My Daily Banana

 

 

 

Photo of the Day

 

 

 

Event of the Day:

 

 

11th August 1968

 

The last steam train runs on the British Rail

 

Dirty, soot spitting monsters! Today everyone is pleased to see a steam engine, it doesn't matter if it is a locomotive or a traction engine both are loved, but; think back to the fifties and sixties, the towns were black and where the rail track meandered through the city the houses looked like the inside of a chimney (if you've never seen the inside of a chimney its similar to the inside of an auto exhaust: black!) I remember traveling into London by rail, the houses looked terrible; today they look terrible also because of graffiti; in those days the paint wouldn't have stuck to the walls because of the soot. No, I don't want the old times to come back, today is a much healthier environment!

 

 

Birthday of the Day:

 

11th August 1954

 

Joe Jackson

 

An English musician, punk to jazz. His most known songs were recorded in the late seventies early eighties such as Steppin' Out or You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want) and Is She Really Going Out With Him?

 

 

Died on this Day:

 

11th August 1939

 

Jean Bugatti

 

German automobile designer

 

 

Thoughts:

 

As you saw over the weekend I'm taking it a little slower. I had the weekend off and managed to read the newspapers.

Yesterday Heike and I went to Husum, a small town in North Friesland with a population of around twenty-five thousand. There was a festival down at the old harbour and throughout the town centre; that means thousands of people milling through eat-stalls, music-stages, happenings, street-musicians, fairground attractions. It was like a human ants-nest! Nothing for me , I kept to the perimeter, I can't stand milling through crowds I get claustrophobic!

I took tons of photos of doors, the church, people and tried to capture the general atmosphere. Some of the old doors were incredible, see for yourselves:

 

 

 

Na, did you get through all the doors?

Aren't they amazing?

Bye

My Daily Banana

Photo of the Day:

A reflection of the Michel Dom in Hamburg
We went there  last year for a long weekend.
It's a great city well worth visiting

The crown of the Kempinski Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg

Event of the Day:

8th August 1963

The Great Train Robbery

The 15 "gentleman" robbers stopped the post train from London to Glasgow and robbed its treasure. That was £2.8 million, today that would be £48 million or €60.5 million.

They didn't have much fun with the money because most of them were caught shortly after and received sentences of up to 30 years imprisonment.

Ronald Biggs escaped after 15 months and lived the life of a fugitive until May 2001 when he returned to the United Kingdom to face-up to justice. He thought, because he was ill he would be paroled, but it didn't work; he was imprisoned until August 2009.

Birthday of the Day:

8th August 1983

Angelika Czedik-Eysenberg

Angelika with Johanna, the photo is from March this year

and her daughter/my granddaughter

Johanna Ada Czedik-Eysenberg she was born 8th August 2012

Sweet little Johanna

 

the lovely little girl is now two years old XXX <3

Died on this Day:

8th August 1863

Angus MacAskill

 

 

A giant of a man  7 feet 9 inches (236.2 cm). He died at thirty-eight diagnosed by the doctor as having brain fever.

 

 

Thoughts:

 

My thoughts are in their weekend mode; lazy and in need of sleep.

Something is in the air today, my eyes are itching and I'm sneezing. That brings me to a thought: How does the sneeze rhyme go?

 

One's a wish,

Two's a kiss,

Three's a disappointment,

Four's a letter,

Five is something better

Six is gold

Seven's a story never to be told

 

I Googled the rhyme and found so many variations, my résumé is: the first two lines are always the same, but the rest you can put together as you wish.

Do you know a better version Sylvia?

 

Most of the shopkeepers take care of the path/road/flower borders

Others don't

The twin of yesterdays boring photo
This time I'm sat drinking my elixir of life (cappuccino)

That's it again for today

 

Bye xxx

My Daily Banana

Photo of the Day:

Doesn't say much,
it's just a photo of a road crossing
It's as boring as I was bored whilst sat there waiting while Heike did her shopping!
 

Event of the Day:

7th August 1974

Philippe Petit performs a high wire act on a wire strung between the Twin Towers of the former World Trading Center.
 

Birthday of  the Day:

7th August 1867

Emil Nolde
 

German painter who lived in Seebüll, North Friesland (that's about twenty kilometres from Niebüll, where yours-truly lives)

I quite like his flower paintings, they are very colourful.
 

Died on this Day:

7th August 1957

Oliver Hardy
 

The fat half of the duo Laurel and Hardy, he died at 65 of cerebral  thrombosis.

Thoughts:

Everything is going slower. Why go fast? It only costs energy that is dearly needed for something else. That starts with getting up in the morning, I take my time, the day is long enough and who knows what is going to come along. The next is driving to work; I take my time, I travel between eighty and ninety along the country roads; that way I save my break pads because I hardly ever need to break before bends. I know, it sometimes annoys other drivers, but today it saved the life of a deer and that was worth the angry looks when the one or two racers flash past.

I can remember the time when I used to drive like hell. It was frightening, for Heike, my kids and for the other road users. I changed suddenly; it was when Heike and I were driving home from Hamburg a few years ago, I still had my big Merc. We were thundering up the Autobahn passing everything when this small Peugeot gave me a hard time trying to pass. It just wouldn't let me pass, we were both doing about 220 kph and I couldn't get that last bit of power to leave him behind. After around thirty kilometers of this Heike got fed up and ordered me to calm down and drive slower. I went down to 120 kph and low and behold it felt good. Everything but the trucks passed me but I didn't mind. Since then I don't drive fast on the Autobahn, 120 to 130 is fast enough, I get to my destination without risking my or others lives and the car's consumption is down to a minimum.

The Hidden Garden

Same garden, different angle

Old Man's Beard  Clematis vitalba
Weiße Waldrebe

No rain, but the acorns are growing

That was it again for today.
Tomorrow we have a double birthday in the family,
mother and daughter: Guess who?
 

My Daily Banana

Photo of the Day:

Behind the dyke

Event of the Day:

6th August 1945, 8:15 A.M.

"Little Boy" (Atomic Bomb) was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.
 

It caused 80,000 direct deaths and after one year a total of 90,000 - 120,000 total casualties.

Why did it have to come this far?

something much more trivial but interesting happened on 6th August 1991

The idea of the World Wide Web was introduced by Tim Berners-Lee.
 

What would we do without it?

Born on this day:

6th August 1809

Lord Alfred Tennyson
 

He was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire (between Horncastle and Skegness)

Lord Tennyson was a poet in the Victorian era and many of his phrases are now embedded in the English everyday language, such as: "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die" or "'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all"

Died on this Day:

6th August 2004

Rick James

 

Funky musician, he died at the age of 56 due to heart problems (or was it an aftermath of cocaine and crack addiction some years before?)

If you like funk music you'll love the video that I have linked "Super Freak"

Thoughts:

Today it seems to be deer run in front of a car day or deer suicide day. On the way to work I had to do a sharp break to avoid one and when I arrived in the outskirts of Flensburg there was one lying half on the road; dead. Be careful when driving the country roads it's rutting time. The bucks are following their hormones and are blind to all dangers.
In German that's called "Schwanzgesteuert" (dick-driven)

As you can see in the following photos; the Gunnera_manicata doesn't like the weather either, it needs some rain.
What a pessimist I am! When it rains I want sun and when the sun shines I want rain. I prefer the in-between! Is there a land where it doesn't rain, the sun only shines half power and the temperature is always about twenty degrees? Oh, yes I forgot; in my utopia there is no dust or pollen that can cause hay fever!

Hope you found something interesting today, if not try again tomorrow; I'll be back.
If you did; you'll be back:-)

Bye xxx