Home Sweet Home

Wrote this last night while the power was out, up a little earlier this morning, so have time to post it.

Came home tonight to find the power very weak and after being home for about 10 minutes and trying to wrap the boys’ Halloween presents, the power went out completely.

So now I am writing this by candle light. Wanted to do some laundry and ironing, but seems that is going to have to wait.

Not precisely sure when the last time I properly updated in Germany was, so I’ll just jump into somewhere in the middle of the trip and that should be pretty close to right.

My Dad’s cousin Achim and his wife Margrit took us out for a 4 hour cruise on their boat. We rode along the canal and also saw some of the city landscape. Now that west and east are one it is much easier to travel along and it’s opened so many possibilities; the east really is more scenic. Margrit had made this lovely cake and we also had some smoked ham and potatoe salad.

The next day we went to Poland; lucky for us my cousin Bianca came along. Even luckier yet, I got to sit next to her and all I could smell is cat piss (This is one of the biggest Bianca stories – she has two male cats, not neutered so they spray everywhere in her apartment, a huge dog that she doesn’t take care of, 2 cats, 2 hamsters, fish, 2 rabbits and turtles. You can smell this throughout the apartment building as soon as you walk in. I’m shocked she hasn’t been kicked out of the apartment yet. One night we had the bedroom window open and hers one floor down was open and that’s all you could smell. How she can live in it is far beyond me. The other big story is that she’s still on sick leave for yet another 2 weeks for no reason what so ever – highly doubt she’ll go back to work again, but not going to get into that more). I bought some Kenzo and Chanel perfume in Poland along with a toy for Asili. The rest of the time I sat in the market restaurant having Cocoa with Vitamin as the waiter called it. Really was Cocoa with Amaretto in it! Yummy!! Two of those were followed by two vodka oranges and finished off with another Cocoa with Vitamin! Needless to say I was feeling pretty good, almost didn’t even mind the car ride home next to Bianca (other than the still present smell). My dad had the same idea, sitting in the restaurant was much better than listening to Bianca whine enough to get my Aunt to buy her what ever she wanted. I had fun in the restaurant with my Dad, Georgie, Ingrid and Mom.

Wednesday was then my Oma’s 80th Birthday. The night before my Oma’s niece and her two daughters arrived. They stayed two nights in the church across the road. They are really nice and it was good to see them all again. I had last seen the twins when I was in Germany in 1990 and they came and stayed with us for a week. One of them is now a cook and the other works in a shoe store!!!! They invited me to visit them in Leibzig the next time I am there, and Nadine would share her store discount with me! After breakfast they invited my Oma out for a walk (planned of course behind my Oma’s back) so that we (my Mom, Aunt and I) could decorate the apartment and get things ready. Shortly after they returned people started showing up for coffee and cake. At 5pm we went to the restaurant for dinner; we were about 27 in total. Dinner was very good!

Thursday I went shopping with my Aunt, Mom, and my Aunt’s friend and her boyfriend. Before we went to the mall we went and saw a Potanosta in an old building. It is basically a carousel elevator that isn’t made any more as they are too dangerous. Most of the government buildings used to have them but they have been taken out for safety reasons. The carousel doesn’t stop moving and there are no doors. I also saw the new smart car in the parking lot there! I’m not too partial to the original smart, but the new one, the roadster I think it is called is quite nice! It’s a sporty little thing.

I have a photo of it to post, but blogger isn't uploading it right now, I'll try again later!

After shopping my Mom and I were dropped off at my Dad’s cousin, Achim’s place for dinner. They made a traditional Berlin dinner for me because they knew it’s one of my favourite things to eat while in Germany; currywurst! Their son Lars came with his wife and their new baby. I haven’t seen Lars since I was about 4 or 5. Their son, Matty, I thought, looks a LITTLE bit like Nate, probably because of the white blond hair and blue eyes!

On Friday we took my Oma on a day trip (part of her birthday present) to Dresden. Dresden was bombed in the Second World War and they just finished rebuilding the famous church there after 10 years; the Queen was even there this year for the opening of it. The town is absolutely beautiful! So European and so old, I could spend days there happily wondering around.

Saturday in the morning my parents went to meet up with some of their costumers who live in Berlin but vacation here, and I went to Berlin’s largest mall to do some final shopping. I made out pretty good; bought Juli’s (one of Germany’s singers that I like) new CD, a pair of jeans, 3 pairs of pants for work, a long sleeve shirt, a blazer and a jacket, along with a few other small things that I still wanted to get. When I got back we had coffee at my Aunts and we all (my grandparents, Aunt and boyfriend, Aunt’s friend, boyfriend and parents) went to the Pizzeria around the corner. No cute waiter working this time around.

Sunday morning my parents met up with their friends and I packed my suitcases, vacuumed for my grandmother and spend the afternoon chatting over coffee and cake with the rest of the guests that were still there but leaving later that afternoon. After they left and my Aunt took me to a Turkish restaurant to get a donar; this lamb meat pita thing that is so good! I wanted to have one before I left Germany. Then when my parents got back we went over to my Aunt’s house. Marcel, my Aunt’s youngest, got a slap on the hand from my Dad. Marcel is quite bright but has some issues which are not his fault. He isn’t given the attention that he needs and he doesn’t have enough social interaction. I love my Aunt to bits, but she really isn’t a very good mother. She doesn’t have the backbone to say no as she never wants to disappoint. Here’s to hoping Marcel doesn’t turn out the same way as Bianca. Anyways, back to the hand slap…my dad was sitting on the armchair and he had about half a shot glass of weinbrant left. The one cat is sitting on the arm rest. Marcel comes along and dumps the contents of the shot glass on the cat. I think Marcel was a little surprised at the reaction he got for that! Then at dinner my Opa was sitting beside Bianca and he kept asking where he was supposed to eat because there wasn’t enough room at the table (yes he repeated this every few minutes, but that is understandable with his Alzheimer’s and everything else). So he goes to the bathroom and when he comes back to the table he asks again where he is supposed to sit and goes to sit at the table next to us, Bianca yells, yes actually yells, “If you don’t come back here right now and sit down…” she didn’t get to say much more because my Dad yelled at Bianca saying that if she wanted to talk like that to Opa that she could go home right now. Needless to say she was pretty quiet the rest of the night.

When we got home my Mom packed my Dad’s (ok, well mostly her stuff and some of my left over stuff that wouldn’t fit in mine anymore) suitcases. I played Mench Arger Dich Nicht with my grandparents; basically like the game Sorry. We went to bed at around 1am.

Achim was picking us up to take us to the airport at 7:30am. We woke at 6:15am. At 7am I crawled into my Oma’s bed and we chatted for 20minutes until we had to go downstairs to meet Achim. Not really sure you would call it chatting, more like crying. It’s always so hard to leave because I never know if I’ll get to see them again. My Opa was still sleeping when we left.

Flight to Amsterdam was pretty uneventful. Actually made the connection only to have to sit on the plan for an hour because someone wasn’t on board so they had to unload his luggage and then there was a person on the plane with a medical need who didn’t have enough oxygen so they had to wait for someone to bring more. They showed the movie Cars, but I didn’t really watch since I’d seen it before and I was really enjoying the book I was reading. Am reading “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and am just over half through. It’s quite good!

My brother-in-law picked us up and made a stop for me in King City so I could get some Timmies. We picked up subs on the way home and went to my sisters. I was really thinking that Asili would be happy to see me. Not the case which was quite disappointing actually. In fact, she wouldn’t let me or my Dad go near her and if we tried she would growl and bark. It wasn’t until we got back to our house that she got very excited and happy. Either she didn’t really recognize us, or, which is probably more the case, she was just REALLY pissed off that I went and left her for two weeks!

Anyways the trip was good, I did enjoy myself and am happy that I got to spend time with my family. But I do have to say, I appreciate my family here that much more. We are all so normal (ok normal perhaps not the best word) but we are all so down to earth and kind and life at home just isn’t stressful. In Germany there’s all the tension with Bianca and my Aunt and Marcel and no one likes Bianca and wants her to come along when we go somewhere, which I do feel bad about, but with 24 years of age one would also think that they could be better behaved. Sadly in a lot of ways Marcel at 9 is better behaved than she is. Then there is the whole way that they treat my Opa that I really don’t like. Yes his Alzheimer’s is really bad, and he goes to the bathroom every 5 minutes because he’s forgotten that he’s already gone and yes he asks the same thing 50 times…but most of the time he just sits there saying nothing. No one really tries to talk to him and they didn’t even know that he is still capable of playing cards or other games until I played with him. They talk to him like he’s an idiot though he still understands everything you say. Marcel is the worst at this. For example Opa will go to the bathroom once then when he gets up to go again five minutes later Marcel will say something like “What? Are you retarded? You just went to the bathroom, now you have to go again?” And my Aunt just sits there. Or Bianca will roll her eyes and sigh. It’s really quite terrible. What’s the big deal with answering his 50 questions or agreeing or at least acknowledging him when he does decide to talk?

Oma is stressed out because she doesn’t have any time away from him, and he follows her around when she’s trying to do something. No one bothers to come over and ask he they should stay with him so she can go out and do something on her on and get a break.

It was really hard to leave. But also really good to be there. It’s weird because I don’t have one clear mental image of my Oma, but I do for Opa. He has the best smile. When he smiles you can tell he really means it. He gets these dimples and his whole face just brightens. I can’t really explain it but that smile is just the best thing. Unfortunately when you say smile for pictures he doesn’t and he never has. Maybe that’s why I have this clear picture in my mind as there is no other way to capture it. I don’t know, I’m kind of blathering now, and crying but that’s not the point.

I wish I could be there more for them; especially now that they need it. But Oma knows that we can’t be there and she knows that Canada was the right move for us. She thinks that we have it much better off here, and I think we do, but I also don’t think you can place that on location, but rather the situation of our family. I don’t even know how I can accurately describe the situation over there, there are so many components and didn’t things, it would take forever. It just comes down to that I am very lucky to have the immediate family that I do.