A very relaxed 3rd advent weekend.

It’s snowing! The very first snow of the winter season is the best. Watching the tiny single snow flakes coming down to earth.

Wrapping Christmas gifts. Posting Christmas post (some of them have a long way ahead…). Listening to favorite Christmas songs. Hubby made kimchi. And new beer.

-1C degree and it’s snowing. That’s when the mulled wine is tasting best (or a hot Aperol, Glüh Gin…). It’s about time to get into Christmas mood – discover the magic of Christmas markets. No matter if big ones, or tiny markets, all of them are very enjoyable.

Christmas markets in Germany are unique. Historical town squares form a romantic backdrop to many markets. Streets, pedestrian malls, public buildings and shops are decorated with lights and Christmas trees and add to the beauty of the scenery.

The oldest markets date back to the 14th and 15th century. The original purpose of these early markets was to stock up for the long winters, and to add a bit of light to the dark months. The first markets were certainly not as enchanting as they are these days. During the centuries Christkindlmarkets became a source to buy Christmas presents for children, and an opportunity for local craftsmen and artists to sell their work.

Romantic scenery, an easy-going atmosphere, German Christmas traditions and the smell of mouth-watering treats are the main attractions of a Weihnachtsmarkt in Germany.

Although it seems that all Christkindlesmarkets offer the same range of goods to buy, there are many local variations. Additional cultural programs, local arts & crafts markets, the scenery and surrounding architecture make each German Christmas market unique.
Look around and find some unique gifts for your loved ones.

One thing is for sure, you’ll never leave a Weihnachtsmarkt hungry. I don’t envy you the hard decision which market to visit! 🙂

Get your winter coat and boots on & enjoy the magical places! 💫 Germany is really wonderful at Christmas time. Especially after 2 years pandemic – it’s the best! Happy 3rd Advent!

The 4 weeks before Christmas are the best (almost better than Christmas itself).

Another wonderful German tradition for kids & everyone else including pets: the Advent calendar, counting down the days until Christmas Eve. 24 little surprises to shorten the waiting time until Christmas with the major function to keep kids from asking everyday how far Christmas Day is away… it works! Even for adults! And it has a wonderful side effect: you can support the ones in need.

Arrived at the Christmas wonderland. Where? North of Stuttgart. No, not the North Pole. A little more south, Bremen. (And I’m back in my routine when it comes to packing for traveling).

That’s another tradition: spending a Christmas weekend with my sister & family, and my mum. And what a wonderful Christmas weekend it was. Hours filled with baking cookies, building a gingerbread house, watching Christmas movies with the nieces, a little bit of Christmas shopping, Christmas concerts, Christmas dinner, Christmas market, reading to the nieces… and more Christmas movies.

Lots of reasons to celebrate. Cheers to our reunion, mum retiring, Christmas…

Today the first of four Advent candles will be lit in homes in Germany. The Prophecy Candle… the Candle of Hope. A candle will be lit on the Advent wreath each Advent Sunday until Christmas Eve. Then all four will burn. That’s just one of many traditions that make a Christmas in Germany.

+1C degree, fog & icy wind – perfect weather for the first hot Aperol Spritz!

Castles are always beautiful. At Christmas, some turn into a majestic magical winter dream. Goose bumps inclusive. Wow!

Our tradition continues: first Advent Sunday means enjoying Irish breakfast with friends, followed by finding the most beautiful Christmas tree(s), cutting it down and taking it back home.

What a wonderful weekend kicking off the Christmas season.

It’s time for a business trip. The last one, already 3 years ago (to China). And then came Covid. And working from home. And lockdown. And closed borders. And canceled flights. You know it…

I’m loving it. The planning. The (positive) stress. The packing. The shopping (chocolate & Christmas cookies for the colleagues). The long travel days. The even longer work days. The dinners. The culture. The people. Meeting new colleagues. Meeting old colleagues. And last but not least, I was really excited about traveling to a country I haven’t been to: Romania. Ready to go.

Wearing a business style winter coat first time after purchasing it before the pandemic started.

Monday morning. All packed up. Hubby offering a shuttle service to the airport. A quick kiss & fly. So far, so good.

2 hours later, all checked in and ready to go… and then… first flight (out of 2) canceled. Yeah! Great start and a lot of work: go & pick up your checked in baggage. Go back to entry hall where the journey started 3 hours ago. Wait for new information on flight. Receiving a meal voucher in between. Go and check in your baggage again. You purchased a water? Bad luck. Drink it or leave it and get ready for a 2nd security check in. Find your new gate and wait. And this is how you get back in a routine. Lol.

The good news: meeting people from all over the world and chatting along to kill time.

New flight to Munich (instead of Frankfurt) and from there to Rumania. New arrival time: 1am next day. Yeah! That’s only a 8 hour delay or to kill 8 hours in Munich airport. That almost spoke for a dinner at the Hofbräuhaus, but no interest in check in a 3rd time. What a day. A lot of coffee and working from Munich airport later…. Ready for our red eye flight.

Travel bug instead of software bug – definitely something new.

First impression: Cluj is a bit like Shanghai. A young & wonderful team. All day rush hour. Taxi fast lane (we’ll, it’s actually the bus lane…). Crazy drivers (Oh, I miss our driver Mr Xu). First impression chaotic and not organized but surprisingly it all does work out. Of course! I’m loving it.

I like that it’s me who brings German Christmas cookies abroad rather than receiving it. The smiles on the (German) faces – priceless.

I learnt the the German word for cheers – Prost! – means stupid in Romanian. Oh, well. Cheers then!

It was fun. It was exhausting. It was wonderful. Our return travel went surprisingly well. Next challenge: reimbursement of costs with the new tool. Never a dull moment.

I have a feeling I’ll be back in January. Looking forward.

November. Half of the month already over. November, the month between the end of fall & the beginning of winter. Temperatures are getting cooler, the days are getting shorter. This time of year can be either depressing or joyful: nature is slowing down, everything is getting calmer. Cozier. The sofa is calling. A little fire (if you were able to get fire wood…). Candles. Heavy delicious food. Red wine. Let November be simple!

Winter tires are mounted, the garden is ready for winter. So am I! So are we.

Snow is in the forecast. Anybody who needs more smart energy saving tips?

6 weeks until Christmas 🤶🏻 Pleasant anticipation! Who else can already smell the mulled wine?

The FIFA soccer world championship (WM) 2022 is just about to start (November 20th) in one of the richest countries of the world: Qatar 🇶🇦

Are you also wondering, why a small country, called Qatar, is interested in hosting the world championship this year? A country which had or has nothing to do with soccer. Well, you wouldn’t be the only one. Newspapers, podcasts and other media are busy reporting about it, even wondering if this is a „soccer championship of lies“?

The promise of FIFA: first sustainable WM ever. Is this true or a lie? We’ll check on that later.

Thousands of people, mostly from Nepal, traveled to Qatar for work, building stadiums and preparing for this huge event. By entering Qatar they had to hand over their passports, entry & exit were controlled. Some of them worked so hard under non humane conditions, they never made it back home, sadly passed away (officially, according to Qatar authorities, they died a natural death or accident). Their dream of bringing money back home for a better life – just a dream. Promised salaries didn’t get paid full, some couldn’t even pay back the debts from credits which had to be taken to afford traveling to Katar. As a side note, also German and other western companies earned their money by supporting the WM.

Hearing all of this makes me wonder, what kind of country is Qatar? On one side, one of the richest countries in the world, on the other side, not paying people for their work or providing humane work conditions? Let’s keep those circumstances in mind, when the first soccer game will be on in a few days.

Qatar, a small (population 2.8mio, only 300.000 are Qatar citizens) but rich country (biggest natural gas field of the world, estimated value of 35 billion US$). Qatars President is married to 13 (!) women and father of 13 (!) children. 8 new stadiums were built, one more extravagant than the other, built on dessert ground. Qatar spent about 200 billion US$ for this WM – the most expensive WM in history.

Back to soccer: who wants slavery in football? And what is the job of a soccer player? Is it enough to just play soccer because FIFA decided the location of the WM (and rules are set automatically)? Or is that too easy, and soccer players should take (more) responsibility? Is it enough to wear an armlet „one love“ pro diversity & against discrimination, like the Germans plan to do?

Homosexuality is forbidden in Qatar. In fact, a „wrong behavior“ could lead to a penalty in prison. And once more, I am wondering, is Qatar the right location for fair play?

The CEO of the WM welcomed „everyone“ – really? Isn’t this rather all about PR & show? This clearly seems not to be about human rights. Women also have no or very limited rights: if they want to travel, they need a man’s approval. Also, women are not allowed to play soccer: it’s forbidden, it’s too aggressive.

On the other side, health insurance including hospitals are free for the Qatar citizens. If required specialists are locally not available, you get a trip to a hospital in a foreign country – all inclusive & paid by the government. Men get free land to build a house. Ok, this is how it works.

Freedom of press? Not in Qatar (Qatar made it on the list to no. 119 out of 180 countries).

So, back to the question: why did Qatar win to host the WM in 2022? Well, the answer is not really surprising but still frustrating: an exclusive circle of FIFA, also called „the old white men circle“, made the decision (all beside 2 of those old men are no longer part of FIFA, reason: betray, corruption). How much does it cost to win and become the country of hosting the next WM? Roughly, a couple of millions! Who can afford that? It smells a little like corruption… Money rules the world. That’s known. It’s still very sad. Annoying. Frustrating.

The soccer seems to be loosing its basis! And that’s dangerous! A world championship should be here for all. Human rights watch & other human right companies are requesting 400 billion US$ compensation.

It looks like, that this WM lost it’s magic already a long time before it even started! Should Qatar have even be nominated back in 2010 to host the WM? Shouldn’t it go to countries where human rights play a role, not only for the time of the WM?

Well, FIFA decides on the host country. Money seems to make the decision.

Red carpet or red line?

Back to the question: is this the most sustainable WM?

Well, the carbon neutral calculations is a nice one (and a fake one): stadiums are supposed to last 60 years, but only used by the WM for 1 months. In other words, the calculation is considering a 4 week emission out of 60 years. Nice try. Wrong calculation.

27C degrees in Qatar in November – perfect soccer game weather. 144 soccer fields with natural gras, because that’s the FIFA rule. Each field needs „only“ 63.000 liters of water. Daily.

Last but not least, Qatar sold itself CO2 friendly certificates by founding its own company. How clever. How corrupt.

Changing rules of Qatar was never the goal. No rights for women, workers or homosexuals. It was always about money!

The best WM of all times? Maybe a lie!

Thanks, Thomas Hitzlsperger, for your very interesting podcast! Keep it up!

Last night was time for another brew, a brown wheat beer. So far so good, but what‘s new?

There’s something floating in the beer!

It’s a measuring device, floating in the beer, tracking fermentation activity, temperature and plato (specific gravity).

Of course, the device is connected to wifi. Hello, IoT!

From now onwards, all brews are in the cloud. Easy. While we sleep, the beer & device are working.

Good morning, data analysis (could there be anything more exciting on a weekends morning… lol):

Before IoT, everything was manually checked: the bubbling gave a first idea how much sugar/beer alcohol was left (that’s how I, clearly not a beer brewer, understand & describe it). Well, that was yesterday! Now we got Mr. Float. In case of any questions, please contact hubby directly, thanks!

Prost!

Dating advice for the singles, the young ones or for those who want to double check current date, boyfriend or husband.

I like Aileen!

I wonder what happened to June…

Enjoy those date nights! 🦋

For everyone already on an intermediate level, I recommend following German article dice (yes, you can buy such things in Germany).

And by the way, there are exactly 6 (definite) articles in German… instead of the duplicates, there should be den, dem and des (on the dice).

You need a second dice for the personal pronouns: ich du er/sie/es wir ihr sie/Sie… and another one for the tenses: Präsens Imperfekt Futur I, Perfekt Plusquamperfekt Futur II (or others)… For combos, roll twice.

Alternatively, you could adopt an Austrian accent and drop everything but the “d” — “d’ Frau, d’ Mann, d’ Katz” etc.

I guess “choking hazard” refers to the german language as a whole. lol

I’m really glad that German is my native language. It would drive me completely insane if I was forced to learn it as foreign language 😅

Don’t worry! We’d still understand what you’re trying to say even if you mix up the articles. So unless you try to teach german to others or are a spy and try to pass as a native german speaker, you shouldn’t sweat it at all!

Schönes Wochenende, y’all!