thursday 1 – went on long walk, second half of the first stage of the Jakobsweg from Marieklausel bridge down to the Kloster at Schäftlarn, then getting back home at 17.30
We played charades in the evening since Eve wanted to, so i didnt go swimming, but was in any case too tired from the 4 hour hike we’d done.
friday 2 – went swimming since missed last night and getting a nice kick out of it, if that is not quite a pun, since practicing so much kicking with the snorkel and pull board these days
saturday 3 – went swimming again first thing, took some dragging out of bed but well worth it, come back refreshed and invigorated
at the stage where i did about 100m full front crawl stroke in 2 bouts of 50m, was ok but tiring, typically also get through 100m just legs
sunday 4 – taking sunday school with patience, two classes together and not much learned, in fact ended up shouting at the top of my voice and losing my voice for about half an hour, which had no effect on getting any more attention than before!
A nice lesson, even if it was more appropriate in an ironic sense given the experience for me:
Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope
then going through some old newspaper stuff and found recommendation for decent headphones in the FT “how to spend it” section, maybe the EB-50 in-ear for say Sabs, “critically acclaimed” or the Musical Fidelity MF-100 over-ears ones, require run-in and fabric cushioning for max comfort:
http://www.musicalfidelity.com/eb-50/
150 pounds – maybe get them when she passes driving test!
monday 5 – went swimming and again 100m full front crawl stroke, a little less tiring, since just making sure i move my legs, not so concerned that it’s at full throttle, otherwise was getting too tired
this time a 50m then simply one 25m after the other
working at home then stopped about 6pm and had wonderful evening in, we sang happy birthday to lizzie who is 4 today, she got half a tin of tuna, the rest and another tin went in the pasta with the rest of the bacon from sunday, went well.
eve still going on about the cup which Gary bought, so I had to do the statement “you can take the lad out of Yorkshire, but you can’t take Yorkshire out of the lad” for someone from lancashire, birmingham, ireland, newcastle and liverpool, was a good laugh
Helped eve with her physics homework.
Let her do most of the talking and explaining and from all the questions she threw up, she really got to understanding much more about gravity and we played around in a loose way with it:
the pull the sun has on the earth,
the pull the earth has on the moon,
why 2 really heavy ships close to one another have an “anziehungskraft” of around the weight of a heavy person, around 100kg.
Gravity is all pretty amazing stuff we take for granted. needless to say when she asked about the units, Newtons, there was an easy demonstration of Newton sitting down and being conked on the head by a falling apple.
Sabs was in a good mood, although stressed about socialkunde exam about political parties tomorrow, she was in the living room reciting dates and names as her way to get things learned by hear, we’d discussed about illusions at breakfast, it’s lovely that we’re getting more feedback from her world at this stage, even though with her stance on some matters eg. religion she is being healthily rebellious and provocative
Copied some stuff on kohlenhydrate, mono/di/poly saccharides, fitted in quite well with what i was talking about earlier and explains why she might have been more interested than I otherwise would have expected
following on from the discussion with eve on gravity, we also talked about the sun and that it was 99% hydrogen/wasserstoff in highly-compressed form.
tuesday 6 – see a couple of interesting things on the way to work on the sbahn. an advert for helping people get back into work after family:
Also an interesting travel bike, from a size perspective, riese und müller, r-m Birdy from:
wednesday 7 – reading about Hilton Romanski, Business Development SVP, with the following notes and advice:
Do one thing every day that scares you
– Eleanor Roosevelt
His first job ever was as a shoe salesman, where he learned:
The customer is generally right, but their taste may be questionable.
Whether selling quality or value, sell it honestly. People remember that part above all else and you’ll always feel good about yourself.
Never, ever judge a person by the shoes they wear.
His hobbies and motivations are:
Surfing — keeps him connected with good feelings.
Swimming — keeps him focused and off of blood pressure medication.
Playing guitar — keeps him humble because I wish I were better at it.
Cooking — keeps him and his family fed.
Interesting, 3 are also mine!
Said that the one person, he would have liked to have met was Albert Einstein, in the time when he was the humble young clerk in the Swiss Patent Office: many people in ordinary, everyday roles can effect profound change.
At college, worked for Peter Jennings at ABC, from him he learned that the combination of trust, command of language and curiosity is a pretty good way of getting to the truth. Also by example, how vastly important humility is, especially when people think you are important: you need to remain grounded and blow off the airs and graces.
At JP Morgan he worked under Ferrell P. McClean and learned three unforgettable things from her:
to have the persistence to overcome personal and professional barriers;
to have command of the details, especially as a leader;
and to have the patience and discipline to listen.
His favorite books are:
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky—siblings, struggle, love, beauty, desperation, crime, mystery, and redemption. What else is there?
Water Music by T.C. Boyle—adventure, Africa, pirates, history, discovery…oh and struggle, love, beauty, desperation, crime, mystery, and redemption. Apparently, there is a little more.
(thinking I should do my own “bio” in this way!).
Had a meeting with the Orthopedic clinic, Dr Nowak:
http://www.orthopaedie-bavariapark.de
he indicated that i need to go to get an MRT scan done, but it seems like it’s a tear in the meniscus.
thursday 8 – went into work and booked a room for the various meetings i had, was in any case busy in the office.
went swimming including 1000m based on 3’s – one length legs or backstroke or something different, then 2 lengths crawl – needed lots of stops but got through it.
friday 9 – went to haralds for first time in ages, for seelachs and kartoffelsalat, few police visited also and enormous argument between the father and son when i was left on my own, fortunately someone came in to disperse it a little, at times it threatened to get violent, but they had some means of controlling their anger, afghan personality?
reading a couple of recent “spiegel” magazines and a couple of articles took my fancy:
Barmherzigkeit, Achtung, Liebe, Offenheit, Neigung
(I think, was not sure what the last one was!) – about the qualities failing in catholic priests at the moment,
then in the other magazine about “Verzicht auf Konsum” and how it can make one richer/happier; that most people believe in growth (around 80%), but the figures are about even for those of A level education and above.
Greta Taubert, “Apokalypse jetzt”
Also noted about fidorbank, where can hold multiple currencies.
Quote for today:
Study the past if you would define the future
– Confucius
saturday 10 – go to get MRT scan done on my knee, doctor says that i need a minor op.
read a story about 50 ways to live longer written by a doctor, what struck me was:
– giving up vitamin supplements and in particular going easy on vitamin C, it inhibits the body’s natural attack mechanism against tumors
– getting all necessary nutrients from fruits rather than juices, ie. eat naturally as possible, getting all the benefit of a fruit, not just the juice but the fibrous parts as well
– having plans and setting goals for personal, finance and health areas over respective time periods – whatever you choose: 1 year, 5 year, 20 year etc
came back and helped Eve with her homework on gravity, actually just sang songs to her, Travis – why does it always rain on me? and REM – man on the moon, the latter passed quite well because one of the questions was about weights on the moon at one sixth of the earth’s gravity. She seemed to enjoy it and rang me up to say how much she like it
sunday 11 – got up and went to olympia park for MRRC Triathlon, others convinced me to walk/hobble round for the running, since technically with the knee meniscus injury, I shouldn’t be running.
Results came out as follows:
Event: 12. MRRC Stadt-Triathlon München
Total Time: 01:29:32,4
Swim:07:56,6 (397) – compares not bad with last year at 07:44 given this year the focus has been on legs and hip-driven technique.
T1:02:17,2 (428)
Bike:41:43,4 (674)
T2:02:38,7 (715)
Run:34:56,5 (810)
46 out of 54 finishers, given the running though, reasonably ok about it.
Got back and helped Eve a little with homework, then sabs, kats and i watch two episodes of Dr. House in the evening.
tuesday 13 – visited Orthopedic clinic with the bad news that an OP is needed, only a minor one on the inner left meniscus. Details are best described here from another recommended clinic:
friday 16 – 3 rules for IT:
simple rules for IT security usually boil down to three things:
1) Respect the privacy of others.
2) Think before you type.
3) With great power comes great responsibility.
Spent the day preparing for the operation on monday, going to the hausartz to pick up results, going to anasthetist for checks, going to sanitätshaus to pick up support for leg and fortunately we had crutches
Eve rang down whilst i was working to ask if we could go to hansa’s and said ok, which we did, even though saby coming back from ballet was not keen; so we went and brought her a spaghetti carbonara back
amazing, must be first time we’ve been at hansa’s to eat in 2 years; lovely meal served by mario who was surprised at how tall eve had grown – had zanderfilet and pinot grigio, katie lachs and eve spaghetti bolognese, her comfort food for when she is ill, which she still is a little although going to school today
saturday 17 – very tired, cooked eve dinner of languine spaghetti and tomato sauce, even though she wanted pesto; couldnt find it at first, then whilst we were eating, it dawned on me that there might be an unopened jar, which there was of course!
sunday 18 – after service and a decent guitar lesson with elisha, lily and nana, going back to basics of practicing; went to the highend2014 exhibition at MOC, bit fraught with the u-bahn so back late but got some reasonable ideas and suggestions for how to go about a decent digital audio solution around use of a PC ripping with EAC or dBpoweramp to FLAC into a database like JRiver and playing back via a high-end player like JPlayer to a DAC, eg. ARCAM irDAC. Want to go through and analysis best options here, then if stick with the PC, would have to rebuild into a horizontal, low-noise case.
Writing the article for PCN for Christine and left out the following parts, since it didnt fit somehow:
Paulo Coehlo’s quote:
It’s not always enough to be forgiven by someone, in most cases we have to forgive ourselves first.
Or re-phrasing: “You can only forgive others, after you’ve first forgiven yourself”
Then an article by Katie, where she says:
Love – it is the greatest power of all – it has the power to heal, to forgive, to transform, to set free, to renew.
Quoting the Dalai Lama:
If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others.
or re-phrasing back, Phil’s quote:
If you don’t forgive yourself, you cannot forgive others.
I think of this situation back home relating to Margaret and Dad’s trains sold for a song, Mum’s ISA money etc; the debt spiral etc and what is outstanding to work on there .. perhaps a lot or perhaps simply to let go!
here is the link to the story I did write about:
http://www.samputufc.org/about
monday 19 – row at breakfast over bad atmosphere and extreme attitudes, “morgen muffel”, again to let go, left a sour taste in going to the op, but patched it up a bit later.
Operation on left knee inside meniscus tear – under narkose from 10.45 to 11.45am approximately, then Katie picked me up at 1.15pm and we took the u-bahn home.
I’d expressed some worries beforehand to dr nowa the surgeon about fearing too much being taken off and weakening it, but he was reassuring and came in whilst i was recovering to say he’d taken about 20% off, so i gave the thumbs up sign!
very well-handled by the nurses who were really kind and attentive
all in all, can’t believe the speed of it all:
weds 7th may – first consultation, dr and x-ray with nurse
sat 10th may – NMR scan, nurse and then dr
tues 13th may – second consultation with dr
weds 14th may – op planning with nurse, going thru what i had to do and getting the run down and checklist of things to do
thurs 15th may – GPs to get values for ECG graph, short blood pressure test and pulse measurement, was 110/70 and 60bpm
fri 16th may – back to GP to pick up blood results from lab and then onto anaesthetist at the clinic where the op will take place to show results and discuss further about op planning; then went to sanitätshaus to pick up support to hold leg firm, cost 10€, fortunately we had crutches, otherwise i’d be picking them up, would have cost 5€
today – the op itself .. ok it’s not over yet, will take another 4 weeks of physio (at a physio’s) and krankengymnastic (similar exercise at home)
all in all, amazing speed for a fairly minor injury, feel like a premier league footballer – will be back on the pitch soon!
Hard getting used to crutches, Katie very helpful – good leg first to go up steps, bad leg first to go down steps, otherwise crutches go with the bad leg to support it
Online trying to catch up on some work from about 3pm
nice quote from jeremy bowen about the foreign journalist’s cliche as someone who is “getting the first draft of history.”
tuesday 20 – sabs talking at breakfast as i opened the computer to listen to coldplay’s new album, about how we are constantly somewhere else in our computers/phones:
http://blog.petflow.com/i-am-speechless-never-has-anything-touched-me-this-deeply/
Rachel Macy Stafford comments on her blog about how best to use facebook responding to a post:
“remember to use it as a tool for communication rather than a time waster, taking away from what really matters in my life”
wednesday 21 – CPM machine arrived – constant passive motion machine to let my left leg get moved from between 45 and ultimately 90 degrees over the next 3 weeks in 3 or 4 half hour stints a day
went to beer garden with crutches in the evening after having put it off last night, eve wanted to go along with hanna and parents, so we all troupe along, was enjoyable and warm evening, even had a couple of weissbiers
thursday 22 – managing to go to home/office without needing crutches, things are improving
friday 23 – much better again with walking and feeling better, but still feeling a little groggy in the head due to the narcose.
pizza and a strong monastrell wine in the evening which made me continue to feel groggy into saturday for a different reason.
saturday 24 – doing some work to catch up on the week, the usual kebabs for lunch for us 3
later went into town to get CDs for sabs: coldplay’s “ghost stories”, daughter’s “if you leave” and pharrell williams’ “girl”; also got the clash’s “super black market clash”.
sunday 25 – on the german calendar outside of peacechurch:
Weisheit hat so gut wie gar nichts mit Intelligenz zu tun;
Ein Mensch kann ein hochintelligenter Tor sein.
Weisheit bedeutet, die Dinge dieser Welt mit Gottes Augen zu sehen.
– Hans Peter Royer.
and via twitter a nice link:
http://hellogiggles.com/10-fabulous-german-words-english-equivalent
tuesday 27 – at GBR then later went to neuhausen augustiner with paul, jose and mile for drinks and meal.
wednesday 28 – went for first physio appointment and went thru lymphdrainage (massaging away the swelling), ice pack and some muscle exercise with pulsing electrodes on the inner thigh.
thursday 29 – father’s day / christi himmelfahrt, went to deutsche museum with sabs and kats to look at the special exhibitions on deep-sea exploration and carbon; both fascinating and it was fun all round.
helped eve with physics homework about forces at different angles and how to work out the resulting force and direction via parallelogram – then fussing to get my calculator from 40 years ago to lend her, since she’d misplaced her own.
friday 30 – on any questions, Billy Bragg talking about many UKIP voters say they just want their country back (actually this is more an English Democrats assertion) and makes the point:
I do have some sympathy with them, because I want my country back too, the country with a properly-funded NHS, the country with with free education up to university level, the country with decent sufficient social housing, the country with proper pensions, I want my country back too.
– Billy Bragg
saturday 31 – Katie went early to prepare for playing music at the wedding at church, eve and i roll up later, then working to prepare for the training course in Essen on Monday.
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