Back in the 21st century!

A-HA! I am back in the 21st century with a cell phone and a laptop; so I can once again access my email and research cars, apartments and all the other various bits and pieces I need to take care of to settle in.

I am beginning to really like the Perth Winter: Sunny, relatively balmy (around 15-20 degrees), and generally pleasant, a far cry from the Winters I am used to from Germany and the US - snow, ice, sleet, and temperatures of up to -40 degrees.

Still no pictures, since I am currently working on a office laptop, which I do not want to install any software on...but I guess I will be able to put up something in a couple of days.

The curse of modern technology

Well, it's been a bit since my last post, and all I can say is you only really realize how much you depend on new technology (Internet, Cell Phone, etc.), once you are cut off from them. Right now, I have almost no internet-access (I have to use either the public PCs in the lobby of my hotel, which cost quite a bit to surf with - or, as I am doing right now, use a colleagues' laptop), and basically no mobile phone access (I brought my US-mobile, but they charge me an arm, a leg and a kidney to use it) and apparently Australian cell phone providers are really picky who they give a mobile contract to (Right now I would need 5 different forms of ID, plus a sample of my blood and DNA, and character references from both the Pope and the President of the Untited States :-p) I have to investigate if there is a way around this - I want a local cell phone, but I do not want to mess around with this prepaid nonsense, if I can help it.

I'll keep posting as I get a chance until I finally get a work laptop, which I can use (which should be either tomorrow or on Monday)

until then - Cheers!

Why nice coworkers are far more important than anything else at work....

I just got home after having a get-together with our whole office to send me off.

As the office director was giving his speech, summarizing my time in this office , I had an opportunity to reflect on my stay here. All in all, I had a great time here, thanks mostly to the people I had the pleasure of working with. Everybody was very friendly, welcoming and went out of their way to help me. I consider myself lucky, that during my entire work life so far, I was always blessed with colleagues like that - sure, there may have been one or two scrooges among them, but the vast majority was friendly, great people who made working with them a real joy.

This makes this move a little bittersweet - on the one hand, I am excited to go to Australia and take on new challenges (professionally and personally) in a faraway land, on the other hand, I have to say goodbye to a bunch of very nice people, some of which I will really miss....but I guess that is inevitable.



For those of you who don't know what they are looking at: This is one of the goodbye-presents my colleagues gave me: A beautiful Minnesota-blanket (even though it would be a crime to use it as a blanket) with iconic images of Minnesotan life/history worked in. In case you were wondering why you can't see the top: I had to drape it over my TV to photograph it, since there is no way that I put two nails into a wall two days before I move out of this apartment....sue me ;-)

Getting closer...

Four days to go. Ok, time is really dragging now - I guess it's because I have nothing to do at the moment at all, but it is still annoying.




This used to be my workspace for the last 2 years - it's a bit on the small side, but at least it was next to a window, and away from the main hallway.

Getting there...

Only 5 days to go until the flight. I have to admit, the last few days seem to go reasonably fast - I had expected the time to go much slower; maybe it's because I am back at work instead of being on vacation at home twiddling my thumbs.
Besides, I really have absolutely no reason to complain about the time frame, on the contrary: Despite having had some vague desire to go to Australia for several years, I only made concrete plans to move down under in late April this year (almost exactly on my birthday, go figure), which makes the total time from first plan to final move about 3 months; other people have been trying for years (I have read about some people waiting as long as 4 years to get their Visa). Of course it helps that I have already signed a contract with the Australian subsidiary of the major corporation I am currently working for and have been working for for over 10 years, and that my new supervisor is somebody I have already worked with for several years in the past, but still - 3 months as opposed to (up to) 4 years? Yeah, really no room for any complaints.

All arrangements are made (as far as I can tell, hope I didn't forget anything), and I can't wait to board my flight this coming weekend - Total trip time (including layovers): 29 (!!) hours - I better use every opportunity to charge my MP3-player, otherwise it could get very long ;-)

And Chris, if you are reading this (you know who you are): Update your blog for cryin' out loud - I want to see pictures!! :-p

First Blog Entry

So I finally decided to join the bloggers and make my own. I don't expect to put much in here in terms of writing, but instead treat this as some kind of photo diary to chronicle my new life in Australia. However, from my own experience, this idea will probably fizzle and die pretty quickly, for two reasons, one, I'm not much of a photographer, and two, I don't really like the concept of diaries - I hate making musings about myself and my life...so let's see, if I actually use this or not ;-)