Preamble

OK, so I haven't exactly been busy recently and have had oodles of opportunities to write my journals but...well....as you can see I haven't bothered. Ho Hum

Monday 18th September 2000

I awoke feeling somewhat groggy due to the fact that I didn't collapse into my bed until 1am. Nothing to do with wild drinking sprees and huge orgies, more like the bullshit efficiency of the German transportation system. I had been in Manchester for the weekend and due to the time that the plane lands I have to catch some crappy gay train back to Ulm.

Anyway worked until 7pm at which point Stuart and I decided to scoot into town for a couple of beers. We made our way to Murphys via Burger King, where we proceeded to consume a few pints of the black stuff. Richard Hill joined us after a while...the while being the amount of time it took me to realise he was late, call him and gently remind him that we were supposed to be meeting in Murphy's, not Capo's....dumb ass!

Left Murphys, went home and jumped staright into bed. Didn't fall in love with any chicks, resisted the temptation of a cheeky one in Eric's bar, ignored the offerings of Capo's.

Tuesday 19th September 2000

Tonight was billed as the leaving celebration for Nats. She shall be utilising the tunnel that I suspect someone has dug beneath the Nokia fence that seperates us from Siemens.

To celebrate the escape of Nats we decided to go to a restaurant called Himalaya. It's a decent curry house and unlike the crappy ones you usually get in Germany this one can cook them like we have in England. The roll call was:

Me [ Obviously ]
Richard with wifey Ligita
Robin with girly Isabelle
Richard Hill
Britta
Stuart
John
Thyesonie
Nats
Patrick
Nats' bro Andre

Food was pretty good, Nats, Isabelle and I demolished a couple of bottles of wine - after which we all [ with the exception of Simsy and Ligita who went home to have sex or something ] went on to Alexandres afterwards where I made a dent in the Gin supplies.

Wednesday 20th September

Thyeson and I went to pick up Robin following his operation. The poor guy was totally off his head from all the anaesthetics they'd given him and was pretty much mumbling incoherently [ just spoken to him "ebbo Dabben, fands for rindind" hehehehe ummm, I suppose that most of you wont know that he had some stuff done to his nose and that'd be why he's talking funny ].

So we dropped Robin off and then I went out for a scoot on my bike for a while - before dumping it back at home and going for a few beers with Flag et al.

Met up with Stuart a little later on in Murphys where I saw the *most* beautiful girl. Blonde hair...predictably....and really beautiful eyes. I'm pretty sure that I've met her before...probably over the last winter when I was going in there quite often. Anyway, since I'm now with Emma I'm strictly a one woman man. So I just admired from afar.

Went home, alone, and slept with my banana munching bed partner George [ the stuffed gorilla ].

Thursday 21st September 2000

Today was the start of my future. I decided that I'd had quite enough of the 9-5 bullshit military regime and that this thing wasn't my bag.....baby. I'd heard through the grapevine that a certain outfit in England wanted telecommuters.....this thing definitely was my bag.....baby. So off went the C.V. via e-mail.

Feeling that I'd achieved so much in the office I decided to go out on a bender.....yup, sadly I'm once more in the throes of alcoholicism. The need for beer once more has me by the short and curlies, it has a grip on me like a vice. Still, fortuitously I do seem to be able to control it to a certain degree and I feel that once I escape from the rigmarole of 9-5'ism I may be happier.... you never know!

Anyhoo - onto the bender. Usual stuff, played pool and lost miserably to Neil - my lodger. Incidentally he was at one point ranked 260 in the world snooker playing fraternity, so me losing to him wasn't exactly a surprise. Editors note: just about to set off for a re-match so no doubt I shall be a few more DM's poorer by the end of the afternoon!

Went home.....alone.....damn I'm getting the hang of this monogamy business.

Friday 22nd September 2000

The day pretty much kicked off with a telephone conversation over to England where I discussed the where-withall with my new tele-commuting employer. It was a somewhat confusing conversation. On the one-hand he was telling me that he had more work to do than an undertaker in 1666, but in the next breath he couldn't give me a 100% guarantee that he had work for me. This confused me somewhat as my C.V. reads like a "Who's who" of the telecommunications industry...Philips, Lucent, Motorola and Nokia! However, I have little doubt that I shall indeed get a job with outfit X.

This telecommuting business should be sweet. Telecommuting for the dumb-asses that haven't come across this term means that I shall be working from home. Since I am of course a child of the new millenium and am suitably equipped with laptop and mobile phone, home would therefore imply wherever I choose to wake up.

This new occurence in my life has lots of implications. I shall be able to see more of my mother, my father, the latest love of my life. It also means I can have "jolly's" to Manchester, London, Norwich, the Alps, Spain, America.....wherever I choose. The Spain connection is something that must be worked upon. Claire, my love of five years...the mother of my well travelled, banana munching bed partner, has quite well to-do parents. They [ the parents ] have just acquired a villa in Spain on the Costa del Sol. They have no intention of renting this place out as they want it as a second home. Since they can't spend their whole time there I've kinda decided that I'd like the unpaid job of caretaker. Of course I haven't actually mentioned this to them yet....but as I value Barry and Dawn as close friends I don't really forsee a problem....especially as I can no doubt co-erce Claire into convincing them that it would be a good idea.

This whole opportunity has really changed my outlook upon life, there is light at the end of the tunnel, 'tis indeed a golden opportunity. An opportunity to throw off the shackles of nine-to-five-ism. An opportunity to cut the bindings of being tied to a single geographic location. An opportunity to live my life the way it should really be lived...nobody breathing down your neck.....nobody telling you when and how to work.......no bullshit dress codes, no need for crappy excuses when you can't be fucked climbing out of bed before 10am. It is, to all intent and purposes freedom. I'm a happy bunny.

To celebrate my new found career.

Saturday 23rd September 2000

Sunday 24th September 2000