Objects in space

Eeyore:

‘I didn’t stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of the river I didn’t stop to say to myself, “Is this is Hearty Joke, or is it the Merest Accident?” I just floated to the surface, and said to myself, “It’s wet.” If you know what I mean.’

Sometimes, all there is to it, is to keep floating.

 

Crash! Bang!

This universe where we’ve been hanging appears a tad rough and ready.

Knowing when to say no

.. or nein or nee. Dearest daughter mentioned at lunch she would like to learn Dutch beside German and English. I said two languages might be more than enough for now, but she insisted I tell her the Dutch for table (tafel), fork (vork) and knife (mes), making the astute observation it all sounds a bit like either German or English, so it would be easy.  I thought she was getting a bit blasé already and tried to change the subject to Peppa Pig (link not safe for adult viewing), which prompted the polite query what pig was in Dutch (varken). That perked her up again, noting how different and funny varken sounded. She ensued to point at random objects in the room for their Dutch names (bank, stoel, muur, boek, bloem, etc.) until she got bored (two minutes later). Then she finished her Nudeln mit ketchup und cheese, drank up her applejuice and went to the bathroom to wash her Gesicht. Despite reading no arguments against raising a child trilingually, I think two are more than enough. I hope she agrees.

German word of the day:

Katzenkindergartenerzieherin n., definition pending, as coined this morning by a Mutterkatze of my acquaintance. I guess you had to be there for this to make any sense. I’m merely curious if this will add any traffic from google searches.

Going back to what you know

The hotel I’ve been staying at is small and cozy. The white lampshades are spotless, but have that matte complexion that comes from age. The walls are not as convincingly yellow as they should be. The windows – though newly double-glazed – are set in windowframes that have been attended to and painted over at least couple of times. The shiny sink is equipped with two well-polished taps displaying a hint of rust: one for hot and one for cold water. The familiar heaters are on full blast in spite of the unusually warm temperatures outside.

Yesterday I booked the same room for the end of next week when I return for my final assignment in this little town. The hotel is homely and not far from the place I’m working at, but more important than that for my decision not to take a chance on the Travellodge down the road or the other family-owned hotel on the other side of town is that the proprietors of this place are an Indian couple: the hotel restaurant serves the most intense and spiciest of Indian meals.

Restaurants cater to the locals that frequent them. Indian restaurants in Leipzig or Dessau where I lived previously just didn’t add the chillies and the ginger the way it’s done in England. The tongue sizzles. The blood seems to come unstuck. Objects appear more present. To eat spicy is to feel alive and to suffer longing. To eat spicy is to see the intangible become tangible and to reach. After my first meal late Monday evening, there was not a doubt in my mind I’d be returning to this same place next week for this same food.

On the list (ii)

Today I was told I was on the list.

Mysterious ways

I’ve been spending the week working in a little town between Reading and London. There are two things to say about this: 1) the work, which is a return to a previous profession I thought I had left forever, is much more fun than anticipated, and 2) due to a collapsed bridge it has appeared impossible to either take the train to Reading or to London.

I don’t know what these two observations say about life, but I’m sure it means something.

And I will need to find an escape plan by tomorrow if I want to catch my plane in time.

On the list

Umberto Eco:

The list doesn’t destroy culture; it creates it. Wherever you look in cultural history, you will find lists. In fact, there is a dizzying array: lists of saints, armies and medicinal plants, or of treasures and book titles. Think of the nature collections of the 16th century. My novels, by the way, are full of lists.

Our fridge door is mapped with lots of lists. Thus I travel through my day: from one point of departure to another, ordering organic bread at the organic grocer’s, sweeping the laminated floors around the flat, sending off forms to dark, tall office buildings, phoning this client prior to that client, drafting lists of objectives for classes, until I reach that vaunted sense of completion.

I can see my stubbled face in the blank fridge door as I stick on new post-it note after new post-it note. Each day has its own itinery until no more days are left to fill with arrivals and departures. That will be the day destination becomes destiny and completion fulfilment.

Court philosophy

Andre Agassi:

I believe that, without Pete [Sampras], I would have won more and learned less.

Amen.

When Leichtmatrosen rule the deck.

This needs to be fleshed out more, but I only have time at present for the occasional snide remark, but, hey, if I can’t be snide on the blog, when can I be snide? Isn’t that what political blogging is all about nowadays?

Anyway, we return today to the topic of German politics (attention there at the back).

Those with long, long memories may recall that way back in the late 90s when after 16 years of questionable government Helmut Kohl was finally given the boot by a bored and exhausted electorate the new Red-Green Coalition of Gerhard Schröder and Joschka Fischer slightly took its time to learn the ropes of government.

But then again, the Greens had had no experience of governing much and the SPD had – apart from heading a few Länder – been out in the political wilderness for nearly two decades. Then there were all the systemic problems Kohl had conveniently swept under the carpet during his 16 years in power (well you know, there was that whole reunification thingy which legally should have meant a renegotiation of the German body politic, but, hey, why spoil a big party with constitutional issues and dire warnings of economic consequences. By the way, did you see how that birth rate just plummeted in East Germany after the Wall fell? I wonder what that was about. It can’t all have been the effect of West German beer.).

Tangent.

Anyway, Red-Green could have been forgiven for being a tad all over the place in its first year. Given the mess they inherited you could argue they actually did rather well: both the pacifist-leaning SPD and the Greens coped well with Kosovo, a start was made reforming the pension system, public health insurance was tackled as well as one could hope given the two parties’ basic philosophies, environmentalism and climate change were prioritised and simple stuff like allowing civil unions between homosexual partners or modernising the naturalisation laws were finally taken care of. In short, after 16 years of stodgy cabbagery Germany in the late 90s was just in time dragged into the 20th century.

Most important, even though Agenda 2010 proved the SPD’s own undoing it was a valiant attempt at dealing with Germany’s deep-rooted welfare and labour problems (obviously it was cocked up, but given the circumstances it was probably the best that could be hoped for and anyway we don’t live in a perfect world).

You see where this is heading?

Given that Angela Merkel has had four years of training on the job the sheer degree of incompetence on display first in the coalition agreement negotiations and now prior and just after the swearing in of her new government is astounding.

But at least this government has its priorities right. The one thing FDP and CDU could agree on from the word go was to extend the lifetimes of nuclear reactors.

And spend a bomb on tax cuts while using that money to reform the tax system might have been the wiser strategy.

And now we have run out of money to save the planet.

Oops.