Rise

So, Bro and I went to the counselor on Dimetia concerning our Mum yesterday.
I had contacted the lady via E-Mail, had told her a bit - she said she understands we need help, I´m to call her for a date.
That was in early August!

So, I said I will, once Bro´s first kid is there.

She remembered even that, congratulated him - and was a huge help in general!

She resumed that from what we told her, it looks more like "just" depression!
Sadly, the symptoms of Dimentia and Depression are very similar in the beginning and our Mum will have to see a specialist - but she gave us worthy tips to make that happen!

Like... don´t suggest - do!
Not, "How about, Mum, won´t you see a doc...?"
No! "We have made an arrangement for you - we will bring you there and wait for you."
(and have a cuppa coffee or whatever you wish afterwards. I think, huh?)

I talked to her on the phone in the evening...
She was about flying to Mallorca to meet her Siblings (happens seldom enough) and she was sooo positive and happy and only a wee bit forgetful (telling me something she did already) - I can look more positive in the future now.

It´s much easier to treat Depression than Dimentia (which you can only delay).

Felt like cheating on her going there, but that was worth it!

Bet she´ll have a sunrise like in the pic above tomorrow morning - in front of her eyes and in her heart.
And hopefully we can pull her out of her situation for a better life soon! Make her rise up again, so to say!

Autumn Is There

Yikes. Rain, rain, rain. Darkness. Cold.

These are still pics from Saturday - we went to the grocery-store nearby and what did we find?



Cornflakes you find in the Lion-City: Feeding-Time :-)
(Fütterungszeit)

Now, Ingo held these two items in hand and we were wondering which one to take:



I was asking him, ummm, these small ones are real onions, too, huh?

And some random guy, standing beside Ingo looked up at me, smiled big and nodded along - I love my town :-) Well, and it´s people.

What did we do with that onions?



Labskaus - looks like puke, is yummy none-the-less :-)

A last autumn-pic...



At least the car is clean again.
Car... 20 minutes, then I can drive to work.
I still find it very frustrating to sit at home for over an hour before taking off to work. With traffic getting heavier and heavier by the minute....

Happy, Happy

Birthday!

Another year over!
Glad you´re still around - healthy!

You said you don´t think it´s funny anymore to see the numbers, so I just say:

Let´s have a great day and celebrate you´re still around, bet sickness and have a job!

This:



... was a lucky start, great thing you´re here, Ingo!

Dear Colleagues, Friends...

and assistants,



This is what I found in the mail today.
Yes, you can see what company I work for - why not, I´m proud to be a member (even if one of the customers made my life less comphy).

This is another anonymous survey on how content we are.

Does your company do that for you, too?

I really consider myself lucky to work for them!

Did you notice the author also adressed us as "friends"?
One of the questions is if we have a friend in the company (which I can clearly state as yes, actually not only one).

Also got a not so funny mail. T2 told me on Monday he got a ticket, 20 bucks for this. He said he thinks it was just him who got flashed.
Nope, me too.

Buuut... also got something great:





Ingo used to wear this perfume forever and doesn´t like it anymore.
So now it´s me who´s wearing it. I love it.
Used to take "Sunflowers" from time to time, but Fahrenheit, I take often (I´m not much of a perfume-person).

Ah, the mail... intermingled today ;-)

K, gotta pay that darn ticket now and forget about it.
Happy weekend!

Love Every Sec

... of your life.
Just watched Click again.



"Cried" (again).
What a great movie.
Always remember to take life not for granted.

Note to self: That extra hour - forget about it!!! Use it wisely and that´s it, dammit!

Other... in the gym today the girl opposite me asked, "excuse me... do you have an allergy?"

I thought... ???? Huh?

She pointed at a spot underneath my ribs. I looked down. Whoopeeeee!

Whoppeee.
Let me tell ya. German Mosquitos are killers.
Seems there is enough body-fat in that area (eek) that that darn bite stretched out about 8cm in diameter and at least... 3mm in thickness. Thanks to doing sports it was RED, too.

Why mosquitos now? Shouldn´t they be dead now anyways?
When did they get me there, under the shower (at home)???
Geez. Have another (normal) one above my knee, one on my arm, also normal size, icky, but normal, one on my right cheek.
Hello???
Guess another one at my ankle, too, left side, won´t touch it.

We live in the City. In a house. Huh???

"Global Warming", I tell ya (KIDDING!). "Monster-Mosquitos Conqueer Germany" (at least the Easterly Ring Area in Braunschweig, heck, am I glad me move away (nearer to River Oker... ummm...))

Friday, at least.
Not kidding. "Click" helped me today to re-focus.
Life is good.
Lost some privileges, but, heck. ok. Could be worse. No click needed.

Wishing you all a happy weekend :-)

Sad News

Just heard Malcolm Douglas died in a car accident today, aged only 69.
Loved his documentaries and his Croc-Park in Broome...

New Mornings

No, I didn´t quit work...
I´m just banned for an hour.

Just an hour, you say?

Let me tell you what that means to me:

- getting up at 4:55 with no reason (Ingo´d keep me awake anyways - he has to get up).
- doing laundry and other stuff while
- listening to people leaving the house
- hearing traffic getting busier by the minute
- finally after over an hour later getting outta the house myself
- red lights are on now, mostly on red
- more traffic
- fighting through lights apprearing out of the dark (am I horribly nightblind)
- working an hour longer as usual
- more traffic on the way back
- heaps more people in the gym
- waiting in the dressing room for space
- waiting for a free shower
- coming home after Ingo had dinner

It´s all crap!!!!!

Why?
Customer complained there is no service after 3 pm.
Fair, that´s no good!

I don´t do service!!!!

K, I´m "allowed" to work 7-3. 6-2 was waaay better. I hate it.

Listening to life outside starting while folding sneakers.

Love the smiley/flower-sneakers, btw:



Money isn´t that good. Was ok, I had my freedom. Had....
Now it´s slowly time to hit the traffic.
Last post was better, waaay better!

Green Is...

Yes, maybe you even remember that it goes on like this over here, too: ... As Green Does (I doubt it, though! ;-)

Anyhows! As predicted we got another beautiful day, a day just right for another Bike-Tour, oh-so-yay!!



You´re getting sick of seeing my bike? Sorry, but, hey, this is my first good bike, I just love it! So easy to drive, LIGHT, the sound it makes, it´s a true fun-bike! It´s powerful and robust - a boy´s bike :-)

See.. this is beautiful....



... but you can see the colors auf darn Autumn shining through already.
The dark, cold half of the year is on it´s way in huge steps, no one can stop it (thankfully, would be chaos, huh?).

What helps? Yep!!
More...


(Green)

Here is a Dragonfly, love it´s shadow, too:



Playing around with the cam just for fun (and to add some more of one of my fav colors)...



Sadly, too soon the fun was nearly over.
I was about taking another pic that should help me through the dark and grey season when the tram arrived.
Ingo said, hey! Take a pic!
I swirled around and was just in time to aim, shoot:



Ingo said the driver was happy being the POI :-)

This, this will help me through...



From tomorrow on prediction is: Rainy. Down to a max of around 15C.

Well. This is life, huh?
October/November.. this year I´ll love you none-the-less (kinda).
We.Will.Move.To.Property.

Bye-bye summer?

Another Ride

...maybe the last one this season?

After this digital summer with being too hot, too rainy or too cold today was perfect! 24C, sunny.
So we hopped on the bikes and enjoyed the weather.

We tried some blackthorn - ewww, not good yet, need to get frost first.



Here one more pic of the Hacienda - the light was just perfect:



And doesn´t this old hay cart make the scene quite romantic?




One more pic of our bikes on a tour:



The lush green will be gone too soon...



The fields are all cleared...



I have a hard time saying Good-Bye to summer...

And since we leave this area soon... we probably won´t see the season-bike any longer.



It belongs to a man, btw.

Awww.... summer. Will miss ya.

Tavern at Coalmarket

On our stroll to the city today we passed this Tavern - kinda romantic, huh?
Maybe try it next summer. Today I bought new boots, my old ones have a leak.

I hate winter.

Our Subway doesn´t have our favorite anymore, bu-huuu! Turkey, Ham & Beef now comes without ham. We tried it last Monday and were disappointed. Today we had Steak & Cheese. Not half as yummy as our good ole one... Subway, you really kinda destroy part of our Monday-ritual!

Happy Birthday Mum

We went to see our families today, luckily Ingo did all the driving (well till Bornhausen, I had to drive the rest - can´t someone invent that darn beaming at last?).

This is what my Mum got:




Yummy food made in Hamburg :-)
She needs to eat, right, look how small she is.
Mentally she was quite ok. Nonetheless I´ll call the councellor on dimentia tomorrow, so Bro and I can talk to her...

We went to the yummy Greek restaurant and she ate it all up - even my bread (I had Feta):



Sadly Bro and his family were really late, so we saw each other only for about 20 minutes. Little Mia slept her way through. Heck, what a girl!

Mum told me my Dad always said, "well buy it for her", when I had a wish.
So sad he never showed me that he liked me...
She told me, too, that he was worried like every day when we were on our first Australia-Trip back in '95. 6 months he worried every day, but not once he could say, hey, I love you. And I am just like him! They kept every letter I wrote, too.

Well, Happy Birthday, Mum. Eat a lot tonight when you´re at that Greek restaurant yet again, this time with Bro and his/their family.


Haha, too weird! Ingo´s parents came to our town and tried to get a look at our apartment! Without meeting us! (will be their apartment kinda, too, they give us money, as well as my Mum).

O'zapft is!

Seesh! Today the Oktoberfest started (title: "It´s tapped" in Bavarian, we´d say "es ist angezapft").

As every Sat we went to our bakery, "ah, Mr. K!", and got a pretzel each for free "in honour" to the Fest - cute idea!



And no, I never was and very likely never will attend Oktoberfest - have you been?

I´ve been to Munich, though. Spent 12 hours on the airport, waiting for the plane to Egypt back in... '93?

I´ll miss that bakery... (but can´t wait to live in the new place, in our place!)

No More Frozen Pizza

I found mini-pizza bases - 6 in one package. No need to cool or "make" them, they smell heavenly like Pizza (Oregano and such).

I just bought tomato puree (add water and oregano+basil), 6 big, fresh mushrooms, black olives, peperoni/salami (here when you ask for peperoni you get chillies! Why do we mix it up, huh? Why do you call paprika also pepper?! That´s confusing!), paprika (sweet pepper ?!!) and cheese.

Sooo easy to make and I have up to 6 meals! (Ingo doesn´t like Pizza, ironic, huh?):



At first I made two for one meal... is too much. Here the finished product, did take unter 15 minutes, including oven-time! I felt like a chef! Was soooo darn yummy and probably way healthier than Frozen Pizza!

Let There Be Light

Sat was pretty warm and so we decided to visit the Lichtparcours.




The place was just packed with people!
At first I didn´t like it. People were "in the way" when Ingo took pics.



But then Ingo said, "gah, you´re just like your Father, wanting sterile art!"



And he is certainly right - this art lives from the people!



Spawn:



Appearing Rooms:




The coupe just makes this picture, huh?
(I might be like my Father - but I´m able to learn ;-)...)



What I also love about this project - it´s for free! How often would you find anything like it these days?

Freak Out? Laugh!

...and be a bit pissed off!



Sometimes things just happen at the right time!

Today we had a Company-Meeting (again... time so runs!).
My Colleague T1 and I decided to drive in column, this time him first, he knew the way. Colleague T2 decided spontaneously to join in, so I was squeezed between the two Ts.

We were driving along when suddenly in the rear of my car there was a noise as if someone got his jacket off and something black popped up, just like a hidden person getting up.

Geeeeeez!

If that had happened in the morning, who knows what I might have done!!!! It´s nearly completedly dark now in the mornings - I would´ve thought there´s a killer right behind me!!!!
Being light, I really nearly laughed my head off!!!

T2 later said he was really wondering what that might be???? (Yeah, I got cool devices in my car, huh?)

We were drving out of a village and T1 accelerated. So did I, so did T2.
Flash! - Flash! - Flash!

Oh, great, there was a tiny, senseless sign saying speed limit 50 and the three of us were nearly/about 70.
Great :-(

Esp since I was flashed last week, too!

No, I´m no speeder, I just go with the flow and the darn district needs money. That´s what my Boss told us, too, when he caught up with us. He knew that mean area, we didn´t.


Seesh, really! If that darn umbrella had opened spontaneously in the morning.... maybe I´d produced an accident!
Have probably seen too much Horror-Movies since Ingo and I live together!

The way it happened, though, I still feel like giggling - and the umbrella is secured now!

Do Two Make A Family?

I´ll miss our Bakery, I tell ya - or at least one of the sales-women there.
When I pre-order a bread (which I forgot today, gah), she knows exactly who I am, I don´t even have to finish my scentence! When I say my name, she says, "yep half a "Glattes" for this afternoon, I wish you a great day!"

I think I mentioned before that Ingo uses my surname there, cause it´s way easier than his. I found it weird when she greeted him with Mr. K instead of Mr. S.

So last Sat when we turned up she gleefully greeted us with, "Ahhh, family K! :-)"
Felt kinda awesome, I´ll miss this village-like atmosphere (despite I hated living in the village years ago).
Family... sounded great! Secure. Whole...


On another note...
We´re back in Kindergarten.
The landlord did not sign our notice of cancelation for the apartment. K, they don´t have to, but we had no proof they accepted, right?
Here you have three months cancelation period. They could say they never got it and keep the bail money, right?

So my dear friend P advised me to put up another paper making sure they got it and sending it via certified mail - which we did yesterday.

From Karlstreet X to Karlstreet X, it arrived today. 6 Euros, thanks.
Got a letter (!!) from the landlord, she had said she accepts it/the date (no she murmured "ok", which can also mean, "ok, I´ll finish you guys off"), complained about the second letter (got it AGAIN) and said her Brother wants to see this apartment a month prior to handover-date - we should call him.

Hello?!!!! He wants something from us and they have my cellphone-number!

Oh... and ... they live here in this house, too!!! Gah!
Kindergarten.

The Chairs Are So Small

My sneakers are no use in rainy weather, hence I needed new ones.
Last week I gave up - too expensive, heck I just want normal sneakers!

Yesterday Ingo suggested to look in the kids-section and voilá - 5-10 Euros cheaper!

Maybe it looked a bit dumb, but what the heck :-)



Ingo often has good ideas :-)
And nope, my feet aren´t extra-small, I did wonder why they have shoes up to size 40 there! I´m a 38... nope, was, am 39 now - it´s getting weirder and weirder with the mixed up sizes in Europe :-(

Later on I went to find a Birthday-Pressie for my Mum. Since she hardly eats, I ended up with Lobster-Soup, Labskaus and a get one.
Yes, canned food, but from an expensive shop in Hamburg (except the Gherkin), so I hope it´ll be a treat/will make her eat.
(And yes, certainly we will eat together in a restaurant on her day.)
Plus, she has way too much stuff anyways!

In that shop we also saw these funny beers:



Oh, and chocolate beer, ewwwww... What a crazy world...

Maggi Magni-Fest 2010

This weekend was Magnifest again, a festival held in the Magni-Quarter (German) - when I told my SIL she got huge eyes last year and said, "Maggi-Fest?!!"

Nope, we´re not that weird ;-)

So... Seyd gegruessed, welcome:





This guy was really weird, I wouldn´t manage one step with those hoofes!



Bread, anyone?



Ingo with our Rizzi Haus in the background:



And, as usual, Magnifest = rain...




In my hometown, some 60 km away, there is the Sehusafest - same date, first weekend of September - Bro said the sun is shining - as always on this date...

Rain means bye-bye:



Off topic:



Feels like you can get the darn Christmas-Sweets earlier every year! Ok, it´s called "Winter-Sweets" lately, but I wonder how kids are supposed to make it till Christmas and enjoy it then still?