I am now an expert on.... Volcanoes!

Did i even spell it right? But anyway, Yes Volcanoes (Vulkane) its an interesting subject and over easter I was helping one of the boys with his project on them. I know a surpirsing amount about volcanoes (mainly thanks to Bill Brysons, A Short History of Almost Everything. An excellent book). For example I know all about "Hot Spots" and the geology about Yellowstone National Park (Its a volcano, yes the entire park!) and about the castrophic Mt St Helens Eruption in the 1980's. This knowledge really impressed Timo so I was roped in to help him! Not that I minded really!

Easter Holidays Over

Well I knew it was coming but I was still in shock this morning when my alarm went off at 6:30am! I'm not used to the early mornings anymore after the two week break!

So what happened over the holidays? I know I havent been blogging much basically cause I've had the kids hanging off me! So it snowed and our snowman only fully melted on Friday! Good fun that was! At the weekend I took the boys with my friends to the merries (fun fair/carnival/kermis??). What fun we had!!! The boys were petrefied in the house of horrors and were clung to me, but they did make a friend (one of my friend's son!)

Thats about all the interesting stuff that happened. Tomorrow I am only bringing one of the boys to school, so dont expect much blogging as he has a meet with the Director of the Gymnasium he will be going to after the summer!

I'm Dreaming of a White... Easter?!?!?!?!

Yup, who ever was at the thermostat really messed up the whole shebang. The entire place is covered in snow. By the time I had breakfast I had already been in a snowball fight with the boys. I also made a (bad) attempt at a snowman in the garden which was nothing compared to the snowrabbits in the park, it is easter!

Looking outside I have it all to do again tomorrow! Planty of lovely white snow, which means I'll also have to sweep the pavement, a first for me!

This is the first time since I got here that I miss Irish Weather!!! I didnt think that was possible! Anyway I made the best of the weather and went sledding another first for me! yay!

Some pics below from today, more on facebook!





More Photos (facebook)

The countdown begins

Im going home sooner then planned :(

I am heading home at the end of May. Will try and get a countdown timer up again. Am going to miss everyone in Köln alot! Its been a great time so fat and still have nearly two months left to enjoy it! As my fortune cookie said:

Be grateful to those who made your trip unforgetable

I have a list of those people and will post it before I leave.

TT Notice Board: Merries and Juno

TT goes to the Merries/FunFair/Carnival/Whatever you want to call it! Tonight! Meeting at Heumarkt 19:30. Thread

Cinema trip on Easter Monday (24th) to see 'Juno' (YAY!) at Metropolis at 19:55. Meeting at 19:30. Thread

Girls Night (+Me) next Satuday 29th! Meeting at platform 4 at the Kölnarena U-Bahn station at 18:30, then onto a Russian Bar for food and drink! :D Thread

Come along if you speak English and are in Cologne (or surrounding area!)

Not one of my proudest moments

I didnt sleep very well last night, and I am on my 3rd cup of coffee and I still feel like shite. All I had yesterday was 1 glass of white wine with veggie dinner and 1 groß Kölsch and 1 klein Kölsch with meat dinner. I wasnt even drunk. This morning I feel like I was trampled by a herd of very big animals. So far nothing is working to make me feel human. Some things that have gone wrong this morning:

* I manged to put T-shirt and Jumper on back to front
* I took my razor out to brush my teeth

Now I cannot blame the drink. I dont know what to blame really? Suggestions please :D

Hopefully I feel better by the time I go to the Merries!

TO: Who ever is messing with the Thermostat!

Come here to me, I want ya. LEAVE IT THE BLOODY HELL ALONE!

I woke up this morning (thats another post) to see the Garden, covered with something. It was white, I stated scratching my head, this is spring? What could it be? Yup it was snow. Not impressed. I want spring weather not bloody well snow where I have to wear three layers just to stay slightly warm!

*Hates Germany this morning*

EL-DE Haus

I visted EL-DE Haus today, it looks like a normal urban building from the outside no?


but its basement hides a terrible secret. This building was the Gestapo HQ and interrogation centre in Köln from 1933-1945. Today the it houses a permament exhibition to those minorites persecuted by the Nazi's in Köln:
*Sterilised Women
*Jews
*Roma and Cinti
*Phyiscally and Mentally Disabled
*Homosexuals
*Anti-Social Elements

The basement housed 10 cells and you can still read the inscriptions on the walls. There are lots of them, in German, French, Russian and Dutch. They tell stories and are a testament to those who were tortured there.

I always find it hard to be unmoved by exhibitions on Nazi Germany, and there were tears in my eyes on many occasions when the audio guide was telling specific stories of people and families in Cologne. I would recommend a trip here to anyone coming to Cologne.


More Photos

NOTE: I did not take photos in the Basement, I didnt think it was right just like when I was in the gas chambers in Dachau five years ago.

Photo's from Paddy's Day

So I promised these on Monday, I know im sorry! I only uploaded them to facebook yesterday. Heres a few of the pics and the link below will bring you to the facebook album!





Yes, my hair was green. Facebook Paddy's Day Album

Lá Fheile Padraig Sona Duit

Yes, I know, I am an hour early but feck it. I wont have time to blog tomorrow until tomorrow evening when my Öster holidays start! Woooo!

But anyway happy St Paddy's Day everyone. Have a great day. I did my celebrating yesterday (and drowning sorrows over the rugby game!). More on that and pictures tomorrow! I promise!

The Languages of Linie 9

This something I've just realised. Every morning and evening (and weekends) I get the number 9 Tram to school with the boys and out at weekends. I hear lots of languages on the tram and here they are in decending order! I'm not counting English as me and the boys are the only ones who speak it!

1. German (obvious I know)
2. Turkish
3. Russian
4. Spanish
5. French

Five languages, one route. That sounds like a slogan. Im off to copyright it! :P

The Kids have learned! and other stories..

Havent done one of these posts in awhile but here we go.

The Kids have Learned
The boys, after a long and hard struggle, have finally figured out that when they say 'Not My Problem' it invariably is their problem! So 1-0 to me. Instead now they say sorry! They slip back now and then but its okay, as I just remind them and its all sorted.

Time Off
Wooo! Im getting holidays! Yay! Next week the boys are going to Essen to their grandparents from Monday to Sunday!Yippee! I think I still get paid, will have to confirm that. I am thinking of going on a Day trip to Bonn on wednesday or something. We will see how it goes.

Illness Strikes
Not me! yay! No both the boys have bad coughs and the mother has the flu. I just have a runny nose, so i got off lightly. Now if people will stop ringing and texting I might get over that one!

What, What did you say??
Thats right, I've gone partial deaf! I have a lovely sudsey water stuck in my ear since this morning and its showing no sign of coming out with the wax. Went a poking earlier with q-tips (55c from DM) but thats only blocked it up more. Feck, apotheke tomorrow. Whats the German for Waxol?

Thats all for now, hopefully, I will be back to 100% hearing tomorrow!

A reminder to all those ringing and texting me!

Just a gently reminder to those ringing at texting after 11pm Irish Time (GMT/UTC). Thats after midnight here! (See map <<) I have to get up at 6:30am on a weekday and for the last two nights people from home have either rang or texted. Please watch the time difference as I need my sleep to keep up with teh children!

Thank you for you consideration!

Danke unt tschüss!
Steve

Another ExPat Blogger!

A friend of mine from uni is in Albany, NY for her work expeirence and has started a blog about it. Check out Margaret's Blog!

DB not on strike

After my post yesterday, alot of my feeds on Google Reader suddenly came alive with news that DB would not be on strike. Danke Gott in Himmel!

DB go on strike tomorrow

Deutsche Bahn workers are going on strike tomorrow affecting most of Germany. The GDL (Train Engineers Union) has announced strikes beginning Monday. This will affect Deutsche Bahn services (ICE, IC, RE, RB, S-Bahn).
In the event of strikes, DB will operate under temporary schedules. You should be able to take IC/ICE trains even with a local ticket if your travel is disrupted by the strike.
The long-distance schedule is here:
http://www.bahn.de/blitz/view/static/pdfliste/tp_zentral/ersatzfahrplan_2008-03-10.pdf

The NRW temporary schedules of RB, RE, and S-Bahn service are here: http://www.bahn.de/blitz/view/nrw/uebersicht.shtml

Thankfully I dont use DB trains so it wont affect me, but will affect many others.

Some people on Toytown are not happy Caution Strong Language!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Mama!

I know you rang me to try and head me off on this one but too late! :P

I know its a big birthday for you, dont worry I'm not going to say the age, suffice to say in ends in 0!

I hope you have a great day today and at the Party on Saturday! I want to see lots of pics!

Tschüss!
Steve

PS thanks to Claire for sorting out the present and card while im in Germany! Your a star!

My Massacre of the German Language continues...

So as pointed out to me by a few people here, on facebook and at TT Meetups, Irelander(in) and Irlandich do not exist. No wonder people didnt understand me! The correct words are Ire and Irin. The langauge is 'Gälisch' and something is 'irisch'. God this language is confusing.

Im going for a lie down I think, too many cocktails (2) at Cyn's Birthday last night!
Tschüss
Steve

KVB Strike, again

The KVB are going on strike again tomorrow for a full 24hours, from 03:00 Wednesday to 03:00 Thursday. This means no U-Bahn and some buses not running. The following buses are running:

127: Longerich - Pesch - Mengenich - Ossendorf
132: Meschenich - Rondorf - Arnoldshöhe - Chlodwigplatz - Heumarkt - Dom/Hbf.
136: Neumarkt - Rudolfplatz - Lindenthal, Dürener Straße - Hohenlind
145: Bachem - Frechen - Weiden - Lövenich - Widdersdorf - Bocklemünd
148: Ossendorf - Bilderstöckchen - Geldernstraße/Parkgürtel - Nippes S-Bahn - Ebertplatz
152: Porz - Eil - Ostheim - Mülheim - Stammheim - Bayerwerk/S-Bahn
154: Porz Markt - Rath/Heumar - Königsforst - Brück - Dellbrück - Dünnwald
159: Holweide - Buchheim - Mülheim - Buchforst - Kalk - Poll
160: Porz Markt - Eil - Urbach - Grengel - Wahn S-Bahn - Lind

This means I have tomorrow off as the Grandparents will be taking the Kids to and from school! Wooo a lie in! :D

TT Köln Noticeboard: Upcoming TT Events

Heres a few events planned in Köln.

Well theres Birthday drinks tonight! Happy Brithday Cyn (might go to this if I remain awake!)

On Saturtday, 8th March, there is a meetup in the Corkonian @ 7:30pm If I am awake after the rugby, I will go to it!

We are also passing round ideas for Paddy's Day , on the 15th of March (also final day of 6 Nations!) Nothing confirmed yet, though will probably go out for England v Ireland @15:00

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Papa!

Happy Birthday Dad!

This is my first time being away from home for my parents birthdays. They are 3 days apart so this week will be hard and expect a similar post for the Cork Mammy!

Dad, I hope you have a great day!

Love and miss you!

Tschüss!
Steve

I slept throug Hurricane Emma

On friday night I did my usual thing and went out for a few Drecksack in my local, okay so my local is in Rudolfplatz not Ostheim, buts its where I am every Friday and Saturday night, unless there is a TT meetup. Anyway there was a storm warning me not knowing the strength of it, I hadnt been online, decided I better not get the last tram and head home earlish. I was home for 02:30am (CET). Good thing I did as the storm was only just beginng to hit here in Ostheim. It was Hurricane Emma which is(was?) sweeping across Central Europe leaving a trail of badly damaged trees and giving a few planes a scary landing!

Here in Ostheim, the road I live a tree fell down and closed the road. It fell at 07:00am. Do you think I heard it? Nope, I barely woke up when the Fire Brigade where outside cutting up the tree! So I don't have pictures (sorry!)

My Mother was always right, I'd sleep through anything!

More news on Hurrican Emma from Spiegel Online (Yes its in English!)