ocity

I took German in highschool. It was a lot of fun.
We watched plenty of videos, and ate gummi bears – it’s amazing what we’d do for a teensy weensy little gummi bear! (And they weren’t those hideous Trolli brand gummi bears, they were Haribo Gold Bears – yay for Aldi! I can get them any time I want to now!)

What can I remember? All the important things of course!
“Pappa Schlumpf! Pappa Schlumpf!” says Smurfette.
“Was ist loss, meine kleine Schlumpfine?”, says Papa Smurf.

We also learnt the best song in the world – 99 Luftballons by Nena. :D

I also happened to participate in the German verse speaking competition each year. I did get commendations for the first two for my accent. What can I say? I’m good at imitation – our teacher would tape herself reading the verse and we’d learn from that.

I finally found one of my verses – Im Karneval.

Im Karneval, im Karneval
tut jeder was er kann.
Der Errol geht als Eskimo
Der Ernst als schwarzer Mann.
Der dicke Ritter Kunibert,
der hat es gleich entdeckt,
dass unter dem Kartoffelsack
des Nachbars Hansel steckt.
Der Franzl geht als Zauberer,
und Frank ist Polizist.
doch niemand hat bisher erkannt,
wer dort die Hexe ist.
Die Lehrerin ist Hans im Glück.
Klein Ruth spielt Lehrerin,
und unsere Marktfrau Barbara
ist Schönheitskönigin.
Im Karneval, im Karneval
tut jeder was er kann.
Der Eros geht als Eskimo
und Ernst als schwarzer Mann.

I’m still looking for Das Fischlein by Josef Guggenmos

Der König in Thule by Goethe – I failed at this one – I didn’t really like it and it didn’t really gel with me. It was the only one for that year that I disliked the least… Oh well.

Es war ein König in Thule,
Gar treu bis an das Grab,
Dem sterbend seine Buhle
Einen goldnen Becher gab.

Es ging ihm nichts darüber,
Er leert’ ihn jeden Schmaus;
Die Augen gingen ihm über,
So oft er trank daraus.

Und als er kam zu sterben,
Zählt’ er seine Städt’ im Reich,
Gönnt’ alles seinem Erben,
Den Becher nicht zugleich.

Er saß beim Königsmahle,
Die Ritter um ihn her,
Auf hohem Vätersaale,
Dort auf dem Schloß am Meer.

Dort stand der alte Zecher,
Trank letzte Lebensglut,
Und warf den heil’gen Becher
Hinunter in die Flut.

Er sah ihn stürzen, trinken
Und sinken tief ins Meer.
Die Augen täten ihm sinken
Trank nie einen Tropfen mehr.

I went shopping today. It was a one day only sale of certain items. Very popular items. I made it in time to get what I wanted, and went to pay for my purchases. I planned to pay, put my shopping in the car, and then come back to collect my photos.

Then I looked at the line up. I had the choice of the self service, or the manned checkouts. I went for the manned checkouts. I knew from previous experience that the self service checkouts would be a pain because I was buying bulk items. I went through the checkout, paid, and put my shopping in the car.

I came back, collected my photos, and grabbed two items on my way out – a photo album for $5 and some cellophane for just $1.95. A total of $6.95. I had the cash for that. I figured I’d use the self service, after all, I had cash, only two items, and the line up seemed much shorter than for the manned checkouts.

Boy, was I wrong.

I’d forgotten that a lot of the people who use the self service checkouts aren’t efficient. They want to pay with a credit card which means a shop assistant has to check their signature. Or, they buy something that is on clearance which means it needs to be manually overridden. Or, they buy something that’s bulk which means it needs to be manually checked. (One of the mechanisms the system uses to ensure you are scanning the correct item is to weigh it – it had a spack one time when I bought steel capped shoes “OMG! Shoes aren’t meant to weigh THAT much! Send an alert! They must be stealing something!”)
And then it was -finally- my turn to use the checkout… I already had my money ready, and I didn’t need a bag.
Scan, beep! Scan, beep! “Please insert…” I didn’t need instructions, I inserted my money. And waited… And watched the screen as it -still- said “Please insert your money.” I think the only other slower software I have seen is the Translink Go Card ticketing machine.

It eventually spat out change, and the receipt. I left as it was still saying “Please take your change and receipt”.

Bugger the self service checkouts for a joke. I won’t be using them again for at least another year. Perhaps they’ll have improved by then.