After failing to take the previous hint, our household goods have finally tracked us down all the way from Germany. In our initial plans they were to have joined us only a few weeks after we ourselves had arrived. However, famed German customer service, a missed boat and US Customs and importing procedures conspired to…

Having decided to rent a house a bit further away from my place of work than we’d ideally like, a second vehicle was on the cards. Given the high price of petrol (*snigger*) — actually I mostly just believe in having sufficient for my needs — I thought a scooter would be the ticket. Since…

Thanks to all those who have called or emailed in the past few days to check on our family’s welfare amid the recent southern Californian fires. For those who didn’t know (or care), we are all fine. There is no real imminentthreat to our home but we stay informed, just in case. However, my work…

We now have a car we bought it a couple of days ago it’s not an American car no not even from Europe no it’s from Japan we got a Honda. Yes you heard me right a honda. Why we didn’t get a German car I don’t know. I would have liked one. Well we…

After all the preparations for the shift, matters have progressed relatively smoothly. Our visas came with plenty of time to spare, all our friends were as helpful as ever — we spent some lovely times over the last few days with those whom we have grown close to — and we even made the flight…

Well our time in Germany is quickly coming to a close. Here us a brief update on our recent activities and a couple of those coming up. RecentWe finished up in our house, and I at work, at the end of July. The idea then was to go, as the Germans say, ‘on tour’ visiting…

I’ve been job hunting for a number of months now and am pleased to say I have just received a formal offer from a private fusion research company based in Orange County, California. It seems pretty reasonable so we think we’ll give it a go. I mean, it can’t be any harder than shifting to…

So, where to start? I’ll start with books, the last book I read was a German book my class had to read, its called “Damals war es Friedrich” (pronounced Freedrish) by Hans Peter Richter (what a German name). It’s about a German boy and his Jewish neighbor Friedrich who were born during WWII. Just before…

I wish I was a daffodilPeople would call me Billy.I turn my face to the sun,Now wouldn’t that be silly. a poem for english class

Even though I knew the village we were shifting to was small I thought that broadband internet access was available everywhere in Germany. Unfortunately that wasn’t true and even the largest company (Deutsche Telekom or T-Online, T-Mobile etc) had few options[1]. All I wanted was something that meant the phone could be used at the…