NinaOnTour

New Beginnings

2009-09-09T18:58:00.002+02:00

OK, I see it has been over a year since I posted my last update. Many things have changed. The work blues got to an extend that it was partially not bearable anymore and then I escaped.
Left Switzerland, left over 8 years of my old company and got a new job in Munich. Even the boyband obsession has dimished over the year. I still follow the news, even saw the concerts at Wembley (nearly all of them), but everything seems to get to an end.
I think what it is now, is feeling still a bit connected to those guys as we had gotten that close. You are just interested how they are doing, what they are doing, but you wonder if they are doing any good with what they are doing now...

Anyway, they will appear now and then here, if I get to catch them, but more important is my new start here. A new city again, new work.. Everything is exciting and there are just a few days until the famous Oktoberfest. And I still will not get one of those traditional dresses.. not now, not so soon, I'm not from here...

Work Blues 2

2008-03-18T14:08:00.002+01:00

I cannot believe it, the escalation I had handed back to my colleague a view weeks ago, with a request to clarify the situations has come back this morning.
But this time in an even sillier way!!!
I got a mail, asking for the status. What status??? I had asked her to investigate how the problem manifests itself and what the customer really sees, as through our investigation should the customer not have an issue at all unless he installed the product in the wrong manner.
What we just wanted was an error code or screen shot that the issue really is there and not just an assumed problem.
I also had confirmation that someone would talk to the customer and mentioned that in my mail. And now, what do I get? Three weeks later a request for a status.
This is not my customer, this is not a problem relating to my work, but I do as much as I can do to help out.

Could someone please just switch on their brain???
Worse coming to worst, am I not the only target of her unqualified escalations. OK, but now, how do we tell her instead of just getting mad?
This starts to be a sensitive topic.

Heilbronn - another Howard DJ Gig

2008-03-18T08:28:00.003+01:00

OK, I have done it again a night of dancing and fun, though now with a little twist.
As this was one of the most crowded DJ Gigs of Howard Donald, especially the amount of TT fans present was scary, could I experience the full fan crazy and the woes afterwards.
What happens if you put zealous girls into a crowded room with their teen age star?
Well girls get silly party and are jealous of anyone around them.

But let's start at the beginning, because weeks before this gig did the mostly used German fan forum receive a mail from the club owner requesting the present fans to rather party and dance, than just stand around and gaze at their star.
A huge discussion evolved on people claiming that they are dancing, people bitching at each other. It was just fun, so in essence I was interested to see what would be happening.
OK, the dance floor was a bit too small, so dancing was quite impossible, but partying was fine.
Me and my friend had actually stayed a bit further away, were we had some space to dance until we started to be the target of some really strange guys. That's when we escaped to the dance floor.
What was this song line again... "Sometimes you don't know what you are waiting for, that's the time to be on the dance floor..."
It felt to me that we and Howard had quite some fun, but the forum during the next day had to prove me wrong.
First of all, lesson learned, do not try to use a certain style and interesting word combinations to describe the fans you were together with, do not even dare to distinguish between you and them, even though you are different and did not join them in the hunt for a picture with the star. Even if you try to use a nice language and tell people how happy you are for them, some will always think that you are leveling them.
But looking back at that discussion and thinking about what they actually did, which was sneaking into the back of the club to get a picture, what else can this be then crazy fans, or even stalking. Celebrities have reasons why they use back entrances, so why just not leave them alone? If they are willing to take pictures, they will take the front that's for sure. Actually Howard used the front, after, what I think now, rescuing these silly girls from the back.
But the discussions in the forum were just silly the next day, especially when people contradict themselves in different threads and do not notice it.
Worst coming to worst, the discussion is now up, who was now really partying and who wasn't.
Hello, girls get real, give everybody their space. I can live with gazing fans, as long as they are not the majority, give people their space, as much as you also do not want to be valued in being a "crazy" fan yourself.
I even would like to question what is worse, looking and taking pictures during the show or running after the star afterwards.

Anyway, silly me signed up to go with some other girls to Munich in April and then I do not think I will attend any gig until July (unless Howard is in Muenster).

I'm a bit tired of all this bitching, but wasn't it the bitching that got me started on this forum, trying to tame down these girls again???
Oh well, silly me, will remain here, do not write much anymore, but continue to party with the friends I found here.

Silly Workweek and more TT

2008-02-27T15:33:00.002+01:00

Unbelievable, but I got a Take That concert for myself, right at the first day of release, but then actually bought 5 more for friends in Germany, who had to wait a week longer until it gets released there (just this coming Friday).
Adding to this, will I go in midweek (what will my mum tell me) to Stuttgart to see the show again on the big screen. OK, this time the concert with several people I know, which feels much cooler, but still a silly thought.
And not to speak of me going to another DJ Gig of Howard in March. But that is supposed to be a fun party night again, so what is wrong to that.

All the above could be so easy if work would not have caught up with me this week, leaving me tomorrow with only one team member (half way) in the office and me off in the afternoon.
All members have insisted on us being flexible, but this is now going way too far and again the worst happened. The message of one, I'm working from home taking care of sick child... Either you work or you look after your 2 year old. I still cannot believe this morale, as it surely just feels like, I will be on call at home hoping nothing comes in so I can take care of my child. Some people do not understand my opinion on that, but the Swiss law gives you the right to take a sick leave to take care of your child. So why not just go to the doctor and get the document???? We will be able to handle the rest and cover the work. I just think that this is way to much risk taking by now and we already had one occasion were this arrangement did not work out and I had to jump in myself.
I really insist in having a family friendly workplace, but some things sometimes get too far...

Work Blues

2008-02-20T15:38:00.002+01:00

I cannot believe it, work just caught up with my today again giving me several interesting and nerve wrecking challenges.

Question - How do you escalate something that does not belong in your department, neither does the person escalating understands or really knows what he/she wants????

Aimless and badly researched escalations are the worst thing I have ever seen.
I think I should have already stopped yesterday when asking the requester what she actually wants, and did not get an answer, but rather a command to look into our database to see what is technically wrong.
This should have already told me, that she did not know what she was talking about, but had escalated within different channels during the last 3 weeks.
Unbelievable, and I now also understand why she could not get it resolved.

Is logical thinking so difficult or do I expect too much.
But now I and a colleague are standing here, having started an escalation with wrong information, which will make us look incredibly bad.

Lesson learned, insist to get answers to all your questions even if the requester thinks your are crazy, in the end you will learn that they did not understand the story at all....and you helped them to understand it.

Take That to be continued

2008-02-20T11:20:00.002+01:00

How silly is this now, but I actually went to my first fan meeting in Stuttgart.
I can only say, this is an interesting experience and someone should actually write a psychology master thesis on boy band fan behavior.
Surely you can see quite different people there, new fans, old fans, crazy fans etc, but what combines all is the love for music and fun.

It was unbelievable how much fun we had that evening and I did not leave Stuttgart until 2 in the morning. So nobody better ask how tired I was when I crawled into my bed at 5.
Excuse me, but hadn't I done the same the weekend before??? I'm amazed I can still do such things.

So what did we do all evening???
Eat - I did bring my beloved curry (in memory of one of the Take That members)
Talk - which we did more then eat or anything else
watch videos - were hardly anyone looked at or we made fun of the quality (shaking camera during concert - I think I suffer from motion sickness)

Interesting stories have been revealed and I'm still a bitt puzzled about people collecting towels the guys used or are still looking for the water bottle of a certain one.
This just put a special image into my head... Monty Python, The life of Brian
-> follow the bottle, follow the sandal
How crazy is this now.
I'm already questioning the use of autographs and pictures, but what do you do with such things???
It actually lead to a worse image in my head, consider one of these fans dying of old age and someone finds in their closet a towel in a vacuumed bag. Interesting thought, what do you do with that and who will care in 50 years time???
Furthermore am I amazed how vocal some people are about certain women around particular members of the band (dancers, wifes, etc). Does really anybody believe they will be dating one of them sometime??? This is just ridiculous and does not get into my mind.
Some of them have been to over 10 concerts and will even attend fan meetings in the UK, how crazy is this now.
We are not teenagers anymore, but some of the old fans seem to keep on moving in this mode, with the additional advantage, that they do not need to ask their parents anymore and their allowance has increased until then.

Well, everyone is different and I cannot exclude myself completely from this, but still hope to keep an open mind and look at myself with a wink.

Kempten, where the heck is Kempten

2008-02-10T15:51:00.000+01:00

What a weekend and I'm still recovering from that party.
Finally I got a view at the missing Take That member, having visited one of his DJ gigs, somewhere in the German mountains.
What a drive, but the night was worth this long journey....

Thanks Tina for the video, hope you do not mind I put it here for my memories.

Two week update

2007-11-14T13:48:00.000+01:00

Well, let's say I thought I should write something, but did not get the time. So actually the next most important update should be my Cirque de Solei review.

Anyway, what still runs a bit too much through my head is the Take That concert I went to a view weeks ago.
OK, the tour is continuing, seems all 4 are back on stage, so sadly I had no chance to see the whole group. In the meantime did I do some research on them, as I have never been the big Take That fan in the 90th. The only song I honestly remember is "Relight my Fire" out of my student party times. I think I even owned a CD, but actually cannot find it at the moment anymore.
I remember the breakup, and think I could not care less, even though I was amazed by the hype around them. Looking at old videos and tour material, do I understand why I never really became a fan, just like the music for dancing purposes. I think I have never seen anything as silly as this and now it is the best bad mood or work stress remedy for me to look at old Take That material. I really can laugh my head of, and even something think poor guys what the had to live up to and endure ;-)
Well, at least the pay must have been great.

Anyway, the group now is something I really can rather live with, mature, grown up, still silly as I can be sometimes and most important, they seem to somewhat portray themselves, do what they like and be creative themselves. So with this break of 10 years they even seem to have a chance to continue for a view years again.
But what got me to write this, well something really strange, while listening to the radio and reading yesterday evening. I did not really notice the music until the station played "Advertising Space" by Robbie Willians (former TT) which was then at the end blended over to "Rule the world" Take That's latest song. This was just too strange for me, but also an interesting mix. Up to now had I never heard any of their songs so close together on the radio, well how soon will some DJ mix just the tunes ;-)

Anyway, should start to compose my Cirque review....

Happy Moods

2007-10-30T18:50:00.000+01:00

I never knew such a concert could set you up in such a good mood. We have quarter end, customers complaining and way too many things going in the office and I just keep on smiling. Or do I want to call it grinning :-) :-)

Thanks to you tube another wonderful memory of Saturday, which I just need to play and keep on smiling again.
Silly me even has been thinking of going to see another concert, but I think that is just way off.

OK, and if I had to choose, this one is mine ;-)

Just 2 weeks to go...

2007-10-28T18:29:00.000+01:00

and I'm still not sure if I will or should go home for our fair.
It is a family tradition and really something special to me.
Not sure if people understand why I can fancy this, but if you grow up with one fair every year then you grow fond of it.
See yourself, it is the biggest in town fair in Europe called Soester Allerheilligen Kirmes.

Never forget that evening

2007-10-28T17:04:00.000+01:00

Back for Good

2007-10-28T10:49:00.000+01:00

Well, I do confess, I went to a live concert last night.
I spontaneously decided to go an see Take That in Zurich. People will think I'm silly, but I think it is nice music, expected a good show and can alt least claim I never ran after them during the 90ies.

So there I was and it was needless to say that I have never seen such an emotional evening not to speak of the great show the remaining 3 of them did offer.
What, only three, yep it seems Howard got injured pretty badly in Barcelona (on stage doing a flip). He is in hospital in Vienna, but joined the crowd via live video for a view moments.
OK, I think we should debate if men at that age should still do such silly things like flips and so on, but honestly I was amazed to still see all that dancing going on on stage. Surely they have grown quite calmer, but they still now how to attract the audience.

A wonderful evening

Full Moon

2007-10-26T19:11:00.000+02:00

It is unbelievable, but just this morning with all these strange things coming in did I say to a colleague at work, maybe it is full moon. Well, I just found proof, I was right.
Can it be true that this has such a large impact on people?????
Just wondering.

Communication

2007-10-26T08:40:00.000+02:00

Maybe it is just me as a woman and probably sometimes the person who talk a bit too much, but in essence it is amazing how much you can destroy with no communication and how much you can achieve with just a tiny bit of information and guidance.
For me this applies to work, leisure and private life and over the years I have collected many examples for myself.
Just recently we decided to redesign our office layout to enhance synergy between the teams and save some space. Well, OK it was not we, but rather our upper management.
Decisions had been taken, managers informed and just to my surprise yesterday even a lead had been defined, who though did not know about this, because this manager had not attended that meeting. So here the communication (minute reading) already failed.
Proactive as I was, had I informed my team, that some moves will happen early October and that we might have some new people in our room. OK, at that point (end September) was I told that I should not tell people yet???? My big question still is why?
Anyway, so nobody else was told, people only knew rumors, some started to take action and set up their new space themselves, which then bothered others and finally last week Thursday all affected people got a mail that they need to move on Friday.....
It was amazing to see how emotions exploded in this just tiny move because nobody was told early enough and worse nobody really had a plan what to do and were to seat people.
The whole thing erupted in a mail battle between upper managers, were in the end I was thinking, guys get real you are grown up enough that someone in your management team should have caught the issue that there actually had not been a "working" lead for this project.
So in the end I can see quite some managers behaving like children pointing to right and left to find someone else to blame.
Luckily this only affected me very little and I could only be the observer and learn, but at the same time do I face a similar issue. It had been decided that nobody in my function should go to a well known internal event, but nobody had told us, so all of us were left in the dark when all others received their invitation e-mail. This is a very sad feeling for an employee, being asked if you also will go like any other year and you need to say you do not know. We all understand the word no and have learned that already at the age of 1, if our parents give us some valid reasons.

So should I now ask myself if parents would be the better managers or maybe if managers should attend parenting classes? Maybe some more psychology and less book keeping might help.
Or if you put it to the very simple level, trust your gut feeling and treat people how you would like to be treated.

California wildfires and comming winter in Zurich

2007-10-24T23:45:00.000+02:00

I have to get in touch with my cousin in San Jose and see if his daughter is doing fine in San Diego. She just started her first university semester at UCSD and has left home for the first time. The university website says that classes are canceled due to air pollution. Hope she had a chance to go home and just relax.

Switzerland on the other side is getting cooler and cooler. I need to make an appointment to get my winter tires mounted on the car. Hope my baby car gets to play in the snow this winter or for what did I get the 4x4 last year, after complaining for several years about my rear transmission in winter. To some extend am I please to no have a fellow (male) colleague also complain about the same thing, as they always gave me the feeling that it was the unable woman driving in winter. Well, so there, I got my license in winter with snow, I know how to handle that. But surely a posh cool sporty car with wide tires might in some areas not be the right car.

Another week

2007-10-22T14:15:00.000+02:00

Time flies and I have not had much time to write about some things.
Well, there has been one idea: trying to figure how the Swiss voting system works.
I have looked around wikipedia and other sources and found some good explanations, but how do I sum them up in here. Now the election is completed and we only have to wait for the Bundesrat election which should be held in a view months.
I find it rather interesting, that compared to other countries you always have in Switzerland some kind of large coalition going on, due to the fact how seats and Bundesrat positions are formed. So during the last years, there have been situations that people had to stand in for special ideas and movements, that did not go along with their own ideas or their party. I'm still not sure if I like these cases, but it feels like a good thing to sometimes step into one others shoes and promote ideas that you would not agree with.
Lately this has not been successful in all cases, but this is the danger of this system.

What puzzles me most though, as a German and an expat is the open hostility against foreigners in Switzerland, which seems to increase year over year. It is amazing to see that a country with such a low unemployment rate can be so hostile to people who bring money into their welfare system (taxes, social security etc), shop in Switzerland and help grow their economy, can be so not welcomed. Maybe this is related to non highly skilled managerial positions, but even in these cases am I amazed how will some fellow foreigners can speak Swiss German compared to some foreigners in Germany. The integration has been pretty successful on the language side, but surely everybody tries to keep his native specialty and roots to stand out and show belonging to something. I also feel that it is hard to relate to the people here and make local friends, but this is similar to my hometown in Germany, were you also just remain the "outsider" if you were not born there. It always takes some time to get into a community, in most cases even a generation.

Well, we will see how this develops. I will see if I can update on the Swiss voting system soon and before the next election.

A week on training

2007-09-23T21:43:00.000+02:00

I'm back in Zurich, thinking about the training last week.
Many things have happened and I had quite some time to think about myself and the team.
There are quite some challenges coming up and just looking into my mailbox this evening did show that quite some things took some turns on Friday afternoon.
There is the colleague, who was advised to tell a customer he will make an exception by working for them, who then just turned to his manager who refused to make this effort. Now a whole team ins offended.
Another customer who is asking for a support which is not there, stressing us now for weeks, just to tell us again after the last effort that our solution cannot be accepted by them and we have to do what they want. In parts do I still not understand what they really want, neither does development. It seems people are only playing with fears and minor business cases, which quite frankly gets on my nerves.
Last but not least did we forget something when arranging our Christmas Party and now some managers are asking for a reschedule, which even if we would have checked with the other office would not be possible at all.
Crazy week, all was nice and calm until Friday...
At least I got some out of the training for me, which surely helps understand my behavior and my working relationship with others. Still after our trainers system am I achievement driven, meaning, tasks and goals are a primary driver for me. Sure, that being true also means I have huge difficulties to work with non performing people (lazy and/or incompetent). Well, but how would be a social driven person cope with that, especially if the team will not achieve. Even in that case would conflict arise at some point, especially if the whole team will be punished.
OK, so will I be more patient with our incompetent new office manager? I would say surely not, because a. will I not do her work and b. do I not have any real influence as she only listens to her direct manager. I have tried the soft way, trying to coach her, but the effect now is with a shrinking team, that others are taking over to take minutes or send agendas, just because she is not able. In essence would I even say, that we should remove her from the team and not make this social committee a task for her but rather an independent group. Not sure if that will work out, but for me I'm getting closer to the point to drop out of this group.
My other work is just too much affected by this and I have more important things to do to get my team up and running again.
So for next week, how do you get 4 guys to work together again after 2 guys have created two sub teams. At least one of them is gone, but now the more difficult one needs addressing, but as he cannot cope with feedback do I need to find ways.

Outlook for the next week

2007-09-14T08:32:00.000+02:00

It is Friday morning and the weekend is approaching in large steps.
Today will be a special day for our office as we will have our summer event. We will be visiting the Zurich Zoo, have a reception at the penguin house and later dinner in one of the restaurants.
The event looks pretty cool looking around on the Zoo website and I'm excited to see what all the others think.
Oh, btw, I'm part of the organizing committee, even though for this event my engagement was close to 0, as the organization should be part of our office manager.
But there comes the problem, we seem to have hired someone incompetent, unmotivated and worse status and title driven person. So first of all should we debate th title office manager, what is that and what can that be? For our local organization primarily it is receptionist, purchasing manager for office and kitchen supplies, travel management, admin support to the whole team when it comes to events. This role in the first place does not have any line management responsibility and surely the title does not describe a manager in the classic way. But oh well, as we are adapting to all these wonderful "blown up" US titles, must I be already close to a VP of Local Support title. How I see here role, would I just call her receptionist with some extended functions. But anyway, this young lady is unorganized, incompetent and not able to work under pressure, worse coming to worse is she using our help and in the end claiming that she did everything on her own or even lies about tasks not completed.
I think I can live with training needs, but a person lying and over estimating here role is something I cannot cope with.
So now we are having a summer event HR arranged, because she had not been hired yet and she is not able and willing to keep people up to date and complete the tasks she should do.
So yesterday, it was again in the end me sending the final reminder mail with all travel details to the participating employees. Wonderful, and now everybody thinks I arranged this event. I just hope everything works out.
I also arranged for the music just yesterday. It seems the restaurant does not have a stereo so bringing just a laptop or CDs would not have worked. Good we have some employees who have large music machines at home. Well, she was thinking that a boom box would be sufficient. What was she thinking......

I'm really asking myself why am I doing this, why do I stay in this team, as it really does not belong to my work and the things I'm doing are primarily done in my spare time or over lunch.
Maybe because I feel for our local employees and want to keep team spirit up, but if I lack the basic admin support from our office manager, then I feel a bit that I'm abusing my own job.
Next thing coming up is the Christmas Party, well, this time I arranged and booked everything and I will need to see if I can work with the vendor on weekends to get everything set up.

And the next question I have is, shall I put some effort into trying to train this poor little girl. Knowing her do I actually believe that she would not accept that, because she will have the feeling we are degrading her, but in the end, she has not the role she believes to have.
Tricky situation, so the only thing I can say is, good I'm not her manager, but on the other side, hell what will happen with our events next....

Anyway, the day is short today and next week I will be off. First at home in Warstein-Mülheim and then for training in Frankfurt. BTW, there again someone silly picked this week, not thinking that with one of the biggest trade shows in Frankfurt all hotels will be full or super expensive. There we are going with travel expense savings.....

9/11

2007-09-11T17:39:00.000+02:00

The date has come again and again everybody is memorizing what they have been doing that day.
Today is also a Tuesday which made me remember this day even more.
The day started for me as normal as could be, I had been on vacation in San Jose again. Had just arrived a view days before flying from Dusseldorf via Paris.
It was Tuesday and I had planned to go to San Francisco to visit the Museum of Modern Art, as Tuesdays is the day of free admission.
Not sure why the TV was running when I came into the kitchen and family room around seven or eight in the morning. The first plane had just crashed into the first tower and I was stunned in disbelieve.
The first thing I did was calling my parents in Germany to turn on the TV.
Then we kept on watching and the cruel some events continued.
The day we kept on watching TV as life in the US had stopped, all Malls were closed and there for no way to think of going to San Francisco anymore, especially as rumors were going around that also the Golde Gate Bridge was a possible target.

What a horrible day and how could we keep on watching these pictures on CNN.
Journalists were crying on the phone and I felt so disconnected to my European News System.

Later on I remembered the thorough carry on luggage checks in Paris and the friendly guy apologizing after checking my bag. Had they already have warnings?

I also had the feeling of closeness to the events. An Uncle of Cassie's classmates was in the plane which went down in Pennsylvania. In the extended family we have a doctor in NY, who was called to the events. It is amazing but like nearly everybody else, everyone know at least someone who lost someone. The same only happened to me again during the Tsunami a view years back.

After that day my vacation only changed slightly, though I felt pretty strange close to bad tasting champaign the following day in Napa Valley. But life had to go on and I only had those 2 weeks.

Traveling back was strange and as expected did my luggage not go through in Paris, but oh well, it was the trip back.

Anyway, this day remains a day to be remembered.

Long weekend update

2007-09-11T10:27:00.000+02:00

The wonderful super long weekend (Friday to Monday) is over and there is nothing much I can tell about.
Why? Because I could or better volunteered not to be on call Friday and Monday. So this meant I had to be at home on Friday and do my duty for the company and our customers. Well, normally these days are quiet and I can catch up with some long waiting projects like presentation design, other documents to be created or some self study.
This time though an escalated issue at one of our customers kept me busy and I had to try to keep all people up to date and start managing things.
It feels quite hard to get your head around new things especially when you are new to the situation as a backup and when you lack quite some information and there is no way to get it.
I pretty much felt moved back to my first days as a Support Manager, were people left and right tried to do things, with only limited results not knowing were to turn. Worse coming to worse do colleagues who tried to coach me in escalated situations do seem to do as bad as I did.
I had to learn my lessons the hard way and I wonder how they could keep their superior behavior at that time. Everybody makes mistakes and we are there to solve them as a team, so I kept quiet now trying to show how things can move ahead and manage multiple people involved.
It is all of us who want to drive to a result and everybody is willing to help, but we can only win if we unite.
So, now I got the technical bits on a level that a manager can understand them, now I have to figure how is going to drive this situation, if it has to be me.
So to do today:
- have stakeholder meeting
- who is managing the team
. who will contact the customer and in what frequency
- what will be our next steps

I'm confident we will be able to resolve this now, given that my analytical mind will manage to drive this as a team forward

A tribute to Luciano Pavarotti

2007-09-09T07:04:00.000+02:00

The week as sad message reached me and many fans around the world, Luciano Pavarotti has passed away.
Even though he has not been in public for quite some time, does his work carry on.
He grew to fame when uniting the 3 best tenors of his time to perform together opening the classic music world to a brought audience.
I myself had the pleasure to listen to him on a sunny day performing outdoors in my University town of Muenster. Even though I could not get a ticket to be in the concert, just being in the park and wonder through town with his music was marvelous.
The sun was shining, we enjoyed dolce vita with some wine in the park and the sound of his songs were echoing through the streets of town. I have never experienced classic music to be so relaxing, fun and summer like at the same time.
Sadly though do we now have the X tenor groups traveling the world, which is just a poor copy of the Pavarotti and co did give us.
I'm just closing with his signature song
Nessum Dorma
Sleep well, we will remember you.

A special birthday

2007-09-04T23:41:00.001+02:00

Today is a special day, the girl who also got be to California was born.
10 years ago I cannot believe it, so much time has passed and how many things have changed.
It is still hard to think about the fact that I had to leave her and San Jose 7 years ago to return to Europe and now on this big day I even cannot be there.
I hope the big box I mailed yesterday will arrive in a view days. This will be a big surprise as she should not be expecting a parcel this year. Sadly I could not mail it earlier, but parts of the present had not arrived before the weekend. But anyway, I still believe that the thought is just what counts.
Thinking of that year do I long in memories, of great times, loads of fun and a sunny country. Yep, I miss CA, the weather, the people and it seems there is still no realistic chance to get back any time soon. Well, maybe there will be a chance for a visit next year or even better Allie will be able to visit Europe one year. My travel budget is quite tight and at the moment I prefer to go to other places than California for a vacation. California is more or less still the dream place for me to live, but a vacation there is just not the right thing ;-)
I want it all, not just a view weeks seeing things I already know by heart and then my heart will break when I have to leave again.
OK, Allie happy birthday to you, my thoughts are flying over the ocean.

My first blogging day

2007-09-04T22:21:00.000+02:00

OK, here I am and what do I do now?
What is my goal, what do I want to share.
I think it is a bi of my travels, my little trips, my life and how I manage to move around the world.
I also want to keep record of my goal to do more sports.
Yes true, I have been bad and I need to do more now, get in shape again for winter especially as the first snow was already falling in the mountains today.

OK, next task for tomorrow, come up with my personal training plan and keep record here how I feel and how it works, even though fall is approaching.