[uncountable] a very strong feeling of liking and caring for somebody/something, especially a member of your family or a friend… according to the Oxford dictionary.
“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” – Mignon McLaughlin
Maybe, love is all the small little things in daily life which stick us like glue together and create long happy relationships…
No matter, where we sleep, I get to choose the side of the bed furthest away from the door. Why? If we get robbed I don’t want to be too close (they can have hubby first. Lol).
I’m an early bird, I walk the dog, while hubby, the owl, can stay longer in bed.
He brings me a cappuccino to my home office desk. Every day, since he started to walk again after the accident. (it’s my job on weekends).
My favorite hobby and what I’m really good at: planning. Planning meals, travels, weekends, appointments… hubby loves to cook and travel with me.
That’s enough sharing of our little things & secrets here ♥️ happy Valentine’s Day!
I 💜 U cake pops!
Give your loved ones a big hug!
Every day should be Valentine’s Day. Every day is like Valentine’s Day 💜
PS: eating chocolate hearts for breakfast on Valentine’s Day is totally ok!
It’s the Carnival season – not only in Brazil but also in Europe. Carnival is an annual Christian celebration that typically occurs before the onset of Lent and generally involves a public celebration of some kind, e.g. street parties, parades, balls or some other form of entertainment. Lent is a time of fasting and sacrifice, a farewell from all bodily pleasures for forty days before Easter.
Venice Carnival is one of the oldest carnivals in the world, back in 1094.
By the 18th century the Venice Carnival reached its maximum splendor. It was a celebration that knew no bounds. Carnival had also gained international recognition and attracted visitors from all over Europe. Venice was the pleasure playground of Europe including gambling, essentially the Las Vegas of its day.
Venetians unabashedly took part in lots of debauchery and revelry during carnival. They were able to get away with a lot of things, because their identity and sins were concealed behind their masks.
When Napoleon and his troops invaded Venice in 1797 carnival was banned. This ban lasted over 200 years. In 1979 Venice Carnival quickly returned to its glory days as it is now one of the most famous and popular carnivals in the world.
Well, we enjoyed the Venice vibes in Germany & admired the extravagant costumes and masks. Stunning!
Awwwwww!!! ♥️Maybe my favoriteSo many fantastic photo motives First Gelato in 2023. Feels like Venice!
Wow! Spectacular! What a great event with stunning costumes, beautiful scenery, blue sky & sunshine.
And the best part… anyone can participate. All you need is someone who can create an amazing costume… 1 year to go…
Another business trip to Romania. This time no major flight delay. Arriving on a Monday afternoon at day light.
The hotel receptionist greeting me like a good old friend (no idea what I did to be remembered from the last trip 3 months ago, lol). This time much colder -14C degrees, snow & ice but the hotel heat worked and we had hot water for the full 4 days (I was prepared with a hot water bottle – not needed).
Freezing outside, sweating inside (seems only the German heat is turned down).
Back with my favorite work colleagues in our plant and development center. Back with the crazy taxi drivers (we ended up with a „personal driver“ while skidding along the icey roads listening to 80s pop music – same music taste, is that why I like the country so much?!). Laughing about my German colleague who had a bit of a hard time being in Rumania.
Amazing dinners in great company. I’ve seen the most interesting colored hair (turquoise, purple, very blonde, very pink – everything) & matching outfits. Being surrounded by extremely young people, keeping our mind fresh and make us feel old (maybe I should dye my hair, too?).
Yes, a business trip is allowed to be fun. Long work days, short nights and a lot of topics for homework inclusive. I very much enjoyed that again. Sometimes, I love my job. Lol. Got my overdose of people (in a good sense).
Bye for now!
New country, new medicine. Luckily not needed. Romanian beer has good quality
January 2023. Almost over. For some of us the first month of retirement is done (result: loves it). Others broke their foot (meh). Others had Covid. For others, me, the month with the most sick days is ending. January was all about hot toddies (fighting that bad flu). And tequila (the only medicine to stop diarrhea). Rest. Sleep. Netflix. Books. Cups of tea. Jars of honey. Hubbies home cooked meals (and now I passed it on to him. Sorry…).
And when I just look out of the window, it starts snowing again. Best to snuggle in and enjoy that fire.
Taking the winter time to slow down.
The good thing about winter: it’s just me (you) and my (your) thoughts. No bad feelings for lying on the sofa & reading. Or watching another series. I have been reading 6 (!) books so far this year (have the feeling I may overachieve my resolution for this year (12 books)). It makes me very happy that I found the pleasure and the time for reading again.
The winter, my alibi! No regrets for not leaving the house (and still already looking forward to spring 🌷).
Irish breakfast. Irish scones. Irish stew. Irish lamb. Irish husband. Lol. 2023 is starting off Irish!
Too many choices of recipe books. In the end we were short on proper Irish baking soda. Hm!Learning from the famous chef Nigella.
Today is Sunday. A very rainy & stormy Sunday. Hubby says, just a normal Sunday in Ireland. Either you stay in bed or you invite friends for an afternoon tea!
The only remaining question: first whipped cream (there’s no clutted cream in Germany) followed by jam or the other way round?
Oh, of course first the cheese & ham sandwiches! The best comes last: the scones with cream & cheese.
Wer kennt sie nicht, die Tickets im Joballtag. Arbeiten mit (oder nach) Tickets liegt voll im Trend und bestimmt inzwischen auch meinen Arbeitsalltag! Leider.
Die Idee, jedem Kundenanliegen ein Ticket zuzuteilen, ist superpraktisch. Auch im Büro. Aber die deutsche Bürokratie kriegt die besten Verwaltungsideen kaputt und killt das früher schnell Erledigte. Eine Kolumne (von Marcus Werner).
„Ganz ganz früher, da bedeutete „Ticket aufmachen“, dass man sicherheitshalber vor dem Aufbruch ins Theater den Brief mit den Logenkarten aufreißt, um mal zu gucken, ob die Buchungshotline am Telefon auch wirklich alles richtig verstanden hatte. Das war vor meiner Zeit.
Begegnet ist mir dieses „Ticket aufmachen“ vor Jahren zum ersten Mal im Gespräch mit Callcentern. Selbst Mittelständer machen heute natürlich längst Service-Tickets auf. Das Online-Business macht es möglich und nötig. Die Kunden kommen halt nicht mehr mit Zetteln rein.
Meistens hieß es nur: „Ah ja, ich sehe, was meine Kollegin da bei Ihrem letzten Anruf eingetragen hat. Alles klar.“ Nur selten fiel das Wort „Ticket“.
Wenn ich nicht irre, stammt das Ticket-System ja – wie so vieles Gute im Bereich Prozessmanagement – aus der IT. Wie können unterschiedliche Anforderungen von Seiten der Kunden innerhalb eines Projekts oder einer Aufgabe so gebündelt werden, dass alle daran arbeitenden Dienstleister den Überblick behalten, ohne einzeln mit dem betreffenden Kunden Rücksprache zu halten (was sehr ineffizient wäre. Betonung liegt auf wäre.)?
Antwort: Man eröffnet eine Miniakte mit dem betreffenden Vorgang, auf die alle Eingebundenen Zugriff haben. Das Ticket. Das sorgt für die nötige Transparenz. Herrlich. Wirklich!
Aber was haben wir mittlerweile aus dieser guten Idee gemacht? Ich kenne das Ticket mittlerweile auch als Prozessaufbläh- und Arbeitsvermeidungstool. Wenn die (firmeninternen) Kunden nämlich einfach kein Bock auf den Ticket-Aufwand haben.
Ja, ganz oft macht das Ticket-System wirklich Sinn. Selbst Urlaube einzelner sind dann kein Problem; alle relevanten Infos sind ja dann im Ticket hinterlegt. Aber wenn es etwas zu verwalten gibt, dann lieben wir Deutsche den Exzess. Dazu ein Beispiel:
Ticket: Realität überholt Ticket
Anruf bei der IT-Abteilung: „Mein Firmen-Passwort ist abgelaufen. Ich komm nicht mehr ins System. Können Sie mir helfen?“
Der Service-Kollege bittet um eine interne Nachricht per Fax (E-Mail geht ja mangels Passwort nicht) samt Unterschrift, um zu belegen, dass der echte Kollege um ein neues Passwort bittet. Danach wird umgehend ein neues Einmal-Passwort erteilt. Nach rund einer Stunde ist alles erledigt. Als der erlöste Kollege gut gelaunt seinen E-Mail-Account öffnet, erreichen ihn in den folgenden Minuten nacheinander zwei E-Mails:
Offenbar hat der IT-Kollege nachträglich das Ticket erst eröffnet und dann wieder geschlossen. Im Idealfall war wohl noch Arbeitszeit zu verblasen. Aber im Zweifel ist der hilfsbereite Kollege für dieses Verwaltungs-Brimborium zu bedauern. Welcome to my life!
Klären wir also einfach einmal gemeinsam im Team die eine allen Tickets vorgelagerte Frage: „In welchen Fällen liefe es erfolgreicher ohne?“
„Ticket geschlossen.“
Wir hatten heute im Büro eine 3-stündige Diskussion, wie wir denn nun mit dem Ticket Wahnsinn umgehen sollten (change management). Im worst case: alle Tickets löschen. Ist unheimlich befreiend. Dann sind sie erstmal weg. Kommen aber leider wieder. Minütlich. Arghhhhh.
Welcome to my daily crazy ticket work life.
And how I really spend my daily work life with (one picture tells more than a thousand words):
Fails Software unit test (ticket #1) but passes integration test (ticket #2)… lecture on testing: just because you pass integration test (or even product test (ticket #3)) does not mean your product is engineered properly.
I love that picture. And if you get lost… just open another ticket – the solution for any problem: open a ticket!
I myself prefer a speed ticket. Or a cinema ticket. Or a train ticket. Or a winning lottery ticket. Life is all about tickets!
We had a visitor. A visitor from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Quite on short notice. His name: Flat Stanley. He wanted to meet us & explore the area in which we live in.
Stanley on his way to Germany.
We took Stanley to a castle. A castle in Christmas spirit. He enjoyed the ride in our car and was really excited to see the Christmas lights, nipping on a hot drink, sitting on the kings sofa, and finally, having dinner with us. He also met our other visitor, Rozenn from France.
Castle “Hohenzollern”Stanley meeting Scott & RozennThere’s nothing better than a hot drink in the cold January night Walking the red carpet Meeting the Queen Time for a Swabian dinnerChilling on the Kings sofa
We all had a really good time. Stanley is now on his way back home to Belfast. It was very nice meeting you! Bon voyage 👋
Have a safe trip back home! Say hi to Martha & her family.
2022 – The year of crisis: a war in Europe. Energy crisis. Environmental crisis. Covid is still around… all of it leading to price explosions and a shortage of goods. Is that all 2022 has to offer? It wasn’t an easy year, that ́s for sure. But there was much more…
Motorcycling in 2022…
Solidarity in blue-yellow, or how Russia started a war against the Ukraine and the whole world stands by with the Ukraine. I’m especially proud that my country shows solidarity & support since day 1.
The hero of 2022!
Before Putin started the war lots of politicians tried to convince him otherwise: on a table 6 metres apart from Putin. His excuse: Covid. The social media world laughed about the piece of furniture.
We are wowed how the Ukrainians try to keep a “normal life”: getting married in war, school continues in bunkers, children playing on a playground surrounded by destroyed buildings & houses, dining in the dark due to cut electricity, dancing in the tunnel, celebrating school graduation, “dance me to the end of rave” – a DJ supporting supporting people building up houses after they got destroyed.
“Stolen Lives” from Sasha Anisimova
Sabotage in the sea end of September: gas is leaking out of the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 & 2. It’s still not clarified who did it… we all have a guess…
2022, also the year of the biggest delay of Deutsche Bahn ICE trains.
Tennis & crying men. Goose bumps. Roger Federer is retiring and him & his competitor are crying together. The world is good, isn’t it?
It seems to be the year of retiring athletes & actors. Serena Williams retired, too! And so did Bruce Willis! And Sebastian Vettel.
Swim WM in Budapest: Last minute, the US synchron swimmer Anita Alvarez was rescued from drowning by her own coach.
Greetings from the Sahara dessert. Hot dessert winds blew sand all the way to Europe! Munich was glowing in a deep orange. The sand includes a lot of minerals which works like a fertilizer for our plants. Yeah!
The famous 9€ public transportation ticket made it into the news around the world. 9€/month traveling by train, tram and bus in June, July & August pro environment. The successor, the 49€ ticket, is still in negotiation. The cool tag is kind of gone with it.
And the Oscar goes to… slam. A bad joke ended with Will Smiths hand in Chris Rocks face. He apologized months later. Too late, Smith has been blocked for the Oscar’s for the next 10 years!
Tom Cruise & Top Gun 2! Yeah!
Congratulations to Taylor Swift for being the most popular pop singer in 2022. Her new album “Midnights” hit all world records next day – most sold album of the year.
And the “wildlife photographer” of 2022 is… Karine Aigner for taking photos of bees having sex. Bee happy!
Goodbye, majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She named Liz Truss to the new premier of the UK and a couple of days later passed away. She’s been the queen for 70 (!!!) years! London is showing respect. Thank you, Ma‘am!
Our ice caps keep melting. Nowhere else than in Spitzbergen can the environmental change been seen clearly. The temperature of that region is warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world. That is causing new risks: snow landslides.
The new normal? 2022 was a very hot year and never has as much land been on fire within Europe as this year.
Extreme heat in August everywhere in Germany. Ships are stuck due to very low water level in our rivers.
Another country effected by the environmental change: Rock Islands / Palau. The sea level is increasing and eating up beaches, tree roots becoming looser, houses must be moved.
The Finish President Sanna Marin just behaves like a woman: partying, laughing, a drink. And the world is discussing it. Sanna, I am celebrating you!
Rugby Six Nations Cup – and the winner is…. France! The cup goes back to the European mainland. Congratulations!
One winning against England, the German ladies soccer team loosing in the Wembley stadium in June. Ladies, you are the winner of our hearts!
2022, the year with the most Germans on sick leave. Sickness no.1: catching a cold in summer months. Or sick of life?!
Rihanna is pregnant and the whole world knows! This baby was already famous before it was born! She’s definitely made a statement: being pregnant is sexy and pregnant women can wear anything, even nothing!
Protest in Iran against their regime & the rest of the world is supporting. Since the death of Masha Amini on September 16 people worldwide show solidarity and lots of women cut their hair. Sadly, we count >300 death and >15000 arrested demonstrators in Iran.
Sometimes one picture is all you need!
8 000 000 000 – that’s how many people are living on earth in November 2022. The number has doubled since 1974!
“If it’s not your body, it’s not your choice!” Americas end of freedom. The Supreme Court skipped the law which was ruled for the past 50 years! Ouch!
Fashion week in Paris in October: Model Bella Hadid for Coperni came on stage only dressed in a slip. And left stage in a body painted white dress. Wow!
The end of Covid in Germany. We are back in the office since May.
…short on Human Resources, too.
China is the only country whose kept the zero Covid policy. End of November the Chinese citizens are protesting against the continuous lockdown and travel stop. The remaining problem: too many (elderly) people are not vaccinated & a government who doesn’t want to loose face. It’s causing an impact to the rest of the world material & Supply chain crisis! In December China stopped their lockdown and a lot of Chinese suffered Covid.
The crown witness: 25-year old Ms. Cassidy Hutchinson is doing what most people of Mr Trumps team would never do: saying the truth in court. Respect! Thank you! You are our hero!
Let’s make peace, not war! 🌈
That was the world news. We supported a friends medical plan who’s suffering from long Covid & crossing our fingers that the therapy in January will be successful! I was happily coaching younger colleagues and helping them to become confident in their jobs. We keep supporting the Ahrtal…
Goodbye 2022! Wishing all of us a happier & healthier 2023!
Stuttgart547 