two ways of shopping and picking rhubarb

Dear friends!

In the hope that at least one or even two of my friends stumble over this blog i address it to them. english is not only more common than my mother language (german), for some reason i also find it easier to write a diary in english.

in belzig (north-east germany) i usually buy daily things on the market, in small shops and about once a week or two in the local and small biological shop. only a few things in the supermarket. "with the economical enforced walk to the superdiscounter the consuming employees strengthen unwillingly the legitimation of the system which exploits them." frederic lordon, 14 march 2008 in the german edition of le monde diplomatique. i found this quote by accident. the guy, i think a jornalist, brings with elaborate words to the point what i can say only in simple ones: the money spent in the supermarket goes somewhere to a rich company, a little more money spent in small shops stays in the area. here in böblingen (south-west germany) things are a little different for me. my mother has got a pretty clear idea what to buy where. and this is usually one of 4 or five big supermarkets. or one of the major bakery-chains. those chains probably exist in other parts of germany or europe or wherever as well. but i haven´t heard about or seen a chain of bakeries before. i thought till recently that at least a bakery is per definitionem a small local shop. things are subject to change. i am still working on how about going on this one. i mean the clear idea of my mother. if somebody got an idea please tell me. in the bakeries the employees seem already to know my face, they already know what kind of bread i want to buy, they only ask each time i buy bread how many pieces i want to have. the doctors and their assistents greet my mother. same in the drugstore. i didn´t expect the two of us, my mother and me to need that much food. to me it does not seem to be twice as much than i need for myself. it seems at least three times as much. and my mother does not eat too much. if you think now, how does the poor guy carry all that on a bycicle? don´t worry. at least not about that. i bought bags for the back carrier of the bike. they have lots of space.

today though i did not go shopping. last night i managed to get my father´s scanner working, the printer still doesn´t work though. after lunch i collected old glass from the basement and brought it to the recycling containers up the street. and i harvested rhubarb which grows in front of my mother´s window. i have to admit it was the first time in my life and i had to look up the english word two times in the dictionary. the neighbours are on holidays for a couple of weeks or don´t like rhubarb. my mother is going to make stewed fruit and cake from it. absolutely delicious. anybody passing by to pick things up is invited to have some. as long as there is any.

tommorrow is a second hand bookmarket in the local library. to be honest the building of the library has been always ugly from the outside. after shopping i usually go there, have a coffee in the entrance room, borrow books and music cds and have a general look around. i always find a book, a music CD or maybe an article in a magazine to read. yesterday i used their computer to print the configuration of my father´s computer. from the outside the building does look not beautiful, actually it is hidden at the moment by a scafolding, at the same time they have an awfull lot of books, cds and videos. on three floors. the library in the neighbour town sindelfingen is about the same size. i plan to go to the second hand market in the library tommorrow. it is their last day open for three weeks. they exchange the carpet in the first floor. afterwards i want to go to another second hand market in front of one of the supermarkets. they sell about everything there. if i am lucky i might even find something useful.

have a good night everybody,
burkie in böblingen