Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

This is how Niece goes to the carnival, she loves dressing up!
The whole pics are again here

I think this is even cuter:



I think I was 6 years old when I had to go as Pipi, I always hated dressing up, pretending to be someone else...

Gosh. Ingo sits in his room and laughs like a madman.

The neighbours might think we are mad - I had to laugh as well at some - even if one of these happened to me myself back in 1999!

Let´s see if you think it´s funny, too, or if just a German can laugh about this. If so, just skip this post and see it as my diary :-)

Comedian Otto Waalkes had it in his program "English for runaways".
He revealed how Germans use the English language in a funny, German way. The German word for advanced is "Fortgeschritten" - fort = away, schreiten - actually walk, or run, "runaways" for advanced.

In a funny way like I did! Boy, in the aftermath that sure was embarrassing!
In 1999 I had no cell phone yet, actually I got my first one 2002, when I found a job. For our journey throughout Australia we bought one, also cause I applied for jobs.

Germans say "handy" for cellphone. You can guess... on "I leave you a handy-number" I got a blank look.

And there are many traps you can fall into, too!

We get "Noten" at school. A note, though, is just a, well, note. The correct word is mark or grade.
You have to know that, don´t assume! I knew that, btw.

The Oscars I don´t care much about but I always hear VIP, "Vee Eye Pee", if other speak about who´s there. Some obviously pronounce in German and ask about the "wipps", which sounds like "whips". So... what do you think about whips?

If you do not know you might ask the dotor for a receipe. The German word for prescription is "Rezept" - I kid you not.

As we say "Chef" for boss - confusion is program here, no?

The manager or businessman in German is an "Unternehmer", undertaker. Weee, here we go, huh?
See pic above. This blogger is an undertaker, Bestatter, and he helped me heaps to get through the process with my Mum. He explains the facts and mixes it all with funny stories in his blog. Cause.... life goes on and some funny situations take place even then.

Guess 2006 many shook their heads about Germans saying they had so much fun at public viewing.
Someone invented it for watching soccer together in the city, not knowing it´s taken already for something very unfunny.
I think the word fremdschämen was created that very moment, too....

I also had to laugh on this: At times we, even after puberty, get pimples, right.
The German word is Pickel - do I have to say more? :-)
"I have a pickle in my face" - oh, poor you :-)

Some Germans don´t ask for something but say they get it. Like "I get a beer." To get, German "bekommen" hence results in "I become a beer". Jesus and his wine? ;-)

Some things I´d really never ever came up with but if you go word by word the wish for getting coins .. oh, wait. You do not need coins for your trolleys. But reckon for something you need coins and you only have 5AUD-note.
Word by word translated a German´d ask you "can you change me?" - bummer, huh??? :-)

Some really obviously just blab out without thinking.
Pony is an English word, it´s a small horse, kinda.
Some seem to go to the hairdresser and ask for a pony. Cause that´s the German word for "fringe".

And please don´t think a German is filthy or poor when he tells you he´s a tramp. That is the German word for hitch-hiking :-)

And a pressie... We say "Gift" for poison. Might explain some blank looks if you ever asked an unknowing German for one, huh?

Source.

Are there similar problems with Afrikaans and English? I could probably guess so?

Please, tell me... who buys a calendar with wet dogs???



These pics I only took, because: Warning! Disgusting pic ahead!

I really wonder why the brain is so dang darn quick!

We were on the way to the city, I saw a pigeon. Usually they go or fly away when you approach.
This one didn´t, so I had a very short glance.
I immediately looked away, yet my brain presented me with a very clear pic.

Ingo laughed his head off, I nearly added a chunder, too.

A pigeon sat in said and picked the chunky bits.

This is what was left - Ingo took the pic - the chunky bits are gone.
They´re gourmets, it did not take the cigarette-butts... stop here if you don´t wanna see the proof - a short glance and your brain will happily give you all the details!



Ewwww. Good for some laughs, though. On Ingo´s side.

I do like TV-chef Christian Rach, I really do, he´s likable, and funny.

I just do not like him on top of our new microwave-proofed bowl - what happens with it when the microwave is on??? Do you know the problem, too?

I put water and dish liquid on it, waited and scratched it off. Well, as good as I could.
I repeated this until Ingo saw what I did.
And he said: Just add butter.

Huh??? Are you serious????

He sure was!

Add a thin layer of butter on the dry surface, wait a few hours, take a credit card or such and off it goes, easy as can go!

People who grew up in a village happen to know that!

So. Either you say, gaaaah, I sure knew that!

Or maybe next time you have a TV-chef on your new dish you check it out and say, bummer, how easy!

So all is packed and ready to go. The train from the ugliest and windiest train station of Europe leaves at 05:51 am - that is the plan at least. With Deutsche Bahn you never know!
Sadly no one invented safe and affordable beaming in time...

Pic: Ingo´s workplace showing Perth´s and Braunschweig´s inner cities are about the same size.



No idea if we´ll have internet access from the cabin, so no idea if blogging continues.

A few posts´ll pop-up the next days anyways, thanks to planning in blogger.

Don´t get mad at me, but I hope for rainy nights with the smell of eucalyptus and the beautiful sound on the roof :-)

See you soon!



Just yesterday we got this for our friend B who works at the airport and thankfully drives us home :-)

When I read Grace´s post What I would miss if I had to leave Perth...... oh, well. What would I miss if I had to leave my Braunschweig?

I have to admit... I cannot bring it down to six pics.

Also cause it´s winter. No Okercabana, no green, no... well take what life gives you!
I took the cam and off we went!
Only 50 meters later.... I saw what I would not miss.

That Europe is not Australia.

A little glimpse?

I would so not miss...



Dog poo everywhere. Beer bottles, broken or in one piece and even though you get some fab 8 cents for it they clutter the place.
Aggressive people going at garbage bins, graffiti everywhere....

But this surely is just a part every European city has to deal with, I guess. Some are off worse.

Care for a winterly stroll through the city and I can show you what I would miss - I took over 40 pics and reduced it down properly, I think :-)

I´d miss long Henry, as "ugly" he might be, every time I see him I know I´ve made it home safely (me, the one afraid of driving/having another accident):



Every time we go to the city and back home we pass Alte Waage, Oh, would I miss the sight!



I also love Braunschweig is visible for the blind:



Just read braille or feel Henry:



And certainly I´d miss the real Henry, the one who gets off his place and strolls through the city each New Year´s and makes sure everyone is ok :-)



All his little fellas, all the Lions in town!



They make me smile, I´d so miss them!



The old buildings like the town hall where we had to pay nothing to change our status to "married". For free. In Germany, can you believe that?!



And certainly... the Happy Rizzi House:



Which leads us into Magniviertel, the part of Braunschweig that survived WWII-bombing.



A place full of little details...



Seeing our town symbol just makes me smile and feel at home:



It is my home-town´s symbol as well, btw.

Magni, more old than new, even the clocks only work when the sun is shining:



Next comes Lion´s Wall with the obelisk:



The Lions are so tame here! :-)





Their claws?



Awww, their smiles show there is nothing to fear!



In summer this place is always packed with people reading books, chatting, having BBQs...



And here, if with green leaves like in summer... don´t you think Sleeping Beauty could live in this place?



Back the stroll leads us to the Happy Rizzi House - even from the inside it looks "playful:



Honestly... I wouldn´t want to work there, after three days it would be too playful even for me!

But this sight might be great when you leave work:



And last not least I´d sure miss river Oker:



These pics sure look very lame compared to Grace´s Perth-pics, but, alas. I love my town! Even in winter.

I could show you the "South-Beach" if it was summer, Okercabana, Till Eulenspiegel, Ringerbrunnen, Kattreppeln and so much more but it feels like I have to defend my city. I don´t have to.
Braunschweig has it´s own charme.

People pick up stuff and look around if they find the owner, like Saturday when I lost Ingo´s cap.
If they cannot make out the owner they carefully place the item on a wall or such so you can see them.

Once my bag opened itself and I nearly lost my purse! A woman came over and helped me, boy, that would´ve caused me trouble if I´d lost that with driver´s license and all in it!

Or at the store yesterday, Ingo looks for the price of an item and another customer says, "it´s €59. I looked it up in the leaflet".
And she holds the item in her hands, too.
Mostly I feel safe in this place, I love living here.

I certainly look forward to visiting Perth as well. 06:59 am - start packing and doing the dishes and all now!
Whilst Ingo has to work, I have the day off :-)

See you in Perth!

Ingo says hi to a gorilla here.
Woah. It all was just plastic, still I kinda had respect, silly me! ;-)



I had to think of the scenes they showed after Robin Williams` death. How he´d visited the gorilla, how they hugged.
Dunno if I´d been so brave?
They sure are huge!

We´d been to the museum yesterday, it was nice, but nothing new.

Awww, look at this baby chimp, he´s got faith, or is plain curious. Or devasted?



This cute little fella really seems to say, "you make it all better?" - can´t wait for seeing them in Perth Zoo!



I did not take pics, but there was a section about animal experimentation, about keeping them when young as pets, getting rid of them when puberty hits and all. How dumb and cruel some people can be...

You could get in to see how it felt like in the old zoos:



Yes, not funny, that it´s how it looks like....



They showed old movie-pieces, by golly, were they bad! :-)



You could check if you´re as clever as chimps, but certainly you´re not, at least not with numbers showed for just a sec, then darkened and in another sec they can make out which was where, again amazing to watch.

Ingo wanted a treat, just how????



Just kidding here! But it was tricky!



Success - and yummy, too.



Since it was actually for kids we shared the treat.

Last thing for Ingo to do was checking the time for Europe is all correct!



You know, the time for Europe is "made" here at the PTB.

This, btw, is a statue of the real Henry:



So, this was our little adventure in the museum - actually I was a tad disappointed, but, alas, for crying out loud...



... what did I expect, I wouldn´t know what to do better, so... it was ok :-)

Whew, now better start packing!