My Life's Ingredients

15th anniversary of a very sad day. I've just read my blog post from 2011 , and it's still hard to understand how this could happen and it is still affecting people in different ways. I wonder if my girls will see some memorial bits in the news today. How do you even try to explain to children that there are very nasty people out there who inflict things like that on a lot of people, actually on the whole human race? I know that we've had other attacks since then and closer to home as well, but in my eyes this was "the big one", maybe even the one which started everything off. It was too close to home back then too, as we knew people living & working in NYC at that time. We've not been back since 2010, when the memorial was still being built, but I would like to go back to New York one year with the girls. To see the finished memorial. And maybe try to explain (which is nigh impossible! Nobody CAN explain an action like that! There was no rational ...

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...

(photo-heavy, and emotional contents) With all the programs on the TV I was thinking back about that fateful day of 11 September 2001. I’m sure it’s one of those days you will always remember where you’ve been when you heard the news. (photo taken from Orlando News Centre) The day was only 4 days after our wedding, and we were looking forward to our honeymoon starting on the 20th – in the USA. I was at work when I heard the news, some of my colleagues had internet access and had checked the news and then passed the info on – a plane  (American Airlines Flight 11) flew into 1 WTC (World Trade Centre North Tower) at 8:46am local time (12:46pm UK time). We were all shocked about this “accident” and worried for the people in the tower. When I saw the news of the second plane at 1:03pm UK time (9:03am local time) into the South Tower (2 WTC, United Airlines Flight 175) I thought it was a repeat, couldn’t be happening. At that point I started worrying about my friend Susan ...

That's what's happening when you sign up for those "Friends Reunited" websites ... in my case it's "Wer kennt wen" . And it's quite scary, but I've found already 34 people I know. Lots of them I haven't seen even prior to me moving to the UK in autumn 1998!! And it's just GREAT!!! I wish I could just meet up with them at some point. And there are soooo many that I am still "searching for". ;) Another thing was that when I was searching for music for my playlist (right column) I came across ONE German Song quite by accident, from one of my favourite bands back in the 80s & 90s (Pur). Now I am sitting here and listen to the CDs I got from them (11!!) plus 2 more CDs from German Bands. And of course that brings back TONS of memories... ;) Right now I am wondering what would have been if I hadn't moved to the UK. Would I be married? Would I have started yet another "circle of friends"? What kind of job would I do? ...