Growing up we always played a lot of card games in my family, but in many country all card games are considered gambling, especially in Christian circles. Maybe we should ban card games in our family as well... not only because I seem to loose all the time, but also because emotions run quite high and Christian values like "love your neighbor" or "sharing" or "considering others higher than oneself" get thrown out of the window for the time being. Everyone wants to win themselves and is spiteful toward anybody else who dares to win instead of themself (especially Ben, he ALWAYS argues around!!!).... maybe it isn't the typical Christian hobby, but - and despite the fact that I always seem to loose (and unfortunately I'm not a good looser)- we as a family have a lot of fun, laugh a lot and don't harbour bad feelings once the game night is finished.
Those nights ALWAYS start with my mum asking the question: "How does it go again??" And in the end she almost always wins, grrrrr... but as I said, we do NOT harbour grudges:o))) Not only are game night great fun times with lots of laughter and maybe even "mild language" (Du Bloedmann), but they also bond us together as family. Once the cards are packed away we also invite our Christian values to come back in:o)
Another typical German Sunday afternoon activity is the famous Sunday afternoon walk, which, you might have guessed it, is a walk on Sunday afternoons. So Ben, Ned and I headed out into the nasty February cold (why did I complain again about 30C humidity and heat??? Just kidding). My legs felt like ice blocks pretty soon, Ben wore his usual shorts and cloves and Ned carried a compulsory Sunday-afternoon-walk-stick around, cut by dad off course, and didn't seem to be bother whatsoever by the freezing cold... but despite the fact of deep frozen knees on my part, I just LOVE the fact NOT to be in a permanent state of sweating!!! :o)))
One thing we also have to get used to again in Germany are the public toilets: you actually pay to go to the "dunny", although Ben stubbornly refuses to do that and walks straight past the lady who is supposed to keep the toilets clean but is much more interested and busy to watch you actually put some coins in the money box. I on the other hand, as a good German, would feel awkward not to but some money in, even if I'm not very much impressed with the cleanliness of the toilets (because the lady is busy guarding her money box instead of doing her job).
We also discovered another cultural difference between Australia and Germany. Down under tights are for girls only, or for Robin Hood. In Germany it is quite normal to put them on little blokes as well, UNDER the pants of course, so you normally don't see it, but it keeps the legs warm in winter.... but to be honest.. it actually does look quite cute on Ned, especially without pants on top and with the tiger paws, don't you think????? :o))
Well, as you can see, we do enjoy living a "normal" live in Germany for now. If I'm honest, I'm not even feeling sad or downcast because the Doulos is being scrapped (hopefully soon). I do miss you people there, treasure the memories of the times on board and marvel in what amazing ways God used this big piece of metal and rust but I'm more then willing to let the old lady go in peace, because she IS falling apart (if you need proof just go to Ned's old cabin and look at and underneath the carpet, because you can actually lift almost all the carpet tiles off the concrete, which isn't very handy when vacuum cleaning, believe me!!). I can't really put it in words but a fellow ex-Douloi did an excellent job, so if you like you can check out her blog:http://shirleyontheship.blogspot.com/
I should go to bed, that's a wise thing to do!!
Night, night
he does look very cute!
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