T STands For (Mediocre) STress

 

I must admit I am surprised many of you think my life is so stressful.

A bit you are right, everything is still new, so many new ways, tools and it´s really a very chaotic project (Frankfurt), I was told from more than one colleague.

Denmark for now is slow and a bit like kindy, no worries on that front (yet). 

See, I find time for "art" even!

 

And for blogging.

Of course.

You all helped me through the difficult times where I was (made) sick and out of work.

You joined me with great words aka comments on my first steps towards cooking and art.

I thank you all so much. 

Certainly Eileen helped me to roll up my life in a journal, shall we?

(I do not link, not because I ... you know why).

See... s(a)ll good, I work from home.

 

When I worked for Volkswagen I had to drive 38km one way each working day (16 years) - that was stressy. 

The A2 is one of the most dangerous "Autobahns" and I was on it every day.

I am very, very jumpy, I hate driving after I had an accident.

Now I have 7 steps from my home-PC to my work area - bingo!

And I have the nicest colleagues, it´s a joy!

Yes, Frankfurt is "burning" cause, as in many projects, wrong decisions were made in the beginning, and yes, often I work longer than I am supposed to - like everybody -  and when the burning gets less it´s maybe not 9-10 but 6 hours only, all good 😁 

 

I find time to read, and do sport, too.

My life is changing.

Siemens was different and before that no work at all was different, too.

With summer being here a visitor and soon here for real I come back to reading books, soooo good!

 

 

Fun colleagues, see here, if you like.

What I miss is listening to Adriano Celentano on the BOSE, trying out new recipes.

But... the freezer is FULL TO THE BRIM of my cooking.

And.. I work....

See, I only started cooking/baking after I lost my job in 2018, and after I recovered from wrong medication I never needed - I never guessed cooking and even baking would be fun, but I love it! I buy ingredients I´ve never heard of before, it´s a new hobby!

 

 

I lost my horrible fear of anything hot - I still have the highest respect, of course, but no need to call a neighbor to get something out of the oven for me (happened!!! He couldn´t believe it... duuuuh)

And it does not stress me at all.

 

A lille punt, this is with what I join Elizabeth today:

 

 

Beer in the making! (More to come).

My T and my Brother both say I sound much more happy now.

So. Stress, yes. And Happiness!

 

 

The work is sometimes... not fun, but the team is and that´s what counts to me.

At ESE they asked me if I want to be a real manager.

Hm, frankly. No.

Where I see myself in 5 years - I hate those questions.

I see myself happy in a great team where we work hard, get things done and LAUGH and CURSE a lot.

Did not say that...

What do you answer?

I want more stress, more responsibility, so I get more money and am too tired to do anything with it?

Meh... nope.

I want FUN. Stress is OK if there are nice people to work with.

So, please, don´t get exhausted seeing my journal, all is OK 😁

 

At Volkswagen at times I worked 11+ hours (plus all the darn driving on top) and wrote down 9 hours with a huge break I never took cause otherwise if you have an accident no one pays but yourself - it´s illegal to work so long in Germany.

What happened?

The customer was aware of my "pressies" and allowed me - with good planning from my side - to go on holiday for 6 weeks in a row every 2 years.

Give and take, right - good teams, work together....

And, yes. Retirement I look forward to, too.

I was NEVER bored when I had no job!!!

Henry 🦁

... at all.... (a wee bit).

To a happy T-Day, thank you, Elizabeth 😘 

It´s always fun to join you!

Moday, Hello, Welcome Back

 I threw you out but once, thinking you are a joke and now... every Monday I get a greeting?!

 

 

Oh, Henry 🦁 

For eyes, see here (hahaha, I just swallowed a clown...)

 

 

My Name Is...

Nameless mural found again in the Western Ring Area in Braunschweig.

Eyes, huh?

See here:

Taken at the Freo Markets.

I got a scan, too, but they sadly mixed it up.

Such irony!

I threw it away in disappointment.

Ingo always tells this story:

 

You see, he grew up in a village.

With cows and all.

If asked he claims they were a bunch of boys, out for an adventure.

Those fences, you know, he tried to climb under, the wire snatched back and BOOOOOM! 

That´s how his eye...

NONESENSE of course, his mother has the same. Eyes...

 

See, friend M (Sami, you´ve met him in Carousel) said I can be lucky my Dad was no heart surgeon, otherwise my name would be...

 

 

Boy, am I lucky my Dad was an optometrist, cause that is where my name is from, part of the retina.

Iris-scan, you know, that "stuff". My Mum was never happy with this.

 

Now I meet it in railway, too, darn it, Dad!!!

This, Sami, as your J sure knows, stands for "International Railway Industry Standard".

Which also goes for "my" turquoise tram in Frankfurt, of course.

Thank you, Dad, great name you gave me. Confusion all the time (well, once in a while).

Henry 🦁

Oh, come on, big boy, play nice!!!

Joining Sami´s COLOURFULWORLD Monday Murals - see you soon 😘

That´s...

 

 

A smudge on a piece of paper, that is me.

 

It´s not all unicorns and pink poo.

Ingo dropped something, I cleaned up.

 

What else, eh. I laughed at the outcome, I did.

 

Don´t we all. Laugh at everything.

I have.... found a great job. 

It´s stressy  and Ingo puts it down cause I work from home.

 

I´m a house-wife.

Like any house-wife I´m an engineer, too, and now I even know why I get this money.

 

A long weekend. After all the stress my hopes were in the air, hiiiiigh up. And I fell down, hard, too hard.

 

Good thing: I´ll keep EMIL!

 

 

My dear companion since I moved to Braunschweig, a kid´s chair.

I sit there 8-9 hours a working day and it´s OK. 

Ingo wanted to buy me a "comphy" chair, nooooo, I have my EMIL.

 

Sad side note: Ingo´d combined it with Kentucky-you-know-what and this did not happen, either.

To my EMIL, right. 😍

He left a huge print in my heart, helped me along not only as chair but when I need to reach up high, too - he´s a winner!

 

I am glad I keep him, and yes, to a German a chair is male.

Er, der Stuhl. Er, mein EMIL. 

Henry 🦁

If Henry approves all is good, right? 

Two posts, sorry, if you care here goes...

No More Plastic In The Morno

 

 

Isn´t this a beauty? 

I kept tiny parts in this, unseen under my PC-table, but then... I found...

 

 No more plastic on this front! And I see the lille bowl every day, too (OK, with glasses off not so well, but I know it´s there).

To a world with less plastic, right?

 

Henry 🦁 .. I send my Cousin today.

 

 One day, tiger! Lions, tigers, plastic-free stuff!

 

 

Take A Shower, You!

 

So, the sun was shining.

I took the envelope that was to go to South Australia and took off. Like that, you know.

 

Short, nice chat with the postie, turn on the sound:

 

 

<

Baby keep smiling...

Boy, was I happy I´d delivered the letter already, heaven opened up big!!!

Nowhere to hide.

And if that was not enough, a nasty, cold wind.

At least, I thought, a brolly would have not been of any use at all, other I plan to follow Mary Poppins.

Seesh.

And now?  

Sun is shining!!!

Henry 🦁...

 

 

You don´t say, big boy. Your Brother got soaked on my back...

I love my rain of course, though, for yum look here.

Happy Days

 

If only we had proper avos over here! 

Hmmmm ... thank you, Jamie, this looks plain wonderful!

To happy days, Henry 🦁

Oh, baby...

On The Side

 

 

I join River again on her Wednesday´s Words on a Friday, cause the words speak to me again, as in I can tell you a true story, follow me to 1995, if you like.

Buckle, up, ready for a time warp?

 

The words are: battery, remain, age, bite, produce, workshop, forest, critic.

 

 OK, those who´ve been there or live there (lucky you) know where my story is from right?

It´s from the land Down Under, the land of "Fliegen"!

 

There are those little flies, everywhere, even in the desert. 

They specialize on your "wet" parts, there are eye-, nose- lips- (BLOW!) and even ear-flies. A pest! Nets do help a little, see:

OK, let´s start, shall we...

 

We were in some National Park, it was forest-like, cannot remember the name.

Early morning, critics may say, hey you´re on holiday, sleep in, but I tell you, when you sleep in the car you get up with the sun or get baked!

 

I went to wash myself, with Aussie-produce, I took tea tree oil-soap, luckily as a bar!

Ingo smelled gas, again, and had a look.

There was a little hole in our tank, he said, "hmmm, dripping...", touched it and... "running!!!"

 

Luckily, also, Ingo´d read the chapter about motorbikes in our paper-Lonely Planet Australia book where it says: Have a hole in the tank, use tea-tree oil-soap and go to the next garage asap! Well, yes, our car was of old age, of course, this was supposed to happen!

 

The soap worked, we made it to Mackay, but all garages were busy! 

They help each other and one pointed out a mini-garage, like a workshop, a private person, more or less, who fixes cars (Australia is not Germany in many a way) - we went, but the guy was busy.

It was a Friday and he sent us to Eungella National Park nearby to come back on Monday. 

 

Against any bites over night we had this,...

 

...Ingo made, clever guy that, windows down, fresh, cool air in insects out (mostly, let´s not start with tiny sand-flies). 

So, up we went to Eungella - sadly our cams were not good enough, but we really saw three of them!!

There was one Platypus, then the next and the next (OK I admit, it´s like with the plural of Pizza, I have no idea ;-), so I just count, OK?)

 

Ingo has a memory of a pic, Perth-friend Grace took in front of the Australian Geographic store:

 

 Wiki says: "The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, and the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body (in 1799) judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together."

 

Were we lucky to seem them alive!!!

It got even "better", for us anyways...

We were a bit apart from the guys in their tents, stood higher up, in grass.

And.... it started to rain. 

Heavily!!! So much so, some had to come to our site even!.

Remember. We had a hole in the tank "repaired" with soap!!

We remained with our car safely, against the odds, made it to Mackay come Monday...

.. and after a brekkie we saw our whole clothes and belongings neatly on the sidewalk, our car on the side and the man was really welding our tank on his veranda!!!

Can you believe that? He also replaced some other stuff (I´m no mechanic, no idea what it was), saying these would break down otherwise, soon.

He charged us but AUS$ 100!!

 

The battery luckily made it through our whole journey around and in Australia.

Not so much luck in 1999, though, but, as usual, Aussies are friendly and help you, even in the middle of nowhere!

Henry 🦁

Yes, two posts again, thanks to River! 😘

Yay for a day off, huh?

 

 

A Short Visit

 

 

Yesterday was a public holiday, we slept in till 7-something and I was So.Full.Of.Power!

Pics from last weekend, where we went to the Botanical Garden (a wee one by our University).

 

 

Got a lot done, thanks to Ingo who made the BOSE work (it makes me forget my nearly lost ear).

Kitchen throws up a plumber-problem, but, yips, guess. 

I have an... the Ingo, right. 

 

Emptied the whole darn cabinet. Cleaned it... I spare you the pic.

We live here since 2011 and the people before us had a daughter 14 years old, count and guess. 

I was on my knees, head stuck in there like in a The Simpsons-episode where Marge tried to kill herself, LOL

Pretty pic now, huh:

 

 

Cross your fingers Ingo gets what is needed to repair that darn stuff!! 

And no more of this in the kitchen sink:

 

 

 Naked  woman right there, hey, this is not Bienrode!

 

Haha, forget it. Whilst I typed along...

 

Ingo fixed it! 

 

Henry 🦁

 

Hey, Son!.... aw, ok, just follow me - the Botanical Garden in Braunschweig is small, but beautiful, you´ll see"...

💙💛