Posts Tagged life
Sunday Column (65)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 23/05/2010
Wow, what a week. Hardly saw the office this week, or home. But absolutely loved this week too…
Dear work diary,
I spent all Monday in meetings and late into the evening to do work in the office, whilst on Tuesday it didn’t look much better. However, I made it home for Colin’s bath. Wednesday, whilst my boss was over from Germany, we spend most of the day in meetings, decided on a new office and I made it to Manchester and back before having a great time with clients in a Thai restaurant and club called Bam Bou. After a short night we had more meetings, and the week was finished with a day in the office.
Dear life diary,
I had a fabulous week, seeing my son grow up, clapping his hands. He also almost walks and is very cute to watch in the bath. At the weekend we met a lot of his friends. Friday night my wife convinced me to go for an Indian which was a fantastic idea. I was met at the train and we took Colin along. On Saturday we actually managed to spend the day away at the sea. We went to Whistable.
What shall I say. This week really flew past. Whilst writing part of this our Saturday diner is in the oven. An experiment of cheese crusty chicken with asparagus and tatties. Cigar maybe 
Movie maybe. I am exhausted and think that all the ideas I had to do alongside work just don’t get enough attention.
By the way attention. I now get poked by my wife more often through facebook as she got herself an i-phone. I know, I am the old geek now with a blackberry whilst she is the cool lady with the white i-phone. Not much to add, lol.
That should be all for today. Apologies for another short post, but I try to improve next week….
Love & Kindness to you all,
Volker
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!
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 (33)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 11/10/2009
Here we go again. Another week, another Sunday. I like writing these columns as it gives me some time to reflect on the week.
Monday: a client meeting, it was raining and I arrived there soaked. Met an ex-colleague and got some good gossip, and some good insight from a different perspective. Sometimes it is really good to just sit down and talk openly.
Tuesday: we had a workshop at work which worked out very well and I think we made a lot of progress, followed by a Wednesday where we had a great team night out. I really like the guys I am working with and it is great to see everyone working so hard to make things happen.
Thursday I went back to Tai Chi after a week’s break and enjoyed it a lot. And, before I knew it, it was Friday. Some positive comments from my boss which made me feel great. So the whole week ended on a positive note.
Saturday was divided into two – on the one hand I enjoyed myself and went for a massage. Stopped at McDonalds for a dirty breakfast, Starbucks for a coffee and read my FT. Me time, very enjoyable. Then, on the other hand, it was family day. I spent most of the day with the boy, went to Homebase to buy some plants and paint for the fence, and we had our neighbours over for a few drinks.
However, I am coming down with a cold AGAIN. Wonder if my immune system just decided to walk, or if it is the boy. They keep saying that you get ill more often having a baby, but he seems to be fine. I am off for 3 days next week, and don’t want to spend them all in bed.
Also, this week a friend’s nephew was killed in a car accident. It was one of those moments when you sit down and think “why am I going through all these things in life, hassle, work and stress when it can be over so quickly”. One of those moments when your life comes to a full stop and you reflect.
On Sunday my mother in law arrived. I haven’t seen her for a long time, so looking forward to spending a week with her.
There are many other things going on, which I don’t need to speak about: things like coaching and personal development. Also I am working on my cb consulting website. Would like to integrate some of the sites on this URL and also get some of the balamadana blog content here too.
I reviewed two more wines, so you will get a taste over the next 2 weeks. Will try to write more often, but seem to be busy with my job and the family. Both of which is enjoyable, but I need to work on a routine to fit things like my blog in again too.
Have a fantastic week!
Sunday Column (30)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 20/09/2009
Alright. This week was nothing like the ones before. It started off with a revelation I had seen coming and since, I have been thinking about “the meaning of life”. Funny that every now and then you get thrown off your path and then you start thinking about purposes in life and what you want to achieve. However, maybe I should just sit down and map out life regardless of how it develops. Maybe I should make my own master plan.
Tuesday was my first pitch at work. I enjoy it very much and things are going well. Time for things to pick up of course as it is September and budgets are made for 2010. I hope
On Wednesday I caught up with a good friend who runs a successful business and on Thursday I met with a friend from the CMI who I enjoy meeting, unfortunately not often enough, for a Harvey’s Bitter in the Ole George in Beckenham. So this week was very social. Oh, almost forgot that on Monday I met another friend which works in the same industry and emigrated to London a few years ago from Germany too. So plenty of thoughts and input this week. Really enjoyable.
My Tai Chi is less enjoyable at the moment. Part of it is due to the fact that we are about 2/3 done with the long form and I am too impatient to actually wait and finish the form. The other reason is that I am always rushed to make it in time, which I often don’t. So my increased work load and long commute don’t help. Overall I hope that I will have enough stamina to finish the form and take it from there.
On Saturday, now this week was very social, we met good friends in Dulwich Village. We went to the Piaf where the food was great. However, prices and service were not as good as the first impression of the place suggested. It was a great Autumn day, very warm and muggy, and we had great fun with our friends. Colin behaved and was passed around which he thoroughly enjoyed.
Today I managed to get rid of the last vegetables. It was a failure to grow broccoli and courgettes and for next year, we might not grow many veggies at all.
The garden, the boy and many other take up a lot of time. Time, I personally have less and less of.
I realised that writing the blog becomes a shore, that I don’t enjoy being on Twitter as much, hardly have time for Facebook and that I hardly get enough time to myself, my family or hobbies.
Hence, you might notice a slow down in my online activities. My first priority for the remainder of the year is to make sure that my job is progressing the way I want and gives me the stability and security I need for the family.
To ensure that I have to work beyond 9-5; whilst I enjoy doing that I need to see the outcome. And I do, as otherwise I wouldn’t do it. I am confident the hard work will pay off towards the end of the year.
Until then I want to prioritise. My blog will take a 2nd priority and will mostly be ad hoc stuff and of course my Sunday column to keep you up to date.
I would almost consider this phase a reconsolidation – I cut everything possible down to focus on what I consider the most important thing. And, once that is becoming a routine, I will add other pieces to my life again accordingly.
Hope that makes sense.
Oh, and before I forget, don’t forget to sponsor me, I look silly and would hope to make money with that Volker’s Tacheback Profile.
Sunday Column (25)
Posted by Volker in Colin, Sunday Column, house, personal on 16/08/2009
Oh dear, this week was full of swine 2 if not 3 of my work colleagues went home and 2 came down with the flu. You already know how paranoid I am, so it didn’t help. Still feeling ok, however having a sore throat and itchy ears. The curry on Saturday night surely helped to get any viruses out of my body – I hope so anyway 
Vodafone exchange my Blackberry Bold within 24 hours and the new one runs fine. Either Ubertwitter caused a crash on the system, which I doubt, or the first one was faulty. Not sure. Fingers crossed! The new one is working so well, I absolutely love it. Will write a review at some point. Need to insure that the Bold though, don’t want to pay for one, in case anything happens to this one. I am far from having installed a lot of programmes but just for my emails, Facebook and Twitter, it is great I know, I will install more programmes, but currently I think a lot about complexity in life. But I write about that later this week on Thursday!
Then, I bought myself an ugly and awful alarm clock. Just because I am used to 2 alarms, I decided to buy the cheapest digital alarm clock there was on Amazon. I love their horrible alarm ring tones and its red colour Hilarious! 
Other than that not much happened this week. Things have been busy but ok at work and we made progress with some clients. Things are picking up and I am getting more into a routine. Saying that, I don’t enjoy my Tai Chi as much as I have to and would prefer to do something more active. However, my left knee is hurting – for no apparent reason – and I am wondering if should go and see a doctor after all. Hmm, decisions decisions.
Our son has been growing massively. They say that they now put on 1 kilo a month. Wow, he will be really big soon! We went to Sidcup on Saturday and he pooed whilst we were in heavy traffic. It took us a while until we could change him and boy, it was a huge mess. But we managed. He managed to get through a few sets of cloths on Saturday but luckily slept well all night. So overall, I am really pleased with the way he grows up and we grow to coping with things. I try to take care of him most Sunday mornings just so that my wife can have a lay in. This time becomes really special for me, I enjoy feeding him, sitting in the living room and playing with Colin. Normally, whilst he naps, I manage to get a coffee and my blog posts done
In our garden I found tomatoes and what looks like melons growing. Surely they are courgettes that will change their shape later but sometimes I wonder. Never grew melons or tomatoes. Again, I need to update you on the garden. But with the weather being so poorly, I haven’t had much time but cutting the grass and tidying up a bit.
Next weekend we hope to finish the renovating in the living room. Would be good to actually have that done and then think how we might change things around and whether we get more furniture in or leave it less busy. Shall keep you posted on that one too.
To finish up a nice week, we had visitors on Sunday and a nice diner. Have a great week!
Once a year – being foreign
Once a year I seem to get to this melancholy state of mind thinking about where I am from and what I want in life. Probably very normal. Last year I wrote about “am I German?”.
And of course I am German, and I am proud to be German. Not proud of what Germany has done over 60 years ago but proud to come from such an advanced country with a good reputation for schools, universities, engineering products etc.
Just the other day I realised that it has been 20 years since the Berlin wall came down. Time has passed. I won’t forget the moment when I woke up, watched TV and saw my parents in tears seeing the wall coming down. I was 12 at the time and only knew Germany being divided. I didn’t have a clue what was going on and that I was witnessing history in the making.
It has been eight years this year that I flew from Dusseldorf to Aberdeen to study in the UK and haven’t been a resident in Germany since. I lost my taste for some German food and for a while I almost hated Germany. I believe that most people leaving their country want to get away from something and don’t want to look back. And I was the same for a while, and I was proud of not liking Germany and not returning there.
However, there came a point when I considered going back. And even today, looking at the health system in Britain, the school system and the house prices in London, particularly with our little boy being born, I sometimes wish I would go back. But I won’t. At least not for a good while. But why is that, why am I so settled here?
This is a personal blog post and surely most expats in the UK are seeing things similarly. I don’t hate Germany anymore, enjoy being amongst Germans but still cannot imagine moving back. I cannot imagine being part of that life that I didn’t enjoy a few years ago. What was it that I didn’t like? The “stiffness” of the society, the intolerance, the “want to be different”? Maybe. But looking back what annoyed me then is what annoys me now. Where I live I find the same problems I found in Germany 10 years ago. And that is because I am now part of the society, I get integrated into the everyday life, the habits, the thoughts etc.
I truly believe that once you are part of any place in the world and live there and you are part of the society and local community, you will experience similar things.
And every now and then you get reminded by people what you are missing from your home country. And when you have a little child and you speak German to him and you think of all the words and you think of what he will say to you when he is grown up. And what is was like for your parents when you left them. And your grand parents when you left their “father land”.
But you think of many other things too. You think of what other people had done in your situation. That is when you sit back and relax. Because it was a good choice for me to get a good education from a good university. It was good to have an international degree. It surely was right to have a career in London, live on the outskirts with my wife. And, of course it was right to get married to my wife.
So it is all positive really! Being German, the first part of this blog post sounds like moaning. But it is just our direct way of saying things the way they are. Full stop. No, we aren’t harsh, we are just very direct in our expressions. People who know us learn to live with that
Not in the world would I consider to move away from what I have now. And most people, including my family, understood why I moved towards what I have now, when I left Germany so long ago. Of course I will always be a foreigner. I will always have an accent and a slightly different view on things. But you would, wouldn’t you?
And, I am open about it and like to talk about it. Because I am who I am because of…..what I decided to do in life. You always make decisions and you never know until afterwards whether the decision was right or wrong.
It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are happy where you are. And I am very happy where I am, what I do, how I live and the people I surround myself with. London in particular makes it even easier to live because there are so many Germans, Scottish, Danish, Turkish, Spanish…..people that have a similar story to tell.
I better stop and have a German wheat beer to calm my melancholy 
Sunday Column (1)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 01/03/2009
Hello Readers,
After a long weekend, or should I say I am still in it as I am off work tomorrow, I decided to write a Sunday Column. Just really a personal update, some thoughts and some ideas on life, work and anything I feel speaking/writing about.
Am I well? Yes, I think I am. Have been back to the gym, exaggerating it and feeling rather knackered for a week or so. Also, had two shows over the last 2 weeks which drained a lot of energy out of me. However, being off really helps and the blackberry is off and I haven’t checked my emails.
This weekend we went for a meal. I will write more in detail about it but I am still wondering about the horrendous prices for going out in the UK. With or without wine you hardly get away with less than £50, or if you really go for something fancy it easily adds up to £100 or more. So mark up prices in the UK are still the norm and sometimes I ask myself why to support it? Probably because I really fancy doing it and I (still) can. Once our little baby boy arrives we won’t be able to go out at all or not as often as we do now. Guess that is where the savings come from when you have a baby and pay for diapers/nappies.
My wife is nesting. She is painting the hall is not resting at all. Hansel, our ginger tom cat, got neutralised on Friday and today he got outside again. Lucky us! The cat litter started to smell already, wonder how we managed with two kittens for almost 5 months! Guess it starts all over again in June.
Living in London is a funny thing. After 5 years there are still things I need to get used to. Public transport is one, the other one is the permanent stress and buzz level. There are always people out there, always noise, always someone in your way. The tube is full, you are annoyed, had a stressful day and only want to get home. But too many people in my way.
Sure I pick up more things about London as we go along. Luckily we live outside London, 5 streets to be exact, and enjoy the quiet suburban live. I keep you updated as we go along, e.g. soon I want to start growing my own veggies and getting rid of the mould outside on the bottom of our outside kitchen wall. There are always things to do around the house.
What else is about London? Career – that really drove me “down” here in the first place. I could, if I wanted to, change my job tomorrow. Whilst it is not the aim of the game, but it allows for flexibility. Also, you can easily sell to people as all companies are down here too. E.g. you mix and match easier in a bigger, metropolitan city – that is true for business as well as private.
On that note maybe, in case you never been to London, don’t move here if you don’t have an accent Because everyone seems to have one here and me with my mixture of Scottish, American, allegedly Irish and of course German twang I really don’t stick out too much, do I?
So, maybe that should be all for my first Sunday column. Guess it summarises my thoughts in general a bit and I will make sure to speak about more stuff next week. After a nice massage this afternoon, I will now cook a nice Cajun Garlic Chicken for my wife, with Spinach, Potatoes and Mushrooms. Yummy.
The curious case of…
Posted by Volker in cb consulting, change management, personal on 11/02/2009
…Benjamin Button.
It has been a few days since I watched the movie, however it was a great movie to watch.
“Button” line is that someone is born but looks like he is old and with the years grows younger. Falls in love with a woman that grows old and they meet in the middle for a few years.
Whoever has seen the movie, you know what I mean.
I find it fascinating. Imagine you look better from day to day. Less grey hair, more women that run after you (if you look like Brad Pitt anyway) and you feeling better too. However, what is worse?
Thinking of going through puberty backwards and starting to wet the bed or growing old and wetting the bed and stop remembering what happened. It is an interesting thought to see how things could be different, if time runs backwards.
But, is it not all in our head? Isn’t it our mind which tells us what to think, how young to feel, and how to deal with life? Is it not our perception and life experience that makes it more worthwhile every day? If Brad Pitt had started with the experience and age but became younger and less experienced, e.g. a real backward journey, would the movie still have the same effect?
I don’t want to spoil the end – however life is similar on both ends, isn’t it? And, you are never to old to start all over again and make things happen. Really!
Yes you can – anyone can if you are ready and motivated. Whatever you can achieve, go for it!
Have a great night,
Volker
New blog … new life?
Hello,
Thanks for all the feedback so far on my blog.
Yes, I have moved my blog to my own domain, following the example of several of my friend. This way I have more control about widgets, add-ons and can add projects like cb consulting to this site also.
I assume that I will move balamadana to wordpress too.
However, it will be a learning process of how to use WordPress as a CMS, how to use Google Analytics, how to use Adsense properly and so on. Twitter is now integrated and you should be able to tweet this post and to see what I am up to as well. Please follow me.
Also, I might delete my old blogs on wordpress.com and blogger to avoid duplicate content and anyone not finding me. I should soon rank highest for “volker ballueder”, once Google has indexed my site
Ok, not that difficult.
New Life? Not really. Some things are in constant change, the baby is growing and the kittens are growing up too. I am desperate for spring to get some warmer weather, start planting my vegetables and enjoy a nice wheat beer in the sun. I am still in London, assuming for another 2-3 years for sure. But, you will never know.
Other than that, I started my first Tai Chi class last week. It helps me to relax and focus. Like a slow meditation. I will post about it some other time.
Thanks again for visiting and watch this space!
Volker
LinkedIn
Volker’s Blurb- Happiness 01/09/2010As promised I wanted to write more here. Now, this weekend in the Financial Times, FT Weekend Magazine August 28/29 2010, there was an article on Happiness. Nick Powdthavee reveals seven surprising new discoveries about happiness. Carl Wilkinson asks some happy people how they manage it. So here is the summary added with some of [...] Related posts:Happiness […]
- Sunday Column (79) 29/08/2010This week, once again, passed very quickly. It was a very rainy week, miserable but successful. My boss from Germany was up in London and we had some important meetings and made good headway with some of our endeavours. So work wise, I am very happy at the moment. Now, there is private life, which [...] Related posts:Sunday Column (78) Sunday Column (68) Sun […]
- Sunday Column (78) 22/08/2010Hello, I shouldn’t complain about work, I love it actually but it is getting quite a lot lately. So I am sitting here at the weekend, thinking that I should write another two proposals that need to be finalised on Monday. We shall see how the rest of the weekend goes. Overall I am very [...] Related posts:Sunday Column (79) The Weather – or why am I not post […]
- Loving your family 19/08/2010Now, I thought this is worth sharing. Today, in the middle of a very busy day, I got “tagged” in a picture on Facebook. Hence I looked and found the one below. I personally find this a treat. Like getting a surprise present. Like someone sending you a handwritten love letter. Bookmark It Hide Sites [...] Related posts:Our family is growing – update 1 Bigger […]
- Why we do what we do? 18/08/2010Definitely worth watching: Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d2241').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); Related posts:Tony Robbins? Related posts:Tony Robbins? […]
- Happiness 01/09/2010
Recent Comments