The House Is Warm Now

Guess what?!
I got a Housewarming-Gift-Parcel from my dear friend Flea!

This is not known here, boy am I happy, thank you, my friend!



This is us (did you guess?) in front of (nearly) all we got saying smiling a big Thank You, Flea!

Actually the story goes like this - the stupid post-man "delivered" the parcel Tuesday morning (when normal people are at work) and brought it back to his station , that´s not at all on my route.
I´m still waiting for a rather boring parcel from China and thought this is it and didn´t push.

Today Ingo found a crazy smiling woman coming outta the post office with a ... haha! green parcel from WA!



I certainly used an adequate - green - knife to open it up :-)

I just loooved it! :-)

Maybe these not sooo much...


... since I don´t like sweets (I will try them, though, ye-hesss!) - they´ll serve as welcome-snack for visitors and I´ll tell them they´re a speciality from a friend of WA (I´ll tell the guests, the cookies know that).

Ingo with the Kitchen Brush we will never ever use cause it´s too darn cute:



The Brush is a Gerbera.. and, see:



It won´t live in the kitchen but on our new side-board with the other Gerbera.

See... I love sunflowers. As did my Dad.
Mum got the coffin all decorated with special "mini"-Sunflowers. And when people visit his grave, they bring sunflowers.
It sure is beautiful.
But... Ya know?

For happy days I love Gerbera now.
And I got one of the coolest Gerbera ever :-)
Um... we, certainly! Ingo was mentioned as well in the lovely card that now hangs below the "Wishing-Stone" I got in Freo in 2006:


Housewarming may not be German... the more I love having Friends in places where it is tradition and who embrace us with that!

I also asked for a bag of Big W.

Man...
...

I just don´t recognize them anymore! I don´t like the new logo, sorry, Flea! They looked the same in '95, '99 and '06 and now?
Do you like the new logo?



Well. Life goes on, right? At least I´ll not be surprised when I come back some day.

Hmmm... Housewarming-Gifts... actually a great idea! Does make the home feel warmer :-)

OH! Btw... Morris already took on his job:



"sugar", he reminds us to buy. Did I mention I don´t like sweets? (Ingo likes his tea with sugar).

Tell ya what. I´ll take over this tradition. When I get to visit Bro in his new apartment, he´ll get a housewarming gift :-)

Homey-stuff

So the tin-flowers really grew, at least three of them, basil, gerbera and a wee bit parsley.



Today I planted them into real earth and will see how they´re doing.

I was astonished, though, to find out in what they have been growing so far, at least the gerbera – looks like gold:



Am I rich now????

I went to the city yesterday.

Actually I didn´t want to go into the book-store. But then I did. And spent a lot of money.



Yes. They are all Braunschweig-related! The first is 7 tours through the ring-area - where I live - I mean, you gotta know where you live, right? It tells the historical stories of the houses that were and are here. I think it will be quite interesting.
"AnsichtsKarten" - arty pics with short, arty text - I love it. Details - some I have registered, some not - so far. Again another lesson in run around with your eyes wide open!

Last year we were the city of science. Too sad the marketing was sometimes just bad!
Only now I learned about the groundhog!!!
The scientists did some brain-storming in 2006 on how to get science to the people. They ended up with one short, funny article every day and wanted to name it "And daily science is greeting". The hilarious film "Groundhog Day", which I really do love and could watch over and over... ummm... ok. In german it´s called "And daily the groundhog greets" - hence they went for the groundhog.

The archive is still here (german), very well done, but I´m glad to have it as a real book, too and will learn a lot in tiny bits and pieces.

I purchased a map of the Oker (german), that flows through town and shows the city from another angle. You can use floats, which we did only once so far. Was fun.

There are also night-tours available where authors read thrillers - the sceneries take place in this town. I wanna do that, despite it´s quite expensive.

So far I purchased hence, "The Lion Shows It´s Teeth", with commissioner Lion and his assistant Ms Tooth revealing the murderers. All stories take place here and I think it´s just fun to read and have the place right in front of your inner eye! I´m usually not into thrillers so this is another first.

One has poems and last not least a regional cookbook on CD.

Recipes are on asparagus, beer-soups (!!!), curly kale or green cabbage, which is called brown cabbage here – it tastes best if you cook it really long, with heaps of butter and reheat it the next day. The green fades but the taste is – on cold winter-days – just great.
It is often served with "Braegenwurst" or "Bregenwurst" where bregen in former days really was brain, eek. Thanks to BSE it is made without brain. Brain or not I never did try it. And certainly many recipes with Mumme (german - you can use blogger-search to find something in english about it here) involved.

Sadly I can only read one out of three .pdf-books...

I can´t read old German:



I also have a new pet, kinda:



Notice the holes for breathing? :-)

Here he is, I´ll call him weasel, cause he´s a weasel:



I know I´m too old for this. But I saw the cute thing so often in action and thought, awww, cute!



Ingo is very sick again at the moment. Hopefully he recovers enough to attend the funeral on Monday. Darn it, suppose it was sausages that caused the pain – sausages he had on Wednesday! I hope I don´t have to bring him back to hospital.

I leave you with a pic of my Mr. July:

A Promise

Ingo came home yesterday with our Braunschweig bag - and someone was peeping out!

 

The other day I played St Nicholas and left some stollen at W.  Or, rather his door.

Since I sit with headphones on I can´t hear if someone knocks at he door.

Yikes, it´s a pain, really.

Working from home is BEING home and available all the time.

The more so I was happy seeing this:

These gerbera now sit at my work-PC and make me smile :-)

Fun how my neighbor, aged 81.. or such, who cares, knows I love these flowers.

Maybe he´s seen the brush I got from another friend and it´s a "gerbera", too.

 

Also... he understood I really don´t like sweets - I still have the chocolate Easter bunny he presented us with...  

 

I left him a colorful letter in his mailbox.

If I had no job I´d knock at the door. 

But you cannot walk up and say hi and stay for half an hour.

His kids ("kids"!) don´t care and he does not let you go...

Job-wise. Stress. But that´s OK.

 

 Henry 🦁

 

 

Today AA has a day off.

But... I have to take care of the darn taxes (yes, I am more than late, last time I used the official program!). 

Gosh, can you believe it´s Thursday already?! 

 

Addendum... Regarding the post where I said it´s rude to say "I´ll work on that with Iris" instead of "with you, Iris"....

International Railway Industry Standard!!! - "IRIS"....

Addendum #2 - taxes are DONE!!! Done and dusted!

WhatsApp´d my T... oh I could go to bed now 😂

Done for the day! Yet. Meeting in 16 minutes, and yes - I do take a tea-break!

 

 

Tin-flowers

Gerbera in a tin! Watering:



A hole in the bottom:



I planted gerbera, daisies, strawberry, parsley, oregano and basil - let´s hope, they´ll grow!



Tomorrow is pentecost-Monday, a public holiday, YAY. I´ll seed gras, sunflowers, mimosa and snapdragon (which in german is called "lion´s mouth" - hello, Henry :-)

Spring and summer - that is life!

T STands For Huge Shock

 

With this healthy drink I join Elizabeth´s T.

 

The journal: 

 

Monday: Up at 05, laundry, paper-mail... the day starts, it´s getting light! -7C / 19F, brr, off to REWE.

Dude at the cash-out  tries to pay via cell. Takes forever. Then card, takes forever, unpacks and leaves. After rolling my eyes I think, poor dude, shitty start to the day. No one moaned loudly.

Cash-out #2 opens, I jump after the others. Yelling at me: 

 "hey!!!!... You look like a ladybug! 🥰"

 

Do I love my Gurri (winter-coat).

The guy, maybe in his mid-20s, follows me. Amongst other the tiniest, saddest bunch of Gerbera in his bag.

Tells  me, changing between causal "du" and official "Sie" that he has a female colleague who is always in a bad mood in the mornings, so he wants to cheer her up with the flowers. Cause actually she is really nice. He kept repeating this, because he was very proud of himself, I encouraged him, of course.

Not the brightest, but such a sweet guy, wishing me a good night.... um morning!!! 

And at Tom´s I learn: "TODAY IS NATIONAL RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS DAY." Jupp!

 

Passed test #3. This pressure makes me sick. Sooooooo tired.

 

 

 

Tuesday: -9C/15F, but sunny. Time runs and I fight. WhatsApp: fK: wanna phone?

An hour, but it was good! To hear another voice, to chat and forget about the problems for a sec. And get advice.

Horror-studying again. 5 pages for the last question are lurking.

Evening (07 pm+ done studying) Lucy - a time warp: Romeo et Julietta!!! Ingo smoked those in Varadero/Cuba ages ago!

 

Everything is cold. Mouse, doorknob... earrings... nose.. 🥶

Wednesday: The most shocking news, brought to me by fK.

mM, who is a great guy, fun, full of enthusiasm, who brought 60 people into the company, who organizes and pays for the yearly cinema-Christmas-event from his private money for our whole team - and beyond, who emphasized it´s the railway-team with the spirit, who gave me the guarantee (written as authorized representative) that I get my  job back if I have the certificate (and hence the job center pays for my training)... he lost his position and stubborn as he is... he might leave the company.

How can that be. I am shocked and so sorry.

mK took over, not really happy. He´d told fK once he wants me back (I´d worked for him, too), so not all seems lost but... mM was the heart and soul of our team. I, WE are shocked.

 

 

Won´t happen 😢 

Why he lost his position if he is such a great guy? He tells you the truth.

You did something wrong? He names it, not really always friendly - but! He delivers  a solution with it. The new lady from DB ECO group became the new CEO and obviously cannot take criticism... 

Thursday: -5C/23F. And I have an app, means I have to leave the (cold) house.

Took off my mittens - hands deep red. Doc told me to keep Gurri & Co on!

He´s Greek, he understands what being cold is!!! 

Before I went to REWE.

I got this with a happy smile and a "Happy afternoon!".. It was 07:09 a.m. or such!

 

I was still working on questionnaire #6. Turned out the last ones were optional!!!! For when you want to do teamlead - which I  sure as hell do not want! So: ready, waiting for editorial stuff.

The BIG 2 was on HTML/CSS and done in no time.

Started the BIG 4 as 3 is again with "teacher" and starts Tuesday. Oh, my. German language at it´s finest... 65+ pages, too!

mM had to leave for good. No one knows details.

 

Friday: I had had enough. Studying 11 days in a row, often 9+ hours was enough. Even my doc on Thursday - he is a couple of years younger than me - said, 30 minutes learning and he needs a break!

Cleaned the living room, Ingo came home early, sat all arvo at the new PC, installing Linux and Windows 10 parallel for me, took care of the walking pad, helped me with studying in the sense he HAS such an old jigsaw which solved the "riddle" even the "teacher" could not solve... fK tried to build me up, too. That "teacher" wants me to be good... Hm.  "Wanting" things not declared in the prompt...? I dunno. 12C / 53F - WHAT?

 

Weekend: Saturday: Tired, relaxing. Ingo made horse sausages again, YUM!

Ingo cooked - I sadly was too tired to take pics of all the fine ingredients, but next time I´ll do better and show you! The end result does not give it credit!

News. A 19-year old Syrian refugee stabbed down a tourist from Spain at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. An anti-Semitic assault is "assumed"..

These "refugees" need our "protection", you get that, huh?

Sunday: We went voting. Of course. Whilst Ingo is still interested in politics I kinda resigned. I voted, but I have low hopes for a change... We have no democracy. Lazy day.

I played the hairy one again:

(Thank you, Tom for the poster!)

Despite a new week starts I am supposed to cuddle up, yippeeee....

The new series:

"Not just cars: these things were invented in Germany

 

 

The name of the drink comes from the German word 'fantastisch'. The soft drink was invented out of necessity. Since the German population had to cope with Coca-Cola's lack of raw materials due to the war, a new drink was invented in 1940. Now Fanta is refreshing people all over the world."

 

Not a fan... you?

Henry 🦁 & weekday-munchy:

 

Have a happy T-Day!

 

Care For An Axe?

May 1st is a public holiday and I took the chance to take the other days off, too.
Ingo sadly has to work.
For work he needs chocolate. From Aldi. He took the last two pieces today.

So... I announced at FB I´m going.
The axe? That ugly pic?

Here some time ago (last autumn?) a woman was killed by an axe-murderer, from behind.
It was some man from Poland, I guess.

Some of by FB-friends were a bit worried and suggested I take something heavy with me, just in case (I answered, "an axe? ;-)").
But certainly I didn´t go in the dark, as that sad woman did and I´m back, too :-)

See, it doesn´t look that bad in the light:

I just kinda really had to wonder about this one - "Houston wir haben ein Problem"???

Said Aldi (does look a bit creepy again, no?):

Spring takes a break, sadly, hence I couldn´t resist those:

Thanks for thoughtful friends (maybe see you soon in Perth).
Thankfully also.... these big roads are like a barrier to us:

No axe-murderer in our area :-)
Here you also see the Gauss-pharmacy and the best Steak House in the world, El Gaucho :-)

Oh, and the reason for all this? The chocolate, right?

And some roll-on for the eyes.
If Ingo doesn´t want it (he takes another one), I´m happy to use. Guess it doesn´t matter much if it´s created for the use by men or women, huh?

Oh, another reason is this one:

At around 05:30 Ingo kissed me good-bye and told me to sleep in (which I did!).
And on the kitchen-table I found this note,saying "it was a beautiful Wednesday" :-)

The gerbera joined the one I got as a housewarming gift from Perth (actually it´s meant to be used in the kitchen to do the dishes - way too precious for that, right?):

Just Listen!

We all snore at times. Right?
Oh, yes, I guess this isn´t the way to start this.
I snore, too, at times, I admit that.

It´s winter, Ingo´s nose was clogged (? you know what I mean), and he snored.
I´m wearing ear protection - my Dad slept in a seperate room, so... I´m doing it better, right?
I´d never-ever would want to sleep without Ingo being by my side!
I´m a bad sleeper per se and I come very close to feel his heartbeat (too much info? Sorry, but this is what it is all about!).

Well.
Ingo left in the middle of the night cause I kept bumping him to stop snoring.

I´m no use these days with my broken foot.
So I slept in. Alone.

Ingo?
Did all the grocery-stuff. Offering me a huge range of what to eat!
(Fishfingers it will be tonight, we have also Spaghetti, Soup and awww. The shops are empty, I guess!)

You think...
This man goes out to do all that after you ... well, the German word would be "quälen" ... like make him get out of bed (I just wanted him to be quiet!).

No.
He did not do this.

On TV the night before was a documentary on tulips.
I said, I like gerbera.

See pic above.
This was what I found when I got up.

Guess it was no failure to marry this guy, huh?

He actually listens to me.