FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

As Monday is my "Do nothing" day, I just gathered the pictures for Our World, now I always have to dig in my folders, no new travel in view, whole Europe is red zone.

Our lockdown meeting was in our home and Mr. G. showed proudly his new Smartphone for Seniors. Now he has just learned how to call and how to answer and also discovered the contacts. What our friend had explained to him was too much and he had mixed up everything ! 

Nicole is also a champion in using a Smartphone, but she has a "normal one" since at least 4 years, but she always forgets how to use other things than the telephone and Whatsapp buttons. We had a lot of fun with the two of them and fortunately they were not offended at all. Mr. G. wants to go to quick and starts with the end ! Nicole is wearing the mask and has a hat on because she had started the chimeo treatment again. She still has 6 to do ! She looks real good. The afternoon went by very quickly as usual when you are in good company. 

I did my weekly food shopping and came back exhausted it's really no fun to disinfect your caddie your hands and follow the lines.. Normally Mr. G. does the shopping which makes him move a bit, but he always buys the same things so this time I changed and also bought other fruits than apples and different ham and cheese. Then I saw a ready made Sauerkraut just to heat up and thought that was the right plate to eat on a cold day. It was very good.

We had another lockdown meeting at Nicole's and talked about the people who start to feel depressed or unmotivated for everything and everybody has a lack of energy ! The pharmacies have never sold so many antidepressants. The suicide rate has also increased although they try not to talk too much about it. It's great time that we return to normal life with cinemas, theatres, zoos, fun parks and all folklore events. Instead the streets are empty and everybody is masked.

Lots of Europeans also watched the inauguration of the new President Biden in the USA,and I noticed for the first timed that Lady Gaga has a wonderful voice ! I always thought she was gaga (which means crazy in French) and that she was more famous for her extravagant outfits ! 

 

                                                 To me she looked like a blown up red Tulip.

The whole ceremony was very nice and the first one in history where all present people were wearing a mask ! This certainly will go into all history books. King Trump who didn't want to leave the White House and had nearly to be kicked out, disappeared with wife Melania ! Now I wonder if she stays with him or not ! She really has hated to be the first Lady !

In the night we had a storm with 90/100 km/h ! My room is just at the corner of the building so the wind whistled loud ! I thought how lucky I am I don't have to fear that the roof or our house flies away ! And now its starts again just before I go to bed. 

Hard times but try to take it easy !

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

HODGEPODGE JANUARY 20

1. What's something we'd find you doing most afternoons? 

Nothing special because I am locked in because of the lockdown ! I surf on Internet, I watch TV, sometimes shopping and our lockdown meeting with my two friends. Ah yes I forgot, there is also the telephone !!

2. Who do you take after? In what way(s)?

My parents pretend that I am as crazy as my aunt, my mother's sister who loved adventures, travelling and had the same hobbies as I have. I also looked like he. My parent's friends and the rest of the  family pretended that I have nothing taken from them but that I am rather a Cuckoos egg, because these birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, who are fooled into raising the infant cuckoo as one of their own.

3. 'After every storm comes a rainbow' or 'the calm before the storm'...which phrase do you relate to more right now? Tell us why? 

In normal times I would say that after every storm comes a rainbow because with me a glass is always half full and never empty ! But now after two lockdowns and deprived of my freedom, I am rather thinking the calm before the storm, because each time I am hopeful my lifestyle would become normal again, another bad news arrives !

4.What are your plans for the day after tomorrow?  

I will celebrate a lockdown birthday with 3 friends ! 

5. Complete this sentence-"After all is said and done I go to bed." 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I think I stopped thinking ! Anyway it doesn't change a thing ! Each day is the same and no end is in view ! If at least we would have nice weather so that I could go in the woods and try to make nice pictures, but it is wet and muddy and you can't even go inside a bar and warm you up with a drink. Everything is closed.  And shopping is not at all my thing !

 

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

We had home cinema today from our living room. First the view was as every day a big fir !

Then suddenly when we looked out again all branches were gone and just the head was still standing ! We started to take pictures and admired the guy who was sawing so high up ! And slowly slowly the fir became smaller and smaller until only the trunk remained with the guy now standing on a ladder. 

We thought what a hard work that was to cut such a big tree !

and now when I look outside I see other houses ! Meanwhile it had snowed a bit !

 more participants here, and Image-in-ing

VIRTUAL NEW YEAR 2020/2021 IN BERLIN

New Year's Eve in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate 2020 was completely different as in all the other years before. In 2019 it looked like this : 

 "Welcome 2021": The traditional New Year's Eve party at the Brandenburg Gate was replaced in 2020 by a virtual New Year's Eve  show without spectators at least not in the street and on the place in front of the gate !

Empty place and streets

But lots of spectators at home on their screens who participated !

Artists doing their show outside under the gate

and lots of lights and fireworks

The show was aired on TV of course and I have to say it was really very good and funny ! I think they wanted to comfort the population who all suffered of the lockdown. 

I was home and watched too. We had curfew at 10 and our guests were all gone, we were 6 in total so very brave ! 

The following pictures I took at the TV screen !

Dancing and famous singers performed also outside under the gate.

Maybe the quality of the pictures is not the best but as it was such a special New Year and I couldn't travel to Berlin, I had at least a nice virtual New Year which also was the very first of my life !

 Linking to Happy Tuesday

 

more participants here

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND JAN 16

Lockdown syndroms !

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS 

WEEKEND

Friday it was the first time this year that it snowed ! On Saturday morning when I woke up the world was white and looked beautiful behind the building, as if I was in a touristic snow area ! But the front was different ! There it had started to melt and the cars had made the snow disappeared and it had started to rain !

 

In the afternoon a friend of Mr. G. came to explain how to use the new mobile ! What a prodedure !

Somebody who has made programs for big companies his whole working life, was now confronted with a mobile for seniors which is so easy to use that he is completely lost because he looks for complications. 

With a lot of patience he explained and explained, the trouble was Mr. G. wanted more to know how that thing works inside and not how to use it. So it took some time to put into his mind the design of the two buttons from the mobile phone and the Whatsapp phone. 

 Poor grandson who send him a Whatsapp message couldn't understand that his grandpa had difficulties with that, he is 10 years old ! So we spent the whole afternoon to try to put the use of a smartphone into Mr. G's brain !! Even Rosie tried to help !

On Sunday all the snow was gone only a few white spots were here and there. Mr. G got on my nerves the whole morning when I wanted to write and answer my emails he always had another question and each time I had to start again ! Finally I told him to try it by himself then he would remember better ! Fortunately he found something to do with his smartphone and left me in peace !

In the afternoon we had our lockdown meeting at Nicole's and again her cousin had baked this time delicious "éclairs" for us which means "lightening" I don't know why !

We chatted about the vaccination program in the different countries, and about the lockdown in general and then we digged out funny adventures of our youth and the afternoon went by very quickly ! At least we had the feeling to lead a normal life. Only the masks which we had to wear when we went on the street brought us back in the reality !

Miss Isis listened with great interest !