Monday 28 April 2008

Being tagged

My fellow-blogger Patrick Joubert Conlon Born-again Redneck
had me tagged and here are the details of what this entails:

The rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people
and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves
them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and
asking them to read your blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

The questions are as follows:

1.) What I was doing 10 years ago?
2.) What are five things on my to-do list for to-day? (not in any particular order)
3.) Snacks I enjoy
4.) Things I would do if I were a billionaire
5.) Three of my bad habits
6.) Five places I have lived
7.) Jobs I have had

1.) What I was doing 10 years ago?

In 1998 I was living in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, a Paris suburb and worked for a German company selling gears, gear grinding and gear controlling machines. In July I married after having lived together for about 7 years. In September we left our jobs and moved 600 km down south to live in a village. I am still there, happy.

2.) Five things on my to-do list for to-day

a) Racking my brain to answer the tagging questions.

b) Continue working on the overhaul of the wooden terrace railing (balustrade), using an orbital sander, a power planer, a router, a band saw, a jigsaw plus a pot of paint.

c) If weather permitting, driving down to the Dordogne valley for some paragliding. Spring is the very best period for this. Half an hour of flying right above the treetops would be wonderful.

d) Calling on my friend in Brussels to talk about the last piece of music on my blog. He wrote me that clarinet player is not good enough and he has a better one.

e) Last not least: buying at Amazon.fr "Blandings Castle" from PG Wodehouse, Patrick "The Redneck" (see above) recommended to me. Incidentally, I met him by making a Google blog search for this beloved writer and now I have to find out, too, at Wikipedia what "redneck" really means in USA English.


3.) Snacks I enjoy

Black forest cherry cake, Tiramisu, bitter almond chocolate.


4.) Things I would do if I were a billionaire

Make a trip around the world, have a look at Australia, Japan, some US National Parks. Opening a world-wide TV station, kind of personal CNN but very much less boring and no publicity. Buying a car with a huge trunk that runs noiselessly and uses no petrol. Kicking out all those I don't want to see: that's the privilege of the rich.


3.) Three of my bad habits


I like to convince those who are not convinced. - I like reading when others make small talk - should eat less chocolate, pastries and other blow-up stuff.


5.) Five places I have lived

In Berlin-West before the Wall came down - in Aachen/Rhineland where Carolus Magnus had his HQ more than thousand years ago - in Brussels/Belgium where it rains more often than not - in Neuilly-Sur-Seine where the current French President was town mayor - in Rouffiac the farmers' village, far away from cities, noise, industry, business, pollution.


7.) Jobs I have had

In AACHEN as an apprentice for transports, export/import. Having got my diploma, I made the solemn oath never to work again in the transports business.

In BRUSSELS in a company where we were selling turn key plants to Third World countries and to the Soviet Block. We went bust when Saddam launched his war against Iran instead of paying us. Professionally speaking, my best time.

In NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE near Paris selling gears and machine tools made by our German mother company to French industry. Thrilling but stressful job.

THE END of this huge task. Now let's shut down the 'puter and hit the road for the Dordogne valley, see 2-c here above. Bye bye.

8 comments:

  1. Merci beaucoup, Georg. You are a good sport and I really enjoyed reading about you.

    BTW a redneck is someone who works outside and has a red neck from the sun. It started as an insult to poor white people in the southern states who had to work outside like the black slaves. It is still an insult used by elitist snobs who despise poor uneducated working class whites.

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  2. Big smile...
    #3 ( the first ) made my mouth water
    #3 (the second) made me laugh out loud... Who would have guessed? you like to convince people...I am NOT convinced this is a bad habit...

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  3. if cars would not use petrol, than there would be traffic jam !!!! Only if the cities close to the rivers and the sea used these natural resources more efficiently and not treating them as royal public transport which is what is happening in new york and new jersey.

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  4. Hallo Anrosh,

    Don't understand what you mean. My car would run with a fuel cell, maybe on compressed air or just with a high performance battery set.

    Don't get you regarding traffic jams.

    Being a billionaire, I could purchase such a car functioning as well as a submarine or a simple boat (but without sails, let's not exaggerate).

    Georg

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  5. Sorry Georg, I commented on the wrong post. This comment was supposed to be for your post -"Happy driving -price of diesel".
    since we are already on the subject - when everybody buys a car, like in the US and is the main mode of traffice to get to 90% of the places where public transportation does not reach traffic jams are logically bound to occur. 4 adult members in the family - 4 cars. Traffic Jam is an insanity evil of driving on roads during peak hours. The nation was built on roads - Thanks to ford and rockfeller and other oil wizard who decided to use this natural resource and paralyze the land when the gulf would run out of it or when it would become an oil drought or invent other means of efficient means of transport. Thanks to the oil addiction - it has caused pollution and climate change. The oil tycoons and their generations are inside their bunkers !

    Too many screens were open and hence the error.

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  6. Hi Georg,

    I liked your bit about what you would do if you were a billionaire.While you may be able to do everything else, you will certainly run out of cash in trying to kick out all those you don't want to see!

    Ah, the habit of reading. I for one used to devour books. Somehow, this gadget rightly called the idiot box has managed to claim me almost completely. You are lucky... but will get swallowed when you open your personal CNN!

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  7. So true, Vinod. Thus let's stay poor and diversified, till further notion.

    Georg

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  8. wow! learn so much about you..

    Hope all is well, I have not been around the Blog world lately.. :-)

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