Wow... I haven't posted since March. I must have been busy. I'm getting sick of starting posts by lamenting how guilty I feel about not posting, so I won't. Not that I don't feel guilty, mind. The blog is like a plant which hasn't been watered in six months. Well, maybe more like a cactus.

So, we left our intrepid hero after his incredible adventure around the world. What happened next? Well... a hullovalot. Lets break it down month by month, shall we? I'll use my calendar for reference.

April, 2008:
Arrived in NZ, and hit the ground running. Went straight back into DnD, Kung-fu and jamming like I'd never actually gone. I had a tax declaration waiting for me when I got back (think compulsory IR3 in german). Sonja's accountant took care of it for 80 very well spent franks. And, I moved into my flat in Zurich. Awesome. It has one large bedroom, a small kitchen, a lounge, a balcony and a bathroom. Comes with cellar storage space, laundry + drying room provided in basement, and is in a very quiet neighbourhood. The big bonus was that it was more-or-less fully furnished. I took the lease from Petra, someone who I knew at work who was moving back to Vienna. Most of her stuff is cheap IKEA stuff that you have to assemble yourself. It cheaper for her to buy new furniture in Vienna than cart it all the way there, so she gave it to me. I had a functional flat on day 1. Perfect.

One of the things I did first off was to register my flat on couchsurfing. Never heard of it? Have a read here. I just get random tourists crashing for free on my couch every so often. I really like the idea, and had my first guests around the end of April. I've got some pics of the flat on my couchsurfing profile. Take a look.

May, 2008
Couchsurfing started heating up. I hosted five guests in three groups. That means that three of the four weeks in May I had one or two randoms staying at my place. The week I had off I caught up with an old group of friends from NZ. They were uni students at Canterbury, and I knew them through Josh when I was flatting there. Pedy and Martin were going to visit Virgine and her boyfriend in Toulon. Road trip! I met Martin in Geneva, and we drove to Pede's place in Lyon. We stayed there the night at someone that Pedy vaguely knew. It was awesome. We played this murder mystery game where someone is the killer, someone is the police, and everyone else is victim/witness (chosen randomly). The killer kills, and the policeguy/girl tries to guess who was the killer by asking witnesses. Oh, and we played that game where someone puts a name on your head and you have to guess who you are with yes/no questions. Well these guys were really nice. I didn't speak a word of French (except what Paul taught me, but lets not go there) and some of them spoke a bit of english. They fed us, gave us a place to sleep, and were fantastic. Loved it.

Next morning we drove south to Toulon. I saw Virginie again. She's doing some administration role now for the Navy! Who'd have thought?! Her boyfriend is kind of a full-time artist who does this funky monochrome art. I swam in the medeteranian for the first time! It was cold as hell, and started raining shortly thereafter, but I had to. We went walking in the hills around Toulon, played this crazy French card game (which I was too slow for), had ice-cream by the waterfront, and drove back on the Sunday (arriving 10 minutes in Lyon before my train left...). Yeah, that was an awesome trip.

So that's it for May, huh? (Just kidding Moni... really...)
Moni and I started going out. We've known each other from DnD since November 07. Moni's works as a senior receptionist, is educated (biology), is studying (kinesiology), has studied massage (great, I know), plays dnd, and is a great cook. What more could I ask? ;)

Here are some photos.

June, 2008
Life dominated by work, couchsurfing (9 guests in 5 groups), DnD, jamming, kung-fu and of course Moni. Otherwise, very little noteworthy.

July, 2008
4 couchsurfers this month. Highlights were Alex and Claudia's wedding party (Alex's pictures are here), and walking for four days in Switzerland with Alex, Claudia and Moni (I always like it when people are more organised than I am, because I can just link to their pictures instead of uploading my own - thanks Alex).

August, 2008
This was officially the crappy month of 2008. Three people from work scheduled three weeks of holidays after the testing phase of our project. That's all fine and good, except that the test phase was extended, so I was left on my lonesome to fix the plethora of defects that the customer's team of testers were still finding. Yes, it was one man fixing the bug of many testers. I did overtime (10+ hour days). I worked public holidays, two weekends, a the Saturday of the third. I had no time for laundry, dishes, Moni, or life in general. I started hating work. August was dominated purely by work. I had no time or energy for hosting couchsurfers, and started reserving weeks for 'NO COUCHSURFERS' in my calendar. I was tired, burnt out, frustrated, and I'd missed the best month of summer. People told me I looked pale when they got back from holiday. I really was.

Needless to say, come end of August I was not a happy chappy. Neither was Moni. It wasn't just the workload which was bothering me; there were several things (which I won't detail here because of the professional implications it may have). Point is, I was giving serious consideration to quitting, and even started updating my resume. In the end I had a very direct conversation with our management, which led to a small pay rise and the reassurance that 'things were changing'. I decided to stick it out a while longer and observe the 'changes'. I decided that I would only ever endure one more month like August in my company; the next would be the last.

One nice thing that happened at the end of August, was building a bumble bee nest. Alex and Claudia, two good friends of mine, had married earlier on in the year. Alex had an interest in bumble bees. One of his books had the directions on how to build one. I thought an appropriate wedding gift would be to find a way to build the nest, so I called my cousin Roger who, like most males from the Dörfliger family excluding myself, is a woodworker/joiner (Schreiner in German). It took a bit of juggling schedules and such, but eventually Alex and I made it to Fulenbach to build the Hummelinkasten with Roger. It was really cool. Alex was obviously impressed how fluently and quickly Roger built that thing. Actually, I was too. He spent a bit of time analysing the diagrams, made up a cutting list, made the cuts, then just screwed it all together. Add a few finishing touches, and it was done within an hour or two. Not bad.

From this...	...to this