torjen

We had it all

2009-12-19T18:17:00.003+01:00

Oh yes, Florida gave it all to us: sunshine, sitting outside in 75°F/24°C at 10 pm at night in shorts and t-shirt. – And then it said goodbye with thunderstorms, torrential rain, spring flood and tornado warning – yes we had it all – and we still didn’t want to go. But we had to.

So we departed yesterday, spending half the day in the cinema and eating out, had a pleasant business class flight from Miami to Düsseldorf, and then a less pleasant one from Düsseldorf to Berlin. Temperature difference 35 degrees Celsius and about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Snowy white here. Looks nice, but feels wrong.

Washing machine is running, T out shopping, me unpacking, well we are back, sort of…

I love Florida

2009-12-16T14:49:00.003+01:00

On Tuesday I went for a long walk, from the Beach to Howard Birch Park (my favorite) and then onto Barnes&Noble and Whole Foods via some Starbucks who offer a Vivanno Smoothie here, which is milk, water a whole banana and a little chocolate with no added sugar and a dream in this weather.

So here are some impressions from this walk:

Note to myself

2009-12-16T14:48:00.002+01:00

Yes we have arrived on good old American soil

got our SUV

and a nice hotel Hyatt Place:

Spacey rooms, Pool, quiet, a freezing entrance hall, an A/C from the last century which blows your head away when you turn it on – and a breakfast area designed for 5, but used by 50 people.

The weather is in the high 80s F or 29°C – in the shade, so hotter than any summer in Berlin this year.

We should have kept that in mind when we headed for an Einstein Bagel Breakfast on a short stroll round the corner:

Note to myself:
there is no short stroll in America

Note to myself:
It is blazing hot even at 9 in in the morning

Note to myself:
The seats inside are always taken

So after being totally exhausted from breakfast, we headed down to Sawgrass Mills Shopping Mall for – who would have guessed – shopping, and a nice lunch at the Grand Lux.

Paraiso Perdido – Paradise Lost

2009-12-14T13:43:00.003+01:00

We had to leave the ship, nobody wanted to, but we finally arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (and would we really want to go on a Caribbean Cruise with 600 children?) – So we were expelled of Paradise – but fortunately thrown into the loving arms of Florida.

Yes, we have been “turned” as J put it so nicely.
We had been CVs (Cruise Virgins) – obviously the only ones on the ship, since the majority has done 15, 29,.. cruises.

And although I have been very skeptic, a cruise definitely is appealing. And why is that? Let’s get a little bit into details and describe the daily routine on sea days.

You get up at the time of your liking, maybe with sunrise from your balcony, then you can have breakfast in your cabin or join “ the others” on deck 14 for self service – which is the five star version of it. You can have nearly everything there, muffins, bagels, all sorts of bread, eggs scrambled, cooked, Benedict, ham, sausages, fruits and salad – an overwhelming amount of employees looking after the counter for the immediate refill, or heating your bread as you like it – or the swarm of helpers cleaning the tables. Of course you can sit outside, you will always meet some friends or new acquaintances to chat with,

Then the difficult choice of what to do next – meanwhile your cabin has been immaculately made (bed, bathroom, they also hoovered) – I normally went for reading outside on the balcony looking on the water and the sun (even without it is nicely warm and we have snuggle blankets as well) , T was normally meeting with friends, or we were having a massage or a shave treatment, pedicure, manicure in the Spa Area.

Now comes Food again: the deck 14 now has changed the food and you have a most diverse warm cuisine ( Shepherd's Pie, Spaghetti with many sauces, curries, meat in different varieties, salads – made or put together by yourself – chili, and deserts…..)

But I always had to hurry to get to my lecture about the Great Explorers of the Sea (Columbus, Magellan, Cook) at 1.30 pm by Dr. Kathleen Wulf, Professor Emeritus of USC (university of Southern California).

And afterwards I always had my quality time with C, a dear friend, which I see too rarely, him living in the US, chatting up and having a cookie.

Meanwhile T was onto Ship’s Bingo or Card Games, Domino, a lot of activities within the “Friends of Dorothy” group on the ship (for the really unsuspecting: this is the gay crowd on the cruise, and you won’t believe how many there are)

At 4 pm come the Schnickkedönschen (Cheese and fruits), we won’ t live hungry lives, will we, brought directly to your cabin.

Afterwards T dashes to the gym for workout, sauna and swimming (dipping) in the pool – while I relish on the balcony, reading and enjoying the most beautiful sunsets.

Come evening we will go to the Grand Epernay (or T even half an hour earlier for Cocktail with the Dorothies), that is the Dining Area where everybody is seated at 6 pm or second seating 8.30 pm, our time. Let’s just say it was the social event of the day, all 12 meeting at the table for getting up on news of the day and enjoying a 4-course meal, with small portions and definitely not to my liking, since the kitchen and the choices could definitely not compete with the self-service on deck 14.

On the three formal nights we evaded the Grand Epernay and went to the Tuscan Grill (yes, there are a lot more restaurants on board, we won’t starve), excellent steak and Italian cuisine. Either as a tête-à-tête or with our friends D².

Of course during the Dinner the cabin has been made, you received the daily newspaper of activities on the ship for the next day, a little chocolate on the cushion (not hungry to bed!).

Then you could meet for Cocktails or see a show on stage – or just retire, definitely not hungry, to bed.

Bem-vindo a Portugal, bem-vindo a Funchal

2009-12-07T13:29:00.002+01:00

What a fantastic greeting for the sailors and so not catholic. Yes, we arrived in Funchal, Madeira. Finally home, at least a little bit. No problems with languages or culture.

– And an organizational disaster. It took us 1,5 hours to finally leave the ship and they extended the already short stay therefore for 0,5 hours. That was the worst of a long line of going ashore problems we faced. Don’t think that only because it says being at a port from 10 to 17 actually means you got that time. No no no. At least 15 to 30 minutes to set up the gangway and 15 minutes before leaving you have to be on board. There goes your first hour. Then imagine 2800 people leaving the ship on only 2 gangways, yes that is another half hour at least – and then: you are not in the city, you are at the harbor, miles away if unlucky and that means another 30 minutes, either waiting for the unorganized shuttle buses or walking or –like we did: save the time and take a cab.

So there we were, 15 minutes after leaving the ship taking on our shopping mall outside Madeira, beautifully built into the mountain. And there we were looking for books, presents, newspaper and little things (like an extension cord which then led to a confiscation on board) and of course freshly baked Pasteis de Nata (custard tarts) for all of us for the 5°clock cookie time. Packed like donkeys we headed back the same way (taxi) to the ship to free ourselves from the goodies. Torsten wanted to stay on board while I went on foot exploring the city, where of course all shops were closed, like we suspected.

Here are some images of the small town of Funchal which simply is lovely. The whole scenery reminded me of the Black Forest only with tropical plants (banana trees seem to be weed here).

lovely gay Christmas decoration

a river running through the city

sea promenade

- coming back to the ship, my husband was already waiting for me

and now six days at sea.

one day at sea – no time at all

2009-12-07T13:25:00.002+01:00

Yes, one would think that after 5 days of touring and exploring, this day would only been reserved for relaxing and taking it slow. – No way!

I had to make an appointment with my husband to have at least a lunch together at 2.15 pm to see each other.

First thing you have to get used to on board: no communication via mobile. Try it, it’s not that easy, if you’re used to it. Once separated you can not be sure when you will see each other again.

So after a refreshing hot stone massage (during which T had his facial/shaving/…) I was having´a lecture on Portugal, very nice, very concise. Actually something for the brain which I didn’t expect. Normally from the cruise director it’s more selling and fun, fun, fun. Don’t get yourself bored or have a minute of not doing anything. You can occupy yourself 24/7 with dancing, bingo, Spa, cocktail classes, language classes, shows, cinema, martini bars – and fortunately you don’t have to do anything at all, and just sit on your balcony enjoying life.

T can tell you more about the Friends of Dorothy activities, here are some interior pictures:

Cartagena - Karthago

2009-12-07T13:23:00.002+01:00

When I first heard the name Cartagena, I didn’t know anything about the city. Until my birthday when we met my old friend T and his lovely wife J. He just told me that it was Cartago - and it all came back to me:

Hannibal, elephants over the alps, fighting Rome, Hasdrubal, Hamilcar, the three Punic Wars – from that point on it was the most interesting stop for historic reasons for me.

It is today a very small town, surrounded by bare hills, very Mediterranean and reminded me a lot of Israel.

They are still discovering ancient remains since the last 20 years, and one might think that they actually haven’t cared about their history for a long time

Pictures of the Roman Amphitheatre are still on T’s cam, so you have to wait for that.

The Punic episode was not that long, but ist is fascinating and while visiting the Punic Walls (old stone remains) I took some pictures of the exhibition:

Vollständiges Album anzeigen

After the first museum T was bored and went discovering the shopping opportunities and drinking the chocolate, which actually is made from real chocolate.

The only thing I discovered while promenading was a weapon store which actually sold machine guns, displaying them in the window.

Barcelona

2009-12-03T19:46:00.002+01:00

and well a bit of yesterday as well to brag about, really.

Due to the fact that J and I had already packed almost 60 kilos of luggage we had no desire to bring any formal clothing onboard and to rent a tux for 130 USD per person did not sound very reasonable either.

For those of you not familiar with cruise ship, there are usually formal nights on board that require you to wear a suit or a tuxedo – but this cruise ship has other option so we went to a signature restaurant with our friends D&D yesterday.

And … IT … WAS … ABSOLUTELY … FANTASTIC

here are just two pictures – the food was mouthwatering, the service well a bit too much really – since you pretty much were taken care of five waiters… :) But let me tell you Kobe beef meetballs are just amazing!!!!!

But today’s stop was Barcelona – this was our second time in Barcelona – and yet again we only visited for the day.

J was feeling a bit under the weather so we took a taxi up the city to the Sagrada Familia by Gaudí – as we did not get to see that last time. It has been a work in progress ever since they started building and it was awesome – here are some pictures from the out and inside.

We walked further, bought a few things here and there and we are both certain that we are going to come back to Barcelona in the future.

The last mile we thought why not catch a cab, the walk to the ship wasn’t the nicest – so I had some time to take pictures from deck 15…

mhm yes, we have a Basketball court…

and a heliport.

Off to dinner soon – well a cocktail with the friends of Dorothy’s first, really. :-)

The Filthy Rich

2009-12-02T17:48:00.002+01:00

Today our Cruise Ship anchored near Villefranche sur Mer a village located between Nice and Monaco on the Cote d’Azur.

Right before breakfast I got our tender tickets to go the mainland – compared to yesterday the sail over was easy as 1-2-3.

J and I went separate ways today, as he was very keen on visiting the little Chagall museum in Nice and I was very keen on visiting Monte Carlo in Monaco.

He said that he enjoyed Nice, even though the city is not as nice as one might think. I guess it also depends on where you get to go if you like four hours per city.

My arrival in Monte Carlo was impressive. The train station is inside a mountain and you need to take lift up 11 levels to get outside.

Elevators and escalators are very common in Monte Carlo as the city as well as the Principauté is actually very small – but built into a mountain

this gets you a bit of an idea what I mean…

Everything was very clean and very effective. I had to go into a shopping center ( yes, I know – twist my arm it was terrible LOL ) and OMG – the Filthy Rich went shopping. I have never seen so many people wearing fur coats, displaying tons of jewelry and getting drinks from their servants…

It really is something else and I would like to spend some more time with J at the Cote d’Azur as it seems to be a very nice place to be.

I did a bit of a workout to make sure that I don’t gain any weight on this cruise. So a bit of swimming, and an hour in the gym should at least let me keep my weight!

While I am typing this on the balcony of our ~~cabin~~ err Stateroom the sun is setting. We will depart Villefrance in about 20 minutes and then it is off to Barcelona. J is trying to set out agenda for Barcelona and this is the few from the balcony as the day ends.

At 7 pm we have dinner reservations at the Tuscan Grille and are looking very much forward to this culinary highlight.

Where is Livorno

2009-12-01T18:56:00.002+01:00

After an early rise and a very comfortable and warm night, we became aware of the fact, that we were not in Livorno but in La Spezia, which is 100 km north of Livorno, due to stormy weather and traffic chaos. This must have been an organizational nightmare for the cruise organizers but at least to our knowledge at the moment, they really worked miracles. They redirected all the tours, organized boat transfer (yes we were not anchoring in the harbor) and provided everyone with train time schedules. Thus prepared we now could admire the rescue boats, which are actually very comfortable (a lot has changed since the Titanic).

The minute we put our feet on solid soil at La Spezia heaven opened its gate and it rained cats and dogs and we stumbled almost 45 minutes soaken wet to the train station where we boarded the train to Pisa.

We were finally meeting my friend B who is married in Italy with 2 adorable children. I think it was the third time we were in Pisa, but we never manage to see the Tower. But it was fun (the weather in Pisa adorable) and it seemed of course too short as always.

After our ride back we were rewarded with a most spectacular view of La Spezia surroundings.

Finding Paradise

2009-12-01T18:55:00.002+01:00

I have to admit, we haven’t been up to a good start, the Celebrity Solstice and I. First I had to be convinced for three years to actually go on a cruise (=prison in my world). Secondly, the day we actually drove to the ship on Monday (Civitavecchia) was rainy and windy, and we almost ended up with our luggage on board of a different ship (due to the remarkable skills of our Italian taxi driver). We were already welcomed by our friend S and parents and the procedure for going on board was easy and after 30 minutes or so we stood in our cabin, which should not be called cabin, but I forgot the name and it actually is a cabin. But what a cabin. I have to admit I am not easily impressed, I am picky, very set in my conception of how things have to be, but – this surely is Paradise. It is not only a spacious, tastefully decorated hotel room with a spectacular view, we also have a very comfortable veranda and a luxurious bathroom, where we almost could take a shower à deux.

After a spectacular brunch-lunch, some slight changes (extra blankets for the always freezing me), we were introduced to life saving measures and had our emergency training. Although it might save lives when on sea, in times of infectious diseases cramping 100 persons into small rooms might be a little contra productive. We finally left the harbor and dined in style with our friends D&D, S&C, J, S’s parents and C’s mom and friends.

I am still getting used to luxury, but it sure is fun

Leaving Rome

2009-12-01T18:54:00.002+01:00

After the afternoon stroll along the Trastevere we had a very enjoyable dinner with D&D at our favorite place near the Spanish steps:

Which are incredible at night:

And the sunday we spent saying goodbye to the cats and the pope:

Torre Argentina

Angel’s Castle and Peter’s Dome

All in all a terrific weekend, which is only the start

La Dolce Vita

2009-11-28T17:24:00.002+01:00

Well, this is our second day in Rome, but today was the first day we were able to enjoy breakfast here at the Hotel.

I can say the reviews about the breakfast were absolutely correct. This is more than you usually get in Italy for breakfast.

There were at least four of five different kinds of cornetti – the Italian mini-croissant, lots of cereal, fresh fruit, even bacon and eggs, mini rolls, ham and cheese – I liked it very much.

This morning we were able to finally catch up with D&D who were redirected to Pisa yesterday – their airline told them it was due to the fact that Industrial Action took place in Rome. I did look at the Rome Airport Website yesterday and only one flight did not land between five and six – BA from Gatwick – all other flights made it on time – so we wonder if maybe something was wrong with the plane and BA only told them it was Industrial Action so that no none would claim compensation because the provided bus trip from Pisa to Rome took them another four hours.

We walked with D&D to the Colloseum together and then we went separate ways. We went to Torre Argentina via Metro and Bus – note to ourselves do not take the bus in Rome in Fall / Winter. It was way to warm and sticky and not nice at all.

J and I separated as he wanted to explore la feltrinelli while I went to Campo di Fiori to explore the fruit and vegetable market:

nice assortment of pumpkins as well as

fresh chilies and pomegranates and a lot of different other very nice looking items:

I met up with J at the bookstore, we bought a few things, went across the street to the cat sanctuary and walked across the Tiber bridge and went looking for a nice place for lunch.

We thought about the place we went to the last time we were in Rome and after about an hour walking though all those lovely little streets, we did find the place again:

Aristocampo – on their little board in front of the restaurant it says “we are against the war and against the tourist menu” – the Menu is usually in inexpensive way to satisfy your appetite as restaurant visits in Rome can be very expensive – however we opted for this tourist menu free place – as we remembered very good food. We were not disappointed.

After a very nice Bruschetta

we both enjoyed pasta and left room for great desert.

Tiramisú and Panna Cotta con Nutella

both very very nice.

After a coffee we continued to walk along the river ( can you see more rain just as the weather forecast predicted LOL )

to catch a tram back to our hotel.

Well either the tram line does not run on weekends or something was wrong with the electricity but there was yet another bus instead of the tram – ugh another busride – very unpleasant again – from now on it will be Metro only!

As J is taking a powernap I am typing this – we will meet up with D&D later tonight – as they ventured over to the Vatican today to do St Peters and the Sistine Chapel.

Lucky First Day in Rome

2009-11-27T21:29:00.002+01:00

We didn’t start out that good. I was cranky, always on edge. Torsten’s father fetched us – highway to airport in traffic jam. But he worked miracles, we arrived on time – even got a coffee in the lounge

– and off we went to Rome. When we arrived and waited for the luggage, Torsten listened to an announcement about a workers council meeting, but at that time didn’t pay much attention. The taxi was almost waiting for us and instead of showers of rain, we had the most splendid autumn sun.

After checking into the hotel we followed up on our last holiday highlights on foot:

Colosseum

Forum Romanum at sun set

Torre Argentina Cats

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain (which I hated at daylight, but is actually quite pretty at night)

and finally our dinner at our tiny tiny non-tourist restaurant Piazza di Spagna in the Vicolo Belsiana near the Spanish Steps where we obviously were the only guests tonight – Picture taken after dinner!

Unfortunately the plane of our friends D&D from Gatwick was (due to that mysterious workers council meeting ) redirected to Pisa where they are still waiting for a bus, which will take them in a relaxing 4 hours trip to Rome.

We survived Cuba

2009-11-26T23:20:00.002+01:00

Yes, we made it. Finally. Barely.

Torsten’s last day with delicious food and chitty chatty – me on panic mode, accompanied by the announcement of the dismissal of 4 managers. They were “released”, which I normally associate with dolphins after treatment can finally swim into the open sea , into freedom.

So, while enjoying that freedom picture, we arrived at the airport (packed with cars), schlepped our 3 suitcases over half of it (now 60 kg, how did we do that?) until we faced our late-night-check-in-line of almost 50 people. But hey, they put our small tiny suitcases to shame. Yes, it was the Cuban flight. And it must have been evacuation day. And from the proportion of the luggage, I wouldn’t dismiss the idea that the Brandenburg Gate is now missing. How fortunate that there were only 2 counters open, that gave us nearly 2 hours time to enjoy the fantastic atmosphere of Tegel airport.

Finally at home we are finishing the last tiny touches (and looking frantically for lost and missing items) – but there is hope – tomorrow will come.

Less then 3 days

2009-11-24T20:54:00.002+01:00

Time does fly – I think it has been more than 18 months since that one day Chris and Stefan told us about that new cruise ship that they will be travelling with and the rather inexpensive price for a 13 night cruise.

Jens and I thought about it and after some long talks paid our 900 USD deposit and booked our first ever cruise.

Now the flight to Rome is only three days away. We are packed. 3 suitcases and about 50 kilos ( 110 lbs. ) are waiting to be transported to the airport on Thursday night. We are going to make use of the late night check in and not worry about schlepping everything to the airport on the actual departure day. My ( Torsten ) Dad will pick us up on Friday and drive us to TXL airport.

We will be taking pictures and write about our adventures on here!

Pre-Cruise

2009-11-23T19:59:00.002+01:00

All the preparations have been made, boarding the plane Friday,...

We both will finish work on Thursday around 6pm. We will bring our luggage to the airport and do a late-night check in - so that on Friday all we need to bring is our carry-on luggage.

We are very excited!

Christmas already

2007-12-22T11:32:00.000+01:00

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.

Update

2007-04-27T16:30:00.001+02:00

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

2007-02-12T19:59:00.000+01:00

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

2007-02-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

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.

Things that make you go "mhm"

2007-02-04T10:14:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-31T11:21:00.001+01:00

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

2006-12-23T17:38:00.000+01:00

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

still no snow

2006-12-10T11:11:00.000+01:00

It's quite amazing, really - it is the 10th of December and so far we have not had a centimenter of snow in Berlin, left alone any freezing or icy roads, nothing. It is quite a warm fall.
Let's see what London will be like this upcoming weekend - we are going to spend a long weekend with our friends D&D and will meet up with other friends in the London area. We will go to two shows. On Friday we are off to see Avenue Q and on Sunday we will enjoy the all male performance of Swan Lake we will be sitting very up front... :)
This will be our last trip of 2006. We are already well into planning 2007, Algarve in February, London -to see Dolly Parton in concert- in March, Rome in June, Algarve again in September and we will be in Lisbon in December of 2007.
Otherwise Jens is not quite back on track, yet. He still coughs and just won't get rid of that. He's been back at work for almost two weeks now - but his work that's another story he might be writing about soon.
Our Christmas and Hanukkah cards were sent this Thursday, so watch out they should be arriving in your mailbox shortly.
Love. T

Crashed

2006-11-25T20:56:00.000+01:00

Has it really already been two weeks since my last post? Crazy, how work and Jens can keep me busy. Jens has been sick at home ever since we returned from Florida. He caught a cold on the place getting back, and that bloody cold just won't go away. So he will do a big check-up this Tuesday and we will see if there is something else, since it is quite unusual to be off with a cold for 2 1/2 weeks. Plus he really feels ill and coughs a lot! He even did not come along with me and the cats to the vet today - where Kitti and Dolly got their yearly shots. But let's go back to yesterday - Crashed - yes - that's what happened yesterday - another car crashed into our little blue C3... I was parked in front of the post office and had opened my door just a little - an old lady was passing with her bike - when I got ready to get out of the car - another car literally opened my door - and dented it. Really crazy. The road with our local post office is very tiny - so the guy that damaged my door was backing into a parking space on the other side of the road - however he used such a bad angle that his front bumper actually got stuck in the driver's door. UGH! Had to wait for the police for like an hour - and they thought it was both our fault - I should not have opened the door when traffic did not allow it - however my door was already open - so the passing traffic should have noticed it... Well I called a lawyer to take my case, because at this point I think they have to put in a new door. It still closed - but it makes a funny noise now - I shall take a picture tomorrow and post this - it doesn't look all that bad - we'll see. We want to see the new Bond movie - but with Jens under the weather this might take a while before we get there. Maybe we will watch it in England - we will visit our friends D&D for a long weekend in December - but we have a tight schedule... We'll see. Smiles from very unseasonably warm Berlin ( 17°C or 64°F on a 25th of November 2006 ) T

Bye bye Florida

2006-11-11T00:40:00.000+01:00

Amazing how fast two weeks can pass when you are on vacation.
We had a fantastic time here. I was able to relax and calm down quite a bit. Jens was not as able to do so due to at least four or five migrane attacks in the past couple of weeks.
We of course have luggage issues.
Due to fact that now you are only allowed to have 23 kilos per suitcase we are a bit limited in what we can schlepp over to Berlin.
Our friends S&C gave us one of their suitcases and we have a duffel bag - so we are looking at roughly 4 times 22 kilos.
Our little C3 should be able to get us home tomorrow.
:-)
Pictures and all shall be posted once we receive the pictures back in the mail.

T

Vacation - Our Night with Barbra

2006-11-04T00:14:00.000+01:00

So Monday night we had our night out with Barbra and Il Divo. The concert was a blast. It was really wonderful to hear all the songs from days gone by and see a very entertaining Barbra Streisand. Mind you we were also chosen as the audience for her Showtime Presentation later this year and for a DVD that will come out soon. Due to the fact that the event was taped something very funny happened right before the show. When we looked around at 730 pm there were maybe 200 or 300 empty seats down in front of the stage and on the sides - and all of a sudden there were tons of people lining up filling up the seats... So that were would not be a single empty seat being seen on TV... We thought this to be very funny. We sat in the last row of the stadium but still had an excellent view - there were two large screen where the event was telecast, so really there was no need to pay $1,000 per ticket - we paid about 100 Euro to hear Barbra - and it was damn worth it! Well off we go - we need to catch some sun, it is snowing back in Berlin - ugh the mere thought of wet winter weather makes me want to win the lotto so much more. :) T

Vacation - The Flight

2006-10-31T16:02:00.000+01:00

What is nicer than two weeks spent in Florida while Germany is opening the doors for winter, snow and ice. You just board a plane and after some nine hours you have crossed the ocean and landed in New York. One and a half hours later you take off to Florida. Easy. That was the plan. After eight hours over the Atlantic Ocean it started with a circle on the screen. This circle was not exactly what we expected because it represented our flight line. A circle is far from a line and we were informed that because of bad weather conditions the Kenedy Airport (NY) had closed one of two lanes, everything was delayed. But since every flight was delayed the same would happen to our connection flights, we shouldn't be worried at all. We started worrying when the pilot said that the airport had been closed down for change of lanes. We were furthermore worried when we were informed that the airport had been opened again but because of our low level of fuel we had to land now or be redirected to another airport. Fortunately we were allowed to land. 200 metres from the gate the plane stopped. We were told that because of little space the plane had to be carried in by a carrier into the gate. Ten minutes later we were headed for the gate. Another two minutes later the captain told us that the engine of the carrier had broken down and we had to wait for an exchange carrier. It was exactly at that moment that I felt histerical for the first time on the flight.
J

Who would have thought that after having travelled for almost 24 hours we would actually get settled that fast here in Florida.
Yes, it took us a mere twentyfour hours to get from our door in Berlin to our friends house in Fort Lauderdale - due to the fact that we went through JKF and that they had closed that airport for like thirty minutes due to bad weather thus a bazillion flights in and out of JFK were delayed. We kind of like HAD to land due to the fact that the flight took longer than usual in the first place due to very heavy head winds and we were almost out of kerosene when we finally were cleared to land. Needless to say that one flight out of New York was not delayed - our connection to Fort Lauderdale. In fact they started earlier. A lot of energy and a lot of I WAS HERE FIRST made it possible that Jens and I were in front of everyone else in line of rebooking our ticket, and we did manage to get on a plane to Atlanta to connect to Fort Lauderdale, even though that last flight was sold out and overbooked we still managed to get on the plane and land in Fort Lauderdale at 1240am - some six hours later then we should have and well less one suitcase, Jens' suitcase vanished. Well not completey they found it Sunday afternoon but not before our American Express Travel Insurance kicked in and we were allowed to go shopping for 600 Euro in clothes and bath room necessities. :-)
T

off we go

2006-10-27T22:54:00.000+02:00

In about 12 hours we will be at the airport on our way to Florida.
Fortunately we both already had a day off today so we managed to get a lot of things done. One thing I did not get done today was secure two tickets for Dolly Parton. She is actually going to be in Europe next spring - but won't go to Germany. So we looked at tickets in Stockholm - sold out - and guess when there will be tickets on sale for Oslo and Helsinki? Tomorrow and Monday - I guess we will have to get up very early on Monday to see if we can get tickets in Helsinki...
:)
Will try to post while in Florida.

T

Cats are back "home" / Real Internet Speed

2006-10-22T17:25:00.000+02:00

Cats are back „home“ Real Internet Speed /

On Thursday we did celebrate our 10 year -Anniversary. We picked up the five cats that were castrated at the shelter. All went amazing well. All cats are now chipped, and castrated. They were even de-wormed and de-ticked. And all we did was pay the gas and gave them a tiny donation of €25 - the rest was paid for by “Aktion Tier” The mother cat and all four babies remain in the area of our development - they all came back to be fed - Thursday night, after we returned for the movie The Devil Wears Prada there was one hedgehog and six cats waiting to be fed ( yes, six - Daddy was there as well - we did not manage to catch him - ) the movie btw was a lot of fun.

For the past seven weeks we have experience with something called Vodafone At Home Easy Box allowing us internet access through a mobile modem. Due to the fact, that the development that we live in was built in the late 90’s when DSL was still being tested German Telekom smart as they are used fiber optics to connect our phone and cable TV lines to the main switch. Unfortunately DSL only works on copper lines, thus for the past seven years we have simply been waiting for a real internet connection or a flat rate or anything of that matter. Now it is 2006 and German Telekom is up again and re-arranging millions of kilometers of new fiber optic lines to connect homes to the phone switches to allow download speeds of up to 50 Mbit/s. Well you can guess - the fiber optic lines that have used here in the late 90’s are not compatible with the new switches, thus nothing for us.
However, we can now use the new 3G network to use Internet Access though a wireless and mobile modem.
On Friday they must have upgraded our mobile tower, because we can finally surf with real speed. 1.8 Mbit/s. We can finally watch a movie preview or must not worry about a new 30MB Microsoft Update. Mind you it is not cheap, but so rewarding ‘cos you no longer sit and wait in front of the monitor to wait and wait and wait.

T
:-)

T-2 and T-11

2006-10-17T22:50:00.001+02:00

Only two more days and Jens and I will have been together for ten wonderful years. Amazing how long we live side by side... and eleven more days before we are off to spend a couple of weeks in Floida.
Nothing new on the cats, looks like as if we can fetch them on Thursday...

Good night from Berlin

Toddy

Did we mention

2006-10-16T22:47:00.000+02:00

Did we mention

we are off to visit our friends C & S in Fort Lauderdale very soon and luck would have it that my dear colleague D mentioned that one of her friends is flying to the US to see Ms Streisand in concert…
Low and behold - she will be in SE Florida the same time we are going to be there and we actually managed to get ticket for her show on 30 October 2006 - we might not have front row tickets, but still - we will see her - maybe from far far far far far far away, but you know the 2,000 $$$ tickets were already gone, so we had to settle with this - still
WE ARE GOING TO SEE BARBRA STREISAND IN CONCERT - how cool is that?

Smiles from T & J

www.barbratour.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand:_The_Tour

Eureka, we did it!

2006-10-15T22:41:00.000+02:00

Eureka, we did it!

What did we do? Well, we managed to finally get another blog entry and update online and we got the cats today. All five cats that we have been feeding for the past three months. We caught all of them, we even managed to get the mother, and never in a million light years did I really believe in catching her. She has been suspicious of the trap the day I started to feed the cat inside of the cage. But, guess what? She must have been really hungry today.
It was actually easier than I thought it would b, never the less very emotionally touching. After the last cat was in the box I really cried - maybe because I felt relieved, maybe all the stress just stopped.
Our wonderful neighbor Marianne managed to convince the boss of the Humane Society and their janitor that it would be best to bring them to the kennel today rather than tomorrow. We have no place to keep five wild cats… Well, we had them in four transport boxes (thanks to all of our neighbors) but we did not want to keep them all boxed up inside our apartment. Anyway, the janitor came out to the kennels and we left the cats there to be castrated tomorrow.
We will now have to wait and see, if they want to keep the cats so that they can give them up for adoption, or if they will give them back to us so that we can bring them back to the place where we caught them. I guess they might keep the kittens, and return the mother - who might just be pregnant again… We didn’t get too close to her to have a proper look.
What a day…
In the end we had the trap like six weeks and were patient enough not to rush things, now we have the whole lot and at least from that batch there won’t be any new cats!
What else is new? We are leaving in less than two weeks for our vacation in Florida. We both can not wait to get out of here.
I am sure when and if Jens has the time to write he will tell you why he needs it - I have been working like silly for the past four weeks. We had our bank merger on the weekend of the 23rd of September, mostly everything went smooth on our end, but since we are not alone in this world and there are other banks that can make mistakes, let me tell you - THEY MADE MISTAKES.
Things are finally cooling down thus I can actually take a day of next Thursday - both Jens and I get to take a day off… The 19th of October is our “Kennenlerntag” - the day that we met - ten years ago. So we want to do something special on that day. We might so out for lunch or dinner and we want to go and see “The Devil Wears Prada” - the preview look fantastic so we thought that might be a fun thing to do on our special day.
Anyway - sorry for not posting anything here for the past two months, but we have simply been too busy with other things.
Smiles from Berlin - where fall is knocking on our door - the temperatures are dropping close to 0°C at night, and where the colors of the leaves are changing from green to yellow and red and the chestnut trees are almost without any leaves already…

Torsten

Wonders do happen

2006-08-13T21:51:00.000+02:00

We were prepared. We had two umbrellas, two jackets, two sweatshirts and at least two emergency plans for pouring rain at the wedding.
What we weren’t prepared for was the sun, the boats and the food.
But first things first.

When I go back to Hamburg it’s always a trip down memory lane. I grew up there, studied there, was in love there and had a lot of friends. Coming back always is remembering and meeting old friends - on purpose and without.

So I knew coming back to the church where I sang 7 years in the choir would ultimately end up in meeting old pals. So we weren’t even in the church when I met the first singers. And it is always amazing what time can do to some people and to others - they walk untouched by time (even though you hoped they might change). So it was a little bit the coming home of the prodigal son. But since they all had to sing the talking had to be after the wedding.

It was a lovely church wedding. Opening up with a canon Isaiah 60,1 sung by everybody as the couple entered the church: Up! let your face be bright, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is shining on you. So from now on this is a melody I will always associate with Julika and Volker. Family members and the couple were participating in the ceremony. It was double performed by two priests; the gay one was definitely entertaining and joyful, very important, because evangelic ceremonies don’t have the aura of laughter and joy.

After the Praise everybody was shaking hands and kissing in front of the church, it had a little bit the impression of the Royal Couple greeting the guests as it took more than half an hour. Then we went in splendid sunshine down to the river Alster, more sea really, and entered a boat already arranged for with coffee and cake.

Here I met Uta and Helmut again from the choir. We were good friends 15 years ago, and it was immediately a situation like last week, Uta and me arranging for the tickets and talking away like always. Do you remember my daughter? Yes I did, a tiny baby a couple of weeks old. My memory had nothing to do with the 19 year old beauty, ready for take off to Dublin on a 10 months Au Pair job, who stood in front of me. Yes we had a lot of fun on the boat and later on at the buffet.

But we had a few challenges ahead. We had to change the boat first. Therefore the tickets. And then we waited. The Photographer took a picture (not one hour, just one pic) and we waited. And waited. Finally the ferry arrived, we went on board - and had to get off the next station due to a change in schedule. Unfortunately all the guests piled up on the pier (now 3 ferries were already missing) looked like Hamburg was about to be evacuated this very minute on this very pier in exactly that ferry line. Some took the opportunity to have a little ice cream or snack while waiting again. Then the ferry came, there was pushing and pushing and pushing, then the door was closed. Ups. Later on we learned, not everybody made it on the ferry and had to wait for the next one.

Nevertheless the happy couple and the happy guests, oblivious to any missing members of the party finally arrived at the church where the couple planned a little greeting with champagne and orange juice. And some sort of game. The idea was somehow good but nobody really understood it, everybody was just doing what they were told and after another half an hour we finally entered the dinner room.

Fish Buffet. Yes it was a paradise of fish, mainly herring, in red wine, in sherry, pure, fried, linguini with salmon. I was in heaven. And Torsten in hell. Everybody who knows him knows: he hates fish, every fish, however cooked or prepared. So his dinner mainly consisted of fried potatoes and a little bit of tomatoes and mozzarella. We shared a table with Uta and Helmut and their two kids and had a lot of fun, at least talking, some also eating.
Jens

CLS will make me go crazy

2006-08-11T17:03:00.000+02:00

CLS will make me go crazy

Does anyone besides Valley Boy know what CLS means? Well no – you don’t really want to know more than – it is eating up my time at work. All I do these days is sort out spread sheets write up drafts, check with my legal department if my wording is appropriate, set time times, make phone call, set up data bases… Sound fun? Yeah to an extent, but I have my “other” jobs, too.
Need to manage eight lovely staff members ( well seven really since one is more or less on maternity leave ) and answer to my boss and help wherever I can.

There will be a lot of work ahead of me since my company will change it’s name and it’s BIC-Code and thus will or already has produced mass confusion in the financial markets. We will have to wait and see how much more can go wrong.

In a few moments I will be driving Jens and myself to Hamburg, filled the car up this morning so that we don’t break down on the Autobahn like a truck yesterday morning. Crazy – it completely blocked the inner city Berlin highway – a silly truck driver that did not have enough gas in his truck. It would have been even worse but due to the summer holidays only 1/3 or the regular people are driving to work.

It is not too much of a drive only 280 kilometers, so hopefully we will get there in 2 ½ hours.

I will let you know if Jens was too cold, or I managed to warm him up – if anything else major happened.

So keep coming back to our blog and enjoy reading.

Toddy

Miscellaneous

2006-08-11T16:26:00.000+02:00

I’m still confused about flying in the future:
No hand luggage, no books, no laptop, no cell phone, no drinks only baby food if you drink something - which is exactly how the terrorists planned to attack (bottles with double bottom), doesn’t make sense really. If you take a closer look: the companies are desperate, and have no solution really.

Business trips will be a lot more difficult in the future. If they implement that in Germany - that would save Telekom a lot of money. By the way, my company is losing money by the minute which doesn’t make my job secure, more to the contrary. And they just cut down 4 posts in my team, which fortunately only hit the vacancies.

Meanwhile we prepare for our Hamburg Wedding; weather forecast is rain, rain, rain and 18°C. Shipping on Alster and Elbe and always walking from one point to another is a nightmare for me to look forward to. I’m open for wonders. We’ll tell the story.

Now I got to go to fetch my husband
Jens

Red Alert

2006-08-10T18:11:00.000+02:00

Red alert, terrorists trying to sneak bombs in their carry-on onto an airplane? No more hand luggage to be allowed? I don’t believe the headlines that I am reading this morning. Looks, like we have to be all scared again. I just read that the US even won’t allow anything liquid into the passenger cabin… No more drinks, no hand gel, no lotion nothing… SIGH!

Have you ever tried to pass the security in Berlin Schönefeld leaving on Easyjet? Last time we went to London it took lots of time to go through security. I had to give them my belt. I think my husband had to give them his shoes… They scanned everything! And then in London Gatwick they did not even want my mobile phones (yes, I know, phones - do not even dare to leave a comment here!) or my wallet – almost waved me though like that. Still, I am sure there is a threat somewhere.

On a brighter note – we are off to a wedding to Hamburg tomorrow – wait did I say brighter note? Jens isn’t all too thrilled about it. It will be cold and rainy over the weekend and our friends have a boat trip planned that will go through the Hamburg harbor. And those of you that have met Jens know that he can be what we call in German a “Frostbeule” – someone that can not tolerate cold weather. Well we will just have to see what will happen. See ya, Toddy

One day and thirty years later

2006-08-09T12:49:00.000+02:00

One day and thirty years after I started going to elementary school – time is fleeting…

I never thought that keeping up with a blog would be an idea in my mind – but here I am with my second entry. I think Jens and I will just add whatever we think is on our minds separate from each other rather than wait for the other to sit down and decide what to write…

For the past two weeks we have been feeding four kittens and their mother in the back yards of our apartment complex. The mother does not seem to have a real home and she has been pregnant before but never manage to actually grow any of their kittens up. Now here we are with four adorable little cats about 8 weeks old and we wonder how long should we continue to feed them, what should we do about controlling their reproduction? I mean within half a year we might end up with dozens of cats… That is not a bad idea for us in the first place, but nothing that you would want in a residential neighborhood.

Any ideas?

Otherwise – this weekend Jens and I will be in Hamburg to attend the wedding of a dear friend of ours. Actually she is already married, but they will have their church ceremony this weekend and the actual party – couldn’t miss that now, could we? And after having spent a weekend in England to attend Valley Boys wedding we are still in a bit of a festive mood and it will be interesting to see if we can actually compare the two.

Weather – does anyone know what is wrong with the weather? For most of the World Cup Germany and especially Berlin we “under attack” by a heat wave unseen in Berlin, for a long time. Mind you Jens loved the hot, hot weather – I only do to a certain degree as we don’t have AC unit in our apartments sleeping in rooms that have only a little under 30°C (that is 86 of these Fahrenheits) becomes just a bit uncomfortable! And now? Rain? Cold spells? This is supposed to be summer. I am at work wearing long-sleeved shirts again – something that I would only do in September maybe or in October… Oh well global warming… Oh wait – warming? It is colder than it should be – how do we call that now?

That’s it from lil ol me
Talk to you all soon… T

Hurray my first entry

2006-08-05T14:03:00.000+02:00

Hurray, my first entry.I still wonder why we write in English although we are Germans. On the other hand all our friends stand a chance to understand it because everybody knows a little English. (Do Englishmen really know other languages? -Sorry folks, but I think it’s true!).And we are not limited to English and German.Torsten speaks French, I still try… - Bienvenus les Françaises

I speak Portuguese - Bem-vindos aos Portugueses

Because of my year in Israel doing social service near Haifa I feel with all the Israelis and Arabs there ברוחים הבאים

And Torsten adds in Dutch - Een haartelijk welkom

Ach so und natürlich ein Willkommen für unsere deutschen Freunde

Hasn’t been that difficult - I love grammar correction by computer.By the way, our fourth time New German Rechtschreibung (correct spelling) has now come to an end (in every way I may add) on August, 1st. You can now write everything how you like it because you have several alternatives and no one knows the right way to write anymore. Günther- our old friend in Hamburg, best man and former German teacher - gave me the advice: just write “dass” with double ss instead of ß and everybody believes you are using New Correct Spelling and doesn’t bother anymore.So for now -bye Jens

First real entry

2006-08-04T21:05:00.000+02:00

Now this will be OUR blog.

Inspired by our friends from the Valley of the Trolley Dollies we will now venture out and inform you about what is going on in our lives.
Us… Tor is Torsten and Jen is Jens - we are together for almost ten years now and we have been married since 2003…
I wonder if we will be able to post something here everyday but let’s try it…

We learned yesterday that our dear friends J,W and S from Pennsylvania will finally be flying to Germany to visit us. I have been penfriends with J for like 20 years and over the years have visited her and her family numerous times. Now it is time for the three of them to come and visit us. We are very excited.

Smiles - T and J