OneTen Without ... And Such

Had the day off today. Ingo woke me before he left at 4:50 and I got so much done! By 9:00 I took off to meet my Mum, was there only an hour later.
Mum had had Brekkie with an egg and later munched down two pieces of Pizza, very good!
Pain was moderate, it´s weird, she seems so ok!

Around 11 Bro and Niece came by. Poor little Niece still has a cold plus a nasty inflammation of the middle ear. Poor little thing had to cry in pain when she had to cough.
But then she heard the rustle of paper!
And though she only had had a late Brekkie her Daddy had to share his with her and the world was ok again.

Really, for being so sick she is still fun to be around.
At one point Bro showed her the clothes-pegs. So she took one grabbed the chair, carefully walked behind her Dad and gave the peg to me with a big smile. I said Thank you, and she smiled again.

Boy... she even handled me over two bears:

Think they must be way over 30 years old and you can still use them! I took two home.

After I had about 5 pegs little Niece stopped shortly before she reached me, then made a face like she got an idea, took all her courage, let go off the chair and ran freely around me over to Mum and gave her a peg, too.
Sooo cute!
When turning around she fell each time, guess also due to the ear inflammation. She never did mind. Either she got up again or she simply stayed down and crawled the rest of the way.
Later she slept for two hours straight.

Poor ole chicken must´ve done something bad - at least he stands in the corner like a bad child:

We played a bit more after Niece woke up and she really made a little sad face when I left.
She babbles now, too. And.... sounds totally Chinese! Too funny!
Managed to get past the construction site with the rest of daylight and was home around 5.
With "mountain climber"-bread, Doner and a Ten Without Ham. Hometown-Food :-)
At da Nico I was greeted with, "are you on a journey through?" and then Mrs Da Nico told me she was amused by my Mum who last time ordered a "Ten Without Ham" for me.

So much food! And tomorrow I´m off to the Christmas Markets again with a friend.

Seems like food means a lot in my family, huh? ;-)

Season opened

Christmas Markets 2011 are open. Sorry for the blurry pic. The old model of Fuji Finepix was definitively better…

I don´t like to eat sweets, but doesn´t this just look good?

Here is a fake Henry, my, we sure fall for that Lion, huh?

And VW is just plain everywhere!

New is this decoration, love it. Why can´t we have this until the green comes back?

And certainly, the Ferris wheel. Really too bad I´m such a whimp when it comes to heights.

We had a Mumme instead. Ingo also had Mumme-roast in a breadroll. Will go for that next time. The Currywurst I tried was, compared to famous, known and (very seldom since so darn fattening) loved VW-Currywurst, no hit at all.

Gemütlichkeit, isn´t this typically German? ;-)

And the huge tree in City Point.

This really is the best part of winter, all those lights make it endurable, no?

Off topic: Even the smoothies get a warm “topping”:

Wonder if someone really falls for this? 1,49 € is a bit pricy, I think.

Also off-topic:

“Glossy like old” – haha….

If it wasn´t so freaky and likely unhandy, I´d go for these:

What I certainly don´t like at all this time of the year, aka winter...

Outside it´s cold, the shops, though, are super-warm. I´ll never ever understand this concept. The staff runs around with light clothing whereas the customers don´t know how to have fun in fat winter-clothes!

I or we just rush through as fast as possible. Bet they´d sell way more if they made the temps for the customer, not the staff.

I mean... hello? I go to work in a thick sweater, too, not a T-Shirt! Like all of us, btw.
How about you?

Don´t Deny It Part I

(Dad to the left, Mum in the violet top, Christmas-party, 19... 1976?.)

How Death Came To The World – Myths And Legends Of The People /
by Sylvia Schopf (Wie der Tod in die Welt kam – Mythen und Legenden der Völker)

Maybe you think it´s strange to read a book like this at all or in my situation with a Mum suffering incurable of Cancer.
(Fun-post ahead soon, with pics from Christmas-Markets)

But it helps me coping, and it´s interesting. And consoling, too.

When my Dad died (so fast in only two weeks) of Cancer over eight years ago I was helpless and numb.

Then I found the Undertaker-Web-Blog of Tom. It´s not morbid at all. Tom explains a lot, he gives individually advise. And you find sad, funny and hilarious stories as well. At first he wanted to be anonymous, but since the stories he tells have fake names and are out of the actual time-context and since so many are interested in this subject he organizes meetings, has written books, gives interviews.

Why I tell you this?

I think it´s important to deal with an inevitable subject, I would´ve coped much better back then, and I do now. And this helps not only me but also Bro and Mum.

So, people always were afraid of death and found many explanations for it´s reason. The overall idea, though, is: To try and give the Living a (mostly consoling) message – don´t worry about the Dead, they´re doing ok.

And: The one who negates Death negates Life.

Chapter 1 – it was decided.

One of India´s explanations: Brahma created everything and the growths was overwhelming. He couldn´t find a solution and got angry, which created devastating fires. He calmed down and a woman was born out of his anger – Mrs Death. But she felt with Life and cried about what was demanded of her. Brahma catched her tears and kept them. Mrs Death drew back for milliards of years and returned very rawboned. Brahma reassured her her job is not a sin and he offered helpers: Disease, Jealousy, Greed, Malice and Rage – they will do the work and Mrs Death will collect the Dead. He produced the tears and they became all sorts of diseases.

East Africa – God Naiteru-kop introduced Death to a man this way: Soon a child will die, you´ll have to bring the body to the bush and say: “Human, die and then come back. Moon, die and stay away forever.” But the man got it wrong and said, “Human, die and stay dead forever. Moon, die and then come back”. And this was irreversible.

Catchword Moon: It changes it´s appearance and makes it a symbol for Life and Death, Growth, Decay, Return, Change and Regeneration.

Australia, Dreamtime. The Parrotfish asked the Moon what will happen to all of us? The Moon answered: I will die. But not forever. I get thinner until there is nothing but my bones. Then I will restore and come back to life – we all can do it that way.” The Parrotfish disagreed and when he died, his body stayed on earth. Two Ghosts were already waiting to take his soul to his ancestors where he was given a wonderful welcome with music and dance to make the newcomer happy. He stayed two days, then went on a journey to the land of the Death and he never came back to Earth – like any creature.

Chapter 2 – Death as Adverse Fate

Central Africa. When the world was young no one died because Death was locked in a jar. A Toad was supposed to take care of the jar and to not open it. She took the jar carefully on her journey to relatives and met a Frog with whom she travelled together. The jar got heavier and heavier, the Frog offered help, but the Toad at first refused until the jar got too heavy after all. She warned the Frog to not let go of the jar, to not brake it. “Sure”, the Frog exclaimed happily and jumped ahead without too much care, stumbled over a stone, the jar broke into thousand pieces and Death was not to be caught again. And since then Death is in the world.

To be continued...

Hello Sunshine

My colleague has a beautiful view in the mornings (or rather would have if she started early!) – saw this when I came back into the office and headed to the bin…

A bit later:

Those two towers belong to the Autostadt - where you now as winter-attraction can find the longest (150 m) and highest (30 m) free-standing coasting slide that´s open to public in the world. Too bad I´m afraid of heights…. The sleds are for free even. And the snow artificial, luckily. I really hope for a mild winter!

(We have one of the mildest Novembers since weather-recording. And no rain. On river Rhein the ships can take only half the load, in Bavaria woods are burning, it´s really weird)

Oh, and Ingo is boycotting me! This is what I found this morning when I came to the kitchen to grab my Brekkie and Lunch:

(To the right you see components Ingo is soldering, btw!)

Once you start nibbling those coated peanuts, you cannot stop (I couldn´t!).

Sweet to think of me though, thanks, man :-)

The healthy carrots will go home again… Well, since I have also half a kohlrabi left, guess that´ll become a snack when we watch the Millionaire-Show.

"Hi, My Name Is

... Kim Basinger, err...

...Freddie Mercury."
20 years ago today Farrokh Bulsara died aged only 45.
Here is a little video with that Kim Basinger-scene and others, sadly whilst Freddie talks it is translated a bit louder to German.
So, if you wanna get a feeling for how we have to watch Discovery Channel and such on TV over here, give it a go :-(

Kim Basinger, haha, Freddie was funny like that.
For years I thought he ends the song "One Vision" with "fried chicken". Then I got (and sadly, sadly lost on one of our apartment-moves) the Making of to "One Vision" (the only time Queen allowed a camera-team when producing a new song). And, "there, you have it"... he really ends with fried chicken!
And the why and how´ll make you laugh to tears, too.

Guess it´s no use to you-tube for this today, heaps and heaps of people do.

By chance I once saw an interview he gave in Munich and I fell "in love" and was hooked. What a fine, cute, clever guy. A genius. So sad he had to go so early (but it was no surprise).

20 years. Time runs.

My Street

My street - Henning Sußebach (pic is my parents house back then) this book is about the street you grew up in. 20 authors describe their memories. Because… in your street your way of life begins, your street meant the world to you. Here you scratched your knees when falling with your skates, here you found your first love, here you roamed around in anger when running out of your parent´s house after a fight…. right? Find yourself here, too? I do.

Some authors are “too old” (and guess some will be “too young”, but some things are worth mentioning to me, remembering. Because…

One of the authors grew up in Bochum, his parents had a backyard/garden. One that seemed so large back then and now is only 15 steps wide. Even though it might be cold, the author always feels summer, thinking of his home.
Colors are fading, though. “Everything is as old as I am. The trees, the houses, built in 1972, the year I was born.” Me, too, but my parent’s house was built in the 1930´s. Also… my parents don´t grow old together, as the author´s do.

An interesting concept is also this one: You get your pension as a young adult – this is the time to enjoy life, right? And you work when you get old, what else is there to do anyways? ;-)
In fact there was a man in Icking, Matthias Steiger, who went fishing, played cards, went to races, had heaps of women and met with friends a lot in his younger years. Later he worked hard, even at way over 80 he got up at 5 each working day, no matter how bad the weather was, delivered the newspaper and worked in his kiosk!

(Pic: Neighbour´s House, danger of snowslide on the roof)

The author realizes how beautiful the houses in his old street actually are and remarks he never noticed as a kid. Maybe beauty is no concept for children, he suggests. And better so – a kid should be happy, no matter if in a beautiful or poorer area.
He also wonders what happened if two people talked to each other about the town they grew up in – one who´d stayed and one who´d left.
Can do so with Bro, actually.

Another author, who came back to Lüdenscheid, points out that today kids are outside about 15 hours a week – not even half as long as back then! And how you learned outside, without teachers or parents. Interacting, learning how to skate and all that.
Boy when I think of what we did back then. And no one knew! We picked a steep road and went as fast as our skateboards would go. We picked a street with little traffic and helmets were not known for skaters, either… the same with skates, phew, dangerous. But nothing ever happened apart from a bloody knee here or there.

Now, the author states, kids are protected all the time. Even apple-trees are banned from playgrounds. Windfall could attract wasps, you know? A kid could get stung by one, oh, beware… She says it´s better to take on John Wayne´s motto: Life means: Always get up one more time than you fall down.

I agree.

Wangen… this author remembers summerdays like this: in the late days of summer you often hear rolling thunder and then the first fat drops of rain fall down. So right. Remember the typical smell that came along with it? Where am I now when this happens, in the office?

Berlin. This author grew up in a Berlin that was still marked from war. Kids played in the ruins. Some adult surely was always there, having an eye on them.

I remember how my cousin and I discovered an old hut in her village. Guess it was at risk to collapse any time and no one knew we sneaked in. It was fun! We found old pots and pans and even some clothes. How fascinating to imagine who might´ve lived here and how. Guess I had a lot of luck as an unsupervised kid. Kid…. I also remember with “horror” how I found myself alone in the old Sülte when I was studying… that was life!

These days, the author says, the streets are hunting grounds for child abusers and and race course for those wanna-be Schuhmachers – from our point of view, he adds. Hmmm… I´d be a bad parent. I´d think so indeed and would be way, way, way too careful…

Kiel. Guess I´m not alone with my fear. Also this author realizes that playgrounds these days are “perfect” and clean – and empty. And that many fear psychos near their kids and keep them supervised in a “safer place”. How sad.

She remembers also how her mother sponatously invited a Japanese family who was outside and seemed kinda lost. New neighbours. She asks herself if she´d do this today, invite strangers to your house? Would you? I hope I am still intuitive enough to see if someone is trustable …

Minden. This woman remembers how she sat inside over quiet lunch-time (1-3, as it was) and watched the busses, read what´s written on them and this is what she picked out: J Ä G E R M E I S T E R. Yeah. Is produced in Wolfenbüttel, some 30 or 40 km from here. And she remembers in taxis the driver was separated by safety glass. Really? Today it would make more sense, you might think…

Wolfsburg. The author says usually the cosmopolitan, modern German says “awww, you poor guy!”, when he mentions he grew up in Wolfsburg.

Actually my project in that town for the customer Volkswagen was planned for a length of six months. When it turned out it´ll be a wee bit longer (like now I´m here for 10 1/2 years with it) people warned me not to move to Wolfsburg, it´s so ugly. Quite frankly… I have seen parts of town when searching for a job and thought, ew, ugly. I bet there are nice corners, but I never cared to find out. Heaps and heaps and heaps of Braunschweig people make their way to Wolfsburg to work and head back home as fast as they can.

Like Canberra Wolfsburg was planned from scratch in 1938, for VW, by H. By 1945 material was in short supply and barracks was what they could build only. From 1955 on urban settlements were built and the author states, Wolfsburg is a garden rather than a town. Hm, really?

Potsdam. Another author who grew up in WW II. It´s more a story about war. Sad when a good book ends with this subject.

Sox-Season Opened

Or... Watch out!

Just not the Red but the Colored one ;-)
Brrr, it´s cold.
So, on the weekend Ingo opened up the season.

Apologies he took so "boring" ones! Mine are the "real" ones. An hommage to his late Grandma again.
I still picture her... on the floor with all the different small balls of wool, arranging same amounts for a pair - at the age of over 84!
Afte she finally (!) believed me those patchwork-socks are the coolest ever. They were an "arrangement" in the first place. She wanted to "welcome" me to the family, "accept" me with a personal hand-made pair of socks. And.. dang! Not enough wool! So heel and toes got a different one. Her first patchwork-socks she was kinda ashamed of. And I loved them. And she thought I´m just being polite....

She got more and more creative over the years and more and more family-members told her they love them. A new hobby that gave her a new job.

Yeah, socks. You can blog about those!
And her "My children" is back in my ears when we came to visit. Her warm smile. She really loved to have us over. After we had to move out, but that´s another story.

Grandma R... she lives through her socks.

Christmas deco is all over the town. One good thing about the darn cold season. On Wed the Christmas Markets will open.
And my friend P told me it´s not a good idea to take little Niece. All she´ll see is legs, legs and legs. Wait two more years and she´ll have fun.

Funny car we saw in the Christmas-Markets.build-up-chaos:

No idea where that comes from? Ingo still has some Cohibas from... 1985, I guess. Aww. Cuba. A nice place. Miss it.
Happy Monday!

Oh, btw. I bought Season 3 of Eureka to listen to it in the original - the German voices are pretty close.
And a documentary of the Klitschko-brothers - can´t wait for that (haha. I even have a book about em. Ingo is not interested, though). Aren´t they "cute"? It comes in German and Russian. After one of my "East-German" colleagues sang the alphabet in Russian to me (don´t ask, we are cool like that), I can hear "real Russians" as well.

I have winter-tyres on since a week, today I got Ingo´s tyres up as well.
They say it´s the dryest November since ten years. Not good for the environment. But good for drivers.

Addendum: Here is a Trailer. In English. Hm. Guess we´re a wee bit (!) like them, Bro and me, age -gap for sure, the same. We fight (and get angry at each other). But. We´re a team. Not as sexy, though.
Just saw it was released on Friday. No wonder the price is that high. Aw, well. And no. I never saw a "game" but I think it´s cute one of them called his Mum after winning and opened the call with "the other guy is ok" :-) Hehe. Cute, as I said. Ingo´s parents love to watch btw. Maybe I join in now? (nah...)

Talk Talk Talk

("Talk, Talk, Talk" was a show over here so stupid, they had to let go. But that title is still present...)
I called my Mum yesterday.

Ummm? what´s with blogger?
Saturday, November 17, 2012??? Am I back from the future??? No, wait! Huh??? Is that my bad? I´m a magician, a mad scientist.... if you pay enough I´ll send you ... somewhere in time ;-) Maybe. By golly. Maybe my 5-7 yo-me (I look older than 5 in that pic, huh?) knew something about time-travel the now-me does not?

Anyways... my Mum answered the phone with a joke (Wed night it´s always me calling). She laughed and talked and talked and talked for way over an hour.

Reminds me of happy days like these in the pic above, this was on New Year´s Eve 1977 (I think) and actually I was too tired to enjoy being allowed to stay up that long. Umm… guess I´m back there again! ;-)
And on a side-note... the PJ´s are/were not available in Germany. My Auntie from Switzerland brought them over, my Mum thought they are a hit.
Yeah. Unless you are a girl and need to go pee (one piece of clothing!). Ya know... these PJ´s are for winter. Brrr.... (I just remembered that when posting a comment at a fellow Blogger from the US who visits Switzerland at times).**

Well. You could´ve thought yesterday it was all but a dream with darn Cancer.

Her voice wasn´t strong and at times she needed a break but all in all it was amazing.

We talked about little Niece and about going to the Christmas Markets (Ingo found this little film of Christmas Markets Braunschweig here).

I can´t recall how we came to this subject, but Mum remembered that Bro´s begin and end of studying were terrible days.

On his first day, on April 14th in 2000, our Grandma passed away.
On his last day, on August 19th in 2002 our Father lost his fight against Cancer.

He never ever mentioned this to me (he had left Cologne a week earlier, the day the last assessment was done to be with our Dad. It was clear it won´t be long). What weird coincidences life sometimes brings.

Speaking of “talking”.

Ingo has to work late-shift this week, so we see each other only very short when he comes home and I go to bed.

I have trouble sleeping and need a quiet time, so it is merely a “hi, kiss, night”.

Yesterday just before lunch he sent me an e-mail, asking me to turn on the PC when I´m home “so we can talk”.

I asked back, are you ok???? Answer: I have to drive to work now.

Last time Ingo had to work late-shift he was sick 5 days afterwards (certainly in our holidays). If he wants to live without meds, he needs a regular eating-schedule, so we were not happy when they told him again to do that shift.

So I was worrying like crazy! Is he sick? How bad? Has he been to the Doc and came home with bad news? Has something bad happened at work, has something bad happened with the condo, the heater or whatever???

Man and women, they really don´t talk the same language!

@Ingo: Next time you wanna chat: Write chat!

Chances may be good that Ingo won´t get sick, or at least not that severe. He eats at the same times as usual. Still wonder how he does that…

** Another memory with those PJ´s (I had several): My Dad was that generation who peed standing. And who forgot to put the toilet seat back down. We were talking, Mum and me and I went backwards, wanted to use the toilet as "chair". Yeah, guess what. I fell through, got wet and needed a whole new PJ. In winter. Again, brrr...

Guess Who´s Walking?

Had a day off today and went to visit Mum (and Bro + Niece).
And Niece is walking! Not alone yet, but not bad, huh?
And how she´s dressed! Seems like someone there likes the color green, too! Today in Pre-Kindy a professional photographer was there, so Niece was dressed up in a cute skirt.

The way there though... we clearly have November. This was after 11 a.m., nearly Noon! And yes, I´m overtaking a truck, that´s why I´m on the left lane.

The sun was fighting his (?) way through, though.
(In German the Sun is a she and the Moon a he.)

So we went to the park after lunch. My home-town has some food I miss here, so I always look forward to eating out there, either Pizza or Doner kebab.
You can guess I was quite astonished when my Mum demanded: Go to ALDI and bring me some potatoes, please.
She´d made me some Grünkohl!
Oh, boy. She surely has her own way of saying "thank you"!
It.Was.Yum!
And she gave me at least three portions for later at home!
And I got some Doner, half of it I had tonight, another half will be lunch tomorrow. Yay.

Anyhows. Wednesday is still Daddy-Afternoon-Day and we went to the park.
Niece is like really sick actually with a cold, but still eager to walk:



At first she stopped every few steps, bent "down", got a stone and "presented" me with it. Mum reminded me I´d done the same to one of my Uncles back then.
With more and more steps she decided to handle over some air only. :-) Funny girl.

Here she´s on a big-child-swing with Daddy:

Guess she really kinda enjoyed, sadly my cam made blurry pics...

I thought these "Sun-Chairs" are quite cool:

It´s really weird how different this mean Cancer treats people.
Mum is in pain most of the time. But she seems well and her brain is ok, you can talk to her like everything was all right.
(Dad died after two weeks and was on morphine, so he was not really "there")

Hope we get some more days like this.

Guess Niece was really a bit lame due to being snotty and all. Took her some time to understand the concept of "bye-bye" this time.
She said "Mama...mamama", but I guess it was not directed at her Mama (which we say for Mum), yet (who was working anyways). She is 15 months mid/end November, that´s still ok, huh? Seems like she got all teeth by now, too.
A sweet little girl.

Brunswick Mum

Autumn really is here, no way to deny it... The colors are quite beautiful, though...

And Ingo fits in, too, quite well, no?

You wonder what all this has got to do with a Brunswick Mum?
It´s not a Mum at all, though it sure took care of people. It was a local beer, it even was shipped to places such as India and the Caribbean.
And this weekend we celebreated the Mum-Mile...

There was a monkey playing the drums...

And a human playing the guitar and singing :-)
Ingo gave him some money, 2 €, I guess. He nodded a thanks. Guess not many gave him some? He did a good job, so why not honor it?
Ten times better than those Punks near Karstadt who do nothing but threaten you... When I´m alone I even avoid that place altogether...
So. This was a refreshing change.

We had Volkswagen-Currywurst with Mumme:

Hmmm, that was yum!

There were carousels, too, a little girl on a pink Moped:

Wee....

Looks like the kids have fun.
I stood there, remembering how much afraid I was back than on such a carousel.
Yeah, that´s typical for me. I was afraid, what else?!
Kids I didn´t know and my parents out of sight!
Ingo thinks, though, that the carousels back then indeed were bigger. Because we went to the Schützenfest, they are bigger there.

Maybe I also was afraid because earlier on my Dad went to the Prater in Vienna with me. He sat me in a Swan that was "swimming" through a scene. A scene with witches and all. I was about 4-5, couldn´t swim yet and didn´t know how deep the water was. And I couldn´t see my parents. Drama! Those stupid witches were no issue, I knew they weren´t real. But the water???
When "my" swan came back to where my parents could see me, my Dad jumped in to pick his crying child up!
When he´d reached me, I had seen it wasn´t even knee-deep and I got angry cause he didn´t tell me! Otherwise I could´ve enjoyed the ride.

Weird what kind of memories come back at times, huh?

Let´s not think of the "ton" they put me in, alone. I could hardly watch out, cause it wasn´t made for small children. And sure as hell I broke a tooth.
Or that turning "ton" on the parcours.... not for small kids, either. Other adults took care of me...
I understand that parents are people, too. And I went out ok from there.
Just... buhaaaa. I hate Prater, Schützenfest and Co for a reason, huh?

I prefer the sight of our Henry, the Lion:

Want a closer look? Here you are:

One good thing about autumn... the leaves fall down... and I can see our red Squirrel again, he or she is still around! Need to offer the squirrel some food, to see him/her more often. Need to give a name, too. To avoid he/she.

Any ideas, someone? Please let me know!

Haha, remember that stupid dog living opposite Ingo´s Grandma.
One day I was waiting outside for my Mum (I lived at Ingo´s Grandma´s place, too) and the woman came out - in a village - and shoutet "Taxi!!!! Taxi!!!"
I thought she´d gone crazy. And then the stupid dog named Taxi obeyed her yells.

Why can I blog at 11:00 am on a Monday?
I woke up at 1:11 am, in pain. Hello Migraine, haven´t seen you for a while!
Then at 3:something. And when Ingo got up it was still with me.
I stayed in bed, got a good-bye-kiss 30 minutes later and tried to sleep.
At 08:03 I tried to reach the doc, unsuccessfully, and then in the same way my company. Hello!!!
Tried a bit later, signed sick. Reached the doc, too, they said they call me back.

And that´s it!!! I didn´t even need to see her! I can pick up the receipe tomorrow after work.
Oh. And the Migraine is gone, too!

How can it be so easy??? Or is it so easy cause I´m sick so seldom?
Anyhows. I´m all good again. And am home. The Advent-Calendar is nearly finished, too.