Fabsbook

After making the experience of missing warm water the next is about to come. Tomorrow the engineering department will do a major change on the electricity system of the building which means that no electric device can be used from 8 am to 6 pm.

I am curious what it will feel like to ran out of battery of my cell phone or not being able to use any light at home. Surely, at 6 pm it is not getting dark but today for example it is quite misty. The smog might be a reason for that.

Read the rest of this entry »

The past week was quite busy. Once again colleagues from Germany came to our office and we all had to squeeze together. We are running out of space anyway and planning to move our office in the later summer. This means, when there are visitors the lacking space is even more obvious.

Before they arrived we had to prepare several things and when they were here they also needed our support. This has become usual business in the meantime and is nothing special any more. Some of them had some experience with China already so they nearly acted like they’re living over here.

Read the rest of this entry »

I would like to say thank you to my mom for everything that she has been doing for me. Unfortunately I can not be there and say thank you in person but I guess a phone call will be the most personal thing instead.

Anyway, Thank you for everything, mom!

Since Tuesday this week, the problem regarding the hot water seems to be solved. On Monday afternoon, there was warm water and on Tuesday morning everything was back to normal.

I very much enjoyed the first time shaving or taking a shower with warm water. I was relieved that everything was fine again and I didn’t have to convince myself anymore that the water isn’t as cold as I think it is.

However, every time I was taking a shower I briefly thought about taking a cold one again. This was just a brief thought. Too good is the feeling or warm water on your skin. But there is a change in my habits now. I do not set up the water as warm as before when being in the shower.

Somehow it seems that I already had adapted to the new situation and if it had been a few days longer, I probably might not have been missing warm water any more.

The interesting aspect is that at the very beginning, I was missing hot water a lot. With each day and each shower I more and more got used to the feeling and refreshing shock of cold water. What was such a major issue at the beginning had rapidly become a minor one and made me even change my habits.

This reminded me of one thing. At the beginning, a problem about a basic thing is a huge issue but there is always a way to adapt to the changes. Sometimes it happens faster than you might think.

As I came home from work on Friday evening I went to the gym as usual. After I finished my daily workout I went to my room to have a refreshing shower. When turning on the water it felt quite cold so I waited a few seconds until it gets warmer.

Checking the temperature again showed no progress so I continued waiting. Since it didn’t seem to get better, I decided to have a cold shower. Honestly speaking it felt much cooler than it was. The reason was that my body was still heated up from the workout. As the cool water flew over my chest I felt that the veins started contracting and my breath got shorter and faster. Seconds later it was more or less back to normal. I hurried up and had a quite quick shower.

Read the rest of this entry »

A colleague took me to a market for car parts this week. On the way to that place I had no idea what I will see there and what it will be like.

As we arrived I first saw some small booths and garages on three sides of a small square. At first I thought it was a parking lot but as we came closer I saw that only some of these cars were only parking there. Other cars were jacked up. Next to these cars you could see tools, tires and screws. Mechanics were changing tires or trying to fix some defects t the steering. The floor was covered with a mixture of dust, oil, other liquids and water.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shortly before I left Beijing to take two weeks of vacation in Germany, it seemed that spring is about to arrive. When I was back, it definitely had and you needn’t put on your thickest jacket in the closet any more when leaving your home.Honestly speaking the timing was just perfect. With the second half of March the heating period had been officially ended by the government. This meant that all official buildings turned off the heating independent of the weather outside. In our office it felt a little bit cold for several days but with a pullover it was acceptable.