To 2018

Happy New Year soon!
Let´s hope it´ll be a happy one, right! And a healthy one, too.

You certainly know the lille mate in pic above.
He wears a wedding ring now, bought in Joondalup in November 2013.

He cooked a beautiful dinner yesterday.
And I have no idea if he mixed in cinnamon. Because I did not help.
Or say thanks.
Because.
2008 was the worst year of my life (when Ingo was severly sick) but this year came close.
Self-pity is ugly.
I thought I cannot eat at all, had half a buttered bread-roll all day.
And then had the whole, yummy meal, all three pieces of filled pepper, after Ingo was done.
Ingo used to make it as a special treat when I studied in Hildesheim and came to him (and his Grandma) for the weekends.
Which made me cry just some more. How she later - when Ingo had to move out - greeted us with "my children!" even before we could ring the bell.
If you care for the recipe... it´s a lot of work, and worth it, ask Ingo.

Anyhows. The inspiration to this post?
The New Year?
Long distance-time-friendship, actually (which I had way too long with Ingo, too, and I do hope we all can get around this forever!).

I was 14, on a two-week holiday in England, where I met M.
We befriended each other and kept writing letters later.
Then only for Birthdays/Christmas.

I was a tad "depressive" this season, sent a Birthday-wish via FB only.
I mean.
I turn 46 and we never met again.
That´s over 30 years!
Braunschweig - Hamburg is not such a distance but it´s an unspoken law we keep it like this, via paper-mail.

And then, after I only sent those online Birthday-wishes I got a Christmas letter from M, she made the efford!

Aunty G/Uncle D from Switzerland, in their late 70´s, sent Xmas-wishes via E-Mail, and I was happy.
But paper is still something special, right?

There were no "Happy New Year"-cards available, so I had to "get creative" and I do hope I could make up for the online-greetings.

Lets all...

.... plunge into the New Year bravely, right?

To a happy, healthy, successful, fun 2018!

Do you prefer online or paper-cards?

I Don´t Do That

Ingo´s Dad once sent me a Birthday-card that described me as a very loyal person.
Like in very, very.
Like in "once you earned her trust" and so on.

And it is true, too true.
Usually I do not make "New Year´s resolutions" but reckon I have to.

I´m not loyal, I´m an idiot and I have to stop that.

Those candles?
From a wedding of a person who let me down this year. In January.
2009 they got married. I kept these all those years. Don´t ask me why.

She made me/us this:

Get rid of it?
What would you do?
It´s very obviously not true, I´m so not "Mrs Always Right".

I always do these things.
Make excuses why others do things they do.
Treat me crappy.
I "let it go", "start fresh", make people comfortable, no matter how hurt I am.

This has been a crap year.
And I tried to see the positive all.the.time.

I finally have to stop this.
I am and will always be loyal but I have to stop being an idiot and I made the first step by burning these stupid candles.
On December 30th, so it´s not even a "New Year´s resolution".

Right thing to do, right?
I let things go still, but differently.
(What do I do with that cushion?)

For Heaven´s Sake

I do understand hubby isn´t that much into my family´s history.

I´m the "big Sis".

Twice a year I address Bro.
July 19th for Dad, Dec 29th for Mum.

I let go now.
I´m not needed no more.
Didn´t contact Bro today (not that I forgot, mind you) and there was no reaction whatsoever (pic/reminder on FB too).

Am I glad?
Happy?
Relieved?
Desperate?
Angry?

Who cares.
Me.
Bro... no. I accept that.

How do you handle "these things"?

Did you ever walk the last ... miles with them? Did the team of the intensive care unit know you?

I´m hurt.
Quite bad, too.
But that´s OK, that´s life.

When People Can´t Decide

A guitar on a toilet-seat, how fun.

Nah, Ingo isn´t really thinking about playing the guitar.
I did, when I studied back then.
Went into a professional music store, they sold me a "normal" starters-guitar. It was too big.
J and I tried for a while and with a kid´s guitar I might by now be a great Rock-Star... ok, maybe not ;-)

The place I took the pic, though...

Is called "uncool" and I think he indeed is uncool, calling himself "singer/songschreiber".

Duuuude, decide!

"singer/songwriter"
or
"Sänger/Songschreiber"

Or. Actually!

Sänger/Liederschreiber

I know.
Old (wo)man yells at cloud :-)
But don´t you hate those mix-ups, also?

I mean. Just imagine you´re Russian, Chinese... you have to learn to read anyways and then add a mixture of languages?

Perspective

On the way to the city we saw this recycling center and wondered why it´s so low.
So you can send your small kids do the job?

Job, btw... condo cleaned, like real good.
Not so good...

During a Christmas party an obviously insanely drunk guy tried to climb this statue.
And fell.
Severe head injury. Merry Christmas, not.

It´s a crazy world...
And what a crazy year, too, at times...

Took 'Em A While

This is how it can look like when Ingo takes to handicraft work.

He just had no choice!

I´ve been wondering why "The Café" was so darn busy lately, the refill was gone in no time.

And, well. I haven´t seen the lille guests in quite a while, either.

And found out why, too.
It took the stupid pigeons way over a month to find out the raven is not real.

But once they did they came and scared our guests off.

But not with us!

Now let´s just hope we all get back to normal!

They really are not the brightest birds in the yard, those fat pigeons - took them a while of watching, trying to finally let go!

It´s Snowing

And all year round, too, at least in Henry´s lille world :-)

The tourist info sure is another dangerous place for me!

Merry Christmas

Ingo got up real early yesterday - by himself, he let me sleep in cause I had to learn the hard way...

Don´t have fritters at the end of the Christmas-time - they use up old oil :-(
Did I feel sick!

Anyhows... Ingo went to our butcher to get meat for goulash.
And he was presented with this:

Isn´t this such a nice gesture?

And here is what it is - it´s yet to be tasted, and I can´t wait!

So... have a merry, yummy Christmas!

And That´s Why

Ask "Uncle Ingo" anything, be sure you get an answer.

I was mumbling, why does this tree still have it´s leaves?.

Can you guess what I got as an answer?

Right.
"They did not fall off."

Spot On

Since a couple of days Gauß is illuminated, very nice (it´s just around the corner, on my way to work, too).

After all most people admire him.

I kid you not, I overheard two "cool" teens yesterday.
Boy 1: This is "Bridge Gauß"
Boy 2: Darn Gauß...
Boy 1: No darn Gauß! He was a very intelligent man, and a great mathematician!!

I had to grin big :-)

Well, but he was, right?

To the sublime Thinker
who unveiled the most secret mysteries
of the Science of numbers and space
who has established the laws of heavenly and earthly
natural phenomena
and has made it serviceable to the good of mankind
To the
saecular celebration of his birthday
in his father's City Brunswick
Dedicated by the Grateful posterity

So. This was the last day of work 2017.
For H it was already Wednesday, I learned yesterday. He got terminated. Merry Christmas (couldn´t our new boss wait till Christmas is over and send it via mail before the end of the year?)...
Anyways, the company doesn´t give money - from which part´d go to the state - but days off between Christmas and New Year - and that´s still a good thing, right.

To a new start, work-wise. SPOT ON to all of us! :-)

Traditions VS...

Last time we had our lunch break at the Christmas-Market at the little fritter stall I had my fritter the traditional way, with apple-sauce (actually I don´t like sweets, but that´s tradition).

Another colleague took garlic-sauce and I saw something with fish, both not my liking and Ingo would say, anything but apple-sauce is yummy, don´t do experiments with traditions.
(Ingo sadly cannot have this anymore since 2008, health-wise)
Anyways.... I never learn, huh...

... Sour Cream is what I picked yesterday.
(not my fork on the table, certainly)
First pic on top got blurry, maybe cause it´s an awful combo for me, LOL.

Yes. Ingo was right, it wasn´t yummy. Again - but not always!
Do you like to skip tradition once in a while and try something new in it?

Smart?

The other night on a lille walk we saw this.
And wondered.
Super emergency?
Simply ruthless?
Drunk/on drugs?

I mean, really?
Ring-area! Very little parking-spaces and this fella parks his/her Smart like this!

Has Your Hubby...

On the way to our bakery I found Henry surrounded by Christmas trees and fenced, poor fella.

Along with this you find this sign:

It asks you if your old Christmas tree is still fresh.
With "Ihr Alter" also meaning "your Hubby" in a not so nice way and "frisch sein" not only meaning fresh but to be on the blink the sign also asks you if your Hubby has had it ;-)

Do you have a fresh Christmas tree?
We only if I run into another George!

Let´s Keep This

Some more pics from Friday.

If it was to my liking we could keep all lights like these...

... on until spring takes over, no?

I mean... the water fountains are up all summer into autumn as well!

I don´t wanna have the whole Christmas stuff, but a couple of colored lights here and there (and not only on Kohlmarkt).
What do you think, Christmas only or make people happy until Spring?

Of Yum, Manners And Age

Ingo had an idea for Friday night:
Go to the steakhouse.
And the Christmas markets - as rain was predicted for the coming days again.

So, at first we went and had a mulled wine, blackthorn this time.
A couple popped up beside us and the man demanded "I get (whatever)".
Ummm. Do you?
I really do not like when people speak like this.
"I´d like...", "can I have..." and usually I end with a "please", too.
By golly, I´m so old-fashioned, I´m a pain, huh? ;-)

But, ya know. There are real people who, in thick clothes, take care you get your hot mulled wine, eggnog or whatever.
You can ask nicely, right?
How about you, do you ask or do you demand - you pay, after all...

At the Steakhouse...

The 30-something couple at the window had (surprise) steak.
In a Steak-House.
Without steak knives. Maybe their first time and the waitress did a bad job - they used normal knives and fought their way through, it hurt seeing it.

Then another couple in their mid-twenties took the table between the other couple and us.
The woman ordered her steak "gut durch", well done, he ordered french fries instead of potatoe - outchy.

Ours was, as always, super yummy, with a good crust, yum!

We then took off and people shook their heads at me again cause I took...

Yep.
But it´s nice, no?

Let´s go for the real thing:

Last time I did this must´ve been around 2003, when we were no externals but in a team with th VW-guys.
And I felt too old even back then, hence:

Do you dare to skate?
I still have a pair of skates, you can see I´ve been outside with them:

Once. And it was awful, I´m too afraid to fall.
Back then you couldn´t stop me, skates, skateboard, you name it, I fell and got up again (no knee-/ellbow-protection, we got blood here! ;-)...).
I have to admit: I´m too old for that now (but don´t they look nice?).
Are you still into such sports?