It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me...

And I'm feeling goooood :-)
Very excited. This is the last message from my flat in Valenciennes. Heading off in a few minutes to my new construction site in Saint Avold and my temporary flat in Saarlouis. Feeling pumped with energy and intend to severely kick ass. Finally something new worth writing about!
Will post some pics and stories soon.

Ruling off 2007

Aaaaand I'm back. Being the lemming I am, here a short recap of 2007.

On the pro side:

• First big project I can call my own
• Apparently got great feedback for the work I did in India
• Spent some nice days in Munich, Bahrein, Brussels, Amsterdam and Nürnberg
• Got a cool apartment in France

On the contra side:

• The cool apartment is in a tiny sh**hole
• France sucks
• Didn't do remotely as well on the project as I would have wished for
• I hate Paris ...with a passion
• Was pretty much alone for the first half of the year (only 3 colleagues on site and non of them interesting to spend time with)
• Family affairs yet again

....as far as the contra side goes, I could go on and on and on. On the bottom line 2007 sucked. I remember that after a rather desaterous (apart from Spain) 2006 where I thought it wouldn't be that hard for the new year to be better, I was proven wrong... BIG TIME. 2007 was bad on a different level though, because the thing that went wrong I can actually change, well, most of them.

2008 welcomes me yet again with the possibility to start over. End of January I'll start a new project in Saint Avold, France, which is so close to the German border that it will allow me to move back to Germany. Yes, I'll move again (REALLY hate moving). For now I booked a furnished place near Saarlouis which looks rather nice and will make the start easier and gives me the chance to concentrate on work and, of course, after work activities. Already know 2 people living there, so that might make the start even easier.

Well, to follow the lemming path, here a list with new year resolutions for 2008.

• 2008 will rock! ...and if it doesn't, I'll make it!
• Letting go a bit, meaning: not overthinking everything, being more stupid and silly at times and just enjoying myself more ...really looking forward to how that will turn out ;-)
• Meeting more people. Really hated the 1st half of my stay in France, because the lack of social interaction just got me down. You know that I'm not really the person to sit in the corner not talking to anybody, and even though I hate the beginning of making friends (can't I just hand in a CV and a short summary of my personal life so far pleeeeeease?), I need people to spend time with besides work colleagues
• US trip! If I can make the time, I will embrace my girly side and do a shopping trip to the east coast. Arrival 5kg luggage, back 2x23kg. Now that's a grat new years resolution, isn't it?
• Apart from that, the usual blahblah resolutions that might forgotten by the end of January - work out more, smoke less (or even quit?!?!), read more.... you know the drill ;-)

Here's to 2008, a year that is bound to make history (...just like any other year btw ;-) )

And AGAIN...

...imagethrust doesn't display my pictures! Maybe I should take it as a sign to change the design of the blog. Until than the frames will remain empty.

France is bigger then I thought...

A few weeks ago a colleague and I talked about places we've worked at. I really thought I've been around a bit, but then he told me he worked in a geo-science lab in Antarctica for 16 months. Antarctica is rather big so I thought it couldn't have been that bad - until yesterday. Turned out he only worked "near" Antarctica, on an island that belongs to France. To understand what "near" means, check the pictures ;-) Am deeply impressed (and wonder how much allowance you receive for staying there).

Puhhh...

...managed to recover everything.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

$§)%§=*$)=§/?*!(§#&%"=!""#!!!!!!!!!!!! Those stupid wankers from Imagethrust deleted my images!!! Of corse they are NOT on my laptop (except for the pirate-me) because I created them when I had different one :-((( Will check on my external drive, but don't think I have them. I really liked them and it took ages to come up with that.

Pissed now!

Half-brain weekend and whole-grain bread

Damn, another month over and I didn't manage to update my blog...
However, here I go:
Work: Still love my job, still hate my construction site. 'nuff said.
For the rest: don't even remember what I did with all the time on my hands, so I'll start with the weekend of the 11th. The 15th was a holiday here in France so I took the chance and took Monday and Tuesday off. On Friday evening I was on my way to Amsterdam to finally see Niek's place before he moves out. Swiched my brain off and simply enjoyed hanging out, tried to by sneakers (and failed miserably), had japanese pancakes for the first time in my life and tried to be a good co-pilot on the motorbike Niek had for the weekend. All things considered, I had a lot of fun and recharge my batteries :-)
On Monday I went home, enjoyed some mum's cooking and met Sandra (which was more than overdue!).
After days like those it's even harder to return to a place where people don't really know you, but it's good to know that I can at least say that there actually are people that can rightfully claim to do so. That's something, isn't it? ;-)

...today, after yet another 14h workday, I stopped by at the supermarket to at least try to fill my fridge. This time I passed an aisle that I never set foot in before: The BIO corner! (No worries, I still think that nobody should hesitate to show those animals their rightful place in the food chain (which basically ends in my tummy) and that pesticides are nothing more than a free-of-charge add-on by the food industry.) As my eyes scanned the products, all of a sudden the lights went dim, a spotlight illuminated a small place on the shelf and I could have sworn I heard church choir music; there it was: whole grain bread!!! 'BIG DEAL' you might say, but yes, in the land of baguette and soft wannabe-bread it IS a big deal indeed. It's way too expensive, it's not even remotely compareable to German bread and it's Bio... but it's mine, Mine, MINE!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!
(ok, definately need a proper holiday, but that's another story)

Magical weekend

I've never been much of a book worm. The first time I got totally hooked up with books of a series, I was about 6. The series of "Ich und meine Schwester Klara"is my first memory of books I loved (besides the fairy tales my mum read to my sister and me). It's not like there was much to read, but the mere thought of it makes me smile. This episode was followed by everything from Astrid Lindgren. Pretty standard those days. The next time stories soaked me in was when I read my first Sherlock Holmes story at the age of 12.

Ironically the detective stories lead to my first criminal act: I stole a book from the library! Well, I didn't actually steal it. They had a compendium of all stories ever published. It wasn't produced anymore (would have cost about EUR 6,- if available) and the equivalent compendium of books would have cost about EUR 80,-. So I borrowed it, went back a couple of weeks later and told them that my little cousin had finger painted most of the pages, paid the 6 bucks and left. Can't count the nights I spent reading in it under the blanket.

Tomorrow another obsession will come to an end: The last installment of the Harry Potter series will be published! In January 2000, I had never heard of the books, my flatmate gave me "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". She said: read it, it's really good. I was slightly biased by the children-book cover but was proven foolish instantly. 2 days later I went to the bookshop and bought the first two books. Then I had to wait 5 moths, which felt like an eternity, for "HP and the Goblet of Fire". I remember driving to a park near by and reading it in one go. Then I had to wait - 3 YEARS - until "HP and the Order of the Phoenix" was released. In the meantime I discovered the audio books read by Stephen Fry leading to the habit of listening to some chapters while going to bed - kinda preserving a childhood habit. The 5th book was read in the garden of a hospital as my flatmate was stuck there with a back injury. When "HP and The Half Blood Prince" was released, I was in Shanghai. Despite my love for sleeping in I took a Taxi to Pudong at 8am to go to a bookstore, drove back to my apartment and only stopped reading for ordering take out. Tomorrow, 7 1/2 years, several re-reads/listenings and web site visits of fan pages to be up-to-date, later, it will come to an end. I'll get the book, close the curtains and accompany the trio on their last journey. Mind you despite my curious nature, despite the temptation of getting a copy that leaked on the Internet and despite the NY Times posting a review on the 19th I managed to remain completely unspoiled!

It's "just a book" and it doesn't really matter, but regarding those 7 1/2 years it will change everything. Reading a book for the first time is a moment that can't ever be recovered. Reading this book will change the perception of all the times I've read or listened to its predecessors. I'll never be able to read one of the books again without knowing how the story will end. No theory I might have had, no idea that sprang to my mind over the little hints carefully hidden in the books, will have a meaning anymore. Despite this seemingly bleak future I can't wait to get up tomorrow, buy the book and start reading. If you don't care about the books, think of it as being given a sealed box 7 1/2 years ago, only getting a hint what it might contain every now and then, but without the possibility of opening it before July 21st 2007. And then the day comes, you can open it and everything you ever guessed will be confirmed or smashed. I'll finally find out where Snape's loyalties lie, what Aunt Petunia meant when she talked about "that awful boy", if the trio will make it through, if Harry is a Horcrux, who will live and who will die... I'll finally know.

I feel thrilled, anxious, excited, sad and happy at the same time. I know that some might say it's childish, I know that some might say it's stupid and I definitely know that I couldn't care less what some might say ;-)

"Deathly Hallows", here I come!

Another month gone by...

...and France still doesn't make it to my top-5-countries-to-live. Ah well, time will tell.

Last week, after 6 months, I went back to Munich for the weekend. Only thing I can say is that I miss it even more than I did before. Getting there proved to be rather tough though - left Valenciennes at 5pm and thought I'd make the 850km in about 8 hours... 8 hours, 550km and 5 traffic jams later I came to the conclusion that, even with a proper commercial background, not all calculations can be correct. With my eyes closing way too frequent and a rough week in my bones I decided to pull over to the next parking lot and get some sleep. 5 hours on the backseat of a VW Golf with 13° outside might not sound too pleasant, but believe me, I never slept as sound before!
The following days I spend in Bamberg at our yearly commercial site manager convention. The alcohol consumption of some colleagues lead me to the conclusion that the company sponsors a 2nd liver once you worked 15 years continuously for them ...only 14 years to go then. However, despite the constant lack of sleep, the realisation that alcohol on a daily basis is not my bag and that men, after drinking stupendous amounts and sleeping 2 hours look the same in the morning while women somehow...disintegrate, I had loads of fun!
To make the week perfect I spend the weekend in Nürnberg. Even though I was tired and exhausted from the week, it was great spending time with friends, playing poker till 6am and celebrating Chris' 30th b-day with a big BBQ.

All in all a nice (yet toxic - liver wise) week. Thanks to Ela Chris and Tof for your hospitality. I'll try to live up to it when you visit.

Oh boy!

Sorry, REALLY been out of it. Why? Well, it took about 2 months for my home internet connection to be activated - but that's a lame excuse. It's more that, at the moment, France still sucks for me. No new colleagues arrived up till now, my counterpart is still an pain in the ass and I really didn't see a point in writing down complaints... think that's boring. However, I'm back and won't write about work or boring weekends - that's bound to change once new people arrive and I'll let you know. For now it's mere thought posting. Hope you're all fine and didn't give up on checking my blog - guess I'll see when you leave comments ;-)

I Wish I Was An Ant
at least today

Did you ever wonder about the fact that the human body is relatively weak compared to its dimensions? …well, at least mine is. It becomes quite obvious on days when you decide to go on a shopping spree to IKEA to furnish your apartment! I filled literally every inch of my car with furniture or what is supposed to become furniture after I remove the cardboard and build it. Not only that my once more taste exceeds my budged (which is why I ended up there), it exceeds my strength as well (mind you, this didn’t even include a wardrobe or bed). All in all I loaded 130kg of furniture and carried them into my apartment – solemnly! That’s when it struck me: Human beings are degenerated – muscle- and stamina-wise that is. Every animal I can think of can do something incredible compared to its size: they can carry heavy loads, jump high, run fast or dive deep. How unfair is that! Ah well, what gets me through the night is the fact that an ant would have a hard time mending a shelf and that, no matter how superior some of those animal powers might seem, it’s ME who takes the front-row-spot in the food chain which means that I could eat any of them on toast. MUHWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Dear Diary

Today it's raining... AGAIN! I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, my only permanent colleague is on vacation for 2 weeks and my technical counterpart, who's only here for 2 days per week, is giving me a hard time. Almost nobody can (or wants to) speak english and I changed the hotel for the 3rd time, cos non of them was free for the time I need it. ARRRGGGHHH!!!!

....never been able to write a diary for longer than 3 days or so. I think it's some sort of self preservation. When bad things happen or you're having a hard time, one year later all that seems totally insignificant and you forget about how you felt back then. No need to remind oneself of stuff like that.
Right now France sucks for me. I don't know anybody, I don't have any colleagues here and I didn't get the chance to unpack my suitcase because I had to move around. However, the outlook is not too bad. I found myself a nice flat right in the center of Valencienne, which is 30 minutes from work and a rather nice small town. My place is all new, 3 rooms, balcony, 75m2. I'll move in beginning of April and then I have to furnish everything so I guess end of April/beginning of May you can come over and visit :-)
I'll be in Germany for 3 days, but in Offenbach, so I don't think I'll get to see any of you, but I'll also have to hand in my holiday schedule for this year by end of next week and I'll make DAMN SURE it includes Oktoberfest and Bocholter Kirmes!
Oh, the reason that you didn't hear from me earlier is that there's only one internet café and right now we have neither phone nor internet on site. If you want to give me a call just send me an SMS and I'll give you the "Phonenumber of the week" from the hotel I'm staying at.

Sleepless in S... ahm ...Manama
Manama is the capital of Bahrain

Back from my trip to Bahrain ...and what a trip it was! Met a lot of my colleagues that flew in from all over the world. As expected I was the only girl - and I'm NOT complaining - even though it was a bit weired. Got little sleep going to bed not before 2am with a constant level of rest alcohol (jez, these blokes can drink!) and getting up early. Aditionally i dig arabian countries. As a blonde it's just great because every time you I walk up to the bar to order drinks or ciggies (yep, already back to smoking *blush*) some Saudi/Bahrainien/UAE guy said 'Don't worry, consider it covered' So I didn't pay most of the time :-) Almost missed my flight cus got back at 4:30am the last night and had to get up at 7am. Had agreed to meet a colleague at 8am in the lobby, who called me up at 8:15am to ask if I was still in bed. I WAS! SHIT! Everybody who can claim to know me a little, knows that I don't function before 10am, ESPECIALLY NOT without a shower and a coffee (coffee is not AS mandatory as the shower). However, forced by the fact that I - for some unexplainable reason- didn't hear my alarm clock ringing, I had to dump all my stuff in the suitcase and hurry down to the lobby within 10 minutes... without coffee ...WITHOUT SHOWER! AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!
My flight was delayed by 2hrs, so I slept the morning away in the b-class lounge and, later on, on the plane.
Tomorrow it's time to head off towards Frog-Land. Tuesday I have an appointment with a relocation company that will show me around and help me find a flat or a house. I'm confident that I'll have something until the end of the month and hopefully buying furniture 'n stuff won't take too long, so by mid of April you can all come to visit! At the moment I think I prefer a quiet place on the country side to one in the city, because Valencienne (which is the next bigger city) is 40 klicks away and I don't see myself commuting every day - as I said, don't function before 10, so every additional minute of sleep is appreciated. I'd rathe live close to work in a small house with terrace or garden. Seems like they have some stand alone houses that are about 80-90sqm which would be perfect for me. Ah well, that's all speculation, so I'll just go and see what that area has to offer.

Goodbye Paris...

...hello Bahrein! Well, almost. Still at Paris. Got drunk at the Emirates business class lounge. Predicting a smoooooooth flight :-)

*cough*

...that's all I have to say at the moment. Well, not ALL, but once I open my mouth that's what comes out. Apparently I haven't totally defeted my viral flu :-( Really takes forever this time, but hopefully the sun of Bahrein, I will face during the next week, will help to get rid of it.
Apart from that I stopped smoking. Not really free willingly, but the flu sort of forced me to do so. I decided to take that as a sign and just didn't buy new fags. Not as hard as I though. I'm quite sure that me and the ciggies will meet each other again, but for the moment I'm smoke-free!
I'd give you a short "first impression" of my stay in Paris, but I have to reflect a bit to decide if I like it or not. Until then I'll stick to Meg Ryan's little song she sings on the plane in "French Kiss"...
...I hate Paris in the springtime. I hate Paris in the fall. I hate Paris in the summer when it sizzles, I hate Paris in the winter when it drizzles, I hate Paris...

Attack from inner space

I haven’t been posting for a couple of days and this time I have a valid excuse: I’ve been sick! And I’m not talking “bit-of-a-headache-and-running-nose”sick. As you know last week I was supposed to work with my colleagues in Offenbach who will be my German back office for the next 2 years. On Tuesday I thought ‘Man, I don’t feel too good’, so I went back to the hotel. Then everything happened rather quickly: fever, more fever, headache and even skin ache! It was evident that I had managed to catch the flu that’s all over Germany at the moment. I wanted to go and see the doc, but I couldn't’t, because moving seemed to be a bad idea in general. I didn’t even have a bathtub at that bloody hotel room, hence I ended up sitting under the boiling shower for an hour or so to try and activate those white forces within me. Let’s say I wasn’t too successful. I was stuck in that little room until Friday when I finally managed to drive home. It was only a 2 hour drive, but when you have fever 2 hours can be veeeeeeeery long! I had planned to meet some friends during those few days in Gelsenkirchen, but I cancelled everything and nursed my tormented lounges. Today, exactly 7 days after all that started, I’m ok(ish) again. Still a bit off lane, but should be fine in one or two more days.
This whole episode made me think about the impact of little things. I’ve never been a big fan of theories such as the butterfly-effect or that one voice speaking up can actually change something. However, a tiny little virus made its way through my vanes, entered a cell, dumped its DNA there and forced it to be the new center of production for the viral forces which would do exactly the same with other cells. This microscopic piece of protein managed to take me out of the game for a whole week! If a virus can do this, imagine what a single person can do when it knows the system it’s working in and how to work it. Maybe small things can make a change after all.

Revelations

Went out with 2 of my cousins tonight to a club I've been to 5 years ago. The whole thing is divided in 2 areas - kiddies and adults. 27 is a funny age: You're too old to party with the kiddies (have I ever been 18?) and too young to disco-fox the night away with the older ones.
Apart from that the club is located in the center of the Ruhrgebiet, the area I grew up. Tonight, more than ever, it showed that I have outgrown all this. The people here are very down to earth, which is a good thing to start with, but I feel like I don't belong here anymore. This will always be the home of my family, but my home? Don't think so. It is a bit like the first time you beat your parents playing cards without them letting you win - there's not much significance to the single event, however something changes and will never be the same. Tonight I came to the conclusion that I will never come back and settle down here. I knew that before, but now it seems irreversible. It is a bit sad, especially because I don't know where I'm going and seeing that I don't even have a physical home at the moment (will be end of March before I finish traveling and get myself an apartment). But maybe that's normal and the way things go?!? Hence I'll move around as long as it takes to find a place I feel at home.
However, tomorrow is "Altweiber" where giant groups of girls all over Germany swarm out to get drunk and enjoy themselves - I'll join in and see if a few pro mill change my point of view.

Let's face the music and dance

I'm back from my Germany/Spain holiday trip. What can I say?!? It was GREAT!
I started my tour at Munich with a 'girls night out', getting tipsy and talking the night away. The weekend was very relaxed and I took the time catching up with my friends. Monday I drove over to Heimertingen to see Torsten and get my financials in order. We had planned to spend Monday and Tuesday until noon on my investment stuff, but that was somewhat interrupted by his girlfriend who went into labour that night and gave birth to a littl baby girl. Congrats my friend, she's a beauty! Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at Nürnberg with Chris and Ela who were once more the great hosts they are. On Thursday I drove up to Frankfurt Hahn for my flight to Valencia. Unfortunately I picked a day where Europa was struggeling with the side effects of winter aka. snow. Took me 4 hours to get to the airport which were followed by a 2hrs delayed departure, a more than bumpy flight that took me back to my severely neglected christian roots (means I was praying for survival) and another 45 minutes on the plane after landing waiting for a bus to take me to the terminal. However, my stay at Spain outweight the hassle of getting there BY FAR! Thanks to a great host I has a lovely time, enjoying the local food, the sun, the mountains and the company. Completely recharged my batteries.
So what's next? Will see some friends in Gelsenkirchen these days, Saturday a b-day party of one of Niek's mates at Cologne (kindly no phone calls on Sunday before 2pm!). Monday I'll be off to Offenbach to meet my backoffice team for my France project and then back to Gelsenkirchen for the weekend. After that 4 days Paris, one week Bahrain and then: my site. To be quite frank: I'm a bit nervous. But there's no way back so I'll see it through and kick ass ;-)

BACK!

After 30hrs on the road I'm back home with 2 1/2 weeks of hoidays ahead. Time to lean back, relax and do nothing...
Or not: Tomorrow I'll be off to Munich for the weekend - everybody's there and has time, so I decided to squeeze that in. Monday/Tuesday I'll visit Torsten in Heimertingen to get my financials in order. Tuesday evening I'll crush in on Chris' and Ela's place in Nürnberg, Wednesday a SHORT visit of my backoffice in Erlangen, then back to Nürnberg, Thursday I'll be on my way to Frankfurt to catch the plane to Valencia where I'll stay from 8th till 13th. Then back home for 2 days, then a short trip to the suburbs of Amsterdam (Niek, hope that weekend's fine with you?!?).
...at least I can't be blamed for wasting time ;-)

Road trip...

...ahead! Since it wasn't certain when I'd be actually leaving (wait list for the 1st) no train ticket was booked for me. So I'll be going on the trip back to Germany by car today meaning: Leaving 6pm tonight, arrival at Mumbai airport at (hopefully) midnight and departure at 3:25am with a 1h stop-over in Frankfurt before I arrive in Düsseldorf one hour later.
...maybe I should give my mum a call that I'll be coming 2 days earlier than expected. Thought about surprising her but taking a close look to the clothes I took on this trip I don't think I'd make the last bit from D-Dorf to Gelsenkirchen without catching a cold. So I'll call her up later.
See you in Germany ...or wherever ;-)

Big shadows and dim light

Ok, about time for a review of the last month. It took me long enough to get around to write about it, because I was hoping I’d collect some more positive stories to tell, but with only 3 days to go I surrender. I was hesitating what to write – mum always said “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything”. Sorry mum, but not talking about it won’t make it go away, therefore I can share my experience just as well. Working on this construction site was challenging in so many ways that I won’t even attempt to cover them all, but I owe you an impression.

The setup
Gujarat (the state I’m located at) has some particularities. First of all: it’s a “dry” state which means that alcohol if prohibited and you can only get it with a liquor licence. Therefore photocopies of every site-visitor’s passports are taken to get one and purchase alcohol. Reminds me a bit of my dive-guide days in Egypt where we collected the passports from the new arrivals to buy booze at the local duty free shop.
A lot of the local Hindis are “Chain”, which is a religious group within Hinduism the values life above everything. Thinking of India most of you think of holy cows, but here EVERY animal is protected, meaning Gujarat is a veggie state. Somehow they get chicken, pork and even meat to our canteen – I don’t ask any questions how it gets there! However, the food is pretty good.

Camp life
You can’t go anywhere because Surat, the next city, is 90 minutes away and even there is nothing to go to. Mumbai is a 6hrs car ride from here, and seeing that I worked almost every weekend a trip there was totally out of bounds. I realized that I’m not a camp-person. I don’t need an unreasonable amount of variety or solitude, but living and working together without the possibility of withdrawing yourself every now and then can be tiring. Being management makes it even more complicated because people walk up to you in the bar (after you’ve been at the office for 12 hours) and lay down their oh-so-important problems (‘TV channel 19 doesn’t work’, ‘The dart board needs mats because the darts go blunt when they drop on the floor’, ‘The menu hasn’t been published on the notice board’). Against my true nature of being helpful and saying yes to everything I drew a line implementing a policy of not talking business in the bar. To say that this behaviour wasn’t appreciated is an understatement and the ‘offer’ to raise their issue during my working hours was rarely taken. I met a few nice people, but I certainly wouldn’t win a popularity contest here. Most of the people around here are divas and I’d rather herd a bunch of spoiled only kids than all those freelancers – at least the kids could be bribed with some ice cream!

The lazy tiger
Disclaimer: If you’re Indian and NOT like described as follows, step forward and I’ll apologize!
I consider myself as quite open when it comes to foreign cultures, but my stay here made me a little …let’s say reluctant when it comes to that.
When it comes to Indians one has to distinguish between A) those that got around a bit and B) those who never left their country. Having met a couple of Indians before (A), I didn’t have any prejudices – NOW I DO! Here you only find category B! Therefore the following conclusions:
1. Getting an honest answer from an Indian at the first attempt is as hard as picking up a guy in a gay bar: impossible! I’ll try to believe that it’s a cultural thing, like in China (despite knowing that it isn’t).
2. They are a lazy bunch, the lot of them. Tiger stat my a**! The workers on site turn up at 9-10am instead of 7:30 as they’re supposed to. They are totally resistant to learning as if you poured water in a glass without a bottom.
3. I seriously doubt there is a term in Hindi for hygiene – only explanation I have for what I’ve seen.
4. The infamous head-jiggle (I’ll gladly show you what I mean when I see you next time) manages to freak out everyone, cause a “yes sir” or “yes madam” it usually accompanies gets automatically reduced to “I have no idea what you’re talking about” by this.
5. Corruption is daily business. Examples: Some local “Dons” of Akhakohl Village tried to “provide” the cars and drivers for our sites – for twice the price you’d usually pay. They consider it their god-given right to do so and made their point by beating up the drivers we hired.
A colleague brought some tools on his way back from Germany. He went to the customs to declare them and wasn’t willing to bribe, because he needed a receipt to claim the money back later on. The customs employees were severely disappointed, so he ended up spending 4! Hours with the guys, paying 70% import tax on the tools, getting his personal stuff checked as well and had to pay 300 bucks for bringing 2 laptops instead of one. The boss of them bid him goodbye with the words “So, did we learn something today?”
6. Our client had the plans for the site long before works started. The entrance to our camp would have been a 5 minute ride by car. Once the camp was built, the client built a wall blocking the entrance. Requests to open the spot where our cars were supposed to drive through were rejected, because the entrance points to the west and therefore bad spirits could enter the camp. What strikes me a bit odd is that they’d actually allow a break-through once we settle a couple of open points in favour of the client.
7. We had a huge lay down area planned. After the works started, the client decided that this area is actually the energy centre of the whole construction area (Feng Shui is BIG here). So they fenced it, built up some little hills and trees and now go praying there while we are struggling to store their stuff all over the site.
…I could go on like this for hours, but I guess you got an idea.

Personal ‘low’-light
A colleague got seriously sick and despite trying to convince him, his boss and the general manager of the severance of the situation, I got told off to shut up for political reasons. 4 days later he got so sick that he had to be hospitalized, so I found myself visiting him at the hospital (2hrs drive x2 after 10hrs at the office), making the camp doctor stay with him to take care only of him, a private nurse to compensating for the understaffed hospital crew, re-scheduling his flights, organizing wheelchair assistance for his trip back, calming down his wife and keeping her up-to-date… no complaints about that. Our employee, my job. What REALLY pissed me off was his complain to the commercial site manager I was deputizing for that nobody took care of him! UNGREATFUL PRAT! I worked my butt of for him and he doesn’t even remotely appreciate that. Gladly the commercial knew what I had done for that guy and therefore could evaluate that statement, but still…

Personal highlight
Met 3 nice sub-contractors (the ones I was supposed to visit as announced in the previous post).Unfortunately their plans changed and they had to come here, but they brought the promised king prawns I had been promised, cooked for me and we had a great time during their visit. Awesome!

On the bottom-line
First of all I developed great respect for the commercial who has been doing this job for almost a year and will stay at least another. I know that he has a tough time here and that I’d probably surrender. I bow myself in awe!
So, how do I feel after all that?!? Defeated? …naaaah! It’s only been 4 weeks that will make me appreciate the much easier work-conditions I’ll find in France, now knowing it could be that much worse.

In the end every day reveals perfection, by what it is or what it is not.

Update...

...has to be postponed to another day. It's Sundy 4pm and I'm at the office, that's all there is to say at the moment. The local commercial manager will be back tomorrow morning - hope I can go back to work a reasonable amount of hours by then. ...can't wait for my holidays!!!
A small highlight might be coming up - was invited by 3 of our sub-contractors to their house near Mumbai next weekend - could combine it with a trip to the project office. Hope I can make it. That'd be fun :-)

Bottle indicator: only 3 fingers gone - but put quite a lot on the slate at the bar, hence the bottle-indicator-system is officially worthless!

Alive...

...but busy as hell. Promise to make a full grown post this weekend.

Hello from nowhere!

After my short post from yesterday I took a shower and went down to the lobby waiting for my pickup... which didn't show up - and the driver was also supposed to bring my train tickets! The Shatadbi Express I was supposed to take to Surat seems to be quite popular, so there were no tickets available, so I decided to take a driver to take me to Sugen directly by car. The driver was available for 10am, so I went back to my room and got myself a few hours of sleep.
The trip to Surat was... interesting. I thought Shanghai traffic was crazy, but replace the tiny cabs of with big, colorful trucks, add some tuktuks and imagine everybody honking ALL THE TIME on unmarked 7 lane roads, and you get an idea. Also people crossing the highway just like that is totally normal. However, after 6hrs, 5 almost collisions and 1 close call I made it to the camp. It REALLY is in the middle of nowhere. Next bigger city is 90 minutes from here, apart from that the site is surrounded by fields and some huts, that's it. The camp is nice and I'm sure 4 weeks won't be a big deal to see through, but I also know that I couldn't do that for longer. I'll take some pics during the next days to show you the area.

Bottle indicator: Still full, but was at the camp bar with the boys yesterday, so that doesn't mean anything ;-)

Bomba(y)astic
sorry, but the wordplay doesn't work with Mumbai ;-)

...at least that's what I can tell from the 5 minute trip from airport to hotel. But let's start at the beginning of the still unfinished trip.
I departed from Nürnberg after a way too short night - was staying at Chris' and Ela's place and we got hooked up playing Buzz, and all of a sudden it was 1:30am... siiiigh... the thought of getting up only 5hrs later wasn't too thrilling! Flew from Nürnberg to Frankfurt and then to Mumbai. Flight was fine, especially because a miracle happened: I SLEPT! Unbelievable, isn't it? Never managed to sleep on a plane before without mixing some chemicals with a little Vodka. Glad I got a little sleep, 'cause here's my schedule before I finally arrive on site:
1:30am: arrival in Mumbai
2:30am: check in Hotel
5:15am: transfer to Mumbai central station
7:00am: train to Surat
11:00am: arrival at Surat and pickup to Sugen
1:00pm: arrival on Site ...finally! (and hopefully)
Decided not to sleep at the hotel, 'cause I SO KONW that I'd miss my pickup and therefore the train ...sounds like me, doesn't it?!?
When I get there I reckon I'll take a shower, change clothes and start working cus I only have 3 days with the commercial site manager (including the weekend *sniff*) before he leaves for a workshop and vacation.
Stay tuned for holy cows, camp reports and updates on my mood indicator that comes in for of a bottle of nice rum I purchased at the duty free shop.

Bottle indicator: full!

Don't look back in anger

Happy New Year everybody!
I'll skip the detailed review of 2006, let me just say that - apart from finding a great job and seeing how great the friends I have actually are - 2006 sucked! So instead of looking back I decided to check the box behind the passed year and move on. Regarding new year resolutions: don't have any! Only hoping for a year with loads of fun while continuing my quest for happiness!
2007 started off nicely with a fun party at Andre's and Isi's place who proved themselves as the great hosts they are yet again. Tonight will be filled with packing my suitcase once more and tomorrow I'll be off to Erlangen - fingers crossed for Sixt giving me a BMW once more ;-) If the Indian embassy worked fast enough I'll be flying to India on the 3rd, if I don't have my visa it's the 4th. Looking forward to sun and warmth, leaving cold and rainy Germany behind.
Will post as soon as I have network access there.

Success!!!

Found all the stuff I need for tomorrow's bake-o-rama in Valencia - well, I had to improvise a tad 'cause there was no vanilla sugar, but I found vanilla husks, so I could make it myself :-) Oh, and there were only whole hazelnuts, so I put them in a pot stamping them with a wine bottle to get them semi kinda grinded. Sounds boring, now that I'm writing about it, but I'm so excited that I get to bake this year after missing out of it last year in Shanghai.

Holy cow, part 2

In an earlier post I told you about my boss intending to send me to India, which in the end didn't happen. Well, now it will. Everything is agreed with the local construction site manager and the project management, so the blank spot between Spain, holiday and France has been filled with a 4-5 weeks stay near Akhakhol, 30km east of Surat. I'll be heading off on the 2nd of January and think about squeezing in a short holiday on the Maledives afterwards, seeing that they are rather close. And I really think that I'll need some holiday after that!
The construction site is rather colse to a big city, but with the traffic a trip into town takes about 90 minutes, so they built a camp for the employees to live in. Will be nice to get to see how that kind of site will suit me and will probably make me appreciate my own site in France with my own flat and the freedom to move around.
However, the India trip is faaaaar away, almost 4 weeks, so let's have a look to the closer future. This weekend I'll try to get in some Christmas mood, despite sun and warmth: I'll bake cookies :-) I don't have an oven in my appartment hotel, so I get to use a colleague's kitchen - will have to pay him off with some of the results, but that's only fair ;-) Still not sure what I can bake 'cause as it seems the Spanish aren't into baking - if they want a cake they just buy one. Hence it's quite hard to find the required ingredients, but going to Valencia should do the trick. I'll keep you updated on the results.

Autopilot

Back from my not-even-24-hours-trip to Germany. The contract for my project has been signed on Thursday, few minutes before midnight, so there's no turning back: I'll be moving to France end of February! Seeing the first 3D-models of the power plant and pictures of the surrounding of the construction site took a great bit of the uncertainty away - only to be replaced by panic! When I get there I'll have to arrange so many things - negotiating contracts with real estate agencies, car-rental companies, catering... and set up the whole administration. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!
Will HAVE TO start to work on my french, seeing that it will be a one-woman-show for the first few weeks, so there's nobody to help me out with that :-( But enough about work.

I made my first ryanair experience. Since all the airlines have been cutting down on their service level, there was no big difference. Something that was different though, compared to my other Spain-Germany trips, were the weather conditions. It was one hell of a bumpy ride and finally the recommendation of having your seat belt fastened during the whole flight made sense to me. The best part was the captain announcing that the weather-conditions at Frankfurt-Hahn were too bad to proceed with a manual landing procedure (clouds only 40 meters above ground - didn't know that was possible - and fog with 20m visibility max) and therefore flight security regulations instruct an autopilot landing. WTF??? He explained quite a bit about which parts of the landing would be regulated by the autopilot, but I didn't bother listening. In general I like to have as much information as possible to decide myself which parts are significant and which are a waste of brain capacity, but when it comes to flying I couldn't care less! I get on the plane, I get off the plane. You guys do the rest. Period! Ignorance is bliss, especially in this case. As you can conclude from me making a post, I survived ...even though I had my doubts every now and then ;-)

The 2nd autopilot experience of the day was picking up the rental car - the airport is appr. 130km from Offenbach, so I needed a ride. I developed a strategy for getting a nice car from Sixt - you just book a navigation system as additional feature. Seems like they don't have any for the economy class, which equals a VW Golf, so once again I was hooked up with a BMW 320i :-) WRRROOOMMMMM!!!! However, the navigation still has its flaws, seeing it led me into 3! dead end roads before I decided to switch it off, get near a highway and then switch it on again.
The flight back was shit as well, but it held a nice surprise in store: I met a couple of Frenchies that were not too bad ...actually quite nice! Must be the first time I met French guys that seemed likable. Could it be that there's hope after all?!? Maybe there's a light at the end of this tunnel that isn't a train.

My private Babel

Christmas is just around the corner and since the local construction site manager is not here, I'm in charge of finding a location for our Christmas party. The set-up is rather simple: 80 people, food, 2h open bar. Valencia is full of possible locations, so you'd think it shouldn't be too hard to find an appropriate venue ...THINK AGAIN! Diana and Esther, the funny, lovely and very capable secretaries, have rummaged the yellow pages for about a week and nothing they found matched the requirements. Therefore I went to Valencia today in order to find something. I ended up at the beachfront of Las Arenas where plenty of restaurants are lined up. Most of them are tourist traps with low quality food and sky-high prices, but glancing at the visitors' plates showed which restaurants deserved a closer look. I ended up entering one that looked rather promising. '¿Hablar inglés?' Mind you, these are the only words I can say in Spanish (and most probably even those are wrong). The shrug of the waiter boded ill, and the search for someone who could speak English remained unsuccessful. I tried to call up some colleagues to help me out, but non was available, so I fell back to hand-foot language and we agreed to talk again on Tuesday (at least I guess that's what concluded our "conversation").
IT SUCKS NOT TO SPEAK THE LOCAL LANGUAGE!!!!!!!

Why do we have different languages anyway? Well, I know there are rumors out there in the field of historical linguistics, containing tribe evolution, ice ages and such, that could explain why I ended up lost in translation. But linguistics are a rather boring field for a blog entry, so in this case, despite being a devoted atheist, I prefer the Bible version to visualize the roots of my dilemma. (Don't fret, still godless, but it doesn't hurt to know what you don't believe in). Always funny to see what people come up with when they lack a scientific explanation ;-)

The pics are outtakes from the Brick Testament.
Genesis 11:1-4: The whole earth had one language and was of one speech. As they migrated from the east, it happened that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there. They said one to another, 'Come, let's make bricks, and bake them thoroughly.'
They used bricks for stone, and asphalt for mortar. They said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered across the face of the earth.'













Genesis 11:5-6: Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of mankind were building. Yahweh said, 'Look! They are one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do.'















Genesis 11:6-7: 'Now nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them! Come, let us go down there and confuse their language, so that they cannot understand each other's speech.'













Genesis 11:8: From there Yahweh scattered them abroad across the face of the earth. And they stopped building the city.













Genesis 11:9: That is why it was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth.












THE END

Get crackin' or die trying

Apologies to my devoted blog-readers, it's been a while since the last decent post. It's been a tough week for yours truly. Worked my butt off to get my desk clean while feeling the constant urge to return to my hotel and find some shelter under the sheets where nobody can find me. I love this place and my job, I really do, but it's time for a break (or a breakdown). At least I got enough work done to get some welcomed peace this weekend. However, enough of that rubbish, just a little stressed out - will be aloft again in no time!

Sooooo... what's new?!? Today I received an invitation to the kick-off meeting for my project-to-be. Takes place on the 1st of December in Offenbach, so I'll take a plane on Thursday evening to attend, flying back on Friday after the meeting. Will be interesting to get to know the people I'll be spending the next 2 years of my work-life with. I also got to know when I'll be starting (approximately): End of February! Before that one or two weeks in Offenbach to bound with the project office, another construction site to learn a bit more and hopefully some holiday.

The fact that I'll be actually doing this - that I'll be moving to France, that I'll have my own construction site, that I'll be a boss lady - finally sunk in... and I feel light shivers of panic crawling up and down my spine. I guess that's normal, 'cause it's a new county and a new job, but I can't wait for the relief that will come over me once I get started and realize that it's all doable. I start to become a circus artist, spinning plates in order to entertain the audience (a.k.a. boss, employees and colleagues) and prove to myself that I can actually do it, so in the end I'll either gather applause or laughter, but whatever happens, I'll gather a shitload of experience.

Hang in there ;-)

I always knew...

...that at some point I'd be able to show you that it pays off to work on a construction site :-)))