People are just mssing the basic understand of law...

When I read that HuffPost article I really couldn't believe what load of crap they were writing. Not that this is an big issue, but it just comes to show you that people really miss the basic understand of the law.
Here are a number at issues at work. First of all it is a breach of contract. The supplier (Aldi) was supposed to deliver a box of chocolte covered cookies. They didn't come through with the condition of the merchandise in question. Therefore we have here a clear case of breach of contract on the side of the supplier. Due to that fact we have here case of compensation of damages. Repleacing the box of cookies through the supplier is not PR action or the attempt of the supplier to show what for a nice company they are. They're required by law to do so. This is always a 2-step process. First the supplier has remove the flaw. In the cas of the box of cookies this means they have to replace the box. Only if the should no longer be applicable or to complicated for one of the 2 parties involved, than it would be legal to offer financial compensation instead.
The other thing I find a little troubeling is the reaction of the supplier on FB. Yes it might sound funny to a lot of people, but considering the legal ramifications I don't think it is funny at all. First of all I miss the real sincerity on the suppliers side to appologize for the breach of contract. Secondly they chose a terrible way to do that. Not only din't they acknowledge their breach of contract in a serious enough matter, but they pretty much made fun of their customer. That could easily be construed as an attempt to attack the customers personal inegrity. And that is just inviting a law suit. If I it were my responsibility I would have fired the guy who wrote the FB response right away. I would have appologizred publically to the customer for the breach of contract, explained on how I intend to rectify the flaw at hand and to proof that I'm really serious I would him offered 5 bucks off his next purchase.
But the stunt Aldi pulled here is most questionalbe business practice. But it does show how little average Joe and even companies know actually know about the legal requirements when it comes to breaches of contract.

Doctor's appointment...

Today I had a appointment with my general phsician. I had to go there enyways, because I needed a refill for of my prescriptions. But for the I don't have to see my doctor, but only the nurse practioneer. Since It doesn't cost me extra I was going to see my doctor as well. There had been 2 things that had been bothering me. On the one had I was having kind of a rash on my fingers and the hand lotion wasn't just doing the trick and on teh other hand I had relaized in the past couple of weeks that I had a diminished movenment in my neck. It's worse after getting up and gets better during the day, but It never is completely OK.
For the rash I go an ointment right away. For my neck issues my doctor sent me to a spine x-ray. Teh place I went to is just 5 minutes from my doctors office and usually I doesn't take long. But today I had to wait for over 1 hour. And that didn't make me exactly happy. But there was nothing I could do about it. Finally I got called into the examination room. The exam was pretty quick. And than it meant to have to wait for the x-rays and the report.
Turns out it's nothing terrible, just the ususal wear and tear for a guy who's in his mid 40's and has a desk job. With the x-rays and the report I went back to my doctor's office. And had to wait again. Guess doctors appointments really test your patience. Once I got called in we talked about the x-rays and he worte me prescritions for a 4 week long physical therapy about once a week. Good think, it doesn't cost me a dime since it's being paid for by my health insurance.
By the time I got to work it was 11.30 am and I really had hoped that this docotor's appointment wouldn't last longer than 10 am at the latest. But there's nothing you can do about it. At a certain age you just can't afford to play with your health.

The Contingency Plan is on Ice...

The contingency plan has been put on hold...at least for now. Since this isn't as selfexplanatory I need to explain that a little.

The first vote for Austria's Federal President ended with a tie. And 2 candidates went into the 2nd round. And on those candidates is not only a fascist piece of trash, but a Nazi as well. And there was a good chance that he would become Austria's next president. 

These are troubling times indeed. And I really have no intention of living in a country that has a Nazi as president. So there were several option as contingency plan on the table. Germany was the first logical option. It has the same language and a similar culture and due to the fact of it being part of the EU it would be easy to move there. But the fact that Germany is having big issues with right wing groups and the AfD especially didn't exactly making it my first choice.

The next logical choice was Great Britain. Most people might be thinking that Englands weather would have been a deciding factor. It was not. Since Great Britain will be having it's Brexit election soon and nobody tries to venture an educated guess if it is going to stay in the EU or not, that didn't make it prime target either.

This left pretty much 3 options. Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Each of those tragets have their benefits and their downsides. Australia is an interesting choice with an interesting job market, but the partial inequality with LGBT rights doesn't put it in first place. 

Between Canada an New Zealand it's a toss. Both have interesting job markets and I could see myself living in either country. When it comes to Canada I was only going for jobs in Birtish Columbia to begin with. But on the other hand Canada is quite in quite a number of apsects similar to US, at least when it comes to lifestyle. And I've already had that experience. So when I was going to take such a big step I was going to an for me interesting experience. And that is definitely New Zealand. 

It's different form what I'm currently used to and lots of it's fronteer spirit is still alive. So I did make my first choice in case the unthingable should happen. And yes of course I did do my homework and looked into all facts that relate to me, including the fact that I hope to retire at some point for my job and that's what made New Zealand the top pic. I brought my english resume up to date and did have my first email correspondence with finding a couple of head hunters that I was willing to work with. It is still the preliminary phase, but the process had to be started at some point. 

When I was talking to my friends about that, they understand the reasoning behind it and they were thinking of something similar. But they did have a much harder time making that kind of a decission. Maybe for me it's just different. I've left Austria before and lived for almost 10 years in the US. And in my opinion there is no point an getting mad about somehting you can't change or make yourself feel bad. If you don't like something it's up to oneself to step up and change it.

Now that Van der Bellen beat the Nazi scumbag by 32.000 votes that contingency plan has been put on ice...at least for now. The fact remains that 49,7% of the population voted for a fascist candidate could mean that at some point in the future this contingency plan will require some rethinking. But at least for the moment there is no need to continue on that contigeny path.

Monthly VAT Report

Today the montly VAT-Tax Report had to be filed. Being late wiht that is never a good idea, since the government has absolutely no understanding for that. 

Well. it's not that difficult. But you still need your time. Good thing I had done my control of the accounts involved previously. That's always an good idea. It really saves you a ton of work at the due date. But vefore you're going to submit the report I always look the accounts over one more time. This sepeerates an experienced accountant from an amateur. But without 1 change that still had to be made it was all fine.

Next I looked at the online Account with the Austrian Tax Authority. Turns out that we had to prepare the Coprporate Tax payment for June. But with me having access to all that information it was pretty much a piece of cake and I did know exactly what we were owing the government... VAT, import tax and corporate tax. 

After about 1 hour work I submitted the tax report to the authorities and even entered the amount owed in the online banking app. But I wasn't going to pay the government earlier. That would be paid exactly when the debt was due. 

While doing VAT reports can be a pain in the ass for young accountants, I really don't mind it. On the one hand it is an important part of my job and on the other hand it gives you the opportunity to look your accounts over one more time and sometimes you find entries that need to be questioned for a second time. So I really don't consider that a time wasted. 

Chatting with former Co-Workers...

This evening I was chatting with 2 former co-workers of mine. First up with my former co-werker Klarissa. She's currently attending a basic accounting class. All in all she is doing very well, but certain subjects in accounting are giving her troubles. Especially the correct way on dealing an recording with discounts and how to handle and record deposit payments correctly. I know for personal experience that this can somewhat of a bitch. Good thing she has Gabi and I to talk to.

Later I was chating with my former superior and co-worker, Gabi. Since I had left the company the accounting department has been going downhill very quickly. That doesn't really come as a surprise to me. After all when 1 full time accountant is missing, it only can end badly. To my knowledge they still haven't found a suitable replacement and it is my considered opinion that they will have a hard time finding a replacement. There are currently 800 opening for qualified accountants in Vienna. And if you talk to headhunters they will tell you, that companies have to pay more to qualified accountant these days that is the current standard in the industry. On top of that accountants are looking for other things as well, when chosing a position, such like partial tele-commuting, more time off and other benefits the company has to offer.
She told me that she had a meeting with the company and tried to negotiate a severance package, what would have been the cheaper way for the company. But of course the 2 CEO's of my former employer don't do that. The let someone go, have to pay them for the next 2 month and tel them to stay at home, since they are afraid they could be doing something bad to the company. But the CEO's do that with each employee and that doesn't make any sense economically. I guess it's just a way of showing power to compensate for some huge inferiority complex.
I got to talk with my former co-worker Gabi about my current job. I still love my job and I have awesome fun going there each and every day. It really keeps me on my toes and I do have to use my knowledge each and every day. On top of that I have the ability to shape the way the accounting deopartment should be run. At least partially and the input in such matters of the main-accountant is always wanted and appreciated. I now know that it means working in a positive working environment and when everyone is working as a team and pulling the company in the right direction. I'm really so happy about my choice to leave my former employer. Apparently you have to be in the right place at the right time.
And I#m happy for my former co-worker as well that the Nowotny problem has finally come to a conclusion for her as well. The bottom line is, my former employer is just a company that is impossible to work for.
Not that I want to gloat but now my ex employer is looking to replace a fill time accountant and they will to have to replace the CFO as well.

Skeleton Crew at work...

Today was an interesting day at work, since we were only going to be a skeleton crew. A lot of the employees had taken the day off since Tursday is a public holiday in Austria. And about the same will be true for Friday.
Usually we're about 8 to 10 people in the office. But today we were only 3. That mad for an interesting feeling, since everyone is their office alone. Nobody walking in the hallways or dropping by to ask you certain questions. It was a very quiet but very prodcutive working as well. I did some basic accounting work. Recording the the bank and recording the cash register. And I had to do the payments of the outstanding vendor invoices before 11 am and transmit the data to the bank. All in all pretty much standard stuff.
But I did get in some time on working on some more interesting things in accounting like doing prep-work for doing reconciliation of certain accounts, that you have to look at on a regualr basis in order not to have to do the whole reconciliation work by the end of the tax year.
An of course inbetween I had to answer the phone and take down customer orders. But it defintely did make day go by quickly.

Replacing my CamCorder...

Well, my old Sony CamCorder has been broken for a while and I never could get myself to replace. On the one hand I didn't really need it that urgently and on the other hand I still had my GoPro4 that I usually take on hikes with me. As much as I do like my GoPro it has one disadvantage that had really been bothering for some time. It's missing the zoom Funktion and hat's something I do use very often while documenting a hiking trail. With a zoom function of the FoPro I wouldn't even had replaced my CamCorder. I knew what price range I was going for. In the end it was a toss between a Canon model and a Panasonic model. The price was not a factor since they were just about the same. But in the end the Canon model just had features I eventually might use and I was recording the footage in MP4's and that makes video editing a lot easier.
An since time was somewhat of a factor I opted for 24 hour delivery with no added costs and had it delivered directly to my office at work.

Here are some of main features:

• Photo: 3,28 Mio Pixel
• Video: 1920x1080 Full HD
• 32x optical zoom
• 57x digital zoom
• Weight: 236 grams

I thing that cam will work quite well on the trail for me and the total cam in a little under my budget and that made me quite happy as well.

Planning on getting back on the Trail...

Well, since me knee injury last year and than attending a very demanding course in advanced accounting, I haven't been as much on the trail as I would want to. And I'm sure Gina misses our outings on hiking and long distance hiking trails. So this weekend I really just had it and decided something had to change. Due to the fact that I usually attend a class on Saturday, hitting more demanding trails isn't quite easy. And I really wanted  didn't want aggrivate my knee too much in the beginning. So the plan was to either start with the Eisenwurzen or North-South long distance hiking trail. Geh starting point of both trails is in northern Lower Austria and this region has rather moderate ascends and decends and that would have been a great choice. Beides that this region of Lower Austria is fun to hike in Spring or Fall.
Well, but no good deed ever goes unpunished...so to speak. When I checket on how to get to the starting point and then by the end of the weekend back to Vienna, it turned out that this was going to be a futile endeavour. Using public transportation would require a travel time of about 4 hours  for a distance of about 100 miles and of course the connections for public transporations are bad on Weekends. The best way to do Eiter one of those trails using public transportation, is by doing a section hike for a week or 10 days. But since I've just changed my job recently, that wasn't really an option either.
But I really wasn't willing to give up. Since the Voralpen long distance hiking trail starts about 40 minutes from my apartment. And even the parts after leaving the Vienna's city borders are much easier to get to and within a reasonable amount of time. So I opted for that trail. And since this coming Thursday is a public holiday in Austria I plan on hiking the first section of this long distance hiking trail and it's about a distance of 15 miles with very moderate ascents and easy desents. That will be good for Gina and I. I really need to go hiking as this really gets me relaxed and I've seen that Gina is becoming a little restless herself. So that will be good for to get all that energy out of her.