My Life's Ingredients

With all the programs about the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, my brain jumps into action with memories again. Well, obviously I don’t have first hand memories of WWII, and not even second-hand. It’s really a shame that kids are not that interested in history (as a rule, there are obviously some children who are history buffs!), and a shame that when our interest finally peaks, some historical events are rather things that the older generations want to forget/don’t want to talk about… Both sets of my grandparents are dead now, and I never found the right time/place to ask questions about their war experiences – my granddad on my father’s side suddenly died of a heart attack 1/2 a year after I moved to the UK. He would have been the perfect candidate to get some insight into history … I know from my dad that he was a POW (I “think” in Russia – definitely something to ask my dad about!). I also have some diaries from him from 1945, and have also some of his medals and I think some paperwor...

Isn't that just typical? I remembered two books I read as a child (because of Maren's Journalling Challenge - I hope I can do both this month!). Can I remember the title? NO. Can I remember the author or publisher? No, of course not!!!! :( One of the books is a detective story/novel taking place on one of the Greek Islands. I've asked my Mutsch to check my old books but I have the funny feeling that I have probably given the book away when we moved house when I was 12 years old. Googling "Greek Islands" and "fiction" brings up 113+ PAGES of results (half of which are probably non fiction anyway!). The other book is set in Germany - 2 kids (orphans) are travelling through the country to find their aunt in/near Berlin. I am sure it was after a nuclear war or something like that. We read the book in Secondary school, probably when I was about 12-13 years old. .... TADA!!! Found the book!!! It's called "Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn" ( ...

Quite funny, since we booked the cruise I am reminiscing about my holidays as a child, the differences since growing up and all that. :) And I think watching Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes just tickled the memories even more out. Since I can remember my family went camping... in tents. Austria, Spain, Hungary (at the Balaton) and the most vivid memories I have of camping in Funtana, south of Porec,then Yugoslavia (now Croatia). We must have been there a couple of years at the same camping ground. It was a FAB time (even my incident with jellyfish!), very good food and camping was just FUN!!! Amazing how you change when you get older. I believe it was when I was 12 when I started to stay in hotels ... with my sister and her boyfriend that time in Cala Ratjada, Mallorca. And I don't think I went back to camping abroad since then. Since I met Doug holidays were always in the US/Canada and the obligatory week in Germany. But now I am feeling like going back to camping or at...