Windy Week

Last week saw a mix of rain and sun, plenty of wind and quite a rollercoaster in terms of temperature. It ended with a première for me: My first ever political demonstration.

On Monday (22 January), I worked from home as I do nearly every Monday. Half of my lunch hour was spent at the nearby spa for a very necessary back-and-shoulders massage. Because of the rain, I didn't go for a walk at all. (The five minutes to the spa and another five back do not count.)

Sunrise from my kitchen window that morning.

Another train drivers' strike was announced to begin on Wednesday, and so once again, I made Tuesday (23 January) my Office Day instead of Wednesday. Within the building, my department are moving from the fourth to the 2nd floor. I prepared everything I could do myself - there are not many personal items in my room anyway, so it was done quickly. The rest is up to facility management (moving my desk and chair) and IT guys (moving my computer, monitor, headset, keyboard etc.).

It was mild, mostly sunny but very windy. By the time I was ready to leave work, rain had set in - another walk-less day.

I made up for two days without a walk by being out for a bit more than 2 hours on Wednesday (24 January), walking to Pattonville one way and back another. The thermometer rose to 12C/53F in the windblown, sunny afternoon after a rainy morning. As is my habit, I couldn't help noticing that Christmas Eve was exactly 11 months away.

4:00 pm on Wednesday - you can almost see the wind rushing the clouds along, can't you!

I used to work on the 9th floor of that tall building.

10 past 5:00 pm, sunset.

On Thursday (25 January) after work, my sister and I met at our Mum's. I had asked for a particular kind of soup (vegetable broth with semolina dumplings) which I know my Mum makes to perfection, and that evening was no exception. The day had been mostly sunny but with not enough time between calls and tasks and meetings to afford a walk other than the 10 or so minutes it takes me to get to my Mum's.

O.K. was supposed to arrive at my place on Friday (26 January) evening, but... One of his colleagues had been home with a cold earlier in the week, returning to work the next day. Only the day AFTER, he casually suggested O.K. - who had been working in the same room with him all day - self-test for Covid, since he himself had tested positive the day before... Why on earth he didn't say a word the day before, or - better still - stayed at home is anyone's guess! I was quite angry at such inconsiderate behaviour and a little upset, and of course it meant that O.K. and I were to spend the third weekend in a row without seeing each other - he ended up testing positive, too.

It was wet and windy but mild all day, with the sun putting in an appearance shortly before sunset, as seen from my windows:

Saturday and Sunday (27 and 28 January) were days of azure blue skies and wall to wall sunshine, frosty nights and mornings with temperatures below freezing and milder afternoons with 7 to 9 C/44 to 48 F.

Housework and food shopping didn't take very long, and I had ample time for a good walk to Hungerberg and back through the deer park. It was beautiful in the sun but as soon as I was in the shade it felt cold. 

The monoliths at Hungerberg - an over-sized sundial, really.

If you click to enlarge, you should be able to see the "rocket" that is visible from many places around here.

A swan made of an old car tyre... would you put this in your garden?

The deer park was THE place to be that day, judging by the numbers of people. It was as good as impossible to take a photo without people in it.

My Mum and I met at our nearby Italian restaurant for a pizza (me; Mum had gamberi in a slightly disappointing white wine sauce) and a glass of wine each. It was nice to catch up on things, just the two of us.

My Mum took this picture of me while I was taking a picture of our food :-D

I don't know if you are aware of what has been going on in Germany now for a while. In short, a political party of extreme right-wing views has steadily been on the rise. The German Domestic Intelligence Services have been investigating and observing them for years. Recently, a network of independent researchers have made public a "secret" meeting of some of the party's high-ranking members with various other figures, planning on "re-migrating" millions of people they deem to be not worthy to live in Germany. Sounds familiar? Exactly!

Once this was known, people started taking to the streets. In many cities across Germany, protest marches and rallies started to be held, all of them drawing much bigger crowds than what the organisers expected, and all of them peaceful.

Yesterday, Sunday, Ludwigsburg held just such a rally in the townhall's courtyard. It was organised by an alliance of politicial parties, volunteer groups, industry associations and others, and the variety of those who spoke was reflected in the diversity of people who attended: Families with children, old people, middle-agers such as my sister and myself, colourful and less conspicuous folks - all ages, sizes, shapes and looks were to be seen.

An estimated 7,000 crowded the courtyard, but in spite of this large number, it never felt uneasy and we were never shoved about or squeezed, and I was not worried for one second that we could easily leave anytime we wanted to.

This was just as we arrived; more people kept joining the crowd throughout the rally.
The building in the back is our city hall. The 1960s concrete block to the right is the Kulturzentrum ("culture centre") of Ludwigsburg, holding among other things the city library where I was trained and worked from 1986 to 1992.

A series of speeches - most of them clear and concise, with only one of them elaborating in a way I could not competely agree with, and only two of the speakers being so nervous they had to read from their notes - was interspersed with protest songs performed live by a man with a guitar. Placards and banners were held up, some of them rather witty. The atmosphere was relaxed, not fired up in a way that made you fear the mood could swing to aggression anytime.

Ludwigsburg's Lord Mayor put emphasis on the fact that, much as it matters that people come to rallies and protest marches, it is even more important to actually DO something - and he meant things like voting (we have several elections coming up this year), speaking up when we hear someone making a racist or nationalist comment, do volunteer work and quite clearly position ourselves far away from those who still believe that the human species consists of 1st and 2nd class invididuals, those who deserve to enjoy freedom, peace and prosperity and those who don't.