Last will

From time to time this subject comes up. Driving a car 80km every working day is a good reason to make arrangements for the worst.

I would simply like to give my body to science. Either students have a chance to practice on me or maybe someone invents a new method with my body and is able to help others that way.
My mother freaked out.

But I mean... A funeral costs a lot of money, even cremating is expensive. Looking after a grave costs time and money and I think you can remember a person without a trip to the graveyard. Put a pic on the shelf.

I have some pics of my father in my apartment, pics of a happy face. A pic my brother took of him the moment my brother lifted his cap when he had shaved his head, things like that.
Isn´t that better than a cold stone?

Ingo on the other hand wants to make a diamond out of me, this can be done in switzerland.
Ok, I can understand that, too (I only have to make sure they don´t make a blue diamond out of me!).

But I dunno. Really putting a "last will" on paper is like forcing to die. I know this is stupid, this is superstition.
But I am not the only one who feels like that. The other day they had that topic in Tim Allen´s show "Home Improvement", too.

Did you make a testament? Should I do it? I´m simply afraid of it!

Yum

Which was not yummy yesterday... I forgot my (supermarket-) Pizza. In the oven.
But I had bought the ingredients for a meal I used to "cook" when I was a student. Maybe somehow my mind made me forget the Pizza - I was looking foreward to this meal, since I didn´t have it for a long time...

It looks awful, but man is that yummy!!!

I took tiny noodles and cooked them for 4 minutes. Meanwhile I rosted green olives, added the noodles and later on added mozzarella spiced with pepper and basil. Quick, easy to cook and more than yummy (even though it looks rather disgusting)! :-)

The best in the world

... and I forgot it at Ingo´s place, I could simply cry! Well. Not really. But it is a pity!
On Saturday Ingo had to go to his fishing-club and so I went to my family and we had Pizza da Nico. I have tasted heaps of Pizza and found none better than this one.
It´s always way too much and usually I take the second half (Pizza!) from Seesen to Rhueden. Then on Monday from Rhuden to Kaestorf, where I work. From there to Brunswick, where I live.

The only thing to look foreward to on a Monday without Ingo.

Who will eat it now. Although he doesn´t like it anymore.

I hate Mondays and especially those without Pizza da Nico... or Ingo. Certainly.

Precious

This is what life is.

A few weeks ago I had my first car-accident ever. Now read what happened to my boyfriend.
I am afraid of driving and have to go 80 km every working day.

My new car has a board computer and told me I had an average speed of only 99km/h - driving on the freeway only. People who are afraid of driving are so slow...

Buy a pipe

We went to Ingo´s grandma today. His parents went to Spain and his father left some rather fragile plants at her home, telling her how to treat them. And he told her the wrong way.

Clever as she is she moved the plants to a more appropriate place and most of them are doing well again. Except one. Yellow leaves hanging upside down.
She said to me, "gotta call his father and tell him to buy a pipe!" - me: "?" - she: "well, he can smoke that leaf when he´s back, don´t you thinks so? :-)"

85 Years of age, that cute woman...

Gleam of hope

This is what I found at Leo for what we call "Lichtblick". Lichtblick has many meanings and actually I was referreing to the very good fact that the days are getting longer! (Licht = light, Blick = view). When I arrive at work at 07:40 I can see shades now! And in the evenings, too, you realize there is still natural light outside.

This is goooood.

Yesterday I took a day off to be there for my brother who went to see a doc in my town. We have been together ´til evening, talking. I hope so much I didn´t do things worse. Will there be a gleam of hope?
I thought my stomach still hurts due to the incident with the pineapple. But I think it´s 'cause of my bro (this is no accusation! I certainly am there, naturally!).

Life needs to be good!

To the bone

So much to me being honest...
I went to Wal*Mart yesterday. You know, this not so small company. The last item at the cashpoint was my new helmet for driving my bicycle.
The cashier girl stopped, grabbed the helmet and wanted to give it to me with the words, "oh, don´t forget your helmet".

What do I do? After hesitating for a sec I really said, "no, I wanna buy this one here".

Would I have hurt Wal*Mart by simply saying "thank you" and going away with it? I wouldn´t even had to lie. Would have saved me 10euros and especially this feeling of "ack. Stupid me!". This at least was the look I got from the cashier girl and the customer behind me...

Oh. Sure. Guess the color of this helmet...
They had some helmets in different color for kids, one black helmet for adults (too large for me) and one was left in the size adolescent. Which was.... blue.

Boomtown

I read the first time a play voluntarily! Sure, it´s called "Boomtown Braunschweig" - it was so much fun!
It´s about two typical, ole clerks who work for the city-marketing. To the team belongs a woman and an apparently mentally disabled guy.
In the end they all become a very successful, fresh team. They use the PTB´s help and we learn how time is "made".
Very good story. They have the Mi-Ma-Mumme-man and a Brunswick-hymn.

It was so funny, some of the marketing concepts have become true! We now really have a Mumme-mile like it was descibed, too great.

Only sad thing for me: They attached a glossary for people who are not born here but moved in later. And I had to find out that due to this town Hitler was able to become german, get the power and lead this horrible war.

See also Wikipedia on this article, further down at Naturalizing Adolf Hitler: "The City of Braunschweig unfairly bears the stigma of having been responsible for the former Austrian citizen – and since 1925, at his own instigation, stateless person – Adolf Hitler's getting fast-tracked by political scheming into a job on 25 February 1932 as Regierungsrat (low-rank government official) at the Braunschweig State Culture and Surveying Office, stationed as a staff member of the Braunschweig legation in Berlin, which had the effect of granting Hitler German citizenship. It was not, however, the city's fault that this "naturalization" was brought about, but rather the Free State's, in whose name this deed was done by the State Minister for the Interior and Education, namely NSDAP member Dietrich Klagges."

Ack! This feels bad! But then. If it wasn´t this town he would have used another Free State´s.

This town does good things, too!

The PTB is there for not only making the time for Germany:

"Worldwide unique accelerator facility

From fundamental research to clinical application - a new accelerator facility for dosimetry in radiation therapy will clearly expand the measurement capabilities of the PTB. Also the quality assurance of clinical dosimetry will profit therefrom. The accelerators required for this will be moved into the new Glocker Building on the premises of the PTB. The building, which is being erected by the state construction management, is structurally complete, allowing the topping-out ceremony to be celebrated on 15 February. It is expected that the facility will go into operation at the end of 2007."

Still. This Hitler-stuff sucks!

Electrolytes are not yummy

Usually food cans have a coating so the zinc doesn´t get in contact with the food itself.
Usually...
I had leftovers: Toast, turkey breast, cheese. So I bought pineapple, too, to make Toast Hawaii. I left the pineapple in the can. I had this three days in a row for dinner (one thing why I hate living alone!). Friday I got up, went to work, had breakfast, then lunch.
My stomach started to hurt. I was cold, then hot, then dizzy.
I managed to drive(!) home to give it all away, then lied down and hoped a little nap might make me fit again.
Noooo.
Ingo´s explanation, the zinc certainly got contact to oxygen, which dissolves the zinc and the whole stuff becomes an acid that goes into the pineapple, that didn´t help! He said this was as if I had eaten a battery. And I sure felt like it!
I managed to do the weekend shopping with Ingo. Inbetween I thought I need to sit down. I felt really bad. But when we ended up at the cashpoint, I saw a man, nearly dancing to the background music and I had to smile.
Later on I could even eat. Good genes. Though, somehow my stomach still hurts a bit.

Never. Be so lazy again. Take the food out of the can and into the kitchenware!

Yieeha!

I don´t like carnival, never did, but isn´t this inflatable costume just awesome? Too cute, heh?

The “5th season”, carnival, is celebrated to the full in Braunschweig every year. I never did go, but maybe I should give it a try on Sunday. The article says furthermore, "The parade in Braunschweig is the largest in northern Germany at more than six kilometres in length."

Time...

In order to hang up the Vegemite-mobile (see last post), we had to remove the lantern that was hangign there. Attached to it was this foto:



Wow... Don´t we look young there? :-)

You can click to enlarge and see there are no wrinkles there yet ;-) But well. The wrinkles that are there now just are signs of a happy life and lots of laughter, mainly!

Vegemite-Mobile

Finally - the first Vegemite-Mobile is crafted and hangs near my PC now! Ingo did a great job, I was helping. Ingo used wooden spits, a hot sticking pistol, thread and the red fishhooks I bought - they really go perfect with the colors of Vegemite, have a look :-)



Why fishhooks? Dunno, was Ingo´s idea. But since he has bathed some fishhooks in especially Carnarvon and also in Broome, it might be ok. And they were great to work with.
Isn´t the result just cool?

The whole Perth-journey is to be found in the archive of January under the label of "holiday-diary".

Universial Design Award

The Award went to, yep, Brunswick. Lower Saxony is the first federal state in Germany that wants to end the disunion between "old" and "young" generations.
Here in Brunswick the agency Mango developed the cellphone for seniors and got the award.

I remember how long Ingo was searching for a new phone suitable for his grandmother.

I feel a little proud on my town, that it is brunswick people pushing the idea - and being so successful.

The cellphone will be presented at the CeBit in Hannover, this german article says.

Actually, the article says, they developed the phone for the generation 40+, not for seniors. They wanted it to be used intuitively, without reading the instruction manual.
Ack! 40+?! That´s the "old" generation already?!!! Noooooo...

So I think for seniors they have to remodel it, make the buttons bigger, too.
Is it stupid to feel proud on what your town - or rather it´s people - achive, even if you are not part of it, just living there? Or does that just show identification?

Where in the world...?

... are you? I added a guestmap from Bravenet underneath the clock on the right side. Maybe you like to show me in which corner of the world you are?

I also added a calendar... which put in its own birthday - how cute is that?

Seven years

Ack! Time runs! My e-maild-provider "congratulates" me for being seven years with them today.
Man, is it that long already???

When I was waiting to get my driving license, to go away from home to study, - to grow up and be free! - time was crawling. Soooo slow.

Hold on for a sec, let me take a breath, what´s the hurry now?!

(This pic isn´t seven years old, "only" maybe four. This beautiful summer went by so quickly, even the cam couldn´t hold the time, the pic is running...)

Champagne Resistant

The Braunschweig Lions (german) released a watch, a Champions Edition, being german bowl defender in american football again.

Ingo has number 75 of 100. I wanted to have number 72, since this is the year I was born, but it was taken already. So I decided against a Lions-watch. It´s really expensive and actually for men.

Ingo wears his on the weekends only. When he´s not wearing it, I sometimes take it and look at it. I did so, too, on Friday.
And Ingo said, take it, it´s yours.

???

He said, "I have number 75. This one is yours!"

I turned it around and.... it has the number 77!!! Now.

The Friday before that we went out with my family and somehow we came to talk about that watch (my Mom is a watch-maker). My brother said, these days many women wear such large watches. And if there are only 100 of them, it´s really a special watch.
Hence, Ingo went to the shop and asked if number 77 is still available - that´s my brothers year of birth!

Actually I don´t like to get such expensive presents. But. It now is a reminder for two things for me
a) my brother
b) Ingo is a very good listener!

And I have something for my other blog again.

I will not try out though if the watch really is champagne resistant ;-)

Red

So here it is – a pic of my new „Polo Tour“, just beautiful, heh?
The curse of blue is gone, red my color is! I can push a button now to open the car. He helps me to park by beeping. He´s got five doors instead of three. And more power. The steering wheel is with leather.

Just
Never
Try
To
Avoid
Contact
With
An
Animal

again!
Let this have been my first and last car-accident – or any accident whatsoever!

(I guess in the american mind a car is a "she" – here, or to me it´s a "he", a guy who gets me from A to B and who protects me! You should have seen the "old" Polo – he took all the power of the movement and smashed himself and I wasn´t hurt a bit.)

What sticker will fit, this one



Or the lying one? I guess the lying one, the sticker is bigger.

Amazing woman & more

So I went to town yesterday and bought the new album "not too late" from Norah Jones. I chose the Deluxe Edition with DVD.
Man... This woman isn´t only beautiful and has a great voice. Though quite young the songs are very serious, "grown up". First time she wrote them by herself. "my dear country" really is ... blatant!
I watched the interview.
She is just great! Humble, funny, friendly. What she said was all clever. An amazing woman! I´d love to see/hear her live! Would be the first concert since... a very long time. But I would go!

Certainly. I spent way more money than I wanted to.

Lover of Live, Singer of Songs - „The Very Best of Freddie Mercury Solo“ went home with me, too. (I paid!) At „Guide Me Home – the piano version“ I nearly had to cry. Why did he had to die so early...

Golden Girls was in the bag, too. Wanted to hear them in the original. Wanna be happy to grow old some time!

My beloved red shoes...



Ack. Worn out, I loose them all the time and I couldn´t find them again in the shops. So beautiful with the silvery glitter.
OK. I live in Brunswick, town of duke Henry the lion.
Are these new shoes appropriate?



Back to Freddie mercury – great symbol!



And here – is this the constellation of mercury?



Speaking of constellations...
I was at my family´s place some time ago. A customer who was quite loud - and hence let me hear everything – had broken his jewlery. My father had crafted it by himself, from different materials. It was the Southern Cross.

I had been sitting very, very often in the nights in Australia, looking up to the Southern Cross.
People from Europe who haven´t been there probably cannot imagine... no pollution, you see the stars! The Milky Way! The Southern Cross! To me it´s not only the constellation, but also part of Australia, of beautiful times, of the australian flag.

Sure, guess... My "little" brother, the goldsmith. He wanted to give me a perfect birthday present when he heard me talking about the customers´ jewlery.

Here it is, like the constellation, including the detail a professional cam took – the star on top looks yellow (a so-called „fancy diamond“ my brother used to match it) - the human eye cannot see it in the sky...



The offical constellation leaves out one important star, which my dear bro’ couldn´t know.
It looks like a wrenched cross this way. I have to ask him to fill in the – to me – missing star.



I wish I could give him the faith the star gives to me, the feeling of joy.

He is in very, very big personal trouble at the moment. First I got a very long e-mail. I certainly offered to be there for him and he immediatly took the offer, came over to my place and opened his heart.
I feel honoured that he has the faith in me and feel sorry he has no one else for this very, very difficult task. And I certainly don´t know if I can be the right person to help! Do I make things worse? Or better?

I deeply hope he manages, I will be there for him. I am afraid for/of him! I didn´t want to end this post so very sad, so insecure...

I won´t! We will manage, we will figure out, - I bet!

Safe side

That´s where I should be today after drinking tea No 23 from my Advent-calendar. I probably will need a guardian angel tonight. It´s really cold and maybe slippery on the road and I want to go to town by bike. Guess I use my helmet, too.

Yesterdays´ tea kind of fulfilled its promise, too.
I had to go all the way to the car dealer again. I needed to bring them my summer-tyres and fetch the ones that belong to the new car. It´s a special model and has wider tyres.
The mechanic remembered me (is this a good or a bad sign?) and greeted me with the words, "gosh, the new car is dirty!". After a sec of thinking 'hey!....' I said, "well, I´m driving everyday..." and he went, "so do I".

I waited in the sales room and he surely took his time. I thought, 'man, what´s he doin', washing the car or what?!'

And he did - my car was shining in a magical red again, the last drops of clean water just dripping down! :-)

Which is good. I had thought before, ahhh, I wasn´t able to take a pic and now the car is so dirty already...
Will take a pic today :-)

It´s a kind of magic

Got this bag of tea from the Advent-calendar - what will happen today?
I got a message that I can fetch a parcel from the Pack-station at my post-office. Will that be the magical part of today?

Well. For sure I have Queens´ "A kind of magic" in my ears now :-)
Sing and hum along!

Perth pics

I´m done, you can see the pics from our holiday in Perth here at flickr.

The "diary" can still be found here in the January Archive. Simply click on the holiday-diary-label and you have it.

This weekend we made curly kale. From picking it all the way to the ready to eat meal. Ingo said he wants to blog about it. Was a lot of work.

Driving

So, today another colleague will drive me to the car dealer my company works with and I get my new car. I really crashed my "old" one, repairing isn´t worth it.
Ack.
At least I´m not so much afraid of driving anymore. My colleague "forced" me yesterday evening to drive back in his car, a big Jetta.
At first I was very unsecure, but I managed. Good to have colleagues like that!

Sad thing I can´t convince him to start at 06:15 in the morning - we could do ride-sharing and save heaps of money.

And... aw, that was a good car! When you tip the pedal you really accelerate! Will be painful to get back to a Polo...