Zusatzinfo

hier alles, was ich euch noch nicht erzählt habe ;-)

http://ellainllanelli.blogspot.com/

Back "home" in Wales

.... after a week in Sheffield, Leamington and Plymouth. If some of you are wondering, what the hell I am doing in England (Wales is NOT England yeah yeah yeah =)) : I visited all the other plants to collect some data for my thesis.

First Sheffield on Monday/Tuesday: I was quite surprised about the lovely surroundings of this former capital of steel! A huge shopping mile instead of old steel factories was what I got to see! They told me that the steel age ended aprox. 20 years ago and then they knocked the whole area down to build retail parks and shops and so on ...

Leamington SPA: a little town (für die Deutschen: sieht aus wie Baden-Baden! Viele kleine Villen und Alleen und offensichtlich viele reiche Leute) in-beween the woods of Robin Hood - LOVELY !!!
My boss took me out for dinner and then arround the place the whole night to show me all the castles, forts, little streets and all other tourist attractions you can remember .... AT NIGHT! Obviously he wanted to make sure that I have seen everything before leaving the other day ... crazy people ...

Plymouth: WOW !!! Such a beautiful place !!! Situated next to the sea with a lovely marina, a stunning view along the coastline onto the open sea (again, it was almost night when I got there - but at least I catched the evening sky (Abendstimmung) this time) and a really fancy hotel, they put me in. I can tell you, it is SO FUNNY observing businessmen at breakfast :o) everyone acts different and still they all act the same ... They feel so important and want to show off - a kind of courtship behaviour I think (ne Art Balzverhalten) - everybody wants to look most important, but when they're finally sitting on their table, you soon realise that they are nothing but lonely ... [also hier mal kurz auf Deutsch: die busy Businessmen laufen immer wie Gockels am Buffet auf und ab und versuchen am wichtigsten von allen auszusehen. Das ist sooo lustig mit anzuschauen! Und dann sitzen sie am Tisch und du siehst in ihren Gesichtern, dass sie sich wünschten, ihre Gattin würde ihnen jetzt den Kaffee bringen]

The weekend I spent in Cornwall, visiting an outdoor exhibition called "The Eden Project" www.edenproject.com which was really fun, then I drove down the coast and up along the northcoast of Cornwall again, visited some lovely villages, slept in my tent and came back here today. (Rosamunde Pilcher habe ich übrigens nicht getroffen =))

Fotos kommen !!!

Hello from Wales!

To be honest – my English is still the same after five weeks in Wales … BUT with all the Norwegian and German in between it is not surprising (even though I’m a woman and therefore multi tasking, three languages DO in fact create a big mess in my mind!)

Wales is absolutely stunning !!! Have a look at my hotel and the landscape at one of the posts below … I live and work in Llanelli which is only 20mins from Swansea and an hour from Cardiff in the southern part of Wales next to the coast. I’m working at the INA plant of Schaeffler UK writing my final thesis about potential use of Renewable Energy in UK. The work is really exciting and I travel arround in the whole UK (London, Sheffield, Plymouth, Birmingham ….). My working colleagues are really kind (some of them a bit mad – but that’s what I like ;-)) and I’m really enjoying myself.

I live in a 5 star B&B paid by my employer which looks like a castle and I really don’t know how to deserve it ;-) www.llwynhall.co.uk It has only 5 rooms and two of them are engaged by myself and another German girl who does some working experience in the same company I work. Her name is Ella and she is a lovely fellow, always confused and amused about my madness.

The biggest problem to start with was the left-hand driving … even worse with my German Golf that I brought over here! It happened more than once, that I was driving on the wrong side of the road and suddenly facing a car coming towards me! Also the roundabouts: going around clockwise while watching all the mental Welsh car drivers (and they ARE mental!) and the road signs isn’t the easiest thing to do …

The second biggest problem: none.

The third biggest problem: Drinking! If Welsh people are going out at night, they get drunk. And if I write drunk, I mean REALLY drunk! As you probably know, I’m not a lightweight ;-) but the problem is the speed: one pint in one pub, then over to the next bar and a gin&tonic, a couple of cocktails in the next club and all this in rounds (everybody is paying a round for everyone – if you’re not fast enough, it can happen that you have to drink 3 cocktails in a row!). Every night out ends up in a nightclub that is closing at three o’clock. The Germans are very drunk and go to bed – the Welsh are even more drunk and go home to have some bottles of wine …

So far, best wishes from Wales! Helena