photo bags sind eine gute Idee, auch wenn es auf den Muttertag nicht mehr reicht und vielleicht meine Schwester viel mehr Freude an einem haette als meine Mutter.
Gibts auch als Notebook Tasche etc. in 16 Variationen. Wartet auf Weihnachten 
I’ve been in Berlin for the last 3 weeks now. I like it here, the guys at work are nice and I’ve been bowling, to an African restaurant, clubbing and to the killer’s gig. There’s another gig I would like to go to. LCD soundsystem are playing next Tuesday in the Ostbahnhof in the Fritzclub.
Tomorrow I will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the Dunmore Cave and next Wednesday I am going to meet a distant relative for dinner and drinks.
Too bad it is going to be so cold over the weekend. They are even talking about snow. Which would probably be quite nice for the polar bears they’ve got in the zoo here. There is a young polar bear baby called Knut which is everybody’s darling at the moment.
I decided to take the train to go to Berlin this time. First of all flying is annoying because of all the added security, and there has never been a lot of leg room in planes. And as I am staying in Berlin for 3 weeks I had more then the amount of luggage I would usually take. City Night Line trains connect some major swiss cities with Germany. Leaving at 8pm it took me about 12 hours to get to Berlin. At first I was alone in the 2 bed compartment, but from Basel to Hannover I had company by a guy working for some kind of light/lamp company.
I had forgotten just how nice it is to leave a city in a train at nighttime. It is dark outside and cozy inside the wagon. The sound of the wheels on the track is a comfortable sound even though a bit loud at times. The train passed through many cities that I’ve never been to yet. Frankfurt, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Hannover, Braunschweig before I had to alight in Berlin.
The day before I had arranged to get a one bedroom studio flat for a month and so had to go to the rental company to sign the lease and pay the rent. It all went smoothly and I could move into my flat at Buelowstr. 45 just after 10am. As you can see on the google map it is very close to the U7 underground station Yorckstrasse. And the U7 takes me to Siemensdamm where I am working in just over 20 minutes without having to change lines. An excellent service. I had decided to get ticket covering public transport in all of Berlin for a month.
I am going to be in Berlin for the next three weeks. Leaving in Zurich, the CityNightLine train will take me straight to Berlin where I will be arriving before 8 on Tuesday morning.
I am trying to fill in an application form on said website. The company offers five graduate schemes including one for IS. Which probably menas Information Science?? Registering is easy, logging in as well. They tell you to read the help available, but there is none available or I maybe I haven’t found it yet.
Filling in the form is easy too. There is a save button every now and then, which lets you save the form so that you can take breaks and then come back and continue filling it in. Next to the save button is a “printer friendly” button which should call a pdf generator to generate a printer friendly pdf. But not much seems to happen. This could be for a variety of reasons, I am using Firefox on Linux. Not that it should play a role as the pdf is generated on the server. Switching to Windows and Firefox has similar results. The pdf cannot be generated. Nothing happens. Internet Explorer 6 should solve the problem, but no, it won’t work either.
When trying to leave the application form I am looking for a logout button/link. But none is available and it is necessary to click another link or close the window. Upon logging in again it is possible to go back to the application form or generate a html or pdf version. PDF versions do not work on any browser/OS combination tested. Generation of the html form results in broken html in firefox. It is a mess and cannot be used for printing. Explorer is better at handling the broken html and I was finally able to print the application form out.
This experience makes me think that the company is short of web designers and usability engineers. There might be a job open for me.
The Organic Food Festival is taking place in Glasgow this weekend.
The Organic Food Festival is the first to take place away from the Soil Association’s home city of Bristol. Split between two Glasgow venues, the Old Fruitmarket and Glasgow Metropolitan College, the event is a celebration of all things organic. It includes a marketplace of over 50 stalls selling and promoting food, drink, textiles and skincare. You’ll be able to get lots of information about organic food and why it’s better for you, as well as picking up some fantastic bargains.
For 2 pounds entry fee you get access to a whole range of organic foods sold on over 50 stalls. A lot of them offer free tasters and it is possible to skip a meal by just trying everything. I bought cheese from the Connage Highland Dairy and the Summer Isle Foods company who specialise in smoded fish and cheese. It was also very hard to resist buying some beers from the Black Isle Brewery and I ended up getting one each of Red Kite, Yellowhammer, Blonde, Scotch Ale, Porter and Wheat Beer. Ardna Mushrooms were selling mushrooms:
The newly formed company of Ardnamushrooms in Strontian grows organic, gourmet edible fungi on woody substrates in a climate controlled container and sells to hotels and restaurants, primarily in Lochaber. Currently the business is in the stage of setting up the infrastructure and starting to establish links with hoteliers and chefs in the region.
Ardnamushrooms uses a recently-developed system for growing saprophytic fungi. The system was developed by Richard Edwards of Humungus Fungus and is being used to grow shiitake mushrooms in Skye and Mull. Mr. Edwards is providing both technical support and the inoculated grain.
Oak shavings (60%) and hardwood chips (34%)are mixed with organic bran (5%) and agricultural gypsum (1%), put into polythene bags, sterilized in an autoclave (a large pressure cooker), mixed with inoculated grain, incubated for a few weeks and then placed in a growing room where the fungi grow out of the ‘blocks’.
that tasted really nice. Interesting idea.
My time as a student is rapidly coming to an end. My master’s thesis is due in today and I am working on getting the last set of improvements into the report. The only thing that remains to be done after handing it in will be a short presentation in Zurich. No date has been set for this and it might well be next year rather than this year. I am looking forward to putting my student life to an end and start a new part of my life as a graduate.
Ja so ist es tatsächlich! Habe heute einen Brief bekommen, der bestätigt dass ich eine NIN bekommen habe. Die britische AHV Nummer. Was gut ist, weil jetzt kann ich das Formular ausfüllen und sagen dass ich ein armer Student bin und Geld brauche um meine 4 Löcher zu flicken. Ãœberaschend ist es gekommen weil sie sagen es dauere 2 – 4 Wochen und dabei war ich erst Dienstag dort ging also genau eine Woche, das nenn ich speditiv.
Heute wartete wieder das Behandlungszimmer auf mich. Oder eher umgekehrt. Es warteten 9 Leute vor mir im Behandlungszimmer, da nur eine Krankenschwester Dienst hatte. Die Leute grummelten und machten böse Mienen. Hatten aber keine grosse Wahl ausser wieder heimzugehen und ihr Glück an einem anderen Tag zu suchen.
Ich harrte aus und es kam eine zweite Schwester und Dinge gingen ein bisschen schneller. Bei mir gings dann ruck zuck. Fuss auf den Stuhl, Verband weg, ein bisschen pützerlen und es sah gut aus. Die Haut war nachgewachsen und bedeckte das Nagelbett. Mein Fuss darf jetzt wieder geduscht werden und ich muss noch eine Woche lang Pflaster tragen, kann die aber jeden Tag draufkleben. Nachher sollte ich dann einfach vorsichtig sein dass ich keine schweren Dinge auf den Fuss fallen lasse. Aber zum Doktor muss ich nicht mehr.
Heute morgen punkt 8 Uhr wählte ich mir die Finger wund um die Reception bim Doktor ans Telephon zu bekommen. Prompt war es dann auch besetzt dier ersten x mal. Ich wollte mich schon auf den Weg zur Arztpraxis machen, um persönlich vorzusprechen, da ich ja nicht einen Arzt termin wollte, sondern einach eine Krankenschwester um den Verband zu wechseln. Nach mehr Versuchen wurde ich dann durchgeschaltet und es wurde mir gesagt ich brauche keinen Termin, sondern solle einfach vorbeikommen und meine Behandlungskarte abholen.
Das liess ich mir nicht zweimal sagen und ich ging vorbei, bekam die Behandlungskarte und wurde in Richtung Behandlungszimmer geschickt. “Treatment Room”. Dort warteten etwa 6 Leute auf dass ihnen jemand Beachtung schenkte. 2 Krankenschwestern waren “on duty” und ich musste nicht so lange warten bis ich dran kam. Probleme gab es nur beim Entfernen des Verbandes, da es die Ärzting im Spital fast ein bisschen zu gut mit mir gemeint hatte. Aber alles ging weg, der Zeh sah ok aus, wurde gewaschen und neu verpackt und muss trocken bleiben. Knochentrocken 
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=bone%20dry
Und er macht wieder mehr weh mein dummer Zeh. Nächster Termin am Dienstag und nachher sollte ich dann selber in der Lage sein den Verband zu wechseln.