monday 2 – playing “just a minute” with eve, after I’d listened to it earlier on radio 4 – this program is becoming my evergreen favorite, particularly paul merton, who was an avid fan since the 80s and used to fall asleep listing to it, no wonder he is so good, makes it worth listening alone

sunday 8 – listening to morning service and some words from desmond tutu, whom christine had met during her trip to South Africa:
Goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours through him who loved us.

from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054p998
there were a lot of references to 70 year anniversary of end of WWII, Dietrich Bonhoeffer etc, this person “pulled no punches”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cost_of_Discipleship

this, together with the work (still to find and add), would make an interesting study.

it’s kids help kids at church, this year the country was brazil, it was as good as ever.

went to the simple minds concert in the evening – some good new pieces, but generally it is all sounding a little samey
setup was charlie burchill on the left playing lead, jim in the middle and bassist on the right, backed by a female singer (one for first half, one for second half); singer in the first half was:
theanchoress.com

good solid drumming and bass, keyboardist on the left at the back

monday 9 – made it out to the office and back for a lovely bio beef stew with thai sauce which with tasty sprouts was just divine, katie had really pulled out the stops for this creation!

had maybe my last glühwein of this winter, as sunny spring weather is in the air.

tuesday 10 – listening to a fascinating insight by professor henrietta moore from:

into the role of development in a world of shrinking resources, principally water and lower yields and quality of staple crops such as wheat, rice and maize through climate change, although we can eat 7000 potential plants. The idea of incomplete collaboration, here the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054pqv8

thursday 12 – just about to set off to work at Neuperlach when there’s a key in the door and Sabs walks in after her trip to South Africa, looking as fresh and new as the day she was born, well when she was 3 years old!

i decide to go in later and sit to chat with her for a while to listen about her adventures in the Deutsche International School in Capetown, her visits to the township to see how people live in containers, 2 families in each and to a township school where they play cricket.

go to swimming in the evening with stephan, worked more or less, got through since the core programme was 2 fast crawl, one slow length, ten times over, so the stroke stayed pretty good

friday 13 – went out to the office and to the indian king restaurant in the middle of hallbergmoos with dan, it got very full and took some time but it was good fun and very filling

saturday 14 – reading this article, linked in by the guardian’s campaign on climate change, which dose a good overview of the pros and cons of shale gas (largely methane):
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261914008745

tuesday 17 – good article on hands free mama
http://www.handsfreemama.com/2015/03/17/before-you-predict-a-childs-future-try-this-instead/
which starts:
“Love… What is love? Love is to love someone for who they are, who they were, and who they will be.”
–Chris Moore

also references:
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/childhood-neglect/2015/02/love-and-wealth-are-not-enough/

wednesday 18 – dievierlitreflieger.de
in Dortmund for the day, made 2 faux-pas – ate michael’s soup in the restaurant and broke bjoern’s cat 7 cable cover, oh well!

reading about decent sound-boards for the raspberry Pi, good one is HiFiBerryDAC/+

meet up with katie and john who have both flown on the same easyjet flight from luton

thursday 19 – skyview and skyweek tips for apps for astronomy on the iPAD.

spend the evening in, playing chess against john

friday 20 – busy day working at home/office
5pm we go to church to setup the tables for sunday, katie has a beautiful design with paper covers and a silver/orange theme, needless to say with THE 3 of us, even getting spoon, fork and knife in the right configuration is a big job on 70 place settings!

9pm – pick up Nick and Gill and take to hotel, then to ours for quick chat and drink; they had taken same flight as Katie 2 days earlier.

“Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those doing it.” – Chinese Proverb

saturday 21 – do some shopping ready for later – the market at margaretenplatz, edeka plus the balkan imbiss place for our planned veggie meal in the evening

we meet up with nick and gill then go along sendlingerstr. and thru quick walk thru hofbrauhaus, ayingerbrau (didn’t want to serve us seated at a table unless we were eating), so ended up at augustiner am platzl, leave to meet up with susan, alice and emily; plus katie, gill and evie – we all travel back to take them to the hotel, then i start making the stuffing mix.

challenge to get it all cooked in time, but it worked ok and the variety was nice
made a topfenquark with raspberries and “naschbeeren” for dessert

we sang “edelweiss” and another song together and listened to music around the dining table, chatting.

sunday 22 – again another stressed day ahead since it is eve’s confirmation day

went again to backmayr’s for croissants and rolls, then after katie had made apple crumble and the tuna lasagne/auflauf, started on making the red fruit salad, which was katie’s idea and which turned out into quite a laugh, both with the shopping yesterday and with the preparation, although next time I won’t buy whole pomegranites to get the pips out of, as I’d seen them already prepared at edeka, mind you there was no juice and so I will go back on that decision, better to scrape out freshly and get the juice!

The fruit salad was a nice mix, also in drinks, of mixing a bitter tasting fruit with a sweeter fruit, in my case, syrup (raspberry or elderflower).

lovely service for eve and franci’s confirmation – eve’s message about the woman caught in adultery was mature – that we all make mistakes and should not be judged for them, and as christine brought out, this is all part of our “humanity”.

at the meal/party afterwards, christine talked about her having a eureka moment whilst walking on the beach with reiner in south africa – merging that God needs us and that we are loved completely – the sermon had a faultless Übergabe between the 2 parts of the sermon, Franci’s and Eve’s, i was thinking about what lines i might have said, had they been needed and they would have fitted quite well to “show unconditional love and unconditional acceptance for the past, for the present and for the future.” refer above and it’s nothing original of course, nice coincidence though.

monday 23 – reading about decision making in the newsagents at the airport waiting for john taking his “shower”, identified 6 factors, remembered these 2:

there should be enough time to come to a decision gradually, after considering all factors – when there is too much pressure, this will force a bad decision

for an important decision, there should be variety of competing views (like Sloan of GM, as referenced by Peter Drücker) – this is healthy, if not go away and create the opposing views to test and critque

also discovering some interesting books about cooking, “peace cooking”, ruediger dahlke

tuesday 24, skipton uk – over in skipton getting jobs done, a myriad of weather: sun then hail, more sun then rain
went round town to sort a few things out – changing cooker order
started jobs: preparing for decorating in front bedroom, sanding down, masking off
completed jobs: curtains in back bedroom, cooker socket (people taking old cooker out had also removed the termination point!)

wednesday 25, skipton uk – went swimming at 7am for wash, altho forgot to have shower, which was the reason for going, since so dirty and no hot water!
continuing jobs: decorating in front bedroom
completed jobs: cooker arrived after swapping beko make for zanussi

thursday 26, skipton uk – sleeting today and snow on rombalds moor
started jobs: decorating in front bedroom
completed jobs: curtains in back bedroom

friday 27, skipton uk – completed jobs: boiler serviced (with attendant problems when second gas engineer arrived to check over, but overall ok)

saturday 28, skipton uk – got various key pieces from boyes: door handle, balsa wood for cooker adjustment
completed jobs: door from kitchen to stairs was installed, cooker finally in correct position

sunday 29, skipton uk – up early to go for a run and get going
saw another option for tuition for josh, so now there’s a choice of high street, aireville baths:
http://kipmcgrath.co.uk/
http://www.kumon.co.uk/
or the place water street (still to find and add)

this time it’s the last big day and a whole host of stuff to get done!
took over most of remaining stuff to bright street, Josh came along
completed jobs: curtains in back bedroom

monday 30, skipton uk – completed jobs: door bell, although very tight on time and had to reposition to a “saner” position on the side of the door

tuesday 31, back in munich – working at home, very tired