Having survived this terrible winter without ever getting sick, it only seems befitting that the moment Spring starts kicking in, I get a terrible cold. So I did last Sunday, and only since yesterday, I am starting to feel okay again. I mean, it still is only a cold, but it did bother me quite a bit. Particularly because I actually needed to work quite a lot (deadline on Monday). I have some first numbers resulting from my main research project! The numbers dont mean anything yet, really, but this first estimation puts the costs of all conflict between 1960 and 1999 at an estimated 1.5 trillion dollars. I reckon it is still a major underestimation, so I will be cranking that number up a bit further!
On Wednesday, we joined Nicole and some friends to go to another Pub quiz (last time, the three of us were an embarrassing failure), but this time with a twist. Or actually, two twists. First, it was in German. Second, it was a "glamour-themed" pub quiz, presented by a drag queen in one of the gay bars around the corner. Well, as you may have guessed: our knowledge regarding German glamour themes was rather inadequate.... :-))) We only knew 1.5 questions (where "we" refers to Nicole in particular. I think the most shocking thing is actually that there were people/teams who actually had 18 out of 20 questions correct... With questions like "who is designing the wedding dress of Princess Victoria of Sweden" and "What celebrity was on the t-shirt of Oliver Kahn when he was spotted in a Bavarian Biergarten last year?", it seems hard to do well!
On Thursday, Fedor's brothers arrived for a weekend-in-Berlin. Fedor is delighted to have them around, and it is a good reason to drink and eat well. So we did/do! Tomorrow morning, Hascar (Fedor's oldest brother) will be running the Berlin half-marathon, so we are hoping for some nice weather. And in the afternoon, they will be taking the train back to the Netherlands. Currently, the boys are all out in the city, so I have some time to relax and work more on my tax returns. It is said that 50% of all tax law in the world is written in German, because it is so complicated. And I must say that I am indeed having a pretty tough time, despite using some handy software that is making it all a lot easier. But it looks like it will work out with a nice taxback, so that will be delightful!
Oh, and next week is Easter, so a 4-day weekend! Looking forward to it already, let's hope there will be some nice weather....
Tschüßi,
OJ
1 comment:
Hi Olaf,
1.5 trillion indeed doesn't sound too impressive, but depends quite a bit on what kind of costs you take into account. After all, some countries are so conflictuous that they (a) might experience learning and (b) may hardly have any economic activity left that may be lost in the subsequent conflict. Obviously, it also matters what the definition of conflict actually entails: do my parenting arguments with the mother-the-wife (which we actually do not have so frequently) also count? Or your conflicts with the German IRS?
On the latter, from experience I can tell that there are huge learning effects there. I might well make errors in filling out my Dutch tax forms (with employers in multiple countries), yet I do so consistently so it counts as only one error (I will argue when asked to).
Enjoy Easter.
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