Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

... this one:



Aren´t those guys just silly? :-)

Little Niece couldn´t do anything about it:



With Ingo:



I held her, too, and get more confident. She´s all smiles and laughing. And oh, beware! If she starts crying both run to her immediately. Guess they´ll have a "princess" there, soon! No pics, though - we came together to work!

The ugly, ugly ceiling is gone now!



4 weeks of carrying heavy stuff and only sitting down shortly with Niece yesterday left my "bad" ankle hurting like crazy. No work today, Ingo will bring me to the doc later for meds.
If I have a strong stomach, they asked... uh-oh.

Weather-like it´s horrible. Ice and snow - in November!!! Usually this does not happen before January!
So many accidents already. I don´t want another winter like last one. Driving is so darn dangerous.

This afternoon we give back the keys to the old apartment.

And slowly start to get rid of the chaos here.

We just watched "Who will become a millionaire?.
Last one was about 4 years ago (well, who actually did it, I´d like/wanted to be one right now, too, haha, how lame, I know)

Well. A guy from Hannover (enemy to old Braunschweig-people), super-simpatico, owns a Café and stepped right through to... a MILLION!

At 500 000 Euro, the question was where.. aww well... he just knew, no joker.

1 Million: What was the first stamp in 18-hundred-something named like... 1-black, .. numbers-colors.

"I wanna take my phone-joker" (last one)
"Does he collect stamps?" - "Nope." - "Do you?" - "Nope."

Call... "Hi F.!... How ya goin? All good? Sittin´ here.. blablabla!!!!"

The guy just KNEW the answer! He could´ve called Pizza Hut for a delivery as well!

Cute, cute, cute.
If he´ll stop working now - nope! He loves his job - only thing he´ll change is raise salary for his staff :-)

Cute guy, cleverness and a whole lotta luck! :-)

Pic by Author Lkawer at Wikimedia Commons - I don´t have my PC back yet..

Guess we´re in the right place here.
Tonight we went to the supermarket around the corner (no E-Center but Rewe (German) - their motto is "A Bit Better Every Day", lets see!).

We both had empties, heaps of*, and no bad conscience either, cause the automat is real fast.

I was first, Ingo right behind me. Meanwhile another customer behind Ingo.
Dang, I was done, took my bag and turned to leave.
The customer looked me in the face and said: "ummmm... receipt?!"
I told him we belong together, all is ok and he looked kinda relieved.

We met again in an aisle and smiled at each other.

People do take care of each other in most parts of town - I love the Ring-Area, no matter if (bu-huu, bye-bye) easterly or (hello) northern one.
Feels good to be a Braunschweig-Person :-)

Happy Friday/Weekend everybody!


*heaps in the sense of a civilized way!

Our days look like this atm:
Ingo gets up around 4:50, I follow 10 minutes later.
After Ingo left the house, I empty cartons and bags "away" till 6:10, then take the empty stuff to the car and head to work.

Park my car right next to the guy´s car who lives two above us!

Yes! We live in the same house and work in the same house!
But since I am not allowed to work before 7am anymore... we cannot go into car-pooling.

After work I drive to the old apartment, we fill the empty boxes and stuff, drive to the new home (two cars full of stuff every day - it keeps growing back, I tell ya!) and start to unpack ... to... "someplace".

TV, bed, next day.

Why? Yeah, I tell ya why.
Company-rule: You want to have one day off? Ask for it one week in advance.

So, after I realised we cannot do the ceiling after work and collecting stuff... I asked for a day off - will be Monday, Bro and I will do the ceiling, will probably have to move furniture - hence, I cannot sort in anything.

Dumb company-rule. The custumer wouldn´t mind, even!

So... chaos rules!

In two places only till Tuesday, though - then we HAVE to be out!
And then start fighting the chaos here, finally!

Don´t you just hate moving, too?

Did I tell that no matter what window you choose in our new apartment, you always see a BBQ?

The guys use em, too.
Now!!!
6C!
Kids playing outside like it was summer, the smell of BBQ in the hall - in the dark, in the cold!
I already kinda love this place!

Bought a new furniture today - wow. At nearly (far away from) 40 I become an adult, live no more like a student...

My back feels like 1 hundret years old, though.

After two nights here, it feels like home already.
Just Netbook, hence pics are... limited.

Happy weekend everyone!

Bro´s Friend has a huuuuge delivery vehicle, about 6 metres long - we got everything in plus stuff! One drive and we were done.
(Well plus car-loads in the coming days with stuff, stuff, stuff...

I told my Team-Leader yesterday I need to take some overdue-hours to prepare for today - Ingo cannot help (his back and all - and he is tired (did all the spraying!)) and the stuff seems to grow back, too!!!
He said, nah - it doesn´t grow back - Ingo gets up at night and packs the stuff out again, that´s why he´s so tired, too!!!
Haha :-) So now we know!

Gosh. Wonder if I can move anything tomorrow. Legs,arms and back hurt even now! Not to forget the feet.
Funny story following soon, a chicken and Bro involved, gotta take a video first - too funny, it was!

Now sitting in the cold kitchen after a shower without curtain, on the knees hence, with Ingo holding the shower-head. In PJ´s and with winter-jacket on, wet hair.
The new neighbours can see right in (guess they don´t all is dark.)
Laptop on knees.

Now prepare bread for tomorrow, watch some TV and fall into bed.

Yikes, I sat down twice today - for Pizza and now.
Not bad for someone who sits all day, usually, huh?

We left Karlstreet.
The Easterly Ring-Area.
Aw.

Addendum
Due to dumb circumstancs (not talking/looking) we had to drive to the old apartment (I didn´t say home! I´m good, huh?) after 6pm. Back here we cruised around for about 15 minutes (like many others) - and guess what?! Found a parking-space (with my car) right here in this part of the road where we live!
Guess The "Parking-Space-Guardian" might be with me still!

Freezing greetings, good night!

... at home.
Maybe I won´t see this again ever:



Not from this angle at least.
I´m kinda sad. I´m also happy, certainly, to not rent anymore, save money, have the money we had safe as property. Move to a good place, have better neighbours.

But, yikes!
This was our first real home together!

I always get weird coincidents. Like this one, today:



Well, actually this arrived yesterday. But only at pulling it over to lay Ingo´s good cam on the paper free from breadcrumbs, I saw...

See:
We move from
38106
to
38114

Why are both numbers here?! And why is a "2" attached to the second home we move to?

Freaky? Good?
Just a coincidence.

Aw.
We move on, always, that´s life. I know. Life is a flow.

Yet... I hate Good-Byes. Just hate em.

Gah, and all the work ahead still!
Today we do: nothing!
Rest.
With hurting backs and tired bones.

Tomorrow, 4:50, hello, wake up! Start usual working life and move to a new place afterwards, a bit, each day - til Wednesday.
Thursday I took off.
Await dear Bro and make the move.
Get all the big stuff outta here.

Then about one week left to get the rest out.

Heck - where did all this stuff come from?! Who bought all this?!!!! Can you believe it, it was us!!!

Well.
One last Sunday here.
Good-bye Sundays in Karlstreet.

Yep. I´m whiny, dumb-old me.

Phew! Today we finished all the spraying! Next week we work again and will start doing the ceiling after that.

We´re zonked out, but it was worth it.

We didn´t spray everything white, but Orange and two different shades of Grey.
Ok, not funny. I´m sorry for people who cannot see red/green! But if one of them visited us, he might think of us as boooring guys!

Living room:



Living room ex-window-then-bookshelf (I´d kept the window, but, alas - it will get green shelves someday, for now they stay white):



Hall:



Kitchen with extra-room:



Well, we just live in a colorful area:



And in a party-area, too - this is what Ingo "found" in the cellar:



Means: This is left-over from the last house-party in summer - and no one takes it secretly for himself.
People party with and trust each other. Guess it´s the right place.

Oh. And certainly it´s not all Red and Green - there is also the Orange Room.

Would you like to visit us or do you think we´re too colorful?

... or "Bremen"

I have a friend who still lives in a weekend-relationship. She lives here, her husband in Bremen, some 200 km apart.

Some time ago she told me it was on a weekend (where I was on a longer holiday, so she couldn´t tell me the next week) that she saw something funny. Her husband was driving the car, so she looked around - and in one real high window there was a naked man standing and cleaning the glass.
Wow, huh?

She said... "I don´t even remember if it was in Braunschweig or Bremen, so weird was the situation!"

Now... we had only provisional wardrobes here - for me, though, this is the situation since I moved out of my parents house nearly 20 years ago!!
Anyhows. Now that we own an apartment that is also bigger than this place, we looked for real wardrobes.

Guess the name of the chosen model?

Yep, "Bremen"! I so had to laugh, cause guess I´ll always think of the naked guy cleaning his (real high) window!!!!

Here it is:



Open, and with a tired me (Ingo insisted on this):



Why I wear a cap?
I ruined my hair helping Ingo with WallPerfect (see also the "Produktvideo" on the right) - we don´t paint, we spray - sadly also (very, very finely) my hair:



Tomorrow a last time the kitchen and then we´re done. With wall perfect you´re really fast: 1,8 m² per minute! (And yes, it´s really, really loud!)
Maybe we start the ceiling, too - maybe not: Monday it´s back to work.

Yesterday we watched The Da Vinci Code – Sakrileg. I love both actors, Tom Hanks and Jean Reno!

Certainly we got the English part translated to German (gah) and the French part subtitled.

Dang!

From grade 7 to 13 I learned French - and I wasn´t bad!
I could still get around. Not good, but I´d do ok.

How frustrating, though, that I really needed the subtitles!
Jean Reno speaks extremly fast, once I even didn´t get "merde"!

Il etait temps really sounded like Iletaittemps.
Is time so precious for the French? ;-)

Ok. Let´s look at it. It´s 20 years that I don´t speak French anymore. (bu-huuu, time... precious, oh-yes!)
But 7 years I was learning it! How can it be that I forgot so much?
Is that normal???

Frustrating, that it sure is!

Renovating is still hell.
Last room to spray: kitchen.

Ceiling in living-room might be done by my dear Bro and a friend.

Still soooo much stuff to get there - when did all that accumulate?!!!

... is this cute guy (here they´re not a pest). He builds his nest somewhere up the tree.

So far we met only people our age. One student-girl (well, yes, I mean... you can stretch this age-span a lot, huh?), a woman from Peru (right above us, we´ve been told she´s got temperament ;-)...), a man from 3rd floor. And a kiddo. All nice guys.

Today my Mum and a friend of hers (ours) was here to repair our toilet (pre-owners darling-daughter, aged 14, damaged toilet and three doors, yay for puberty ;-)...) - so, all is well.

Nearly all walls done.

Toilet btw... bought toilet-paper that has elk/moose on it and smells like gingerbread, YUM (why ever for toilet-paper!!! A trend in your place, too? Started last year over here).



Maybe no internet for the coming evenings.
Thursday next week we gonna move.
Ceiling in the "living room", that´s a huge task.
I am afraid of heights, Ingo has a damaged back - perfect combination!
But Bro offered help for this, too!
Yay-yay-yay for Bro!

Hey, the new apartment is getting real!

Mum said she likes it. (She gave a lot of money, as Ingo´s family did).

Oh boy-oh-boy. We´ll be gone here, soon.
Start all over.
Guess parking the car will be even more difficult - but, WTH, our money now is safe as real estate.

Tomorrow... keep your fingers crossed, please, 5:30 pm German time. Ingo may get a good job! More money, not a "modern slave" anymore.

Not in the way Freddie did.
I want to break free from being in a German "Prison".

We didn´t do anything today, renovation-like.
We were/are both extremly tired - heck, how sad we´re working with the brain only and break down at renovating!!!!
Why, again, do I go to the Gym, huh?! One week of "hard work" in the new apartment and we´re "dead".

So, today, what did we do, being on "holiday"?
We slept in.
And took advantage of what some smart people did.


Dunno bout your place. But here, there are political debates taking place. Yes, really, I kid you not (sarcasm to be put in here)!

They start at about 11pm.

A time, people like you and me, who get up around 5am, certainly cannot follow.

Statement: Yes, we do talk about this openly (but at times you cannot follow).

There is a Jewish Man and another one, born in Egypt.
They have a weird car and travel Germany. They visit a KZ and have a snack in the canteen there together. They go to... aw, well, you can guess it.

Can you?

I was searching a bit, if there are English articles on what is going on here.
The book I´m reading atm - is it discussed outside of Germany, outside of Europe, if so, how?

I found one article. And thought... WTH????
If THIS is what people learn about Germany... oh, my. So.Not.German.

I found another article. Being a bit more accurate.
I discussed with Ingo if it would be wise to link the article here. We agreed: No. Not wise.

Because... we are Germans.
We grew up with the war-guilt. Our parents were kids when Hitler did all these mad, cruel things - and we have to say we are sorry for it.

I am sorry - that it happened!
What about others?
The Jewish people... .are they sorry for what their people back then (and probably....) did to the Palestinian people? Autralia said sorry and is rather over it what had been done by former generations, same with the Americans.
German kids still have to say: I am sorry for what I did to the Jewish People.

(really, I had to, aged 14)

I am afraid to hit the publish-button.

Am am afraid to put the link here on my blog (anyone interested, I send you the link via E-Mail).

The guy from Egypt is my age. And he even worked in this town.
He has a lot to say. He is provocative.

He, and his Jewish friend, they may talk openly about what is going wrong in Germany.
I as a German have to be very carefully and actually cannot say anything.

I hate that!
I so do hate that!
And I am no political person! How much frustration must be in people who are?!

I would love to learn what you think is going on in Germany!
What does the world think? All is good? Heaven? Any idea that we have huge problems and what they are?
Or is Germany just too small to be taken into focus?
Are we too "rich"?

Germany. The land where you better shut your mouth. And keep on working. When you are ... German.

Will someone suddenly stand in the corner, grab and bash me for this?

I am frustrated.

I am frustrated I have to fear telling what goes wrong here in my eyes.
I am frustrated that the news going to the English-speaking world are so "soft".
I am frustrated we are left alone.

At least I feel left alone.

I love living here - for the most part.
I am happy being German, yes, I am.
But, honestly... we´re not really free. If I was....

Will there be a change?
Not anytime soon, I suppose.

Have to add, maybe - I grew up in "West-Germany". In the "free" part.

Had not happened in the last 60 years. Will not happen in the near future, I suppose.
Because the stupid German cannot let go. Takes everything. And I mean everything!

Switzerland, France, they stand up.
We shut up.

Does anyone have anything to say to this?
How does the world look on Germany, do you see the problems we have?



Addendum. Ingo said he loves he can watch this with me. Have to discuss this. Why??

This weekend it´s time for the Mumme-Meile again. Braunschweiger Mumme helped to explore the world - I really should translate more of the German Wiki-article... it´s really interesting.

Mumme was a very strong... yep - you´re reading Germany... Beer. Sailors took it on their way all to Jamaica even!



This is Henry The Lion grabbing a can of Mumme (which these days is non-alcoholic).

Here you can see some "Bratwurst" - Braunschweiger Lion-Bratwurst:



And this is Ingo on the "Red Carpet", right beside a giant Mumme-can - we bought all my X-Mas-Pressies here on this market!!!



All edible - I´m good, huh? :-)


We had, btw, the same procedure as every year - the yummy food near Graff:



Y.U.M.!!!

just like that... here you can park your car (if you don´t live in walking distance like we do, ha-ha!)



Mumme is only real with this sign:



And certainly we had it:



Pics of Pressies will follow!

Here is a song... quality is bad, but it says .. "I´m back in Braunschweig again" - yes. I am!

This is what I saw today on "our".. how-do-you-call-it... entrance area -
A lost key-ring.

Guess I would´ve brought it to the office, but maybe this person is known?

Our "new home"... people do take care...

... a lot today!

Day one. The apartment is ours now.
The pre-owners came in the evening to handle over all the keys, the papers that they were allowed to built the balcony (Germany!!! Land of laws...) and, well... to say good-bye.
Not a good-bye forever, they asked us to stay in contact, guess they will be visitors from time to time.

So, I suppose we made a good decision.

Went to all the hardware-stores today and spent a whole lotta money.

See this ugly ceiling?



Was very modern in the 70´s...
In one hardware-store we saw styrofoam-ceiling-panels for 10 € per two m², in another for 5,20!!
Let´s hope Ingo can make it happen - I´m afraid of heights, I´ll be not much help here!

Door to the balcony:




Why I sat on the floor all day? I painted the heating pipes.

This is "Ingo´s room":



So, while I sat on the floor I saw this natural art - and my cam made real art of it, too:



This is how the leaves look like when you hold your hands still:



The "hall":



Well, and Ingo! ;-)

I forgot to take a pic of the bedroom, looks the same as "Ingo´s Room", just with only one window.

The kitchen:



There is a tiny extra-room for the washing-machine and "stuff".

That´s why the toilet gives you an extra-motivation to stay slim:



TINY!!!

I never wanted a toilet/bathroom without window again - now we have just that - but, well. How much time do you spend there, huh? And I wouldn´t call it "quality-time" either, so, what the heck!
We´ve been searching for about a year - the "perfect" apartment was not there and at some point you just have to say ok, this is it!

Or get rich and build yourself - which is very unlikely to happen!

This is the bathroom:



One day we´ll remove the tub and replace it with a shower and bidet.

So. This was renovating Day One.

After a few hours it started feeling like "home". We had our little radio (called Lala, yips, we´re "creative", huh? ;-)...) - tomorrow Ingo will start with spraying. Yep, we won´t paint, we´ll spray (I will spend some hours on the floor again).

We switched to winter-time. It´s frustrating how early it gets dark now.
But, well.
Since we live together I can take it.
Can walk over for a cuddle any time, don´t have to wait for the weekend!

Yes, even after three years of having this luxury, the "wounds" of 13 years weekend-relationship do sit deep in the soul....
Our own home!!!! Payed. Thanks families!!!