It was in late December when I discovered a wall calendar entitled "Unser Braunschweig" with twelve black-and-white photos of my hometown Braunschweig in Lower Saxony from the 50s and 60s, the time I turned my back on Germany and never looked back.
Looking back has become my preferred perspective in old age when there isn't much left to look forward to, and so I asked the publishers of the calendar, a chain of chemist shops in Braunschweig, if I could buy a copy and what the postage to Australia would be - see here.
There was an immediate response from a nice lady, Frau Knechtel, who wrote, "Lieber Herr Goerman, das finden wir wunderbar und schicken Ihnen gerne den Kalender zu. Bitte geben Sie uns Ihre komplette Anschrift durch, die Kollegen kümmern sich um den Paketversand. Wir wünschen Ihnen frohe Festtage und liebe Grüße aus Braunschweig. Ihre apotheca" (for the benefit of those of you who only studied Japanese or Indonesian at school instead of German - may I ask why??? - I translated it as follows: "Dear Mr Goerman, we are delighted to mail you one of our calendars. Please send us your complete postal address, and one of my colleagues will mail it to you. With best wishes for a Merry Christmas and greetings from Braunschweig. Your apostheca")
Right on the first day of autumn when things get a bit more 'indoorsy', the calendar - and with it a whole lot of memories of the old hometown - arrived and was given pride of place above the as yet unlit fireplace:
And they didn't just sent one but three calendars, enough to decorate my library as well as the guest cottage which is ready to receive guests from the (c)old country, should the nice Frau Knechtel or any of her colleagues decide to ever travel this far! Danke schön, apotheca!
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Did you know? The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider (thicker) than your thumb.
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