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Dear Dörte,

the two friends didn't have contact since 44 years but as you said, it has been as if they left each other yesterday.

In our little village will be in more than 10 inns, restaurants and pubs different musicians, it's called "Kulturschock". There will be Irish musicians, too. Bavarian music, Jazz, Blues and so on...And you can change the pubs whenever you want. There will be busses for transport, too.

I'll stay at Milan just for four days, I'll take the time between a public holiday (Christi Himmelfahrt) and the following Sunday for having no trucks on the autobahn (this word is really in the dictionary!). Italy doesn't celebrate Christi Himmelfahrt, there will be trucks but Milan is not so far away from the border.

Monday I'll visit my friend in Munich.

Tomorrow will be the first spring market with many exhibitors showing the things they have. That's every year and very funny because sometimes you meet people which you don't see the whole year!

Now I wish you, dear Dörte, also a wonderful and stressless weekend and remain with kind regards.

Take care
Gabi

Dear Gabi,

I hope you had a wonderful time with your friend in Munich. Just like you I
enjoy these spring markets. But often it is difficult to find something
to buy because meanwhile there have been so many markets that there is no
need to buy anything more. Anyway I like to watch the differend things
which are offered. Did you meet many people whom you have not seen
for a long time?

For me the last Sunday was not funny. I had taken some pills which did me no
good. They made me so dizzy that I had to stay in bed nearly the whole day.
Actually we wanted to play cards with my friend and her husband. That`s
why I wanted to be fit. But in the contrary I had to cancel our date!
Now I know that I won`t take these pills any more in the future.

This morning my friend came to see me and to have breakfast with me. Every
4 weeks we meet each other. We first met in the hospital where our sons
were borne. So in this year we can celebrate our 30th anniversary!!
It is fine to have friends for such a long time - as you know yourself.

By the way are you such a bookwarm like me?? I must always have some books
which I haven`t read before. Otherwise I go to buy new ones or ask my friend
or my daughter if they have new books which I may also read. I like thrillers
as well as novels about families. What about you?

Now it is time to go to bed. So I better close now.

Kind regards,
Dörte

Dear Dörte,

thanks a lot for your letter at great length!

I haven't been at the spring market, my knee is not even healthy enough, it hurts when I'm walking too much. And of being too many cars at the parking place I couldn't go myself by car. But there will be many more markets.

Yes, I'm a "reading rat", too. I love thrillers, too but also wise books as the ones of Paulo Coelho, than there is a writer I appreciate: Michel Birbaek, than there is another one named Gisbert Haefs (pronounce Hafs) who wrote about famous persons like Hannibal or the tragedy about Troja. He is really great. And he also wrote humorous crimes.
Than I like books of Christoph Marzi, he writes great fantasy storys. One of his best is "Fabula", wow! If you are interested I could send you some books because I'm actually throughing away ballast concerning my books, I really have too many! If you send me your e-mail-adress we could change adresses and I can prepare a little parcel for you. It's just an offer!

My friend in Barcelona and I have decided that she writes me in Spanish and I write her in German so that I don't loose too many verbs of the Spanish language and she not too many German verbs. So we can help each other. In past times my husband and I spend vacances twice a year for six weeks each and because we didn't want to be "touristas tontos" we learned the language. It's natural (for me) to learn the language of the country where I am guest. I have a cousin in Milan, too. She is married with an Italian and both write e-mails or SMS in Italian language that the few verbs I know will not leave me. Isn't it great to have people around who help me learning and learning?

What kind of pills did you take? Please be careful with every chemical pills. I prefer natural medicine like Schüssler-
Salze. They actually help me with the knee.

The day after tomorrow I'll have the final check-up concerning my heart which has been ablated a few days before X-mas last year. I feel as if I'm new born!

Now I wish you nice days and send you warm regards!

Take care

Gabi

Dear Gabi,

hopefully the check-up of your heart has had a good result. But I haven`t really
understood what was made with it last year. And what about your knee? Why are`t you
able to walk for a while? Or is it just because we aren`t 20 years any more?!

This morning I met with my friends for playing cards. We had so much fun and
laughed a lot. It`s much better than taking pills!!

One of my friends brought me 6 new books. So for the next time there will be
no lack of novels for me. I am rather happy about that.

After several days with only clouds and a little bit of rain today it was
sunny and even warm. The forecast for tomorrow is very good, too. I really
appreciate these days of spring. Most of my ways I am going by bike and so
I enjoy dry and sunny weather - with only moderate wind.

Have a nice weekend and take care of you!

Greetings,
Dörte

Hi Dörte,

the last days had been really exciting: When I went into the kitchen I saw a stain on the wooden ceiling and found that there must be something wrong in the bathroom above. I went outside and realized that a part of the wall was wet. I called the plumber who gave me the advice to turn off the main tap. I called the architect, too and the insurance of my house. The next day came a man who can locate leaks and he found that the pipe of the cistern in the toilet above had a hole which watered the wall. Now I'm waiting for another guy who comes on Monday for drying the wall with a blower. What a luck that I didn't have to remove anything in the toilet!

Concerning my heart: There have been two things to repair: an atrial flutter and an atrial fibrillation. Flutter means that the heart beats 170 to 200 times in a minute and you don't realize it! You just feel down and heavy and weak and you get water in the body because the heart has only 20% capacity. Both things have been repaired in one action with an left cardiac catheder which needed about four hours, but now I feel like new born! And the final check-up has been three months later.

My knee doesnt't have cartilage since many years but there was no pain until the meniscus teared, since this time I have difficulties to go. The meniscus was repaired by an arthroscopy and I should get a prosthesis but before this could happen I got a pneumonia and had to go to hospital where the story of the heart began......I belong to this people who try to read the signs of life and I found, that I was saved of a mistake concerning the knee. So I take Schüssler-Salze and other natural things to remove the pain and I think it works slowly but it works. In German you say: Das Knie vergißt nie. I need just a little patience.

Yesterday my brother-in-law called me and announced himself and his wife for a visit and they took with them her daughter who I haven't seen since a few years. I cooked a tasty meal and we could sit on the terrace, it was very warm and sunny.

It's fine that your "pill-adventure" has taken a good end and so I wish you enjoying hours with your books!

Have a nice Sunday and feel embraced

Take care

Gabi

I know,I am not very often here to write.But I read with great interest all what you have written. Because my English is very bad,I decided to go to my English course again. It's only a conversations course. We don't write ,only round of talks. Sometimes we look a little film and later we talk and discuss about it. We speak about current subjects.Sport, politics,culture ,oneword, all what happened in the world. Or, indeed, if somebody has to tell some news. Our teacher is a funny person. He is English,but he lives in Berlin since years. He is very fat,he always wears the same clothes. Namly, a very old tracksuit.
Sometimes,if our discussion gets too loud and we all talk at once,at the same time, than, and now you will love, he takes a big and loud horn from a truck, and suddenly we all are realists ( what means auf dem Boden der Tatsachen )
I am the eldest in this course, and sometimes it's very difficult to follow.It's a cours with a very hight niveau,but I can't find an other one. Clear, Berlin is very big, but I need a place for my car, not too far from my home,and at the end , nowadays is the price of petrol very high. TO this school I hnave to drive 30 kilometres .

OK for today I wrote enough Till next time Regina

Dörte, you already know the story . And, something more, I am a bookworm too. I like all kind of books , except science-fiction

Dear Gabi,

what a luck that the mistake of your heart could be found - just because of your
hurting knee. I cannot imagine that you didn`t feel the very fast beating of
your heart! Even if my heart is stumbling I do already notice that. Maybe
I am too sensitive! I am happy with you that you now feel like new born.

You wrote of your friend in Barcelona. Is she Spanish? The e-mails in Italian
and Spanish remind me of my school time. I had friends in France and USA who
wrote to me in German and I answered in French and English. With my French
friend we even corrected our mistakes and sent back the corrected letters.
Surely it is good to exercise our brain by talking or writing in a foreign
language.

Some time ago you mentioned Mahjong. That`s what I now play very often! I am
not very good in it. But it really is funny. Another play I like very much
is Spider Solitär. Do you know this? I am nearly addicted to this play. Only
after I have won I can finish playing! That`s why it is often rather late
until I go to bed...

It seems as if spring is coming now. The sun is shining and from day to day
it is said to become warmer. Mid of the week 17 degrees are forecasted.
Today we bought some more primroses for our garden. They are so colourful
and that is what I am longing for - colours in the nature.

What about the water in your house? Could already be found the origin and
could already be anything done against this leak? I hope for you that
it will not take too long.

Kind regards,
Dörte

Hi Dörte,

if a heart beats more than 180 times in a minute you cannot realize it. You get weaker and weaker and you are wondering why you aren't able to do normal things like walking upstairs. Imagine that the heart has only 20% capacity! So I'm thankful that this has been found.

The reason of the water had been a pipe in the cistern of the toilet upstairs which had a leak and let run the water into the wall. Now I have infraredheatings on the wall and blowers on the floor and it'll need about two weeks for drying. Heaven's thank there was nothing to destroy! Just changing the pipe.

My knee gets better. Many years before this hurt I didn't have pain although there was no cartilage anymore. Even when the meniscus teared that terrible pain appeared. As I told you, there should be an operation last year but before that could happen, the story with pneunmonia and the heart began. That was a sign for me nothing to do with my knee. And I have learned to hear what my body says. Schüssler-Salze are great for helping and going by bike, too.

I'm getting a vegetable patch which is about 3 m long and 1 m wide and about 80 cm high.

Try to play FreeCell! That's funny, too. Of course I know Spider Solitaire. Solitaire simple is funny, too. And there are many forms of Mahjong. I prefer Celtic Mahjong.

Wishing you a nice beginning of springtime I remain with kind regards

Fondly Gabi

Hello Regina,

it was nice to read from you again. Your English conversation course sounds to be
very funny - especially your teacher with his horn. That reminds me a bit of
my geography teacher. If somebody did not listen to his words he threw with
his keys! That was even much more dangerous than the horn which can only attack
your ears. But I cannot remember that somebody was hurt...

Anyway I think it is a good exercise to talk English and your English is not
that bad!! How many people belong to your group? I just read that you have to
drive 30 kilometers to come to your course. That is rather long. Fortunately
I could find a nearer place to learn f. e. foreign languages - if I wanted
to do so. It seems that at your area all ways are much longer. Where I live
it is more like a village near Bremen. Nevertheless there are many possibilities
for activities.

As to the books: I also don`t like science fiction. What about your e-book?
Have you now got the right one? Did you try it already?

This will do for today.

Have a nice and sunny week!

Kind regards,
Dörte

Hi Gabi,

that is great that your knee becomes better. Maybe you won`t even need an
operation.

But it is not great that you need infraredheatings and blowers to dry the
walls. A friend of mine also had water in the house and it took quite a long
time to get it dry. And the blowers are very loud, aren`t they? But I guess
there is no other way to dry the house. Do you need a painter afterwards?

What about the vegetable patch? Is it a hugel bed in your garden? What
will you cultivate in it? Potatoes, cabbage, onions... or strawberries?
If it really is a hugel bed then the vegetable will grow very well. My
friend`s husband has got several hugel beds and in all of them everything
grows wonderful.

In our garden we only have got flowers, rhododendrons, thujas and so an - and two small
apple trees which still have to grow. We once tried to cultivate a few potatoes.
But the place wasn`t good for them. It just was a trial which didn`t function.

Since the weekend spring has come! Today it was sunny and warm and I enjoyed
going by bike for some time. Tomorrow it is said to be at least as nice as today.
So I shall enjoy the wonderful weather - which I also wish you.

Kind regards,
Dörte