oceana

Someone ran over a hedgehog right in front of my building overnight. :-( I saw it when I went swimming, mercifully a caravan is parked next to it so it was covered when looking out from the balcony. Now the police just arrived and the two policemen with the unenviable task of having to scratch it off the road were very weirded out because someone had called them about a dead hare which it was obviously not. (I am on the balcony, that's why I heard.) Poor hedgehog. Also, poor policemen, I could hardly look at it and am very glad to not have to clear that up.

If anyone sees a lonely blue sock with little yellow ducks on it, I have been searching for it for two weeks now. I went to bed with them, took them off to put lotion on my feet and as usual left them off and placed them in front of my bed, in the morning grabbed what was lying there and put it in the bathroom for later, and when I returned there was only one sock. I have been searching for the other one since. I've exchanged the bed linens now and even turned the mattress, fully expecting it must turn up then - but no. No trace of the sock that managed to disappear in the short distance between bed and bathroom. I'm certain I haven't vacuumed it up either. Black hole in my bedroom.

The assembly was indeed mercifully short, despite one neighbour apparently being convinced that the buildings will collapse within the next 15 years if we don't get the balcony ballustrades repainted ASAP - the paint is indeed starting to flake off a bit, but I am fairly certain this does not influence the structural integrity of the building and I cannot see any sign that it rusts without - and one wanting to discuss every cent things cost, even when we are talking about 5 Euros per YEAR. Guess who I accidentally ended up walking home next to and having to small talk with. One neighbour wanted agreement on possibly drilling two holes to the outside for installing an AC in their appartment if they decide they want to make the investment, and we turned it into a blanket permission to all. Right now I don't yet feel spending that much money is justified for me, despite moaning I can still do with roller shutters down and airing out overnight and the fans (the neighbour in question has health issues), but with climate change it is good to know that I can go ahead when I have to change my mind in the future (and to know whom to quiz about the best solution ;-) ).

I wonder if I should give The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series another try (read: I discovered Andreas Fröhlich is reading volumes four to six ;-) ). I tried reading the first volume about a decade ago, but noped out after a few pages. However, then someone had pressed the book in my hands, saying I absolutely must read this and here have my copy for loan, and I felt obligated to postpone all other reading for something I hadn't even planned to read so she could have her copy back and to have the expected reaction about her most favourite book, which is never helpful (I think I managed to return it without her really noticing I was only thanking her for the loan). On the other hand, there is a type of humour that alas isn't funny to me even though I really would like to be able to laugh about all the funny things, I just get stuck on the absurdity, and that might well be the case here.

Now my washing machine is beeping at me, so I'd better get out of the comfy balcony chair to hang up the bed linen and towels (it has cooled down a tiny bit and even rained while I was swimming, which was lovely, but still no way I'm turning on the tumble dryer and artificially heat up the kitchen). And then I'll return to impatiently waiting for the alternative blue yarn. ;-)

Yesterday, I've been to the Wilhelma, Stuttgart's zoo and botanical garden, to see the water lilies in bloom. I'm an idiot - for decades I've always been travelling there via the main station. We often went to the Wilhelma in my childhood, and coming from another town we of course started the Stuttgart part from the main station if my father didn't want to or feel up to drive, and when meeting with other people one tends to meet in the centre of town and go from there - so I somehow never questioned that it made perfect sense to look up the underground connection from the main station, the part of getting there I knew anyway. Only because of all the construction works I had the public transport website show me the whole way this time - and lo and behold, I just need to take the S-Bahn one station to the next district and there is a direct underground line to the Wilhelma and I'm there much quicker. Well, at least from now on I'm wiser. ;-)
I haven't been to the Wilhelma in a long time and actually never alone, but it's nice to do everything on ones own time, too. The water lilies weren't yet quite as much in bloom as the last time I was there in time to see them with my Mom, or my memories have made them more numerous, but still they were very very lovely and I'm glad I got myself to get out and see them. Despite a lady erupting in a quite baffling amount of explitives when she saw a group taking a tour from afar (I was feeling very tempted to go stern middle aged lady on someone actually older than me and tell her I was sorry she only now found out she wasn't alone in the world but to watch her vocabulary) it was very agreeably empty with the school having started again. Even if there were a few other people in front of what you wanted to see, you just had to wait a few minutes and you were alone. I was astonished that the first two restaurants I passed by seemed to have no vegetarian option, that seems quite strange in 2025, but it was too early to eat anyway then. The third one had rather innovative variations of pretzels, including one with broccoli nested in its arms and cheese melted over it - my lunch was saved then. ;-) A minute later I came by a restaurant with apparently an Italian menu, but I was happy with having had my unsual pretzel dish then. There were baby cheetahs and a toddler zebra and an I suppose teenage kangarooh. Most animals were wise enough to just lie around and nap at that hot day, although it thankfully wasn't as hot as on Sunday. I could have saved myself taking a sun hat though, in the morning it was often cloudy and in the afternoon too windy for a hat.
I had initially thought I'd only see the water lilies and maybe a small selection of animals, but ended up seeing probably everything except for the parts closed for construction (the farm animals, but I know cows aren't Milka purple so that is ok). Today, I should finally clear up a bit, my appartment is unusually untidy because since Friday I just dropped everything I bought and received except for the perishables. I also should finally decide what to keep from my latest Tchibo order - there was a sale and so I got a plain boring cardigan which I need as I have too many non-boring things I need something plain to combine with and I don't want to knit a boring thing, a t-shirt that turned out to look horrible which will definitely go back, and two linen pants about which someone allegedly my height wrote in their review they were just the right length for long pants for us (7/8 for normal people) - but they aren't, they drag on the ground, if I keep them I need to get out the sewing machine. Meh. But after so many hours of walking yesterday I just feel like this lady or gentleman (I wasn't indescrete enough to look ;-) ) I met there:



So I don't have much hope much will happen today. Though I may have to move inside now because it still seems a bit too windy for the awning and the sun is coming around the corner now.