Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

If you like to read what we did in our holiday in Perth, Western Australia, just click on the label holiday-diary at the end of this post; blogger sums them up in a row then.

I will put the best pics to flickr and link that, too, when I´m done.
Well. So far away, Perth...

Perth-diary: I noted no more in my paper-diary. The last days were hot. I didn´t expect it getting so hot so quickly! And dry, too. I can´t cope with dry heat too well. While others can produce enough humidity on their skin to cool down, I can´t in the dry. So I sat in front of the cabin with a bucket of water to put on my arms and legs and face. I was red all over since the blood came right to the surface...
We spent the last days more or less at the Caravan Park; over the holidays the busses are to a minimum service, and the heat doesn´t invite you to wait for the bus (or run for it).

The journey back can be read in this older article.

Still to mention that Rodney "visited" us at the international airport - together with his whole family!

Perth-diary: The hottest christmas ever in my life.

For lunch I went to grab something from Mc Donalds and I remembered that I have seen small servings of Vegemite for breakfast. I told the staff the story of my colleague being so curious about that stuff that he ordered it via e-Bay and then asked, if they could give a sample for him.
Wo-hoo! Not only did I get 25 portions I also accidentally started a huge discussion on Vegemite vs Marmite at Mc Donalds! And everybody was very proud that even Germans are so much interested :-)

Here two of the friendly staff:



Here my "yield" - one of the guys suggested to make a mobile with that and we sure will do!



In the evening we had a bbq, together with a family, here in our Caravan Park. We had a nice, long chat - and certainly we were xmassy dressed :-)
The tie was blinking and made music. 



Later on I called my family and even Ingo called his father. Scary thing was... Ingo handed the phone over to me while looking for more money in his pockets and his father certainly talked to me. He sounded exactly like Ingo! Shouldn´t his voice sound different, at least due to age? Spooky...

I´m on time, actually always. More than that. My colleague wanted to pick me up at seven. 06:57 I left the house and he was already there! But parking in the wrong direction.

He explained he wasn´t too awake, missed my house and had to turn around. And he always thought I live in the house beside the one I do.

"But when you turned on the hall-lights, the whole house lighted up like a christmas tree!"

Now he knows exactly where I live and I have another nice thought about that place. Who else lives in a christmas tree? :-)

I´m still on my Advent-Calendar and got another Fortune tea, herbal, this time.

Another Friday. I hope I don´t need it like last Friday!!!

In Barbara´s blog I found the post "Why The Chicken Crossed The Road".

Well.

Best I definitively liked this saying:

"Captain Kirk: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before."

Well, I guess William Shatner said it, but nonetheless.. cool :-)

This was the day Emiliano Mercado del Toro was born. He died on Wednesday in Puerto Rico - he was 115 years old.
Man, can you believe this?
Wasn´t married, had no kids (but three girlfrinds :-)...)

Ingo´s Grandma always says, getting old isn´t fun.
But this article (german) I found states he always has been in a good mood and talked about positive and beautiful things.

He quit smoking at age 90. But he was dancing a lot and had heaps of milk :-)

He had said, you have to be "a good person" and then you easily live longer. Well... :-)

Since the 90´s his birthdays had been folk festivals, imagine that (I wouldn´t want to be so much in focus...).
Well. He died peacefully.
And I had never heard of him before...

...little Vegemites :-)

Perthnow has an article that there is Vegemite ice cream available in Brisbane, or at least it was for Australia Day.

Wow.
But I wouldn´t give a try.
:-)

Perth-diary: The whole Kingsway Caravan Park smells beautifully from eucalyptus.

Perth-diary: Went to the second hand book shop in Freo yesterday.
Today we went to the Morley shopping centre again and got some souveniers; an apron with the australian flag for out christmas bbq, some magnets and beer brewery sets, we´ll impress people here with that!

I hopped off the bus at Morley drive to get another Pizza from Pizza Hut. Ingo drove on, but due to the traffic I was faster than the bus :-)
I had my chiller-bag with me to keep the Pizza hot, but it was no use. The next bus seemed to take ages to pick me up. It wasn´t No. 346 but No. 374 - the one that takes the longer route. And, man... People asking if this is the right bus, a drunk oder somewhat crazy lady talking to the driver, not letting the bus go. People with prams, needing the ramp... Pizza was rather cold when I arrived in the cabin.
Ate three days from it, "learned" from american movies that you can eat it cold as well, tastes ok (like it better hot and fresh, though).
We went to town again to meet Deanne, but somehow missed each other, which was sad, since this was the last opportunity. But, well. There is still the internet :-)

Perth at night is rather hostile!
In Australia they use sun shields that really close the windows shut, due to the sun and heat. Hence, also at night the lights don´t shine through. It´s completedly dark!!
If it wasn´t for the lights of Kingsway shopping centre we would have had to ask the driver to stop for us - we simply couldn´t see where we are! Spooky!

Perth-diary: We went to town, to see the Allan Green Conservatory. Small, but well done.



Had some pies on the grass and then went to take pics of the city. Of beautiful Perth.



We went onto the souvenier-shop where the opera singer was in 1999 and bought some t-shirts.
In the evening, Ingo had some oysters.
A comfy day.
And a friends´ birthday. I hope my brother send the birthday card I prepared to her in time.

Put on the TV yesterday night to find my town again there :-) At the technical university in Brunswick they do a survey on reversal glasses and Stern TV (german) showed how it works. They invited a student to test it. The glasses put everything upside down but right is still right, left is left. Was quite funny to see him work it out the first day where he could barely make it down the street without running into anybody. By the third day he even managed to ride a bike!
Good to know our brain is that flexible! :-)

Here you also find some optical phenomenons, have fun.

Got this one from Rodneys blog: Why do you blog? You simply answer 16 short questions on the subject, help that guy from Vancouver to work on a survey - which will probably be quite interesting - and on top you can even win prices! Even an iPod is on the list.
I have never won anything, but I´m keen on the outcome of this survey...

Perth-diary: Yesterday we had another bbq. Kangaroo-meat. I remember I liked it - we had some in 1999 in Carnarvon. I didn´t like it now... Certainly it was too good to throw it away, so Ingo ate also my part of meat.
No good idea.
He couldn´t sleep well and kept me awake, too.
Add the heat and you get some very exhausted persons! Actually, Ingo was sick. He was dizzy and shivered.
Anyhow we went to meet Rodney in Morley at 98.5 Sonshine FM. He showed us around - wow, I hadn´t thought the studio was that big!
We saw the new technology as well as the old one (heaps and heaps of CD´s and even records!), got explained how much easier it is today with PCs and that you have way more time now to be creative.
We went into the show - live! It was really cool. Sadly, we both were not fine that day. We went for a (n iced) coffee but, well, we weren´t fit. Still, it was great to meet another blogger in person!

On TV we saw the sports-news. Some Aussie-football-team (Falcons?) had hired some players from the US. One gave an interview. He said Aussie-football is great since it combines many sorts of sport like soccer, basketball and so on, then he went, "I hate Vegemite. I know I shouldn´t say that."
I laughed my head off.

We had some more of Coles´ Christmas-Crackers. I put them to my back exchanging them and said to Ingo, "choose one".
He said, "I take the one in the middle :-)", which would be me! Always good for a surprise, this man :-)

Perth-diary: We bought some avocados. At the fresh food people. They were ready to eat, try this in Germany! There you get them green and stone-hard. You have to store them in a warm place and eventually forget about them ´til they´re more than ripe and you have to throw them away. Oh. And they are expensive, too.

Here in Australia you have an overabundance of ripe avocados to choose from. They are yummy and come great with a lemon.
I made a note in my paper-diary that Deanne thought my name is chosen according to the flower, Iris. She thought it was funny that my father in fact chose the name due to the eye - he was, amongst other professions, an optometrist (he was also a goldsmith, watch-maker and hearing aid acoustician).

Well. We calm down a little, have done most of the parts that were on my list. We start relaxing a bit. Which is good. I haven´t expected summer turning in that fast and that hot! Though we´ve been to Australia before, it was never in real summer...

Perth-diary: The other day I had run out of T-Shirts. I had bought one in the Wanneroo Markets as a souvenier and thought, heck, we´re just going to Big W in the Kingsway Shopping Centre, I can wear it. I thought it was way too tourism-like.
At Big W was a lady at the entrance who checks out the bags you bring in. When I wanted to get in, she stopped also me. But when I turned to show her my bag, she gave me a huge smile and shouted cheerfully, "Sweety, I like your T-Shirt!"
Sadly I didn´t have my cam with me, so I had to take a pic later and without her:



And I think other people, too, smiled in delight when they saw the T-Shirt. Yep, Aussies are proud on their country. And they are right.

Bloody hot today! And I bought a winter-cap today (a souvenir - why ever you can buy that here!)!
I´ve been to Perth-Zoo. Man, I hardly saw the animals! They have space to hide there, and they do! And it was soooo hot! I saw two kangaroos lying in the gras exhausted from the heat.
The facilities for the orang utans are really very well done... but the guys stayed in the shadow, keeping calm, bearing the heat.
I saw a croc - totally immobile.

AND! Guess what! The famous pic of the giraffe kissing her baby was taken right here at Perth zoo!!!



I don´t have to mention I didn´t see any giraffe, do I? Or lions. Or gibbons. But I saw a turtle from Galapagos; my father has been there for real.

The way to Perth zoo was great, too. I took the Transperth ferry and took beautiful pics!



And as I got out I heard kids shout, "dolphins!".. I thought, heh? And then I saw ... a dolphin!

I just read that they are into studies at our technical university on the disorder Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness.

I just learned that way that this disorder exists.

The article (german) says, in Germany alone 2-3% are affected by this.
What a horrible thought!
Those people can not identify their friends or relatives, at least not by the face.
Watch a movie? Impossible, they cannot differ the characters - only by the voice or the haircut, special clothes...

Some have it from birth, others after an accident.
And this is just for faces, they can identify everything else.
The brain is a wonder...

That´s what I am. I was watching an episode of Magnum yesterday evening and wanted something salty to nibble on. Sorry Ingo, the Macadamia-nuts Rodney gave us are gone now! Yum!
So. What else did I have apart from cheese?

And there it stood, looking at me, begging, give it another try!

Which I did!

Vegemite on onion-bread is ok!

I try to be optimistic and see the positive part about crashing my Polo.

Winter has come.

• - I don´t have to scratch my car free from ice


• - when I hop in the car, it´s cozy warm


• - instead of sitting in a cheap, loud, small Polo I take place in a cool Jetta


• - I don´t have to drive! My colleague entitled himself "chauffeur" this morning :-)


• - instead of listening to the same music all over, I can chit-chat


• - I don´t have to look for a parking lot


• - I don´t have to pay for fuel (ok, I took this colleague with me in my car, too for some time)

But I look forward to start my working day at 06:45 instead of 08:00 again...

I am still kind of nibbling on the Advent-calendar I got from a friend.
Today I got a Fortune Tea. I said to her, hey, I should have gotten this on Friday!

She said, "why? You have been lucky. You just now refill your deposit".

She is right!

If it hadn´t happened on my birthday I´d say I would celebrate it as one...
I was so darn lucky...
If there had been a car behind me I guess I would be dead or badly injured.

I wanted to overtake a truck on the highway. The moment I came on the second lane I saw a huge bird that was about to stand up, right in front of me. It wasn´t that I felt sorry for the injured bird but it was a reflex that made me try to avoid contact.

It was warm, I had winter-tyres on and the road was a little wet. And I lost control. I managed to not contact the truck, but then...
Next moment I stood in the middle of the highway. I had turned around and touched the reflection post.
It all went smooth, it didn´t hurt at all.
Two cars overtook me and stopped. I tried if the car is still running, which it did and managed to drive to the safety zone. The drivers called the Police and everybody was quite helpful. My car was brought to a garage and the friendly staff even brought me home for free.

My first accident. It was plain awful.
Thinking of it my hands are still shivering.
For the next week or so my colleague takes me to work. I only hope I´m not afraid of driving a car now.
I felt so helpless...

My guardian angel has only one of his hands on his steering wheel now. Gotta sew the hand back on!

Perth-diary: We went to the Aviation Museum. I even put it on the list! I thought it was quite boring. What I found very interesting and touching was the story of Nancy Bird-Walton, a brave pilot and great outback-nurse who sadly died early of cancer.
And I bought a Qantas-model, the one that took us from Germany to Australia and vice versa three times now.
In Perth, Wellington bus station, we tried to plan the next stop, city-map in our hands - we wanted to hop off Wanneroo Rd - Morley Dv, since there is a Pizza Hut. A man called over, "you ok?", we said, "yeah, thanks". In the bus he sat behind us and told us when to stop the bus :-) Friendly local.
In the evening we went to the blogger-meetup to which Deanne and Simone invited us. This is Deanne (to the left) - and me, I look like, ACK! Another pic of me!



We met in the The Brass Monkey, obviously a famous pub. And most photographed hotel - true, I bought a calendar of Perth and it´s the motive for this month.

It was very loud, hence hard to make conversation.

Deanne brought us Tim Tams, typical australian chocolate. We have been warned, they are very sweet and are to be dipped in coffee.
In australian pubs you aren´t served, but get your drinks at the bar. I didn´t want the Tim Tams to be stolen, so I took them with me. The bar tender addressed me, "you cannot eat this in here" - I didn´t understand, since a) I was concentrated on which beer to take, didn´t know them, and, more important, b) chocolate is nothing I eat. It´s something I nibble.



(Santa looks cool, too :-)...)

The bartender repeated the same sentence again and again and I got no clue what the man wanted from me. He could have changed his instruction into, "you are not allowed chocolate in here", or something like that, but nooo.... I needed help from another blogger whom´s name I sadly not know. She explained it was an exchange-gift for some Gherkin (scroll down to "Germany, Gherkins and Meetup", I can´t get a deep-link).
It was loud, but very nice, too. The chritsmas decoration in the streets was beautiful, too.

Perth-diary: Another day in Freo, we went to the Fremantle Prison. We took the (again free) tour. One local, two germans and the rest all "poms", sadly with one girl who was obviously educated anti-authoritarian. I dunno. Some rules should be taught to children. It won´t be easy for them later on...
Our guide always said "well done folks", whatever that means in this case; he was the one telling us heaps of interesting things about prison-life in different times.
Next stop was the Fremantle Museum and Arts Centre. I had to ask at the tourist info, I found on the internet they have a Lynatic Asylum. I pronounced it completedly wrong and the guy at first didn´t understand. "Where crazy people had been held" helped me out... Wasn´t interesting, was just very sad there.
Heaps of people who were not "mad" at all but just depressive were kept hostage there.
One of them wrote a letter to his wife and threw it, wrapped up in a stone to not fly someplace, over the high wall. The wifes´ employee found it first and kept it from her. It was a sad letter asking for help, making clear he was not at all demented.

What cheered me up again was the discover-tour, not at all for kids only! I really played one of the first TV-Tennis games - it was the same we had at my parents house! Two bars that move up or down, a ball, two "joysticks" and that´s it - memories...
We saw the first running pictures, first music-stations, record players from the seventies sooo cool!




And most of the things really were to discover, to touch, to try them out - recommended!
Later on in a souvenier shop I bought a head-pin for Ingo: An australian flag combined with an italian one. Maybe that brakes the spell...

Perth-diary: Fremantle was on the list now. First we had a look at the Round House. Volunteers are always happy to explain the details, very nice! Then we went to the Western Australian Maritime Museum. We found the entrance fee too high, since we had seen stuff like that before. I took some pics of the architecture, though. Well done. To the back was a free exhibition on ships motors. We were the only visitors, but three (or even four?) volunteers jumped up immediatly to turn on the machines, ready to explain!
Next were the Shipwreck Galleries. Guess what we saw there!!!!
Thalers from Brunswick! My Brunswick!



I found some very good second-hand book-shops, just great! Try to buy some english books via amazon and pay 8€, here you get them from 1$ on!

Later on we finally met Deanne and had a nice chat. We talked about Australia and Germany, Deanne tried to explain cricket to us. Still the rules remain a secret to me, though... After being in a café we strolled on through Fremantle. Though Deanne was quite quick in crossing the road, I had to double-check from which side the cars come. Without a car I had difficulties to get used to left-hand-traffic. Though Deanne doesn´t drive herself, she immediatly pointed it out right - with the steering wheel you have orientation: You have to be in the middle of the road.
We then accompanied her to her home. Hm. I don´t know if I would have invited two more or less strangers in my home, being alone with them. But maybe we really don´t look like thieves or something :-)
Well. Ingo had some adventures in Australia that had to do with italian things. Guess which language Deanne learned at school? :-)

It was a hot, long day, but funny and interesting. Sadly it was too late to go the beach together. From down south, Cottlesloe, we had to go all up to the north to Landsdale via Transperth. Though cheap - due to school holidays you can go all day long via all Transperth-services (train, bus, ferry) with a family ticket for only 7,70$ - it takes ages...
But we were to meet again :-)

Perth-diary: "Two tickets, please." - "Adults?" :-)
I remember being at a doctor, two years ago. OK, maybe I was a little afraid of the procedure and that made me look younger. But I really had to laugh my head off when the receptionist asked, if I was of full age - that made me 17! :-))
Last year just before my birthday I wanted to buy some sparkling wine to have some in the house. The cashier-girl, a woman of around 50 wanted to see my ID-card. I do believe you may buy that stuff from age 16 on! OK. It was winter, very cold outside, warm inside. I wore my red coat and my face was red due to the heat inside. Maybe that suggested I´m so nervous about buying wine?
At 24 I was offered a sample of Oilily perfume, which is for young girls...
Another time I went to a gymnast-circus, where my 5-years-younger brother took part. Afterwards he came over and we left together. At the exit a man gave little christmas-presents to the kids. I took a look and he said, "aaalright, you take one, too :-)" - and my "little" brother? Nothing...
Oh I hope I don´t wake up one day and look like 10 years older than I really am all of a sudden in return...



We went to the Wanneroo Markets and bought some souveniers. By bus, certainly. Weekend, especially Sunday, is not a day for going by bus - the service is down to a minimum. The other day we went to the Museum of Western Australia. Ingo wanted to see the Meteorites & Tektites again. Luckily they also had new exhibitions, so it wasn´t that boring after all.

Perth-diary: We went to Kings Park and did the (free! - and very well done!) guided tour. Any locals, the guide asked? Nope. Anyone from overseas? All. Great Britain? Heaps. Then us (Germany), two guys from Italy (where else) and two girls from an asian country who got lost on the way.
We did a tour through the botanical garden. The guide told us how the aboriginal people made "Roo-Poo-Superglue" from red Gum, charcoal and, well, Roo-Poo.

Here is the (new) Tree-Top-Bridge:



He told us, too, that the Nyoongar people stood right here, where Kings-Park is situated now and saw the first white people arrive. He said, it must have been a shock to them. They didn´t have boats that large. They thought they were the only people in the world. Why are those guys so white??? Well, they didn´t stay for long. But about 20 years later same thing happened again. Well. And this was it for them, sadly.

Ingo and me were the only people holding hands (ar rather, fingers) from time to time - why was that? Dunno... Apard from the two italian guys all were couples.

We also went all the way up the DNA-tower (alone, before the guided tour). Man. Live sucks when you get old! Ingo had to hold my hand and lead me back down - I am getting more and more afraid of heights, why ever!



Luckily it was a rather cool day with nice rain in the early morning (I love that - we certainly had a corrugated metal roof on the cabin and that makes this beautiful noise. When living in my parents house, as well as in Hildesheim in the first apartment I lived in, I was right under the roof, where you can hear the rain dropping on the window, too - I miss that a lot!).
Great - everything smelled like eucalyptus in our Caravan Park from the rain!!!! Cool!

Oh, and I bought a magnet, saying "Australian men - sheer genius" showing two guys sheering sheep :-) I bought it for a friend but then had to keep it, since it´s so cool!

Perth-diary: aqwa @ Hillarys Boat Harbour - this time nearly no people and they have a petting zoo!



The sign says:
"Touch us? YES
Keep us Underwater? YES
Pull, Poke, Squeeze, or Bite us? NO"

(Bite??? Must have happened!)

Ingo gave it a go with a starfish



and there was a little ray, that seemed very interested in us people outside the water! Cute!



Scary - the sharks right above our heads:



Great thing this tunnel at aqwa! There is a ... hmm... what´s the right word here? Kind of a band-conveyor where you can stand on and you are transported through the tunnel. Certainly you can hop off any time. Really cool.



We then went to the beach to check out a place for "our" christmas-bbq. Followed by a very long walk (over 4km in the burning sun is long! [no worries, we had proper sun-protection!]). We missed the route the Transperth-bus takes. Well... Nice anyhow!

So, Queen are nominated being 'top British band' by BBC.
This is just great!
What is not so great - they are back again.
With some Paul Rodgers taking the role of Freddie Mercury!

I am sorry, but I will not give them a chance, I guess. How can anyone possibly try to step in Freddie Mercurys place???
At least they call themselves "Queen and Paul Rodgers", not totally neglecting Freddie Mercury...

What did we look upon?
January - The meat-scandal is on (again) - YUCK! Spoiled meat has been sold, heaps of it. In Bad Reichenhall an ice-skating hall broke down and 12 people died - due to bad building-material or due to the loads of snow is not clear. A 13-year old was kidnapped on her way to school. She came free 36 days later.
February - Virus H5N1 reached Germany. And we got a disaster alarm due to snow.
March - Teacher from Ruetli-School in Berlin ask for help. The fraction of non-german pupils is 83,2%. Temper is aggressive and very disrespectful. Teachers have their cellphones with them to be able to call for help.
April - A german man of african origin got attacked by german racists.
May - A 16-year old attacks people with a knive in Berlin, amongst them a HIV-positive man. One good thing: After being held hostage for 100 days in Iraq two german engineers are back in Germany.
June - Soccer. Yawn... JJ1, brown-bear Bruno runs loose.
July - Airbus A380 will not be ready in time - not a good figurehead for Germany. Terror in Cologne - two bombs are placed at the train station, but luckily don´t detonate.
August - New law set: PCs that can be used to get into the internet will be charged from 2007 on.
September - Due to human error a train crashes in Emsland and kills 23 people.
October - Michael Schuhmacher ends his career, Lotto: Highest Jackpot ever in Germany. People go crazy. One man wins 35 million euros. He is a hospital nurse and keeps working.
November - 03.11.1956 - first TV-ad in Germany is on, Ariel, a detergent. German soldiers in Afghanistan rape a dead body, german people are shocked.
December - we get "introduced" to new laws that will apply in January. For example the value-added tax rises from 16 to 19%, retirement pay rises from 19,5 to 19,9%. Got the infos at gmx.

Highlights for me were starting a blog myself, having a holiday in Cuba, a short one at the northern coast in Germany and a holiday in Perth, Western Australia. This year will be without a bigger holiday, though... Oh, and watching the Braunschweig Lions being German Bowl Defender, again, certainly was a highlight, too.

Sorry if someone now has this ole song in his head ;-)
Second day at work, second day driving. ACK. Driving is as awful as ever.
But luckily I remembered all my passwords correctly as well as where most of the stuff goes. Without hesitating ht_00169 came to my mind thinking of where wallpapers go. News ht_00038/0701. Local news ht_00021 and so on. Good ole working life has me back.

Well, on Monday - for now the weekend is on! In Brunswick this time.
Happy weekend!

Perth-diary: I lost my tooth-jewelry this morning and later on my SD-card (I thought, but found it here in Germany in Ingo´s pc. And I just made an appointment at the dentist. Hope he just puts on a new jewelry and doesn´t find anything bad! There is nothing more horrible to me than having someone treating my teeth!).
Bought a new SD-card. Swan Bells. We didn´t go inside - not worth the entrance fee. But really cool building!
Coles doesn´t have Ausblock sunscreen anymore! Was such a great product! We tried the homebrand-stuff - it´s 1 litre!

At K-Mart we saw xmas-trees à la Down Under!



We also bought Vegemite - to see if the one my colleague had ordered via e-bay probably wasn´t good anymore. Not the case. It really tastes that... way!
And 8 festive crackers - as hats they have crowns, which is just right! We live in the Kingsway Caravan Park and my name translated to english is "emperor" :-)

I start another advent-calendar today!
Aren´t those angels the cutest (please click to enlarge)?
This was in the self-made calendar from a friend - 24 bio-teas. I didn´t want to take them to Perth, where I spent December, since summer is just on there.

I started with "good-morning-tea" that is made from the leaves of blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, marigold and cornflower (I couldn´t taste all those flavours, sadly).

23 other exotic variations still wait for me :-)

Toooooo cute...



Good morning!

Ingo came back from work and insisted to go and visit his Grandma.

It sure was worth it!!!

To see the huge smile and get the big hug she gave us ("my children", she always says)!

She thought I´d been to Braunschweig already and we won´t be visiting before Monday in two weeks. She´d locked the house already and, surprise - got visitors!

In return we got a very happy person and self-made socks.

Before I joined the family, socks were boring. When I was in the family long enough to belong to, Ingo´s Grandma wanted to make socks for me, too. The wool wasn´t enough and she had to take some different one for heels and toes - first patch-work socks for her.

I loved them and since then she takes the challenge to make the coolest socks of well-sortet rests of wool whatsoever! For me and Ingo only. The rest of the family doesn´t like it.
And she surely loves our "oooh´s and aaaah-how beautiful´s"! :-)

She also asked about the meet-up with the people I know "from the internet" - which is still a frightening thing for her. Yet - she shows interest! Cool lady! Still no pic from her, sorry!

I don´t know about cricket (though Deanne really tried to explain). I don´t know why the Ashes are called that way (didn´t this bird, Phoenix,... aw, well...)

To us it´s american football and I just found out we´re stated to be the best fans of the German Football League (german)! How cool is that?? :-)
It says, we´ve satisfied - no, we have more than satisfied! the reputation that´s been laid on us!
(Pic "borrowed" from the offical site, this is Kelvin Love smiling).

We look forward to the next season!

Though... Without Kent Anderson and Adrian Rainbow... Well. We´ll do our best, trying to support the Lions!
Gotta make my brother come along this year!

from OMC is on the radio.

And I remember there were a few questions I forgot to ask when I was in Perth, meeting local bloggers. Maybe someone likes to answer here?

Ingo´s got a friend who always understood "parmesan" instead of "how bizarre" and never got what this song was about (his english isn´t that good, either).

So, now the question: Does that happen to native-english people, too? That you get english songs wrong?

I don´t like german pop-music much because if I want to or not I listen to the text. I cannot overhear it. I´m glad in this case I´m not native english - would make me mad, most pop-music is in english!

Can native english people not listen to english music?

Coming to languages... the bakery in Perth shopping centre Kings Way had some leaflets and I took one. Said they are healthy and suggest a healthy diet with vegetables and legumes (how do you pronounce that? Légumes is kind of "laygyme", like in "gymnasium (which in english is a sports-place and in german a second-level-school...). I looked it up at leo now. Legumes is english! Meaning "pod, seeds". I only know that as a french word where the meaning simply is vegetables!

Strange how languages mix up. Can confuse others! So this question, if there is a difference between vegetables and legumes, is answered by the internet to me.

Perth-diary: We went to the Whitfield Shopping Centre (this is a blog, so I put in here what we did in Perth in December).
Transperth No 346. We told the driver where we wanna go and he said, "aw, hop in for the short ride, the next bus then will cost you only 1,40 per person :-)".

Did cost 2,20$ anyhow, but it was a nice gesture!

The next driver was 72 years old and could hear we are no Aussies. He asked where we are from and started to sing german songs in english to me! I didn´t know them, they were from war-time. I asked why he still works and he replied, "men who stop working often die".
Tough one, probably very true, though.

In this shopping-centre I got my first pie since 1999, a curry-beef one. Ingo bought it for me, he lost a bet on music. HEY! I still didn´t get the euro!
Strange - christmas-decoration and christmas-music everywhere and the people are running around in summer-clothes!



Sad thing: In our caravan park I had to turn off the shower for somebody else the second time already! Once even hot water was running. Aren´t the people aware of the water restrictions? Or let´s put it that way: This is not necessary! Save water!

New in the caravan park: There is a bbq now and a little library. And even though I read they are a pest - it´s nice to hear the black ravens again!

The code for the toilets/shower-room is still the same like in 1999 and even if you don´t know it you can see it from usage! ;-)
And - learn it! To close a door you have to turn the handle TO THE LEFT!

Ingo got up early and went to work. I felt fit, too, but outside it´s darn cold, grey and ugly. And I have another holiday - stayed in bed.

Which was not so smart after all, since dream world can be strange.

I have a cousin. He is five years older than me. We saw each other quite often. He picked me up to go ice-skating. He took me to Hannover where he studied. I got to meet his fellow students, we went into university-cinema and I felt quite like a grown-up! When I was in hospital, where he was a going-to-be doctor, he cared for me.
Later on we kind of lost contact.

I can´t remember having talked about him often.

It´s four and a half years now. We went to my fathers´ funeral, Ingo and my Mom at my side. There stood a man. Ingo made a step toward him, took his hand and said, "hello, you must be Marlo".
And he was.
Ingo never saw a picture of him and if so he would have seen a boy. Ingo later on said, "well, from what you told me about him (I did???), he looked just like he must be it".
Marlo came to my familys house, together with his young daughter. He said, "let´s stay in contact".

I just came to my family´s house after a nice (christmas-) holiday. My Mom said, "look, Marlo wrote a christmas-letter!"

It was generated at the computer, the only hand-written thing was the title, which said, "Dear aunt Brunhilde, dear Helge," - he forgot me.

I was annoyed and disappointed.
And this morning I dreamed of the stuff! I didn´t think I was that disappointed that I have to make him turn up in my dreams!

Hm. Still a little frustrated, I am.
But despite my dream I don´t think he will turn up and say he´s sorry ;-)
Ack. I wish I could have control about what I want to dream...

Hm. Even found something online. He´s the one on the left (certainly ;-)...) Should I try to get in contact?

... today was to find out I don´t start work tomorrow but on Thursday! :-)
I wasn´t too sure at first and called my customer (and friend). I even talked on that stupid answering-machine.

Then I got it, simple as it is - just write myself an e-mail to work and, yep, my Out of Office AutoReply told me the day where I start working.

My Mom said, that´s typical, forgetting the day to be back in the office...

Again.

"Is this your new girl-friend?"

NO! I´m his old sister!!!

My little bro... is five years younger than I am. And so often, when we go together through town (it´s a small town, too!), people ask that question. I think we look too much alike to be thought of as a couple in that kind of way!

Wish...

You know what!!!
"She" must be there, somewhere?????

So.
Our holiday in Perth was from 04.12. - 28.12.2006.
Yep.
Way too short. Really.
Anyhow. My brother wanted (and did!) take care of us, bringing us home (well, in the end my Mom did).
I wrote a last e-mail from Singapore (free access, very slow, american keyboard and the letters missing on the keyboard itself due to usage - tough one!...), saying we arrive at 05:00 in Frankfurt.

I sure meant 05:00, which means a.m.

Put the time lag in (to "p.m." you say, watch Tim Allen´s Home Improvemnet - , 17:00 (seventieen hundred).

So. My dear "little" grown-up brother! I sure do love him! :-)
What a cute guy! Ooops. This is a "go" for other girls, certainly!



(Deanne: This is my old christmas-tree, btw! There, right to my dear brother!)

Well. 05:00. Hm. When will we arrive????
My brother, Helge, called airport Frankfurt. When did the last plane from Singapore arrive? - Didn´t fit. Called the railway: When does the train from Goettingen arrive? - My - OUR - Mom said: Check the date of that e-mail!

Helge went to the laptop. Starting-page n24, said "Plane kidnapped!".

Well. Here the connection sometimes breakes down. Which it did! What plane has been kidnapped???
Helge called our Mom!

The connection got back, it was a russian machine (sorry for those guys!) and Helge saw I must have meant 05:00 AM.

Everything turned out good. But the shock my poor little brother got! We haven´t been kidnapped (and if, they would have long givin´ us back! ;-)...)
Sorry, man!

I have been invited to come to the Perth-blogger meet-up (though I´m not a local) and I sure did go. Thanks again for inviting, Deanne and Simone! :-)
I have been asked a question.

Why do I (as well as my partner) do blog in english though being german?

Here it goes:
Some time last year I felt the need to look for some pictures of Perth.
Perth. It took us 2 weeks in 1999 to find the right car for our journey throughout this beautiful, far, far away country, Australia, and nearly five weeks to sell the car 6 months later. And certainly we lived in Perth.
I feel home there very much but am not good enough to make it for a living there.

This is the car - and us:




So.
I was looking for a pic on the internet. I got one! Right here at Two Sitting Ducks.

Wow. What is this? A "blog"? What is a blog? They linked to other blogs. Some of the bloggers being Perth-people, too.
Those casually discribed there are no red onions available (sorry, can´t recall the right month) at Woolworths and stuff like that.
I got kind of homesick. Addicted to (Perth-)blogs.
It was some blog from Melboure, though, Diary of an average Australian. I wanted to make a comment. Had to register and got in return:

"Congratulations, you created a blog successfully".

Hm.

Thanks.
Now?

I have a blog, too.

I read only english blogs. Feel quite "home" there.
So.
Will my english get worse when I practice, like in a blog? Nope. Will people understand me, outside of Germany? Yep.
Will my family read along? Nope ;-) OK, this was no point of interest, and sometimes I wish they would pop in from time to time!

So. I started to blog in english.

What did I get in return?

Homesickness up to a level that brought me back to Perth!

Meeting some of the Perth-bloggers in person!!! How cool is that?!

Does blogging have an effect on our lifes?
On mine it sure has!
I reflect more on my life. Got to meet nice people. Got back to a great city. Feel homesick again...

How about you?

ACK! This is how christmas-decoration looks like in my families´ town (the good-looking, friendly guy is my "little" brother, btw :-)...)

It sure is cold and ugly here, compared to the weather in Perth! I sure miss it!
No leaves on the trees. One green-coated xmas-star, that will have some lights on in the evening.
"My" town is dying anyhow. Shop after shop closes down. I don´t wanna change places with my brother who has to make a living here! It´s sad to see. Frightening to see.

So. It´s 2007 now. Hm. Doesn´t feel different.
What´s different is the following: First day I feel okay again!

EEEEK! I´m getting old! It takes me DAYS to adapt from coming back from Perth, Western Australia (discover it for yourself says a road-sign I took a picture of said, but have that at home [I am at my partners place bnow]) - to Germany.
What a sentence, I´m sorry!

Have to make a new post:, See at "Blogging"...