Easter weekend in Bodenheim

A four day weekend just ended here in Germany and everyone returns to work a bit sluggishly today, looking forward with anticipation to the month of May, when the Catholic church (at least here in Bavaria), rewards us with a bunch of (usually) Wednesdays or Thursdays off. The weather is not helping the malaise, as the sky makes a last attempt to spit out the remaining nastiness on us before hopefully realizing that we deserve better. Now. Shall I say that again?!?!?

Nonetheless, if you put on your rose coloured glasses (more like your rose coloured ski parka), you can ignore the frigid temperatures and enjoy the nice sunshine we had as we strolled through the vineyards of Bodenheim on Sunday afternoon with our niece Victoria snuggled away in her baby carriage and even roosters busy cockadoodledoing.





Victoria was baptized on Monday morning (Victoria Katharina Schimanski) along with two other babies during the course of a family service, which involved much snapping of fingers, clapping of hands, singing (me listening..as I do not know any of these German psalms..), and acting like you are a little seedling that grows up with lots of rain and sunshine (acted out by the congregation out there...). I was thinking Saul and Theo would definitely have liked getting up there in front of everyone and growing from seeds into plants...

While we were in Bodenheim, we stayed at a cute little vineyard that produces ...I don't know..a hundred different wines. A nice family owns and runs the whole operation, and the first evening we were there, Hans, Dorothee and I took advantage of the opportunity to sit in their cosy kitchen room and taste a dozen before we went to sleep. Andreas and I ended up buying a couple mixed cases - the vineyard makes a really stellar Riesling, and a Chardonnay that is not bad. The surrounding village must be totally gorgeous in the summer and fall harvest season. Quaint and lovely. We will have to go back in a few months.

Just came across this little YouTube ad for Beringer Vineyards in Napa Valley. Beautifully done. :-)

Money

Ok, I am distressed. But I have a solution.

I am distressed because of this:
Amsterdam currency exchangers won't take US dollars
Currency exchange outlets in Amsterdam won't to trade US dollars for euros because the value of the dollar is dropping so quickly they're afraid of losing money, even with the outlandish vigorish the sleazy little joints usually tack on.

The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office."


and thankfully, I have a solution because of this:
How to make fake gold bars
Now that the economy is collapsing, investors are becoming more interested in gold. Here's an item from PopSci that says it wouldn't be too difficult to make convincing fake gold bars out of gold-plated tungsten (which costs $30 a pound compared to $12,000 a pound for gold).

"start with a tungsten slug about 1/8-inch smaller in each dimension than the gold bar you want, then cast a 1/16-inch layer of real pure gold all around it. This bar would feel right in the hand, it would have a dead ring when knocked as gold should, it would test right chemically, it would weigh *exactly* the right amount, and though I don't know this for sure, I think it would also pass an x-ray fluorescence scan, the 1/16" layer of pure gold being enough to stop the x-rays from reaching any tungsten. You'd pretty much have to drill it to find out it's fake."

Want one...

...but kitties would be too jealous i think.
Andreas says Myhase goes before this guy shows up. :-)
Am discussing with office colleagues...maybe we'll pool money to get one wandering around the office...
Sophie sounds a little bit like the dinosaur....when she's happy.



www.pleoworld.com

Quick Pics

Having a lovely time here in the UK...
Two nights ago went to a pub with the guys I am working with at the moment after work. There are Nick, David and Ralf. Bunch of David's friends from "outside work" and Nick's girlfriend joined us as well. They all went to see a movie afterward, but I was afraid I'd be dead tired the next day and begged out - would have gotten back to my little room after midnight most likely....

Last night ended up near Picadilly Circus with a colleague from the German office who is working on another project here in London. He wanted to eat Chinese food in China town but didn't know where to go. So I walked up to a Chinese woman on the street and asked for a recommendation. And...she gave us a great recommendation. The waiters there suggested a really yummy dish of eel in a honey and black pepper sauce.

Finally, a shot of the tube this morning, which was a TRIAL. It took me 1.5 hours to get to work, which was ridiculous. I had to wait for about 5 trains to go by before I could get on one that wasn't full!!! wow. London is a beehive in the morning and evening during rush hour. You can barely move, but somehow everything seems to be a well-coordinated system (when it doesn't break down) of streams of people buzzing their way to and from work...

Deja (%&$$%#§"$) Vu

Yesterday, on the way to London. I thought that last week was trying on my patience with all the bumping from one flight to the next and then sitting around the airport for 5 hours. Ha.

This time:
In taxi on way to airport, collegue also headed to London on an earlier flight calls to tell me first 1) his flight is cancelled, then 2) my flight is delayed and then....during course of conversation, 3) my flight is cancelled. Great.

Got to airport, got on next available flight scheduled for two hours later.

Went to lounge to work. (Remember the lounge? If not...just look at last blog. Imagine me sitting there...again.)

Next (new) flight delayed...and delayed....and delayed. (Weather in London yesterday was horrific - lots of flights cancelled and delayed all day.

Finally, got on a flight around 3 pm that actually left the ground.

As we were landing, plane was shaking so badly that pilot decided it was too dangerous to land and pulled the nose back up and let us circle for another 30 minutes until storm calmed down.

Finally down on the ground at around 4 pm. Account Manager decided to have me fly to Heathrow in order to save some money (rather than the more optimally placed London City Airport). Which meant a minimum 1.5 hour commute into work. I called the office and asked the team if they still wanted me to come in. Answer: don't bother.

Oh well. Today is more productive. And as one of my favourite bloggers writes a week ago: Travelling is Fun. ;-)

Lovely photos from the London Tube as I was tubing into Victoria station. You get an idea of how great the weather was. Munich, on the other hand, was gorgeous yesterday.

Strike!!!

Well, I can't say I wasn't warned....

A huge union here in Germany, Verdi, which I guess most airport personnel belong to, as well as various public transportation employee groups (train drivers, bus drivers, etc.), has been battling it out on wage issues and declared that they would strike this week - likely on Wednesday. Andreas heard it on the radio on Monday morning.

And today is Wednesday. And I am flying to Duesseldorf today. So I dutifully changed my flight the first time last night when I heard my 8:50 am flight was cancelled. And I checked the airport website before leaving this morning for my 10:35 am flight. I got to the airport and was met with the bitter news that my second flight had been cancelled.

Got in line to find out options, calling travel agency while I waited. Travel agency put me on another airline for a 12:05 flight. I left the line, went to terminal 1 to jump on that flight. On the way, passed lots of strikers marching around airport blowing whistles...


Got to next airline to check in. Waited in line. Was told at the front that next airline had cancelled thier 12:05 flight. Called travel agent. Rebooked for a 15:05 flight. Actually have a boarding pass in my hand. Am now working in airport lounge and crossing fingers that I will be able to get on an airplane later.

Update later if I get bumped again. Probably will just go home.

But I am getting a lot done at the nice quiet airport lounge, so this is really not so bad. Maybe I should come work here every day....

Cerebration 2008

I've been giving pointers to one of the NUS teams that have been competing in this year's Cerebration contest (National University of Singapore's Business Case competition, the world's largest business school case competition...).

And they just made the finals. :-)
I got the announcement from one of the organizers on Facebook last night.

Off to Singapore the last week of March to watch? ....Am thinking about it....maybe NUS will sponsor a plane ticket....