Richmond-Picnic

It´s too cold for the season, still.
But we were more than lucky with the weather on Sat when we attended the Richmond-Picnic, a Benefiz-Picnic in Richmond Palace.

In order to get there we did not take the bikes, but used something we usually only do in Perth, the bus:



This was Jasperallee down to the Theatre.
And, well... sorry, new cam! Had to find the right button to stop!

We got as far as the Castle (which is a fake, it´s just a mall) - see the huge Quadriga on top? We still need to go up there!



Then we took the tram to get to the real thing, Castle Richmond:



The theme of this Picnic was rococo,as you can see:



From the red carpet we could go in, sadly just the hall was open:





Am I glad I can wear the clothes I do! :-)





And I´m also very happy we don´t have to dance like this:



This one isn´t as good, but I love the end of it :-)



We had read that you can bring your own food, but we didn´t think people would really do a picnic - they did! And some even brought an Esky (though it was rather cold):



We had to buy food, but I love to try new stuff anyways and once in a while I like to have that luxury of not having my everyday-bread to eat.
I had some sort of ... Pizza?



Ingo (certainly) had sausage, but a funny one - I was a tad too late, he´d already started ;-)
Obviously only looks like dog-poo, huh? ;-)



What to say, Ingo, the thinker:



The way back finally was... free! At least the first part: The cash box in the tram was out of order, so nobody had to pay! Not even those (like us) who had the right amount in hand!

These were the entrance cards, I can send them away as Postcards, fun idea, no?




And yes. I threw the strawberry-place-mat away, this is my new one :-)

Well, so we decided to walk the rest back home and really safe the money. Which was a ... tough decision. Remember: Don´t drink a beer and go for a longer walk without public toilets!

Buuut! I even was able still to smile :-)
And this time it was not my dumb "ugh-cam-is-on-me"-smile! And... Ingo didn´t keep his cam still!



Was a fun evening :-)

Oh, and maybe you heard it, too: Germany won the european song contest after 28 years once again.
We were forced to hear the song "Satellite" by Lena Meyer-Landrut (Youtube doesn´t allow embedding and no, I´m not a fan of double-names...) for... ever.
But when I heard... "10 points for Germanyyyyy"... weird enough, I felt kinda proud. "Ich liebe Deutsche-land!"
Any idea why´s that?!

I went to see the eye specialist today. It´s only a conjunctivitis and my osmotic balance is... unbalanced, so to say.
Hopefully the meds work and people stop looking at me - and Ingo!!! - cause they think I cry. I´m really sick of that!

D'oh! Alas!

Seems like when it comes to (for me big) money, people loose their manners.

I had to ask back. The apartment is sold. (Why bother letting us know???)

Here it is, was a beauty...
At least for people who gonna stay a couple only.
(you can click to enlarge, size is in square-metres)



The "hall" looks small, but no, it´s huge! You come in and have SPACE. But why look back on it anymore... Just... the market is dead!

To top it... maybe you have read my post on being in a safe place?
Due to that, prices here will rise by 15% (German).

Alas! We search since August!!!
After Greece Spain now probably will get into financial trouble.
Will our money be worth anything in the near future?

A Walk In The...

.. not Park, but maybe into the past...

I had kinda trouble reading this:



How long did you need?

I admit, it´s a difficult name, too: Methfesselstrasse, right around the corner here.

But a beautiful place, see:





The guy in the neighbourhood changed his bike to summer... Summer, see that? Come here!!!!

Anniversary!!!

Pic taken in summer 1994....

This one is from 2007, I think...



Time runs! 16 years we´re together now!
Sadly, Ingo is sick the whole weekend...

My family was here on Sat... my, SIL´s belly is huge!!! So looking forward to the Baby-Girl to come! :-)
Actually I´m even happy it´s a Girl now!
I always wished for a boy, because they wanna have more kids and I hated to be the big Sister, I always wanted a big Brother to lean on to!
Well... it´ll be a Girl! And I am fond of welcoming her to this place!



These are the flowers my Bro got me... beautiful, perfect colours he got, no?

Bro said, Little one´ll love it here... Gotta make this place Baby-/Toddler-safe!
(No luck on the apartment-front!)

We Are Safe

No other major city in the northern part of Germany is safer than ours, I read in the Newspaper (German) today.

Hey, that´s good news, huh?

The chance of getting robbed in Hannover, for example, is 1 1/2 times higher.

The wrongdoers are mostly always the same ones, obviously not too many either, and our Police is doing a great job, too.

Only a City in which people feel safe can give quality of life, says our Mayor.

I agree :-)

Do you feel safe in your city/place, too?

The pic was taken during a gardening-project, by the way. The Lion in the front is a fake.
Which the one in the middle is actually, too!
The original coulnd´t withstand our environment and is kept inside Burg Dankwarderode (in the background).

Green Is As Green Does

.. or My Bro Can See The Future

Ages ago, my dear Bro brought me this T-shirt as a souvenier (from Teneriffa, I think). You know, back then, when Forrest Gump was the hype.
(You can click to enlarge, as always - it says ... well like the title, huh?)



And... now I just love the color green!

Went to Aldi today to look for salad (it´s too cold for butterhead lettuce, they said. They only have iceberg lettuce which is full of organic pollutant (they didn´t say that), so I don´t buy it).
Got my Strawberry-water and went to the cash out.
And there I saw it. All alone, the last one! Poor thingy! I fell in love at an instant! And it was my size, too!!!

Then I remembered what my friend (for Ingo: friendeene *) said to me the other day. She said I´m always so intensive with colors. She reminded me of my (uhhh, I admit it) pink-phase.
Then came the red one - which is still going on - and now the green one. (Luckily the pink one was very short).

So, I gave it a thought. For some 30 secs. Grabbed it and went to the check-out-girl.
(was down from 29 to 15 €, too, which helped a lot making the decision)

Back home I tried it on.. YAY, fits! And the color just made me happy!
Especially on this rainy day!



I really saw people looking at me and turning on smiles when we went to the city afterwards! Maybe it was the light green, promising the temps we should have. Maybe it was cause my glasses and earrings were green as well.

Back home I found our washing-machine-frog trying to peek round the corner:





See how far my Bro looked into the future????
Awesome, huh???


* We met some nice guys from Canada in Cuba, Mother and Daughter, both adult.
The Daughter kept telling about what she did with her friend - seemed like it was always different ones and since it was irrelevant she skipped names.
So, I kept disrupting (to make a picture in my head), male or female?

She then asked if we have a difference for that.
Yes! Freund (male) - Freundin (female).
Within a sec she came up with "friedeene" for the female part.
Yes. She loves The Simpsons just as we do, diddly-hobbily-hibbily-gobbily - ceating new words! On the run! ;-)

Born On A Blue Day

Usually I keep track of my readings in my sidebar, just so I have a clue.

But this one I really like to recommend!

Did you like/were amazed by the movie "Rainman"?
Are you interested in how brains work?
How people can reach out and encounter the merely impossible?

Do you need encouragement yourself?

Then read Daniel Tammet´s life-story (so far, he was born "only" 1979, straight away in January - the 31st, a Wednesday. This date/Wednesdays in general are blue in his mind.)

He can recite Pi (no "e", gahhh, Germany, the land with no Pies!) 22,514 digits and raised heaps of money for the department of the National Society for Epilepsy by winning the world record on this one! He is diagnosed Asperenger´s, too and is a Savant. He even went to meet Kim Peek, who was not able to live a life on his own (see Rainman).

This autobiography is wonderfully written. Honest and eager to make people understand Autism.

You can "meet" Daniel Tammet here.

Read the book, it is worth it! Have you seen Brainman? (I have not, yet)

See... nearly 11 at night... still keeps my mind busy though I get up shortly before 5!

It´s all About Food

It´s still cooold. Great excuse for Indian, hot food, no?
Was very, very yummy.
Just bad they used so much garlic, because... next day I had an appointment with my boss...

More about food: Anyone an idea why we get potatoes from Egypt????




As you may have noticed: So far I had yummy pic, odd pic. Time for a yummy one again! Radish ... and a yummy guy:



Certainly after a good pic another follows... just not about food anymore - I couldn´t resist this cheapy (1,50 €):



Where is real spring??? I wanna stop eating soup - which I had yesterday, too - even good salad is not guaranteed anymore!!!
Maybe we should import that from Egypt as well :-(

Do you get food from far away places that grow in your area as well, too?

Such a waste of energy...

One Ten With Ham!

The world of dreams...
Yesterday I suddenly felt like I needed to have crisps!
You know, I don´t like sweets much and people are often jealous on this one. But let me tell you the salty world is as rich in calories as is the sweet one!

Usually I just skip this longing, but this time Ingo went and got em!

Y.U.M.!

That following night I dreamt the weirdest dreams!

We went to my home-town but didn´t sleep at my family´s house. We went to a hotel. (dumb, huh?!)

We brought croissants (fat!), the ones you make in the oven. And, my, was I in trouble!

There was a little kitchen in the hotel-room. With a small coffee-machine. A blender and who knows what else... no oven. No croissants, hence!

Then Ingo ordered a Pizza (Ingo doesn´t like Pizza anymore, never eats any!).

After he had one half he lavishly let me have the other one (see blog-title, huh?).

Well!!!!

It was a ten of MY Pizza-Shop!

With ham!!!!!

Gahhhhh! I do not like ham!!! Ingo!

To make the story completedly weird... I ate the Pizza. I hated it, but I ate it. The whole ham-thing!

Mybe I should skip fatty crisps after all, no? ;-)

Hmmmm, Crisps... I feel like Homer right now, drooling all over!



And no... please don´t ask me what exactly the "ten" is. Usually it comes with ham.
And salami, olives, hot chillies and cheese.
The chillies are that hot I cannot eat 'em....
Hmmm....
Would I like a ten WITHOUT ham right now :-)

Maybe it´s not even a "ten" anymore!!!!
My hometown is small and the guys know me. I order a Ten Without Ham for... ??? 20 years?
They just know... that girl from Braunschweig... ya know?

But I reckon if you go there and order a Ten Without Ham, they just knew :-)
(Just say, "eine Zehn ohne Schinken")

Heads Are Best

... or: Do you like Kapern?

Funny how things mingle together sometimes!

We wondered, hmm, what to eat this weekend?
Since it´s so darn cold (11C!!) and rainy we decided to go for soup (in May!!!).

Due to the rain we took the car to the city and went to a tiny place where they sell local meat-stuff. Man, the lady was so nice!

Apart from soup we also took Königsberger Klopse.
My Grandma, who raised my Bro and me, came from Königsberg and hence it was a dish more or less often at our house.

I always refused.

It comes along with caper and I always thought these were little animals!

Well, I told Ingo about it and when we came home we had the ads in the mail, opened them up just to find pic above.

Title says: "Enjoy with wits", meaning the heads are best, which is the case with asparagus, no?
Guess what :-)
Ingo always refused to eat the heads. He thought of worm´s heads.

Funny coincidence, huh? Will have Königsberger Klopse tonight (not sure if I try caper yet).

One good thing about the rainy weather: Colors are great, this is a neighbor´s place:



Any weird childhood-disliking of food in your place?

Addendum

Here it comes:





Since there was but one... I let Ingo have it. 38 years without caper!

Still Driving?

I was shocked by the online-news today but then there was so much to do in the day, I forgot all about it.

Till I read a friend´s FB-entry on a killed child due to a car-accident... on Mother´s Day even!

In Hamburg (also Lower Saxony, been there many, many times) a 73-year-old man killed a 4-year-old boy and injured the mother severly by trying to get out of his parking lot in reverse gear (story in German here).

Maybe he mixed up pedals, they don´t know yet.

He is "shocked"

I really wonder when we will get tests for people from 60/65+ if they still manage to drive/see/know the rules/can handle a car???

I know it´s the rule in USA, is it in Australia, too, no idea right now.

I really do love the message: Heck, if I die in a car-accident, no worries, I am old anyways.

Yeah, great. Who cares about you??? Care about the ones you take with ya!

I love my Mum. But I really am not sure she should still drive a car. She is "only" 67, but she doesn´t drive often, which makes her insecure about the whole thing and each time I am the front seat passenger, I don´t feel good.

I´d pay money for the test, really.

I know it must be very, very hard to face the fact: I am old. I am not a safe driver anymore. I should let go, give the licence back and take the uncomphy public ones.

I know that.

I hope I will make a wise decision if I reach that age.

"The 73-year-old is shocked". Yeah. What about the lives he destroyed?

Yes, I am aware I could produce an accident, too.
But not whilst parking out in reverse (or the other way round) - because I mix up which pedal is which!!.
And I know stories about notes at the indicator on which direction is what and so on...

Just to add... the Doc I went to as a kid (who was old back then already) nearly knocked me over in a very same situation when I was about 14.
I know that feeling. Luckily I was on a bike!

Are there driver-tests from a certain age on in your place?
Do they cost your money or is it on state?
If first: How much is it and do you consider it useful, are you "happy" to pay cause chances are high those who cannot drive anymore will not?

I know it must be really hard to give up car and license... and, well... turn to old-age. But at some point it just is the way life goes.
Next step then is to sell your bike. Like Ingo´s Grandma finally agreed on after falling.

You can´t get old without getting old, right? No idea when the fun really stops...

Wait Some Years

And though the kiddo will be from another place than Braunschweig... maybe I buy her (my niece-to-be) the T-Shirt to the right - at least it got her family-name on it, no?

I think these are too cute, spotted them at the Tourist-Info in town (you can click to enlarge):



It says "little emperor | empress from Braunschweig" - aww...

(taken with the new cam through the window, btw!)

Due For A Bath

Once in a while the Miele-Bär needs a bath.
Since we don´t own a Miele anymore he needs to do that in the tub:





Looked worse than it actually was... Bär is doin´ just fine :-)



He was a Christmas-Pressie from the company Ingo worked for once. They also sell Miele-Washing-Machines and this Bär was a special edition.
Miele Washing-Machines wash so gentle, you can put the Bär in it, that was the message.
Cute, no?

We don´t dare to throw him in my cheapy, though... And Ingo does a good job here, no? ;-)

My Husband, Mr. K.

A few months ago we changed bakery. Ours suddenly raised prices not by money but by making the bread smaller, how dumb is that.
They reckon you don´t realize, but when you get hungry at work, you sure do.

Our "new" one is very family-like, it seems.

We need to order ours in advance (they usually get only 2-3 of them, we need a half one).

So, Ingo tried to do that on his name, which is a rather complicated one. By the third time he said, ok, on the name K., that´s my girlfriend, that´s easier.

Usually Ingo orders it via phone and picks it up on the way home, it´s on his route anyways.
Now he isn´t allowed to make private phone calls anymore.

So, it was my turn.

I called them from work, said, "Hi, K. here, I wanna order one half 'Glattes'".
"Ok, right, your husband will pick it up this afternoon?"

Husband

That fast you´re married over here!! :-)))
That sounded kinda weird to me!

Today we went there together and the woman greeted Ingo with, "Good morning, Mr. K.!"

Really! I had trouble not to laugh!

See, we´re together over 15 years but we´re not married.

Guess it´s my Mum´s "fault", she once said when we were rather little, if she wasn´t married, she´d pack things and go.
I wanna be with Ingo not due to a document but because of love.

So it sounds strange to me when someone calls him by my name and even suggests he is my husband.

In Case You Wonder...

Yes, I am afraid of what happens to Greece, to Europe, the Euro and Germany. So far our chancellor suggested to help with 22.4 billion euros (not that "we" have them). Help Greece. Portugal and Spain seem to be near a financial catastrophe, too.
We want to buy an apartment... where do we get money from, how will our financial future look like, will money be worth anything?
Work your ass off... for plain nothing. Insecurity. Future? Thoughts from overseas?

It´s All About Taste

My Mum gave me strawberries last time I was there. No idea where they came from, certainly not from (near) Germany.
Was a taste of summer.

Yesterday morning my colleague, who lives in a village (not so many houses --> wind) had to scratch ice from his car!
Now 10C outside, rainy.

Too cold for May!!!

I wanna taste real summer! Ok, at least spring!

It´s All About Love

If you don´t know how to install love, please go over to Barbara´s place to find out!

There sure are truths in there...

Ok, Fine!

... Pix - Z that is :-)
Well, so here it is, beautiful and all shiny, my new FINEPIX Z:



Was declared 118 €, I thought that´s ok. At the checkout I was surprised to pay 97 bucks - special offer, just that minute!

That made room for two books in addition!

There are some shortcuts in the menu now:




Aaaaaand the new one gives quality-pics in artificial/little light, yay! (That was a big minus with the "old" one):



When you click to enlarge, you will notice that I am that famous over here that they designed a shampoo after the decade I was born in and named it after me, too!
Ok, just a joke, but it seems like it, no? :-)
Pic in here just to show the quality of "night-pics" - is ok, huh?

I love the cam. It looks even cooler, fits in the pocket of my jeans again and is hence everywhere with me. 10 instead of 7 MP and great quality-pics (for a lens that small).
Lets look for a better solution this year once the skirt-season is open! I´m no handbag type-of-guy...