Bei Bettina

Long, long ago my mother had a hair dressing salon in Heilbronn. A few shops further down was a book shop, run by Frau Preis. As luck would have it, Frau Preis was a client of my mother’s and I must have been one of Frau Preis’s best clients. Whenever I was at my mother’s shop during the week and could sneak over to the book shop I would buy some books and asked Frau Preis to put them on ‘the bill’ and then on Saturdays when Frau Preis had her hair done and the time came to pay, she probably hardly ever did as she just presented my mother with my bill.
Frau Preis had a daughter about the same age as I and who spent quite a bit of time in her mother’s shop, just as I did. While we weren’t close play mates, we have known each other for ever.
Many years later, while at Medical School, Bettina travelled in New Zealand and visited Andrew and me there for a few days.
Over the last few years we lost contact a bit but luck would have it that Bettina wrote an email three weeks ago when I was still in Hamburg and so we were able to meet a few days ago. Bettina lives in München and we met on our second day there.
That was really nice, if short, as Bettina and her family were on their way to Hamburg to visit her in-laws for the holidays.
We were grateful for a lovely evening spent together and thanks Claus for the deliscious Frikadellen (meat balls), potatoes and vegies. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening together.
Bettina has a ten year old son (which meant lots of boy toys about the house) and better still…he is a hockey player.
Tessa and him spent a couple of hours hitting a tennis ball around in the lounge with hockey sticks and I am very grateful that none of their Christmas decorations had to suffer any ill effects.