tuesday 1, skipton – got back from new year’s eve party at 2am
late up, then met up with john and pauline up town for walk and chat, then into nero’s for coffee

wednesday 2, munich – flight back after finishing off a few jobs

thursday 3 – clearing up christmas stuff

friday 4 – late up, we’re all sleeping in late and getting to bed way too late

saturday 5 and sunday 6 – readjusting into life here and doing odd jobs like buying new tea flask from XXXLutz

thursday 10 – helping Eve with maths after katie had spent most of the evening on it, did an example of boy buying a bike,
he had saved 20%, parents were paying 200€ which was a third of the price and an aunt was going to make up 50%, could he afford it?
then if he could, did he have enough to buy a 17€ lock?
took a while for her to understand it, she got there in the end

friday 11 – Eve has the dreaded big maths exam, seemed to go well and she was thrilled that she had understood a sachaufgabe/applied question and got it right, it was about time
take her to haralds for lunch, she eats up the auflauf fairly quickly and it was right-sized
she mentioned another sum as having to find the common denominator of 32 and 36 (288) and was pleased that she’d got that right
she was really in a much better mood after the maths – neighbours sitting next to one another had been given separate papers so there was no risk of copying!

saturday 12 – got some red wine glasses finally at XXXLutz, becoming fav shop this month!

sunday 13 – Eve has moved into older sunday school class now from 11 onwards, but was still good fun, kids are a bit critical of my german but kept ok and no emotional damage done!
helping Eve with her French vocab

monday 14 – they both have sport today – eve does her swimming first thing and then has the big French exam, has to recover from her last poor mark a 5, came home later and it seemed to go ok
we have tea together and discuss the case in india which has been on the news about a rape and the missing girls in the population

tuesday 15 – during tea Sabs announces that she got a 1 for her geography, the only one in the class, it was on tectonics/plates, also about the material the earth’s centre is made from (mainly iron)
she seems really interested and good at this, was later learning chemistry with katie about exothermic and endothermic reactions and she has a good/photographic memory but doesn’t like getting
overburdened, eg. she was talking about atoms and what the number is above elements on the periodic table but didn’t want to know more in case it confused her!

helped Eve with preparing for her Bio X on Thursday, about fish, their main body parts and then learning 8 different fish types from
a small fish called a bleak, never heard the english of this, here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Bleak

the german name is Ukelei
then some other larger ones like the perch (Barsch), salmon (Saibling) as well as the sea trout and pike

went out for walk, was quite pleasant with a covering of snow but milder temperatures, ie. it has been below freezing these last few days.
ended up at the feierwerk on hansastr. in the sunny red bar where reggae music was playing to a young in-crowd set who were friendly, reminded me of the flat in st.pauls bristol which we once looked at

thursday 17 – go to office to work, getting so difficult at home to get motivated, have a couple of conf-calls
eve calls with her maths result, she was so pleased about it (later puts it on as background picture of her phone)
apparently she said when she got the paper back, she’d said with frau lawitsky in earshot “ja, eine 3 .. bam!” and the teacher had looked a bit bemused/confused, although we later discover that she only just managed to scrape a 3, mind you the marking is way too strict

friday 18 – sabs calls me to ask if iphone has arrived, i give a vague answer, since i wanted it to be a bit of a surprise and wrap it up – in retrospect was a bit prattish
anyway get back and wrap it up, she is thrilled to get it of course, we have a nice meal together, talk about bank accounts and credit cards, borrowing beyound your means etc and it was a good discussion
we then retire to our respective positions – she goes to her room to surf, i lie down on the sofa and listen to the radio – the usual any questions, altho that program is bugging me and only gets me irate and wastes time, they never get to the core of an issue since it is all too superficial

saturday 19 – get up late and listen to saturday live, which is becoming a routine; go round to telekom shop to get SIM for sabs then realise i should have let her come with me and we could have got it in her name, drat – one for next time
walk to bauhaus and find a reasonable way thru westpark
get bolts for hifi rack, take them back and realise i didnt need them after all, anyway put protectors on rack and move the items out of the current tv stand and into the hifi rack; in time for tea of pasta, salad and a californian merlot
saby, katie and i then watch “young victoria” about queen victoria and the love affair which developed out of the arranged marriage with albert of saxe-coburg, interesting historical references and emily blunt is enchanting

sunday 20 – go for run with katie, although i take my run around both lakes, which is a comfortable 5km, still challenging in the current fitness condition and the state of the ground with all this snow
go thru finance accounts and finally get up to date, consolidating sparda and targo bank statements for 2012 and putting receipts away

eve preparing for going to skilager next week, as i plan to be in frankfurt for the week
sabrina and katie at home for the week, had a few tetchy moments with sabrina eg. about the practikum week but the right answer is not to go there unless she wants to, new plan is:
acknowledge her
accept her
believe in her
be there for her
and (without imposing) demonstrate:

it’s not enough to love a child, they must *experience* that you love them

So glad I have Katie and that she is letting me/us make mistakes and being understanding rather than coming down like a ton of bricks on me.

monday 21 – rushed thru breakfast and getting ready
got a song going round in my head, ever since the news about the blockbuster closure – ghostbusters!

Had an interesting discussion on the way to the s-bahn, dug a bit about flimsy jacket and chucks (ie. meaning she should wear her ski jacket and boots but obviously did NOT say that of course),
just said that when she was younger she always said you should forget fashion and wear for the weather and that people would think we were poor – guess eventually it might dawn that she would look more fashionable warm in a bright ski jacket and cool boots than cold in unsuitable clothing, but anyway not going there now – but I do think we have to hold firm on this and protect ourselves – we cannot afford to buy expensive clothing just because someone else does not like it!!! Think that is really the point I’m making ..
clearly I haven’t said as much, but I wonder if that might be an acceptable route … clearly very slowly after exploring this and understanding why she is not wearing them when she liked them so much to begin with …

another week another challenge … on a packed train to frankfurt, so glad i booked a seat

tuesday 29, stuttgart – after work, went to theaterhaus to see Walter Sittler in “als ich ein kleine Junge war”, bumped into the customer project manager who had been visiting another literature event, was kind of half-expecting to see him, funny
got back to hotel and read an interesting article in die Welt about what makes people successful (have to summarise at some point and include here).

wednesday 30, stuttgart – in the office: overheard a conversation, someone said about how was your day:

in Germany we say, if the day is/was not your friend, then it is/was a teacher

REVIEW – facts, links, quotes and summaries

There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.

There is within each of us a potential for goodness beyond our imagining, for giving which seeks no reward; for listening without judgment; for loving unconditionally.

by Elisabeth Kübler-Ros
http://www.greatwomen.org/component/fabrik/details/2/221