Sporty Sunday
Over the past months I tried to do a bike tour on sunday morning if the weather was good enought. Today I had perfect conditions. As Alex had to do stuff for work I took the chance for an extended tour again. I started from the appartment to the GIS. On my way up I usually have a phase where I want to stop the tour and just return. But once I am over a certain threshold I could go on forever.
After a short break at the GIS Restaurant I continued my way towards Eidenberg - via some back roads to Kirchschlag - going on to Hellmonsoedt - then to Altenberg and then home to parents in Gallneukirchen. My dad relaxed in the whirl pool - so I joined him for a short while. On my way home I decided to not take the direct route back to Linz which brought me to some new back roads outside of Gallneukirchen.
Now I am back - watching the soccer match Salzburg vs. Vienna. Thats it. Cheers
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| The GIS | A pear tree on my way up to the GIS |
Second Entry
Well - I was a bit lazy with my entries the last week - but today I have two. Just came home from a day of work - well - it was not a full day of work - but we did a good job. Resl moved into a new office - so we helped him to move his equipment. Here are some pictures.
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| Juergen and Resl - waiting for the elevator | We filled this and my car twice full with stuff |
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| New invention by Sandro: A chair in the elevator | Seems we havent moved the bottle opener - but - Resl figured out a way to open the beer |
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| Juergen working on the IT infrastructure. He probably thought: JUST GIVE ME A COMMAND LINE | We had Gulasch and Beer on the new terrace |
A week without an update!!
Shame on me - a week without an update. Unfortunately I dont have any pictures to show right now - but there will be more after the weekend. What was going on? Well - it was a busy week - but nothing too interesting to mention here in the blog.
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Monday was usual - salsa at night. Tuesday night - hm - cant really remember what I did on tuesday night - should update my diary more frequently so that I dont forget things :-) - seems I am getting into that age now where I start forgetting things that I did 4 days ago.
Wednesday - went out with some colleagues from the US that were in our office this week. Thursday - nothing exciting - dinner with Alex and then caught up with sleep because we didnt catch much from wednesday to thursday.
Friday - thats more interesting now: Florian - a friend of us (Sandro, Juergen, Resl - we all went to school together) - is going to marry next saturday. Florian is also a colleague of mine at work. We didnt want Florian to marry without a bachelor party. Of course - we didnt want to tell him. So I faked a very important meeting with a customer on friday night.
We did all the preparations - we even created an online webconference so that it looked "real". When Florian and I went to the meeting room - Sandro, Juergen and Resl were already there waiting for us - looked like Florian was a bit surprised :-)
We had a nice and relaxing evening - with food and drinks. We didnt play any stupid bachelor games. We thought about going into the strip club - but in the end we decided to go to a wine bar - that was also a good choice.
Today - saturday - its early in the morning but I have to get going. Resl is going to move his office to a new facility. Sandro, Juergen and I help him to haul his stuff from one place to the other.
So - thats it. Cheers
Weekend Activities
The main event this weekend was the birthday party of Klemens. Similiar to the previous years - Klemens invited us to the farm of his grand parents. We played games that you would normally not play, e.g.: sit-soccer on the grass, balloon bursting, ...
But lets start from the beginning - lets go back to thursday night. It was soccer night near the Eisenbahnbruecke. Unfortunately I was hit hard on my chest when I bumped into Thomas. First I though its not a big deal - but my chest hurts more and more each day - today is sunday - and its not really getting better - hopefully I've not cracked a rip.
On friday - Alex had my car to get to work and to get to a different place after work. She came back at night - parked the car in the garage and we watched a movie at night. At 11 PM we decided to drive to her place - so I asked here - you got they car keys? Sure! You got the garage keys? Well - they are in the car!! DAMN!! Waited at the garage till midnight - no car came in our out. Got up early in the morning and again waited at the garage. Again no luck in the first hour. Then I decided to climb over the fence that brought me into the courtyard of the house that the garage belongs to. Slightly injured - because I lost the grip on top of the fence - I finally managed to get into the garage.
Saturday: started with breakfast, then fixing my uncle's computer from 9 to noon - then went to the wedding of Franziska and Roland - followed by the birthday party. Alex and I ended the day/night with an hour of salsa dancing.
Thats it - quite eventfull. The plan for sunday: enjoy the sun, go for a bike tour.
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| Playing "Sit-Soccer" on the grass | We wash our clothes - no need for our mums to cry because of the dirty pants |
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| Balloon cracking: Gabi take's accurate aim | Poor Klemens :-) |
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| Hungry people had to be fed - Gulasch | Thats for geeks: figure out the text |
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| Who am I? | Gabi and Klemens - thanks for hosting the party!! |
Forget the Sport!!
Well - in my last entry I was passionated about the upcoming sport events. Today - 2 days later - I have to tell a different story.
Go-Kart: I ended in 7th (out of 9). My first official statement was: "Oh this damn car - the tires were not good - the engine sucked - and I probably had a spy in my tech-engineering crew" :-). Well - end the end I dont know what went wrong. I probably had not the best cart - but I should have done better with the one that I had. Better luck the next time - hopefully!!
Soccer: The match I watched on tuesday was good. The one I played today was horrible. I was lucky in one situation where I was accidently hit by the ball - deflecting it into the goal - but that was all. Again - hopefully I will play beteter tomorrow when we start our InDoor season.
Schnapsen: Till now I had no chance to take revenge. So Mum - you better watch out - the next time I will win!!
Thats it for sports. The upcoming events are: fixing my uncle's computer, attending a wedding, Klemens' birthday party - thats all on saturday!!!
Cheers
Its all about Sport!!
Today I can tell you several things about sports:
* Yesterday I rode kilometer 3000 with my new bike. Took me one year for the first 3000km
* Today I was beaten by my mum in Schnapsen (I know its not a real sport) - TWICE!! I visited her in the hospital to entertain her a little.
* Tomorrow we are going to have our next Borland-Go-Kart-Challenge. Its been several months since we last drove the Go-Karts.
* Tonight I am going to watch Real Madrid vs. Werder Bremen. Its the first match of the Champions League 2007/2008 Group Phase.
* Yesterday night - after watching the show of Stefan Raab - I decided to sign up for Schlag den Raab. Will keep you updated.
Thats it. Cheers
Back in Business!!
Finally - after 2 real boring days in bed I was able to get out into the "real" life. I visited different people, checked out the food festival in Linz and then I went to the "Open House" of the new Wissensturm (=Knowledge Tower).
At night - the anual wine festival in Gallneukirchen took place. Its hosted by the OVP and we - from the JVP - try to help a bit. So we worked at the beer-bar. Just got home - tired.
Tomorrow will be spent with helping Alex's sister to move her stuff to the her new appartment. Thats it - good night
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| Linz from the 15th floor of the Wissensturm | The bar that we worked tonight |
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| Didi and his Dad in Law enjoying the wine | Local VIPs :-) |
Day 2 in Bed!
I dont like being sick. Its just toooo boring. The problem is that there is nothing you can do about it. I hoped that the tv program is getting better on friday - but unfortunately - the program was as bad as yesterday.
But it seems I am getting better. How do I measure that? Well - on wednesday when the whole thing started I didnt enjoy the beer I had at night. But right now - I really like the wheat beer that I have just opened - so - I am back on to road to be healthy again :-)
The downside of this whole thing is that I had to skip the hiking trip. I hope Klemens and Gabi enjoy it - the weather is supposed to be good enough for the trip.
The plan for the weekend in case I am fit enough:
* Wine Festival in Gallneukirchen on Saturday: I have to help at the bar
* Sunday: Helping Alex's sister and her boyfriend - they move into their new appartment
Cheers
A Day in Bed!!
Alex threatened me yesterday: She said that she is going to punish me if I go to work today with the cold that I have. I am usually not the guy that stays home - its boring - tv program during the week is not good at all :-). On the other side it doesnt make sense to infect my colleagues - and - of course - I dont want to be hit by a girl :-)
Thats it. I hope that I am back on the healthy track by tomorrow as we plan a hiking tour in the Alps. But realistically I dont see a chance for that right now. We will see. Cheers
Health Problems!!
Probably its just the time of year where small health problems are expected. I am suffering from a cold. Despite that problem I went Salsa dancing last night. I thought its better to sweat on the dancefloor - having fun dancing - than laying in bed. It was a good decision - however - my body didnt really recover.
Anyway - no time complain. I am looking forward to the next weekend. Klemens and Gabi plan a hiking trip in the Alps. I will join them for a two day trip - staying over in a hut on the mountain.
Thats it - cheers
Bourne Ultimatum!!
Just a quick update. Nik and I went to the cinema - watching Bourne Ultimatum. My result: MUST SEE!!!!!
And here some more pictures from yesterday night.
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| Buchi, Reichi and Hias | Seeking shelter under the tent |
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| No comment! | Reichis first Guinness - probably also his last :-) |
Motorboat exam
What a "stressfull" day :-)
We were supposed to be in Aschach at 9 AM for a final driving lesson and then repeating the theory. Because of the current flooding situation in Austria we already thought that there might be a change in plan. We thought that there is high water and therefore it will be hard to ride the boat. In fact - there was extremely low water. Why that? Because they want to be prepared for the water that is expected the next days from other parts of Austria they lowerded the water level in that part of the Danube.
You will see from the pictures below how odd it looks like. Well - back to the story. So - instead of starting at 9 AM we started at 10:30 with an hour of repeating the theory. Then we had to wait for the "officals". They arrived at 12:30 - but - of course - they were hungry. So we had lunch with them. Well - long story short. I was back in Linz by 5 PM. The whole exam (including legal + technical theory and the practical part) was no longer than 15-20 minutes. And - the good news: WE ALL PASSED!!
Here are some pictures. Cheers
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| Very low water | Last sunday - the platform was on the same level as the anchorage |
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| Practical Exam | Waiting for our turn |
An update!
Well - there has not been any update the past week. The reason for that is that I didnt want to write the same every day - which would have been: working and then learning (or pretending to learn) for my motorboat exam. By the way - the exam is tomorrow (friday). So - after that I hope to get back to a "regular" life.
So - the plan is that we have the exam tomorrow during the day. We are supposed to be in Aschach at 9 AM. We will do a final check on our theoretical material and then we do a final practical lesson. But - as it has been raining hard the past two days and as we already have some local floodings I am wondering if we will have the exam tomorrow.
Well - besides that there are of course other plans for the next days: The Ars Electronica Festival is currently taking place in Linz. Next to the festival there are other - "culturual" events going on in Linz - for instance: a wine festival :-)
We were so smart to combine those two festivals with a school reunion.
Its been 9 years since I left colleague and from time to time we manage to arrange a reunion meeting. Looking forward to that.
Well - thats it. Will keep you updated. Cheers
Motorboat lesson
After a full 4 hours of sleep I had to get up early today. Had to be in Aschach with Martin (aka Resl), Sonja and Juergen. We had a lesson in motorboat steering on the danube. It worked out pretty well - I think we all feel very comfortable for friday - thats when we have our final exam.
Cheers
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| Steering the boat on the Danube | During our break: learning the theory |
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| A Viking-Ship on the Danube: sounded like they had Fruehschoppen on the boat | Sonja steering - Resl and Juergen relaxing in the back |
Didi's Wedding
I love weddings - especially when there is live music and when the guests enjoy and have fun!
After the ceremony in the church - the married couple was transported by a horse wagon to the restaurant where the celebration took place. After the reception we had a great dinner followed by coffee plus wedding cake.
The live band - a well known band from the region - did their part to make the festival a success. Of course - as it is tradition - there were wedding games: In order to get their present from their closest friends - they had to figure out a number combination to unlock a suitcase. The 6 digits and their position within the number had been randomly given to 6 wedding guests.
In order for Didi & Melanie to get the numbers they had to dance with the guests. If they picked a guest with a number - they got the number - getting them closer to the complete unlock sequence. Of course - they managed to get all the numbers and finally got their present.
At another game, Didi had to deal back Melanie after she was "stolen" by the other Didi (Lindner). To get her back - he had to fulfill 3 tasks: repeat his wedding application in front of the guests, name 20 "lovely" nick names for his wife and - finally - proof that he is able to separate eggs (yolk from egg-white) and make egg-foam out of egg-white.
To sum up: it was a real great night - lots of dancing - lots of laughing. I can only wish them the best for their future!!
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| JUST MARRIED!!! | Releasing white doves |
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| Didi & Melanie on the horse wagon | The wedding cake. 6 different cakes |
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| Me, Alex, Didi, Sandra | Didi trying to "rescue" his stolen wife |
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| Repeating his wedding application - on his knees | Working on the egg white |
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| Stiff enough to test it over his best men's head | Melanie - throwing the bride-flowers to the unmarried girls |