Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

This is one of two "groups" asking for trick or treat at our door.

Dunno, not so popular here, yet.

But what I found more disturbing... when we were kids (waay back then) ... on occasions like those we were groups of 7+ kids - this one came with an older brother (no costume) and before that a group of three.

What happened to kids these days??
Sad, no?

Still cute kid

(Pic: "Our" Maccas in Wanneroo, 2013)
As you maybe know I´m not a fan of novels*.
I prefer the real thing. Dr. med. Eckhart von Hirschhausen writes about happiness. In a scientific, but also at times very funny way.

This cracked me up:

Love yourself so others can love you – a drastic but funny (is it?) example:
Women feel bad after flipping through a fashion magazine (luckily I don´t care for fashion) – they think, bu-huuu, I don´t look like that!
Men, he writes, go into the sauna, look at other men and think, nah, ain´t THAT bad – in the sauna you see how God made man and how Maccas formed them. It´s normal to gain weight over a life-period – once I was weighing in at three kilos. And he adds, no man is that stupid to look in the mirror in profile.

Luck, certainly, is also to be looked at – when last time did you actually find a horseshoe on the road – maybe not so often cause these days mobility devices rather loose particulate matter. And even though there is a high carbon dioxide-pollution the chimney sweeper still is a symbol of luck?
Or look at "four-leaf" clover – if they, growing beside a nuclear power plant for example, suddenly have four and more leaves… not a good sign. (Hello, Simpson´s!)

He goes on ironic, but true: People who are called hyperactive in former days were the first ones realizing something´s moving in the bush and did not get caught by a tiger. Since there are no tigers but school the advantage turns to be a disadvantage. Kinda true, no?

Hmm, maybe more to come. Very well written and some infos I didn´t know yet.

*(apart from Braunschweig-thrillers, but that´s mainly due to… Braunschweig, right?)

Finally today P and I met for lunch and exchanged our Advent-calendars - still so long till December, right?
Guess this is the last self-made Advent-calendar I get in my life.
Well, it was an enjoyable more than a decade to unpack, see it positive, right?

This is her last week of working, only half-days, too, then staying home, relaxing till February, hopefully - guess that happens when you work along as always though expecting twins.
Fingers crossed all goes well!

Boots are ready to wear for tomorrow and microwave-sheep Dörte is working on a regaulr basis as well again, bu-hu.

At least hopefully our February won´t be freezing this time (trying to stay positive here!)...

I had another app at the dentist today. 9C, I thought about taking a wolly hat, but then... it´s the golden October, no?
No! The wind was dang cold, so I bought a cheapy at Tedi, Hagenmarkt.

Because... most Braunschweig peeps go nearly everywhere on foot, "aw, come on, it´s just around the corner" is a common saying also for places more than 2 km away :-)

Above you see one of the four Henrys protecting the real Henry the Lion at Heinrichsbrunnen.

Here´s the whole thing:



Shoot. 2.5C this morning, guess the "stupid" part of the year is here.
On the other hand: No snow or ice and I´m "happy".

Pic from my office, the sun rises whilst I´m still alone in the office.
Oh, but what a hard price!

We switched again to winter time – despite more than 70% are against it. But Merkel sticks to it cause Europe does :-(



It does not save any light, it´s dark when I drive to work anways it only gets dark more early in the afternoon.

Dunno why, I was driving Ingo´s Skoda tonight, trying desperately to find a place to park the car (ha-ha, see a pattern here?). And suddenly I was on Jacobson street, driving towards my parents’ house, the sun was shining bright.
My Mum stood in the entrance, waving hello to me with her red jacket on and I thought, have a close look – she won´t be around forever.

Why? Why do I dream anything like that?! That´s cruel, stupid mind!
Seesh. I also wonder why my parents never speak in my dreams. Or why I never get close enough to them. Or why whilst everything else looks real they kinda fade.

Next moment I was in Karlstreet, where we lived before and had tar I my hair. And Bro was with me.

Any logic around here?
Ok, I was near Karlstreet today – walked up to our bakery while my car got winter tyres.

It´s a nice area, really:



Nicer than where we live now, I have to admit...



I could´ve taken a larger tour - because... putting off summer tyres and putting on winter tyres took them 60 minutes.
And another more than 5 to get the darn bill ready. Hello?! They sure aren´t from the fast side there!

Gah, no, I don´t like this half of the year, dark and cold.

No visit to the city today but something warming instead: We made Solyanka:



And afterwards I´ll peek into the "neighbour´s" again - just look at the drawing to the left:



And my place:



Yes, we both buy at IKEA, the Gilmore Girls and I :-)

I admit, the view from my PC is not half as beautiful as what Grace sees from hers - at least it´s still green outside.

But that´s only what I see when I look to the left.

Looking up I see this:



Fun idea, anyone wants to join in upon what you see from your place whilst blogging?

A few months ago I got this chocolate bar for free when I bought the pink-chocolate dummy for Bro.

And today I opened it up in a rare moment of feeling I´d like sweets - awww, how cute is that? Such mini pieces!



After one piece I was done, though...

Isn´t this a great idea? Blossom In Braunschweig - in the circle you find seeds - very likely of our wildflowers, I´ll check it come Spring (oh, that´ll be when I´m back from Perth!). Sad but understandable there are laws restricting seeds and stuff to be send to Australia (remember the Simpson´s episode where Bart brings in the toads?).



On the back it says Braunschweig is as multifaceted as a wildflower medow. There are many chances to blossom here.



There is a "manual" as well, how cute is that, no?

Good thing I only found the card now (for free at Schadt´s). Otherwise I´d sent it as a Birthday card to Bro - which would suggest only this is a better place to live than his - who wants a bad message like that, right?

Anyhows: Bro´s Birthday today :-)
I cannot go, though. They´re all too tired due to adjusting to being a family of four.
37 years, oh my. Time runs.
Happy Birthday, little Bro.

About 8 years ago I bought a Braunschweig-bag that I took to work each day - many joked I have it in case I get lost - our home is on it, too.

Eight years, my, does it look shabby, huh? But they never came along with a new one as practical.

Obviously many were disappointed about the bag getting shabby, the plastic being broken the colors fading (the main streets were yellow once!).
Now thay offer a new one!

Sadly it´s just the inner city, we´re not on it anymore:



But it´s not plastic anymore and you can get the top off to wash it.

Guess it´ll last the rest of my working life if I´m carefull enough, huh? ;-)

It´s true, just look at who´s in the pic, too - it´s our Henry!

And that´s because Santa´s coming to Braunschweig :-)



Here you can see from the left the Happy Rizzi House, Henry´s home, Dankwarderode Castle, Richmond Castle, our long Henry, the Stadion, the city hall, the Spring Eulenspiegel, Braunschweiger Säule (2000 years Christianity) ....



I also got a book on Till Eulenspiegel´s well and a crime thriller from the 1800´s on a vampire in Braunschweig:



Just look how lucky he was in WW II when the bombs came down in October 1944:



Everything destroyed but him...

Don´t let me go to Graff... ;-)

Why Ingo btw applies for a new job?
We both were surprised seats to flights to Perth are few in May already - we checked with our bosses by word of mouth we can have holiday six weeks in a row before booking.
Ingo´s contract says "30 days by word of mouth" which I do not read as one day here, one day another week etc.

My holiday is accomplished - his... suddenly not!
Bummer, huh.
Even if they find a solution... who wants to work in a "team" like that, with a "trustfully boss" like that?!

Maybe Santa´s got a solution (keep your fingers crossed for WOB)...

Autumn hit. After work I was so dang tired, my eyes were burning all day already, yikes (heatings are on, dry air)!

Started yoga anyways, then Ingo came home and suggested we go to the city - he needed a haircut and a pic to apply for a job in WOB (ohhh, wouldn´t that be awesome?! Starting at zero, though...).

Awww, sweet excuse, there you are, no? ;-)
It was sunny, too (13C).

Pics are to come of what I did whilst Ingo got his haircut, then we went to the professional photo-studio nearby.

€30 for the pics on CD.

Hello????!

Reason: The copyrights are Ingo´s.

Again: Hello??? Kidding?!

Ingo said, "thank you, I´ll find a better shop" - and, thanks to me (! - ye-hes, to me!), he did.

No arrogant, but friendly, funny peeps, spontaneous, too, encouraging you to laugh natural, €15.
Whilst waiting for Ingo I took a pic of these (seesh, we have no space for all the stuff I love):



I am to buy the first one maybe, though, or do I?

LIFE IS SHORT
BREAK THE RULES
FORGIVE QUICKLY me, always, Ingo.. never, an important point here!
KISS SLOWLY
LOVE TRULY
LAUGH UNCONTROLLABLY
AND NEVER REGRET
ANYTHING THAT MADE
YOU SMILE

Motto for life, right?
To all of us, no?

This statue on Wendentorwall stands in front of a traditional healer´s house, fitting, no?

Yes, today I was on the way to my dentist again. No, actually to get my teeth cleaned professionally by her colleague and get taught how to brush my teeth the most effective way... at age 42, aw, well.... Teamleader said he wants to know tomorrow all about it!

River Oker in autumn, to the other side, cause... not walking to the city, directly, right?



Poor woman freezing on Wenden-street, brrr:



And the entrance to Wendentorwall - yikes, so dangerous for bike-riders, but, man do I wish we could park our cars like this in our quarter, too! So effective!



And here, those columns who obviously survived WW II:



For €60 (which most/maybe 100% will be covered by my health insurance) I got a professional cleaning the first time in my life and got really useful tips on brushing right, using floss right and more - they are very understandable towards "patients" having difficulties/anxiety considering all this dental stuff.

Well, she didn´t say "good job" or "good girl", but it felt like it kinda when she kept repeating I´m really doing very well and she´s glad I am brave enough to come here, to do this...

To top it off she advised I get a small toothbrush.
By golly.
I´m not in the 6-99-league anymore.
1-6 it is!
Thankfully I found Princess Lillifee (I love you can "blob" them on the sink):



I love the name Lilly/Lilli!

So... yep, a change in the bathroom (yes, I know, gotta clean the mirror again...):



Let´s see how it goes. Next app: one day before we take off to Perth!

But this was not all!
By chance "my" dentist was sitting in the secretary´s chair, looked up, smiled, how I am doing?
I showed her a print-out of the "snoremender" (yes, I admit, at times I do snore!) to ask what she thinks of it?
Nothing, too thick!

Umm, you got a minute? Let´s take a dental imprint for a rack rail - that might help :-)
(actually for if you crunch your teeth at night)

No app, just spontaneously and saving me some €50 for a test! My doc, huh? Love her!

If you ever need to see a dentist here - take mine, right?

Good job, all of us! :-)

Watching an episode of Gilmore Girls ("We Got Us A Pippi Virgin") and what do they do? Watch Pippi Longstocking!

Seesh. I always hated carnival, hated pretending to be someone else - did I ever tell I cannot lie, either?
I turn red all over.
How unpractical is that?!

In grade three my parents made me go to school as a Japanese girl for carnival.

See how much "fun" I´m having here?



It was embarassing! They made the Kimono so tight I really had to walk like a Geisha - tiny steps all the way to school, which luckily was just around the corner - anyways, people stared at me - I hate being a point of interest (big surprise, huh?).

My Dad´d just been to Japan due to selling a certain amount of Seiko-watches and was invited - so all the stuff was real Japanese, too.

Dad - and no, it wasn´t me who drew that arrow - must´ve been him, my Woody-Allen-Dad...



A former classmate, now married to a former friend of my Bro (yeah - wise girl, choosing a man 5 years younger, huh?) - she went at me at Bro´s wedding - again - about how jealous she was on my costume back then.

Yes. People are different, huh?

And guess what I found the following year? Yes, a Pippi Longstocking wig with the most uncomphy wire keeping the pigtales up.

I was always shy, but after this I said NO.
No more dressing up from grade 4 on!

And just tonight that wig is thrown back at me, huh? ;-)

Do you like dressing up?

Not that I like so dang much being me.
But... I prefer being me instead of pretending....