Life is Good

No, this not an advertorial for an Asian electronics manufacturer. Although I'd be happy to do that, of course. *g* A bit more than a year ago I decided to quit my job and do something different. There were some other reasons besides just wanting to do sth else, but I'm not going to put them into writing in public. ;-) Suffice to say that I cannot recommend my former employer to anybody. Sad but true. But who gives a shit about the past anyway?

In the last months working as a freelance consultant and project manager I had the great honour and pleasure of working on a lot of different projects for a variety of clients: some big, some small, some very intensive, some a bit more relaxed. But all of them very, very interesting and challenging. And the best of it: I get to meet new people all the time and find out how many great colleagues are out there and what a pleasure it is to help them achieve their goals. 

And I like the independence, the freedom to work when and where I want. 

Wow, this sounds like some serious tree-hugging-positive-thinking brainwash, right? But for once, I mean it. Seriously. I am happy. Well, at least as long as I can ignore my soccer's team performance and the fact that my kitchen burned down and I'll probably have to torture and kill some insurance company guy. Apart from that, Life is Good. 

Wait, what was that piece about the kitchen burning down? Right. The. Dishwasher. Caught. Fire. In. The. Night. Although. It. Was. Not. Running. It set the furniture around it on fire as well. Luckily, we woke up in time, I was able to extinguish the fire myself, nobody got hurt. That's the good part. But the bloody soot was of course more or less everywhere and the kitchen was completely ruined. So, luckily, there's insurance. Right? Well, partly right. My insurance showed up immediately and paid for the damage to our property. Very quick, very friendly, very non-bureaucratic. Sincere and honest thanks go out to Axa. But there is soot on the walls and ceilings. It is toxic and it stinks. And it prevents us from proceeding with everything else. Because the walls and ceilings are part of the building, it is the landlord's insurance's problem. The landlord was also very forthcoming, friendly, nice. Sincere and honest thanks again here. But not so much their insurance company. They are a bunch of morons and I will torture and kill all of them, maybe. Maybe they decide to play nice after all but until then I'm stuck with several thousand euros of fees for cleaning and repainting walls and ceilings. Because I couldn't wait for them any longer. Three weeks after the fire they still haven't been in touch, still haven't sent anyone. So I had to hire the detoxificationer/cleaners/painters myself - or continue breathing toxic particles for another couple of months. Fuck that. If there was a way I could prove decreased life expectancy because of inhaling all that soot I would sue the shit out of them. But that is impossible in Germany. So I guess I will resort to violence, that is much cheaper and easier to apply anyway. ;-) But the positive outlook is: Detoxifiers in right now, painters next Tuesday, new kitchen in two weeks time. And then back to normal minus ca 10K Eur ... good thing that money isn't worth anything anyway anymore.