Are You Still A Student?

As I lost part of a tooth biting on something hard I needed to see my dentist.

She´s always super-careful and explains everything. Still it´s a horror for me.

As you can guess... I was nearly 15 minutes early and the fella who was in overdid some 30 minutes, so I had to wait nearly 45 minutes, bu-huu!
Whilst I read about how a midwife´s job was like in the 50s in London the girl opposite me took 7 selfies. What?!

When I finally was in my dentist had a look, hesitated and asked me, "are you still a student?". Again, what?!

My stupid answer: "I am 45!" But on the way home I thought, yes, I kinda am a student indeed, a failing one :-(

She asked cause she wants to make a crown and in white it´s some €200 I´ll have to add privately (will ask if it´s covered by boss).

April 10th at noon at the O.K. Corral - I know, that was 03:00 in the original but I kinda hope to get out of this fight against my fear with a strong mind. Instead of a mind-meld I hope for analgesic, too. And yes, here the showdown was 05:00 - I had a DVD-Star Trek-session last night, always a good excuse for finding out details.

Ingo had to stay another day/night but will be released around lunch-time.

Job-wise... no one contacted me, boss could not reach anyone, either. Is that how you treat people...
Or students, for that matter.
Which we are, for a lifetime anyways, right :-)

April Before April

From summer-weather we´re back to icky weather.
Usually we say "April has it´s will", meaning the weather changes from good to bad quickly - we´re a tad early to the rule.

Name-Sis asked via e-mail if we wanna do lunch together... best lasagna ever!
Will have the rest this supper.
Forgot to ask about her Bro (in Mackay)!
Holy-Moly.

I´ll never forget how in 1995 we passed the Christmas-scene 1974 in Darwin with cyclone Tracy.
The furniture, more of 50´s style.

The lille room with a warning - if you´re a witness, are pregnant, heart-failure... stop!

Pitch-dark you hear original recordings of what Tracy did. If not for Ingo being there, knowing it´s "just" recordings, I´d panicked.
Plain awful.
You certainly saw the outcome on pictures before.

1999 we did it again.
It was still awful!

How could I forget to ask how her Bro in Mackay ... how?

Volkswagen turned it´s mind, likely I have no app today.
I´m so sick of that attitude that externals are "just resources".
I am a human being!
I had hopes!

Not loosing track it was only 25 minutes to the hospital btw, awww... have a look:

I found Ingo well and eager to get up, his room-mate turned out to be a very nice person, too (cancer, how dare you pick on people!!!).
Maybe Ingo´ll be off by lunch-time even!

Weather not as bad as predicted, will learn if I have an appointment today or not.
April, April, I fool you :-(
Playing with people´s hopes is mean, in my eyes.
But who knows what it´ll be good for.
Politics sure scare me off these days, leaving really does come to mind...
I wonder... Refugees and Europe/Germany... is it still in the world´s news at all? BREXIT and that?

Home Alone

My name is not Kevin and hence I really do not enjoy being home alone.
Ha-ha, an old joke between "ex-"teamleader and I, who reported girlfriend shows no response anymore, he has no idea if she registers his visits.
Like with Mum back then. It´s hard.

Great to see kids play outside with chalk again!

The weather here has been superb (I´m a tad late, rainy today!).
And Ingo seems to be strong as a lion!

The link to water is there, too.
We nearly lost our car due to heavy rain in Eungella NP, we had a hole in the tank ´but a mechanic in Mackay fixed it for just 100 bucks.
My name-sister´s brother lives in Mackay. Haven´t seen her, no idea how he´s doing, if the cyclone got his home.

The world is such a small place, huh?

And summer is just around the corner.

The condo feels odd again, being by myself at night...

Cross Your Fingers For Ingo And To Be Honest ...

It´s tough times atm, Ingo has an operation today, the broken belly-button needs a fix.

Hopefully all goes well!

To be honest... I´m a bit afraid as I don´t know that hospital. Good thing is it´s not Salzdahlumer!

Yes, to be honest...
... those who know me in person know I cannot lie.
Because I just can´t.

The boss of one partner-company I saw yesterday can´t either.

It must´ve been quite a picture. A huge guy with wild, long white hair, beard, dark bandana, black leather-clothes, helmet to that fat motorbike outside in front of the castle on the table and, well, me. Inside the castle.
A woman added herself to the scene and he opened straight away with to be honest, I never thought this would work, so many companies at one table. But with CGS it´s always very quick and easy.

You´re welcome :-)
(Friday morning he asked for help et voilà, here I am come Monday morning)

I told straight away I only made 57,5% aka failed the certificate by two questions and am a newbie.
He said, well, there is one of your colleagues in the project, too, and when he saw my face mentioning the name he asked me straight away if I have a problem with that person, he´s talking way too much, huh.
Managed NOT to say, if it was only that! and both said they will make sure we sit in different places, if VW agrees to me.

Really. It´s not me, otherwise there wouldn´t be so much understanding, right?
And being honest was the right thing, too. We "clicked" that way.

So... maaaaybe there is a chance I´m in the project. Would be Wolfsburg and VW again, but they aim to get us all to the castle.
Which is the next village, now that would be great! Not as great as now but 100% better than Wolfsburg! Working hours as you like once you´re fully in the project, not depending on others (early bird, early bird!!! Much more worth than money to me, esp since Ingo has same work-hours, more or less).

Well. Off to work now. From now on in about two hours: Fingers and toes are crossed the docs do a good job on Ingo! A perfect job.

Then off to boss and let him know it makes no sense to put a total newbie to that seminar/test, even the partner-company-boss saw it that way.

Oh, holy cow.
If it all works out I´d sit with the developers, not the testers - reckon that´s quite a chance, too, so in the end I would even have to thank ### ;-)

And a female colleague cheered, there is KFC right around the corner!
Well. Carrots, I love you and add a pickled egg, too! :-)

Over the weekend we switched to summer-time. Feels like 04:07, actually, brrr, let´s stay in summer-time, this switching makes no sense.
Lost part of a tooth, too, ahhhh, dentist-time :-(

The Sun May Come

How cool is this bag I found at Karstadt - a shop I actually do not like but boss gives us vouches for this place as birthday-pressies, so... "Braunschweig - my city - home - love".

The best bag ever (for me). No more "where do I put the darn phone when I don´t need a (big) bag"!

Certainly I could not resist this:

You know me...

What places would have to go for a proper Perth-bag/cloth, any suggestions?

We Are Prepared

Saw this fella on the way back from the hardware store.

Well. We... or rather Ingo - got into action!

OK, no. Ingo got the proper tool in said hardware store for our Kärcher cause... spring is on the way, the balcony needed a serious clean-up! Moss everywhere, and dirt:

Over an hour Ingo annoyed the neighbours but now the balcony looks good again.
In a couple of weeks we´ll go to the nursery to get flowers, the good half of the year is just around the corner!

First BBQ.... well, first BBQ in Germany this year!

One thing I love: coal-BBQ - tastes different to gas, better.

Was still a bit cold, none the less we´ll repeat this today!

With two jackets on top on my side it was OK.

ATM btw I cannot buy trousers in the kid´s section. "Skinny jeans" and jeans with holes is all I found! SO 80´s!
Had to go the the women´s place to get a "serious" jeans.

Really. When the 70´s came back I loved it, but the 80´s... not so much. Clothes-wise that was an awful decade, at least to me.
How about you?

It´s A Can, Right?

Yesterday at work colleagues were very supportive concerning the certification.
My name-sister said she´d cried or screamed of frustration for sure and it would be odd if I didn´t.
She really suggested I do that, but... weee...
H told me of his failing, his sister´s failing and stressed, too, I missed it by "just" two questions and for being a total newbie that´s pretty good still.

Well. I sure felt like crying.

Esp when I heard I´ll have to redo the test. Now that I know what awaits me it´s even worse?
I agreed on the condition that I get real practice and bahm!...

H said there is a request indeed, Monday I have a date.
Also thanks to us being in a group.

You think, yayyyy?

Nope.
It´s not Jubula but the HP-product I was so disappointed of.
And... likely with ###.

Said to H I cannot work with ###. He saw me nearly into tears, I kid you not, it´s a tad too much atm.

Not surprisingly, though, he understood.
Asked if I communicated it - yes - if boss knows - no.
Still I am supposed to meet the new maybe-job-boss but we agreed if in one team with ### it´s a no.

First pic... For my birthday I got a voucher and very spontanously thought after work shopping would make me happier - the luxury of working at CGS - it´s in the heart of the city!

Got that decoration roller (amongst other stuff).

Cause...

Let´s see what Monday brings.

The partner-company we got via i3systems, ITUC developed parts of software for the New Yorker tube, Airbus A380..., sounds interesting, the boss presents himself very casual.
No idea what to think about it. Cool, not cool, a chance, not a chance...
See pic, comes in a can, not in a can´t.
In.. I gave it a go.

Thanks to Ingo taking me to the hardware store my stat was 257%, 26319 steps, 18,0 km and some 2184 burned.

Happy weekend? (can I "forget" my work-life?)

PS..."Carnarvon Fresh Produce" were stickers on our mangos from our grocery-guys in Kingsway.
And I have very fond memories of Carnarvon, too...
If you go fishing at Pelican Point please let me know if the bin is still there, caused me two gags a day ;-)

Time Forms

This is what I found under the "billiard-table".

What... ???

I still picture the scene like it was yesterday.
I was in my old hometown watching Bro doing ten (!) saumersaults in a row (!!) on the horizontal bar, joining the Christmas-artistic gymnastics.
Without having practised for a looong time, too (his arms fell off afterwards, but he proved he still can do it)!

Christmas-time, right?
At the exit was a table with goodies and I had a closer look.
The man giving them away looked generously at me and said, "you take one, too", like saying, I know you´re not really a kiddy anymore, but it´s Christmas-time, so... enjoy.

My "lille" Bro was right beside me.
He got nothing. (He looked older than me even back then)

You sure can guess there was a lot of teasing from my side!

The bouncing ball made sounds and blinked, it was kinda special.

That was 1998 or 1999.

I kept it all the time, thinking of these moments.
And eventually forgot all about it, too...

10 somersaults without practice on Bro´s side and I pass as nearly kid at age 26/27!

Well. The battery gave up eventually and luckily the ball didn´t explode or anything.

Time forms us all, thing or living being... Off to recycling the first, the thing, goes now. Or... does it?
The typical smell of a school gym is right back, the memories...
Isn´t it a gem after all?

Do you know what I mean?
Guess I keep it for a while still...

Coping With Failure

6 real big chapters, 3 days, no rest, test.

Everybody knows the material but me.

I failed.

It wasn´t that I didn´t learn, I did, hard.
But my stupid brain needs a day or two to "internalize" the stuff.

6 big chapters with all new definitions - the trainer repeating, you know this, you´ve done this... and everybody nodding in approval - but me :-( - first time I hear it!

All.New.Terms.
6 Chapters.
Not.Really.Logic.

And Ingo tells me I am too stupid.

Hurts.So.Much. (he´s never been there)

....

No idea if O, who knew a bit about the subject, made it, don´t care about ###.
I failed.
I failed!!!

If I was Swiss: 74%, all good. The German version - talked to three others, they agreed: MUCH harder.
I failed.

I spare you details, a note just for me: energy, math, shower, stupitity on my side. Tears and heaps of disappointment on both sides, too. Isn´t your partner supposed to comfort you, even if he thinks you failed rightfully (not knowing the subject, too!)?

No hug of "I´m with ya" or such.
He´s not with me.

I´m disappointed of... my brain?
No.
Some things are easy now - now that my brain had time to process - the things the others worked with since months or years and I still only know in theory...

Was--till now in steps:
5-days-seminar.
3-days+weekend+test-seminar.
3-days+test-seminar.

Only newbe: me.

And Ingo says it´s my fault, my stupidity.
First time in my adult life I failed and yes - 16 years in the same job (till end Jan).

My heart hurts.
Will go to boss and let him know. He may draw a pic himself.

It´s not even important if "certified" is for Germany only.
One hard week of that, one week of guessing, one day of disappointment, I´m done.

I´m learning Jubula now.
By myself and with A´s help from around the corner, not here and if needed.

Ingo... not sleeping in bed. No one to lean on to.
My "diary" and yes. I yelled at him he should be there for me. He wished me...

Long post. I don´t expect anyone reading still along.

Neighbours (I hear them talking loudly) now know I´m a stupid ###.

I´m so disappointed of it all, organisation... "partner"....

I´d like to say I stay positive. But that´s not true right now, whimp out.

Birds, Birds, Birds... Or...

The Early Birds And The Early Bird And The Summer Bird...

We´re rather the so-called early birds. I get up 04:40 - as I did when driving to Wolfsburg. I could get up later but would collide with Ingo.

I don´t mind, I surf a bit and take off BY FOOT to work 05:45 (before it was 05:12).

Iris K gets up early, too.
Then has like yesterday 4 cuppa tea, does the dishes, washing machine... and turns up after a 30-minutes drive sometimes around 08:30 - crazy!
I do that stuff AFTER work.
Yesterday she was esp late and didn´t even have time to have brekkie at home.

So she looked up online what´s on offer at Schnittchen and came to the office with a bacon-egg-roll (why. Why "Bacon-Ei"?! "Kaffee to go" :-(...)

She was hmmmm-ing and ahhh-ing so much I put on winter-clothes and ran for one before the offer was out, so I could have one for dinner.

You ask why the bag is so "crumbled"?
Certainly the roll screamed at me, "try me! Try me NOOOOW!!!" and so I obeyed, certainly!
I mean... what else can you do, right?

Y.U.M.

For lunch we had mangold with mustard-sauce and potatos - a first for me with the mangold and also so yum!

Not all about yum - A from partner-company Bredex (they developed Jubula - if you read/use it... developed in Braunschweig!) helped me heaps revealing the tutorial is called "cheat-sheet" - LOL!

Never heard of that but could certainly guess what a cheat-sheet is, having used some esp in history class back then ;-)

I don´t cheat (anymore), I do learn, right? RIGHT? Now that I´m an "adult" in "real life".

So far I think Jubula is really powerful, I finally seem to have a real, good goal - and friendly, quick help from A.

Who seems to be some gal having been spotted by Iris K today in a summer-dress - morno was 1C, day-temp 13.
I´m old??? Who cares, right? :-)
Life is good atm again, work-/learn-wise.

Happy And Sad

When I went to ALDI yesterday I was much surprised Tom Tasty is available already!
Gotta e-mail ex-teamleader! Oh, and teamleader, too, we´re all big fans.

What made me sad...
Tom was 2,59.
I gave the checkout girl 59 cents. And a 5-euro-bill afterwards.

She hesitated and had a look at the register before giving me 3 euros back.
Sadly, I kid you not. She was in her end 30´s, I reckon.

Happy made me this yesterday: I e-mailed someone at a now partner-company and it was all informal and easy!
A even offered to come over and give me an introduction - I´ll have to find out what the conditions are, but I´m really proud our company now belongs to an IT-group.

Sad made me lunch time. Egg-rice without egg is somewhat disappointing, no?
But Iris K gobbled the other half down so I had no waste and nothing to take home to microwave and force in.

Spring takes a break, I guess. Weather rather miserable.

Tom Tasty is back - yummo!

Culinary Time-Warp

Yesterday for lunch we went to Brodocz, green beans with "potato-balls" was on offer.
Hmmm, what´s a potato-ball we wondered, Rösti maybe?

Iris K and I braved up to find out.
Nope, no Rösti.
But my dear Granma was back in an instant!
When she had left-over mashed potatos the next day she would fry it in the pan.
Yummo. Have you ever tried it?

After lunch I finally got the sign I ordered for Bro:

"At last be able to poop without interruptions", LOL.
I can´t remember, though, to have ever disturbed my parents in this way?

I later brought my lunch-leftovers home and made my way to the bakery.

I am to say Hi to Ingo, the lady there told me after asking (like really asking and wanting to know) how I am.
Did I ever mention? Village? :-)

Clichè

Ingo found this amongst the ads, "the modern housewife".
I would´ve thrown it in the paper-bin without giving it a chance, not so my modern house...ummm...

See. I had three teamleaders (well four all in all), each of them telling me at some point "I´m no woman", meaning I´m not a sissy, always as a compliment, I live in a men´s world since 16 years, I don´t know anything different and I guess I´m happy with it, too? No idea.

We browsed through "the modern housewife" and found some real great stuff!
So, I e-mailed Teamleader (girlfriend getting more tired now. I have to keep track of it, it´s so sad, but some day I wanna be able to look back and remember how long "leaving" might take), well, I e-mailed him the link with a proper explanation and he told me, heyyyy, I found something great for my son!

Men, women... we´re humans, right?
There are some peeps serving clichés, but actually... we´re one, no?
Yes. And if brave enough we also all go as a modern housewife.

Cool stuff, really, have a look!

Autumn Or Spring?

Saturday was awesome.
Truly.
We slept in, had a quick brekkie and went to the city.

You know how I love sleeping in with Ingo?
Bliss...

My, the wind was strong, do we have autumn already?!

It was plain crazy, I kid you not!

Ingo chatted endlessly with a nice, Polish saleswoman, she sure took her time, telling us how much she loves working here in Braunschweig - shoot, next time I take pics to show you why!
As in Perth old and new combined beautifully.

We shared a Currywurst at Schadts and A was very nice again, too.
It´s a village, I tell ya! :-)

Sadly I got so frustrated later.
The sheer thought of having failed in this stupid test made me so grumpy, so tense, that it needed just a few words from Ingo´s side and I lost it.

Today... rainy.
I slept in, totally exhausted.

I should be so lucky, my boss keeping me, but I feel so useless.
Waiting for the test-result.
In IT!!!

Trying not to end in a negative way... It´s sometimes so easy to deliver a clever thing, huh?

Ingo didn´t want to sit down, being afraid he´d had to order something, but you get the picture - clever.
Let´s hope that went for me, too. I feel sick thinking of it and this time it was me ruining it all for the rest of the weekend :-(

Some Poor Trainee - A Great Company

Yesterday morning I hopped on my pushbike and drove to work. Cause in the arvo we had our quarterly meet-up in Wenden, some 11 km one way.
At the narrow path a woman was walking her huge dog, she saw my light on the building, stopped, took her dog close to her and smiled at me.
I shouted "thanks very much!", smiling back and thought, wee, this is gonna be a great day!

Got off the bike and... no bike lock!
So. I drove home, got the lock and was 10 minutes late, d'oh!

Later colleagues laughed and said, why didn´t you bring it up in the lift?!
Yah, why didn´t I?!

Iris K then said, look, it´s raining. How about I take you with the car?

So, later when the rain had stopped I brought the bike home - into the cellar for good, living room is much spacier again - and, tadaaa, she picked me up and I got the pleasure of being chauffeured.

3 collegues went by push-bike, were late and said, weee, that was tough, so windy!

When we got into the seminar-room everybody had, see pic above on his table.

At first I thought, oh, my, how nice, but did a poor trainee have to write that 40+ times?!

What a relief, but takes away the charming character, a bit, too, no?

Wee. Week done.
Was a tough one.
Talked to H and we decided in which direction I build up knowledge from Monday on. He reassured me boss will keep me, some peeps are in the office "for training" aka not earning money for the company for 12 months+ even!

He´ll organize a mini-project for me to train testing, guess I really got a wonderful company/boss.

The more I was astonished we need "trusted third parties" and stuff. I don´t!
Iris K said loudly, I go to the boss, ask if he has a minute, he usually has, and so far I always came out alive, too - she could be my twin, huh?

Off to the city, still not knowing what to have for lunch in the land of no pies.

It´s Tea Time

Thanks to that super-stressy week I´m like really behind, these pics are a week old now. Doesn´t matter, right? :-)

We went to Zea last Friday and found this sign on the table:

It´s rather cold, so a tea is a good idea, huh?
With Jägermeister it´s an even better idea to share one, right?

Surprise!!!

Very yummy. But... cold!
Care for the receipe, let me know, it was yummy and maybe a joy on a hot day.

This was much better, though:

The test btw... hard. Talked to three others, they said waaay more difficult than the Swiss one.
Gah. I sure do hope I made it...
Being German really sucks at times!

End of a very stressy week?
Ha. No.
Company meeting tonight. Only good thing I meet team-leader in person. Who wrote it´s hard to write without thumbs (he crossed for success). Status on his side: No change.