Christmas already

How did this happen?
When did I forget about the blog? Or rather we?

I really don't know. Maybe it was too much work or lack of interest - but I thought it was about thime to come back.

2007 has been a wierd year for me.

My Dad really sick - J with a new job ( yes, see we did not even blog about this ) - me loving my job ( still, I know it is crazy. 10 year anniversary for being in the same department this 1 Jan 2008 ).

And now it is Christmas - well almost. It is cold outside - like -4°C or about 25°F and technically today is the last day of Fall - go figure I don't even want to think about HOW cold this winter is going to be. We were extremely fortunate last winter being very mild and very pleasant - I believe we will have a very cold winter.

Thankfully J and I have been able to recharge our batteries during a 10 day mini-vacation in Florida visiting our dear friends S&C. We got sun, some tan, and shopped a lot @ 1.47 USD per EUR it wasn't difficult

Look what I found on the beach in Fort Lauderdale - looks wierd does it not?

Anyway before Florida we had a wonderful time in Portugal again - that was in September - and basically with the exception of J's new job nothing much has been happening in our lifes - at least nothing to jap about.

At least a bit - right?

Merry Christmas to everyone and may 2008 be better than ever.

T

Update

I know, it has been quite some time that I have update our blog, but so much has been happening lately that I just never really had tome to sit down and write about it.

Let’s see the last tow and a half months – well the earthquake that we experience was the first and last during our visit to Portugal. We had a wonderful time as always and are looking very much forward to our next trip in September.

My Dad is still recovering from his health crisis. He still seems to have doctor’s appointments every other day and they cut him open on a regular basis now – we will see what will happen next. One good thing though: my Dad has quit smoking for good and my Mom is also smoking less and less every day. This is good for both their health and their wallets…

On a very sad note – one of our friends died in March very unexpected at the young age of 33. I had known him since the early 90’s and it was and still is very difficult to understand that he is no more. Thinking about him I can still hear his voice, and it makes me sad to know he is dead. He leaves a wife and 1 ½ year old twins behind. There was a very nice farewell gathering in the church in which the two got married and even though it did not bring me closure it was amazing to see the church packed with people close to 200 people were saying goodbye to him.

On the other hand our dear friends from Pennsylvania have finally managed to visit us in Berlin - what joy and fun did the five of us have. It was just great. We did not think that staying with us in the outskirts of Berlin would be a good idea, and since a friend and colleague of mine has a holiday home in Berlin http://www.berlin-roseneck.eu/english/home.htm we placed them in their own little apartment much closer to the center of Berlin. I think they liked the place a lot and if you want to visit Berlin and be in your own little place, this is something to look out for.
We managed to fly to Paris for one day, went to Hamburg for one day, saw the South Sea for one day, went shopping, saw sights and had a blast for ten days.
Of course we were exhausted when they left – and very sad. It really felt like family was visiting and we are very much looking forward to seeing them again and maybe do a day trip to Vienna or Rome the next time that they are here.

Speaking about trips – our next trip is coming up shortly – well in five weeks actually we will go to Rome. Right now we are trying to learn a wee bit of Italian to get around and along in Roma – even though one has to assume that they all should speak English a little bit of “Ciao” and “Lei, como se chiama” we should be able to have tons of fun. For the next five weeks, every holiday and every Sunday will be spent with an Italian language teacher trying to learn as many words as possible in the smallest amount of time – it is a challenge – but it seems manageable.

There – an update – smiles from very warm and sunny Berlin

T

Our first earthquake

Earthquake

Yes - we are in Portugal. Everything is just great. We arrived yesterday - to 18 C weather quite nice since we had minus 1 when we left Berlin on Sunday morning.
When we go to Portugal we mostly go to Lagos, where a good friend of ours owns a house and we always stay there - it is like a home away from home.
We have a little cupboard where we get to keep our things - so we have our own stuff as the house . We also have a number of cats to feed as long we are there. They live around the area and one cat in particular loves to move in with us while we are there. The owner of the house is OK with it - she is a big cat lover.
So this morning while we getting ready to go into town it hit us out of nowhere. The walls began to shake and everything wobbled. Our first earthquake. It must have lasted about twenty seconds and was quite scary. Reading the news now it was a large quake and was a 5.8 on the Richter Scale...
Otherwise it is great to relax and just enjoy our time here.
Smiles from Portugal.
T and J

Back on Track

My Dad was released from the hospital today and I think I will be able to fly to Portugal on Sunday - let's see what my doctor thinks.

My Mom isn't too thrilled actually to see my father home. He seems still fragile and now she thinks she is responsible for everything. On the other hand - he is finally back home again. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet.

Look what has happened over night - snow! We have had like a couple of centimeters and everything is now covered in white - I am not going to leave the house today...

It was Jens' last day at work today - he will most certainly work later and then do a little shopping to reward himself - maybe a book to take along to Portugal. Tomorrow we will be able to sort through our wardrobe and see what we will need in Lagos for the next two weeks.

The power bill come in today - the highest ever, but that is due to the fact that we are paying now more than ever for electricity - well we will manage and our monthly prepayment was inched up to 50 Euro a month.

Next post will be from the Internet Cafe in Portugal.

T

Things that make you go "mhm"

I know it has been a while since the last post but we have been really busy. Well and to be honest this last week has been extra busy on me, Torsten.

My Dad was hospitalized last week Monday with respiratory problems and was diagnosed with pneumonia and was moved to Intensive Care on Tuesday morning. He turned 65 last year and we have to admit that he has been smoking all his adult life so something wrong with his lungs - well that should be like a given, right? Well when it hits you it hits you hard.My Mom has been a complete disaster ever since. She has been in tears, she was and still is angry and she just feels left alone. My parents will have been married 41 years this coming May so they are really close!

My Dad has been moved out of Intensive Care on Friday - mind you where he is now in the hospital isn’t really better, because now he is one of many sick people on ICU he was well taken care of. He was hooked to various drips and his heart was monitored by the second. I think he has had like received twenty gallons of liquid antibiotics through the drip plus tons of pills, so he is feeling much better, as it seems. The doctor on ICU however saw something wrong with his heart, it might be a condition due to fact that his bronchi and his lungs are not in order or that there really is something else wrong with his heart.

The doctors at the hospital could not really get a good diagnosis, or rather could not agree on if it is a full blown bronchitis or pneumonia - I know it both sounds bad and the bottom line of it all means that my Dad will not be able to smoke anymore. He already promised every one of the hospital staff that he won’t smoke anymore - now all we have to manage now is for my Mother to quit the habit. My Dad can be quite stern and good with his decisions; my mother however is a little bit less that type. She will have to gradually get rid of her addictive past time. Her doctor will try to help her and we will see if she manages to really get rid of it. I mean it would be so comfortable on their monthly budget as well as so good for the health.

While driving to work my Mon to the hospital then shopping for everyone and back home I was really stressed and thus now while everything seems to be almost over I am coming down with a nasty flu. I left work early on Friday and this weekend has been more or less a lay-down. I have been in bed most of the time. My throat is extremely swollen and the pain travels to my head and my ear, so it is really a joy - NOT! I guess tomorrow I will start with the coughing and the sneezing and will most probably go to the doctor to get my “yellow slip” so I can stay at home and cure myself - only because we want to go on holidays next Sunday. Two weeks in Portugal are in front of us - and I don’t want to be on an airplane with ear pain.

Anyway - that was my update for now - try to do better from now on…

Love

Toddy

snow

just to let everyone know and to remind ourselves - we did have snow - not much, not even a centimenter, I think, but out here it stayed on the ground - just over night. Now the temperatures are back up to like 10°C and it is very windy. They say it will get better - I hope it doesn't as I could care less about rockets shot into the sky and loud fireworks...

T

Almost Christmas

Almost Christmas

We have had a wonderful time last weekend at our friends D&D in England. I could tell you everything here myself - but D has pretty much summed it up on his blog… Naw - can’t do that - have to write it myself here.

The flight to and from the UK was nice - thanks to a new thing you can now buy with your EasyJet flights called “speedy boarding” with a little extra you get to board the plane first - along with the handicapped or the little ones, but it sure make Jens and me sit on our most beloved Exit Row Seats, or as the handsome flight attendant on EasyJet called them : “would you like to sit on of our Business Class Seats” - the more legroom seats.

In both directions to and from Gatwick this work really well - for Berlin this means we really only have to be at the airport like an hour before the scheduled take off in London this only gets you in front of everyone else - thanks to high security measurements in the UK and very unfriendly airport ladies - but we will get there later.

D&D were the perfect hosts (again) and we really really enjoy our time with them. Sadly we never get to host them in our home in Berlin due to one of the D’s cat allergies - and we would not want to send Kitti and Dolly away for the weekend - anyway they usually spend their time in Berlin at the Kudamm101 - the hotel that Jens and I had our wedding party.

Well we got to London Thursday, D made a fabulous English breakfast with bacon, and scrambled eggs, tomatoes and all - very yummy. We took the train into town - yes D&D don’t like that close to London - but they are so close to the airport - so it does not really matter and within sixty minutes you usually get into London anyway! Jens and I went separate ways due to the fact that I did not really want to see the Rosetta Stone and also because for the first time in eight years I wanted to see what our London office looks like, so I paid my colleagues from London a visit. Nice people - and finally a face to all the staff that usually call me up with questions, remarks or problems. The place however looked like it could need some new paint, maybe even a new office? Afterwards I met up with our friend D ( oh I know - so many friends with D ) - well this D used to work with me in Berlin until she got fired and has been working in Dusseldorf ever since - well she now works in London and I met up with her at her office - nice place - I guess they have more money than my company - nice building, all new with a gym and a nice coffee place and cafeteria. Well we met up with a friend of hers and walked to Soho - oh we were walking for miles, well for about an hour really - but it was fun. We went to dinner on Old Compton Street and most of us ( we met up with another friend of D&D’s B ) and my friend D’s friend R spent a wonderful evening there. My choice of food was not the best, as I was unable to eat all of my dinner, due to the fact that it was so spicy that I just could not finish it. I was so happy that my friend D and I had purchased some French bread just before so that I could nibble away on my baguette on my way home.

Friday was basically a nice day with the hiatus being the visit to Avenue Q - whenever I told anyone about the show ( basically actors, with puppets on their arm singing and dancing ) people went like “oh how nice” giving me the impression that they really thought it was a weird thing to do and that it could not be any fun - well let me tell you - this show is so funny. You laugh a lot, it is really a fun show to watch, the only thing that made us go “hmh” was the fact that the average age in the audience was maybe 25… The show was great - we have the tunes - and we even got a CD the next day by one of the case members of avenue Q but that would be for the next paragraph.

Saturday on the D’s went to see a Soccer Match and the three of us basically has a late start, went into town to do some walking and shopping and meeting up old friends of JENS: M&M&C
We walked through London - bought some CDs some DVDs and spend some money for our March trip to the UK - when J and I are off to see Dolly Parton in concert. So happy that we have opted to fly to London on the Saturday before the concert, because that way we were able to buy tickets for another show in March, the Gondoliers… A Gilbert and Sullivan Masterpiece - one of Jens’s favorites - and since we were in a jolly mood we opted that one of the upper XXX was only good enough - and of course they still had the tickets. I am sure JENS is very happy and I will just see how much I like it! After the tickets we shopped a little more ( bought the CD I mentioned in the Friday section ) and met up with M&M&C for lunch. Very nice actually - JENS knows M since his civil duty times in Israel back in 1982 - they have a long history and thanks for the Internet found each other again a couple of years ago when I encouraged JENS to send an email to M’s agent ( M is an actor ) and we have been in contact ever since. Their little daughter C is such a little angel - and she loved D - so the two got along really well - and when D started to draw little frogs and cars for her she was in heaven. We stayed long enough in London to catch up with D’s husband D and all went back by train to the Valley of the Trolley Dollies.

Sunday we slept in and were almost late for our lunch - a very lovely place called the Hillside Inn - a pub restaurant with Sunday Roast - we basically went there because Jens was so much looking towards eating a Yorkshire Pudding - and well he had three of them that afternoon, I think we all really really really enjoyed our lunch - thanks again D&D for the invite! We went to London one last time to see Swan Lake - this was my first ballet apart from the things you may see on TV - and due to the fact that the Swans were an all male cast, I for the first time really had the feeling ballet is something erotic, because the Prince and the Swan… mhm that was something else!

Monday we went to Crawley to do some last minute shopping and of course I could not leave the country with at least one visit to my favorite ASDA supermarket… I was really fast I think we were in and out of the store in less than thirty minutes. Due to the fact that you are no longer allowed liquids in your carry on we could not take any drinks with us or things that are gel-like or liquid for that matter unless we packed them really carefully like the jams that we bought in the food court of Fortnum & Mason’s anyone every tried Banana Jam? I will -very soon. Well - going back is never much fun, but leaving from a UK airport these days is HELL - sorry but it feels like you are stuck in a queue from the time you wait in line to check in until the very moment that you get on the plane. OK with EasyJet you are used to no thrills so the 20 minutes in line to check in weren’t that bad - remember Speedy Boarding - we said our Good Bye’s to D&D the moment we hit the second queue to enter the Security before the Security. There were people with Ziploc bags asking everyone if they had any liquids in their carry ons, and as there is a strict one carry-on policy at Gatwick Airport everyone was made pack their two bags they might have had into one bag. One serious hag managed to pick on Jens and me due to the fact that both our carry-on trolleys were 57cm instead of the allowed 56 cm. She was furious when we refuse to go back to check in and check them - all the snipped at us was : well you will see for yourselves when those things don’t fit through the machines to screen them and then you will end up all the way at the end of this queue. Needless to say she was wrong - as we waited through security no one bother about the extra centimeter our carry on had and we through to the Duty Free Zone in a little over an hour. Needless to say that after that you can buy all the liquids of the world and you have bags of Duty Free Merchandize to bring on board - while I see the possibility of an assault with liquid explosives I think the way Gatwick airport is treating this and it’s passengers is a little OTT - I mean Schönefeld airport has the very same measurements, yet it still feels civilized,…

Anyway - on Tuesday I was lucky enough to have the day off ( well overtime ) Jens had to go back to work - and I was able to pick up the car that we left in the garage just before we left for London to have the door fixed… €1,140 to have a car door changed…

Tuesday night was also the event of the year for my company. We had our 2nd annual After Work Party - maybe the last of its kind - we will see. It was a nice event and I guess there must have been about 4,000 people at the venue. It was really nice to see everyone in a relaxed atmosphere and for the first time in my life really, I drank beer - well non-alcoholic beer Jever Fun but still, I think I drank about seven bottles that evening. Mostly due to the fact, that a dear colleague from London was with us at the party, and let me tell you, British men (and women I suppose) can drink. I think I lost count at bottle number 10 ( sorry G - but you know I don’t mean you harm -- it was still a fun evening and I am sure we can do this again maybe in London maybe in Berlin ).

And now it is Saturday, December 23 - we still have not had any snow but I am sure 2007 will bring us some.

Tomorrow we will spend most of our day at my parents place, lunch and dinner and then we will open the presents that we have received from friends. We did not want to give each other anything this Christmas - as the trip to London with all the shows was more than enough.

Merry Christmas and Frohe Weihnachten everyone.


Torsten and Jens