Up-date: Gliders, De-cluttering, Christmas Preparations, Scarves, and Learning French!

Life has been busy in the House of DB, so I am a bit behind on all sorts of topics.  But I am off for two weeks over the holiday season, and plan to do a post every day!

Firstly, I want to introduce my Tiny Visitors!  They were recently joined by Willibald Waco, and I had some wonderful news about Fatty Messerschmitt!  I really want to share some of the great stories I heard, especially from Rudolf Reiher, who left for a secret mission to France some time ago but is still very much in our thoughts.  Rudolf witnessed the Fall of Fort Eben Emael – of course he was way too small to be of any use, but he saw the whole thing from the breast pocket of one of the glider pilots who landed his DFS 230 on top of the Fort.  The Red Reihers were popular talismans with glider pilots during the war, and the four that made it into The Little House saw a lot of action, even before they joined the other Tiny Visitors after the Great Escape.  At first I did not believe their stories, and dismissed them as the delusional reminiscences of ancient toys who craved attention.  But after I checked some of their more far fetched fables I concluded that they were either extremely well read toys or did indeed tell the truth.  Rudolf, who liked to perch on my laptop while I researched his stories, did not take my disbelief amiss.  After all, who could have believed that 78 people in 10 gliders (!) could disarm the greatest fortress of the time within less than an hour?  Especially nowadays, when gliders are only used for sport?  Rare indeed is the person who knows that gliders were used for both assaults and transportation during WW II, let alone that they were instrumental in bringing about the greatest triumph of the German forces during that war. 

The de-cluttering has slowed down significantly, mainly because I have de-cluttered so much already.  There are still some cupboards and the attic to do, but I feel less urgency now.  At any rate Christmas preparations have taken over.  Aside from baking, decorating, buying a few last presents, and wrapping them, my social life has become rather crowded, as usually in the pre-holiday season, and I am a fair bit in London as well.

I look forward to featuring a few more scarves as well.  Partly I aim to show off my Christmas presents, but I may also cover one or two with a lot of writing on it, as an aid to learning French, since those posts appear to be very popular.

Re learning French, I still watch a lot of movies, and managed to buy a few new ones during my last visit to Paris, which I wrapped and smuggled into Santa’s bag when he wasn’t looking.  Currently I am watching ‘Le Drole de Noel de Scrooge’, ‘Miracle on 34^th Street’, and La Grande Vadrouille.  The latter has no subtitles, and the characters are frequently speaking German or English as well as French, which is confusing, but I like the movie, especially when they escape with gliders which are a bright orangey red, rather like the Red Reiher Quartet.  The Tiny Visitors are quite fond of this movie, and like to sit on my head and shoulders whenever I watch it, and I am not allowed to make any sudden movements, otherwise they fall off.

Also on the French learning front, Michel Thomas is still struggling to teach me French with a Polish accent each morning from 7am onwards.  He is so irritating that I can’t go back to sleep once he has started his hectoring of the two hapless students who feature on the CD, so although I can’t claim to learn all that much at least he makes sure I get to work on time, which is no mean feat in the middle of Hibernation Season!

By the way, do you like what I did with my massive pine cones?