Update on the crashpadder guests #1 Luisa & Peter

I've been a little busy for studying for an exam two weeks back and I'm realizing that I missed to finish the story about how it turned out with the lent out flat, and now I'm on my third guest already, so I'd better get moving.


You may recall, I had an idea to make a little spare cash, by lending out the flat. With a bit of trepidation I handed over the keys to Peter (of Luisa and Peter), as Luisa had taken a potty break on the train and then missed to get off the train as it was so crowded. However, Peter seemed harmless enough and managed to get off at the right stop with assurances that he would find Luisa again, so keys out of hand, off I went on a Friday while my corner of Essex started to heat up with incoming festival crowds.

Upon my return my flat was in absolutely pristine condition. It looked the same as when I go away to the weekend to new friend Ian's and return on Sunday, except that
1. The sheets, pillowcases and duvet cover were waiting next to the washing machine and the used towels were hanging up to dry
2. Someone left food in the fridge for me: 1 egg, some oj, candy, chocolate, doritos, salsa
3. Luisa and Peter had left a lovely card for me on the desk:






In case you're wondering about the 'funny, lovely & helpful notes' (Luisa teaches English as a second language so well written there!)--I had left little helpful post-its as their train was late. So I penned some messages, for example:

I have a collection of hotel shampoos and soaps. To make it feel more like a holiday I had set them all out in a basket, but I didn't want them to think that they couldn't use the normal ones standing in the shower, so the post-it next to them said:

• 'Use us! Pick me! No me!' (said all of the little soap and shampoo bottles). Or use the normal size ones in the shower, whichever you prefer.

Or in the kitchen, I had left a note in relation to the garbage, because the garbage area has a special key and has had all sorts of drama with people leaving it unlocked and the department of health being called out to go through any rubbish not in the dumpster, as well the key is perhaps made of sterling silver, because copies of lost ones cost 50 GBP. So the note said:

• The rubbish bin is only reachable by a series of secret handshakes and passwords and only when the moon and its comets align. Therefore, leave any garbage here or tied up on the terrace and I'll take care of it upon my return, assuming that the comets are in a good mood about getting in line!

Yeah, I amuse myself.

The big surprise to me, however, was the giftcard that was with the card. I had just assumed it was one of those little 'thank you' cards that people sometimes get over here for various promotions--like donating a marks & spencers item to oxfam gets you a 5 GBP voucher, etc. Imagine my surprise when I went to use it and found that they had put 20 GBP on it. So I will definitely be blocking the flat for their reservation next year if they come again to the festival.

In the week after the festival I've already had an inquiry for next year, someone wanting to book early, good grief.

So overall, experience #1 was a winner. :-)

packing

First for Dubai, then for a week in Germany. Fortunately it's back to the UK in between, so I'm not hauling around an extensive wardrobe.

Weather predictions for Dubai while there: above 100 F/35 C and sunny
Weather while I'll be away from the UK? around 61 F/16 C and partly cloudy, with Germany weather similar.

The blustery winds bring greetings

While it's still August in the UK, it's been crazy windy and cool. It feels like October and summer is officially over. It's been so windy that I've been keeping Slocombe the cat inside; even though she's easily over 10 pounds in her pudgy state, I could see her being picked up and wisked away in this crazy wind.

As you may recall, my mother sends greetings from heaven to my balcony on special days. With this wind I imagine she finds it easy to lauch things up. As it was her birthday today, she made sure to send somehing up, to acknowledge that I was thinking of her:
This was a catalog, and a heavy one a that, at least 100 pages, and it wasn't here yesterday. She positioned this one next to my lettuce, on the page as you see it. Apparently she sends her love through bic pens to me. Considering the paper floating around in my corner of Essex (chat line adverts, get out of debt fast, etc), this is quite impressive.

Step 1 in the massive declutter & clean-up: remove, release

As mentioned over here in The Big Declutter, things were all a flutter here this month. It seems a little amazing, I pared down everything before I left DE, and here we are all over again...with too much after only 18 months.

When I need to clean, I see extra stuff as a barrier that needs to be dusted, moved, hidden, cleaned, etc, and end the end is useless, extra work. It sorta stacks up until I have an impetus to move it, although, I think it would behoove me to do this once per year if I can't improve at it. So what moved this time?

1. ebay - I sold off the excess of items that were absolutely useless to me. What went?

• My law books from last year's course. May as well sell them while they're still fresh, and I need a whole different set for this year's course.
• Camper brand shoes that I bought secondhand. I love the idea of Camper shoes, the style, the look, they're of great quality, but somehow they just don't wear right on me.
• Clothes that I no longer need or want. In the UK we have stand-along wardrobes like in Germany, so no fixed closets. I don't like when they operate like overstuffed sausages, so there was a culling of the masses. I did an intial run through and then left the box there for two weeks as I ran into random items, in they went. The end result was a box lot.
• books - I send my already read pile to D's mom, but I know some of them won't be in her style. Most of them come from Oxfam or the like, so I'd drop them back off, if closer. For the more recent, lighter ones (less postage), I listed them for sale.
• a mirror and hardware - purchased early on, this was a DIY nightmare that required a phD in home improvement to get the hidden mirror clasps onto the wall. Sold in 'pick up only' mode to a local couple.

So how much did I get for things that were just getting in my way?
--> 37 GBP (45 EUR/57 USD) was my final profit after ebay fees etc.

2. the recycleables - the UK is not as good as Germany as far as recycling goes, at least in my corner of Essex. Paper recycling is a 20 minute walk away, plastics need to be carted along to Ian's house who has plastics recycling, and glass and cans are at least five minutes away. So I end up with full bags of these things as none of them are on my way to town, all are special trips. So mountains of items went out the door.

3. Excess packaging - I find myself squirrelling away bubble wrap and the like because it was so expensive in DE and isn't much better here. Fortunately the pile was thinned so much by the outgoing ebay packages.

4. The unsold ebay items - off to the charity shop. There's some kind of animal charity down the street that is staffed by volunteers. This one is two minutes from my house and seems to have customers who are down on their luck and can afford the 1 pound t shirts and 20 cent tea cups. It's a very nice place so any auction that didn't win found a resting place there.

Getting the things out the door put me in the right mood to get started.
Need some inspiration? There's a lot of great blogs right now who are chronicling their decluttering activities:

From close to home in the expat community G is hard at work.

Downsizing is a great read in the archive, even though his year of work is now complete.

However, his cousin has picked up the downsizing challenge in Downsizing Too.

And of course Katie in Making This Home is doing lots of clutter challenge activities as well.

How to declutter and create a beautiful space in 30 days

In case you were wondering where I've been, I've been a little, ahem, busy with the above.

Some backgound--there is perhaps an opportunity opening up that I could be in a slightly different location, for a temporary period. With that in mind, I would need to think about renting out the flat, or getting a house sitter maybe. So on that basis, I decided to give renting a test drive, to see how it would make me feel about my space and what direction to go for a longer term plan. Here comes the decluttering bit...

My space is currently very--'lived in'. Since I work from home most of the time I have a tendency to have work and career related ideas everywhere. It's been one merry-go-round after another of tests and certificates and presentations. First it was the driver's licence in Feb after a few months practice and studying, then I had another two in April that didn't happen due to the ash cloud. One of them happened three weeks ago (a pass), the other make-up is in two weeks...so 'housekeeping skills' has been low on the agenda, and this new location option gave it a boost up. So then what? I fell upon the idea that my motivation for getting the place up to snuff would come from renting it out to complete strangers.

I know some declutter sites have various ideas to motivate you like:

• Imagine that you're going to move overseas, what is really important to you? (been there, done that)
• Imagine that you suddenly die and your relatives are left to sift through your belongings. (so what would it matter than, if I'm already dead, besides, my relatives already know that I can border on slobdom.)

My motiviation-->rent the place out to total strangers for a short period, and make that period soon enough in the future that I would need to crack down and clean it up quickly, rather than a long, drawn out process.

No really.

Some background--I've had plenty of couchsurfers over, hospitality club people, etc. Granted, they're staying a night for free so expectations are lower. However, it gave me the impression that I'm comfortable to have people in my space. Shocking behavior for an only child, I realize. I believe living in Germany socialized me somewhat to more of a community lifestyle.

So there are a few sites out there, that are basically extensions of the couchsurfing idea, but that you pay to stay at someone's place, rather than staying at a hotel. I had picked up on this idea from a New York Times article on the topic.

So I chose a future date where there was an event happening in my corner of Essex and I put up an ad about 6 weeks before it. At 4 weeks before it, a young couple were in contact, and they booked up and paid via the site. So I had 30 days to get the place into tip top shape. Sidenote: I have ads on a few of the sites the Times' article mentions. In this specific instance, I used Crashpadder. If you would like further nitty gritty details of the transaction or to friend me there or view my flat description, if you have my email send me a note, or send a note to this one: phillygirl06 @ the opposite of coldmail.com.

So I broke apart the 30 days and went after the largest items first. Specifically, that was the impetus behind my recent painting mission. :-)

So many tasks I had been sitting on now had a reason to get done, and a self-imposed deadline.

So that will probably be the focus of the next few blog posts, the flurry and activity of getting things done and how they turned out in the end. No before photos were taken to protect the innocent. ;-)

From the rooftop garden: the industrious spider

Each morning when I work from home, I will often take a small coffee break around 10 ish to peek outside at what is happening in the rooftop garden. In Essex we've been having a lot of rain recently, so I take advantage of the moment to step outside as those opportunities are starting to become limited.

Specifically, I was looking at the tomato plant, to figure out if I should use the tomatoes today or tomorrow:

When I heard a buzzing out and realized that a bee or wasp was captured in a spider's web. The spider tend to build webs near my plants as they tend to attract insects.

As the insects tend to cause damage to the plants, I leave the spiders there to do their work. This was on Friday, so I imagine the spider was saying 'Woo-hoo! What a great way to start off the weekend with a big treat!'

As the wasp was stuck in the web, the spider wrapped around him, so that he was then one package. Afterwards, he brought the bounty up the web:

And a little further up:

I'm wondering if there is a family of spiders living inside my metal railing. After another 20 seconds, the wasp was fully gone from the scene.

Open mouth, insert foot

Since I work from home most of the time, I accept packages for the neighbors on my floor. Having to take the 15 minute walk to the post office package distribution office is just a hassle if you miss your delivery. We're only three total flats and with very limited shared walls, so things are quiet up here, and both sets of neighbors are very nice. One is from Italy, a beautiful doctor who speaks fluent English, the other a young couple who work in London so are almost never around.

Usually I just slip a note under the door, 'Hi, I have a package for you, stop by before 10 or tomorrow after 8 AM.'

The Italian was lamenting a few weeks back that she doesn't have a boyfriend. As she is educated, gorgeous and has only been in the UK for six months, I was telling her that it's only a matter of time. She is, however, interviewing for the position, but most only last one or two dates before being dismissed. There is one who seems to be on a trial period, so I see him repeated in the parade of men...

So the flower guy drops off a huge vase of lovely flowers and a box of chocolates for her on Tuesday. She didn't drop by that night though, but sometime she works some unsocial hours at the hospital so she's coming in at 6 AM or some ridiculous time before I'm awake. Although strangely, I didn't catch her later in the day either. Finally at 9 PM, I hear the fine Italian leather boots clomping up the stairs and into her flat.

She pops over an hour later, I hear the telltale incessant knocking...apparently in Italy you knock low, but repeatedly until the person answers. Couple that with the shouting from the hall "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet -er' It seems the Italians are like the Germans, my name loses the 'TH' in the middle. Slocombe always heads under the bed when A comes around. With most visitors Slocombe will stand in the bedroom doorway to evaluate them, with the noise of A, she isn't taking that chance!

A is always very sweet, however.
'Ah, het-er! Do you have a package for me?'
-Ah yes A, someone must really like you! (I point to the vase of flowers on the floor)

She just blinks and looks at me.

I pause for a minute, thinking: maybe I should not have put them on the floor? It's the safest place as the table is covered with books due to painting....and they were delivered in a cardboard box, so it's the box that's on the floor, not the vase...and I always leave the cardboard boxes by the door on the floor, it's not usually an issue.

Or maybe she's just appalled that I have masking tape and paint cans and paintbrushes in a 'in progress' state here. Although it is an 'in progress' job this week....so to further along this interaction, I slide the flowers out from my flat from inside the door to just outside the door at her feet.

She now has a deer in the headlights look. I'm racking my brain to try and figure out where the problem is...is is the language? Was I too forward in what I said? Did she mistake it for something else, but what?

I realize as I hear a footstep from her flat, that the boy toy must have been in the bathroom freshening up as they're on their way out, and she was probably popping round for the package in a spare two minutes, not realizing that it was going to be flowers, and I'm further now connecting the dots--that the flowers and chocolates were from a different boy that is now poking his head out the doorway into the hall.

Oops. Fortunately he was a good sport about it.

and the painting continues

The cumbersome part, to clear the bookshelves and then move the away from the walls to get behind them is now in process. Here Slocombe surveys the room from on top of a moved bookshelf, because a cat must do such things, of course. Fortunately I had just dusted the top off or someone may have done that for me instead. ;-)

So this is low tack (read: expensive) medium blue masking tap lining the edges and they've now been down in the blue/grey colour. So the next step will be to colour inside of the lines and then to peel off the tape.

The end is in sight, for the walls, at least. The ceiling is still to come...

The painting progress continues

This wall was previously the 'delivered' new build off-white color. As the 'new build' was 2.5 years when I bought it, at over 3.5 years the walls were beginning to show their age.

The blueish grey color serves to bring more of the outside in as it matches and contrasts with the various temperaments of the sky outside.

And now, off to a hot bubble bath and an early bedtime.

In progress - painting the living room

This is what I've been up to, day two:

I'm doing the living room in a light blue/grey color. So the outlining is done on this wall, now just to fill in tomorrow night.

The frugal side of this:

The paint come from the discontinued markdown shelf at homebase. Apparently environmentally friendly paints were not a big seller. When I googled them online people seemed pleased enough with them. At half the orginal sale price, I was extremely pleased with them.

But what if you later decide that you need more of the same paint, you won't be able to get it?

To test this theory, I went to look at the bathroom and kitchen paints I purchased and used last year. Sure enough--they revamped the color offerings and my colors are not being sold there. Deeper and darker colors appear to be the new trend.

So I bought enough to make sure that I would get the room done with some left over. :-) As I'm only picking this up after work each evening until it gets dark out, it will be a project of a few days.

More photos tomorrow, with tomorrow's progress.

The painted bathroom

Do you remember, last year I mentioned about painting the kitchen with my Germany couch surfer? I had done the bathroom also around that time, but still the ceiling remained. And then, the mirror finally went up and the new one was smaller than the fitting holes left on the wall, so those were finally filled in and painted. So then I may as well do a general touch up of the walls again, so I did. ;-)

And now it is finally finished:

Heated towel rack on the right. I have a 'modern' UK bathroom (=tile rather than carpeted bathroom floor!)

In the mirror you can see the reflection of the world map shower curtain. The male visitors usually comment positively upon the sink upon seeing it, no idea why:

The sink is tiny like the rest of the bathroom...and the rest of the flat. Although I do have a bath/shower, as opposed to the 'shower only' that many new flats in this area offer. The bathroom is on a sharp triangle angle; it doesn't actually feel small because of that.

Here's a close of of 'surf's up duck', behind him is the painted wall. The little tiles were pre-existing.

The newly painted ceiling is 'milky white', so not much to see there. :-)
One thing done, a few hundred more to go...

Back to school

Over the weekend I sent in my acceptance to start a part-time masters in law in the fall. Remember the law class from last fall? It ended up going really well so I'd like to continue with it in the fall. Ironically, my local college had their funding cut so they won't offer the second year of this national course, so I had to look elsewhere. As well, while the course was interesting and practical, I have no plans to work in a law office or change careers at all, so something more academic would be a better fit now that I'm past all the intro coursework.

When I looked elsewhere, I began to get a little stuck; my local college made no differentiation on foreign vs. local tuition. Somehow, they accepted my 5+ years in the EU as authorizing me for local tuition. Not so on all of the bigger universities I was looking at, all of them were expecting to charge me as a foreign student as I have no permanent residency in the UK. But what about my documented time in DE? Not worth EU rates without an EU passport apparently. It became the difference between paying 3500 GBP and 9500 GBP which is too much when it's not work endorsed, i.e. paid, merely my personal interest. If I could have held on a few years, I could have qualified for residency and then started, but that would have pushed completion out to 10 years. Time is not on my side here... ;-)

Scholarship money? It became a catch 22 as sall of the cholarships from the US I had seen had residency requirements or that one is applying from the US, so I no longer qualified for those, even though I am still a proud US tax paying citizen.

In my quest to not pay 10k GBP, I started to look at distance learning programs, where location does not matter. In addition, I work from home most of the time, so I may as well do this from home as well. I found a few programs which really aligned with what I do professionally, so that it will supplement my current activities.

Therefore I put the envelope into the post this weekend to start a part-time two year's distance learning masters in law from a very nice university in southern england. The ironic thing is that this program is dead on with my interest area, so a perfect match. Had the local options not been so expensive, I probably would have missed it. :-)

Update from the rooftop garden - caterpillars

The great thing about this being only my second summer in the UK is that I can continue to learn what works well on the rooftop and what does not. Brussels sprouts, well, perhaps not so much the winner:


Not sure if they had those 'spot the hiding object' pictures in other places like they did in the US when I was growing up, but this one is a fine one with the nice blend of greens.

And if anyone in Essex wants to feed approximately 15 or so live caterpillars to some sort of pet like a bird, lizard, or whatever else would eat them, please let me know. I imagine they'll taste like brussel sprout leaves since they've basically demolished the two plants.



Of course, I imagine that this veritable siege of locusts, er caterpillars, is due to the fact that their natural predators, the rooftop birds stay well away, due to the every vigilant presence of Slocombe the mightly attack cat.

Good thing I still have one plant out on the back terrace. Now...how to dispose of the caterpillars, beyond throwing them in the rubbish bin. Hmm...

The delicate ecosystem that is my roof terrace

How in the heck did that make its way up four flights of stairs?
Apparently it survived the recent heat wave better than much of my garden while I was away in the US.
Obviously he is enjoying the compost pile. :-)

187 weeks

That is the amount of time until I can apply for permanent residency in the UK. Immediately after I can start the process of applying for citizenship and then a UK passport so I no longer have to stand in the mega long customs line when flying into the UK--as long as the government does not change the current rules. That would be in 3 years, 7 months, and 3 days, but who is counting?

Sunday morning at Heathrow, returning from the US:
amount of time my UK travel partner spent in the queue: 0 minutes. They had a few booths open and no UK or EU people coming through.

amount of time Heather spent in the queue: 52 minutes. They had 9 booths open for hundreds of people, many of whom had exotic passports and were subject to many minutes of questioning and having to retrive paperwork from backpacks and who were sometimes sent to the 'visitor holding pen' a little fenced in area with seats to await further immigration questioning.

My irritation is that with my work permit I usually get questioned for less than a minute. I've started to come to the desk saying 'same job, same address, left on x date from the UK' in order to save them the effort.

On that point, 1 year, 7 months, 3 days or 83 weeks until my current work permit needs to go in for renewal. The current coalition government is already seeking to change the rules to limit non-EU migration into the UK, so if you're thinking of applying for a UK work permit, time to get cracking. Migration limits are expected to by introduced from April 2011. As is currently stands, migration limits are only expected to impact new applications, meaning that currently approved migrants are excluded. They are, however, increasing the points required for renewal it appears. Fortunately I'm still in the game.

If you're bored, the consultation paperwork is here.

Falling in love all over again...

with life in the Netherlands.
To backtrack...many years ago, in my student years, I had an hour long commute to my summer internship and job. I had picked up a Teach Yourself Dutch book and cd and became quite proficient at small talk. As I was in Washington, DC I occasionally crossed paths with Dutch speaking persons who were absolutely enamored with my mangling of their native tongue.

The first time I set foot in Europe, I came into Edinborough. You never forget your first, and it was October 2000, and it was magical. It dumped rain and the sky was alive with greys and blues. I was here to deliver training to the European team who had come in from the contintent and everyone treated me so very well. The German gave me a Mozart chocolate and the French speaker and I connected via Spanish as their English was awful. I vowed to return.

I came back for the December holiday season in 2000. I had a route of the 'basic' European countries, doing Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Spain was comfortable, like a cousin whom you share enough with (my US Spanish tends to lean toward Central America), and Belgium was friendly and warm. However, Amsterdam was everything and more.

When I had the chance to return to Europe, it ended up being Germany for so long. To escape, I'd drive over the border for the day, either to Belgium or the Netherlands, in particular for my plant purchases in the plentiful Dutch greenhouses.

If you would have given me a choice of anywhere to live before moving to Europe, the Netherlands would have been in the top three. Knowing what I know now after 7+ years here, it would still have a place there.

And before the expats over the border errupt--I realize I have my rose-colored glasses on for this one. I had two European colleagues in Germany who were both property owners in Amsterdam (one Spanish, one Irish), taking advantage of the 10 year tax credit for foreign workers. When asked which they preferred, living in the Netherlands or Germany, both pointed 100% to Germany, which surprised me immensely. Their reasoning: the Dutch tend to be closed communities and can be prejudiced, pompous, and cold. One of them ended up marrying a German, so I guess that clinches the case.

In any event, I still visit the Netherlands when I can swing a trip. This go round, I went to Amersfoort. As the Netherlands was playing Japan in the World Cup, there was plent of orange on display in the windows:

This white cat came out to greet me when I stooped down to get a photo. I was tempted to take it with me, but thought better of it since I still had Berlin and Brussels to go. ;-)

The kind folks of Amersfoort must not get so many tourists. They graciously halted on my side of the street when I shot random photos, like of this 'American' store.

This one--I need to inquire with my Dutch colleagues. I saw a few rucksacks strung up with the flag. My guess is that students had taken or passed exams, but feel free to enlighten me on this one:

Thoughts on Berlin and the German language

Visiting Berlin is always an odd experience for me; I wonder if I had lived in Berlin rather than on the Western side, would I have liked DE more? Visiting there, I see a few things that I find to be universal to DE--old men picking plastic bottles from the garbage bins, students trying to hustle a place on someone's weekend group travel ticket, and the same chains like Rossmans, etc.

The part that always baffles me...when I go to Berlin (and anywhere else in DE) I attempt to live the culture and rough it out in German. In Cologne (near where I was), the constant irritation was that people would switch to poor English, even when my German was passable. I ended up in plently of conversations where the German person was speaking to me in passable English and I was responding in passable German. Back and forth we went, German/English/German/English.

In Berlin, no one ever switches to English with me, we carry on in German. In some ways, this slightly baffles me, as a major city where they get plently of English visitors and obviously English skills are there, why they don't automatically switch over like they do in Koeln.

One theory: my crappy German is an unfamiliar blend in Berlin. In Koeln there are certain words, phrases, and styles of speaking, and a local can pick out an English speaker after very few words. So there is less hesitation to convert to English, because one knows quite clearly that someone is an English speaker.

A colleague had once mentioned to me that it was clear that I had my 'German education' in the Koeln/D'dorf region, just from the words and sentence constructions and speaking style that I used...

A second theory: Another (Cologne based) German colleague had mentioned--the German mentality is that the best foreign speaker should automatically yield. So if a German speaking English and an American speaking German get together, whoever is the better speaker dictates the language of conversation. Often, the Germans speak better English than the English speakers' German. Therefore, the language conversation should be English in these instances. If a super foreign speaker of German is with the German group, then the conversation flow should be in German.

I was at a business meeting at the Ritz Carlton last week. Since it was the Ritz, I was curious to see how good their English was, so when I needed directions to a DM or Rossmans, I asked in English. I thanked her in German and she answered me in German and then looked at me, as if surprised that she had just slipped into German. Their English is of course, quite good, but it seems very 'school-ish' rather than having any actual expereience.

From Berlin to Brussels

I had the opportunity last week to do a professional related activity (endorsed by work but on my own dime...long story). It involved travels between the UK (Stansted), Berlin, Brussels, and Paris.

Since I was doing this on the cheap, I was doing my best to be clever. After much hemming and hawing, I couldn't beat 25 EUR (that includes 1 checked bag + all taxes etc) from Berlin Schoenefeld to Brussels (main airport), on EasyJet.

the ugly? Not sure if you can read the time in the top right corner of the photo--it says 06.02. Yeah, 6 AM I was sitting at the gate. The gate closed around 06.30, so my (tired) self was at S'feld at 05.30, having already checked in online before leaving the UK and just needing to deposit the bag. I was in good company though, with plently of other cost conscious folks on that bright and cheery AM:

From standing into the self-checkin, bag-drop (not check-in desk--and be warned, if you stood in the self-check-in line not having checked in, they sent you over to the 'regular' line) then standing through the security check line, it took about 45 min or so--so plan to be early...

If you must travel between Berlin and Brussels, I don't think you can do it any cheaper. Lufthansa has a much more civilised flight running at 11 AM or so--for 400 EUR one way. You can get clever and book a roundtrip (with the (illegal?) intention of not taking the return trip) for 200 EUR.

Your other option is a 7 hour train ride between Berlin and Brussels. When I was pricing, that was running over 100 EUR and taking 7 hours. The negative on that one--it's a transfer after 5 hours-ish in Koeln, so you cannot get a real night of sleep and substitute it for a hotel night to cost justify it.

There is a final option, to take the later EasyJet flight around 1930. It won't be quite as inexpensive as the early AM, but it will be your second cheapest option.

If you take the early AM EasyJet flight, a few options out to S'feld, check here for the latest options. The train takes just under 30 min and starts around 0500, add on a few minutes to walk from the train station to the airport terminal.

Your other option (my preferred) book a room at the InterCityHotel Berlin-Brandenburg Airport. IF you book in advance, you should find a room around 50 EUR on hrs or expedia or on their own website. You can take the train out on the night before and then take the 10-15 min walk over to the terminal in the morning. Breakfast at the hotel is 12 EUR and it was too early anyway so I skipped it. Internet is charged at some exhorbitant fee so I skipped that too.

There are some superb walking paths if you walk toward 'old S'feld' (follow signage for the Holiday Inn). You can walk many miles on new paths next to fields, quite nice. In addition, the hotel offers free public transport tickets, so you can come out a day early if you'd like, because you can get back into town with their ticket for no cost, if you don't mind the 30 minute train commute. Recommended would be the regional express train rather than the S-bahn.

From the boat - harwich to hook

Travel becoming civilized again...for 53 GBP (63 EUR/78 USD) I get a private room with clean sheets, a hot shower with free shower gel and a full-sized towel, free tv (watching the first eviction from UK Big Brother) and free wireless internet (using my tiny mini pc):

The nice thing about ferry travel is that you can bring whatever food and liquids along which you can carry. After taking my two law exams this week, I'm relaxing this weekend, before gearing up for work stuff in Berlin starting Monday morning. I brought along plenty of food to avoid the overpriced ferry food costs, including strawberries from my garden, a tiny bottle of wine from M&S, and a hunk of cheddar to go with the wine:

If you want to take this trip, book online at Stena, or use their Irish site if you wish to pay in Euros. You'll get a better deal if you book at least a few weeks in advance. On either side (Hook or Harwich), the train station is on site, so it makes it a nice launching point into NL or the UK.

The additional nice thing--check-in for the 23.45 ferry opens around 20.15 and closes around 23.00. So you're free to come at the beginning and to sack out to try and maximize sleep time for the 07.45 NL landing time...or come towards the end to maximize your visit in the UK.

If you're coming via train in the UK, it's easy, take Anglia Rail to Harwich International station.

I have a busy trip coming up--Berlin, Paris and Brussels. I'll give posting a try, where I can find free internet. :-)

the latest from the garden - strawberries

I'm having pretty good luck with strawberries this year. Here's how things have been looking on the balcony. Lapsed time from the first to last photo of this strawberry was around 10 days:

I'm not sure why more people don't grow them in any available space here as the UK weather seems particularly suited for them and they're relatively maintenance free once you get them going.

three years and eight months

is the length of time i need to work in the UK before i can apply for permanent residency here. (it's five years, like in DE). once i have that shiny sticker in my passport, i can then immediately apply for naturalisation, after taking a few additional steps.

while i could speak of the cultural benefits of integrating into a society by holding a passport for it, i imagine the biggest benefit will be for my travel partners...

last night, we came back on the late flight from Bilbao on EasyJet. The late flight which was supposed to arrive back at 22.35 took off 40 minutes late, so we didn't go to Stansted until after 23.00. (Granted, it did allow us an extra glass or two of Spanish wine and time with our friend there, so there are worse places to be delayed.)

Then, I was well in the back of the queue of whatever intra Europe flights were dumping transatlantic passengers into Stansted at that hour...while they had two people to work the desk for a queue of over 100 in front of me, plus at least another 100 who then came after. there were a few additional queues open on the EU side to cover the hundreds arriving there.

in looking around my queue, the passports were a variety of american, canadian, new zealand, japanese, israeli, and indian. i estimate that the average american tourist gets questioned three minutes upon arriving to the UK, nevermind this melting pot of passports where some of the questioning went on for 5-10 minutes.

my EU travel partner waved from the opposite side of the customs gates, he would pick up the baggage and come back....thumbs up.

he waves from the other side with the baggage...yep, i'm still here.

we inches along painfully--and thankfully i didn't need to catch a bus. it was at this point that i started to calculate how long i would need to get a British passport...then i started to calculate in my head the number of weeks....and then number of days.

total time spent in the queue? -->1 hour, 10 min

The rooftop garden update - strawberries, peas and potatoes

I've been busy studying for these 2 exams I take in around 3 weeks, but I took a chance to pop outside for a few update photos for you. Here is the strawberry patch, in front is the grow-bag from last year, and in the back are four planters which are baby strawberries which were runners last year from this main planter which I planted in smaller pots and then replanted here at the beginning of the season, in the green containers in the back:

I had no idea how they would perform since it is year two for them (which should be impressive!) but they overwintered on a very cold and snowy balconey this year. So far I've been very impressed with their performance thus far.

Here is a close-up for what they're up to:

And a super close-up of a strawberry on one of the first year plants:

(Please be ripe before I head over to the continent for a week in June...pretty please!)

On the front garden, if you put your back to the strawberries and face the street, you'll see potaoes, garlic and peas. I decided to do potatoes again since they did so well last here here. I had done peas before in DE and I love fresh peas, but it was an experimental year, since I know they like cool temps and the balkon is geared to hold in heat.

To try and give the peas a fighting chance I laid the 13 plants out long ways, next to the wall, so that they avoid sun until the afternoon where they get some partial shade as the sun goes over the building. In addition, I then put other plants (particulary the potatoes) next to them, to provide protection against the sun for their pots, as well for the plants themselves as the potatos are pretty leafy and spread well to soak up full sun exposure:


Here is Slocombe standing in 'her' pot of garlic, checking out the peas, so that you could see the long way view of the peas against the wall, sheltered by potato bags.

My rooftop garden is one of my absolute favorite things about my flat and about my life here in the UK. While container gardens are often limited in comparison to unlimited ground space, I have the advantage of unblocked sun (when we get it!) and concrete walls which retain heat. So the end result--while people on the ground have frost, I don't--so I get a fuller growing season than 'regular' allotments on the ground.

Advertising in Germany

I'm not trying to get back into the misogynist eggs debate again, however, I know many people at home have visions of Germany with snowy alps or the sleek glass structures of Berlin...

so to present a different view, this was my corner of DE, taken on a previous trip back. This sign was on a public street pointing down the driveway of this auto related business. This street has both residential and commercial enterprises on it.

Can you imagine an auto fix-it place in the US having such advertising?

Back in the saddle

Sorry internet, I've been a little slow in posting. My seasonal allergies have been horrendous this past week. I find myself writing a bit less as well as I seem to be more involved in UK outside life than I was in DE. However, I was in DE recently for a wedding, so plenty of fodder now...

New friend Ian and I took the overnight boat from Harwich to Hook of Holland and then drove Mr. BMW through Holland (with a very long lunch break/tour) to arrive at our destination in Podunk, NRW in the afternoon. As I knew it was Himmelfahrt, I was in no rush...this was new friend Ian's first (and last?) trip to DE, so you can imagine how impressed he was driving through he Ruhrgebiet to arrived in a closed Podunk.

I kicked off the interactions with the Hotel Frau auf Deutch, having had to knock on the kitchen door to find her in the recommended 10 double, 4 single room hotel. She was pleasant enough, here's the key, here's the room, etc.

H: And what about the car? (We parked in the town square in front of the hotel which was covered with bott's dots so that you knew where to park. I saw signage, you could park there excluded 0415-18.00 Sat and 07.00-18.00 Wednesdays)

Frau: You can park in the spot behind the hotel (there were two tiny spots next to the building which were reached via a one-way alley). The kitchen worker, she leaves at 18.00.

H: oki doki

We decided to move the car at 18.00 and then take a stroll around. Her car was still there at 18.00, at 18.15, and at 18.30. As it was Thursday and there were plenty of other cars in the Square as well, I said F it, since we're going out anyway at 09.00 on Friday morning.

Friday morning, we head to breakfast at 08.40. As always, breakfast for me is a coffee fill-up and maybe some bread with cheese for the pocket, for later.

Frau: Is that your car!?! (gesturing to the square with 20+ cars parked.)

H: Yes, the GB plate is our car (wondering when the 'good morning, can I get you tea or coffee' would come)

Frau: You must move it immediately!!!

H: (I may be getting soft living in the UK, but I lived in DE long enough to play this game, and it wasn't hard to get back into the saddle....knowing very well I'm legally in a free parking zone...seeing the moving van on the other side of the square but no paper signage posted and thinking--someone F'd up here, but it wasn't me. And knowing that it would blow my schedule to go through the myriad of one way streets to get back behind the hotel, just for 10 min.)
H: The hotel parking space, it was not free at 18.00. (insert solid stare here.)

Frau: Yes, the girl, she left late. (Not mentioning that 'the girl' obviously reports to her.)

H: We leave at 09.00.

Frau: (cluck, cluck, mumble mumble)

H: (insert German disinterested shrug which says 'not my problem.)

Frau: Grrr....ok, but you must move at 09.00.

H: That's fine. And where shall we park later when we return in two hours?

Frau: Behind the hotel, the spot will be free.

H: Supi!

Frau: Tea or coffee?
I purposely wait until the church clock is chiming 9 before moving the car at this point. Some random person drives up and takes the spot. I wonder if she is now going to bark at him?

--2 hours later we return. Sure enough, the spots are both full. Back to the square I park, and march inside.

H: Haaaaaalo! Where should I park now?

Frau: (frownly) Goes to window to see who is in spots. You can go over there, the boat club parking.

H: (irritated and wondering as this is plastered all over with signs to not be here illegally, and with a lockable gate...having visions of being locked in on Sunday morning when we need to leave for our boat).

Frau: (marches off to bark at whoever parked in the spots, I hear the German tirade and two minutes later someone scurries out to move their car.)

(Heather not surprised.) At this point I can only giggle at such interactions since I no longer live there and acknowledge them as cultural differences in how things are done. :-)

How do you know that Heather is supposed to be travelling?

The volcano is disrupting air travel again.

I smartened up after the last go round, however. This time I'm taking the car on the ferry from Harwich to Hook to get into Germany. It's the reverse of the route I took when I moved here.

I'm looking forward to doing a little shopping in the Netherlands and Germany since I'll have the car with me.

In addition, Mr. BMW (the temporary pool car, as we wait for our 'real' car--Mr. Polo 2), takes diesel. We'll take advantage of cheaper diesel prices on the continent and fuel up upon arriving and leaving.

old habits die hard

it's funny, i find one always carries the remnants of where they grew up, no matter where they go...

in law class this week, we're reaching the final 5 classes of our year long adventure. we had our half-term national exams in january (which thankfully i passed), and now there are two more exams plus a portfolio for june.

we were told to get our portfolio in for easter, and suddenly the laid back students whose attendance was sporadic at best have now disappeared.

the teacher is taking role and says, 'mrs. x'.

the girl next to me asks me, 'who is mrs. x?'

in america i'd say, 'that's the african american girl who works in town C'

i know it's not right in the UK to say 'african american', so i'm stuck.
in my region of philadelphia, to say 'black' is not the most appropriate. most appropriate would be 'african american'.

uhhhh.
uhh.
that's the girl who works in town C?

seatmate 1: who?
seatmate 2: ohhh, the black girl?
heather: aaah, yes.

it's funny how a term which flies over here would potentially cause issues in, or not be the best in the phillyland area...

Grounded

I've been missing in Blogland for a few days; I was burning the midnight oil studying for a work certification test which I was supposed to take next week, in the US.

British Air tonight cancelled all flights tomorrow, regardless of what comes of the continuing ash saga. On the one hand, I'm a little annoyed having spent all the time in preparation, including taking three days of vacation, on the other hand, the test is regular and will be offered again and I'd rather not fall out of the sky.

From what I've been reading on the internet a lot of people are a lot worse off, missing one-time events like weddings and funerals or having to travel thousands of miles by car to get somewhere or sleeping in airports. I'm still at home with a bubble bath and a glass of white wine on my agenda this evening and no alarm to go off at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

This air situation has been unfolding over here day by day, so I've been carrying on with the assumption that I would travel, although being 90% sure that I wouldn't. Slocombe was deposited at The House of Treats on Thursday as planned and I had all laundry done and everything fresh eaten from the refrigerator. In some ways, it's been a blessing as I've been taking advantage of the time since the cancel to get some things done which are a lot easier without a little furry person around, like shifting plants between the front and back terraces.

Still on the agenda for tomorrow...
-more work in the garden. I've been planting the tomatoes, peas and beans outside in their final homes for the season.
-possibly painting the kitchen and bathroom ceilings. this would be much easier without Slocombe in attendance and the weather here is quite nice during the days, up to 18, so the doors can be left open all day, sans cat.

Slocombe the cat's garden update

Dear blogging world,
Tappity tap, Slocombe the cat here. Someone took Thursday afternoon and Friday off from work as the weather was so nice, to have study days. I convinced her to take a few breaks to work in the garden though...I thought I'd catch you up on our rooftop garden activities.

Here I am ruling over my strawberry kingdom:


Here someone moved those little seedlings to their own pots and put them into these trays so they can go out on sunny days and come back inside when it's too cold. You're seeing bean and pea plants here:

Someone bought two catnip (or catmint in UK terminology!) plants. I ignore these plants regularly, unless someone breaks off a bit for me. When she moved them into larger pots, a little wore off onto her gloves:


Here I am guarding the little shovel while someone takes a coffee break. Sheesh, must I do everything around here?!?

Here is the final view as it now stands, prior to sweeping up the loose dirt. Looks good so far. We have strawberries, potatoes, garlic, catnip and my grass, and one chilli pepper outside, as well as the tomatoes, beans and peas in small pots awaiting bigger homes.

Easter in Essex

When I lived in Germany, there was a definite need to get away for the four day Easter weekend as the stores were chaos on Thursday and Saturday due to being closed the other days. Without family in Germany and with friends away, four days off wasn't such a great deal when everything including the museums was closed. I guess it's always nice to be able to sleep in and read books though.

Here in my corner of the UK, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were considered 'normal' days. Sunday everything was closed. On Monday, many stores were open.

I took yesterday and today as study days, I have a work certification exam coming up. However, I nipped out for some fresh air today. It was cold and windy, but the showers held off:

Beyond the green grass and some daffodils and impatients in town, I cannot see so many signs of spring, so I had to take a photo of the one I did see:

This fellow was crossing the path, so I tried out my 'close-up' mode:

It's still chilly here, though. I saw dogs out on their walk wearing coats and people in hats and scarves. (Tapping fingers) Can't wait to be able to jump into the full swing of gardening.

The answer to the quiz

Thanks to ian in hamburg and LuLu's Bay for playing along. The couple I met explained to me that they were Hungarians.

Hungarians with German as their primary language?

But of course! They explained--> Germans of Hungary

Seedlings

As you may remember, the seeds were started around St. Patty's day. Since then, all five containers have sprouted, so off came the cling film:

Here are the tomatoes enjoying a sunny day:

There is also oregano, basil, hot peppers and lettuce.

The living room window faces the same direction, so that one has been comandeered as well for seeds:

There are lots more tomatoes and peppers, and some seeds for New friend Ian's garden which is a shady and cool patch of land. So he gets eggplants, peas and brussel sprouts.

Unfortunately 'someone' is not so pleased that her window view has been displaced by all of these planting things. As I came home the other day she was sneezing upon arrival, so I knew she was up to something. Not sure if you can see the destruction of the furry wonder:

It appears that someone has taken to uprooting the seedlings. Or it's been raining all week so we haven't been outside for her to get enough greens. :-(

Today's quiz - guess the nationality

Whenever I'm in the US or the UK, whenver I hear someone speaking something other than English, I tend to inadvertently tune in. Then I end up purposely tuned in, trying to guess what they're speaking. Here in my corner of Essex I occasionally hear German speakers, actually more often than I hear American English speakers here.

In the late evenings I often stop by Tesco on my walks around. It's a great time to shop as the store is virtually empty and the late night markdowns are superb. I noticed a couple doing 'the circuit', which is a path through the store stopping at the various locations where marked down goods are located. I short circuited the path and worked backwards and we overlapped in the meat/cheese/dairy markdown corner.

I could hear them speaking softly next to me. He was reviewing the instructions on one of the packages with her, explaining the English text to her...in German.

My curiousity got the better of me so I had to ask in German where they were from, and we had a short conversation then. The husband asked, 'Oh are you from Germany?' But of course you'd think that, hearing my stellar accent. That, or he was playing the odds that Germany is the biggest exporter of German speakers. Could be either. ;-)

Today's quiz: Guess where the German speakers were from?

Possible clues:
1. I would estimate them to be around 60 years of age.
2. Everything in their basket was from a marked down section. They were buying ingredients so they obviously had full cooking facilities, so not tourists and on a budget.
3. It was around 20.30 in the evening. My corner of Essex has high flyers who commute daily to London for silly money as well as locals who work in trades in Essex, it's a big mixture who you'll see in Tesco at that hour.
4. Their spoken German wasn't terribly foreign to me.

Any questions? Or take a guess...

Slocombe the cat in the rooftop garden

Slocombe has her own special corner in the rooftop garden near the door, with two pots of grass at an appropriate cat height:

The grass had planted itself into a corner of a pot and she started to nibble on it, so I gave it a dedicated area and it has flourished. However, I have no idea how grass managed to plant itself, four flights up...but it makes SC happy, so ok, it is a productive member of the garden.

Not one to limit herself, she decided to investigate and give the 'volunteer' garlic greens a little taste as well:

The outside garden so far - strawberries!

The main reason I bought this flat in the UK is probably because of the roof terraces. When I lived in Cologne I had a beautiful ground floor flat with a fenced in back garden but being inside the courtyard it was too shaded and wet in rainy DE, nevermind the city rats which ate anything I managed to get growing.


In NRW the Balkon was great but I was maxed on space. Everything had to be planned and studied and even then there was only room for two people at one time due to my plant maximization. :-)


So here I am absolutely delighted at the amount of outside space I have. Even moreso, I've been surprised and pleased of the heat capture up here. Last year my top plants weren't the zucchini or cucumbers like in DE. Here, my top producer were the peppers, in particular the hot variety. I grew them on a whim and they thrived on the hot concrete stones next to the wall which absorbed the heat during the day. It may have well been Spain up here some days. ;-)


This year, I experimented with overwintering my strawberries from last year. In DE my Balkon was standalone and uncovered so the winter items took the brute of the cold and wet weather. The only thing which could withstand the winter was my lavender bush. Here, I took a chance on the strawberries which produced runners last year. I set them into any spare pots I could find and moved them into the sunniest sheltered corner.


Then I bit my nails when they got repeatedly covered in snow, that it would do in their fledgling roots in the tiny pots.


As I work from home, I make an effort to break away from the pc at least once during the day. Now that the weather has been warmer, i try to go out for 15 minutes around mid-day to take advantage of it. After a week I've been able to get the strawberries re-potted into their homes for this summer and to start some seeds under my makeshift mini-greenhouses (re-purposed plastic food containers).

I did lose a few small plants to the winter weather, but all of the strawberry plants here (excluding the ones in the red bag from last year) are my 'first years'. In total I have 10 baby strawberry plants and the three from last year who are already getting new leaves in this warmer weather. Don't they look simply divine?

Spring cometh

Now that I've lived in the UK for a year and experienced the weather and a summer of gardening, I'm a little wiser this year of what I should plant where and when.

I am very lucky being on the top floor with unblocked sunlight that I think I'm getting the full brunt of spring a little bit earlier than people with houses, they still have a bit of a wet frost on the ground in the mornings.

Also, as I'm taking a trip to the US next month and need to have the second in commands doing occasional watering, I need to have things in a position of being as self-sufficient as possible, rather than saddling them with the extra care of seedlings...

On Saturday I started my first seeds for the inside kitchen windowsill:

And today, here are the first to action:

I didn't mark the containers, that's part of the fun for me. I have five containers out:
1. oregano
2. basil
3. hot peppers
4. lettuce mix
5. tomatoes

I've now devised little cardboard stilts in this container to keep the leaves away from the clingfilm as it does get rather warm in the sun. In the meantime I'm getting the outside area ready so that once they're a little larger and it's a little warmer for certain, I'll be able to plant these outside.

Another visitor

Winter here has been trundling along. I was recently back on the continent (not DE) for a work trip, but otherwise I'm trying to hold on for spring seedling plantings.

A few months back I mentioned that I occasionally host visitors via hospitality club. My corner of Essex is convenient to Stansted and all of the cheap Ryanair and Airberlin flights for people looking for a short hop on the way into London or to explore Essex.

Tomorrow I have a Brazilian arriving from Poland, for one night before returning to Poland. He has spent a few weeks in Poland and got one of those ultra cheap flights so he's coming to the UK for one night. He has never been to the UK so he's looking forward to a massive front of English. (I didn't mention to him that I speak 'American' English and Ian speaks 'British' English. This should be enough to blow his mind.)

In additon, under interests he's listed WW2 books. A Brazilian with WW2 interests, this promises to be interesting. I offer a couch and a vegetarian meal and he enthusiastically accepted both and looks forward to his first trip to England; this should be good fun.

More on my frugal grandparents

I mentioned my frugal Polish grandparents before. Last night on the way home from class I stopped in Tesco at the 11th hour just before they shut; it's the best time to get the markdown bargains. While wandering around the store a long forgotten memory outed itself, so I thought I'd share it with you.

As the youngest, I only remember my grandparents as retired. They came of retirement age when Social Security solvency issues weren't on the horizon and companies still provided pensions. Still, they planned carefully and grew vegetables all summer and shopped at the supermarket on senior citizen day to maximize their purchasing power.

In addition, there was a large regular flea market located nearby which was open on Mondays. It was a super place, open year round, mainly outdoors with a small indoor building for the antiques dealers and some food stalls. You could buy anything at this flea market which was casually known around town as 'The Sale'. You could get a table as a regular trader and sell new or used items, or you could get a special table for a week or two if you had a big house clean-out. In addition, there were regular weekly auctions.

Pretty much everything was sold as The Sale. Furniture, books (my first Nancy Drew books came from there), vegetables and flowers from the local Amish communities, clothing, sports items, old postcards, whatever. It was a fun mix of anything and everything.

On public holidays we had to get up and out of the house at the crack of dawn to be there before 7 AM as the parking lot would fill up with all the 'non-regulars'. Winter was an interesting time as well, as there were few buyers we had to go for the bargains, all bundled up at the crack of dawn. We would walk around for an hour or so, and then I would have french fries around 8 AM, my reward for the foolishness of the activities.

During the rest of the year, The Sale was frequented by people who didn't work--people on disability or mothers with small children, or the core community: senior citizens, particularly males, my grandfather included. Usually they'd show up and have a wander around the outside tables and then meet up for a coffee and talk. Many of them showed up with a list of things for buy for the ladies, particularly the vegetable bargains like crates of tomatos or peaches which could be had for a song. I think it was more for the camaraderie than anything else, that they got out of the house with a mission and a chance to meet and mingle without the women-folk.

Many of them would attend the auctions which were an interesting affair. There were a few actions running simultaneously, usually each area had a theme. One was furniture, another was glassware, another was books, another was random things, and on and on. During the busiest periods there would be quite a few, during off periods, perhaps they'd be down to one or two. The auctions started at 07.00 sharp, although things would be existing on the tables in advance with lot numbers, that you could examine the goods before they were up for buying. These were really casually affairs which took place next to the building, under the vast awning but still outdoors.

Then, you could flit between them based on the lot number, or you could try your luck at the random one. As the day went on they heated up, but around lunchtime sellers would start to pack up and go home and people would too. That was when the best bargains would come up however, because they had orders to move all of the goods. So if something didn't move it would get thrown into a box. Then, boxes would start to get combined (usually by like areas) and would start at 50 cents and go up from there. Sometimes you had no idea of what was in the box exactly, except that it was a box of books, for example.

I still remember a very good school friend, his German born mother would go to the auctions. One day she bid on a box of 'carrying things'--a suitcase, a few backpacks, some purses, etc. She ended up paying 1.50 for the lot. Later, she found over 2 USD in the various pockets of the items, so she made a profit on her purchase. This was what The Sale was all about.

Now that you have the background setting, here comes the real story:
My cousin and I were at our grandparents house, with Grandmom. Grandad had gone early to The Sale. He came home with a gleam in his eyes.

Grandad: You'll never guess what I got today!?!

Grandmom: It had better be seeds like I asked you to get.

Grandad: Yes, yes, I got those, but guess what I got at the auction? (Noticeably pleased with himself.)

(Grandmom already steeling herself for the worst. While she was frugal, she did not put up with clutter in 'her' house. He could store as much as he wanted in his basement lair, however.)
Grandmom: Yes?

Grandad: (whipping out a pair of burgandy colored trousers from behind his back) Look!
(They were boys knee-length trousers like here, called knickerbockers)

Grandmom: Stanley! What is heaven's name is the point of this?

Grandad: Aren't they great!?!

Grandmom: Stanley!!! Our parents left Poland for a reason. What are you possibly going to do with those as they certainly won't fit You, and I doubt your grandson would want to be seen wearing those!

(My cousin looks up now from where we were playing)
My cousin: Boys don't wear pink!

Grandad: They're burgandy. Or maroon. AND THEY WERE FREE! (Grandad beside himself with glee.) And I got over 40 pairs. Can you believe they were throwing them out, that no one would buy them at the auctions?

Grandmom: Yes, actually, I can imagine that no one would want to buy a World War 1 era pair of pants. And what are you going to do with those, exactly?

Grandad: Well....I was thinking....Father Cranky-pants was mentioning that we need to give to the Catholic Charities clothing drive for East Europe. (This was before the fall of Communism in Poland in 89.)

Sidenote: We had three Catholic priests at the time in our church: Father Cranky-pants predicted doomsday destruction for everyone. 'The new priest' was a nice guy who I think was brought in to stem the tide of departing Catholics due to Cranky-pants. And Father Brown was the retired priest who still lived with the others. They would bring him out when the others would go on vacation. He would forget where he was in the service so we would either sit through a repeat of sections of the mass, or an alter boy would direct him forward and we'd then miss parts.

Grandmom: Stan-ley!! The children don't need to be picking up that name from you!

My cousin: That's ok Grandmom, we already know this name.

Grandmom: (under her breath) Heaven help me.

Grandad: (knowing he had her hooked, now just to reel her in.) Since it's for the church, I throught that would be ok. Besides, they had just set them by the garbage bin. They would have gone to the dump. This is good material.

Grandmom: (examining it closely now, she was a seamstress in her career.) yes, this is quality cloth, even if the color is objectionable for a boy.

Grandad: And you know Poland, good quality clothing would be nice to have. If the style is a little off, they can tailor it or make it into something else.

Grandmom: grrrrr. Ok, but they do not come into this house, these moth-bitten clothes. They stay in the trunk of the car. And you need to sneak them into the donation box, I do not want to be associated with these shenanigans.

What I learned from such experiences with my grandparents, was to be generous when you found a bargain, especially when it required little effort from you to make a bigger positive impact to someone else. And to go after bargains with an intent, when you knew they would benefit someone else. And the other main point which always came up with this generation--something usable should never be send to the garbage! Ultimately, I think this was what won over my grandmother...