I wish I was a daffodil
People 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 same time and had no time limit. All phone calls are timed in Germany and so there is no such thing (that I have come across) as a dial-up internet ‘plan'[2].

Anyway I was all set to sign up for a UMTS internet account (UMTS is basically internet via 3G mobile telephony) when a flyer arrived in the mailbox announcing a small company who were offering a phone and DSL package to our village. Yaaay! I called them a few days later and, after a couple of questions, signed up. So we are now humming along with relatively fast access at home.

This all means that I think the world can now expect a bit more of a digital presence from Gaynor and the children (especially Elijah!) and possibly even some more frequent blog posts.

[1] Among them, ISDN (only a little faster than a dial-up modem) and Satellite ‘DSL'( which receives via satellite and uploads via modem or ISDN).
[2] You just dial up a company, use a publicly available login & password and you pay from there with the requested payment coming with your T-Com bill.

My employer, Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), has offered me a contract extension of one year. Several difficulties have arisen in completing my project to the previous schedule (current contract was due to expire the end of July) and they have asked me to stay on to finish these experiments and to help out somewhat with others that are being developed. So we (the family and I) have agreed to the extension and will now be here until the end of July 2007. In many ways (financial & stability-wise, mostly) we feel this a good thing. A further extension is very unlikely and as to what is next, who knows? Feel free to post your outrageous suggestions or fervent wishes in the comments section and we’ll consider including them in our pipe dreams. 😀

In the wake of popular demand I have decided two things with regards to this blog. Firstly, I solemnly promise to further harrass, cajole, poke and pout other family members into posting more frequently. It won’t be easy to increase my already virtually intolerable high output of these Encouragement Mechanisms^TM but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make. I hope other family members are willing to make it too. No reward will be too expected to be withheld and no legs will be fast enough to get away if a negative reply is received furthermore to my oft-heard plea, “Hey you should write a blog post about that.”.

Secondly, as a growing family with many diverse and interesting engagements we have started keeping a calendar. Actually it’s more like a calendar system. My handheld computer synchronises with the family laptop from which two A3 pages are printed — the current and the proceeding months. These pages go on the fridge door (sometimes even technology bows to time-honoured traditions, plus it’s the most frequented place in the house) so the comings-and-goings are clearly visible and new appointments can even be added by the children. Once a month we have a sit-down and go through the upcoming month. Changes are made and the process repeats producing two new fridge calendars. It seems to be working so far though of course a fridge door with a touch screen interfacing to a central computer would probably be a better solution. But hey, you’ve got to work with compromises sometimes!

The short of this calendar system is that now it is simple to publish to the web our family calendar (exactly as found on our fridge door, less the children’s pencil additions!). I’ve placed a new permanent link on the left hand side called ‘Comings and Goings’ so go on, try it out now 🙂 The default view is for the current day, though I like to look at whole months myself. What this means further is that if you see an event that interests you, drop us an email or leave a comment and we’ll be happy to give you even more gruesome details.

For those that have not been watching their calendars recently, we have been in Germany now for one year! Though we said goodbye to some people before Christmas 2004 we didn’t arrive here until the 5th February 2005. To celebrate this small milestone we had a small party with a family who were very helpful to us soon after we arrived (and continue to be so!). Unfortunately no photos from the ‘One Year Here’ party but a good time was had by all.

We feel like we’ve certainly been living in interesting times these past 12 months and — at this time of reflection — want to express again our deep thanks to all those who have lived them with us.

So after 4 months and 6 days (goods were packed on 20 December, 2004), we have been reunited with the 3.5 cubic metres of household goods we decided we couldn’t part with and should have with us while we are here. Items include a few cooking items (Gaynor’s knives and ‘Le Creuset’ cookware), the custom-made bunk beds with mattresses, entertainment equipment (stereo, television, PlayStation, dvd player etc.) and plenty of books! Even though we culled our books heavily, we still have many and we think that is A Good Thing(TM). The rest of our belongings in Canberra we either sold, gave or threw away — except for the piano which is having a sabbatical at Mum and Dad’s in Brisbane. So at last things are looking more and more familiar, since we are both getting used to the surrounds and now have some previous ‘familiar’ with us.