From Beer Cans To Elmo

Or… now I know where that horrible dream came from!

And: February 29th - a 366-day-year!

My Teamleader T grew up in former GDR.
Obviously when you say “I grew up in some place” and you´re not tall they answer, “yes, but not that much!”, as said the bus-driver on our trip to Italy to me.

So we ended up listening to T´s GDR-stories.
And mine.
When you wanted to go to Berlin, you had to enter GDR for a few kilometers. Friends advised us at the border not to look the customs officials in the eye and absolutely wait until they gesture you to drive on, otherwise it´s likely they check your car for some hours.

M, who came to Germany nearly 10 years later looked at me in disbelief!

T said, yeah and you threw your cans out of the car´s windows and we collected them then.

WHAT?

Yes! West-German cans were collected for decoration, to swap for other goods, isn´t that crazy?!

T bought his wedding rings from cans even, no kidding!

But then... see pic above!!!
We brought VB, XXXX and Emu here, too!

And Sarotti-chocolate – the colorful packings were collected, too. T even ironed them – but he never got to taste the chocolate itself. Again, crazy, huh?

No one here knows Eszet, chocolate-slices you put on bread, not even the “Wessis” here know it, I grew up with that.
I bought some to bring to work, hence :-)

T lived so near to the border he could watch West-TV.
Meanwhile the customer had arrived in our office and suddenly we talked about what series we´d watched as kids.
They´re older than me so barbapapa says nothing to me.

But now I know why as a kid I often dreamed I´m a yellow tennis-ball, running around the tennis court, getting faster and faster, so much the next morning I was exhausted.
My parents must´ve had turned on the TV when Zini was running! I must´ve been too little to understand, but likely this is why I dreamed I´m a hectic tennis-ball.
Sad I cannot ask them anymore, but it sounds likely.

C has three kids and said, (the German) Sesame Street now works with celebrities!
- Yeah, really? The origonal does it since ages!
- When do you get to see that?!
- When we´re in Perth, WA.
- Perth WA?!!!! You know how far away that is?!!!
- ...

Do you have days like that at “work”, too?
Fun times!

That Blue BMW

So we went to Hildesheim to bring my beloved Polo back and get the new one.

We were - surprise - too early plus there was more than enough gas left, so we drove around a bit.

We didn´t find the road to my first home there, but I recognised the area.

Brrrr.

It was 1994. Mobiles? Nah.
To call my friend I went down the road to the phone booth. I had no phone since I was there for just one semester, after that we went to Australia and I would look for a better place once I´m back.

Suddenly there he was again.
A man with dark hair in a blue, shiny BMW.
I´ve seen him before, the car´s color was unusual.

He stared at me.
And he didn´t move, motor was running.

After a while I told my friend I´m scared.
And the money was running out.

Her great advice: Don´t hang up, pretend you still talk to someone, he will eventually drive away.

But he didn´t.

Do you have an idea how scared I was?
It was a lonely area, no other people were out.

Finally a student left a house, came up to me and asked if I need help, he´d watched the scene.

I.Was.So.Darn.Relieved, I nearly cried!!!

Young and stupid as we were he brought me to my house.

Shoot, that was really dumb!

But I never saw that BWM again - and I never went to that phone both again.

The creepy feeling of fear came back when we drove around there, brrr...

The new car?
Yes. It´s easier to buckle up with that shorter door.
I miss the sport-seat.

The reverse now goes to the left, not right, I wonder why they changed that?
He beeps in the front now, too, as park assist.
The rear mirror is girly-like - reckon they loose a lot of male customers with that!
The radio has logos now, usb is in the middle.
You constantly see the temp.

And!
They set the clock so I´m always two minutes early. Hello.
When someone on this planet is not in need of that, it´s me, I guess!

Monthly Letters - Route On Envelope

No idea if these letters still exist, but it was really nice to find this envelope in my Aussie-box.
This was the only communication - apart from birthday-phone-calls to Mum and Dad - when we travelled Australia in '95 and '99.

I always made an x from where we´d started after I´d sent the last letter away, drew the route we´d taken and marked the end.

I´d gone crazy as a parent for sure, esp '99 when we´d mostly been in the Outback.

So in the aftermath I have to admit: I had cool parents!

Also when you consider that Ingo is 7 years older than me (a lot when you´re 23) and we were together only for about 6 months when we started the first long trip.
Which meant being together 23/7!

My parents sure had faith in me.

And maybe it was trying to make good for a childhood with always working long hour parents who mainly spoke about business at the table, no matter if lunch or dinner.
Really, to some life isn´t fair.
They always worked very hard and never had the chance to lay back and enjoy what they´d achieved.

At least it taught us "kids" to make it much different!

With which I don´t wanna say we´re lazy brats, oh no! But when the work is done after 8 hours, it´s done.
Ok 8+ hours and a day off here and there :-)

Weird Weather Makes Great Colors

I checked the weather online before walking to the dentist (only x-ray this time) and rain was due, so I grabbed the little green brolly again.

Wasn´t necessary, I got to and back in the dry.

But the lights were great, no?

I´d forgotten to send the yearly survey-letter to the company and went again outside after the rain.

I kinda "missed" the rain, wasn´t fast enough, because actually... I enjoy a heavy rain once in a while - still no chance to try out my new rain-suit!!!

At least nice pics, no?

A Cat And A Nane!!! (Nana)

Slept in till 6:30 , surfed a bit, had brekkie, cleaned kitchen, living room and hall and hence had my 10 000 steps together when we arrived with the little Niece and "the cat" at the kid´s sports hall!

Well, before that I met the "new" sales girl at Bro´s shop - she´s really nice and just a tad older than me - good for Bro!
Bro also got two pieces of Eierkranz, we shared one - awww, childhood memories part I!

When the cat aka big Niece was doing sport we went for a walk.

Little Niece didn´t want to sleep at first - yah! She can walk, right?! She wants to practise!
Or at least play - not tired!!!

She fell asleep just fine later and didn´t even wake up at first when screaming, yelling kids in the sports-hall ran back and forth.
Wow, I´d love to have a sleep like that!

At home I saw the cutest sister-love, video as full pics for friends again here.

Big Niece and I had milk with Ovaltine - childhood-memories part II!
YUM!

And the wee one had "Nane"!

She´s all smiles and women in general are "Mama".
And she can discuss with Daddy, oh yah!
Having the remote, pointing to the telly - and Daddy says "no".
"Discussion!" And not a short one!
But then playing with Daddy is fine, too - cute :-)

As usual the big Niece hid instead of saying good-bye, but the wee one not only waved but gave me a kiss in the cheek, too, aww.

Still 400 km to go said the tacho sensor when I came home (car??? what´s wrong, you don´t wanna let go of me, either?!) - AND!!!! I found a space to park the car in.front.of.the.door! Bummer!
The elderly neighbour even congratulated me on this!
Asking if I still have contact to the pre-owners woman (no), she was such a nice lady, "just like you" - oh, thanks :-)

Always Check Twice

When I arrived at work yesterday morning I found the main door electrically open but mechanically closed (I´m always the first one to arrive, kinda - why was it open?!).
Tried to call the factory security offices – lines busy.
Finally the weird guy, who was there before me, as usually, waiting for me to open the door, then waiting in the car at least three minutes, arrived.

Tried to unlock the door – cause, yes, he has a key – not a chance, mechanically locked.

I heard the sirens going off at other buildings, something is with the darn doors again!
Bingo.
He finally reached the security offices, yes, try the cellar, they gave us the go.

Why we need that “permission”?

The keys don´t fit, but you can force the door open when you´re strong enough – crazy, no?!
No alarm, it really was electrically open in our house.

Brrr, this cellar is creepy!
With so many doors, too! And it´s still pitch dark in the morning, too.
And… Supernatural, right, I watch the series in the evenings!
But the weird guy knows the way.

Later T arrived with the words, did you know there are showers in the cellar?”.
Then M arrived with the same sentence. Creepy. Showers in an office building?

10:00 am people still have to enter via cellar, I ask T if the problem has been reported or if everybody else just assumes someone did so?
T: Nah, someone will have reported…

Went to customer E and repeated.
Good thing I did.
Cause… it was not reported, the person being responsible sits someplace else, too!
Gah!

Always ask twice, right, never assume only.

Cellars. Creepy!

Hopefully the problem is solved by Thursday!

Why Thursday, not today? HA, I don´t care!

I have the coolest teamleader ever!
Whom I admit I didn´t listen to.
"Fuel the car up for only €20 and eventually repeat.", he said. Sat I get the new car.
I "knew" better, calculated the kilometers I still have with my sweet car and... miscalculated! Do I wanna give a full car back? No!

I´m at times slow in my head, too, only realised yesterday late arvo, hmmmm. Could visit Bro, who´s got Wed arvos off.
Called teamleader with low hopes.
"The system will go at me, but, ok, do :-)"

Off to visit Bro and Nieces!
And buy a thank-you-pressie for teamleader, maybe "Eierkranz" a local specialty (didn´t have one in ages!).
Did I ever mention I love the team I´m in?!

Reflections

I really wish some people would reflect how they behave.

Do you have "fights" like these, too?

We have rules, right?
We have a forum in the B2E-portal I work with, it´s like a mini-e-bay for employees.
We also have a calendar of events which the users can fill themselves.

We have ready-to-copy documents.

So, when a guy put an event in the forum I e-mailed him, explaining that this is the wrong service for his content - see info on the site - that I deleted his entry and here is your text in case you want to use the calendar.

Whoooo!!!

He wishes the person who deletes makes contact first!

Um, no. Not if the context is that clear.

Who is responsible for this?!!!!

I gave him my customer´s data. Customer was signed sick, there was an autoreply. He called him anyways cause he is so darn important!

He e-mailed me again, stating the customer had no idea what this was about, implying I was lying.
Telling me I should look his name up in the intranet, he is an important person.
(...!!!) Um, no, not my job.

I answered the customer makes the rules, discuss it with him.

He interrupted me once again, saying this is not over!

I answered again, discuss it with the customer.

And now, Kindergarten at it´s finest:
He will discuss it with my customer. And, btw, being only external I´m not the person he wants to discuss it with.

DUDE. In the very first e-mail you find the info I´m external.
Dude, you discussed a lot with me for not... argh...

My teamleader went to the VW-boss of ours who said this (just external) is discriminating, go at the guy.
My customer told him off.

I generously activated the dude´s entry in the calendar.

Really - would he´ve talked to me like that in my office?!

And no, dude, you´re not that important, you stick to the rules. Like.everyone.else.
HA.
Customer said: If he puts it in the forum again: Delete without notice.
Will happily do so!
Arrogant unimportant fella!

Reflect what you do, right?
Kindergarten!
Rant over.

Can you relate? Do people go at you via e-mail in a way they wouldn´t in person?

Thank You, Big Puddle

I had to go to the city today (taxes 2014 still and I bet the documents are wrong, too).
The weather was rather icky again.

Actually luckily, though!

My way in the park was blocked:

No worries, I took the other side, and luckily I did!
Otherwise I would´ve run into the yelling drunks.
Yes, 9C, rainy and they sit outside and drink till they get aggressive.

I find Perth/Australia a tad too strict with a total ban of alcohol in public.
Here you see many a worker after the job is done happily with a bottle of Wolters (local beer).
And that´s totally ok, I think.

But this again?!
Highly aggressive drunk dudes, yikes!

And certainly... Ingo just told me the tax-stuff was not what they wanted (I wonder who lost the darn papers, them or me?! Why would I send in only one page, not all?!).
Why Ingo tells me that?
Dunno!
I asked her explicitly to answer to my e-mail-address, which she did before.
Nooo. She used Ingo´s account this time.
Sometimes I wonder how some people´s brains work.
(Sweet btw: Ingo uses my Mum´s first name in the password, awww.)

I once had a customer, I kid you not, every other day she "mixed up" login details and asked me, "Ms K......". That was 10 years ago, I still have her in my ear.
Brains, let those rain instead of water!

I Miss The Ocean

Those were happy times.
Well, not really, we lived in different places, saw each other only on weekends and holidays.

Mondays were plain awful.
When you have to buy food for the week alone you only see happy couples.
But the weekends were special.
And Ingo was healthy.

No idea if this is but a phase.
If it´s due to being sick so often.
We´re having a hard time often now.
And I´m tired.
Even our neighbour said Ingo doesn´t look happy or content anymore.
I don´t know what to do...
Sport might help, and if it´s just walking. Cleaning out might help, but he refuses it all.

Strandkorb... back then we really sat in those!

Holiday was only Mum and us, thanks to having that shop.
So glad Bro is different and leaves the shop to the sales-women once in a while to go on holiday with his family.

I hope happy times come back, soon.

Construction Worker In Love

Saw this on the ever-lasting contruction site at the white horse.

It made me smile.

And made me feel old. And sad.

Hope his love lasts long.

Once someone carved his and my letter in a tree, surrounded by a heart.
Didn´t last long, though maybe five years were way too long.
Ended nasty.

Today´s weather is nasty, too. Stormy, grey, cold.
A weekend to be spend with training, cleaning up, searching for some documents for the tax-stuff 2014 (!!!!) and working on Bro´s website.
Oh, and movies, looking forward to that!

Hope you have more fun this weekend.
Maybe someone carves in a long-lasting heart in wood for you?

Mama, Er Hat Ganich Gebohrt

"Mum, he didn´t even drill" - in my case it´s a she, though.
The worst doctor to me is the dentist.

But I found one who is very understanding, phew!

I thought I might have periodontitis, took all my courage, made an appointment and yesterday was "the day". Luckily I can walk there, so I could take pic above.

I sat in the waiting room for 20 minutes (being, surprise, 15 minutes early), reading a Braunschweig-crime-thriller, then went onto the real uncomphy chair.

The assistant was really nice, but we waited over 30 minutes for the doc cause there were (not talented) craftsmen at work who kept her occupied.
Torture!
Esp since the assistance kept telling me how afraid she is when sitting in that chair - not helping! ;-)

All the while I was looking on a nice, huge shot of Tour Eiffel, when it hit me: I was there 30 years ago. Thirty!!! On student´s exchange. Actually in Louviers, but certainly we visited Rouen and Paris, too.

The doc proved me right, said otherwise my teeth are healthy, YAY.

Need to get x-rayed, then she wants to go at the periodontitis and I´m through for the year, hopefully!
Need to see my ophthalmologist, so she can attest I need glasses for the workplace, so boss pays and have an app due to my sore neck, too. DOCTORS. Waste of time!

I went to Butlers to get two more crocs in a bathrobe (success)...

....and saw...

I felt a tad like a Perthie that moment :-)

Two Tens Without Ham

And Someone made her first steps by herself yesterday!

So I went to Bro´s place yesterday to get... two pair of glasses.
And "ordered" a third one cause it looked so great!

The sales-"girls" P and S were there, it was like back then, hugs and coffee, nice.
Gotta get them the cute crocs for their... ? Grankids, I suppose.

I then ordered "two tens without ham" cause Bro wanted one also.
When I went to get them Nico´s wife said, they go to Braunschweig? - I told her that this time only one half goes, the rest is for now.
Till next time, she said, with a proud smile.
We shared one pizza, cause there was left-over soup for Bro, so I took a whole ten without ham home! One half tonight, the other tomorrow, yum!

Little Niece later looked rather sceptical at the croc in the wardrobe.
Bummer, just the other day they saw a DVD with a mean dino... what were the chances, huh?

The juggling-toy was not the big hit (yet), either... (full pics/video for friends again here)

Whilst the big Niece was shy for a short while the wee one is all smiles.

She can communicate well, too - take pics of me and show me, was a clear instruction!
I got the cutest Sis-pic :-)

She also can "roll" the dice and understands pretty much already - she´s one year four months only!

On how tall are you? little Niece threw up her hands to show,. so dang cute!

And then... she got up. Fell again, got up. And there they were: The very first steps by herself, and I have it on cam/video - wow!
She was so proud of herself! Awww :-)

Big Niece offered to help with showing the taken pics and tried to use the cam like a smartphone. Ha, nooo, "old fashioned" cam, but she got that quickly, too.

Despite the cold weather we went for a walk and Little Niece really fell asleep!

Later we played games, had fun and yikes! It was late already!

Niece refused again to say good-bye (in hope I stay? Haven´t we´ve been through that successfully?)
But lille Niece waved "good-bye" happily for the entire time I got dressed (winter-clothes - ummm.... anyhows, huh? ;-)...)

I managed to get home with the last light, nightblind-me.
And even found a place to park the car in our quarter, yay!

This is my loot, btw, one bifocal, one for reading/computer only:

See the crown with his initials Bro stamped in there, great idea, love it (our last name is translated "Emperor").

Was so good to see them all!