Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Thursday free...

Packing's all done. Got a free day, tomorrow, because they can't pick the shipment up till Friday. Seems you have to get a permit in glorious Munich to do such things, and they are loathe to change the schedule. But hey, I packed 2500 books and such in 3 days with a helper for 2...though they're charging us for 3.5 days on the helper because we booked for 4 days and they "couldn't find another job for the guy." What bullshit.

You want to know why Germany's doing so well? They tell you one price, charge for another, make you pay in advance, and won't give you a penny more worth of refund for what you don't need or use than they absolutely have to. And I'm not being facetious. Two of the restaurants I've eaten at have bumped up the price of my meal on my bill from the price listed on the menu. It's not a lot -- 2-3 euro -- but it's telling. And when I point it out, it's "Oh, those are the old prices."

Maybe I should eat at McDonald's.

It rained today in a way that reminded me of Honolulu -- straight down and hard, and still steamy afterwards. I checked for the average temperature in July in Munich -- 23 C. Which is what? 65-70 F? HA!

I haven't been able to do much thinking about OT during this job. I'm tired and cranky from the heat and work. My helper was really good; he's much of the reason I got done so quickly. But I want my AC.

Oh, the second German job is back off. Another case of a German group changing an agreed-to price at the last minute, thinking the client would be willing to pay anything to get his hands on such a great collection. They thought wrong. I have a strong inkling now as to why the Germans hated the Jews so much -- they're the only group who could play the screw-you game as well as das Deutsche (and maybe the Dutch, though the Scots give all a good run for their money...literally).

Wait a second -- I've got Scots and Dutch in me; what the hell happened to my money-managing gene? Is there too much French-Norwegian, too?

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