Tag Archives: Munich

UK Passport renewal in Munich

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I noticed that I have to renew my passport which expires next month. Looks like I have to post it off to Dusseldorf. I was surprised to still see this remnant of the class system on the application form notes.

“Someone who has known you personally for at least two years should complete and sign Section 10. That person should be a British citizen, other British national or Commonwealth citizen who is a Member of Parliament, Justice of the Peace, Minister of Religion, Bank Officer, Established Civil Servant, or professionally qualified person, e.g. Lawyer, Engineer, Doctor, School Teacher, Police Officer or a person of similar standing.”

I remember something similar to this years ago, either when I renewed my driving licence or the last time I renewed my passport. I thought they’d have fixed it by now.

British people understand that “of similar standing” means “better than you”, or “one of us”, depending on who you are, and that it has the effect of reducing access for people who don’t move in those social circles. The class system is the thing I feel most relieved to escape by living in Germany.

I guess I’ll have to find some Brit somewhere who I more or less known who is an engineer of something. Can’t I just be a citizen of the EU, please?

In the Viertel

General

We’ve managed it. We found a three room Altbau (pre-war building, but possibly code for “high ceilings”) in Munich’s Glockenbachviertel, with rent a little under our limit, and without an agent’s fee (usually 2 month’s rent), noch.

Baumstrasse 11IMG_0681It’s just across the road from our favourite cafe – Cafe Maria (too cool to have a website), and just a street away from the river.

Looking for Altbaus in the Glockenbachviertel and Haidhausen has started to give me some idea of what parts of Munich were still standing after the war, and made me notice how many of the buildings are post-war. I wish I could find some before/after pictures of the various neighbourhoods.

Karslruhe, Berlin, Lisbon, Munich

General,

It’s the new year and I’m back in Munich. Working on the project for Web.de in Karlsruhe was great but being away from home during the week is always difficult. I’ll try extra hard to work only in Munich now.

I spent Christmas in Karlsruhe with the various parts of my girlfriend’s family there. Then we visited Berlin because our Lisbon flight included a free train ticket and my sister was visiting. I’ve never seen Berlin under so much snow. It makes everything quiet.

Lisbon was a great place to spend New Year’s, walking up and down the old streets under blue skies and winter sun. It’s old and crumbling like Venice, but younger and alive. Barrio Bairro Alto, where we had an apartment, seems to be nocturnal. The population sleeps all day and parties all night. Trust Fernando “nightlife” Herrera when visiting Lisbon – I wish that we had visited Chapito sooner.Lisbon New Year's fireworks
Lisbon, Bario Alto

Now that I’m back I’l start work again on Glom, and finish off the Maemo/Hildon C++ bindings for Nokia.

My other big project is to find a new apartment, now that my girlfriend has finally decided to move in together, to my amazement and delight. We have quite high aims – a 3 or 4 room altbau place in the Glockenbachviertel with a big kitchen and a balcony. We’ve looked at five so far, but each lacked something. Maybe someone knows an apartment to rent and wants to save the agent’s fee?

End-of-year travels

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Shortly before Christmas (Festivus), I’ll be finished with the work in Karlsruhe. I’ll spend Christmas here, then take the train to spend a few days (26th to 29th) in Berlin. Then it’s New Year’s in Lisbon from the 30th to 6th. I love Berlin and expect to love Lisbon.

Then it’s back to Munich.

Ubuntu CDs for GNOME at Systems, Munich

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So, Systems is over, and the GNOME stand was a great success, though small. The 5600 Ubuntu CDs arrived a bit late, so we could only hand them out on the last day and a half. They were busy days, so we could hand them out at about a rate of 1000 per day. We make sure to speak/sell to each person about what it is and how to use it, and how beautiful, easy and safe it is, so that takes a lot of energy.

Quite a few people were interested in Edubuntu for schools, particularly in the poorer Eastern-European countries.

But we still have a lot left over. We’ll use a lot at LinuxWorld Expo in Frankfurt, but anybody in Munich should feel free to contact me to arrange to pick up some boxes. For instance, if you would like to hand them out at a university.

The size of the delivery from Canonical was a bit shocking. Thanks Ubuntu/Canonical for the support. I could almost forget that these beauties are all browse-mode-defaulting.

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GNOME at Systems, Munich

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All this week, GNOME Deutschland is at the Systems fair in Munich. Our part of the show does not feel as busy as a LinuxTag, but there are many people eager to see how Linux looks, and very receptive to the idea of a beautiful easy-to-use desktop that’s provides an escape from Windows hell.
IMGP0715Unfortunately one of our volunteers dropped out so I have to be here all five days, which hits me pretty hard as I already have so much work to do. However, Joerg Kress is doing a fantastic job here, representing Ubuntu as well as GNOME.

A few thousand Ubuntu Breezy CDs should arrive tomorrow so we’ll be able to satisfy all the Linux newbies who are asking about it.

Landshuter Hochzeit

General

Last weekend we visited Landshut, near Munich, for their Landshuter Hochzeit celebration. It only happens once every four years, and it was sold out in January, but a friend got us some tickets.

It’s apparently meant to be a reenactment of a royal wedding, and the accompanying festivities, that happened 500 years ago. Thousands of the local residents dress up in fancy medieval clothes and play assigned parts, so the whole town gets taken back in time a bit.

There’s a free parade down the main street of the old town, a huge area with fenced-in groups of medieval folks, like a human zoo, and a display of medieval entertainment. It’s less kitsch and a lot more fun than Oktoberfest, so I highly recommend it to visitors to Munich in 2009.

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Debian in Munich

General

Yesterday I met some of the local Debian people in Munich at Pasta & Basta. There were lots of people, encouraged by Munich Council’s choice of a Debian-based solution for their LiMux project.

img_0230I recently read Florian Schießl’s Limux slides (German) from his talk at Chemnitz LinuxTag a few weeks ago. I’m pleasantly surprised by how sanely and pragmatically they are planning the project. I think this is going to work out. And I really like that they want to encourage local Open Source businesses.

Update: Michael Banck has more details.