Oueze's Journal

Over the next two weeks I am officially Billy No Mates, that is to say that I have nobody here to play with.

This morning, I saw my best beloved off on his two week business trip to Mexico City. This involved the alarm clock going off before 8am on a Saturday morning. Most unpleasant. Still, the nice thing is is that Karsten will be home very soon...

Secondly, my mate Beata also left this afternoon with her husband for a 3 week holday visiting their family and friends in Poland. This means that the usual lovely evenings spent with Beata (who also cooks like a pro, and insista on feeding me when Karsten is away!!) having long chats and putting the world to rights are also not there. So, these are my options over the next few weeks then:

- Spend a little longer in the office, and get something productive done and learn the ropes a bit quicker.
- Visit Karsten's Mum and Dad next weekend, which I usuallly do when Karsten is away.
- Call my sister in law and offer my services as a baby sitter (both kids have now had and got through the measles)
- A few nice long baths and early nights. This will also give me the opportunity to finish reading the Hillary Clinton autobiography before the new Harry Potter is delivered.

Hmmm choices, choices.....

Current Location: Home Alone
Current Mood: lonely

..since I last posted anything on live journal!! In all honesty, it's the first time I've been able to get near the interent for any more than five minutes in that time. Where to start?

So, after I got out of hospital, Karsten had to go in for a week, as he had his sinuses unblocked, and unlike the NHS, the German health service insist on treating this particular operation as more than a day case. Furthermore, he was off sick for a total of two weeks, and then immediately had to fly to Portugal to see customers ON HIS FIRST DAY BACK.

Work is better than it was, and I am now the proud possessor of my own desk and phone at last. It took about 3 months before they finally got their act together and got the necessary work tools for normal people together for me. As an extra added bonus, I now have my own nice little office for the next month, until the building work is completed and I get to share with my close to reirement colleague Herr Dietz, and his broad Rheinisch accent. Nice chap tho'.

I also pushed my luck at work and managed to get holiday for the second time in my 1st three months, this time for a long weekend in Chicago and Milwaukee. We flew out nearly 2 weeks ago, and had a fantastic time. Karsten won the trip from his company, who paid for everything and gave us the best of everything. We were a group consisting of the 5 winners and their partners, all from different places. We stayed in the Chicago Hilton (it was 100 levels above the Travelodge!!), dined in the Ralph Lauren Restaurant, went to the theatre and had various lovely tours of Chicago and Milwaukee. We also went shopping, and were pleased to find that clothes that cost an arm and a leg in Europe cost the same as a trip to H&M in the USA. So, as we paid for nothing else on this trip, we hit the shops, and came out of the Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger shops with a respectable number of bags. However, we will now have to curb our new found love of designer clothes as it is just too expensive here. We flew back only 4 days after we flew out with some lovely memories, nearly 100 photos on the camera, and ball breaking jetlag which we both then had to endure in our respective offices for two days.

We've now (nearly) got an ADSL line at home, which neither Karsten, I nor our mate Olaf have been able to install, even with the help of a nice Rioja. A nice man from T-Com will come and install it for us on 18th October, at which point I shall be able to bore you all with my stories from the Vaterland more frequently than I do at the moment.

The lap top is on a business trip with my best beloved at the moment anyway, as less than a week after getting back from the USA, his company have stuck him back on a plane, this time to COLOMBIA!!! And then on to Santiago de Chile on Sunday. 4 days after Karsten returns from this trip, the mean buggers will put Karsten back on another plane to Portgal, were he will stay for 4 days, before coming home and probably spending much time on the couch watching the 3rd series of Little Britain (thanks to Mum for sending thatone over!!!), and sleeping.

In happy events for the future, Susannah_Banana shall be visiting the week before my 30th birthday, which I'm really very excited about. At this point I want to send huge amounts of love and hugs through to Susannah_Banana and her ever growing bump of loveliness!!!

And that is all for now

Current Location: Internet Cafe Gummersbach
Current Mood: good

..after 4 days in hospital. On Tuesday night my GP sent me to the hospital emergency room for suspected apendicitis, after I went to collect the results of the tests to do with the stomach problem that has been bothering me since April.

After taking blood, and prodding me, they admitted me to the wards to await further tests the next morning, and hooked me up to a drip overnight. Then even after they ruled out apendicits the next day, they still kept me in and had me as nil by mouth, hooked up to a drip until 4:30pm when they finally let me have a drink of water.

I was finally allowed to eat on Thursday and go home on Friday, after I found out that the suspected apendicitis was a nasty digestive problem. I can't say that they weren't thorough in finding that out though!!

Now I'm back at home, with a new diet, designed with the help of my mate Beata, which should sort the problem out. So for the next month my bread will be wholemeal, my only meaty products shall be chicken, turkey and fish, and for the most part, beer is off the menu, as is chocolate. That woman on the telly that measures poo would be proud, as my diet also contains some super healthy mulch, imported from Poland.

Would kill for a bar of Galaxy....

No, I'm not mad, taking anything or talking crap, there is a thin film of yellow dust over absolutely everything here in Gummersbach. The balcony is yellow, the car (normally black) is yellow, and the sodding dust has even got into the kitchen and the bedroom via the open windows (this is necessary due to how warm it is here right now). The suspected source of the yellowness is the pine trees, and seems to contain pollen - cue several people with streaming eyes and noses everywhere you look.

I have tried to clean some of the yellow away, but it keeps coming back. I've now given up for a few days in the hope that there will be less yellow by the weekend.

Current Location: In wierd horrible yellow nightmare
Current Mood: No more yellow please

it has taken an eternity to finally be able to get onto the internet to do anything like communicate with the outside world. Now I have the chance, I would really like to say a huge thankyou to Susannah_Banana for inviting us to her birthday do, and a huge thankyou to grannie_annie for putting us up / putting up with us for the weekend. Apologies for the funny turn on the Friday evening in the restaurant - it was most unexpected, unpleasant and inconvenient for all concerned. Sorry

I can not currently report much as we have been mostly busy with work and school. Karsten is on a business trip this week in sunny Mexico (although ironically it is about 27 degrees here too!!), so I'm home alone, and so doing my own thang for a few days, which largely involves spending time with Beata, going to school, revising for the exams coming up in June and improving my understanding of German through the powers of television. "Oh mein Gott, sie haben Kenny getotet" - "Ihr Schweine!!" Hmmm South Park...

The only bad thing I've done whilst being alone is given myself the world's worst french manicure. No matter how hard I tried, it still looked like I'd been let loose with a bottle of tippex.Bugger.

Current Location: Gummersbach Internet Cafe

The last week has been lots of fun but very, very busy. t_lady was here last weekend and we had fun shopping in Cologne, eating and generally having a chilled time.

Yesterday was busy like every other Thursday with 2 lots of school lessons. I was considering giving the advanced level up at the end of this week as it is rock solid difficult, however, my teacher played a blinder yesterday and presented us with information and knowledge in the Business German area, which is exactly what I want and need. She has offered us more education in this area, and now I have a new and stronger motivation to keep going. She has also offered to check and correct our CVs if we wish to translate them into German. With such a top teacher I may be in a job by the end of Summer!! (Please keep your fingers crossed people!!)

We're off to the ice hockey in Cologne on Sunday, which is always excellent, and it means Karsten and I can spend some time together, as Karsten has had a monster of a week and we have not had much chill time together. Hurrah for the weekend!!

Have also been CD shopping today, and was able to pick up the new Richard Ashcroft single. Ahhhh, a little bit of Wigan in Gummersbach!!

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Richard Ashcroft - Break the night with Colour

One is starting to get the feeling that Winter will never end. Another trip out has been thwarted today due to a random blizzard which took place between taking Karsten to work at 7am and getting up from my continuation nap at 10:30 (oops!!). As a result the thought of driving to Cologne is about as appealing as debating Middle Eastern Politics with Paris Hilton.

Instead of spending my pocket money on Vimto and Maltesers in the English shop, I have decided to stay at home and write a fax to the German Competant Authority for Dangerous Goods to see if I need to register here in Germany to operate as a Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser. Then I'll have to wait until Karsten gets home and ask him to correct my still dodgy grammar...

Snow sucks...

Current Mood: No longer amused
Current Music: Tokio Hotel - Durch den Monsun

...and I have not yet managed to get even half of the prezzies I should have done. Today i finally managed to get something for Karsten, although we have Nikolaus over here on the 6th of December, which means we also get prezzies then. Thankfully, getting nice things at reasonable prices over here is not a huge problem, but finding the time is...

I also need to get my ass to the English shop in Cologne by next Wednesday and to pick up a Xmas pud for my class mates for our Xmas party. This may not be easy, but it needs to be done. The 27th is still flying to England day, and the 28th is still friends in Yorkshire day, both of which we are looking forward to.

Everything has creeped up on us this year. Xmas no longer plays fair, it just turns up and hits you in the face. On the plus side, it is due to snow this weekend, so we should have a real white Xmas, and the Queens speach should not be on the telly. Hurrah!!

Current Mood: rushed

This has been the first entry I have been able to write in the last two weeks as we have just got back from a wnderful holiday in Munich.

Honestly, it is a wonderful and pretty city steeped in history and culture. Oh, and other really important and exciting things like the most impressive football stadium I have ever seen (not as big as the Nou Camp inside, but much bigger on the outside and very technologically advanced). My personal favourite highlight was our visit to Neuschwarnstein Castle on the way up into the Alps, which I think is the big white castle they use for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!!

Much beer, especially the local speciality Weissbier was enjoyed, along with several portions of Donald Duck and Bambi's mother (Vennison gulasch is very tasty).

Since our return, we have been busy with many things, driving on the wrong side of the road (not too difficult, I'm happy to report), and enrolling for a German course. The German is coming along really well!!

It appears there is also an English Community here in Gummersbach, which is nice, so i shall be in touch with them!!

Still everything is really good, and really really good is that Susie arrives tomorrow for a visit! Hurrah!!!

Current Mood: chipper

Tomorrow is my last day at work. This means I have only 3 days left in my flat and 9 days left in the UK. My feelings at this time are pretty indescribable, due to the fact that I'm not currently sure what to do next, whether I'm coming or whether I'm going.

There are only two things that I'm sure of at the moment - 1) is that I can't wait for the big sigh of relief as Karsten and I get our cases checked in next Sunday and 2) Karsten and I are doing ABSOLUTELY the right thing.

Coherant, and possibly even civilised conversation has been beyond me for almost 5 days now. I'm sure once everything is sorted out, this will return. Hopefully with the ability to speak my second and third languages coherantly too!!! (Would be useful right now!!!)

OK, things are pretty much sorted for today. Time to sleeeeep!!

Current Mood: drained