Two Months and Nothing to Report

It has really been a while since my last Blog post, nearly two months. What have I been doing all this time, you might ask if your gave a da...For those interested in my epic job centre series. I finally had my appointment on the 26 of September, where the lady was not that convinced by what I presented. She decided to sent me for coaching for three months. This has literally included being told that I needed to get a better photo. No black suits please (anthracite or dark blue) and only white and dark blue shirts. No funny pastel colours, mind you!. And please try and smile on the photograph. Well I now have a nice new photo. But my CV, although in its second version still needs to be fined toned. I can now look forward to a workshop on how to present myself at interviews, and a “mock” interview. I imagine it would be too sarcastic to say, that I had been to interviews in Germany before. When I explained my vision to the chap he thought very little of it and decided we should pursue the least creative of the solutions. So an exciting time has been had by all. The excitement will carry on until the end of December. And then no doubt I will have to go back to the job center and again register as unemployed. One is not considered unemployed if one has been sent for some sort of (useful) training….

 I have been having fun with technology this morning. The one laptop is not working probably and the other one is old and slow. Combined with the anti-virus software and its desire to update all the software all the time, it is nothing but a joy to work on, as it has no processing power left.

I am reading the second book in the Hunger Games Series. Although, it is a bit late. The movie is out soon, but this is not really my motivation. The only thing that irritates me about the book is the endless mentioning of food. As a militant vegetarian, I get very irrigated reading about all the murdered animals they are eating. That said it is fairly good and I have about 50 pages to go to finish book no. 2 then there is still book no. 3.

Most of the leaves have fallen of the trees. It is unseasonably warm at the moment, although Sunday should be a bit cooler. When you have nothing to say, talk about the weather. We had the general election here at the end of September. As well as, the provincial elections in Hessen, yawn.  But although Mother Merkel did win the most seats, she needs a coalition partner. That is quite normal in Germany. One party seldom has enough seats to rule alone. I do not imagine we will have a new govt until the end of the year. But they do so little here anyway, that nobody notices anyway.

I the last movie that I saw here was the Great Gatsby. I meant to go and see Superman, but somehow did not. I think it is on DVD already, so I can watch it that way. I should (yes, I live in the land of Should, although I should not) get my butt off to see Thor 2, for no other reason than the Great, Tom Hiddleston playing  Loki. 

I think I like you.

I thought it best to post something here, even if it is not that riveting.

The Next Chapter: Job Center Epic

I have not posted for a while because I have been busying collecting information for a further meeting at the Job Centre, Wiesbaden. It turns out that I was not actually registered as unemployed because I had asked for consultation about what training options were available to me. At my two meetings in June and July the possibility of training was not addressed. So about three weeks ago, I contacted them again and requested a training voucher. I was referred to a different person this time – I assume a person who deals with people who have business degrees rather than those with degrees in the Humanities. I, of course, have both kinds. I spoke to the person responsible for the business studies and was told that I need to come in and register as unemployed. And once I had done that, I would then be able to see this person, but only at the end of September. I mean time I was to collect information about training courses, their duration and cost for my meeting on the 26 of September.

The first education supplier was not convinced that any of their courses would actually improve my chances of finding employment. The lady in question has now sent me a selection of options; some are clearly less useful than others. The second place I approached, only provides telephonic consultation. But I now have a training proposal from them as well.

In order to cover all the options, last week I visited a training school that provides re-training, with an average duration of at least two years. They offer a number of courses, again some being less suitable than others. However, given the costs involved it seems unlikely that this will be the selected solution. There was however, at least one useful suggestion made: that I should get my South African university degrees recognised in Germany.

In order to do this you have to send in certified copies of your certificates. I spend most of yesterday morning sorting this out. When I finally found the right person, I was of course confronted with peoples’ refusal to queue. A woman, certainly no lady, decided that she was far more important than I was. She did not feel the need to wait her turn. And although, I thought of all sorts of interesting [and impolite] things to say to her; I decided that anyone who had no manners, was simply beneath my dignity. She left there, no doubt, feeling very clever about how she had gotten away with pushing in. I left there with my certified documents and my dignity in tact.

Tomorrow the information gathering continues, as I am going to the local university to discuss the suitability of two of their business programmes. In the meantime I have also researched part-time distance learning courses. So by the time the 26 of September finally arrives I will be well prepared for my meeting at the Job Centre, Wiesbaden.

And because this has been such an interesting (sic) post, I am posting a picture to liven it up a bit.

My favourite "Bad Guy", Tom Hiddleston as Loki from Thor and the Avengers.

Steve Grand Second Song “Stay”

Steven Grand released his follow-up single "Stay" to “All American Boy” on the 6^th of September on You Tube. This time the object of his affection does reciprocate his feelings. The song is a celebration of youth and young love, but not in a way that excludes us older people. I mean we all know what romance and (young/youthful) love is all about, even if for some of us it was set to the music of Bananarama (Love in the First Degree, Venus....) or Sandra (Inthe Heat of the Night).

Once again well done Steve, you are a very creative and hard working young man. As someone said on Facebook, where does Steve find the time to go the gym?

The Fantastic Mr Steve Grand

Ancient History : The Mystery of Rome's X Tombs

Dr. Michael C. Scott

I finally managed to catch-up on my prescribed Ancient History viewing last week. The Mystery of Rome’s X Tombs, presented by my favourite Ancient Historian, Dr Michael Scott. youtube. In the programme the good Doctor examines the current research being untaken by an international team of specialists, on a large number of human remains found in the so-called X-Tombs in Roman. The tombs came to light when flooding caused a collapse in some Roman catacombs. The programme was directed by Dr Olding. He has posted lots of pictures from the production on his website.

Once again, thanks to the person who upload the programme to

I highly recommend the programme. In Scott's usual style he combines education with wit and of course bag loads of charm. At one point he refers to parts of the catacombs as “bunk beds for the dead”. He gives an understandable explanation of carbon dating [link] especially for the non-scientists. Other favourite bits include: his reference to the top of the Insulae [Ancient Roman Apartment Blocks]as the Penthouse, and not one you would want to live in; and his reference to all “the Poo”. Rome apparently produced about 

50 000 kg of human waste a day.

 At the end, Michael offers a hypothesis on about who these people might have been. So if you like a good detective story, try and watch the programme. Oh yes, you will also learn about DNA fishing.

Michael Scott has a new three part serious starting this week about Ancient Drama called The Greatest Show on Earth . Still need to catch up on Mary Beard’s documentary about the Roman Emperor Caligula.

Wine, Athletes and Hair Cuts

Wine in Wiesbaden

Church and Wine Festival Wiesbaden

Last weekend the 38^th Wiesbaden Wine Festival started. It is all ather civilised and offers the visitor the opportunity to sample local wines and sparkling wines from the region. Mostly white wines, so the red wine drinkers might feel left out. All at very reasonable prices too, between 2.50 to 3.50 € a glass. We went down on Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday we got speaking to this really interesting German couple. Perhaps, I found them interesting because they found me interesting. No, that cannot be the reason could it? They had both visited South Africa on a number of occasions, so we were able to exchange views and ideas. It was nice to actually talk to people for a change rather than be ignored or invisible, as I often feel I am. People say you need to talk to people in German to improve your language skills; but in order to do that you need to get the opportunity to talk to people; and not only the people pushing in at the check-out. [And they might not even be German these pusher-inners]. So it is possible to meet interesting people when you go out and I look forward to meeting more like the couple I met on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday also saw a Triathlon [swimming, cycling, and running] take place in Wiesbaden. When we walked down to the Wine Festival on Sunday we noticed that there was hardly anyone around, after it had been very well attended on Saturday. We were wondering where everyone was, thinking that perhaps they had tasted too many glasses of wine the previous night. There was some evidence to this effect on the pavements. We followed the signs of life and discovered where the rest of the town, and all those under the age of 60 were hiding. They were watching the final stages of the Ironman/woman competition. It is very motivating watching tri-athletes complete, although I often wonder if they are remotely human or perhaps some sort of alien breed of A-personality over-achievers.

Two observations: Firstly the Master of Ceremonies was an extremely irritating man. His accent soon revealed he was South African. Not only did he have a ghastly accent when he spoke German, but he went on about Cape Town being the most beautiful city in the world bla bla. Cape Town is nice enough, but it really is not the centre of the universe, contrary to what the people who live there think. In fact he never stopped talking the whole time, and made all sorts of comments about the competitors’ smiles and goodness knows what else. He kept addressing the competitors by their first name. Makes me wonder how the German competitors felt about this. The usually prefer to be addressed as Herr oder Frau, rather than Jurgen or Anna.

The other thing that made me smile was seeing an old lady chain smoking while all the hyper- fit, athletes ran past. Watching can be very exhausting and she had no doubt earned her cigarette.

After watching the running for a while we went back to the Wine Festival. I think the festival ends this coming weekend. I imagine I might find myself there at least once more at the weekend. Before then I need to have my haircut. This is always a bit of a challenge for me. So far I have been to two hairdressers in Wiesbaden and on both occasions I decided not to return. The last decent haircut I had was in England in April. London is a bit too far to go for a haircut. It seems to be very difficult to explain to the people here what I want. I even show them the photographs of my hairstyle from the UK, but they are still not able to manage it.

So I imagine I will be wondering around aimlessly over the next few days hoping to find someone that can do a decent job, at a decent price. I am all for the fact that hairdressers in Germany now earn a minimum wage, prior to this some people were paid 3.60 € an hour. A few years back I could and did get my hair cut in Berlin for 5.00 €. On the two most recent occasions here in Wiesbaden, I have paid multiples of 5.00 € for worse haircuts. Even the offer of a free 10^th haircut at either of these places; has not been sufficient reason to return! Wish me luck as I look for a hairdresser, here in Wiesbaden. If I am really lucky I might find one that I can go back to for a second visit in a few week's time, but I no longer believe in miracles and wonders.