Halloween - and a flat tire :-)
Its halloween - thats all I can say about it - hard stop! :-)
As for the flat tire. Unfortunately I had to realize that I have a flat tire when I tried to get home yesterday night from the office. Well - fortunately - I could air my tire at the gas station and I was able to make it home - but - there is an urgent need to fix that problem.
But my current focus is on something else. There is an extended weekend coming up. Public holiday on thursday - extra day off on friday - brings me a total of 4 days off - yahoo. The plan: Illmitz. Will put up pictures on sunday night when I will be back.
Yesterday night I also made it to my parents - realizing that exactly a year ago my dad and my made our trip through the US - what a nice time that was.
Thats it - happy halloween.
Wine Weekend & Vienna
Because Mathias (aka Hias) was the first of our school class to make his Doctor - we invited him for a nice wine weekend into the Wachau wine region. To be precise: Weingut Weixelbaum.
Got there at 3 PM - first wine tasting - then a tour through the wine gardens - delicious home made Jause - continued by more wine tasting + checking out the wine cellar where the new wine of 2007 is produced.
We stayed over night in the same village as the wine farmer. After a late breakfast some of us made our way to vienna. Mathias invited us to stay over at his place. As the weather was fine on saturday we went for a walk to the 1st district - checking out places like the Stephansdom, Kaerntner Strasse, Hofburg, ...
There was more food and drinks in the evening. Hias prepared stuffed chicken and we did some more wine tasting from the same wine that we bought a day before in the Wachau.
The original plan was to do some more sight seeing on sunday. Unfortunatelly the weather was so bad that we headed home to Linz right after breakfast.
It was a great weekend - thanks to Sandro who organized the wine trip and thanks to Mathias and his girl friend for hosting us in Vienna. Looking forward to next weekend. The plan is to do a very similar thing - just a different wine region and with a different group of friends. Cheers
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| Walking through the wine gardens | Table ready for dinner after we got back from our walk |
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| The vintner - presenting one of his wine's for tasting | In the wine cellar - tasting fresh "Sturm" of the 2007 grapes |
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| Look at their smile - everybody's happy with a little bit of wine :-) | Traditional wine barrels |
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| Alex getting her glass refilled | Sitting at the Bar in Mathias's appartment |
Poor Job & Friends
Its hard when you realize that you have done your best but the best turned out to be a very poor job. But it feels good when you have friends that listen to you, good advice and cheer you up.
Changing topics: Its been a fun night. We went out to Exxtrablatt - meeting Irene, Alex's sister and some of her colleagues. I took many pictures but most of them are not really worth showing on the website - seems I am still experimenting too much with my new camera but still havent figured out how to use it correctly.
The extended weekend supposed to be great. We are heading to the Wachau wine region and maybe do a quick trip to Vienna. Will post pictures on sunday. Cheers
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| Me and the girls | Smoking is BAD!!!! |
Day to Day Business
Its tuesday - two days of the week almost over. As usual - I spent monday nights at the Remembar. I went their on my own in the beginning - Alex wanted to join me later as she had a longer meeting at work. At 11 PM I thought that she may not come anymore - so I started my way back. Just when I got home at 11:15 she called - telling me that she is on her way. So I went back - after having a quick shower - enjoying salsa till 1.
Today we have planned to see a movie - will keep you posted if it was any good - it will probably be the new one with Sandra Bullock. Before that we go out for dinner. The only thing I had today was a banana and an apple - probably good for my health to eat all those fruits - but man - I am sooo hungry right now.
First snow - and - dancing!!
Pretty early for winter - but winter is here - at least in the higher altitude regions - for example in Freistadt where we got into a mixture between rain and snow when we went to the HLW Maturaball in Freistadt.
Find below some pictures from that event. Saturday in general was very relaxing - finally. After 12 hours of sleep - seems that I have to catch up a lot - I visited my parents and then went to lunch with Didi. In the afternoon - more sleep and then we drove to Freistadt.
Now its sunday afternoon. On friday I left my bike in the office at is was raining at night - therefore I am going to get it now. I will run from here to the office - then take the bike back. I will hopefully be back when the final run of the formula one season takes place in brasil - supposed to be a really exciting race tonight.
Thats it - cheers
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| The Messehalle in Freistadt where the Ball took place | 3 of the Dumhart Clan |
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| Keep smiling :-) | More Dumhart's |
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| Ready to dance Mrs. Dumhart? | The next day - still smiling |
I still speak no spanish!!
Unforunately I still dont speak any spanish. It would have helped me ordering food and drinks tonight.
So - after breakfast I went to the convention center where the Adobe MAX conference took place. I checked out a session that I was interested in - then I went to the room where I was supposed to give the session. Set everything up and waited for the people to arrive. In the end I had about 40-60 people - based on the feedback the presentation was ok.
In the afternoon I went to some more sessions and met with some partners. At night I finally took the chance to check out the city. Took the metro into town - walked around for 2 hours - went back to the hotel. Its a beautiful city - but there is still not much to see in only 2 hours. Thats it. Time to go to bed - got a 6 AM flight to catch. cheers
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| My session room while setting it up | Sagrada Familia |
Usted habla espanol?
Unfortunately I dont speak spanish - which was not a big problem so far - except that I couldnt talk to the taxi driver which I usually do. Well - back to the beginning: Jumped on the plane in Linz at 6:50 - via Frankfurt to Barcelona. Getting from Terminal B to Terminal A in 5 minutes was a bit stressful - but it was a good excercise :-). Its good that I travel with carry-on luggage only - I assume my checked-in luggage wouldnt have made it to the connecting flight.
Arrived here in Barcelona at 11 PM - took the first taxi - showed him the address - and 30 minutes later I was in the hotel - realizing that I was thirsty but that the hotel bar just closed and that I am in a business district with no bars in the area - damn it - well - fortunately there is a hotel bar - €3 for a beer is ok.
The Hotel itself seems to be brand new - or at least very well renovated. Seems that a new-age designer had his hands on this project. The hotel as 10 floors with a swimming pool on the top terrace - not sure if I have time to check that out tomorrow - but maybe - we will see.
Now - time to go to bed - its past midnight and I have an early start tomorrow - getting to the conference center - preparing for my session. Here are some pictures from the hotel (thats all I've really seen from Spain so far).
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| Office tower in Barcelona | My mini bar - right now - one Heineken missing :-) |
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| Different hotel - similar bath accessories | My temporary office |
Back in Linz
I am back in Linz. Had a good trip home with a nice surprise on the flight from Frankfurt to Linz. I got on the plane - took my seat - looked at the guy next to me - he looked back at me - starting: "Do I know you?" - "Maybe. Do you work for the same company as I do?" - "Sure". So it turned out that we are colleagues - we briefely met in Austin last week.
So - back to Linz. First thing that I did was of course - washing my clothes :-) - the next thing was that Alex picked me up and we went up to the Gisellawarte - food and beer - enjoying the great october weather.
Now its monday evening - and of course - as every monday - its salsa time. Hope that I haven't forgotten the new move I learned last friday when I was dancing in Boston. The next upcoming event is a conference in Barcelona where I was invited to be speaker at one session. Taking off tomorrow night - arriving in Barcelona late night. Unfortunately there wont be much time to actually check out the city - but if I do - I will of course picture it with my new camera - which reminds me that I do have some more pictures to share. Cheers
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| Stephan - enjoying his Pilsner at the Charles | Thats me - enjoying my Sam Adams Oktoberfest |
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| What a great view from the GIS towards the Alps | Insight into my old camera |
Last day in Boston
The time on my last day in Boston was very well spent. Stephan and I headed out for a very long walk. We walked all the way from Porter Square - via Harvard and Central Square - down to the Cambridge Galleria - heading on into Boston's Financial District.
We had several errands to do. I got a new camera as mine is making troubles lately. After 5 hours we got back to the apartment where we got visited by Sabine. I had a packet to deliver for her from austria. The day was concluded by dinner at Christophers and then I got a ride from Stephan to the airport.
A strange thing happened at Christophers - my credit card was rejected. I thought that it might just be a local problem there - but it was rejected again at the Airport - well - I think I have to check with my credit card company.
Another strange thing happened at the Airport - but in a much more positive way as it turned out. When I checked in I got no seat assigned - I've been told to get it assigned once I am at the gate. At the gate I've been told that I my seat is 4K :-) - which ment: Business Class. So - I got on the plane - turned the seat into sleeping position - shut my eyes - and woke up 5 hours later - breakfast already waiting for me :-).
Now I am sitting here in the Lounge in Frankfurt waiting for my flight home.
Its been an exhausting trip - but it also was very successful and it was fun being back in Boston. Thats it - cheers
Friday night in Boston!
Friday afternoon/night was lots of fun. As you can see from the pictures below we had to restock Stephan's beer supplies. Then we got a very nice visit - Sarah came to town to join us for a beer and nachos at Christophers.
I took of for salsa later that night - seems that pictures are already online at Havana Club Salsa. Sarah left after one dance as she had to get up 4 AM in the morning. I also met other old friends - like Verana. Thanks for the dancing and for the ride home.
When I got home at 2 AM I saw that there was still light in the apartment - so I figured that Stephan couldnt sleep or just waited for me to get home. Well - the story turned out to be a bit different. At 12:30 in the morning there happened to be a fire alarm - set off by a burned light bulp in the staircase. Stephan told me that they just got back into the house after it was evacuated by firefighters. Well - nothing serious happend - thats the good news.
So - thats it. One more day to go in Boston - then I am heading back to Linz - arriving there somewhen after 2 PM on sunday afternoon. Cheers
Oh yeah - before I forget. Boston is THE RED SOX TOWN. The Red Sox won their first match in the ALCS against Cleveland yesterday night - the town went crazy - as always :-)
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| Clearing out the old bottles | Look at his excited expression :-) - a case of julius echter |
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| His special hiding place for all the good european stuff | At Christophers. Rob the bartender with Stephan |
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| Check out his shirt | I think there is no need to explain what that is |
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| Reunited - Sarah - Stephan - myself | John - getting the air out of the beer glasses |
First day in Boston
Yesterday I thought that I will be at christophers tonight - but - its like a magnet - I couldnt resist not to go in there last night :-)
So - at night I met with a bunch of guys that I worked with here in Boston. For those of you who know them - it was Mike, Mark, Tom and Steve. It was really great seeing them again. We went to an italian place. At 9:30PM I had to leave the group because it seemed that the travel exchaustion and jetlag finally hit me really hard.
I took the T home to Porter Square. Unfortunately :-) - Christophers is between the T-Station and the Appartment. And I knew that Stephan was in there. You can probably imagine the rest of the story.
Got back home at 11 and I had my first night of more than 6 hours of sleep this week.
Now its friday afternoon - I am done with official business. Now its time to relax a bit - do some shopping - and then going to Christophers at night - and later on - salsa dancing. Thats it - bye bye
Back in B-Town!!
Back in Boston - my 2nd home town :-)
Had the 6 AM flight from Austin via Atlanta to Boston. Arrived here at noon - being picked up my Mark whom I had a meeting with right after that. Now I am sitting in Stephan's apartment. He welcomed me with a new german wheat beer that he discovered.
In an hour I will meet several former working colleagues - looking forward to that. Its been more than a year since I've seen them the last time.
Tomorrow I am going to have customer visits and at night - big surprise - CHRISTOPHERS!!! - hopefully followed by some salsa dancing at the havanna club.
Thats the update - cheers
7.5 hours from Door to Door!!
Seems I like to start my diary entries with hard facts like how long it took me to do something. Todays fact tells us that it took me 7.5 hours from leaving my hotel room door in san francisco till I entered the office room door in austin. Its been two easy flights.
The weather here is amazing. Its really warm - about 25-30 degrees. I hope to get to see at least bits of the city tonight - and I will hopefully take pictures.
Well - thats it. Tonight will be another night at the Airport Hotel before I start my journey to my final destination in the states: BOSTON!!
Thats it - cheers
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| Another instant coffee machine - this time I didnt flood it :-) | So many different presents from the hotel |
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| Sunrise over the clouds | Salt Lakes |
5.5 hours from Door to Door!!
It will be 5 and a half hour long visit in my current hotel. Entered the hotel door at 11 PM - will leave it again at 4:30 AM. What a waste of money :-(
The day was amazing - I hope I can stand another one like this. Getting up at 3:30 AM after 5 hours of sleep - couldnt sleep any longer. Doing this and that till the sun finally came out. First customer meeting at 9 AM in San Francisco - second meeting in San Mateo at 4 PM - got a rental to manage the distance. First I thought I take the cab - but that would have probably been twice as much as renting a car for a day.
Unfortunately I had the wrong address (well - the old address of the customer) - so it took a bit longer to get there. 3rd meeting started at 7PM - lasted till 10PM. As I have a 6 AM flight I decided to stay at a Hotel at the Airport. Thats where I just checked-in.
It sounds a bit stressful maybe - probably it is - but it is also fun - or at least I see it as fun. It was definitly fun talking to 40 people tonight at a User Group meeting.
Thats it - close to midnight - I either go to bed now or I just go down to the bar - I probably toss a coin because thats a hard decision to make :-)
The plan for tomorrow: 6AM flight to Austin via Salt Lake City. Arriving there at 1:30 PM - meetings from 2:30-somewhen at night - another airport hotel - another 6 AM flight on thursday :-)
Good night
My new Office
Check out the pictures below. Thats my new office - at least for today. Well - its of course my hotel room in San Francisco. Its been the first time I managed to "flood" the instant coffee machine :-)
Yesterday night when I arrived here I had a very funny dinner at the bar next to the hotel. Its been the first time that I went to a bar and in the end - shared meat with another guest and also got dating offers - thanks Suzy :-).
Well - after 5 hours of sleep I got up at 4 AM - doing my morning routine - checking emails - some calls - a shower - coffee - watching the news - ...
Thats it - I hope to get some more intersting pictures over the next days. cheers
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| My coffee place - flooded | My new office :-) |
17 hours from Door to Door!!
It took me 17 hours from leaving the office door to opening the door to my hotel room in San Francisco. Its been a trip that could have been better. It started a bit stressy in the morning as I stayed pretty long in the office and then I had to rush to the airport.
The flight to Frankfurt was easy. The flight to San Francisco could have been better. Usually we fly with Lufthansa - this time it was United Airlines in cooperation with Lufthansa. The plane was rather old - I was stuck between two people (both of them very nice though) - but still - stuck between two people for more than 11 hours is not something I dream of every night :-)
The food and especially the service crew was far away from what Lufthansa has to offer. As the plane was rather old it had its problems, e.g.: flickering screens (you know - those screens that you see from the distance because you share it with 60 others) - headsets that didnt really work reliable - ...
Then we had a funny situation with a guy that took sleeping pills - combined with alcohol :-). I was asked to talk to him because he was german - well - my german wasnt good enough for his mental state - couldnt make out a single word.
After the long flight I hoped to at least get quickly through immigration. Well - it was a good hope - till I realized that I probably took the wrong lane. I was number 10 in my lane when I started. Person number 10 in the next lane finished when I was still in line at position 8 :-(. Overall it took me more than an hour to get through the airport procedures.
Outside the airport I caught a "Green Cab" - a hybrid - the driver was from the Fiji Islands - very nice man.
Well - these were my adventures today. Checked into the hotel - went shopping - back to the hotel - checking emails. Now its 4 AM - well - its 7 PM local time - but it just feels like 4 AM. I hope to get a quick bite somewhere in a bar close to the hotel - maybe watch the baseball game.
Tomorrows going to be fine - hopefully. I will spend a full day with a customer here in the city - followed by a user group meeting in the silicon valley - i will then stay at the airport hotel as I have to catch my 6 AM flight on wednesday.
Enought talking - prost
Wedding of Annette and Florian
Florian - a former school colleague and now also a working colleague - married the girl that he met at our Maturareise - that was about 9 years ago. Annette has an affection for things that are kitschy (hope thats the correct translation - but thats what I found on leo.org). As Florian is in the IT Business we thought we have the perfect present for them - check out the pictures below.
The wedding itself was perfectly organized and sometimes reminded me of a fairy tale. We started in Castle Ebelsberg where they official became Mr and Mrs. Guenther. After that we drove to the place where we had the celebrations. Starting with a reception - followed by a delicious meal - wedding cake - live music - games - concluded with a firework at midnight. Thanks again for the invitation and I wish you all the best!
Just a quick update about next weeks activities: I will take the plane to San Francisco tomorrow. It will be a busy week. Lots of meeting - lots of 6 AM flights - lots of airport hotels. The best part of the trip will start on thursday - thats when I will be in Boston again. I will visit Customers and Business Partners - but I am also going to meet some former colleagues and hopefully some friends. The plan is that I check out Friday Night Salsa in Havana Club. Thats it - cheers
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| Before we went to the wedding we started with some prosecco at Martins place | My tie - always keep smiling :-) |
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| Our present: An old IBM Monitor - nicely coloured - two angels on top (thats another story to tell) | The bridal couple - surrounded by made of honour and best man |
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| Just like Royals - waving from the castles balcony | Just Married!! |
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| Their carriage: an old Bentley | High heels on grass :-) |
A week in review!
Well - I had good intentions last weekend to updating my diary more frequently now. But this week was just not a good start. It was a very busy week and hardly had time to update the site. Well - here is what happened.
We had two really horrible nights this week. From tuesday to wednesday we hardly got sleep because of lots of mosquitoes - we killed about 10 - unfortunatelly we hardly got sleep because of the constant battle. The next night we "only" had 5 - but I was troubled with a very bad tooth. So I got about 2 hours of sleep.
Thursday night was better - only 1 bug - no hurting teeth - just sleep :-)
So - thats it - a week in review. Now its friday. But I have the next sad story. We always play indoor-soccer in the afternoon. We have been lucky this year - no bad injuries so far - until today. One guy had to be brought to the hospital - he fell and twisted his knee - lets hope is feeling better soon.
But now we have the weekend. Tomorrow - saturday - wedding of Anette and Florian. Looking forward to that - sounds like lots of dancing.
Sunday: tour to our parents - sounds like lot of eating.
Thats it. Will hopefully have pictures on sunday from tomorrows wedding. Cheers
Starting a new week, starting a new month!
Monday, October 1st. A new week - a new month. Its hopefully a good month that is ahead - but probably a very busy one. I am doing some more travelling the next weeks. Starting next monday with a trip to the west coast. 2 days in San Francisco - followed by a day in Austin, Texas - concluded with 3 days in Boston. Its mainly customer and partner visits and I also get the chance to speak at a User Group Meeting.
The following week also sounds like its going to be not too boring. Training days in the Linz office where we have to train some folks from our company that fly into Linz - those training days are interrupted by a quick 1 day business trip to Barcelona. I've been invited to speak at a conference - looking forward to that. Unfortunately I wont see much of the city - well - I will see the airport - hotel and the conference center - but I doubt that I see anything from the city itself - what a shame :-(
Thats it. Its already past midnight - time to go to bed - it will be a busy week - getting everything ready for my travel weeks. Cheers