Yes, this makes me think of Diana Ross, and Motown who celebrated 50 years of music last year .
Actually I have been waiting for 40 years for someone to carry on from Robert F. Kennedy , the first politican that I really took an interest in. Looking back it might seem strange, but the whole senseless murder of this wonderful man really broke my heart at the tender age of 11. I could not believe how this could have happened , and later, watching an interview with Sirhan Sirhan , the Christian Palestinian assassin, I believe he himself must have lived in hell when he realized what he had done , not only to the Kennedy's but for his own people. Did it do any good to anyone? What can we see in the Middle East today ?A small part of the world continually occupying major front news headlines.Will there ever be peace? Forty years have passed now without any really inspiring U.S. president who could ever ever motivate as the Kennedy's could. Well now this week we have all become motivated again as Barack Obama stepped in as 44th President of the United States .He is truly wonderful and watching a documentary of his life story I can only say the waiting was worth it .
signed here one loyal Barack Obama fan xxx
Sonntag, 25. Januar 2009
above sea level
Yesterday I learned an interesting fact and it seems that using above sea level as a meaurement of land height can lead to costly mistakes if the sea is not stipulated . I t seems that the Swiss take the Mediterranean as their reference point whereas just across the border, the Germans refer to the North Sea. Apparently these two seas have a difference in level of about 27 centimetres, a fact which showed up quite clearly when the Swiss and the Germans each from their respective side of the Rhine, decided to build a bridge to connect with each other at Laufenburg. Oh dear , what a shock when they reached the middle over the Rhine and found a gap of 27 centimetres.That's hi-tech engineering for you . xxx
Fische haben Knochen
"Kippers for breakfast?No I don't think so, they have too many bones. " This was my reply to a German lady who had recently been to Scotland and wanted to know if I also eat fish for breakfast.
We were having dinner at Carmen's, a German friend , who naturally had mostly German friends seated at the table.
"Was, Fisch haben Knochen?" Fritz, the husband then yelled out in amazement" Kein Wunder wir kommen nicht weiter in der EU. Aber ehrlich , haben englische Fische Knochen?" I had never really thought about this before . As far as I know this is what we say in English and from across the table , Andy an English guy , with Scottish roots, was nodding in agreement ." Yes, that's right " he confirmed, "We say bones. " Our German friends wanted to know why we don't have a word for "Gräte", which is the German word to describe "fish bones." After, this Fritz went on enlightened."No wonder the English can't become fully integrated with the EU. They would never be able to comply with the "Fisch grät " regulations. "After thinking about this I can see that the German language really is descriptive, and sees bones as part of an animal( mammal?) . Perhaps here we English really have to say our language isn't always as descriptive as we like to think, despite being known as an international language. Now learning from our friends, we could decide on a new word here to add to the dictionary, We would be stretching out the hand of friendship and just think how many German speaking tourists the world over would be able to enquire about the fish menu. No way do German fish ever have bones and I expect Fritz and his wife Thea, as well as all the others must have been having the wildest visions of these English fish which live in the same North Sea but being much sturdier because of their strong bone structure .
We were having dinner at Carmen's, a German friend , who naturally had mostly German friends seated at the table.
"Was, Fisch haben Knochen?" Fritz, the husband then yelled out in amazement" Kein Wunder wir kommen nicht weiter in der EU. Aber ehrlich , haben englische Fische Knochen?" I had never really thought about this before . As far as I know this is what we say in English and from across the table , Andy an English guy , with Scottish roots, was nodding in agreement ." Yes, that's right " he confirmed, "We say bones. " Our German friends wanted to know why we don't have a word for "Gräte", which is the German word to describe "fish bones." After, this Fritz went on enlightened."No wonder the English can't become fully integrated with the EU. They would never be able to comply with the "Fisch grät " regulations. "After thinking about this I can see that the German language really is descriptive, and sees bones as part of an animal( mammal?) . Perhaps here we English really have to say our language isn't always as descriptive as we like to think, despite being known as an international language. Now learning from our friends, we could decide on a new word here to add to the dictionary, We would be stretching out the hand of friendship and just think how many German speaking tourists the world over would be able to enquire about the fish menu. No way do German fish ever have bones and I expect Fritz and his wife Thea, as well as all the others must have been having the wildest visions of these English fish which live in the same North Sea but being much sturdier because of their strong bone structure .
Place your seat in the upright position
"Ladies and gentlemen we are ready for take off , we kindly ask you to place your seat in the upright position and put it in the overhead compartment" announced Manuel , our maître de cabin.
We looked at each other rather puzzled as to how we should achieve this .It must be new. Well of course our full sympathy was with Manuel who had just had to deal with a rather difficult lady in seat 1a. Of course as there was no seat in front of her where she could stow away her bag, Manuel had taken it to put in the aforesaid overhead compartment . No , difficult lady had no intention of parting with her bag and , of course stood up, retreived her bag and placed it on her lap.This was not really what Manuel wanted and in his attempt to assert his authority he swept the bag from her and again placed it overhead. Unbelievable how this elderly lady behaved .I don't think she can have been English , I hope not anyway, I would feel so ashamed of her .
For us two rows behind, of course, it was let's say, entertaining ! Most of all when the poor Swiss guy told her off and said he didn't like her any more and he was very cross with her . Well he won't have to wait long before customer services hauls him in for a slap on the wrist about how he dealt with her and also confused all the passengers with his flustered instructions .
Working with passengers can be wonderful , especially if they know who they are and are comfortable with themselves. Unfortunately too many passengers, normally respectful citizens, become monsters the moment they set foot in the terminal buildings. Training instructors will tell us that this is due to fear.Especially if they belong to the group of people labelled green in motivation theory.These are supposed to be emotional and we are supposed to understand this and help them overcome their anxiety . Well I don't know about this. How about
"Ladies and gentlemen , we are ready for take off. If you are sitting next to an obnoxious passenger, please, for your own safety place him or her in the overhead compartment "
Enjoy your next flight !
We looked at each other rather puzzled as to how we should achieve this .It must be new. Well of course our full sympathy was with Manuel who had just had to deal with a rather difficult lady in seat 1a. Of course as there was no seat in front of her where she could stow away her bag, Manuel had taken it to put in the aforesaid overhead compartment . No , difficult lady had no intention of parting with her bag and , of course stood up, retreived her bag and placed it on her lap.This was not really what Manuel wanted and in his attempt to assert his authority he swept the bag from her and again placed it overhead. Unbelievable how this elderly lady behaved .I don't think she can have been English , I hope not anyway, I would feel so ashamed of her .
For us two rows behind, of course, it was let's say, entertaining ! Most of all when the poor Swiss guy told her off and said he didn't like her any more and he was very cross with her . Well he won't have to wait long before customer services hauls him in for a slap on the wrist about how he dealt with her and also confused all the passengers with his flustered instructions .
Working with passengers can be wonderful , especially if they know who they are and are comfortable with themselves. Unfortunately too many passengers, normally respectful citizens, become monsters the moment they set foot in the terminal buildings. Training instructors will tell us that this is due to fear.Especially if they belong to the group of people labelled green in motivation theory.These are supposed to be emotional and we are supposed to understand this and help them overcome their anxiety . Well I don't know about this. How about
"Ladies and gentlemen , we are ready for take off. If you are sitting next to an obnoxious passenger, please, for your own safety place him or her in the overhead compartment "
Enjoy your next flight !
Safe journey
"Have a safe journey!" This is how our waitress wished us on our way , after a short stop in the"Little Chef" en route for Woodhall Spa for Christmas.
" Well she would wish us that wouldn't she? "remarked darling daughter Kathrin and continued "especially as you told her you don't know how to turn the lights off on the car! She really does hope we make it home safe and sound."
Just after our arrival at the restaurant our waitress had come over to our table hurriedly to tell us we had left the lights of the car on, to which we had replied "Thank you" and done nothing about it , as we didn't want to waste time looking for the manual in the dark. Of course this is just one of the drawbacks of hiring a car at night. In a hurry to set off you may not really check out how everything works , concentrating much more on adapting to driving on the other side of the road. You also in your hurry never check for those little dents and scratches which the car company will claim you have made on your return and then insist on charging you for..
Well on this occasion I had reserved a fairly small car as the last time in England I was upgraded to a "Chelsea tractor " which although spacious was a nightmare to park. On considering the amount of luggage for 4 persons ; two travelling in from Rotterdam to LCY with extra equipment for the onward stay in the Engadin as well as two normal adults with cases full of presents I was gently urged to order a bigger car.
"Oh no need " I replied airily"Carrie says it's always best to order a small car which the car company will no longer have available , when you arrive, especially late in the afternoon.Then they have to offer you a bigger car at no extra cost " This is my younger sister's recipe for success and thriftiness and nobody ever messes with Carrie.
As we have , on principle blacklisted so many car companies we were now new customers with Hertz, and so as we started our car rental transaction I casually asked for a bigger car.
" Yes, certainly, Madam, we can offer you a ( big big car)£35 extra per day. Is that what you had in mind ?" enquired our rather stiff rental agent.
"Well, have you anything a little smaller ?" I asked and so it went on.
It was dark by now , Mum's welcome dinner was surely long waiting at home and so off we drove , never stopping to figure out the lights. We always end up with a bigger car which we don't really need and just this once, couldn't Carrie's ploy have worked ? Of course not , next time I'll have to travel with Carrie and see exactly how it works .I can't imagine anyone sniggering at her and calling out "have a safe journey!"
xxx
" Well she would wish us that wouldn't she? "remarked darling daughter Kathrin and continued "especially as you told her you don't know how to turn the lights off on the car! She really does hope we make it home safe and sound."
Just after our arrival at the restaurant our waitress had come over to our table hurriedly to tell us we had left the lights of the car on, to which we had replied "Thank you" and done nothing about it , as we didn't want to waste time looking for the manual in the dark. Of course this is just one of the drawbacks of hiring a car at night. In a hurry to set off you may not really check out how everything works , concentrating much more on adapting to driving on the other side of the road. You also in your hurry never check for those little dents and scratches which the car company will claim you have made on your return and then insist on charging you for..
Well on this occasion I had reserved a fairly small car as the last time in England I was upgraded to a "Chelsea tractor " which although spacious was a nightmare to park. On considering the amount of luggage for 4 persons ; two travelling in from Rotterdam to LCY with extra equipment for the onward stay in the Engadin as well as two normal adults with cases full of presents I was gently urged to order a bigger car.
"Oh no need " I replied airily"Carrie says it's always best to order a small car which the car company will no longer have available , when you arrive, especially late in the afternoon.Then they have to offer you a bigger car at no extra cost " This is my younger sister's recipe for success and thriftiness and nobody ever messes with Carrie.
As we have , on principle blacklisted so many car companies we were now new customers with Hertz, and so as we started our car rental transaction I casually asked for a bigger car.
" Yes, certainly, Madam, we can offer you a ( big big car)£35 extra per day. Is that what you had in mind ?" enquired our rather stiff rental agent.
"Well, have you anything a little smaller ?" I asked and so it went on.
It was dark by now , Mum's welcome dinner was surely long waiting at home and so off we drove , never stopping to figure out the lights. We always end up with a bigger car which we don't really need and just this once, couldn't Carrie's ploy have worked ? Of course not , next time I'll have to travel with Carrie and see exactly how it works .I can't imagine anyone sniggering at her and calling out "have a safe journey!"
xxx
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