Egyptian Goddess in Germany

Pricing in Denmark

Selket — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:14:41 +0000

How much would you have to pay for a tomato ketchup sachet in a fast food outlet and an how much for a nice ice cream in an ice cream parlour? Well, I guess in most countries of the world, the ketchup would come for free. In the US you even get about 8 sachets in your bag by default, regardless of what you order. And and ice cream would cost somewhere around EUR 1.-, at least in Germany.
Not so in Denmark. At least in ‘Sunset Blvd.’ - apparently the Danish McDonalds - you have to pay an additional 1.5 DKK (corresponding to about EUR 0.20) for a small sachet of 15 ml Heinz ketchup. For a second flavour in your ice cone, however, you have to pay only 2 DKK (about EUR 0.25) on top of your DKK 18 (EUR 2.50) for the first flavour.

So next time you are in Denmark, rather have your french fries with ice cream, that’s much better value for money! But you should make sure that you do not pay with your credit card. Otherwise you will be charged 3% on top! Another Danish speciality…

Wellness in Höchenschwand II

Selket — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:47:28 +0000

Our first ‘lesson’ today was ‘Progressive Muscle Relaxation’. Would you have any idea what to expect from ‘PMR’? I had only faint prejudices, but they were all confirmed:

We started with throwing little cloth bags to each other while calling the catcher’s name. Then the ‘real’ program began: “Now we close our eyes and breathe in… Strain your neck muscles now… keep it strained… Now relax it again while breathing out… What do you feel? Concentrate on your inner self… Does your neck feel different now?” And so on and so forth. The whole thing was also accompanied by some relaxing music in the background.

As you might have guessed, I did not fell ANY different after straining and then relaxing and concentrating on any of my muscles. -Maybe I am too dumb for this kind of exercise…?

Second lesson today: Theory about our spine, what it looks like and what you should avoind if you want to keep it healthy taught by a funny Italian physiotherapist.

What I learnt: ‘Don’t rush, do everything piano, piano.’, lying is better than standing which is better than sitting, sleeping in the embryo position is bad for you, so I should rather quickly change my way of sleeping.

Tomorrow: Spine gymnastics at 7.15 in the morning. -So much for ‘let’s do some relaxing wellness holiday…’

Person question of the day: Why do huge and fat people who choose the module ‘nutrition/eating’ and nevertheless eat 6 sausages for dinner pay the same contribution to their health insurance as I do?

Strange new world(s)

Selket — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:05:35 +0000

Yesterday, we used our new car to explore still unknown corners of our surroundings. The short trip took us to a ‘Bergtierpark’ (a small zoo with animals living in different mountain areas of the world) some 40 km away from Mannheim. Perhaps one of the strangest inhabitants there was this ‘zonkey’ (in German: ‘Zebresel’), a crossbreed between a zebra and a donkey.

For those who can’t believe it: Just google ‘zonkey’ (or zebrass, zebronkey, zeedonk, zedonk, zebadonk, zenkey, zebrinny, or deebra).

But there were also conventional animals, such as a baby donkey and some kangaroos.

As you can imagine, we had a lot of fun. Although (or because?) it seemed we were the only couple without kids. ‘No, DON’T eat this! It’s animal food, not kid’s food.’ - ‘Benjamin, don’t push the goat, please!’…

My first book!

Selket — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:19:31 +0000

Looking for an interesting linguistics book on English-Hindi code-switching? Here’s a new book by a new and aspiring author…

Waking up with the fire rescue

Selket — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:30:08 +0000

Yesterday morning when we woke up and pulled up the shutters, I saw two big fire engines in front of our house. ‘Cool, seems as if something exciting is going on in our neighbourhood!’

Then I spotted a group of spectators who were all looking up and pointing to OUR roof.

At second glance I then discovered what had happened: Apparently, the storm last night had loosened a tile on the roof which had then crashed down on the sidewalk, fragmenting into a thousand pieces (and luckily enough not killing anyone). Now the fire men were busy trying to safely get down two more tiles which were lying at the edge of the roof, about to fall down as well. Quite funny to watch such a large scale operation involving eight firemen just bringing down two tiles. Gives you the impression that you are living in a very safe country.

Well done, Sitewards!

Selket — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:53:08 +0000

In 2008, the initiative ‘Deutschland, Land der Ideen’ (’Germany, Land of Ideas’), promoted by the German President and sponsored by the Deutsche Bank, awards 365+1 companies, institutes and organizations as a “Special Venue in the Land of Ideas”. With its Venture Support concept, Sitewards became one of the “Special Venues” in the Land of Ideas 2008.

-Congratulations!

The police, your friend and helper

Selket — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:40:06 +0000

Yesterday morning I was walking to work when a police woman, standing next to her parked car and a parking meter, addressed me:

‘Excuse me, could you maybe break a ten Euro note? A five Euro note and a few coins would be great.’

I dug up my purse from my hand bag and handed her a five Euro note as well as five Euros in coins.

‘Oh, thank you so much, that’s lovely… I just don’t want to get a ticket again!’

:-)

Europe’s Fattest

Selket — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:04:47 +0000

The latest study commissioned by our minister Horst Seehofer confirmed what we all have known for ages: The Germans are fat and becoming fatter and fatter. Half of the female and two-thirds of the male population are overweight. Germans are fatter than any other Europeans. Not surprising either: Less educated people with lower incomes tend to be much more often overweight than highly educated people with higher incomes. Medical expenses for diseases and medical conditions caused by malnutrition amount to 70 billion Euros!

One often heard explanation, especially by radio station callers: Less educated people are not able to afford healthy food. - THIS IS COMPLETE NONSENSE! The truth: For not more than EUR 70.- per person per month you can easily live on a healthy diet. And registering your kid at the local sports club is much cheaper than buying the DVDs and computer games which make them sit in front of the TV/computer all day and finally make them grow fat. ‘The inconvenient truth’ so to say is simply that people are too lazy live a healthy lifestyle.

Fat people directly cost our health care system more than EUR 70 billion per year! And why do I have to subsidize other people’s self-inflicted obesity with all associated medical problems? Why isn’t there any risk loading scheme for obese people? Why shouldn’t someone who drinks, smokes or lives on a very unhealthy diet pay himself for the consequences? Well, the answer is that our society - or at least the majority of it, including many of our politicians - think this wold be against our principle of solidarity or simply ‘unfair’.

You don’t understand why it should be unfair if you don’t want to pay for your neighbour’s excesses? Welcome to the club! You seem to belong to the few people with some common sense in this country…

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Another piece of German bureaucracy…

Selket — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:27:14 +0000

… in the home country of the automobile.

Tourists coming to Germany are allowed to drive cars on German roads as long as they hold a driving license from their home country. This right expires after 6 months. Foreigner who want to drive even more than 6 months after they have entered the country have to pass the German theory and road test to obtain a German driving license.

This regulation is almost the same in most countries. So far, so good. But how does it look in practice?

1.) You go to the German automobile association to have your driving license translated into German. Of course their branch is situated at a place which is easy to reach by car, but difficult to reach by public transport. You have to go there at least three times because they make mistakes. Costs: EUR 40.-

2.) You find yourself a driving school where you can take a few lessons and then pass the two tests. Costs: approx. EUR 500.-
3.) Then you fill in your driving license form together with some other forms at the local car registration office. As you might guess, that place is unreachable by public transport. I guess no one ever realized that people who need to register their car obviously cannot use it to get there. Costs: EUR 43.40
At the office, someone will then explain to you that they have to confiscate your Indian (or whatever nationality) driving license ‘because it is forbidden by law to have two’.

And what do you do when you go back to India on holidays? You use your German one. The only problem: The Indian one includes motorcycles, the German one does not. So you effectively loose the right to drive them by getting a German license.

And what do you do when you go back to India for a longer period? Well, then you are allowed to drive for 6 months or something with your German license. And after that? Well, then you make your license again, this time in India. You again pay for that. You finally come out with two licenses which is forbidden in Germany by law, but nobody will know. And of course you wasted quite a bit of money thanks to our bureaucracy!

Bollywood on Zeit.de

Selket — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:41:51 +0000

After not writing for months I have something special today: ‘Die Zeit’ (a big German weekly newspaper) online is presenting a new Bollywood movie! Take a close look at this! You might know the new movie star…