Day Five

A day, a frog:



A window across our Edeka.

We didn´t take the bikes today but strolled to the city. In the coming 13 months the bridge at Fallersleber Tor Wall will be rebuilt. Here is a pic of the "dying", looks kinda arty, I think:



Cool bike, huh?



We also ran errands for the weekend and despite Ingo saying oh-no I bought the microwave-popcorn - a salty one:



Quick, easy, fresh, YUM:



Don´t ask about the price - I don´t know.
I think there is so much to try in the world. Sometimes you say ewww and fail, sometimes you say YES, a success.
I don´t look at the price when buying something the first time.
If quality is a yes then I look at the price and decide if it´s worth to me.

Like the cheese I bought - with ginger. Will be on test tomorrow.

Life never gets boring, huh? ;-)

Michael Jackson is on TV - again. It´s over 4 weeks ago that he died and still he´s on TV.
If I remember right there wasn´t half the fuss around Freddie Mercury´s death, no?
Why? Because HIV was involved? Because he was gay? He was a genius!
MJ had a chimpanzee and you never know what he did to kids. That´s bad. But he gets honoured for such a long period of time (talking of TV-time).

Day Four Already

Hmmmm... this was another lazy summer day, day four of my holidays. I read a book on the balcony till the sun came in, then read on the swing, we had... ummm... Ravioli, I read lying on the bed (I haven´t done that before as an adult. Because before we moved together I had no bed. Always lived in one room, first flat-sharing, then one-room-apartment and always had a fouton that I turned to a sofa for daytime. And Ingo´s bed? When you see each other only on the weekends, time is too precious to read a book).

Then we went for another bike tour. Really, this bike is so much fun! If only I had known earlier how fun a good bike is!!!



Summer, I wished it could be like this every day!



Nope, Ingo isn´t depressed at all...



He´s now into Geocaching, searching for the container...

On one hand I think it´s the most boring thing to do. On the other hand Ingo comes up with heaps of new routes to discover :-)

Like this lake:



Now, this is not a jump to Spain - this Hacienda really stands here in Braunschweig! Man, I´d love to see it from the inside. Not enough, though, to really go and ask for it.



Or should I? I remember back in 1999 we got stuck in Dongara due to flooding. Right beside a Road Train. The driver was in a really, really bad mood, so I didn´t dare to ask if I might see the inside.

Darn, more than an angry "no!" couldn´t have happened and maybe he´d even let me drive a few meters, I´d had a story to tell. Here Trucks are allowed up to 18,75 m, no more.
Chance of a lifetime, thrown away.
So... maybe if I come back to see that house I ring and ask.

Well. To round up the day Ingo had a really healthy dinner (supper? Where is the difference?), Soused herring:



Mine was not so healthy... I had Flammkuchen, or Tarte flambée, deep frozen.



Unlike Ingo I grew up with convenience food and I do believe they make me crave it with some secret ingredients - not my fault! ;-)
Plus, sadly, I don´t like fish much... Darn, yips, I know it´s healthy! The genes... my Father didn´t like fish either.

Let´s Go For It

Just like yesterday... 8:30 they start with a whole lotta noise, right above our bedroom.

25 minutes later they take a huuuge break.

Oh, I already do love our new neighbours from above :-(

Yeah, I take my annual holidays and stay home for this!

Really. If they worked their way to a nice apartment, fine. We sure made a bit of noise one day, too.

But, no. Silence. Now.

Lazy Summer (Holi)Day

Dunno which pic I like better, so I put em in here both:



You get the idea:
We grabbed the books, hopped on the bikes, went to the park and lazed in the warmth (30C!), in the shade.



Later on we cruised through the other parks, following the Oker through town, passed this door:



Went home, had potatoes with curd, ah, what a lazy summer day, was soooo good!

How To Get A Man...

who doesn´t like a decent book to read to read anyways:

On our bike-tour today Ingo said, I gotta show you a place not many know:



I do! :-)

I just read about the place in the crime thriller Braunschweig!
And Ingo wants to read it, too :-)



It´s a traffic-school where little kids learn how to behave in real traffic - all with real signs, just in small, isn´t that too cute?

It is to be found in the Siegfried -Viertel (German), a built-up area in town that owns it´s name due to it´s architect, Hermann Flesche, who died the year I was born.

He was a fan of Richard Wagner and the Song of the Nibelungs.

As obviously my Grandma was, too.

With her eldest son named Siegfried and my Mom named Brunhilde:



In other news: I´m getting rid of some of my 48 leave days.

I took three weeks off work - keep your fingers crossed we get hot summer days!!!

So Much Brunswick in Austria

.. in cosmopolitan city Vienna, I found this article (German) today.

In Vienna a Brunswick local citizen took the subway and suddenly heard over the speaker: "Nächste Station Braunschweiggasse" – "next Station Braunschweiggasse (Braunschweig alley)". This happens every three minutes and is hence "the busiest piece of Braunschweig worldwide".
Every 3 minutes we get advertised there... for free :-)

Nearby is a railway bridge named Braunschweig-Steg (and is called Braunschweigbrücke (Brunswick-bridge) by the locals).

The route passes Schönbrunn Palace (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the alley itself "lies in a favored residential area with a quality you can compare to the easterly ring in Braunschweig", the article states.

You guys guess where we live!

Oh, my, do I feel rich right now! :-)

But it´s true, the easterly ring area is beautiful.
I got my job 7 years ago in a rush. Went to the job interview on the last Friday in April, was offered the job at once. Next Monday was May the 1st - a public holiday - hence I started on Tuesday.
In Wolfsburg.

From Ingo´s place, where I lived, to work was 84 km one way. Bummer. I was looking for a place in Braunschweig very soon.

Fell in love with the easterly ring area and am there since. Moved twice, but heck, always in this area.

And now I find out this area is similar to such a place, such a well-known cultural capital of Europe, and they have a street named after our town, too.


Yips, is our town. Historical background:
Wilhelm von Braunschweig, a hero of freedom, (1806 – 1884), son of the "Black Duke" (we still have a beer (German) named after him),



... he owned Palais Cumberland, near Schönbrunn Palace and was honorary citizen.


And yes, I have been to Vienna, three times.
Twice as a kid and once as a student.
Never been to Braunschweig alley (yet. If I ever happen to visit that town again, I will!).

My Brother WILL Marry

What great news on a day like this!!!

My Brother will marry!! Y.A.Y.!!! I am so happy for those guys!
(and now I can give them the Just-Married-Present after all, hehe :-)

We talked for ages and Ingo is mad at me which makes it all an efford to go through, though.

What a day (...for a daydream).
(Do English-native people have the fitting songs in mind at once, too or is this a being-not-native-thing?)

If....

I found this following video on Thursday night, "Freddie Mercury / Pavarotti / Queen: Too Much Love Will Kill You" and I immediately thought, MY!!!....

I could have brought my father to "modern" music with that! He was a fan of Pavarotti.

Then it made FLASH!!!!

OMG!!!

I forgot my fathers day of death!!

HOW COULD I??!! (aghast)

Has it come true, time heals the wounds?! (relieved/wondering)

No! It was the 16th! Not the 19th!

But now I wonder... I am SO due for a holiday, I feel it.
Would I have forgotten my father´s day of death? (I wear the date in my ring every day, more or less!) Or would it have struck me today? It´s no working day!

Does it mean time heals wounds after all?
All the years I was feeling sick DAYS before the 19th! Sad. Hurt. Angry!

Now... I´m not sure.

But I find it ... I have no words for it.
Here is the video and I dedicate it to my father (and I feel pain, feel mad, feel angry yet again):



"... only the good die young"

What A Small World

I really have to say: I love my camera!
So small I can easily take it everywhere, and I do.

Today we went to the post-office round the corner and...

OH MY! How can anybody do this?!, I thought! Look!



Dunno how you call this? You can store stuff in it and sit on it.
You don´t believe me?

Look here:



Ages ago I saw it at Ingo´s place - and I loved it! Reminds me of happy, colorful childhood-days of the 70´s.
Ingo gave it to me.

It traveled to Hildesheim, where I studied. Went to my parents place when we went on our first big journey, back to Hildesheim, to my parent´s place, to this town and moved with me all the time.



And today, when I showed Ingo this poor, set out equivalent of my... "tub"? - I finally heard it´s story (he somehow assumed I knew... man, how?!).

It wasn´t bought from some place, as I thought.

It was produced in the factory where Ingo´s Grandma worked!!!!

At Schmalbach-Lubeca (German) - they made the first tins to conserve food here in Germany (did you know, btw, Henry E. Steinway, the famous piano manufacturer comes also from my home-town (Seesen)?).

And guess what: Schmalbach-Lubeca was originally founded here in Braunschweig!

Ingo´s Grandma got this "furniture" for free - and many more items made of sheeting combined with color like trays and such.

I have a real treasure here! And someone threw his just away!

It´s a small world, no?

My Mom just called and I told her the story. She said, oh yips! There is more!

Lubeca had another factory in Tornesch - this is the village my mother´s family fled to in WW II. "In the last street, near the train-barrier, they produced corrugated card board."

There is more, still.



They lived at a farmer´s place back then and my Mom was the one who repaired the farmer´s little moped from time to time. He was a rather fat man and the ball bearing needed replacement from time to time.
She was 12 back then and certainly had to "test" the moped after repair.

Now I understand why she didn´t freak out completedly when I took our BMW 5 Series for a drive at age 14!!!

(Gets even more weird... The article on BMW says, "The BMW 5 Series is a mid-size / executive car manufactured by BMW since 1972". I was born in 72! Freaky, huh?!)

Under Construction

Henry is working in the Lion-City!



Which is cute, I think.

Not so cute... it will take till end of 2010 to renovate/rebuild the bridge. Oh, Henry, work harder!

Bumblebee

... what a sweet name! In German she´s called "Hummel", which doesn´t sound nice at all!
Here she sits, in one of my sunflowers. You can click to enlarge.

Yes, taken with this cam - is really great for bright days!!!

Ingo thought she was dead and I know that sounds stupid, but at first it felt odd to take pictures. Maybe not dead, only deaf! The clicking of the camera didn´t impress her at all, but when I came back she was gone.
Isn´t she just beautiful?

We went to the hardware-store today, didn´t get what we needed, but Ingo bought me two sunflowers for 1 €!

A gardener is included in that!!! And he brings his tools and own house even, too:



I didn´t like the house and Ingo, the creative one here, made some very cool 70´s platform shoes from parts of the roof for my gardener.
He now lives on the grass in the windowsill. Hope he´s happy with that:



My Poppy finally blossoms, too!



You just step out the door these days and the city is so, so beautiful:



Summer...

We also saw this car, belongs to the garbage-management (German) and it says:

"[Break up with your garbage. But do it right.]"

Funny pic, no? Yips, waste separation is great ;-)

You need to click to enlarge to really see it.



From left to right; Paper, compost, rest-garbage. Rest garbage certainly is not glass, metal, plastic or batteries, those go extra in public bins (that are always full here. If they got emptied you shortly after see people running there with the "residues" they have had so long in their apartments - us included. That´s sadly no joke).

Chocolate-Chilli-Sausages

Just to finish this report: Yips, next day I went and bought the Chocolate-Chilli-Sausages and Sunday we went to the park and gave it a go. We had some regular stuff with us, too, in case they´re awful.

They got all crusty and brown, yum:



Here you can see the chocolate:



They were yummy. Really yummy, but I tasted neither chocolate nor chilli! And hence I won´t buy them again. With 4 € for a pack of four they´re just too expensive.

Great Idea For An Anniversary

... or any other tribute, how great is this?

Walled In

Ingo found this...



I consider myself really lucky that I grew up in "West-Germany"... with no death-strip keeping me away from freedom.

Two Cents Worth

We have a coin press in town now, too. It´s the Otto IV. - The Kaiserjahr 2009 (Emperor Otto) and so there is a new focus, other than City of Science 2007 (yips I truly love this town!).

Now, I certainly wanted such a coin, and Ingo, too! Make one costs 1 euro - and 2 cents, that´s where the Lion will be on. We both had a euro. 1 cent-coins, 5 cent-coins... no 2 cent-coins!!!

So we went to the Tourist Information right around the corner to get a change - and I found that very cute sticker shown above!

I will get a new company car in Feburary and there he will go!
(you can click to enlarge - it´s worth it, he´s got a great face! Does he look shy? Proud? Protective ? I dunno!)

I paid the sticker and asked for the change in 2 two-cents-coins.

Guess what?

When we came back... there lay 2 two-cents-coins!!!

They didn´t before! Did someone see us? Thinking maybe, gosh, maybe that happens more often and people go away because they lack coins of two cent??

We took the coins and left ours :-)





I just love "my" town! :-)

Hot In The City

... yips, I liked that Song, I even admit I liked Billy Idol!

And I love it when it´s hot in the city and elsewhere!!! Yay, summer is truly here, we hit over 30 C, happy-dance! :-)

My Sunflowers opened up, isn´t it a joy to see?



And the town s just so beautiful now....





We certainly did a lot of cycling. The gym has no aircon and I don´t think it´s healthy to work out there now. Plus. It´s just too beautiful outside!

Hehe, I thought this mobile toilet (German) has a cute pic, no?




This is hot, too, but will Ingo give it a try???:



These are Chocolate-Chilli-Sausages for the BBQ. Sounds interesting, no?
Maybe I buy them secretly and sneak `em in?

Today I bought a frozen Pizza though and maybe some of you know the bag we brought it home with?




What I read on the balcony these days:



Another crime thriller taking place right here. Well, not in our apartment. But in our town. I think it really is a "fun" idea!

Life is just so good in summer! The looong days. The heat. The flowers. That´s life!