Death of a friend

Yesterday I had news I had been expecting. A week ago I learned with sadness that a long standing friend who shared many of my interests and with whom I have enjoyed many great times, had suffered a stroke after undergoing a fairly simple by-pass operation. It was a fairly major stroke which left him unable to help himself and, as his Medical Aid Insurance had reached its limit, he was sent to a "Care Home". Here he suffered another set of medical problems and last Wednesday was rushed back into Intensive Care. By Thursday he was in renal failure and sometime on Sunday or early Monday, slipped quietly away.

Dennis was a big hearted man who gave freely and willingly of his time, his services and his friendship. He wasn't the best looking man in the world and yet, once you got to know him, that was not what you saw when you were in his company. He leaves behind a brother whose family will miss their big hearted uncle. He also leaves behind a lot of friends who wil feel the poorer for his passing, myself included. I hope you will join me in a prayer for him on Saturday when he will be laid to rest with his mother, stepfather and family.

Astronomical Clock

Mausi was browsing through some photographs tonight which she had taken during this year. One of her favourites is the Astronomical Clock of the Marienkirche in Lübeck. Astronomical clocks were quite en vogue from the 15th to the 18th century.

The one is Lübeck was built between 1561 and 1566 and is of impressive size. Like so many other treasures it was destroyed during WW II in 1942 but rebuilt by the clockmaker in the Paul Behrendt in the 1960's. Mausi knows this clock ever since she was a small child and still thinks it was one of the most intriguing mechanical gimmicks she has ever seen.

These clocks were not only built to give the time and such useful things as phases of moon and sun but also to make people feel small and reflect about their life. While being rebuilt the Lübeck clock was slightly modified. The upper half now shows the 12 astrological, the lower half the 13 astronomical signs of the zodiac. The old clock had only shown the astrological signs.

The four Apostles in the lower half and the inscription in the middle show the close relation to the ecclesiastical year. The inscription reads:

Whenver you hear the bell toll, do not forget to praise and to thank your God who reigns over all stars.
(So oft du die klingende Glocke hörst, vergiss nicht, deinen Gott der über alle Gestirne herrscht zu loben und ihm zu danken.)

A long day....

Mausi's had a long day today and feels like falling asleep any moment. So this will be a short post today.

The Monk has obviously settled down in Tehran. People are as nice as ever and are full of plans which sights to show him. Work is going well, too. And tomorrow evening the Monk and and his colleague are invited to a special dinner to celebrate the National Fire Fighter Day. Have fun, Monk. Mausi is sure it will be quite an experience.

Election Time

Germany has elected a new Parliament (Bundestag) today. The German election system is rather complicated: everyone gets two votes. With the first you vote for a candidate with a direct mandate with the second for a party with a list of candidates. Half of the 600 seats in the Bundestag are filled with candidates who won the direct mandates, the other half from the party lists proportional to the number of votes the parties managed to win. Mausi thinks this is rather a good system as it enables also smaller parties to be part of the Bundestag, if they manage to jump the 5 percent hurdle.

For the last four years we had a coalition between the two biggest parties: Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Under the circumstances they haven't done too badly, but both have lost in this elections. The Christian Democrats, the party of chancellor Angela Merkel, less than 2 percent but the Social Democrats more than 10. So Angela Merkel will remain being chancellor but will have a new coalition partner - the Liberals. If that turns out to be a good idea remains to be seen.

Sadly, the number of non-voters is constantly growing. The poll was down to 71 percent (77 percent four years ago). Is that another sign that politicians have lost contact with the people or are people just too lazy to be bothered?

Indian Summer

This is Mausi's favourite time of the year: Indian summer or "Altweibersommer" as we say in Germany. The sun has lost its summer glare but it is still warm enough outside to feel comfortable. Mausi has spent a lovely day out in the open today clearing out one of the flower beds which will be replanted next spring.

All flowers seem to be determined to show their best colour for the last time this year before going into hibernation.














Mausi's sweet peas.












A Gertrude Jekyll Rose which gives off a lovely lemon like scent.










And Mausi's faithful garden friend wandering how summer could have passed so quickly this year.

Arrived

You will all be relieved to hear that The Monk has arrived in Tehran safe and sound. He told Mausi today that he and a colleague were given a lovely flat in the north of the town. He has a room to himself which he has rearranged to his liking. The best thing, however, is that they have access to the internet and will be able to stay in contact with the rest of the world.

Mausi is having a busy time herself at the moment. There is still quite a long list of things to be done in the garden before it will ready for winter. Workwise Mausi is preparing for a conference in Germany at the beginning of October to be followed by a week of teaching Fire Investigation in Turkey. Mausi has been invited to teach this course by a colleague from the Forensic Science Instiute in Ankara and feels quite honoured. It will certainly be an interesting experience as Mausi hasn't been to Turkey before. But quite a bit of the teaching material and presentations still has to be put together... Ah well, why panic - it is still some weeks to go...

On my way.

Heading out for the airport - Heathrow Terminal 1, my least favourite airport I admit - and will be sat on the flight to Tehran for seven hours. Arrival at 03.15. How to make it difficult for British troublemakers to feel welcome.

Posting over the next twelve weeks will be erratic, mainly because we have to get used to "dial-up" again, so I will be abusing Mausi's good nature as she tries to keep the blog running and everyone up dated on what I'm up to. A team of us are going out tomorrow to train fire fighters for the Tehran Municipality and the Ministry of the Interior. All Halaal and above board.

Methinks it will be a long twelve weeks even though I am looking forward to meeting up with Nasir, Reza, Mohammad, Kazim and the rest of the guys again.