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For context, at NSConference UK I didn't wear any shoes from Sunday morning through to Thursday morning. Other than once when we walked to the local pub :)
The shoes basically were having a huff with me. They had been put away due to the snow / ice in Germany and I had swapped to using walking boots. They felt I was only using them because it wasn't snowy in the UK, so they hid from me.
The real story is quite simply that I prefer being barefooted (or without socks in shoes). Its more comfortable for my feet and they can breath which is important when I am on my feet all day. So given that we were indoors for everything and my feet aren't horrendous I figured I'd be fine barefooted.
Thankfully no delegates complained, nor any of our staff but I did have a member of the hotel staff tell me off one day. Informing me that if I was coming into the restaurant again that I had to have shoes on my feet as it was unhygenic (which is, to put it mildly, bollocks) and I might stand on something (which as I pointed out would be my own lookout). The silly thing is, she hadn't noticed that a couple of people had gone in with just socks on :)
Would I do it again, certainly though I'm told that I will face a bigger challenge in American hotels. I'll find out in a couple of weeks in Atlanta (NSConference US) -
Do you miss the UK? How long did it to take you to get comfortable with Germany? Can you speak the language fluently?
I do miss the UK, or more accurately Northern Ireland, as I get older. I never used to, indeed I kinda hated NI (because of the troubles) and swore I would never go back there to live. Now I miss the food (come on, who doesn't like a bacon or sausage soda sarnie) and bizarrely (for me) the accents (except at times thick belfast accents on young lasses, its just wrong).
Really most of the time when I miss something its either food (Ginger Nuts, Chocolate Digestives, sandwich shops where you can make your own sandwiches - Subway does not count!), friends (though to be fair even friends have started spreading out around the UK) and occasionally TV programmes (really I would LOVE to be able to signup for iPlayer access for the few programs I would like to see and help pay for, till then I'll torrent the odd one)
To be honest I got used to being in Germany fairly quickly and spent a while believing that people only spoke Germany around me (kinda felt a bit like it was a big theme park). I loved the 3 months we spent initially in Hamburg, it was an expensive place for what you got (housing in cities usually is) but it was a fairly close walk to the Gross Alster which was very pleasant to meander down, to pick Bob up at the end of the day.
Food took the longest to get used to as its partly like starting again. Yes some of the staples you are used to are their but the sort of food they eat can be quite different. Particularly many dishes involving asparagus (which given I don't eat veg isn't going to happen any time soon), sausages are quite different and things like Heniz Tomato Soup are very expensive (~50p for a large can in the UK is €2 in Germany).
Things like Indian or Chinese food can also be quite different, they don't tend to go into the crispy / battered saucy variants that you often get in the UK (certainly no Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls, or Deep Fried Crispy Chilli Beef) which is a shame.
I don't speak the language well yet (my wife does, despite being English :) she studied German in school and then at Uni she did Maths with German and spent two years in Germany), I did 6 months of lessons (about 3 hours a week) which were great but I stopped going when Mareike was due as I wanted to be around for the birth. By the time life was sorted and I could go back to the lessons I was too far behind the group (in theory) and would have to join a different class that was on in the mornings. That wasn't possible with Bob going back to work.
So at this point, in some ways, I am not further than I was back then but I have picked up stuff from living here, from Bob speaking German to the kids all the time and from the kids using German with me at times. Come September / October I will be starting an integration course which is about 20 hours a week for a year which should make my German a damn sight better.
I do listen to German radio from time to time and would watch some TV but we don't have one. Personally I hate watched dubbed shows, I'd rather have it in the original language with subtitles (be the English, French or German). I don't tend to study in the evening as I find I'm knackered and the last thing I want to do is study (which is why I don't get more programming done either). -
I've been in Germany for coming up 4 years (arrived June 2006, just in time to experience the World Cup in Germany which was an amazing experience. particularly as they had done so well)
Likes:
As previously answered I think the transport system is great and puts the UK to shame in terms of price and effectiveness.
House prices - You get a lot of house for your money and you pay a lot less than you do in the UK, particularly in the SE of England were we used to live.
Something else which escapes my mind at the moment
That it was the Germans that started #fistofgemmell (@uliwitness) and the @macdevnet, @timisted and Dave gift fund (@arepty)
Dislikes:
Prices - The UK often considers itself as rip off Britain but to be fair it is only for some things. Things like CD's, DVD's and some foods are significantly cheaper in the UK. You can't pop into a Tesco's or Asda equiv and pick up DVD's from last year for £3.99 (but then we aren't supposed to be mass consumers so is that a bad thing?). Beef Hack, which is decent mince costs €9.99-€11.99 for 1KG, Germans tend to use gemischte Hack which is a mix of beef and pork and is much cheaper (also much fattier). From what I've seen they also tend not to do the level of sales that you often so in the UK (though not entirely sure that a bad thing)
The Weather - Seriously as someone Northern Ireland, I'm used to more stable climes where warm was ~20-22°c and cold was maybe -1/-2°c. Generally it was between 13-16°c, sometimes sunny and sometimes grey. Here we seem to swing between extremes, where come the summer it can be up in the mid 30's and for Winter its been hanging between -6 to -12 for nearly two months now (going up to about 2°c every so often, just enough to melt the snow and then refreeze as pack ice)
Environment - Something about Germany, I think the water, doesn't get on well with my skin. Since coming here I've acquired psoriasis in a few areas, noteably my scalp (esp behind my ears) and my finger nails have become much much weaker (and have lots of little pot holes) and no longer smooth. I'm not sure whether its the air itself or the water. -
Oddly its having a transport system that "just works" and is well priced. The difference to the UK is amazing, for instance I can get an all day ticket that takes me about 20+km, covers trains, busses, undergrounds (U-Bahn and S-Bahn) all for €5.90 or €8.60 for upto 5 adults!!! (Where I live now, 7km its a tiny bit more expensive as I'm out of the HVV zone but its still a great deal)
On top of that, there is a Niedersachsen ticket, which covers a massive area, is again an all day ticket and again covers all local transport on either side of the journey (including trams) for upto 5 people. Cost €28
Look at Page 2 of this PDF (sorry in German) to see the size of the area it technically covers http://www.bahn.de/regional/view/mdb/pv/dbregio/ausfluege/niedersach/MDB65603-niedersa_ticket_110809.pdf The restrictions tend to be not being able to use the Intercity or Intercity Express trains. -
I co-authored Eclipse in Action for Manning back in 2003 (http://twitpic.com/zuigr). I started tech editing the book (for the high high salary of $1 per page) back in Dec 2002, my job was to make sure the content was correct, valid and any code samples actually worked (trust me, it bugs the hell out of me when code samples don't work as advertised).
The book was principally written by David Gallardo, but as the book progressed 2 additional authors were brought on board. One of which wasn't very good, he turned in a number of chapters that we reviewed but they weren't of sufficient quality. We made a number of suggestions and he had a week to make revisions, unfortunately he made virtually no changes and so was, in the end, let go.
At which point I was asked could I do his chapters, as well as continuing to do the tech editing work on the rest of the chapters.
It was a lot of fun and very hard work, I think I spent about 4 or 5 months of evenings (not every night but a fair few) working on the book in one way or another.
After the dust had settled I was approached to help co-author a book on Eclipse Plugins with Bob Foster (author of XMLBuddy). We made a start but he pulled out and I tried to go it alone but couldn't due to time. Looking back I wish I had gone on with it, maybe one day I will write again.
For now I simply review books (mostly Manning) and do the occasional, paid, tech editing gig. The most recent ones were iPhone in Action (Manning), Beginning Mac Programming by Tim Isted and a another book by Tim Isted for AW.
Depending on timing I should have 3 more paying gigs coming up :) -
One of those open to interpretation questions.
As an extra, I'd love to have had a bit part in Babylon 5, a great show that didn't get enough love from its network. (Yes they kept it on air for all 5 seasons but not without giving the crew involved a lot of headaches and last minute approvals)
As a character? More difficult. I think either as a companion to Doctor Who or as Dr Julian Bashir in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -
What sort of style? Many who know me would, quite rightly, claim I have none.
Probably "hodge podge" -
Both, at least growing up was the case. I happily enjoyed the books of both that my mum had. Those were mostly the movie adaptions, though there was the odd novel (Splinters of the Minds Eye, Han Solo at Stars' End) too.
Star Trek always seemed more amazing and the relationship, even to a child, of Kirk / McCoy / Spock was captivating.
Star Wars was always more fun and exciting, who didn't want to zoom down the Death Star trenches in an X-Wing, or be Han Solo's co-pilot.
I've honestly never understood the rivalry between SW & ST fans. There both great :)
until the early 90's the only Star Wars books were the movie adaptions, Splinters of a Minds Eye,
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Robert McGovern’s Bio
Stay At Home Dad, MDN Sysadmin, former programmer, one time author and occasional tech editor / reviewer.
