Herr Mike in Deutschland

Saturday saw the return of the Bundesliga after the Winter break and of course the other hardcore 'Club' fans and I braved the cold to see it. And we were glad we did as FCN romped to an unexpected 4-1 win over 4th place Stuttgart. And with Rovers beating Luton 4-0 back home it was excellent day all round.


FCN dominated for most of the game and were unlucky to go in at 1-1 after 45 minutes.
Former Blackburn Rovers legend Vratislav Gresko (I use the term 'legend' loosely) then put Nuremberg ahead with a deft finish at the start of the second half. The opposition then had a man sent off for a reckless challenge and Der Club never looked back, playing some sublime stuff, distributing the ball well and really making the most of the extra man. A 4-1 scoreline at full time meant a party atmosphere in the stadium and an excellent start to the new year campaign.
It was almost so good that I didn't mind not being able to feel my feet. I was a bit worried that the game would be post-phoned as blizzards turned the Franken Stadion into a giant snowglobe. It was a bit like watching the game on a TV with fuzzy reception. Luckily all was saved when the orange ball game out and the FCN moved up to sixth in the table. Bring on Bayern Munich!

Labels: FCN

G'day blog fans. Friday was Australia day which of course meant a trip to Wheelers for a pint of Fosters! Any excuse eh?

The Snow is here, at last! I awoke on Wednesday morning to three inches of powdery white winter magic. People had been promising me snow before Xmas but it has been unseasonably warm recently. We did have a tiny bit of snow on November 1st which shocked me into buying boots, a purchase I feared would be a royal waste of money until this week when they came into their own.
It's gone pretty freezin, well -5 degrees which the locals tell me is nothing! Tell that to the Indians and Africans, they don't venture outside unless really necessary and have genuine fear for the mysterious white flakes falling from the sky.

Other events of this week, Christian came over from Wurzburg on Tuesday as his friend wanted to have a look at the Wohnheim as he may be coming to live in Erlangen shortly.
Also, yesterday was Norman's 22nd birthday, herzlichen Glueckwuensch du Held!!

Had a good, busy week in work. We had another visit from Orest Zacerkowny from Canada who gets a special mention for being a fan of my humble blog!

And I've put the pic of the firework on the pic below, have a looksy.

Hello Hello and Guten Tag. Yes, Mike survived the storm and is fine and well. To be honest it was a bit of an anti-climax though a tree crushing a car in our road was pretty impressive.
I hear you guys had it quite heavy in the UK, bit of excitement for boring January eh?

Spent the weekend chilling out and sheltering from the still vicious winds watching the awesome Premiership footy in Wheelers. Went for a few drinks in Leon Garcia's on Sat evenng, a trendy cocktail bar. I went for my favourite 'Frozen Erdbeer Daiquiri', an iced strawberry piece of ecstasy in a glass: so good I don't care that it is the campest looking drink on the menu. Actually no, that is not true, 'A girl's best friend' comes with a piece of banana cleverly carved into a phallus shape precariously perched on rim of the glass. Anyway...

Probably the most exciting moment of the night happened on the way home when some nutter set of fireworks under a bridge. As we watched from a safe distance the buffoon ran around under said bridge trying to avoid balls of fire. Was a bit mad, will load a pic asap.

I'm writing you a post nice and early today as I've been sent home from work because of the weather! I heard reports yesterday that a storm was expected though because of the mild winter we're having here (where's my snow?) I didn't think it unusual.

Well, a storm is one thing but a Hurricane is another! I thought people were exaggerating when they called it that but no, Hurricane 'Kyrill' is here and all of Germany is on a severe weather warning. Schools were even closed this morning as a precaution. When the announcement was made over the office tannoy I thought I had misunderstood the German, especially as the the weather outside looked very normal.

This was indeed the calm before the storm and the clouds soon began to chase each other across the sky as the rain began to teem. Andy insisted I headed home as soon as our meeting was over and I didn't object! Managed to get a bus pretty quickly which was lucky as they aren't running properly due to the adverse conditions. The roads were full as everyone raced home to get indoors before 'Kyrill' really gets going. I think it's supposed to peak here around 10pm so it's time to 'Batten down the hatches' as Grandad would say (Think that's a Navy term). Im actually quite excited, I've never been in a hurricane before, I just hope the creaking sounds my building is making don't indicate some structural inadequacy. Maybe the safest place would be underground: if that's not an excuse to go to the bar in the cellar I don't know what is!

Did the ritual pub quiz yesterdaz and as usual didn't do very well.
We did however win the best team name for:

'By the time you have read this scouse Mike has stolen your wallet'

Hmm.

I think I posted athing about an Exams party I went to back in Autumn. Well today I got a couple of pics of it to show you!
They are awesome, and super cheap. I think the next round of exams is coming up soon which should mean more parties, will be wunderbar.

It says 'Foot' in the name, yet they use their hands. Americans are nuts.

Yesterday I had a very chilled Sunday, went for a bike ride in Erlangen and got lost, which I didn't think was possible having lived here for six months but there you go.
In the evening I met Andy and Siegmar from work to welcome Bill and Jennifer, two online specialists from our offices in the USA.
As the playoffs for the American Football Superbowl were taking place we went to my beloved Wheelers pub to watch it. It was superb, work paid for beer and fish and chips! Respect to Siegmar for trying some traditional English grub; most Germans cannot stand the thought, though he enjoyed his fish supper tremendously.

American football is good to watch but it stops every 2 minutes for adverts while the players switch offensive and defensive players. It's a pretty tough sport too, even with the helmets and shoulder pads. The little guy who is given the ball to throw (the quarterback) gets absolutely pounded.

It was back to work today which was ok and then to Abendschule for my Deutsch lesson. We did adjective endings which are stupidly hard. If my faxed application went through I will have an exam to sit in February so I better get learning!

I have always considered badminton to be a girly version of tennis. Having taken part in the badminton tournament organised by one of our ad agencies yesterday I am no longer of that opinion. Today my entire body hurts and I have pain in muscles I never knew existed.

Of course I didn't win anything but I didn't disgrace myself and had a good laugh. And afterwards we had a quality all you can eat buffet (I do love a good spread) to restore any of the calories I may have burnt off. It was cool.

Today I made real progress auf Deutsch, I made my first proper joke. I am sure I have made some before but nothing memorable, this is the best so far. People say that if you can make a joke in another language then you must have a good grasp of it, so I was most pleased with myself.

What? You want to here it, ok I will translate but I reckon you probably had to be there.

So, I was having lunch with Krissi, a girl from out office. We were talking about some pop star or something, it went like this (but in German of course):

Krissi: I don't like her, she is very pretty but really stupid (about girl on TV)
Mike: A bit like you then (cheeky!)
Krissi: Take that back it isn't true!!!
Mike: Yeah you're right, you're not pretty

Haha!! Ok, well it was funny at the time. Luckily she was not offended as she is a rare species: a German with a sense of humour!!

Have an interesting weekend planned with a badminton tournament and watching American football on TV with some colleagues who are visiting from America, will keep you updated.

loves, Mike Stuart: Hilarious the world over

Ein frohes neues Jahr to all!

After my Christmas break the Mike is back leading his amazing double life in Deutschland.
Thanks to everyone who made my trip home special and gave me Xmas pressies. It was cool to see everyone and catch up, I wish I could have stayed a bit longer.

It's taken a couple of days to put up this post as after nearly 3 weeks of no blogging I had forgotten my password. Grr.
Also, idiot that I am, I forgot the lead which connects my camera phone to the PC and henceforth the blog may lack a few pictures until my kind mother sends it out to me. What the site lacks in images I will however try to make up for with my colourful writing style haha!

So, highlights of Xmas included:

• Gifts aplenty
• Hi jinx in St.Helens, Liverpool and Manchester
• Seeing family and friends
• A 4 game unbeaten streak for Blackburn Rovers (including a 1-0 victory against Liverpool on boxing day and a 4-1 thrashing of Everton in the FA Cup)
• Seeing Carrie-Ann and Andy's little baby!
  
• Mum's food and a constant supply of cups of tea
• Witnessing an Ian Stuart Sunday league wondergoal, was worth standing in the middle of a field in Warrington for eh Dad! haha
  
• Steak Dinners with the boys
  
• Nick and Bry's beards - homeless chic!
• Fancy dress New Year's Eve Party at the tennis club
  
• Being introduced to a pub in Liverpool which has traditional Bavarian beer on tap
  
• A multitude of other super events, some of which I have assuredly forgotten to mention
  

My New Year wishes are for a great final six months on placement and to see my Grandad better again, unfortunately he wasn't too well over Xmas but is improving which is great news.

So here's to a happy, healthy 2007. Let's see what it has in store; I'll keep you posted.