Anyone ever heard of the Alexander technique for back pain?

Have a look and let me know what you think!

This article is worthwhile reading in the multilingual search forum powered by WebCertain!

I remember, back in 1997 when I was still living in Germany and planning a trip to the UK, that the exchange rate from the “Deutsche Mark (DM)” to the “Great British Pound (GBP)” was 3:1.

So 1 Mark bought me 30 pence!
And, I remember that when the price for a “normal” roll went up to 32 Pfennings, e.g. 10 pence, my parents were devastated. That was very expensive for a roll.

scary roll

Now, for the last few days when I buy rolls it crosses my mind that the rolls here are about the same “number”, e.g. 32-39 pence which makes it about 100 pence, a price increase of round about 300%.

Unfortunately, the Euro now is so strong that for argument sake 39 pence are about 49 Euro cent. If we assume that the Euro was 1:2 to the DM we are back to 1 DM for a roll these days.

Not sure how the inflation developed in the last 10 years. If we assume about 4% on average over 10 years, we would end up with (if I did it right) about 51 Pfennings for a role, e.g. 25 cents or about 28-19 pence.

This still means a price increase of 100%, e.g. I pay double the price for a roll in the UK than I pay in Germany. Of course I do not know how much you pay for a “Broetchen” these days in Germany - please advise and comment! The only reference I found is a year old, 25 cents, locally even 15 cents! That sounds about right.

I am looking forward to some comments on “how much should a roll cost” and “why are rolls more expensive in the UK than in German”? Any other experience of roll prices?

For all economists out there and those who are interested in CPI etc., see Wikipedia for details.

Enjoy your lunch

I just need to let you know: the bible of DIY arrived today.

Finally!

No more drilling into electric cables, no more messing about when doing anything in the house. Watch me being “Volk the builder” and turning a “house into a home”

This book comes highly recommended!

Collins DIY

My wife and I got the Alan Titchmarsh Book about Gardening. It is very good. So when we woke up this morning after a lovely BBQ with friends, I said “why don’t we go to the gym”. But, she preferred to go into the garden.

And, as I am, I want to do it properly. So step one, we drew up what we needed to dig up:

drawing up a garden

To my surprise things went quicker than expected. So soon, the garden looked like this - please ignore me in the background:

The sign was a present to me, so in case anyone is wondering where it is coming from, I believe whoever gave it to me (and I do not remember who that was) bought it from the city council in Germany. That was over 10 years ago though.

So, instead of the gym, I got a great work out in the garden with much better results, don’t you think?

the plants: lavender, hydrange and a sunflower

the wine and herbs

Have a good sunday.

Volker

Is it only me or…..

I love Saturday mornings. What did I do today? I woke up at 8ish with a tired head. Nice Bordeaux and Cheese Fondue made me very sleepy last night. I got up, showered and first thing: the post office. Aren’t those the pleasures of life where you have to pick up parcels because you weren’t at home during the week and opening hours are during your work time.

Then I got the FT, haven’t read it for a while but wanted to get back into the habit, really enjoying it. Off for a massage, shopping in a far too full supermarket, doing the laundry, tidying the house and - oups - it is almost 3 pm.

What does that mean? Lunch, a quick tidy, some friends for a BBQ and before I know it, it’s Sunday.

So what do I make of weekends these days? To be honest. Our weekends are planned until late September, therefore, I cannot wait until I am there (in September) to have each and every weekend off! Hurray.

When I decide to not invite friends for a weekend or two (sorry guys) and enjoy myself, the house and a weekend off. Times will come.

Anyhow, to make this entry not too boring, I should refresh it with some thoughts on …. wine of course.

The 2005 Cab Sav from California is apparently very good. No surprise I visited (online that is) one of my favourite wine suppliers again…www.kj.com and joined their mailing list. Better keep up to date with the developments.

Kendall Jackson is also using Online PR quite effectively, being featured on YouTub; learn more about combining wine and food here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRMSIPIt-4o

Hello All,

As it is Friday afternoon and we are looking on how to improve our forum on PPC ManagementTherefore, we would encourage you to help us identifying any search engines we have missed out so far and you would like us to add to the forum and our list.

Anything else you like to ask/find out about PPC, join us in our forum today!

If you have already registered, here is the direct link.

Thanks in advance for your time and have a good weekend.

Volker

I am once again on my way from York to London on the train. The Internet connection is slow. I believe it is double the modem speed we were used to a few years ago, but nowadays we are much more used to a short download/loading time.

It was another day of meetings in our head office in York, the World Language Hub. It was a good day, good news, good decisions and a well worthwhile day. I am not sure if my boss reads this blog, I believe a few colleagues do now and then, but I have to say….if (and of course only if) things develop the way they should, then my choice to join this industry was right.

Whilst I have been working in the industry for over 2 years now, being on the other side (e.g. I moved from the exihibition business to the service provider side) was definitely the right one. So, it is good to sit here today and have my “evening thoughts” and think “I am happy, right choice”. And I am happy!

Maybe I am hard to please, therefore moan a lot, e.g. about the weather, my job, life etc, but deep down, I am very happy with what I have. You, who have followed this blog, it has come a long way to almost a diary with very personal views.

My Buddhist approach to life, see www.balamadana.com, with its blog, paired with my constant drive to improve my work, life and work life and its work life balance, has come a long way too. I trust in myself and my mentors that in a few years time I am going to refer back to this blog entry and say, “these are the days when I just started being who I set out to become”.

If it ever comes true, we shall see.

Enjoy your night, I try to reach out to you whereever you are.

Love and Kindness,
Volker

Ein Sauwetter (pig’s weather) - that is what we would say in Germany. After spending a few days speaking German it is weird to come back and speak 100% English/Scottish

I was wondering about the weather (as I do) and why it is raining and cold in August in London. When I was a wee boy, I was running around in shorts and T-Shirts from early age and early on in the year. May until early September would be a good summer, sunshine, some rainy days but this year…..

There was a time in June, maybe a few days in July that were amazing hot. And the time in Spain of course. But sitting in the office today, just made it in without getting rained upon, changing from rain to sunshine to rain every hour is just not healthy. It is not autumn yet, although it surely feels like it. Makes me tired too.

Ok, I stop complaining. I did choose to live in the UK but believe that other cities/countries in Europe are not far off. Maybe it is global warming after all?

Maybe not. Maybe it is just normal that every few hundred years we are having a warmer period which results in more flooding, more rain, more bad weather and more moaning

Have a good day.

Volker

PS: for those of you who prefer to spend the rest of the day cuddled up in a blanket in front of the TV with a hot chocolate, maybe this video entertains you for a while:

What would a German garden be without a garden gnome.

Even neighbour’s cat Wilson likes his company.

Garden Gnome and Wilson