Occasional Observations

This is the morning after an enjoyable evening drinking beer at the Armbrustschützenzelt - one of the big 11 tents at the Oktoberfest.

One highlight was the Elvis impersonator - a hunka hunka burning love.

After years, I finally "got" the Oktoberfest. To test this, I'll be back on Sunday and again on Tuesday. Prosit!

Labels: beer

The 1976 Smokie hit "Living Next Door To Alice" has long been a carnival favorite in Germany and in recent years it's become an Oktoberfest staple. The renditions aren't quite true to the original: the vamped up version includes a chorus sung by the crowd which goes as follows:

- Alice, Alice, who the F--K is Alice?

You could say the same about my office: here I am not living but working next door to the Oktoberfest - and hearing the strains of Alice, Alice (etc) coming from the beer tents.

Getting here's tricky - as the U-bahn trains to Theresienwiese are jam-packed. The only time I've ever seen the trains more crowded was on the way to World Cup matches last summer. At least there's now mobile phone service down on the U-bahn platform at Theresienwiese, I think it's the first Munich U-bahn station to have cellphone reception.

There's also quite a lot of traffic and you can bet on at least one Italian-registered camper van forlornly looking for a parking slot within staggering distance of the big tents. Overnight camping is verboten in the locale but there are two dedicated campsites across town.

Once I'm in the office, it's OK - provided we keep the windows closed. With them open, we get assaulted by wafts of roasted almonds - by 4pm yesterday I cracked and sent out for supplies.

As for actually visiting the Oktoberfest, all in good time. I've got three trips planned and we'll also try and have a spontaneous agency lunch on a non-rainy day. With something as big as the Oktoberfest happening under my nose it's hard to ignore but also I don't want to go every day - that would be overkill.

So here I am in an office across the road from the Oktoberfest. The sun is shining, it's warm, and people are flocking to the beer festival in their tens of thousands. Which means it's rather noisier outside than usual ... from here it's possible to hear the bands in two or three tents, plus there's a beer dray going past the window right now.

The wind's blowing in the other direction right now (thankfully) so we can't also smell the Oktoberfest (roasted everything - almonds, fish, boar, etc). But it's still hard to resist the temptation to have a quick look across the road.

Labels: beer

Just back from the local drinks market, where the true cost of an Oktoberfest Maß is revealed. A 10-liter crate of Spaten Oktoberfest beer (the type served in the Hippodrom tent, among others) is on sale at EUR 11.49 - while the Hippodrom is charging EUR 7.90 for a Maß: a single liter.

Yes, of course it's the Oktoberfest, the ambience, the uniqueness, etc ad infinitum but when the mark-up is so clear to see, I actually "get" why many of the locals are complaining that the Oktoberfest beer's expensive, if you drink it at the Oktoberfest. It is!

Meanwhile I didn't buy Spaten, but I did get in some regular and Edelstoff Augustiner to enjoy on the sun-drenched terrace later this afternoon. I'll let the Wies'n wait until Monday. Since my office is slap bang across the road from the Hippodrom and Fischer Vroni tents, it's handy for lunch.

It's a phenomenon I've observed: Americans who meet abroad are almost guaranteed, within the first two minutes of conversation, to ask: "Where ya from?"

But they never ask a Brit - perhaps the accent is too much of a giveaway. Mind you, Brits abroad never ask each other - it's of course almost always possible to tell a fellow countryman, even if years of living abroad has mangled their accent and way of speaking, there will still be clues. In fact it's usually possible to pinpoint where they're "from" to within a couple of hundred miles - which, in US terms, would be a bullseye.

Perhaps the "where ya from?" question is the reason why the check-in staff at hotels in Las Vegas wear badges with their name, and home town. I once asked, anyway - and was rewarded with a funny look...

Labels: odd

Right now we have seven brand spanking new notebooks in the office - all needing initial configuration before they go into service at a demo day next week.

Getting this done is a test of patience. All come with Vista - and it seems that every machine behaves slightly differently out-of-the-box - for example with regard to network detection and runonce apps.

One thing that's common to all is that I've been reminded of that John Lennon song from Double Fantasy, Watching The Wheels. An OOB Vista installation already requires between 35 and 130-something MB of updates to bring it up to speed. That's larger than the entire Windows 98 install file...

Labels: tech

Backdated post from Sept 4th: It?s hard to be green ? our Peugeot is a good example of that. It?s such a lemon it should be yellow, and it?s definitely not green.

The car is just three years old and has covered a paltry 50,000km. Back in ?04, when we were changing cars, the first diesel cars with particle filters (FAP) were on the market. Being aware of the clouds of soot that diesels can produce, we chose the Peugeot 807 partly because of its FAP.

Mistake. The technology was still in its infancy and, frankly, wasn?t ready for prime time. We?ve had no end of problems with the system ? with the dreaded ?exhaust anomaly? message usually flashing up when we?re on, or trying to go on holiday.

Here?s a brief recap of the most memorable times when:

• March 2005: a day before we planned to head over to the UK. We eventually went in a rental car paid for by Peugeot (a Ford, if you wondered)
• June 2005: on the way to Italy. We eventually went in a rental car paid for by Peugeot (a VW this time)
• April 2007: on the way back from Heidelberg.
• September 2007: in the Abruzzo region of Italy

We?ve wised up to the fix by now ? forget expensive diagnostics, and big garage bills in trying to fix the problem (the car got its second turbocharger as a one-year-old birthday present; thankfully Peugeot paid this under warranty). Instead, the solution is to reset the over-complex electronics by disconnecting the battery for a short spell. This resets the car?s memory and it forgets all about the phantom problem ? until the next time.

What else? Here?s some reasons NOT to buy an 807:

• The handbrake is not strong enough ? and the cable?s exposed, so if you live in an area where the temperature regularly falls below zero, the handbrake will be frozen on
• The windscreen area is too big for the demister to cope with
• The electronics are, frankly, rubbish. Press the horn and it takes a second before the signal works its way through the computer and the horn actually sounds. Same applies to flashing the lights. And these are functions where a second is a long time?

At least this time we?ve got rid of the phantom squeaking ? around a year ago this was so bad that we had to replace all the brake disks, at least this was what the garage did in trying to finally solve the perennial problem. In the last 12 months that problem has at least been held at bay ? there?s still some squeaks when cornering.

It all adds up to a real litany of shame, which is a real pity because the car, on paper, is so good ? it?s a driver?s car regarding the handling, it feels smaller than it is, the 2.2-liter diesel is just about pokey enough, and the rear sliding doors are really practical.

Labels: dieselhead, petrolhead, rant

Well, ok, it's not THAT bad but after a week of toothache and an hour in the dentist's chair I'm feeling beaten up. My bad British teeth just aren't engineered to German or American standards and this means regular maintenance. This time it's a stark choice - either say goodbye to a molar, or enjoy a root canal filling. An ingenious machine designed by Dr Röntgen will reveal all, but first I have to wait for two weeks. And then, the choice ain't mine.

Teeth, huh? What are they good for? Why haven't humans evolved into sporting ceramic molars yet? The average human lifespan has more than doubled in the last thousand years but tooth technology is way behind. At least if the rotting one does have to go, then I could have an implant - after that, perhaps it's plain sailing for a few years at least.

Labels: rant