Relaxed is a Relative Term

Woe, woe! For I am least of those joyed and do but conquer the most bought and splendid Emperor of shades thus liken’d to the overcasting clouds, uncolour’d and plain to compare with what was so splendid a warmth, now stir’d deep into the thick concoction of time. So to farewell fine colour and merriment; pack’d and hid in boards of card within boards of cup ’til on wings of ancient angels flies 322 days hence and all glory sees once again sweet light of yonder day.

TL;DR: We packed away the Christmas decorations 🙁

Some experiences are the fulfilment of dreams and some are the catalysts that inspire new dreams. Shakespeare will always be a beautiful combination of both…but that’s neither here nor there because that’s “so last week.” So begins the current week…

The first few days back at Home Base in Germany were remarkably chilled, although less so in the temperature department than usual. I don’t think we’ve done so much blissful nothing in the last few months combined as we achieved this last week. Jemma and I very much enjoyed the simple sitting, reading and rambling and pottering around Bensheim and Viernheim with no specific place to be and nothing important to do but enjoy the company of Moni and Siggi. Of course, this is Jemma, Buster and me we’re talking about so nothing is really as simple and uneventful as it seems. Morse code with the builders next door through the wall (feat. Jemma) and an exploding soccer ball that unbuttoned the shop clerk (no, not a play on words!) and brought the bomb squad running (not quite, but the fear was written on the faces of the incoming bystanders) definitely kept ‘ordinary’ at bay. Finding an open Italian ice-cream stand and eating the classic lasagne/spaghetti ice-cream (not in flavour, only in appearance!) was also up there on the mention-worthy events – the literal best ice-cream you’ll ever eat, and we didn’t expect to encounter it this time because it’s winter.

Kai was our host for a few days which featured a bit more action. We graced Miramar with our presence on Friday.  Miramar is, simply put, a maze of wild water slides surrounding a couple of swimming pools. It’s become some sort of tradition for Kai to go with the Tasmanians when any of us are around and we spent a good 7 hours feeding the inner child and adrenaline monster. Golly, it’s been so good to be in water again though. We went swimming for a few hours a couple of days later at a regular pool and it’s so refreshing to swim, although the difference between a pool and the ocean is crazy. Sure, they had a wave pool, but it’s somehow not quite the same…

We stayed 2 nights at Kai’s house in Lebach, Saarland (Saarland is a German state; Moni & Siggi are in Hessen and Ingrid & Ralf in Niedersachsen). Andrea came to stay as well with her son Tommy; that was a nice few days. Tommy spoke very good English, which of course thrilled Jemma. Kai is also very able so the English abounded during that period – ‘abounded’ of course being a relative term.  We went out to dinner the first evening for typical Saarland-style food, which features a lot of potato and a bucket load of Maggi, aka liquid Vegemite. We spent the subsequent time standing in a crowded Irish pub singing along to the live music; fun and thoroughly exhausting. The embarrassing and apparently mandatory theme of being singled out throughout our whole overseas expedition was continued that evening when Kai mentioned that we were from Australia and the musician proceeded to serenade us with “Highway to Hell” – the ‘Australian love song’, as he put it. I’m not sure whether it was a joke or whether it’s an actual love song; hang on while I remember that we have a world of information at our fingertips and do some research…

Google says it’s not a love song so we’re going with it being a joke! Golly, I always forget about google…

Conversation and darts defined the agenda of the following day, during which we met the neighbour Thomas and his son Gabriel. I’m obliged to tell you that Jemma won 3 out of 5 games and that apparently I wasn’t any use when it came to the team effort. I argue that I was being compassionate in regards to the other team but Jemma’s determined to pin it all on skill, or the apparent lack thereof. That day was not a day of victories for me. We all at one point – who knows why – attempted to jump the 2.4 horizontal metres required as part of fitness testing in the German army…because that’s what you do in Germany with a group of people on a nothing day. Unfortunately, in a semi-subconscious attempt to preserve my head from the low doorframe my feet got left behind; the poor knees caught the sprawled weight and Jemma caught the laughing-too-hard train. The worst part is that the others did quite a good job.

• 

• 

Possibly the least chilled moment of this week was during the trip back to Moni and Siggi’s.  The last train gave us a bit of a fright because first the ticket didn’t scan, and then the conductor asked for our passports…why on earth do we need passports on the train?  It was apparently because we’d booked online, but I’m still confused as to why normal ID isn’t sufficient…anyway, we didn’t have passports because we were only travelling inside Germany and had other ID cards on us in any case, so I was quite worried that she might actually throw us off given the rather impatient and disgruntled manner of delivery.  But all’s well that ends well; she rebuked us and left us to finish the trip in peace, albeit still confused and with the left-over feeling of nervous relief.

We ended on a lovely chilled out day: Jemma playing around with her hard-won soccer ball, catching up with Ingrid and Frank briefly and heading to the classic Chinese restaurant for dinner.  That’s a tradition I can remember doing every time I’ve been in Germany so far.  I even managed to listen to an entire blissful classical CD while everyone was out doing their own thing; it’s been too long!

• 

• 

That leaves us to end on a lovely Christmas note (golly, we can’t seem to escape it, can we!): I’m sure you’ll all be thrilled to hear that my vision of owning Christmas teacups and crockery that I outlined 2 weeks ago was in fact due to eventuate a few decades sooner than I’d thought (if at all, really) – Moni, as is very much in her character to do, did a sneaky accumulation mission while we were in England and we were presented with the goods on arrival from Kai’s.  Get keen for Christmas tea parties!!!

I love a good bookending of a story – starting and finishing with the same topic…no fear, I highly doubt that the next one will feature Christmas at all, for those grinches out there.  To be fair, Germans traditionally only pack away Christmas decorations on the 6^th January, the 5^th being the 12^th and final day of Christmas.  However I do concede that it is now quite past the time when I normally have much to do with it until next December (although the Christmas carols seem to hang around), thus I formally hang up the Christmas hat and socks and references until the next appropriate time of year.

3 weeks to go folks…whether you’re in Australia or Germany or somewhere in between, we wish you were with us xx

L&J&B