Cuba Pics Online

Can you believe it?! We´re back three weeks already! Back to the daily grind - which is a good one! :-)
No really, I love being here, it´s truly my home (since we live together even more so! Life is soooo good when you see your partner every day! It´s still not routine, feels still special. Two years cannot make up for 13 years seeing each other only on weekends (and holidays)), I love my job, colleagues are mostly great and now that spring is here and summer on the way... We´re both healthy, what more can you wish for (apart from the apartment).

Anyways, I´ve been editing both, mine and Ingo´s Cuba-Pics, which means nearly 200, picked out the best, edited them and put them here on FB :-)

To most of you this might be not special, to us, it is... the ocean (warm enough to swim in):

Love Is In The Air

Well, spring actually, too!!!! Yay!

No idea what Ingo is doing here, talking to the tree, maybe? ;-)



So, we strolled to the city on Sat.

Spring means also service for bikers who died in crashs. Man, the place was packed! See good ole Henry (The Lion) in the middle?



These services make me sad and mad at the same time.
Mad because most bikers die due to simply being way to fast and crashing into a car. Who talks about the horrified car-driver who has had no chance to react?

Sure there are also car-drivers who run into the other lane. Which was the case with Bro once. That makes me sad (and happy he survived!), but, I have to admit: He was way too fast with his darn Ninja.
Once he had a speed of 200 km/h - on a normal road (not highway, but both highly dangerous anyways), when a tire blew up!!! A hurt ankle (and a crashed bike again), that was all. Could´ve turned out very different!
Now he drives a "Shadow", a cruiser like us (Harley) - hardly a deadly accident to expect!

Anyhows, spring is in the air, right? People marry! See this pic I found in a photographer´s shop (actually due to the King Frog, but isn´t that a great idea for a wedding-pic, that heart?):



We also went to the park nearby, people came with their BBQs... I love that it´s allowed to bring your grill and have a BBQ in the park! Not allowed in every town in Germany, we´re lucky!



And, my, love this "Harley-Bike"!



And this is where we often park our cars at home (taken with the new cam btw), I loooove blooming cherry-trees!



Well, as mentioned before, usually we have to decide: Either holiday in the Caribbean OR see spring in good ole Germany.
This year with spring coming sooo late, we had both!!!

But after that long(est) winter (since 30 years) we kinda deserved it, no?

Now, life in Germany begins again, yay!

Still At It

Well, I´m no drama-queen, we´re not shadows of ourselfes ;-)
(this is us, though - I don´t have a tail, it´s my handbag, LOL)

Still waiting for a decision on the apartment. They wanna take their time till after their holidays end (May 09th).
It´s kinda weird. I have her E-Mail-Adress (same forename as mine), but it´s always him who answers.
He seems to be a reasonable person (and she was very nice, too, natural gal)... let´s see.
By now I am/we are sure we can accept the rather long way up. The high rooms... we don´t heat the whole apartment in winter (we don´t do now anyways).

Oh, pleeeease, keep your fingers crossed, they choose us!

Been to the banking house today cause a friend said, soooo many offers. Same as online :-(

Yeah. That´s it. Went wild today, got a new cam, pic is to come (yeah, right, throw money out whilst looking for an apartment to own and having not nearly enough money... I know! Hey, does it matter that much then?!)
Went to Subway again, yummmmmm.
Gym tomorrow!

Mum is way better (called today).
Bro + wifey finally got a baby buggy - is it the same all over the world with toxic substances in stuff like toys/buggys an` all???

They go on vacation and then want to come for a visit finally. Let´s see. I´d love it, but don´t believe it as long as they´re really here...
Well. Kinda a this´n-that-post, huh?

Nothing to do with fingers and toes, please cross em for us, I really love the apartment!

I.

Another boring lunch-break at work, time to follow Red Dirt Mummy on her meme!

I am still not sure about the apartment...

I think I am a person in general too cautious!

I want to do the right thing :-)

I have never enough patience, sadly.

I miss the easy days, when life was but a game...

I fear health-issues. So many bad memories already.

I feel still hungry!

I hear just me typing. What are the others here up to?

I smell nothing! That´s good for an office, right?

I crave well! Pizza of course!

I usually get up easy early in the mornings.

I search apart from the apartment a way to have more time.

I wonder why my eyes tear all the time (gotta see my doc, really).

I regret studying the wrong thing.

I love my partner and family, even though it´s not always easy ;-)

I care too much about pixels...

I am always too precise on that one.

I worry about too much, I guess.

I remember so many good holidays, lucky me!

I dance not good at all!

I sing not good, either!

I don't always have the rooms as tidy as should be!

I argue sometimes.

I write a lot.

I lose temper quickly.

I wish on stars.

I listen when people talk to me.

I don't understand Spanish!

I can usually be found at the PC.

I am scared of drivers going too fast.

I forget things, right, sometimes that ain´t bad...

I am also mostly happy and healthy.

Anyone wants to join in?

I Need Advise

We just had a look at an apartment... we want to buy! So this is really a very, very important decision to make...
Here it is:

+ it is in a very, very beautiful area
+ 110 m²
+ cost: we hopefully can get enough from family to afford it (Ingo doesn´t want (me) to take out a loan)
+ the room layout is perfect!!!
+ it has a balcony to the inner courtyard (not to the street)
+ there is a little garden that hardly anyone uses
+ the balcony has no sun in the evening (sun-allergy)
+ bathroom is perfect
+ kitchen is perfect (actually nearly too large, we´d need visitors!)
+ there is no apartment above... no noise to expect
+ nothing has to be done, it´s ready to move in
+ would be free in December... enough time to plan ahead
+ place for my bike outside, but "safe"

... now to the other list

- 3 1/2th floor (actually more, the rooms are very high, it´s an old building)... we don´t get younger, what about errands, heavy stuff? Or if one gets as sick as Ingo just was or breaks a leg... I hope I get used to the view from the balcony, I´m stupidly afraid of heights
- the rooms are high... heating will be expensive
- there is no apartment above... more heating
- the roof needs to be done - it has no insulation whatsoever, plus the tiles need to be replaced, more money to come (to give away, but they have a system, probably won´t affect us too much)

I just don´t know what to do... There aren´t much offers in this area... at least none we could afford so far.

We need a decision by Sat evening, they wanna decide on Sunday (they had appointments last Sunday, but we were too late).

What to do, what to do?? First sleep over it.

There are more +, but the - have a very heavy weight...

We can apply for it, that´s all anyways. Others can offer more money, that´d be it cause we can´t.

I´d be more than we need, it´d be luxury in my point of view. Now we have 69m² and it´s ok, a bit small maybe.
I just don´t know.

And if anyone has a guess, that would be great!

Addendum: the bathroom itself is about 12m²!! We could dance in that, who needs that?! Argh, I can´t make my mind up!!! (the design is useful, though!)

Brought The Lot

Last Sat Ingo had to work. Eek. First time!
So I got up and was about to drive to my Mum.

Hmmm, what to wear???
Yes, I do care about that!
The orange Sweater? I grabbed it. It said:



"avec toi", "with you". I never saw it before, though I wore that one more than once! Well, so it was it! :-)



Fits to my glasses, too, no? :-)

Well. My Mum is still in a lot of pain with her back, it was hard to see.
But she tried to keep a good mood.

And, my there are coincidences, it´s weird at times!

That week on Tuesday Ingo and I went to the city (Monday we were still too groggy from the journey back from Cuba) and bought a ... hmmm, what do you call that "bucket"? We call it Sektkühler, to cool sparkling wine. We saw it by strolling around.



Now, I haven´t seen my family since Christmas, hence my Mum had a (very belated) B-Day-Pressie for me! She told me on the phone already, saying hmmm, I have to drive to Goslar to get it, hope you like it!

I´m a very bad liar, so I very much hoped I´ll like it!!!

And I did!

It was champagne glasses!
But not some glasses, no!

At my Bro´s civil marriage the town gave sparkling wine in glasses that had the town´s emblem. Since Seesen is near Braunschweig, it has the Lion, too.
I loved them and said, wow, how cool is that?!

Mum heard me saying it and later went to ask if you can buy them.
Nope.

Mum is clever. (Without internet) she found out where the next glaziery is, aaaand, voilà:






She ordered three for me, cause I´m known to be clumsy... Heck, I don´t wanna know what they cost!!!

For in case I didn´t like them, she bought a steak-pan that is suitable for induction field as well. And gave it to me on top!

Ingo made use of it immediately:



I got furthermore some fancy soap and strawberries.

Oh, Mum!!! :-)

(Certainly I got a Pizza as well, yummmm)

See this car?



My Mum does this.
Bro can do it, too.
(the main-door is to the right)

I got my father´s genes, not a chance to park a car like that!

My... aren´t those glasses (and the thought behind it) just beautiful?

Addendum... if you wonder why there is no pic of my Mum... she refuses to let me take one! And I understand.

56 Random Things

... You May Not Know








I found this at Sarah´s place - great thing to do whilst haveing my boring bread for lunch here at work :-)


1. What time did you get up this morning? 5am

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds. I really do have one, my Dad, who was a Goldsmith, gave me a ring vor my 30th B-Day. The ring broke and my Bro, who also is a goldsmith, made the ring then.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? A documetary on the ISS in 3d years ago. I don´t like cinema much, cause the noisiest guy will unevitably sit behind me.

4. What do you usually have for breakfast? Bread and carrots.

5. What is your favourite TV show? Who wants to be a Millionare, the host is so smart and funny

6. What is your middle name? Flavia

7. What food do you dislike? Seafood, sadly (it´s so healthy, I know)

8. What is your favourite CD at the moment? Cuban Music :-)

9. What kind of car do you drive? VW Polo

10. Favourite Sandwich? Turkey, Ham and Beef by Subway. In fact, I will have one today! The store has finally reopened!

11. What characteristic do you despise? Cheating

12. Favourite item of clothing? Skirts, I think.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation: USA, haven´t been there yet. Any tips where to go?

14. Favourite brand of clothing? Don't have one.

15. Where would you retire to? Yupp, the beach.

16. What was your most recent memorable b'day? 21st. I had a huge fight with my Dad who insisted of giving me a golden wristlet. I hate gold! See #2 - I got a whitegold-ring for my 30th, so we were both happy :-)

17. Favourite sport to watch? American Football

18. Furthest place you are sending this? I'm not sending it either, everyone is welcome to join it - please let me know if you did!

19. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? see #18

20. Person you expect to send it back first? see #18

21. Your birthday? 19 Jan 1972...

22. Are you a morning or night person? Night. But I get up easiliy also.

23. What is your shoe size? 38

24. Pets? None... not enough time/passion

25. What did you want to be when you were little? no particular idea. I knew what I not wanted... what my parents did! (optometrist/goldsmith/watchmaker)

26. Any new and exciting news you would like to share with us? I will be an Aunt to a Baby Girl soon!

27. How do you feel today? It´s Monday, ok? ;-) No, actually I look forward to walk to the City with Ingo, like nearly every Monday

28. What is your favourite candy? I don´t like sweets...

29. What is your favourite flower? sunflower, I guess. Or gerbera?

30. What is the day in the calendar you're looking forward to? every day :-)

31. What is your full name? I go with Sarah on this one :-)

32. What are you listening to right now? I´m in my lunch-break and hear my colleague and me typing!

33. What was the last thing you ate? Bread and pickled egg

34. Do you wish on stars? yes! :-)

35. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? well, green, I think (though the rainbow-idea is great!)

36. How is the weather right now? cloudy....

37. Last person you spoke to on the phone? customer...

38. Favourite softdrink? Coke.

39. Favourite restaurant? El Gaucho (Steakhouse)

40. Hair Colour? red

41. What was your favourite toy as a child? books!

42. Summer or Winter? summer!!! Can´t wait!

43. Hugs or kisses? Both! As long as it´s Ingo :-)

44. Chocolate or Vanilla? if I had to... Vanilla, I guess.

45. Coffee or Tea? Tea

46. Do you want your friends to email you back? see #18

47. When was the last time you cried? can´t really remember, luckily

48. What is under your bed? shoes and clothes, bags and... dust

49. Salty or Sweet? Salty

50. How many keys on your keyring? house, apartment, basement (general), basement (ours), mail, makes 5

51. How many years at your current job? nearly 9! Enjoying it still

52. Favourite day of the week? Saturday!

53. How many towns have you lived in? Seesen, Hildesheim, Rhüden, Braunschweig, 4

54. Do you make friends easily? I´m too shy for that

55. How many people will you send this to? see #18

56. How many will respond? see #18

As said, please let me know if you join in, too.

Brussels in Cuba?

Heck, guys, now I know why you don´t like the stuff!

We went for lunch and got all excited - Brussels sprouts, they have Brussels sprouts!!!

I took a turn and ran up to the 7th floor, getting the cam! My! On the way up (running - one elevator was (still - was it the same?) out of order and in floor 3 something is stuck, the elevator made a terrible noise every time, so I never went in alone - good exercise, too, my office (5 1/2 floor, same elevator-problem, kinda) is an easy one now :-)...)... on the way up I thought, hm, strange, Brussels sprouts in such a warm country?!

Happily I took my lot, came to the table and found Ingo shaking his head.

Nah.

Looked SO nice, like always!
(YESSSSS, they have (warm!!!) crisps here!
Oh, yes, and the olives. hmmmmmmmmmmmm, yummi-est!)



I tried... nah.

Guys... anyone in here for trying REAL GOOD, YUMMY Brussels sprouts - consider yourself welcome - Ingo can do it!

Really.. if you know Brussels sprouts the way they taste in Cuba, then I know why you fail to understand us loving the stuff - it was plain... un-yummy.

It´s not supposed to be growing there anyways, is it? In the Caribbean?

---

This was the only time in three weeks (whole holiday) I was disappointed by the food - NO - one dish!! The others were yummy as ever!

Some people considered the food "average". Hmmm, dunno. I don´t have such a variety of food at home (HEAR ME INGO???? Bad boy! ;-)...)

Holiday-Diary Cuba

Well... I´m still a newbie to FB and I can´t decide where to put what!

I think I put the "best-of"-pics there and let you know when I´m done here :-)

Meanwhile I can tell you my life is always the same... I get often the... broken or lost things (like, I buy a toy-sheep that is a purse and only at home I discover it has only three feet. It had four soon; Ingo did some clever surgery and used a "plastic-cork" from a bottle of sparkling wine - the size is just right!
That was in my "Pink-phase", the sheep is pink.
I don´t like the color anymore, but I won´t give away the sheep nonetheless.)

Anyways, the first seashell I find at the ocean (look at the ocean!! And my hat! I dislike the color blue for some reasons, but decided to take the hat by practical guesses - does this fit here, huh?! :-)...)



Well, this first seashell...



Yep. Has a hole. Someone lost it from a chain, I suppose. I kept it.

Finding, we´re both good at.
I´m looking for seashells one evening IN TH SAND!... AT THE OCEAN... one you can swim in (above 14C, it´s warm enough)! Whilst the sun sets.... soooooooo beautiful!
Ingo is a man here - a bit bored. But, he joines me and pokes around in the sand, too.
Finds: Money. Just coins.
We´re on the street, walking.

Ingo finds:
Money, a note.

Yeah, you could guess we´d get kinda rich, huh?

Nah. No idea how much money it was *, Ingo gave it to the poor-looking old man on his bike standing there. Hope it was a lot.

Next I saw a bike - in green :-) Did I "ever" mention I love the color green (atm, maybe only)?`Here it is, right in the sand at the beach:



We were there around Easter, right?
In one front garden I saw a King Frog!!! I bent over to take a pic, and yess :-) A bunny, too, they got:




So much for today - still working on the pics, right?

* In Cuba (on??? It´s an Island after all? We say "on") they have Pesetos.
The tourists used to have American Dollars. Next came, besides US Dollars, the Pesetos Convertibles for us tourists. That way we have no idea what the value of the "true" Cuban Pesetos are.

I Love My Area

or.. My ... Number-Plate is gone, is it?



No worries, snow is gone - 14 C at 10 pm :-)

But... this is also kinda Cuba-related.
If a brand new car - or any other car - is in the same place somewhere on the roadside for a longer time like three weeks it´s clear - guys are on holidays. Plus it may happen that construction-sites open and you need to move your car, right?

So, we left our cars at my friend´s place, gave her the keys, also to our apartment, so she has an eye on the mail an` all.

---

When we came back from Cuba Friday night, totally groggy, we went to get Ingo´s car, so we can run errands - we had nothing at home.
Later on I wrote a tired E-Mail to let her know it´s not been stolen ;-)


Well.
We turned around the corner... and... my brand-new Polo (just company-car) was without number-plate!!! E-heeek, what happened just yet again?!

Plate was propped/squeezed under the windscreen wiper I saw some secs later, luckily! I thought ??? huh? Why?

Here it is, I found out after the weekend:
There was a heavy storm (well, heavy like, a bit, ya know, nothing compared to the real big ones) - who knows where the plate flew, but some kind person grabbed it, found the matching car and put it there.

---

That reminds me yet again why I love living here:
One winter morning in the darkness (old apartment, living alone still)) I started the car and thought, "man?! who put that rubbish on the car´s hood?!"
Turned out to be my sweater I lost the previous night when getting out with the weekend-luggage plus errands-for-the-single-week!!!

Over here (same area) I saw a lost Pitzelpatz in a bush - hope the kiddo found it, I saw a scarf hanging over someplace neatly...

That´s also why I love to live in the Easterly Ring Area or maybe Braunschweig altogether - people care :-)

Yep, Cuba was great (working on pics), but ... here is HOME :-)

Back Again

Was great, made new friends from Canada, saw a lot, freezed a lot, sweated a lot, swam a bit, ate a lot (YUM - all and PIZZA), but since no one invented beaming in time, I need a holiday from the trip back home which kept us awake over 32 hours straight (the last hours because body and mind couldn´t settle).

In case you wonder how that can be:
- got up early to be ready for checking out from the room.
- left hotel at 15:30
- left airport at 17:30
- 9-1/2-hour-night-flight to Frankfurt: 3 heavy smokers around me, coughing with disgusting throw-out in turns all the time, no sleep possible
- Frankfurt (F): 2 hours to the next flight, BUSY airport
- F in the bus to the plane, waiting for what turned out to be 30 minutes
- F in the bus in front of the plane waiting: 10 minutes
- Frankfurt in the plane (FiP) after boarding the plane waiting another 20 minutes, then Pilot announces he´s gonna try to start the engine and hoping to get us to Hannover
- FiP waiting another 10 minutes, then we start
- FiP driving around for seemingly hours
- FiP standing for 5 minutes
- FiP ... the plane starts... aaaaand liftoff!!!! 45-minutes flight
- Hannover (H). Checkout, waiting for the luggage forever
- H : heading to the train-station and wait for the train for over 20 minutes
- H in the train to the main station takes forever because the darn thing stops at every station
- H waiting for the train to Braunschweig for over 30 minutes
- in the train forever, because.... every darn station!
- Braunschweig (yes, we made it!!!) waiting for the taxi for over 15 minutes

Yikes! I was so tired and exhausted, I was shaking all over the place and I´m still groggy.

But the holiday itself was nice ;-)
Some pics are to come, I think.