the begining of autumn.

Our thoughts are today with my mother and the family in New Zealand. Today the ashes of my mother will be scattered at the same place were my father’s ashes were scattered nearly six years ago, so now they will be rejoined with each other once again.

You may have seen this week my first attempt to put a video into a post? I was partly successful but then again it could have been a lot better so it’s back to the drawing boards as they say.

My brother no1broadstreet told me in our last link together that I should download You Tube and there I would find information about compressing videos. This I did and found the free share program Virtual Dub and also a program called Xvid with this combination I made my first video for the web. All I have to do now is practise the fine-tuning and I hope my next attempt will be more successful.

My wife is defiantly into computers and this program Face-book has a spell on her (smile) but she is successful in it, she has contact with a German lady in Vancouver Canada. This lady has the same interests as my wife and is around the same age. She has also a new contact with a lady in France, she is also German this makes thing interesting for my wife, not only can she correspond with them but living in different countries, there is a lot of different information to be passed on to each other. The only thing I can knock her for is that she no patience and she thinks I know everything there is to know about computers, (I have to laugh myself at that).

On Saturday afternoon we drove to the small town of Hann (5 Km from were we live) to the grave of my parents-in law were we planted new flowers for the autumn and generally tidied things up. On arriving back home we were invited to our next-door neighbours for coffee and cake, which she had made herself our other neighbours were also invited.

We have just got back from a walk with our dog and it’s just after six in the evening, one can tell that the autumn is upon us because it gets really chilly in the evenings now, the leaves have started to fall and there is a general sense of autumn in the air.

The week was uneventful nothing really interesting happened and we did not go anywhere in particular. I was at work on Tuesday and that like every thing else seems to be a routine matter, still I enjoy doing it.

Today the photo is of a beech tree and I call it autumn.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Video test.

This is my first attempt to put a video in to the post.

Last night at the Proms.

I never thought in my wildest dreams that my wife would be so enthusiastic about a laptop, ever since we bought it she has spent hours with it and her progress is amazing to say the least. I myself am pleased that my wife has found something that she enjoys doing and she admits herself it’s good for the grey cells.

Through some good friends in England my wife has discovered the program Face-Book and is absolutely fascinated with it, not only can she correspond and apply photos with it, for instance she is in touch with our godchild who is at the present moment on a working holiday in Australia and is hoping to go to New Zealand sometime next year.

We had a Skye link with my brother (no1broadstreet) on Saturday which like always we enjoyed, he was having a beer at the time because it was in the evening in NZ and we were drinking coffee. I asked my brother if he was acquainted with Face-Book and of course he was and was also registered, so now my wife as another so called friend.

On Saturday afternoon we drove into the local town (Hilden) to do a bit of shopping for my wife, she bought a pair of shoes two pairs of jeans and a coat for the autumn, which is nearly upon us. Before we went shopping we stopped off for a bite to eat we had Currywurst and Pommfritt (Curry-sausage and chips) something we rarely indulge in because it is junk food pure but when we do, then oh boy! We enjoy it.

On Saturday evening we watched on TV the last night of the Proms a direct broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall, it was fantastic, when they came to Rule Britannia, Land of hope and glory and Jerusalem I was in my element singing and claping with audience and I retired for the night feeling very British (smile).

The photo is of the river Mosel (an old shot taken last year)

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

My wife's laptop

After having a disappointing start with the first laptop for my wife last Saturday and having to wait till Tuesday evening for a replacement I can gladly say that now all systems are on go.

On arriving at the shop on Tuesday evening I was informed that the Toshiba was sold out and there were no more to be had. As you can imagine, my disappointment must have shown on my face because the sales guy offered me a replacement for the same price with exactly the same specification as the Toshiba this time it was a HP Compaq Presario A900, the normal price for the Compaq being 100 Euros more, so in the end for all the inconvenience that we had we made a good deal.

We bought two new programmes for the laptop, Kaspersky Internet Security and a Household finance programme called Quicken, which was necessary because the old Quicken would not conform to Vista. At this moment my wife is entering all the data into the programme, which is a long and tides job but she is the finance minister in our house so it’s her baby.

I have set my wife up on Skype with her own name and also she will have her own E-Mail address. I have the feeling she is enjoying the independence of having her own laptop and being able to organise it the way she wishes with out me interfering all the time.

Yesterday I donated blood for the German Red Cross it was my 126^th donation, my time is slowly coming to an end were I can donate blood; you are only allowed to donate till the age of 68.

The influx of young donors does not seem to take place in fact there is a serious shortage of young people but I think the Red Cross doesn’t do enough PR on the subject of giving blood.

At the moment I am watching the opening of the Para Olympics on TV and in between writing this post, and on such occasions all the British comes out in me supporting our team to the end, I hope we do has well as we did in the Olympics.

The week was a busy one starting with a day at work on Tuesday followed up in the evening with picking up the new laptop, Wednesday afternoon I took our dog Toby to be trimmed, on Thursday it was cleaning the houses that I am responsible for, in the afternoon my wife and I did our weekly shopping together, when you have so much to do in the week the time just seems to fly by and before you know it it’s weekend.

The photo is of my wife with her new laptop.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss