Victoria Ann's blog

Rain

It rained and rained and rained

The average fall was well maintained

And when the tracks were simple bogs

It started raining cats and dogs.

After a drought of half an hour

We had the most refreshing shower

And then most curious thing of all

A gentle rain began to fall

Next day but one was fairly dry

Save for one deluge from the sky

Which wetted the party to the skin

And then at last the RAIN set in!

Man hat Bock darauf!

Have you ever spent three hours on a breakfast? It's got to be recommended!

Starters: Champagne and orange juice

Main course: Bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages and tomatoes

Chocolate or fruit müsli with fresh milk

Smoked salmon with creamed horseradish sauce

Fresh rolls with meats and cheese

Boiled eggs

Sweet course: Fruit salad, semolina sweet, caramel pudding, raspberry jelly

Light lunch: Mushrooms and pork with Rösti

With all the tea and coffee you can drink!

And for the digestion: Stichpimpulibockforcelorum

Set up for the day!

Love to know who you are!!!!

If not number 15500.......or 15505.......or 15549.....or 15554 or..........

best of all number 15555 ...............

This is a city with a past ......... but with a future, too. Relics of the "troubles" are still there to see (the murals and the Peace Walls) but building for a better future is there as well.

There's lots to do in Belfast: the pubs and their live music and the restaurants with the famous Ulster Fry; the sights to see like the Albert Clock (Queen Victoria was not amused with the size!) Stormont, The Titanic dry docks and a wonderful theatre; and shopping till you drop!

But it's the wonderful friendly, talkative people I liked :-))

SNOW

The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was

Spawning snow and pink roses against it

Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:

World is suddener than we fancy it.

World is crazier and more of it than we think,

Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion

A tangerine and spit the pips and feel

the drunkeness of things being various.

And the fire flames with a bubbling sound - for world

Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes

On the tongue, on the eyes, on the ears. in the palms of one's hands-

There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.

Louis Macneice

German! It's not easy if you're English! We have never had to bother with nouns that are masculine, feminine or neuter and so dealing with "der", "die" and "das" amounts to a nightmare. How to remember what "Bleistift" is?? There is no way!

In the course of time I have managed to make a few rules of my own that seem to hold up. All nouns ending in "heit", "keit" or "ung" are feminine, I think. And most of the animals I'm frightened of are also feminine e.g. Spinne, Ratte, Maus, Schlange - I sometimes wonder why they are "die" but nevertheless, at least I can remember. I thought I'd got the rivers worked out - they are all feminine except the really big rivers, e.g. Der Rhein, but that doesn't work because it's "die" Donau and that's a big enough river.

It would be OK if that was all but there are these wretched cases to consider - ich gehe in die Stadt und dann bin ich in der Stadt!!! And so it is with every noun.....

As the Germans say:Es ist eine Wissenschaft für sich!

(Could words ending in "schaft" also be feminine???)

Once again I write my blog about visitors and their numbers and noone answers! Nevertheless I am really delighted to have had so many visits since I started in February. And it's soon to be 4000! It's another hobby and often a nice end to the day or five minutes break in-between times. There are so many photos to take and here on Ipernity there are always new and exciting ideas...........

Love to know who you are!!!!

If not number 2002.......or 2020.......or 2022.....or 2200 or..........

best of all  number 2222 ...............

Let's face it, English is a stupid language.

There is no ham in a hamburger and neither pine nor apple in a pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England and French fries were not invented in France.Boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig!

You really have to marvel at a language where a house can burn up...as it burns down. And in which you fill in a form... by filling it out. A bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers. That is why:

When the stars are out, they are visible but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

When I wind up my watch -- it starts

But when I wind up this blog ---------- it ends!

Just when I wasn't looking I had the 1000th visitor!! Thanks and thanks to everyone who has supported me through these first few weeks on Ipernity.

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.

To weep is to risk being called sentimental.

To reach out to another is to risk involvement.

To expose feeling is to risk showing your true self.

To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naive.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

The greatest risk in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing and becomes nothing.

Only the person who risks is truly free.

What traditions do you keep at Easter?

Spring

I have the best of two cultures as, although I live in Germany, I still keep up my English traditions, particularly at Easter. The house is decorated and daffodils are a "must". We give one another chocolate eggs and we have our "hot cross buns" on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday it's boiled eggs for breakfast and a succulent roast lamb for lunch.

However I have Easter decorations in the German way - all over my house - and I even have my Easter egg tree in the garden.Good Friday is a quiet day with a fish lunch. We don't hide chocolate eggs in the garden anymore as our children are now too old. It's a lovely custom and it was a pleasure to see their faces light up as they filled their baskets. Of course it has happened that I have found an egg in the garden later in the year - one they missed!

My grandmother was a hard-working, down-to-earth Londoner whom I dearly loved. She spent most of her days on her greengrocer's stall in the market. In all weathers she stood there from morning till late in the evening. As we got older we often went "up" the market to help and it was at these times that I saw her in action. She respected her customers and they loved her for it.

It was here in the market that I learned some of the Cockney slang. Gran had an "artful dodger" called Harry, who always paid his "Burton" on Fridays.We, the granddaughters, were the "dustbin lids" or the "God forbids" and were always wanting to have a "butcher's" at everything. Use your "loaf" meant we had to think something through. Sometimes it was a bit "taters" standing around in the market and your "plates of meat" were freezing.It was then we all had a cup of "Rosy lea".Most evenings the men went to the "rub-a-dub-dub" for a "pig's ear" and the "trouble and strife" tried not to get into a"two and eight"

As I got older I realised what a hard life my grandmother had had - not only working in the market but also taking in washing; 12 children of whom only four survived till adulthood; a retirement spent in the house of her oldest daughter where she did the housework and cooked the lunch every day till she was over 80 years of age. "Hard work never hurt anyone, ducky!" was her motto. I shall never forget her.

Shelter

The gardens are superb and well worth a visit in the spring but then, as the poem goes, "Oh to be in England now that spring is here".......

Some of my favourite quotes:

It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.(Mother Teresa)

Love is like pi - natural, irrational and very important(Lisa Hoffman)

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.(Jimi Hendrix)

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.(Martin Luther King, Jr.)

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. (Ingrid Bergman)

I came over to Germany 36 years ago with an organisation that supplied the NRW Education system with teachers of English. It was known as The Centre for British Teachers in Germany. As a Primary teacher it would not have been so easy to find a job in Germany at that time if it hadn't been for this company. I not only had a good job but I also learned a lot about teaching English as a foreign language. Is there anyone out there who worked for this company??