Carnival and rain.

This week is the start of the street carnival; it starts on Thursday with what they call (Altweiberfastnacht) which means roughly when women assume control for the day.
The high light of the street carnival is Monday which is called (Rosenmonntag) and that is when the street processions take place, something like in Rio only on a smaller scale.
Last Monday we had snow again but it only lasted a day. Compared to the south and east of Germany also Austria were they have had a lot of snow we have been lucky.
On Saturday afternoon we drove to the local town to do a bit of shopping. My wife wanted to buy some wool for the socks that she is kitting. We had a gander around the shops and my wife bought a pair of jeans for the spring and I bought myself a light lumber jacket. In the town we met some old neighbours that we hadn’t seen for thirty years, they are about the same age as we are. I myself thought Wow!!from their conversatio with us that they were old people, strange, afterwards I thought, what did they think about us!! (I don’t think in anyway what so ever that we are old, positive thinking!)
It rained during most of the night and this morning I decided not to do my run in the wood seeing that the paths in the woods would be to muddy, instead I did a road run. Just before I had finished my run it started to rain again and it’s never stopped since.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss
The photo I took some years back but it reflexs how the weather situation is just at the moment.

Short story’s of past incidents in my army life (funny and sometimes sad)


When we were out on the square practising drill there were also other squads doing the same. One or two funny episodes I remember rather well
We had one lad in the squad that never wore his braces (although that was an order), well one day we were marching back and forth and every time we did an about turn or we halted we stamped our right foot hard on the ground (the British army way). The sergeant noticed that this lad’s denim trousers were slipping because he was trying to hitch them up all the time with the inside of his arms. The sergeant moved closer to him and kept shouting, “Swing your arms shoulder high you horrible man” and at the same time he made the squad do a lot of about turns till eventually the lads trousers were around his ankles. The funniest thing though was the lad didn’t have any underpants on either. He made the squad stand to attention for a good five minutes in the middle of the square while the wife’s of the training staff passed bye on there way to the NAAFI to do there shopping.
This lad went AWOL (absent with out leave) the same evening. I myself never saw him again.
The second incident that I remember took place in another squad they were also doing drill and apparently one of the lad’s couldn’t keep instep. Later on I found out he was a farmers son from the Lake District. The training sergeant of the squad brought the squad to a halt then ordered two squaddie’s to bring an empty dustbin. When the dustbin arrived he told the lad to get into it and hold the dustbin lid over his head then he told him to sing Good King Wenceslas. It was so plain ridicules and very funny but you didn’t dare laugh because if you did you was the next one in the dustbin.
One day we were told that during the morning we would be marched to the medical centre for inoculations of some kind (I can’t remember what they were) anyway we were doing rifle drill and in the middle of it we were marched to the medical centre to get our jabs. After we had all received our inoculations we were marched back onto the parade ground to continue with rifle drill. We were in three ranks and at open order practising present arms when suddenly there was a loud bang, which startled most of us. We all turned round to see what it was! One of the guy’s in the last row had fainted and had fallen forwards straight as a log. We naturally all went to help him, which in the eyes of the sergeant was wrong, “ stand still were you are you’re like a bunch of F--- schoolgirls” he shouted. He then ordered one of the lads to fetch a medic, he then moved the rest of us away from the guy lying there and we carried on with our rifle drill.
Later on we heard that the guy had broken his nose and fractured his jaw in three places. We never saw him again.
Discipline was very hard but sometimes it was just plain stupid. For instance we had in each boot sole thirteen studs if you lost one, say going from your barrack room to the morning inspection you were charged with being improperly dressed on parade. In one case a ladybird landed on the beret of one bloke during the inspection and he was charged with having a dirty beret. One guy had to sweep the edge of the parade ground with a toothbrush for an hour or so, these things were of course done deliberately to break you and then make you into a soldier or so they thought.
Two of the worst punishments that you could get (in my view) were one, cookhouse kitchen and the other cleaning the washrooms and toilets. I did one day in the cookhouse kitchen in basic training and I vowed I would never do that again and I didn’t.
One thing you learnt very fast was, never volunteer. They asked for volunteers for a weekend guard duty, we were told that if we volunteered then we would get a long weekend pass the following weekend. I volunteered thinking that it was a good deal, the next weekend we were on a exercise that weekend. Another time they asked if any body could play the piano, one guy volunteered and was sent to help out in the kitchen cookhouse for the day.

To be continued.

Short of time.

I have finely found time to sit down and write this post, that may sound a bit exaggerated but it’s true.
The week was filled up with so many things to do and appointments to keep. Monday I had an appointment for twenty to one at the optician. I was there ten minuets before time (like always) and my waiting time for my appointment was one hour and ten minuets overdue, now that nerves!
On Tuesday I was at work. It had snowed overnight in Olpe (that’s the town were the company is situated) and in the early morning had turned into rain causing bad road conditions and for pedestrians even worse.
My boss wasn’t in a very good mood and had me by the b---s before the midday break. It was a trivial thing that could have been sorted out in a few words but no he had to make a scene out of it. He hadn’t been out of the office for less then ten minuets when he returned and my work mate sitting over from me was the next one in his sights. His moods are getting worse (so they say) because of the Recession that we ALL are in. Every fortnight when I turn up for work I hear that once again he has laid more people off work, I wonder how long my job will last? The journey home was a nightmare it was blowing a gale with winds up to 120 kHz and it was snowing heavily, the visibility was very poor. The nearer I got to home the snow turned into sleet but the conditions were still very bad. I was glad when I parked the car in the garage.
On Wednesday morning I had my second appointment at the dentist for a fitting of my new dental bridge, once again I had to wait, this time only a half an hour. The fitting went very well and next week Wednesday I get my new dental bridge, thank goodness for that.
Thursday morning I cleaned the three houses which I do every Thursday any way. Just after dinner we got a phone call to say that we could collect a picture that we had ordered a fortnight ago in Düsseldorf. It’s quite a large picture 107 x 70 centimetres and it was bought for the dinning area. We had been looking for a considerable time for the fitting picture and we saw this one a fortnight ago while we were in Düsseldorf. A frame had to be made that is why we had to wait for it.
On arriving I found to my dismay that here once again I had to wait till the shop reopened at three because it was their dinner break, that meant I had to kill time for three quarters of an hour. I learnt in the army a lot of swear words and I think I must have used them all after being confronted with a closed shop door.
The weather here is miserable, cold, wet with sleet and snow at times the kind of weather were one makes one self warm and cosy indoors.
The photo was taken a fornight ago,it's the lake Unterbach.The second one is the picture.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Short story’s of past incidents in my army life (funny and sometimes sad)

Each day was a new challenge for us all, room inspection (there was always something that wasn’t right) dress inspection, if you passed that with out having to perform some kind of ridicules punishment, like running ten times around the parade ground with your rifle held high above your head you were lucky.
Then hours on end drill. The first two weeks without your rifle, you learnt to turn to the right and to the left, about turn standing still and on the march. Slow march, saluting standing to attention then marching with eyes left or right and saluting. Open order march, close order march, forms three ranks and so on.
After two week we were given rifles, then we had rifle drill, Shoulder arms, present arms, order arms fix bayonets and this went on day in and day out.
Then came the assault course, sometimes twice a week. We was given a time limit for the squad to complete it, if we didn’t, then our recreation free time in the evenings was confiscated.
We had to get over a six-foot wall, we had lads in the squad, they couldn’t get over a one-foot wall with a ladder even if they tried. Nine times out of ten we got no free time in the evenings.
The worse thing was you were filthy when you had finished and if you had rifles you had to clean them afterwards then came rifle inspection, when that was over you had to Blanco all your kit, clean all the brass, bull your boots, iron your denims dry if not you put them on damp the next morning. Myself I have sometimes been up till two in the morning getting my kit ready for the next day; this was a common thing in training.
To be continued.

Com Surrogate.

I have spent over three hours in Internet trying to find out how to get rid of Com Surrogate that keeps appearing every time I try to do some work with video’s. After I have clicked it off three or four times it restarts the explorer. My nerves are at an end!!! In the forums that I have read they all say the same thing, it’s Nero 7 that is causing the problem. That can’t be it with me because I have Nero 8 installed. Do you guys out their have the answer?
The week was a normal one except on Wednesday I was at the dentist. I was full of anticipation if he would cause me a lot of pain or not, gladly to say none at all. After the injection every thing went fine, I was in the chair for one and a half hours. My next appointment is for next week Wednesday and then have another one a week later. Next week is a full week for me Monday I have to go and have my eyes checked, Tuesday I am at work all day Wednesday dentist, Thursday my job as janitor cleaning the three houses. I don’t know were I found time to work before I retired.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss
The Photo was taken when we had all that snow.

Short story’s of past incidents in my army life (funny and sometimes sad)

The next morning we were all marched to the barber’s to have short back and sides (as they say). We had one guy who had turned up with long hair and a guitar naturally he was the first in the chair, the sergeant said to him “are you a bleeding girl or what!” then turned to the barber “start cutting till I say stop”. When he was finished with the guy there was only a small patch of hair left on top of his head, the sergeant then plonked the guy’s beret on top of the guy’s head and his remark was “good, what below the beret shows belongs to the army, what’s under the beret belongs to you”. This guy went AWL (absent without leave) the same evening and we never saw him again.
After the barber’s we were marched to the Blanco room and shown how to apply Blanco to our webbing. Now this is really a pain in the arch job. Our Blanco that we used in training was light beige in colour and came in a round tin and was solid in form. Using a small brush and water you formed a paste and then applied it with the brush evenly on to your webbing. This is a time killing procedure and a nerve robbing one as well. You then had to wait till it was dry, and then came the tricky part you then had to polish all the brass with Brasso without getting any on the newly Blanked webbing. I have seen guys do the same job three to four times in one evening and other guys got it right straight from the start, I was average. All in all to apply Blanco and polish your brasses you used a toothbrush, matchsticks, cotton wool and one or two other implements that made the job easier.
The next thing we learnt was to set out our lockers and to make a bed pack. Now a bed pack is made out of two blankets and two sheets, it’s one sheet then a blanket then a sheet folded in to a square then the other blanket is wrapped around it and tucked in underneath. The third blanket was for the bed; it had to be pulled tight with hospital bed folds on each corner. At the top of the bed the bed pack was placed; it had to be squared off using you used your mess tins to do this (a bed pack was made up every morning).
For the locker set out there was a detailed plan how it had to be, no excuses were accepted if you didn’t get it right. On top of the locker came your pack and ammunition pouches; on top of that came your steel helmet. Seeing that all your buckles on your pack were brass it meant that you had to take it all down once a week to polish the buckles because they were tarnished.
Your greatcoat did not hang on a coat hanger, it was folded, there were two rows of brass buttons on the coat and they also had to be polished. I never thought it was possible to fold an army greatcoat so small and it cost a lot of effort and bad languish in getting it done (here I must say every body helped each other were they could, team work pure so to say). Locker inspection was a daily thing, sometimes in the middle of the day you were ordered to stand by your locker for it’s inspection.
Every morning before parade (parade being 0:800 hours) we had room and locker inspection, beds had to be lined up, that meant the foot of the beds had to be in a perfect line with each other, the room had to be absolutely spotless. Window panes were cleaned with Brasso and newspaper, the rubbish bins were polished inside and out you could see your face in them.
This was daily routine, up at reveille 0:600 hours, breakfast, then at 0:730 hours room inspection then out on parade for inspection of kit and clothing, then the drill started.

To be continued.