Barbara’s Away Game

9/8/2012

I am gone…

Who is who, why and how?

In the meantime this site is not only visited by people who know us, by the way I’m really happy about this, so it’s finally time to introduce us.

We are almost a quite ordinary German family!


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(It’s the only existing family picture I have, easy to detect; it’s the graduation of the big ones. Thank you Lou for taking it!)

from the left to the right: Jonathan,
Barbara, Samuel, Moritz and Nobbi


Nobbi and I, we are a couple almost all along. We both studied in Aachen/ Germany and settled there. Our three sons were born there. Samuel is 22, Moritz 19 and Jonathan the “little one” is 14. Our dogs, Lissy (9) and Ceallagh (say KAY-LA, 4) are family too and important center of my life.


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from the left to the right: Nobbi, Lissy and Ceallagh


The house in which we lived the last 10 years before we moved to California stood in Vaals/ Netherlands close to the border to Aachen/ Germany. We were border crosser! Nobbi worked in Aachen, the kids went to school there and I followed my hobby and side job as dog trainer in the best dog club of the world, the
Retriever-Förder-Verein Aachen.

As in the end of 2009 Nobbi got the offer to move to California to revolutionize the gleaming front lights of upper class cars in Silicon Valley, the things were obvious. No! It would disturb the peace in our little life! Well, 2010 we moved.

Valley

We moved to Los Gatos on a hill with a stunning view over Silicon Valley. The kids went to the GISSV (German Internationol School of Silicon Valley) in Mountain View. In the meantime the two big ones have graduated.

Nobbi is a typical workaholic, he would never agree, but if not, we wouldn’t be here. Besides his job he loves every kind of vehicles and flying objects, he is a small plane pilot and owner of a couple of old cars and bikes. What a pity, he has too little time to care about his hobbies and sweeties.

I won’t tell you too much about the boys. They don’t like it. I just mention them in my columns if it is really necessary. Only: Jonathan, the youngest, he’s in 9th grade, Moritz and Samuel have left us. Moritz studies mathematics in Aachen and Samuel, the eldest, is still searching his destiny back in Germany.

Myself, I’m a housewife, whereas I have to confess that I’m more gifted in other stuff, which I honestly do with more passion. I love to train my dogs funny things and since we left Aachen I even started writing.

We are in the middle of a family saga, in a travelog and my own short-term memoirs.

Warm welcome to
Barbara’s Away Game

On this website you’ll find my English blog in the sidebar as
Barbara’s Away Game, the recent column on the top. The entire story you’ll find in the chapters below, sorted in Prolog and the year 2011 or 2012. Every title in the sidebar written in English is English or bilingual, so you guys can read it. German titles are in German. It’s that easy!

When you’re reading you have to imagine my strong German accent. I’m able to speak a “TH”, more or less, but I struggle with your “R”, other things maybe are worse but I’m never able to bring a word with four syllables or more to the end with the first try. So if you want to read authentic, please keep this in mind!

Guestbook/ Gästebuch and the e-mail form will help you to connect. I’m really happy to get feedback.

The Facebook users of you are really invited to put the thumb high. You like every crap (sorry the language issue!!!) on Facebook. You like the big internet book store a…zon to get some offers more and became solicitor for a company that doesn’t need it, you like cute funny joke sites therefore for every 5000 likes a foster home gets an own joke or whatever.

So: If you like my site I promise that you are allowed to read absolutely free, no charge, if I publish my stuff as real book you’ll get 5% off and when I have 5000 likes I will write a charity column for dear ownerless dogs in Andalusia in Spain. I want to thank the 29 of you who liked my site already. Really, it means a lot for me.


Have fun in Barbara’s Away Game