If The Meal Was A Pleasure...

... Jägermeister tops it off:

Well, we don´t drink Jägermeister and such stuff, but I really like those new sets at Schadt´s - where we went on Friday (yes, I´m way behind) - it was the only nice day, weather-wise, of the week so far. Good thing we went, today 17,5C, rainy.

And guess what Ingo talked me into?
Sharing another currywurst. Why again do I do yoga, huh?

Despite the smell from the construction site it was yummy, though.
New Braunschweig bag:

"Old" Perth bag:

And a nice house on the way home:

Hmmm, the sun is out again. Off to the city? Or more photo-editing?

If you care about the salad-thingy, please read the comment to this post - thanks Grace, I am a happy salad now (still a tad afraid of Big´s words not coming true...)

June Was In Summer Once

That´s how it looked like all week. 20-21C max, rainy, getting colder in the night.
Microwave sheep Dörte is my best friend every night, sitting here. It´s cold!

Good thing: Yoga every day.

Today was supposed to become warmer and sunny, so Ingo wanted us to go to the city.
Cold. Rainy. And on Thursdays the city is packed anyways.
And today Germany played against USA in FIFA, the city is more than just packed, I bet.
Yoga it was instead.

Hehe, today I went to ALDI with this shopping bag Ingo got:

I put the bag beside my workplace.
Teamleader rushed in, wanting something, stopped cold, grinned like a boy and exclaimed: "KWIK E MART?!!! Cooool! Woah, cool!"

The two others of course just shook their heads at us.

And today I learned I can grow Alfalfa on cotton!
T: "How come you don´t know this?! You learn that at primary school!"
Me: "I´m a Wessi!" I have the feeling he just doesn´t believe in West Germany you really, really had no garden at school and did not learn gardening.
And again we joked about the bananas they didn´t have... A world I´ll never be able to imagine...

As well as I start to fail to imagine a hot summer day!

Patience

Just found this pic of my Dad.
(See his hand? So mine! I only noticed after he´d passed. He never kept them still in life.
Only few things like eye-color, hands, stupidity (impatience, being more than on time, always correct, always on the run - AND. Not able to show our feelings :-(...) - oh, and a stomach very strong, we had in common...)
The older he got the less patience he had.
No idea when this pic was taken, for sure before his second, fatal, cancer-attack, maybe even before we knew what was going to get him and hence us.

See how he takes all the time for this old man?
He lost his Dad at age 14, maybe that´s also why...

I take after my Dad and this gives me hope.
Or does it?

I have to sort things out but it´s good to know if it comes to the essential I very likely will have the power to be patient.

Today my ex-team-leader came for a visit and we had a long chat, just the two of us.
It showed me that after all my sense of how people tick ain´t that bad.
He was very disappointed to have to work with a guy he knows the story I have with that dude.
A pain, now he knows I didn´t exaggerate...

And, btw, he said, yes # is even worse.
Woah.
I sure got no luck with some...

Anyhows... let´s hope I find the patience - and the strenghts (sick!) - to find a solution for this situation I´m in for too long...

I Want Him Back

The cookies are Ingo´s job right now.

(Don´t get me wrong - he is a fab engineer, but they don´t let him work the way he could.)

Me?---

The Ingo I knew is gone, more or less, since half a year.

Yes, half a year.

Moments of happiness inbetween - I didn´t cheat on you.

Job VS us - job wins - just like with my Dad.

We´ve been through so much over all those (20) years.

I´m sad and tired.

Why I blog this?

It belongs to my life.

Life isn´t just chocolate pizza.

I´m desperate. My heart hurts. I don´t know what to do.
Another weekend gone. Due to one "wrong" phrase of mine.
I am...

I have no power no more, asked so-so often to talk to boss, but Ingo prefers to destroy himself via probably coming heart-attack and destroying us.

Fun times:

A polaroid-cam as poo-ticket-spender.

My heart is heavy.
Frustration.
Hurt, deep, deep hurt.
Crying, silently.
No one to be honest to without unwanted re-action (no one can help anyways).

Who is to blame?
Ingo´s boss, Ingo, me?

Weekends are there to relax, to regain power.
More and more often they so are not for me or us.

And does he do anything about it?
"I will" - "I will"...

..and off we go.

Just ignore me.
Really, please do. I just need to get it out.

I am a happy person, right?

I am healthy!!!! I don´t take that for granted! Lost both my parents to cancer.

I have a good job.
Mostly great colleagues.

Time is so precious and he just doesn´t care. Anymore.

I try to say "I love you" in so many ways.
I´m not heard - no more.

Guess every one goes through this once in a while.
But for such a long time???

I´m a rubbsish bin since months.
And I can no more.
Yet Monday I´ll be off to work. Like a stupid machine.

Every moment in life is precious...

Yet another night alone...

Summerfestival 2014

Yesterday we went to former GDR.
My boss invited us all - and with partner, too! - to visit the Elbauenpark in Magdeburg.

Mind you - this is an offer, huh? With partners!
Not even half showed up! What a sad sign. And guess what? Boss himself was on holidays.
Now what is this supposed to tell me?!

Actually it says, "dudes, I pay, but actually I don´t care about you", no?

All my fav collegues didn´t show up, so actually I didn´t want to go, either, but Ingo insisted we go.

Good thing he did.

We were the first ones at the bus station (you guessed, so, huh? :-)...) next colleague O showed up.
He never spoke to me untill I broke my foot, since then he does!
He´s got Parkinson, but manages good so far.

He had been to Magdeburg several times when it really was GDR and had a lot to tell.
That´s a lesson in history I never got at school.

At the park ### waited already, but I managed to get away. Maybe it was a tad obvious, but really, I don´t care anymore!

First thing to do was riding the "Monorail" (without T I found there aren´t much Simpson´s fans around, though).

I am afraid of heights and T had sent me an article that only last Sunday that damn thing broke down, firefighters had to help the people get off the 10 m by ladder - oh what joy for me!
We ended up in a cabin with ex-colleague G. Her husband is still in our company, hence she joined.
Back then we didn´t like each other that much but she has changed a lot. It was fun!

We joked about my fright of heights and her fright of being locked up and Ingo added, if we fall now, we end up in water, too, which lead to her asking me. "you cannot swim?" - that´s how rumors start, huh?

The rail did not get stuck or fall, luckily, instead you really got to see what is offered, pic: labyrinth.
There is also a rose-garden, an orangery and much, much more - you´d need several days to see it all!

Whew, off the monorail:

And on we went to the millenium tower.

It´s made of wood:

And what does this tower of knowledge show me first?

Right... ducks!

But actually really it´s about this pendulum that doesn´t change it´s position yet knocks over the little sticks due to the earth´s rotation:

We seperated into two groups and I sadly managed very obvious to get away from # - let´s see what he says come Monday...
But it was so worth it! We ended up in the fun group, yay!

Here you see the chain of bowls a tad bigger:

There were heaps of stations like these but actually more for pupils than for peeps who´re done studying.

The only interesting station, optical phenomenons I have no pic of.

Can you believe it.
"I need the smallest and the tallest person in this group."

Yeah. That was it. And no, I wasn´t the tallest...

From high up:

After this back we went to where dinner was served, again with G and her hubs.

They´re older than us, have no kids, either.
Ingo told them we´d married and she was really interested in the details - without envy!

The lake-stage:

Beautiful, no?

There sure was a tad of envy from all of us - the ex-GDR gets all the money, all new roads, parks, renovations and "the west" degenerates.
Can you believe we still pay a solidarity fee for the East?! The wall is down since 1989, I wonder when those seven years of payment will be over?!

Here´s where we got a bbq, they have Lions here, too :-)

I had my very first Solyanka, a typical GDR-soup and wow, it was dang yummy! I had two bowls!

With more talking, I saw G reminds me a lot of my Mum. The eyes, the lips, even the haircut and the ears. The way she looks. It was really hard, I missed Mum so much.

Back on the bus G told us they went on a fab boats-tour on the cross-way Elbe - Mittelland Canal in Magdeburg - guess we´ll give it a go, too. The zoo isn´t bad, either, she said, so... why not? It´s just an hour away from us.

After we survived the A2, the most risky highway of Europe (there is even a highway-church!) we hopped off the bus and went to the station to the left - it was a 50-50 chance and we took the good one: After only 3 minutes the bus bringing us home arrived!

In the aftermath I have to thank Ingo for making us go.
There is another Iris - her ex-boyfriend´s name is Ingo btw... - we know each other even better now (in contrast to me she is really, really funny), the secretary might be casual with me now, too, I´m even glad my fav colleages weren´t there - we would´ve stuck together and that´d be it.

It is just very, very sad the boss was missing, right?

East-Germany, we might come back! (yes, the wall very likely will remain in our generation´s brain forever).

Happy weekend!

Can´t Let Go

I´m getting old.
I mean. Not older, but old (I´m getting older, too, on top, ha-ha).

I need to take off my 10 year old glasses to easily read a book, buhuuu!

I realized this just this arvo.

When doing yoga lying down so I can´t see the telly, I read a book (yes, I know! - Yoga is actually about quietness, concentrating, being with your body (...) in front of an open window etc, etc. I don´t have the patience for this).

OK, pic is a bad example, I can see the telly doing this one, but, my, this sure is a tough one, recommended to do every day (ha-ha. Me. Almost).

May I be effective or unproductive, I don´t know and I don´t care!
I force myself to get sportive, I at least want entertainment.

Dunno.

Sport and fun?
Yes, playing badminton and such - thanks to the wrong docs I can´t do that no more (I know, things could be way worse).
Riding the bike? Brrr, cold. Time-consuming, planning required - to have fun.

And sadly, that´s all I can think of combining those two words, sport and fun (if you can help me out, please do, I can need ideas! And no, swimming is none of it over here...).

So, I got back to good ole yoga:

Did you wonder bout the adhesive tape keepng the pages together in the second pic?
I bought the book in 1997, my flat-mate said it´s great.
1997.. the author, Kareen Zebroff (she was born in Germany??? Thanks, wiki, I didn´t know that!), comes along in 70´s style - first published in Germany in 1973!

Some things just are good, right?
I bought Mark Lauren´s book who uses but his body to stay fit - different methods and I was happy to find some of the yoga in there, too.
Will restart on top next week with this. Hopefully. Left foot still makes problems...

Anyhows.
Buhuu, my eyes are getting old!

I can´t ask Bro to put new glasses in the frames of my 6 I got, he wouldn´t let me pay.

First pic?
Model #1.
All three of us got Jay Kudo-glasses, Ingo, Bro and I.

Mind you - my first glasses I wore proudly in public!

The 80´s were over (ahhhh, ugly!), the 90´s, too (boooring)... 70´s style was back :-)
Well, 70´s-2000-style.

And those dearly loved, proudly, happily worn glasses...

I still have them.
But the glasses fall out, the plastic is used off and might brake, Bro says.
I´ll keep them.

As sweet memory of the three of us having them.
Or once have had having them, at least.

You can´t get old without getting old, huh?

If you care about the salad-thingy, please read the comment to this post - thanks Grace, I am a happy salad now (still a tad afraid of Big´s words not coming true...)

Life Is No Salad

Have you ever seen a salad like this?
Me not - I was quite surprised to find it in earth!

It says:

"Deliscious salad-trio with root ball, hence longer fresh! Easy to prepare"

I so wish life was like this salad.

Do you give 100% at work?
Ingo does not. He gives 130% - and it shows off.

How do you keep your relationship fresh? Longer fresh?
I say, it´s not easy, life is no salad, right?

Yesterday we very spontaneously went to:

On a Saturday night! And we even got seats! Despite "our" waiter not being there - this is a village, I tell you! Everyone knows everyone. That´s what Ingo always wanted...

It was yummy, as usual (not that we go that often!!!):

Just why do we have to tell everyone (except "our" waiter) we don´t need sauce?
The chef himself brought us sauce and smiled big when we said, nah, it´s so yummy, we won´t need this :-)

Have you seen the red-"hat-ed" man in the background?
Here is another pic:

A meeting of the Burschenschaft.
We once went to a party for New Year´s to the Burschenschaft with our friends.
Some 19 years ago.
None of them even studied.

It was weird. Somehow it was like 1918... actually a good idea: A Burschenschaft means student fraternity. You live in good flats for little money and pay when you have a good job. Sadly they have a reputation to the "right", too patriotic. There are still many of them here, you can identify them by their flags hanging out of the window.
I do think even these days women aren´t allowed as members, just as girlfriends...

Which, btw, I saw a lot today. Sex and The City was on again I and II.
Mr. Big ... oh, Mr. Big!

"We will never be an old, boring couple" - I wish Ingo could tell me this, too.

It´s a main theme in Sex and The City and I have to say... most people I know at work are my age and have no kids, either, and don´t plan to have any.

Will we be old, boring and alone?
Probably yes.
The price for being independent at this long stage of life.

Sometimes I wish I´d be a salad... with a root ball, but I have no roots no more...

New week, new try. Right?

Today I Was Hit By A Bike

For a change today I was hit by a bike.

Dude, really. When a car turns into a narrow street where no two cars fit at the same time and the car is hence slow, not seeing yet if there is another car... that car might break to stop!
Because... there is another car!

And all this happens near home aka a technical university, and 99% he was a student, too!

No one was hurt, not him, nor his bike or my car, just a short, soft bump into the back of my car, but it really makes me wonder. He even asked me why I did break?!

Pic from winter and two streets from the one where it happened - here you can see easily if a car is in. The one today you can´t.

Seesh.
I´m a cyclist as well. But... aww, well. Maybe that lucky dude was never forced to drive a car and can´t imagine how it is like?

Maybe it´s this car of mine who (it´s a guy over here) has an issue with cyclists even? 23 years without an incident with a bike and now the second already!

Dearest Polo... if you hate cyclists, you hate also me...

A Male Angel And Heaps Of Luck, Kinda

I need(ed) a new id-card for work, hence I had to make a trip to the factory.
Plan: Take an early (free) work-bus, be first, have it done.

Teamleader suggested to go after lunch, there´d be less people waiting.

So… me again.
I asked the bus driver to let me know when to get off the bus, just to see now they have a runtime-display showing you where you are… still he told me when to get out. I felt like a 5-year-old ;-)

Actually I did a lot of asking today…
When I stood outside I had no idea where to go – “half right” wasn´t enough info.

By chance (and I mean by chance, there were others) I asked three older men who were outside in their lunch-break, they showed me the way.

Buuuut. Due to the employees meeting there was a paper at the door saying: Open only till 09:00 am. No more info – do they open again at 1:00 pm? I asked someone – but he wasn´t VW, he was Audi, so I went outside and asked a guy sitting right beside the door. He was from India, I suppose, he had no idea, either. The next guy assumed they won´t reopen today.

So I went to where the bus´ll take me back.
Buuut… only in 2 1/2 hours!!!

Luckily the three men were still there, so I went over and asked if there is some other possibility.
“Pick and Go” (car service) – just… not today due to the employees meeting. Plus, I´m external.
Walk? It´s way over 2km. And for once I wore “high heels”.

So, one of the three said, “ok, come on, I drive you over :-)” – I managed to accidentially ask one of the very few who have a company car that drives inside the factory! And one with a big heart, too.

Woah. Lucky me, huh?

I have his number-plate, if the car is there on Tuesday morning, I´ll put a thank you card on the windscreen!

And now I know which bus and where to get off, too – and to go early in the morning.

Certainly colleague T turned asking, "you wear a skirt? ;-)" - no, jeans.
Anyhows I wonder... if I was a man - would I´d gotten this much help?

Pic, btw: The day started misty - now the sun is shining - it really turned into a great day!

Ready To ... Go?

My Teamleader is the total soccer-fan, hence Ingo and I take those soccer-cards you get at our grocery-store when you buy for €10+.

Teamleader always opens them cheerfully up "with us" in our office and even made a chart he rearranged several times:

On the top the players sorted by position, down left all those we have several times and beside that the "Bavaria-bin" - Teamleader is no fan of FC Bayern Munich, all players from that club we have more than once wander into there!

Guess the next 4 weeks I´ll have a very tired Teamleader with the games playing late in the evening for us.

Mind you, there were even thoughts like starting school later so kids can watch!

Guess the streets in the morning will be very empty, which is nice.
Cause... I´ll be fit, I don´t watch - do you?

Twenty In One

Twenty years in one post :-)
Pentecost 1994 - boy. Time runs, huh?
We´re both not good in remembering dates, so it´s really very practical to take pentecost as our date, no?

Just one year later, not even actually, we went on our 6 month trip throughout Australia:

Here with our "home" in Broome:

After this trip I moved again to Hildesheim to study. At first, cause I had no time to search, I had a horrible room with shower/toilet/minikitchen across the hall.

Then I moved in with these weirdos:

Most weekends I drove to Ingo´s place, but often he managed our flat, too:

Yes, we were a tad weird...

We went to Spain with friends...

When I had finished studying we went again to....

Our "home" in Broome again, 1999, the best trip ever, with the best car ever!

Two years later I was into flat sharing again - Ingo again took it!

In the aftermath I really wonder why we went through this!
I stayed there over 3 years, I guess! At first there was at least one nice girl - and Marco, oh, Marco - he killed my nerves, really. Ok, Stefan wasn´t bad, either, actually. Just recently - I still go through old data from CDs - I found e-mails he wrote to me to the workplace, like what he bought, who´s turn it is with rubbish and all. Due to my last name he called me princess even, I really had forgotten about all that.

2002 we went to Cuba:

When Stefan´d finished studying, Paola moved in. And not soon after that I finally had it and moved out! That woman... No, really.
Never again will I go into flat-sharing!

2003 we went to Mexico:

Then Bro Take I:

Finally an apartment on my own, a one-room apartment with balcony amongt mostly students again.
I remember one summer we sat outside and one of us sneezed.

Someone sitting on his balcony prompty shouted "Gesundheit!" - "Thank you!" - fun times - except for that neighbour, Mrs Meinecke... I was too young, these days I´d handle her very differently...

Ingo had to move out of his Grandma´s place, too, so we really had two apartments on our own.

Which is actually very, very sad.
I liked his Grandma, and she cried when we left.
We visited every time I was there, every second weekend, and Ingo certainly took care of here all the time.
But still, she was very sad about it!

2004 we went to Venezuela:

And the following year we interrupted our weekend relationship again with three weeks in Jamaica:

"Yah man!"

2006 we visited the Auswandererhaus, the museum of migration - all our journeys... impressive to see how hard it was back then!

With that in mind our holiday in Cuba that year was in a different light...

Seesh. I need to do yoga!!!

2006 was a year we travelled a lot, really. In December we went to...

Yes, that´s the Kingsway Toursit Park in Perth!

Merry Christmas!

2007 we stayed home for a change.
But there was a huge change, too.

Ingo said: "If the water comes in again, we move together in Braunschweig" - I crossed fingers and toes and while we were safe in Braunschweig, Ingo´s apartment flooded badly - the dirty water even went into the bathtub/toilet!

So Ingo moved in, 34 m² is ok, after all we lived in cars for months, right?

Bro Take II (we did so many renovations together, not only in my place - time spent together, so much worth!):

Our first apartment. No.More.Weekend.Relationship - thank you, water, for flooding!

Our kitchen:

2008 was not that lucky. Or maybe it was.... after this:

We went to Wilhelmshaven for a holiday:

And in September we celebrated Ingo´s Birthday!

2009 we stayed home, Ingo recovered and looked for a job.

2010... Cuba :-)

Yes, always the same place, always the same hotel...

At the end of that year we moved again - our own condo:

Yes, a red kitchen again :-)

2011 we stayed home. Or rather Ingo. I went to Rügen with Bro and Mum. A last holiday for her. On December 29th she passed away.

2012 we stayed home.

And 2013... well. Perth again!
Met online friends and had a blast :-)

After all those years: We got married in beautiful Perth!

Today: 28C, sunny, ahhh that´s the life!

To the next 20 years and beyond, Ingo :-)