Truly German: ELENA

ELENA stands for Elektronischer Entgeltnachweis and was introduced in Germany at the beginning of 2010.

Companies now have to report details about their employees on a monthly basis to a new Government agency.  These include their wages, but also the number of days holiday or even on strike that they had.

The German Government has claimed that it will reduce paperwork and beaurocracy for companies, but my experience with the new system this week left me with a different opinion, as you can hear in the podcast:

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Einen tollen Spitzer

…von Faber Castell möchte ich heute vorstellen.

An diesem Spitzer gefällt mir, dass es wohl keine Stifte gibt die man nicht damit spitzen kann. Er hat drei Öffnungen verschiedener Größe auf  zwei Seiten. Das heißt, er lässt sich auf und zu klappen und hat an beiden Seiten eine Dose, die sich einzeln entleeren lassen. Der Spitzer selbst ist dreieckig geformt und relativ groß, sodass auch kleine Hände gut mit ihm umgehen können und viel “Gespitztes” hineinpasst.

Das einizige was mir nicht so gut gefällt, ist die Sauerei die entstehen kann, wenn etwas wild gespitzt wird und  sich die Dose löst. Ansonsten ein super Spitzer.

Winter in Germany

With Germany experiencing the coldest winter for 13 years we decided to change our plans for the weekend and took our sledge out instead.

This gave us not only a rare chance to go sledging on the hills of Camp King, but also to talk about some of the things that German residents – and possibly long-term visitors – need to know about: Winter tyres, snow-clearing duty and a lack of salt.

Sledging in Camp King

Sledging in Camp King

To find out more, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file Subscribe to the podcast

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