08. March 2018 
That’s how it started: The decision was made and the right buyers were found in no time at all.
When we informed all the people who were important to us, the reactions were very varied and I would like to publish one letter here that was particularly close to my heart, also so that it doesn’t get lost.
„Your plans to leave Kreuzstrasse make us personally very sad! The world is changing and cannot be stopped. Nevertheless, you don’t want to change what you like, what you feel comfortable with, what is and was beautiful! But you can’t stop life; it just consists of change….!
So we wish you that what you wish for comes true and that you can experience it all together in the best of health and for a long time! You leave behind a wistful crossroads in which you will tear a gap!“
And here are some more reactions…. (many have also phoned)
„Ohhhh, now I’m surprised….. I’m very happy for you….. because it suits you….. but there’s still sadness too….. but I could get a grip on that to some extent with anticipation if I knew where I could visit you“
„Oh, I’m really happy for you, that’s great, I could hardly imagine it with anyone else…. I have a great feeling about you. I think the blog thing is mega great…. so we can experience the adventures a little and….
Really exciting…. „
„Hello Petra, I don’t know what to say, I’m gobsmacked. You decided so quickly. I’m sure your phone won’t stop ringing, I’ve tried it too.
I admire your courage. „
„…now the time has finally come, your long-awaited wish has come true.
We are happy for you“
„Boah…. super. „
Soon it will finally start: finally reducing life to the bare essentials. The people who had to leave their homes and didn’t have or still don’t have the essentials made me realise once again how many totally unnecessary things we have and I imagined how liberating it would be!
Think again! Things come into your hands that you hadn’t even thought about and suddenly I had the feeling that you’re so attached to them, but luckily the more I think about travelling, the easier it gets.
Tomorrow we’re going to a flea market, which suits us very well, hall, starts at 17:00, ends at 23:00 with catering and music. So it’s a bit of an „event“
Days of sorting, packing, decorating, it was really a lot of work and now I realise that I haven’t packed the right things and that the really important things are still there. I even packed my beloved music box collection, that was the most work because it’s very delicate and takes up a lot of space. This morning I had the feeling again: no, I haven’t really got round to it yet and I’m going to put them away with Roy (Gerhard’s son), but that’s rubbish, many of them are made of wood and the cellars are often a bit damp.
At first I thought: never again flea market, but when I see all the things that are still waiting to be disposed of here ………. It would probably be easier the second time round.
After all, I have already thrown away a whole big bag of shoes and it was liberating! With the free decision to minimalism, the idea of standing there one day without anything disappears and I almost had to laugh about the shoes that I might have been able to wear again for a short time before they were completely ruined. The second bag is the ones that I can still expect others to wear and the really good ones that go to Oxfam.
So, I’ve backed off a bit from total minimalism, also for Gerhard’s sake, who wasn’t entirely comfortable with it and the thought of maybe going out gives me the excuse to keep a few things.
We want to fly with Emirates and be able to take 40kg with us in Business, only Gerhard’s thought: baahh, no more bikes is unfortunately a thing of the past, can you just leave such expensive bikes here ???? Besides, if we land there first, there are some great cycle routes in Australia (I’ve already done some research). The argument that we can’t take the bikes with us if we stay in Dubai for a few days has also been refuted.
I was able to get hold of Reinhard Welscher’s book „Vollwertig backen in einer Pfanne“ („Wholefood baking in one pan“), which I have always been interested in, and I started it with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the first two cakes burnt, but I still have time to practise. I’m looking forward to the bread, but Gerhard will probably protest loudly, our bread tastes great and he wants to have it for as long as possible. The only thing I’m really going to miss is the Thermomix.
Yesterday I got a call from a very busy friend: You have to stay until the 8th of August, because that’s my big birthday.
My excuse for forgetting is simply that my friends never get older for me (maybe because I don’t want to ………?).
This is how it looks here right now……
…and now at the flea market.
March 2018
The whole house is still full of junk, things that no longer had a place and on Tuesday someone from the bank is coming to inspect the house and the garden is also crying out for at least the most necessary maintenance. I’ll post the flea market comment afterwards.
The flea market was quite exhausting, so we had to be there at 3pm. It started with carrying all the stuff up a fairly steep staircase to the first floor. At first I thought that was a mistake, but the others bravely lugged their stuff up there too. Everything was super organised in the rather large hall. I had already practised setting up at home, but I was still standing there with the countless containers and felt totally overwhelmed. To help me, Gerhard had photographed the set-up at home, otherwise I would probably have been left standing there looking daft after an hour.
Luckily, our lovely neighbours arrived shortly before the end to help us finish the whole thing, because my idea of just packing it up again the way it was didn’t work out at all because nobody knew what it was like.
What’s more, the bag with the bags and other packing materials had gone missing right at the beginning and, oops, oops, with my beautiful lace bags in different colours and sizes, about 30 of them, which were meant for jewellery. Of course I didn’t need to take them all with me, but in a fit of organisation I wanted to have them all together to save me having to look for them later. The latter worked.
The whole thing was supposed to go on until 11pm under penalty of a fine, but due to the bad weather it wasn’t well attended and it was already packed up when our neighbours arrived, who also got their entrance fee back.
It wasn’t as much of an „event„ as I thought it would be in America, and the food was only the obligatory German Bratwurst.
But apart from that I learnt a few things, first of all that you shouldn’t fill up your table like most people do, and above all that you shouldn’t fill it up again straight away, because then people will think that nobody is buying anything
The table next door was empty and I was quite self-conscious with my full table, like most people, and looked pityingly at their bottle collection.
Then came the surprise: the table was almost always crowded with older bottles and I was amazed to learn that bottles are collected like stamps or old wine and that there are catalogues, just like for stamps. I found that incredibly exciting. And we had just thrown away my beautiful bottles. In 100 years‘ time, someone would have been delighted to find them forgotten in the cellar.
Now we bury beautiful pieces in the garden, maybe we can score points for eternity.
What was still there in vast quantities were clothes and more and more are bought and rummaged through……
Of the other items, everything that has to do with silver and not polished, please.
I had polished one item when I suddenly fancied a tidy household that always polishes its silver nicely. That didn’t go away, otherwise everything that was tarnished was gone immediately.
I’m not sure if I would do it again, sometimes yes – sometimes never again,
But you also learn !!!
And now the man from the bank. It was really annoying to think about. Everything here was still full of things that were just too much for the flea market and the boxes that came from the flea market. The clothes for which there was no more room at the flea market and which are hanging on a rack in the bedroom. I can’t put them away again, I’ll never finish. And all the boxes and cartons. I couldn’t leave Gerhard’s idea of leaving everything as it was, as we were clearing out. Couldn’t the guy have come earlier? So we cleared out, hid everything and left as little as possible. It will be a while before I find anything in particular again. I was so glad, although it was the first time I was really annoyed, the man really photographed every nook and cranny. Apart from that, he was really nice and had a penchant for old houses.
Now there will be nothing new for a while and you can at least decide whether you want to finish reading this or not. Imagine if I had talked your ears off on the phone and you poor things hadn’t been able to stop me !!!!!!
Link to the next page ….the countdown is running – e