Blogging-Babysteps on Good Karfriday

Hmm, so here I am now ! I really only wanted to check what Blogger has to offer with view to eventually setting up a blog, but then I somehow ended up filling in all the information....

Most unusual, as I normally prefer to take things slowly and think things through. A lot. And after having spent several months (without the final, final conclusion as yet) on the name and domain name for the business I am currently planning, it's a bit of a miracle that I actually picked a name and description for this blog in less than 30 minutes:

Paddykraut, that's me. A German in Ireland, with half my life spent in Germany and half in Ireland ... and a couple of years in between in the UK. And as a Paddykraut, I am a bit of both and I am also neither here nor there: Sometimes too German for the Irish and too Irish for the Germans. Weder Fisch noch Fleisch. And oftentimes observing - sometimes understanding, sometimes appreciating, sometimes smiling at - the differences and similarities between the two countries and nationalities. In terms of culture as a whole, and that in my view includes language, living, eating, drinking, thinking, doing business, dealing with technology, and so on.

Today is Good Friday or Karfreitag in German. That has always been a German-Irish idiosyncrasy for me: Karfreitag the deadest and most grim and grey day in Germany, where you used to struggle to find a garage open if you run out of groceries, in (mostly) catholic Ireland is a day, where a lot of shops are actually open and doing business. Indeed, in the days when I was still an employee in Ireland, I had to work, just the same as the workers in my kitchen right now.

And then the idiosyncrasy in terms of language: In the English language you call it  'good' Friday - yet in German, the syllable 'Kar' is derived from the 'chara' which stands for 'mourning' (see http://www.duden.de/deutsche_sprache/sprachberatung/newsletter/archiv.php?id=106#gewusst) - the exact opposite of good ! Why such different views of the same day ?? Only God knows I guess ...