Days like this
Days like this should happend more often - at least when I look back to yesterday. Didi and I went to the Career Fair at the FH Hagenberg - representing our company - trying to attract as many students as possible to join our company once they are finished with school. It was a good day and it was good to have a day that was a bit different to a normal working day.
Besides that my life is currently focused on our salsa show. There is progress - but not as much progress as we hoped - but we will get there - 10 days to go.
The weekend is coming closer and with that - lots of different activities: On friday night we go to Didi's (the other Didi) Ball. Well - its not his ball - but its the Ball of the dancing school he works for. On Saturday we have our annual mistletoe ralley. On sunday its time for some family business - visiting my sister. Thats it.
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| Didi and I at the Career Fair |
Practice, Practice, Practice
Right now we practice our salsa show about every other day. We are getting better every time - still - we are not yet done with the whole program. We still have 10 days to go - so I am very confident that we will be well prepared for the show on December 8th.
Besides all the salsa I try to do the best to get my body into shape: going to the gym is one thing - eating the cookies that we made on the weekend is another - probably both actions cancel each other out :-)
Thats todays update - cheers
Sunday
As I mentioned yesterday - sunday started early today. We had to be at the rehearsal at 9. It turned out that it was not the final dress rehearsal. It was basically the first time that each (almost each) group was there and we all got instructions about how the individual events are stringed together. It turned out that the other groups (mainly from music or dancing schools) are kind of semi-professionals.
Seems that Lilly and I are the only non-pros - but - who cares? Its about the children where we try to raise money for. We will do our best - so will the others - and in the end we hope to help many poor kids.
After the session from 9 to 12 I went to Irene for a late Brunch - followed by session in the gym. Then I started to watch the different sport events of this afternoon (soccer, skiing). The original plan was that I just keep watching till I finally fall asleep. But Mario just gave ma ring - asking me out for Free Rainer. Thats what I am going to do next.
Thats basically it - it was a nice weekend with many activities. Cheers
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| One of the school classes performing a dance | Brunching @ Irene's |
Weekend Activities
Its saturday night - just came back from a great afternoon with some friends. Juergen and Barbara invited us all to do some cookie baking. As I am not too familiar with baking I offered to help whereever possible. I told them that I would prefer tasks like tasting, drinking and supervising :-)
Today started "early" - well - it started at 9:30 when Lilly came around to do some salsa dancing. Lilly and I are going to dance a "salsa show" on december 8th. Its part of a charity event. We already have the music and we are pretty clear on which moves we are going to do in the first half of the song. We will probably figure out the rest in the next week. Tomorrow is the dress rehearsal - so we are going to do some more training tonight.
I said the day started early - although 9:30 doesnt really sound like I had to get up early. But of course - it always depends on when you got to bed the night before and also in which physical condition :-). I've been invited by Leo last night. As always - when I am invited at his place - there is lots of food, drinks and discussions involved. It was a great night. Special thanks to his wife - she prepared great cocktails for us.
Thats it. Tomorrow is sunday. The rehearsal is from 9 to 12. Will see what the rest of the day will bring. Cheers
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| Beer Selection on Friday Night @ Leo's | Leo - the Chef |
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| Separating Eggs | Looks disgusting - but its just chocolate |
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| The same chocolate later in the process | We prepared some punsch to make the whole work a bit easier |
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| More chocolate - now in white | Our youngest helper |
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| And even more chocolate | Finished product |
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| Yummie :-) | Sandro and Florian playing with the Wii |
Mid-Week Update
Its wednesday night - just came home from a meeting in Gallneukirchen - it was interesting - but a bit too long. Seems that I missed another goal-less soccer match of our national soccer team :-)
What else is going on? monday night was salsa night - of course. On tuesday I had the so called "Last Supper" - no more details on this.
Hmmm - thats it. Nothing more to say. cheers
The first weekend
Most of you realized that my entry on november 14th was targeted to my private life. Therefore its the first weekend that I have to manage on my own again.
Its been quite eventfull: On friday night we went out to the Ball der Begegnung in Gallneukirchen. The special thing about that Ball is that its hosted by the Diakoniewerk (which is an institute for mental disabilities). Many guests have actually been people that live in the housing projects of the Diakoniewerk - making it very interesting - especially on the dance floor.
I took the chance to "dance" with a girl in a wheel chair. Seeing her smile was probably the best that happened that night. I basically danced straight from 9PM to 2AM - thanks to Helene that she could stand it :-)
On saturday we met Nicolas - he is a guy from Chile and the probably most skilled salsa dancer in Linz right now. He helped Lilly and me to mix a salsa song for our upcoming charity event on December 8th where we are supposed to dance a salsa. After 3 hours we had our song and we got some good hints about what moves we should dance in certain parts of the song.
I also checked out the just opened XMAS-Market in Linz. I can tell you - the gluehwein is pretty strong :-)
At night we went out to see the movie: Import Export. My comment: NO COMMENT!
Now its sunday - just finished the laundry. Will meet Irene for dinner and then I hope to do some sports in the afternoon. Yeah - reminding me of sports: Just signed a membership contract with my local sports club - hope to go there at least twice a week - my body needs some shaping. The only shape that I've right now is mostly from the wheat beer of the previous years :-)
Cheers
Another week over
This week was quite interesting. Ups and Downs - Beers and Gin Tonic's :-)
Mark was in town this week. We went out for dinner on tuesday and for some drinks on thursday. I hope he made his flight back home. He was supposed to be at the airport by 6 in the morning. When I left him at around midnight he looked like staying out longer that night :-)
Well - thats basically it. Weekend activities: some salsa training (we are going to dance at a charity event on december 8th - so we have to practice a little), ball der begegnung in gallneukirchen and hopefully checking out the xmas-market which open this saturday.
Thats it - cheers
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| With Udo in the Exxtrablatt | With Mark in Josefs |
2nd attempt failed!
In life you usually get more than one chance. But sometimes - even multiple attempts dont help. The important thing is to learn from things that went wrong.
Grandma Day
Once a year we celebrate the "Grandma Day" at home at my parents. My mother - now grandmother of 6 kids - invites all her grand children for a nice sunday afternoon. I dont have kids - so I would normally not apply to the grandma day - but of course - my mum invited me :-)
I finally took the chance to change my tires - a bit late - but fortunately I had no problems with my summer tires in the currently cold weather.
The plan for next week: a colleague from the US will be in Linz - we will probably have a good time in the evenings. Cheers
Lets Dance & let it snow!
As every year - the Lets Dance Ball in the Brucknerhaus opens the ball season. Lots of great bands - lots of dancing and a great midnight show. The big surprise happened today in the morning - check out the last picture down there. Cheers
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| Didi, Sandra, Alex, Andi | Dancing in the big ball room |
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| Getting the last sips out of the Caipirinha | Midnight Show: SheSays as Live Act |
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| Jause at 2 AM - jummie | What a surprise in the morning: first snow in Linz |
Lissy und der Wilde Kaiser
I watched the new movie from Bully Herbig yesterday - Lissy und der Wilde Kaiser. Its the first animated movie of Bully. My expectations were high because of the previous movies of him. After 9 minutes of animation I have to say that its a well done movie - lots of laughs - nice animation. Worth seeing it - but dont expect full blown 90 minutes of gags.
Besides that funny episode there is not really much going on these days - unfortunately. My good intentions to do more sport after work have only been realized once this week. The weekly soccer game tomorrow is also in jeopardy because I have a customer visit in Vienna - not sure if I will be back till 4 (very unlikely).
On Saturday we plan to go to the Lets Dance Ball - which reminds me that the Ball-Season is starting - which also reminds me that we are getting closer to x-mas and also closer to the Christmas-Market Season :-)
Enough the words - end of entry!
Wine Weekend in Burgenland
Its been a great extended weekend in the wine region near the Neusiedler See. We stayed at the wine farmer family "Tschida" in Illmitz. The wine region celebrated the so called Martiniloben.
The €35 ticket included free entrance & tasting at each wine farmer in the village and a €24 gift certificate to purchase wine - so - it was a real good deal.
Besides all the good wine & food that we got we additionally spent some time to see other sights in the area. A special sight - especially enjoyed by the girls - was the Designer Outlet in Parndorf. We (the guys) finished our tour in about 15 minutes. The girls needed 5 hours. Therefore we (the boys) went to see Carnuntum which is also close by.
On saturday we made it to the hungarian city of Sopron.
It was a very relaxing and nice weekend. Here are some pictures.
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| Robert in a grass hut at neusiedler see | Sun down at Neusiedler See |
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| Historical Site Carnuntum | Wine tasting in one of the wine cellars in Illmitz |
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| Doris & Robert | Hungarian for Hauptplatz (Main Square) |
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| no words | no words either :-) |
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| At the breakfast table | A traditional Buschenschank |
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| Mario and I in the back seat | Stopped in the Wachau for Lunch on our way back |