Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Playground loved by our daughter
Olympiapark Munich
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Anyone some spare change?
Friday, March 21, 2008
How to realize...
... that you're getting older and have a family?
I guess this could be a good sign:
G
I guess this could be a good sign:
G
I'm a proud gardener now. :-)
Labels: Germany, Munich, Spring
Monday, February 11, 2008
Carnival
Some impressions from the carnival in Munich - we didn't go to the big parade as it's not that easy with a small baby.
This way it was much more relaxing.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Something completely different
The German Bundestag now implemented the public petition.
This means that you can also sign a petition entered by someone via internet.
There now is a petition that I also signed as I can fully support this. For half a year now a foreign citizen that marries a German has to make a German language certification to be allowed to enter the country.
This is just plain stupid.
So if you are a German citizen you might want to sign this petition here:
http://itc.napier.ac.uk/e-Petition/bundestag/view_petition.asp?PetitionID=598
And I found the link here: http://www.lawblog.de/index.php/archives/2008/01/21/links-einhundertneunundneunzig/
This means that you can also sign a petition entered by someone via internet.
There now is a petition that I also signed as I can fully support this. For half a year now a foreign citizen that marries a German has to make a German language certification to be allowed to enter the country.
This is just plain stupid.
So if you are a German citizen you might want to sign this petition here:
http://itc.napier.ac.uk/e-Petition/bundestag/view_petition.asp?PetitionID=598
And I found the link here: http://www.lawblog.de/index.php/archives/2008/01/21/links-einhundertneunundneunzig/
Labels: Germany
Monday, January 07, 2008
Christmas Tree II
This is how the tree looked like yesterday evening:
A little bit later:
A little bit later:
Some more minutes later:
And that's left of the tree:
It was nice to have a Christmas tree and I guess we'll have one next year. The only bad thing is that I still have to pack 100 lamps from the tree decoration.
Labels: Christmas, Germany, Munich
Christmas Tree I
So this is how our Christmas Tree looked like on the day before Christmas:
This is how it looked like on Christmas Eve:
This is how it looked like on Christmas Eve:
Labels: Christmas, Germany, Munich
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Merry Christmas!
I wish you all a nice Christmas!
We have internet access for some days now and I'm busy to get everything sorted out in our new apartment.
And I need to prepare our Christmas tree - which is nice work. :-)
We have internet access for some days now and I'm busy to get everything sorted out in our new apartment.
And I need to prepare our Christmas tree - which is nice work. :-)
Labels: Christmas, Germany, Munich
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Big changes happening
Unbeliveable but already tomorrow we'll drive to Munich. We packed some suitcases (biiiig ones!) and quite a few boxes and I just hope I'll fit everything into the car tomorrow.
I will take a picture of the fully loaded car then. I bought a car trunk fence so that I can load above window level without risking the lives of the whole family (you don't want to have luggage pieces flying around in the car hitting a head). I bought a station wagon but with two people and a baby you don't have many options in extending the trunk.
Some old news make me worried about reaching my family while on vacation. It's normally one of the easiest possibilites to reach them when they are in China. Else I'll have to buy a phone card or search some stupid predial number.
I will take a picture of the fully loaded car then. I bought a car trunk fence so that I can load above window level without risking the lives of the whole family (you don't want to have luggage pieces flying around in the car hitting a head). I bought a station wagon but with two people and a baby you don't have many options in extending the trunk.
Some old news make me worried about reaching my family while on vacation. It's normally one of the easiest possibilites to reach them when they are in China. Else I'll have to buy a phone card or search some stupid predial number.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Heidelberg
We had a short vacation in Heidelberg before we will leave for Munich next week.
Heidelberg is a nice small city with a lot of tourists from all over the world (and quite a few US Army soldiers living there).
Labels: Germany, Heidelberg, Vacation
My last day
I got a nice present from my coworkers on my last working day.
I will start working for another company in Munich very soon.
Now you know why we visited Munich.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Munich
Some pictures from our trip to Munich. The weather was very nice but we only had very short time and our baby also demanded her time.
A very nice city!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Rental Car
Our car had a serious issue with the aircon two weeks ago - it decided it doesn't like to work anymore. So I got it checked and they found out that there is a leakage somewhere in the aircon. Took them a day more than expected to find it so I got a rental car (the new Opel SUV - "Antara").
They couldn't find the leak so the had to add some special liquid to make the leak visible. Found it now and they repaired it today. As this takes more than two hours I got another rental car. Much nicer than the SUV - the Opel Astra TwinTop. This is a convertible with a steel roof.
Nice car. :-)
Labels: Cars, Convertible, Germany
Monday, April 23, 2007
Balcony time
This is a view from our balcony. There is a really big tree just in front of the house.
So Germany really can be nice. :-)
Labels: Balcony, Germany, Spring
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Hmmmm - something is different...
Is it the new shirt?
Monday, April 09, 2007
This will be a bar sometime...
We had the fantastic idea to buy a glass bar sometimes in January this year. It was a special offer and already sold out when we got to the furniture shop. Luckily they could still order one for us. It sadly took two months to get it delivered.
I'm a lucky person so the top glass arrived broken. We currently wait for the replacement to arrive (this also takes two months).
(Of course it's made in China)
Now some may think that four months is a long time. You're wrong - IKEA topped this. Our second sliding door for our bedroom wardrobe is still not available. We bought our bed, drawer and wardrobe in November last year. We bought everything in the same design so that it doesn't look too bad.
They sadly have some manufacturing problems with this kind of slideable door so our concept crashed. Now we can wait until (at least) May and then pay another 80 Euro for the door and 50 Euro for the delivery. This door is really too big for my car and the minimum delivery fee is 30 Euro when you order the delivery at the shop (1 hour drive from here) or 50 Euro when you order via Internet.
I honestly can say that I hate to buy furniture!
Small Update:
Still not there, so I called them today. They were a bit surprised ("Nobody called you last week?") and realized then that they really got a new delivery now. But not for me!
So maybe they want me to wait another 8 weeks until it gets delivered from China.
Which irony is that?
"Spot the bird"
There they jumped - try to find them in the picture.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Spring Barbecue
The first really nice sunny day was today so we had some barbecue with sausage, Asian chicken and vegetables. We also had some normal and alcohol free beer. :-)
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Result of Saturday Shopping
When you realize that your wife is pregnant you should get some stuff for the baby - preferably before the baby is born.
So now - less than two months before the calculated due date - we finally got a bed for the baby and some clothes in a second hand market.
Surprise Winter
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Asian Dinner - German Style
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Things to do on weekends
Honestly - I'm relatively good at baking. I still need to try more cakes but it's getting better every weekend.
There is nothing better in this world than a "full" coffee machine that makes really fresh coffee. Only disadvantage is the higher coffee consumption.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Winter impressions
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Winter
As you may have noticed Germany got surprised again by Winter - meaning it snowed for the first time this Winter.
I don't have any snow pictures for now (I'll try to take some tomorrow) but it is big fun. I drove to work yesterday with a record speed of "I could walk faster" thanks to all the people who freaked out.
So anyway these are some pictures of our village that my wife took:
Now that we have snow in our region this video fits:
I found it here.
And Wil found another winter video from Moscow:
So anyway after a fantastic ice scratching experience last evening I opted for the train today. It's just stupid to spend 20 minutes to get rid of all the snow and ice for a 6 km ride.
I'm not used to this kind of weather anymore. :-(
I don't have any snow pictures for now (I'll try to take some tomorrow) but it is big fun. I drove to work yesterday with a record speed of "I could walk faster" thanks to all the people who freaked out.
So anyway these are some pictures of our village that my wife took:
Now that we have snow in our region this video fits:
I found it here.
And Wil found another winter video from Moscow:
So anyway after a fantastic ice scratching experience last evening I opted for the train today. It's just stupid to spend 20 minutes to get rid of all the snow and ice for a 6 km ride.
I'm not used to this kind of weather anymore. :-(
Labels: Germany
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Warner Bros. is actually trying...
Warner Bros. realized just now that they can't win the fight against movie pirates in China the "classic" way - check this article.
They actually want to lower the prices to a level that you don't have to buy a copy: AV Warner will offer three versions of "Still Life" on DVD which will range in price from 10 yuan (US$1.3), 15 yuan and 25 yuan, said CAV Warner's director of marketing Edward Cheng.
I could cry when I read about these prices and compare them to German prices. You have to pay at least 10 Euro (US)$13 for an acceptable DVD.
They actually want to lower the prices to a level that you don't have to buy a copy: AV Warner will offer three versions of "Still Life" on DVD which will range in price from 10 yuan (US$1.3), 15 yuan and 25 yuan, said CAV Warner's director of marketing Edward Cheng.
I could cry when I read about these prices and compare them to German prices. You have to pay at least 10 Euro (US)$13 for an acceptable DVD.
Labels: China, General, Germany
Monday, January 15, 2007
New Year Eve 2006 - Firework
Our Home in Germany
My wife took some pictures of the house where we live in - this way you know where to find us. :-)
The building itself is quite old (at around 40 years) and has been built by a chemical company as employee apartments. These are privately owned now.
We don't have an elevator so it's a bit cheaper.
Sorry for the mess here but I still have problems with Picasa.
So I use the embed function:
The building itself is quite old (at around 40 years) and has been built by a chemical company as employee apartments. These are privately owned now.
We don't have an elevator so it's a bit cheaper.
Sorry for the mess here but I still have problems with Picasa.
So I use the embed function:
Labels: Germany
New Year
Just some pictures from our New Year Eve. We spent it on the bridge between the German and Swiss Rheinfelden. A video will follow...
Labels: Germany
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Chinese Company sues a German Blogger
This one is a very interesting piece about courts in China.
Basic story:
MAN (German bus manufacturer) designs and sells a new type of bus. A Chinese company basically builds the same bus but for a third of MAN's price.
MAN and it's Chinese Joint Venture partner sued this company in China. This is still in court.
Some big German news sites (e. g. Spiegel Online (engl. Version)) reported this and used words like "complete copy". A German blog author also wrote about this and got sued now.
This is really not surprising. There were some lawsuits last year that showed what's possible if you do something that somebody with money and influence doesn't like.
One example is the lawsuit of an Apple subcontractor (for iPods) against two newspaper authors. They sued them personally and not the newspaper and they sued them for some millions. The court then blocked all their funds, cars and apartments. Due to high public pressure the company finally gave up after a week.
Basic story:
MAN (German bus manufacturer) designs and sells a new type of bus. A Chinese company basically builds the same bus but for a third of MAN's price.
MAN and it's Chinese Joint Venture partner sued this company in China. This is still in court.
Some big German news sites (e. g. Spiegel Online (engl. Version)) reported this and used words like "complete copy". A German blog author also wrote about this and got sued now.
This is really not surprising. There were some lawsuits last year that showed what's possible if you do something that somebody with money and influence doesn't like.
One example is the lawsuit of an Apple subcontractor (for iPods) against two newspaper authors. They sued them personally and not the newspaper and they sued them for some millions. The court then blocked all their funds, cars and apartments. Due to high public pressure the company finally gave up after a week.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
2nd Christmas Day
I still can't upload pictures with Picasa so it is not as comfortable as before. The present giving part of Christmas is over now. Thanks to Kodakgallery some of my presents were nice and some failed completely (I told them to print it the other way round!).
We have no snow and it's not very cold either and it's cloudy too. The perfect weather to stay home. Thankfully I'll be on call duty the following two days.
We have no snow and it's not very cold either and it's cloudy too. The perfect weather to stay home. Thankfully I'll be on call duty the following two days.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Christmas Eve 2006
These are some impressions from the Christmas Eve. Picasa is still not able to upload.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Impressions from the Europa Park
We went to the "Europa Park" for a One-Day-Vacation.
I had to realize just now that all my posts created with Picasa didn't "arrive" in Blogger Beta.
Labels: Europa Park, Germany, Vacation
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Back online (who would have thought that?)
Finally I have broadband internet again. It only took a good four weeks to get it activated.
Even in China they are faster in activating it. Though the connection is much slower...
I also changed to "Beta" now - let's see what this means.
Even in China they are faster in activating it. Though the connection is much slower...
I also changed to "Beta" now - let's see what this means.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Back soon
I currently have no broadband internet at home (we have to wait another 10 days) so it's quite difficult to write some new posts. And you can definitly forget to upload pictures.
So we moved into our 2-bedroom-apartment some time ago and we still need to get more furniture. Our car is still driving (though it's an Opel - GM affiliate).
I'll try to get some pictures online as soon as we have a broadband connection. And then I'll also think about a new title...
So we moved into our 2-bedroom-apartment some time ago and we still need to get more furniture. Our car is still driving (though it's an Opel - GM affiliate).
I'll try to get some pictures online as soon as we have a broadband connection. And then I'll also think about a new title...
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Things to do...
I was fairly busy during the last weeks here in Germany. I went from government office to government office to get things registered etc. It took me some weeks but I still didn't get most things done. Especially when my wife arrives a lot of things have to be done.
The foreigner's office will need a lot of time - they decide about the residence permission and about the mandatory German language and integration course.
This is fairly new in Germany - as a foreigner you need to attend a German language and integration course. The integration course will explain things like our democracy, human rights, history and so on. We never before had that. The language training is quite difficult when you're new here, because the whole training will be in German.
The three most important things were:
1. Getting my wife to Germany.
- Still not fully done. I went to the consulate in Shanghai with her and finished the application. Then it took three weeks until I got a letter from the foreigners administration office to go there. I had to go there personally (in Germany) to tell them that I really want my wife to join me here (luckily I decided to go back to Germany before my wife can). This was two weeks ago and she still didn't get any notification about the visa. The whole procedure takes at least two months.
2. Rent an apartment which is not too expensive but also not too small.
- Got that done this Friday. It took me ages and I checked many apartments all over the area until I finally got one. I already found one that I liked but I was one of three who wanted it and didn't get it.
Some landlords react a bit nervous when I tell them that we will be three people soon. ;-)
3. Buy a family car to get to work and so on.
- Got that done - took me "only" two weeks and I spent the top end of my planned budget. I nearly lost patience because it is difficult to choose the right one. All used cars had one bad thing and all new ones were too expensive. For the American readers: I bought one with a 1.8 ltr. engine and this is on the higher end of the scale (funny isn't it?). The smallest one for this car is a 1.4 ltr. (too noisy) and the biggest one a 2.0 ltr. Turbo (my father has this one). As soon as Picasa and Blogger manage it I'll upload a picture or two...
The foreigner's office will need a lot of time - they decide about the residence permission and about the mandatory German language and integration course.
This is fairly new in Germany - as a foreigner you need to attend a German language and integration course. The integration course will explain things like our democracy, human rights, history and so on. We never before had that. The language training is quite difficult when you're new here, because the whole training will be in German.
The three most important things were:
1. Getting my wife to Germany.
- Still not fully done. I went to the consulate in Shanghai with her and finished the application. Then it took three weeks until I got a letter from the foreigners administration office to go there. I had to go there personally (in Germany) to tell them that I really want my wife to join me here (luckily I decided to go back to Germany before my wife can). This was two weeks ago and she still didn't get any notification about the visa. The whole procedure takes at least two months.
2. Rent an apartment which is not too expensive but also not too small.
- Got that done this Friday. It took me ages and I checked many apartments all over the area until I finally got one. I already found one that I liked but I was one of three who wanted it and didn't get it.
Some landlords react a bit nervous when I tell them that we will be three people soon. ;-)
3. Buy a family car to get to work and so on.
- Got that done - took me "only" two weeks and I spent the top end of my planned budget. I nearly lost patience because it is difficult to choose the right one. All used cars had one bad thing and all new ones were too expensive. For the American readers: I bought one with a 1.8 ltr. engine and this is on the higher end of the scale (funny isn't it?). The smallest one for this car is a 1.4 ltr. (too noisy) and the biggest one a 2.0 ltr. Turbo (my father has this one). As soon as Picasa and Blogger manage it I'll upload a picture or two...
German countryside at it's best
Some pictures from where I live currently. I rented a vacation house during October. I will move into my real apartment in November. We'll have to get a lot of furniture then.
This is my current view from the living room.
OK this Blogger/Picasa connection doesn't work out well. I give up now and take the full scale resolution in there.
This is my current view from the living room.
OK this Blogger/Picasa connection doesn't work out well. I give up now and take the full scale resolution in there.
