Good bye Loki

One of the longest and most beautiful lovestories came to an end last night: Helmut Schmidt's beloved wife Loki passed away at the age of 91.

Loki was more than just a politician's wife. A warm, gentle, genuinely kind-hearted woman who has never been into politics but without whom politics would have taken a different turn.

What ended was one of the most beautiful love stories in the history of love and politics of our time that lasted three generations. Loki and Helmut would have been married 70 years in June 2010 - sadly this was not meant to me.

They first met when they were eating cherries together. "In the beginning we were friends.", Helmut once said. "Friends who could rely on each other." That friendship became love.

Who can imagine the pain Helmut must be going through right now. If two lives can meld in a way theirs did, death is not salvation but a neverending pain for the surviving person and it wouldn't surprise me if Helmut followed her before the end of this year.

Best ways to leave this Earthly plane....

Noone lives forever. Death is a fact. Each and everyone will leave this Earthly plane - some sooner, some later, some peacefully, others violently, some voluntarily, many by force.
And then of course there are the ones who haven't realized yet that their corpora has passed the best before date.

Most of Earth's population hope to pass away in their sleep or being surrounded by their family and loved ones - however, statistically binge-drinking deaths have increased in recent years (if you want to trust the UK National Statistics, that is) and the most common cause of death is the silent heart attack (note the facial expression on the woman in this picture: if you will ever experience someone having a heart attack you might be surprised to learn that this is NOT what it will look like!!!)

What about weird deaths? Bookshelfs can cause it, giant umbrellas, belly slams and even garbage.

The latest victim of such a freak accident is Mike Edwards, an early member of British rock group ELO. Police believe a 600kg bale of hay fell from a tractor and crushed his vehicle (and him).



He died instantly.

An egg is an egg and a boiled egg is now at your convenience

An egg is an egg and what would a proper Full English be without it? A half English? A full-on carbo English?

According to a health website they are one of the healthiest foods in the world. However, many people - including some of my vegetarian friends - find them utterly disgusting. As for myself I can't say I have ever been a keen consumer (there is something quite disturbing about it, I admit), but I used to buy them for cakes before I turned all healthy and meat-free. Of course I always used freerange ones. It's since been a long time that I consumed an egg/mayo sandwich and I have managed to completely ban them from my diet, along with milk.

In my ever ongoing quest of British bizarreness I recently blundered into on of Brighton's supermarkets only to discover that they sell boiled eggs (pack of two) for an astonishing 69 pence.


Those of you out there who read my blog regularly (and don't leave comments - I know who you are!) know that I have been mucking about the British obsession with convenience food in one of my last entries. The boiled egg version is just another example. Who will buy those eggs? Who's going to purchase pre-sliced apples? The lazy? The busy? If you have the answer, let me know.