Double-Half
or One Ten without ham

"Time is like a piece of string, one end of the piece of the string is birth, the other is death."


(This was Derby)

"You put them together and your life is a loop."



"If I can travel fast enough along the loop I will eventually end up back at the beginning of my life!"



"But what... if you ball the string and then each day of your life will touch another day..."


(Carnarvon)

"... and then you could travel from one place on the string to another just to enable you to go back and forth to another?"


(Dongara)

"You could Quantum Leap!"



Quotes, surprise, by Quantum Leap.

How I wish!

Are there things you would do differently now?
If so, which ones?
I have a "ball"!

P.S.: Thank you all for your encouraging comments on last post!!!!
It means a lot to me!!

Addendum:



And the series Quantum Leap is FUN, Ella! Interesting! Sexy....

Genes. Can be bad.

My Great-Grandmother just said to her Daughter who was cleaning the windows: "Don´t hurt yourself, you might cut your finger and bleed."
She said that, no screaming or such.
My Father´s Mother fell, unconscious.

(I cannot remember her, hence "Granma" would sound wrong).

I opened a magazine.
Flipped through. Pictures of burned people at the London Tube incident.
I did not faint, but I had to lie down, no lunch for me (ages ago, I still lived at my parent´s home).

Never, please never tell me stories like "I burned my finger at the oven" or such.
A Kommolitone did that and SHOWED ME I had to grab the handle to not fall.

Etc, etc.

We fight! Yes, we do. A lot, since I lost my job and fail to get up and fight the system, too.

Pie maker. "Hot". Pizza maker. "Hot".
Oven "EXTRA HOT".

We fight, we have the food, Ingo leaves the kitchen, I´m too frugal to throw the food away, so.
I brave up and DO. It started with the pie maker (I ended up making 20 meat pies!!!)...



And I did not burn myself!!!

Hello, big oven, I might try you again!

Pattern: I need a very big kick in the butt and then I can do (nearly) anything I can do!

I still wait for professional help for my job search, though.

The meat was too dry, not good, Ingo said (I´m a beginner, that was my very first try!), but this red cabbage...



My Brother went (on the phone): "WHAT do you want to add??? Jam??? Cinnamon?! YIKES!"

But Ingo said: "Yum" (at least one part was yum).
Do you eat red cabbage and if so, do you add (apples were in already) other sweet items? Learner here!

Darn oven, I guess I won.

I need another BIG KICK. But I WANT that coach. I don´t want to RUIN my work-life!!!

My T, btw! If you have anxiety attacks, are depressed at times or such, this might help: a so called "weight-matress".

He got one from his new girlfriend and told me.
I often in my sleep sneak under Ingo and he hates that cause he wakes up.
I need weight on my body to calm down and I´ll get such a blanket! Do you have one, too? Ingo got me one, it´s supposed to arrive tomorrow!

I used the big oven - I dared, is that worth celebrating? (I did a mini courage dance and yes, I know to most this is nonesense, to me it was a big step).

Lion of the day... the meat...



But hey! I also braved up and used the big pan! Two tongs, but I made it. Yes, I´m a beginner with cooking.
But I battled my fear of burning myself.
AGAIN!!!

Dance with me (a bit?).

A Braunschweig man from Tunisia said that last Sunday, being asked on the carnival music.

WHAT???
Wert schätzung(s) musik.

"Wert", actually is a "value", and I think that is the true word. "Wertschätzung" is translated "appreciation". Hm. Well, Musik > music.



Monte Negro came up with "Beauty and the Beast" - inner beauty, look in the heart! The themes are great.

Maybe you have to go very early to be with "the good guys", the people from around the world who live here.



Carnival. It was online and on TV, sadly only life.
We have guests from all over the world and make this life, as in our time-frame only????

I sometimes really, really do wonder....
If I did a job like that I´d got fired.
Haha, I did get fired. Because I wanted to take the promise - after 16 years, finally - to work inhouse and not in Wolfburg as external anymore.

"Wertschätzungsmusik", who says that? That man values the music, the life-style and Braunschweig (see why I love it here?).

Isn´t it beautiful when people from other coutries move HERE and make up such a wonderful word like that?

I think I have to teach / tell my big niece. She playes the guitar. That is music, too.

Lion of the day?
WELL! He joined!!



Our sweet Henry...

Likely you know Jägermeister.
It´s produced some 15 km from our doorstep, in Wolfenbüttel.

It´s a digestif that´s made with 56 herbs and spices. It was founded in 1934 and now sold worldwide.
Pic above? Our Italian Pizzeria, Guido´s! Even they sell this.
"...muss was dran sein" > "must be something about it".

Or go to Magnifest (well, that will be September), you find this:



Funny. So many say the German language is so full of loooong words, so complicated.
"EISBEGEHRT" is no German word, but "heißbegehrt" is and that´s what it is referring to - you say "much sought-after" for "heißbegehrt", HA, German: shorter!

Much sought after. Germans are longing. They are "heiß" > "hot"! They "desire" > "begehren".
But Jägermeister is best cold.

So they left out the "H" > "eisbegehrt", "Eis" > "ice". Ice-cold! (Taste is gone then, I recommend: cool, like from the fridge only).

It´s OK, I wouldn´t run for it. Always nice as a pressie, though!

You can also have HEIMBS-coffee, now, that is a Braunschweig brand, not even 2 km from our doorstep.



This is our tourist-info, though, in the heart of the city. Sit down, enjoy!
Doggies get water (reckon if you bring your cat, he/she, too).

This is for "Tom´s "Signs 2".

Lion of the day, certainly:



Henry looking on the river!
Hence, must be New Year´s "night". That´s when he steps off his usual place and walks around to see if everybody is OK.
By dawn he is back and no one saw him (they say and yes, that must be a shiney moon!).

This cuppa sat in a carton with a sign: "Take me home! Give-away!", together with books and some other stuff.

Do you have this, also?
My T says it´s getting rid of rubbish and I always say: No!!! Maybe someone likes some!

I did, both ways, too.

Food wise... Guess. Leftovers!!!



We had Toast Hawaii in our mini-oven and hence, as I cannot work an oven (genes. My Dad´s Mother fell (really!!!) unconscious when you said "blood" and me - only NEARLY!!! when you say: "Don´t burn yourself", hence... no oven (I manage some kitchen tools, like a pie and mini-pizza-maker by now!).



So, pic above is a piece of toasted toast (I manage), ham (cold), cheese, pineapple and a hearty bite ;-)

Another 60-90 sketch (This is what it´s all about):



I miss the "quick" times.
No time to think.
Look, paint, done.
So often I wished they´d granted us a few more... seconds, minutes, but reckon they were right. This is a good time-frame, the models just went away.
DO!
Do you have art-courses like that? Here it´s expensive... Back then it was for free, certainly).

Taking part in Elizabeth and Bleubeard´s "T Stands For Tuesday".

My Lion of the day today:



I was just passing by. I admit.. I am too frugal here in Germany to sit down for a cuppa.
Being in Perth it´s another story, I save my money for that!
My Brother says it´s wrong. I should spend my money here.
Hm. Sitting in the cold or in the scorching sun, I choose the latter!

Last year our Monday-Mural-Host took me to Curtain University.
"Take the challenge - study the world".

Oh, so sad I´m too old now, I studied in crumply ole Hildesheim (I don´t even care for a link! Come Christmas season they used to have stickers everywhere: "The friendly Hildesheimer".
If you need a sticker to remind you to be friendly, that says it all! Maybe times have changed, I never really went back (but to get my stupid company cars)).

Imagine you could study (or teach, for that matter) at Curtain, Perth!
Not far away you might bump into one of these:



I always thought they were typical for Perth only, buuut... you can also "simply" go to Düsseldorf region (or visit Valerie online) and find them there.
Yupp. I had to get that old to learn that!
Which reads: You´re never too old to learn new things, right? ;-)

When I visited Curtain the first time, 2013, I saw no mural.
Now... Mural heaven!



And they have so much more, hammocks for a break, fountains, it´s a very beautiful and clever uni. Sit down on a bench, sunpowered possibility to recharge your advice included (and I just bet it´ll take at least 10 years till we get that here in Germany!).



I was asked why we don´t move to Perth, if we like it so much.
1999 we could not. I got zero points on work experience (Australia has a point-system based on sooo many things, but this one was an important one).
Now. We are too old. Hubby is sick.
Australia is such a beautiful, wonderful place (no irony!!!), they can pick whom they want.
Very unlike Germany, this country takes anyone. But let´s not get political, it´s about murals, about BEAUTY!!! This last one by artist DEEJ.



Taking part again in Sami´s COLOURFULWORLD Monday Murals.

It´s the (darn) time of the year again.
The time when my Brother ran away, home!!!
He studied in Cologne and had to come to Mum and Dad!

I went once. Here, in Braunschweig.
Once. A bit. And ran home, to Ingo.

Ella asked about this.

Brunswiek Helau!
Schoduvel.
Carnival in Braunschweig, the biggest in Northern Germany.

From 01:00 p.m. on German time you can watch it life here.

Henry? Likely you won´t see him.
Do we go?
No.

Helau?



Well, Henry will have some fun!



Do you party today/these days??? Do you destroy ties soon?

Addendum (is that even legal? Friends place a comment and I can change the content?! Oh, yes. It´s friends!,they trust me, so. It is OK).
Valerie lives near Düsseldorf, that is (don´t hurt me, Valerie!) near Cologne, both are HUGE in Carnival-stuff.

Ella, too said the same:

People drink. Coffee? Tea? haha, no, they steal trolleys and put beer in it, wine.
On TV (see link above, Braunschweig) I bet you see sober people, laughing.
Yes, they are there, too.
I did not make it that far. The drunks pushed me, so I went home. Where is the fun in that.

BUT. Have a look on "TV". - it´s a fun parade. Jokes on the world.

I got a letter...



From my doc.
He let me (and all his normal patients) know: He quits..
No. Sorry.

He has to quit.



Thank you, darn politicians.

He wrote,... and yes, that was him, I do know him since... 2002?
He wrote he has to quit because bureaucracy eats up such a huge amount of his time he cannot be there anymore for all of us.
He tried to get an assistant, but... bureaucracy.

Mind you.
2002 my ankle hurt.
I went from doc #1.... he was #11.

See pic above, it is/was simple.
I did need no expensive taping, x-rays, CT, etc... (got it all, insurance paid).

Two simple 5-Euro-scales.
"Try to stand normal. Hm, ok, uneven hip."

That.Was.It.!

Some training I could - and can do - at home and I´m free of pain!!!



My neck, my back, SAME!
He took his time - last time he said, "I need to talk to you after the test".
He´s working far away now, I have no car, him, "no worries, call me at..." ... and... he TOOK HIS TIME. On the phone.
FOR ME.

And now I get snail mail in which he tells me... "sorry, I cannot do this no more. I want to treat you like I would like to be treated as a patient, and I cannot do this anymore - there is not enough (payed) time. ! have to quit, I cannot deliver the quality no more."



Oh so often... well, let´s not exaggerate, but sometimes (well. often) when I called the place was closed. Cause ... he was on further training.
To help us better, to become a better doctor.

Ingo had a doctor like that back in Rhüden. 200... 199... I don´t know (I remember his Doc´s cat) - same story.
He was forced to give up.

Do you have similar, sad stories?
Please tell!
I am afraid all good docs throw it away and say, pfff, and if YOU, darn politician, wants to be treated. Look for someone else.
I DID quit. For good.



"My" dear Dr. B did quit!!! So what now???

If Ingo´s Brother didn´t give everything in 2008 Ingo would BE NO MORE.

WE NEED GOOD DOCTORS!

And our sh###y politicians make them quit.



So sad. Where do I go now if in pain? Getting old won´t make it easier...

Same in your place, good doctors, who care, ... they quit?

P.S. That is Ingo´s scale and no. I will not step on that. I.Do.Not.Care! I have a mirror, that´s enough ;-)

We are German.
Right?
Time.

Time...



14:00 on 14.02.2020 on.the.dot. it is (was).

No.

Secretary called me on 13th, the man to look after - and repair - our heating will be 30+ minutes late.

LOL!
14:36 the bell rang - on a Friday! Poor guy! Valentine´s Day, too!

He did his job.

I sneak in some pics from the therme and the side, so you don´t fall asleep...
Plus, two subjects, a potpourrie, if you like.



And then... we chatted! Like for 45 minutes plus!
Ingo nearly forgot to give him a tip (I gently kicked Ingo...), it was fun! (Not the kicking, the chat!!!)



The man had been in the Navy (marine, in German?), visited so many countries, it was amazing to listen to all his stories!
Oh, the "poor" man went home rather late (but happy, I reckon).
His wife is Chinese (and likely to loose her job, too :-( ...)



OH! And me... Ingo said: Tell that woman (from the job agency) off!!!!

I did not, it´s not her fault, I was nice and in the end she wished me a Happy Valentine´s Day even.
Let´s see what happens.



Some people are jerks and deserve a harsh word. Some people have but a choice and being nice - sincerely nice, that is - can (and hopefully will) help.

Her snail-mail was .. not really friendly. Her answer to my e-mail was :-)

The "cold, precise, nagging" German can be nice.
If treated nicely :-)



Giving and taking, sometimes I feel I´m giving first "always", but then ... that´s being mature, right?
And my nature! ;-)

Lion of the day...



That´s all I manage... sew a button on something! Can you sew?

*Addendum #1: The time chatting was not charged. That was his time off :-)

**Addendum #2: On River´s article on sauce I present you the very clever sauce (container) I got in Perth:



We were out and about with friends to Margeret River and had a yummy lunch.



Sauce is the same as sweets, I´m not a fan, but this principle is so clever, I took it home - this was 2015 and we still do not have that here in Germany!!!

Luckily I´m no fan, reckon it´s times of "best before" are done...