Lingering on Memory Lane

Had a lovely surprise at work this morning: a new colleague had made arrangements with yesterday’s arrival – and when I got to my desk I found all my favourite german sweets stacked on my desk! Duplo, Hanuta, Milka – what a delightful surprise!

On the work side, I’m faced with quite a few frustrations and for a while there I lost sight of my own advice – is it my circus? Are those my monkeys? No, so why am I working myself up? There really is no good answer to that question, is there? Yet we feel so righteous and commendable ... and just putting it in that light makes it seem so very silly! Ok, I’m back on Earth now, thank you.

One of those frustrations, however, is currently headed towards a potential disaster for an innocent bystander – and I really wish someone would take responsibility and prevent that! All I can do is raise the red flag, which I’ve done – now it’s out of my hands.

I had started a rant of disbelief how business attitudes have changed in my lifetime ... but I deleted it, as it’s going nowhere and just leaves me despairing.

A dear colleague has his last day today – that’s one of the hardest aspects of this kind of work. You meet people, get to know them, make friends ... and then they leave. You never know whether you’ll ever see them again; in my case it’s even less likely since I’m only in South Africa. This colleague, however, will be retiring, so our paths are not likely to ever cross again. We had a chat today about wartime in Schlesien (Silesia) when Russian soldiers arrived. Then drew parallels between growing up in wartime and children today growing up in fear of crime. I don’t know which is worse for Joe Average, but that those idealistically vastly opposite times are comparative is frightening. It’s easy to put down the kids of today for always playing with gadgets and how we used to make our own amusements when we were kids – but no parent in their right mind would allow their child to play in the streets these days, like we could! And we also had our gadgets – like Rubics Cube, for example. If more had been available, we, too would have probably have spent more time gadget geeking. I was actually really good with the Rubics Cube!

That takes me back down memory lane! Should I linger? I remember one time I was quarantined with german measles – I wasn’t sick, yet, but contagious. I think my little sister was sick with it at the time. Anyway, I wasn’t allowed outside to play. I was just looking out the kitchen window on the first floor – I did that a lot, just drinking in the sight, memorising it – and the neighbours kid came to play with me. Since he wasn’t allowed inside, and I wasn’t allowed out – we played with my Rubics Cube. I’d throw it down to him and he’d mix it up, then throw it back up and time me. He had a fancy new digital watch he was showing off, while I was showing off my skills. One time, by his count, I beat the world record at the time! Twenty-seven or twenty-three seconds, I think? I’ve never been much of an achiever, so that’s one of those happy moments etched in my memory. Funny thing, though – I can’t complete a cube anymore, I just don’t remember how.

I was also really good at dodge ball as a kid and was always one of the first to be picked for teams. Funny story about that: Wanna know WHY I was so good at dodging? I was really tiny and badly underweight as a kid, getting hit by one of those balls really hurt. So, basically I was just really, really scared of getting hit! On the same line, as good as that made me at dodge ball, as bad did it make me as goalkeeper. In Germany, everybody played football, though I was not very good. Mostly I just had one trick where I’d be running, kicking the ball along then kick it between my shadowers legs to whichever teammate would be ready. One sports were being tiny and underweight was actually an advantage was gymnastics. I remember my mum taking me to classes, I think that was even before I started school, which I think I loved – I’m not sure now, I just have the memory of the gym with rings and ropes and all that. Ok, back to the here and now.

Apart from two more cosmos opening, there’s nothing new in my garden, and I didn’t take any photo’s. I started making my Frikkadellen, but it was simply too cold to get my hands in there so I ended up frying the mixed mince. I’ll make some pasta to add to the leftovers tomorrow.

Since I didn’t take any photo’s today, I was going through some old ones and came across these – I think the current mystery flower was seeded by this one which bloomed in the same area six months ago. I think we’re in for a treat with this one.