Full speed ahead

I went to the city today, actually I did cause
a) it´s too hot for the gym (no aircon)
b) I needed to go to my favorite drugstore, dm (german)

To b) I only bought facial soap. I didn´t go for the new "chocolate-banana-shower gel" - eeek, just terrible!

There was a blood-donation-van in front of the book-shop and since I had my donation pass with me I went in. Plus I got a voucher for a free meal at Mc Donald´s.

Oh, seeesh! Very comfy chairs they have in those vans, I must say. I wanted to go shopping afterwards but was guided to Mc Donald´s instead - they forced me to have a Coke and a meal straight away! At 5:30!

Went shopping afterwards, colorful pics are to come, and when I came out the sky was dark. Still hot and muggy, but dark.

NOTE TO SELF: Don´t speed on the bike after donating blood - on a very hot day - ... anymore.
Get wet by rain next time. You´re better off that way.

AM I ... getting old WORN OUT!

I added the tag "health" some posts ago, that´s a proof, no?

This... is not a complaint about heat - I love heat, this is real, happy life!
Even with Ingo being sick and far away.
Despite having the order to not call him and not being called by him. OK, he has nothing to tell. I miss him much and would love to talk to him, but he needs to rest, obviously.

Twins, are they?!

One to one Million - that´s how chances are for such a wonder - this Berlin family has got it:



Leo and Ryan sure are twins you don´t see every day. Leo has dark skin and eyes and curly hair, his brother is rather pale with blue eyes, here is the story (german).

Cuties, are they!
What a unique family!

Carrotmob

In this video you can see what consumer power can do!
Carrotmob organizes consumers to make purchases that give financial rewards to those companies who agree to make environmentally friendly choices.
What a great idea!


Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

http://www.carrotmob.org/

Was YUM

Even the bread was very, very yummy, I can definitively recommend Charly´s Tiger (german) (see last post)!

I put the rest of the rest in the freezer for further treats.

No, really. Food was very yummy, lovely decorated and the waiter came often to check if we need something.

Plus, the food lasts for days! :-)

At the Tiger´s Cave

My Mom came to visit me today. Actually she said she wanted to go to IKEA, since she wants to retire and move to a new town. Can you believe it - she never had been to the Swedish house before!

Maybe she buys a bed there, but apart from that she found nothing.

At least she finally saw where I live.

Afterwards we wanted to have a small dinner, Charly´s Tiger (german) is just around the corner and since it was finally a real summer-day, we sat outside.

Charly´s Tiger... in the town of Henry the Lion...

My Mom had Mozzarella-Tomato-Salad, I ordered Falafel:





It was YUM.

Did I mention these are "starters"?

Ok, I started my weekend-meals with them!



Tomorrow for lunch I´ll have Mozzarella-Tomato-Salad and for dinner... Falafel.

Heck! Who is going to eat such a meal at one time??? As a "start"?! That means there is yet food to come?! A bigger portion even?! And even after that some people have something sweet? OMG.

Well, but lucky me!

My Mom wanted to bring me One Ten Without Ham, but when she realized Da Nico had closed already!
Gosh, she came in with such an unhappy face I thought something really bad had happened! Luckily it was just a missing Ten Without Ham!

My Southern Cross

For my 35th birthday my Mom (paying) and my brother (doing) had a great idea for a birthday-gift: The Southern Cross as a pendant.

So many, many times I sat in the width of the Australian Country and looked up in the sky to admire this constellation of stars you cannot see from here. To admire the clearness of the sky, oh, I miss it.
What I not miss are the Mossies, though. Or Ants, Beetles.... BUGS of any kind and there are many, yuck!

Anyhows, my dear Bro missed one star...



(no, that´s not my skin, that´s a table!).

He added the missing star, but the position wasn´t right (yeah, I hear ya, never content! But the star stood out way too much!)

He has a lot to do, his girlfriend´s house has a hole in the roof and it needs protection against flooding and so on.

But yesterday I went there for a visit, also to fetch my new Sunglasses (pics are to come) and to ask him to finish the pendant:





It´s done! He went downstairs to polish it and it took ages. He came back with an unhappy face - the machine had grabbed the cross and threw it someplace. After finding the cellar being wet there, too and after searching unsuccessfully, he was very frustrated (ask me!). He promised he´s gonna find it. I do hope so, the yellow one is a brilliant!

Well. Anyhow it was nice to be back again. We went to have something to eat and I even saw a person I once went to school with!

Here is my Bro thinking, gosh, yet another pic!



Well, yes! I hardly see him these days!

Ingo is still in Luebeck in hospital. His brother called me often. Two operations later I hope Ingo is on the way to get healthy again. I hope he comes home soon.

Well, home.... To Braunschweig at least. Martin said Ingo has to go into rehabilitation, gaining weight and strengthen his muscles.

Our first summer "living" together... aw, well. At least he will be ok sometime more or less soon.

BTW.: By just looking up in the sky with your eyes and no further help like a telescope you cannot see the star on top is yellow.
How was my dear Bro to know, he has never been there, sadly.

Puncture your brother!

No, I´m not into Vodoo and my brother hasn´t turned into an egg either! :-)

Ingo´s brother, Martin, just gave me another call. What the doctors here thought was Ingo´s stomach, was a huge inflammation! From time to time some particles were given into the blood, hence the always changing quality

They wanted to eliminate the whole thing, but there was.. ummm, doctor-language. Anyways Martin himself punctured the area and it will be flushed tomorrow and hopefully all is going to be well.

They keep him there for at least a week, so he can gain some weight, too. Ingo stopped me from putting enough clothes in his bag – he said, he´ll be there maximum four days.
Well. Martin said, at the moment he´s wearing that well-known white shirt (and I can´t see it!!!) and he can get clothes from Martin, too.

Oh, gosh. Am I thankful.

Seems it´ll turn out just good after all.

Weird. It´s his job, but I think it must be difficult to do surgery on your own brother?

Being punctered – haha... When I reached 20 I stopped counting. Mossies – they´re at me. I look like a clown.

Respect II

In Stuttgart I made my way to where my further training took place - which was right opposite the Castle Square.

And what did I see?

A bear!

A huge bear, some 2 metres tall and on each paw he had... a little bear!
On his tummy someone had painted a heart and in this was for all to read written:

"RESPECT FOR ALL LIFE" (you can click to enlarge)



And this is not all – this baer was surrounded by some 140 other bears!

The United Buddy Bears were in Stuttgart on their mission to teach us about respect.
I was in a hurry, but the next morning I came earlier to take some pics and show some respect. The light was harsh morning light, so please excuse the quality.

Here are some pics, on Flickr I have some more.



The Aussie one wears Sydney harbour bridge, oh, well.



Liberty!



Impressive, it was:



Beautiful colors, I think:



Well. Back home I realized, ummm.... was there a German bear?

Will you believe it, I missed him! More so, I forgot to even look for him! It was just such an amazing scene, the Square, the bears, the light, the idea, and, due to the rather early hour, nearly no people.

And then again.... The idea is what counts, right?

The bears promote peace and international understanding the sixth year now – how „cool“ is that?

Next they will go to Paris, they came from Warsaw and with this they present the Weimar Triangle – a cooperation between the three countries that try to coordinate their political approaches and strengthen Europe and European integration.

A rather dull and heavy goal put into a whole lot of fun and positive energy. Yay to art!

Oh-So-Yay

I am so very, very happy and relieved!!!

Ingo is all good!!! The doctors here didn´t do a good job.

Ingo´s brother just called me. Sounded very exhausted. OK, it´s nearly midnight, am I thankful he called me none-the-less! He spoke in "doctor-language" and due to the hour - and the very, very good message! - I didn´t ask further questions.

Some inflamed liquid, if I understood right, is there, can be removed and all is well.

No idea how long it´ll take or where, but I am the happiest person at the moment.

RELIEVED!

Empty Room

So, I am alone now.
This afternoon Ingo´s parents came to take Ingo to Luebeck Hospital, some 260 km from here.
There is some unspecified inflammation yet again, Ingo has water in his lungs again.

At the funeral of his Grandmother the other Grandmother, whom we never see, unexpectedly fast grabbed Ingo and gave him a very strong pat on the side, right onto the pancreas-area. Maybe that was the cause? He suffered from bad back-pain afterwards, since that´s the same nerve cord. It´s "just" phantom pain, but made him sit for three days and nights, lying down wasn´t possible. The next 1 1/2 weeks he sat/lied day and night on the sofa.

Last Monday he weighed 67 kg, the doctor found out. He´s 1,84 m tall.

He looks awful, just awful. Boney, small head, colorless skin, all grey and weak.

So yesterday the doctor found the blood-test gave even worse results and said, emergency, hospital, special tests needed. But, as we learned twice already, over the weekend the doctors do... nothing here in Braunschweig.

So after some phonecalls we finally talked to Ingo´s brother, Martin, who is a doctor. Luckily he is! Ingo asked me to read what adverse effects the newly prescribed antibiotic has and they really made me sick of fear! Martin calmed me down, saying he gives it to people all the time and I should stop reading those darn notes.
Phew. If not for this information I guess I´d spent the night awake, waiting for the worst to happen.

Martin called this morning, in the hospital where he works they have a free bed. He somehow managed to organize the tests starting today.

I hope that doesn´t mean it´s THAT serious.
Could not go with him, my colleague is on holiday, I have to be at work on Monday and frankly... I need some calm time for myself.
This was not easy. Due to being sick for so long, Ingo is just very exhausting. I can´t do anything right and we´re both very frustrated.

Plus I´m no good company today anyway. Today six years ago my father lost his fight against cancer and time does not heal the wounds.
Went to the gym and all, called my mother but it doesn´t help.
Especially after she told me my brother flipped out after seeing Ingo, since he was so much reminded of our Dad in his last days.
Well, he should see him now, two weeks ago he looked good, compared to now.

I hope they find out what the problem is, and can fix it and soon.

It sounds egoistic, but I´m glad my colleague is on holiday and I have to be here. I just feel I need a break from it all. Feels empty, though.

I do know there are people out there who´d say, HA, that´s nothing, look at me, I´d be happy to trade!

And I am very, very thankful Ingo has a brother who is a doctor and who makes sure the very best is done for him by taking him to "his" clinic.

I know were are very, very lucky.

Gnah, wishing a normal life back soon!

Am learning to respect life more. And will enjoy normality. And I want summer back! My sunflowers die, the weather is a very bad joke at the moment!

The day is over soon, am I glad.

Respect I

So I went to Stuttgart for further training.

Stuttgart is more than twice as big as my hometown, Braunschweig.

Anyhow the Braunschweig Lions are the German Bowl defender in American Football - yet again, whilst the Stuttgart Scorpions are the Vice-Master ;-)

Anyhows. In case I might get lost - and to keep the sun from burning me - I thought it´s a good idea to wear a cap that tells where I´m from :-)



Yes, it was hot! Those guys here in the southern region get way more sun than we do. But... they also get heaps of snow in winter, which is not so much fun, huh?

Plus... maybe I have to be happy to live in a region not that hot. My father couldn´t stand the heat - and it seems those genes come through here finally, too. Went to the doc - maybe it´s hyperthyroidism - maybe just age, she said, gnahhhhhh!

Anyhows. Despite Stuttgart being a modern town of a population of nearly 600 000, it partially looks quite idyllic and I found many old structures on my way, like this portal:



Despite so many people living together it seems to be no problem to put some trust into people - this guy simply left his helmet with his bike!



Very simpatico!

But then I felt kinda relegated! With my name being Kaiser, Emperor, I felt like, hello?



Yips, the training took place in King Street! ;-)

Well, training. I now know that I did everything right when we redesigned my customers portal. I now have it black on white that I´m an "expert" in usability and efficient screen design.
Didn´t learn a thing. Our trainee those days did a good job, I have to say! She provided us with all the information we needed.

But, well. I finally came to Stuttgart - and had a very, very yummy Pizza, too! From an italian guy who called me "young" and "pretty" - HA! :-)

King Street is "the" (?) major shopping street, I thought this poster is quite cool:



At least it tells you what they do - and I did buy! :-)

10 years ago an ICE-train was involved in an horrible accident in Eschede, sending 101 people into death.

On Thursday people heard "funny" noises on another ICE and in Cologne that train jumped off the railroad (german)! It was already in the railway station and so it was just a shock, but no desaster, luckily!

As a consequence the German Bahn sent all those ICE-trains of that series for inspection. Which is good. But...

On a Friday???? Weekend means all the German soldiers go home - by train!
It´s holiday-time, too! And on Fridays there is always way more traffic on the trains.
Me, too, adding to the list.

The train I was supposed to take - was on inspection.
So I stood in line waiting to get on another one. As many, many more people did.
I thought of giving up, but then... I wanted to go home, too!
There was a very resolute woman, who said, OK! We´ll gonna manage this!

And there I was. The alleyway of the trains were full already, so we stood beside the door. The toilet-door was open, too, people standing - and sitting!!! in there. I had a blister under my foot, which didn´t help standing there for some very slow 200 km.
It was hot and muggy. There was a woman with three children, two of them very small, crying all the time.

Gosh, I got a glimpse on how refugees must feel!

Each time the train stopped, there was a stink of burning brakes.

But good thing was:
Everybody tried to make a happy face, everybody was helping one each other! Few spoke German, but everybody helped with the baby-girl (except me, my job was to keep the darn automatic door open to get at least a wee bit of "fresh" air - the windows cannot be opened!). That woman... I hope she and her family made it in time to the airport and had a chance to fly into their holidays! She asked me all the time how long it´ll take - but how was I to know?

And all the time people needed to get on/off the train, geez, it wasn´t fun!
To wipe off your sweat from your forehead you had to manage to squeeze your arm over your body even. Gnah...

In Frankfurt the soldiers got all the woman´s family stuff carefully off the train. I made a run and, boy! The other ICE even was still there and I sat down on the floor and made my way to Hannover! A miracle!!! The aircon was freezing me, though...

In Hannover I had enough time to slowly walk to my gate, call Ingo to ask to fetch me from the train station at home - and in that train I even had a seat!

No, really. It was all so exhausting. A lesson it was, too! I went through this because the people from the German Bahn wanted to make sure there won´t be another accident - I live in a safe country.
From time to time I was a little afraid when the more-than-full train rocked around.

But I never had to be afraid of being shot or anything.

I do hope that people who really have to escape some bad situation stick together and try to help each other in that randomly formed group. It helps a lot.

The Lion Eats Tonight

YUM!



Rrrroar! Meatballs with HOT Lion-mustard:




And, certainly, Braunschweig "Salami":






Addendum. Sadly food is not approved by partner.
Who is very sick yet again.
Power is running low now. Despite the hot meatballs. Does being sick excuse just everything?

The newscaster

He/she speaks clear, "perfect" german, for everyone to understand. He does so in his job only, in real life he sounds just "normal", like everyday people, or...

When I was into flat-sharing, one of the guys came from South Germany. He talked a bit funny, but was a nice guy.
Until... he went to visit his parents. Everytime he stayed there for a while we had a hard time when he was back. It took at least 1 1/2 days til he was back to normal.
Same when he was excited!

Once he came over and asked if I have a carpet to borrow to him, he´ll have guests over.

I was thinking, huh??? What celebrities are to come, does it have to be red?

In south Germany a "Teppsch" is not a "Teppich" (carpet/rug), as you could guess, but a blanket!
How was I to know?

When Ingo fulfilled his military duty ages ago he was based in south Germany.
Grommbiera, that sounds... yummy? It´s Kartoffel an ordinary potatoe.
That doesn´t even hardly sound alike, Grommbiera – Kartoffel, does it?

They teased him, saying, boy, what an arrogant type of guy you are – think you´re better than us by speaking like the newscaster ?!
Gosh, no, we talk like that and ahhhhh – on Wednesday I´m off to South Germany, all alone!

My company sends me for skill enhancement to Stuttgart. Ok, it´s just two days (and one evening). But... geez.

Ok. I making fun here, I bet they won´t tease me and if they try hard they can speak like the newscaster, too ;-)
Everybody makes fun of the "Schwaben", there are entire dictionaries on Schwaebisch-German )partly german);-)..., Ingo found a crash course with all the rules like saying "sch" for "s" or leaving out the word wir (we) and simply add an "r" to the word before that.

Actually they deserve some respect, those guys, I think.
I could imagine it´s quite difficult when you grow up with that dialect, then come to school and find all the words are written entirely different to how they sound – extra complicated, is it?

I was ensured the seminar is in "high" or "standard" German, too!
It is called "high German"?!!! No wonder people think of "arrogant"!

Good evening, ladies and gentleman,
I now leave you to make up your own mind.

Sun and Wind

That´s the name of the house (german) we lived in in our little holidays at the sea.
A house just for the two of us! A tiny, sweet, little house at the end of the little village Accum.

Here is the view out of the bedroom-window:



Here is another view out of the bedroom – geez, took some time til I had learned to climb those stairs! The older I get the more I suffer from vertigo...



Wilhelmshaven (german) was our destination, we´ve been there some years ago, it´s a town of around 83 000 people, but has a charm of it´s own and is right at the sea – I just love the sea (even more so I love my town, though).

One of the town's landmarks is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Bridge, it was once Europe's biggest swing bridge.





Even the benches have the trademark:



We went to Oceanis (german) a little museum with 4-D-show on the theme "sea" (big surprise, huh? ;-)...)
Here you see Ingo "in" a game:



We went (yet again) to the marine museum (german) – I really do wonder what makes men (and women!) do service on such vessels?! Money? You have no space there, it´s plain awful!
What happens if you have a bad dream and try to sit in bed? DANG!



The bridge again, right: German flag, the EM was still on ;-)



The sea!






Calm, but at least: The sea!

Sat down for a sec at the promenade:



Freedom, that´s the word I hear when I see this:



We also went to Jever (german), where the famous beer comes from.



"Jede Kiste schuetzt die Kueste" – "Every crate safes the coast" – have a beer!



Ummm.... Wilhelmshaven – art?



Certainly we went to Bullermeck (german) to meet Paul, Piet and Ole:





And other marine-life-forms:



And, certainly!!! Sheep! On the banks, oh, I love that view, too!





Ingo had heaps of seafood and we had a lot of fun!