Perth XX

On Thursday, November 28th, our friend H took us to the Joondalup shopping centre again.

And now I realise my brain is a little drama-queen!

For some reason it tried to make me believe we got these:

... on this day, kinda last minute.
The receipe says it was 22nd, and Whitford.

But the story is funny none the less.
H helped me trying to find a dress for the wedding - oh, boy, it sure was difficult and quite frankly I´m not a typical woman here, I hate running around looking for a dress. Thanks, H, for making it a bit funny anyway!

We lost Ingo in the toy section and, now I might mix it up, in some sports-shop Ingo found a Wilson-football for a reasonable price.

So the two asked a sales guy - and this is important - if he can let the air out for easier transport.
They didn´t ask, please let the air out, but if he can.

He could and H suggested to say, oh, wow, well done. Bye-bye :-)

I didn´t get it at first, but we really should´ve done this to see the look on his face - and then certainly buy the footy.
Now every time I see Wilson, I have to grin a bit stupidly.
One day...

Anyhows on 22nd we went from jeweller to jeweller.

Now let me show you what I, or Ingo and I, expected to find:

See, they match and come in several sizes:

Pics are taken in my Bro´s shop.
Why we didn´t buy the rings there? Bro was on holiday when we decided to marry.

And that´s a good thing!
Jeweller after jeweller - no matching rings, if so, wrong size! And time was running out, H´s Son´s school was about to end for the day.

The last shop - looked rather expensive, but she said, quick, let´s give it a try.

The lady there (Julie?) was very friendly, she showed us all the rings we wanted to see at one time, which the others never did - dunno, did we look like potential thieves?!
And by surprise we found our rings here, not expensive and nearly fitting (Ingo´s is too large, Bro´ll take care of it after winter).
And they are... Italian. what else. Ingo and the Italian mail male in Carnarvon 1995 comes to mind :-)

But back to 28th - I got some falafel here like I just get in Hildesheim, yum!

Sadly it was too much and certainly - grumbling - I listened to Ingo not taking the rest home for dinner. Not so shortly before wedding/flight home. Aw.

A quick pic of Santa:

I don´t have to start with the Germany/advanced-thingy, no? If there is a Santa in the (one) shopping centre here, it´s a date. Here he´s always there, until Christmas, that is.

On we went to, tadaaa:

To get some Jerky:

On Being Married

My friend (and Spouse´s/one of our two wedding-witnesses) H asked how married life is like.
Ummmm.
She knows we´ll be together 20 years this pentecost.
Have to mention she is clever.

The staff at the bakery asked me how life is as a "newly-wed".

Yes, I should post about Perth, about our wedding.

H´s/the bakery staff´s question wasn´t stupid.

And makes me worry.

Married life is different.
To both of us, we talked about it.

More caring.
More loving.

Will it always be like this or is it "just new" like in "newly wed"?

When I feel bad (like I do quite often with this broken foot and "self-diagnosed 'tiny depression'") I touch the wedding ring on my left hand (not recognizable for Germans as a wedding ring cause here it´s worn on the right hand) and I feel reassured, loved, better.

Reassured all will be good after all cause Ingo, my husband is there for me.

Seesh - he always was - the last 20 years (ok 19 1/2).

Will this "wear off"?
I don´t want it to!!

No one does, right?

Any tipps?
Will this awesome feeling fade - where does it come from, thanks to my Mum I never ever wanted to marry in the first place!

I am to sleep in (I can´t - when am I supposed to get tired then???), I am to feel sorry for myself (...), Ingo cares for me, is my legs. Kisses, hugs, reassuring. "Hubs", no.

I am thankful.
And I want this to stay, to keep - it is different to pre-marriage.

Any advise?

Thanks, B, for the pics, btw!

And yes, I read The Happiness Project. I loved it, I try to live it.

Missing My Legs

Guess that goes for this ball as well - I think it sits there as long at least as we live here...

Whew, been to the doc again.
The taxi driver was highly aggressive, driving too fast, honking...

The waiting room was rather full again.
A couple was talking loud, making it difficult to read a book. Weird, I mean isn´t it an unwritten law to keep your voice down in places like this?

A woman kept staring at me openly until...
A couple came in. The man took place to the left of the staring gal, the woman to the right and instead of saying good morning he said to her, "thanks for taking me here!!" in an angry voice. The woman, as angry, told him it wasn´t her fault - and then both started to backbite about her partner who was the one forgetting to take this man, or couple, to the doc.
How stupid that guy is, that she doesn´t remind him anymore about the things he´s supposed to do and so on. Loud. The man said, "oh, yes, I sure do will tell him off myself!!" more than once.
At one point the man - and it took him way too long to come up with it - asked why she stays with that guy if he´s such a pain?
Well, she wants to give him another chance.

Guess everyone was relieved when that staring gal finally was collected.
By the guy they talked about. Who said, "I´m sorry, really" to that man.
And what happened? Did he tell him off?
Certainly he didn´t dare, big surprise. He just murmured a grumpy, "yeah, sure".

And guess what? The moment they were out of the room he loudly as ever said to the woman who came in with him, "yeah, they do stick together, they know how to get the most money from the state. But what do you expect, they both went to special school" and so on.

The look on his face was funny, when the "bad guy" came back in and said sorry once more - both had had to wait outside for a receipe.
Now who went to a special school?

The woman who did the x-ray was in a lot of stress, yet friendly and funny, a refreshing change of scene!

Later the doc had another close look at the result and said the bone heals well.
But the foot is still blue and swollen. And hurts.
If I still have enough pain killers? I told him I don´t take them, he just shrugged, "ok".
Ummm???
At first I was considering telling him I feel depressed, but didn´t.
Actually I don´t wanna start with happy pills.
But now I understand my Mum and Bro much better.

I simply wait till my legs aka Ingo come back. Wait for a hug, guess that´ll help better.

Cause...

"My legs" found out why the thrombosis shots hurt so bad - it was the alcoholic swab!
Now he uses a disinfectant you need for... we´re Germans, right? ... brewing beer.
I still get black and blue marks, but it hurts way less, like 95%!

I found a way to sit straight at the pc - "my legs" not only found the right furniture - they took care I don´t get cold:

A thick piece of styrofoam :-)

Who wouldn´t miss "legs" like those?

Aw, it´s such a sunny day today. So sad I can´t go to the city. Sunny, 9C, no snow.
Am I glad this foot will be ok soon!

On Being Useless

My friend H, who´s in the business, told me depression might come along being sick.

My.

Pic? Me at kindy. Since ever I hate getting taken a pic.
But love to see those of others...

I am a bad person.
This. Makes me even more sad.

How could I????

Dad.
Bro.
Ingo.
Mum.

I was there. But I wasn´t there!!!
Not enough.

Now I understand.

Yes, myself - before all of them even!
No one - but Ingo - cared about me.

Sorry, it´s true.

Mum did care. Just before things went bad. Like loosing the function of my right hand. 1994.
But before that?
Nope.
True and sad.

Turned out to be a sunny day today, wonder why.

I know I have no right to be down, others are off way, way, worse.
Still... Foot is ok, kinda, hurts just a bit, like ok for taking no meds.

Lonely. Bored. Outch. See pic, huh? ;-)

Trying to laugh about myself.

Bad Day

Guess this is quite normal?
I feel so dang down today and my foot hurts like crazy (well, compared to the other days).

The only thing that keeps me up today is this note from Ingo I got yesterday.

When written like this "ungeheuer" ² (see? "²"!) it means "enormously" ², would tell me he loves me like that.
But that wouldn´t be Ingo, right?

Written like this, "Ungeheuer" ² means "monster" ², making me grin.

I´m, bored like crazy, I just feel ... well, what I am after all, I´m signed "sick".

Yes, moaning on a high level, again.
Maybe I shouldn´t get up at 7am, the days are so long like this, so boring, sitting here all day.

Point in this post?
Maybe none, maybe just a "Thank you" to Ingo, my monster-hub ;-)

Perth XIX

Tuesday we went - big surprise - to the city.

Now who was this again?

We had a pie/couscous in ...

... then headed towards

... and took the ferry to

South Perth.

Beautiful with those flowers, no?

The (old?) police station:

From here we wanted to go to Bull Creek... but got lost, so Sami had to come and pick us up...

This is where she took us:

And where we got our first wedding-pressie: Penguin Island, thanks again, Sami!
We sure did take heaps of pics of those little guys:

This one - see also first pic...

... really was "outstanding" - not only did he stand alone, watching the people who watched him... no, when he got bored with this, he jumped in the water and swam against the flow :-)

Feeding-time, here you can see how small they really are, in fact the smallest penguins in the world:

If I recall it right this is the oldest member, some 22 years old, with the same hubby ever since, and no, I´m not talking of the blonde girl! ;-)

In the wild they usually don´t get older than 8 years, so this sure is some sweet old lady!

Despite by name being the first to the left, I obviously am so small I didn´t get the smallest on the right!

Certainly there aren´t only penguins on this little island:

Awwww, these colors!

Sooo beautiful, no?

From inside the ferry:

And this cute frog kept the sun out whilst we were on the island :-)

Sami took us to her home and made some very yummy dinner (Ingo promised to cook it, too! Remember, Ingo??), where her Son and his Wife joined us.
Believe it or not, she has two lemon trees in her backyard, with real lemons, I´m still impressed, yummy they were, too!

She then drove us to the train station - thanks for a great day, Sami!
With the last train/bus we made it home and I still felt like a young disco-chick, having the "tattoo" still on the next day!

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Perth XVIII

Over the weekend we just relaxed, Monday (25th) we went... yep, to the city, where else? ;-)

I wonder, how often do you recognize tourists from overseas, not Great Britain, cause they head to the wrong side of the escalators? Maybe even looking up to the signs?

At first, I admit, it happened to us, too, despite having been in this country often...

And certainly, when we were back home, it happened just yet again cause we were used to using the left side.
Same with avoiding to bump into someone, gah!

Well, we did some arty stuff that day, walking around the the tower buildings, isn´t this cat too cute?

And it´s as active as my cat is...

And, yep, that´s as close I get to having a cat.
But guess it´s better that way - after all we´re out in one time-piece near to 10 hours every working day...

Interesting as well, this pear:

Which reminds me I should eat an apple... oh, maybe later.

This is kinda weird, no?

Is there a theme, I didn´t quite get it...

Beautiful...

The clear blue sky, the warm temps... being happy to be in the shadow.

And here? Grey and cold.

Majestic, no?

I love, love, love these houses - and those purple trees!

This is was what I actually did not want to see, knowing very likely we´ll get it over here...

I very much prefer trees like these!

Oh, I so wish I could join the Fringe World Festival instead of being stuck here...

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