A Day Dress is a Day Dress...

As much as I love my new cotton gown which I bought via the online gift shop of Jane Austen Centre in Bath – until last Tuesday I had concerns about wearing it outside the house on the “dirty” streets. I thought I would have to take care of it all the time and couldn’t concentrate on something else for a minute. And what about handling this precious jewel of mine – as which I still regard it, now even more :) – when walking stairs, sitting on benches or using a public toilet? It could get dirty and crumply.

Nonetheless it was too tempting – when my brother and sister-in-law invited me to spend a day on the Flower Island Mainau together with their children I decided this was the day to put my dream dress to the reality test. So for more than an hour I sat in the backseat of a car with two of the three children beside of me, my feet in a small space beside two large bags. Then I had to get out of the car and walk over a lawn and gravel (the little stones went straight into my shoes). All the time while we were walking I carried my large bag over my shoulder.

We spent about eight hours on the island, walked on all kinds of paths among the plants and flowers, sat on benches eating, climbed stairs, and of course had to use the toilets. Then back to the car and home. During all this time I sometimes almost “forgot” the dress, because even with all those “exercises” it was so comfortable to wear and I didn’t have to “handle” it at all. And when I checked it from top to bottom after coming home, it still looked as if I had just put it on – no crumpling at all and no dirt at the seam on the back, even though I had not held it up very often. It still looked perfect. I could just as well wear it for my daily errands or walking the dogs – just as the women did 200 years ago. A true day dress made for everyday life!

40 Years Later

I was astonished when I watched the Olympics opening ceremony in London on Friday – a great performance by all those who took part, by the way – and there was a minute of silence. At first I thought that the IOC had finally given in to the pleas of so many people who had been asking for a minute to commemorate the Israeli athletes who got killed in the Munich Massacre 40 years ago. But no – this minute of silence was dedicated exclusively to other people – the Israelis were not even included which would have been easy, as there was this minute of silence anyway. Whatever the reason was – ignorance, cowardice or something else – shame on you, IOC!

I remember very well this horrible event. My family were all very keen on sports (I was a little bit of a “black sheep” with regard to that), so we watched much of the event and cheered mainly the German athletes, of course. It was also the year in which my four year old brother and I (six at the time) learned to swim. My brother was a huge fan of US American swimmer Mark Spitz and because he did very well in the water (much better than his older sister) he was soon named “Mark Spitz” by our swimming instructor :) My parents bought him stars and stripes swimming trunks and he was so proud. And whenever Mark Spitz (the real one) won yet another medal my brother and I were happy.

 

And then suddenly all the fun was spoiled by some Arab terrorists who abused this wonderful event for their satanic aims. Until then my parents had taken much effort to spare my brother and me from the knowledge that the world was bad – but now we saw it all, and we couldn’t believe what we saw! We felt with the poor athletes who were held hostage by the terrorists and we watched the futile attempts of the German authorities to free them. And in the end we saw everything go wrong – and even worse: while all eleven hostages and one policeman got killed this applied only to four of the terrorists. Three of them escaped. This was a huge blow to my strong sense of justice.

Including these twelve people – the eleven athletes and the policeman – in the minute of silence which took place anyway would have been a strong sign against terrorism. But maybe the IOC people were afraid of offending those countries who have been and are still supporting Arab and other terrorism against Israel!

My New Favourite Dress

I generally prefer wearing long dresses and skirts in summer instead of trousers (long or short) or short dresses / skirts. And when I say long I mean long – ankle length or even longer is ideal for me, even though these are hard to find nowadays. The style I prefer above all is Regency – and not just because I’m a Jane Austen fan.

So when I received a newsletter from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath promoting new dresses I immediately fell in love with the Cotton Gown! It is a day dress, not necessarily one for a ball. After all, there are not too many balls in the remote little village I’m living in and I don’t have the means just to travel to more “inhabited” places where such things are going on (do I sound like a Jane Austen character now? *s*). As my birthday is coming up I mentioned to my father how much I would like this dress and he replied, that “of course you can have it as a birthday present!” I love my Daddy :)

As colour I chose “Blue Daisy” and also asked Hermann what he thought (without telling him my choice) and he preferred “Blue Daisy” as well, so that was settled :) Yesterday I received the dress – exactly four weeks after I had ordered it which is really fast as it was handmade.

I’m so happy with this dress – it is just perfectly made with very high quality material! Hermann and I did a little photo session and I really didn’t want to take it off afterwards. I put it onto a hanger outside my wardrobe and went into the bedroom about every 15 minutes to look at it and touch it. The last dress which had this effect on me had been my wedding gown – Regency style, of course ;)

Now I’m waiting for the right weather to wear the dress - right now it is too hot and humid which causes a lot of sweating even without much physical exercise. But as Jane Austen already stated so accurately: "What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."

10 Years Ago Today...

… at about 3pm CET my brother phoned my parents and me from work and told us to turn on the TV. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. We saw how the smoke came out of one of the towers and assumed it had been a horrible accident. Then we heard the screams of the people and the horror-stricken voice of the reporter when another plane crashed into the second tower. It was surreal to me and I had the feeling that this was not really happening, but at the same time I knew that it was something much worse than an accident. We saw the people waving from the windows, climbing alongside the façade of the building and jumping or falling in a desperate attempt to save their lives or even to die a quicker death. Eventually the towers collapsed and then we knew that it was over for all the many people who had still been inside. By and by we also heard about the other hijacked planes and more people killed.

In the following years many more people – and many of them innocent - died in the attempt of the free world to defend its freedom against those who just abuse our liberty and tolerance to install cruel dictatorships. However justified this defence is, as it is the duty of a state to defend its people, we should not fall into the trap of wanting revenge – at least not those among us who are Christians!

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12:17-21

Waiting for our BlackBerrys

After Hermann’s old Nokia had been dead for a few days and only awoke today and mine is having problems, too, we decided to make a huge step forward in technology and order smart phones. We opted for Curve 3G 9300.



One important reason why we decided to buy BlackBerrys is that they have got keypads on a regular basis. We didn’t want touch screens which become greasy as we have seen on other people’s devices. Another reason is that BlackBerrys are often used by companies to equip their leading personnel, and they wouldn’t buy cheap stuff, would they? So we feel safe with them quality-wise. A third reason is the “family connection” ;) One of my brothers is working for Research In Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry Company, as an engineer, so we had the luck to get very good advice on which ones of the BlackBerrys would be best for our particular purposes. Asking him saved us a lot of time searching the internet for information and reviews, as we would have had to do with smart phones by other companies. There is nothing worse than reviews contradicting each other by 100% which make things terribly confusing, and this is what happens often enough!

So now we are eagerly looking out for the e-mail telling us that the package is on the way and can hardly wait to have the BBs in our hands :)

40 Years Later

As I had mentioned before Hermann and I traveled to South Tyrol over Easter. For me it was a journey to my past as I had been there with my family for several vacations about 40 years ago. Hermann and I now stayed in the same village in the same hotel. Of course many things have changed, the village has grown much bigger and the hotel had been modernized. Not everything had changed completely, though, as you can see below :)

The place where I’m sitting on the photo was the one where my grandfather used to sit surrounded by the family during breakfast when he was a guest in the hotel; this table had always been reserved for him. The former breakfast room is now an adjoining room of the inn.


This is little me on my 5th birthday in 1971 sitting on the outside of the bay where my grandfather used to sit inside.


The same place 40 years later. Everything is looking more beautiful now, of course, but I was a little sad that the old letter box was gone which had been a relict from the times when the house used to be a coaching inn long ago.


Helene, the young woman on this photo of 1971, was the hotel keepers’ daughter; she and her younger brother were like friends for my brother and me when we were there.


Helene is now herself the hotel keeper and she was the one who modernized the hotel very beautifully; she has placed lots of flowers and decoration everywhere which makes the place cozy; the photo shows the two of us in the lovely new breakfast room which is designed like a winter garden.

I think it does not happen very often that the favourite places of one’s childhood are still attractive when one has grown up, especially after such a long absence. This was the case here, however. I have changed and the place has changed as well, but we are still fitting together ;) As Hermann liked it very much, too, we are planning to travel there soon again, maybe next year.

Nostalgia Tour

I suppose it’s a sign of getting old when people start visiting the places of their childhood. I’m going do that in April of this year. Hermann and I will be travelling to Trens, a tiny village in South Tyrol where I spent several holidays with my family when I was a child. We will stay in the same hotel which is still a family business, now run by the daughter of the previous owners. She still remembered me when we wrote to her. She and her brothers were already young adults at that time. It always felt like home when we were there, everyone was kind and patient with us children. Of course I’m aware that this feeling will most likely not return when I visit again, because so much has changed. The old half-farm-half-hotel has turned into a modern place during the past years – it had to, I guess. Nonetheless I’m looking forward to seeing it all again. Here are some photos:

1970 at a festival parade; I (aged 4) sit on my father's shoulders, my younger brother (aged 2) on my mother's (so I believe); on the right is my father's mother

1970: I wasn't afraid of the cows ;) The cows wore bells round their necks which I loved; still like to hear cow bells and I guess it is because of these childhood memories

1970: with my mother and brother

1971: on my 5th birthday in front of the hotel (wonder whether the bench and table are still there or not)

1971: at a festival parade with the hotel owner's daughter (the current hotel owner)

New Year, New Opportunies

I hope you had lovely holidays and your new year started smoothly! As I had posted before we spent the holidays with my family. We enjoyed it as always, but somehow I didn’t find time to do much on the computer – I didn’t continue with my novel during that time and I didn’t post on my blog as you can see.

In my last post I told you about my resolution, and I can tell you that until now at least I was able to keep it, even though several things happened which could have made me terribly worried. However, with GOD’s help I remained calm about these issues, which was completely contrary to my overanxious disposition.

I’m curious what this year will bring – and I’m sure it will not be boring :)

12 Days to go...

… until Christmas Eve! This is the day we celebrate Christmas here in Germany. On the day before Hermann and I will travel “home” to my family. Even though we are all grown up now and two of us four children are married (one with children of his own) and no longer living “at home”, we are still celebrating Christmas almost the same way as we did when we were kids. This is mostly owing to my father who still puts up the Christmas tree (which in Germany is usually not put up until Christmas Eve), decorates it and places the gifts in his living room. None of us is allowed to enter the room before the evening. In the evening we first visit the graves of late relatives and light candles there and then we return home. Our father goes into the living room and rings a bell, the same bell he rang when we were children and then we all enter the room. I enjoy celebrating Christmas this way, it brings back my childhood :)

In Our New Home

The moving part is now over, thank GOD! However, some rooms in our apartment are still building sites and cannot be used properly. Also we do not have a telephone / internet connection yet, so it is just mobile phone and (slow) mobile internet for the weeks to come.

Anyway, I like living in this little town (which is not even officially a town, but just a village). I have got more infrastructure than in the previous place (which was officially a town), a greater variety of shops and three supermarkets. I know that doesn’t sound much, but in Mühlheim we just had one little supermarket and a small grocery shop within walking distance. For the pharmacy and the post office I had to climb a steep hill. For everything except every day items I had to go to another town. Now I have got most shops (plus pharmacy and post office) within easy walking distance which is very convenient as I don’t have a car.

On Friday we officially gave the keys of the old house to the new owners, a very kind Italian couple who have been living and working in Germany for about 30 years and now wanted a house with a garden. After all it was Hermann’s childhood home and his parents had built it, so we were happy to get such friendly new owners who really appreciate it, especially the garden which had been my mother-in-law’s favorite hobby. The woman looked as if she could hardly wait to take gardening tools into her hands ;)

Today I take a break from unpacking boxes – start again tomorrow!

Holidays Over

So here am I again - hopefully more often in 2010! This is not a resolution, as I never keep resolutions ;) We spent the holidays with the family at my father’s house and we had a lot of fun. Anyway, now we are back in the daily routine, even though it is still a little calmer than usual. The Christmas holidays at the schools are lasting one more week and even though we don’t have children we feel it, too.

We are enjoying cold and sunny winter days at the moment, just the way it should be :) I only wished that Hermann would not have to drive so much in this weather, especially on those winding roads along the Danube Valley. He is a careful driver himself, but unfortunately there are people who think they can drive fast on icy streets and by this put others into danger.

As always at the beginning of a new year I’m very curious what lies ahead of me in the coming twelve months!

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:

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 :(

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 :)