it's big...
...and stupidly hard too
ok, enough with the euphamisms!
i'm actually talking about the project i'm working on. after asking if i could be let home early and the start of last week, i didn't see much point in being here because the training was taking forever and all that type of thing. i got sent to the offices in wangen and skipped the last 2 days of training. on the first day in the office i got given a nice little project that was worth around €30k, piece of cake and i sorted it in about 2 hours and sent it off...nice and easy. that afternoon i was handed the second project, a UK project, something a bit special! i've been working on it ever since...it's currently on €400k for my half of it, the fume cupboards half that my mentor (now to be termed my mental, because she is) was around the €200k mark, so in total this project is over €600k...easy maths, but i thought i'd spell it out for you anyway... ;) (hence the big)
and everything in it is special, there are so few standard items in it it's getting silly. special items take a little longer to set up, but once they are in the system, they can be accessed easily enough, the only trouble is everytime i need something, it's a little different to something i've already got and therefore i have to create another special...(hence the hard)
other stuff...
it's pretty quiet at the moment, it's too bloody hot though and i've been melting in the offices, so i've been swimming a lot with french.
spanish has been out of my way most of the week, mostly due to the fact that he's in a different part of the building at the moment...lol...where i've been doing this big project, his first was for 2 under bench units and 2 taps...worth probably €500 at most! i'd be surprised if it was much more than half that to be honest...that made me chuckle to think that i've been given something so big, while "mr experience" gets the smallest projects!
looking forward to coming home this weekend
went to munich last weekend, found a beer garden, hofbrauhaus, very nice, serving beer in litre glasses, of course i had to swipe one :D had a couple of beers there. we started randomly chatting to these two women who were on our table, that was cool, it meant we got to learn a bit more about munich and where to go and where not to go, spanish was like a dog in heat though and well up for it with both of them...but they seemed less and less interested in him, again i had to play interpreter some of the time...anyway i digress...there was an oompah band and everything in this place and it was huge...woja, you need to go there, seriously, you'd hardly believe the size of this pub!!!
well i guess i'd best get back to work, although i've got half hour left of my lunch break, i want to get some more done on this project
laters peeps
Px
Wednesday 29 June 2005
Tuesday 21 June 2005
what a lovely pair
of mountains
ok it's been a week, i've been slack, i'm sorry, i've not even written anything on the laptop this week...how bad is that?
lemme see what i can remember though
wendesday-friday training was good
friday after work, we finished at noon, we piles in the waldner wagon and headed for Lindau and Bergenz, the latter being in Austria. in Bergenz we sat by the lake, had a look at some big red stage and then went up Pfänder mountian. after strolling around up there we headed for Lindau, Lindau was very cool, it looked like a bit of a money town, and we went onto the island half ot the town and there, sat outside a hotel in all it's glory was my dream car, a dodge viper rt10, and no that's not one of the new ones that start burning because the exhaust runs under the door sill...Lindau was cracking to look around though and it seemed a different pace of life.
Saturday i went swimming in the morning with french, we had only intended to do 2000m, but i got bored and started to swim at my own pace and i'd done my 2000 by the time french had done his 1600, so i carried on and ended up doing 2500 in the same time it took him to do 2000...oh well! in the afternoon, spanish wanted to go to ulm to do the tourist thing, but it was crap and it was like looking around reading...i got bored really quickly and wanted to leave. he got us lost on the way there, even though i had tried to tell him him which way he should go, but he wouldn't listen, we headed straight though ulm and had to try and navigate our way back into the town. on the way out he had us heading for stuttgart, which is the wrong direction...he went that way for about 20 minutes, i tried to help, but he wasn't having any of it so i sat in the back and plugged myself into the MP3 player... saturday night we got drunk and we started chatting to a german girl and her czech mate, spanish was on the pull with the czech girl, but she didn't speak spanish or english, so the german girl was translating for her while i translated for spanish...great fun...but he didn't get anywhere...lol
sunday was a little more interesting, we went to Hündle and up the mountain there and had a go on the toboggan run thing that was there...it was cool
yestreday i was fed up though
anyway, back to work
of mountains
ok it's been a week, i've been slack, i'm sorry, i've not even written anything on the laptop this week...how bad is that?
lemme see what i can remember though
wendesday-friday training was good
friday after work, we finished at noon, we piles in the waldner wagon and headed for Lindau and Bergenz, the latter being in Austria. in Bergenz we sat by the lake, had a look at some big red stage and then went up Pfänder mountian. after strolling around up there we headed for Lindau, Lindau was very cool, it looked like a bit of a money town, and we went onto the island half ot the town and there, sat outside a hotel in all it's glory was my dream car, a dodge viper rt10, and no that's not one of the new ones that start burning because the exhaust runs under the door sill...Lindau was cracking to look around though and it seemed a different pace of life.
Saturday i went swimming in the morning with french, we had only intended to do 2000m, but i got bored and started to swim at my own pace and i'd done my 2000 by the time french had done his 1600, so i carried on and ended up doing 2500 in the same time it took him to do 2000...oh well! in the afternoon, spanish wanted to go to ulm to do the tourist thing, but it was crap and it was like looking around reading...i got bored really quickly and wanted to leave. he got us lost on the way there, even though i had tried to tell him him which way he should go, but he wouldn't listen, we headed straight though ulm and had to try and navigate our way back into the town. on the way out he had us heading for stuttgart, which is the wrong direction...he went that way for about 20 minutes, i tried to help, but he wasn't having any of it so i sat in the back and plugged myself into the MP3 player... saturday night we got drunk and we started chatting to a german girl and her czech mate, spanish was on the pull with the czech girl, but she didn't speak spanish or english, so the german girl was translating for her while i translated for spanish...great fun...but he didn't get anywhere...lol
sunday was a little more interesting, we went to Hündle and up the mountain there and had a go on the toboggan run thing that was there...it was cool
yestreday i was fed up though
anyway, back to work
Wednesday 15 June 2005
14/6/5
I’ve taken to writing this on my laptop at the end of the day and then ferrying it in to work and updating it from the memory key thing I’ve got, think it’s easier that way.
Right, well today has been the first day that I’ve actually felt ok about the stuff we’re doing, bit of a rocky start, the godfather, so called because he looks like a Mafioso was supposed to give us 2 hours of training this morning, but it only lasted 1¼… typical! But when the next training started it ran all day so that was ok. We actually did a full day’s work today!!!
We started working on the KalkMC6 program and the VMS as well, apparently we won’t be doing much on the VMS, but it’s useful to know, according to the woman taking our training anyway! And I actually enjoyed it and I was able to get on with the stuff without having to worry about it. Spanish cocked up right from the start and instead of using the training number that we were shown to use he put an offer through on Waldner France’s thingy…genius! So me and French had to wait for him to redo it in the proper section… what a muppet!
Anyway after lunch we went into the KalkMC6 program to start learning how to put estimates together, and it was fairly easy, French had a problem because parts of his program were coming up in German, but that’ll all be sorted by tomorrow the woman said…we’ll see! Spanish kept over complicating things and asking loads of questions…meanwhile I was doing all the work that had been set as exercises for us to do and when he’d finished asking questions about side panels I’d done about half the work set and he’d only done the first question, still he covered well by asking more inane questions while I sat there and emailed chunk, Luton lass, daisy and various other people as well…still it was a better day than I’ve had so far and the woman taking the session had much more enthusiasm and energy than the other people who’ve taken our sessions so far, I think that helped too.
Like I said we did pretty much a whole day today so when we did make it home I wanted to just sit and chill, but some muppet came out without a key, now Spanish has got one, and the other is usually hidden outside so we can all get in, but someone had used the key and not put it back and Spanish didn’t have his key on him! So I waited while they went and explained that we couldn’t get in to the people who own the house, bearing in mind that neither of these two speak German and the owners don’t speak anything but German…still after a couple of minutes we got in the house and now I’m just chilling and keeping away from them a little bit…being with them non-stop is starting to get to me a little, funny that!
The weather has been pretty changeable again, there was another thunder storm last night, but I’d only just gone to bed so this one didn’t wake me up, and then at lunchtime it was really sunny, but now it’s trying to rain again…it’s almost like being at home J
Why is belly button fluff always either grey or blue? Why isn’t there ever any red or yellow or green? Someone told me it related to the colour of the clothes you’ve been wearing…well I’ve had a black t-shirt on all day and the fluff was light grey…and I had a shower last night so that’s not it either…dodgy stuff huh?
Feeling pretty good today, managed to get a fair amount off my chest with the last blog I guess and mixed with the good day I’ve had it’s making for a better mood. I feel like going out for food tonight, but I think the other 2 want to cook, that’s fine, but all we’ve got in is meat and either rice, pasta or chips…no other veggies at all and I’d like to go out as I’ve had a good day and I want a beer, might ask them what they think about it in a minute…
The flies are still here, but I can’t be bothered to kill any today, I think I’ve only seen one anyway so it’s not really causing a problem, not like the swarm that was around yesterday! Or them bloody ants…there are still some casualties of the war on the table heh heh!
Well, I got the boys to go out for dinner so I could have a beer, it was really good actually! We went to a place in town that served chicken, really good chicken, it was fucking superb! For chunk, it was opposite Moritz, but I can’t remember what the hell it was called. We each had half a chicken which looked like it’d been deep fried, and chips…and of course a hefeweizen just to wash if down with J
Tonight I go to bed a satisfied man…well, partially satisfied ;)
laters peeps
Px
I’ve taken to writing this on my laptop at the end of the day and then ferrying it in to work and updating it from the memory key thing I’ve got, think it’s easier that way.
Right, well today has been the first day that I’ve actually felt ok about the stuff we’re doing, bit of a rocky start, the godfather, so called because he looks like a Mafioso was supposed to give us 2 hours of training this morning, but it only lasted 1¼… typical! But when the next training started it ran all day so that was ok. We actually did a full day’s work today!!!
We started working on the KalkMC6 program and the VMS as well, apparently we won’t be doing much on the VMS, but it’s useful to know, according to the woman taking our training anyway! And I actually enjoyed it and I was able to get on with the stuff without having to worry about it. Spanish cocked up right from the start and instead of using the training number that we were shown to use he put an offer through on Waldner France’s thingy…genius! So me and French had to wait for him to redo it in the proper section… what a muppet!
Anyway after lunch we went into the KalkMC6 program to start learning how to put estimates together, and it was fairly easy, French had a problem because parts of his program were coming up in German, but that’ll all be sorted by tomorrow the woman said…we’ll see! Spanish kept over complicating things and asking loads of questions…meanwhile I was doing all the work that had been set as exercises for us to do and when he’d finished asking questions about side panels I’d done about half the work set and he’d only done the first question, still he covered well by asking more inane questions while I sat there and emailed chunk, Luton lass, daisy and various other people as well…still it was a better day than I’ve had so far and the woman taking the session had much more enthusiasm and energy than the other people who’ve taken our sessions so far, I think that helped too.
Like I said we did pretty much a whole day today so when we did make it home I wanted to just sit and chill, but some muppet came out without a key, now Spanish has got one, and the other is usually hidden outside so we can all get in, but someone had used the key and not put it back and Spanish didn’t have his key on him! So I waited while they went and explained that we couldn’t get in to the people who own the house, bearing in mind that neither of these two speak German and the owners don’t speak anything but German…still after a couple of minutes we got in the house and now I’m just chilling and keeping away from them a little bit…being with them non-stop is starting to get to me a little, funny that!
The weather has been pretty changeable again, there was another thunder storm last night, but I’d only just gone to bed so this one didn’t wake me up, and then at lunchtime it was really sunny, but now it’s trying to rain again…it’s almost like being at home J
Why is belly button fluff always either grey or blue? Why isn’t there ever any red or yellow or green? Someone told me it related to the colour of the clothes you’ve been wearing…well I’ve had a black t-shirt on all day and the fluff was light grey…and I had a shower last night so that’s not it either…dodgy stuff huh?
Feeling pretty good today, managed to get a fair amount off my chest with the last blog I guess and mixed with the good day I’ve had it’s making for a better mood. I feel like going out for food tonight, but I think the other 2 want to cook, that’s fine, but all we’ve got in is meat and either rice, pasta or chips…no other veggies at all and I’d like to go out as I’ve had a good day and I want a beer, might ask them what they think about it in a minute…
The flies are still here, but I can’t be bothered to kill any today, I think I’ve only seen one anyway so it’s not really causing a problem, not like the swarm that was around yesterday! Or them bloody ants…there are still some casualties of the war on the table heh heh!
Well, I got the boys to go out for dinner so I could have a beer, it was really good actually! We went to a place in town that served chicken, really good chicken, it was fucking superb! For chunk, it was opposite Moritz, but I can’t remember what the hell it was called. We each had half a chicken which looked like it’d been deep fried, and chips…and of course a hefeweizen just to wash if down with J
Tonight I go to bed a satisfied man…well, partially satisfied ;)
laters peeps
Px
Tuesday 14 June 2005
long blog covers the last few days...you were warned
10/6/05
It’s Friday, I should be in the pub having a drink/getting wasted, but I’m seriously not in the mood, in fact as soon as I’ve finished this I’m going to bed…
Today was boring and pointless, we were at the office for 8, training started at half past and finished an hour later, and that was it for the day…really! I spent less than an hour on the computer and phone combined and then had to wait another 90 minutes while the other two did stuff, one of them had been online for the hour I was online and the 90 minutes I had to wait with no apparent regard for anyone else…cheers for that, I really wanted to wait around for that long! Chatted to chunk and filled him in on a few things, he seems to think that if we worked full days we’d be able to have everything done in 2 weeks, and I’m inclined to agree with him, especially as the stuff we’ve done so far has been pretty basic “ this is a fume cupboard, these are the benches, this is the service spine and service wing, the parts around as the are all modular and providing the appropriate connections are available in the spine/wing/whatever the parts are interchangeable” …and who can forget the “these are our new colleagues from Waldner ltd. and Waldner France…” episode?
So things have been fairly easy going, the hardest part has been trying to stay awake!
Speaking of which I’m off now, laters
11/6/5
Saturday, everything is quiet
Today we got up late, lunchtime I think, headed into town for lunch and beer, a good combination as always!
After lunch we headed to the office, no not to work on a Saturday, but to have a look at the local car boot sale which was taking place in the “parkplatz” (car park to you and me) where Spanish got some clothes, I got a pack of cards and French got sunburn! Then it was into the supermarket for some food for the weekend, Spanish declared he was going to cook carbonara for us and proceeded to buy a load of things which would go into it while I wandered around looking for thinks that would be a) easy and simple to cook, and b) would be cheap and use ingredients that could be used more than once if we didn’t us all of them at once…French just wandered around, think he ended up buying another bottle of vodka seeing as we’d polished the other one off the other day…in a couple of hours, which is why he was sick, Spanish was hung-over and I felt ok ish…so shopping was uneventful
We also decided to actually go swimming today, instead of just talking about it and getting lost on the way! We found the pool, it’s outside, big and cold, Spanish sat and read his book, me and French got in to pool…it was fucking cold I’ll tell you, we did 20 lengths/1000m and got out to have a go on the flume/slide thing, it was cool, and after a few goes we got Spanish to come and have a go as well, but all the fun that 1 slide can generate fades after about 15 minutes and so we decided to leave
We got home and Spanish cooked his carbonara, it was pretty good, it smelled amazing, but he cooked way too much and it was a little bland for my liking, but at this point I was starving so I ate all I could. The plan for the evening had been to go to the piss up in a brewery, but at 9 we were still sat in the house, Spanish was making some rumblings about getting ready, French was asleep and I was sitting right here playing silly computer games, eventually Spanish decided that because no-one else seemed bothered about it he was going on his own, by this point I didn’t care, I was feeling tired and swimming in the cold outdoor pool had made my cold come back and French was still asleep…so off Spanish went…French went to bed and I blogged, now I’m done and I’m going to bed too…laters
12/6/5
It’s Sunday afternoon, I’ve been out of bed under an hour and I so can’t be bothered today, Spanish is reading his book again and I’ve not seen French yet, he’s either still in bed or he’s gone out for another run.
Sunday’s in Germany are dead, there’s nothing to do because pretty much everything is closed, I know that the bar’s will be open, but that would involve driving to town and then I can’t drink too much, I want to get away from the other two for a little while, just to have some time on my own I guess, that’s probably why I didn’t get out of bed until something like 3pm
I’m getting tired of translating Spanish’s dodgy English for French and vice versa
It looks like quite a nice day outside, but Spanish says it’s too cold to sit outside so once I’ve done this I’m going to hunt down my book and read some more, I might read outside, contrary to Spanish’s warning that it’s freezing, a least outside I’m on my own and not cooped up in my room again, and anything’s got to be better than watching some American programme heavily dubbed into German for Austrian TV, but the Grand Prix is on later so I’ll watch that in German, just have the sound down low…
Think I’m going to cook tonight, so them how food should be done as it were, not sure what I’m going to cook, but I’m going to have a go, fingers crossed it’ll turn out ok. Don’t want to head into town again for food because we’ve done that every night so far and although the food’s been pretty good, there’s only so many time I can hear Spanish saying “do you speak English?” with his dodgy Spanish accent before I’m going to want to rip his head off and insert it up his own arse…he’s not that bad, but I think he should at least ask them in German like I have been, they seem a little more accommodating with me when I’ve asked in German than when he’s asked in English!
Still feeling homesick, I’m wavering between feeling homesick and feeling ok, but having only these 2 to spend my day with over the weekend has been pretty dull, although I’m getting on with both of them in small doses it’s bugging me having to spend all my time with them…hopefully when the “KalkMC6” training kicks in things will be more interesting, at work at least!
Right that’s me done for now, but I expect that I’ll probably blog again later…
…I was right!
Just finished cooking and eating, it was nice we were going to have a bbq, but the stupid thing didn’t light very well, but then what do you expect for €2.99?! so I did most of it in the frying pan…we ate it all and fingers crossed no one is feeling rough tomorrow J
Been messaging LL again today, she had some bad new yesterday so my heart goes out to her and I wish I was there to help her out…but I’m stuck here!
Actually feeling better this evening, not sure why, think it’s probably down to the sun, spent a couple of hours our in it this afternoon, proving Spanish wrong…it wasn’t freezing J and I’ve given myself a bit of colour…might even come bad with a tan, how good is that considering I can see snow topped mountains from my window?!?! I’ve got a couple of pictures of what I can see from the front door, I’ll see about uploading them when I get home…
Chunk, maybe you can help me out here, ok, so I’m in Germany, and I don’t know the language, but I know enough to know that they keep using Italian, ciao, to say bye, but ciao means hello…and why do they say (what sounds like) “choose!” instead of ciao sometimes? It makes no sense…chunk help would be nice…
Just a quick note about something that has made me laugh…TV
So far I’ve seen a film with Samuel L Jackson, king of cool, which was dubbed and I’m sorry Sam, but the guy who did it made you sound gay!
We watched the Canadian GP this evening and it’s just nowhere near as good as the UK coverage, there is no Austrian Murray Walker…and that’s a shame…Murray, you’re missed greatly!
And finally we’re watching James Bond now, and although some of the voices are fairly similar, Dame Judi Dench is one, Pierce Brosnan is pretty close too, but unfortunately he’s closer to been Roger Moore than Brosnan, it’s just not the same at all…I miss English TV, might have to watch a dvd on the ever trusty laptop after my shower.
Speaking of which that’s where I’m heading now…laters/ciao/”choose”
13/6/5
I forgot to take the stuff with me today to actually blog…so I’ll have to do it tomorrow now…
So far today has been as dull as all the rest of the training days! Now there’s a surprise!!! We started at about 8 as usual, and by 9.30 we’d stopped again, and we’d even had a 10-minute break! Then seeing as lunch wasn’t until 12, that gave us 2 ½ hours to ourselves, being the first one at the computer I proceeded to check my emails and spent 2 hours sat there to make up for the time the other two had made me wait the other day, they went into town and did some shopping or something, I really don’t care what they got upto to be honest. Lunch at 12 for a hour or more, it took us less than 30 minutes to eat…so we went back to the training room and I sat and read some more, Spanish went off to read his emails, French just sat there looking blank! This morning’s training was supposed to have lasted until 12 by the way! The next session of training was actually quite interesting and I was getting into it, but then I found out it’s not really something that I’ll be doing in my job role…great…why bother to show me it then??!! The whole session was booked for 2 hours and again only took and 1½ hours and again we took a 10 minutes break!
So that leaves us with “personal business” which appears on our timetable a fair amount and it’s time we are supposed to use to get on with our work, of which we have a combined total of none, geeeeeeeeeenius! So after checking my mails for the second time today, I didn’t take very long this time knowing that the others would like to have a look at theirs too and I’d spent a while online this morning, finished, I pass over to French and take up his position of reading, our computer number has shrunk to 1 between the 3 of us for some reason…Spanish was downstairs reading, and the guy who’d set out our training programme, chunk you know who this is I assume, came over and said that he thinks it’d be a good idea if I just went home instead of reading, I think yeah that’s a fair comment, but I haven’t got the keys to the car, Spanish has. So off this bloke goes and finds Spanish reading too, he says the same to him, stating that it wouldn’t be a good idea if the directors saw us reading and with nothing to do…at this point I think hang on a minute, didn’t you set up the whole training programme? Didn’t you give us all this time with which to do “personal business”? Even though we’ve only just started with the company and therefore don’t actually have any work to do? All of this info he knew, and still set aside time for us to do effectively nothing…clever! Now that just pissed me off because he made it seem our fault, even though it was him that cocked up!
Now do you realise why I think this training could be done better in 2 weeks?
Now do you realise why I don’t see the point of flying me out to Germany, putting me in accommodation, spending 2 weeks training me in things that I don’t need to have a huge knowledge of, paying me 4 weeks worth of wages for doing something that could probably have been done in half the time in England, saving on various costs?
Now do you see why I want to come home?
Now do you see why I’m pissed off?
I mean…come on people, aren’t Germans are supposed to be renowned for their efficiency…give me a fucking break here people, this is ridiculous!
So far I’ve not worked passed 3pm on any day, some days I’ve only had 1 ½ hours “working” and I use the term very lightly…and for this I’m being paid a full wage? I know it seems like I’m whinging about nothing, but think about it, I’d rather be working, not training, I’d rather be earning my money, not wasting someone else’s. I’m pissed off about this now and I think that the “training” programme is a big pile of shit which I could re-organise and make more efficient in about 20 minutes by cutting out all the detailed crap to do with the service spine/wing and everything else that we sell, the AutoCAD session I had today, the 2 ½ hours of sitting on my arse this morning, the “personal business” and I could have this training done in about 2 weeks. I could have it set up so that someone in each of the subsidiary companies, of which one is Waldner Ltd., could deliver it just as easily, if not easier. I mean I’ve learnt more about the products from looking at the catalogues than from listening to a German bloke telling me about the “FAZ Functions” and how everything is “executed”…Chunk, what the fuck is going on here?
Right, I’ve calmed down a little so I’m ok now, but I’m still pissed off about it…
Popped into town this afternoon after writing all the above, went shopping, got some food (mine all mine, French keeps eating things that are for everyone when he’s on his own) and sweets and some postcards, that’s about it though, took my time walking around taking some pictures, mainly of fountains as there are so many here…not sure why though, it also gave me a chance to be on my own for a while which was cool.
When I got back to the house French had gone out, funnily enough he was in town…but I didn’t see him and I did tell people I was going out (via a note on the table)…oh well! Did a bit more sunbathing when I got back with Spanish, we both sat there reading until French got back. French and Spanish were playing chess when I finally came in, French was having his ass handed to him on a plate proper style as Spanish completely wiped him out. So I though it was only fair that I returned the favour, after a dodgy start and a couple of mistakes during the game it ended with me beating Spanish with only a queen (from a pawn) and a king against a king…the usual end game when I play woja, except I was winning!!! Yes woja, I did use the standard opening that we’ve perfected over the years.
I’m also pleased to report that the ants have disappeared, maybe they realised that no-one was coming back from the table or in fact anywhere near where I had been, I was being fair, I didn’t kill them all, only every other one, flicking the other ones as hard as I could off the table may have killed them though… but now it’s flies! I’ve killed about 5 today, and I have less sympathy for flies and I’m killing them all, they just bug me…literally! But I think seeing as they can fly and are quicker than the ants they don’t need the edge of my only getting every other one…
Had a massive email from Luton lass, took me ages to reply, but it made me feel pretty good and made me smile so I can forgive her for that. Also had emails off chunk and, strangely, penny from the abbey!!! It was odd to hear from her, but cool, so I replied to everyone and I like it when I hear things from home, it doesn’t make me feel as distant…hint hint…I like to get emails…hint hint…send me some more emails!!!
Right I think dinner is ready…wurst, egg and chips, but I think something was burning a little while ago L
Laters
10/6/05
It’s Friday, I should be in the pub having a drink/getting wasted, but I’m seriously not in the mood, in fact as soon as I’ve finished this I’m going to bed…
Today was boring and pointless, we were at the office for 8, training started at half past and finished an hour later, and that was it for the day…really! I spent less than an hour on the computer and phone combined and then had to wait another 90 minutes while the other two did stuff, one of them had been online for the hour I was online and the 90 minutes I had to wait with no apparent regard for anyone else…cheers for that, I really wanted to wait around for that long! Chatted to chunk and filled him in on a few things, he seems to think that if we worked full days we’d be able to have everything done in 2 weeks, and I’m inclined to agree with him, especially as the stuff we’ve done so far has been pretty basic “ this is a fume cupboard, these are the benches, this is the service spine and service wing, the parts around as the are all modular and providing the appropriate connections are available in the spine/wing/whatever the parts are interchangeable” …and who can forget the “these are our new colleagues from Waldner ltd. and Waldner France…” episode?
So things have been fairly easy going, the hardest part has been trying to stay awake!
Speaking of which I’m off now, laters
11/6/5
Saturday, everything is quiet
Today we got up late, lunchtime I think, headed into town for lunch and beer, a good combination as always!
After lunch we headed to the office, no not to work on a Saturday, but to have a look at the local car boot sale which was taking place in the “parkplatz” (car park to you and me) where Spanish got some clothes, I got a pack of cards and French got sunburn! Then it was into the supermarket for some food for the weekend, Spanish declared he was going to cook carbonara for us and proceeded to buy a load of things which would go into it while I wandered around looking for thinks that would be a) easy and simple to cook, and b) would be cheap and use ingredients that could be used more than once if we didn’t us all of them at once…French just wandered around, think he ended up buying another bottle of vodka seeing as we’d polished the other one off the other day…in a couple of hours, which is why he was sick, Spanish was hung-over and I felt ok ish…so shopping was uneventful
We also decided to actually go swimming today, instead of just talking about it and getting lost on the way! We found the pool, it’s outside, big and cold, Spanish sat and read his book, me and French got in to pool…it was fucking cold I’ll tell you, we did 20 lengths/1000m and got out to have a go on the flume/slide thing, it was cool, and after a few goes we got Spanish to come and have a go as well, but all the fun that 1 slide can generate fades after about 15 minutes and so we decided to leave
We got home and Spanish cooked his carbonara, it was pretty good, it smelled amazing, but he cooked way too much and it was a little bland for my liking, but at this point I was starving so I ate all I could. The plan for the evening had been to go to the piss up in a brewery, but at 9 we were still sat in the house, Spanish was making some rumblings about getting ready, French was asleep and I was sitting right here playing silly computer games, eventually Spanish decided that because no-one else seemed bothered about it he was going on his own, by this point I didn’t care, I was feeling tired and swimming in the cold outdoor pool had made my cold come back and French was still asleep…so off Spanish went…French went to bed and I blogged, now I’m done and I’m going to bed too…laters
12/6/5
It’s Sunday afternoon, I’ve been out of bed under an hour and I so can’t be bothered today, Spanish is reading his book again and I’ve not seen French yet, he’s either still in bed or he’s gone out for another run.
Sunday’s in Germany are dead, there’s nothing to do because pretty much everything is closed, I know that the bar’s will be open, but that would involve driving to town and then I can’t drink too much, I want to get away from the other two for a little while, just to have some time on my own I guess, that’s probably why I didn’t get out of bed until something like 3pm
I’m getting tired of translating Spanish’s dodgy English for French and vice versa
It looks like quite a nice day outside, but Spanish says it’s too cold to sit outside so once I’ve done this I’m going to hunt down my book and read some more, I might read outside, contrary to Spanish’s warning that it’s freezing, a least outside I’m on my own and not cooped up in my room again, and anything’s got to be better than watching some American programme heavily dubbed into German for Austrian TV, but the Grand Prix is on later so I’ll watch that in German, just have the sound down low…
Think I’m going to cook tonight, so them how food should be done as it were, not sure what I’m going to cook, but I’m going to have a go, fingers crossed it’ll turn out ok. Don’t want to head into town again for food because we’ve done that every night so far and although the food’s been pretty good, there’s only so many time I can hear Spanish saying “do you speak English?” with his dodgy Spanish accent before I’m going to want to rip his head off and insert it up his own arse…he’s not that bad, but I think he should at least ask them in German like I have been, they seem a little more accommodating with me when I’ve asked in German than when he’s asked in English!
Still feeling homesick, I’m wavering between feeling homesick and feeling ok, but having only these 2 to spend my day with over the weekend has been pretty dull, although I’m getting on with both of them in small doses it’s bugging me having to spend all my time with them…hopefully when the “KalkMC6” training kicks in things will be more interesting, at work at least!
Right that’s me done for now, but I expect that I’ll probably blog again later…
…I was right!
Just finished cooking and eating, it was nice we were going to have a bbq, but the stupid thing didn’t light very well, but then what do you expect for €2.99?! so I did most of it in the frying pan…we ate it all and fingers crossed no one is feeling rough tomorrow J
Been messaging LL again today, she had some bad new yesterday so my heart goes out to her and I wish I was there to help her out…but I’m stuck here!
Actually feeling better this evening, not sure why, think it’s probably down to the sun, spent a couple of hours our in it this afternoon, proving Spanish wrong…it wasn’t freezing J and I’ve given myself a bit of colour…might even come bad with a tan, how good is that considering I can see snow topped mountains from my window?!?! I’ve got a couple of pictures of what I can see from the front door, I’ll see about uploading them when I get home…
Chunk, maybe you can help me out here, ok, so I’m in Germany, and I don’t know the language, but I know enough to know that they keep using Italian, ciao, to say bye, but ciao means hello…and why do they say (what sounds like) “choose!” instead of ciao sometimes? It makes no sense…chunk help would be nice…
Just a quick note about something that has made me laugh…TV
So far I’ve seen a film with Samuel L Jackson, king of cool, which was dubbed and I’m sorry Sam, but the guy who did it made you sound gay!
We watched the Canadian GP this evening and it’s just nowhere near as good as the UK coverage, there is no Austrian Murray Walker…and that’s a shame…Murray, you’re missed greatly!
And finally we’re watching James Bond now, and although some of the voices are fairly similar, Dame Judi Dench is one, Pierce Brosnan is pretty close too, but unfortunately he’s closer to been Roger Moore than Brosnan, it’s just not the same at all…I miss English TV, might have to watch a dvd on the ever trusty laptop after my shower.
Speaking of which that’s where I’m heading now…laters/ciao/”choose”
13/6/5
I forgot to take the stuff with me today to actually blog…so I’ll have to do it tomorrow now…
So far today has been as dull as all the rest of the training days! Now there’s a surprise!!! We started at about 8 as usual, and by 9.30 we’d stopped again, and we’d even had a 10-minute break! Then seeing as lunch wasn’t until 12, that gave us 2 ½ hours to ourselves, being the first one at the computer I proceeded to check my emails and spent 2 hours sat there to make up for the time the other two had made me wait the other day, they went into town and did some shopping or something, I really don’t care what they got upto to be honest. Lunch at 12 for a hour or more, it took us less than 30 minutes to eat…so we went back to the training room and I sat and read some more, Spanish went off to read his emails, French just sat there looking blank! This morning’s training was supposed to have lasted until 12 by the way! The next session of training was actually quite interesting and I was getting into it, but then I found out it’s not really something that I’ll be doing in my job role…great…why bother to show me it then??!! The whole session was booked for 2 hours and again only took and 1½ hours and again we took a 10 minutes break!
So that leaves us with “personal business” which appears on our timetable a fair amount and it’s time we are supposed to use to get on with our work, of which we have a combined total of none, geeeeeeeeeenius! So after checking my mails for the second time today, I didn’t take very long this time knowing that the others would like to have a look at theirs too and I’d spent a while online this morning, finished, I pass over to French and take up his position of reading, our computer number has shrunk to 1 between the 3 of us for some reason…Spanish was downstairs reading, and the guy who’d set out our training programme, chunk you know who this is I assume, came over and said that he thinks it’d be a good idea if I just went home instead of reading, I think yeah that’s a fair comment, but I haven’t got the keys to the car, Spanish has. So off this bloke goes and finds Spanish reading too, he says the same to him, stating that it wouldn’t be a good idea if the directors saw us reading and with nothing to do…at this point I think hang on a minute, didn’t you set up the whole training programme? Didn’t you give us all this time with which to do “personal business”? Even though we’ve only just started with the company and therefore don’t actually have any work to do? All of this info he knew, and still set aside time for us to do effectively nothing…clever! Now that just pissed me off because he made it seem our fault, even though it was him that cocked up!
Now do you realise why I think this training could be done better in 2 weeks?
Now do you realise why I don’t see the point of flying me out to Germany, putting me in accommodation, spending 2 weeks training me in things that I don’t need to have a huge knowledge of, paying me 4 weeks worth of wages for doing something that could probably have been done in half the time in England, saving on various costs?
Now do you see why I want to come home?
Now do you see why I’m pissed off?
I mean…come on people, aren’t Germans are supposed to be renowned for their efficiency…give me a fucking break here people, this is ridiculous!
So far I’ve not worked passed 3pm on any day, some days I’ve only had 1 ½ hours “working” and I use the term very lightly…and for this I’m being paid a full wage? I know it seems like I’m whinging about nothing, but think about it, I’d rather be working, not training, I’d rather be earning my money, not wasting someone else’s. I’m pissed off about this now and I think that the “training” programme is a big pile of shit which I could re-organise and make more efficient in about 20 minutes by cutting out all the detailed crap to do with the service spine/wing and everything else that we sell, the AutoCAD session I had today, the 2 ½ hours of sitting on my arse this morning, the “personal business” and I could have this training done in about 2 weeks. I could have it set up so that someone in each of the subsidiary companies, of which one is Waldner Ltd., could deliver it just as easily, if not easier. I mean I’ve learnt more about the products from looking at the catalogues than from listening to a German bloke telling me about the “FAZ Functions” and how everything is “executed”…Chunk, what the fuck is going on here?
Right, I’ve calmed down a little so I’m ok now, but I’m still pissed off about it…
Popped into town this afternoon after writing all the above, went shopping, got some food (mine all mine, French keeps eating things that are for everyone when he’s on his own) and sweets and some postcards, that’s about it though, took my time walking around taking some pictures, mainly of fountains as there are so many here…not sure why though, it also gave me a chance to be on my own for a while which was cool.
When I got back to the house French had gone out, funnily enough he was in town…but I didn’t see him and I did tell people I was going out (via a note on the table)…oh well! Did a bit more sunbathing when I got back with Spanish, we both sat there reading until French got back. French and Spanish were playing chess when I finally came in, French was having his ass handed to him on a plate proper style as Spanish completely wiped him out. So I though it was only fair that I returned the favour, after a dodgy start and a couple of mistakes during the game it ended with me beating Spanish with only a queen (from a pawn) and a king against a king…the usual end game when I play woja, except I was winning!!! Yes woja, I did use the standard opening that we’ve perfected over the years.
I’m also pleased to report that the ants have disappeared, maybe they realised that no-one was coming back from the table or in fact anywhere near where I had been, I was being fair, I didn’t kill them all, only every other one, flicking the other ones as hard as I could off the table may have killed them though… but now it’s flies! I’ve killed about 5 today, and I have less sympathy for flies and I’m killing them all, they just bug me…literally! But I think seeing as they can fly and are quicker than the ants they don’t need the edge of my only getting every other one…
Had a massive email from Luton lass, took me ages to reply, but it made me feel pretty good and made me smile so I can forgive her for that. Also had emails off chunk and, strangely, penny from the abbey!!! It was odd to hear from her, but cool, so I replied to everyone and I like it when I hear things from home, it doesn’t make me feel as distant…hint hint…I like to get emails…hint hint…send me some more emails!!!
Right I think dinner is ready…wurst, egg and chips, but I think something was burning a little while ago L
Laters
Friday 10 June 2005
it's the "wurst"!
not had a sausage yet though
but last night we went out with the intention of going to a swimming pool in lindenberg, unfortunately we were heading to lindau...the wrong direction! and even when we did find lindenberg, the pool was closed! so we consoled ourselves with beer and traditional food in Fidelisbäck...a nice place, very noisy and busy, unlike the pizza place the night before!
anyway it's early and we've completed our training for the day and now we have nothing to do, we need to buy some food for the weekend and that's about it
we're thinking of heading to the pool in wangen this afternoon, but it's open air and i think it's too cold!
just a short one today because i'm not in the mood
laters
Px
not had a sausage yet though
but last night we went out with the intention of going to a swimming pool in lindenberg, unfortunately we were heading to lindau...the wrong direction! and even when we did find lindenberg, the pool was closed! so we consoled ourselves with beer and traditional food in Fidelisbäck...a nice place, very noisy and busy, unlike the pizza place the night before!
anyway it's early and we've completed our training for the day and now we have nothing to do, we need to buy some food for the weekend and that's about it
we're thinking of heading to the pool in wangen this afternoon, but it's open air and i think it's too cold!
just a short one today because i'm not in the mood
laters
Px
Thursday 9 June 2005
6/6/05
I got the grand total of 3 hours sleep last night, in fact I’m not even sure I got that much!!!
Went to mum and dad’s first thing this morning, that was sometime before 5am for a bacon sarnie and a lift to Stansted. We got there at stupid o’clock this morning, between 6&7am…wasn’t too impressed, but considering it didn’t take all that long and we didn’t go stupid fast, like I would’ve done in the past, but after the policeman incident I’ve calmed down a little…not much though J Had to wait until 8 before I could check in, and it sometime round then that I realised I’d left the my Euros at home, only 100…but that was enough to get my goat up!
The flight was pretty good all in all, the take off was nice and smooth and the crossing was cool, the landing wasn’t much fun though; I think the mix of a cold, sinus troubles and the changing altitude/pressure was the main cause of the massive headache that I got which nearly had me in tears, it was all around my right eye, throbbing and evil, it was still there at 9 this evening, 9 hours later L
We were met at the airport, I say we because there were 5 people flying over…me and Antonio and 3 clients who are here for some other training…more on Antonio later…anyway like I was saying we were met at the airport by the biggest taxi I’ve ever seen, it was like an MPV mixed with an estate car. And it was driven by a guy with the biggest handlebar moustache I’ve ever seen in the flesh…I’m not kidding the fucker had to be about 2 inches long!
On the drive to Wangen, I had to smile. Out of every window I could see hop fields, it was a wicked sight and I took it as a very good sign J
We got to the offices around 1pm ish and dumped our luggage into one of the company cars, which we have adopted as ours for the first week at least. It’s an omega estate, 2.2tdi and it shifts nicely. I took it out last night and afterwards I found out that there isn’t a speed limit in this country!!! Might have to go out again and see what it can do…maybe! It’ll take a while to get used to having the gearshift on the right though, but it’s a sweet ride.
Spent most of the afternoon and early evening feeling tired, fed-up and lonely…at one point I was ready to pack up and leave. But we went out for dinner with the guy who’s been looking after us a little and doing some of our initial training here, and had a laugh and a beer, so I’m feeling a bit better about it all now, but I’m still missing home.
We’ve got a house to stay in, which in some ways is better than a hotel because we can do what we like and it’s huge, in some ways it’s not so good though because we’re miles out of town and so one of us has to drive if we wanna go out for a drink like we did this evening, but seeing as I took my turn tonight someone else can drive next time if we go out J we’ve got to switch to a hotel for 2 of the 3 weekends we’re here though because the house has been rented out or something…should be ok, and it’ll give us a chance to all get drunk together J
It’s really strange being the only English guy at out here, especially when ALL the training is being delivered in English. There is: Antonio, he’s Spanish, but will be working in the oxford office with me; Nicholas, he’s French so his name is pronounced Nicola, haven’t got the heart to tell him it’s a girls name; and all the training is being delivered by Germans…so there is a veritable plethora of dodgy accents for me to listen to and try to understand.
Right, day 1 is over and although I still want to go home I’m not as desperate as I was earlier, I’m hoping that as the time goes on it’ll fade out and I’ll be sorry to leave when the time comes. We’ll see!
7/6/05
Today is our first day actually working/training and you’ll never believe this, but we were late! Not entirely our fault, the traffic wasn’t good and we only left ourselves 5 minutes to get there, which blatantly didn’t help!
I got a call from Luton lass last night which was cool, only trouble was I was knackered and asleep when she rang so I have no idea what was said, which means I was probably talking bollocks to her…
It’s lunchtime at the moment and we’re waiting for the next training session to start. So far this morning we had a presentation about the company, not actually as boring as I thought it might be, most of the other PowerPoint presentations I’ve seen companies do have been dull, but this was something new to me so I actually found it interesting…shocking I know! We were taken on a tour of the office building where we were introduced to whoever happened to be around at the time, this usually consisted of Andres calling out al the people in the corner of the room and introducing the “3 new colleagues; Pete and Antonio from Waldner Ltd.; Nicholas from Waldner France. They are all calculators…” not sure I really want to be a mathematical aid, but it’s ok I knew what he meant as did they. Although some of them did seem to be fairly miffed at the intrusion into their working day and I think that’s understandable, I was getting a little miffed that I was being introduced to a lot of people who’s names I don’t know because I wasn’t told them.
We had a tour of the factory the offices, this was a little easier as we weren’t really introduced to anyone. It was good to look around, but I was struggling to look interested all the time, the other 2 were looking at things and picking them up, I was thinking ‘it looks like flat-pack Ikea furniture, I‘ve got that at home, I didn’t need to come to Germany to see it’ and as we moved around I was starting to get bored, even when Andres pointed out the obligatory naked woman poster, it’s good to see that no matter where the factory is the men still put up posters of women J but I came to the conclusion that the showroom was the only place that I was really interested in, after all I’m hear to learn how to help sell it, not make it…but I guess it’s good to have some background knowledge of the product, although seeing how it’s made isn’t really what I’d expect.
Right, it’s about 6pm now, we finished at around 3 and after a quick shopping trip so Antonio could get some new clothes, he only brought more formal wear…fool! We got back to the house and I’ve not seen either of the other 2 since. I’m waiting for a call from 2 of the guys from the oxford office who are over here as well today and tomorrow, we’re on about going out for a drink tonight which will be good, think I’ll feel better as I get to know more people in the company…I guess that’s not helping as to why I’m feeling bored/lonely. Went through a phase of thinking that I have done the wrong think this afternoon, that’s while I was trying to stay awake during the last training session of the afternoon, it’s not that it was boring, more that I’m still knackered L but as long as I can sleep well tonight I should be ok and ready for tomorrow, we’re more in depth information regarding the products for the remainder of the week, including a whole day on fume cupboards, these are apparently the company’s “Rolls Royce” I didn’t have the energy to explain that he meant they are the cash-cow, because it I’d told him that I’d have had to spend the next half hour or more trying to explain what a cash-cow is…for those of you who don’t know it’s a company’s best product…it’s from business studies…and although that seems easy to explain to you, think about trying to explain it to a German who gives you a blank look when you use vaguely long words like “majority”…guess I’m going to have to learn some more German…not had to use the phrase book yet, but then most people I’ve spoken to have spoken in English anyway, but I will have said something soon, I promise! Not sure what, or even when yet, but I will!
Chunk called earlier and used the last of my credit, but that was cool, I added some more, didn’t realise how much it costs to accept a phone call, let alone make one! And a text message is 49p…so please don’t call me unless it’s urgent and if I don’t reply to a message it’s not because I’m being rude, it’s more likely that I can’t send something, been having trouble today…I don’t think the German networks like me that much L T-mobile and O2 have been ok, but vodafone has been pants today! Anyway, like I said, chunk called earlier and that’s made me feel a bit better too, I guess I’m just missing everyone at home and all that type of stuff…it’s weird, but I’ve promised myself I’ll cope and I think that writing thinks down every day will help a little, I hope so anyway.
Luton lass has been in contact most of the day with the odd message which is great because it has made me smile, as has lena-poo, add that to chunk calling it’s almost as if I’m still at home J
8/6/05
Bloody ants are pissing me off, they are everywhere in our house, it’s fucking ridiculous!
Anyway, been training again today, and again it wasn’t anything particularly interesting…but I’ve got some more background though of the products, it was better than yesterday…tomorrow it’s fume cupboards, all day!
We went out with Neil and Ingmar last night, had a nice meal and a few drinks with them, it was a real good laugh and I enjoyed last night, suffered a little this morning for it though, really didn’t want to get up as we were out until something like 3, wasn’t paying much attention to the time to be honest, but had to be p at half 7 again to get to work on time…and we were on time today, but someone had changed the room we were training in so it looked like we were half hour late when we finally got in the right room.
Found I hard to stay away in the training today, was looking forward to getting back to the house, nearly fell asleep at one point L
Luton lass is now in Spain for the rest of the week with her work, so at least we’re in the same time zone, she’s still sending me a few text messages, but again I‘ve been having trouble with which network I’m attached to today, same as yesterday…vodafone=pants
We’ve got some computers and internet access now…but it’s a bit pants, and the numbers don’t add up very well, 3 people, 2 computers, 1 password, so we were al waiting to get on the one computer that we could access. And the keyboard was dodgy, with extra letters and accents over some of them and they have different positions for some of the letters and punctuation, which didn’t help!
Going to try and upload all this onto the internet tomorrow and send a couple of emails out to people…had a chance to read mine today, but I didn’t want to hog the computer too much so I only sent 2 emails, one to chunk and one to Luton lass, sorry guys, but the rest of you will have to wait until I get more free time to access them and then I can reply to everyone who’s sent me a message so far.
Feeling a bit pants today, mix of feeling ill, tired, bored and homesick, I think the training is going way too slow for my liking and I’m not enjoying myself at least half the time…I’m sure this training could’ve been done in oxford!
Have decided that I need to do something to either take my mine off things, cheer me up, chill me out or just stop me from being pissed off…there’s not a lot I can do about the situation so I’ve got to lump it, but I wish there was a way to feel better about it, more comfortable…that would be nice. I’ll have to have a think about it all.
Anyway, I’m home now so I’m going to go to bed now to try and catch up with the sleep I’ve been missing since Saturday.
Right we went out for some food this evening…pizza…nice and typically German food ain’t it! It was really nice though, but we were the only people in the whole place, I think there were more staff there than customers…
Haven’t done anything else this evening, going to head to bed in a minute, need to try and get a sensible night’s sleep and be ready for tomorrow…can’t sit there yawning all day again, even if it is boring, don’t really want to look uninterested if I can help it, even if it is going to be a whole day talking about fume cupboards!
9/6/05
right i've managed to copy and paste all the stuff over from the last couple of days, might keep doing this providing i can remember the german for paste!
today hasn't been too bad, managed to get a decent night's sleep and other than that the actual training has been pretty good considering it was all about fume cupboards...not the most interesting topic in the world!
i think we're heading to a swimming pool either tonight or tomorrow, should be ok if we can find it!
and this weekend we've been given directions to a piss up in a brewery which has been organise by a local radio station as a "dancenight"...hmmm...sounds dodgy to me, but i'm sure it'll be a laugh
I got the grand total of 3 hours sleep last night, in fact I’m not even sure I got that much!!!
Went to mum and dad’s first thing this morning, that was sometime before 5am for a bacon sarnie and a lift to Stansted. We got there at stupid o’clock this morning, between 6&7am…wasn’t too impressed, but considering it didn’t take all that long and we didn’t go stupid fast, like I would’ve done in the past, but after the policeman incident I’ve calmed down a little…not much though J Had to wait until 8 before I could check in, and it sometime round then that I realised I’d left the my Euros at home, only 100…but that was enough to get my goat up!
The flight was pretty good all in all, the take off was nice and smooth and the crossing was cool, the landing wasn’t much fun though; I think the mix of a cold, sinus troubles and the changing altitude/pressure was the main cause of the massive headache that I got which nearly had me in tears, it was all around my right eye, throbbing and evil, it was still there at 9 this evening, 9 hours later L
We were met at the airport, I say we because there were 5 people flying over…me and Antonio and 3 clients who are here for some other training…more on Antonio later…anyway like I was saying we were met at the airport by the biggest taxi I’ve ever seen, it was like an MPV mixed with an estate car. And it was driven by a guy with the biggest handlebar moustache I’ve ever seen in the flesh…I’m not kidding the fucker had to be about 2 inches long!
On the drive to Wangen, I had to smile. Out of every window I could see hop fields, it was a wicked sight and I took it as a very good sign J
We got to the offices around 1pm ish and dumped our luggage into one of the company cars, which we have adopted as ours for the first week at least. It’s an omega estate, 2.2tdi and it shifts nicely. I took it out last night and afterwards I found out that there isn’t a speed limit in this country!!! Might have to go out again and see what it can do…maybe! It’ll take a while to get used to having the gearshift on the right though, but it’s a sweet ride.
Spent most of the afternoon and early evening feeling tired, fed-up and lonely…at one point I was ready to pack up and leave. But we went out for dinner with the guy who’s been looking after us a little and doing some of our initial training here, and had a laugh and a beer, so I’m feeling a bit better about it all now, but I’m still missing home.
We’ve got a house to stay in, which in some ways is better than a hotel because we can do what we like and it’s huge, in some ways it’s not so good though because we’re miles out of town and so one of us has to drive if we wanna go out for a drink like we did this evening, but seeing as I took my turn tonight someone else can drive next time if we go out J we’ve got to switch to a hotel for 2 of the 3 weekends we’re here though because the house has been rented out or something…should be ok, and it’ll give us a chance to all get drunk together J
It’s really strange being the only English guy at out here, especially when ALL the training is being delivered in English. There is: Antonio, he’s Spanish, but will be working in the oxford office with me; Nicholas, he’s French so his name is pronounced Nicola, haven’t got the heart to tell him it’s a girls name; and all the training is being delivered by Germans…so there is a veritable plethora of dodgy accents for me to listen to and try to understand.
Right, day 1 is over and although I still want to go home I’m not as desperate as I was earlier, I’m hoping that as the time goes on it’ll fade out and I’ll be sorry to leave when the time comes. We’ll see!
7/6/05
Today is our first day actually working/training and you’ll never believe this, but we were late! Not entirely our fault, the traffic wasn’t good and we only left ourselves 5 minutes to get there, which blatantly didn’t help!
I got a call from Luton lass last night which was cool, only trouble was I was knackered and asleep when she rang so I have no idea what was said, which means I was probably talking bollocks to her…
It’s lunchtime at the moment and we’re waiting for the next training session to start. So far this morning we had a presentation about the company, not actually as boring as I thought it might be, most of the other PowerPoint presentations I’ve seen companies do have been dull, but this was something new to me so I actually found it interesting…shocking I know! We were taken on a tour of the office building where we were introduced to whoever happened to be around at the time, this usually consisted of Andres calling out al the people in the corner of the room and introducing the “3 new colleagues; Pete and Antonio from Waldner Ltd.; Nicholas from Waldner France. They are all calculators…” not sure I really want to be a mathematical aid, but it’s ok I knew what he meant as did they. Although some of them did seem to be fairly miffed at the intrusion into their working day and I think that’s understandable, I was getting a little miffed that I was being introduced to a lot of people who’s names I don’t know because I wasn’t told them.
We had a tour of the factory the offices, this was a little easier as we weren’t really introduced to anyone. It was good to look around, but I was struggling to look interested all the time, the other 2 were looking at things and picking them up, I was thinking ‘it looks like flat-pack Ikea furniture, I‘ve got that at home, I didn’t need to come to Germany to see it’ and as we moved around I was starting to get bored, even when Andres pointed out the obligatory naked woman poster, it’s good to see that no matter where the factory is the men still put up posters of women J but I came to the conclusion that the showroom was the only place that I was really interested in, after all I’m hear to learn how to help sell it, not make it…but I guess it’s good to have some background knowledge of the product, although seeing how it’s made isn’t really what I’d expect.
Right, it’s about 6pm now, we finished at around 3 and after a quick shopping trip so Antonio could get some new clothes, he only brought more formal wear…fool! We got back to the house and I’ve not seen either of the other 2 since. I’m waiting for a call from 2 of the guys from the oxford office who are over here as well today and tomorrow, we’re on about going out for a drink tonight which will be good, think I’ll feel better as I get to know more people in the company…I guess that’s not helping as to why I’m feeling bored/lonely. Went through a phase of thinking that I have done the wrong think this afternoon, that’s while I was trying to stay awake during the last training session of the afternoon, it’s not that it was boring, more that I’m still knackered L but as long as I can sleep well tonight I should be ok and ready for tomorrow, we’re more in depth information regarding the products for the remainder of the week, including a whole day on fume cupboards, these are apparently the company’s “Rolls Royce” I didn’t have the energy to explain that he meant they are the cash-cow, because it I’d told him that I’d have had to spend the next half hour or more trying to explain what a cash-cow is…for those of you who don’t know it’s a company’s best product…it’s from business studies…and although that seems easy to explain to you, think about trying to explain it to a German who gives you a blank look when you use vaguely long words like “majority”…guess I’m going to have to learn some more German…not had to use the phrase book yet, but then most people I’ve spoken to have spoken in English anyway, but I will have said something soon, I promise! Not sure what, or even when yet, but I will!
Chunk called earlier and used the last of my credit, but that was cool, I added some more, didn’t realise how much it costs to accept a phone call, let alone make one! And a text message is 49p…so please don’t call me unless it’s urgent and if I don’t reply to a message it’s not because I’m being rude, it’s more likely that I can’t send something, been having trouble today…I don’t think the German networks like me that much L T-mobile and O2 have been ok, but vodafone has been pants today! Anyway, like I said, chunk called earlier and that’s made me feel a bit better too, I guess I’m just missing everyone at home and all that type of stuff…it’s weird, but I’ve promised myself I’ll cope and I think that writing thinks down every day will help a little, I hope so anyway.
Luton lass has been in contact most of the day with the odd message which is great because it has made me smile, as has lena-poo, add that to chunk calling it’s almost as if I’m still at home J
8/6/05
Bloody ants are pissing me off, they are everywhere in our house, it’s fucking ridiculous!
Anyway, been training again today, and again it wasn’t anything particularly interesting…but I’ve got some more background though of the products, it was better than yesterday…tomorrow it’s fume cupboards, all day!
We went out with Neil and Ingmar last night, had a nice meal and a few drinks with them, it was a real good laugh and I enjoyed last night, suffered a little this morning for it though, really didn’t want to get up as we were out until something like 3, wasn’t paying much attention to the time to be honest, but had to be p at half 7 again to get to work on time…and we were on time today, but someone had changed the room we were training in so it looked like we were half hour late when we finally got in the right room.
Found I hard to stay away in the training today, was looking forward to getting back to the house, nearly fell asleep at one point L
Luton lass is now in Spain for the rest of the week with her work, so at least we’re in the same time zone, she’s still sending me a few text messages, but again I‘ve been having trouble with which network I’m attached to today, same as yesterday…vodafone=pants
We’ve got some computers and internet access now…but it’s a bit pants, and the numbers don’t add up very well, 3 people, 2 computers, 1 password, so we were al waiting to get on the one computer that we could access. And the keyboard was dodgy, with extra letters and accents over some of them and they have different positions for some of the letters and punctuation, which didn’t help!
Going to try and upload all this onto the internet tomorrow and send a couple of emails out to people…had a chance to read mine today, but I didn’t want to hog the computer too much so I only sent 2 emails, one to chunk and one to Luton lass, sorry guys, but the rest of you will have to wait until I get more free time to access them and then I can reply to everyone who’s sent me a message so far.
Feeling a bit pants today, mix of feeling ill, tired, bored and homesick, I think the training is going way too slow for my liking and I’m not enjoying myself at least half the time…I’m sure this training could’ve been done in oxford!
Have decided that I need to do something to either take my mine off things, cheer me up, chill me out or just stop me from being pissed off…there’s not a lot I can do about the situation so I’ve got to lump it, but I wish there was a way to feel better about it, more comfortable…that would be nice. I’ll have to have a think about it all.
Anyway, I’m home now so I’m going to go to bed now to try and catch up with the sleep I’ve been missing since Saturday.
Right we went out for some food this evening…pizza…nice and typically German food ain’t it! It was really nice though, but we were the only people in the whole place, I think there were more staff there than customers…
Haven’t done anything else this evening, going to head to bed in a minute, need to try and get a sensible night’s sleep and be ready for tomorrow…can’t sit there yawning all day again, even if it is boring, don’t really want to look uninterested if I can help it, even if it is going to be a whole day talking about fume cupboards!
9/6/05
right i've managed to copy and paste all the stuff over from the last couple of days, might keep doing this providing i can remember the german for paste!
today hasn't been too bad, managed to get a decent night's sleep and other than that the actual training has been pretty good considering it was all about fume cupboards...not the most interesting topic in the world!
i think we're heading to a swimming pool either tonight or tomorrow, should be ok if we can find it!
and this weekend we've been given directions to a piss up in a brewery which has been organise by a local radio station as a "dancenight"...hmmm...sounds dodgy to me, but i'm sure it'll be a laugh
Monday 6 June 2005
Ich Bin Ein Berliner*
right then peeps, this is my last offering before i head off to Germany, land of beer and sausages. I have no idea what to expect when i get there (hopefully not DVT from being cramped on a Ryanair flight for a few hours) and seeing as i can just about say hello in german at different times of the day...it should be an experience!!!
I've as always left everything to the last minute and with under 5 hours until i'm supposed to be at my parents to be taken to the airport, i've nearly finished my packing! once the packing is done i've then got to tidy the flat up, including doing some washing up from earlier yesterday, and sleep...sleep is for losers though and so i'm going to go without that essential until i'm on the plane and it's taken off...or until i fall asleep when i crawl into bed with 3 hours until i've got to be at my folks place...
"so why" i hear you ask "are you inline and blogging?"
well, i'm bored of packing, i've just finished ripping some more cd's to the hard drive and i wanted to make sure i had all the names of the songs and everything, so i came online to get them. also i thought it would be just downright rude of me not to have blogged before i left, seeing as i may not be able to blog for a fairly long time (ie about 4 weeks)
well with the stress of packing and everything like that, i've forgotten how bad a day i had yesterday...when i lost my bank card in oxford, only to realise that it didn't really matter as i have no money in the account anyway...this month my money seems to have evaporated into thin air! (or bills, tax, insurance, tv license, food, rent, the list goes on) but thankfully mother came to the rescue with a sub into my account which i have got the card for, which also has no money in it, and a loan of cash as well...ain't she great? hell yeah she is!
wish i'd gone to see SOAD this evening, but alas if i'd have done that then i'd never have packed...
went to my nan's 90th birthday, only to have hernot actually remember who i am anyway, i can forgive her, she is 90 after all. but since getting back from the party, i seem to have developed an upset stomach and have been in and out of the bathroom more times than it's comfortable for you to read...needless to say it's just adding to my worries of flying tomorrow.
had a panic this morning and decided that i wasn't sure if i really wanted to go, but having not spoken to anyone and having to listen to my parents argue over how bad my dad's driving was...and i was sat in the car, it was bad...i thought it wooud be far worse to have to stay here and listen to them for the next 4 weeks, than spending 4 weeks in germany, where i don't speak the language, don't really know anyone and can't afford to do anything anyway!
i'm going to miss you guys...and i mean it, hopefully i'll be able to blog while i'm out there, i'm going to take my trusty laptop with me, mainly so i can play games and watch dvd's on it in the evenings...but never-the-less i'll see if i can plug it in somewhere and update you all.
besides, just because i'm not around, it doesn't mean that you can't email me people, i still want to hear from everyone and all that stuff, i'll be right pissed off if i don't hear from you...but if i've not got a connection then i guess i won't know until i get back anyway...hmmm, more thought needed there me thinks!
well i suppose i should finish everything off...not sure i'm going to be able to shut my case yet :(
take care peeps
Px
(*I am a donut)
right then peeps, this is my last offering before i head off to Germany, land of beer and sausages. I have no idea what to expect when i get there (hopefully not DVT from being cramped on a Ryanair flight for a few hours) and seeing as i can just about say hello in german at different times of the day...it should be an experience!!!
I've as always left everything to the last minute and with under 5 hours until i'm supposed to be at my parents to be taken to the airport, i've nearly finished my packing! once the packing is done i've then got to tidy the flat up, including doing some washing up from earlier yesterday, and sleep...sleep is for losers though and so i'm going to go without that essential until i'm on the plane and it's taken off...or until i fall asleep when i crawl into bed with 3 hours until i've got to be at my folks place...
"so why" i hear you ask "are you inline and blogging?"
well, i'm bored of packing, i've just finished ripping some more cd's to the hard drive and i wanted to make sure i had all the names of the songs and everything, so i came online to get them. also i thought it would be just downright rude of me not to have blogged before i left, seeing as i may not be able to blog for a fairly long time (ie about 4 weeks)
well with the stress of packing and everything like that, i've forgotten how bad a day i had yesterday...when i lost my bank card in oxford, only to realise that it didn't really matter as i have no money in the account anyway...this month my money seems to have evaporated into thin air! (or bills, tax, insurance, tv license, food, rent, the list goes on) but thankfully mother came to the rescue with a sub into my account which i have got the card for, which also has no money in it, and a loan of cash as well...ain't she great? hell yeah she is!
wish i'd gone to see SOAD this evening, but alas if i'd have done that then i'd never have packed...
went to my nan's 90th birthday, only to have hernot actually remember who i am anyway, i can forgive her, she is 90 after all. but since getting back from the party, i seem to have developed an upset stomach and have been in and out of the bathroom more times than it's comfortable for you to read...needless to say it's just adding to my worries of flying tomorrow.
had a panic this morning and decided that i wasn't sure if i really wanted to go, but having not spoken to anyone and having to listen to my parents argue over how bad my dad's driving was...and i was sat in the car, it was bad...i thought it wooud be far worse to have to stay here and listen to them for the next 4 weeks, than spending 4 weeks in germany, where i don't speak the language, don't really know anyone and can't afford to do anything anyway!
i'm going to miss you guys...and i mean it, hopefully i'll be able to blog while i'm out there, i'm going to take my trusty laptop with me, mainly so i can play games and watch dvd's on it in the evenings...but never-the-less i'll see if i can plug it in somewhere and update you all.
besides, just because i'm not around, it doesn't mean that you can't email me people, i still want to hear from everyone and all that stuff, i'll be right pissed off if i don't hear from you...but if i've not got a connection then i guess i won't know until i get back anyway...hmmm, more thought needed there me thinks!
well i suppose i should finish everything off...not sure i'm going to be able to shut my case yet :(
take care peeps
Px
(*I am a donut)
Friday 3 June 2005
beer lairyness
woja came round last night for food and beer and to have his ass handed to him on a shiny silver plate after having is severely whipping invarious ps2 games...
the prospect of beer did it for him i think
it certainly was the prawn curry i made, although it was an awesome prawn curry which tasted very nice and i think he'd concur seeing as he actually managed to eat it quicker than i did!!!
muchos beer was imbibed...looking aroud me i can still see the bottles, really should get rid of them...there's empty 1664 bottles (my lager of choice), spitfire bottles (woja's offering for the evening, which wasn't too good, but we drank it all anyway :)), big hoegaarden bottles (a very nice brew), rebellion red bottles (a cheeky little ale which i like) and worthingtons white sheild (allegedly an IPA, very nice flavour, though not what was expected)...really must get rid of these empties...
we played many games last night...it was all good
went to bed at 4, got up at 9...sleep is for losers!!!
with that i think i'm going back to bed
laters peeps
Px
woja came round last night for food and beer and to have his ass handed to him on a shiny silver plate after having is severely whipping invarious ps2 games...
the prospect of beer did it for him i think
it certainly was the prawn curry i made, although it was an awesome prawn curry which tasted very nice and i think he'd concur seeing as he actually managed to eat it quicker than i did!!!
muchos beer was imbibed...looking aroud me i can still see the bottles, really should get rid of them...there's empty 1664 bottles (my lager of choice), spitfire bottles (woja's offering for the evening, which wasn't too good, but we drank it all anyway :)), big hoegaarden bottles (a very nice brew), rebellion red bottles (a cheeky little ale which i like) and worthingtons white sheild (allegedly an IPA, very nice flavour, though not what was expected)...really must get rid of these empties...
we played many games last night...it was all good
went to bed at 4, got up at 9...sleep is for losers!!!
with that i think i'm going back to bed
laters peeps
Px
Thursday 2 June 2005
star wars episode III
quick review
i liked it
some funny bits in it, made me laugh
ewan macgregor was good, although his english accent was a little forced and sounded like cary ewles in robin hood men in tights...but he did have some corking lines, i was waiting for a bond-esque one liner after he dispatched of the droid general...and i wasn't disappointed :)
fight scenes were very good, the only major drawback i found was the lightsabres were moving way too fast at times to follow the action clearly...but it was very cool
the settings were awesome and i liked the little touchs through out the film, subtle things that seemed to link things together nicely
although, as G said, the ending seemed a little rushed to get things wrapped up and to tie into the other films
right that's it
take care peeps
Px
quick review
i liked it
some funny bits in it, made me laugh
ewan macgregor was good, although his english accent was a little forced and sounded like cary ewles in robin hood men in tights...but he did have some corking lines, i was waiting for a bond-esque one liner after he dispatched of the droid general...and i wasn't disappointed :)
fight scenes were very good, the only major drawback i found was the lightsabres were moving way too fast at times to follow the action clearly...but it was very cool
the settings were awesome and i liked the little touchs through out the film, subtle things that seemed to link things together nicely
although, as G said, the ending seemed a little rushed to get things wrapped up and to tie into the other films
right that's it
take care peeps
Px
Wednesday 1 June 2005
Battered & Bruised
well i finished at abbey last thursday, things have been fairly busy since then, busy as in i've done nothing really...so lets break it all down
thursday: a poor show by the guys at work who totally failed to ge me in the pool...but i got a card and a germany phrase book, some beer and lots of hugs and cuddles so i wasok with that
friday: a real do nothing day, spent some time online, did nothing, gave myself an hour to get to milton keynes, an easy task i assumed, except nearly 2 hours after leaving home i had only done about 25 miles...how bad was that! to top it off the girl i was meeting hadn't given me her number so i couldn't call her to say i was running late...but she text me and so i called her straight back, can't believe i was 90 minutes late for our first date! but thankfully she stuck around and we had a really good time, chatting over food and a drink or too, not much drinking though as i had to drive back and she was working nights (yes chunk i lied to you, no-one knew what was happening and that's how i wanted it to be until after)
saturday: paintballing...in high wycombe...very cool, the bruises are just turning yellow/graan now...it was awesome and i want to go again...soon...so if you wanna come out and play/get shot gimme a shout and i'll see what i can organise
sunday: dinner with my folks then a trek to luton to see the girl again before she went on holiday, her request, so i must've done something right on friday... we met with a couple of her friends and all went out for a curry, it was cool and i enjoyed the evening, she was more relaxed around her friends and so i got to see what she was like in a more natural atmosphere which was cool :)
monday: i slept, i'm sure i did something else, but probably not
tuesday: went shopping with my mother, we got lots of things for my impending trip to germany...all good...although not sure about some of the clothes i've got, but hey, who cares if i don't wear them, i didn't pay for them...mother's are great things to have around
wednesday(today): i'm going to see the latest star wars with some of the newbury peeps, should be good, but i've not seen the 2nd episode yet...although i'm sure i don't need to...i've been told that anyway...
rest of the time until i head to germany...
got a party to go to on saturday, hell's 18th
and it's my nan's 90th on sunday...got to get her something yet, although i've got her card :)
think i'm seeing the luton lass again, depends on how tired she is when she gets back from her hols...
right that's it, i think everything is pretty much up to date now
laters peeps
Px
well i finished at abbey last thursday, things have been fairly busy since then, busy as in i've done nothing really...so lets break it all down
thursday: a poor show by the guys at work who totally failed to ge me in the pool...but i got a card and a germany phrase book, some beer and lots of hugs and cuddles so i wasok with that
friday: a real do nothing day, spent some time online, did nothing, gave myself an hour to get to milton keynes, an easy task i assumed, except nearly 2 hours after leaving home i had only done about 25 miles...how bad was that! to top it off the girl i was meeting hadn't given me her number so i couldn't call her to say i was running late...but she text me and so i called her straight back, can't believe i was 90 minutes late for our first date! but thankfully she stuck around and we had a really good time, chatting over food and a drink or too, not much drinking though as i had to drive back and she was working nights (yes chunk i lied to you, no-one knew what was happening and that's how i wanted it to be until after)
saturday: paintballing...in high wycombe...very cool, the bruises are just turning yellow/graan now...it was awesome and i want to go again...soon...so if you wanna come out and play/get shot gimme a shout and i'll see what i can organise
sunday: dinner with my folks then a trek to luton to see the girl again before she went on holiday, her request, so i must've done something right on friday... we met with a couple of her friends and all went out for a curry, it was cool and i enjoyed the evening, she was more relaxed around her friends and so i got to see what she was like in a more natural atmosphere which was cool :)
monday: i slept, i'm sure i did something else, but probably not
tuesday: went shopping with my mother, we got lots of things for my impending trip to germany...all good...although not sure about some of the clothes i've got, but hey, who cares if i don't wear them, i didn't pay for them...mother's are great things to have around
wednesday(today): i'm going to see the latest star wars with some of the newbury peeps, should be good, but i've not seen the 2nd episode yet...although i'm sure i don't need to...i've been told that anyway...
rest of the time until i head to germany...
got a party to go to on saturday, hell's 18th
and it's my nan's 90th on sunday...got to get her something yet, although i've got her card :)
think i'm seeing the luton lass again, depends on how tired she is when she gets back from her hols...
right that's it, i think everything is pretty much up to date now
laters peeps
Px
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