My Christmas at home.

How nice spending Christmas at home was!
After a flight cancellation due to adverse weather conditions (it was so foggy you couldn't see your own hands before you!), 4 hours of queuing for nothing and 2 days delay I finally made it home in time for Christmas and celebrated the reunion with my family. Actually I felt a bit exhausted but I still had enough energy to make a few nice day trips with them - one to Vienna and one to Steyr amongst others. I also spent one morning cooking lunch with my gran which was quite nice, I played with my cats and I even found the time to do some Christmas shopping :-). And I got that really good mobile contract that will allow me to call 4 Austrian networks for free - I'm sure that I'll be using my mobile a lot more now!
Best of all was Christmas Eve of course, singing Christmas carols, exchanging gifts and just enjoying being together...
Time went by far too quickly, of course, and I'm back in Liverpool now but I'm not alone: my brother and Jasmin, his girlfriend, came with me for a few days of relaxing and sightseeing in Britain - we'll spend the next two days in the pool and then we'll go to London to spend New Year's Eve there. Which means that I'm playing the role of tour guide right now :-). The two of them will return then on the 2nd and I'll follow on the 6th - my final return to Austria. Which of course doesn't mean that I'll never come back to the Pool of Liver. I've got my plans already.
Okay, for now I'll enjoy my holidays and I'll keep you updated. Mochiron.

It was an uplifting feeling when I'd finally made it to the boaring gate - knowing that the plane would start this time!

Christmas dinner with my family (dad, me, mum, gran) - in Austria traditionally on Christmas Eve.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, so nice with real candles...

Us again...

The lovely town of Steyr (where I was born) at night.

I didn't even have my tripod with me and still the facades look great!

My gran when we went for a walk with her.

The nice little pond not far from my parents' house.

My brother and Jasmin, tonight at Eddie Rockets - check these burgers, they're f***in' tasty... ;-)

感謝です。Cheers, guys!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's been so nice to me lately. With everyone being less busy with studying and with me realising that there was not much time left to spend with my mates I got to hang out with them quite a lot recently and that's really made me feel a lot better! Charlie wrote me a lovely xmas card, Joel's made me aware of the existence of Bonta-kun, Chris gave me a brief introduction to the wonderful world of pre-amps and Jim was discussing the mysteries of Japanese language with me. And of course there was the union with its pool tables, our dart board, the Chinese all-you-can-eat place... and, hell, I even learned some stuff on the guitar!
From the printer place where I was working I got a leaving present - a headtorch which is gonna come in handy when going hiking late in the evening and a 'Scouse in four languages' dictionary that's gonna keep me entertained for days on end. It's even in the right languages for me - English, French, German and Japanese! That was a very nice surprise as well!
Well, what we were doing lately was watching all of Full Metal Panic which's got me more into the whole Japanese thing again, on Sunday morning Jim and I went for a game of pool - we'd also gone for a walk on Saturday, to my favourite park in Scousepool, then in the afternoon to Yum's and today we all went down to town together - all of them things we hadn't done in quite a while due to everyone being busy.
So, although I'd definitely had my hardships here in Britain my mates made it a memorable stay - memorable in a positive sense. And they made me realise what a precious thing good mates really are. Cheers for that!

I think it's time to have some good ol' fun...

Yeah, although Jim constantly beat me with his pool-mastery...

...I was enjoying that Sunday morning pub visit tremendously -
as you can see

Me and my good old friend, the colonel... :-)

Oishii desu ne...

This bull's eye shall be mine...

Fries, grated cheese and some turkey can make a nice 'roast'!

Tastes well nice!

Hey, it's only water...

Yeah, that's right. You wanna go hiking with me?

...like a flaming arrow soaring in the wind... (Five Iron Frenzy)

Apparently I still stick my tongue out when I concentrate on something - not on the maths tho, believe me ;-)

He's got some skillz on the go...

Yeah, show me the moves!

So that's it, I'm 'becoming Austrian' again - but I shall keep a good memory of Britain and I shall visit again!
Be warned as you haven't seen the last of me :p

Season's Greatings.

Darkness comes late afternoon
And winter lies ahead,
But friendship is a glowing fire
When all seems cold and dead.

Have a lovely Christmas and a great new year, everyone!!

Unverhofft kommt... naja, hin und wieder.

Life can be so great from time to time. Today I finished my Liverpool translation business work experience for the time being and although I would have done the proofreading for free, voluntarily, my boss decided that she wanted to pay me a hundred quid for it - without me even asking for it! So not only have I gained insight into the world of patent translation - and translation in general - and got a great work reference, I even got paid.
Things always seem to happen when you least expect them...

Random Fun!

Now, with my stay in Britain going towards its end, every night is invaluable. Especially when these nights have to do with Christmas wine, playing on the Wii, singing random crap, cracking 'Bern-jokes' and posing in front of the camera. And the wine of course. Did I mention the wine? :-)
Anyway, although I couldn't go out with the guys 'cause I had to get up early for work the following morning I still enjoyed myself plenty staying in and fooling about until eleven or so. Didn't take many photos tho, visit Jim's, he took loads.
Not many days left now. Lookin' forward to the pizza!
So, here's the shit, check it out:



...and compare it with the original. Ya see the resemblance? ;-)

Me, listening to Gwen Stefani?!

Today at work I found the only reason to listen to Gwen Stefani: the song "Wind It Up". The song is, well, average but the yodeling part is just hilarious. I pissed myself so much when I heard it! Layeollaleyeollaloh... Haha. Anyone up for some good and crazy fun, try listening to it... ;-)

"Happy Birthday!" to me. "Cheers!" to you.

Yesterday night after coming home from work at the library, what happened? Surprise birthday party! And I couldn't have been more surprised. So if I didn't cry for joy that's only because I generally don't cry. And because I was tired. But it did touch me. So in the company of a flatful of mates I enjoyed the night before my birthday greatly and was having fun eating pickled octopus (Yes, I ate one as well!), drinking Glühwein, playing console games and learning a dance routine from Colin. And of course also playing some original Austrian disco-style dancefloor burners. And later in the night we also headed out.
For more detailed accounts of the evening and loads of photos, see Jim's blog and Charlie's blog.

***Thanks ever so much, guys! Je vous remercie beaucoup.***

Invaluable experience made.

The last three days of translation business work experience have just been great. I've gained some insight into how a translation business is run, how the files are organised and last but not least into the subject matter itself, mulling over sentences like this:
An annular web 12, which is integrally formed on the upper closure cap 7 and is disposed off-centre with respect to the housing 1, is also inserted into an annular groove 13 which is integrally formed on the cover 5 and faces the inner chamber of the housing 1, so that the cooperation of the annular grooves 9, 13 and the annular webs 11, 12 causes the filter element 6 to be fixed inside the housing 1. Bloody hell.