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Published: April 18th 2010
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Krämerbrücke
... in Erfurt. The houses are built on a bridge! Last time, I promised to write a bit about what my life is like after moving to Hamburg and starting a new job. I guess I’m pretty much back to what you’d call a normal life. But it is far away from being a boring one.
I work a lot more than I did during the last two years. I’d say that I’m back to something like a fifty-hour-week, but I enjoy it. Nobody makes me work that much, I just do it because I like it. The company I work for now specialises in designing and implementing psychometric online tests and questionnaires. And they provide everything that has to do with finding out about people’s potential, which also comprises assessment centres or sometimes even trainings. So I can do all the things I like and I’m good at. For those of you who are interested in what the tests and questionnaires look like, I recommend
www.mentaga.com/gym. You can register for free, do a checkup of your mental fitness first, and then do mental training as often as you like. You get feedback and can see your own progress. It’s free, and it’s fun, so come and have a look.
On the Krämerbrücke
This is what the Krämerbrücke looks like when you're on it. So my days usually start early. It takes me about half an hour to get to work, and I try to be there around eight every morning. I catch a subway train to the city centre, where our office is located. After work, I go to the gym two, three, or four times per week. I did a fitness checkup when I started exercising there, and it turned out that my shape is not as bad as I had thought it would be, but there is still a lot of work to do, I need to build up my muscles and my endurance.
Work sometimes also takes me to other cities. In March, I spent a weekend in Erfurt (four and a half hours by train from Hamburg). I went there on a Friday night, gave a presentation training on a Saturday, and stayed until Sunday afternoon, so that I could have a look around the city. What a most beautiful city, with wonderful houses (some of them are built on a bridge across a river!) and a most amazing cathedral! And people were just so friendly. The day was wonderful and sunny, but very cold. So I
Cathedral
... in Erfurt had to interrupt my guided tour (with an audio guide) through the roads of the city in a very nice chocolate shop 😉.
Also in March, I spent two and a half days in Vienna for an assessment centre. That was one of the more classical business trips: You arrive at the airport in some city, go straight to a hotel, do the assessment centre, go back to the airport, fly home. Our hotel was at the airport in order to facilitate travelling. At least the first night, my colleague and I had enough time to catch a taxi into the city, have a nice dinner in a traditional Austrian restaurant (where he had Wiener Schnitzel and I, being a vegetarian, had some Palatschinken (kind of pancake)) and take a walk around the Stephansdom, the famous cathedral.
On weekends, I have a lot of visitors who come and stay with me. The day before my birthday (which was on a Thursday this year), my mum and my cousin Alexander came all the way to Hamburg in order to celebrate my birthday with me. The day after my birthday, my cousin Philipp joined us, and we spent a very
Town hall
... in Erfurt nice weekend together, doing a harbour boat trip, a city tour, visiting the town hall, going shopping... It was just great to have them around. My mum and Alexander left on Sunday night, Philipp one day later. One weekend, my friend Katrin and her boyfriend Tom came to see me, and the weekend after that, my friend Rebi stayed with me. Good to have them all around!
There is still work to do on my apartment, and never-ending paperwork. So believe me, I’m really busy, and life is far from being boring.
I also spent two weekends back in Weinstadt with my mum. On the first weekend, I had an appointment in hospital where the doctor told me that he wanted to remove all the metal in my body (plates in the pelvis and plate in the shinbone) some time between May and September. I’m glad it will all be taken out again. The second weekend was throughout the Easter holidays. A very nice weekend, too. I stayed with my mum, who had invited my friend Christiane to stay with us, and I saw my friends Marie and Tine.
This month, things have calmed down a bit.
That is probably not too bad. I always have to remember that last year was just the toughest year in my whole life. So many broken bones, so much pain that at times was so bad that I could hardly bear it. I had to take heavy drugs just to make the pain bearable. I had three operations, one of them lasting for almost six hours. I was completely helpless for ten days, unable to even move. I spent seven weeks in a wheelchair, ten weeks on crutches. I had forgotten what walking without pain feels like. I had to work extremely hard just to be able to do what is normal to most people - walk. I was facing all my dreams, everything that I had built my life around literally shattered. There was no perspective, no idea how to go on. I had given everything up for my hanggliding life: job, home, even a good friend. For a life that had felt perfect. And suddenly, there I was, with nothing left. That’s what it felt like. But I’m recovering. It will take time, and of course life is not the same after such a bad accident. But I
Road
... in Erfurt guess I made the best out of it, with the support of many great people: family and friends. And I’ve got a perspective again.
So here I am. Walking again, getting fitter. With a job that I absolutely love, that is diverse and challenging, in which I can do the things that I’m good at and that I like. With an awesome boss and a great team. In a city that is just fantastic. And hanggliding will still be part of my life. I will be at the
Women’s and Rigid’s Worlds in Tegelberg, Germany, where I will help with the organisation. I look forward to seeing some hanggliding friends there!
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