Porridge And I Watched Soccer

Yes, you read that right, it was a weird (work)day yesterday!

Those who know me know I don´t like sweets much.
On the other hand… bread every day? Boring!
So when I saw “porridge” at ALDI I grabbed it to try. I always thought it tastes like nothing. Very small written I found out where the sweet smell comes from: Vanilla. Shoot. And it got a slimey texture, too. But it it makes full. Is it good? As in good diet, healthy and all?

In reality, though, it does not look as yummy as on the pic, huh?

Later R came over to show me pics of „our“ Moped. Aw, well, I can still recognize her, but… new saddle, new indicators…
Meanwhile U joined us, smiled big at me, „and those are the right glasses for today!” – ummm, what? Soccer, Wolfsburg is playing…. They are green and suddenly it was all about soccer. I was told what happened - why ever, they sure do know I have no interest in soccer, really, but I reckon they just wanted to socialize, right?
When suddenly it went whoosh and the whole complex, that´s several 7-story-houses, went dark. Luckily the sun was out, but, boy, I know why I never take the elevator and I sure have a flashlight at work now.
All toilets are without windows here, too...

When power was finally back I found an invitation from J and, well, went with teamleader TII.
Birthday-Cake.
I picked the smallest piece, but, yikes, it came with a very sweet pudding :-(
Too.Much.Sweetness!

Later “my” colleague, who thankfully had been working in the hall with someone I don´t know came in and asked if I mind if that other dude sits down here to work with his labtop.

Mind you, there I sat, thankfully behind my two big monitors, and a stranger right opposite.
No one spoke a word.

Ummm – can´t you say hello and introduce yourself????

It was weird. Must´ve been a total nerd. Luckily left after an hour.

Then ex-teamleader TI came in asking if I´ll watch soccer tonight – and promptly I got (again) explained what offside and co is – “actually simple, that´s it – OTHER THAN…” – that happened a couple of times – not so simple in my eyes, but I said, ok, I´ll watch, at least a couple of minutes…

When TI gets started....

When I left his (glas-)door was closed, so I just waved good-bye, went to my teamleader TII to say good-bye and bumped into U.

Whom I informed that, indeed, I´ll "watch" (into) the game. Because T had explained to me all about offside and... laughter.
"... and about hand and such?"
"Hand?!"
And got explained that even the use of the shoulder is followed by a penalty and that is why when playing a penalty shoot-out the players have their hands behind their backs.

So far TI only explained to me why doing a "wall" the players have their hands in front. And that some jump and why.

So I went back to TI and "told him off" for not giving me all the rules :-)
Yes, I´m making fun of soccer, but I really did watch for 30 minutes. Then Bro called...
Boring footy. I´m not convinced and will stick to American Football!

Three (four) lessons learned: Have a flashlight and don´t assume things are not sweet – have a closer look! (and get used to nerds) and soccer indeed is boring.

April... Macht Was Er Will

A German saying, April is doing what it wants - the weather is just plain weird and that is totally normal. For April. A bit. A tad too cold even for this, I reckon...
Monday was like really ugly.
So we did not go to the city. Despite it actually being tradition, on Mondays.
Yesterday (and today) sunny at first, but only 7C - see, Ingo is still wearing his winter-jacket (and me, too):

But the fountain in Inselwall is working already, yay.

Awww in Okerstreet:

We did some serious shopping like toiletry-stuff and such, shared a small Pizza, met our neighbour (it´s a village, I tell you!) and went to Schadt´s for a beer, sat outside (brrr), had a chat with our "waitress", G (she is our waitress but more like a friend, did I mention the village-character?).

And when we left - a 20 minutes walk home - harsh wind came up, some raindrops fell - it.was.icky!

Said storm and thunder Ingo´d read about still did not come, so sad (I love thunder and lightning when being safely at home).

April. Does what it wants.

And no Tom Tasty yet :-(
ALDI does what it wants, too...

The Pink Stone

This morning on the radio they talked about „the girlfriend“ moving in.
Now there is nippes and stuff, amongst an ugly pink stone.

I remember when Bro studied in Cologne and I went visiting for a week, he was into flat sharing and boy…

In the kitchen I found an East Frisian stove plate, actually a double of the one shown above, aka mine.

In the bathroom was a very ugly troll. Umm… somewhere I had one, too. Or rather had had…

And there was also an ugly pink stone. Just like mine. I don´t know, I must´ve lost it when moving (true!).

In his room I saw the oval vase with stones and a red rose in it. With a blue ribbon.
Mine was red, the ribbon.

Our Mum always tried to be fair.

And Bro really had it all on display!

Apart from the stove plate I have nothing of it all left, gotta have a closer look at Bro´s place next time.

Awww, Mum.

And it´s just deco, who needs a stove plate these days? But it makes me smile every time. So… thanks, Mum.

But the pink stone…. Or the troll. And I´m such a bad liar!
She never gave up, though!

Perth, 03/08 – Ahoi! - Part II, Perth-Teens

Full pics again here
Back on the boat we went - never would I´ve thought you can get into such flat water!

Sorry, but, awww, what a view, no?

A sailor:

And this is a pretty boat, as well, no?

Did I mention I love this color(s)?

Funny enough this man did not fall into the water - I sure would´ve!

These swans wanted to watch the Perth-teens and -twens, I suppose:

As did some other people, us included:

Young Perthies spend their free time like this!



Impressive, no?

Have you ever seen a boat like this one? Me not...

Oh, and here, an ice-cream-truck:

Reminds me of Charters Towers. And the day I stepped barefoot in warm dog-poo at the age of around 6 or 7...

A last time Swan Bells:

And then B got the car...

Even Ingo helped....

So much fun, thanks big!!!

Back home „the boys“ played with lego and later Ingo wrote down what the German Sulley was saying and added proper translation – just wait, next time Sulley is bilingual!

That and my little Niece will´ve thrown up a lot if I don´t remember she actually is not Sulley when wearing this:

Thanks big, H, soooo cute, she´ll love it! Niece also gets pressies, aww you spoil her as much as I do, Bro will tell me off! ;-)

And one bigger problem is solved thanks to H, too!

We awaited the bill from Ingo´s emergency at Joondalup and told the staff here, too.

We checked every day – except one. We might as well´ve been on Rotto for two days, right?
Well, the owner had seen the letter but had a day off the next day – on which the other girl said, Ingo S? We don´t have an S here, so back to the mailman!

Yeps we´re here under my surname, but hello???? That name sounds pretty much German as well and in case I don´t know I wait and ask a colleague, right?

Ingo wanted to take care, but I said, no, their fault, they take care of the problem. No such luck, they tried but told us we have to get there in person.
Hello?! You expect us to go to Warwick, then Joondalup via Transperth and the rest how???? On a failure you did, a problem you caused, totally unnessesarily, too?

Thankfully H works there and can handle the money over.
Otherwise, I don´n know what I had done.
If you know me, telling someone off is not my strength and I was not around when they suggested this to Ingo – I would´ve said no to that! Now I don´t need to tell anyone off, phew.

And we can stay in the cabin till we get picked up on Tuesday by H around 3pm, again: Big thank you!!!

Thanks, Aussie-Sis for being here in fun, emergency and help!

We got dropped off at the Kingsway Shopping Center, the bakery gets ready for Bundraiser Day - all pirate it was:

And back to the cabin, as everyone does, btw, coming from the Shopping Center, through the hole beside the locked door...:

Another great day, making me want to stay here for sure!

Perth, 03/08 – Ahoi! - Part I

Actually this is part II already, right? See last post about the raven!
The day was packed and I decided to not overdo it - or, no, actually to do overdo it by splitting the pic-galore up :-)
And let me assure you: I picked only few pics, really!!!
There are loads more!

I mean... being on a boat is just very, very special, at least when you live here. Here you just can´t, not with such a big boat, river Oker simply is way too small.
And the sea... some 300 km away.

8:00 am our friend H picked us up, we went to her home, had a coffee (me a water) and went off with B´s car again – boat on trailer!

The Cloughton Reserve Jetty was our goal:

I thought the river might be rather boring – was I wrong!!!

Slowly we started, but in some areas you have to go fast – so take care!! Can be a bumpy ride, but soooo much fun!

Again the full pics are here, friends are welcome!

We even got a cool Mural:

We then wanted to stop for a brunch here - look at the houses, beautiful, but also too fancy for my liking:

This time we learned to gett off the boat differently - through the front (full pic)!

The place was too packed, so we hopped on Rocksea again and... drove? Do you drive a boat? We went on.

Past Kings Park...

The Swan Brewery:

By golly, when editing the pic I though, gaaaahhhhh! We really forgot to visit the Brewery!!!
We´ll have to come back!

A school:

The view of Perth´s skyline, awwww....

L usually prefers to read a book on the bed, but here he came out for a sec, Hi L! :-)

(PIC)

Bell Tower... bet when we are here next time... you know. Gone from view it will be :-(

An old (Dutch?) vessel:

With a Lion:

Oh, and do I love this color!!!

We stopped at Matilda Bay for a snack and left the boat via the back this time, directly into the water!!
(Full pic here)

I now know three ways to leave a boat (and I don´t wanna find out a fourth one, I guess)!

Here it was much quieter and laid back and don´t forget about the ravens!

And the yummy (though on our side cold) brunch:

I also have to sneak in some part of L´s brunch he didn´t use and let me take home:

Sorry, B, but "advanced" as Germans are... we don´t have anything clever "squeeze-on" like this!
Will take a couple of years, I bet!

Part II (or III) is on the way, and believe me, I was impressed to learn what Perth-teenies do on a Sunday afternoon! :-)

Thanks, H, B, L!

One Kid VS Three Adults

Bro called me yesterday and was still frantic.

When SIL went with little Niece to get Niece from kindergarten, Niece was gone.

The three carers insisted they´d seen her inside, so she must be hiding again, something she likes doing anyway.
But she was nowhere to be found and kids cannot open the door to get outside.
Panic!

In the end they found Niece, crying - outside!

She did not run onto the street, she was not taken away by a stranger, but those situations sadly come to mind, huh?

SIL was devastated.
Bro interviewed Niece later.

Three Adults claimed she had been inside, but a near 5-year old claimed she had not - whom would you take serious?

In the end Niece cried, desperate, she indeed had been outside and Bro believed her, not the adults.

And found proof, too.
Niece wore her outside shoes and could tell who was cleaning the courtyard, which you can only see, at that height, when being outside.

Boy.

Is it too much panic these days? I dunno. But it´s sad the carers lie.
And do not count if all kids are in.

Long story short: I think my "little" Brother is a great Dad, believing his Daughter. :-)
Oh, and no... we still had no chance to visit and bring the Perth-pressies, they are just too busy...

(Matilda Bay) Do You Read Me?

Raven... here comes a wee bit of said Perth-Sunday. And a March-day in Braunschweig.
Raven, they do like alike in both cities, but I wonder if they could talk to each other?

Turn on the sound and listen to a raven watching over us in Matilda Bay, probably announcing to his mates L isn´t eating very fast and talking all the time, there might be left-overs? ;-)



Sucha variety in his talking, no?
I love them, always enjoy listening to Aussie-raven.

Now listen to ours...



Is it the bad weather in winter?
So "simple" and boring....

Even your ravens are "better" than ours!