life in DE

Getting an Irish passport in Germany

- paul

Here is just a few words about my experience with the Irish Embassy in Berlin and the experience of getting :

  • new biometric passport
  • an emergency passport

Overall I must say that I am extremely happy with how I was dealt with in a fast manner by the helpful staff, and I do encourage you to call them if you have any questions or worries.

The background

Stupidly I washed & dried my passport, and it was in pieces afterwards. As it was expiring later this year I didn’t really mind so much, just I knew that it would take a bit of time to get one because of the strike in Ireland. And with plans to travel to a few places this summer I knew I needed a new one ASAP.

Passport forms

After doing some quick research I realised that I needed to get the forms for a renewal from the Embassy. A quick phone call to the staff was all that was needed and I had the forms by post on the following day. You can’t download the forms, and I guess this is probably a security precaution.

I realised on the following Thursday afternoon that I need a passport to go to Italy on the subsequent Monday. In a panic I filled out the forms, got passport pictures taken and got it all witnessed by my bank, and sent it off at 6pm on the Thursday. As I needed an emergency passport for the Monday, I included the copy of my flight booking, and the destroyed passport.

On Friday got a call from the Embassy to check some details, and the temporary passport landed on my door on the following day. Thank God for postage on Saturdays in Germany. So it literally took 65 hours to get an emergency passport. If I was in Berlin I guess this could be done almost on the spot, but due to commitments in Munich I couldn’t do the 1,200km round trip (plus I don’t own a car).

From right to left : The new one, the temporary one and the old passport

Emergency Passport

The emergency passport is good for 12 months, and looks different to the other Irish passports (it’s green). As far as I know you can travel to most places on it, but you might get some questions if you go to the USA with it. Once your full passport is ready, after being processed in Ireland, the Embassy will contact you, and ask you to send the temporary one, or your old one, back to them in Berlin. They will chop off a corner from them and send them back to you, along with your new passport. I’ve found that they are really quick with postage turn around, and in my case it was done with the return of post the following day.

New Biometric Passport

The new passport took just under 8 weeks to get to me, from sending the completed forms to getting the new one delivered. While it’s not quick, I do understand that these things take time. It certainly isn’t the embassy’s fault it takes 2 months to get a passport, they always seem to react to things as fast as possible. More about obtaining a new passport is on the Embassy’s website.

Vodafone Germany : Shopping Experience

- paul

As this is something to do with online shopping, I had considered posting this on the company blog , but I think the emotional nature of this post won’t really lend itself to a “more professional blog”.

Last week I had the unfortunate experience of leaving my Nexus One on my AirMalta flight back from Valetta. After various attempts to contact Munich Airport and the AirMalta lost property guys, I settled that it was probably not going to show up again.

Shopping with Vodafone.de

So I did a bit of research on what to replace it with, I decided that the Nexus One, is still one of the better Andriod phones out there. Looking at Amazon and other online stores, it was clear that Vodafone.de had the best price. So flash forward to today, I take myself and my credit card to the Vodafone store near Marienplatz, Munich.

  • Me : Do you have the nexus one.
  • Vodafone Staff : Yes, we have a few.
  • Me : Great, I would like to buy one right now,  without a contract,  please.
  • Vodafone Staff : Errr, sorry we are only selling them to customers with out contracts.

Not being so happy with this I checked another store, but they didn’t even have the phone at the time. Back at home I checked up about buying it online, but they mention that it’s not available until end of August. So I call one of their ordering help lines (0800 – 800 10 70), where the lady said yes they are available (right away), and I said great I’d like to order one then. When she found out that I wanted it without a contact she told me I had to call customer care (0800 172 1212). After calling customer care and going through a few voice prompted menus, I get through to another girl. I explain that I want to get the Nexus One without a contract, and she gets a little confused. She says she is the wrong person to talk to. I explain that I was told from the “ordering help line” that I could order a new mobile over the phone on this number.

The girl put me on hold and when she came , back she said it’s not possible to order phones without a contract over the phone. Not wanting to waste more time I decided not to ask her as to why this would be the case. So off I go to order it on vodafone.de. The vodafone shop tells me that it won’t be available until August (but I know they have the phone available now), so I go ahead and fill out the order form. As I’m going through the order steps I find it rather strange that I’m not asked for my Bank Details (in Germany more people use debit cards than credit cards) or a credit card. So I was able to go through the whole order process, which ends in saying that I will get an email with details of the order.

This email simply says the order it will be processed in 2-3 working days . I’m guessing that not having my payment, will hamper the purchasing process a little. So I can’t order directly over the phone, and when I order online, Vodafone are just going to call me back to get my payment details ?

Update : it gets better, you can’t order with a credit card, or with your bank details, rather they will send it to a Deutsche Post office. And you will get a letter to tell you to come to the post office and to come and pay cash for it !

So Vodafone, it’s 2010 and buying a product that’s listed on your website really seems like pulling teeth.

P.S. I would have loved to have had the oppertunity to say this on your forum, but because I’m not a customer (yet) I can’t register.

Update : 20/08/2010 : After waiting over 6 weeks to get this phone, and not getting any information from Vodafone, I’ve decided to cancel the order.

Outdoor swimming pool : Schyrenbad in Munich

- paul


So the summer is finally here, and in Munich a great things happen. Biergardens open, people are on their bikes, but best of all the summer outdoor swimming pools (Freibad) open. These are generally open from May to September and are well worth a visit. Last Saturday I was dragged along by my Ironman friend, and we went to the Schyrenbad at 9am for a swim.


It’s located at Claude-Lorrain-Straße 24, 81543 München, and the nearest U-Bahn is the U1/U2 at Kolumbusplatz.


Above is a picture of the kids pool with a slide and below is the adults pool, with a lane market for the serious swimmers. The Schyrenbad is open daily from 9am-6pm, and on warm days it should be open until 8pm. I’m not 100% sure as to what constitutes a “warm day”. Entrance fee is €3.50 for adults. As far as I could see the pool is only slightly heated, so it’s not for the faint hearted.
It’s worth a visit on those hot summer days !

Maria Einsiedel

Another great outdoor pool is Sommerbad Maria Einsiedel which is located at Zentralländstraße 28, 81379 München. This is to the south of Munich near the Thalkirchen (Tierpark) U-bahn station on the U3 line. Maria Einsiedel has a stream running through it which you can jump into and will carry you through the park attached to it. The stream has been split off from the Isar, and is quite refreshing.

Tweet Up in a Brewery

- paul 3 Comments

A few English speaking tweeters in Munich have come together and decided to have an informal tweet up.

Details of TUB1

  • Date : May 11th 2010
  • Time : 18:30 (6:30pm CET)
  • Location : Augustiner Keller, Arnulfstraße 52, 80335 München
  • Transport : S-bahn / Tram Hackerbrücke

Map :

HashTag for the event : #tub1
Note : If the weather is bad we will meet inside, in the basement / keller if it’s open. Otherwise we will be out in the beer garden.

Attendees

[EVENTR ATTENDEES 1]

Signup

[EVENTR REGISTRATION 1]

A healthier me

- paul 1 Comment

So now I’m 30 and I think I need to start to get a little bit more healthy and to take a closer look at my old goals for loosing weight. Over the last 2 years my weight has bounced around a 10kg range, from 72kgs to 82kgs. And looking at some resources online for my weight, they state that I should be between 62kgs to 77kgs for my height. See below for a weight range calculation of what your ideal weight range is for your height. Now a 15kg spread is quite significant, so I am going to place myself in the upper third of the range and say that my goal is around 73kgs, right now I am 80kgs.

1 ) Detox

The first part of my plan to shed a few pounds is to start a fresh and clean up my diet a little. After 2 weekends of celebrating my 30th and a friends stag party the following weekend, I probably have consumed the best part of my own weight in beer last month ! So coffee and alcohol have been taboo for the last week, and I feel much better for it. And the next step is watch what I am eating a little closer. This involves ::

  • eating a proper breakfast
  • eating a smaller  lunch, and less carbs
  • having a proper dinner

Don’t worry, the beer part is temporary, it’s just so that I will be in the best shape for the Oktoberfest and other parties later this year.

2) Exercise

The next step is to start to be a little bit more active, and then goal is to get in at least 3 sessions of exercise per week. I’m joined a gym, but sadly I’ve never been, so that needs to be fixed first. Also I plan to do a little cycling, swimming, running and badminton.

3) Rinse & Repeat

One of the hardest things when loosing weight is to actually stick with it. Hopefully posting things up here will help me to shame myself into sticking with things.

Ideal Weight Range Chart

Height Men Women
Feet &
Inches		 Metres Kg lbs Kg lbs
4′ 7″ 1.40 … … 40 – 53 88 – 116
4′ 9″ 1.45 … … 42 – 54 92 – 119
4′ 11″ 1.50 … … 43 – 55 94 – 121
4′ 11½” 1.52 … … 44 – 56 97 – 123
5′ ½” 1.54 … … 44 – 57 97 – 125
5′ 1″ 1.56 … … 45 – 58 99 – 128
5′ 2″ 1.58 51 – 64 112 – 141 46 – 59 101 – 130
5′ 2½” 1.60 52 – 65 114 – 143 48 – 61 105 – 134
5′ 3½” 1.62 53 – 66 116 – 145 49 – 62 108 – 136
5′ 4½” 1.64 54 – 67 119 – 147 50 – 64 110 – 141
5′ 5″ 1.66 55 – 69 121 – 152 51 – 65 112 – 143
5′ 6″ 1.68 56 – 71 123 – 156 52 – 66 114 – 145
5′ 6½” 1.70 58 – 73 127 – 161 53 – 67 117 – 147
5′ 7½” 1.72 59 – 74 130 – 163 55 – 69 121 – 152
5′ 8½” 1.74 60 – 75 132 – 165 56 – 70 123 – 154
5′ 9″ 1.76 62 – 77 136 – 169 58 – 72 128 – 158
5′ 10″ 1.78 64 – 79 141 – 174 59 – 74 130 – 163
5′ 10½” 1.80 65 – 80 143 – 176 … …
5′ 11½” 1.82 66 – 82 145 – 180 … …
6′ 0″ 1.84 67 – 84 147 – 185 … …
6′ 1″ 1.86 69 – 86 152 – 189 … …
6′ 2″ 1.88 71 – 88 156 – 194 … …
6′ 2½” 1.90 73 – 90 161 – 198 … …
6′ 3½” 1.92 75 – 93 165 – 205 … …

Some pictures from Fashings 2010

- paul 1 Comment


During the week I received my new toy, the latest pride and joy, a fancy Canon lens (EF 70-300mm 1:4,0-5,6 IS USM). Not wanting to miss an opportunity to take some interesting pictures as Tuesday was Fashings (the German version of Carnival), I took my kit into the city to put it through its paces. Here are some of of my favourite snaps from the day.

In Germany (Munich & Cologne in particular) they tend to go a little mad in the streets with lots of crazy costumes and a bit of prosecco and beer thrown in.

Profits.ie – fail

- paul 5 Comments

We all hate spam, it wastes time both the sender and the receiver, hurts businesses, mine in the respect that I have to again waste time, and yours, because I know I will never, ever, ever work with you. And you know what’s worse than the fact that I will never work with you ? It’s the fact that I will tell everyone I know what a usesless shower of crap your company is as they have to resort to stupid / illegal marketing tactics to get their word out.

So without further ado here is the email I and a few others received today from Profits.ie (sorry, no link love either).

Good Morning,

We have had phenomenal interest in the Sales & Marketing Course we have been running for the last few weeks. So much so, that we are AGAIN running it this Friday 19th (Between 9am and 1pm)

In the Wicklow Enterprise Park training room in Wicklow Town.

Before sending this email we have already 5 confirmed companies on the course. We have an engineering, retail and accountants already signed up

So I have 5 seats left. That’s all and they will go quick. Due to time constraints this may be the last time we run this. We normally only run this for our own clients.

Please let me know ASAP if you are interested in coming. It’s a hand’s on course in how to do cost effective (LOW COST) direct marketing that gets results.

A taste of what you will learn

· Why direct marketing is the cheapest advertising & gets far better results

·

· Proven Sales letter techniques and tips

· List formation and filtering

· Database creation techniques

· Direct mail techniques that work

· Applying a systematic approach to your marketing

These are just a few of the things you’ll learn. This is a course on LOW COST sales & marketing for small business.

If you want to know more give me a call.

The last 5 seats will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

CALL NOW to confirm your place

Regards

Charlie Melia

Sales Director

Profits.ie

Unit 17c, Wicklow Enterprise Centre

The Murrough,

Wicklow Town

Phone:- +353 (0)404 66433

Mobile:- +353 (0)86 387 1767

Lo-Cost CRM and Sales Automation

The formatting is all theirs, including the red text. And as for Direct mail techniques that work, I think you’ve missed the boat, the pier and the whole damn harbour ! This is now how you do business Charlie !