After a day of recovery from New Years (and writing blogs!), it was already back to work for me. It’s been a year, and I still enjoy working at my company 🙂
On Sunday we had to head back to Cottbus… To spend some time with Hagen and play more Smash-Up!
The next weekend we spent Saturday morning sorting out storage for my stuff which will arrive soon, and dropping past Ikea for the first version of a Jewellery drawer which I promised Manja for her Bday last year. Version one is functional but with room for improvements 😁
In the evening were back to Butzi and Akis place for a games night. I brought along Code Names which was a hit, and we also played the party game we played at Butzi birthday last year… but with less people it wasn’t that great. Agreeing that we need to do this sort of thing more, we got home a bit past midnight and dropped into bed.
Sunday we did a bit of a New Years cleanup, where Manja and I finally had a chance to re-sort the kitchen which we had been meaning to do since we installed it 🙃
In the afternoon we decided to head over and start playing squash again, given that Manjas foot finally seemed up for it…. and I got THRASHED. She beat me Three Nil! I really need to find a way to practice 😅
Another week passed and Friday night was date-and-explore-restaurants night. We headed over to an Indian place which was near where Manja was meeting a friend earlier in the afternoon. It was non-spectacular, but not terrible.
Saturday it was time for us to go to the Ball, but not before being first to wish Niko a happy birthday at midnight Adelaide time. Turns out that the parents were looking after the kids and Niko and Anna were out with friends, so I wasn’t really first, but the thought counts!
The Ball we were heading to is the Vikings Rowing club (Wikinger Rudergemeinschaft) annual Winter Ball, and Mathias and Gabi had invited us to come along. We did not quite have the perfect Attire, but we came along anyway, and we had a ball… hah. But Seriously, it was a great night out. When we arrived we said hi to Gabi and Mathias, as the guests arrived, initially skipping the photographer. Once everyone was in, Mathias, Gabi, Manja and I headed back a bit and had a photo or two taken.
When we headed back in it was already time to get seated and meet our table. Because Mathias and Gabi were officials for the club, they had to sit at the official table one over from us. The guy next to us recently started his own business, selling the experience of self-made whiskey to businesses at around €2500 upward per 30L barrel. You get to do the whole thing end-to-end: from creating a flavour profile, regular testings and the end product 3-5 years later.
We soaked in the event, which had a fantastic atmosphere, brilliant Band (We need to learn to dance standard dances), great food and even a really cool lottery. We spent a couple of songs on the dancefloor swaying along to the music anyway though 🤪. Mathias was kind enough to take Manja out for a Dance properly too, she felt a bit overwhelmed but did really well!
One of the great things about the evening was a Raffle, which we spend a few euros on just to buy a ticket for Manja and Myself. Manja drew both of them, and picked me a winner! Number 60. Expecting to get a DVD player or wine decanter, we headed over to the table to check out what it was… And it turned out to be an envelope, meaning we still had NO IDEA what we had won. Manja walked the raffle tables like a tiger, checking out peoples reactions as they checked out what they had won. It wasn’t too long before pickup time began and we raced over, the envelope revealing itself as being a three-course dinner for two! Score!!
As the evening drew to a close, Manja noticed someone walked away with a flower arrangement, including mini-vase. We quickly let Gabi know, who said that this was totally fine – people were welcome to pick some up… As we said our farewells, Gabi gifted us with a Wine-decanter which she had won but did not need, and even encouraged Manja to also take along a flower-vase. Loaded with nice things, we caught the U-bahn home, it must have looked hilarious to anyone watching: Two people in fine clothes taking their loot home on public transport 😂
It was a really fantastic night, and we were so happy to have been invited to it.
On Sunday I spent the morning making breakfast and then chatting to Niko for a couple of hours. The afternoon had our scheduled re-match of squash… Which I lost again, Three Nil. I keep loosing but keep having fun with it 😁
The following Tuesday it was finally time for all my stuff to arrive. I met the truck at the storage units at 11am and we unloaded everything, after which I did a basic sort: Creating piles of boxes with related content.
Manja and I had agreed that we would go through everything together on Sunday, by which time we should hopefully also have some shelves to keep things sorted. As I was about to leave and head to work, I got a call from the removalists… Turns out they had missed 4 boxes when they unpacked. That also explained why my numbering didn’t make sense 😂
They were at the next client, and had found said boxes mixed in. Luckily they were not far away, so I took the tram there and headed back to the storage with 4 boxes by way of Uber.
That Saturday we decided to go shopping for a bit and see if we could find some more appropriate formalwear for both of us. We found some places we can go again when we have time and interest in buying things, but didn’t buy anything on the day. In the late afternoon we headed over to Ilkas place and spent the evening with her, chatting and making falafels. The first batch turned out to be a bit too watery to be baked, but when we fried the second set they turned out really well! We had a fantastic night but unfortunately had to head off eventually.
Sunday we dropped past a neighbours place to get the shelves and transporting them to the storage unit.
How do you transport shelves without a car you ask? Great question! By over-loading the bike and walking it with two people: like a wheelbarrow, just difficult to steer!
We put them together and then cleaned up a bit, taking some things back to the flat to get washed. We had to do this because you can’t keep unprotected clothes in the units, just in case an infestation of some sort breaks out. So we had decided to take everything made of cloth out, wash it, vacuum seal it and bring it back. With that done the storage was ready to survive without us for a bit while we headed to Oslo the next weekend ☺️
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