Done in Atlanta

Friday : 09 May '08 - 17:38 | damen default two comments, already |

After a week of workshops with our American colleagues we are done and on our way back to Germany.

Yes, we did have good food and drove around in a SUV, so it was 'classical'.

Chicken Wings

Wednesday : 07 May '08 - 13:45 | damen default two comments, already |

Last night we had diner at the wild wing cafe, which was really nice.

Just one quick impression

Arrived in Altanta

Tuesday : 06 May '08 - 12:46 | damen default No comments yet |

After quite a long flight (getting up at 4AM, arriving at 2PM but 6 hours time difference) we arrived in Atlanta after quite a comfortable flight. The airport of Atlanta is really very big, we had to go through 3 security/customs checks and had to hand over our luggage also again, and got it back after we drove a small subway. All quite impressing, and then we got our big american SUV car

The hotel where we are staying is actually quite nice and provides everything including free high-speed internet, but no bar. So we got some beers to sit in the garden and wait for a colleague (Lorenz) to come by and pick us up for diner. This was just a private diner between the "guys from Siemens Germany" and it was nice to hear how Lorenz was doing here. Yes, we did enjoy baby back rips and they were really delicious!

But then the time difference stroke and we were all dead tired, so it was up to bed and fortunately I was able to sleep until 6am (last visit to the States was to Seattle, there the time difference was 10 hours and I was really wrecked) so I'm quite fit for the workshops coming up today!

Visit to Atlanta USA

Monday : 05 May '08 - 04:08 | damen default No comments yet |

In a few moments a colleague of mine will pick me up in order to get to the airport, because we're taking the early flight to Atlanta, USA to visit one of our project sites which is with Siemens in Alpharetta, a suburb of Atlanta.

Even if this time of the day is really killing me (4AM) the weather forecasts for the region are so good that I'm really looking forward getting there. It'll be my first visit to Atlanta, so that makes it even more interesting.

We'll be staying in the La Quita Inn hotel, which looks ok.

(p.s. in case you don't know where in the States it is: check here

Weekend diving

Tuesday : 29 Apr '08 - 09:10 | damen default No comments yet |

Last weekend it was again time for diving and this time my car did not broke down Ok, I took some precautions and was picked up by Uwe so that I did not have to drive.
When we arrived at the Steinbergersee the weather was great, 22 degrees and sunny, so it was the perfect day for diving and for me to try out my new dry suit gloves.

Unfortunately I soon discovered that the dry gloves weren't that dry at all, somehow the method of fixing them to my dry suit is not correct, so I have to get back to Luna Sport to have that fixed. Somehow crazy, I have both the gloves and the dry suit from Northern Diver, but getting those two together isn't that easy

The first dive was a nice 29 meter, 5 degrees cold dive. The visibility was very poor, due to the rain a lot of dirt flushed into the lake.
For the second dive I took one of our course participants from last year, who did her first dive after getting the diving card. Due to the fact that the visibility was so poor this was definitely not the best way to start diving again, but she did a great job.
The last dive was a bit deeper again, but still no visibility and no fish. I guess we have to wait for another two weeks for those again.

All together it was really a nice day of diving, mainly because of the weather which was great. When I got back home in the evening I had this summer feeling of being in the sun too long.... nice!

Yet Another Management Lesson

Thursday : 24 Apr '08 - 20:55 | damen default No comments yet |

A crow was sitting in a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up

TL2 Exam

Monday : 21 Apr '08 - 21:55 | damen default No comments yet |

I'm currently working on getting all the requirements for my TL2 instructor exam ready and just received a phone call from Theo Konken, who is the overall responsible for the dive instructor courses here in Germany. He gave me some info that really helped me with the nerves (about how to get some stuff done in time)

I also found this video online, which really gives a good feeling of the diving instructor exam:

Tauchausbildung - MyVideo

Ow ow, this is my situation too

Monday : 21 Apr '08 - 11:19 | damen default Only one comment |

Wedding in Holland

Friday : 18 Apr '08 - 09:54 | damen default Only one comment |

This weekend we'll be in the Netherlands for a wedding of friends of mine. So on Thursday we drove up to Osnabrueck to visit friends from Erlangen who moved there recently and now on Friday we move on the Enschede to party. After that we'll go on to Huizen to visit my parents and on Sunday it is back to Nuernberg again. Alltogether quite a trip, but fortunately my car is working again and is driving quite well on the German autobahn

Diving in Steinbergersee

Sunday : 13 Apr '08 - 09:27 | damen default No comments yet |

Today is a beautiful sunny day, so we will go diving in the Steinbergersee. I managed to get my dry gloves on my dry suit, so that will be a first. Let's try how they are doing under water (and see if they are really dry

:@:@:@
Unfortunately no diving today, just outside Nürnberg my car started acting funny, after a call with the ADAC they found out that the coils and bougies were broken. So they toed me to the Kia garage :(:(

Weekend and bachelor party

Monday : 07 Apr '08 - 08:50 | damen default three comments, already |

We had a very quiet weekend for once, the only thing I had to do was talk about diving for our CMAS * diving course, which was really nice to do. We talked about first aid, stuff to know for diving on a boat or from shore and prepared our first open water dives (discussed how it will be).
After that the whole weekend was relaxed, I was able to watch two movies (Jumper and Vantage Point) and finish up with a lot of the lying-around-for-ages stuff.

Last weekend was not that relaxed, but therefore very much fun. On Friday I went directly from work to the airport and was around 7pm in Amsterdam, Schiphol. From there I took the train to Coen, where we enjoyed a glass of wine and prepared for the bachelor party of Joost. The next morning at 7am I gave Joost a call (luckily he was still sleeping) and told him to prepare some coffee for Steven... at first he didn't understand, but as soon as the door bell rang he knew what was coming :D :D

So he had to go to ..



will be continued.

Sweeeeet

Tuesday : 01 Apr '08 - 16:41 | damen default Only one comment |

Work your proper hours

Monday : 31 Mar '08 - 13:59 | damen default No comments yet |

Take a look at this interesting website with a test on working the proper hours on a day.

Eastern in Amberg

Monday : 24 Mar '08 - 16:06 | damen default No comments yet |

We spent these eastern holidays in Amberg with the parents of Manu. It was very relaxed and interesting enough this was a white eastern (!!). As we drove there on Saturday we already has some snow and the next morning, on eastern Sunday everything was white.

On Sunday afternoon we went to the animals shelter and got some dogs to take them out, a good way to do something good and have some exersize. In the evening we went into town and met some old friends of Manu in the local Pub Cafe Zentral.

Weather in Budapest

Saturday : 15 Mar '08 - 13:56 | damen default three comments, already |

Next Monday and Tuesday I will be in Budapest again to check how the nearshore development is going, so it is good to know that the weather over there will be better than here in Germany. This time we want to use the Monday evening to explore the town a bit on our own and see the night life of Budapest

Update:
Okay, the one time that I'm travelling to Budapest I have to read this:
Rechtsradikale randalieren in Budapest

Week Holiday

Friday : 14 Mar '08 - 11:37 | damen default Only one comment |

After having the TL**-Exam last weekend I thought I deserved a week holiday, so this week I did quite a lot of.... nothing.

One of the highlights this week was a visit to the IMAX theater here in Nürnberg where we watched the movie which was really amazing.



The rest of the week we spend with relaxing and enjoying the fact that we spent a lot of time on small stuff like cleaning up etc. Really amazing that you can spend a complete week without really doing something, perhaps I should think of a career as Housekeeper

Coffee Addict

Tuesday : 11 Mar '08 - 18:45 | damen default No comments yet |

Lately I've been seeing a lot of stuff on coffee addiction, but this time I found an interesting article:

How to defend your coffee addiction

*grins*

Sunday : 09 Mar '08 - 17:34 | damen default four comments, already |

First step is done, the theory exam has been ok.... now waiting for the practical exam in June...

Presentation on Tides (TL2)

Thursday : 06 Mar '08 - 08:07 | damen default No comments yet |

Some background information for my presentation on the tides:
Het getij > Uitleg over het getij
Wikipedia - Gezeiten

Interesting article on working overtime

Tuesday : 04 Mar '08 - 10:21 | damen default No comments yet |

If you can read German check out this article, it is about doing overtime and getting payed for it.
Especially this sentence is interesting:

"Ihr Ergebnis: Vor allem Manager, Ingenieure, Wissenschaftler und Informatiker neigen zu Mehrarbeit, die nicht vergütet wird. Sie arbeiten also freiwillig länger."