Yes indeed, they should be here by 5pm.
This couple have been friends of mine for years and the girl's parents stayed with me when they visited Oz a few years ago. They couldn't speak any English and my German is limited to WWII German, but only from films starring Anthony Quinn, Dirk Bogarde and Gregory Peck, so aside from telling them in German to put their hands in the air and surrender or to warn them that any untoward movements could result in the bomb exploding, I was a bit stuck. At the time I lived in a rather palatial apartment which had three bathrooms (you know, just in case you felt the urge to do a number two in a different room one day).
I let the Germans have one of the bathrooms for their exclusive use. When I mentioned it to Tom on the phone there was a brief silence and then he said, "Back in '38 we let them have Poland, and then look what happened." That's the thing with the English - they never forget the war.
Anyway, the girl and her boyfriend will arrive today for a few days. They speak excellent English - in fact their syntax is often better than mine. The bloke (bloken, in German) is what they call a wunderkind which in his particular case means he knows more about computers, and apparently NATO's early warning missile system, than any other person alive. I have still not worked out if it's MI5, the CIA or some shadowy German secret service outfit he works for and I'm not going to ask again - last time I broached the subject he said to me calmly with a slight German smile on his bespeckled face, "I could tell you, but of course I would then have to kill you. Very quickly." I feel he's a good person to have around in the event of a war breaking out, which let's face it could happen any time. Well so he tells me.
The girl is also something of a whizzkid who dresses in jeans and a t-shirt but who wears the smallest, most expensive diamond ear studs and a beautiful but subtle watch I happen to know is worth rather more than the GDP of Botswana. She is said to know Bill Gates rather well and Nelson Mandela and is sometimes absent for many months doing whatever she does around the world.
I'm not sure why they are in Australia, though my apple strudel is known to make men and women swoon, so maybe it's that.
I'm looking forward to it because we always have super conversations (but never taped, of course) and I will cook them something typically German - I'm thinking sausages, pigs trotters and sauerkraut.
How did we meet? Well, I can't tell you that. If I did, well you know the rest.
02/11/07 @ 12:32