In these conditions, the 100m walk from my desk to my car feels long and even with the aircon on full blast, during the first minutes in the car I feel like a chicken in the oven.Fortunately, the German Embassy - naturally prepared for all possible circumstances - can help in these situations!
Until someone decided that a six bedroom house was no longer suitable, the official residence of the German Ambassador to South Africa was right next to the offices of German Embassy. The old residence has now been converted into offices – one of them mine – many with a balcony and own bathroom.
Another advantage of working in the old residence is that we are surrounded by a beautiful big garden and have a lovely pool with sun loungers, changing rooms and showers.
And while people are normally to shy to use it, on hot days it provides much needed refreshment. When I went to the kitchen the other day, I actually ran into a colleague in swimming shorts who was just getting a cold drink and a paper to read by the pool! Awesome!
But if you now think that you were wrong about Germans all along and that we are quite a cool nation after all, you might wanna wait a moment...
As soon as temperatures started rising and our chancellor anticipated the “risk” that people might use the pool, he took precautions and sent out a reminder of the “Nutzungsordnung für das bundeseigene Schwimmbad der Botschaft Pretoria” (aka "The user regulations for the federally-owned pool of the Embassy in Pretoria"). Among others, it specifies that the Federal Republic of Germany cannot be held liable for any loss or damage of valuables, that users shall behave in such a way as not to disturb the work of other employees and that swimmers have to use the shower facilities before using the pool...
I guess you can take people out of Germany, but you cannot take Germany out of the people...
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