Now They Laugh Properly (Part I)

I know it took way too long, but finally, finally the three beautiful Kookaburras painted by Wendy Binks, who also studied at Curtin University - where Mark showed us around, are properly on a frame, thank you so much, Grace, for this wedding-pressie they sit right at my pc so I can see them every time I just look to the side!

Next step - when I can stand safely again to help - they certainly make their way up to the wall there!

Ingo brought them to a gallery and it took two weeks to be done.
The bag he came home with says...

... "art is when the eye touches the heart".
And it sure does.

Not only does it remind me of a wonderful holiday where we met online friends who cared about us.

Here at Caversham Wildlife Park with H & B´s Son (and Mandi and her family) for example (all "adventures" are here:

Where we married.
It also reminds me of our very first visit to Australia in 1995 where we heard a kookaburra "laugh" for real.

It was in the Great Sandy National Park in the Cooloola section - where I´d never went if I had known what a Cooloola (monster) is, ewww!

We were together for not even a year when we went on that journey, a journey where you are stuck together 24/7 minus the time for toilet/shower, the ultimate test, huh?

The "message" - Grace, how did you know? ;-)

And don´t you think it fits perfectly to the green wall, too?

(No) Viva Colonia

I won´t embed this (but you can have a look here - and no, that´s no German, that´s the accent of Cologne, I don´t understand it, either) and I wouldn´t have been forced to attend anyways (I actually hate carnival).
(Sadly that goes for Braunschweig, as well. I won´t - again - see the carnival-procession (with little gallery) this weekend, the largest in Northern Germany, the one I never visited despite living here over 13 years... I can watch it on TV, though.)

Pic?
Bro!!! 2003.
After I screamed him down. He said he´s sorry, he "forgot" I´m even there... (see? I´m not mad for long, I even took a pic...).
A little detour again - gosh, I sit at home all day, sorry, all who wanders is my mind.
We had a bad start, Bro and I, but my broken arm and later helping our Dad on his last journey glued us together.
2003 I took a holiday to visit him in Cologne, where he studied. We even slept in one room ( he was studying, right?).

Usually I´m a co-driver on her:

...but Bro back then had a Ninja - now that he´s a Daddy he has a Shadow, whew!

(He wears a helmet where you can see his face, so... all you see is his red beard... Pic taken 2007 on a visit in Braunschweig :-))

He and his former boss had booked the Nürburgring - a race track. I wanted to take the car to go and see him driving but he promised to not go over 120 km/h (Harley: 80 km/h!) and so I hopped on.

On a Harley you sit like on a couch - on a Ninja, as our Mum always said, you sit like a "pooping deer".
Oh, Mum, you make me laugh even now!
But she was right, it was an odd - and scary - feeling on that thing, so high up, higher than the driver!

After the race... if you know the area, huhhhh. We had to go to the next gas station to get some air out of the tyres and it´s all sloping curves. As Harley-co-driver I´m certainly not used to that!
And... he forgot I´m behind him (having my arms wrapped around him!) and he went at 200 km/h - I could see that, then closed my eyes and hoped for the best, what else could I do?!
Gosh! If I´d leaned to the side... we´d crashed!

We survived...

Pic...

Shopping tour with Bro... Three pairs of shoes - and no, not for me!

In his kitchen:

In mine, today:

Our Mum always took great care we get the same. These she brought from a holiday in East Frisia, I suppose.
I took pics back then of three more items we both got as souveniers from her holidays. Seesh, I sure miss her right now.

This is where Bro lived back then, near Hohenzollernbrücke - beautiful sight, no?

Yep, that´s Cologne Cathedral in the background.

From near...

I won´t see it that soon, as turned out - detour ended:

My further training in Cologne is cancelled, that´s what our secretary just decided.
She said running for the train, going to the hotel, the training, all that with a bad foot - no way.
Since the subject matter would be nothing new to me anyways - we had to learn it on the run beside our normal jobs - I am quite happy.
Why the training if I know the stuff?
We´re in Germany, the land of official certificates.

I´m also glad cause I would´ve arrived after 6 pm. In the dark. At a train station, as a woman, alone. Not such a good idea.
And only two days... well.
Teamleader just called, it´s rebooked for September. Unless I find something more useful. Note to self: THINK!

And hopefully, if it´s another training, it will be in Cologne again.

101 - 9 - 10 - 18

After my "wonderful cooking" I needed something good to eat for supper, so I called "my" Wokman.
Other would´ve been bread, but... see last post.

And Ingo could´t buy me something cause he was busy translating his vita to English - he found a Japanese headhunter who might have a job in Wolfsburg for him and needs his stuff in English. We also found out we´re both not "graduated" but "graded" engineers.
Awww, well, I also told a secretary in Darwin I have a "handy number" back in 1999. When in Germany "Handys" aka cellphones started to get popular... Can you imagine her blank look? ;-)

I need to get away from the actual subject shortly. Languages, man, as just proofed, you can embarrass yourself, so Ingo makes sure to check twice and remembered a story that was in the newspaper pre-internet.
A technical company got a request from Asia, a man ordered some several hundred round-shaped couches.
???
Very likely he needed some several hundred ball bearings (linked to Wiki, so I don´t make a fool of myself) - ball bearing. Kugellager. Kugel - ball = round. And for lager, well, that also can be something to rest on, so...
His order made it to the news, entertaining heaps of people and about 30 years later, me.
And maybe now you.
Mean, actually, how was he supposed to know?

Anyhows... at Wokman the phone got picked up.
And there was.... background noise.
I asked "Hello?... Hello?" - Nothing, so I hung up and tried again two minutes later, wondering why they pick up when being busy.

Well. I sadly don´t speak Chinese.
The guy at the other end near to no German, bad combination - why did he pick up?

We had some tough (felt) minutes, him always wantig to add my house-number to the menu, and the time I wanted the meal to be delivered.
Mind you, I don´t like prawn crackers, nor plain crisps.

"Appetizer" (you have to order food for at least 8 euro):

Funny thing was - when you don´t see a person, obviously, you get louder.
So we both ended up nearly screaming at each other until the guy (I really felt sorry) finally asked for my phone number and we ended up with someone will call, me or them, I didn´t understand but "2 minutes" - numbers must be easier than spoken language?

30 seconds later I got called back and this guy spoke a very good German and we had a good laugh about it after he went "sorry, sorry...." - there must be people who just plain expect everyone to speak perfect German, even if they call a Chinese take-away :-(

I didn´t take my usual, but spicy tofu. Hmmm.

May I say edible?
Well, better than "my edible" but yummy won´t do either.

Stick to your number, right? 29 in my case.

It would - ignore the blog´s title - it would´ve lasted for three meals with that appetizer.
But. The ugly smell when I opened up the fridge.... uhhh.
I wanted to leave it on the balcony, so Ingo doesn´t have to smell that in the morning when grabbing his food for work, but it was raining.
Just took it to the bin...

Gahhhh, and. Left foot hurt.
Both feet revealed Ingo said, yupp, swollen.
Did I overdo it yesterday after all with that little bit?!

(Not) Chef In Da House

I just can´t see bread anymore, I´m sick of it.
So.
Yesterday I opened the cupboard to see if there are noodles or such.

Boy. Time so runs! (Funny how this fits to the last post, in both ways, kinda - yeah. My life isn´t so exciting at the moment...).

"Best before October 2011", by golly.
It´s just noodles, so I cooked them anyway - first pic - I just tossed in some olives.
It was ok.
Like... ok for me, I´d never offer that to anyone else.

I had leftovers, so for brekkie I tossed in eggs.

At first just one, but that looked like nothing, so I added a second - which was too much.

Let me say: I´m not hungry anymore - but, ohhhh... I had to chuckle at myself, it was that awful!
Edible is the only way to describe that, Ingo´d call it "Fraß", grub.

Do I look forward to lunchtime! ;-)
I´ll add some olives, but I reckon that won´t make it much better...

I´m definitively not the Chef, for a reason!

Today I should´ve used the mozzarella I´d asked for yesterday evening, really! But I thought, hmmm, with eggs for brekkie, with mozzarella for lunch. Alas!
But there are more noodles (best before 2015) and tomorrow is another day.

I should rather start using a cooking book - but this is so quick and easy and I´m not very patient when it comes to cooking. Plus I still can´t stand for too long with that broken foot.

Other: I cleaned up a bit, laundry is on the way, guess my power comes back and yes, I take it slow and easy.

If you make it over for dinner some day - definively ask Ingo to do the cooking! ;-)

Addendum:

The olives made it a lot better!
I wouldn´t say yummy but more than just edible :-)

Hungry On A Sunny Day?

It´s beautifully sunny today, and by now even "warm" with 6C.
Actually I thought I´d go outside today, but just in time I found the doctor´s note saying March 3rd, not today, so...

I decided to travel in time at least, let´s say ten years back, 2004 - whew, time so flies!
Just look at this young man:

I saw him only on the weekends. I still can´t believe we did this for so dang many years.
Mondays were just plain horrible. Doing grocery shopping for one, seeing all the happy couples buying for at least two.
Ingo tried his best to make it less bad.
He made me brekkie and lunch for work.

The following are just some of the best examples!

Just grin, even if it hurts, right?

Or play :-)

And always remember...

Say it with flowers:

Eggs? Get your salt in an extra-bag, made of paper!

In case you don´t know what to make of this,... it comes with "instructions" :-)

Also brunch on Sundays came along like this - I´m really impressed in the aftermath that here never anything went wrong!
A simple plate with a glass of tomatoe-juice in bed....

This was a "typical" Monday-package:

See the little mouse?
What´s it with mice these days, huh?

I don´t get those packages anymore and I´m happy about it, kinda.
Because Mondays aren´t bad anymore, on the contrary, soon, when my foot is ok again, we´ll walk to the city on those days. And on the others I plan again to be "good" and work out, which, let´s be honest, is a pain ;-)

I was astonished, too, to find this pic:

This rug sits on my walls also already since ten years and moved three times.

Blogger gave me a hard time today with the pics, but google made it better with this cute robot:

Ten years ago such an error report would´ve come un-cute, time so runs and it seems, for the better.
Because... I not really enjoyed Ingo´s creative work, you know what I mean... Now, though, I would! But guess we´ve grown up - a bit, see first pic, doesn´t look so mature after all, huh? ;-)

Oh. And just for the record.... see second pic:
I still have that same (man and) shelf, I just painted (the latter) green some years ago and I built it myself, too (in practical training 1994 before studying).
Guess I´m a tad frugal in some things...

Dead Mice As Wedding Gift

Long overdue, but this is what Ingo got from his colleagues.

Nice idea, in Germany you call money also mice.

But on a closer look...

Some are dead!

And no, Ingo was careful - so... does it mean to tell us something? ;-)

Dead meat - long overdue is also a post of our how to on the jerky.

Ingo got the meat from our old butcher, who, surprise, is near our bakery.

He bought all the needed ingredients you get here:

Marinated it:

Dried it ...

... and then off it went into our new machine:

The end product:

Not bad for a first try! Half is already gone!

And if you feel like it you could hop in the car in front of our house and drive some whopping 13,1 km to...

... to have Jägermeister with it. But we don´t like the hard stuff.

Actually I took the pics to send to the Brass cause they have the writing on their huge mirror:

Beautiful weather today, well for February, that is.
But me, like a dead mouse, am still banned to the inside.
But when elephants fly.... I´m off here. Ok, wont take that long, right?