Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

I´m not much into novels or thrillers. I prefer true stories, biographies and such.

But I certainly loved to take all the audiobooks my colleague gave me on his hard drive. Ingo copied me a thriller to drive to and back from work.

Tough! It takes place in the Netherlands. Comedian Bernd Stelter did a great job reading all the names in that language, too funny, what a language!

Tough - I didn´t get it! Too many names? Too many strange names - not read, just heard?
Who can drive a car and remember who was

Piet van Houvenkamp,
Annemieke,
Annelene,
Annuk or
Brahm van Buyten (my favorite name!)???

All the changes between narrating in the first person (who is that man?) and the detective...
And then: The murderer is...: Ari!!!

Who would have guessed that?! the heck is Ari?!!!
Ari dies in the next scene, too and then you hear, "written and narrated by Bernd Stelter".

Frustrating! And why is it called "Death Has A Tow-Bar"?!

I asked my colleague the next day and he said, hm, listened to that some time ago, Ari was the coroner - and the murderer.

I said, ok, I´ll give it another go! Started by zero. Tried to memorize the names.
Nothing! Am I dumb?!

Traffic was busier, it took me longer to work and... after written and narrated by ... they were suddenly at the beach again.

All mixed up!!!!

I laughed my head off!
I´m not dumb after all! Gotta find the right order and then I guess I´ll find out what made Ari become a murderer and where to put the Tow-Bar!!!

Really! Isn´t that too funny?

I´d say who didn´t forget something on the roof of the car once, no? On our list so far: A pan and a towel.

Depends on what it is, it´s likely German Police might help you get it back. Happened in this (cute) case:

A 3-y-o girl - or rather her Mom - forgot a teddy bear and toy dog on the roof of the family car after having a break on a rest area near Osnabrück in Lower Saxony. They realised their lost only when they arrived home, Dortmund in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 150 km further on!

What did they do? Yips, called the police. And those guys really went on a search on the highway, who would have ever guessed that?
More so, they found the stuffed animals, first the dog, then the bear (yips, the news even gave these information away!).

Police-staff from Lower Saxony went to the South and delivered the two missing furry friends to colleagues from the North Rhine-Westphalia-group who then brought the two to a very happy little girl.

Now isn´t that a cute story for once?

And an old slogan coming true (once more):
The Police - your Friend and Helper.

Full story here (German).

And "my man" is ironing my skirts :-)

Ok, he was ironing his trousers and I asked to do my skirts also. Besides, he´s better in that than I am.
In China it´s a typical men´s job, at least in the factories, btw.

Other: Have been to my family. Sadly I saw my Bro just shortly.
Took all morning to get the shots done - for maybe 2 minutes to be on TV!
He´s a member of the Sehusa Musketeers (German) and there will be a short report an TV.
Changed the winter-tyres to summer and had a hair-cut. Man, "my" hairdresser sure is very systematic - she cut off so much!!!

The Cherry-trees loose all their blossoms now - a carpet of pink on the street:





In a minute we´re off to the first footy-game. Ingo plans to leave his helmet with the bike. Wish him luck - I take mine with me.

Last Sunday Ingo gave us a real treat - we went to El Gaucho, the yummiest (and only) Steak-House I know (why try out another, give away a whole lotta money for maybe a less good product?).

I had I medium 180g filet of some Argentine cow with a slice of bread, man... we waited endlessly (first time, usually thy´re quick)), but it was so worth it!

On the way back we passed this car:



and I felt like being back on Cuba!!!

And not only due to the car (though that was a bummer!!!).

We always (ok, twice! ;-)...) stayed in Varadero and there they are very bike-friendly.

And in the same street where I took the last pic, I took this one:



Yips, one of the first "bike-streets" in town. We live in the University-quarter and on roads signed like this cars have to give way for bikes.

A good idea actually. Just... there isn´t that much car-traffic anyways (students, hello, they rather go by bike!).

When we went for another walk I saw this poster on a Litfasssäule... um... question!

I never missed them in other countries, but do you have them? Those free-standing cylindrical advertising columns??

Anyhows, I saw a poster advertising for a Bike-Flea-Market:



Aww. Awwww! I´d so love to have a bike like that!!! A Bonanza-Rad!!! In English they´re called Raleigh Chopper. I was too young back then. And I bet if I had one now, I wouldn´t have it for long or would be forced to bring it in the small cellar all the time.

MY, weren´t those bikes too cool?!

I go very seldom to the canteen. It´s expensive and rather not healthy. But sometimes I do go. Volkswagen makes excellent Curry-Wurst (German) and it´s also fun to bond with colleagues.

So the other day I went (yes, I know, I was on holiday...).

It´s always extremely full on Tuesdays, the Currywurst-Day. So it was then. And amongst all those hectic people there stood a frog. A very big frog. He looked lost, and hurt. Hurt in the sense of injured.

I looked down and he looked back like he wanted to say, "help me?"...

New was... there was not only the canteen, but mingled in were shops. And a vet. How practical is that, no? So I looked down to the frog and said, "hey, if you want me to help you, follow me".

So he did. The vet took the poor fella, bent his really very long arms and legs and said, "nope, he´s just all right - will you keep him?"

Actually, no. Honestly, I was a bit disgusted by him! But I didn´t say that. I looked at him and he looked back like... you guess it, I kept him. Bought a litter-box, food and a food bowl at the vet-store and gave them 50 €, because they said they also care about animals who don´t "belong" to anyone.

The frog then slowly followed me.

No, I didn´t take him to the canteen - lunch-time was over anyways.

Next hurdle: 5 1/2 stories to go to my office. I hate the old elevator, that is no option. After some hops I realised he won´t make it. Not in my time-scedule. So, we looked at each other and then he hopped carefully in my arms.

Eek.

He was cold. And a bit slimey, too.

I showed him the rooms and after work took him the same way down to my car. Same procedure at home. Ingo looked at us as if we were crazy. I tried to explain and realised the frog has no name. So, since we live in Karlstreet, I introduced him as Karl and Karl looked quite ok with the name. I showed him the apartment and then I realised... Karl is not an ordinary frog, he is a king-frog and the crown is made of his skin.

Days came and went by, we fell into a nice routine and with the time I got used to how Karl´s skin feels like. I liked him and enjoyed his company.

Then autumn came. Karl got weak.
In the afternoon he layed down in his bed. He looked at me. Kinda sad, but also kinda reassuring.

And then he faded. I cried and he faded more.

I saw a tin - inside his body!

After a while the tin was all that was left. And some time after that I took the tin. I opened it. I found 5 million €.

Five million €!!

And I was sad I had lost a friend.

Then I woke up.

Following day we ran errands and Ingo said, let´s see if we need something from the hardware-store.

He found nothing.
But I stumbeled over Karl:



Life is weird sometimes, no?

holidaying at home!

We went to IKEA to get coffee (unsuccessful, but:) I said, oh, just let us walk through - I´m on holiday!

And when we passed Lack, Expedit and all the other racks I thought... man. 15 years ago I built this rack and look at it since. I´m so fed up!

But do Lack and the others look so much different?

So, I said, let´s go the the hardware store and get some light green! Ingo wanted to search the internet, calculate how much we need and all, but I said, no, I wanna have that like right now!
First store had just those dark greens, but the second had just what I wanted, lime!

15 years I looked at this:



And now for 25 euro I have this!





Yay!
It´s not perfect, but for a first I think I did ok.
And there is still enough for my bike! A project we´ll start in some time.

Else...



more lovely cherry-trees and a visit to the zoo. This is a Liszt "Ape", or a Cottontop Tamarin.



Those guys here in the little Noah's Ark-zoo (German) in Braunschweig are free to go anywhere, but stay in their little place. Any idea why?

Seesh. Holiday went by so darn quick again.

Man!!!
He does not like food from the Wok-Man.

But guess what he just ordered none-the-less?! Yips, Bami Goreng and some Lamb from the Wok-Man.

And despite the fact that I am not "allowed" to buy any more episodes of the Girlmore Girls... I have them here. And we watched nearly a whole episode together!

Allowed in the sense of my friend collects them and she thinks it´s darn stupid we both have them. So I always have to wait til she buys them. Well. At least I´m always the first to watch 'em.

Ahhh.. Today was a first also in the sense of wearing a skirt, wearing summer-shoes and having feet hurting... as every season!
Yay for life!

It´s such a beautiful day and I don´t wanna put your minds to something sad! Sorry the name is not so luckily chosen...

We went to where I lived before today, near the university... to Katharina:



Yips, we left Germany and went to Bavaria! You even get Pretzel there:



I just wonder: Who might be willing to pay 20 bucks (euro) for a beer?!



I had something... from Berlin, Berliner Weisse, beer with woodruff:



And here some of natures´ beauty, a heart:





More wild cherries:

Now I´m not sure, and I´d like to know: are these typical German "traditions"?

Do you have the Easter-Bunny who hides the Easter Eggs for the kids? According to a documentary on TV it´s typical German, but Wiki suggests it´s not. What´s the truth?

Do you go and attend the Easter Fires?



We won´t. I don´t like fire.

Haha. When the Pope spoke in German today, I said to Ingo, "my, he really speaks quite good, no?" Yips, just kidding ;-)

Sorry if you got that earworm now! ;-)

We didn´t actually go for a walk, we took the bikes. And a bbq. Meat, sausages, bread, beer, books...

We were the oldest guys, I suppose. But... it was fun! Warm, great and yummy!









A park-/nature-frendly construction for 7 €.

The BBQ itself, btw, was 1 Euro.

We went for a long bike-ride today and it´s just so beautiful outside:









All the calories burnt were gained back quickly by a yummy ice-cream. I had Mango and hazelnut, so yum.

Finally! You can have yummy tomatoes again! Oh yay for Spring! Was so yummy! Looks so fresh, no?

Today we planted chives, sunflowers and... tomatoes.
This is true life!

Late, though. 4 weeks late! Suppose it does not mean Autumn will be 4 weeks late also...

Cute, huh?!

Well, can you believe it, I totally missed March!!!

And he was so darn cute!



Mr. April is rather... well...



He reminds me that I need to change to summer-tyres, too!
Maybe that goes along with new glasses - Ingo dreamed last night of me having new glasses, ones that made me look "real good". So, hey, gotta ask my Bro for new glasses! :-)

Else... we went to the first footy-game! Didn´t cost anything - and was... sad. They won some really not so close 64:2. Yes. To 2.



To the right you see #21 from the Panthers. He played for the Lions once, too, and I thought, man he is still there?!
My, he is my age. And still playing as a professional player! :-)

I found some "old news" about him here:
"The NFL has Jerry Rice. The NHL has Wayne Gretzky. The NBA has Michael Jordan and the MLB has Babe Ruth. All these players are legends in their leagues and masters of the game. And all these legends have one thing in common. They weren't as successful as Estrus Crayton."

He is very sweet, too.
Guess he would not want to be called "sweet", but, well, he is!
Once he had to start from the own Goal line. He ran. And ran and ran, no one could stop him but the one-yard-line. He ran out.
Bang!
Just like that.
Silence.

A colleague had his 199th or 200th game and had had no opportunity for a Touch Down.
But now.

Sweet, huh?

He left 10 years ago and is back in Duesseldorf. But he is still mentioned by name when being back in Braunschweig :-)


Cool cars they´ve got:



Well. It was ... family-like. A friendship-game. We were so close you could hear the HUT-HUT!!! and the crashing helmets, oh, my!

We also opened BBQ-season today, YAY! Broccoli-yoghurt-sausages! Yum! Very fresh!



To make the day great, we started wit sparkling wine, but man... too sweet! Looked good, though!



We went for a walk and, ohh... sweet, no?



Hmm, I just so love daffoldils - in German they are called Easter-Bells:

... how light, precious and joyful these days are!

They come a few weeks late, but here they are!

At first I thought I´d forgotten something the other day. I was looking down on my rucksack and it looked so empty. I checked: shoes, sport-socks, T-Shirt, shampoo.... all in. So I hopped on the bike and went to the gym. And there I realised, yips, I don´t need a jacket for sport anymore!

It´s such a difference now!
When I step out of the gym it´s still light - and warm! I felt SO-So good just a few minutes ago!

Instead of putting a thick jacket over T-Shirt and thick shirt I only have a light jacket over the T-Shirt - and that will soon be gone, too! No fussing around with woolly hat, glovies and frozen fingers/bike-lock. No need to bring the lamp for the bike to drive through the cold darkness.

It´s all fast and easy now, full of light, warmth and joy.

I suppose soon I will take this for granted. I will forget how happy I now am over the "new life".
Maybe better so, though. Otherwise I´d be unhappy all the long way through winter, too! I always get used to that, also.

But I do hope that every now and then I remember how I feel these days!

That they are so precious. That they bring so much freedom and joy.

And maybe that I know Ingo just switched from winter- to summer-tyres A-HAND made his way also back to my town to bring me a TEN WITHOUT HAM, oh-Yay!
And not only his, also my summer-tyres are in that area, in my Mother´s house.
So, another Pizza Da Nico will be due again, once I change to summer with the car!

Life is good when after a long, dark, ugly winter Spring is finally here!

Addendum:

See - that´s natural light, no light-bulb!!
Yeah, cam is still crap for indoors, but, well - was YUM!

The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop...

Ingo sent me the link to The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time.

Now, go ahead and "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best"! :-)