Since I don’t have much time, here are a few points on what I’ve learned while I’ve been in Germany:

1. Germans really do start and finish everything on time, and on the odd occasion when they don’t (because of the late arrival of a dignitary, for example) lamentations on the loss of 15 minutes are endless

2. $5 flip-flops are not such a good deal when you have to spend $7 on blister band-aids in order to wear them

3. Berlin at the end of June is friggin cold – next time I will bring a jacket

4. You do not have to spend 20 Euros on an umbrella, if you spend enough time huddling inside shops waiting for the rain showers to pass you will eventually find an umbrella that costs only 3 Euros

5. It is very easy to spend far more than 20 Euros while huddling inside shops waiting for the rain showers to pass

6. Boiled beef should never be advertised as a ‘local specialty’ it does not sound appealing or impressive

7. Don’t bother asking the information hotline at Frankfurt airport for any information – they don’t have it and can’t seem to understand why anyone would expect that they do.

I’m so happy I decided to stay in Sardinia for an extra day.

I’m also so happy I got a blister on the bottom of my second toe last night.

You see my blister is forcing me to do practically nothing today and it is divinely relaxing.

Yay blister!

I am in a 4 star hotel with one computer that can connect to the internet and no functioning wireless or dial up connection.

This is going to seriously hamper my email and blogging over the next few days.

I am not happy with this.

At least I can see the ocean though. I mean not from my room, I have a parking lot view, but from the lobby I can see it.

Granted the ocean is at the bottom of a 200 ft cliff but the beach is only a ten minute drive away. And the hotel runs a shuttle - except they’re not running it now.

Ah well, focus on the positive - I am in Sardinina and although I have a business dinner tonight and didn’t sleep last night and need to leave for the meeting tomorrow at 8:15 am…Sunday will be spent lying by the pool reading trashy books.

Focus on Sunday, focus on Sunday!

Quite often during the warmer months, the sidewalk up the street is covered in chalk drawings by the kids who live in the apartment building. The other day, for the first time, I actually saw the ‘artists’ in action.
about half way through creating their work and were standing surveying the pavement debating the placement of the hospital.

The boy pointed with his blue chalk to a spot right in the middle of the sidewalk.

‘It has to go there,’ he said, ’so that the ambulances can get to both ends of town just as fast.’

‘But I think it should be there,’ the girl said pointing to a spot under the tree, ’so that when the grandma’s look out their windows they can see the tree.’

‘But if it’s there then we have to move the road.’ the boy said, full of practicality, and concern for his ambulance drivers.

‘It’s ok,’ the girl said, ‘we can move the road to give the grandma’s their tree.’

I never did find out where the hospital was drawn, it rained that night and by the time Meeka and I walked past the next morning, everything had washed away. The whole incident, though, reminded me of what it was like to play.

I remember how, as kids, we could entertain ourselves for hours orchestrating ‘rescues’ to save a teddy bear from the cherry tree. We would create tanks from deck chair cushions, walls out of wheelbarrows and moats from the trickle of the garden hose.

The sprinkler became aerial bombardment, the branches of the tree, enemy spears and the shadows on the ground, land mines.

I miss being young. I miss being able to get so much enjoyment and entertainment out of everyday objects. But most of all, I think, I miss spending time surrounded by people who will dive over shadows because, of course they’re land mines, what else could they be?

So on Thursday I am leaving for a bunch of meetings and then glorious vacation! I won’t be back home until the 28th of July and I’m trying to focus on the positive.

I’m trying to think about how nice it will be to sleep in my own bed after so long in strange rooms.

I’m trying to think about how much the flowers will have grown while I’m away - maybe we’ll even have raspberries.

I’m trying to think about how happy the dog will be to see me again.

In reality though, I like home. I like my apartment, I like my morning routine, I like BBQ’s with friends.

I really like vacations too, sleeping in, eating in strange restaurants, getting lost in new cities. But that all seems so far off, there’s so much to do between now and then.

Boy will those long days of no obligations be great though!