Let’s start week 10 with some good news!

Did you know… in Sweden, it’s actually unusual for fathers to forego parental leave?

Sweden became the first country in the world to introduce 180 days of state-funded, gender-neutral parental leave. Its benefits, for parents, children, and gender equality, are many, and initiatives are in place to encourage both parents to take equal amounts of leave.

Die Welle des Widerstands gegen den Rechtsextremismus erfasst auch die Wirtschaft in der Region Stuttgart. Bei einem Treffen in der Landeshauptstadt haben Firmenchefs und Gewerkschaftler aus ganz Deutschland ein Zeichen für Demokratie gesetzt. Mercedes-Vorstandschef Ola Kallenius sagte etwa, ohne ausländische Mitarbeiter „würde kaum eine S-Klasse entwickelt, gebaut und verkauft werden”.

All in favor of the perma-three-day-weekend? More than half of the firms in the UK that implemented the revised 32-hour workweek have made it permanent and are recruiting better talent, seeing improved productivity, less turnover, and reporting better employee wellbeing. Some have even seen increased revenue. The six-month trial of a four-day workweek involved 61 companies and around 2,900 workers.

People pay in advance for a coffee that will be served to whoever can’t afford a hot drink. This tradition started in Naples. Amazingly, it has spread throughout the world’s cities and towns. It’s also possible to order not only “hanging coffees” but also a sandwich or a full low cost meal.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all start doing this in the cities and towns where we live? Small kindnesses like this can impact so many lives, in ways we could never imagine. Maybe we should all try it.

All set for kicking off a great week!

Today is all about good news.

Greece legalized same sex marriage as first orthodoxe country!

Change in Germany’s drug policy: consumption of Cannabis will be legal in Germany soon.

„Booktok“ from TikTok – young people from GenZ (born between 1996 – 2009) are reading more compared to the previous generation.

„Take a coat if you are cold! Leave a coat if you don’t use it anymore“

Germany works less days in 2024 compared to previous year despite the 29th of February. (Sorry for all the other countries 😉 ).

EU agreed to „right for repairing“. Let’s avoid electric waste: Hoover, washing machines and mobile phones will get repaired rather than scrapped.

We got more panda bears in the wild compared to the 80s.

Germans are more willing to give organs. I just signed my own willingness last week.

Malaria could be possibly gone within the next 30 years! How? We got a vaccine for it.

South Korea stooped eating dogs!

Dr. Ruth Gottesman, a former professor, has donated $1 billion to a Bronx medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, with instructions that the gift be used to cover tuition for all students going forward. It is one of the largest charitable donations to an educational institution in the U.S. and most likely the largest to a medical school.

Never give up hope! have a good one!

First double digit temperatures (up to 16C degrees), blue sky, beautiful sunshine, birds are back in the garden, first flowers are visible, first outdoor breakfast! It feels like spring!

One week later, temperatures dropped a little. More flowers are visible. I decided: it’s spring! ☀️

Next week is March! We are getting closer to summer!

Happy spring, y‘all!

Different ways to say I love you:

Drive safe

Put your seatbelt on

Text me when you get home

I saved you a piece

Don’t forget to take your medicine

How can I help?

I’ll warm up the car for you

You good?

I have so much to tell you

Did you sleep good?

I miss you

I’m so proud of you

You did it

I’ll wait for you

Sweet dreams

Thank you

Have a safe flight

Text me when you land

I’ll do the dishes tonight

What do you want for dinner?

You are a dream come true

Wish you were here

You are the best

Come over

You have something in your teeth

You’ll do great

I’m so happy for you

Tell me more

I got you something

I’ll walk you home

Let me carry this for you

Stay a little longer

I’ll come with you

Here’s my passcode

I made you coffee

Do you want my jacket?

I made you a playlist

Do you want the last piece of pizza?

Get some rest

I’ll leave the lights on for you

Do you need a hug?

I miss you

xxx

Let me know when you make it home

Tell me about your day

What would I do without you?

You are my favorite

To the moon and back

I’m here for you

I believe in you

Do you need a ride?

Wanna talk about it?

This song reminds me of you

Is that a new shirt?

I made you breakfast

I’ll go if you go

Bye, drive safe!

Should we leave this party?

Are you warm enough?

All of it. Every day. I love you. Happy Valentine’s Day! 💕

A kind of last minute business trip. That’s one reason why I like my job: flexible for traveling? Yes! Japan? Hell, yes! (I would have moved the world to go 🙂 ). Last minute and still enough time to organize Amazon orders being delivered on time to bring to German colleagues living in Japan. And plenty of chocolate in the suitcase for the new colleagues.

The last time it snowed in Tokyo was 2 years ago, and again on the day of my arrival! Highways were blocked. Busses didn’t run. Trains were significantly delayed… and I packed the wrong clothes… forecast was sunny 15C degrees. Everyone was surprised about the sudden weather change, myself included.

I’m once more impressed about Japan: besides, everyone being so very polite here… they are so mindful & resourceful: the meeting room light switches automatically off when everyone is outside the room and you change the sign from “occupied” to “available” – how smart is that? Drinking water is available for free, everywhere. Little toddler seats are available in each toilet cabin. How our customer is organized (from registration process to meeting room – very impressive). The little robots serving food in restaurants. People standing without holding on rails in subway w/o falling over when train brakes (they must have special shoes…). That camera system when leaving paid parking areas. For table reservations you put your mobile phone on table top (like Germans reserving sun loungers with towels…). Nobody worries anyone could steal the phone… everybody trusts everybody. You eat in one of those nice little restaurants inside a mall, you naturally clean up your table after you are done with a wet wipe provided there! Generally, it’s amazing how clean it is everywhere. You can only own a private car if you have parking (no blocked streets by cars). It’s nice to see how things run in Japan and how nicely people interact with each other! And me? I offered elderly people to go first inside the subway and my seat 🙂 we may not be able to talk to each other but a smile is the same language in any country.

Long days. Tiring days. Exciting days. Great food. Great colleagues. Great country. And most importantly, I successfully was hiding my tattoo. Yeah!

Oh and happy Chinese new year! It’s the year of the Dragon!

Next challenge accepted: finding the way back to the airport. A huge thank you to the Japanese man speaking English and helping me to get the right train ticket! I’d be still there standing around the ticket machine without you! Nobody said it would be easy 😃

Arigato 🙏

Huge thank you to all the colleagues making this a memorable successful trip! Hope to see you again soon! Arigato!

We are all aging and still not too old. Some advice from those sweet older people.

Nothing else to add!

Hubby’s Christmas gift, an evening with his favorite comedian in London. For me being back in a city I love. Haven’t been here since… 2010 (minus the airport stopover last year).

London calling again, yeah!

Being back in the city I love threw me back into 2003, the year I spent in London as an au-pair. Time for a love letter 🥰

Dear London,

everyone asks why I love you, London, as if it’s not clear to them why I love you as much as I do. I love you as you are.

You welcomed me and made me fall in love with you instantly. That was back in 2003, my first time far away from home (and daddy promising „one call and I’ll pick you up and bring you back home“). Well, I fell instantly in love, and extended my au-pair half year to a full year & no need to be picked up earlier (and dear parents don’t complain now for not coming home often enough… you encouraged me to leave… and I’m thankful for that).

London, I love your British accent. It sounds like amore to me (hope hubby isn’t reading that…yeah, well the Irish accent is nice too). Until today I have difficulties pronouncing „Hermione“ from Harry Potter correctly (thanks to Emily and Chris for your patience).

I love your parks, St. James Park still being my favorite but won’t forget the Bon Jovi concert in Hyde Park – me and 89.999 others. And of course jogging around Queens Park to prepare for my police sports test and meeting Heike Makatsch. Yes, she lived & jogged there, too.

Well, in the end I didn’t pass the police test (1.5cm too short) but thanks to you London, I was inspired by a photo exhibition which made me decide to start studying back home (who wants to work for the police anyhow?! lol).

I loved celebrating the Queen and queued up on her birthday parade „Trooping The Colour“ with thousands of others. I will never forget Buckingham palace, as I starred at the famous balcony and envisioned the Royal Family waving my way. lol. And of course I saw the guards changing as well as crossing the forever famous Abbey Road!

I remember celebrating my 19th birthday in Covent garden in a bar with other girls, which was super fun. Covent Garden, one of my favorite areas in London, not only for the delicious Cornish pasty.

London, I love you despite what people told me about you and your reputation for rainy weather and food. I love the certainty of a gentle rain in London and the matter of fact way everyone carries an umbrella and never puts away their boots for the season. But back in 2003 I remember excellent weather and a never ending summer. Also, you can cross London Bridge, cheeks flushed like Bridget Jones as the snow swirls. (And yes, it sucks when the flight gets cancelled due to storm “Isha”).

I loved your old style double decker busses back in 2003. You exchanged them, the red color suits you very well and looks great.

I love the way you have food to appeal to all and chefs from around the world that have made London their home and used your ingredients and their expertise in restaurants worthy of any city in the world. I love you as you are. We are here for Chinese food, burgers, Indian… I remember having a cup of tea in the fancy Ritz hotel, after that my weekly hard earned money as au-pair was gone. But we all felt like Queens that afternoon, it was totally worth it. And sometimes a simple egg & mayonnaise sandwich will do! I discovered hummus and pita bread thanks to my host family who were vegetarians. They would invite me for an Indian every week (at that time I didn’t appreciate it as much as today).

I love you for the quiet genteelness of Mayfair and the boisterous bustle of Camden Market on a weekend. I love the courtyard of your Victoria and Albert Museum and its serenity in the midst of a treasure trove of artifacts that you house and protect for the all the world to enjoy. I love that it is affectionately called England’s attic and holds within its walls everything from diamonds to paintings.

Of course we liked spending weekends in your city center best. The first weeks we focused on the classic touristic sightseeing, don’t get me wrong there’s plenty… but then we discovered your „Time Out“ magazine and moved around more like locals. Oh, we had plans every single weekend. We had a blast. We loved all of it.

London, you are a city you can walk 500 miles… and still not finished discovering so many things. I love all of you. I love you from the northwest, Queens Park my former home, to the east and the Tower Bridge.

I love you to to eastern edges of Canary Wharf and its business briskness with pubs near the waters edges to welcome those at the end of a long day. I love you from Primrose Hill on a cherished sunny day and further out to Greenwich and its precise time it keeps and the naval history that explored the world. I love your views of the Thames from Embankment and over white painted bridges in Chelsea. I love you as you are.

I loved seeing graduated students taking their photos in front of Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. I loved taking an Uber boat (how cool is that!!!) on river Thames and watching your sky turn pink when the sun went down. I love all your bridges… one more than the next. I remember crossing them all on one day. Back in 2003.

London, you do offer that Instagram reality, the must-see tourist traps, obligatory stops on any agenda. But there’s also its grit, which sounds quite Oliver Twist and is harder to find in the guide books. Mary Poppins told us that there’s a woman somewhere feeding birds who just wants a chat, but you could just as easily meet a gang of hipsters who travel from city to city solving mysteries. You can lose yourself for the night.

London, I love you for your shows. I’ve seen them all back in 2003, buying spontaneously half priced tickets for the same day. And had enough money left for Häagen-Dazs ice-cream across Leicester square ticket box.

London, I love you for the shopping opportunity. Regent street, Oxford Street, Carnaby Street, Covent Garden… I still have the sneakers in „jungle style“ at home for which I saved my au-pair salary for many weeks… my favorite au-pair task was when my host mother asked me to return kids clothes in Oxford Street. It happened that I washed the expensive school uniforms wrong, dark & white mixed and the white came out dark.. oh dear. Good that Sainsbury’s helped me fix that again.

Oh London, I love your coffee shops. Nero still being my favorite coffee chain. I remember conveniently getting a coffee to go and meet friends in a park at the weekend. I love finding a quiet place in one of your many coffee shops in the bustling city like you are.

There’s no definitive London, no single bit of architecture nor any event that defines it. London, you in yourself are a series of ever-happening moments, a multitude of instantaneous instants. It’s the alchemy of the city that brings it to life. Lots of cities do this – they’re concoctions of elements, equations that shouldn’t add up but do, potions that cast a spell. As they say, Paris is for lovers. And Rome wasn’t built in a day. Athens is for muscly Adonises and girthy columns. London, you are a melting pot of cultures. Another reason to be in love with you!

London, you are still one of my favorite cities (sorry but NYC and Shanghai are amazing too). London, you will remain the first city I fell in love with! And maybe you are the reason why I love traveling so much…. Anyhow, hope to be back again. And this time sooner than 13 years…

I love you, London! Thank you for being you. Big hugs & kisses. Love. Always.

Your Queens Park girl.

xxx

Monday morning 6:45am. Snow. Ice. -3C degrees. German farmers are demonstrating, blocking roads, city centers, autobahn entrances and exits.

Why? It’s a nationwide protest over planned cuts to agricultural sector subsidies.

Challenge accepted! Or like hubby says: having a bit of craic.

A little Odyssee to find my booked rental car (a longer story). But once I had found the car and made it on the autobahn, there was hardly anyone, especially no tractors. Lucky me.

Instead they blocked my parents…

Daddy calling and checking on me. He’s stuck on the autobahn with tractors blocking the traffic by driving 5kmh on purpose. Of course.

It took my mum 2 hours instead of 20min to make it to her hospital appointment.

You have to be patient, protests are planned to continue for the rest of the week…

Monday morning 6:45am. Snow. Ice. -3C degrees. German farmers are demonstrating, blocking roads, city centers, autobahn entrances and exits.

Why? It’s a nationwide protest over planned cuts to agricultural sector subsidies.

Challenge accepted! Or like hubby says: having a bit of craic.

A little Odyssee to find my booked rental car (a longer story). But once I had found the car and made it on the autobahn, there was hardly anyone, especially no tractors. Lucky me.

Instead they blocked my parents…

Daddy calling and checking on me. He’s stuck on the autobahn with tractors blocking the traffic by driving 5kmh on purpose. Of course.

It took my mum 2 hours instead of 20min to make it to her hospital appointment.

You have to be patient, protests are planned to continue for the rest of the week…

A winter getaway in Ireland in December, a captivating blend of Irish charm & festive spirit.

Exploring Ireland pint by pint and starting in Dublin.

The weather was everything: extremely windy (orange warning), mild but rainy and sunny. I’m hearing words for the first time, like „sunshower“ (makes beautiful rainbows) and „patchy rain“… well, patchy rain feels miserable. You have to experience it. lol. Not sure if I ever felt thicker drops in my face than those… well, it was cold but lovely.

Ireland, the land of the rainbows 🌈

A quaint 2 bedroom cottage overlooking the Atlantic boasting panoramic views of Dingle Bay. The views – spectacular.

Wow! What a view to constantly wake up to.

Pure magic!

Ireland postcard material.

The location – heavenly.

The Ring of Kerry (the perennial breadwinner of Irish tourism): lassoed by a winding coastal road, the Ring, this mountainous, lake-splattered region comes with breathtaking scenery and the highest peak in Ireland. In December the Ring feels remarkably unspoiled and dramatically isolated. Loved it.

The wild Atlantic way.

Irleand has about 6.5m residents. That’s smaller than NYC!

The Cliffs of Moher.

Galway is one of the most lovely cities in Ireland and in winter this vibrant Irish gem comes alive with festive lights, cozy pubs, and a sense of celebration in the air.

Galway, the festival capital of Ireland.

Enjoying a pint of Guinness (or Smithwick’s or Galway Hooker…) by a roaring fire.

We had a fantastic and relaxing time, full to the brim with Irish family, culture & traditions, a bit of a tourist program, fun & craic! Hach, it really was amazing and we have to come back soon.

Slan go foill – bye for now!