Cats, mice, Carmen, and Costa

Oh my goodness me! We only have come as far as Stansted and our poor cat sitter has her fist mouse encounter. I suspect that this time it was Moritz. When we left he was sitting under the patio table looking suspiciously alert. According to her account the two cats are hunting in unison around the TV table, with Moritz turning into a rope like creature diving between the shelves. At least those two seem to be having a good time whereas the mouse must regret having woken up this morning. I have to admit that I am not very concerned as I know that mice don’t tend to attack humans, and that hence the safety of the house sitter is ensured; on the other hand the house sitter might see this differently.

On a different note I have to report that we got lucky. Our usual trips to Germany go to Hannover, this time however we go further South to see our friends who live close to Stuttgart. Apparently the storm that made my travel to work this morning a nuisance has now been named Carmen and decided to move on … yes, to Hannover! A flight to Hannover even got cancelled, while our flight is bang on time. So we had our mandatory cappuccino, Panini and cake at Costa and now are waiting to be called for boarding. Apart from my hair looking like hell due to electrostatic charge, life is good!

Now a good couple of hours later we’ve arrived at our hotel at the other side of the Channel – the Best Western Plaza Hotel – and a few things need to be mentioned. Firstly, the Germans don’t have their motorways lit. I always was wondering why the English have lights along the big roads which go across the country. Haven’t they realized yet, that cars have those funny round or square glass things at their fronts which when switched on cast light on streets? In times when I am told what light bulbs to use and which duration would be appropriate for taking a shower, not to light up the countryside might be an option.

And now I am keen to show you our hotel room. We have space shuttle style blue light built into the floor, while the curtains create a bit of a style clash. One might wonder where the designer got the degree from. It however is nice and neat yet all a bit controlled – well, German.

Wifi access is not offered at arrival or generally free. We forgot to ask at check-in and thus called from the room causing a friendly chap to make his way up to bring us a sheet of paper with a password. All we have to do now is to figure out how to get into the internet. Dear hubby grabbed it first and is happily online with the iPad, but of course only one device at a time can be logged in hence keeping me out… grrr. He is trying to get out of it as I type but all these smart people who are desperately trying to keep control over internet access have somehow over-controlled or didn’t bet on iPads… who knows. Ours is kept hostage by the system now, oh this high-tech world is really rather medieval still.

Yippee success we are in the cloud, eventually! But only because hubby is a brilliant hacker. So here it goes my first blog post from abroad!