What a Saturday.

Oh boy! What a weekend in more then one sense. First of all the weather was perfect, blue sky’s and temperatures around the thirty’s, which we have enjoyed because the weather situation hasn’t been to good lately, although the weather forecast for the beginning of the week is once again cool with rain showers.

Early Saturday morning (ten past seven) I drove into town to buy my wife a laptop. A local store had advertised for Saturday a super offer, a Toshiba with a 17-inch screen, Intel Pentium Dual core 2x 1,86 GHz, 3.072 MB DDR2 RAM, 250 GB Hard-disk Intel x3100 Graphic also WLAN, Webcam and Vista home premium for 550 Euros.

I was the second person to buy one, later on I heard that they had all been sold by dinnertime, there must have been twenty of them piled up when I arrived in the store.

My wife had been on about having her own laptop ever since she bought me mine for my birthday but when it came to making the decision to buy one she couldn’t bring herself to spend so much money so I had to do it for her, like my brother no1broadstreet said “ it’s only money” we can’t take anything with us when we go and so enjoy things while you can.

When I arrived home we had breakfast and then I unpacked the laptop and set up Vista loaded the batteries and waited for my neighbour to come around and set up Internet for us (he is the expert, that’s his field of work). He came around 3pm opened the laptop to install the Internet and the was NO screen, we tried everything but no go. I was so frustrated I just could not figure out why it didn’t function anymore, my neighbour reckoned it probably was the connections from the base to the screen that had come disconnected. There was only one thing to do and that was to pack every thing together and go back to the store from were I pursued it.

To cut a long story short that’s when I found out that the rest had all been sold. After explaining everything the sales guy gave me my money back (which is always a good thing) and then offered to order a new one for me, which I accepted and I should get it at the beginning of next week according to the sales guy.

I must say my wife and I were a little bit disappointed about the whole affair and it kind of spoilt our Saturday really because we had planned to go to a street festival in the evening which takes place every year in the near were we live but this time we did not go, drowned our disappointment instead in a bottle of wine sitting out side on the patio till 11.30.

My photo for this blog was going to be the new laptop but seeing there isn’t one the Toad will have to do, which was sat on the lawn yesterday morning so I snapped my camera and took a photo of it.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The new printer

This week I received my new printer (iP100 from Canon) I ordered it through the Internet, which is for us a new approach line to shopping. I compared the prices of course in the shops first then in Internet and the difference was 70 Euros. What interested me in this printer was that it is small and compact, which enables you to use it with your laptop (see photo)

The first photo that I printed was of my mother, one that my brother had taken of her in the gardens of the care home and the result was fantastic.

My wife’s Meniscus has improved through the cold compresses that we have been applying over the last week, never the less she will keep her appointment with the Orthopaedist at the beginning of next month.

Next week is a busy week with visiting doctors. On Monday afternoon I have to go and have the intraocular pressure of my eyes tested (this takes place every three months in this year) and then on Tuesday both my wife and I have a visit to the dentist for our six monthly check up.

On Wednesday a Gardner came round to make an estimate for some repairs to the patio (that needs doing badly) after complaining for months the landlord at last sent someone round to have a look and to give him a estimate on how much it will cost to have the repairs done. I got talking to this guy about lawns and explained that I had sown a new lawn this year and had the feeling that once again the lawn was losing its greenness. He suggested that I should apply more fertiliser and also he give me one or two good tips to keep the lawn in good condition. On Thursday I mowed and afterwards fertilised the lawn, now I will have to wait and see if he was right.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Olympics and to my surprise we British have done well this time, with 19 gold medallions, the only thing that disappointed me was in the light athletics, we used to be good in 1500 meters, 110 meters hurdles, 800 meters and javelin. We were always good for a medallion in 4 x 100 relay and 4 x 400 relay. It seems we have lost contact to the rest of the world in these disciplines, (such as in football).

Yesterday Saturday I was up early (ten to six, for me that is early) because I had rented a stall on a jumble sale market for the day, or I should say from seven in the morning till one in the afternoon.

The market took place in the Burgerhouse (community centre) I had for sale my camera Canon A1 with all the lenses, a Fax machine also an answering machine, a computer chess set and some old LP’s and to round it off a few odds and ends. It went very well, I sold the Canon for 85 Euros, and it broke my heart in doing so, when I think back that the A1 body alone cost me 1000 Marks. Also the fax machine went and a few LP’s and the odds and ends in all I made 115 Euros, not bad for a morning.

I wanted to take some photos of the jumble sale but for some unknown reason it wasn’t allowed??

I have just got back from my Sunday run had my shower and then a cup of coffee on the patio with my wife, which we do whenever the weather allows us to do so. Talking about weather the last week was a very windy one with the accessional rain showers.

Just found out we have not won on the Lotto, means another week of work (smile). Last week we had three right out of six which gave us our money back.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

A trip to the Rhine

This last week has been a very emotional one for my wife and myself through the death of my mother. Although deep down inside I was expecting it in some way, but when she died it seemed so sudden and unexpected.

Last week I had two Skype links to my brother, one just after our mother died and one last Saturday morning were he told me all about the funeral day.

Living so far away from the rest of the family (I hadn’t seen my family in over twenty years) marriages and funerals we have missed out on them, the only marriage I attended was the one of my older sister in England and at the time I was a teenager.

On Saturday we drove to a place called Kaiserswerth a small town situated on the Rhine, it’s not all that far away from were we live. In years gone by we used to visit it regularly and sometimes we would spend the day on the banks of the Rhine and have a picnic there.

Our dog Toby hadn’t seen the river before and we were interested to see how he would react to water. To say the least we couldn’t keep him out of the water and every time a wave came caused by the large cargo ships he kept biting at them and therefore in the process he drank a lot.

On arriving back home and after being fed he started to have convulsions and my wife got really worried thinking he might have had swallowed something while he was in the river, to her relive a short time later he was sick throwing up his food and all the Rhine water (the cause of the convulsions) that he had swallowed.

Of course we have been watching the Olympics this week and there is always a friendly rivalry between my wife and I when our two countries are competing against each other.

It has to do with who wins the most GOLD medals.

On Sunday our neighbours invited us to a BQ also they also invited their garden neighbours to the right of them (we are to the left) it was an enjoyable afternoon. It started to rain but we were lucky it lasted only for a few minutes.

My wife is having problems with her inner Meniscus on her right knee and was causing her so much pain over the weekend that we thought we might have to visit the doctors with it. We then decided to wait and applied cold compresses and it helped a lot but she has made an appointment with the doctor just to be on the safe side of things.

The photos are of Toby in the Rhine, The BQ, and a flying beast that was giving us hell.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Mum.

This morning around 6.20am the telephone ringing awakened me. The first thought that shot into my head was it’s something to do with Mum. On the phone was my brother he told me that our mother had passed away yesterday evening (our time). My brotherno1broadstreet in his latest Blog post (from yesterday) has said everything that there is to say and I don’t think there is more to add. I feel sad that Mum has left us and also there is a kind of empty feeling inside of me. I was told she passed away peacefully in her sleep and I am thankful for that. Funnily enough her Father was also 90 and he died in his sleep as well.

Death is with us every day of our lives, you can’t escape it and one should except it as part of life. When one has had a full life like my mother has had without being seriously ill then mourning is not necessary. I mourned over the death of my sister but with my Mother I am just sad at the loss.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Wuppertal.

Last night on TV news they showed pictures of the damage that had taken place through a winter storm in the north of New Zealand, flooded roads and blown down trees and damage to buildings. Now talking about freak weather situations we have had our share of them over the last week, luckily to say none of them affected us directly. The city of Dortmund is about 50 odd km from us as the sparrow fly’s, and in a matter of two hours it rained 200 litres per square meter. They showed on TV a part of the city were a small stream is situated near some houses. In a matter of no time the street and the houses were flooded and people were shown wading up to their waist’s in water. In the south a hailstorm beat the hell out of the area around Augsburg ruining the harvest there.

The whole week has been weather wise very humid with high temperatures and lots of thunderstorms causing a lot of damage were they hit, with the exception of one they all passed by us, so we can call ourselves very lucky.

Glad to hear that my brother no1broadstreet. has recovered from the flu and I hope his wife has also fully recovered by now. I’ve got a good tip for curing the flu according to my boss, Schnapps laced with ground black pepper; don’t know if it works because personally I’ve never tried it, but he swears by it and I have never seen him miss work when the flu was doing it’s rounds.

Personally my wife and I prefer our prevention flu jab which we have every year in October, it costs us nothing (the state pays for it) and it seems to work.

On Tuesday I did a trip to Wuppertal, (on the bike) which is about the same distance as Düsseldorf is from were we live but in the opposite direction. Were one is nearly on the flat all the way to Düsseldorf the ride to Wuppertal is all hill climbing and very strenuous. While I was there I made a couple of photos of the Schwebebahn.

Schwebebahn Wuppertal

On my way home I did a detour through a small village called Gruiten. In this small village church my daughter was married.

I intended to cycle along the banks of the river Düssel through into Neandertal but the weather turned bad on me and I was forced to end my trip long before I reached the end of the valley.

I was out picking Blackberry’s this afternoon on my own this time, I think we should have enough now. If we manage to make 10 glasses of jam with this lot that I have picked and the 15 that we have already made then that should see us through till this time next year.

The photos are of the Schwebahn taken in the outskirts of Wuppertal a placed called Vorwinkel. The Poppy’s I took on the way to Gruiten.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss