Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

There goes - Ingo took off the styrofoam from our little, very old, thin kitchen window - winter sure is over! :-)

Just saw our neighbour blocking our street, dragging the winter-tyres inside, feeling a tad "guilty" for blocking.

I´m getting old!
I just payed again for my winter-tyres being stored at the garage where the tyres are changed.
I used to block our street with both, Ingo´s and later my car (Ingo having a bad back), carrying 8 stupid season-tyres into the cellar and 8 stupid season-tyres up in return.

Don´t do this anymore.
Just drive to ATU and have it done.
Let others do the carrying for me and paying money for it.

I´m getting old ;-)

Buuut... I´m strong!

I don´t like sweets and many people think, awwww, lucky you!

Nah.
These...



... make my mouth water. I´m drooling like Homer Simpson!

Well, no. Not really, but in my mind!

Crisps tasting like Currywurst???
Hmmm!
Never tried them - I did resist!

Here:



"Rot-Weiss - Schranke".

My generation!

Rot = red = ketchup, Weiss = white = mayonnaise.
Schranke: bar, red and white, right? Trains, ya know...

I did resist!
Guess that´s being mature, huh?

Awww, tomorrow will be bad, summer-time! One hour less to sleep.
Like getting up at 03:40 a.m. ...
Off to bed soon!

I am mature. I had Tilapia Filets today.
My Mum´d be proud.

I made a deal:
Fish (this one) once a month and Ingo watches the movie "Sex and The City II" with me.

Big and Carry finally do marry. They´re the only ones with no kids.
Just the two of them.
Forever.

Our story, no?

I just love what Big says at the end and it goes for us, too (I hope).

We won´t be a lonely, boring, old couple, ever. We´ll always be us.

Here goes :-)

As Grace suggested these shoes need a dignified ending - and here it is :-)

Right in the hall by the pig(gy bank that´ll turn into a cow at El gaucho some day).



Thanks for the idea, Grace, they´ll always remind me of happy times (ok... considering the foot, aw, but I´m (nearly) over that by now).

Plus they hang by the mobile I got on my holiday with Bro in Cologne back then!

Tonight they steal an hour from us, again.
A good opportunity to buy a cute clock, no? :-)

I really wish we could keep summer-time all year long - it is prooven we don´t safe energy this way anyway!

Well, actually we needed new pillows since the old ones lost feathers.
Feathers everywhere, somehow they smuggled their way even to work - it just had to stop!
We turned away from feathers altogether now.

And they had the cute clock and some very cute picture frames as well.

And!!! The sun is shining bright! 18 - 20C, the sun is really warming now!
So we certainly walked to get the pillows.
The old ruin got some nice graffiti, enjoy:



Well, "nice" might be the wrong word, but well done, no?





I really wonder why no one takes care of this properly - this is right by river Oker after all, a nice place!



Anyhows, love this Skoda-"ad", proudly wearing a Lion:



And this, broken as it is, with my cam in HDR-mode, it looks kinda romantic, no?



Spring now really is on the way!
Ingo couldn´t resist telling me the story of the Aussie family from 1993 again.
They were on a holiday in summer here and the young kids asked if they may play outside until it gets dark - sure.

Yep. That´s 11 p.m. then :-)

Yay for winter being over!

See last post´s ending - it´s Friday today and our cleaning-lady had an earlier schedule, so we met in my office.

She grinned at me and said, "....and? ;-)" (insert a nervous look from said colleague - he didn´t know what was going on!!!! How dare we! Fun times.... yes. Ranting...)

I showed her my shoes - not broken for a change!
But... they do look used, huh?
Bought them in 2006, from my credit-card, but I told Ingo´s Grandma it was from the Birthday-money she gave me and told her, too, the logo is a crown (having the name translated to English "Emperor" it does fit).
I had to tell her cause she couldn´t see well, she was in the eye-clinic in Braunschweig.

Why I lied?
Her Mum once gave her Birthday-money and said: Don´t use it for everyday-stuff like food - buy a treat for yourself!
She didn´t find a treat in time, her Mum died.
And she said, don´t repeat this, you´ll be sorry.

What can I say.
Ingo´s Grandma sadly passed away in 2008.
And I still had the envelope with the money.
And I sure was sorry.
I then bought an underwater-cam from it, but never used it and finally, since it´s robust, gave to Niece.

Old shoes.
They have stories at times, huh?

I did buy sneakers last week, btw. But they sit too tight on the still swollen left foot, so... old it still is!

Called SIL to say "Happy Birthday" - we talked for over 30 minutes, we finally really warm up a bit :-)
Baby is healthy, October third is due-date - German Unity Day. Maybe finally a generation that really grows up as "just German" with no wall in the head?

If you had the chance… would you start all over, would you like to be eighteen again?
This morning I was driving through Wolfsburg at around 05:40 and the radio played Fury in the Slaughterhouse´s “Time To Wonder”.

(They were a new band from Hannover back then in 1990 and this was their big hit.
It was played also when I was in the disco Jolly Joker, on second floor, looking over the dance floor - I still remember that very moment whenever I hear that song, and yes…. Jolly Joker was in Braunschweig. It has closed down but last year.)

Weird was, I was thinking about being 18 again, starting anew?
And the city-lights went out!
The sun rose.

A clear, no, right?
No. I wouldn´t want to be 18 again.
All those fears. What to study, where to go, the guy I was with, not helping me in any way.
A different decision and I might´ve ended up just who knows where!
I very likely wouldn´t be with Ingo, wouldn´t have seen Australia throughout two long journeys, would probably not ´ve ended up in beautiful Braunschweig.
Would I live in a condo, not paying rent anymore?
Find a second “home” in Perth, meet fellow bloggers there, marry?
Have the job I have? The freedom?

Those shoes… oh, my, guess I´m not lucky atm with shoes, huh?
I bought them in Wolfenbüttel some 12 years ago with friend P.

I wore them in the gym, on flights to Jamaica, Cuba, all the time with my broken foot now cause you can easily wear them open, leaving space for the swollen foot.

And now they leave me?
Have to add, they were cheapys, too.
Once in a small place near Frankfurt, where we stayed overnight to take a plane overseas the next day, a waitress even stopped me saying, oh, nice shoes!
In Dreiechenhein it was, remember, Ingo?
It was raining on the way back to the hotel.
I even know you had “Handkäs mit Musik”, but I don´t remember which year it was – a sure sign I´m getting old! ;-)

I wouldn´t want to go back to age 18.
But, my… 42 is ok, no? Can´t I stay right here?
The first signs of age, of loosing power, but still being absolutely ok!

One can dream, huh?

Seesh.
Will miss those shoes…

And funny enough, whilst I waited for the lift our cleaning lady arrived and said, well, you got new shoes?
Can you picture her face when I showed her? :-)

Have a day off today again. I was in plus with over 35 working hours, so I took the visit to the doc as a chance :-)

The old "worry pot", as I was called lately, certainly didn´t believe google saying it´s a 6 minutes drive.
I took enough time (40 minutes) since there is this stupid huge construction site and I expected traffic jam.
It took me 5 minutes to get to my car, I expected a search of 5 minutes for a parking lot there and another 5 minutes walk to the doc.
I´m German, you know? ;-)

What can I say... The drive was 11 minutes and in the pic above you see the roof of my red Polo and the building in the background: My doc!
But, as my Dad used to say: Better 10 minutes early than 5 minutes late.

William Shatner told me about his life-story for some 40 minutes and then it was my turn already!

@Ingo: The waiting area is now downstairs with 6 very comfy chairs!

Oh, by golly, I really wonder how one can enjoy being a pediatrician, which my doc´s husband is, they share the rooms.

Every second child or baby was screaming bloody murder!

Good news: I walk normal, no need for physio. She called the "bad" doc and got the info my foot is fully able to work under pressure (though it still hurts, still can´t go downstairs and all) - and by February next year... without pain, too - Perth, we´re on the way, I guess!

Bad news: I very likely will have to go to Munich next month for three stupid days - can´t use the foot as an excuse anymore.
Yes.
With that colleague and only that one.



Mind you... why should someone who works with SQL every day go on further training for SQL for beginners?!
Guess he knows 80%, me 0%.
And I bet he will interrupt non-stop cause he "knows" everything (better).
Let alone a 6 hours journey one way and very likely the same hotel.

My doc shook her head to the foot but really offered to sign me sick on short notice!!!!
My doc!
Usually she takes very great care to help getting fit and healthy asap, I never ever expected this from her!
But she knows me. She knows when I say ... I have a reason and it´s true.
Would certainly a) hurt the company and b) be very obvious.

Wish me luck I can get out of this somehow!!! There are online tutorials plus I have a certificate on this from 2002 (and since I never worked with SQL I got 0% knowledge).

On the way home I saw the cute little shop we used to visit from time to time when we lived in the old place - and a parking spot right in front!
I got the best addition to Luigi as a baby-pressie.
Well, since SIL loves the color black he comes in black:



He makes cooking easier, which is important when being pregnant, no?
And in this shop I found mixtures to go in beautiful reusable glasses for noodles, a Bruschetta to go along with that and "cookies à la Mama"!
Sorry, Ingo, all Italian ;-)

And yes, that orange dog.... is not from that shop.
I went... to... (insert drum roll here)... IKEA!

And I managed to get home with only this:



The two photo-frames hold 4 pics and the dog is a lunch box for little Niece - any advice what to put in there for the future big Sister?

Just look: I resisted this!!!



Such a beautiful day and the city planted flowers everywhere:



Ahhhhh...

See Ingo´s face?
Full of joy, you could nearly say pride, no?

Mother nature is clever making parents loving their kids, no matter what.

Even if.... buh!



Beautiful is different, no? ;-)

No worries, I´m not offending a baby here - this is a doll we found in a crafts shop and, no, I don´t think the person who created this baby was un-talented.
It was on purpose, see?



They weigh as much as real babies, too, weird, really!
And no, we didn´t buy one.
Poor little Niece would probably want no sibling anymore having seen such a "baby" ;-)

Why do people create "ugly babies" anyway?
Is there a message on the way like "no baby is ugly"?
Or "don´t judge unless it´s your own"?

If so: lesson learned...

Nice find on my table today:



From which age on is in your country? Here it´s obviously age 12!
Kids learn early this way...

So much for "babies" and the "making of"!

The rule in my company is: You wanna have one day off, you apply for it one week in advance.
Last Monday night Ingo asked me if I can take Monday off...

Customer said ok, so teamleader said ok, too :-)
So right now we´re still in a long weekend together - could get used to that!

First pic? On the way to our bakery. A bottle with a rest of beer from a party on Friday night.
Ingo said, jokingly, aww, can I have a sip? (ewww) just the sec a man came around the corner and answered with a big grin, sure, help yourself :-)
Ewww. It´s a men´s world, no?

But first we saw this in our hall:



No one around - and it can take up to 15 minutes to find a place for your car - dunno if I´d be willing to trust no one helps himself here?



Haven´t been at real,- for quite a while.
Since our company has around 50 employees but no canteen we get food-coupons instead.
Our Rewe nearby takes one coupon per person only.
At real,- you can use all you got - and with one cash out girl even non food articles, we found out.
We also found out she thought this is from the welfare office - like heaps of people think and look at us in a way... :-(

Anyhows, we took some better stuff from there like...



Jamie Oliver Classic Italian :-)



I took the walnut and red pepper pesto, well, let´s see.

There was also food from South Africa:



And those cute olives:



The Easter bunny looked over my shoulder so I bought Niece these cute crayons and an egg holder:



Back home Ingo called El Gaucho to ask if we can get two seats for the night - we know what we want and we´re done in under an hour.
All he said though, was "Good Afternoon! ... yes ... yes... thanks!"

I was like ???



It was "our" waiter, he recognised Ingo´s voice!



It´s not that we´re there that often, first time this year.

Sunday we went on a short walk, short cause it was cold!



But spring is on the way!


Blossoms:



Ahhhhhh..



For dinner we had beans and pototoes with sauce.



Was yummy, but the moment I tasted the beans I remembered my Mum rolled them into ham or something, sad I can´t ask her what and how.

Today we slept in, and later it´s off to the city again.

Tuesday a work day and Wednesday I have a day off cause I see my doc.

When tidying up I "found" the stuff I´d given Bro to fix for me, aka clean in this case.

Got this coin from my Mum, I don´t remember when.

Bro really thought I want it to wear as jewelry - a relieved face when I said: what, no, just make it shiny again! :-)

It´s 10-D-Mark coin dedicated to the 1972 Summer Olympics, I was 7 months old.



Ingo was 7 years old.
His Mum was pregnant with his Brother.

It still gives me the creeps.
Back then... cellphones? Nope. Worse.
During the Munich massacre no phone calls got out of the area there.

All the info that got out was: One German police officer was shot. Killed.

Ingo´s Dad was there as one of the police officers.

Must´ve been horrible. Not knowing, no info, no one to talk to.
Pregnant, with a kid around.

Several years later Ingo´s Dad took off this shirt:



... considered being "old" amongst the other officers.
He jumped into the water and won the tournament in swimming for police officers in Lower Saxony.
Easily.

Guess my Mum had no idea the coin will be that meaningful...