Category: life

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bergblicksteuer

3 friends and 1 mother were heading down to the christmas markets in Innsbruck. The two semi knowledgable german ish people were explaining to the mother about taxation in Germany. Two great examples

  • Kirchensteuer – Church Tax
  • Luftsteuer – An Object Tax when an object you hang outside your property extends into public space (i.e. a sign over a pavement or a cigarette vending machine)

The drive continues and we notice that we cant see the mountains.
oh – you mean someone forgot to pay their mountain view tax? hence the phrase – bergblicksteuer was started in our group.

Living in Munich – its not hard to see some mountains – but the weather doesnt always play ball you forgotten to pay your bergblicksteuer.

Instagram has a small growing collection of photos tagged with #bergblicksteuer

instagram #bergblicksteuer screenshot
instagram #bergblicksteuer screenshot
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my first time abroad

I guess it was 1995 or 1996 when some friends of mine at Uni declared they wanted to go via Eurotunnel to EuroDisney (now DisneyLand Paris) for the day. I didnt have a passport – so had the joy of getting quickly a British Visitors Passport from the postoffice to be able to join them. The old British Visitors Passport was a simple booklet with a picture, no where near the security standards we have in our passports today.

Why remember this now? Well I just managed to secure a Starbucks YouAreHere mug for DisneyLand Paris. My collection of mugs brings back so many memories from friends and places visited.

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the same procedure as every year…

over christmas, I caught myself replying to a british friend with the comment “the same procedure as every year”. Funnily enough the comment was lost on him, but a german would have known straight away and replied “the same procedure as every year miss sophie”.

Dinner For One was a British comedy sketch in an end of the pier show, which somehow found its way onto German TV every new year. Its now a tradition, a very big tradition. Its shown multiple times on the 31st and has been recoloured as well.

Older brits will know the name of Freddy Frinton who plays the butler, but very few have actually heard of the sketch – much to amazement of most germans.

Happy new year!

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face the fear

Oktoberfest provides a great excuse to catch with friends and colleagues. A few small beers, a little party – but mostly importantly catchup time with people you might only see once a year.

You might wonder what Oktoberfest and “face the fear” has to do with each other. One conversation early in the day with friends was about software deployment patterns. We see each other maybe once a year and we normally compare where we are in our devops journeys.

In comparing our stories – the underlying factor came out. We had faced our fears and taken risks. It might not have been perfect – but we learnt and we moved forward. Standing still (or what we call waterfall deployments) is super safe – buts is also expensive and frustrating! The holy grail of continuous deployments aren’t for everyone (thanks amazon who deploy every 15 seconds!) but there is a sweet spot in between there that everyone can aim for.

Look at the risks and decide if you (and your bosses) can face the fear.

Phil peering through window at Fischervroni