October 24, 2008

Happy Friday




Well, I didn't get around to making the biscotti this Friday. The weather has been quite warm this week,and the baking enthusiasm has dwindled a bit because of it. Maybe this coming week when the weather turns a bit more seasonal.
I thought I'd leave you for the weekend with this funny story about our cuckoo clock.
We bought this clock in Germany in a shop called " A Thousand Clocks." This shop was located in a very charming little village in the Black Forest. It took me forever to decide on the darn thing. I had actually picked one that was more of a little house than this style. After I made my decision, I turned around and saw this one,and loved all the woodland creatures on it. I must say, that after we got swept up in the whole land of the cuckoo clocks, I wondered if when I got to my home I would have buyers remorse and it would look cheesy in the decor of my home. I thought for sure that this one had a little something special about it though and hoped that that wouldn't be the case. I really like it, and don't think that it is the typical one with the dear head etc. ANYWAY..... The funny part of the story goes as follows; When we bought the clock, we decided to have it shipped to the U.S. since this was our last trip(while we were living in France) and we were soon going to be relocated back to the U.S., and thought it would be safer for them to ship it, instead of it going in a big tanker across the sea. When they ship it for you, they ask you to at least take the heavy cones/weights with you,so that the cost isn't as much. OK, no problem.
We get to the Strasbourg airport and check in our bags. We then get all cozy in the terminal and wait for our flight. Over the loud speaker we hear, in French, "Will Mr. David...... Please report to desk number so and so... We all looked at each other terrified that something was really wrong. The customs people proceed to take David down to the bowels of the airport in a small room, with our suitcase sitting in the middle of a table with a light shining on it. "Will you please open up this suit case Mr. David...." Poor husbands heart is racing, wondering what the heck?!! They said there was something suspicious in the suit case that came up on the scan. He then realized that it must be those darn pine cone weights from the clock. He takes them out and unwraps them. The French customs guy goes, "What is that." David says.. "Oh, it is part of a cuckoo clock." They are already looking at him funny,since most of the items in the suitcase were actually my daughters things, with his name tag on it!! While he is telling the guys what it is, they get more and more puzzled and frustrated with his explanation. After a very uncomfortable length of time, they finally get it. He was gone for what seemed like forever though! He finally comes back to us and tells us the whole story,and It dawns on me that the more he kept telling them that it was from a "cuckoo" clock they probably thought he was crazy. In France there is a term of endearment where people say "Cou Cou"..Which roughly translates to "hey there,or hey you". I kept picturing David saying over and over again that it was from a cuckoo clock and them thinking "What the heck is this guys problem." Every time I dust this clock I think of that funny story. There are many more stories of words being said wrong in French,and certain misunderstandings while we lived there, that could probably fill a book,but this is one of my favorite. To this day though, I don't understand why they didn't know what the weights were, when they are neighbors with Germany, and you would think they had seen them before. I think it was the cou cou that confused them :)

8 comments:

  1. I have a cuckoo clock my parents bought for me on a trip to Germany a decade or two ago. Actually they bought it for the boys. It's packed away and I must dig it out and display it.

    I am just catching up with your blog and so I may have missed it but did you post the biscotti recipe you were planning on making (whenever our godforsaken weather ever decides to cool down.....)? If not would you be willing to share it? I've always wanted to make biscotti.

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  2. You always have such great stories. I have been in a couple of German airports and know that you don't mess around with those guys. Many of them have machine guns! Glad it all worked out for you both. Now you have a family heirloom with an interesting history. Nerm

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  3. I am on the hunt for a beauty of a clock just like yours! I let out a big awwwwwww when I saw your photo. My grandparents had one at the farm...love them!

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  4. ps....i have been such a lazy blogger! i need to catch up. new camera arriving soon!

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  5. Lovely clock, Elizabeth. I know what you mean about buying abroad. We have quite a bit of stuff we've bought on various holidays, only to get home and think "Why oh why?". Even worse is when someone else brings you something rather odd back from their jollies!

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  6. My parents picked up a clock like that in the Germany too on one of our various excursions or ski trips or something, but it never made it back stateside in the end.

    In one of our homes in Belgium years after they got it, my mother went off her crock one day and threw a frying pan at it. It was smashed to smithereens. I did hold onto the little cuckoo for some time though as a memento.

    Perhaps I should go back and get one. I think they do lend a feeling of coziness to a home. Tick tock, rattle, coo-coo!

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  7. What a funny story that comes along with it. And, such a great clock

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