The last few days have been so busy that I have not been able to write a post since Tuesday. Then along came the Brexit result and I am still trying to work out what I think about that. I am working on a mega-catch-up-post and normal service will be resumed by lunchtime. Sorry for keeping you waiting.

Bis später!

Another busy day, but with an early finish. The German football team played this evening at 6pm so we closed shop early an hour beforehand. I expect it is the same everywhere these days, but if the national football team are playing there’s not much point trying to get any work done. The country shuts down, the roads are quiet and for at least two hours before kick-off everyone stops working even if they are still at work.  Continue reading →

An easy day for me today. The girls went off to a behind-the-scenes tour of Tarzan, the musical so I had the morning off and went out beneath ominous skies to play a bit of golf with my favourite scorer – myself. According to my scorecard I did quite well. It turns out that the behind-the-scenes tour was so good that the girls have decided to buy tickets to the afternoon showing. Ariane wisely predicted that the last place I want to be on a Sunday is in a musical so has just called to tell me I have a day off. Continue reading →

I had an early start this morning and snuck in a round of golf as the sun came up. It has stopped raining for a change but it is quite windy and feels like autumn. Nice to be up and about though. I woke up just as it was getting lighter and didn’t want to wake Ariane so I left the lights off and got dressed in the dark. I paid particular attention to the socks and felt my way to a pair of summer hiking socks – the fancy sort which are specially shaped for left and right feet. I couldn’t see if I had got them the right way round but they felt good so I had obviously guessed right. I went out, played a decent 9 holes, came back to find everyone still asleep so made myself a coffee and settled myself on the patio for some early blogging. Then I looked at my feet (see picture). Good marketing trick, that left and right feet business. Continue reading →

Everything feels wrong today. I am not sure how I should behave. I can’t remember being in this situation before. So what happened to provoke this strange feeling? First, England won an important football match yesterday – in the last minute of extra time. Then after that Germany failed to win an important football match. This doesn’t usually happen and I am not equipped to deal with the situation. I am used to the exact opposite. All l could think of to say at work this morning was “If I had known I was going to get dull 0:0 draws and two weeks of continuous rain I could have stayed in England.” Continue reading →

A wave of good sense washed over me yesterday evening as I slouched on the sofa, deciding whether I would watch the France game on TV or not. I decided against it and, instead, went to bed at 8:30 – the same time as the kids. This turned out to be a good idea because I had a good 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep which I apparently needed. I was awake sometime after 5 and read a little. When the alarm went off at 6, I volunteered to make breakfast, pack lunches and get the kids off to school. Continue reading →

Lots of work, lots of rain and not much time to write this blog. But after two days break I thought it was about time to set pen to paper (or digit to key) again. Here is where I must confess to being a Game of Thrones fan. I normally don’t like “fantasy” films and have no desire to sit through, say, the Lord of the Rings or other such nonsense. My favourite films are all about real people in believable situations. So I have no idea why I like Game of Thrones – it is just high-quality nonsense.  Continue reading →

Oh dear. Could it be that I’ve been here before? Let me take stock – the England football looked good for a while and then disappointed, the English fans went on a drunken sunburned rampage and had me wincing with shame when I saw the TV reports. There are days when you are proud to be English, and there are days like today. The percentage of people in the EU who are hoping that Britain votes to leave will have shot up in the last 24 hours. Continue reading →

I was on the train to Cologne again yesterday. Half way, in Frankfurt, a group of drunken football supporters got in and sang a few „songs“ for the rest of us. The European Championship starts today and I suppose they were on their way to France to watch one of the early games. They calmed down after a while and were a peaceful bunch, but it did put me off the spread-sheet I was working on. I decided to listen to some music and reflect upon the next four weeks, as the country goes football-crazy. Continue reading →

Bad news. I had been looking forward to a weekend away in the Allgäu. It was supposed to be our annual paragliding club „Grillfliegen“ – Barbecue Fly-In. We meet up, go flying and then have a drink and barbecue in the landing field. After that it’s just a short walk to the campsite. After a few very busy working weeks (and sometimes weekends) it is hard to think of anything better to recharge the batteries. Continue reading →