further or beyond

Happy Mothers' Day to all.  H and I spend the weekend leading up to it on a quest with my parents to retrieve our newly secured Volkswagon camper.  We made a round trip of nearly a thousand kilometers to Lake Constance and back and had a fun adventure, but we considered that most people choose Lake Constance as a vacation destination and spend a little bit more time there.  Owning a camper I think represents a major paradigm shift in the way we vacation, but I am really looking forward to it, especially considering that parts of European airspace are again shut down due to abrasive volcanic ash. 

Flying is faster at the end, but taking into account the time spend on research, price-comparisons, making reservations (for hotels, as well), driving to the airport to arrive there at minimum two hours before a flight, flight-time, security and then coming back again, puttering slow but steady down the road seems like a winning alternative.  Of course, the camper will be christened something--we'll have to break a bottle of champagne over the bough.  My father suggested naming it "Further" or Furthur (sic) after Ken Kessey's school bus.  The placard for the destination, the next stop reads simply further.  My mother suggested that we call it "Beyond."

shahzad! or Attack on the Rue Plumet

There are reports that the would-be car-bomber of Times Square had been on the US government's radar since 1999, listed as a person-of-interest on a so called travel lookout list--I suppose things were named more innocently before there was an entity known as the Department of Homeland Security with vested powers to disappear people.  If Jean Valjean had been an accused terrorist, I suppose Inspector Javert would have never caught him, even after twenty years on the run as a fugitive from justice.

discobolus

"Boomerang, toomerang, zoomerang!" as Lady Elaine would say.  I think a puppet theater would make much better talking heads than the usual fare.  Greece has been courting a lot of attention lately, as if it's been neglected and ignored and acting-out is settling for some kind of notice.  I think politicians and economists are missing some important fundamentals: Greece is not broke or broken--rather the Greek government is, and though it has done a pretty shabby job as a euro custodian, there is still wealth and value there.  Sovereign default is not anything new--Dubai just did so a few scant months ago and it's forgotten and no one is shedding a tear over them; Argentina and Russia did during the last decade and Asia before that.  Consequences were there but without a currency bolstered by a big bloc.  What I think should be more center-ring is the revolt of the Greek people and Germany's begrudging lend-lease policy.

disastrophy

While the US markets guffaw and rejoice over marginal gains at the expense of Greek sovereignty and nascent, crippled good news that's masked by more immediate situations and pressing realities--too fragile to stand up outside of the virtual marketplace, a major environmental tradegy is lapping at US shores and threatens to undo and destabilize, not just this shell-game propped up by shared illusions, contagious histeria of wealth and termity.   What is most serious and most repulsive is difficult to say: the environmental impact on the Gulf of Mexico and the death of a delicate ecosystem, the loss of livelihood for locals that will linger like the spectre of Katrina, the continued ill-preparedness of the US government in mitigating catastrophies, the oil companies' exculpability, the mean-spirited blame-game on ostensibly arguments of political ideology that demeans all other consequences.  At least the groomers and hair-dressers, along with locals who face the mothballing of their business in the meantime and for the foreseen future, are running a drive for down (feathers), hair and trimmings since these leavings are pretty good at sopping up oil.

strange blooms

How does your garden grow?  The geraniums on the balcony and all the greenery survived in our absense, and even the more unusual plants are starting to blossom.  There are two cactuses in the window, one that has these bright red drooping flowers alternating years and this other who sends out bizarre alien feeler antennae.  This other plant lives in a glass Bier Maß and leaves under the soil where daylight can get in. Also every other year, it sprouts weird, little and sticky white flowers.

even old New York was once New Amsterdam

I am just freshly returned from vacation with the whole weekend to recuperate and relax and let the thoughts and memories settle and sort. 

Seeing Istanbul was probably the most exotic exposure I have had, and while I am glad to come back to our little house in a city founded by Charlemagne himself, it amazes me that one can be in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, the capital of the Roman Empire, the seat of the Eastern Orthodox church at lunch time and then back in Unterfranken by mid-afternoon.

salut de Istanbul

H and I are having a fantastic time in the city. Here is a picture post card view of the Hagia Sofia from the terrace of our hotel.

by any other name

We are excitedly packing and rearranging the indoor topiary and landscaping to make it easier for our neighbor to manage watering this jungle of plantlife.  We'll be in Istanbul, Byzantium, Constantiople, and PfRC will be taking a short sabbatical.  I have read that the Turkish people have a slang designation for Germany--exonyms are a challenge, Deutschland--Frengistan or Frankistan.  I feel I have barely cracked the guidebook but we have already an overwhelming amount to explore.