New to Scotland

HTC Hero gets Android 2.0 update!

2009-11-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

Seems that the HTC Hero will get a Donut. This is the code name for the latest Android operating system.

Until now version 1.6 is used on the Hero with Sense UI. The special HTC system which makes using the Hero even more fun.

Link can be found here: HTC Hero to get Android 2.0 update

A trip to Ireland

2009-11-04T10:40:00.001-08:00

Yes I finally did it. I went to Ireland and spend a lovely weekend over there. I booked a nice BnB in Dublin for 3 days.

The BnB was located near the city centre and literally a stone throw away from some interesting places. After flying to Dublin I immediately began to unpack my stuff and get ready for some action. Fortunately I got a Dublin tour guide with some vouchers in it. You definitely have to get one. A discount on some admissons is pretty cool. so the first day I decided totake it easy and went through the city centre and made my way to the Jameson distillery. I've to say that I like Scottish Whisky but I had to go in there. The distillery is very easy to find and the interior is absolutely beautiful. It is actually the old distillery. You find a whisky bar, a shop and the entry to the old distillery. This is the 'gate' to the whisky tour I booked on. It lasts about 45 mins and ends with a whisky challenge and a complimentary glass of Jameson whisky with cranberry juice, just the whisky or mixed whisky with some water.

It really was a nice experience and I ended up buying a bootle of a special distillery reserve for a couple of euros. Well worth the money. After that I went a bit shopping - mostly CDs I should add and got some food because I was quite hungry. Beeing back at the BnB I decided to have an early night in order to get ready for the second day. The Guinness Warehouse was on top of my list. At 8am I went down for breakfast (didn't try a full Irish), instead I went for toast, scrambled eggs, link sausage and of course bacon. A wee portion of Weetabix and I was ready. On my way to the Warehouse I admired the beauty of this city and its stunning scenery. Believe it or not Dublin really is a nice and vibrating city.

Well arrived at the Warehouse I was stunned by the complex. Absolutely massive. So after a moment of admiration I went into the warehouse and bought my ticket. 10 euros but with a complimentary pint of freshly draught Guinness should be worth the money. Ok so where do I start? After getting through the barriers I was stunned (again) by the massive rooms. On the left you find the original Guinness store (2 storeys) and to your right all availabe Guinness bottlings of the last couple of years. As I didn't pay too much attention I can't tell you if these bottles were from the last 100 years or more. Anyway if you're a tourist and you need some help with your language you can get some translators. Those small devices tell you in your language what's what.

I queued for an English headset in believe that I would get some extra features or it was required (which it was not!). The starting point is the contract Arthur Mc Guinness signed some years ago. Again don't ask me how old this document actually is! Then you start a journey throughout the whole process of brewing Guinness. The history is shown in picturesand videos and at some point and if you are lucky enough you actually can start a complete brew process. Pretty cool eh?

Well after you have finished the brew process levels as I call them (the warehouse is actually designed like a pint of Guinness) you can access a bar or write something on the wall. The wall basically is a wall where you can leave some messages for other people to read. I decided not to and headed straight for the top. The ultimate experience of having a nice pint of Guinness. The top bar right above Dublin is the best place to enjoy a pint of Guinness for free. You should be prepared for a massive croud waiting to be served. After enjoying the view and the pint it was time to move on. I wanted to see the nice park but unfortunately it started raining. Unfortunately for me as well was that I forgot my jaket and ran 'home'. Totally soaked I decided to dry myself and postponed the park for the last day.

Instead I headed towards the city and had nice dinner. You might think it was an original Donner and you would be right. Missed that so to hell with an Italian pasta dish.

My last day began at 9am with breakfast as usual and a Dublin bus tour trip which covered the Guinness Warehouse and Dublins park. It was absolutely amazing and I really want to go back to Dublin. You meet people from all over the world and there are so many pubs to go to and enjoy the company of great people.

So it was time to head back to Scotland which went without any problems apart from no buses leaving Glasgow Airport towards Paisley so I had to spend some money for a taxi. Overall it was an amazing weekend. Pictures will follow very soon.

Back again

2009-11-04T10:39:00.003-08:00

Hi there,

I don't know if I've any readers out there but I'm back. Finally. It's been quite a while and the reason for me being back right now is because I split up from my ex and that I could reset my password. For some reasons my provider blocked my email account and I couldn't enter it to reset my password. So bit of bad luck. anyway I'll tell you what I've been experiencing so far.

First I bought a car. A nice handy car. White Vauxhall estate it is. Lovely car with plenty of horsepower to keep going. With 75 bhp the diesel is pulling nicely as long as I don't drive up mountains :D

I split up form me ex. She was a pain in the arse but I won't talk about her right now. My job is going fine and I'm moving into a new department. Will be interesting and I'm looking forward to it.

Well apart from that I want to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Although being in Scotland I think that riding can be a joy over here. For all of you who are interested in the machine I was looking at. It's a Ducati Monster 696. Beautiful bike and so handy. I visited a school nearby and the price of getting the license is not too pricy. Anyway as it should be my first bike and a Ducati I decided to go for the Silverstone Ducati training. It's double the price but it should be very cool.

Other stuff I've been doing is dating and spending tremendous amounts of money to extend my whisky collection. anyway I'll post some new pictures very soon.

Driving range - my way to golf

2009-11-04T10:39:00.001-08:00

You never know what might happen if someone feels that you're bored and wants to work without you running around like a loon.

In most cases... well I don't know what happens in those cases. I was sent out to Golf! Imagine me golfing :D never tried it before and playing such a boring game. At least it has to be boring because watching Golf is boring. Hmm ok ok I might had some prejudices about Golf.

After I got there (the driving range) I instantly started with the wrong clubs (sorry but I'm a tall bloke) and there were no other clubs available. So I used the clubs of my friend.

Hit some balls more or less successfully but it was fun! Unfortunately I didn't wear warm clothes and a cold should be a result of my Golf adventure. Anyway, golf isn't as boring anymore and even watching The Masters
was quite entertaining. You simply need to understand what the players are doing. Something you can imagine once you played it.

I'm searching for a new laptop

2009-11-04T10:38:00.003-08:00

My Asus laptop is still working and I created a backup with Acronis TrueImage to safe all my data but the urge to buy a new laptop which is ready to run Linux on it is too strong. Finally I decided to go with a Lenovo laptop. Preferably a 14inch widescreen model . However, finding a laptop meeting my requirements is not as easy as it seems because Lenovo don't really offer a configurator. In fact it's a mess to look for all the different models.

Searching sites and price comparison is my day to day business when I come home from work. I feel like a bit in an auction room. There are nice laptops out there but you need to be at the right place at the right time. Not easy if you've to work 8 hours a day. Not using ebay might be a drawback but I've never liked the platform.

So my search goes on and if you guys know some nice laptops with 14inch widescreen display and dual core cpu let me know it. Your help is much appreciated.

Move to Scotland - so many things to do

2009-11-04T10:38:00.001-08:00

Here I go. Two weeks til my new life and I haven't a flat in Scotland. A simple task you think. Loads of websites offering flats and flatmates so easy going and find yourself a flat somewhere.

And yet I was lucky. Found a flat in the East End of Glasgow which seemed to be a bargain. However, bargains and Glasgow don't really go well with each other but as a German without any experience it sounded just too good and I needed a flat asap. 'Phone the guy' I told myself and finally got the promise of moving in. He even wanted to pick me up from the airport. Cool isn't it?

So let's jump to 2 days and counting. My old flat was nearly empty and the new tenants wanted to buy all my stuff for quite a nice amount of money. Suddenly I felt home sick although I haven't left Germany! My friends, my flat. I would miss all that. Fortunately I didn't have too much time to think about it. 1 day and counting. Get the tickets from the airport and have a nice pizza evening watching Oceans 13. Last time with my parents and last time in Germany. This evening was the most moving evening in my life.

Never before I was doing such an important step without any help. It was a step into the unknown. So don't think about it and just do it. Works fine for most of the time. 1 hr and counting. My plane was parked at the gangway and my heartbeat was back to normal. Calm and sort of happy I went to the checkin just to be informed that I could directly proceed to the security check. Time to say goodbye to my friends and family.

Tears were shed and I didn't dare to look back. I concentrated on the new life in front of me. Once seated on the plane I relaxed and had a nap before landing at London Stansted. I knew the whole procedure and walked straight to the airport express which had a malfunction. No trains and a connection flight. Brilliant but keep cool. No one will fly without you, so it was. Unfortunately my baggage went missing which I found out when I waited for my baggage before my new landlord picked me up. Without luggage I felt naked.

Anyway, it got even worse. The flat itself was a nightmare for a German. Ok I'm exaggerating a bit. Not even a clean Scotsman would have wanted to live in that. I won't go into details as it would be too disgusting. Before signing a rental agreement I moved to the youth hostel I stayed during my first ever Scotland trip. Meanwhile I bought some underwear and was looking forward to my first day at work. My employee offered me an accomodation to stay. Couldn't be that worse, could it?

Well, it didn't get worse but it didn't get any better, at least I had more room for myself without any luggage. Still.. Nearly two weeks after I arrived in Scotland my luggage came, to the wrong location. I missed the staff at the airport and they sent it to the youth hostel. About 30 miles away from my new, temporary flat. A taxi would have cost me more than 100 pounds so I thankfully found a mate on my class who drove me to Glasgow to collect my stuff. Thanks for that mate!

Having some clothes I spent the next 12 days in the temporary accommodation before I stumbled across an advertisement on the smallads. Someone offered a room in a nice house. I phoned him and arranged for a meeting with him. He's an IBMer so should be a nice bloke. For the first time in Scotland I had real luck. My landlord is a very nice chap and we laugh a lot together. So after a month or so I was feeling good. Two months here and I finally arrived. Managed all my stuff and finally relaxed and gained weight. Shit!

Mission accomplished - moving to Scotland

2009-11-04T10:37:00.003-08:00

My first flight to Scotland had been two weeks before I was invited to the job interview in Cologne. I was paid a flight to Glasgow Airport and was picked up by someone. I spent a whole day having a look at the work and had to pass an assessment test.

This was kind of hard I've to tell you. Didn't do so well as I expected so I was surprised when they encouraged me with this particular job (as you might guess they have never phoned me back). Glasgow is such a nice city. Spent my evening at a youth hostel and had a wee walk through Glasgow. Wow I was impressed.

Time to go. My clock woke me up and it was time to go. Striding through the Glasgowegian streets and listening to the natter on the roads I spent 4 hrs waiting for my flight back. I really used to love the Apple Store :) After an uneventful flight Germany had me back

A job interview in Cologne

2009-11-04T10:37:00.001-08:00

I was sitting in my living room, hands and head resting on the table when I had this urge to change my life completely. Don't get me wrong. I'd been writing more than 200 applications to different companies and contacted job agencies to increase my chance of finding a job in the UK. Somehow all the jobs were about Call Centres. Well you say that's a start but after listening to the people and reading their job descriptions I decided to go for something different.

Yeah if you want to work abroad as a foreigner you can't work as an administrative. Don't tell me that! Ok you don't which is nice but it should be a job where I feel comfortable.... So let's have a look at the jobsite again. There must be a job for me out there. And there it is. Technical Supporter for IBM. Doesn't sound too bad so I apply for that job. My CV has undergone different changes and I've this feeling to send this application. One last time please......

10 minutes later I receive a phone call from someone called Ann. She works for a job agency and asks me some questions about computers which isn't that hard for me. 30 minutes later I'm invited for a job interview on the very next day. Oh-oh less than 24 hrs to prepare myself for the interview. I need to plan. Coach tickets, a strategic plan and an anti panic plan for my English. Not that my apprenticeship was for nothing but the real stuff is different. No one to help you out. This is serious business. Ok, don't panic