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Archive - January 2002 - June 2002
Tuesday 1st January 2002 - First day of 2002. Also the first day we can use the Euro. At around midnight, the sky lit up with massive amounts of fireworks. Our fourth floor balcony was the perfect viewing place for the action. After the madness had died down, we went downstairs and lit our ones.
Thursday 3rd January - Went to see Lord of the Rings in English (again).
Friday 4th January - Went out for a drink with Martin and his friends.
Tuesday 8th January - Bought a second computer (Athlon XP 1600+) so that we can both use one when we feel like it. Will help my job-finding efforts and my study. Of course, my video card has started corrupting the display (it did this in the old PC too), but the problem is intermittent, so I can live with it for a while.
Thursday 10th January - Amy came around to watch The Fifth Element on DVD.
Saturday 12th January - Went to "Outland", an Australian restaurant and bar with Simon, Amy and her boyfriend Roland. I had the crocodile. Simon had the kangaroo.
Tuesday 15th January - Simon's sister Katie, and Fraser (her boyfriend) came to stay for a few weeks. Hope all four of us can survive in such a tiny apartment. Picked them up at the airport.
Wednesday 16th January - We went to Wirtshaus zur Brez'n and had Schweinshaxe.
Friday 18th January - Went for a job interview - the company is about half an hour outside Munich. The interview went well, and I'll probably get offered the job, but I'm not sure about whether I want it or not. We'll see. If I get offered, and accept, I'll be in charge of their small network, and will have to fly to the US to get trained.
Saturday 19th January - Went with Fraser to buy some DVDs and then met up with Benny for coffee. We had a couple of games of "500", and Katie and I totally wasted Simon and Fraser. Went out to Cafe Blue for dinner.
Sunday 20th January - Went to Prague (by train). A long train ride, and when we got there it was dark. On the way there, we passed through the Bayerische Wald (a skiing area, with lots of snow, and huge icicles where waterfalls had frozen over).
Monday 22nd January - Got an email that said that after a chat with HR, I'll probably get a firm offer as a result of my interview on Friday.
Thursday 24th January - Back in Munich.
Friday 25th January - Yearly water meter reading. We came back from Prague so that we didn't miss this exciting event. Stayed home the whole day, but the jerk didn't show up. Went out to dinner at Cafe Blue.
Saturday 26th January - Amy had her birthday party at Sendlinger Augustiner. When we got back, I had a bit of a sore throat. I think I'm getting a cold. Funny though - the weather has been surprisingly warm in the last couple of days. Got a verbal offer for the job.
Sunday 27th January - Yep. I've got a cold (all four of us have!). Got a call from the agent, who answered a couple of questions I had about the job. After that, I verbally accepted the job offer. They're going to send me the paperwork, and the job is then mine (subject to me getting a work permit).
Monday 28th January - Felt miserable all day, so didn't leave the house. This was made worse by the fact that our DSL modem died (no power), so we have no internet connection. *sigh*. Phoned Deutsche Telekom and asked for a replacement modem. They must have serious problems with their infrastructure, because I had to give them our address again. That will probably mean that the modem will not arrive, just like the last time. Expecting problems with the apartment number being left off (again), I explicitly gave the address about five times to make sure they had it right. When I phone a phone company, I expect (at a minimum) that they know which number I'm calling from and can access my addressing data. Job paperwork didn't arrive. Cold pretty much gone... must have been all that Vitamin C and the cold pills I downed in mass quantities.
Tuesday 29th January - Job offer paperwork arrived, so I went to the Kreisverwaltungsreferat and got a work permit(!) After two years of trying and being rejected for one once, I am now finally able to live and work legally in Germany. Went to Salzburg (Austria) for the afternoon and dinner. Katie and Fraser are staying the night there, then heading on to Vienna. We came back to Munich. Unusually warm weather today. The outside (in the shade) thermometer showed 19.5 C as the high for the day - definitely on the warm side for this time of the year.
Wednesday 30th January - Went into town with Katja and bought socks and work shirts. Today was also the day that the DSL modem was supposed to arrive, but guess what? It didn't. No real surprise there (see the entry for December 27th). I'd hate to be the poor guy at the end of the phone that gets the earful I'm about to unleash. I got the guy's name (Herr Becker) this time, too, so I'll be asking for him personally. Once again, I'd like to advise anyone who is moving to Germany to go with the competition http://www.q-dsl.de.
Thursday 31st January - Called Deutsche Telekom and argued with the guy from Tuesday for about twenty minutes about their service. The guy tried to blame the postal service for not delivering the replacement modem, but I reminded him that there are 500 apartments in our building, and that I had explicitly told the guy taking my details on (Tuesday) that if the apartment number is not on the address, we won't get the package. Once again, I asked if I could pick up the modem from one of their many "service points" around the city, but was refused initially. I kept arguing with him and he gave in. He said he'd call around and find one for me, and call me back. Of course, he didn't call me back. When I phoned him again at the end of the day, he said I should get the original modem tomorrow - he's requested the apartment number twice on the delivery details. I'll believe it when I see it. We went out and bought an analog (56k) modem in the meantime. Am I missing something here? Surely it can't be that hard to address a package correctly? Simon's Harry Potter book he ordered from Amazon.fr (France) arrived quicker. Bought an iron today, too. Can't turn up to work with wrinkled shirts. Also, I tried opening an account with the Deutsche Bank. They wanted to see my Anmeldung (city registration), but I didn't have it on me. I did have my passport and Aufenthaltsgenehmigung (residency permit) though. To get a residency permit, you need to have an Anmeldung, so I didn't think it would be necessary to have that first item. Also, they wanted me to make an appointment to open an account! They gave me a spiel about how it was a long process, taking about half an hour etc etc. I reluctantly made an appointment and then wandered down the road towards the computer store (to get the modem). On the way, I found a branch of the bank I originally wanted to go with (Deutsche Bank's online-banking site sucks because it's often unavailable, and their statements suck too, because they're on these tiny little slips of paper that only fit about 5 transactions on each page). I walked in off the street and had an account ten minutes later - no appointment or Anmeldung necessary. This bank uses full sized A4 paper for its statements. I then went back to the Deutsche Bank and cancelled the appointment I had made, telling them that I had just opened an account with the opposition in ten minutes. Lastly, to end an otherwise-perfect day, we got a note in the mailbox from the yearly water meter reading people saying that because we weren't here for the last appointment (see Friday 25th January), we have one only more chance to have the reading done (the guy gave us an inconvenient appointment time), otherwise we need to pay 16 Euro for his traveling expenses. I'll be phoning him later (he's only reachable one hour a day). Can't wait. You gotta laugh though, otherwise you'd go mad here. Katja came around for fondue dinner and toasted marshmellows. Yum.
Saturday 2nd February - The replacement DSL modem finally arrived. We all went to Nymphenburg Palace to have a look around.. lovely weather! No clouds, and about 30 C warmer than it should be at this time of the year.
Monday 4th February - First day at my new job.
Tuesday 5th February - Went out for Chinese.
Wednesday 6th February - Went to Paulaner im Tal and had Schweinshaxe.
Thursday 7th February - Katie and Fraser were going to leave today, but their flight is actually tomorrow. We went to the "cheap Italian pizza place" that we all love so much.
Monday 11th February - Flew to London to meet all my colleagues.
Tuesday 12th February - Went out to dinner at Isola in Knightsbridge with David. Between us, we spent 200 pounds.
Wednesday 13th February - Flew back to Munich this evening.
Thursday 14th February - While shifting some equipment at work, I pulled a muscle on my back. I didn't know that until the next day, when...
Friday 15th February - ... I woke up with pain by my shoulder. It got worse throughout the day, and by lunchtime it was unbearable. Went to Physiotherapy, where they laid me on this really really hot mat, then gave me a massage, then plugged me into the mains for electrotherapy. Felt a lot better afterwards. My bank account details arrived, so I'll be able to get paid!
Monday 18th February - Back as good as new.
Saturday 2nd March - Went skiing with Simon and Patrick from next door at the Zugspitze.
Saturday 16th March - Had lunch with Martin, and then drinks with Benny.
Sunday 17th March - Went with Simon and Peter to Nuremberg. Saw where Hitler held a few of his rallies. When we got there, it was really hot, and lacking any sort of beach, I guess this was the place where everyone just hung out. There were thousands of people, all just standing by their cars, or watching people standing by their cars. It felt like we'd just stumbled into the Twilight Zone.
Friday 22nd March - Went to Benny's to burn some CDs.
Tuesday 26th March - Katja came around to watch a DVD.
Wednesday 27th March - Amy came around with some yummy pikelets.
Thursday 28th March - Took a bottle of really nice New Zealand Seifried Estate Winemaker's Collection Chardonnay into work for everyone to try. Went out to dinner at Paulaner.
Friday 29th March - Good Friday - day off work. Yay.
Saturday 30th March - Flew to London to visit David, and for work. Had a headache before I left, which got steadily worse. By the end of the day, I had a high-fever. Felt awful - wanted to die. No idea where that came from. Anyway, a great start to a long weekend.
Sunday 31st - Spent the entire day in bed. :(
Monday 1st April - Left the house to go out for lunch (Mussels at some Belgian restaurant).
Tuesday 2nd April - Wouldn't you know it ... the long weekend is over and now I'm feeling better.
Wednesday 3rd April - Back in Munich.
Saturday 6th April - Brunch with Simon, Amy and Nicholas at "Wassermann". After that, went to Benny's for vodka and Red Bull's.
Sunday 7th April - Went to the English Gardens with Martin, and then we went to Katja's for more vodka and Red Bull's. We (Katja, Martin and I) all got drunk.
Wednesday 10th April - Dad's 60th birthday. He's currently in Perth (Australia) celebrating with Lauren's parents. Tried calling on Lauren's cellphone, but it must have been switched off. Tried on his cellphone and left a message. Sorry that I couldn't catch you Dad, but the thought was there... Hope you had a good one.
Friday 19th April - Went with Simon and Nicholas to have dinner at Master's Home. This is an amazing restaurant, where they do eight separate courses over about 3 hours, for 80 Euros (wine extra). Not only was the food perfection, so was the service. See? Not all service in Germany has to suck.
Friday 26th April - Amy's goodbye party at Nicholas' place.
Saturday 27th April - Went to the station to see Amy off. :(
Wednesday 1st May - Public holiday in Germany - Nicholas came around for dinner.
Friday 3rd May - Two more things I don't like about Germany... The banking system and post-Euro introduction prices. See my comments on January 31st about opening a bank account. Now that I've got my account, there are two things that are just strange. Firstly, you get a list of TANs (transaction authorization numbers). Every bank does this, by the way, not just the one I'm with. When you do online banking and want to pay a bill, or transfer money etc, you need to enter in a TAN from the printed list, and then cross it off (never to be used again). I ask you... what is the point of having internet banking if you can't do it wherever, whenever? Now I'll have to take my TAN list everywhere I'm likely to want to do internet banking, and that seems to me to be more insecure than not needing them at all! Secondly, phone banking is strange. When I think of phone banking, I expect to get a machine at the other end. Not with my bank. You get a nice friendly real person at the other end. That's all very well and good, but someone coming from a normal country would also expect phone banking to be available 24 hours a day. But that would be expecting too much. Try 8am-7pm. What if I'm away on vacation, need to transfer some money, and I've lost my list of TANs. I call the bank, and because of the time zone differences, they're closed. The German answer would be the same one used to counter the fact that their shops are all close don Sunday - plan ahead. I don't want to live my life that way. Now, what was the other thing that I don't like? Oh yes. Since the introduction of the Euro, everyone (including the Germans) has been bitching about the fact that prices have all gone up. I agree. I ordered crispy duck from the Thai place by work. Pre-Euro price = DM12.50. Euro price = 10.40 (= DM20). This is typical. I can't wait to see the inflation figures. The Chamber of Commerce here says that there are "isolated case" of this happening, but not from any of their members, but there is so much anecdotal evidence of this happening everywhere that one the figures are actually released, the German economy's probably going to be in the poo. With the cost of living so high now, any financial advantages of living here are vanishing fast. Gone are the days where a NZer/Australian could fly over here, get a good IT job, and then go back home and retire early. So what's the point? I've told Simon I want to go home.
Saturday 4th May - Flew to Cologne for Frank's birthday. We flew with Deutsche BA - they've just released some new fares about 1/4 of what you'd pay with Lufthansa (we only paid 100 Euro return).
Sunday 5th May - Had breakfast with Frank and Joerg. Back in Munich.
Tuesday 7th May - Went with Rene and Martin to see Evita. Most of the cast came from New York. It was just like the movie. Well worth checking out live.
Wednesday 8th May - Went out to dinner with someone from the US.
Thursday 9th May - Public Holiday in Germany. We all went to the English Gardens and had a look at all the naked gorgeous people. Just kidding. Or am I? After that, I went to dinner with two people that came over from head office in the US.
Saturday 11th May - Flew to Prague for a conference at work (with Czech Airlines on some little turbo-prop plane). Was a good flight though. Went to a lovely restaurant called Adria - the one I'd discovered on the previous trip there.
Sunday 12th May - Had time for a little bit of shopping in between setting up for the conference. Bought some clothes. Stocked up on Dove deodorant (stick) - which I can get anywhere in the world apart from Germany. Funny how none of the others (who work in London) were amazed that the stores were open on Sunday (my biggest gripe with Germany is that all stores *must* close for the weekend at 4pm on Saturday, by law).
Monday 13th May - Conference actually opened - went to a "Beer and Bowling" night. I won one of the games, and then we made up our own rules - such as, who can bowl the fastest wins.
Tuesday 14th May - Went to the theater and saw Don Giovanni. We were all so tired from the previous night that we all fell asleep during the performance.
Wednesday 15th May - Went out for a barbecue and a boat cruise, then went to a nightclub. Didn't get to sleep until about 3am.
Thursday 16th May - The last day of the conference. In front of a thousand people, they showed a video of stuff that they'd filmed during the conference. They showed about 5 seconds of me dancing. Scary. Arrived back in Munich. So tired that I went to bed at 9pm, but didn't get to sleep until 2am, because I wasn't tired.
Friday 17th May - Back at work in the Munich office. Everyone who went to Prague looked exhausted, and the people that didn't made sure they told us so.
Saturday 18th May - Met up with Martin and went walkies along the Isar river. Saw Star Wars in German. Got up to 27 C today.
Sunday 19th May - Saw Star Wars in English with Simon and Benny. The version in English was so much better.
Monday 20th May - Another Public holiday in Germany. I'm definitely not complaining.
Friday 24th May - Went out and bought a barbecue. Electric.
Monday 27th May - Got a notice in the letterbox that they're going to paint the facade of the building starting from the 22nd of June - right in the middle of summer. The work is supposed to be for four to five months. No balcony for that long? - we'll probably move.
Tuesday 28th May - Went to Frankfurt for work. Took the ICE train, which traveled at speeds up to 246kph!
Thursday 30th May - The fourth and final public holiday in May. Scrubbed the balcony clean. Could eat off it now, but we won't. That's what plates are for.
Friday 31st May - With a couple of friends from work, what started out as a few drinks ended up with me drinking a Weissbier, two glasses of red wine, a Long Island Ice Tea, and a Pina Colada. Apparently, when I got home, I could hardly stand up or talk coherently. I do remember dropping my cellphone into the toilet in the pub and fishing it out, then running it under the tap to wash it.
Saturday 1st June - Work up with a hangover.. don't know why. And, my phone doesn't work anymore. Went shopping with Amy at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum (OEZ) = Olympic Shopping Center = the closest thing they've got to a normal mall, and then celebrated the first day of summer by having a barbecue with Amy and Patrick from next door. I heard from people at work that not only do you need a license to go fishing in Germany, you also need to apply two days in advance to be allowed to have a barbecue. See my previous rants about the red tape here. I'd hate to actually be German and not have a choice. I can go back home anytime I want, but these poor, poor Germans are stuck here.
Sunday 2nd June - Went for another run - I think this is about my tenth since I started a couple of weeks ago. I've taken up jogging so I don't end up fat. Going for runs now isn't that bad, now that it's nice and warm. The temperature on the part of the balcony where the temperature sensor is, reached 59.5C this morning. Mental note to self: move the thermometer into the shade. Roast turkey again tonight - amazing what you can do in a little toaster oven.
Monday 3rd June - Simon and I went to the Kylie concert here in Munich. The songs and the set design were much better than the last tour, but the crowd were very reserved.
Wednesday 12th June - Strange tingly feeling down the left side of my tummy. It'll probably go away.
Thursday 13th June - Flew to London for work, which coincided nicely with the Madonna play on Friday and Saturday. :) Went out to dinner with my boss and some colleagues, to a place called "Punters". English food! Stayed at the Meridian Heathrow again, and I got upgraded again. I even think I got the same room. Anyway, the bed was on par with last time - the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in.
Friday 14th June - 1/2 day at work in London. The other half day was my first tiny bit of annual leave at my new job. Saw Madonna in "Up For Grabs". I was in the first row of the closest balcony. Awesome seats. Before the show, a couple of fans were waiting at the back of the theater. I saw Carlos Leon (the father of Madonna's daughter) and Lola (the aforementioned daughter). Carlos sat a couple of rows behind me for the whole play. After the play, which was very good (Madonna can act!), I went with a whole lot of fans to the back of the theater again, and watched Madonna leaving. It was madness. Moved from the hotel to David's. Left side of my middle is still tingly. Getting a bit worried now. When I was trimming my underarms, and I knicked myself, and maybe I've got aluminum poisoning from my deodorant. Hopefully it'll got away.
Saturday 15th June - Went to Heathrow and met Tom (from Cologne) who was in London to see the play with me tonight. We did have front row centre tickets today, but the bitch cancelled all the matinee performances. We've now got crappy seats (front row balcony) for the evening performance. Oh well. It was fun anyway. After the show, we went round to the allay at the back of the theater, and this time, I was in the front row behind the barriers. Madonna swished past me less then one meter away. Woohoo! Then I raced around to the street (and saw Madonna getting into her car). There were hundreds (!) of people there; lots of them with cameras. It was madness. Then we went out to dinner with David and Dorota.
Sunday 16th June - After a couple of hours sightseeing and shopping, it was back to the airport and to Germany.
Tuesday 19th June - My side no longer tingles, but now it is painful. Scared that I've got kidney failure or something. I'll go to the doctor. What if my appendix is about to explode? I looked online, and my appendix is supposed to be on the other side to where the pain is.
Wednesday 20th June - The pain is getting unbearable. It's right where I think my left kidney would be. Couldn't get an appointment with a doctor today, but got one for tomorrow morning. Couldn't sleep - had nightmares about me having to drag a dialysis machine around for the rest of my life. I doubt it is my kidney though, because it feels like it is just under the skin.
Thursday 20th June - I went to the doctor this morning. Hw said it wasn't kidney failure. I was relieved. He said (in German) that it was a variant of the herpes family. I was not relieved. How could *I* have got herpes, I thought. He saw the look of pure, utter shock on my face, and said that I shouldn't worry, it wasn't THAT herpes. It was "herpes zoster", which is what 90% of the population get when they're kids in the form of Chicken Pox. It turns out that after you've had chicken pox, the virus retreats into the base of the spine. If you get stressed, aren't getting enough sleep, or you get exhausted from the heat (how about all three?), the virus will creep out again and go along the nerves on one side of the body. Anyway, I'm sort of relieved again, but that doesn't take anything away from the fact that it's incredibly painful. The common name for what I've got is Shingles (Guertelrose in German). Common? Yes. 1 out of every 5 people get it once in their lifetime. I got some cream and pills, and I should be all healed in 1-2 weeks. Just like Chicken Pox, you normally only get shingles once. So, there you have it.
Tuesday 2nd July - Went back to the doctor, and he said that everything looked all healed, and that all the blood tests came back OK. *whew*. Doctor says to take the medicine for three more days.
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