Good day!

I am just going to post quickly! A. is on her way here and I will be leaving soon to the train station to pick her up! I am so happy, that she is here again! I just hope that my cake is ready before I have to leave! It's already taking more time than in the recipe!

The cake is for tomorrow in the office. My boss T., who is right now on a seminar, is leaving for two weeks to Mexico, A. is coming to visit me at the office and it's Friday. Therefore I decided to make cake, so that we can have a fika, in the afternoon. I actually made two cakes; one chocolate cake and one chocolate-chili cake. Lets see how they will be!

It was again fun to do it and somehow relaxing after the day in the office. I was alone again, taking care of the company. It's really a lot to do for one person, therefore I can understand, that T. hired one more person, she is starting on Monday!

I was busy the whole time, but I got basically everything done today, I didn't leave one e-mail unanswered. It was a good feeling to be really done with everything in the end. I dont like to have unfinished business. The only things that I could have done more are thing, that are not urgent and normally are used as gap-fillers!

Now I am going to check the cake again and then I wait for A. to call that she landed, so that I know, when she will be in Oslo. So happy, I even made the bed and quickly hoovered the whole flat!

I am so looking forward to this weekend, since not only A. is coming, but also my brother and his girlfriend. I am excited, since I dont know her, yet. They got together this summer and I haven't been home for nearly 15 months now. This weekend is going to be good!

~M~

So much work!

Today, when I got home it was the first time that I could understand, why my boss, T., is always staying so much longer in the office. When I left I would have had easily 2 hours more work on my table and on my ... well her PC. 

She is basically gone right now and will not come back before 3 weeks. I am alone in charge of the whole company, which is a lot and actually more responsibility than I thought. Right now she is attending a seminar and will still check things from home and also she came today and will come on Friday to the office in the late afternoon. But then from Saturday on, she will be gone to Mexico and will not check her mails nor be able to do something over the remote desktop.

Anyways, I had a lot to do today, had to first get used to the different settings of her PC and especially her keyboard. She has one of these ergonomic keyboards, which is just weird! It was slowing me down the whole day, all e-mails took double the time, since I simply couldn't write on it. I was busy the whole time and took care of nearly everything. It was a good feeling to be really in charge and to decide what to do first and to plan the day.

I was not perfect at all today I know that. Especially because of the physical circumstances, but also because of the time management! To be honest it is harder than I thought, but the next three weeks will be awesome to learn and improve it!

I just had dinner and went after that to the shop to get some more orange juice, milk and beer... healthy! Now I am sitting in my chair and will relax! I am totally done from the day! It was busy, but good!

~M~

Whatever!

I am sitting at home watching series! Today at work I was finishing the pile of invoices that were on my desk and finally we dont have anything that is overdue anymore. Now I just have to do every day a bit of invoice control and not the whole day!

Otherwise it was pretty event-less; T. and I were talking about the new website and all the things that I have to do during her absence. From tomorrow on I will be alone and on Monday our new colleague, L., is coming! It will be a little bit odd, since I know the company better than she does, I know the system and procedures better. So I - as a trainee - have to help her and show her how things work, but once she is in the job she will be a superior to me!

Although the hierarchy is flat in our company it will be an interesting situation I think. Anyways, I will be in charge for the first three weeks and I am happy about it! It is a lot of responsibility, but I know that I will manage!

~M~

Pretty average!

Today was ok, nothing new, nothing special! I was doing the normal day to day business and a lot of invoice control again. I am nearly through with the pile of paper! If I am going to work like this tomorrow again I will be done with it and then I just have to do every day just what comes with the post.

I somehow had one of these days again, where nothing really work, where you dont find your rhythm and you are not really motivated! I somehow cant really remember what I actually did today at work. I mean, I had all the time something to do and I was not just killing time and hanging around, but somehow I have the feeling I didn't get anything done!

Anyways, after work I went home, just took my stuff and went up to the dam again to see if I could this time get my part of the tripod; but again there was too much water and I again didn't wanted to risk it. I will go there nor basically every day after work to check! I think it's ok, it takes about one hour there and back and when I decide to climb down maybe 1,5 hours, so its actually a nice activity after work. At least I am not sitting at home the whole evening!

Now I am sitting in my room and just took a nice picture of the huge yellow, cheese-like moon outside my window.

The heater just came on and will make my room nice and cozy again. I am happy that I bought it!

~M~

Perfect Sunday!

This was really how a Sunday should be! I slept long, got up late, had breakfast and coffee and was lazing around until 3.30 pm or so. Then I fixed myself to go out and enjoy the nice autumn weather!

However, I did not just stroll around or something, I had a mission! A couple of days ago during the autumn festival I lost a part of my tripod close to a waterfall. The piece however did not fall into the river, but was lying on a rock below. Since it was dark and wet last time I didn't wanted to risk to fall into the river, while attempting to get the part.

So today I wanted to go again there during the day to see, what I could do. Since I wasn't sure about the whole thing I packed some stuff; I took a rope and gloves with me to get down/come up. Furthermore I took a towel and new clothes - just in case.

So I went up there to the waterfall by bus. I could see already from far away, that there was more water coming over the edge than last time. Last time it was just a small part on the one side of the dam, where the water came over. This time it came over the whole dam, since it had been raining the last three days. 

I already thought the rock would be under water and the piece of my tripod gone, but I wanted to double-check and went to the rail. I looked down and there it was. It was lying far above the water at a point where it wont fall easily.

I checked where I could go down and then make my way to the rock, but when seeing the water I reconsidered and decided to do it later, when there is less water coming. The river is so much faster and stronger than last time and if I would fall into it now it could get very dangerous.

So I still went to the other side and took a look to confirm the place where I thought I would be able to get down and it looks good. When I went to the other side I realized, that it was the right decision to not go down there today. It was the place where I took the second picture of the waterfall during the autumn festival and although it is so far away from the waterfall I got wet by the spray of water.

Anyways, I then decided to walk home just to see the whole way in daylight once. It was amazing, I walked about 1 1/2 hours and enjoyed the nice autumn weather. The air was so easy to breath and I got warm from the walking! I really like this walk along the river and will for sure go there again soon!

~M~

Handyman!

Today I was a handyman! After sleeping long in the morning I got up, had lazy breakfast, was talking a bit to my flatmate T and had my coffee in bed, while watching TopGear! It was just nice to have this relaxed morning!

After about two hours I started cleaning up and cleaning my room and the common area of the flat! I was bringing order into my clothes, was taking down the dry laundry and was folding them. I suddenly had so much space again, which was an odd feeling!

Anyways, after that I had lunch. The started making something! You see, this house is pretty old, the floor is crooked and there is no central heating. The windows are not really closing properly and there is always a small draft from somewhere! Additionally the doors are not the whole way until the floor, which mean, when somewhere in the flat a window is open it gets cold everywhere!

I wanted to close this gap and wanted to make a draft stopper out of newspaper! So I took some of the read papers we have a lot of in our flat and started! I first took two newspapers and made a roll out of them.

Then I ripped another newspaper apart into the single pages. I scrunched them up into balls of paper!

These balls I then put onto the paper roll made before and fixed them with tape!

Then I tested it, but the crepe tape wasn't strong enough and so I put a layer of normal tape over it to make it more resistant.

I measured the length of the draft stopper, but as you can see it was a bit too long!

So I marked it roughly with a pen and cut it with bread knife.

  

Now it is perfectly fitting under the door, there is no more draft and my room stays the temperature I want it to be! All I needed was some newspaper, some tape and a bread knife!

But as I said, my room and the whole flat doesn't have a central heating system nor radiators. So after making the draft stopper I went downtown to Clas Ohlson and bought a fan heater.

Now I am prepared for the winter and can make my room nice and warm!

~M~

Sorry!

I didnt feel like posting today! Sorry!

~M~

Autumnal Equinox!

I went to the Autumnal Equinox, the autumn festival thing along Akerselva! I went to the top, where a dam is by bus and walked down! It was like the word equinox half good and half bad; later more about that!As I said, I went up the river by bus. I actually had intended to meet some random people, from the couch-surfing network, but the busses were so full and I could not get onto the first one and the second one was super slow. It was one of the a**h***-bus drivers who is annoyed at so many people and although the bus is super full is putting the heating on maximum, that everybody is nice and sweaty afterwards.Anyways, when I arrived at the meeting point I didn't even look for the people, since they had been gone already for more that half an hour. I knew that there were also people from my office going there, but since, literally, thousands of people were walking along the Akerselva, it would have been impossible to find them.So I walked alone, which was nice somehow; I could take as much time at every station as I wanted and take as many pictures as I wanted! I could try a lot of settings and could play around with the camera!I was taking all pictures without flash, which meant, that I had to stand extremely still or use my tripod! This was the first time I really needed it! It was good to have and I am happy with it.

I walked along the river and over the path, which was lid my torches and took a lot of pictures. When I came down to the first of many waterfalls I wanted to use my tripod's special function; it is soft and had a modules, so you can put it onto a rail or something.I did that before and wanted to do it also today again. Somehow I have to have been too eager or something; suddenly it made "plop" and from one of the legs of the tripod the last two modules come off. The problem was, that this was at a rail... the part I "plopped"-off fell down and is now lying below a waterfall on a rock. I know where it is, but it was dark and I didn't know if I should or could go down there! I will go tomorrow there again and see in daylight what I can do!I was super mad and close to just going home, but I calmed down and went on on the path. I am happy, that I didn't go home, since I passed so many nice things on the way!In the beginning, I walked slow, stopped at everything and anything, but the longer it went, the fewer I stopped! There were everywhere bands playing, choirs singing or artists showing whatever they were good at! It was a long long way to walk and it took me over three hours to come back home!Especially in the end, when it started raining... well pouring, I went fast! I tried to keep my camera dry and just got it out if I saw something special. I was far away from home still, but I didn't know how far! I was soaked, I didn't know where I was, the only landmark I had was the river!I was walking and walking and didn't recognize a thing! Just about the time, when the water started coming into my shoes from above I saw a building I knew! I knew I wasnt far anymore. The problem was, that I didn't wanted to leave the path, because it was so nice; but the last part was the tightest and the people moved slowly. I passed a couple of people by crossing a bridge, walking on the less crowded side of the river and then turning back onto the crowded side!Anyways, I made it home, dried myself and changed! It was really nice, I am happy that I did it! As I said, it was half nice half not so nice! The first half was good weather, then it started raining; I lost the foot of my tripod, but I took a lot of nice pictures; I was lost, but I am safely home! All in all I have to say it was super nice!

~M~

PS: All pictures are taken without flash, with long exposure times and high ISO!

A "new" Office!

Today it was a slow day and so T. decided, that we would "just quickly" re-arrange our tables in the office! Authentic Scandinavia hired a new full-time employee and therefore we needed one more desk. Since the seating right now is not really good for working together, when there are a lot of questions we wanted to re-order the tables!

We first had to change something on T's table and since we didn't had the right tools I quickly went to Clas Ohlson and bough them. We re-arranged everything and cleaned as well a bit. When we were done setting up our "island" our colleagues realized, that this kind of seating is much better and decided to do the same.

We decided to help them and suddenly the whole office was messy, shelves, tables, chairs everywhere; we also used the occasion to clean a bit and bring order into the cables and put them into these wire looms to not get a mess again. The "just quickly" ended up in arranging, cleaning, thinking and again re-arranging for over 3 hours!

It was funny tho, we were talking and laughing a lot! We now have so much more space in the office and the people that work together are actually sitting together, which will make it much more efficient to work and quieter in the office.

After this workout we all were so energetic and since the mood was good the talking and laughing went on! I think its good, when you have fun at work and come along with you co-workers. I especially love the flat hierarchy in SME's and think it's just good, that I can make jokes about my boss, as she does about me! I really like it here!

Now I am quickly home and put my laundry in! On the way home I went into a camera store to see a bit the prices of lenses. It's incredible! Here the products cost 70-100% more that in Germany. Basically the same package of camera+lens I bought costs here about EUR 1000,-, against less than EUR 500,- what I paid in Germany! When realizing this I didn't even check out the prices for fish-eye-lenses, which I actually came in for.

A picture taken with a fish-eye-lens

Anyways, I will maybe later on go out again. There is some kind of autumn festival close by. It's at a small river, the Akerselva, which I mentioned here before. As far as I know is it some kind of light festival, everywhere are torches, candles and lights and it is supposed to be very beautiful. However, I dont know if I am going, because if I am looking out of my window towards the mountains I can see it raining already! So I am not sure if I will go!

~M~

Normal Day!

Today I am not really sure about what to write! There is not so much that happened today at work! It started again with tiredness and the normal day-to-day business. I was doing my stuff, that I am always doing and there was nothing special!

I had kitchen duty again today and went to the shop at around 11 o'clock and started cooking. It took longer than normally today, the water for the pasta just didn't started cooking for no apparent reason. I made bolognese, which was pretty goo in my opinion and everybody seemed to like it!

After lunch I was working on a new tour, which is also online already! I am a bit annoyed about T. right now. I am working on the new tours, which she wanted to start quickly and now the only thing that is left is her putting the needed data into the database. I know she has a lot to do and also today she was teaching me something, what I might need for the time she is on holiday, but still.

She was pushing me in the beginning and now everything is ready, but we are stuck, we can't sell the tour, because a minor thing, which I can't do, is missing. I would really like to go on with this and start selling this product, otherwise I don't know why I spent my time and effort into them!

Anyways, it's just like that and I have to cope with it. I was doing it by updating the albums with pictures on our website and creating new hotel descriptions for the new tour! Since this tour uses hotels we never had in our program there is no description for them; as I said in an earlier post, I have to do the ground work!

Now I am home, I put in the laundry and just watched the new episode of How I met your Mother. I will put the laundry up, have something to eat and watch the new episode of House MD! God, I love the fall, when all the new seasons of the series start!

~M~

Full Moon!

There is an incredibly big and beautiful full moon in the sky! I just had to take a picture of it! You have to click on the picture and zoom-in to see it properly!
~M~

Not my job!

Today was actually a good day at work! After being so energetic yesterday the tiredness came today! I had problems getting up and making it to work! It was a typical Tuesday; After my theory the Tuesday is actually the day, which is furthest away from a weekend!

Let me explain: Mondays you are still relaxed from the weekend, Wednesday is already the middle of the week and you know, that you have just as much in front of you as you already did, Friday is basically already weekend, therefore Thursday is so to say the last real day of the working week; and Tuesday... well, it's just Tuesday and nothing more!

Anyways, it was a typical Tuesday and I was doing my normal stuff. I also had kitchen duty, which was ok, since you get out of the office for a while, can go shopping and have to cook. Although many people in the office do not like it I think it is kinda relaxing! Especially when there is nice weather like today it is nice to take a walk to the store!

In the afternoon I then again had to do invoice control, which is totally not my thing. In my opinion it is brainless work and you just have to put in numbers and compare numbers to other numbers. It's all about numbers and... yeah, it's just not my thing!

The numbers and me... we tried for a long long time in school to become friends; it didn't really work! I accepted their existence and didn't wanted to have something to do with them, but they kept annoying me over the years. No matter how hard I tried, they never let me be!

After school and the first two years of university I finally got the contact with numbers to a minimum and now I again have to deal with them; I really can't understand how some people can do something like this for a living, as their job, 40 hours a week for over 40 years! They have to be totally mental!

Never mind; I am home now, I finished all my stuff for the day and will go on tomorrow with the invoice control! But it wont be long anymore, I just have to get rid of the pile I have on the desk. It's just to help out in accounting, since they just got too much over the last weeks and couldn't handle it alone!

There was a positive thing though today; T., my boss, is going on holidays soon and informed everybody in the office about it. She wrote an e-mail, which contained a hidden, but very positive feedback:

During my absence Moritz will be responsible for checking my e-mail, replying to requests, taking care of bookings. I am convinced that he will do a very good job (he is the one that knows Authentic [Scandinavia] best when I am away).

It made me so happy to read that and I felt so much appreciated. I know that the invoice control is not a punishment; in fact it is a lot of responsibility. This comment in the e-mail to everybody in the company made me feel very good about my job!

~M~

Shouldn't it be always like that?!

I am back home after 4 days in Stockholm with A. and a long day at work! I am totally tired and dont know if I will write a lot; Lets see how it goes...

I left Stockholm this morning quite early! My flight left Arlanda Airport at 7 am, which meant, that I had to leave A's place at 5 am! I had to take a taxi from her place to the bus terminal, because there was no bus that early from Finnberget, where A. lives!

Anways, it was totally worth it! The weekend was awesome! After I wrote on Friday I went for lunch with A.! I picked her up at the office, we went to a shop, got some pre-packed food, which is oddly rather cheap in Sweden. We at the food in the lunch room of A's office and she then went back to work and I went down to the quays.I have been in Stockholm several times before, especially while I was in Finland. However, I just took once a boat sightseeing tour and actually it's quite a shame, since they are really interesting. I had gotten the Stockholm Key of Honors, which is a card giving you free entrance to numerous museums and also to certain sightseeing tours.Since it was for free and I had the whole afternoon, I took the two hour sightseeing cruise Under the Bridges of Stockholm. It was, as I said, really nice and interesting. The boat was not that full and I was sitting with two Swiss women!Anyways, after the tour I went around the city a bit and took some more pictures. I then hurried to come to the office, where A. works, since I saw that there was a huge rain storm coming up!After A. finished we went to the bus station and went to Lilla Essingen to meet up with H. She got a child like two months ago and I hadn't seen J. yet. So we went for dinner with them both. We had Indian food, which was really good. We were sitting and talking and eating!In the evening we were relaxing at home, since we were both so tired from the working week and I was tired from the sightseeing!

On Saturday A. and I went to the city to shop. I needed new socks, since mine are all breaking or are already broken. I also just wanted to take a look at some new clothes. I basically did not buy new clothes in Finland and I really want and need some new stuff like... well, basically everything!

So, we spent the afternoon shopping shortly, because it started raining, when we went to the city. It was so disgusting, that we decided after a while to go back to the flat again. It was also good, since we anyways were about to meet up in the evening with J. & M. two of A's friends in Stockholm.We went out in the evening and did bar hopping in Södermalm. It was good to be out again and we all came along really good. We did not have once this awkward silence that you often get in big groups; when nobody knows what to say and everybody is just sitting and staring. We had a really good time and got ... well we drank a lot!The next day started with a slow breakfast and chilling on the couch; getting rid of the slight hangover. Suddenly A's phone rang and her father's cousin's son's girlfriend's mother or to say it short: the owner of the flat, where A. is living called. She was about to come up to the flat to bring two lamps and was basically standing in front of the door. So, we quickly changed and cleaned up a bit.

She came in and shortly after also V. & M. came. They wanted to see the new balcony, which was recently installed and say Hi to A. and me. They basically just came, stayed for ten minutes and left again. However, for A. and me it was perfect, since this got our day started!

We went to the shop in Södermalm to get some more food and especially snacks for the evening. It was again this hangover-food-shopping, where you buy shit loads of junk food. We even bought a DVD in Lidl for SEK 39,-, since there was nothing on TV in the evening!

The evening we had an awesome dinner A. cooked, ate junk food and watching a weirdly funny, but somehow crappy movie! It somehow didn't really matter, since we had out crisps and other stuff!The Monday started early, as I wrote! I went straight from the airport in Olso to the office. I had a lot to do today and didn't really have time to do anything on the product development. I am also a bit dependent on T., since she has to enter something into the database. I can't do it and so I have to wait for her!

Anyways, two of the new tours are online, but not bookable yet! (Tour 1, Tour 2) They are both going to Svalbard or how the rest of the world knows it: Spitsbergen! There are more tours I am working on right now, but I dont really have the time for it, since I have to help out in Finance, with invoice control; I will finish them some point!

Now I am talking to A. and will have dinner afterwards!

~M~