Hello Abu Dhabi!

Yes, finally we are here! and after a long painstaking few weeks of searching, we now have a home! and to top the good news, our container also arrived safely from Germany and was warm heartedly welcomed by the kids who were so happy to see their toys again.

The past few months have been quite a tough time for us. Starting from the fact we had to leave Berlin, our home, our friends. Looking for new tenants for the flat (though it was not a problem in the end as quite a few people showed interests), but still causing us worry whether we would manage to find somebody before we leave, refurbish the flat, and sorting out the stuff  – a)ship it b) store it or c) bin it – though quite a bit went to category c) ! And this all took place in a span of 4 weeks. Of course the children have to be taken care of too. They were aware we would be going on a “big journey” but the sight of boxes piling up to the ceiling, the constant commotion and the amount of people coming and going to see us were quite overwhelming in the end.

I had a ‘grand’ plan at first. I wanted to make sure the move went as smoothly as possible for us, but especially for the children. This consisted of my master plan with a detailed descriptions on every single thing, from when we flew out from Berlin, when the stuff are shipped, when we “crashed” our stuff (and the kids) at our parents and when we finally flew here. So I got into panic when things didn’t actually work as I imagined it would be. The place where we were supposed to move in had suddenly “not available” anymore and no matter how hard we tried we just couldn’t get it back. This resulted in us staying in a hotel room for a good 2 weeks, while looking frantically for an alternative place to live. Thankfully the kids took it easy and for them it doesn’t matter whether it was a one bedroom place or a palace, they are just happy when they are with the parents

For now, we are just finishing opening all the boxes and getting used to the heat. In summer months (between July – August) the temperature can reach over 55 degrees Celcius here! Though I muss say at the moment the highest temperature that I have seen during the day is around 44 degrees, and everywhere you go there is always an air conditioning, so it is not really that bad.

More stories coming up. Bis dann!

a.

The new adventure is about to start…

.. again, the suitcases are packed and we are going this time to the East. I am going, and already miss, this beautiful country very much. Maybe one day we’ll come back again.

Auf wiedersehen!

a.

Congratulations…

…to the last of the class 1995, which is graduating today to become “Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence”. Well done! He never gave up, and finally got what he was working on for so long. I am proud of him. Too bad I can’t be there today, but hopefully many of my former classmates will make it, and give him the farewell that he deserves!

b.

My sons best friend

I want to introduce my son’s first friend to you – he is now 6 weeks old, so his vocabulary is rather limited and consists mainly of “coo” and “aeh aeh”, but he does talk already (yeah, we do have a super child. I expect him to ask for his first playstation any day now). One should think that he likes to converse with his parents, but in fact his most trusted friend is more of the quiet, almost regal type. He does not talk much, and neither does it move. He is however rather pleasing as he engulfs our son in a warmth that he otherwise only finds in the arms of his parents. He is always there when our son is changed or cleaned, a most trusted someone. If you want to know who this friend is, click here.

Multi tasking

You know they say that woman is naturally gifted with the ability to do several things at the same time i.e. multi tasking. Let that be cooking dinner while talking on the phone (and not burning the food, that is..), putting on mascara while driving (some women can do it apparently..), or in my case now, taking care of my son while doing other things around the house like doing laundry, making lunch, ironing, cleaning and the list goes. You might think this is not such a hard work since as I said before, we, the women, are already ‘blessed’ by the power to do several things instantly. But as I experienced it, it was not as easy as I thought, especially when the baby cries or when he moves his body so much while you have him in your arm that it was impossible to divide your attention to something else other than to him.

As I am in my 5th going 6th week of being a mother, I learn more that there are reasons why my baby wants my attention. As a friend rightly pointed out, my little one is too small to think that he should ‘annoy’ me for fun, for example by screaming for no reason. There are days though where I do get annoyed. I blamed them on the lack of food, sleep and rest, and I do feel terrible afterwards for feeling that my little one is trying to test my limit to the very end. I am learning to always be patient, which is hard sometime when you have already tried all the possible things to make your baby content by feeding, washing, changing, singing, carrying him in your arms for hours no end, but yet he still cries and screams.

For the past two days I was struck by high fever. My midwife ordered full bed rest so that I can recover faster. This was of course a wonderful suggestion, as I secretly (or not) longing for a longer time lying in bed (who doesn’t?). But as a mother there are certain things that you have to do, regardless whether you are busy or not, sick or healthy. So, while having myself a cold compress I was having him on my left arm so that he could drink and at the same time using my right arm and hand to do other things like drinking water, taking pain killer, sending text messages, calling people on the phone, and again the list goes.

My multi tasking ‘ability’ is really nothing in comparison to so many women in other parts of the world. Many women in Africa and Asia for example have to carry their babies all day while working on corn or rice fields, or carry heavy loads of woods or agricultural goods in heavy sacks on their backs. Another example is women in Bali that I have seen carrying things on the top of their heads while having their little ones on their backs – how do they do that, it’s a mystery to me.

a.

More old friends

A while ago I wrote about a website that I re-discovered after someone sent me an eMail commenting about it – it’s the MOMO page that you can find here on this blog.

Today I am not talking about the site though but about real people, old friends that keep reappearing. The last few months I got invitations on Facebook and Xing like websites (I think I registered on about half a dozen of those sites, but don’t use all of them all the time) from friends I have not seen in 10 years or more. You can argue of course whether I should call them friends, and probably I won’t talk with many of them any more after exchanging some eMails. But it IS nice nonetheless to be reminded of your past, of people you hung out with and spent part of your life. It is also interesting to see that (those that bother to register on those types of sites) all made their own in their life, some on more involved paths, some on more straightforward ones. Guess that one of the costs of moving around a lot is that you tend to have serial friends, only very few survive more than one or two moves to other countries. Which in a sense is good, as it gives you “space” to make new friends and connections, but on the other hand it is sad, because many of the people you met are worth keeping, many more than you end up staying in contact.

b.

Berlin must be so safe…

… because the police here has nothing better to do than stopping bikers that bike the on the pavement, and extract the exorbitant sum of €5 from them. This is what happened to me yesterday, when I wanted nothing but get home after a hard days of work – the shortest route leads past a police station, just before turning off a big street. For the last few months, I have been biking the wrong way past the police station, without ever getting stopped. A. warned me however that – this being Germany – I would sooner or later run into trouble.

I wonder how much money it actually cost to stop me, have 2 cops talking to me for about 15 minutes, write me a bill on paper which then has to be hand typed into the computer, checked against my details, mailing a letter with the warning to my home, and check whether I payed. No wonder Berlin is broke.

It is not so much the €5 I have to pay that bugs me (if I ever receive that bill), what really irritates me is one of the two cops did not even see the irony of the situation – for him, it was more than normal to stop a biker biking slowly on a HUGE pavement, where no people (other than the police) was walking. The concept of tolerance, or of proportionality, or of interpreting law within reason was something that did not even occur to him. (I have to add, the other cop, a woman, had the decency of feeling slightly embarrassed, or so I thought.) Of course, I can already hear the copper say that corruption and anarchy would be the result if everyone interpreted the law as he or she saw fit. However, I beg to differ, and point to for example the Netherlands, where tolerance or “dogen” is practised with great success (in areas such as soft drugs, but also in general). I cannot but wonder whether it is a particulcarly German straight, this “following the rules”, and not wanting to take responsibility for the actions.

This one cop suggested that if I didn’t like the rule, I should get politically active and have them change the law. It is not the law per se that needs to be changed though, as driving dangeously on the pavement is something that should not be condoned. It is the ability (of for example that particular cop) to look around and see that no harm whatsoever is done, that the rule in that particular case is absurd, and that a wagging finger would have had the same result. But that requires more than political action committees.

b.

Going back to work

Today is my last day off – 4 weeks of holidays have flown past, and I have barely noticed. I am a bit torn, because this holiday has at the same time been very dull and more exciting than any other holiday (or any other part of my life) so far. On the dull side, I have spent most of my holiday in my apartment, haven’t been out once (out as in going out, not as in being outside), and have not even watched anything these 4 weeks. The exciting part of course is my little son, which keeps A. and me busy for 3 people. Now that we spent roughly 3 weeks alone with the baby, the next stage begins – me going to work every morning, and coming home in the evening – leaving my wife and my son to tend for themselves. I wonder how it will feel, being back, having to deal with all those “important” and “already to late” requests, things that should have happened long ago or that went wrong, dealing with people, my colleagues, my boss. And at the same time thinking that the real important things are at home. Though, who knows, maybe I will be happy to have a distraction, and have “real” issues to deal with rather than musing about whether that little cry was “I am hot”, “I am lonely”, or “I am dirty”. In any case, it is good that it’s only two days to start with before weekend comes…

b.