Thursday, March 05, 2009
Bank Wank
Life is getting greener in Europe as we are approaching spring. That means in the Southern Hemisphere it will get darker. I hope for the Southern Hemisphere that is not also true for the financial crisis (or whatever you want to call it...crisis of the system would be truer I guess). However, most of my little money is still there...so please don’t fuck it up too much!Just to give you an idea, about how high regarded the NZD in France is. I am not getting paid here at the moment, so every little money has a higher personal (but lower communal) value as it had a few months ago. Therefore I decided I change some 150+ NZ dollar and some Czech Crones into Euros (well yeah, not much but everything counts). In France banks don’t have casch or deal with cash.....cash is deal with only by (supposedly) bulletproof machines which are also very stubborn towards violent threats (so no income source for desperate like me). However, you can make an appointment to change money. Which I did. You have to tell them how much and what kind of money. Which I did...ah...Anna did as her French is more suitable for that. The date or shall I say rendevouz went like that :
After waiting 30 min we got asked to come into another room. In an air tight bomb safe room somewhere in the back of the bank there was me Anna, the woman from the bank , about 150 NZ$ and a few thousand Czech Crones. All conversation is how I remembered, but might have been changed through translations or is partly guessed.
“Bonjour!”
“Grrrrr!”
“We have an appointment to change some money into Euros.”
“Yes, I see. How much money you have.”
“A it is not that much.. it is some 100reds NZD and a few thousand Czech Crones....and actually five Sloty.”
(I take the money out of my pocket, and but it on the table)
“Ah...je suis desolee. We don’t take it. “
“Oui...ah what?”
“We don’t take that. Au revoir!”
“Au revoir? We called you to change the money and told what we have.”
“Oui, we only take dollars. Au revoir.”
“Yeah, you mean American dollars??? Those are dollars ...we told you on the phone when we made the appointment.”
“No, only American dollars, or Canadian and Australian dollars. Or the English pound. Au revoir.”
“ Ok. So where do we go to change second class money then? “
“Je ne sais pas. Try a different bank. We don’t take it. Au revoir.”
“...but you are a fuckin bank...” (Just a thought....and also thought in English).
Since New Zealand doesn’t seem to be a real country with real money (at least from the French point of view) I missed out on 50 EUR. Guess I need to find a new hobby as trying out all the different beer in the world might be appropriate for jobless people, but is too expensive. Who knows...I might do some more frequent blogging instead.
, originally uploaded by Schwelmo.
Monday, February 23, 2009
a butt's life
...I gave up...4 weeks and counting!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Eating out in Anger(s)
My first experiences of (vegan) eating out in France were both encouraging and disappointing. Encouraging because I did find four places in Angers to eat; actually 5 if you count the market where we were able to buy vegetables, olives bread and wine which makes a great brunch (can’t tell you that we had wine for breakfast). Two were Indian places, which are somewhat disappointing as they not really taste like Indian food. Apparently French don’t like it spicy. However, they like their meat dishes. Everything needs to have something dead in it. Even in the vegetarian couscous. I actually looked forward to couscous and there are places where you can get vegetarian couscous. But even they are made with beef stack. In all (two ;-) ) places we asked. They had the attitude that it is vegetarian as there is no meat in it (fish is a vegetable anyway). As my attitude to vegetarian is different couscous is off my list for now. Looking at the menu cards it probably will be ratatouille, falafel, ratatouille, falafel for me. Beside finding an acceptable place to eat I also will have to adapt my eating times. You only get food between 12.03 and 13.37 o’clock and then from 19.13 until 21.56. if you are hungry in between...well you are fucked! You it what and when, however the restaurant decides for you.
Hope i have kitchen in Nancy. ;-)
Friday, August 29, 2008
Kangaroos in Aotearoa
In Toronto I was amused that McDonalds arches have the Maple leaf in their Icon. I am not sure if McDonalds is trying to pretend to be Canadian or if Canada wants to be more like McDonalds. However I had this little conversation with the franchise manager when I took the picture:
"Hey man, you want to take a picture of me?"
" No, just taking a picture of the arches. I thinks it is funny u got the maple leaf in it."
"Oh... so not from here. Where you from?"
"I am German but I lived in New Zealand for the last 5.5 years."
" Ah New Zealand that is cool! Your first time in Canada?"
" Yeah, thought I visit on my way back to Europe."
"Oh yeah, that a great time of the year to visit. Hope you like it. So you don´t have a kangaroo, or a crocodile in your arches over there?"
"No, just the arches. But I lived in New Zealand but I don´t thinl Australia has anything in it."
"Ahh...right New Zealand. Which City? Melbourne."
"No, Melbourne is in Australia."
"Brisbane, Sydney or Perth?"
No, I lived in New Zealand....different country."
"Ah...Auckland."
" I didn´t live in Auckland, I lived in Palmerston North."
"Oh..that´s great man! You know the former boss of McDonalds was Australian. But he died on a heart attack last year or so."
"Oh...too much of your food, aye?"
"Haha , I think it was too much of the competitions food."
He was a very nice guy and obviously you don´t need a geography degree to run a McD franchise. But why does the McD boss eats the competion food?
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Mann kann Euch auch nicht einen Augenblick alleine lassen
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Abandoned for now
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56246838@N00/
I might come back one day.......
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
I am sick of being reminded about that Nazi shit all the time. I am sooo bored with it!!
Those British derived countries apparently don't get enough of it. See the Hells Pizza ad. They even have a vegan pizza at Hells but (not because I think you cant use Hitler in ads but because I am sick of it and the vegan pizza doesn't taste good) I will not buy it anymore . There are better ways to advertise with mass murderers.
But those fucking stupid wankers in Muegeln and elsewhere keep the remembrance of the racist German and the Nazi burden alive! Thank you...Idiots!!!!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Very West in Australia
To my delight and suprise I also saw some German third division football on the flight! FC St Pauli- vs. Fortuna Duesseldorf ...wow! My number 2 and number 1 club! They showed a little creport about the St. Pauli fan scence and all the game scence they showed was against Fortuna Duesseldorf. Interestingly, one of the game highlights they showed was a St.Paulianer running over a Fortuner player and knocked him out. I think they don't get the game. It clearly is a rugby nation!
Labels: Australia, Fortuna, Rugby
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Shaved
I handed in. I should be glad and feel free. But I don't. I am still tired, no excitement. I guess I should have started working straight away. But thats what my bank account demanded.
But in two weeks (...actually less) I am off to Western Australia! Yay! Sunshine, desert, beer, beaches and Sarah! should be good, even only for 12 days!
Monday, July 09, 2007
The confident look of someone who is soon losing his beard
…and handing in!?! My beard got far to long. For a while I thought I need to convert to Islam just to justify my look. I was suppose to print and hand in on Wednesday. It became Thursday, than Friday. I printed. I looked great bright colours a lot of contrast. A closer look revealed they are too dark. If there are some black boxes in my thesis (most likely), at least they should not be the pictures. So I learned, there differences in jpegs. You can have CMYK and RGB. Some printer like that the other like the other. Further if anyone of you needs to print a thesis with pictures…optimise your screen settings, before you create the pictures. Mine seem to be pretty off. I guess that why everybody is asking me where my red tattoo is…although there isn’t any red in it.
Anyway I am looking forward to shave, having time off and only need to worry about the thesis before my defence. And man I will be worried.
Anyhow starting to work here a bit and then I will go to Perth for 12 days.
I learned the last weeks:
Beards make you look old and fat!
They are itchy and sting.
If your moustache got the right length you can scratch yourself inside your nostrils.
Internet it a time waster!
You can get used to Marmite and even enjoy it.
I am opening a vegan-punk-rock-café-live-music-art-pub-restaurant. Some day, somewhere else than in Palmy.
New Zealand winters suck!!! Especially if you are inside. This country would be able to fulfil the Kyoto protocol by insulating there houses and put double glasing in every building. They could be rich by selling there saved carbon emissions. Then they also would have a power shortage every winter. That is fucking stupid. I know you are tough Kiwis and can endure the cold…but that is FUCKING STUPID! Have a look at the map! You are not in the tropical areas of the world!!!
And than there was a tornado in Taranaki. I remember every time you see the American tornado “victims”. All desperate and winy in the interview after, non-stop crying. The reactions here were somewhat like:
“Mmmmh…yeah that really sucked, bro. My roof is gone, and its raining. That really sucks. I nearly cried on time.”
“Yeah that tornado was in my bathroom and then I ran into my bedroom and it followed me. That was pretty scary.”
“Yeahh we can’t stay here. No power, no roof, no water! That sucks, but nothing we can do”.
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