Call Me

I have a new mobile and this is it´s background-pic (click to enlarge, it´s worth it), how cool is that, huh????
39 € and yips, that´s all I need! So, feel free to call me, froggy shows up then.

Today was my day anyways!

At our bakery, ("oh, Mr. K.!") I also ordered one mini cheese-comfit and got some broken stuff for added free :-)



Thanks to the weird winter I had to wait over a month for this:



Got it via amazon. Wasn´t a private person but some company and obviously they thought, umm, it goes to Germany? We take the German version then.
Luckily, we can watch it in the original language, cause that was the reason I ordered it, guys! Cause, yes, it runs on TV in German here.

Took this pic in 1999:




Oh, and certainly I love ABBA as well :-)
(Ingo didn´t get it - watch the movie if you didn´t either - fun-time ahead (mostly))

Yips, was a hard winter over here. Some time in end-November I ordered something from China.
Thursday I got the message the parcel had arrived.
We went today to pick it up and Ingo asked, what did you order? Heck! I only knew one of the things and was amazed to find Shaun the Sheep in there!




They split the order for some reason, so... I will get more and have no idea what!

Yay for such a day, no?
Happy weekend everyone!

The Wrestler Wears Socks

or... My Brunswick

Mein Braunschweig. Wie war das damals? - this is the book I just finished.

But first things first:
I finally did catch the Wrestler that got socks on in this harsh winter, someone was so thoughtful to think of this:



Isn´t this just kinda dumb cute?

Back to the book, it was really worth the read and if you want to learn a wee bit bout some oddities and famous guys here, read along...

Eckard Schimpf is a journalist, born in this town in WWII.
He describes in short „stories“ very well how it was like here back then.

The first story nearly made me pass out, he was in the Bunker in the heart of the city – in a city that burned. 90% burned down and the fire brigade was only able to keep a small alley free for all those people to get out of that hell.

But most stories tell of rehabilitation and hope.

Here are some passages I just love:

Who seeks the soul of the City needs to look up to the Lion.

The Lion was brought to a safe place in WWII and when he came back, people watched, clapping hands, feeling hope.



I also liked: Germans go rather to the theatre than to a soccer-game :-)

I learned that despite „only“ being a Duke, Henry the Lion was the most  mighty/powerful and richest man in whole Europe!
When Henry was dispossessed, he went with his wife Mathilde, a British  king's daughter, to England. The plan was to make his son Otto the King of England. The author says, this didn´t come off, but at least Otto became German Emperor.

Aw, well, huh? Not bad either, I´d say :-)

What do you think, how old is one when he´s finally  senior primary school teacher?
The author´s teacher was named Sander, but everybody called him Pup, aka Fart. Poor fella got the name as a very young man when performing at the  horizontal bar and, well, you can guess what happened, huh? His whole life he was called "Fart" for that, how mean can people be?! ;-)

Until the late 60s Braunschweig people – as others in larger cities, too – were cleaning up after the war. Can you imagine this?! How grim a time to grow up in. The author adds heaps of pics, it can break ones heart. And the smell of burnt balk and all...

Can´t wait for spring and find the Borek-Villa! The author says there is a King-Frog at some little lake! Still so much to discover in this town! Also gotta visit "Schäfers Ruh", a Tavern that has not changed over all those years.

When the British soldiers occupied Braunschweig they wanted Braunschweig kids to learn about the West and offered several lectures like "The history of America", "Abstract art
- Paul Klee" and... "Islam – third power between East and West?". My, even back then this was an issue!

There were some quite popular people living here, like Viktoria Luise, Daughter of Emperor Wilhelm II.
The author recounts:
What a character: She talked about education with the Queen of England and about  cabbage heads with the garden plot holders. On TV we saw her at the side of Konrad Adenauer, in Riddagshausen we saw her jogging along every morning and feeding the ducks with her  great-grandson, the now heir | to the Spanish throne. She loved Braunschweig. At first maybe only by prussian  sense of duty, but later deep from her heart. Why? "I realised the people here do really like me", she said.

Do you know the song Lili Marleen? It was composed by Brunswick citizen Norbert Schultze.

Next I have to try to get his book In the land of the Lion, he´s really a great writer.
Klinterklater, typically brunswickish
Brunswick – our town.

Bookshop Graff, I gotta see you next Monday!

So much for stop buying stuff on Mondays, huh?!

We Did It Again

... but I couldn´t resist this cute face! Could you?

And this was a cheapy, too, since it´s already several years old. But who cares, huh?



Well. So much for another great Monday :-)



Gotta stop buying stuff each Monday, though!

Today wasn´t as good, I woke up with deeply red eyes.
Drove the 30 km to work but the burning went worse and worse, so, after just one hour I drove back.
Was rather odd, seemed I was the only one who wanted to go from Wolfsburg to Braunschweig - everybody else went into the other direction which left me on a free highway and them caught in traffic.
Hopefully it´s just a conjunctivitis, the doctor said.

Australian Journey V

This is not a funny one. Or is it?
You know how it is when you´re not aware of things and are content?

And then you travel places, get to know things you cannot get at home and miss them terribly?
We did try to make Jerky. It was a lot of work. And it didn´t taste half as good as the Territory-Stuff. How disappointing!



This is our car in front of the Factory in Alice. We got to see how they make the Jerky, tasted all types but found beef is the best after all.
I was addicted to the stuff! I still am!
But some 60$ for shipping????? Are you crazy?!

We used to have Wal Mart over here for some years and they offered some Jerky. Wasn´t the real thing, though.
We tried a lot of Jerky throughout Australia after finding out what fine stuff that is! But the best was the Northern Territory Jerky!

We took some home. And only allowed ourselves a bit here a bite there.

And then.... it all drowned in a flood at Ingo´s old place. Double-dumb, I tell ya!

Lesson learned: Enjoy when you have it!

Other stuff I so darn miss: Meat Pies, Spinach-Cheese-Pies, umm... Pies!!! And Chicken Treat (oh! they redid the site again!).
Beaming, I want that! Now!

Dunno. I love my town. So much. I won´t trade places.
But I also love Perth. And all the stuff you get in that place called Australia!
Man. A life right now for a piece of Jerky, the real one!

Do you eat Jerky?
Do you make Jerky? Any tipps?

The S-Meatloaf

This is off-topic. The gerbera I got for my Birthday from Ingo :-)
From the flower shop in our old place, aww. Anyhows!

I never liked meatloaf (well. I sure do like Meat Loaf, he was wonderful in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I even saw him live in Bad Gandersheim, where I was born, on the "airstrip", oh, my, I´m getting old!).

Anyways. I never liked meatloaf. Dry. Yucky. Gah.

But seriously, could you resist this?! This is Ingo´s family-receipe:



It becomes this in no time:



It´s SO DARN yummy, I ate so much I cannot have the snack I bought for tonight (cheddar and cracker) cause my tummy is so darn full!!!!

How you make it?
Umm.

You need:
Hackepeter (yes, really, it´s also called like that!
You might call it ground pork).
Onion.
Egg.
Dry breadroll.
Butter
Pepper

(also:
Kohlrabi
Potatoes
Salt
More butter)

Put the old (dry) breadroll in water till soggy.
Finely cut onion, mix it with Hackepeter, pepper, breadroll, raw egg.

Form a heart and whatever you like and fry in butter.
Yep, hello calories, but... worth it!

In the meantime cook potatoes, peel and slice kohlrabi, cook with water in the microwave, add butter and there you go, one yummy meal!

Only two hotplates needed again.

Leftovers are yummy cold. On bread or without.

Popular Fallacy

Pic by Premeditated Chaos from http://commons.wikimedia.org

That´s what the book (German) I just finished is all about.

Here are the ones that I found astonishing the most:

Wild pigs were a delicacy for the Gaul
Nope, that animal was sacred to them. Big mistake in Asterix-Comics!

Dark skin developed to adapt people to strong solar irradiation
The other way round, remember, we all come from Africa. People who became more light-skinned by mutation did better in cooler regions.

Cats and Dogs can´t bear each other
Certainly they can learn, funny are these two examples:
   When a dog waggles his tail, he´s happy.
   To a cat this signals strain, emotional stress.

   When a cat lifts her paw she shows she´s ready to defend herself.
   Poor doggy thinks it´s a peace-offering (ouch!).

Ravens are bad parents
(there is the German saying "Raven-Parents" for uncaring parents)
Totally wrong! The young ones leave the nest on their own before being fully fledged.
So, whilst they sit in their new home looking rather clumsy, the parents still feed them - just like human parents still look after students who live away from home the first time :-)
(except mine - does it make them Raven-Parents? Errrrr Human-Parents? Now I´m confused!)

Captain Kirk says: "Beam me up, Scotty!"
Nope, he never did!
He said, "Scotty, beam me up", "Beam them out of there, Scotty", "Beam us up, Mr. Scott".
The mentioned phrase probably comes from the car-sticker: "Beam me up, Scotty. There´s no intelligent life down here."
Very embarrassing!

New Year's Eve Movie Dinner for One is a British export
It´s not even known there. It was written by an Englishman in 1920. 1963 it was filmed and two British Comedians starred, but not in England. In 1963 it was played in the theatre Hamburg, Germany, and recorded and that is the version we get every.single.New.Year'.Eve!
It´s also known in Austria and Switzerland. And was shown for 6 years in Sweden.
(Wikipedia has different/expanded info)

BTW - where I work, in Wolfsburg, we have lots of ravens, I like those clever birds.
And now in our new area on the way to the city (walking) there is one place where there are Ravens, too. They always remind me of Australia, though these are not as ... hm... long in their "calls".

Monday, Monday

We still have plus-degrees, yay. No snow, no mud, no ice. This car was parked outside, ohhhh, gotta find such a king-frog for my car, too!

Our Monday-ritual was rather expensive today, we made ourselves some Pressies!
I moved here about 10 years ago (yikes, time so runs!) but had friends here long before, so I´m kinda attached/in love with this town a lot longer.

So you can say another key-holder is ok as long as it´s dedicated to "my town", huh?



Feels like real high quality (for now. Did cost "only" 5 € so who knows).

And, my, isn´t that brush too cute?



No idea when to start, but I got these herbs to grow:



Last not least we got ourselves some books. On this town :-)



We spend too much money, you think?
Aw, well, Ingo keeps finding that stuff all the time, kinda!

Like in Cuba. It wasn´t convertibles (Tourist-Money), but the real thing. No idea how much it was worth, Ingo gave it to an elderly who looked rather poor.

Then in the old place where we lived - 10 €! Not bad, huh?!

And today: 1 Euro-Cent.

Keep it coming, I say!

Speaking of pressies!
My highlights from last year´s Advent-Calendar:



Yep, two more frogs! The lille one on the nail file says "Du!" (you!) and I will never ever use it, it´s too cute!
The soft toy is the softest I have!

Oh, not to forget about this one!



Braunschweig in 1893 and 2010!
Awesome. Love it when friends just know how to make me happy (I wonder though why each time I get facial cream? Does she want to tell me something??? ;-) This time it even had my name on it!)

Pressies and new stuff, who can resist, huh?

Monday, Monday, I used to hate you so much.
Now that we finally (ok over three years already, but I sometimes still can´t believe it).. now that we live together, I love you. Love the ritual of walking hand in hand into the city, mostly not buying anything but having something to eat together.
Yes, we eat.
When still being in the weekend-relationship, eating was too hard on Mondays. Now it´s easy and yummy! And fun.
Happy Monday everyone!

This Is The Key

... to our hearts stack/cellar :-)

But first things first. We decided to do a wee bit every Sat on this apartment, we´re in no hurry, right, and we work hard, too, so... take it easy, right?

My ottoman is on the wall again:



Dumb me just looked at the angle, didn´t see Ingo is too close to the door :-(
But, on the other hand... it doesn´t sit right on my neck when being at the computer. Maybe done it right by chance, maybe one day redo it...

My little Christmas-Lion is back in place, too:




Now back to the key thing! The pre-owners gave us the key to the stack like this:


Yep, they liked green, too! :-)

We did this...



A socket in the middle of the wall, you wonder? How dumb, huh?!
Nope, see:



It´s a key holder!






I love it!

The Piggy we wanna turn into a cow someday is back on the wall, too:
(we plan to go to our fav Steak-House El Gaucho with the money we find in the piggy-bank)



So, please come and visit us to...



... spend the obligatory what-ever-you-think-the-visit-was-worth!

Yep, we accomplished three things today, not one.
Another poor beer-can-chicken sits in the oven, yummmm, I can´t wait.

In case you´ve heard of the dioxin-scandal... aw, well. I even bought eggs.
And my colleague still eats em, too. Who knows for how long we got that stuff anyways?!

Happy weekend!

Australian Journey IV

...or: No! No! Nooooo! (1999)
and... joining Gratituesday

Mandi from On The Sunny Side invented "Gratituesday", what a great idea! Don´t forget about the "little" or everyday things you are greateful for!
Apart from being grateful not being in danger to flooding these days, as many near the bigger rivers are due to ice melting, I am very grateful my parents gave me the opportunity to travel Australia twice and gather beautiful and most valuable memories!
So, here we go with another story, a funny one...



This is a sign asking you to "give them a break - use left lane", when you come near Darwin. Heck, so much traffic there!

When we came there we found out it´s about two weeks till the Darwin Beer Can Regatta, so we stayed.
Not directly in Darwin since there is the "Night Patrol" now, fining travelers, even those who do behave!
We had our own Air Strip some 35 km (or 50?) down south. Still cheaper than Caravan Park in town and much better (there are still free showers and all near Lake Andrew, at least back then).
Beer Can Regatta was a flop, rather, this was one of the best boats:



Anyhows. Darwin is a great place and we had no worries spending quality time there and nearby.
To Europeans, or Germans, a Shopping Centre like Casuarina is a blast, I tell ya! How huge!!!!

A place we went more than once, for sure.

That means we knew we fit in there, in the underground car park.
This was our car:


(Pic taken at Great Central Rd)

Rather high with the Jerry Can Holders and all. (You can click to enlarge)

There are about 3 cm left to the ceiling of the car park.

One day Ingo rather "raced" down there and an elderly man standing there looked at us, eyes wide, waving "no!!!!!" - poor guy was probably thinking, heck, those guys from WA, what are they thinking, it will never fit! They gonna crash!

He looked in horror just to see we fit in neatly.

I guess I was so mean, I waved hello :-)

That was fun! Mean fun, but still fun and bet he, too, had a story to tell :-)

Yellow It Is?

See the chaos at the washing basin? As mentioned in last post, we didn´t find anything suitable at IKEA, so we have to do it ourselves.
Ingo will build, I will paint (classy, huh?!).
So we sat in the kitchen, wondering about the color the shelf will get.

After a while I said, how about yellow?
Ingo: That was what I was just thinking!

Funny, huh? Guess we won´t fight about colors ever.

Though... in the aftermath. We´ll make it a jungle again - after all we have a huge spider in there (that´s only what the thing is called that holds the shower curtain, certainly!).



Maybe a yellowish-green?

Let´s see.

I only found it funny we had the same idea (again).

Also see last post - though I never tried (and probably never will) IKEA´s Köttbullar, I definitively do like meatballs - when Ingo makes them!



I always think of "yikes", but Ingo adds a dry breadroll, egg and onions, it´s YUM!
We had it with potatoes and kohlrabi/stem cabbage , hmm.....

We Took Her Home

... or... Christmas is over, Rudolph is dead...

We got up early today and got so much done!
Did groceries and on the way back Ingo (!! Lani, if you happen to read along: It was Ingo, not me, out of the blue!), well Ingo said, hey, we´re early, how about a stop at IKEA?
We need something for the bathroom, ya know.



Sorry it´s blurry. Ingo is always on the run and the weather was bad...

Here Ingo stands in front of the Köttbullar-sign... we never tried it, though. It smells funny (the sign itself doesn´t smell at all, I mean the meatballs). And I don´t like sauce...



People were already flooding in, so.. sorry, rather blurry again.

We didn´t find anything for our bathroom.
Only a young mother, taller than me. I took her home with us:



Still raining! But, heck! Rain means: The ice melts away!!! Yay!
Others in Germany are not as lucky as we are. There is severe flooding in many places.

Back to the young Mum... here she is with Ingo:




She has her lille one in her mouth!
If it wasn´t for the shirt I might never have noticed her.
She´ll live on our swing.

OH! YES! Christmas is over, and Rudolph... poor Rudolph...



We´ll taste him on Monday, I guess. Really, aren´t those guys from Sweden just kinda...???



It IS Rudolph, the red nose reindeer!

On a side note... here is a pic of our side-board...actually it´s a pic of Dörte - and the Lioness Ingo added:



Just cool how her leg swings freely, huh? I just dropped her without notice there.

As said we were early and got much sone. Also the bedroom:



Yep, Ingo is a lot into Pirates - I kinda join.
Now you gonna think we´re maybe freaky guys?
Henry moved to our bedroom, too:




Ingo hid him from me cause he thought I´d freak out. My eyes nearly popped out, but then... it´s just a Pirate´s joke, Aye?

The girl who (damaged three doors and ) lived in our bedroom before had a hamster as companion. He ate up the wallpaper.
We covered it with this:



So we can travel in our minds again...

Happy weekend everyone!