Saturday 1 March 2014

March Already!

Am I the only one to feel as if we've only just been celebrating New Year's Eve? And look - it is already March! Of course, looking back at everything I did over the past two months and at all the things that have been happening around me and on a larger scale, the two months become entirely credible.

Let me start this month with a random collection of pictures I took during January and February; pictures that (in my opinion) do not merit their own post but which I did not want to delete without sharing them, either.

In January, we often had rather mixed weather. It was the mildest January I can remember. One afternoon, sleety rain was falling straight out of the sun - or so it seemed:

It lasted mere minutes, and afterwards, the light was exceptionally brilliant, as you can see from my kitchen window. Everything appeared to have sharper contours than usual.

Of course I was hoping for a rainbow - and there was one, but it was too pale to show up properly in a picture.

An outfit I favoured during that month (not for work, only for play) was my dear old Fuchsia dress:

(Yes, that's right, I have Hello Kitty bed sheets. They were a gift from my sister, if I remember correctly.)

February saw some beautiful sunrises. I must confess I rarely get to see a sunrise in summer, because I sleep until 7.00 on an average working day, but winter is a different story. 

Some February mornings, my kitchen was sunlit when I came in to have my morning coffee. Seeing this made for an even better start of the day!

A favourite business outfit during this month was my black knit dress. You can't see it in the picture, but it has a small knitted collar with black shiny "jet pearls" (of course they are fake) sewn on to it. At the office, I wear a tailored jacket over it; I'd soon get too chilly with short sleeves at this time of the year.
 
There is a lot lined up for me this month; for one thing, it'll be my birthday towards the end of the month, and the day after, I'll be travelling to Ulm (about 120 km from Ludwigsburg), to start the course for my certificate for Data Protection Officer. I've been working in this field for over a year now without a certificate, but since Germany is quite obsessed with official documents and regulations for each and every little thing, it will be better for our business when not only RJ has the official stamp on his job.

I have no idea how I am going to fare at the course - three times a full week, with each day being an entire day of lessons - after I have not been in a proper learning environment since my last day at Librarian School in 1988. Learning does not become easier with age, but I have two advantages: first, I really want to learn all the theory that is behind my actual work, and second, RJ has kindly lent me the study material he used when he took the same course some years ago, so that I won't arrive totally unprepared.

24 comments:

  1. I always feel uplifted by that brilliant light that one sometimes gets in winter and which is accentuated by the dark clouds.

    I've been to Ulm (but it was many years ago and I don't really remember it so I don't really know why I bothered to tell you that!). Learning may not come more easily with age but somehow I always feel that if one actually wants to learn something then age lends a certain concentration to the process. I suspect that you will fare well.

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    1. It was brilliant lighting, Graham, even more so than what the picture conveys.
      Being away from home for the class will probably also be helpful, because I won't have any of the manifold distractions I have here - blogging, for instance.

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  2. Hello Meike:

    What fun to look back on the start of the year in this way captured on camera.

    It is always daunting starting something new, but we are certain that you will have absolutely no problems at all when it comes to your course for a certificate as a Data Protection Officer [what a grand title] which you will, we know, sail through.

    Jó hétvégét!

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    1. Hello Jane and Lance,
      I very much hope you are right in assuming I'll sail through the course!

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  3. I love all these photos. It is great to recap the last two months for yourself, but I must confess I feel as if it has been p perhaps twenty years since New Year's Eve. It's certainly been the coldest winter in twenty years, if not fifty! It feels like the kind of year where we are still having snow storms in April. But I must confess that it's also been unusually sunny and I love that.

    I know you'll do wonderfully in your class, Meike! And Ulm is lovely. It's not so far from where my nephew and his wife live in Heidenheim.

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    1. Ulm has a beautiful minster, with the highest spire of all German churches. The town itself is alright, I guess; a lot was destroyed during WWII which sadly shows in the architectural make-up of the town today.
      The course and the hotel where I'll be staying is in the "Wissenschaftsstadt", a part a little outside of the actual city, where universities, academies and colleges are.

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  4. Such pretty sunrises, i'm glad you do get to see and photograph them sometimes. Good luck with your class!

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    1. Thank you!
      Yes, I was glad I got to see these sunrises, too.

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  5. Lovely photos. Not only March already, but we are now over one sixth of the way to next Christmas. Time to start shopping?

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    1. On the 24th of February, I was actually really thinking "only 10 months until Christmas Eve", believe it or not!

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  6. Your home environment looks peaceful and clean with everything in its place - unless of course you tidied up specially for the photographs! Isn't it strange how we have a month called March and also the verb "march". May and August are the same - not just month names - but words with meaning. I think you'll be fine in Ulm Arian - learning is always much easier when you are motivated to do it and what you are learning seems to matter.

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    1. It always looks like that, YP, I hardly ever arrange anything specifically for a photo. There is no-one here but me to make a mess - and I usually don't make messes.
      The German for March, März, is the only use for this word, there is no other.

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  7. Learning new skills can be fun :). Lovely to see sun !

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    1. It is, Fi! (both: lovely to see sun, and fun learning something new)

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  8. Yes, I too feel it is just gone christmas... really how DID we arrive in March! Good luck in your course. I think I find it a bit harder to learn things now because I've put together my own ways of doing things and now I have to chuck them out of the window before I can try someone else's.

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    1. For decades now, I have been used to being able to look up information as I need it (learning to research was part of the curriculum at Librarian School). So, whenever I needed to know something, what mattered most was knowing where to look for it, or how to ask for it. Now, at the course, I will have to remember a lot, because during the final exam, we will have to simply KNOW all these things. And I am not very good at remembering important stuff. I am much better at remembering silly trivia that will come in useful at the pub quiz, but nowhere else.

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  9. I suspect you probably already know a lot of the things you need to know for the certificate, Meike, but I hope you'll find the course stimulating, and the certificate useful! Good luck to you!

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    1. You are right, Monica, I already know quite a bit, siince RJ has taught me during the first weeks of my employment with him, and work itself has constantly been touching on those subjects. Still, it is a different matter trying to cram all the theory in your head ready for exams on seven different subjects, and getting the answers right so that I will not only pass the exam but actually achieve a good overall mark.

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  10. On the contrary, this winter has seemed to have lasted an age! Just depends on the weather, I suppose!
    Meike, you are just brilliant and you will be just fine on those courses. Good luck to you. I will wish that for you even though you don't need it!

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    1. Believe me, Kay, I need it! So, thank you for your good wishes!
      Yes, your winter has been exceptionally cold and ours exceptionally mild, which may have added to the different perception of how fast or slow the first months of the year have passed.

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  11. I love the kitchen!! And I love the light in it, and the sky pics, and those orange roofs. So, so beautiful.

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    1. Thank you, Nan, I take that as a great compliment, coming from someone whose pictures I always admire, because they allow me glimpses of your beautiful world which is very different from my own.

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  12. In Italy we say "Marzo Pazzo", crazy March, because the weather changes unexpectedly. I love your dress, fuchsia is my favorite color (after red:))

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    1. Thank you, Francesca!
      Yes, I knew about the "Marzo Pazzo" saying. In German, our "crazy" month is April. We say "April, April, der macht was er will", meaning April does just as it likes (with no rules).

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