Roads to Safe Places

The location they chose for this concert made our evening, too - a hall in the beautifully overdone Galeriegebäude. We had spectacular seats in the second row thanks to reduced prices for students. It was a perfect evening.
 

Ah, there is nothing like the shininesss and the smell of a cleaned window. 
There is nothing like the freshness of a cleaned bathroom, either. 
There is nothing like the content look on the dogs face you have just walked. 
There is nothing like a folded pile of clothes, neat and orderly.
There is nothing like a couple of hoovered floors. 
There is nothing like a raked garden path. 
There is nothing like bringing in the hay my mother and my brother made themselves for the guinea pigs, helping my dear family out of a tight spot there because they surprisingly both did not find the time and it was going to rain.
There is also nothing like a cleaned kitchen, and if you had to clean it in it's entirety three times during the last two days, the more joyous experience for you to see it gleam. 
I do assume there is also nothing like sorting out the laundry, probably to do with fresh smell of the all the clean garments. 
There is nothing like rolling up an dozen pairs of socks, I daresay.

The garden still looks like a complete wilderness because my family has kindly left it for me to either not care about it at all, like they do, or to work in it  these past three years, so now it is an endless source of those simple joys to me. The kitchen is now my domain and I get to bear the responsibility of keeping it clean, they kindly entrusted me with that. Although, my grandma does the washing up, my brother will sweep the floor when I bug him long enough. As for the rest of the house... Also my domain entirely, I can proudly an.

Thanks, family. 

My emotions brim over at the richess of simple delights with which they do provide me every day and I cannot help but feeling immense gratitude for them showing me the traditional role of a good woman, to me, who has only ever known that of a modern woman who believes in sharing the household duties  - all this helps me to prepare for the role of a good wife, who demurely and obediently scrubs and cleans, takes the blame, keeps things in order, unseen and unremarked upon - except when mistakes are made. Then, they do not hesitate but kindly point them out to me so I can improve my ways in the future. 

Thank you, thank you. 

Und drinnen waltet
Die züchtige Hausfrau,
Die Mutter der Kinder,
Und herrschet weise
Im häuslichen Kreise,
Und lehret die Mädchen
Und wehret den Knaben,
Und reget ohn Ende
Die fleißigen Hände,
Und mehrt den Gewinn
Mit ordnendem Sinn.
Und füllet mit Schätzen die duftenden Laden,
Und dreht um die schnurrende Spindel den Faden,
Und sammelt im reinlich geglätteten Schrein
Die schimmernde Wolle, den schneeigten Lein,
Und füget zum Guten den Glanz und den Schimmer,
Und ruhet nimmer.

YES! I have finally found a sport which is promising: fencing!

I had nearly given up, after rather fruitless efforts with volleyball, judo, gymnastics, dancing, ballet, horse riding, occasional jogging, cycling, badminton and more, this is FUN! Alright, perhaps I shouldn't be too enthusiastic after the first lesson, but... ah well. I am exceptionally good at being hit. But on the whole, it's less difficult than I thought so far. Love it.
Well, perhaps except for the people who see it as an opportunity - since the mating season is on... Those really are annoying. Especially if you are being paired with with someone who only has eyes for Vivian (ex-ballet dancer, slender, dark-eyed, etc. etc.- you get the picture) for practicing and look like the slim version of an ancient fertility goddess yourself - hence could as well be not there at all. I nearly hit him over the head with my foam foil-thing.

But on the whole, it's fun. And a family tradition, really. My grandmother has won prizes when she was young, my mother has done it for six years as well and loved it... They were really enthusiastic about me starting. To a quite worrying extent, really. My grandmother even tried to show me some stances. With her artificial hip joint...!