Really Double

A new start

2008-01-16T21:29:00.000+01:00

My boyfriend and me used to live in different towns due to work and saw each other only on the weekends.

Hence we had/have heaps of stuff twice, starting with every(-day)-weekend cosmetica and kitchen-stuff (no: "heck, we can´t cook this here - the big pot is in the other place" - we have two big cooking pots), from this to having four bikes and so on.

I have a current blog documenting our lives.

In this blog here I gathered all the stuff we really have/had double.

My boyfriend lived near a creek. Some years ago the darn thing went over the edge, flooding his apartment. This happened again in 2007 - twice. The second time was really bad.

We hence now live together - finally (his words: "if the water comes in here again..." made it!!) After 13 years! I am so happy!

I don´t like to delete this blog. After all it documents a long way of our lives.

The blue kitchen table you find here... I built it myself and was so happy to see it go to rubbish for the price of living together!

Some other things didn´t make it. I can see them here.

Happily there is no more stuff to document a live that is based on a relationship that exists for real only on weekends (it had good sides, too, certainly!!!).

I close this blog down, I guess. Feel free to come over the "vivid one" or see some of the stuff we had really double - I never had the "chance" to finish this project, though.

If you live in a situation reflected here and want to get in contact, feel free to place a comment, I´ll see ya and will answer.

"exact" The WORLD

2007-08-01T20:40:00.000+02:00

This is how the world look like in my town ;-)

The world is also quite home in Ingo´s place:

Bought in a two-buck-shop. Actually it´s just more kitsch, I guess. But what´s the world without kitsch... haaa ;-)

"exact" Lunch Box

2007-07-08T20:10:00.000+02:00

We bought those... in ...? 1999, I guess:

Ingo´s:

And mine, on my newly bought table:

I didn´t fill in "name" and "Class" but took it to work anyhow. Hmmm... The colleagues looked at me in a way that I went to work with an ordinary lunchbox in the future...

I use it to store clothespins instead.

Another sweet article "Made In Australia" - memories of a great time in my life.
Got it from BIG W, I guess. At the Kingsway shopping Centre in Landsdale, Perth, WA.

"similar" Lions watch

2007-02-12T11:35:00.000+01:00

The Braunschweig Lions (german) released a watch, a Champions Edition.

Ingo has one, the number 75 out of 100.

I wanted to have one, too, the number 72, since that´s the year I was born. But it was gone already so I decided against it. I said, there is no need we have really everything double!
But then...

"similar" fishes

2007-02-09T14:03:00.000+01:00

We have two bathtubs hence two fish-plugs.

Ingo´s is blue (for a change it´s not me having the item in this color. `Cause I could decide which one to take):

This is mine - see the shampoo-bottles in the corner? Both mine, too - my name is on them ;-)
And the fancy seventies-style is just great! :-)

Though we usually prefer to take a shower. Costs less energy, wastes less water.

"similar" kitchen table

2007-01-11T11:43:00.000+01:00

This is mine:

The table cloth is from Ikea, the table is... I don´t know how old, looks like the late 50´s. It belonged to my Grandmother, I grew up with that table. Lot´s of memories...

This is actually mine, too. I built it myself. OK, I helped building it when I was a trainee in a carpentry. I didn´t have a licence for the big machines back then. I have now, but I wouldn´t use them anyhow. Last time I was working with them was in 1999...
Don´t ask about the color, though, I can´t explain...

Usually it´s not that tidy, but full of stuff.

"similar" - rocking...

2006-11-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

Last year I saw this cute elk but didn´t buy it. Now I a´saw him again and took him home:

Just five days later I saw this:

... and certainly had to buy it - we have one for real and since bike-season is over I just had to have it for Ingo.
Now we can rock in either apartment :-)

"similar" - hanging closets

2006-10-12T11:57:00.000+02:00

Mine... Hanging in my "hall". Full with summer-clothes. And some "weekend-sets" from Ingo.

These are Ingos, in his bedroom.

Yesterday I put all my summer-clothes in bags to put them behind my little blue wooden closet - after I fetched my winter-clothes from there.
I wished I had enough space for all my clothes.

No. I wish I lived somewhere where I need summer-clothes only...

"similar" - Lavalamp

2006-10-02T14:54:00.000+02:00

Mine:

Ingo´s:

When we manage to move together one day, well have heaps of possibilities to have romatic lights...

"exact" - daylight

2006-09-28T11:46:00.000+02:00

To make winter-time less depressing we got these daylight-lamps.

Mine:

Decorated with some beautiful fake sunflowers Ingo brought home to me :-)

Ingos´:

Aw. I don´t like those long dark winters. It´s dark when I drive to work now! Soon it will be dark when I come back, too...

"similar" - Toothbrushs

2006-09-19T15:23:00.000+02:00

These ones are in my bathroom:

I just love those brushes you can simply pop on even surfaces.

Our toothbrushes in Ingo´s place:

See how nicely Ingo folded the towel for me - he does that everytime! :-)

I´ve been in his place since Sunday afternoon now and start feeling home - but have to leave right now.

"exact " - Maps

2006-09-18T15:52:00.000+02:00

This is Ingo´s map of Australia hanging in the living room:

I don´t remember when we bought it - we´ve travelled this beautiful country twice - 6 months in 1995 and another seven months in 1999.
Beautiful memories.

This is mine, it is in the hall:

In the middle you see a bag from the Northern Territory Jerky Factory in Alice Springs.
We ´ve been there and bought some of the yummy stuff. I e-mailed them to ask if it´s possible to send some Jerky to Perth for us - no answer. It's a pity. It´s soooo yummy.

Near Perth you see a city map of Perth. It´s tattered, so I can not use it to plan our holiday in Perth. I have to try to get a new one.

To the left you see some more pics of the sunflower (click to enlarge), Ingo and me and my brother. My brother used to drive a Ninja - I am glad he doesn´t anymore. He had some crashs but always went out of them fine. He is a good driver but I wish he will never have a fast bike like that again.

"similar" - washing machines

2006-09-18T15:13:00.000+02:00

This is mine - a Bauknecht. It stands in the kitchen, the bathroom is too small:

They had the slogan "Bauknecht knows what women want" - ´til women protested. Now they say "Live today". Hm. Not a better one. Meaningless, I´d say.

This is Ingo´s, a Miele:

They say "Always better". Ah. Well.
Ingo has a room for the washing-stuff and even is owner of a dryer!

But the Mielebaer lives with me:

He was a christmas gift from Ingo´s company to Ingo. He really comes from Miele and is called "Best friend". He is washable in the Miele - we tried. He smells good but now you can not read "Miele - best friend" anymore.

"similar" - statues

2006-08-03T11:55:00.000+02:00

Yes, we also have decorating stuff twice - this one is to be found at Ingos´ place:

And this one in my place:

I hope one day not too far in the future they can be a couple.

The orange ashtray and the Kim-cigarettes are deco, too. My Mom used to smoke those when I was young and ashtrays like that were fancy then, too.

Colors of the seventies, colors of a happy childhood :-)

"similar" - oven

2006-08-02T11:54:00.000+02:00

Ingo´s oven:

And mine:

Not much to add here. They both hang high in the kitchens, not easy for me to reach and I´m someone who is really very afraid of getting burned.
The bravest I can come up with is heating up a pizza and grab it out with a fork. Everything more difficult is Ingo´s job.
Well, we don´t use the ovens much.
Hmmm, we could make Ragout Fin once again. Or croissants... Great. Now I have appetite on that stuff, sitting here with bread and carrots (lunch break at work).

"similar" - kitchen stuff

2006-07-26T11:46:00.000+02:00

At Ingos place. A white electric kettle:

A white toaster:

And the saecco-coffee machine:

My place, everything is tucked in one place:

The coffee machine is a real cheap one. I used to drink at least a cup, black, before starting to work - until my old coffee machine broke down. I didn´t find a cheap one immediatly after and realized I don´t need a cup in the morning. Now I don´t even like coffee, only with milk.

This coffee machine hence is for Ingo.

The toster and electric kettle are blue. Actually I don´t like that color - but since I came to this town I get things in blue...

The carpet in the room I lived in first (in the apartment-sharing community) - blue. The car I got from a colleague - blue. The hanging wardrobe I got from another colleague - blue. The first Polo my employer ordered for me, blue, the second, dito...
The carpet here at work, well, blue.

Did I mention I like the color red?

But the cars are best sold with a blue color, so that´s the cheapest color. Well...

"similar" - Four bikes

2006-07-17T11:49:00.000+02:00

Here are the bikes we have in my place:

The pic is taken from my balcony. No, the colorful one isn´t mine, it belongs to Ingo. He only bought it this year. All the years he had no bike here and always had to bring his bike in his car.

I always had a bike at his place - it´s a used one and I really don´t like the color, it´s the boy-girl-stuff... but, well it didn´t cost that much:

I just love summer time!

Former "similar" - BBQ

2006-07-12T11:33:00.000+02:00

Despite Murphy (sorry, deep-linking didn´t work - see Murphy - BBQ further down that page) we are owners of BBQs.
Ingo got a cheaper one which is about to break down:

We had similar ones.
Yesterday I gathered the last one available of the model I´ve got:

Goes into the category exact now :-)

"exact" - cucumber & fishing rod

2006-07-10T14:42:00.000+02:00

Ingo loves these special cucumbers, so he bought 51 "Spreewälder Gurken".
To have them at hand anytime he brought some to my place.

They are decimated in number, here you see what´s left at Ingos place:

At my place:

I hope ´till winter they are eaten up. He placed them on my heating...

See the fishing-rod-game? I just had to buy it. in 1999 we bought this one which is in Ingos place (please click to enlarge):

Those days toys were rather expensive in Germany. When we came to Australia we found the so-called "Two-buck-shops" where we really loved to browse through. This toy is from a regular Coles-store, though. I don´t remember the little towns´ name (and the dairy of the journey where I might have it is in my place, whereas I am at Ingos place right now).
It was somewehere in the asherton Tabellands. We stopped for an overnight stand, went to Coles and.... they must have had a baker who was from France - we found something called "petit pain" (little bread) and they were exactly like german bread rolls!
We stayed a whole day longer just to eat them again!
I love Australia but they don´t have real bread or bread rolls over there. This was the only thing we missed.
In Germany (and France) bread rolls are crunchy on the outside and fluffy inside. The ones in Australia are rather slushy.
That and sausages is what we really didn´t like. Especially the sausages! They were really awful. They were flabby with no structure. We bought them just once.
But well, there is more than food ;-)
And, I certainly have to add: Germany has not those pies you find in Australia, which I really miss. I will have some in december :-)

Yes, and to always remind me of the beautiful time we had there, I had to buy this fishing-rod-game, too...

"similar" - Telly and Fireplace

2006-07-04T11:20:00.000+02:00

I guess again you can clearly say which belongs to whom:

This is Ingos´:

This is mine:

Ingo´s got a flat screen TV - I have an old used or pre-loved one - I need an older model, otherwise I couldn´t place the grass and the flower on top. Plus it cost only 20 euros. I got it from the company Ingo works for.

"My" fireplace actually belongs to Ingo. He bought it in my town and was so curious to check it out that he brought it in my apartment. I liked it so much that we decided to leave it in my place and buy a second one which he took to his place. They are not exactly the same model - mine... well, Ingos´ in my place got a rounder shape.

Charters Towers

2006-06-16T07:02:00.000+02:00

That´s the name of the town with the great second hand book shop where I found so many of James Blishs´ Star Trek-books! (See last entry)

I certainly had a diary on our journey and could look it up :-)

It´s over six years ago now, but it feels like I just have been there.

Miss it.

A lot.

I don´t remember properly - was it a Coles or a Woolworths there... but I remember it was quite empty and narrow - and kind of dark somehow. But the park was full of light. We certainly went to the laundromat there, too. Laundromats aren´t that popular here. But I live right opposite of one and it always makes me think of Australia - well, as other things, too, naturally!!! ;-)

similar - Eski

2006-06-13T07:37:00.000+02:00

This is "my" Eski - I guess it´s the one we bought in 1995 at K-Mart in Sydney. We´ve been at Woolworth (The fresh food people), looking for one - without success. I finally asked one of the staff members. He wasn´t too bright - he only kept saying "K-Mart" - well, but if "K-Mart" doesn´t mean anything to you because you´ve never been in Australia before, it can be a conversation somewhat dissatisfying... he could have said, "look, that´s a market just over there, turn left and then you see it" - but no, "K-Mart". "What is That? - Where is that?" - "K-Mart". I think he made fun out of me (or he was really stupid). Luckily Ingo knew what K-Mart is!
Here is the proof ;-)

This is the one we bought 1999 in Perth. Why buy another one? Hm. We took the first one home - full of books, tools for the Moped, fishing gear. By seaway. It came in handy as a holder for the stuff. Plus we thought we might use it here. But here it´s way too cold.
When we returned to Australia we had our duffel bags, which was enough luggage.

Why we took that one home, too? Hm. More books, more stuff (the entire James Blish Star Trek Series is here now! It took me quite some effort to gather it! Most of the books I found in, ohhh, I have it in front of my eyes! A small little town - there was a park with an iceman with chimes - just like there was here when I was little - what was the name again?)
Well - mine stores mainly books now, too. I guess this one is empty...

"exact " - Hopscotch

2006-05-31T13:36:00.000+02:00

One of my rugs in the corridor - bought at Ikea (certainly). It´s good quality and really eats up all the fuzz before I get into the living/sleeping room. And it fits in there exactly. Because of those qualities we went to Ikea once more shortly afterwards and...

here is another Hopscotch-rug in the corridor at Ingos place - we can hop around no matter in which of our apartments we are :-)

Strange, though, because when I was a kid, playing hopscotch wasn´t that popular. But when I saw the rug, I had to have it (and I really needed a second one. My corridor is quite long and narrow and with the grey linoleum-floor just looked quite sad). Though the rugs are in a deep blue they don´t make the room narrow, I think. Plus, in my place, there is another rug right before this one and it´s yellow, orange, red and light-green.

"similar and exact" - Workplaces

2006-05-30T11:44:00.000+02:00

My PC at home - or rather my work-place, the PC itself is underneath the table.

And this one is Ingos:

Wow here you can see a box of floppy-disks! I think he should tidy up - no one uses that stuff anymore!

The tables fit in the category "exact", but I don´t want to put the pics twice in here.

"exact" - Fridge

2006-05-29T11:58:00.000+02:00

This is - guess ? - yep, mine...

Full of food at the moment - and has to be, see the detail in the next pic - my brother and me - we´re good eaters! ;-)

It was taken in Mexico. Ingo wanted to take a pic of me and I didn´t want him to. I said, "Look over there!", and then tried to get a bite before Ingo sees there is nothing to see over there. Well, he was quicker and caught me straight away...

This one is Ingos´:

Clearly a mens-fridge, not so girlish and colourful.

"similar" - photo-carousel

2006-05-24T11:56:00.000+02:00

They hang in our kitchens - please click to enlarge.
Ingos got two, one above the other:

On the one on top you see me with a gorgeous sunflower we picked two years ago (yes, we paid for it).
On the one beneath you see us in the Pinnacles and right beside that you look on Wanneroo Road & Reid Highway Intersection in Perth (the picture comes from Perthcam) - what a sunny day!
We passed that road very often since we lived in the Kingsway Caravan Park for quite a while.
At work I often have the cam on and see evening come in Perth.

Here is my carousel:

Left: Ingo, me and my brother. We all were Jai Kudo glasses. Did I mention my brother is an optometrist and goldsmith? That comes in really handy for me ;-) Oh, and my mum is a watchmaker.
Next pic: The Kingsway Caravan Park, followed by another pic of my brother.
See the little pic from TraffiCam underneath the carousel? Perth on a rainy day...

I still have some other pictures hanging in my apartment, I didn´t like two carousels at one place.

Since I have my dinners on my red container in front of the TV when I´m alone, I see the pictures only when I prepare my lunch for the next day at work (bah I can´t see bread and carrots no more - good that there is a long weekend to come! At my place without internet-access...)

"similar" - cooking stoves

2006-05-23T11:48:00.000+02:00

This is Ingos stove - bought in my town at WalMart. It works better than mine since you really have to move the button a bit until the plate starts heating.

See the dishwashing detergent? Smells like (artificial) berries. We still look for a place for the "Pril"-flower-stickers - they were cool when I was a kid and had a retro shortly.

This is mine.

I have it stuck to the socket only when I (Ingo - he is the cook) really use it. You hardly touch the button and "the heat is on" - dangerous. My detergent is to smell like apples and I look for a good place for the Pril-stickers, too.
I also have an orange no-name detergent. When the Pril-detergent came with its flowers, I bought heaps of them since the flowers remind me of my grandmother, who died four years ago.
I put the detergent in a safe place. So safe, I didn´t find it when I needed new detergent, so I bought some.
I had several options, it could have been in my kitchen, in the basement, in Ingos apartment or in the room I still have in my family home. I found it later on in the basement...

"exact " - containers

2006-05-23T11:45:00.001+02:00

I´ll start this second blog of mine with this (these) containers from Ikea.
This is mine:

I use it near my bed (futon); it contains books, facial creams, body lotions, ear protection (the birds are really loud outside - and when Ingo is in my place, from time to time he snores which I don´t care about thanks to the ear protection).
On top is my alarm clock.
I eat my dinner on that container, too - right in front of TV (I know this isn´t good. One should concentrate on what you eat, not on the TV-programme - when Ingo is here, we eat in the kitchen, on a real table).

This is Ingos - It stands in the kitchen and seems to be a container for... hmmm, stuff.

Ingos apartment is larger than mine, it has a bedroom, a real bed and bedside tables.