Fin de semana en el Sierra Norte

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

well, time surely flies by... right now just 4 more days really, then I'll be omw back to good ole Alemania...

Valle, buying the ticket at the Estacion de Autobus en Placa de Armas was almost trivial, apart from the "vuelta" (and return please). reading the ticket, I of course again needed my dictionary.... Asiento means seat and arden means platform... gosh, even the most simple things need to be taken care of. hey, I estudia on the fly, roish? ;)

the hotel was a nice surprise. given the fact, that in the house here in Seville the Ducha (shower) is not great really, I used the opportunity and showered for what seemed like ages... then off to the pub. The clerk from the hotel suggested "taverna el cruce" - well, that's what I went for then . do I need to say, that the ole trick (sitting at the bar, reading a book) worked here as well? well, Hemingways "islands in the stream" was halfway though (like 2 hours), but then Javier Gomez Rioja started talking to me. what a fun guy. he spoke enough english to have a pleasant conversation.

anyways, had 2 more manzanilla (after 2 cervezas and the wine) and went to bed, kind of wasted...

next day, saturday, up early - sort of, at least ;) breakfast, and then off to explore the Sierra Norte.

how fast the 6 hours (while hacer una excursion) went by, unbelievable. not to mention all the cerdas, the GPS trouble, and the sore feet...

eve, off to El Cruze again, to meet Javier. more beers, off to the pub "Pepes bar"... nuff said, right? ;o)

sunday, un poco hungover, another short trip to the sierra, a last cafe solo in el cruze, a last chat with Antonio

and then back to Seville. I think I gotta go back there sooner or later...

enuff :-P

Los Sevillanos

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

what a weekend... long walks around Seville, dancing till like 6 in the morning, meeting interesting people...
por ejemplo the batista (e.g the drummer here) here: Raymond, and his 8 year old son. funnily enough, he is german (although he looks like a latino really). very friendly. and he has the privilege to practicar the drums/conga down at the guadalquivir. first met him on Saturday (sabado), and tambien (again) on sunday, when I walked back from the Parque de Amarillo.
ejemplo numero dos: skateboarder. ejemplo numero tres: grafitero. ejemplo numero cuatro: pescador.
changed school today by the way, started at "click.es". can only recommend them, much better than Mester imho...

want to see the spanish version of spiderpig? ever heard of the schnitzelschwein? no? click here ;)

Amanacer at the Guadalquivir

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Lovely manana (morning) today... first time I was able to go to school via the river, although I was a bit hungover and would have preferred to sleep just one or two or three or four more hours...;)
went out last night with a few guys and girls from school, and of course "el ultimo vino tinto estuvado mal" (the last red wine was bad). in just a few mins i'll be going to that great plaza again (alameda de Hercules), as there are few cafes where you can enjoy the sun (still 25-28 centigrade in the sun, 20 in the shade). pic taken there ayer (yesterday). so, you enjoy "Nikolaus" today, I hope you've been good ;-)

Hola, que tal?

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

For you that do speak spanish as well as I do, this means "hello, how are you?".
Anways, frikkin hungover I got on the plane to Seville on Sat morning. hungover, since Willi's birthday lead to having more schnaps than I had asked for... back to the topic. here my first vino tinto, in a fabulous Tapas bar in Seville, the "el Rinconcillo" - supposedly the oldest one in town, founded like in the sevententh century. after the vino, tres servezas and a great "pescado  fritas variado" off to the irish pub, which I knew from last time we were here for the Semana Santa (the week before easter). meet a very nice german chap, who is here for his thesis. topic? fansongs of soccer fans... well, interesting, to say the least ;)
after the pub I went home, like 11 or so. I already said to myself: "dude, you really are grownup. early to bed, so you have a fresh start on sunday then." sure enough it didn't end then... one of the american guys here - who also stays with this almost "pet and smokefree" family - had a few friends over. offering me Jack D. and coke and taking me with them to a nightclub was just a matter of seconds really... not sure when I got back, as my mobiles battery was dead... was fun though ;)

got up at 1, showered, and then the first meal with the guestfamily. not too bad, meatballs, beans (judias verdes), rice (el arroz). we'll see how the cooking goes - oh yeah, and the sauce was pretty darn rich... and i guess it wasn't just Olive Oil ;)

and after that (sorry for showing off), walking to the Placa de Espana. sitting there for almost 2 hours in the Sun, with temperatures around 22-25 degrees centigrade... can you top that? ;)

on my way back to the house a lil walk via the Guadalquivir. bummer I missed the sunset. will do that tomorrow if possible though...

Now I am just curious, what Bogdan will experience on his Frisco trip :)

ASFHH - A Song for Hamburg 1

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

As the colleagues in the AOL Paris Office did this great video ( PW is "aol lover" ), we here in Hamburg wanted to make one too... easier said than done, trust me...
it took us almost 3 weeks and 6 ish meetings, just to agree on the song (yay for Juli, "es war ne geile zeit")... anyways, we're almost halfway through, will be shooting the remainder next week (fingers crossed...)
this shot here shows Oliver and Oliver, during one of the short lunch brainstoming sessions.

Edit: final DE video can be found here

apart from that, I passed the ITIL foundation exam yesterday. one step closer to improving my CV for next year :) in 2 weeks time it'll be the PRINCE2 training course (I just hope I'll pass that too), and after that 3 weeks in Spain, Seville - language course. Vino Tinto y un cafe solo, por favour...

Sunday trip to St. Peter Ording

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

The trip was more than overdue - according to my government that is ;) got up early (easy, since no "heavy" drinking took place on Sat night), left around half nine, got to St. Peter Ording not even 2 hours later, went for a walk... fantastic weather really, clear blue sky, light winds around 3 ish. I even was so hot I took my coat off... that enabled me to take 2 additional days vacation (or what do you call it again, when you can stay in bed and don't have to go to work again? - ahh, being sick at home, ok...)
anyways, feeling better today, but I will leave work early... throat still acting up here...
workwise still all fine... 114 days to go ;) and just 3,5 weeks until I start my 3 weeks language course in Seville :-D

No Smoking and the Stasi

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Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Went to Cafe Gnosa today for lunch (goulasch, nice one), but the dreaded secondhand smoke wasn't there anymore... Since Oct. 01, 2007 "no smoking". yeahhh. :-D
Had a chat on the phone with one of my former colleagues from "before the wall came down"... he told me, that once the Stasi approached him, as he should keep me under surveillance... like should go for a beer with me and ask me about the "other punks in the hermsdorf area and their opinions and such"... scary in a way... his dad was a Major or similar (in the Stasi) and was able to reject the request on the behalf of his son... now you tell me...

London heathrow - Disk write error

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Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Great, again I got up at 5:30... some might like it, I don't... told my colleagues about http://www.alleyinsider.com/ and how accurate some of the posts about AOL financials situation seem...
Took the tube to Barons Court, easy peasy really. Gave Steph her pressies, and now to talk about one more project, which we are supposed to "handle efficiently, no PRINCE2, but to adapt a pragmatic approach instead". sure :)
P.S: helping Sven to move house last Sat was tiring indeed. jaisus, was i wrecked or what on Sat eve...

Lunch in Paris (2)

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

typical breakfast in www.Paul.fr - great way to start the day really :-D

and again we didn't have to pay (thanks Mehdi!) ... so sad really ;) and as you do on a friday, of course one has wine for lunch... even better, since it was one of the "cheap" St. Emillion ones...

Lunch in Paris (1)

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

After we partied last night (started off in herzblut, sankt  ( st.) Pauli with food and three mai tai iirc; after we tipped

Funda - the cute waitress -
- onto ex-sparr - sambuca, mexicans and vodka lemon; home at midnight)I was pleased to get up at 5:15 a.m., to catch my plane...

flight went well (luckily). but the best (thanks to Martial) was the place we went for lunch. crowded, a bit sticky, but great food... plus, the usual rosé wine :-D

now back to work...

A tad Sente-fukcin-mental

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

So I sat in Coffe+Cakes (as every Wed really), enjoiyng my usual breakfast (galao, fresh O-juice, croissant with chorizo and cheese), when all of a sudden I thought of various friends.... and then I started to kind of pray, to wish them well... Lisa, Mark and their baby girl Faye... Imke, Tobi and their baby girl Mia... Bea and boy Linus...Steffi, Ronny and "another" Linus... Astrid and Ramòn... Mareke...Marco, Manja and baby girl Helen... Ed... Anni and Carsten... Jessy and Gar... Willi+Coko... Drea... Schippi and Jasmin... Stanze and Ralph... Kati and girl Leonie... Kamil and his "career"...

was a very special moment, sitting there, enjoying the sun, thinking of ones friends...

what a spendid day really!

Baltic Sea once again

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Spontaneous trip to the sea. booking a room was easy enough. leaving at 5:30 we manged too, since I had finished my "cutting the grass" job in time... 2 hours drive to the sea, unpacking, off to the beach... splendid sunset :)
Saturday more time at the beach (weather was more so and so), and when we got ready to leave, the sun came out. of course we didn't leave and stayed until the sun was gone again (it lasted for tremendous 30 mins)... back home, quick coffee at Karstens house, and lurvely Thai curry in the evening.
Sunday a trip to Prohnstorf, for some music and entertainment (SHMF) -

Beas Burfday

Bea
Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

is today. I think she's about to hit 28 today or so ;) pressie will be giving to her next monday... and no, I won't be calling her today, leaving the impression I forgot her burfday :-D

Wednesday action

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Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

got up early (well, ok, like 07:30 a.m. is early!). arrived at coffe+cakes at a quarter to 9, Carsten got there just a few mins after. Kamil of course was late (09:20), but hey, he's the lil one, so it's ok :-D
Lunch in http://www.literaturhaus-hamburg.de/ with Claudia T.. hadn't seen her in 2 years, caught up rather quickly though. After an Espresso in http://www.alsterperle.com/ back to work... now just one more conf_call at 5, then off for today. nice one, or?

Xing

well, I finally overcame my reservations against Xing and registered (some of you might know what the issue was). And Io, behold, so many people I found... Susanne Z., Jens. Q, Rauschi, Maike K., Kathrin E., Nicole E., Cyrus, Charly, Holger K., where some people I haven't talked to in as many as 18 years... Plus Mike F., who I found using google (no contact for 18 years too), that makes for quite a lot of interesting conversations in the coming weeks...

nice one :)

Sailing in Heiligenhafen

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Saturday, again time for me to leave my home *sniff*, as C. had friends staying at our flat...("come on, you wanted to leave us alone, so switch off the x-box and go now :-P " ) anyways, the drive to Heiligenhafen (Baltic Sea) was pretty short, but rainy...apparently about 1200 people were out and working, due to the heavy rain (flood prevention, firemen etc.).. Found the place no problem (last time I've been there was 2004 or so iirc...). Happy to see Stanze again :)

worked a bit - preparing a place where the litterboxes can stand. In the eve one of the guys made pasta - delicious :-D
Linne Liquor (45 volume %), shot glasses with inbuilt LED's, accordion tunes and singing...Decided to make the attempt and sleep in the car - went ok. not perfect, but doable.

Next morning - fine weather, went sailing with Stanze and Katze . now that was fun!
Bummer I had to leave early...but at least I had my fresh cod before I left.
P.:S: and as someone said: sailing is sometimes a peculiar sport...quite often it attracts people which, let's put it that way, have personalities deviating a good bit from that of the avg. person...

Smart and the Arc de Triomphe

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Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Was trying to get a pic of the group (Kim, Bogdan and Maurice) AND the Arc AND a smart car... well, great shot, innit ;)

Went to this Vietnamese place, great food. night cap #1 in this bar, where I was able to snag one of those lovely Ricard bottles. nightcap # 2 with this american guy and Andrew, talking til 2 a.m. about WWII and stuff... a tad tired this morning.
meeting? "one shot migration", "thorough QA prevents errors", and of course all of a sudden the very "drafty slides" from the previous day come across as facts...;)

Paris

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

got up at 5:15, shower, finish packing, taxi came at 5:45...to the airport, quick check in (thank god for etix). lost my boarding pass, first coffee and first croissant (suprisingly tasty for a german one...). getting a new boarding pass from a very friendly air france crew member took only 2 mins. Met Phillip D.. flight on time, 3 seats for meself. second croissant and tea. drafty projectplan, and yes, doable  until sept. 15. landed on time, 4 of us in the taxi to the office, where I shot this one here. 1 more croissant plus one chocolote croissant plus 3 of these delicios lil cakes... introduction round, realised Kim is here. delighted to see her again, has been like 4 years??? Maurice and David here too, good :)new risk # 1: business ownership for this project changed. US guy really fast, only 5 mins. bravo :) now a good bit sales stuff instead of focusing on rqmts... yawn...

On the way to the baltic sea

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Last Sat I stopped over at Angelas house to bring her the promised 10 sausages. well, after a 45 mins chat, instead of driving to the Baltic Sea I ended up at Karstens gaff. he needed a hand mounting his new windshield, so I stayed. and after we played a few rounds of table tennis, where I didn't do too bad really... after he had a bottle of wine he even mentioned, that I could ride his bike for a day... I am sure he wont mention it again when sober ;)

Tuesdays Table Tennis session

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

got home at around 6:30, it was wet and rainy, and I thought "gosh, here goes another Tuesday without table tennis"... but surprise, Anni rang, and at around 8 we had Maria, Anni, Claudia, Carsten, Heschi, Tomson and Bali playing frantically...well, almost, Tom simply sipped away his http://www.bionade.de/ , cause he didn't feel well really. the rest enjoyed the http://www.jever.de/ . a rain shower in between then produced this fine rainbow...
playing cardgames after 10 lead to more drinks, and around midnight we "expulsed" the guys from our home. I slept like a baby ;)

Warnemuende

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Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

A weekend in Warnemuende. was a late birthday pressie (2 nights stay in the http://parkhotel-seeblick.de/ ). The weather forecast was dreadful for late July (gusts up to 45 mph, showers and rain, 13 - 19 degrees centigrade. ).

as It turned out, the weather was much better than anticipated, I even burnt my face a bit. learnings? ALWAYS bring your sunblocker, no matter what the forecast says... :o)

We also met up with Astrid and her new BF. I think they're a great fit. fingers crossed...

weirdest moment? sun morning, breakfast in the hotel: picture a russian family with one german woman amongst them. they even bagged the breakfast rolls in some plastic bags... plus treating the waiters like they're a piece of crap seems common too...

Guess Where in Hamburg

   
  Originally uploaded by (**)xxSnowChildxx(**).

hehe, quite a funny thing. people post pics on flickr, and other peeps have to guess, what the pic shows/where it was taken... like the one shown here...

Back from Sylt

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Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Just today we got backfrom Sylt (an Island in the North of Germany). Splendid indeed... fantastic food, all in all good weather, and very entertaining company...

Trixi visiting from Vietnam

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Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

and now wearing a russian army hat...;) and she still has that Berlin accent, which I think she'll never loose :-)

was mighty good seeing you!

going away party for ze zree...

teamessen
Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

well, was mighty glad I found the pic...collected some signatures and a bit o money, so the three will get this picture each plus a nice bottle o Tullamore Dew. off to Herzblut ( http://www.herzblut-st-pauli.de/ ) tonight, hehe.

10 Years AOL...

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

March 10, 1997.... can ye believe it?

summary "es war ne geile zeit" ("it was a Fcuking great time").

Olafs last day

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

well, two people remaining at the floor here (down from 9)... and Klaus here will be leaving next monday too...

good thing is, I can pump up the volume (music listening wise), as nobody objects, hehe

Buddielist cleanup

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

well well... ze end is near... not really, no. I am now proud member of the "transition team". which means, I will be staying for one more year. and as long as I hand in my notice per February 29, 2008, I will be eligible for the whole package (incl. the 6 months paid vacation etc...). BUT, it still was a very sad moment, when I just went though my buddielist and deleted quite a few names... like axelbirknerhh, abittkowski, olnordwich,  ianfang, mareked....

shite!

oh well, we'll get through the next 12 months, roigh?

P.S. link to some piccies from workmates

Tuesday Breakfast

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  Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Oh well, what a great tuesday...

this pic just one of many from the "breakfast" series... Kamil didn't make it this morning...tz tz tz...;)

been home sick yesterday, just the right thing when I look at the weather... see how it all ends, we'll know in a week ish (hopefully...)

wish me luck!

Just looked at some of Jessies pics on flickr. nice ones, indeed. plus, memories creepin up... shoulda stayed in Ireland fer one more week (if only my liver wouldn't have been too damaged due to booze and grub, hehe)

teamday UK 2

teamday UK 2
Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

Thanks to Silke who dug that one out... almost 10 years ago... and funnily, I'll be omw to Dublin today, fer a week of enjoyment, no hazzle, lotsa booze, plenty of burgers, and surely one or the other beer fart in da morning (excuse me language, hehe)

strange thing though, I've been over so many times the past 10 years (20 - 30 times?), but this actually is the first time I will be paying for the flight and accomodation...

Oyster Stout, Westport, Guinness, Ed, Feargal, Jessy Eastpoint Park, Bray - here I come ;)

Flickr Cleanup

Trigance
Originally uploaded by Haemmboerger.

hm, haven't posted in ages really...anyhow :-P

geotagged some photos today, along with this one here. it's about time to get back to the Provence... the food, the weather, the view, and last but not least the wine...

oh well, 2 more months, then it's going to be spring :)