Who Did Bite Me?

This morning at work it started - my right hand was itching like crazy - inside!
I thought maybe it´s due to being nervous - biiig job-interview ahead. Never had those symptoms, though!

Well. All seemed to go well.
Despite being late due to unexpected roadside work --> traffic jam --- and people following rules (80 km/h it is - usually everybody goes 100 - 110, not today!!! 75 it was!) we were late.
Well. Boss made sure he won´t "let me go" (I´ll 50/50 loose the project due to big-company-issues at customer, not our influence), guess I´ll get a raise and he sent me to a doc he could recommend right away (ear is ok now!).

Well.
Too much for my head or did some weird insect get me???

I have.. three or maybe four itching dots in the inside of my right hand! Hello???
Am I a Girly, a Princess?! I have working hands! Rough hands inside!
Which insect cares to take the inside of my hand???
And, by golly. It makes me crazy, too!

Well, well, well.
So I am not to worry.
And look in the mailbox. Yikes, first time I dared to ask for a raise. Whimp, me.

Let´s see what happens.

My hand makes me crazy right now. Three (four?) times someone tried to bite me inside my hand. Why not try me elsewhere, huh? Much easier! Insects are stupid. I hope. Huh? What else could that be?

WHAT?

Poppy, so love these flowers (just a shot outta the driving car)! Was a hot and sunny day, just beautiful.
So, I finally managed to "visit my Dad".

Nice to see there were fresh flowers. Managed only minutes there, it still hurts. No idea, why. I mean... his body is long gone, right? It´s just a dumb stone.

Right behind I found this view:

From 1 - 3 we had lunch at El Solin, outside in the shade.
We all ordered Tarte flambée - what a waste! Mum and me managed only half of it - it was huge!

Weird was... despite the warnings about the EHEC-virus - esp in Northern Germany (hello! That´s us) - people ordered salad, ate tomatoes and all. Wonder... don´t they watch/read the news? We´re explicitly advised to not eat salad and tomatoes.

Gosh. And then my Mum asked, do you know that woman sitting over there? But don´t stare! (haha, how can one do that, huh?!)
No. A woman, maybe in her mid/end forties, I thought!
We went to school together the first four years, even were something like friends! Gosh! She looked old! Bro and Mum reassured I look heaps younger, whew.
Really, I was kinda shocked! And she for sure lives healthy. Nature can be mean.

The way back was horrible. 20 steps - pause. Mum having a hard time breathing, legs hurting. Took like forever. Well. She´s merely bones covered in skin. Wonder how she could eat as much as me?!
I said, ok, see you again next Monday to Wednesday and we start packing, right?
She didn´t look happy about that.
Seesh I just don´t know anymore what she actually wants?!
She´s bought an apartment 3 years ago in a place where the air is better.
We don´t force her to live there, she´ll simply has two places then, can always come back, so... what´s the problem?!

Oh, the title? Woke up half deaf this morning. Left ear. I have very small/narrow ear canals and I have to sleep with ear protection due to very light sleep. Bad combination. Bought meds and gave up after 4th try.
Great. Cannot concentrate, driving is horror, plus I have the meeting with the Boss tomorrow. Great timing, really.
I just hope I manage to get the ear free tomorrow. It´s always the same at the doc. They don´t believe me, take normal instruments first, and that hurts!
Ok, "always" is maybe wrong, twice it was. That I had to see a doc due to this.

Oh. And Aunt Annemarie has passed away yesterday.
She had just given up. Was tired of a lonely life. Was in a retirement home after suffering from a stroke. She was the one who cleaned my feet from dog-poo. Mum - it was her eldest Sister - took it well, though.
Must be hard when your sibling dies of age.
Means... well. Scary, to all of us.

If You Don´t Know Me

by now... thanks, Germany, for not letting this video of Simply Red shown. Reason, huh?

Ingo had the album, on CD. Back then. Me, too. Loved esp this song and just heard it on TV.

I feel like crap.
He does not know me at all. After nearly 16 years he has no idea how much he hurts me.
And how will I get through that meeting with boss?
It´d be hard anyways. Now I feel like I can´t do it (I will).

Friendship to me means to be there at all times.
I´m a rock, huh?
But not in reverse.

Well. Will see family (not Niece) tomorrow. Will be strong.

Do They Count On Me?

This fella is just like me.
It´s the King Frog I bought on Wednesday. He came in a plastic wrapping so I couldn´t see... but it happens all the time anyways, seems like I´m meant to be the one who takes all the things crippled.
A Sheep with three legs, a solar-flower not working and oh so many more stuff.

This frog is "not kissed yet", like myself this week.
And if you take a closer look... one part of his crown is missing, just like with me - it´s fair to say that with a name like mine, Emperor. Though the pain is a bit more down, to the feet, the heart.

Maybe all these crippled things have a life, kinda. And they recognize me as one o them. Haha.
After all - I also belong to a group that way.

Well. My colleague left today for good. It was an odd feeling. He was my Team-Leader before, then a colleague, then... a friend kinda, someone who gave me heaps of advice and shared many fun and adventurous stuff, too.
I even had a piece of cake with/for/from him (yikes, waaay too sweet, felt all gacky afterwards).

Well. He´ll throw a bye-bye-BBQ and I surely will go.
All things have an end, somehow.

He´ll be in hosptal for an OP on Tuesday.
I said "... and good luck on Tuesday!" - and he replied, "for you too!".
Oh, yes. That Boss-meeting. He knows how freaky this is for me - and he cared enough to remember. Glad I see him once again later...
I´ll miss him, esp in winter - he was there 15 minutes before me - light was on, a friendly, funny guy there. Now I´ll be the first one again, and alone for over an hour...
Things change in life.

Hard To (Let) Go

There are ... yearly meetups with the Boss. But he left me out not only once.

As you probably know my project is at stake (April next year).
May 2nd was my 10th anniversary in this company (time so runs) and no invation for the meetup came along.

I´m a dork, a whimp. I never dared to ask for a raise (got one once none-the-less) - and the last years it was made clear no one has to ask - with the crisis it´s just not possible.
But now the crisis is over, others were given a raise, I´ve heard.
I´m not in a good position to ask for one with a dying project, no? Being a "career changer" doesn´t help. And things went odd for many, too, some even left.

Today I got the invitation. No hello. Just in bold: "... it was really time..."
Ummm, what?! And on very short notice, Tuesday it is! And 1 1/2 hours!
We adress each other informally, but this was odd - and I kinda panicked.

Went over to two male colleagues and asked if that very-short-notice 1 1/2-hour thing happened to them, too?

They were so helpful!
So kind!
And honest.
And telling me I do a very good job indeed.
And that I have to sell this, too (I know!).

Both said they have a hard time selling themselves well and one came later in my office to tell me in detail - and of his success.

Can you tell I don´t wanna leave?!

My friend was on my side immediately via e-mail-advice and I know she has no time at all.

I asked my team-leader if we can talk - he was very honest and will help me, too. Gave me advise and all.

Still... this is how I feel:

Small. Nervous, Can I do it?
This was me in Stuttgart a while ago, alone on training (on the way to).

ATM I have the perfect job, the perfect team (and a nasty thing coming up on Tuesday) - I just can´t see myself letting go of it all.
I´m sad, I worry.

And I wish it was Tuesday evening.

Why do perfect times have to end?

I can call myself very, very lucky to have FUN doing my job!
I have FREEDOM and people I can call FRIENDS among them.

Why does this have to end?
Where will I end up? It cannot get any better, that seems to be for sure, kinda.

Wish me luck on Tuesday please... And if you have advice, please let me know, too....

I Bought A Baby!

...in April, remember how I marvelled over the Drachenfels? (he was too large, I got him back today).

And then got it?

I loved him, but thought, hmmm... rather skinny, no?

This is because the poster showed this King, a guy of some "whopping" 13 mm in width.
What they had there was the Baby Frog Prince with 9 mm and slim and tiny.

Aw, well. Hello Baby! :-)

Met an ex-colleague in town today. Ok - she met me, that is!
I´m not only bad in remembering names but also faces!!!
How bad is this/am I?!!! Any tricks anyone? On how to better memorize names and faces?

Anyhows, we talked for about an hour, she´s really nice and knows what she can expect from life, not such a whimp like I am. Having a Teenage daughter with no man might´ve helped. She says if she dislikes something, very refreshing.

Anyhows we came to talk of a certain colleague who is... well. A true bootlicker, a false person who needs everybody to like him.
To many he makes the appearance of being gay, which is absolutely ok, no?
But he always refered to his female fiancé.
Well. Said colleague knows the male fiancé and just said, how sad he has to make his whole life a lie.

I mean. Why not just say nothing? No one asks you if you have a fiancé, right?
That poor guy (the fiancé), does he know how he´s "sold" over here?

Anyhows, have my Baby-Froggy back, now he fits and I know why he´s so skinny, too. I´ll wear him to work tomorrow, lets see if anyone sees him at all. And if not - I don´t care, I bought him for me-me-me :-)

Addendum... I also bought three books on this town. One covers 4 centuries, one is about like the Middle Ages and one is about 6 Braunschweig women over the times.
Plus a very, very cute book about a ... you guessed it? A Froggy-Prince.
Plus a cute King-Frog. Instead of snow-flakes or "gold" he sits in a bowl with hearts, who could resist?!

So Sore

It hurts between throat and heart. Always thought it´be the heart itself.
neighbours on top (14-y-o-boy) is stomping again like crazy - he does, at least. FF two weeks and see what´"we"re at? I wanna run,run aand just run.
Summer is here, warmth is here, flowers and all. And I can no more (self-pity, don´t even say a word).

Am I glad I have no kid, I´d misuse the poor fella for being sad.

These are times I have a friend. So.Not.

I would never be that way!!!! I´m always there, always!!! You can ##it on me and I´ll still be there. Hurts, bad. That´s my life.
I love him more than my life.
And it´s not enough.

Froggy

One of my (male) colleagues sent me a pic-series of cute frogs again (today). See why I hate leaving this team?
He´s Ingo´s age too and I was about telling about the ring. Didn´t do it.

I hurt.
I just loose it all.

Have You Ever Lost It?

I did. Big time, too.

I could just cramp and puke. And cry. Scream. Run away (like really. Should I? My heart aches too much)

Dunno. I always keep going, always try to see the good things and ignore the bad ones.
(Yes, Mum, I´m a pessimist like that!!! )

Until it´s too much, a tad of misery is enough and I loose it big time.

Ingo asked me to rock him on the swings on Sunday cause he wasn´t feeling well (AGAIN, just yet AGAIN). And I lost it.

He´s sick all the time.

Either it´s the back.
A Gazillion times I said: Don´t ruin your back for that dumb-eye, aka ex-Boss, aka ex-friend - you do that once in your life!

Did he ever listen? Certainly not!!!!

It´s his back all.the.time. I´m sick of hearing "I shouldn´t carry this." (I actually stopped reacting to it! How mean - or not?! Didn´t I warn him like all.the.time?!)
I´m supposed to smack my back, too, huh?!
Ok, that was mean. But... I keep thinking that from time to time. After all... I carry a lot. And I´m smaller.

Would he have listened to me we would have a way better life. And the guy more than just dumped him, too.
Easter 2008 Ingo got seriously sick and nearly died.
First thing his "boss" did: Send the notice of cancelation - in the double!

Then - his parents! Why couldn´t they let him know there are three cases - Mother and both (!) Grandmothers with pancreatitis?!
Would he eat an eel (a whole one!!! Over three days) and top it off with sparkling wine?! Certainly not!

Now he has to either take meds that have awful side-effects. Or be super-careful and have pain often none-the-less.

Yes. I am thankful it wasn´t cancer.
I am thankful I called his Brother in time (he´s a Doc and really did safe his life).
I am thankful Ingo doesn´t have insulin-dependent diabetes.

But. It sucks BIG. It´s there all the time.

Why didn´t the parents warn him????
I know others are sick like way more severe.
but this sucks, too.

And the job?!!! Now this is about me! Not going well, either!

I know I will lose the project.
The people I work with and like so much (most of them).

Boss always states at company meetings how great we are, like a family. And that we have yearly meetings with each and every one.
Yeah.
He even sent out a Newsletter giving congrats to my colleague and me for being in the company 10 years.
Still no invitation to the "yearly" meeting and hey, May is nearly over, no?
He just doesn´t want to give me a raise - and hell (another thing I hate about me and why I´m nervous, too) - it´s the first time I ask!
Thanks, Mom and Dad for raising me that badly, for having no confidence in myself!

Once I got a pay raise by the Boss himself . Out of pity, I guess. (and cause I do a good job).

It all accumulated and this asking to rock him on a Sunday instead of having fun for being sick just.yet.again made me loose it.

Like nobody cares about me (ha!!! See last post, huh?!) - I really was about to run away today. To not come back. But who´d care.
Doors are closed, I couldn´t eat all day but surprisingly didn´t shiver from it.


I feel bad. Lost. Sad for myself and am scared of the future.
Healthwise (Ingo)... and jobwise (me).
But maybe it´s all over anyways and I won´t need my new sunglasses anyways (yep. drama.).

Why. Just why can´t I say: I´m fed up with this!!! Change it! the first time it occurs?!
Why do I eat up problems until I can´t no more and loose it? And never ever learn from it?

Maybe this is it. It´s all my fault, like always.
The beautiful flowes outside. I watered them. Just what for. I´m just a piece of shit and this I really am. Otherwise he´d understand.

I hate.hate.hate writing posts like that and sometimes I wonder if I´m not normal.
Hardly someone reads this and this is a reminder to myself.
If ... if I get another chance: Say what you dislike the moment you do, stupid ###!!!
Forget about how you were brought up - it was all wrong! Yes. All.Wrong!
I´m a frickin´stupid someone who cannot stand up for himself. Who at times hates himself even!
I´m kinda glad at times like these I am not a parent. They didn´t do it on purpose. But they failed big in many ways, my parents. And it´s hard to strip it off.

I lost it and I´m tired, sadly not in the sense of falling asleep. This morning I really thought of... well. Ya know. But then I was chicken, it´s not safe.
Was supposed to get back my ring from the shop. And just don´t care anymore. hello, laugh weird at me. It was over 300 euro. I was marvelling over 7 months or so. And now I just don´t care. I lost it all.

My Bro Is The Best

I just have to make up for this post ;-)

Bro threw my new sunglasses he made for me in the mail yesterday afternoon - and they were here this morning, yay!

He added the cutest note, too. We don´t call each other Brother and Sister, we add a "chen", yep call us fancy or whatever (in E-Mails, that is! In "real" life we use our names, certainly).
He told me on the phone he´ll add a nice cleaning cloth for the glasses as well, hence the note says,

Hi Sister"chen", flowery, heartily , loving greetings, your Brother"chen

Isn´t that too cute?

With summer now really coming, the glasses are necessary for when riding the bike. They sit tight and keep out the wind (my eyes are too dry, I have to take "meds" aka artificial tear fluid, wind could cause another conjunctivitis, last one I had "my joy with" for weeks and weeks, no intention to repeat this).

We bought flowers today, finally the weather is good enough!
We went to the nursery again, they tell us which flowers work on our balcony and we got the most colorful lot:

Now I have to wait for the direct sun to go away and then plant :-)

I spared one container to try and grow salad and such. Gotta first get the right earth, though.

Oh, pic from this morning, love how the wine-leaves frame our kitchen-window:

Addendum - all done!

Yayyyy for summer, people! Happy weekend everyone!

Dog Poo Between My Toes

... or A Lost Pistachio Ice-Cream

I know Pistachio is green - this is just an example-pic)
We´re still waiting for sun and warm temps, so far only thing you can do is remember happy, hot summer-days.

Some were not as happy, though...

I was about 5-6 years old, I guess, and with my Cousin for the holidays in a small place near Hamburg.
Their house was in a side road, with garden and a little pool.

Once a week, I think it was Thursdays, too, the ice-cream man came - when he rang his bell, we begged for money to get a cone and with other kids that emerged out of all the houses nearby, we raced up to him.

Little did we know bout salmonella - and we got never ever sick from that ice-cream either!

Especially on one day I had no chance to get sick from it, eek, I still don´t know if to laugh or puke by the thought of it!
Certainly we ran around barefoot, and with run I mean running, as fast as we could. Did we ever think of glass on the road or such? No - and miraculously I can´t remember I hurt myself -yeah, you know, the good ole days were better than today, right?

My older Cousin had her ice a tad before me in hand and started running back home. I grabbed mine and ran after her, one sharp right-turn in the street, one sharp left to the lot and another sharp right into the garden and theeeere we flew, the ice-cream and me!
It was like in slow-motion, I felt something warm and slimey between the toes of my right foot, lost balance, flew through the air, managed to not brake the cone in the air or when hitting the ground and then.... the yummy, green Pistachio Ice-Cream (with pieces of real Pistachio in it!) left the cone, flew through the air and hit the grass.

Did I mention it was hot that day? No chance grabbing it back.

And my Cousin? She nearly lost hers, too, she was laughing so hard!

Boy, was I sad about that lost highlight of the week!

And then my Aunt came running - and got mad!

Eek! Guess she had to carry me to the bathroom, it was first floor. My foot was an ugly mess and the poo smelled soooo bad with the warm water, ewww.

I can still feel the warmth of the poo the moment I hit it.
Bet the darn dog - and his owner - witnessed it all and laughed their heads off!

This won´t happen ever again to me...
No more barefoot running in public places, no more unknown ice-cream from any ice-cream man, we don´t wanna risk salmonella, huh?

Those years back then were so easy...

Bring Back The Sun!

Brrr, it´s gotten cold, 16C and rainy.
No fun.

But made finally time to edit some pics of sunny days in early May!

Put em over here at FB, if you´re fed up with bad weather, too, have a look :-)

My Bro Is Awful

.. like really!
Whilst I had an injury once real bad and nearly lost the function of my right (!) hand (all went well) and have scars people often ask me about (I don´t see 'em anymore), Bro takes it in bits and pieces.

Last one... an axe in the foot - right after his wife bought him new safety shoes!!! Which he didn´t wear, certainly. But he took care in advance to buy a real good axe that has "life-time-guarantee" (for whom, huh?!)...

Boy, oh-Boy! Is signed sick, foot is swollen, sewn with six stiches, Wife has to care about everything - is like haveing two Babies!

Dear Bro, if you get that bored that you peep in here: Stop doing such stupid things!!!

On another one: Rainy today, so we don´t go into the city. Ingo even turned on the heating again!
Pizza is ordered and will be here at 6 (no ham).
Will cost 7,85 € - is it ok to give ten anyways or do I kill prices with this? After all... it´s nasty weather...

Dished Up

... By The Food Industry

By golly... I just finished the book "Chow For The Folk" (Futter fürs Volk by Angeres, Hutter and Ribbe).

Dunno bout countries outside Europe but here it´s freaky, maybe it´s better to not know too much! (No!)
Quality? Forget it, it´s all just bout money, money, money - also at the expense of health (just be reminded of BSE).

Here are some unyummy, unbelievable or (to me) unknown facts:

Lets talk about milk... a(n industrial) cow gives 9000 - 9500 kg milk per year! And needs 2 - 2,6 tons (!!) highly concentrated pellet - which is mostly imported: soy coarse and carcass meal (bu-huuu)). Esp with the soy-stuff or as example "citric drop-off" we also import pesticides that are forbitten here (for a reason, huh?), and dioxin was/is found in milk, too.

I´m not such a fan of milk, but think further ahead - I loooove cheese!

Note to Ingo: We really need to look for quality in Emmentaler, the name has to be "Allgäuer Emmentaler" for being real and not watery stuff. Or buy at Alles BioKäse.

With all the processing the "freshest" milk we can get is (apart from directly from the farmer): UHT-milk .

Oh, and... a modern cowshed - at least in 2005 (slowly as things change maybe also today) - produces more liquid waste/sewage than milk!!!


Let´s switch to meat, shall we?

It´s getting cheaper. Or rather: cheapest! We all know this, anyhows I was astonished by this fact: An average worker had to do his job 2 hours in 1960 to buy one kilo of roast chicken - today he needs merely 15 minutes! (do you really call that kind of chicken also "broiler"?! This is how East-Germans call it (and now all Germans cause it´s such a funny word!)

Back then 50% of your money went down for food. Today that´s 16%. Or now maybe even less.

(note... forgot to note the notes, aka pages... so...sorry Ingo. You have to read the whole book, but I start now again)

Note also (huh?! What´s this with all the notes?! ;-)...) that:
when we get all the highly concentrated pellets from overseas... we not only "feed" the animals but also get the semi-liquid manure. Manure also contains nutritive substances - that hence are lacking at the place where the pellets came from, a huge imbalance is created. (128)

Back to BSE... Great Britain admitted at some point that they even processed cows with BSE to carcass meal! (149)

Let´s go to eggs. People now want "healthy" eggs, from "happy" chicken (free-range eggs), they want to pay more for that, too. But... Germany has to import about 60% cause they can´t deliver! (198)

Tortured, grilled, eaten - the short life of a "Masthuhn" (industrial).
The industry sells us broiler & Co as free range - that is as if to describe a car as "guaranteed with 4 wheels and a steering wheel" - broiler are held "on the ground" always - but don´t ask for the space they get! (211).
Chicken are allowed 5 weeks to reach their slaughtering weight - they manage that with the same "food" said cows get, plus heaps of antibiotics, as we all know, right? What I did not know: they gain 6% of their weight - each day! Their skeletons can´t grow as fast, you can imagine how they suffer, huh?
I hate to admit: I love "breast-meat". But I guess... oh, boy, poor guys have 35-40% of that meat on their body cause heaps of people like the stuff. They naturally knock over, hardly make it to the food bowl, and that´s "good" cause when they don´t move, they gain more weight.
We always thought Wiesenhof is good quality and all "bio" as they state. According to this book it´s a nasty lie (213, 215) and from now on I´ll stop at the farmer I pass on the way home (on those rather rare occasions anyways).

Day and night, hah. 24 hours neon light is what they get, so they don´t forget to eat. (214)

Now let´s pick some of the food-scandals, how about that?

March 31st 1988 - cancer-causing solvents are found in certain products of Olive Oil - poeple are told to not use/buy it. Late in the year the EU allows a longer transition period due to massive pressure from the agricultural lobby - and that said oil returns to the supermarkets without declaration!!! (222)

April 4th 1994 - Lindane, a pesticide, forbitten in Germany since 1980, is found in Baby-food!!

August 19th 1997 - due to BSE many people prefered poultry. Then they found 1440 tons of old poultry that was supposed to become animal feed (yikes!) - but was found in the supermarkets in Great Britain again! It was made looking nice with certain chemicals - most of it went to retirement homes.

May 18th 1999 - Dioxin is found (again) in broiler, eggs and products with eggs (surprise, huh?). They also find itr in pork and discover that over 500 companies of each are involved and the reason is: old industrial oil and transformer coolings were added in their "food". (230)

March 2nd 2005 - in 3 of 18 tested babyfoods Semicarbazide is found - it develops by foaming for producing cartridge seal. In animal experiment it was found to produce cancer. (239)

There is a whole chapter on genetic engineering - I ordered a book on that only.
And another chapter on food from alembic/retort. I didn´t know that real food has light energy, that we need and get only from that and not from chemical substitutes... (304)

And did you know that many a fish caught in the German North Sea has visible signs of illness and is used anyways and that shrimp/crap caught in that same German North Sea are shipped to Morocco to get shelled and then are transported back to Germany?! (354)


I´ll sure have a closer look on direct marketing in Lower Saxony and Slow Food and Eurotoques, foodwatch is in my list(blogroll already for ages.


Note (again, huh?!) This book is a revised version from 2005. Some things have hopefully changed (to the better).

Oh, yikes. Just what did I (and still do - can you help it that fast?!) to my body, the animals and nature all those years?!
I for sure will change certain things.

The World Is A Village

Like every Monday post Weekend-Relationship we went to the city yesterday.
(Pic taken on the way back home)

We were in the arcades ("Castle"), passing the escalator on the way to Subway.

Up came a man on that escalator, staring at Ingo. More staring. When he reached our level he went up to Ingo with outstreched hand and said "Ingo, hi!"

About 15 30 years ago they went to school together in my old hometown.

He asked where we live and when Ingo described... turned out he lives two streets away from us! Actually Ingo used the guys street to tell where we live.

Sometimes the world really is ... ya know? ;-)

And... well. That guy kinda looked like "Captain Kirk", too!

Weird, huh?

The Way (It Is)

Yes. I am that bad. I drive and take pics at the same time.
(see the lights of the following car, huh?)

But... who could resist?!

I have to make some statements...

#1 - I hate driving.
it´s dangerous at times... not to forget: expensive - we´re at 1,56 € per litre!

#2 - I love driving (in summer)
it gives me time to think... and to see something different than houses, the "country"

This is on my way to work, btw.

Work... since I know I probably loose my job/need to look for a new one, well...
If a new one I SOOOOO hope it´s in town and I can go by push-bike, I.Tell.Ya!!!

And hence... I see this spring as kinda more precious than ever. In my still brand new Polo who (yes, who, not which! To me, it´s a boy...) who still smells new, feels new and is great to drive. And all the colors.. oh, colors, right, here we go:

The way back home.

I kinda enjoy driving atm. The sight of nature and the feeling of the new car.
In light, too! I am night-blind and hate snow and ice and we´re over this, finally, and for a long time (remind me of this post when late autumn is here like right now!).

I so love it, I put up more pics here at FB.

Family Fun

...and grilled Cheese is yum!

(Please note the construction Ingo came up with, isn´t that just great? All the things you can buy don´t fit to our guardrail and we sure don´t want such a heavy "foot" standing in the way to hold the umbrella!)

Saturday Ingo´s Parents and his Grandma were here (not the one we lived with. She sadly, sadly passed away in 2008).

They wanted to be here from "3-5pm" but then even stayed for a BBQ!
And his Mum loved the Grilled Cheese! His Dad said he can eat it (... ummm.. ;-) Well!) and the Grandma tasted it, too (no comment from her).

It was amazing... Ingo´s Grandma is 94. She is nearly deaf, that´s the problem. Other... no glasses!!!! She can see perfectly! And her mind? In perfect condition! (if she can hear you)

We had fun and his parents want to come here for a bike-tour soon.
Wish my Mum could do that, but... won´t happen. She´s too weak and depressed and we fail to help her. We do all we can. Ask. Please. Go to the Doc. Please...

Anyhows. They liked the apartment (they bought a big part of for us!) and we did have fun. Like really! :-)
Dunno ... don´t have any experience with parents-in-law (last guy grew up without parents, and before that... too young to be serious), but they ain´t that bad, really :-)

No pic, though.
Heck! Ingo and I are together for nearly 17 years. But we lost contact with his family (apart from Grandma I) for so long and I still don´t feel that comphy! I even adressed his Mum (she stated) with the formal "Sie" (did I???)!
So... I didn´t feel "safe" enough to ask for a "family-pic".

But, hey! They all "loved" Grilled Cheese - so much for the Cave-Men, huh?!

Make A Living II

Or... The Grass Is Greener On My Side

Seems like... no, it´s a fact: my project will die.

Well, it will not die but switch to a technology that makes me being overqualified and the custumer will get rid of me.
I so hate this.
Team is great, I have a lot of freedom and a job where I can be creative at times, too.
But... life goes on, right?

Just... HOW? Am I qualified for anything on the market? I´m a so-called career changer... and I changed to a very speciall job, too...

I have one colleague who urges me to try and get "a job" at VW. VW is THE employer in this region and, well... it might be a very safe job. And maybe heaps more money than I get now!

And... as far as I can see it from here... it will be a boring job (if at all! I doubt it´s that easy!).
I´d rather go for something fun but said colleague thinks: Web-Design and stuff like that is going to die long over short.

I will keep my eyes open to jobs now, but there is one question I cannot answer to myself...

go for safety and risk boredom

or

go for fun and risk safety?

I will do my job 8 hours every working day. Eight hours!

I do this now. I get up at 4:50 and look forward to it, I enjoy heaps what I´m doing and I just cannot imagine to wake up and think, "gahh... another working day :-("

Nope, I can imagine that cause I felt like that when I worked in the food-factory as a student and in a very bad atmosphere in an architectural office after studying.

I want fun, right????
8 hours of my life five days a week - I want that time to be quality-time, fun-time!

Or just be thankful for having (had) all this for 10 years?

I have the feeling the grass is really greener on my side and the future looks like that naked tree (pic taken on Easter-Sunday... is it dead that is has no green?).

What´s more important to you? Safety or quality-time in a job?

Make A Living I

Today 10 years ago I started this job.
The last day in April I had the job interview, the first of May is a public holiday and Tuesday I started right away. That´s cause right after the interview I was asked if I want the job!
They were that desperate, haha!! ;-)
And this is what I got today... Funny they accidentially picked my fav color, huh?

Prosecco and a gift coupon for a dinner for two.

Now I really wonder where to eat with Ingo for 100 bucks?! Like... euro...? Huh?

We could go two times to our favorite Steak House, El Gaucho, with that!

Maybe we try the OX-Steakhouse. Although... then 100 bucks is maybe not enough! One Filet Mignon Wagyu (Kobe Style) is 79,90 €!!!

They claim to be the "Best. Steak. In .Town" and it´s all (also) in English. You can order online. (Big plus) Let´s see. "Our" El Gaucho looks more yummy and is just around the corner. And we know the waiter :-)

What a day. I´m there ten years and my Ex-Team-Leader officially quit the job.
Like the rats leaving the sinking ship, kinda... (will come to that later)
And Bin Laden is gone, finally.