Oh I Do Like To Live Beside The Sea Side

or at the very least, beside a nice lake on a hot day!

(visit to Guggenberger See, June 13th, less than a mile from home)

We Are Online

I am writing this in the office (don't tell my boss) but we are no longer cut of from the rest of the world in our new home. Not the fastest link, downloading files is going to take longer than we were used to, but certainly good enough for email, MSN and the like.

:-)

Broadband Saga

We're not sure yet, but maybe, just maybe, we might have internet access in our new home from tonight / tomorrow. Our internet story is a sad one, so here are just the high (or should that be low) lights:

• Early May: Ordered 16 Mbit broadband access (DSL in German), including telephone flat rate for Germany and UK calls. Confirmation letter from DSL company to confirm new phone number.
• One or two weeks later (not sure due to not actually living at that address yet): Received letter from DSL company that due to technical issues it is unfortunately not possible to provide broadband access.
• End of May: Discussion with neighbours confirms worst fears, exactly three roads in Neutraubling got glass fibre cables about 10 years ago, including ours. Need good old-fashioned copper cables for broadband - ie no one able to offer anything above basic modem speed or maybe ISDN via land lines. Cable company can offer TV but no internet access . Bummer (or personal choice of extreme expletive).
  
• Beginning of June: Considering Satellite option. Turns out to be very expensive (80 Euros or so per month, for 2 Mbit, plus hardware & installation costs).
• One week ago: Ordered mobile broadband (via mobile operator), supposedly up to 7 Mbit. Three days later, they deliver the wrong hardware. Everything has to be returned.
  
• Today: New hardware has been delivered. Maybe, just maybe it's the right one, the details are correct, and on top of everything, the signal is strong enough (neighbours sceptical).

Will it work? No idea, but watch this space.

Für Unsere Nicht-Englischsprachigen Besucher

Liebe Nicht-Engländer

Ich habe mir sagen lassen, dass nicht jede/r englisch spricht, und daher hier nicht immer alles verstanden wird. Echt? Sowas aber auch :-)

Mein Vorschlag: einfach die Adresse der Webseite bei Babelfish, http://de.babelfish.yahoo.com eingeben (oder auch einfach nur einen Text). Da wird dann alles automatisch übersetzt - nicht perfekt, das Ergebniss ist gelegentlicher eher "durchwachsen", aber man kann meistens (fast) ganz gut verstehen, um was es geht. Einfach mal ausprobieren. 

Breaking News - First Baby Illness In New Home

Last night was quite unsettled, and when our young man woke up this morning he refused to be put down, didn't want his porridge, and was a very unhappy chappy. Some calpol helped improve the situation by the time I had to set off for my official first day at work from our new home (typical, of course). He seems better now, but it seems he's caught a tummy bug: raised temperature, diarrhoea, refusal to eat...

Oh dear

No Internet, no email

Due to the fact that we live in the only three streets in Neutraubling where optic fibre cables were installed 10 years ago (when this still was thought to be the way to go), we haven't been able to get a broadband, or in fact, any kind of internet connection. We'll probably need to go for broadband via satellite, not terribly fast (up to 2 Mbit) but to compensate for that also quite expensive!

So, at least for a little while longer, until all this has been sorted out, we are offline at home, at least as far as emailing and such goes. I have access in the office, and will forward (print out, poor trees) any emails and take them home, post any blog items written offline (hence the flurry today), and so forth. So, please be warned and be patient, any responses to your missives (and please do write) might take a little while.

Journeymen (and women!)

Almost ever since I begun to learn German, I have been thrilled about the notion of the ‘Wandergeselle’. They are young men and women who, having completed their apprenticeships, decide that they need more experience in order to become proper masters of their trade. In order to gain that experience, they must travel for 3 years from carpenter to carpenter or baker to baker offering their services to established craftsmen and asking for nothing in return. They must wear special, almost medieval costumes (the costume differs from trade to trade) and carry travellers walking sticks and their worldly belongings in a bundle over their shoulders. Although these days, I am quite sure they carry mobile phones, they are not supposed to earn a profit, only their keep and they must hitchhike from place to place searching for work and lodgings. Many of them even travel abroad on their mission to become better smith or better welders. They are a truly dedicated bunch.

You can imagine my excitement, therefore, when M, out of the blue does an illegal u-turn to on the main road out of Regensburg, to pick up a couple of oddly-clad journey 'people'. One, a young lady who only started out very recently, is an upholsterer and the other, a man at the end of his three years, is a locksmith / metal worker. They told us how, when they set out, for the first three months they are accompanied by a seasoned ‘Geselle’ who has already been travelling for some time so that they can learn the tricks of the trade and, basically, how to survive on the road sticking to the specific rules that apply to the journey. They were a young, unassuming couple and yet, they must really have had such inner confidence, not to speak of dedication and commitment, to undertake such a journey.

Maybe I don’t have much faith in the youth of today or, indeed, of Britain’s trades people but, somehow, I just can’t imagine your average young chippie or plasterer travelling for 3 years without earning a penny. Can you?

And all this just for a wheelie bin…

You’d think it would be easy really. In Addlestone, we had a wheelie bin into which we put our rubbish. On Wednesdays the bin men would come and take the rubbish away (with Max waving excitedly and wildly at his dirty heroes through the window). It’s not exactly rocket science.

In Neutraubling however, our quest to dispose of our unwanted items begins at the local town hall. Room number 8. Second floor. Bit like the Soviet Union really, only smarter. Here we are told that, in order to get a bin, we firstly have to get our landlord to sign a form giving us permission to get one (as opposed to having rotting food and newspapers piling up around us in our lovely well-kept property like Mr Trevas I suppose). Once we have completed this form, we have to decide what size bin we want. Different sized bins not only cost different amounts to purchase (yes you do actually have to go to a garden-centre to buy your own wheelie bin) but your monthly council fee varies according to the size of your bin too! Once you have purchased your bin and got your special permission from the landlord, you go back to the town hall to get your special bin licence number (like a little registration plate for your bin). But, what if you change your mind after 6 months when you realise that your bin is overflowing with nappies because you were too tight to buy a bigger one? Then you have to deregister your bin and start the whole process all over again to get one with more capacity!

What bureaucracy! And that’s just the stuff you don’t recycle – the rest has to be dragged to the local recycling point which is only open certain hours and if you don’t drive, lugging tons of plastic and paper and cardboard there is probably a bit of a chore. It’s compulsory mind you – if someone catches you throwing paper in your general rubbish bin, then there will be trouble! And I thought Germans were the big greenies!