Between the Holidays...

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas time :)

During the past weeks I have been a lazy blogger, as I must admit – apart from posting the Advent Calendar songs and occasional comments in your blogs. Of course I also posted on Facebook and Twitter.

Our house is now online for sale and so we are expecting a very busy and exciting year 2010!

Advent Calendar Song No. 22

Christmas Gift

I received this beautiful gift from my dear friend Annette - thank you :)

Advent Calendar Song No. 18

Advent Calendar Song No. 12

Advent Calendar Song No. 9

Advent Calendar Song No. 5

Advent Calendar

I invite you to follow the Advent Calendar on my five blogs from December 1! On each day a Christmas song can be heard on one of my blogs. On which of the blogs the song for the particular day can be found will be published on my Twitter page. Have fun :)

A Successful Day!

Even though I’m rather tired I just wanted to write a little update.

At first we showed to the expert the apartment we wanted to buy. He took a close look at everything from the loft to the cellar. We had only hoped that he did not find too many faults with the condition of the house, but it was just the contrary! He showed us many things which had been renewed in the house since it had been built and which we as “ordinary people” had not seen. So afterwards we went to the town hall right away to talk with the people responsible for this to secure the apartment for us :)

Then we talked about the sale of our present house. The expert set an amount which we already had expected, so no unpleasant surprises here either :) With our share of this amount we would be able to buy the apartment and still have some money left for renovations.

Next Wednesday...

... we hope to get to know more about the issues regarding the house we sell and the apartment we would like to buy. We will meet with our expert - who had been here on Tuesday to take a look at the house - and will show him the apartment, hoping of course that he will tell us that it's worth it :) Also he will most likely tell us then how much money we can expect when selling the house.

No More Snow

We had no more snow until now since this first one, just a lot of rain. I don’t care much, though.

One of our appointments of last week regarding the sale of our house had to be cancelled unfortunately and has been postponed until tomorrow. I hope that it can finally take place, because then we will know for how much we can sell the house.

With regard to an apartment for us things are looking much better at the moment. Last Wednesday we had a look at an apartment which we liked very much and it is for sale at a very reasonable price. If our expert sees no obstacle we will buy it, so that we already know where to go when our house is sold.

First Snow

Today we had the first snow this winter. However, it was mixed with rain and therefore didn’t stay. This kind of weather makes me look forward to Advent time and Christmas even more.

This week we are having two appointments regarding our intended move – on Wednesday one regarding a potential apartment for us and on Thursday we are talking to an architect who will assist us in selling our house. He will not do everything an estate agent would do, but all the things which are important for us and which we could hardly do ourselves. I’m a little stressed because of this and I’m sure the stress will increase, but I try to keep my thoughts fixed on the result – a nice new apartment which will be much more suitable for us than this house and which will be closer to the area where Hermann works!

Selling A House

Of course, now that it is settled that we are going to offer the house for sale I’m occupied with several tasks surrounding it. Firstly, cleaning out the house which means sorting, checking and throwing away things which have been collected by its inhabitants within the last 45 years – and that is a lot of work to do! Secondly, we are trying to figure out whether we should hire an estate agent (which would cost the buyer extra money) or not. Thirdly, I’m looking for a suitable and affordable apartment for us to move in once we have sold the house.

Recently I found out from the internet that one of the neighbors on the other side of our street is also offering his house. He is an elderly widower and so the house and garden are too large for him now as well. The house is similar to ours (there are a few differences, though) and he told me that he has been offering it for five or six weeks now which is not long, of course. He also said that there are potential buyers. It will be interesting for us to see how fast he will be able to sell it!

Monty Python's Flying Circus

This is completely bizarre humor – enjoy :)

Changes...

Strange where time goes – just found that it is already one week since I blogged here.

I had a lot to think about during the recent days, though. We have decided to sell the house we are living in and buy a flat / apartment instead within the next two years. There are several reasons for it: first, half of the house belongs to Hermann’s brother and he wants to get rid of it, as he does not live here and sees no sense in keeping it, as it only costs him money; second, the house is old and will cost more and more money in repair – more than we can afford in the long run; third, the house and garden are much too large for the two of us to manage – Hermann has got so much work in his job (seven days a week is the rule) and for me it would be more than a full time job to manage the house – apart from the fact that with regard to the garden I have got no idea how to take care of it. It will be hard for Hermann to leave his parents’ house after such a long time, but of course we have to be sensible. So we are looking for a nice affordable flat to buy and hope that when we offer the house we will get at least the price for it which the bank says it is worth, because our share of it would be about the sum a flat would cost.

How To Win The Nobel Peace Prize

I took this test recently…

You are a Model Citizen of the World

You care deeply about the world, and you do everything you can to help. You feel like the injustices in the world are your injustices, and you fight to fix them. You have a deep appreciation for the differences that make up the world. You feel like you have something to gain from every culture and country.

Are You a Citizen of the World?

… and looking at the result I think I would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, too – since it now is being awarded for not much more than good intentions and nice words *lol*

Take a look at the previous Nobel Peace Prize winners and you will see that they all worked for years, sometimes decades, for peace and change and some even had to suffer persecution for their efforts before they were awarded this prize – none of them received it in advance and for almost nothing!

Autumn

It is finally here – even though sometimes in our area it still feels like summer – and this deserves a new layout. I also received lovely gifts from Annette and Lori – thank you :)

Day of German Unity

19 years ago today, Germany was reunited. The video shows the events in 1989 which eventually led to this:

Last Day in September

Tomorrow starts the last quarter of this year - really don’t know where time went!

My next “duty” will be to prepare our garden for winter, but as long as it is still warm and sunny here (which I appreciate, of course) I don’t think it is good to cut down the plants.

The ticks are also still active, I was bitten by one last weekend – don’t know how this happened, I really take care that they don't crawl on me! Anyway, I tried to remove it myself as I have done several times with Yaris, but the tick’s head still stuck inside. So on Monday I had to see a doctor to have it removed – and this resulted in a little surgery, because it was so deep inside. Now I have got a band-aid on my right hip and have to check whether a large red spot will appear, because that would be a sign for borreliosis. Then I would have to see the doctor again to get antibiotics. Luckily just by the beginning of September I had received the last shot of my TBE vaccination, so I should at least be protected against that nasty illness.

Time Flies!

It has been already one week since I posted here – I can hardly believe it! Where did time go? However, it is still summer here, even though officially it’s autumn, so I have an excuse ;)

It is certainly not Twitter which keeps me from blogging, even though it is very interesting, especially to follow some tweets of organizations, etc. It is very different from Facebook where I usually only accept people as “friends” who I know at least from somewhere else in the virtual world. Also I found many people there who I knew from the past and some who I thought about often and wondered what had become of them. On Twitter I did not find many people I know, but there it is not important. I use it primarily to get information and as it takes only minutes to read through all this and “filter” the interesting tweets it is very convenient and takes much less time than I had thought.

Tweet Tweet

Since Tuesday afternoon Yaris is not our only pet any more – we have now also got two budgies named Fitzwilliam Darcy and Henry Tilney. They are very beautiful little birds, but they like to quarrel a bit from time to time ;)

The second new thing is that after thinking a while about it I have now got a Twitter account. I was just curious how it worked and I’m not sure yet what exactly will become of it, but I will certainly not spend a lot of time tweeting. I still prefer Facebook and blogging, although I’m a little lazy even with that at the moment – I guess it will get better once the weather gets ugly ;)

Patrick Swayze (1952 - 2009)

This morning I heard on the radio that he had lost the battle against cancer. I find this particularly sad because he was one of the few celebrities who despite having been one of the “sexiest men alive” he remained married to Lisa Niemi who had been his wife since 1975. The video below shows the couple dancing – very beautiful:

Sunny Days

Summer does not seem to give up yet - the past days were sunny and according to the weather forecast there are more to come :) The temperatures are a little lower, though, which I prefer - I don't like it very hot. However, autumn / fall is behind the corner, as one can see on the trees - the leaves are getting brown or red (which is a beautiful sight) and start falling off. Also during the night it gets quite cold.

In about 3.5 months it is Christmas already - can you imagine *s*

September...

It’s getting colder now, especially in the mornings and evenings, and summer finally seems to come to an end. We had good one this year, even too hot for me sometimes. After such a summer I’m not sad when it gets colder again. Now I’m looking forward to cozy days inside :) I think every season has its advantages and disadvantages, and none is better than the other!

A New Month...

... deserves a new layout - hope you like it :)

Vacation

We had a great time on our trip to East Frisia, it was a very relaxing vacation :)

Talking about vacation, I know the summer season is almost over, but I would like to introduce to you this campaign below, in which we take part (we sent pictures from around our home town and from Armenia). I think it is a very nice thing which a father is doing for his murdered son and it is also a campaign to condemn terrorism which kills so many innocent people each year:

Back!

Just a short note that I'm back ;)

Just One More Week...

... until our vacation starts :) We will travel up north to join my father and "little" brother Stefan in a trip with the rv to the north sea area of Germany. I'm very much looking forward to it!

I hope that when I return I will also have some more energy for blogging again. During the entire summer season I have felt lazy and uncreative. Usually this is not the case, but this year the summer was extremely "tropical" in our area and I am not tropicalized at all! This is why I do not travel to countries with such a climate, but if the tropical weather comes to us I cannot do anything to prevent being exposed to it :(

The Isle of Mainau in 18 Minutes

This is approximately the time the slide show takes which I have put online. So if you are in the mood for a short virtual vacation, you are welcome :) Of course a real life visit on this beautiful "flower island" in Lake Constance is much more worth it, but not everyone can get there.

Another Thing Which Shouldn't Be...

Found on Cody’s and Maria’s blog:

Hermann's Cake

Hermann made a cake today with redcurrants from our garden (we have lots of them this year). It was so complicated that I was glad I only had to do the washing up – which was a lot of work but at least not complicated ;) Even though he claimed it was the first cake he had made all by himself it was sooo delicious :d

Thank you!

Thanks to all of you who posted birthday wishes :)

Birthday!

I received this lovely gift from my dear friend Annette - thank you :)))

Tomorrow is my 43rd birthday. However, I must say that I don't feel like over 40 at all - I think I'm really just about 25, that's what I feel like ;)

Extreme Shepherding in Wales

I found this on Sayori's blog and just had to show you :)

Family Visit

My brother Klaus and his family will visit us from Sunday for one week. I’m so much looking forward to it, especially seeing my nephew Simon (3.5 years old) and niece Amelie (9 months old). The last time we saw them was by the beginning of this year and Amelie was still a little baby then – and children change so fast at this age! Fortunately it is not that extreme any more with Simon. Almost one year ago he already did a great job as flower boy on our wedding:


Anyway, if you do not see much of me here during next week you will know why :)

Exhausted...

The weather is tropical again here in my little place on Earth, it is hot, the sun is shining, but the air is so humid that the laundry I did yesterday morning (!) is still soaking wet and starting to smell ugly (despite the beautifully smelling fabric softener I have used). So strange! No wonder this weather makes me feel exhausted, even though I didn’t do much today, just the daily routine. According to the weather forecast it is going to stay again for a while – I hope I will get used to it!

My Personal Summer Song :)

This was the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 contribution by Inga & Anush from Armenia. I love to dance to that song :) Don’t know why these two ladies keep reminding me of my favorite band ABBA ;)

Summer Blogging

It is summer now and this means that the blogroll gets slower and slower ;) I will continue blogging, except for probably two blog breaks of about one week – one this and one next month.

New Layout - again ;)

As I was not quite content with the background of the Thy Word Is My Light blog - not colorful enough I changed it again - this time I used a background by Hot Bliggity Blog.

The Fog

I took this photo from our balcony this afternoon after a thunder storm – one of many during the past days. The “tropical” weather is supposed to remain during the weekend, but meanwhile my body got used to it, so I do not suffer much any more.

Talking about health – both Hermann’s and my check-ups today went very well and the doctor found nothing to worry about :)

Blood Test

For me this is one of the worst parts of a medical check-up, because my veins are so difficult to be located. After they have found one they can take blood from they have to be very careful and it is always a rather long and painful procedure for me. Well, it’s done for now and I hope that at least for the following two years until the next general check-up nobody wants my blood!

Coconuts and Bananas

I guess this is what we will have in our garden soon instead of apples and cherries if the weather continues to be that tropical ;) – and according to the forecast there is no end in sight! I wouldn’t care much about it, but meanwhile I’m feeling weak, sick and dizzy due to the weather – my blood pressure is almost gone and I always feel as if I had finished a marathon after walking the few stairs up to our apartment! One thing which makes me glad, though, is that this is not an actual illness. However, on Wednesday I will have to see a doctor for a blood test and I may not eat anything before I go there – that could be difficult with such a weather! Well, there is always hope that the forecast is wrong – wouldn’t be the first time :)

The Danube Valley in Summer

Hermann and I went for a walk today in "our" part of the beautiful Danube Valley. Even though the weather was tropical - warm and humid, with sun and rain at the same time - it was very nice to walk along the Danube under a roof of trees. That's why all the pictures are very green ;)

Medical Check-Ups 2009

Today was my first of four medical check-ups which I have to undergo this year. This one was at the gyn’s (everything was okay, thank God!). The second and third ones will take place by the beginning of July – a general and a skin cancer check-up (those two are only every other year, if the doctor does not find anything worrying – which I hope!). The last one will be a check-up at the dentist’s in September.

I do not particularly like medical check-ups (well, who does! *lol*), but of course they are necessary and I’m so glad that they are covered by insurance. Especially the cancer check-ups I find extremely important and I wouldn’t want to miss any of them!

New Layout

As you can see I have played around with the layout and changed it for summer :) I also changed the background of Thy Word Is My Light.

Hyper Creativity

Sometimes I have got so many ideas on my mind that I have got the feeling that my brain will burst. Ideas of topics I could write about, of new blogs or new websites, etc. The problem is, however, that the ideas are all confused in my head and I find no way to put them into a structure. I have to wait until the structure comes by itself – I cannot force it. This is the phase I’m currently in and therefore I’m writing this confused post *lol*

Good Bye, Lenin!

Hermann and I are currently watching the movie “Good Bye, Lenin!” which is comedy and tragedy at the same time. Here is the description from Amazon:

The movie starts in East Germany before the fall of communism; our hero, Alex (Daniel Bruhl), describes how his mother (Katrin Sass), a true believer in the communist cause, has a heart attack when she sees him being clubbed by police at a protest. She falls into a coma for eight months--during which the Berlin Wall comes down. When she awakens, her fragile health must avoid any shocks, so Alex creates an illusive reality around his bedridden mother to convince her that communism is still alive.

The scene above shows Alex’s mother how she “escapes” from her room and gets a glimpse of reunited Germany – and obviously feels as if she was beamed to another planet!

This Makes Your Heart Cry

I found the video above on Renee’s blog and I just had to show it here as well. This little girl is just one of many helpless children who suffer from disease, starvation, neglect, etc. The reason for this is certainly NOT that there in not enough money in this world:

Green Pastures

This is a project Hermann and I have been supporting for a while. I had met the initiators, a US American couple, in 2004, just before the project was starting and – thinking of my own mentally disabled brother – liked the idea immediately. “Green Pastures” is a centre for children with special needs in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. Here they do not only get therapy, but also the parents and relatives can meet and receive information about their child’s particular needs. Meanwhile they even have a day-care centre, where the children can acquire some abilities which in western countries would be taught in special schools. Thinking of the fact that in many countries of the former Soviet Union disabled people are at the lowest end of society and many children are hidden by their parents because they fear the “shame”, not to talk about therapy or schooling for such kids, this centre makes a remarkable difference and I hope that by and by it also contributes to changing the view of the local society on disabled people!

Belt Tightening

We had to buy heating oil and the car needed its regular inspection – all this together cost us about 2000 Euros (1750 GBP, 2800 USD). This means that for the next four weeks we will reduce our expenses to the absolute necessary. We had done that already before our trip to Armenia and I regard it as a challenge to look for bargains and to think about what we really need at all and what can be postponed. It’s always good to improve one’s money saving skills ;)

Summer...

… will soon be here and I received this beautiful gift from my dear friend Annette – thank you :)

Japanese, Anyone?

Yesterday I found out that the link to our Armenia travel report has actually made it to a Japanese blog :) Okay, this is not a mere coincidence – the blog belongs to one of my old friends from my time in London who I notified by e-mail about the site. Sayori and I had been flat mates for a while. She is in the fashion business. Sometimes she publishes lovely photos on her blog, that’s why I visit there occasionally, even though I don’t understand a word of what she writes ;) Anyway, I have added her blog to my blogroll now – maybe one of you happens to speak or at least understand Japanese and is able to read it :)

What Kind of Thinker are You?

This is me ;)

Your Thinking is Abstract and Sequential

You like to do research and collect lots of information. The more facts you have, the easier it is for you to learn. You need to figure things out for yourself and consider all possibilities. You tend to become an expert in the subjects that you study. It's difficult for you to work with people who know less than you do. You aren't a very patient teacher, and you don't like convincing people that you're right.

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

Long Weekend

I hope you had a lovely weekend! We had a long one – today was a holiday, too, due to Pentecost. I have been creative, as you can see *s*, despite a nasty headache. However, I hate to just sit there and do nothing, so I’d rather see what I can do even with an aching head. Of course, these are only things which do not require too much concentration. Today my headache is almost gone, so my spirits are high again. The weather was nice and Hermann even had time to go for a walk with me. We went to the sports centre of our little town – okay, nothing really remarkable, tennis courts, soccer fields, etc. but nonetheless it had been new for me as I had never been there before. Well, I enjoyed the walk with Hermann as unfortunately this does not happen too often, as he has got so much work to do. No reason to complain, though, as he is a free-lancer and if he hasn’t got work there is no money coming in. Therefore we have to be thankful for this!

Welcome...

... on my new blog! It replaces Our Cozy Home Diary. The reason why I opened this new blog is simply that here at Blogger I can add many more features. A great advantage is also the Blogroll which shows me updates of your blogs (at least if they are "real" blogs and not just posts on normal websites), so that I do not have to go through the entire blog list each time I want to know who has updated their blog. This is most convenient :)