Sunday Column (50)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 07/02/2010
Ok folks, first things first. The big question this week was whether, and if so, which car to get. And the winner is:
I feel like I am getting all family. Married, house, child, now a VOLVO 
Neither my dad nor me, and he is the biggest Volvo fan in the world, would have ever thought I ever drove one. But here we go, family does change you….for the better of course.
What else happened this week (as if the above wasn’t enough)?
Monday I went back to the gym. I continued to do that every day, but Wednesday I was too knackered from the day before, and Friday my knee hurt too much. I overdid it on the cycling machine ;-( I know, laugh at me, but any circular movement to my knee seems to hurt the ligaments. I need to check with my physio massage therapist next week.
Tuesday and Wednesday just passed by. I didn’t do much this week after work, just had good meetings, one of which lasted 10 minutes, and I believe that we are making progress. Slower than expected but quicker than anticipated – if that makes any sense.
Thursday I started the day with a fab meeting and ended the day with drinks and networking. However, although (and I promise) I only had 3 pints, two ales and one stout, I felt like I had about 10 lager the next day. You know that I cannot drink lager to some intolerance, and I thought it might be down to whether the beer was over or under fermented. Stout, Ale and dark beers should be ok, but maybe the one beer I had, a very dark one, was a “Schwarzbier” and not a Stout. Never mind, I don’t in particular like beer anyway.
Friday we finished the day with some nice finger food (and it still smells of home made garlic mayonnaise) where we shared a nice bottle of Californian Zinfandel I bought in Harrods a few years back. Money well spend on this one 
I don’t believe how much of a connoisseur I have become on one hand, then still going on about intolerance to beer on the other. Guess life is for sharing
Last but not least I bought an audio book of the book I read a few years back: “Eckhart Tolle, The power of now” – I will write an exclusive post on that but thought I mention that this book is both fascinating and helpful. Sometime I do worry what we are all worrying about….
Enough said, have a great week ahead, mine looks fairly busy!
Colin and the rubber ducks
I bought my wife some rubber ducks for Valentines day, a devil and an angel. Actually, they were meant for Colin, and my wife discovered them in my drawer the other day.
However, the wee man is enjoying them – guess that’s the main thing!
Test post from Blackberry Wordpress Application
Posted by Volker in mobile post on 04/02/2010
Sunday Column (49)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 31/01/2010
What a busy week lays behind me. After a weekend, which wasn’t a relaxing weekend, I found myself being off sick on Monday. Some virus got me down and I worked from home with more breaks and naps than I would normally have. I wasn’t well.
I felt better over the next few days, partly because I had to. I had a lot of social engagements and meetings at work. Networking parties, a trip to Leeds and Manchester and more meetings, emails etc. You know the drill. So work is very busy at the moment and things are going well. I cannot believe it is February already and I have been in my new job for a month. Time flies.
Colin, who I saw little of this week, is growing up. I believe he develops his own character, slowly but surely. He is playing by himself whilst I watch him. However, we believe it is due to his teething, he seems to have a bit of diarrhoea. Shall see and hope it is nothing serious.
Tai chi this week was good, and it will be one year next week. I believe that this is the first activity in a long time I have stuck to for as long as a year. Still I enjoy it and it is good to have a day a week to complete relax and wind down.
Saturday night we took our wee man to friends’ house for supper: Burns Supper. I had my first vegetarian Haggis which gave me heartburn but tasted really nice. It was a great night but unfortunately our baby wouldn’t settle at all. Too much noise, different smells etc. So we had to call it a night at 10 pm and he fell asleep not even seconds after we put him in his own bed. Bless him!
On Saturday we looked for car seats and came to terms that our car just cannot fit the car seat we think is appropriate for Colin. So it is either a compromise on safety, no car or a new car. We spent most of Sunday looking at cars and the results are quite simple:
- Jen and I are both tall and need a car which fits potentially 2 car seats and us plus a pram.
- We don’t want to spend too much money but need to go through a car dealer for our conscious of buying quality and because they offer finance deals.
- Whilst I don’t care less about status, brand or looks, my wife is thinking more about the latter.
The choice will come down to either a big 4×4 (and by big I mean Shogun or Land Cruiser, potentially XC90, Sorento or Outlander), or a people carrier – here it comes down to price….
Anyway, enough thoughts about cars. The more I look at it the less I am interested. I would like to spend little, get much, have enough space, enough security and still have a reliable car. No need for design and looks, just pure functionality – to be continued.
Enjoy your week, enjoy February!
Should I move to New Zealand?
Ok, the title might be misleading a bit. But, on my favourite channel, I saw Bill Davenhall’s talk about “Your health depends on where you live“.
Now, after watching that, I think that living in London might not be the best choice by far, and that countries like New Zealand, or even Scotland, or Scandinavian countries might have an impact on my well being. What do you think?
Sunday Column (48)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 24/01/2010
Sunday. Hurray.
What a week, I don’t really know where to start.
I am very excited about a few things. One is my job which I really enjoy. And, I am not only saying that. I am convinced we currently have one of the best display media optimisation offerings out there to utilise ad exchanges. People are responding very well to it, so I am very happy with my choice of job.
Anyhow, besides that I am very excited about my son Colin who started saying DADA and I am now sure he means me However, he was quite sick this week, including a big accident on Friday night after which we had to dispose some cushions 
The joy of having a baby I suppose. My wife didn’t feel well either but so far I have been ok.
Then I am excited about my new regime – I have been up every morning at 5:45 am to go swimming and to go to the gym. Hopefully I keep doing that for the next while. My knee still hurts but with Ibuprofen and hopefully slow progression I am confident it will only be temporary. Fingers crossed.
And then I am excited about Schimanski Not only did I order his jacket, the M65 Jacket I had for years in his stone/beige colour, but I also got the first four DVDs that were available of Tatort with Schimanski. It is great!
So this week has been very exciting. And, re-reading my post I didn’t necessarily put work before my son but I still spend more time at work than at home, that is why.
What else? I met with a good friend of mine on Monday night which was great. Haven’t had a chance to catch up with him for a while. Then I had a workshop about taxes and how to do my tax return which was quite helpful. I managed to have two early nights too to be able to help my wife with our son. I enjoy having less of a commute in order to be home a bit earlier. Of course if often happens that I have to go back to my emails afterwards, but it works well for us.
Next week I am looking forward to download the new Peter Maffay CD. Hopefully it will be a good one. Old songs newly recorded…. – I am touching base with my German roots quite a bit lately and I really enjoy it. It is as if I find myself and my history and slowly but surely know where I stand. Surely, I will write more about that shortly, but I can now let go of it. It took 9 years!
That’s all for today. I am tired. Taking care of the boy all weekend, long afternoon walks, not 100% myself, laundry….I have a lot of respect for my wife who does that every day. She enjoys it, as I enjoy what I do. That is fair I guess
You have a good week. Mine looks very busy and exciting, so fingers crossed.
Gedanken = thoughts about a boy
Since I started my new job, I have been busy, and I have been speaking more German than I used to. I believe that Colin is benefiting from that, as I try to make the extra effort to speak German to him. Fingers crossed.
I also thought I just write a few lines about his development. My wife already said that I missed things out in Sunday’s post. But I would – I only see him a few days a week. Tuesday is one of them. Tuesdays I make an extra effort to be home early and try to bath the boy and put him to bed. Tonight I managed.
It is great to see him grow. I don’t believe that he is over 7 months already. Before we know it, he is going to be a year. He is sitting up right already, bouncing up and down and says “dada”, not quite in relation to myself yet, but the sounds are there
My wife has done a fantastic job of taking some new pictures of Colin. If you are in our distribution list you will get a link to all of them. We love to share these pictures, however we don’t want them to be distributed all over the place. Anyhow, I think my wife should become a professional photographer. What do you think?
When Colin was born I was less overwhelmed than I thought. Even before that, seeing the first scan, it was just all like it is supposed to be, supposed to look etc. I believe that we have seen development of babies too much these days, it is documented everywhere, and we think we have seen it all. But, 7 months on, I find that I still struggle to comprehend that this little worm on the scan was actually Colin. And today, Colin was sitting in the bath “reading” the book he got from his god mother about animals squirting water whilst I just sit there and watch him. He is self content, happy and can entertain himself. This would have been unthinkable a few months ago when he was crying and shouting much more often.
I reckon that in a few weeks time, maybe a couple of month, I will write about how much he has grown and how much he is crawling. He crawls backwards a bit and tries to figure out completely how to turn himself around. We are getting there and there is no hurry. In his own time.
My wife got a new buggy today, one that we can fold up and take with us anywhere: planes, cars, trains etc. We are getting used to the idea of being more mobile with him. He is eating proper food and enjoys it a lot. His favourite I believe is still macaroni cheese but he also likes the lentil coconut dish, and fish!
It is great. Seeing a child grow up is still a miracle. But you have to see it, you have to look at him and experience it. Hence I try to spend more time with him, and I am destined to take him swimming on Sunday….
Sunday Column (47)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 17/01/2010
Hello together,
You might have noticed that I haven’t written a blog post this week. The reason is fairly simple. It was my first week in my new job, and there is lots and lots of work todo. But I am loving it, and guess that is the main thing
But of course there is more to life than work. Colin started turning himself back on his back after being on his front. He hasn’t quite mastered it yet but he is improving. Also, he started grabbing everything and gets more and more curious. He is sitting up now too and only sometimes falls over. I cannot believe he is over 7 months already!
Hansel, our lovely ginger cat, cut his foot and had to get stitches. Hence we had to keep both cats inside and they figured out how to open the living room door to get upstairs. So every night we got two visitors that (sometimes) quietly just sneak in and sleep on our bed. How sweet As a result we put a proper door handle and lock on the door so that the cats cannot sneak upstairs anymore. DIY skills par excellence
So a real family life is going on. I worked from home on Wednesday because of the snow. SouthEastern cancelled most trains to London and it was a nightmare. A friend got stuck for 2 hours on the train, so I am glad I stayed home. I still don’t believe that in the year of 2010 5 inches of snow (or less in this case) bring a country to a standstill.
It is melting now. I wouldn’t go as far that spring is coming but we had a few days above zero, with today even being around 10 degrees. I don’t mind the cold if I could do what I normally do, e.g. go to work or go shopping. Shopping delivery slots have been booked out all week
The weekend was great. I had to catch up on some work related stuff but managed to get Hansel to the vet. We also had our neighbours around for coffee and biscuits. We managed to replace a few glasses we broke (I broke ), and I fixed the above mentioned door handle to the living room door.
Just a normal week with the family and work.
Sunday Column (46)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 10/01/2010
England got me back!
Yes, I was in Germany for a week and if you followed me on Twitter or Facebook, you already know what happened.
I started my new job with the media optimization company mexad on Monday. On Monday night I was supposed to fly out to Germany with Easyjet from Gatwick Airport at 18.40. They announced the flight at 6 pm as “please wait”, and kept us in the unknown until about 19.40 and announced a gate. To summarize things: more waiting, a bus tour to the plane, waiting next to the plane, a bus tour back, more waiting at the gate, and a cancelled flight. Wow! Not a good start for a new job. Reason for the cancellation was that the pilots were refusing to fly as they were out of hours.
Luckily my new colleague could book me a flight with Easyjet for 7.05 on Tuesday. It costs a few pounds more but secured me a seat. Some people were waiting for several days trying to get home to Germany, and the que in front of me was horrendous. I got a taxi back home, spend a few hours sleeping and headed to Cologne on Tuesday, thinking it will be all good….
Cologne was freezing. Very cold winds, a bit of snow – just like a real winter. I managed to catch up with some of my study friends and overall had a really good time. By the way, the picture is from circa 1950
The job started out well. For me it is a new area within a familiar field, e.g. display advertising and media optimization on ad exchanges. It is very exciting and I am very much looking forward to starting the UK representation for this exciting technology and company.
Now, to summarize the flight back: lucky and stressful! I was booked on the Easyjet flight leaving Cologne at 21.30. However, Easyjet cancelled a few flights from Gatwick on Friday and when I arrived at the airport, their representatives suggested that if I could get another flight, this would surely be better. They haven’t seen any evening flights since last week! We took the decision to book Germanwings last minute to Stansted, leaving at half seven. And, it was the right decision. I rushed to the train from Stansted to Tottenham Hale, then onwards to Victoria, and I caught the last train at 21.22 towards Faversham which stopped at Bromley. Due to the adverse weather conditions, they were operating an emergency time table, so if I had been at Victoria 2 minutes later, I had to walk or get a taxi. How ridiculous is that? No snow, some ice I admit and freezing temperatures. This country is just not prepared to cope with any winter conditions whatsoever!!!!
However, I made it home at last, got a cab from Bromley and arrived just after 22.00. The Easyjet flight, according to their website, left Cologne after all around 23.30, arriving in Gatwick around midnight UK time. With a taxi from Gatwick I could have made it for 1 am, however I don’t believe if I had waited, that things would have gone right. So definitely a wise decision that teaches me that Germanwings will be the airline to fly with in the future despite the Stansted travel annoyance!
Maybe I was panicking that I didn’t make it out of Germany – maybe not. Some flights were still going on Saturday from German airports, but some weren’t. The BBC reported on suggestions from the German government to embrace for a blizzard and to have food for at least four days at home – pictures can be found at Welt.de
Overall an exciting week. I am glad to be back at work, in London, and excited to see what 2010 will bring. I learned a lot about airlines, priorities and weather conditions. And, coming home was nice. Seeing the boy and changing his diapers, feeding him breakfast…what else to wish for.
Have a good week,
Volker
Living to be 100 and more?
I love TED. Ted comes up with the most interesting discussions, this one is about how you can live to 100 years plus. And, it boils down to living with more healthy food, have a good social live, be active, not to overeat, eat lots of vegetables etc. None of which is rocket science, but we just need to change our lifestyle.
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Volker’s Blurb- Sunday Column (50) 07/02/2010Ok folks, first things first. The big question this week was whether, and if so, which car to get. And the winner is: I feel like I am getting all family. Married, house, child, now a VOLVO Neither my dad nor me, and he is the biggest Volvo fan in the world, would have [...] Related posts:Sunday Column (34) Sunday Column (38) Sunday Column (29) […]
- Colin and the rubber ducks 06/02/2010I bought my wife some rubber ducks for Valentines day, a devil and an angel. Actually, they were meant for Colin, and my wife discovered them in my drawer the other day. However, the wee man is enjoying them – guess that’s the main thing! Bookmark It Related posts:Progress Report Colin Colin is not French Valentines Card […]
- Test post from Blackberry Wordpress Application 04/02/2010Hello, quick test post from my blackberry! Volker Bookmark It Related posts:LinkedIn Application test Blackberry Bold Review Blackberry Bold 9700: that is what I want for Christmas! […]
- Sunday Column (49) 31/01/2010What a busy week lays behind me. After a weekend, which wasn’t a relaxing weekend, I found myself being off sick on Monday. Some virus got me down and I worked from home with more breaks and naps than I would normally have. I wasn’t well. I felt better over the next few days, partly because [...] Related posts:Sunday Column (33) Sunday Column (48) Sunday Col […]
- Should I move to New Zealand? 25/01/2010Ok, the title might be misleading a bit. But, on my favourite channel, I saw Bill Davenhall’s talk about “Your health depends on where you live“. Now, after watching that, I think that living in London might not be the best choice by far, and that countries like New Zealand, or even Scotland, or Scandinavian countries [...] Related posts:another week- am I G […]
- Sunday Column (50) 07/02/2010
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