Germany trips - 6th day 20070929 - window shopping

I walked along the bayreuther strasse to the main pedestrian street. Along the way, there were people everwhere, nothing compared to HK, but it seems like all the people are coming out of their houses...

I passed by an asian shop called Lily and went in 'coz of curiosity... and what did i find????? 辛辣麵!!!!! ^o ^ it's german version though, and costs 0.95 euro, i.e. over HK$10 per pack!!!

I didn't buy it at that time, because the problem in the 'so-called' kitchen in my apartment is just a microwave, and a coffee-machine... there isn't even a boiler!!!!!

Then I passed by a kitchen utensil shop... it carries fissler, wmf, etc. etc. and what did i find this time????? an electrical fondu set - with hotplate and the pot, and surprisingly, made in germany!!!!! again, i didn't buy at that time as i didn't want to carry it around, and i want to see what other options i have...

There are a lot of bakeries along the way... they sell all different kinds of bread and pastries, and all look so yummy!!!

Germany trips - DHL

After a long wait, my DHL boxes are finally leaving frankfurt to the nearest airport of where I'm staying, hopefully I can get thed before I leave for my vacation on wednesday (3 Oct):

September 23, 2007 11:32 Shipment picked up
September 23, 2007 13:31 Departed from DHL facility in Hong Kong
September 23, 2007 14:12 Arrived at DHL facility in Hong Kong
September 24, 2007 00:39 Departed from DHL facility in Hong Kong
September 24, 2007 15:03 Arrived at DHL facility in Frankfurt
September 24, 2007 19:04 Processed for clearance at Frankfurt
September 25, 2007 04:12 Clearance delay
September 26, 2007 04:08 Clearance delay
September 28, 2007 10:39 Clearance delay
September 29, 2007 14:46 Processed for clearance at Frankfurt
September 29, 2007 14:47 Clearance delay
September 29, 2007 16:04 Clearance processing complete at Frankfurt
September 30, 2007 16:33 Departed from DHL facility in Frankfurt

Digression

just visited Mr. Yeung's blog... comparing what he eats and what I eat... a typical 富家子跟窮家女的分別... :P

Germany trips - 6th day 20070929 - morning

here are the pictures along the way... it was cloudy and windy in the morning, and therefore, the pics look shady and dark...

very sleepy (-.-)Zzz... will continue with the upload tomorrow (Sun)...

Germany trips - 6th day 20070929 - breakfast

Today is the first saturday I spent in Germany. Since I went to the supermarket and did laundry last night, the only to-do today was to wander around... :)

I first had a brotchen with gouda and trois foies as breakfast, plus milk + cereal as in the pictures...

The TV is showing Japanese superman with real people programme... the one with 5 people in a team, each one is covered from top to toe in the same uniform, differentiated by the theme colour of pink, blue, green yellow and black... however, when i watch longer, i found that although the uniform is the same, the monsters are the same, but they are white and blonde... :o

apparently they have a german/western version of this japanese programme!!!

Germany trips – 5th day 20070928

Left work at 16:45 as I started at 07:30… took two pics of the office, too, since my 'office-mate' was not in yet... there are two types of light in the office: one if the fluorescent light, and the other is a yellowish soft light... I took pics of both, but it's difficult to tell the difference through a digital camera... :P

went online back at the business centre for a while, and went to the supermarket to stock up for the coming days. Shopped there for 90 minutes and I got bread (Brotchen), cheese, delice aux trois foies, terrine de lapin, milk, choco milk of different fat%, chips, chips, & chips, knoppers (milk and choco biscuits), maggi instant cup noodles, yoghurt of cherry and strawberry… altogether 18.95 Euro… I was so happy with all the food, especially I was hungry when I did the shopping. However, I forgot about buying ice-creams!!! Last time in March I was here, I found that the movenpick was just half price compared to HK!!!!!
Maybe I should drop by tomorrow to pick that up… :)

With all the food in the apartment, I have picked lays as my dinner... :P

Germany trips - 4th day 20070927 (2)

had spinach strudel for lunch... yummy... the canteen is still surprisingly good... had a cup of hot chocolate, too, for 0.75 Euro... i guess the company is subsidizing...
they also sell sandwich and snacks, too... maybe it can be a place for me to stock up my reserve at the apartment...

has been raining hard all day, so not in the mood to stay in the office for long... and since I arrived at the office at 07:30... I left the office at 16:30... strictly speaking, I have already lost tens of minutes to the company. According to the regulations/laws in Germany, people should only work for 37 hours a week (some says 34 hours), which means less than 8 hours per day. With the canteen in the campus, our lunch usually lasts for less than 45 minutes... so... hehe...

got a fax from DHL regarding the shipment... with NOT a single english word in the fax. It takes time for me to pick up german so I asked the reception to help. Unfortunately, the receptionist on duty is not really strong in English...

Germany trips - 4th day 20070927

finally, i didn't make any wrong turns and went direct from hotel to the office this morning... well, almost made two wrong turns but luckily changed lanes before too late... :P

Germany trips - 3rd day 20070926

Here comes the menu for my first week in Herzo... i was told that it had a chinese week last week and the week before... wondering if the dishes are really chinese or german chinese though...

this week the menu is on october festival, the (in)famous beer drinking festival. Of course, there's no beer in the canteen, and some of the dishes are not really about octoberfest... well gimmicks to get people interested... otherwise, eating in the same canteen every work day, i think people will get crazy... :P

btw... I had field salad with bacon, onion and apple, cheese spaetzle with fresh vegetables and mushroom on tuesday, and baked rosefish fillet with remoulade sauce on wednesday... i had already asked for small portion, but i still couldn't finish all... :P

Germany trips - 2nd day 20070925

The first two were the views from my apartment, while the third one was the view on my way from the hotel to the supermarket.

This morning was the first time I drove to work... I drove safely, although I missed 2 turns along the way and therefore took an hour instead of the normal 20 minutes to arrive at the office... well... at least there was no accident... :P

Lunch at the stripes, the name of the canteen at the place I work in. Since the office is very remote, there is no restaurant around, so the stripes is the only choice, unless you drive to downtown for lunch... I'll attach this week's lunch menu for your enjoyment tomorrow.

I had meetings until 18:10 and I left office immediately: firstly because it's the first time I drove from work to the hotel, secondly, I don't want to drive in the dark, esp. if I happened to get lost, and thirdly I want to go to the nearby supermarket. This time, I drove safely to the hotel AND didn't get lost... a good start indeed... :P

The supermarket is within 10-minute walking distance, and it's huge... unfortunately, it doesn't carry the muesli that I like, and there is no english signs in the supermarket, or any english description on any of the products... and it doesn't accept credit card... ~_~ I finally got some bananas, apples, and yoghurt... which should keep me full until weekend... :)

Germany trips - 1st day 20070924 - photos: apartment 2

above the desk is a 'sky window' (pic 6), and behind the desk is my new bed (pic 7)... there is a door by the bed, i opened it and it in fact leads to the corridor of 4th storey, where rooms 5xx are...

a cupboard is next to the bed for my clothings (pic 8)...

i went back to look at the sky window and the blind shadows are lovely (pic 9)... pic 10 is the view from the upper storey to the living room...

Germany trips - 1st day 20070924 - photos: apartment

my room is 4xx, but in the lift i press 3...

opened the door and there is a 門關 place as in pic 1... passed the 'kitchen' on the left hand side and the bathroom on the right hand side, the second door lead to the dining area on the right (pic 2), and the living area right in front (pic 3)... behind this second door is the staircase (pic 4) for the 2nd storey where the desk is (pic 5)...

Germany trips - 1st day 20070924 - photos: airport

well the photos are not taken really well, the fault of the camera-holder, aka me...

this is the Munich airport, and it's sunrise time, though the pics look like it's sunset... at least to me... :P

from munich i needed to take transit flight to nuremberg, and this was the flight that i took, see the 螺旋槳!!!???

Germany trips - 1st day 20070924 - car accident

Company has rented a car for me during my stay in Germany... since I need automatic, they don't have a car from the company car pool for me...

I have never wanted a car, 'coz I don't like to drive, and I have to pay for the petrol (it really doesn't make sense to me as it's the company who has put me in an apartment so far away that I need to drive), and the petrol is as expensive as in HK...

It turned out that they got me a Mercedes A-class... well, sounds great, urhh... unfortunately, I drove less than 10 minutes and my first ever car accident occur...

To cut the story short, I was not injured, there is no functionality breakdown, so the car is still drivable (subject to x-ray though) but I may need to pay for the damage... :'(

What a way to start my driving in Germany... ~_~ And tomorrow will be my first time driving by myself from the apartment to the office... cross your fingers for me.... [-o<

Germany trips - 1st day 20070924 - flights

23 Sep 07 23:05 flight from HK to Munich

Typhoon signal no. 1 was hoisted in the evening. When my flight LH731 took off, it was raining outside. I almost fell asleep right away. When I first woke up for the drink, my nose started acting funny, so I took the nose allergy medicine. Then I fell sleep again, but managed to have a little dinner and breakfast in between. Originally planned to watch Mr. Bean’s movie, but when I woke up in between meals, the movie was already on, so I gave up and fell insleep again… :P
After breakfast, it’s almost 04:30 in Germany time, I could see the stars in the sky, and one was especially bright… would it be 北極星? There were also clusters of lights down under. The lights looked so static that I thought everyone was still in bed or getting ready for work at home. However, when the plane flew above a highway, there were actually trains of car going opposite directions.

Arrived at Munich airport at 05:30, I took one of the ‘all nationals’ queue for passport check. The one before me was a chinese guy and somehow the immigration officer asked him a lot of questions, and I saw that the immigration officer made a gesture towards me, apparently asking if I was with him… :o

After several more questions, the officer finally let the chinese guy go. Then it was my turn. He asked a few questions, wanted to see my return ticket. I offered to tell him I work for xxx and voila, he let me go. Not sure if it’s because of the magic word or not… :P

Went to the shops here, everything is expensive and nothing inteseresting… the calling card no. doesn’t work for phone line or mobile, and there is no free internet… they do have WiFi, and if I had a HK CSL account, I could get connected – not sure at what costs though… :P

I have been watching 8 Femmes by the gate… It’s 07:55 and my flight to Nuremberg will set off in 55 minutes… :)

你做過甚麼?

regardless, I updated my cv last night... the last time i updated it was exactly a year ago...

when i updated my cv about my current 8.5-mth-old job, i asked myself what i have accomplished and achieved to-date, and i feel that i've destroyed more than i've created, and i've terminated almost as much as i started... and the funny thing is, this is not necessarily bad... :P

與我何干?

Agent asked me to submit my cv for a position called strategic procurement manager for a US FMCG F&B group... how the heck can it be remotely related to me!!!???

歲月如梭

考試才剛過了一星期, 感覺卻已是數個月前的事了... 感覺與記憶; 從來都是騙人的...

finally...

終於可以回家了...

hopefully...

hopefully... today is my last exam for the programme... last exam for this year... last exma for the coming two years... last exam until i finish the programme... last exam until i take the next programme...

balance sheet...

did you notice? short form for balance sheet is BS... and BS is short for bulls__t...
can't be more true... x_x
(one of my exam-related disorders...)