Dance Contest
The dancing school that Didi works for Citydance Meissner hosted the Regional Dance4Fans Contest today. Such a contest means that there is a lot of work to do. Therefore I helped them with some tasks. Our day started at 5:30 AM with breakfast at the gas station. At 6 we started to get the venue ready for the 600! dancers that were performing in the competition.
The competition itself started at 10:30. Our shift ended at 4PM.
Now its time to gain some energy as I will check out the Fiesta Latina in Kulturzentrum Hof tonight.
There are 3 other topics that are on my mind right now:
a) UEFA EURO 2008: Our national team played Malta as their last preparation game. Well - they won 5:1 - but the game itself was not really promising for the upcoming matches against "real" competitors (Germany, Croatia, Poland).
b) Indiana Jones: Tomorrow its time to check out the lates Indiana Jones. The critics are not that good - however - as a "REAL" Indy-Fan I just have to see it.
c) Orlando: On tuesday its time to fly to Orlando, Florida. Will be there for 10 days to attend Microsoft TechEd Conference
Thats it for today. Here are some new pictures from today.
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| Linz at 5:30 AM | Breakfast Menu at the gas station |
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| The 3 Early Birds: Didi, Johanna, Myself | The two DSEMs(=Dance Stage Enter/Exit Managers) :-) |
Its the middle of the week
Yeah - its wednesday - the middle of the week. Just came home from Klosterhof and Remembar. Before going out to drink beer - we (Didi, Sandro, Roby, ...) went out to see Viktor Gernot. It was a great evening. The only problem was that the Kuernberghalle - thats where Viktor played - had no Air Condition. You might imagine how hot it was in that room that fitted about 1000 people - we still had 30+ degrees outside.
What else is going on? Not too much! Salsa on monday (till 2AM) and another dentist appointment on tuesday. And - yes - of course - Stephan sent me some information about a house that he is looking at. The two top floors are for sale - looks great. Its in Somerville - close (about 1.4 miles) to the old place. The good news about this place really is that it is within walking distance to Christophers :-).
Thats all. bye bye
Summer weekend
Its been a nice and sunny weekend. We had our sailing meeting on saturday evening. Unfortunately I will miss this upcoming sailing trip in July. As I will be flying to Boston on July 25th it would be a bit stressy to also do the sailing trip to croatia mid of July. But I am happy that I've joined the group for a nice grill party.
Today I've visited Didi in Weisskirchen. Took the bike along the Traun. Unfortunately my left knee started making troubles again on the way back. I should probably just stop doing sports for a while to get over this problem - on the other side - a life without sport is not really a life that I would enjoy. Therefore I will just continue to do my sport and continue complaining about my small problems :-)
The evening program for tonight was another grill and "Siedler" partie with my friends in Gallneukirchen.
Whats coming up this week?
Salsa on monday, dentist appointment number 1 on tuesday, kabarett on wednesday, probably a farewell party on thursday, another dentist appointment on friday, dance4fans contest on saturday - seems like the week is booked :-)
Cheers
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| Seems like the dog also needed a cool bath | Resl playing volleyball on the air mattress |
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| As it got colder at night we warmed out butts on the grill | Playing "Siedler von Cartan" |
Preprations for Boston
In exactly 9 weeks I will start my year in Boston. Time to start the preparations. Canceling several contracts - like the fitness club, internet line, ... - is something that should be done early in advance in order to avoid penalties. The car has also been taken care of - Juergen and Barbara will drive my BMW starting July 25th. What else is left to do? Well - I need to finish my teeth "fixing" tasks (hopefully next week) - need to organize some farewell parties - and I need to be on-time for my flight on July 25th :-)
Whats happening this weekend? Salsa tonight, sailing meeting tomorrow, sports on sunday.
Greetings
My wisdom is shrinking
My intention today in the afternoon was to go back to the AKH and get an appointment somewhen in the next weeks to get one of my wisdom teeth removed. After 10 minutes of looking over their calendar the doctor said: "Lets do it right away!". 5 minutes later - two of my teeth had been removed. The other two will follow in the next weeks :-)
I hope the other two will come out as smoothly as the ones today. Here they are:
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| 2 out :-) | And from the top |
4AM at the General Hospital (AKH) in Linz
It was a good salsa evening last night - at least in the beginning. Then my teeth started making problems again. Got home around midnight - took another pain pill - with no real effect on the pain. Tried to sleep but there was no chance. Finally - at 3:30AM I decided to drive to the hospital. The doctor and his assistant were probably not really happy about my late night visit. He took a quick look into my mouth - gave me an injection to linder the pain and told me to visit the dentist as soon as possible. His quick diagnose: Wisdom tooth has to be removed.
It took me longer to get ouf the hospital than to get in. I somewhere missed a corner - and - because of construction - several ways were blocked. So I wandered around at 4 AM till I finally found a guy who showed me the way out. Got home - got into bed - got up 2 hours later - called the dentist and now I am anxiously waiting for "THE APPOINTMENT". The problem is that its really been a while since I was at the dentist the last time. The reason: I am a coward when it comes to doctors.
Well - we will see. Hopefully its only one tooth that needs to get removed (keep my fingers crossed).
But now to some good news:
* yesterday I received my tickets to Boston: 25th of July is the date!!
* I also rebooked the flight to Orland. I will fly to Florida on June 3rd to attend a conference. My stay has been extended so that I can be in Disney World town for 10 full days
thats it - bye bye
---- the TOOTH update ----
Two interesting quotes from the dentist today (she was a lady - probably mid 50):
"The reason why I have not given you an injection is not because I am a masochist - I just need to know how painful it is for you"
In the middle of drilling my teeth she stopped saying: "So - how long must somebody wait in the AKH at 4 AM to get served?"
Besides these two funny quotes I can say that I am one third through the pain. She temporary fixed one teeth today - another one will be fixed next tuesday. Unfortunately she was not willing to remove the "wisdom tooth". It is stuck in a strange angle and she therefore asked me to get it done in the hospital.
The good news is that the pain is gone. And - fixing the first teeth was not as painful as I feared. I am ready for round 2!
Cheers
Signs of getting older
There are different signs of getting older: One are health problems that occur with higher frequency - I am currently struggling with my knee and my teeth (ouch). Its actually been the first time in my life that I took pain medication. The pain caused by my teeths didnt allow me to sleep.
But there are also other signs - much nicer things - like anniversaries. Yesterday we celebrated our 10th Matura-Anniversary. 15 guys from our class showed up + 2 teachers. We started in Promenadenhof till they closed at 2 AM - then went on to the Rox Music Bar. It was fun to talk about the good old times back in school.
Martin - our former head teacher of the class - had the pictures that were taken in the 2nd and 4th year. And Guenther - our former ADAT teacher - brought test results of one of our ADAT tests that we had in the 5th year.
Pictures will follow later - I took plenty but forgot my usb-cabel in the office.
Oh - I almost forgot - yesterday afternoon I've been invited by Hubbo (former colleague). Boki (another former colleague who now lives in Canada) was here for a visit. Hubbo therefore invited several other former colleagues for a reunion. Pictures of the BBQ will follow as well.
Now its time for lunch - I am invited by the Lindners. Prost - Mahlzeit
---- update -----
Here are the pictures:
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| A rare moment: Unti with alcohol at the "Release Party" on thursday | BBQ in Hubbos garden |
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| Hubbo with one of his FareWell Presents - a nice Picture Book with lots of cool&funny pics | Two Martins: Our former head teacher (he is the one with the gray hair) - and the other Martin (aka Resl) |
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| Bernhard, Juergen and Hias | Hatsch, Raffi and Haberl |
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| Armin, Haberl, Hatsch, Raffi and me | The guy in Orange used to be our ADAT teacher. It was good seeing him again |
Samos: Greek Airline Experience #2
Now its time for the second story regarding greek airlines. After all what happened on our way to Samos we thought its not possible that something similar can happen again - well - it did :-(
It started with the information that our flight had been canceled again - but - we had been rebooked in order to make it back almost in-time to Munich. First flight to Samos was operated by Aegean - the Flight to Munich originally was an Olympic flight. Due to flight cancellation they rebooked us on a Lufthansa flight. Because Lufthansa flights are more expensive we got some cash from Olympic (on Samos Airport) in order to get the Lufthansa tickets in Athens for our second flight to Munich.
Because of all what happened on our way down we made sure that our luggage was really checked through this time. The lady told us "Yes - everything is fine - just go to Lufthansa - get your tickets - check-in and everything will be fine. We have already called them to inform them about you."
Well - of course - it didnt really worked out that way :-). As a precaution - Sandro and Juergen waited at the Baggage Claim - just in case the luggage was not checked through again (but this time it actually was). Martin and I went straight to the Lufthansa ticket counter. We had 45 minutes to our next flight. We told them that we have been on the original Olympic flight and now had to pay €240 (in total - which we got from Olympic in Samos) in order to get the Lufthansa tickets. The answer way: "I can give you the tickets if you pay me €360 PER PERSON". After some arguing they told us to go to Aegean and try our luck there - that was a big big mistake.
Because we had almost no time left (30 mintes or so) we skipped waiting in line and went directly to the lady at the counter (you should have seen those looks from those people that have waited in line for a long long time already). We told the same story again - showing all the papers - offering the money - and - telling them that there is not much time left. We even had phone contact with our travel agent in Samos - explaining them the situation in greek. Well - it didnt help much. After 20 minutes of NOTHING (10 minutes to the flight) a Lady from Olympic came to us. She said "Are you the guys from Samos? You are at the wrong counter. You should have come to us - now its probably too late because the flight closes"
We then spent 5 minutes at Olympic - I dont know what they did - anyway - they sent us to the Lufthansa Check-In counter. The Lady there was really helpful. I started joking around like "seems you have to run with us to the gate in order for us to get the flight" - well - thats exactly what happened. We passed all security lanes and got on the plane exactly ON-TIME. The luggage made it as well. :-)
Yesss - we are geeks
Juergen is currently looking into coding with the Java Micro Edition. His first "real world application" was a program to track WHO drinks WHAT WHEN. So - during our sailing trip - everytime we had a drink we registered the drink with the application running on our mobiles. In order to make it simple we had the options to choose the individual names or ALL (in case we drank rounds) and the type of drink (beer, schnaps or wine).
Juergen just sent me the raw data. Seems that we have a "winner". Martin (aka Resl) got in first place (in total). The individual drink categories were won by Martin (Beer and Win) and Juergen (Schnaps).
Here is a screenshot of the result table:
Over the week we came up with many ideas about how to enhance the application for the upcoming trips like: online-statistics, ... :-)
thats it - we are a bit geeky :-)
Samos: Greek Airline Experience #1
I just want to share the experience that we made with greek airlines during our trip. I hope I dont need to go through this kind of "excitement" anymore :-)
We had a flight booked from Munich via Athens to Samos. The airlines where Olympic and Aegean. Olympic went on a strike on May 1st - so Air Berlin took over the flight - so far so good - no problem.
When we checked in at Munich - Air Berlin told us that the luggage will be checked through to Samos - we just have to do a normal Check-In in Athens with Aegean.
So in Athens we went out of the security area - went straight to the Check-In Counters - waited in line at Aegean check-in. We answered the question "Where is your luggage?" with "It's been checked through - thats what they told us in Munich" - answer from Aegean: "Sorry - thats not true! You should have picked up your luggage. So - you have 30 minutes left - go back - claim the luggage - and then come back to finish Check-In.".
Getting back to the Baggage Claim area is not easy once you are out of the security area :-(. We tried to get back in - the lady sitting at the door of course didn't let us. She pointed us to another lady where we had to fill out some papers in order to get into the luggage area again. 15 minutes left. Finally - getting back into Baggage Claim - hm - damn - our belt was already empty and closed down - no sight of our luggage. Went straight on to lost and found - again - no sight of our luggage - 5 minutes left. While we waited for a response from the "luggage manager" we saw our luggage on a different belt - yeah!! - grabbed it - sprinted back to check-in.
"Here we are - with our luggage - can we check-in now?" - "Sorry - the flight is already closed - you are too late!". I probably dont need to explain our mood when we heard that. After exchanging some arguments - begging - hopping and praying they told us: "OK - follow this guy - he will guide you through all security lines directly to the gate - NOW RUN!!"
We managed to get on the flight - our luggage made it as well :-)
That was the first flight experience. The way back was even more challenging :-)
Cheers
Samos: First Travel Report
First of all I have to say that I hope I can finish this entry without getting dizzy. It seems I am struggling quite a bit from "land sickness" (or whatever the correct term is). I had to stop working today after 4 hours because my body - respectively my equilibrium organ - is still on the boat :-) - making me feel very strange when I had to watch an object (monitor) that STANDS STILL for a longer period of time.
Anyway - here are the first interesting facts about the trip:
a) we will probably never again book a flight with a greek airline or a flight that is routed via Athens. From our 4 original flights (Munich->Athens, Athens->Samos, Samos->Athens, Athens->Munich) 6!! have been canceled :-). How is that possible? Well - all of our original flights have been canceled for different reasons - and some of our new scheduled flights have also been canceled. The cancelation however was not the problem - the problem was the transfer in Athens. Having two flights with two different (competitive) greek airlines which are then operated by another airline can be quite a challenge :-). I will probably have to write this story down in more detail in a later entry because its really almost unbelievable - but - in the end - we managed to get to Samos and back to Munich.
b) the Island Leros will from now on be called "Redneck Captial of Greece". Never before have we seen soo many young guys with their flossy cars driving up and down the street along the harbor (ALL AFTERNOON & EVENING)
c) Metaxa mixed with Fanta is not a good substitution for plain Metaxa, Ouzo or Beer :-)
d) "Greeks have not invented work" - thats a quote from a guy working with the boat chartering company. We can totally agree with that (especially when we consider what happened what I've described in point a)
e) "Greeks are very friendly, are polite, prepare great food and produce great drinks" - thats a quote from me after this week. We had delicious meals in every placce we have been - and - Ouzo and Metaxa (plain of course) is fantastic
f) Mythos, Amstel, Heineken (and all the other beers that you get down there) - basically taste the same. Its ok for one week - but its good to be back and get some real tasty austrian beer.
g) Boobs and Butts (from an evolutionary perspective of course :-) ) are an interesting topic to fill a full week of conversations
h) Running out of beer on a sailing boat without any chance to fill up the stock leads to a disaster :-)
i) Going back to "Civilization" was one of the hardest things after one week on the boat where farting and burping WAS EXPECTED during a normal conversation :-)
j) Being accompanied by Dolphins is a great experience
So - thats the first Travel Report. Here just a quick list of places/islands that we've been:
* Samos Island: City and Marina of Pythagorien (Home of famous mathematician Pythagoras)
* Lipsi
* Leros
* Agathonissi
* Arki
* Another small one which name i dont remember :-)
Here are some more pictures.
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| Samos - here we are. Sandro and Juergen getting out of the plane | Optimal situation - a fridge full of beer |
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| Dolphins | Ouzo - perfect for a "Manoeverschluck" |
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| De-freezing the milk in the sun. The fridge was set to -30 degrees :-) | A stop in Lipsi |
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| Fart Fuel: 1kg of Onions for our dinner | Juergen - our chef - fighting with the huge amount of onions |
BACK FROM SAMOS!!
Its been a fantastic trip. I will share more details in a later entry - there is a lot to tell (especially about greek airlines, ouzo, greek "Prolos", ...)
Here are some impressions of our sailing trip. We had sunshine 6 out of 7 days, we had good wind conditions to sail, we "almost" had enough beer on the boat :-)
More later - need to go to bed - cheers
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| A welcome beer on the boat | Typical greek town |
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| Steering the big boat | Our skipper - he did a fantastic job |
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| Some sailing action | Our boat in one of the bays |