August 2002 Archives
2002-08-26
The nice people from the furniture shop just informed me that my Sonvida 447 shelf-system will be delivered on Wednesday.
6 km run in 30 DEG C.
2002-08-25
My brother has returned safely from Kamchatka. Next stop must be either Sahara, Antarctica, or maybe a country in war. Apparently he's going to visit our parents in Jutland next week - too bad I didn't know, so I could have requested vacation and joined him.
When Per and Erik were here last week, they brought me SuperPiratos. Yumm... The Germans seem not to appreciate strong salt liquorice (I had to look that word up) as we Danes do.
Today I washed the stairs, baked pancakes, spoke to my mother on the phone, vacuum cleaned and washed the floors of my appartment. And in 30 minutes I'm going to the gym to see if there are any weights to pull. And push.
2002-08-19
Saturday I went to Keith's place in Grafenhausen north west of Darmstadt, where the neighbours in the appartment block were having a party. Barbecued, drank beer and talked German the entire evening. Was home Sunday at noon, and spent the rest of the day relaxing on my balcony, enjoying my new garden furniture (3 blue chairs, 1 blue, round (85 cm diameter) table, blue and white striped cushions) (bought Friday afternoon) reading the newspaper. Read Mona Lisa Overdrive (Gibson) in the evening.
2002-08-16
Per and Erik arrived late tuesday afternoon. Wednesday we had lunch at the Agency, and left at 2. We drove to Frankfurt 30 km north of Darmstadt, where we spent the rest of the day, having beers at cafees, walking the pedestrian streets, and looking at electronic gadgets in shops. We also went to the top of the HR sky scraper (fifty-something floors high). Yesterday I had the entire day off, so we had breakfast at my place around 11, drove to Expert at Rheinstrasse where I bought myself a Sharp combined micro wave, hot air, and grill oven. After late lunch we drove to Heidelberg where we visited the Königstuhle - some old castle ruins, the Max-Planck-Institute for Physik und Astronomie (no entrance allowed - but we did anyway - saw the buildings, saw the satellite dishes and telescopes, and I made a GPS waypoint), and some wineyards. Had dinner at my place. They left again, this morning, for Copenhagen.
Apparently it's raining quite heavily here in Germany, but in Darmstadt it's lovely weather - approching 30 DEG C today, friday. Per and Erik drove through Dresden on their way down here - Dresden is in a state of emergency and people are being evacuated. Per and Erik did say they saw some floating cars and the like...
2002-08-12
Today I came in rather late, and have been working on the configuration of the machines to be used for Visual Route on the external services network.
Sunday: Slept till 12, no headace. Had breakfast with Keith, Moira, John, and Jasmine. Cought the 1-something train to Victoria, and the Bakerloo line to Elephant and Castle. From there I walked to the Imperial War Museum at Lambeth Road (free admission), where I spent the rest of the afternoon eating cake in the cafe, watching the 'Secret War' exhibition (MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Secret Soldiers, Special Forces), 'the trench', and the permanent Holocaust exhibition It's very scary, very well done, and a definite must see. I had already checked in at Lufthansa's website, so I could take the tube directly to Paddington, change to the Heathrow Express and be in Heathrow terminal 2 5 minutes before boarding time. Piece of cake. Arrived in Frankfurt am Main at 21:30 CET only to find out that the HEAG airliner, which I normally take, didn't run - so I took the train to Frankfurt Hbf, and then the S-bahn 22:47 to Darmstadt Hbf, where I was 23:30. Then Straßenbahn linie E to Schulstraße. Slept at 5 past midnight. It's an understatement to say that it is a little easier and faster to take the HEAG airliner.
Saturday: Bought an all day, all zones travelpass for 8 GBP at Swanley station (they accept VISA) and took the Connect line to Blackfriars, from which I walked along the Thames, and then northbound along Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road. Visited plenty of bookshops and shops selling more Vaio Picturebooks than I knew existed. The C1MGP is now obsolete - I need the C1MHP. Marked waypoints on my eTrex Summit GPS every 100 meters or so... Had lunch at a Cafe Nemo (these and Starbucks are everywhere!). Around 3 I crossed the Millenium Bridge and entered Tate Modern at the south bank of the Thames, only to find out that no tickets were available until Sunday at 7 - where I was flying home! Aaaaargh! I knew I should have booked the ticket in advance, but I seriously thought that showing up more than 24 hours in advance would be enough. Dammit. I bought the catalogue. At 5 I was back at Keith's place in Swanley, where the guest for Keith's birthday party were starting to show up. Had a lot of beers, nice food, swam in the pool (32 DEG C), and talked to interesting people.
Friday: Arrived at Heathrow one our late because of heavy weather over London. Drove to Swanley, Kent, and met Keith, his wife Moira, and their two kids, Matt and Claire. Went out for pizzas.
2002-08-05
Today, monday, I ran for the first time in ... I don't know - you find it in the diary, below, yourself. 6 km in the woods behind the Agency.
I've just booked my flight for London, on friday the 9th. Going to do some shopping, attending a birthday party, seeing Picasso/Matisse on Tate Modern. Returning home sunday the 11th.
Saturday I attended my first "official" social activity with the native Germans: birthday party for Markus and Dani from second floor (combined party, they have birthdays 14 days apart) in the garden behind our building. Very convenient that we could use my fridge for the beverages and my hifi-system and speakers. It feels just like living in the dorm - going to party, get totally stoned, and after 30 seconds of walk I'm home and can go to sleep :-) Sunday cake and coffee together with her parents, aunt and cousins, also in the garden (whenever somebody from the building is using the garden, they can see me through the windows, very often they invite me join them)! Sunday I also baked pancakes, and read the newspaper.
2002-08-03
Bought three new CDs yesterday: Radiohead Itch and OK Computer, and Pulp's Different Class. Went to the optician today and bought myself a new pair of glasses. I've been wearing the same ones since 1995 and it would be a lie to claim that they're still very fashionable today. I don't care much about fashion (but I like style), but I needed new glasses. Should be ready thursday.
I've chmod 700'ed the directory holding document root for gallery.ukukus.dk, because a vulnerability has been found in the version we're running. Until I upgrade I'll keep the site off the web.