Tuesday 16 December 2008

C, CM and PhD notes

To keep on surprising my dear readers, I am writing down some further notes from the recent days.

Christmas Markets first: thanks for your sympathy, but I can report that I dared to eat some sausage at another stall and this one was indeed better. Not very good though, but acceptable. Bravely, I continued to have mulled wine and apple strudel, both good. However, the latter was served with custard instead of vanilla ice cream which forces me to mark down its test results

Remarkably, a bigger part of the Christmas Markets is in German hands - people say, about half of it. Unfortunately, it is still controlled by the British and their strict curfew, meaning no alcohol outside the fences around Albert Square and they close at nine sharp.

Further, I can tell that the PhD comics guy is funny even in reality, this was some kind of Christmas lecture yesterday. A bit of a disappointment was that there was a moral to his talk, but not the moral itself: procrastination is different from laziness and it is OK.

I wonder if I witnessed the creation of a new comic and I can exclusively announce that he wrote down the words "thesis envy" and the sentence "The grass is always greener on the other side of defense." By the way, they did have free food, i.e. wine and mince pies.

In other news, the result of the congestion charge referendum is quite clear: 80% voted no. As I already told, it is not unusual to me as a left-ish Bavarian to be with a vast minority.

That means, I have to take the bus to the airport for some more years, because they don't know what will happen to the tram line there that was part of the plan. I am making this way later today in the usual way and wish everybody something like a Merry Christmas in case I will not be able to keep up the current speed of blogging.

Saturday 6 December 2008

St. Nicholas Day

Now that it is St. Nicholas Day, Christmas is not far, even if you try to be objective. Thus, I dared to visit the Christmas Markets in Manchester today. Brought up with that in Germany, I was curious as to what expect from this copy that even comes in several parts: the German, the European and the World Christmas Markets.


Well, what should I say? Christmas Markets with everything that belongs there, I just did not find the Glühwein tent where they play awful Apres-Ski music. Otherwise, roasted almonds taste the same, chocolate coated fruits, too - sold at the "Bavarian Sweets" stall, where I was immediately asked if I was from Germany. Maybe I was targeting the typical things too eagerly and that tipped me and my experience off.

The big flop, however, was the "Bratwurst". I could have guessed it, the Britons are famous for not knowing how to do neither sausages nor rolls. Therefore, enjoyment of the fat and meatless former in a dry and fluffy latter was rather limited. Don't know if I will try again where they explicitly advertise "German Bratwurst".

However, I do have to return - my dear Christmas Market veterans have certainly noticed: I forgot the Glühwein. Not forgotten, rather not eager enough to queue, because if there is alcohol, hordes of Britons are not far. At least, they sell "Nürnberger Christkindles Glühwein", the famous one from Aldi. They also sell mugs - I have to add one of those to my collection.

As the pictures show you: decoration is there, too. As well as an ice rink and a ramp with artificial snow that you can glide down in a tyre. After all, everything is just the way I don't miss from Germany. Glühwein, Glögg rather, can just as well be sourced from IKEA.

Wednesday 3 December 2008

C elections

EU ist great! Although the Britons sometimes fight against this institution, I have now made use of my right to vote for the first time here.

As you don't have to register your residence in England and they have successfully refused the introduction of national ID cards, there are several parallel institutions. Thus, we got a letter sometime ago, asking us who is living in the house and their nationalities. Since then, I was in the electoral register that curiously has two versions here: an original and an edited one. The former is used in elections and as you can verify people's address with it, my credit rating has increased with a certain probability. The edited register is sold off to marketers, luckily you can elect to be removed with a tick in the right column.

Lately, a letter arrived and I can vote on the "Transport Innovation Fund Proposals".



In a nutshell, they want to introduce a congestion charge like in London, which is cheaper on the one hand, but the world's biggest on the other hand. It is about 200 sq. km (80 sq. miles for friends of imperial measurements), inside there is another small zone that comes at an extra price. Figuring out what medium-sized city known to my dear readers that corresponds to is left as an exercise.

If somebody intends to drive to see me (I will live in the inner ring), I can calm you down. The charge applies inbound only between 7am and 9.30am (Don't you dare to arrive at that time!) and outbound only between 4pm and 6.30pm (You don't want to leave that soon, do you?). Then, you only pay if you actually cross a ring, there are numerous exceptions and it will be in force 2013 the earliest and only if more than 80% of the innovations are in place.

The innovations sound reasonable, compared to these slightly suspicious charging rules. More buses, better buses, single ticketing (Yes, this counts as an innovation here!) and extension of the sparse tram network that will have more than three endpoints then. Extreme-GMPTE-ing would still not be particularly exciting.

Anyways, I'll cast my vote and send it, perhaps it works. After all, my last vote in an election made the ruling party in Bavaria lose their absolute majority. I had to keep voting for ten years though, but if I'm lucky, my opinion will be heard faster in here.