Thursday, December 28, 2017

21st and 22nd December

Thursday the 21st was a bit of a rest day - just hanging around really.  Picked up my back pack from the repairer - he hasn’t done a bad job - not perfect - but since it was only originally glued in, it’s probably much better than it was from the start.

This afternoon we baked... and I mean we. It was definitely a group effort.  We baked Christmas bikkies.



Friday - the day to go.. the morning was a bit rushed, dropped the kids off at a day school/recreational type thing for the day.  Knud was a typical teenager and “couldn’t care less” with a “see you whenever”, which I don’t actually believe - but I let him think I did. We were all teenagers once when we were too cool to show emotion. :) Lasse gave me a hug and I got a shy wave from Johanne... she’s still not really sure of me - but I’d never push it.

Then Vera and I went off to get the last bits and bobs needed for her big family Christmas.  It took a bit longer than expected so that left the time at home pretty short - but that was good in a way.  I hate drawn out goodbyes or sitting around waiting for them.

Saying goodbye sucks whale dick. Simple as that. You can dress it up anyway you want, but that’s the plain truth.  I wish Kiel and Jemgum were a lot closer to each other.  I wish both were a lot closer to Australia.

The train left Kiel on time (with one quietly crying Australian on board), but was almost immediately running late.  In the end it was 10 minutes late into Hamburg, but the connecting train waited for ours.  Sadly the second train didn’t manage to catch up any time - rather lost another minute, leaving exactly 2 minutes in Bremen to get to the connecting train.  Pretty obviously that did not happen - it was a few platforms away and with my massively heavy suitcase (okay - I think I may have shopped a little too much already) I had to wait for the lift, as the stairs were just not going to happen for me.  I missed the connecting train by about 60 seconds - it was still there, but I couldn’t get on board as the doors was shut/locked for pulling out.  One hour till the next one.  Posted on Facebook about missing it and next minute my wonderful little sister is contacting me saying she’s driving to Leer in about 30-40 minutes - she’ll pick me up (she lives in Bremen).  So she saved the day and gave me entertainment where I waited for her.... I have never seen so many bad drivers in all my life - truly entertaining.  I would never have imagined it in Germany, ever!

At Mama and Papa’s they have two other people staying until the 24th - Vlad and Lena.  Vlad was part of Clear Voice (the Belarussian men’s accapella choir we met in 1997), but after we knew them. Sadly I learned that one of the group I knew, Yuri (base singer) passed away.  He was a nice guy - but like so many Belarussians, drank a lot.  Especially, I think, in their age bracket - they were all there when Chernobyl dropped it’s load of toxicity all over Minsk. You hear about the Ukraine and how it was affected, but Minsk and Belarus is seldom included.  But I remember Oleg (the then leader of the group) saying how he and his father were outside planting potatoes on the day it all went boom.  Mostly their attitude was that they were pretty much fucked anyway - so they may as well, drink and smoke and enjoy life while it lasted.  Oleg became an alcoholic and lost his marriage, but has since been a long time sober Vlad says - he can’t remember the last time Oleg drank.  Which is good.  I hope he’s still got a good relationship with Nastia (Anastasia - his daughter).

We’re all getting older - I would guess many of Clear Voice didn’t think they’d like this long.... sadly for Yuri, he didn’t - but not from nuclear fallout issues as he would have expected.

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