These days

On Saturday a 16-year-old got mad and hurt nearly 30 people with a knive - one of the first is HIV-positive and the others now fear of being it, too. It´ll take six month to be sure. Six month of fear.

Yesterday a 12-year-old hit his 62-year-old teacher. She knocked over, bleeding. What´s wrong with those people - with those "kids"? Twelve years old!

Is it just the media spreading the news and things like this happened all the time without being transfered to everybody? Or do young people fear the future so much these days and do they compensate it in violence?

Strange - it´s nearly June. The heating automatically turned on here at my workplace. In the higher areas ground frost is likely to come. It´s nearly "summer"!

I used Ingos Fahrenheit-perfume today. I miss him.
And I hope he does not use my Sunflowers-perfume! ;-)

Not too easy...

It was a nice, long weekend - the tougher it is for me today, being without Ingo.
I miss him.
A lot.
And there is another task for me today. Calling the concierge... again!
It´s the neighbour... again!
I called the concierge this morning until my cellphone went out. He said I should have called the police when the neighbour went into Ingos way - but what would the use be? ´Til the police arrives, the problem is not there anymore, the neighbour would let go.
I am really fed up with it!
With a rent that high I want to be able to get into my apartment without anyone standing in the way - is that a wish too big to ask for?
Sure, I could move.
Ha!
I love my apartment. It´s nice, it´s sunny. And I love the area. And I know there are no apartments like that around the place. And, when I move, I want to move together with Ingo in some place!
Maybe I really should pay less rent and see what happens?

YAY!

Ingo just called - he can take the Friday off work, too, and we´ll have a looooong weekend at my place, I´m so happy :-)
In ten minutes I´m off here :-)

Optimistic

I couldn´t resist. I bet we get a good summer. It was expensive - as expensive as refuelling the car, but this one makes more fun:
Here it is, my new ventilator, my new "Honeywell":



And I´m staying optimistic. Tomorrow is another public holiday. Since my customer does not work the day between that holiday and Saturday I have to take the Friday off as well.
I only hope Ingo can do the same.
Since there is another football game here on Saturday, it wouldn´t make much sense for me to drive to him - too expensive.

Again I wish someone would invent beaming!!!! To Spock and Captain Kirk it´s the most natural way of travelling!

Second Blog

I started a second blog about all the stuff we have twice. I called it "Really Double" and it helps me reflect on the stuff connected with it - and it astonishes me how I "oversee" some things...

Drivers

... I wonder sometimes what´s going on in some of their heads.
The car in front of me today wants to get on the highway. Right beside is a truck driving at ca 100 km/h.
Suddenly the driver in front of me brakes - why? The acceleration lane ends. What the hell is he thinking (and, yes, it was a man!) - he will fall off the road? Does it only look like bitumen and probably leads into Nirwana or he might fall into a dark hole???

This is so dangerous!

Once I even saw a woman in her car standing at the end of the acceleration lane, she stopped there! I think she started from there at 0 km/h right on the highway (I was gone too quickly - luckily)!

Or what about those people: There is one lane for people who turn left and one lane for those turning right.
On the left side is a truck. The truck starts. The driver on the right does not. Sure, he can not see what happens behind the truck, but... does he think some very small mini-vehicles might speed under the truck and hit him????

It´s safe to turn right when a slow, long truck turns left (at least I never heard anything about mini-vehicles crossing the way of a truck by going underneath...)

Oh, I´m so fed up with driving and I´ll have to go another 100 km in a few hours.

But, well, I´ll see my family and Ingo :-)

It´s raining again...

... and the forecast for the weekend isn´t good.
Which is really bad because I just planted my 10 little sunflowers in real earth and they are still weak. Will they take the bad weather? I won´t be there from Friday morning ´till Monday evening...

It is also bad because we can´t drive around on the moped (or the bikes) when the weather is that foul. And I was looking forward to it so much...

Bah and I want to take my bike this afternoon to get to the gym.

Yesterday I saw something strange in the gym. There is a (one) small toilet in the locker room. Toilet, basin, thats it. Door is locked. Then the door is opened and two young women come out. I will not wonder what they did in there... I saw strange things there before... Like one woman who took a shower with her panties still on. Or those two men sharing one piece of sports equipment although right beside them an other one is empty. I saw a man who trained in flip-flops.
But, well, the gym is all right... and seeing things like that is amusing, too...

Second DigiCam

Ingo now has a DigiCam, too, same model I´ve got, a Kodak 330. There are newer versions but this one seems better than the newer ones.
So, I´m on some pics now, too...

Here is my balcony to the "bad neighbour" side. I think it´s sad that I do need this to be able to use my balcony peacefully...



Here is the view to the other side. Strange. There lives a student, since two years, I guess. I have never seen her!
Though I hear her from time to time when she comes home from a party just before I leave to work...



We had another BBQ - this is a so-called wellness-sausage with lemon and chilli - it doesn´t look well but rather sad...



On sunday we were in the botanical gardens - isn´t this one beautiful?



My neighbour really waited outside for me to come home, but when I reached the door she sat inside, her apartment-door wide open and I heard her blustering very loud... I only hope the concierge keeps his word and we get the situation under control. He himself said that this is a bad quality for a living...

Mixed Weekend

Actually the weekend was great. We had two other BBQs (pics are to come), a photosession in the botanical gardens and a great football game. On the way back we tried another route - Ingo turned around to me and called, "we turn left the next raod!" Some pedestrians called, "ok :-)". Well, this is "my" town! :-)

There was also a soccer game this weekend. The newspapers say, lots of police was necessary and there were some fights nonetheless. Well, this is why we love football - no police needed!

But my neighbour troubled us again, and massively.
We put the blinding on my balcony on this Friday. She didn´t like it but said nothing.

It now feels like "my" balcony, I feel good there now and will care better for my plants, herbs and flowers without someone standing right beside me, staring. The balconys are very close, let´s say 20cm are between them.

You can reach my apartment only via an access balcony and this neighbour got in our way everytime we went in or out, provoking us. Once she even threatened to complain openly at the police (about what??? and against whom? Against "the boyfriend of Ms $name$"?)

This morning Ingo called the concierge and the two of them met in town, while I drove to work. Ingos boss understands that this was important and necessary and that it´s ok when Ingo will come to work a little later.

Obviously this woman provokes everybody in the house and the poor concierge gets complains about her all the time.
Sadly, I am the one who directly gets in touch with her.

She now gets an official dissuasion that she must let me get into my apartment without any delay, without standing in the way, without saying stupid things to me - I mean, she threatened even my guests by going against Ingo!

When she sees me coming with nothing but the small bag I take to work, she leaves. But do I have my big bag from the weekend or shopping bags, she stands in the way.

I hope, this will stop now, the homeowners don´t want to loose a "good lodger" like me because of her constant provocations, the concierge said.

I hate fighting, so does Ingo, but this woman didn´t leave us a choice.

I am literally afraid of going home today. This woman will not have the official dissuasion yet, so she will stop me again tonight, I bet. If it wasn´t so far I would drive to Ingo this evening.

I want to become old, but I never want to be such a mean person! Even her children hardly visit her.
Of two sons only one checks her every now and then and he always comes alone and stays for ten minutes maximum. I haven´t seen her granddaughter once. This is very sad actually. I used to help that woman but she kept going against me...

Weird night

Last winter it happened the first time in my life. The clock rang. I felt terribly tired, but got up. Put the lights on, the TV, made myself ready. I was finished to go - in winter, which means with boots and all. I wondered why the news hadn´t been broadcasted yet.

I found out I only DREAMED the clock had rung!

I usually get up at 05:40 am - my brain suggested to get up waaaay earlier and it made the sound of the clock perfectly real!
I stayed awake...

It happened another time in winter and I was about putting my bed away when I remembered - hey, look at the clock - and again my brain had tricked me!

It tried again tonight, but now it´s easer for me since it is starting to lighten outside when I get up. Three times I woke with hand on the clock - each time the sound was perfectly real -

how is that possible - and: What is it good for?!

By the way: I sleep with ear protection since otherwise I would have to get up with the birds who are very loud. My room goes to the backyard so the sound is reflected and therefore really loud. Even this the brain consideres when tricking me!

Well, but I feel ok.

Outside the grass is mowed - I cannot smell it up here in the fifth floor, but I can remember how wonderful it smelled when my parents mowed the grass in our little garden (actually it was my mother most often...).

I look forward to a great weekend. We´ll stay at my place. We´ll install blinds on my balcony, since I have a very, very curious neighbour, and an unfriendly one, too.
Maybe the sunflowers we planted are ready to go into real earth now - I have at least 10! On my small balcony!
And on Saturday there is a football game. Let´s hope there will no rain!
And, certainly, we´ll be together! :-)

Smell

Yesterday evening I read in Tim Allens "I´m not really here" the following:
"Scientists say, of all the five senses, the sense of smell can trigger the most vivid and detailed memories. This is probably a holdover from our caveman days when fresh deer droppings meant 'lunch is close by', and, unfortunately, the smell of saber tooth tiger dung meant 'bummer'."

It´s true, there are smells that throw me directly back in time, for example into my parents bathroom when I was five years old and my mum used to use a special perfume. I don´t know the name of it (nor does my mother), but I really have immediately that bathroom in front of my eyes - and it seems even from the perspective of a 5-year-old.

Evolution is really amazing!

To the smell of nature will soon add the noise of "our" moped! After some hard work on Ingos´ side the ignition is now running right. The moped was built when Harley Davidson changed between Early and Late ignition, so it wasn´t easy to find the timinghole. But, Ingo e-mailed me: She´s running proper now :-)

Well, but next weekend we´ll be in my place. It´s the first regular game of the football season and we take simple bicycles to get there.

So many things to look forward to!

Weekend

What was really cute this weekend, or rather who, was Ingos Grandmother. I had my camera with me and took some pics of her garden and flowers. She was astonished that she could see the result right away, next time I´ll bring the equipment so we can show her the photos on her TV. "That´s possible?!", she asked.

Ingo had his old MP3-Player with him (with radio) and the new one. Again, his Grandmother was very interested. She is over 80!

She liked my T-Shirt and wanted to see my new car from the outside as well as from the inside!

She is really such a cute person!

I don´t have a pic of her, but of the flowers that grow in her frontyard:



What was not at all nice on the weekend: Somehow some mosquitos made it through the insect screening. The next morning I had 20!! insect stings - big and really awful.

Ingo? None! They didn´t even gave it a try!

What worries me is that Ingos Grandmother talks about when she is dead a lot recently. She can walk without any help, she cares for herself. Her sight is excellent. Her memory, too. She even grows her own potatoes, runner beans, pumpkins, strawberries and who knows what else.
Probably she is alone too often? Ingo pops in at her place at least once a week, she cooks for him then. She wouldn´t cook for herself only.
Nearly every weekend we spend at Ingos place we visit her.
There are neighbours at her age around - so why does she think about her death so often now, I wonder (and worry)?

New Car

Well, I gave my car away. The new one looks good, but I expected a different color. This color didn´t cost anything, I was told...
My good old Polo:



See the number plate? It reads the initials of my name and the month and day I was born (click for a larger view).

And the new one, I hope he will run as good and with no technical problems:



Here the plate gives the month and year of my birthday. I think it´s a nice gesture our boss makes here :-)

Look at the detail in the lights:

Our "Jungle"

Another warm, sunny evening! After a short walk we had our second bbq. I wonder: Why didn´t we try this before? It always looked so... hostile - but it´s beautiful indeed!

Here come some more pics - Ingo is even wearing short trousers!

And look at the tongs - we bought them some place in Western Australia - they are so practical. We have only one for two places. So they travel with Ingo for the season.

Oh, and I saw my first rat - it looked beautiful. It had a friendly face and its fur was reddish. It was very shy.

Here are the pics of a great sunday:

BBQ - Murphy

The option was:
We are at my place, where we have a BBQ-Grill and it´s raining OR we are at Ingos place, the sun is shining - no BBQ-Grill.

Ingo tricked Murphy and bought a BBQ-Grill, too!

The result? Murphy was confused - we have a warm weekend and we have had our first BBQ here at Ingos place :-) Pics to follow and we will have another BBQ today.

We are the only ones in the "garden" - it´s not done by anyone so people don´t feel good there - we love it, it´s nature. There even is the (now little) creek right beside the table (the one that grew, went into the apartment and spoilt the Jerky).











P.S. The last pic was taken yesterday - it´s not taken in winter...

Jerky

I went to WalMart yesterday and "stumbled" over Jack Link´s Beef Steak Nuggets. Well, they were mine (for a short time...)

I came to know Jerky not until the year 1999. After I could be convinced that it is not raw meat, I gave it a try - and got hooked to it! It´s sooooo yummy!

Here it is hardly known but gets more popular now. I got to know it in Australia and found the very best is the Hot Jerky from The Territory Jerky Factory in Alice Springs. We even visited the factory and bought 4 large bags!

We even managed to take them home!! We treated them very carefully, took only little bits on "special occasions".
One day a little flood came into Ingos apartment. The water was not very high, but it was tragic.
Whilst cleaning, he found a larger bag. What was in it? Yes. Two of the Jerky-bags! Dammit, I had forgotten that I had put them there! They were spoilt.

Ingo was more clever; he had stored one bag on a shelf.
But... we were so carefully, took only smallest bits to have them for the longest time. The flavour was completedly out.

We even made our own, but it´s too much work (and, well, not really yummy...)
Luckily there is Jerky available now. Not half as yummy as I remember the Territory one, but very good nonetheless.

In December we want to go to Perth, Western Australia. Maybe I can order the Territory Jerky to the Hotel (they have no online shop). I think I have to try from here via E-Mail, but maybe it´ll work! Would be sooooooo good!

Hmm, great. Now I have appetite!

It´s getting hot!

This is really crazy. The weekend was cold. Over 300 meters there was even frost. Now we will get up to 29° - well, in our region it´s only 23° - anyway, I think this is really extreme. And a little frightening.

No rain before Saturday is the forecast. Sure, we will be in my place this weekend. Together with my BBQ-grill... and rain?!

On Friday is another Eurobowl-Game with "our" team and it is even broadcasted on TV! But I´m afraid I don´t get the broadcast station, it comes from Austria.
And from home I don´t have internet access, either, to follow the game, what a pity!

P.S. Ingo was able to get the channel, so I went to his place. It was an awful game with many unfair and unnecessary moves.

Brunswick in Melbourne

I just read in the Diversionary (daily)-Blog about where people lived in their lives and again Brunswick turned up.

Now, I looked it up.

This is the town I live in. Aparently Brunswick in Melbourne in Australia, Victoria, is named after my town.

Thomas "Wilkinson had been an active campaigner for the rights of Caroline of Brunswick, the estranged wife of King George IV, and thus named his estate Brunswick, in her honour."

Funny, isn´t it? You can read the full story here.

If I moved there, I would only need to change Street and Country in my visiting card ;-)

FutureMe

I found an interesting site: FutureMe.org. Here you can write yourself an E-Mail to a future date you can choose. Think about your future, are there goals you want to achieve and will you have succeeded when you recieve the E-Mail?

Maybe I will try harder, now that I know I will have to answer some questions from my PresentMe from today.

I hope I will succeed in moving together with Ingo AND have a good job with nice colleagues. And maybe with a shorter way to work so that I don´t need a car anymore. I hope I will succeed in being a happy person living in a "normal" relationship. I want to be able to sell one set of the bikes, one oven, one fridge ...

Maybe I - we - will have nice neighbours and live in a nice, friendly town in a nice apartment. We will hopefully both have good jobs then.

I picked today in three years - was that a time too short?

On the other hand - how long can my life go on like this or is this simply the way it is these days?

I knew two other couples living apart from each other due to work, being together only on the weekends and holidays. Both have new partners now, it didn´t work. Sometimes that frightens me a lot.

We live like this for nearly 12 years now (with interruptions where we lived together) but it is very hard sometimes.

I don´t know other people being in this situation. Are there tricks to make it less hard?
Especially on the first day of the week?
I feel pretty bad (sad) today, pretty alone. My stomach hurts.

Well. Let´s see where we are in three years. I´ll work again on my resumé tomorrow when I feel better. Then I´ll work on Ingos´ and maybe we find jobs in the same town some day (in the near future).