Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

We have but one life, that´s what I believe in.

We should never take it for granted, a heart attack, a stroke, it can hit peeps of any age, any time.

I am so thankful so far ... for well, what.

I lost my parents kinda early.
Bro has different priorities but seeing me.
And as in a couple I am very much alone. Mind- and physical-wise, I sleep by myself for a long time (not my choice). No project since mid-Jan work-wise does not help.

I am sick of being thankful.
We do not get along anymore, Ingo and I - I thought we would, I was SURE of it. I am accused to "hide" things, I accuse of promises to tidy up not being fulfilled since we live here.

I want to be happy.
I love him, but I´m not loved back, just questions where is this, where is that, where did YOU "HIDE" it.
And I have to admit, upon the LOADS of stuff he spreads all over the place I loose track.

I live in a garbage bin.
Again.
Bro never invited friends cause our Mum... she was a messie trying to provide for her kids. She tried hard and I always felt ashamed to have Ingo over, too.

He never did mind and now I know why.
From one hell to the next.

I feel and am: Useless, un-productive, un-loved.

This is no drama-queen, this is a fact.

I have to get it out.

I seldom felt so alone.

My blog, just ignore me now, but I kinda need to get it out.

I don´t know what will be next.
The balcony is getting so beautiful, thanks to Ingo, too.
Summer is on the way.

Maybe these are just the blackest weeks of my life? Months?

I always tried to be positive.
Maybe that was wrong altogether?

Summer, right?

This is not against Ingo, I´m the failure.

Yesterday suddenly the sky went black, in Braunschweig as well as in Kästorf, ex-teamleader e-mailed me there are lots of paparazzi around aka some good thunder and lightning.

Oh, yes, it was quite a show! I truly love that!

It didn´t take the very humid heat away, though, wee, we got roasted (no aircon and lots of glass).

I had quite a job to do, getting the champagne glasses to the conference room without boss noting it!
R, the secretary, suggested I take a plate. Haha, boss very, very sure would´ve heard what was going on when I dash it all on the floor!
I´ll never be a waitress...

We got sparkling wine and orange juice and at 02:30 the caterer came with four huge plates.

My first job at organizing a reception and I did not fail, phew. Even came out perfectly with collecting money for pressies. Not a fun job, though I have to say: We are a family. I could trust every single one.

Since boss is a true mathematician I took the cite of Galileo Galilei that says "the book of nature is written in mathematical symbols" and that now it´s nearly all time to explore. (He will be with us as consulter still.)

We had but two days to prepare all this as boss hates to be the POI and the cite/words suited the compass we got him as a symbol to not get lost - and to find the way back to us, too! Some more gimmicks, money, that card (calling him lovingly "patriarch") and some very sweet words of H and he was in tears...



The food was very, very yummy, bread and wraps. The conference room was like a sauna, but everyone enjoyed none-the-less.
Well. As in how enjoyable a good-bye can be.

Off I went to the dentist.
This woman even makes me laugh when I´m afraid of pain - and twice I really was in it.
No tears, though :-)

Well. One chapter closed.
Hope the new boss will be at least as good...

Did you have a boss you didn´t want to let go?
What happened next?

Addendum: I "warned" my dentist I´d had a glass of sparkling wine (and brushed my teeth) - she said she´d loved to eat Mon Cherie between patients - LOL! 13% liquor in that stuff!!! Did patients smell that? Haha, "our" dentist, huh?!

On Bohlweg I saw this artist, stopped, admired the work, got a euro and.... what do you think, is this good work?
Sorry, I was the farthest away possible, I´m not tall enough, it was beautiful (in my opinion).

What did I see in his basket?
5 cent-pieces. WHAT?! 10, 20 cents, 50 max. No wonder he didn´t even care to look up at me and say thanks.

Wilhelm Busch lived and worked 8 km from my home-town, he wrote amongst other kid´s books in rhyme, some Ingo still can recite by heart.
I got the huge book that was passed on to Bro and from him to the Nieces.

The artist chose this rhyme by him saying, people easily get to paint pictures (well, me, not so much!), but it´s a difficult task to get people to pay for it.

Sadly still the case.

Oh. Most people sped by anyways.
Their task: Shopping!!! :-(
This man has skills and he uses them - others just sit or stand there, shake a cuppa in your face and want your money.

"How about making a donation?" - really, a donation? I donate my hard-earned money so you can buy more booze?
I get my butt outta bed early (and start the dangerous way to work by car eventually) and donate that money for nothing to you?
Hell, no!

So it´s really beyond me why this artist didn´t get some euros...
Have never seen him before, either, so reckon he travels around, had a thought on, hmm, city of Henry the Lion...

I saw one even taking a pic and walking on just like that!

Than there are those two guys who make dogs of sand.
Dogs, always dogs.
How about a lion, huh?
Why aren´t people also willing to pay for common sense, for someone who has a guess before going to work.
Buy more shirts, more shoes, more whatever, but just don´t honor a street-artist´s work...

Sad, no?

Grabbed a brolly yesterday, chance of rain 55%+, and headed off in search of another Lechner-figure at ArtMax.

As always, when you take precautions there is no rain!

And was I surprised to find this zebra at a deep-garage!
What is it with me finding all those "animals" lately?!

It was much more beautiful than what I was looking for in the first place:



Stating I´m not a soccer-fan would be a joke, I pretty much "hate" that... sport.
But, hey, being a hunter I wanted to collect them all, right?

The one at Ringerbrunnen is a fake as it belongs to the gallery and is takin inside when they close and the one at Ritterbrunnen was not to be found at all.

Peeps enjoyed a lazy or sporty Sunday afternoon:



I sat on the balcony and finished Cathy Glass´s "Nobody´s Son", my, she was a wonderful foster-carer.
In case you wonder why I´m interested in books like that. I was for 5 long (overdue) years with a guy who had been fostered (not so well).

In the end I had to run 5 times to water the flowers and plants! :-)

Because, yes, there was rain. About ten drops, reminded me of Perth 2015!

Just across from where I "work", in Welfenhof-Passage, this group enjoys a loooong tea-party since weeks, can you believe that?!



Not so sure what´s to enjoy. Milk. Cake. Fruit. Wine???
Love how I was able to catch the moment the sun fell onto the woman´s face, huh? That way it makes sense she looks up, maybe I just met the artist´s intention.

Way too warm (finally), but...



Did tea-pots look like that in the 50´s?
The city was packed like crazy. It wasn´t fun anymore.

So I made my way home.
After.



I could not resist!
Not sure what to do with it yet, but... awww, no?!

From left to right: Dankwarderode Castle, Henry :-), Town Hall, Theatre, House of Science and finally, where I walk past every "working day" now, Alte Waage.

Cool, huh?

Finally really on the way home...



UV-index was 7, no idea if that woman got sun protection, guess rather not.. But the kids were fun to watch.

Neighbour´s kids made a party for over three hours, screaming like hell, you could think it was a whole kindergarten. Two kids.

I mean, really. Kids are supposed to enjoy, but in a yard with houses surrounding it get´s too loud at some point, no?

I had to retrieve at some point, sadly...



Sticky inside, mybe we really need insect screening to let in some fresh air...
But, hey: Summer!!! :-)

Tomorrow... meet a new possible boss/partner company, or such.
Nothing about testing but about VW and portals again.
Do I have a choice...
A nervous wreck again.

Ex-teamleader suggested to get a plant for the new pot from IKEA and so yesterday in sunny 25C I took off.
On foot. It´s some 4,9 km one way and google suggested it´ll take me one hour, two minutes.

After 49 minutes I arrived and I stopped quite often to take a pic, too, I´ll only show you a part of what I thought was worth to be taken a pic of.



Since just the other day a cyclist was dragged off his bike by three men, beaten up, crying for help without success on the way to lake Ölper I didn´t dare to take that sometimes lonely route and went by Hamburger Strasse. LOUD but peeps everywhere.

Not only peeps!



Ok, I admit. This fella likely wouldn´t be any help. Nor his bro on the other side:



This fella wouldn´t be right for fleeing:



And even if alive... moo shoos off no one, huh?



I took the big tour through IKEA but somehow.... what was so special about that place again?
I didn´t find any inspiring idea and bought only one thing, too:



It says nothing on if you can eat the fruit, though. And I really wonder how all those plants manage unter the artificial light there.

Had a bottle of water with me, pulse between 132 and 142, boy, I think I overdid it a bit, but those Nike-shoes run by themselves!
Really, never again cheap sneakers!!!

I was pretty red in the face when I was back, all in all just over 12 km, 215%, 18560 steps and 1759 kcal.

Are you an IKEA-fan?
If so... why?
I sure was and don´t know why anymore...

Well, some can relax and just watch Henry doing his job (which is standing still until New Year´s Eve).

Others...



Love that the guys from the waste collection are honoured as well (and someone tried to give him a bottle of beer, too).

It´s all like scenes from the 50´s, the artist states and hence you also find a scene like this in Magniviertel:



The clothes move in the wind btw!



More to come... hunting goes on.

My life, too.
Ingo is right to shut me out for now (?).
I broke it, I take the consequence.
My heart is broken and it feels like it´s all too much. I want to be productive, I want a project! I want to work.
I will have to deal, silently. Like I (drama) didn´t exist (that´s how I feel - my blog, right? My feelings.).
I´ll cope.
Summer, at last.

When I went to meet up with NameSis for lunch yesterday I had to see this.

They knocked off the boy, how sad, stupid, sick is that.

Read it´s the second one, too. This one, weighing in in some whopping 200kg, will be repaired, the city said.

Is it jealousy? Fustration or just drugs/alcohol?

Yesterday the weather was cold and extremly windy, but today.... on the hunt, hopefully to find them intact.

Speaking of respect. Ex-teamleader wished Ingo and I a great looong weekend. So sad I cannot return this wish. Girlfriend´s situation is still the same. Why them, I wonder.

Found two more figures yesterday in my lunch break after I picked up my new Braunschweig ring after very sadly having lost the small one, now for the middle finger, it´s safer and cheaper, too.

Two, also:
Had my hour with the new boss.
He´s only 37 and talked a lot. Told me he has an apartment since today in town, but it´s not given to him tidy so after work he´ll have to take the vacuum. Hm, ok.

He doesn´t intend to change much, has trouble learning stupid stuff by heart for no reason, too, reassuring me on failing the ISTQB-test by two questions, which I directly told him.

If I really have in interest in testing and well, then we find a way.

Sounds good, no?

He couldn´t sit still, though.

We´ll see what the future brings. He talked of investing to improve, to get away from VW but to make sure to not entirely loose them.

All that after I probably slept only 20 minutes the night before, catching some mean virus, leaving me with my legs and arms hurt, my head, oh, real bad. But at the pharmacy I got the right stuff and hopefully already fought off the bugger - long weekend to come here!

It was quite embarassing.
Not the sitting by myself at zea but Ingo coming in all the time via walkie-talkie!

I put the HUAWEI on the table to show off, LOL.
Ingo meanwhile went to the city to get...



Some get a Porsche, some travel back in time technical-wise.
Better than a Porsche, right?

Forgot about having taken this pic after we visited the hairdraisser totally spontanous.

Remembered when yesterday I ran into this couple:



I wonder if I´m able to find the 50 (!!) Lechner-figures!

Kinda fun they only say you find them in the city, huh?

In the city of Henry the Lion you have to be a hunter :-)

Yesterday we went to our nursery cause it was not rainy, cold - but, sunny, warm!

We picked the lot, walked home with Woolies-ALDI-Aussie-bags (we don´t have those here!) and...



... made sure they get enough air from underneath... added some more...



Oh, let's hope they grow, right?

The new addition surely will piss off our neighbour, (Nelson/Simpsons) HA-HA...



It´s a simple downspout holding the pods!
Ingo is a clever guy, no? :-)
Show you when it´s all done and pretty!
Summer... you´re on?

So glad I didn´t buy flowers at the nursery - the heavy Thursday-rain happened to come yesterday!

We stood in awe at the balcony-door, enjoying the sound, the occasional lightining, remembering the light-show Ingo got on his Birthday in 1999 somewhere in the woods near Coolgardie (or was it Kalgoorlie, I always mix that up, too!!).

We´d packed the car for the night, aka kitchen, esky, everything in the front and then a gigantic thunder and lightning came towards us.
With two huge, full jerrycans on top we got a lille nervous and were just about to shovel free the driver´s seat and run when... as a real Birthday-pressie the whole thing changed direction away from us.
What a beautiful, impressive show that was!

And now we wonder.

All balconies but ours (in our house we´re the only one) have a roof of the next. And.
Not.A.Single.Person outside enjoying the show!!!!
Why???

We would have, if we could!!!!

Do you love a good, mild thunder and lightning, too?

1974 Mum and I went into the woods and got some wild wood-strawberry-plants to take home and plant in the garden.

A couple of years ago I took some to Braunschweig.
Last year we had one mini-wood-strawberry I shared with Ingo.

And now... have a look!



Ahhh, hope this was not just a visit but the temps and sun stay!



Though for now I put the plants and fruit under table and chairs - heavy rain is predicted and as I type it´s getting dark already...

Don´t wanna risk to loose them, right?
Hope the ones in our garden here survive, too!