Friendly New Year

Eco-Friendly at last :-)

Ingo found these Fireworks, more fun than a real one, I´d say - Happy New Year!

A Decade

I found the idea here at Barbara´s place and join her. So, here is my decade in review: 1999 - in May we took off to our second journey throughout Australia, I started documenting here and will eventually finish it someday... Was even better than '95 but somehow we missed the Y2K-Party in Perth, we headed home after 7 months on December 7th. 2000 - a bad year for me. I was looking for a job, without success and many a potential employer told me he just had to let go of good staff cause industry just runs so bad. I started to bring my diploma and all into a web-based form. 2001 - architectural firms really want to hire me - to bring them online. So, I decided to go for it the proper way and became a trainee in the IT. In May I found the job I still have and love!! Ingo moves out of his Grandmother's house. Many a tear was shared. 2002 - We went to Cuba for three awesome weeks. In April my Grandmother died. My father lost his fight against Cancer in August. Ingo´s new apartment nearly flooded. 2003 - rather uneventful, life went by, flatmates changed and the new one really gave me the "opportunity" to move out. First time ever I lived alone! Small one-room-apartment. Holiday: Mexico. Not as nice as Cuba!  

 

Good burgers they had!

2004 - work and holidaying, this time Isla Margerita. 2005 - well, seems like we led a boring life! Work as usual. Holiday: Jamaica. 2006 - I start this blog - and we go to Cuba right away. I start a second blog about all the stuff we have twice due to living seperatedly in the week. We go to Hamburg for another small holiday. We sure are spoilt! December we went to Perth for three weeks! And even met some bloggers! 2007 - Braunschweig is the City of Science 2007! On my Birthday I crash my car. Eek! Small holiday in Husum/North Sea, 2 weeks in Braunschweig. Ingo´s apatment flooded the first time in August, the second time end September, which led to us ending our weekend-relationship! Means: Finally we move in together, Yay! 2008 - Easter we end up in hospital and a terrible journey starts. If it wasn´t for Ingo´s Brother who helped in his function in being a doctor, I´d be alone by now. By August Ingo weighs some 63 kg, being 1,84m tall. My Brother freaks out, being so very much remembered of our Father just before he died. Anyhows we manage to go for a little holiday to the North Sea again. And right after that Ingo´s Grandma leaves this earth. What a dark and frightful year that was. 2009 - I get my first good bike and get to use it a lot this great, hot summer! Get my Porch Swing and we have a lot of fun! A holiday at home. A friend marries, my Brother marries, too!!! My Mother get´s seriously ill, but the doctors do a good job. And Ingo finds a job, finally - life is good again! What a decade, huh? How about yours?

Christmas 2009

So, Christmas is over, again.

The first surprise was, my Bro decided fish would make a good meal for Christmas Eve. Fish! For me!!! Gah!
But, it was ok and I think I might eventually add salmon to my meals!

We waited for his Wife to come home from her family to exchange pressies, but was too late - I wanted to be at Ingo´s parent´s place at midnight the latest. Gosh, my family never knows when to end a party...

So, pressies were exchanged on 25th and I have to say Ingo was the only one who came out with a great one:



New glasses!!

We had Goose with red cabbage and curly kale, potatoes and dumplings, was very, very yummy, my Bro and his MIL did a very good job. And it was so much we didn´t need anything in the evening!

On 26th and 27th back home we had marinated beef with some sort of gingerbread and raisins, very yummy, too:





Seems like Christmas was all about eating, hope yours was as yummy as ours :-)

Merry Christmas

Ingo has a new job :-)



Have a Happy one, everybody!

Last Door

This is what I found today in my Advent-Calendar :-)



It was the last one, somehow #24 is missing, "door" #22 was the last one.

This was yet another cutie!



And no, I dunno why I love frogs! No idea when it started! Or why.

Anyhows, speaking of pressies... of Christmas. We needed a pressie for us yesterday after the shock.

We had suckling at the Christmas Markets and slowly walked around, when suddenly a man collapsed.
A man who looked rather very scruffy, a cowl hiding the face, big Aldi-bag in his hands. Wasn´t mulled wine, rather Vodka that made him break down. That´s the cheaper stuff, the stuff the kids mix with orange juice and consume in front of the castle and other "popular" places.

Anyhows. One young man called for the ambulance (he really asked what the number would be, hello?!), another man and Ingo grabbed the guy carefully and put him back on his feet. The ambulance was quick, luckily! They talked to Ingo and the other man: Go wash you hands very, very carefully! This man is highly contagious!

Eek. How can that be? He´s already very much known to them, they said they won´t touch him and called for help.
Ingo´s glovies now take a looong bath in the washing machine.
Eek, that´s what you get when you try to help?!

Well, after that we strolled through the book-shop and guess what!!



So much to find! Real compass, treasure map, Gold, secret letters...





So, today I went into town yet again and bought a second one - bet Ingo´s oldest nephew, who is 7, will love it!

It was down from €25 to 9,95!

What A Ride

Colleagues were joking, haha, if it keeps snowing like that we all get stuck here.
(Not that funny a thought, actually)

I came home early, grabbed my gym-stuff and went to the bike. Had some trouble to open the lock. More trouble to loop it around where the saddle is. The steel really is inflexible in these temps, was around -4 to -5C.

Some hours later I unlocked the bike again - and had no chance to loop the steel! I really did try hard, in the end I managed to make one big loop and hung it on the handlebar, keeping my hand on it.

Boy, the cold did hurt in the nose!!!

Now... there is a huge construction site where the bridge was before. And the tram. You just cannot guess where the darn rails are with the blockages and all.

Yeah, you guess it. Covered with mud I didn´t see and THERE I go!

I really even had the time to think: Oh no!! I´m falling! What now?! Hands, spread out your hands!

Gosh, if there had been cars... luckily there aren´t many with the construction site.
Three people came running for help but I felt nothing was broken - at least not on my part.
I need a new set of lights. And the handbreaks are somewhat to the downside, too.

So, I thanked the guys, hopped on the bike and drove on, securing the lock with left hand, holding the light in the right hand, uphill. Fingers felt like falling off from the cold...

And only after some 300 metres I felt my hands trembling from the little shock! Gosh, really. Am I happy and lucky this happened whilst the place being under construction and free from cars, I flew all over the place and ... ya know... I´d flewn in the opposing traffic!

Thought the knee was bleeding, but will only be dark-blue by tomorrow.

And now I could guess you might think I didn´t deserve better, because... I took care to wear glasses I don´t like much for in case I might fall...

You sure know Dumb and Dumber... well. When I wanted to lock the bike, the lock itself didn´t want to snatch, is was so cold it needed to fit perfectly... or be a bit warmer. So I breathed against and got my lips against the steel!!

Boy, when I was up in the apartment I saw -11C!!!

What a ride, I tell ya...

When will be summer again?

Lucky me I don´t have to drive to Wolfsburg before Jan 6 or even 11.

But... I wanna get to the gym, and by bike. Keep your fingers crossed this cold weather is over soon.

Boy, do my knees hurt!

Addendum
Went - on foot! - to the gym, in the jacket I wear usually (signals on it). One trainer said, gosh, even in this weather you come by bike?!
Said no and told him what happened.
Exactly the same with him, same place - just he wasn´t as lucky, he broke his shoulder!

The SAW

My Brother - and his Wife - like the oddest things.*

Like watching The Saw!
Since it was out of stock in their place they asked me to buy it. Now guess what Ingo added as an accessory :-)


(Cou can click to enlarge)

Guess Ingo was still in that mood when he made this apple for me:



I was more in a festive, chrissy-mas mood and couldn´t resist buying these eggs for lunch at work:





Thanks to winter no one saw my new watch yet...





See how many pieces we had to take out? So, don´t tell me this is for kids! ;-)
The Police Officer? He was in the package. Did fit thematically, though:
I was on the Christmas Markets with a retired Police Officer on Monday. Yips, Ingo´s parents were here for a visit.

I bought "burned almonds" (German), but not the ordinary sugary ones (I don´t like sweets much) but with Chilli! That was yum!
And we saw there is also suckling on offer! Sadly we had already sausages (yeah... bein' German...), but guess where we go on Monday, huh? No need to wait for Cuba!!! (that is where I had the yummiest suckling ever! Dunno what they do different there?)

So, this is what I was up to - a great pic of a piece of the Advent-Calender is to come soon!
What were you doing?


* Last weekend they went all the way to Frankfurt (some 300 km one way) to go to a concert of Rammstein (German), Wiki calls them a Rock Band, I´d say it´s much harder... They went mainly cause of the show with many - MANY - pyrotechnic effects.

Throw Your Poo

Hehe :-)
I didn´t want to go but Ingo convinced me to - luckily!

The theme of this year´s Christmas Staff Party was... Womanizer Giacomo Casanova!

Will you believe it!!!! This guy really was in Braunschweig! And he had to go to Wolfenbüttel, in the Castle Wolfenbüttel we all met...



My, it was so beautifully decorated!!!

And Casanova...



(sorry for the bad quality... the cam isn´t good for indoors and I didn´t wamt to flash around (also!!)

He did a brilliant job!

First, he told us when he was born and all the dates´n stuff you´re supposed to know.

Then we had Bread and ... lard.

More stories about/from Casanova.

Mind you, it was kinda weird. There you sit, with your colleagues and their partners and Casanova tells happily how he seduces two sisters, and he went a lot into detail, too ;-)

Theatre, it was a show back then in mid-1700, when Giacomo was young! People threw poo if they didn´t enjoy the show! They interfered! They lead the pieces! And ... yips, more stories of Casanova´s...
In the end he went around and every woman got a real rose.



Really, this is an event that takes place only twice a year - and we as a company took one, just for us!!! 56 € pP! My boss sure is generous! :-)

Today we had some special sparkling wine:



It shows our castle square, you can click to enlarge. Was too sweet, though!

We had it in this wine-glass:



Mind you, if someone reads along: I´m telling you all this from my new PC! Yips! This was a very expensive month!!!

Feel Chrissy-Like?

I rather don´t when I look out of the window! Rain, rain, rain.
Maybe some pics from Monday help:





Never seen this on a Christmas-Market, though it sure is a typical German Soup,



Pea Soup

You probably guessed it, Ingo went for something very local:





Sadly wasn´t such a hit, so he helped me with Potato Pancake, yes, we all know fat is the ingredient holding flavour ;-)






So, here I sit with this



... and listen to the rain, remembering it´s not a grey November day.

Yay, Flowers

I got these from Ingo :-)

It´s an old flower-shop, run since 40 years by an Italian family. Dunno if this is typically Italian, but the Grandmother always sits on a chair in the corner of the door to the private rooms and peeks out at the customers.
They make a good job there and you have the feeling you´re in a shop in a village where everybody knows everybody and cares about everybody and everything, might that be good or bad...

Very spontaneously I got a shot against Swine-Flu yesterday. Better this than risking Cuba.
Whilst Ingo had nothing I feel really gack. Great I took days off for this!

Our Doc is sick herself, so her husband, who is pediatrician, took over. You could tell he is pediatrician - I saw no injection whatsoever, he hid that thing. And it didn´t hurt at all (yesterday, that is).

Elmo Likes Wasabi

I do have eyelids, but I love Wasabi, too :-)



Though I have to say... this is not half as strong as I´d liked!



The 5 € for it hurt, too! It´s not even a "sometime-food"!

Actually it was 10 &euro cause Ingo choose to give 5 away to charity. Those 5 didn´t hurt.

Anyhows, let´s live unhealthy, we had the cheese with this:




This is what I got in my Advent-Calender, how darn cute!!! That´s cause I live in the Lion-City and to top it all, it has my name on it, too :-)



Ingo will make nothing sweet, but a Pizza-Muffin for me :-)



On another note...
I dreamed again. I was in my parents house again. Lived in my old room. I was no "guest", but I lived there.
And my Dad was there, too. I never saw him directly, he never said a word.
He was there, I knew it and it was a good feeling.
Then I woke up and was sad cause I had not taken the chance to talk to him.
Mind you, we were so much alike, we had difficulties to be nice to each other when he still was alive.

The only person who might understand me will be my Bro, I thought.

So, I took my time and wrote an E-Mail.

Gosh, he said the nicest thing to me:
I am his Sister and his Friend. If I wasn´t his Sister, I´d be his Friend.

Oh, little, big Bro!