A weekday story

G'day all!
This post won't need an Executive Summary...its mid-week and therefore most of what I do is pretty ordinary...you know, cooking, doing dishes etc. But somehow even this usually boring work is different when one is on holidays, don't you think? Not the same as when its just part of everyday drudgery and you're trying to fit it in during a working week. [grin]

Great to hear from you Allison, Skye & Amber!
Allison, you've now told the world that your ideal life would be to stay home and send your kids out for beer. Your professional reputation might be in tatters!!! ROFL
Amber, really great news about the rental assistance - you can afford to think about overseas holidays again.
Skye...what diet?? My last posting admitted that I have already gained weight [resigned look]. And how to order pizza in German? Easy..."Ich möchte eine kleine Pizza mit Tomate, Salami und Käse bitte." So...how did I do? :-)

A Fun Wednesday

Anyway, just wanted to tell you that I had a fun day yesterday. It was sunny again so I thought I would take myself to town for the afternoon. Put essentials into the backpack (camera, German dictionary, money, map etc) then walked into Fulda along the bike track. Its a lovely walk..past lots of little Lauben which are small gardens. Most people live in apartments here in Germany and don't have gardens like we do in Australia, so areas of land are set aside and people buy or rent these small plots to grow vegetables, fruit trees etc. They don't live there permanently but spend many sunny days there, tending their gardens. Its not just here...there are heaps in capital cities like Berlin too.

Found my way into town and wandered around looking for new jeans and a T'shirt, as I'm running out all the time due to the warmer than expected weather. Lots of language fun including needing to ask where the change rooms were, that I didn't need a bag and figuring out money etc but I think I managed well. Its getting easier. I even went into the Subway shop and ordered myself a chicken salad for lunch...but forgot how to say 'no onion' in German so did lots of pointing and vigourously shaking my head. The young 'sandwich artist' got the idea. [laugh]

I definitely must look like a local as I got asked directions again, and this time I took it all in my stride including working out that the lady couldn't see the map I offered as she had broken her glasses and left them home...so I lent her mine. We said goodbye with lots of smiles. [beaming grin] BTW I've stopped saying I speak NO German, and have started to just apologise that my German is 'sehr schlecht'...or very bad. I guess its a good sign. :-D

I got my jeans and t'shirt at a shop called Galleria...think Myer. What do you think? Pretty ordinary but I was going for cheap rather than trendy. I also found this lovely shawl which will come in real handy as its a lightweight scarf for around my neck. I brought a woollen one over for the Scandinavian tour but that is overkill here right now...I just need something to wrap around my neck when the sun goes down.

Like last night when we went to the Schützenhaus again for tea and drinks. I'd only been there once before (last Wednesday night) but when we came in I got such a warm welcome! They are such nice people. The lady looking after the bar even remembered what I liked to drink.! [grin] And unfortunately I did a bit much of that as apart from some wine with tea, we HAD to do some toasting as it was one guy's birthday....and then they had another round of Schnapps when they wanted to toast somebody who is fighting cancer at the moment. EVERYTHING calls for a round of Schnapps here....and who am I to break this age-old tradition? [indignant look]

Oh, but I woke with a headache this morning, and took a bit longer to get into the day. Self-inflicted, I know, so I'll get no sympathy from anyone. [grin]

Next posting will probably be a long one again as I will need to tell you what we got up to this weekend. Only Saturday is planned so far....we are going to try and break Hartmut (Norbert's cousin) out on parole from a 'health clinic' for a few hours. Want to know what this is all about? [secretive look] Well, you'll have to read the next post!! [laugh]

Tschüs!