I Got A Real Man Here

When I went to ALDI, teamleader said, "aw, can you bring me a cucumber and cheese", so I didn´t take my car-keys and brought the carrots I wanted up, too.

Well. Ingo´d said he needs a new backpack and by chance ALDI had backpacks.
Also boring black ones with a bit of yellow, but I love the color turquoise.
Pink. Yips, that´s there, also.

I bought it anways.

Both male colleagues, when learning it´s for Ingo (they asked) went like, ha-haa, he won´t want to have it, it´s PINK!.

Well. Ingo doesn´t care, right? A real man can wear pink, right?

I remember my first VW-"boss", his name was König, King...

Haha! I have to sneak in a true story here!
My name is, translated, Emperor. It was 2003 or 4, maybe, I got a phone call at work.
Cell phones in Germany back then, oh, forget about the quality, esp when being in your car!
Phone rings.

Me: "Emperor".

Caller, from the car: "Hello, ...Who´s speaking?!

Me: "Emperor"

"... What?! I hardly hear you. I´d like to talk to Mr King."

LOL.
We repeated this due to the poor connection and then I felt like giggling and saying, "I put you down to him", but luckily I didn´t have Mr King´s number.

Names, huh?
My parents, maybe I´ve told already, had an employee with the name (Papst) Pope and a customer named count/earl (Graf) - funny times!

Mr King one day in summer came in in a suit.
Pink.
Short trousers, too, as in suit!!

He did it but once, cause this looked too AC/DC-funny-strange-for-a... anyone ;-)

Still. I remember that story every time pink and (real) men greet me!

Ingo wants the backpack, what else? Real man I got here.

So Much For That

"We live in this condo the 6th year and not once did we use our "fireplace". So I decided I wanna give it away and buy a shelf instead, so I can store the DVDs and such."

Yeah. To give it away you have to test if it´s technically ok, right?

Awwww, sooo nice, that "fire", no?
And... You don´t have to bend down to pick up the phone anymore.

It stays (for now), that good ole fireplace!

The beer in the pic?

For Ingo´s 50th in September!
We still need to try it! It´s from our home-town, Seesen.
The wine... from sweet nonno Duilio!

See last post here, we once had two of the fireplaces until Ingo´s apartment was flooded again and this time for good.

Not Possible These Days Anymore

The other day we watched the movies Ingo took back in 1999 and we found these scenes:



We went to a private car-market in Freo on a Sunday in December 1999 to try to sell our car.
We thought, WOW, sooo many people!.
Yah.
They all came to see our beautiful Nissan Patrol LWB the USS Constellation, that.was.open.to.public!!!!!

These days?! Not possible anymore, huh?

Luckily Ingo had his video-camera with him, cause I left my cam at home at the Kingsway Caravan Park - after all we just wanted to sell our car!

And here we have another thing I regret, aside from not asking the mad Road Train driver if he can show me his truck (and let me drive a meter or two) in Eneabba, where we all were stuck due to massive flooding for two days:
Why. Did I not ask if I can see where they sleep on the Constellation?
Bet they´d even said, come, have a look.

Gah for beeing too young and too shy!

Thankful for having been at the right place at the right time!

Hehe :-) After over six months being there we automatically went with all the Aussies the wrong direction!
USA and Germany/Europe always enter from the right, Aussies from the left - uuups, we felt a tad like real Aussies, nearly bumping into the US Marine Soldiers!

Wow. We were really lucky very often, huh? I truly am thankful.

Burning Or Devil In Detail

Pic: Rinderzimmer is a made up word. It´s Kinderzimmer for the kid´s room, and Rind is a cow. Sadly we can´t go no more to steakhouse El Gaucho, two times in a row with an over 6-months-break the steaks were not yummy at all. But the card is still fun, no?
Oh, in case you wonder (like I did) why the card is not succinct with the sticker... the other side of the door:

Very early, before my colleagues arrived, R´s friend and colleague (and my customer) M came into my office.

Only then did I realise I haven´t seen him for quite a while.

He told me he´s signed sick till the end of March for now.

Not due to his knee-problems.
Burn-out.
And his daughter has borderline-syndrome.
He sees psychologists and all.

Holy crap, I really didn´t know what to say, why does he tell me that?!
He went quite into detail, too, spoke of being mobbed by some even.
Really?! We´ve been such a great team once.

This is his last year, he´s (only) 59.
Yes, working directly at VW is cool, huh? So far us normal guys will have to work till age 67.
I met a bus-driver in Perth in 2006 who told me he´s 72 even!

Anyhows, dunno why, it really teared me down.
Later R came by to let me know coffee is ready, so I went over for a chat.
He asked what´s wrong with me and since they are friends I just told him M´d been here.

Funny enough he only payed me a visit, not his friend R.

R said, now knowing I know, yeah, don´t take it that serious.

Crazy.

Aren´t those recognized illnesses?
Is M just faking it all?
And how can R know?

The devil sits in the detail, I guess...

Soccer-star Robert Enke for example suffered depression and committed suicide, leaving wife and a very young daughter behind. You would´ve thought he must be a happy man, but obviously it doesn´t matter if work and family is all good?

I really have no clue. I hope I handled the situation with M properly.

And I hope I or someone I love will never suffer like that (again).

Having Your Glasses Off

"Your hair is like reeaallly thin.", said the hairdresser.
Really? Oh. I didn´t know that... :-(

What happened happened it´s only hair, but, uhhhh.
It grows so slowly.

Note: Never say, "what you have to cut off, cut it off"....
Especially not having your glasses off.
At least 10 cm are gone!!! I guess even more, bu-huu.

On the other hand... No one even said, "oh, you got a new hair-cut" or such.
But maybe just because men don´t care ;-)

And, at least: I still can make a pigtail.
Still weird. You grab.
And there is nothing.

The shirt I was wearing said "step by step", darn it the hairdresser could not see it!

Side-note: I "shaved" my legs last time in 2006. Ingo said I´m crazy. "What for, nobody sees a difference" - there has to be some kind of justice, no? :-)...)

Colors In Eye And Cam

Weird - in reality the sky looked like really crazy.
The pic just shows Henry on a more-or-less grey day.

Can´t make up my mind, what I like better: 10C, grey or minus-grades, no snow (!!), sun - I guess the latter?
How about you?
At least driving is easy again now.

Can´t wait for spring!!!

No More Ice-Ice-Baby, Please

When I went to the city on Sat I found our Henry still with a tad of snow.

The way to Henry was not so nice, though.
See this?

Means we´re in the plus-temps again!

I really hope it warms up even more!
So far there is still a thin layer of ice on the river:

And a thicker one here, yikes!

I really hate this time of the year!

But, well, the weather is working on it, right?

Actually I hate wet feet, but after having nearly fallen 3 times on Thursday, once in front of our docs house even (I only had to bring Ingo´s ID-card) and that Sat another two times... I chose the non-ice part of the way.

Weird was again... In front of the youth center there were some refugees smoking (where does the money for that come from?!) barefoot in thongs.
Hello?! 3C plus! Ingo saw them the other day like that, too.
Reckon they heat up that place to way over 20C for that! :-(
The world laughs about Germany, about what Merkel is doing here, right?

Aw, well, ...

... and hope for a very early spring!

Funny Friday

I found a majestic moon when I arrived at work last Friday.

And I walked a bit to take this pic.

Guess that unpolite, weird dude who always (!) is there before me and always waits till I unlock the door, never even nods for a good morning or such, waits till I´m gone even, guess he was quite puzzled to find the door still locked ;-)

No idea if he´d seen me.
Maybe he now thinks I lock it again...

And, yikes, was it cold!

Thankfully no more snow and at least sunny.

Problem!

I went to Butlers today, after I nearly lost my bonnet - thanks again to that lady who called after me!
Got so many smiles for it today, not only from children :-)

Well and at Butlers I fell in love.
I mean, seriously?
A croc in a bathrobe, how cute is that?! Must-have!!!

But then... that would be too cute for little Niece, no?
And... I do have a croc already, actually two!

But... the bath-robe! Cute!
Problem!

Solved:

For €5,99 each I think this was the best solution :-)

Also because...

Right?

And... red and green, no? "Like"!

And... remember this wonderful late artist! We saw him in concert here!

I´m (Too Early) Afraid

I watched another... beautiful (?) movie with Dieter Hallervorden, who also had a major role in the wonderful movie Head Full of Honey, I watched Sein letztes Rennen, "His Last Race".

He plays Paul Averhoff, a former fictional marathon runner who won the Melbourne-marathon in 1956.
He´s still fit, but his wife is weak, keeps falling, so the daughther persuades them to move into a retirement home.

It´s like kindergarten, they do handicrafts like making "men" from chestnuts, sing kid´s songs and such.
Paul wants to leave but stays cause he loves his wife. He´s bored to the brim and starts running again.

The other "flatmates" make fun of him, especially one.
Another one recognises him, shows the pic of him winning in 1956 around and all but the one start to support him.
The director wants to get rid of him, his wife at first is against it.

But then...

... she regains power and resumes her job as his trainer like back then.
He even beats one of the young staff.

And then... his wife dies.
He is devastated.

The day the Berlin marathon is on one carer and the dude who was against him grab him and bring him to the start.
The whole retirement home-residents attend, as the daughter and he really finishes the marathon.
The run of his life.

Oh, my.
That retirement home... horrible. To imagine I one day have to go. Probably without Ingo even. As Ingo´s Dad says... we all want to get old. Without getting old.
Back to working out, right?

Auntie-Wonderland

I have no idea about kids, right?
Not about when Bro was little, let alone myself.
(Courtesy - Pics due to Bro understandably not wanting his kids shown here - these are just unrecognizable "ole Baby-shots" of him (and Mum and me))

I was astonished Niece last time I visited asked out of the blue how Ingo - whom she near to never sees, who used to be the tall, loud man she rather was afraid of - is doing.

Huhh?

Now (too cute) the other day she sang very silently on the phone "Happy Birthday to you" (in English) with her Daddy to me and later asked if I cope well with my new bifocals.

WHAT????

She´s only 5 and asks experienced adult-questions???

I asked the optometrist aka Bro if he´d instructed her - no!
She just heard I was getting "those new funny glasses" last time I was there.

Bummer.

Shoooot. I didn´t even say anything about the singing being in English.

But then again...
I bought "German key rings" for friends who built a new home in Perth as housewarming gift (unknown here, boy, was I surprised when we got the condo and I got one!):
"Meiner" (mine)
"Held" (hero)
and....
"Home".

Um.
Oh.
That´s not German.
I kid you not! I´d bought the darn thing and did realise but at home!
And laughed my head off.
"Home" is no German word, really. Hello!
Since I certainly´d said I don´t need the sales slip that thing will remind me of this for as long as I don´t find someone who has use for it. At least it´s green!

The question about me coping with the new bifocals (doing great, as our Dad did):

Was I that ... what, caring/remembering/intelligent back then at age 5, too???

Tell me Niece, who jumped off the one-meter-thingy in the public pool, learning to swim is ...
supergreat?
Must be, she´s my Niece, huh? ;-)

Where did the toddler go, I talked to a little pre-schooler the other night!

Who knows what the little Sis is capable of!

Auntie-Wonderland, I tell ya.
Prefer that much to the winter-wonderland-one!

Hey Frosty

Now I really wonder... my car parked in the (winter-) sun all afternoon but when I was back in Braunschweig I found him (Germany - car - male) with this:

Shouldn´t sun and/or the pressure from the wind whilst driving at 100 km/h cut it off?

I mean, ok, it´s carnival-season, go ahead, Polo, wear a nose if you like (I missed out on the Santa-nose due to rain).

Carnival, btw.
People are asked to not take play-guns with Star Wars-/Cowboy-and-such-costumes, I hear in the news.
Dunno.
What´s next.
Women are asked to cover their hair?
Female pupils at some schools were not allowed to wear hot-pants/miniskirts.
Aside from the question if it´s appropriate for school - we have no uniforms... it is plain summer-clothes!
I´m getting fed up by who has to change in this country! In my opinion the guests have to accept (not necessarily take part in) what they find.
But I reckon the world is laughing about stupid Germany anyways.

Wear a nose, dear Polo, I don´t judge.

And if warmer temps wanna visit: welcome, just not the around-zeros, you cause ice!

Am I A Witch?

When Ingo went to the grocery store to get milk on Saturday and asked, anything else?, I said, bring me a surprise?

And that´s what I got!

Now I do wonder what he wants to tell me here?

Nah, kidding. Salty licorice, yum!!!
And the tongue-tattoos will be fun for the Nieces (the big one to do, the lille to see).

The sherbet, let´s see. At least pink for girls, huh? See it rather with the Nieces, too...

Thanks, man!

A Color Film For This?

The snow is back.
Lots of it!

We went out to free the cars for the next workday, hoping there won´t be more to come - being optimistic, right?

It really was a mini-workout!

We then went to visit river Oker:

Ingo was joking I´m taking cheap black and white pictures with a color-film!

I actually wanted to walk to Ölpersee, but someone was whining his face hurts, so we went home.
Such a baby, that man! Ok, my legs were getting a bit numb, too...

Driving and parking really isn´t fun in this!

But it looks pretty, no?

And Niece is pretty happy now, I guess!