IT'S BEEN ANOTHER GOOD DAY SUNSHINE AGAIN... still it has not sunken in that I "live somewhere else"... life is butter dream (life is margerine, as the song goes...)I tried making my robos (these are my Mongolian trotting hamsters, Jumoke) a really tiny nest out of a swan filter tips box (not the cig pack shaped one; the proper box shaped one.) to see if they'd pile in like a warehouseful of quality fur coats with quivering pink noses... But they'd be literally stacked three deep if they slept in there... so of course they didn't risk it. (Bashful does, but sleeps alone though)...
Yesterday they were ever so funny. Poor Itchy (bottom peck, as ever) is fast asleep. Spherical, for some reason, decided to clamber on top of her to use Itchy as a living robo-pillow. And on Spherical dozes. Itchy was either fast asleep or squashed to sheer unconsciousness by Spherical's gargantuan weight... she's looking more enormous than ever these days. Were she not blest with those distinctively perky ears
and beady trotter eyes you could almost think she was a normal hamster, she's so enormous... anyway those two are double-decker stacked and dozing away then Bashful decides to climb on top of Spherical... and then the entire robo-tower fell down. I so much wished I had a video camera to youtube this; it was absolute classic!
I've been reading the Bible in GERMAN to try and improve my command of said language. Because I do know certain passages it makes the comprehension element far, far easier... unfortunately my German Bible is a 1912 edition and hence printed in the heaviest pre-WWII letter Gothick. You think "blackletter" is hard to understand? Try this traditional German print. A "k" has the kucky-bit at the TOP not bottom... Uppercase A, V and U all look the same, as go S and G. An L is dangerously similar to a B. (In other words all the letters look the same.) In fact, on perusing a page I was reminded more of those mysterious South-East Asian languages like CAMBODIAN than anything you'd think of as "German"... I racked my brains as to why, then realized it's because Cambodian, Thai, most Indian languages etc are printed in imitation of ancient scribal hand using the traditional writing implements (often a brush or oblique palette knife or split reed); this Gothick script is based upon traditional monks' writing too: hence a real (if bizarre) resemblance...
Yes I have itchy feet again (not athelete's foot: the desire to travel). It was all set off by my finding a distinctive green-and-silver "concert ticket" stub on the street. One of my worst habits is the constant examining of rubbish I happen to pass... what gig did they go to? I nosily wondered. Actually it was no concert ticket, but a train/tram/tube/bus ticket from FRANKFURT... and what got me was that on perusing the legalistic gobbledygook on the back I understood every word! "Thank you for choosing to travel with us. This ticket is printed on thermal paper so please keep away from direct sunlight, radiators, oils and solvents. Altered or damaged tickets are not valid for travel." This made me think: hey I really should think about going there (Berlin though. Not Frankfurt. If I'm going to Germany it has to be Berlin or if not Alpine cuckoo clock villages or the Black Forest (as long as there IS a forest still there. Maybe it's like Nottingham's Sherwood forest and nonexistent today!)... I'm thinking of picking up my subscription to my German magazine again (Stern). It's like a non-middle-aged version of Time... or the Sunday colour supplements all rolled into one. Quite a good read. I never got it delivered, just ordered it from the local papershop. At £2.80 a week I thought that was quite good value for "fluent German" (as if THAT's ever going to happen: ha!)
Take care everyone!!
You can read German? I'm impressed!
ReplyDeleteYeah I did an A level in German. Though I have to say that an A level doesn't necessarily mean you can read German at all!!
ReplyDeletehi
ReplyDeleteI'm a wiwe fox tewwiew doggie..my boyfwiend is an aiwedal..they awe much tallew and weddish bwown and black..WFTs awe twicolow, wif mostly white and I only weigh 18.5lbs..wheweas aiwekids awe awound 60 lbs. hope that helps
auf wiedewsehen, hehehehe
Asta
You do find clever ways to fill your days!
ReplyDeleteAsta: oh so THAT's the difference... I was SERIOUSLY CONFUSED for a long while!
ReplyDeleteEileen: yeah man I most certainly do haha~!!
ps Asta: I lurve that doggie-beard!!
ReplyDeleteI would sooooo love to travel. We're considering a trip for our 25th anniversary later in the year but prices are terrible.
ReplyDeleteMy Father's family was German. His grandmother didn't speak any English from what I remember him saying. So we must have a few relatives lingering there still, but I never was into family history.
Sounds like the beginning of an intriguing mystery novel ... man finds foreign travel ticket on city street. How did it get there? Who traveled with it? Where are they now?
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see the old German type and handwriting. I'm glad not all of those characters were adopted into the English type would have been confusing - especially with the S, V, Y *!*
Sounds like the beginning of an intriguing mystery novel ... man finds foreign travel ticket on city street. How did it get there? Who traveled with it? Where are they now?
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see the old German type and handwriting. I'm glad not all of those characters were adopted into the English type would have been confusing - especially with the S, V, Y *!*
Now the Black Forest and Berlin are two places I've been .... but before the wall came down ;) I love the German language and their type but learnt the language as a small child which makes it easier. My Opa had a library of books written in Old German but I liked the funny drawings of monks the best :)
ReplyDeleteThat bloody old German script! The first church I pastured was founded by Germans in 1840. All of the church records were hand written in German. When someone contacted the church to obtain information on the ancestors I not only had to struggle interpreting the German written a century before on paper that was disintegrating but also that damned German script.
ReplyDeleteGled, ich finde "Stern" auch ziemlich gut zum lesen. Ein bisschen von allem und nicht so politisch wie Der Speigel.
ReplyDeleteP.S. There is still lovely forest to be found in Germany and I think you'd like Berlin better than Frankfurt too.
ReplyDeleteHeheheh! Well, that IS cool, being able to read the back of a random ticket...! :-)
ReplyDeleteI can just picture your tower of hamsters. They ARE so cute... it's so relaxing just to watch them eat, even :-) Round fat balls of fur.. ;-)
I long to travel gled...never have. One day I will.
ReplyDeleteMy son's g/f is studying german as part of her music program...she is planning a trip to Germany next spring. Ty is now trying to save up to go along with her...SO jealous. I just need to win that damn lottery and then I'll be set...I'd drop everything and just go - EVERYWHERE!!!
My family on my father's side is German, his crazy great aunt was supposed to be a witch and had a German bible with the sixth or seventh book of Moses in it. The one that dealt with witchcraft. Your post made me think of that.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I watch "Wonder Pets" with my little girl the hamster makes me smile and think of your wee ones.
I took three years of German in high school. I miss it.
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