... missed a train!
"My" Bavarian village owns a luxury item: a little red train which comes every half hour with a loud "Tooooot!" Here you see the station one village further - with two tracks and two platforms - while we have only one track and one platform - and the Flying Dutchman's standard joke is "Remember: departure from Track 1!"
The trip from Nürnberg to Berlin is quick: I can use the super-version of the ICE, the "sprinter", which sometimes makes 300 km/h - at it's best it needs only 2 hours and 50 minutes for 379 kilometres.
(The fly in the ointment: to get to my village the little red train needs about 25 minutes for about 25 kilometres, ok - but I have to wait for it in Nürnberg 56 minutes! Almost an hour!)
Well - another Buddhist lesson in acceptance and serenity.
My father trained me to become a traveler of the punctual sort (success!) and the relaxed nonchalant sort (dead loss!) - he always (!) walked with me along the whole waiting train, outside! - to find a "better compartment". As you might have noticed children are often very anxious "to get in" and push and shove. So: sorry but my father's educational method to steel my girlish nerves were not successful. But:
Never in my life I missed a train.
But here, where the station is only 5 minutes away from my lodging: IT happened - I missed it!
I was awake so early, prepared my apartment for a happy return, even had a nonchalant chat with my neighbour - and went, without hurry.
At the foot of the hill I saw the little red train. It seemed to wait. (Village-kindness!)
Strange, I thought - must be going into the other direction. It is too early.
No! I was too late!
The battery of my smart little ( analog) Longine wristwatch which I love so much that I only seldom look at the digital fitness clock on my right arm had run low...