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Archive - July 2002 - December 2002
Wednesday 3rd July - They dutifully announced that the train that I catch to work would be 10 minutes late. I sit there waiting for about 9 minutes, and then the signs change to show the S2 train is coming (the one I catch). Sure enough, a train turns up, and I hop on. Only thing is, the next stop was on a different line. I get off, thinking that maybe I am going blind. When I'm on the platform, I notice that about 20 people got off at that stop, all bitching about the S-Bahn (rapid train) system. I wasn't alone - load of people just got on the train thinking that was had been electronically announced as a S2 was in fact a S2. But, alas, it was in fact a S7. I waited 15 minutes for the next S7 to come, so I could get off at my original stop, and then had to wait another 15 minutes for the next S2. Didn't get to work until about 10am, but that doesn't matter, because I do so much unpaid overtime anyway, and I have no boss in this country.
Thursday 4th July - Mum's birthday. Mum and Dad are in new York with my oldest brother Kevin. Waited up until midnight our time so that I could call and wish her a happy birthday, but there was no answer. *sigh*
Friday 5th July - Off the medication. All better now. Yay!
Saturday 6th July - Went to IKEA with Nicholas. Spent two hours in a traffic jam on the way there. Spent two hours shopping with stroppy Germans, who one would expect would be used to queuing by now. Obviously not. We had to queue up for a number so that we could wait to pick up the furniture.
Sunday 7th July - Went to some market open day with Simon and Amy, then onto Tollwood Summer Festival with Amy. Too many people, and they had just left the old price stickers on everything from last December when everything was in DM. Now, because people have to pay in Euros, everything at the stalls was twice the price. The outcome was the we bought nothing. Bastards. On the way back, Amy was just about to get on the bus when they closed the doors and drove off. Bye Amy... we saw each other at the end stop ten minutes later.
Tuesday 9th July - Tonight it was so hot that this HUGE thunderstorm formed just over Munich. Most of the bolts have been hitting the ground. I've been watching fascinated from the balcony. One hit the Schlachthof just across the road, and the thunder was so immediate and so loud that my left ear hurts.
Sunday 14th July - Went to see Neues Schloss at Schleissheim (a castle on the outskirts of Munich) with Amy.
Friday 19th July - Went to see Men In Black 2. Liked the first one better.
Saturday 20th July - Saw Wild Things on DVD.
Friday 27th July - Did you know that it is against the law to mow your lawns on Sunday in Germany? Wow. From now on, the sound of a lawnmower back home will be the sound of Freedom.
Sunday 28th July - Went to Zoozie's for dinner with Simon and Nicholas.
Friday 2nd August - Last day at the Munich office for three weeks. I've been appointed the new security guy at work, so they sent me on a SANS training course in London. It started on the Monday, but I flew out straight after work. Staying at David's when I'm not at the hotel.
Saturday 3rd August - Saw "Austin Powers 3 - Goldmember" at the movies today. Go see it if you can. Very funny. I'll be seeing it again when it's finally released in Germany sometime later this year.
Sunday 4th August - Kevin's birthday. Met my twin brother Warren for brunch at some Yum Cha place, and we were going to phone Kevin to wish him happy birthday, but we never got around to it. I wanted to email him, but I didn't have his email address on my laptop, so I sent birthday greetings via Mum and Dad's email. Anyway, Happy Birthday Kevin. Also did a bit of shopping (on a Sunday - wow!!!)
Monday 5th August - First day of the six-day course. Moved into the Radisson Edwardian Marlborough Hotel. Bad move. There was no air-conditioning, and the rooms were too hot. Should have stayed at David's.
Tuesday 6th August - Went to see the "Mamma Mia" musical. Got decent seats for only 18.50 pounds. Well worth a look. I loved the way they told an entire story using Abba songs.
Wednesday 7th August - Enough of us complained to the hotel about the heat that we were given rooms at the five-star Radisson Edwardian Hampshire hotel on Leicester Square from tomorrow. We were given the same rate as in the last hotel (109 pounds instead of the 335 or so that they normally charge for our rooms).
Thursday 8th August - Moved into the new hotel. Well worth it. Direct on Leicester Square. Went bowling with colleagues from work.
Saturday 10th August - Last day of the course. Back at David's for the weekend.
Sunday 11th August - Went with David, Dorota and Evelinka to Brighton, where the "grains of sand" on the "beach" weigh about 50 grams each. The weather was crap, but a good time was had by all, especially when we treated ourselves to some rides in the pier.
Monday 12th August - Official start of two weeks annual leave. Still in London - saw two movies today. "Scooby Doo", and "Minority Report". Download Scooby Doo, if you have to, but go see Minority Report!
Tuesday 13th August - Flew back to Munich from London. Home sweet home!!!
Wednesday 14th August - Went to Glockenspiel for lunch with Simon, Amy and Nicholas. Then back home to watch "Blazing Saddles".
Thursday 15th August - A public holiday in Bavaria (not that I care, because I'm on annual leave).
Friday 16th August - Met Amy and Nicholas for breakfast/lunch, then went to Benny's. After that, we had a barbeque with Amy and Nick (from Australia).
Saturday 17th August - Went to Michaelibad with Simon, Amy, Nick and Fiona. I got just a tad sunburnt. The sun is nowhere as bad as back home though.
Sunday 18th August - A day's break from the sun before heading south to Italy.
Monday 19th August - Off to Northern Italy for a week with Simon and Katja. We drove through Austria and northern Italy to get to Lazise, Lago Di Garda (Gardasee). Lake Garda, as it is called in English, is near Verona. The weather was perfect, and as we lay by the biggest lake in central Europe, complete with sand, surrounded by we knew that the forecast (for rain the entire week) was wrong! We decided that we would rough it, and go camping. I just found the website of the camping ground just now, and they've got this huge pool that we didn't even see. http://www.laquercia.it/ Anyway, Lake Garda is WELL worth a look! We went out to dinner, and I must say that no-one else can make pizza as good as here... the crust is absolutely perfect, with the very bottom millimeter just slightly crispy. Yummy.
Tuesday 20th August - Another day in La Spezia. While we were out at dinner, the thunderstorm clouds snuck in. By the time we had finished out coffees, this really evil wind starting blowing, and we saw quite a bit of lightning in the distance. We just made it back to the tent before it started pissing down. The thunder and lighting and heavy rain lasted until about 4am or so - I was in the middle of the tent, just below the "window", which I thought was a leak. After suffering from something similar to Chinese water torture for a few hours, I slept in the car. That was the only rain we saw the whole week.
Wednesday 21st August - Drove south to the Mediterranean, first to a place called Monterosso al Mare (near La Spezia), but they didn't have any camping grounds, so we drove for what seemed like hours to a place nearby (at least on the map!) called Levanto in the heart of Cinque Terre http://www.levanto.com/. It was here that we encountered our first real Italian toilet - little more than a hole in the ground with footrests. Scary.
Thursday 22nd August - The beach looked pretty full, so we opted to rent an umbrella and some deck chairs. The water and beach were lovely. Gelato and espresso could be had for less than 1 Euro a piece!
Friday 23rd August - Drove via Firenze (Florence) and Bologna (where we stopped for a couple of hours sightseeing and shopping) to Marotta, about 50 minutes south of Rimini on the Adriatic coast. We passed the tiny country of San Mareno on the way.
Saturday 24th August - Went to breakfast with Ale (a Madonna fan from Milano who has a summer place at Marotta), and then laid on the beach - there wasn't any sand, but rather these flat white, smooth stones. Wasn't at all uncomfortable. The water was supposed to be 26C at this time of the year, and it was definitely nice and warm . After lunch (fish, and scampi etc), we went back to the beach, then to this huge (by German standards) supermarket, where we we bought lots of wine, limoncello, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. After that, we went out to dinner at this nice restaurant. Ale seems to know everyone in this town. He certainly knew the waiters, who plied us with food and wine all evening I've never seen so much Italian food on one table. I even had to turn down home-made tiramisu.
Sunday 25th August - My identical twin brother turned 30 today. Happy birthday to me, too. Drove back from Marotta all the way back to Munich. Left at 8:30am and got back 8 hours later. It was a great week, and absolutely nothing went wrong. Nothing got stolen or broken. Katja, Simon and I are still friends, even after a week of being in each-others' faces.
Monday 26th August - Back at work for the first time in three weeks.
Saturday 31st August - Lovely weather and wanted to go swimming, but everyone else was either busy or too lazy, so I sunbathed on the balcony. Went out to dinner at a nice cafe/restaurant called Forum with Simon and Nicholas. I had the kangaroo strips.
Sunday 1st September - Went out to breakfast with Amy, then went to visit Benny. Today was miserable and cold - fitting for the first day of autumn/fall.
Monday 2nd September - Noticed that the leaves on the trees are changing color already. How depressing.
Saturday 7th September - Went shopping with Amy, and then to Michaelibad with Amy and Simon.
Sunday 8th September - Nice day again, even though they forecast thunderstorms. None came, and so we went to Michaelibad again. This time with Simon, Patrick, and Patrick's friend from Augsburg (Kristian).
Friday 13th September - Met with Stephan and Dirk (who were visiting from Cologne for the weekend), and went to Yum for dinner. This is probably my favorite restaurant in Germany, because the service is almost normal, for NZ/Australian standards, but - most importantly - it's *exceptional* for German standards.
Saturday 14th September - Spent the day shopping with Amy at the Perlach-Zentrum shopping centre - the closest thing to a normal shopping centre I've seen in Germany. Of course, they closed at 4pm, but that wasn't too much of a problem, as we couldn't have carried anything more back home. Katja came around for a drink.
Sunday 15th September - Went to a "summer street festival" with Amy, on what might have been the last warm weekend until next May. It was all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap, but I did roast approximately 50 beans of third-world coffee. When ground (back home), and turned into an espresso, it wasn't too bad. To get any remaining third-world thoughts out of our heads, we went to Cafe Luitpold for a glass of wine.
Saturday 21st September - Start of the 2002 Oktoberfest. Went shopping with Katja at V-Markt. This is move like it. They had nearly everything one would need from a normal supermarket. Pity you need a car to get there. Anyway, I seized the opportunity and filled the car with stuff.
Sunday 22nd September - I can't believe it.. it's way too cold for this time of the year - 1.1C, only a couple of degrees above a record low. And.. it snowed here tonight!!! It wasn't snow as soon as it hit the ground, but still, it's probably the earliest it has ever snowed here. In some parts of the country, there was lots of snow left on the ground. 70cm new snow on the Zugspitze. Election day in Germany.
Friday 27th September - Frank and Joerg came down to visit. Dinner at Yum. Amy left for Holland tonight, and then flies back to NZ in a couple of weeks. We miss you, Amy. :(
Sunday 29th September - Frank and Joerg back to Cologne.
Monday 30th September - Went to the Oktoberfest with work. Was a fun evening.
Friday 4th October - Dinner at Yum with Simon
Friday 11th October - The train nightmare. I left work at just after 7:15pm, and normally there is a train every twenty minutes. I would have had plenty of time to go to a supermarket before they closed at 8, but it wasn't to be. At the station by work, there are two platforms. Either side of the station, the trains go onto one track for about 4 stops, so the trains from both directions need to meet up at our station before they can continue. When I approached the platform, I saw that there was the train in the other direction already waiting, so I thought that the other one must be late, and therefore would be there at any moment. Nope. 15 minutes later, our train came in. We hopped in. We waited for ten minutes, and then an announcement came over, saying that because of an emergency medical callout at our stop, we all had to get out, and that this train was going back to Deisenhofen (the other direction). So it did. Then, about 20 minutes later, the train from the other direction pulled up to our platform. We (the people on the platform) thought this was our savior, but it wasn't to be. This train also kept on going to Deisenhofen, because of an emergency callout at our stop (of course, we saw nothing, except for a few people starting to shiver in the cold). About 15 minutes later, the train on the other platform started its journey to Deisenhofen. Twenty minutes later came another announcement that because of (you guessed it), the medical emergency at our stop, all trains would be delayed by at least 30-60 minutes. I said "fuck this", and started walking back towards work... maybe someone would still be working (and if not, I had lots of time... 30-60 minutes). However, when I got about 30 seconds away from the station, the train came. I sprinted back to the platform, and made it to the train. Even though the light was red and the train couldn't start moving, the doors had already closed, and the driver wouldn't let me on. I tapped on the window with my umbrella, and the asshole driver just pointed to his watch as if to say "you should be here on-time". The light turned green, and the train started moving away. What a wanker. I don't think I have ever been as pissed off as I was then. I started back to work, but of course, there was no one around. I then managed to catch the next train, and I made it home just before ten. This meant that I'd have to go shopping with "stroppy pushy Saturday-shopping Germans". I resolved then that I hate this country, and I want to come home to Sydney. Why didn't I just take a cab? Well, I would have if I had known it was going to take so long, I would have. But they didn't tell us. When they finally did tell us something, the information was inaccurate. A train comes a minute after saying that the next train is delayed 30-60 minutes? Come on.
Friday 18th October - Went with Simon, Inge and Karin to The Kiwi Comedy Show here in Munich. It was an improvisation show, and it was really funny. I laughed so much at one point that it hurt.
Saturday 19th October - Went shopping at HL Markt. Was really excited because for the first time ever, I'd done the weekend shopping by midday on Saturday, meaning that I didn't need to fight with a whole lot of stroppy Germans in town.
Sunday 20th October - Phoned Amy, Brad, and Rob to say Hi. Went to brunch with Simon and Nicholas at Forum, and then to dinner with Simon, Katja, and Karen (Outback).
Wednesday 23rd October - Went to Frankfurt for work. Didn't get home until about 2am the next day.
Saturday 26th October - Went shopping with Simon, Katja, and Patrick, and then we all had breakfast at Patrick's (next door).
Sunday 27th October - Went to Outback for breakfast. Martin came around, and was in a far better mood than last week. We both ordered new 5.1 speakers.
Wednesday 30th October - Speakers arrived. Now have a working 5.1 surround sound system, which makes everything sound so much better.
Wednesday 6th November - Went to Yum with Simon and Paul.
Saturday 9th November - Worked most of last night and the day, while Simon went skiing. Did make it around to Martin's that evening between my four trips to and from work. Have to work next weekend too. Really annoying having to go in there to do one thing every five or so hours.
Sunday 10th November - Went to dinner at Outland with Simon and Patrick. Benny told me that he's no longer leaving to move to the US. Yay!
Friday 15th November - Drinks with Simon, Gerlinde and Bernd at Outland.
Friday 23rd November - Went with Simon to see Harry Potter 2. Much, much better than the first one.
Saturday 24th November - Got up early to get tickets for the Robbie Williams concert here in Munich.
Thursday 28th November - Katja and Nadine came around (as well as Patrick from next door) and we had a fondue evening.
Saturday 30th November - Went with Karen and Vladi to see the new James Bond flick - @Die Another Day (featuring Madonna). A good movie. Then we went to Villanus for a wine.
Sunday 1st December - Nicholas came around for pizza.
Saturday 8th December - Katja and I went shopping at V-Markt. Katja said that the German government is "discussing" extended the allowed shopping hours so that stores are allowed to stay open until 8pm on Saturdays. It'd be a start, anyway.
Sunday 9th December - Going with Simon, Katja and Nadine to Tollwood, then out to dinner with Simon, Nicholas and Dino at Yum. -1 C outside. The water in the barbecue froze over.
Friday 13th December - Last day at work until 13th January next year! Stephan's leaving party, which I missed because I was at work until 9:30pm. :( Was about -8 C. Can't wait to get back to Australia.
Saturday 14th December - Left Munich to fly to Frankfurt to Sydney to begin a month down-under visiting friends and having a break. From Frankfurt, I flew to Singapore.
Sunday 15th December - Arrived in Singapore. I love this airport. It was really funny for me to see a Singaporean Santa.
Monday 16th December - Arrived in Sydney. LOVELY weather - 32 C. Stayed at Rob's place. Wasn't too jet-lagged, or so I thought. Went to bed at about 9pm and slept until 5am.
Tuesday 17th December - Got up. Went back to bed at 7am and slept until midday. Was still tired so I went back to bed at 3pm until about 3:30pm when I was woken by the plumber.
Wednesday 18th December - Spent the day with Clint, and then went to Bono! My favorite restaurant. Stayed that night at Cody's & Luke's lovely new house.
Thursday 19th December - Went with Cody and Luke to Hornsby and bought "Kath & Kim" on DVD - very funny, btw! Had KFC - can't get KFC in Munich. Left Sydney to fly to New Zealand (via Melbourne) for a couple of weeks. The next couple of weeks' flights were all on air points, so I had to be flexible.
Friday 20th December - Arrived in Auckland very early this morning. Had lunch with Charlotte, then with Mark. Provence were booked out two month's in advance, so I booked Bowman's instead, and had a lovely dinner with Brad & Aaron and Simon's family. Stayed at Donald and Mark's lovely new house.
Saturday 21st December - Spent the day with Amy, then had dinner at Restaurant Berlin with her, her sister and sister's boyfriend.
Sunday 22nd December - Leave Auckland bound for Queenstown (via Christchurch) to spend Christmas with my good friends Donald and Mark and Donald's Mum's. Even though I had an hour stopover in Christchurch, I still beat Mark and Donald because their plane was delayed.
Wednesday 25th December - Woke up to fresh snow in the hills. It was freezing today. Not like a New Zealand Xmas at all. Went out to a $85-a-head restaurant with the others - I had Crayfish for Christmas dinner.
Sunday 29th December - Flew back to Auckland. I had a great time in Queenstown. The weather wasn't all that great, but enough for me to work on my tan with enough days between each sunburn. Kevin (oldest brother) was over from New York with his girlfriend and they picked me up and took me to Omaha where I caught up with Mum and Dad.
Tuesday 31st December 2002 - Flew back to Sydney just in time for New Year's Eve. I've spent so many New Year's in Auckland, that I wanted to finally spend one in Sydney. Went to a party at Michael's, who has a view of pretty much the whole harbor, including Opera House and Bridge. The 9pm fireworks were cancelled due to wind, but the midnight ones were impressive.
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