His Dad Is A Stalker (Not)

We had over 30C, a barbie and were chatting along.

With the neighbourhood kids playing in the garden it was like being in a village and, well...

Ingo told me how - in the village he grew up in (and where my Bro lives now) - his Dad was calling desperately for their dog to come back, her name was Hilde, a boxer.

He was yelling at some point, unaware of the newly widowed neighbour named the same also.

"Hilde, come BACK!... Hilde, STOP!!!!, Hilde come here NOW!!!" ... and that poor woman, who wasn´t that well with walking anymore, boy, she tried to get away from him asap!!!

It even became pub-talk and in the end FIL went over, explained and said he´s sorry.

Oh, that poor woman, huh?!

I remember when I lived with Ingo and his Granma (next village) I was waiting outside for my Mum to pick me up and a woman stood on the sidewalk shouting "Taxi!!!.... Taxi!!!".
Yep, I was tempted to tell her this ain´t New York but then... a dog showed up, his name was Taxi.

Choose your dog´s name wisely, right? ;-)

Oh, nearly forgot:

"Büssing AG was a German bus and truck manufacturer, established in 1903 by Heinrich Büssing (1843–1929) in Braunschweig. It quickly evolved to one of the largest European producers, whose utility vehicles with the Brunswick Lion emblem were widely distributed, especially from the 1930s onwards. The company was taken over by MAN AG in 1971." (Wikipedia).

I Can´t Dance

Sadly my intention was not to give you an earworm, it´s a fact, I can´t dance.
But. I can give second chances.

Dancer and choreographer Detlef Soost was on TV. Ads for his programs and a show that was advertised for endlessly. I so did not like him. He was very arrogant.

Then I saw a DVD by him for €1,99 and gave it a go.

Wow. Why ever he was that arrogant on TV the DVD is great, he explains very well and with humour and encouragement, too (I even "like" to do (mild) burpees!). Even I manage the steps so far and those 4 dance-trainings became "boring" even, it was more tempting to sit down in the swing with one of the books!

Instead I ordered 3 more of his DVDs:

Because: Sport is good "in my condition", as my doc said, plus, with summer being back it sure gives me a reason to get up at 05:15. And last not least it´s good for my brain, right?
I really have to concentrate hard to coordinate feet and arms, to do the steps right - at least the rhythm is easy to follow (in the first it was).
So, wish me luck :-)
I´ll start Monday, I guess, since Ingo has today off - long weekend! :-)

And, please... can someone explain what the lille fella is doing here? To the end? The food is for this kind of bird!
Sorry for the video being so blurry, I had the zoom out quite a long bit!



Is he feeding the pigeons with the stuff he doesn´t like, do they threaten him even, does he pay them off? ;-)
No really, why does he do this?

Now, If I Was French - Of Prejudice And Humor (?)

If I was French I might be p... - two words come to mind here!

This was the only poo-tickets of "our" brand I could get! So, if you are French indeed, bare with me, I had no choice!
But I have a nice story instead.

I was just 18, my ex and I wanted to take a bike-tour through England, so we put the bikes on top of the car and went to France to set over from Calais to Dover with the bikes.
I looked for a farmer to leave my car there for free (including the car-keys, nothing on paper, but they were honest people, all went well).

4 generations under one roof and they invited us for supper, too.

And Granpa certainly had been in WW II.
We were/are Germans.
I expected the worst! I mean... I was full of prejudice!

His accent was very strong, so his son translated to "normal" French.

Guess what he said?

Why... do you leave your car here? Where do you wanna go by bike, how long.....

Not ONE stupid word about the darn war!
To him... it was history and clearly not my fault.
If I was a person more brave I´d hugged and thanked him, too! And maybe he even wouldn´t have understood why!

Well, what do you think of this limited edition with all the "typical French" motives (there is also "la voiture, des l'oiseaus"... (I still have the book "Le petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and I still can read it, too).

Do you think it´s funny, do you think it´s full of "prejudice-items" or do you think it´s plain rude?

Oh, here is another Henry, nearly forgot about this ;-)

The Boys Are Back (In....)

Those pigeons! Those flying rats, it took them months and months and months but yesterday I saw: They figuerd out how to balance on the fake-raven (it must be tricky!) and steal the food in town our café from the wee birds!

They even stomped around in my strawberries!
BIG "NO!"!

So I put up another army of wooden skewers and I just couln´t believe my eyes...

The wee ones came right back!
Were they so much afraid of those pigeons, really?

Now I don´t know if they called to each other OR if they laughed at said pigeons, but there was some chirping to hear here :-)
So tricky to catch them on camera, though, esp as there is no sun in the mornings...

Me, food, not so much anymore.
My stomach again called (screamed) for food, but the thought of it makes me gag.
One of the side effects of my new meds. I took my first half a dose yesterday (one day of a break inbetween) and that and the fatigue are overwhelming, so much I think of stopping the whole process.
How should a really depressed person take this, I wonder.

BUT I "stole" half a banana from Ingo, added half an avo, fresh mints, basil and buttermilk and made a smoothie. It worked, I´ll keep going, right. I feel much better.

I think I will even resume sport now!
And yes, I do think I should keep track of it for myself and why not here. Maybe it helps another person.
If a future boss might read this he/she at least sees: I try my best in this. Right?

HA! I´ll keep going! (minus the smoking, that is ;-)

Wonder what the pigeons might try next.
Stomping around in my strawberries, can you believe this?!
Oh! And: Summer is back, big yay!

There Were Real Ones, Too

Saturday we took off in rainy weather direction Steinhuder Meer, which is a lake only, but, alas, water, right?

Unlike some young men I did not break down after 6km, instead we marched on and on and found some art on the way, too:

Our route led us into a forest, kinda, seemingly forever, too!

Well there is fern and then there is fern, huh?

(Pic taken in Ben Boyd National Park back in 1995)

Was I glad to see the water again!

The last two km were really tough, I tell ya!
Note to self: 20 km is a max for now for me!

I really thought we´ll walk with old men, with reservists, but, haha, no!!!
There were real soldiers, too! One I saw carried a backpack with 15kg of weight even! And they came from all throughout Germany as well.
The guys of the Bundeswehr estimated a total of 5 hours for the 20km hike.
We arrived after 3 1/2 hours and I was kinda a wee bit proud of myself (and soooo glad to be able to stop walking, really!).

Via boat we were brought back:

It was still very cold, but the sun gave a shy hello here.

Yep, that was our company:

Addendum: I´m not in the pic I sit beside Ingo, who took the pic btw :-)

We got some pea soup, the classic, so to say, and there (very luckily!!!) was a bus ride to the parking lot, too.
All for €6 pP!

And, yes, I do have proof I really made it:

(The arrows are checkpoints for the real soldiers)

Will I repeat this next year?
Unlikely ;-)
And I´m really very glad it was rainy and cold. I think in 30C I´d given up or at least would´ve needed 5 hours indeed!

Funny enough: The next day it wasn´t my feet that hurt, but my back!

A-Fri-Ca Part I

I´m back with some more murals by ENTE, found again on Berliner Street.

I really do like his style and his love to detail:

Again, sad you can hardly see or notice these murals if you drive by in a car!

You have to walk to nearly Volkmarode to see them, but it´s worth it (and yes, you can also drive and simply stop :-)...).

Taking part again in Sami´s COLOURFULWORLD Monday Murals :-)

Life Is Better - When You Need A Brush

I needed a paintbrush to make up my green shelf I built back in... 1994, if I remember right.
Tedi in Burgpassage is no more (and soon Burgpassage, too, will be history).

So... I went to "Wohlwort", as one of Bro´s shop assistants calls it, she meant not Woolies but our Woolworth and, well, yes, I got my brushes for €1.

And those summer-plates and this 2CD-pack of Cuban music, it was for sale for €1 and it´s not famous, stylish bands, no, just like you´re actually back in Cuba, wonderful!

As this DVD:

Pretend to be at the beach, you can hear the fire and the ocean, too!

And at Maisons du monde I got this sign:

It did cost some €3,99, but, just coming from the new doc and due to my body being pretty fit I´m now diagnosed "depression" not "burn-out" and I think this justifies the expense, right?
I put it up right at my PC and let me tell you:
It works!
Every time I look at it I DO smile and life IS better indeed.
And, no worries.
Yes, I do have my moments and I dread the meds I´ll have to take, but, alas. It takes what it takes. All in all I´m OK.

Can´t leave you without another Henry, right?
Here goes:

Credits to the pro in also taking care of where you step (into or rather not)!

So: SMILE :-)
The bigger, the better, I´d say!

Weeeee

These are pics from spring - right now the weather has cooled down and is rainy.
Which is actually good since we´re off to a 20 km-march/hike with the Bundeswehr (German Army).

Ahhh...

Would you like to be that young again?
I wouldn´t like to have missed out on the 70´s.
To have played outside, to have scars on my knees from roaming around just like that, without being packed away under protection.
Do you still find an off roader with gears?

I wouldn´t dare to do what the kiddo on the pushbike did, though. I´d be afraid to slip, fall and brake a bone these days (and "these days" are already years and years. Actually since I broke my foot, LOL).

Main thing is we´re still young at heart, right?

Something Arty

I´m a tad behind, pics still from Monday, think I found some more permanent Lechner-figures, or "everyday people" (see video on her page) on the way from HEH to our bakery.

Just what does the artist want to say with this?

Are these two waiting together or only side by side?
Sadly no hint, but maybe she wants people simply to reflect on how our society works these days?

Maybe one should stop thinking about meaning and just enjoy or draw dream big?

Yep, no meaning, just a big dream ahead, right?

I leave you with another lion (a tad of a cheater, though):

RRRrrroar :-)

11C, raining. Tops 18C today. Ummm, summer?