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Corona. Home Office. Week 3 (out of 5) done. Isolation was increased to 5 weeks.

The best news: we are healthy!

This weeks blog is from a dogs point of view.

Hey there! I am Charlie. I was adopted in the USA. Later I moved with my parents to China and I’m very proud that I’m the only one in the family who barks proper Mandarin!

I have been practicing my German recently to keep up with the neighbor dogs… you can see I’m quite busy (cannot wait to see which language I have to learn next). Those neighbor dogs are quite alright, one of us is usually starting to bark and then the rest of us follows. We are a great team, defending our houses. It’s quite a nice concert (and I’m sure all those post men are super scared of us).

But recently, already a couple of weeks ago now, something has changed. My parents don’t leave the house anymore… (I wonder why). And they are not very amused with our dog concerts… I can tell you! They sometimes get really angry, especially when they are on the phone (they lock themselves in different rooms for almost all day and talk to strangers on the phone). I really wonder what’s going on and don’t understand.

I am not used to them being home during the day. All day. I decided to keep follow them around in the house to find out what’s going on. I stare at them… and still don’t understand.

But it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that when they are home that means all day food & play time, right? Eating all day… what a dream.

Well, it’s now day 19 of them staying at home and what can I say… there’s not more food and not more play time. In fact, they are interrupting my routine, especially my nap time! Now they are having lunch every day. In the same room where I’m usually napping. I need some “me time”, don’t they get it? At least the weather is quite good, still a bit chilly but sunny. So I love to be outside. All by myself. Chilling in the garden, enjoying the sun.

This is how my days go recently: waking up (in the nice cozy bed of my parents).

Stretching. Walking (I love those morning walks, nobody on the roads so I’m allowed to walk & run off leash into the fields. Amazing!).

Breakfast (getting a bit worried since I heard my mum saying that the dog food has been sold out in the supermarket… but I’m sure they will figure something out). Sleeping. Treat time (bribing me! Ha! But for treats I don’t care). Play. Sleep. Walk. Sleep. Play. Dinner. Play. Sleep. What an awesome life!

I don’t mind watching the world through our windows.

Actually, its been quite all right to have them around all day!

The parents point of view:

Charlie is so innocent. She doesn’t know what a virus is. She has no glue what’s going on at the moment. Corona? What’s that? She gives kisses as usual (and she’s the only one allowed). She steels food as usual. She’s lighthearted. She’s the best dog in the world.

She doesn’t get up with us anymore… she enjoys sleeping in…

That’s how you keep a dog busy. Sharing the soup bone with her (yes, sometimes she has to to in lockdown, too. When I’m on a customer call for example…).

When she did decide to get up… She’s our little co-worker.

She’s our reason to leave the house. We are enjoying the long sunny walks as much as she does.

She can get very demanding to be played with.

Day19 at home and the dog is looking at us, “see? This is why I chew those flipflops”.

The quarantine has us realizing why the dog gets so excited when something moves outside of the house, going for walks or car rides. I think I just bathed at a squirrel.

And yes, we think we are bothering her 🙂 because we have been home since 3 weeks…

Dear Charlie, be patient, it will be a little more weeks with us 🙂

Corona. Isolation. Week 2 (out of 4) done.

The best news: we are healthy!

Week #2 started with work and unexpectedly finished early with vacation. Corona is one thing. The virus additionally and seriously impacting the European economy another thing. Earlier this week I’m one of many of my company who was sent on vacation for the following 2 weeks. A day later I was requested to be back at work… so it’s all chaotic. But it really doesn’t matter since I’m at home anyhow (without any concrete plans, obviously). So I’m happy to work but also enjoy the hours off in-between (maybe some good practice we have to get used to in the future…?).

When I’m off I’m dreaming with the girls of being back in beautiful Iceland… these days we are so close and cannot even catch up for a coffee. It’s weird. Other than that the days go different than usual: sleeping in, reading, some days working, cooking, gardening and many long walks with Charlie. It’s all working out.

And lots of time to redefine what’s important (to us) in life:

⁃ Health

⁃ Healthy cooking & eating

⁃ Plenty of sleep

⁃ Outdoor activities (well, a little limited these days)

⁃ Sunlight

⁃ Less stress

⁃ Offering support to the ones who need it

⁃ Being nice

⁃ Being thankful

⁃ … the list is long

Not that I hadn’t known this before… I’m just refreshing my self-awareness. And it feels good! And right.

Not only the shelves in the supermarkets are empty… all streets and restaurants, play grounds… everything is empty, except the hearts. Most of them are full. Full of love.

There’s lots of lovely things happening around us. We have the best neighbors. They offered to share their successful toilet paper purchase with us last weekend (aren’t they cute?). Luckily, we also had a successful Monday lunch break: we got a pack of toilet paper (kind of just in time)! Yeah! It made our day. Yep, sometimes the little things keep you happy.

Maybe it’s karma: I posted all our leftover facial masks to Scott’s mum (she needs them more than us) this week before my former Chinese boss contacted me to tell me that he had shipped more facial masks to my home address – it’s so wonderful to see how people think and take care of each other these days. We feel very touched!

The south-west of Germany is offering the French Elsass available beds in hospitals to support the serious situation of Corona patients. And so does Sachsen for Italy. Neighbor country friendship.

Stuttgart landlords are taking over apartment rents for hair salons since they all had to shut down. Isn’t that beautiful?

German OEMs sharing their masks with hospitals while Pyjama and bra makers started sewing them. Solidarity is something wonderful! I’m impressed.

My employer developed a corona test which makes it possible to reduce the test time for results to 2.5hours! Times to be proud. Proud to work for a company who cares about others life’s.

And since this week German news on TV are being translated to those who cannot hear. That’s huge. And a picture can say sometimes more than a thousand words (for example the stockpiling / Hamstern).

All those examples (I’m sure there’s a lot more out there) show that crisis can also mean good things. I agree with Bill Gates who says that he believes that despite the chaos, there is a spiritual purpose behind everything that happens.

People becoming creative.

Pasta might be sold out… but flowers and veggie seeds are still available. The highlight of our week: planting flowers & veggies in our garden (that has been on our to do list for a long time).

Playing a Japanese game: buying virtual apple orchards, bakeries, cafés and a cheese factory… a great game these days… feels almost like going out.

Love is….

… falling asleep while listening to Björk.

… hubby reading his favorite German book to me.

Wherever you are in the world, a little bit of kindness can go a long way right now.

Stay healthy! We can do this! Together!

No more words needed… it’s so beautiful:

Just a couple of weeks ago we both wished to have more time. More time at home. More time for each other. More time in our beautiful house.

Time for cooking.

Time for reading.

Time to spend in our beautiful garden.

Time to spend just hanging around. Time to become creative again. Time to rest our minds. Time to listen to my favorite radio channel. Time to do nothing. Time to listen to favorite records (dancing included). Time to relax. Now the time is here! A bit unexpected.

Let’s make the best out of current situation. Besides we know that we are privileged: we can stay home. Warm. Reading. Working (thanks to our jobs which make home office possible). Getting educated. Creating. Talking to our loved ones. And our fridge is stocked with food. All of that during a worldwide pandemic. How lucky we are.

We are also worried about the virus and the future but also grateful for the shared times. Thanks for the additional time which we chose to spend wisely and are truly enjoying it. Together.

Corona. Home Office. Week 1 (out of 4 for now) done. Trying to get used to our new isolated life.

How do we experience it?

I’m back from Iceland. We are having beautiful spring days. Flowers started blooming. And on the other side we have a spreading Corona virus. It feels weird and quite unrealistic.

It’s times of home office. For our own safety. For others safety. Isolated but busy. My work day starts usually at 7amish… and finishes at 6pmish… with a wonderful shared lunch break with hubby cooking & eating followed by a walk with Charlie, our dog, in the beautiful spring sun.

Shops are sold out on toilet paper, milk, cans and meat… We were only able to get a last frozen chicken and duck breasts and lots of fresh veggies and fruits (that’s not bad, right?). It’s kind of funny that there was a last pack of toilet paper and a young man grabbed it before me… (well, we still have 5 roles left, not too worried at this moment). Some people complain that there child’s music lesson was canceled but they had already paid for it (first worlds problems). Colleagues carried their monitors from the office home: they were convinced that under no circumstances they could work from home with a normal laptop screen (we worked in countries with no monitors for the past 8 years). And young influencers are dum, licking toilet seats and proudly posting it in the World Wide Web.

I keep wondering: have we all understood yet, how serious the current situation is? And why do a lot of grown up people behave like children? Can we really not sit at home, isolated for our own benefit & our future?

The list continues and is long: lots of fake news (limiting myself of reading too much). Lots of panicking people. Lots of cancellations or postponed evens like a wedding party, my nieces communion, my granddads 87th birthday party, Easter vacation in Ireland, I also cannot continue with my motorbike driver license… yes, it’s not cool. It sucks. But what can you do?!

Some positive thoughts. Now or never: time to accept the situation as it is and use the time to relax, trying to get energized (1,5hrs more sleep every morning thanks to no driving), more time at home (for growing veggies). Time to cook healthy lunches & enjoying them with hubby! Trusting our government for making right decisions. Following anti-socializing rules. Re-thinking our independence (from other countries). Reflecting our own personal behavior and doings (in the past years). Time to read a book again. Yeah! Time to sit in the sun in the garden with a cup of coffee. Amazing! Time to enjoy spring and the beautiful flowers. Love it! Time to make family phone calls (Mela, I will return your call tonight!). Time to help out making English translations for new hospital rules to avoid spreading Corona. Time to be thankful for being healthy! Time to show heart: I signed up to do shopping for elderly people in our town. Time for flowers to cheer up our minds. Time for hopes.

And more positive aspects: China’s air was never fresher than these days… Venice canals are so clean that you can see fish and even the swans decided to return.

And yes, we did celebrate St. Patricks Day. Isolated but traditionally with Kilkenny beer, cabbage and corned beef. Yam!

All out there: please stay healthy! We can do this!

Fazit Isolation week1: it’s possible. It’s surprisingly nice!

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade! It’s also good for the immun system 🙂

Iceland. Ice & Land.

Our girls trip. Reunion from Chicago, Karlsruhe & Hemmingen.

We arrived a week ago. First impressions: Wow, those shades of blue in the sky! Driving into the blue and the sky seems so close and endlessly wide… Icelanders are very nice people. And Aurora put a spell on me (on all three of us) even she decided to not dance for us… (that just means I have to come back).

Lagoons everywhere… A dip in a pool becomes a soak in a geothermal lagoon – just following the locals, it’s their secret to survive those ice-cold winter months and it feels soooo good!

We slathered rich silica over our face (that must be the secret of all Icelandic women).

Iceland, a symphony of elements, the power of nature, the Nordic nirvana. This country is a real treat: crisp clean air, an eyeful of cinematic landscapes and we are all transfixed.

A casual stroll transforms into a trek across a glittering glacier. We hiked on top of it! Wow!

Icelandic pony horses: strong & beautiful.

Untouched white wonderland.

All you need in Iceland’s winter: a down jacket, a 4WD (incl. seat heat), a jacuzzi and a lagoon and a fired wood oven – amazing!

Wherever you are on the island there is always delicious local fish.

Europes most northern city: Reykjavík. Famous for its colorful roof tops.

The ash of the volcanoes.

3 hours at -6C outdoor temperature – no problem with a jacuzzi. And after watching stars with a glass of Prosecco while getting soaked a good nights sleep follows – soooo good!

Majestic mountains.

Beautiful fjords.

Gullfoss (or the Golden Falls).

Adventurous car rides: unexpected snow waves… and fairy dust on the roads.

Trying to find the most beautiful words for this amazing piece of land:

It’s been magnificent.

Unique.

Peaceful.

The nature. Breathtaking.

There’s just us.

Those scenes. Oh wow!

That hot tub. Oh yes!

Elfes. Surrounding us. With us. Everywhere.

One of many favorite spots: I wish I could sit here forever.

The language is mysterious for us: try pronouncing Hverir, Klofalækjarkjaftur – all beautiful places in Iceland.

Dramatic, and extremely varied landscapes, massive glaciers, volcanic craters and lava fields, hot springs and geysers, and stunning waterfalls – Iceland’s sharp contrasts are something you need to experience to believe!

The weather starts getting warmer (by Icelandic standards of course!). We had average temperatures of around -4° C. Everything was covered in white.

Diamonds are girls best friends… there’s many at the diamond beach.

There seems no end to the talents of this breathtaking northern destination.

So many wows. How divine. What a beautiful trip we had!

The lead actor of this holiday: the amazing Icelandic nature & my beautiful girls.

Iceland, you are magical. I wish I could stay longer (no panicking here for CoV and it felt super safe and isolated…). I’ll be back sometime. Maybe in summer. Bye for now!

In Iceland almost all the natural forces carry a story: the trolls in the mountains, the monsters in the ocean, elves and hidden people in the cliffs, the gods of thunder, love and war.

And then there is Aurora, the goddess of dawn and the forgotten god of the Northern Lights. She’s there. You have to be patient to meet her. She’s the one dancing the lights in the night sky.

People come to Iceland, dreaming to see her dancing in the sky. She’s been dancing in Iceland long before people settled in Reykjavik. More than a thousand years ago.

If you are here for her, let me tell you, it is not easy predicting her appearance. It is definitely not an easy task! You need to explore the ice-cold Icelandic nights with patience and courage. Then, maybe, if she feels like being seen, she’ll take you on a journey. A journey to understand the mysterious northern lights.

You might think Aurora is alone. But she’s not. She has sisters all over the solar system, just recently discovered.

How does the magical northern light occur?

The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. The solar wind moves so quickly that it can reach speed over 80 million kilometers per hour. After 6 hours it passes Mercury. After 12 hours the planet Venus. And after 18 hours it reaches Earth.

In Earths outer core the flow of liquid iron generates electric contents that produces the magnetic field. An invisible suit that protects us. When the pressure of the solar shield breaks through the wind it liquids some of the particles trapped inside and slam into the atmosphere to create Auroras.

Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are the most common. Shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have been reported. The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.

People travel thousands of kilometers all over the world to witness Auroras iridescent. As you look for her, pay close attention to the shapes and patterns in the sky. She often brights suddenly and then fades within minutes. Since it’s origin, mankind have always been fascinated by her lights. And even though we know the scientific reason for the aurora, the dazzling natural light show can still fire our imaginations to visualize fire bridges, gods or dancing ghosts.

A quiet night in our jacuzzi may mean front-row seats to the aurora borealis curtains of fire… Well, that was one of our dreams and reasons traveling to Iceland in winter. But we were not so lucky. Aurora didn’t feel like dancing for us. We had many clouds and full moon. Instead we watched the phenomena in the Reykjavík planetarium… and what can I say?

Aurora, you fascinated me!

You captivated me forever.

You casted a spell over me.

Iceland is mysterious. Magical. Wonderful. Incredible!

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My absolute favorite thing to do. And his. Our most common hobby: cooking (and eating).

Last Sunday: Beef Wellington.

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The fun starts already with thinking of what to cook. Followed by grocery shopping (preferred at the market).

And then the cooking. We both love to cook. We usually abstract the recipes. Spicing it up. Making it different. Making it more fun. Making each meal an individual tasting piece. A “Turley taste”.

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I love decorating the table and picking the most beautiful napkins. And candles. And of course a glass of something…

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Oh, it tasted wonderful. So delicious.

Soo good!

And dessert: healthy & exotic!

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I am touched.
Since the CoV virus reached Europe and unfortunately keeps spreading in Germany (and especially in Swabia) I am receiving lots of messages from China.

My current colleagues from Suzhou wishing us all the best to stay alert and healthy. The same from former Shanghai colleagues, making sure we are doing ok. Even our driver Mr Xu sends blessings via WeChat. And also the customer from Beijing is wishing us all the best.

Today I was asked for my home address: a Shanghai colleague wants to mail face masks since he and his family don’t need them anymore in China. Isn’t that wonderful?

In all the bad I am seeing the good: we are humans. We take care of each other. We are friends.

I always believed in the good of people. The world is good!
I love my colleagues.

All the best to all of us! May the virus be taken care of very soon!

Let’s continue focusing on a strong immune system with vitamins, fresh air, plenty of sleep and healthy food. We can do it! All of us.