German and Austrian Culture and Words ( to run away but also having fun with it before )

[Jon Smithie]

OK, after my last vaccination, I am really having more side effects than I ever thought. One week later, I am still always so tired that I feel like I could sleep for months and I am so tired of so many things in this world.
I think, I will go to sleep now and I do not know when I will wake up and feel better again.
All the best for you and good-bye till then.

I second Migoz2. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[Loxuru]

OK, after my last vaccination, I am really having more side effects than I ever thought. One week later, I am still always so tired that I feel like I could sleep for months and I am so tired of so many things in this world.
I think, I will go to sleep now and I do not know when I will wake up and feel better again.
All the best for you and good-bye till then.

The same from me, Silent_water! I hope you feel better soon and be back with us. Don't go to sleep at Kyffhauser!

 

[Madiosi]

The same from me, Silent_water! I hope you feel better soon and be back with us. Don't go to sleep at Kyffhauser!

 

[Silent_Water]

Thank you for all your good wishes but I am still feeling not really good, I must say. I will soon try to sleep in a more useful time and manner.

I think, I will shock all my colleagues and "my homies" by quitting my night job at the hotel. There are some new circumstances which were not included in my contract and I hate them and this kind of my "illness" might be a good opportunity to quit something which started like a kind of heaven and turned into a kind of hell for me after one year.

Mhm, but additionally, I also do not really like such Emperors like Barbarossa with uncontrolled beard growth for centuries.



But I visited my most preferred "house & court doctor" yesterday and maybe, it is interesting for others with similar problems to read what he told me:

"Dear Mr. ..., I do not know it for sure, but your problems are not so unusual after some kinds of vaccination injections as you might think. You will probably look for another week like this poor kid ...



... but in a week or so, it should be much better. Additionally, it might be a difference what kind of medicine you have taken after the first side effects like headaches.
For example, the most taken headache medication in Germany is "Aspirine", "Paracetamol" and "Ibuprofen". I would recommend Paracetamol, because it is stronger than Aspirine but not so strong as Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen for example does not only suppress the headache better but also the immune reaction of the body and if you had taken Ibuprofen after your first vaccination, it could be the case that you had no more headaches but also less immune reactions which are now doubled in strength after your 2nd vaccination. Moreover and according to my last complete check of your body, you are suffering from a "congenital metabolic disorder", which means that everything in your body is working a bit slower and you are sleeping longer and having a lower blood pressure than most other people. This can be good or bad, I do not really know what to tell you but the probability of growing much older than most other people is bigger than usual. So, you may become 100 years or older as your grandmother as you have told me. On the other hand, you might not feel so old or lucky about that because you have also slept more than all people you know who might die long before you. But someone with such a metabolic disorder can also have longer and more severe side effects than most other people!
Well, that is all I can tell you. In the meantime, I keep on wondering about and admiring your hands because I have seen very few people in your age with such a "baby skin". Is this all over your body? OK, then, this will possibly prove what I told you!"

And now guess, what kind of headache medication I have taken after my first "Moderna"-vaccination! It was "Ibuprofen"! It is always nice to be informed just in time, isn't it?

By the way and what the doctor told me about my hands. I am 57 years old and this is my right hand (no photoshop, no photo editing):

 

[Hugin&Munin]

Thank you for all your good wishes but I am still feeling not really good, I must say. I will soon try to sleep in a more useful time and manner.

I think, I will shock all my colleagues and "my homies" by quitting my night job at the hotel. There are some new circumstances which were not included in my contract and I hate them and this kind of my "illness" might be a good opportunity to quit something which started like a kind of heaven and turned into a kind of hell for me after one year.

Mhm, but additionally, I also do not really like such Emperors like Barbarossa with uncontrolled beard growth for centuries.

View attachment 1051095

But I visited my most preferred "house & court doctor" yesterday and maybe, it is interesting for others with similar problems to read what he told me:

"Dear Mr. ..., I do not know it for sure, but your problems are not so unusual after some kinds of vaccination injections as you might think. You will probably look for another week like this poor kid ...

View attachment 1051094

... but in a week or so, it should be much better. Additionally, it might be a difference what kind of medicine you have taken after the first side effects like headaches.
For example, the most taken headache medication in Germany is "Aspirine", "Paracetamol" and "Ibuprofen". I would recommend Paracetamol, because it is stronger than Aspirine but not so strong as Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen for example does not only suppress the headache better but also the immune reaction of the body and if you had taken Ibuprofen after your first vaccination, it could be the case that you had no more headaches but also less immune reactions which are now doubled in strength after your 2nd vaccination. Moreover and according to my last complete check of your body, you are suffering from a "congenital metabolic disorder", which means that everything in your body is working a bit slower and you are sleeping longer and having a lower blood pressure than most other people. This can be good or bad, I do not really know what to tell you but the probability of growing much older than most other people is bigger than usual. So, you may become 100 years or older as your grandmother as you have told me. On the other hand, you might not feel so old or lucky about that because you have also slept more than all people you know who might die long before you. But someone with such a metabolic disorder can also have longer and more severe side effects than most other people!
Well, that is all I can tell you. In the meantime, I keep on wondering about and admiring your hands because I have seen very few people in your age with such a "baby skin". Is this all over your body? OK, then, this will possibly prove what I told you!"

And now guess, what kind of headache medication I have taken after my first "Moderna"-vaccination! It was "Ibuprofen"! It is always nice to be informed just in time, isn't it?

By the way and what the doctor told me about my hands. I am 57 years old and this is my right hand (no photoshop, no photo editing):

View attachment 1051096

It's always nice to be told something like that in good time. It was the same for me when I received an artificial knee joint. After the operation it suddenly said: it might not be so good to work while crouching or kneeling or climbing ladders. It would be beneficial if you looked for a new job. I was 53 years old then, well, I then got new driver's licenses and then worked as a tram and bus driver until I retired.

 

[Silent_Water]

By the way, I just stumbled over a YouTube-Video with a historical moment:

The very first German musical flash-mob ever with a car accident of an unconcentrated driver who was in thoughts searching for "der Mittelteil von Doktor Schiwago" (= the [soundtrack] middle part of Doctor Zhivago) but in the end we must learn that it might also have been "Love Story":

 

[Silent_Water]

My mother will hopefully become 90 years old in springtime next year and although her memory is constantly becoming weaker and slower, she remembers a lot of tunes and music from her childhood. When speaking to her on telephone because she is living in a really well organized retirement home, she often asks me if I could find this or that song and she is often surprised and delighted that I can do that within less than one minute and play it on the telephone for her.

Some of these tunes are really unknown for me and she must have heard them in her own childhood without ever having told me about them before but I really can find them what surprises even me. Other examples are not really the songs I would love to play on my own birthday but they are very beautiful nevertheless and I am sometimes glad that I must have inherited so much of good taste from my mother.

Here are some examples from her wishlist of the last days and I think, the readers here will usually like them, too:

"La Montanara" sung in Italian and German with pictures from the autonomous Italian-Austrian region of Trentino - South Tyrol (= "Süd-Tirol"), in which the cultures of Italy and Austria mixed in language, architecture and music. This version is special for me, too, because of the two languages and an unusual beautiful kind of slow yodelling which you usually only hear much faster:

Trentino - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A German version (1964) from the followed US-Song, which are both almost identical in the sense of the words and meanings:

The German version ("Lang, lang ist's her" = "A long, long time ago ... ") of an Irish folk song from 1855 which I never heard before until 3 days ago when my mother remembered them:

My mother's favourite tunes and whistlers of Roger Whittaker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzKQfrNseoI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaPoBhiMkgs

 

[Silent_Water]

There is something which I am missing in Europe's musical culture very much - and the older I become, the more I miss it.
Decades ago, there were good singers who became famous by international performances and their career was followed by music lovers in many different countries, so their best songs often were translated into other languages - sung by themselves!
Sometimes, there were songs which existed only in languages which were not the mother tongue language of the singer but in some way, exactly this singing with a foreign accent made this songs often so unusual and beautiful ... and unforgettable.
There was a beautiful French women - and in my opinion also a very good singer although she had many critics at the beginning of her career for "making fluffy and ultra-commercial pop hits with little substance" - she ...

France Gall - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

... made some songs which will be remembered in Germany and France "in eternity" and this one of the years 1987/ 1988 was probably her greatest success throughout all Europe because it is simply a great honoring for Ella Fitzgerald and for all people who are "not white":

Her career was also followed by many Germans since her surprising winning of the Grand Prix Eurovision in 1965 - her voice was a bit out of control and her then-lover was said to have left her because he could not stand her being more successful than him, so he probably was a perfect idiot of those times - because she made some songs in French and German and even some songs only in German:

This one was a bit ahead of its time because here, France Gall sings in German about a computer searching her next lover for her:

And here, she sings she is sweet like sugar but if one treats her bad, she will become a tiger:

 

[Silent_Water]

Some European singers even became more famous in the countries where their poor parents had to work and in the neighboring countries like Germany or France than in their native nations, for example "Adamo" from Belgium, who was born in Sicily, Italy, but who is - as far as I know - in fact the the best selling Belgian musician of all times (!) :

Salvatore Adamo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

He made songs in many languages and one of them was used in our French lessons in my German high school. It is simply a timeless masterpiece in every language:

English:

The original song in French is even better than every other version:

But this interpretation by the German singer Katja Ebstein is also really very good:

Even his songs in German or in duets with Germans were masterpieces and although he always had an accent, the texts were really difficult to learn and to sing.
Salvatore Adamo is simply an outstanding talent in music and speaking different languages:

 

[Silent_Water]

About 3 hours ago, the German city of "Kiel" had an "interesting weather phenomenon", which is still rather unusual in Germany and the meteorologists are discussing if we should call this a "Windhose" (= German expression = "wind pants" (?) = a little Tornado or a "Tornado"). In any case, at least six persons - rowers from a sports club - were injured when they were caught by this "Windhose" and thrown into the water of the harbor of Kiel. Twitter videos from a distance inside this report:

Tornado in Kiel: Mindestens 6 Personen ins Wasser gerissen

Die Windhose riss Menschen ins Wasser. Im Internet machen Videos vom Tornado in Kiel die Runde.

de.euronews.com

The weather in Europe has really become "vivid" and "unusually active" ...

 

[Loxuru]

About 3 hours ago, the German city of "Kiel" had an "interesting weather phenomenon", which is still rather unusual in Germany and the meteorologists are discussing if we should call this a "Windhose" (= German expression = "wind pants" (?) = a little Tornado or a "Tornado"). In any case, at least six persons - rowers from a sports club - were injured when they were caught by this "Windhose" and thrown into the water of the harbor of Kiel. Twitter videos from a distance inside this report:

Tornado in Kiel: Mindestens 6 Personen ins Wasser gerissen

Die Windhose riss Menschen ins Wasser. Im Internet machen Videos vom Tornado in Kiel die Runde.

de.euronews.com

The weather in Europe has really become "vivid" and "unusually active" ...

Tornados are rare but not unusual in this part of Europe.

This is not 'Tornado Alley' in the US, but the Belgian/Dutch border area in June 1967.

And this is the damage it did :

 

[Naraku]

About 3 hours ago, the German city of "Kiel" had an "interesting weather phenomenon", which is still rather unusual in Germany and the meteorologists are discussing if we should call this a "Windhose" (= German expression = "wind pants" (?) = a little Tornado or a "Tornado"). In any case, at least six persons - rowers from a sports club - were injured when they were caught by this "Windhose" and thrown into the water of the harbor of Kiel. Twitter videos from a distance inside this report:

Tornado in Kiel: Mindestens 6 Personen ins Wasser gerissen

Die Windhose riss Menschen ins Wasser. Im Internet machen Videos vom Tornado in Kiel die Runde.

de.euronews.com

The weather in Europe has really become "vivid" and "unusually active" ...

I can't read the article, but, based on the pictures, I believe this is what we in the US call a "waterspout". They can either form at the surface of the water and rise up, much like a dust devil on land; or they can form as a funnel and descend form the the clouds. They don't actually suck up water, what you see is spray circling in the vortex. They are usually smaller and less intense than tornadoes - about a weak EF-1 - and short lived, but they can still be a threat to boats and can cause damage if they come ashore.

Waterspout - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Waterspouts are very common in Florida. I've actually watched one form in Tampa Bay. It only lasted a minute and never came ashore.
Global warming may cause weather phenomena normally associated with the tropics and sub-tropics to become more frequent in Europe.

 

[Silent_Water]

According to different news sources, this "waterspout" in Kiel was a bit unusual because it seemed to have moved slowly between land and sea for at least 10 minutes. It still is not sure and it probably never will be if it was only one or a second one which formed right behind it because there were also damages in a near suburb near the sea where the roofs partly "disappeared" and the people inside the houses said they heard a noise like a train running through their upper floors and they suddenly had such a wind inside their houses and living rooms so strong that they could hardly breathe. In any case, no one of us would like to have such a fast train running through our houses causing breathing problems, I think.
There are now reports of seven injured persons, severely injured were 3 persons who did not belong to the rower's sports club but were caught by the wind, dragged across the piers and thrown into the water - obviously by a waterspout with the behaviour of a dangerous hooligan ...

 

[Migoz2]

When will Europe experience its first sharknado?

But don't worry, Germany, The Hoff is on it!

 

[Silent_Water]

Oh! Yeah!
In this thread, how could I ever forget to mention "The Hoff" here ...

... because he "probably single-handed" killed communism in East-Germany right at the Berlin wall with this song being there at the right time and right place:

OK, I must admit: Many, many young East-Germans really loved tho hear this song at those times (but I had to hear it so often in those times that I do not really like it any more).



By the way, these "Sharknado"-movies are regularly mentioned at the German "Sci-Fi-Channel" TELE 5 in their special segment "Die SchleFaZ-Filme" (= "Die Schlechtesten Filme aller Zeiten" = The Worst Movies of all Times) as so silly, ridiculous and senseless that they are really good to watch them together with your friends because the funny comments you can make about them in a funny beer & barbecue - evening will make a funny evening for all spectators, even when it is raining - and it is raining this year a lot in Germany.
So, what else could we Germans do in a sad and rainy Saturday evening for fun but watching "Sharknado" and having fun about silly movies?

 

[Silent_Water]

Mhm, I have just read an article in an internet page of the German weekly "Der Spiegel" and I suddenly got the feeling that God might still exist and God himself must have made us Germans invent such a word like "Schadenfreude".

In this article you can almost feel all over your body the "Schadenfreude" of the German journalist reporting about a tweet by Nigel Farage and if you are able to read the German comments of the readers, you will understand the meaning of this word in its best and most modern sense.

(I do not want to know how the French newspapers are reporting about this - or how Nigel's most hated "friend" Jean-Claude Juncker from their common times at the EU parliament will react about these news! But certainly Nigel will probably say: There has never been, there is not and there will certainly never be nowhere never-never-never any connection with something that once was called "The Brexit"!!!)

First the tweet and even I thought, this must be a kind of "satire in real life":



The German article in "Der Spiegel" and the comments there:

Brexit-Vorkämpfer: Farage sucht nach Benzin - und wird von Lieferwagen angefahren

Wegen eines Mangels an Lkw-Fahrern geht Großbritanniens Tankstellen der Treibstoff aus – der EU-Austritt des Landes gilt als eine Ursache der Krise. Ihre Folgen bekam nun offenbar auch »Mr Brexit« zu spüren.

www.spiegel.de

 

[Silent_Water]

Mhm, I am sorry that I will "auf dieser Sache herumreiten" (German saying = "riding around on this topic"), but it is also simply too "funny" for me:

I got a friend who is visiting Great Britain regularly and he knows that I am jobless right now since yesterday and he knows that I also own a German driver's license which was confirmed before 1991.

He told me on the telephone the same which I could also hear from the German TV news that there are now wonderful new job opportunities for Germans like me in the United Kingdom - as a driver for petrol and fuel trucks, because these old German driver's licenses permitted me to drive smaller "big vans" - which I never have done before either - but it could not be so hard for me because there could not be so much difference in driving a car which is 7 meters long or 17 meters, could it?

Government asks German residents to drive lorries even if they never have before

Exclusive: German driving licences issued before 1999 include entitlement to drive a small to medium-sized truck of up to 7.5 tonnes

www.independent.co.uk

UK-based Germans among groups targeted to fill shortage of lorry drivers

German driving licences issued before 1999 allow people to drive medium-sized vehicles of up to 7.5 tonnes.

www.standard.co.uk

Government asks German residents to drive lorries even if they never have before - News Chant UK

The authorities has requested hundreds of Germans residing within the UK to drive lorries to help with the HGV scarcity, even if they have never pushed one before. Germans based mostly within the UK have been despatched a letter by the Department for Transport, signed by transport minister...

uk.newschant.com

Briten bitten Deutsche um Hilfe: Lust auf Laster?

Kein Sprit an den Tankstellen, kein Gemüse im Supermarktregal - Großbritannien hat es in der Lkw-Krise nicht leicht. Jetzt versucht die Regierung, Deutsche mit älteren Führerscheinen als Lkw-Fahrer zu rekrutieren. Von Gabi Biesinger.

www.tagesschau.de

My first facial reaction to this unexpected job offer was this one:

Then he showed me a real British government letter from another German friend which in fact was sent to many Germans living in Great Britain because of their old driver's licenses:

My next facial reaction to this letter was this one: I simply could not believe it that I could possibly start a brandnew career as a German truck driver in Great Britain and being jobless just since yesterday and a bit depressed today, I felt very happy again - "bigly"!

On the other hand, I had seen a few time before in the internet other pictures of buses and trucks from Great Britain which slowly made me think it over again, because some other Germans who are already constantly living in Great Britain had already rejected this job offer:



And finally, although I am speaking English relatively well and I always could ask for the way to find the next petrol station ... I think, it could be too complicated at my age (58) to drive for the first time a big petrol truck in another country where the people are much more familiar with driving their cars on the wrong side of the road.

Or would you recommend to apply for this job opportunity for Germans in Great Britain? (Just asking for a friend.)

 

[Loxuru]

"Never in history, so many owed so much to so few German drivers!"

 

[old slave]

Mhm, I am sorry that I will "auf dieser Sache herumreiten" (German saying = "riding around on this topic"), but it is also simply too "funny" for me:

I got a friend who is visiting Great Britain regularly and he knows that I am jobless right now since yesterday and he knows that I also own a German driver's license which was confirmed before 1991.

He told me on the telephone the same which I could also hear from the German TV news that there are now wonderful new job opportunities for Germans like me in the United Kingdom - as a driver for petrol and fuel trucks, because these old German driver's licenses permitted me to drive smaller "big vans" - which I never have done before either - but it could not be so hard for me because there could not be so much difference in driving a car which is 7 meters long or 17 meters, could it?

Government asks German residents to drive lorries even if they never have before

Exclusive: German driving licences issued before 1999 include entitlement to drive a small to medium-sized truck of up to 7.5 tonnes

www.independent.co.uk

UK-based Germans among groups targeted to fill shortage of lorry drivers

German driving licences issued before 1999 allow people to drive medium-sized vehicles of up to 7.5 tonnes.

www.standard.co.uk

Government asks German residents to drive lorries even if they never have before - News Chant UK

The authorities has requested hundreds of Germans residing within the UK to drive lorries to help with the HGV scarcity, even if they have never pushed one before. Germans based mostly within the UK have been despatched a letter by the Department for Transport, signed by transport minister...

uk.newschant.com

Briten bitten Deutsche um Hilfe: Lust auf Laster?

Kein Sprit an den Tankstellen, kein Gemüse im Supermarktregal - Großbritannien hat es in der Lkw-Krise nicht leicht. Jetzt versucht die Regierung, Deutsche mit älteren Führerscheinen als Lkw-Fahrer zu rekrutieren. Von Gabi Biesinger.

www.tagesschau.de

My first facial reaction to this unexpected job offer was this one:

View attachment 1070149 Then he showed me a real British government letter from another German friend which in fact was sent to many Germans living in Great Britain because of their old driver's licenses:

View attachment 1070150 My next facial reaction to this letter was this one: View attachment 1070151 I simply could not believe it that I could possibly start a brandnew career as a German truck driver in Great Britain and being jobless just since yesterday and a bit depressed today, I felt very happy again - "bigly"!

On the other hand, I had seen a few time before in the internet other pictures of buses and trucks from Great Britain which slowly made me think it over again, because some other Germans who are already constantly living in Great Britain had already rejected this job offer:

View attachment 1070153 View attachment 1070155 View attachment 1070161

And finally, although I am speaking English relatively well and I always could ask for the way to find the next petrol station ... I think, it could be too complicated at my age (58) to drive for the first time a big petrol truck in another country where the people are much more familiar with driving their cars on the wrong side of the road.

Or would you recommend to apply for this job opportunity for Germans in Great Britain? (Just asking for a friend.)

Don't worry, now our troops have left Germany to fend for itself, they will deliver petrol



Apparently it takes three days training to learn how to connect a hose to a storage tank!

 

[Naraku]

Mhm, I am sorry that I will "auf dieser Sache herumreiten" (German saying = "riding around on this topic"), but it is also simply too "funny" for me:

I got a friend who is visiting Great Britain regularly and he knows that I am jobless right now since yesterday and he knows that I also own a German driver's license which was confirmed before 1991.

He told me on the telephone the same which I could also hear from the German TV news that there are now wonderful new job opportunities for Germans like me in the United Kingdom - as a driver for petrol and fuel trucks, because these old German driver's licenses permitted me to drive smaller "big vans" - which I never have done before either - but it could not be so hard for me because there could not be so much difference in driving a car which is 7 meters long or 17 meters, could it?

Government asks German residents to drive lorries even if they never have before

Exclusive: German driving licences issued before 1999 include entitlement to drive a small to medium-sized truck of up to 7.5 tonnes

www.independent.co.uk

UK-based Germans among groups targeted to fill shortage of lorry drivers

German driving licences issued before 1999 allow people to drive medium-sized vehicles of up to 7.5 tonnes.

www.standard.co.uk

Government asks German residents to drive lorries even if they never have before - News Chant UK

The authorities has requested hundreds of Germans residing within the UK to drive lorries to help with the HGV scarcity, even if they have never pushed one before. Germans based mostly within the UK have been despatched a letter by the Department for Transport, signed by transport minister...

uk.newschant.com

Briten bitten Deutsche um Hilfe: Lust auf Laster?

Kein Sprit an den Tankstellen, kein Gemüse im Supermarktregal - Großbritannien hat es in der Lkw-Krise nicht leicht. Jetzt versucht die Regierung, Deutsche mit älteren Führerscheinen als Lkw-Fahrer zu rekrutieren. Von Gabi Biesinger.

www.tagesschau.de

My first facial reaction to this unexpected job offer was this one:

View attachment 1070149 Then he showed me a real British government letter from another German friend which in fact was sent to many Germans living in Great Britain because of their old driver's licenses:

View attachment 1070150 My next facial reaction to this letter was this one: View attachment 1070151 I simply could not believe it that I could possibly start a brandnew career as a German truck driver in Great Britain and being jobless just since yesterday and a bit depressed today, I felt very happy again - "bigly"!

On the other hand, I had seen a few time before in the internet other pictures of buses and trucks from Great Britain which slowly made me think it over again, because some other Germans who are already constantly living in Great Britain had already rejected this job offer:

View attachment 1070153 View attachment 1070155 View attachment 1070161

And finally, although I am speaking English relatively well and I always could ask for the way to find the next petrol station ... I think, it could be too complicated at my age (58) to drive for the first time a big petrol truck in another country where the people are much more familiar with driving their cars on the wrong side of the road.

Or would you recommend to apply for this job opportunity for Germans in Great Britain? (Just asking for a friend.)

There have been problems in the US with fuel deliveries due to driver shortages, but not nearly to the extent the have in GB, sorry, the UK.
One of the reasons was that driving any kind of tanker truck, no matter what the liquid, requires a special license, so there were fewer drivers available. This is because the driver must be trained to handle the effects of inertia on a liquid. When the truck stops, several tons of liquid keeps moving forward. When the truck turns, several tons of liquid keeps moving straight. The forces of physics affect any tanker truck, whatever is in it and whatever the size and is the reason so many are involved in roll-over accidents.

Of course, when the liquid inside is gasoline, things can get a lot worse.

It speaks to how desperate the UK government must be that they are willing to hire anyone with truck driving experience even if they do not have training for driving tankers.