October is most definitely over. And guess who’s still driving around in a car that has summer tires? Right, that would be me. Damn. I’m not sure my dad can change tires. I wanted to do it with my sister this year, but she’s away on the weekend. Argh. I don’t want to have an accident. But it’s the same thing as last year: even if I want to go by public transport, I have to drive to the train station by car first. Why didn’t I move house earlier? Damn. And sorry about all my swearing.

Bad weather and Harry Potter

The weather totally sucks. Rain all morning long. And it’s so dark you want to stay in bed all day. On top of that, my dad is in a bad mood cos he can’t work in the garden in this weather and he doesn’t really know what to do with himself in the house. My sister is in Munich and they had about 4 inches of snow 2 days ago. Don’t we just love this awful weather?! My best friend is coming to visit next Wednesday and I so hope it’s going to be better by then.

I have finished Harry Potter 5 now. Poor boy. He was in such a bad mood more or less throughout the whole book. And who can blame him? He tells people about the return of Lord Voldemort and what happens? Nobody believes him, they even think he’s crazy. And this Dolores Umbridge character, very nasty! If you ask me, those are not children’s books at all. Maybe the first 2 volumes still were, but the newer ones, not in my opinion. Way too dark. Okay, I know, terrible things happen in fairytales, too, but those are fairytales and I think children don’t take them literally or aren’t in much danger to be harmed by them, but with HP it’s a bit different. Yes, it’s a fantasy novel, but it’s still somewhat grounded in reality. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these people who say HP should be banned cos it encourages wizardry and witchcraft or whatever, I’m just saying it’s not for small children. But enough of that. Now I need to find jeopardygirl’s HP 5 trivia quiz in her blog archives.

Mamma Mia!

Ich war 3 Tage in Hamburg und hab das ABBA-Musical Mamma Mia! gesehen. War super. Die Lieder von ABBA mag ich sowieso total gern und die Hauptdarstellerin Annika Bruhns war sehr gut, obwohl ich auf ihre Vorgängerin Carolin Fortenbacher gehofft hatte. Die Handlung des Musicals ist recht dünn, aber egal. (Es geht um eine junge Frau kurz vor ihrer Hochzeit. Sie will unbedingt von ihrem Vater zum Altar geführt werden, weiß aber nicht, wer ihr Vater ist. Also schnüffelt sie im Tagebuch ihrer Mutter und lädt die 3 in Frage kommenden Kandidaten heimlich ein.)

In Hamburg war ein ziemliches Schnee-Chaos. Freitag hat es nur geschneit und in der Stadt schien kaum was geräumt zu sein, was die Fortbewegung zu Fuß und mit dem Auto nicht gerade erleichterte. Nach der Vorstellung mussten wir dann in der Kälte 25 Minuten auf den Bus warten, das war nicht so lustig. Samstag und Sonntag war der Schnee zwar noch da, aber es kam kein neuer dazu und die Sonne schien. Samstag waren wir dann im Steak-Haus essen. Ein Cousin meiner Mutter war mit seiner Frau als „Überraschungsgast“ da. (Es war nämlich quasi das Geburtstagsessen meiner Mutter.) Die beiden kannte ich bisher noch gar nicht und sie waren sehr nett. Leider konnten mein Onkel und meine Tante wegen des Schnees nicht kommen, aber sie kamen dafür am Sonntag. Da waren wir dann vor der Heimfahrt noch mal essen und ich bestellte dummerweise Fisch mit Senfsoße, was mir dann gar nicht geschmeckt hat, denn die Soße war direkt über allem verteilt und total scharf. Bäh.

Samstag Abend haben wir dann das Halbfinale von DSDS geguckt, zumindest teilweise. Tobias, den ich sonst immer genial finde, fand ich diesmal nicht so gut. Er sah blass aus und irgendwie überzeugte er mich nicht, obwohl die Lieder schon zu ihm passten (u.a. How you remind me von Nickelback und Here without you von Three Doors Down). Er ist aber trotzdem ins Finale gekommen, was er auch total verdient hat. Leider ist der 2. Finalist Mike geworden, den ich noch nie mochte. War aber irgendwie klar. Seine Freundin Vanessa ist demnach rausgeflogen, obwohl ich sie diesmal ziemlich gut fand. Aber die Kitsch-Ansprache bzw. Widmung von Mike an Vanessa vor You are so beautiful hat bei mir fast Brechreiz ausgelöst. Können die ihren Privat-Kram nicht aus der Sendung raus lassen?! Mein Tip für’s Finale: Mike wird gewinnen, obwohl er so scheiße ist!! Tobias macht hoffentlich trotzdem Karriere bzw. bekommt hoffentlich einen Plattenvertrag mit seiner Hammer-Stimme. Allerdings ist Elli, die Gewinnerin der vorherigen Staffel, die ich super fand, auch untergegangen. Sie war auch eher eine „Rockerin“ wie Tobias.

English version:
I was in Hamburg for 3 days and I saw the ABBA-Musical Mamma Mia, which was really good. Not the greatest story ever told, but it's the songs that matter and they are and always have been very good. The lady who played the main character was very good, although it wasn't the actress/singer I had hoped to see.

Unfortunately, the weather was awful. It snowed all day and night on Friday. If we hadn't had the tickets for the musical, I wouldn't have left the house all day. On the way home after the show, we had to wait for 25 minutes in the cold because the bus was late. On Saturday and Sunday, the snow was still there, but the sun was shining. I met one of my mother's cousins and his wife for lunch. They were both very nice. It was my mum's birthday lunch, sort of. My uncle and aunt couldn't come because of the weather conditions, but they came by on Sunday.

I also managed to watch a bit of the semi-final of the German version of American Idol. My favourite Tobias wasn't as good as usual, IMO, but he made it into the final anyway. I thought Vanessa, who was eliminated, was the best this time. But her awful boyfriend Mike became the other finalist. Grrr. My bet is he'll win the final. I hope Tobias still succeeds in making music his career cos he's so good. He sounds like the singer of Metallica, BTW. But he can do more than just hard rock with his brilliant voice. And he's such a down-to-earth guy, very nice.

Ja is’ denn schon April, oder was?!

Ich schreibe über’s Wetter, also hab ich wohl sonst nix zu sagen. Hätte ich schon, aber ich hab nicht viel Zeit. Aber das Wetter bietet sich auch sehr an, so wie sich das von einer Minute auf die andere ändert. Heute früh hat’s total geschneit. Da hab ich dann ganz umsonst die Einfahrt freigeschippt. Kurz nachdem ich losgefahren war (ins Büro), hörte es zum Glück auf. Und dann im Lauf des Tages haben sich Sonne und Schnee immer abgewechselt. Echt seltsam. Und wie im April eben. Zum Glück bleibt der Schnee nicht lang liegen. Wenn ich nicht jeden Tag 60 km hin und zurück zur Arbeit fahren müsste, wär’s mir wahrscheinlich auch egal, aber so fänd ich halt schon gut, wenn der Winter endlich mal vorbei wäre. Die Vögel zwitschern ja schon wieder, so dass man glauben könnte, der Frühling kommt bald, aber gestern kam dann sogar schon wieder Last Christmas im Radio, da denkt man dann er doch noch nicht an wärmere Temperaturen.

In English: The weather is going crazy and it feels like April. Today, we have snow coming down in big flakes one minute, and bright sunshine the next. I know, weather is boring, and if I didn’t have to drive 40 miles every day, I wouldn’t care so much either. I want it to be spring now! They even played Last Christmas on the radio yesterday, as a joke.

P.S. are there more formatting buttons available than there used to be? I don't remember seeing the text colour button or the one for deleting the text formatting. Huh.

Snow blogging, again

My guilty conscience is bugging me. When I got up today, my dad said there was too much snow and I should take the day off from work. I looked out the window. It had snowed all night and was continuing to snow, and it was windy, too. Hm.

The situation is not as bad here as in other parts of Germany, though, where there’s Katastrophenalarm, i.e. catastrophe/disaster alert, if you want the literal translation, or an emergency situation or whatever you call that. The administration had to announce that so they could call the Bundeswehr (federal army) to help shovel the huge amounts of snow off the roofs of buildings. Some have caved in already this winter, and in one case, people died because they were ice-skating in the place that broke down. People say we haven’t had this much snow for 40 years. And that’s what you call global warming, then?

As I said, other counties are worse off than we here, so I couldn’t decide whether to really stay home or go to work. So I wandered around the house for 10 minutes and then went back to bed. Of course, I was unable to fall asleep again, so I got up again about half an hour later. I called my boss at work, but as it was only 7.30 a.m., she wasn’t in yet. (I have to be there at 9 a.m., but she's there earlier normally.) I stayed up, went into the bathroom and had breakfast afterwards. The coffee I had made me feel hyperactive. I tried to reach my boss repeatedly and could finally get her on the phone at 9.15 a.m. She said it was okay that I stayed home, but she and my co-workers probably think it’s just an excuse so I can have a longer weekend. I don’t want them to think that. Damn.

To my defense, I should add that I felt pretty dizzy last night before I went to bed. I have low blood pressure and changes in the weather often have that effect. So it could happen again today. Earlier, when I talked to my boss, it had stopped snowing, but now it started again.

Another reason why I feel bad is that one of my co-workers lives in an area where they’ve had much more snow all week. She now comes to work by public transport and it takes her 2 hours for one way – twice as long as by car. So, shouldn’t I have gone by public transport, too? Well, the problem with that is that the bus route goes over a hill that is always a problem when the weather is bad. And no bus goes directly to the city where I work. I once went to work by public transport and took the train. But the train station is 6 km from here and that’s the worst part of my route cos it goes along b roads.

Blah. I feel like what I'm writing doesn't make much sense. I'll post it anyway, just because. Sigh.

Snow-blogging, part 2

Letzte Nacht kamen ca. 10 cm Schnee vom Himmel. Hatte ziemlich Schiss, mit dem Auto zur Arbeit zu fahren. Meine Eltern meinten, nur die ersten paar Meter wären schwierig, weil spätestens im Ortskern geräumt wäre. Haha, von wegen. Bis zur Autobahn war die Fahrbahn mehr oder weniger schneebedeckt, aber es ging besser zu fahren, als ich dachte, weil kein Eis drunter war. Nur einmal beim Abbiegen bin ich etwas aus der Spur gekommen und hätte fast einen von diesen schwarz-weißen Pfosten gerammt. Allerdings hab ich für die Strecke bis zur Autobahn, für die ich sonst 10 Minuten brauch, 40 min. gebraucht. Toll. Auch auf der Autobahn war erst mal 50 km/h das Höchste der Gefühle. Nach einigen Kilometern wurde es besser und man konnte wieder ganz normal 80-100 km/h fahren. Allerdings sieht mein Auto jetzt aus wie 'ne Dreckschleuder, weil die Fahrbahn total nass war und es tierisch gespritzt hat.

Insgesamt bin ich nur ca. 10 bis 15 min. zu spät ins Büro gekommen. Und jetzt scheint schon wieder die Sonne, d.h. es taut und der Schnee bzw. das Wasser plätschert vom Dach runter.

Ach ja, und es gab einen total seltsamen "Regenfleck". Sah aus wie ein Regenbogen, war aber nur punktuell am Himmel zu sehen. Hab ich noch nie vorher gesehen. Sah aber schön aus. Soweit mein "Schneebericht".

English summary: we had about 4 inches of snow last night so it took me about twice as long as usual to drive to work. But it wasn't that bad, no ice on the streets or so. Sun's out, so the snow's melting away already.
Oh, and, no, I'm not gonna post a snow report every single time it snows. At least I don't think I will, but who knows. You have been warned.

First snow!

The title says it all, more or less. We've had the first snowfall of the year this afternoon. It looks pretty, all the trees outside are covered in white. I'm still at work. Don't know if it snowed where I live, too (about 30 km/20 miles away), but I think so. Hope I'll get home safely. My car has Winterreifen (tires for winter) already, but you never know.