Day No. 102 - Don't play with the dirty kids...

„…sing nicht ihre Lieder.

Why don't you go uptown? machs wie deine Brüder!“

Advent, Advent, kein Lichtlein brennt ...

Today begins with a mixed start, at least as far as the weather is concerned. Nevertheless, I decide to visit the Atlantic Ocean first. On the way to the water, I first have a chat with Etienne, our neighbor. In the meantime I have made friends with his baby, a young puppy. A mixture of Shar Pei and Cão Fila de São Miguel. (Note from Torgit: The new German spelling overwhelms me again: How do you write Pläuschchen? Oh, that was already in the old ... ? Honey, please write kleiner Plausch. Thank you).

Looking at the paws it is obvious, what is still small and cuddly here, will surely become a real bear. - The water is incredibly refreshing. Also here at the water one has in the meantime certain routines. 

Nice that just like at home, sorry we are at home, our daily coffee ceremony belongs to it. Then set up the solar bag, play Tetris, that is, create order in the van ...

During coffee I look outside and at the camper of our new neighbors. She Austrian, he Swiss. Their caravan has a conspicuous feature that also seems to interest the dogs, a cat flap. Only at night, when the dogs are asleep, the pussycat tramps through the area.

Da es anfängt zu regnen, nutzen wir die Zeit um ein wenig zu lesen. – Sobald das Wetter aufklart zieht Torgit los an den Strand. Einfach mal spazieren gehen, nein, das geht doch nicht. Man(n), Frau muss ja was tun. Torgit versucht erst einmal ihre kreative Phase auszuleben. Stellt euch vor, wie so ein durch und durch rationales, strukturiertes Menschenkind kreativ sein möchte. So ganz ohne Plus und Minus, ohne Rechenschieber, ohne Zirkel, ohne Parallelen, rechte Winkel und so weiter. Dafür jedoch mit jeder Menge Selbstkritik im Gepäck. Die Frühphase, Zeichnen am Strand im Sand, wurde zwar fotografiert, soll jedoch nicht dem Publikum freigegeben werden. Auch die Spätphase, zerbrechen einer Muschel zwecks Liebeserklärung an den Gatten, wurde dann verworfen. (Anm. von Torgit: Hatte ich Euch eigentlich schon mal von meinem Anfänger-Mal- und Zeichenkurs erzählt? Wie mein Zeichenlehrer guckte, als ich das Lineal auspackte? 😉 )

Während Torgit am Strand über Zweisamkeit nachdenkt, werde ich ein wenig untreu. Keine Ahnung wie es passierte, doch plötzlich hatte ich „Baby“ im Bett. – Gottseidank hat Torgit das nicht gesehen. Hunde gehören nicht ins Bett. – Schade eigentlich! – Doch dafür kann ich drei von Torgit’s Kunstwerken, vor der Zerstörung, zumindest digital, retten. (Anm. von Torgit: SCHAAAHAAATZ, was macht der Hund in unserem Bett???)

Again we are caught, or should I say Torgit, a shower. This arrives soaking wet at the Bulli. Just when it is wet, things need to be dried, it quickly becomes tight in the Bulli. Our defective back seat contributes its part to it. Therefore, I decide to visit Anja and Michael in the next dry phase.

With the two I came already a few days ago in the conversation. A couple since 1991, they have been traveling on and off for extended periods of time since 1992. Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Turkey were on their list.

After that, the two were always alone on tour, but only in 2008 they finally made the decision to sell everything and live only on the road. In the meantime they have been on the road for nine years in an old savings bank. - Yes, you heard right, the two have converted an old cash vehicle for their purposes. And really including removal of the counter space, armor plating and so on. Who can even remember such vehicles? What has become of the project over the years seems a bit bizarre at first glance. I only say bicycle stand on the hood, or attachment for beer table at the rear, garden in the spare wheel...

Surely there is hardly a German who cannot finish the sentence "When it comes to money, ..." correctly. - Is there a better-known advertising slogan in the financial industry? - But this savings bank is not about money, gold or shares, but about true values, happiness and enjoyment! -If the savings bank association knew that?

With the two I have also heard the first time the term WAGENVOLK, respectively read. 

So the old Daimler was supplemented by an old Volkswagen sign. Only that VOLKsWAGEN has become WAGENVOLK. The S must have been lost. I find this expression incredibly sympathetic.

Anja and Michael have made themselves comfortable in their vehicle over the years. I especially like how personal their vehicle feels. For example, the Sparkasse now has a fully functional kitchen, a wood-burning stove, a library, and so on. Sure, this car polarizes.

„…So sprach die Mutter, sprach der Vater, lehrte der Pastor.

However, he kept sneaking through the garden gate -. and into the rabbit hutches where they played Sixty-Six -. around tobacco and rat skins -

Girls under skirts squinted - where on old board boxes

Cats dozing in the sun - where one, when the rain rushed, 

Engelbert, the stupid one, listened, who bit on a comb of hair, Rattenfängerlieder blies…“

„…Sie trieben ihn in eine Schule in der Oberstadt,

kämmten ihm die Haare und die krause Sprache glatt…“

Anja reports that they are viewed skeptically by the yogurt cup faction. They're just grubby kids. I have to laugh at this expression and spontaneously begin to sing the chorus of the song of the same name. Immediately it is clear, the two know and like the song. I realize that I had almost forgotten it, as well as Sparkassen vehicles. I loved it once. Must remember on occasion to get me a rat skin. 

„…Aus Rache ist er reich geworden. In der Oberstadt

hat er sich ein Haus gebaut. Nahm jeden Tag ein Bad…“

Doch wir teilen nicht nur die Vorliebe für Schmuddelkinder, wir lesen auch die gleichen Bücher. Hier entdecke ich zum Beispiel das Buch „noch mehr Fish“.  Dies ist der zweite Band einer dreiteiligen Buch Serie. Den ersten Band, bekam ich vor vielen Jahren, von meiner guten Freundin Susanne, an die Hand gegeben. Band Nummer eins „Fisch, ein ungewöhnliches Motivations Buch“, ist genau das, was der Titel beschreibt. Motivation wird auf unglaubliche Art und Weise transportiert.

„Liebte hochgestellte Frauen,

fast cars and music,

blond und laut und honigdick.“

Hierbei wird die Philosophie des Pike Place Fish Market gespiegelt.  Simple Spielregeln für glückliche Menschen am Arbeitsplatz, oder sollte ich sagen Spielplatz?  John Christensen, der Autor, schuf diese Philosophie, um eine „Teamkultur“ zu erschaffen. Der Pike Place Fischmarkt in Seattle ist inzwischen weltbe­kannt. Einfache Fisch-Verkäufer wurden zu Stars.

Dabei sind die „Regeln“ so einfach und jeder, wirklich jeder kann sie bei seiner täglichen Arbeit anwende­n. Was in Seattle beim Fischverkauf wie eine Show wirkt, ist Teil des Ganzen. Dort fliegen Fische durch die Luft, es werden Späße gemacht, Kunden werden einbezogen. Aus einer Routinearbeit und knochenhartem Job wird Spiel und Spaß. – Dabei gilt es lediglich die folgenden vier Grundsätze zu beherzigen:

1. choose your setting

Wir alle haben die freie Wahl, wir können entscheiden, nicht immer ob, jedoch mit welcher Einstellung wir unsere Arbeit machen. Tobias Beck würde sagen, wie Bewohner, sprich jammernd und klagend, oder man mach das Beste daraus. Selbst wenn wir die Um­stände nicht  ändern  können, haben wir immer noch die Freiheit die Einstellung zu ändern. –  „Love it, leave it or change  it.“ Und gerade hier draußen zeigt sich mal wie einfach „Change it“ sein kann.

2. fun and games!

A workplace can also be a playground. We should just awaken our inner child again. The little man who played for hours, who never needed to be motivated. Give yourself permission to have fun and play even at work. You only have a little room to create, so start small. Bring plants, hang pictures, start playing. That's ridiculous? - That's fine!

3. bring joy to others

If you give joy to others, you yourself will feel joy as the giver. Rich is not he who has much, but he who gives much.

Make your colleagues, employees, managers and customers happy. Be on the lookout for such opportunities. In the long run, you will improve the work atmosphere enormously and have positive feelings yourself throughout the day.

4. be present!

Live in the here and now, live in presence, (or present tense? Oh, never mind) be present. - Be fully present, no matter if you are on the phone, reading or doing whatever. Not doing everything at the same time is pure self-protection, because it prevents burn-out.

Also today I chat quickly with Anja and Michal. So I also bring home again a quote for us. Journey: The imagination goes, the experience comes.

But the occasion of my visit today was actually to ask Michael to devote himself to our back seat with me once. He has the nickname MacGyver. And he has a right to be called MacGyver. Together we manage to loosen the bolt in the hinge and raise the back seat. After that, I learn how to remove a panel professionally. More and more we approach the source of the fault together. In the end, it is a wire that has jumped out of a hinge. The rear seat is not only made passable, but works perfectly again.

In the meantime, a small crowd of spectators has formed, stunned by our luggage. Some of them don't seem to understand how all this fits into a small van. But we understand our Tetris.

The next step is to check the taillight again. We can't find a conclusive solution here, but we can narrow down the source of the problem. So I have at least a good basis to enter into the next discussion with the friend, meaning the VW specialist.

In between, I also briefly removed the driver's seat in order to lay our connection cable for the solar bag differently, learned how to check the fuse on the individual fuse boxes, that we have four fuse boxes and much more. - During this it has become dark. The last work is finished in the light of the flashlight.

„Danke Michael, ohne dich wäre das sicher nichts geworden!“

Torgit has cooked a soup in between. Since we are frozen through and through, we close the bulkheads and fire up the auxiliary heating. The soup, it is a sweet potato soup, with carrots, and sweated onions, curry and bell pepper paste, coconut milk, ginger, vegetable broth, and a pinch of salt, turmeric, chili, and freshly ground pepper. - Tastes not only wonderfully sweet and spicy, it makes especially warm again.

Etienne has fired up the campfire again in the meantime. - So we have no candle for the third Advent, but such a fire has something. - He stands there with two Scots, which are newly arrived. All three are thickly decorated. I stand in shorts and T-shirt next to them. Here directly at the fire it is wonderfully warm, not to say hot. Laughing Etienne tells that I would bathe already in the morning madly, in the Atlantic. In the meantime, word has gotten around. Everyone thinks I'm crazy. - All? No, my mother certainly not. She was always the first and the last to jump into the reservoirs every year. Which makes it clear where that came from. - Even today, at over 80, she showers outside on the terrace until the frost line.

Later, as I lie in my bunk, I hum quietly to myself once more....

„…Seine Leiche fand man, die im Rattenteich rumschwamm.

Around it the muckrakers blew on the comb:

Spiel nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern …“

Realization of the day: For the second time, the construction of the VW sofa bed has confirmed my decision for SpaceCamper. Thanks to VW!