New lawn.

Up to now this week has been a very busy week for me. Every available moment I have been working in the garden redoing my lawn, a back braking experience I can tell you that!

I have taken the top grass sod off (about 400) and that's only guessing, then I have dug the whole area over and that’s as far as I have got at the moment. Tomorrow I shall dig it over once again and then level it out in the crumbling the soil in the process so that I can sow the grass seed.

I am hoping to have a lawn again by the end of May.

Yesterday I was at my mates and set his Blog up for him, the address is http://campdllroadblog.blogspot.com/ and he is called Willbecker. I hope he will be a regular post writer in the future.

That was my week this week, filled with hard work and no spare time.

The photos are me starting digging up the old lawn and showing how far I have got up to now.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tschüss.

Who's scared?

After reading the last two posts from my brother no1broadstreet I find it very hard finding a worthy subject. Of course I must mention the Skype link on Friday with my brother and his wife. It was like sitting in the lounge with one another and we enjoyed it tremendously.

To top things we could see my brother and his wife and he could see us, what a tremendous leap forwards in technology! (For me that is)

Thursdays is my workday meaning the janitor job, which my wife and I have been doing for the last 22 years, as a side job. On Thursdays I clean three blocks of flats, they are not all that large and it usually takes me three and a half hours to complete the job. This week it took me a little longer, I think the antibiotics that I am taking are slowing me down a little, anyway I had the feeling that the job was harder than it really is.

Friday we went to the garden centre to buy some flowers for the our window boxes, mostly we never leave the centre without spending more then we intended to. Ah! But this time we managed the impossible, we only bought what we intended to buy. Alas, this morning (Sunday) we were once more at the garden centre buying more plants this time for the flowerpots.

Talking of gardens and gardening I have decided to redo my lawn. Now this is a under taking at the best of times and I admit it took me along time to commit myself to this punishment. There is no turning back now because I have once again opened my big mouth to our neighbours left and right from us telling them of my intentions.

My wife scared me the other late afternoon; when she went for a walk with our dog leaving the house at ten to five. Now normally when she goes for a walk she is gone for one hour or just over but this time it was twenty past six and no sign of her, I had no idea were she could be and as usual she hadn’t taken her mobile phone with her. At half past six I was starting to get a bit worried in case something had happed to her, all sorts of imaginations went thorough my mind. Dead on twenty to seven my wife came through the front door and could not understand all the fuss that I was making. “I said were the bloody hell have you been and like always without your mobile” her remark on that was "stop making all this fuss and were the heck do you think I have been” and that was that.

Today Sunday and the weather has picked up in fact we had coffee and cake out on the patio this afternoon and we put the marquise out for the first time this year.

On Tuesday I am off to my friend to install a Blog for him, we had a go a few weeks back but because of the death of his mother and on this particular evening he received a phone call from his brother saying that his mother had been admitted into hospital and the doctors had given up on her, (she was 92 years old) we did not complete the setting up.

The photo is of a butterfly sunning itself in our garden.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tschüss.

Web cam.

What has been happing over the last week? Well this bug that attacked me ten days ago seems to have lost the battle, thanks to the new medication that I have been taking. Only another 15 tablets to go and the doc said, “I should be my old self again”.

Last weekend was a historically new era for me and my brother in the fact that we had set up Skype and the first audio session had worked perfectly, we went onto the next step which was to connect each other with a web cam and the big day was to be Saturday the 19^th. So off I went and bought a web cam, make (Logitech Quick cam Communicate Stx.) Now I am no expert in computers by far but I reckon I am intelligent enough to install a simple web cam. So I ask myself why doesn’t the bloody thing work? Here we are my wife and I on Saturday afternoon all in anticipation looking forwards to seeing and talking to my brother and his wife. The audio connection was good after I corrected it on my end but the video, well, we could see him but he couldn’t see us. No matter what I tried the bloody thing just didn’t work.

One thing was positive though we all enjoyed the conversation and we are looking forwards to our next link, by then I hope I have found the answer to the problem.

My health situation has picked up over the last couple of days that yesterday I was able to start my new job with my old company. Setting out on the Autobahn at a quarter to eight in the morning is a daft idea at any time and I should have known better, none the less after about 15 km I was stuck in a traffic jam that was eight km long and all in all it took me one hour and forty-five minuets to get to my destination which is a 100 km from were I live.

The first day was filled up with sorting out my salary, introducing myself to the collages that were new in the company and generally letting people know that I was on the pay list again. Afterwards I checked how far the fitters were with the alterations on the first machine I had a couple of meetings with the top guy to discuss what actually my job entails.

The weather situation at the moment is not all that bright, we have had a lot of rain and it is cold with night frost. The weather forecast is saying it is going to get warmer towards the end of the week and let’s hope they are right.

So now it’s back to finding out why this bloody Web cam doesn’t work, I must admit things that don’t work properly when they should get on my nerves.

The photo is of apple blossom taken in our garden last year in April.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tschüss.

Stop and think.

One should stop and think about health once in awhile. Most of us abuse it during our lives, taking it for granted at all times. We don’t give a thought about those people who don’t have the same good fortune as one self. In the regal we take our cars in for a regular check up and our own body’s we tend to forget.

I have not been feeling too well over the last few days and a visit to the doctor last Tuesday confirmed my own diagnoses that I had been hit with some kind of virus. Now this little bugger laid me flat in no time. It had the nerve not only to kill my sense of taste it attacked circulation, my prostate causing me immense pain. My pulse went up in to the eighties and my blood pressure in the cellar. Not that the little bastard was finished with me, it decided that my body should go in to the sweat box during the night giving me the opportunity to change my pyjamas at least twice. That is when I stopped and thought. When so a small thing, something you can’t see with the naked eye can knock you off your feet in a matter of hours, causing you pain and discomfort, then why do we through the years abuse and mishandle our health, which is so delicate and precious like we do?

The photo (a snap shot) was taken years ago on a weekend market place.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tschüss.

To my surprise

On Wednesday morning the phone rang and when I answered it, to my surprise it was a guy from the company were I used to work. I hadn’t heard anything from them in two years. The guy who actually rang me is the company’s electrician. They have bought two second hand Automatic Die Cutting machines (Bobst 1575 EE) and in order to comply with modern Cutting Die standards they have to under go alterations

The question on me was would I be interested in helping them with the alterations (only theory) and of course expenses would be paid for.

Naturally I jumped at the chance to earn a bit of extra money (who wouldn’t?) My next question from me was, “when did they need me” and again to my surprise the guy said “ today”. The telephone call came at twenty past ten and twenty to twelve (the company being 100 km away from were I live) I was standing in the office of my former boss.

I spent the afternoon discussing the alterations with the fitters and the electrician. We were in the production building and across from were we stood the Rotary Die Cutter started and I estimated the speed at around five thousand blanks (boxes) an hour. Although the noise in the building was loud because of the other machines I heard straight away that something was not right on the machine. I informed the shift Forman and he stopped the machine immediately. On a Rotary Die Cutter one fastens the cutting die on the cylinder with bolts When we checked the machine out to my amazement the operator hadn’t mounted the Die correctly (not enough bolts, Die was lose). Can you imagine, what would have happened if that had broken lose?

During the afternoon I had the chance to tell the boss what I had heard and seen, once again to my surprise he offered me a small part time job. The job entails helping of course with the alterations and secondly drawing up maintenance documents for all of the automatic Die Cutters and helping out with my know how were I can.

The photos were taken in the production hall.

The first is the old Bobst 1575, the second is the Rotary Die Cutter, the third is the Cobra Automatic die cutter.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tschüss.

Summer Time.

I wouldn’t call myself a moaner but there are certain things that get my back up. One of them being when some, (well, call them none thinking citizens) use the local countryside as a rubbish tip. We have down the road from us a so called Park and Ride area were people can park there cars and then use the bus to get into the city, well that’s the idea of it.

I went for a walk with our dog on Saturday afternoon and on my way passed this rubbish tip.

There were few cars parked being it was late Saturday afternoon so I was able to have a good look round. I found everything you can imagine from food leftovers, pieces of furniture, canister of old car oil, tyres, bottles (glass and plastic ones) and clothing. Now in our present time and age dispersing of rubbish one would think is no big problem. We have a large collection area (run by the local counsel) were one can disperses their rubbish free of charge.

We can’t expect our youth to respect the environment when grown ups kick it with both feet, but I bet my last cent that those persons who throw away their rubbish on a parking lot have perfectly clean homes and their gardens, (if they have one) are immaculate.

From Saturday of Sunday the clocks were put forwards one hour and we are now on summer central European time. Most of the population see no point it changing the clocks twice a year. The experts say, “that it takes a person two weeks to adjust to the change”.

Weekend was a quiet one for us. Although the weather on Sunday was perfect 21 degrees we did not go any were just sat out side on the patio enjoying the sunshine. I myself went for my Sunday run enjoying it as always, because of the time difference I was a bit late in going and so encountered many people doing the same as myself.

The photo is from last year taken in our garden.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tschüss.