Snow is in the air

It’s snowing here in the East of Germany, another thing I really missed in York… And here it is white and crispy cold outside, the ideal weather for Gluehwein and Stollen (remember the AIS party at Emma’s?).

And as some of you might have already heard from myself of others: I do indeed have a new job bnack in my hometown Nuremberg. No archaeology but at least loads of Computers. It’s with a company that is selling hard- and software components for film- and video production, everything from digital effects over signal standard converters to plug-ins for cutting programs. And they will give me two nice big workstations, one PC and one Mac-based for testing purposes and to play around with our products just to be prepared for any questions that may arise…

Of course it’s also about storage, and quick storage it is, because in digital film production there are 2k frames produced now and more than 20 of those every second, so one 2 hour move is about 6TB big

So should the ADS be in need of big and quick storage solutions get in touch

As you can see, I am quite excited about this new subject! Nevertheless its a bit of apity to leave the region around Dresden. People here are so relaxed and easy going much more so like you back in the UK and less like in West Germany where everybody seems to keep to himself (except the people you know well, of course). I guess it’s much the same difference as between the “south” and the warm north of England.

I’ll keep you informed…

Is it beer what we drink here?

Austria was brilliant! Amazingly funny and lively people gae me a warm welcome in my second home country, we had a second birthday celebration for Steffi and my uncle and of course some booze was involved.

Which brings me to one surprising downside of being back on the continent: I know that many people in Germany will not be very happy when reading this but it’s the truth and nothing but the truth:

British beer – ale, bitter, stout, even some lager – is so much more tastier than German beer and the incredible variety of tastes you can get in a pub like the Minster Inn is just amazing compared to the choice you have in your local Kneipe back home…

Of course in Franconia there is an incredible variety of small breweries and they all brew good beer with distinct tastes etc. but the whole variety is closely centered around the average lager taste or to say it in statistical terms: the standard deviation of German beer variety is very small compared to Britain.

Which brings me back to Austria. They brew beer as well. They also like what they brew but honestly I think they are quite alone with that opinion As far as I know now one except Austrians drinks Austrian beer and for good reasons: It is quite boring (sorry guys!)…

Talking with a friend yesterday, who came to visit me in York, it turned out that he also misses the taste of British ale – and this after only three days in England! He marveled on the tasty foam, like cream, he said, compared to the tasteless German equivalent…

Conclusion: The weekend in Austria was a full success anyway and finally we drank more wine. Austrian wine of course which is really good.

And I will not start commenting on English wine here as this would be most offensive, I fear

All the best and CU soon!

back in krautland

It really happened. I am back. Home, where they speak German and eat Sauerkraut. Yesterday we had a big party. It was Steffis birthday. Everybody was speaking my own language again. But afterwards I was suddenly realising that sometimes I still stand around musing about something and the thoughts in my head are – English!

Tomorrow we will visit my family in Austria for a few days, and I really wonder how things will be after that: all Englishness in my head erased by an Austrian overkill? More likely a big mess with bits and pieces of everything…

For now, things are far too fresh to come forward with enlightening thoughts on Kraut-country, its differences compared with Thommyland and other pearls of wisdom.

So meanwhile, have fun, enjoy and cu soon!