Garmisch, München, Provins, Leipzig

Thankfully Deutsche Bahn and the trusty Skoda afford a degree of freedom from the confines of Augsburg.

The 30th of August is spent clambering about the mountains near Garmisch with Almuth, Matthew and Anna. The weather is stunning, the scenery more so. All perfectly rounded off with a glass of buttermilk and sheep-based entertainment. Amazingly good for blowing away cobwebs.

The weekend of the 12th of September is spent seeing my father's new house in Provins, now very partially decorated but looking pretty good. A brief trip into Paris on Saturday affords a visit to a wine bar and a crêperie with Simon and Alex. Much profitable discussion of the relative physical merits of European females is had, along with other topics of gravity. Sunday involves a lengthy garden party. Miranda helps relieve the overwhelming Frenchness. The 9 hour drive is exhausting but bearable.

The 20th of September is spent in Munich. The Residenz is incredible, even if finding the entrance takes half an hour what with endless Oktoberfest barriers. The endless signs stating that the entire contents/fabric of a room has been destroyed in WWII really impresses how much damage was done by allied bombing. The "Deutsches Museum" is like the London Science Museum but bigger and with even more exciting interactive sections and more detail on industry. The musical instrument section is mostly closed for renovation, grr. Most importantly, Oktoberfest. The beer is lethal, insanely strong and unavoidable. I have precious little memory of how I got back to Augsburg, save the time and platform of my train, drunken self-organisation once again proves its power. However, I doubtless would not even have made it to Munich Hauptbahnhof if Almuth had not endured my feckless insobriety. My umbrella is the only casualty.

The second rattle up the A9 of the year on the 25th September brings me to Leipzig, where Emily is spending her year abroad. The town itself is very attractive, mysteriously dominated by a massive market for the weekend, wherein is found excellent Backfisch. Two museum trips: the "Museum für Bildende Kunst" is doubtless a good example of its type, certainly in architectural terms, but does little to assuage a mild indifference towards 20th century impressionisty art. Dutch Masters are somewhat more entertaining. Clothing fascists ensure that no item of clothing is slung over the shoulders or worn in any unorthodox manner. I am content to re-don my jumper. A pony-tailed man, known only as the Jacket Warrior is not so amused at being asked to wear his eponymous vestment and has a quite vigourous argument with two members of staff. The musical instrument collection in the Grassi Complex is excellent: amazingly comprehensive with the first known fortepiano, a harpsichord with views of Pisa on the inside of the lid and some amazing woodwind and string instruments. Musical bargains are had in the form of singing in the Thomaskirche (although not by the main choir), the Josquin being particularly good, and in € 14 tickets to "Die Zauberflöte". All in all a very decent production. The singers were generally good, with Pamina pulling an extraordinary aria out of the hat. Prime empty seats mean we manage to get an excellent view after the interval. Much eating of stollen, brioche, foie gras and other unmentionables occurs, Augsburg will feel positively ascetic. Igudesman and Joo round off the weekend in fine style.

Living

So, the last post was made from the furnished security of my temporary flat in Kissing. I have been occupying my present flat for just over a month now and it has worked out wonderfully.

Many painful trips to IKEA have provided a reasonable amount of furniture at a bargain (although not insubstantial) price. Assembling it was painful and time consuming, putting in light fittings doubly so. A surfeit of boxes and a hastily shut boot managed to crack my front windscreen through the wonder of direct cardboard contact front to back.

The position of the flat could not be better, the journey to work is but a short 20 minutes by bicycle, the kitchen works, the washing machine is bearable. Things are comfortable, it is a place to which I look forward to returning after work.

My landlord/lady are both absolutely lovely and were it not for them I would not have got an affordable garage space in which to leave the car. Needless to say, getting a residents' permit for an English car involves changing the number-plates. This needs German insurance, which needs TÜV for English cars, as well as new headlamps and description documents. No thanks. The car gets plastered by Umweltzonebußgeldverwarnungszetteln with high regularity. As I don't use it in town (the irony...) I am anticipating vast fines in the near future.

Ummeldung was as painless as these things can be. 2 hours waiting is manageable... A letter arrives in the post warning me I need to send an Arbeitsbestätigung for the "Vollzug des Freizügigkeitsgesetzes der EU". Irritation ensues, HR departments are pestered for documentation. A few days pass. Another letter arrives telling me that actually I don't need to send anything, because the appropriate material has been obtained from my previous Behörden. AAAAAA!!!

Work

It has now been nearly 2 months since nose first hit grindstone. Several things have changed. There was a minor crisis as the company announced the introduction of "Kurzarbeit". This effectively means that people are obliged to work 20% reduced working hours i.e. one day less/week and get 20% less pay. This of itself is hardly ideal, let alone when the same level of output is tacitly expected. The alternative is of course simply firing people. However, given the large amount of paperwork and redundancy pay, as well as the fact that around 10% of employees have been laid off over the last year, the option of simply working people harder for less money seemed like a super plan.

Thankfully, common sense and huge disgruntlement put paid to this merry scheme within a week, resulting in a retraction from the upper echelons. My colleagues were unsurprisingly very happy at this, even though some of them had taken days off in order to get rid of some of their built up overtime (which would no longer have been useable). Another benefit of retraction is that muggins would no longer be the only full-time employee in his office...

Sadly, the retraction of Kurzarbeit did not extend to the making redundant of a colleague at work. My colleague's contract having been up for renewal a month previously, the President himself decided not to renew it. At any other time, this would have been a formality, at this point it was a handy cost-cutting measure. What is so ridiculous is that the person losing their job seems to be exceptionally friendly, intelligent and competent.

The net result of this is that I have been given his job. This is turning out to be far more engaging than the sort of odd-jobs one does as a Praktikant, which by their short miscellaneous nature conversely end up all being rather similar. The job involves dealing with lots of people in lots of different countries and managing all the marketing necessary for the release of two ranges of products. This can involve anything from devising new texts to describe products to getting kit couriered to photo-studios, who then produce the images necessary for PR agencies to produce brochures. Unfortunately, there is still work left from my previous Praktikant engagements, which is still to be finished. This is proving difficult as there is a vast amount to learn in a very short space of time. Sending out mass emails is still mildly intimidating. God forbid I should get a raise, lest my bargainsomeness be reduced.

Long overdue

As some of my keener followers may have noticed, there have been no updates to this 'blog for many a moon. So, this of itself rather content-free entry serves as a forewarning:

There are about to be several themed entries. They will be long and painful, much like Currywurst.