I missed another facebook video chat! "Ein alter Kamerad", Armin Stiller, in my (c)old hometown Braunschweig tried to contact me late at night his time which is early morning my time when I'm still asleep or gone to the pool or for a walk around the village.
Armin and I were both in the "Fahrenden Gesellen", something akin to the Boy Scouts, with whom I spent many weekends and, during school holidays, many weeks away on hiking trips, and the comraderie and the many adventures of those early days shaped much of my later life.
We lost contact when "der Ernst des Lebens" began and we went off to work and I, soon afterwards, to Australia. I've forgotten now when but through the internet we made contact again and reminisced, first via Skype and then facebook, for many hours about the "good ol' days".
Because of the time difference of eight hours and because neither of us adheres to any agreed schedule, I keep missing Armin's calls. When I email him to apologise for not having been near the computer at the time he called, he makes light of it by saying, "Ah well, it was nothing important anyway." As if! Those memories become more and more important as we get older and older. They made us what we are today.
