sunday 1 – went to ron sexsmith concert with sabs at the ampere cafe, near muffathalle. got talking with the “penny” he sings about on one of his songs, she was from ohio.
good concert and well attended, about 200, just him and a guitar

monday 2 – working at home and got news that flight had been cancelled due to fog at heathrow

tuesday 3, london – took flight at 6pm and got to john’s to help him out a little in between working

wednesday 4, london – after course at bedfont lakes, saw Pete in Twickenham after course, went to White Swan, on to the Fox which wasn’t that good, then finished up at the Cabbage Patch

thursday 5, london – working from bedfont office again and went for lunch with dave, who was there for pc refresh

friday 6, london, skipton and clitheroe – working out of the city office, then met up with john at kings cross, he was just a touch late fortunately – we sat for coffee waiting for the delayed train and then took train up to skipton together, taking first class and the accompanying meal, which was reasonable, arrived around 5pm to pick up car from skipton self drive, went to visit mum in the evening with john and joshua, then took john over to clitheroe

this article raises some interesting points about the role of the media in shaping opinion:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n20/paul-myerscough/corbyn-in-the-media

saturday 7, skipton and clitheroe – went to natwest bank with john to organise some of the financial things and payments, worked around the house a little then took john back and went to have tea with mum

sunday 8, skipton and clitheroe – worked around the house in clitheroe, then visited mabel, then on to summerfield to see mum for tea

monday 9, back to munich – up early to take car back and catch train to leeds, then fortunately the earlier train to manchester airport as, due to the rains, my planned train had been cancelled

tuesday 10 – meeting at gbr with guan and petra

friday 13 – katie and i discussing about eating and role of sugar, guan had given me this tip on his ‘guru’:
http://eatingacademy.com/start-here

some interesting background material is the lecture by dr robert lustig, sugar: the bitter truth and we watched this on youtube together to “relax” into the weekend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

sunday 15 – went to mercury rev concert which was superb at the kranhalle, part of feierwerk. got talking with this strange woman who was going to buy a 5k camera, a 5k turntable and said she had been educated at charterhouse in surrey. i got talking to a guy i thought was her boyfriend, but it turned out he thought she was a bit strange too, but great concert.

monday 16 – katie leaves to go to england, so looking after the girls this week until saturday

thursday 19 – went to the “wombats” concert with saby, full of energy and she enjoyed it tremendously, aussie support band “dune rats”, spitting at times and generally discourteous but got the place warmed up for the main act
http://www.propeller-music.com/

friday 20 – pizza tea and listening to radio 4

saturday 21 – reading george monbiot’s blog:
http://www.monbiot.com/2015/11/19/pregnant-silence/

katie got back from uk around 11pm, it had tried to snow a little outside she said

sunday 22 – snow on the ground

monday 23 – very cold outside as i went for a run prior to tea on the usual trail

http://www.handsfreemama.com/2015/11/22/day-openers-to-breathe-more-stress-less-carry-you-through/

wednesday 25 – after the guitar lesson, which is very challenging on the shuffle and solo pieces we have to work at and we also started some melodies in G which is good, since we studied ‘yesterday’ the last couple of times, now moving on to christmas songs, ‘twinkle, twinkle, little star’ and ‘oh du fröhliche’; then i went as fast as i could to the black concert at technikum
interesting mix of new stuff, some soul and some rude lyrics, then as the beer arrived they went full pelt through ‘everything is coming up roses’ and closing with ‘wonderful life’ sung acappella and quite a strong, almost angry ending as he’d said many folk from all over the troubled areas of the world had written to him to say how much the song meant

got chatting with his manager and she confirmed they will be at rewind next year, then spoke a bit with callum his backing and lead guitarist – they each used 2 guitars throughout, colin on 2 acoustic guitars including a washburn i think, callum had an acoustic and a gibson which created some amazing atmospheric soundscapes on one song
chatted with colin, who was clearly miffed with the promoter they were using in south germany, since only 20 people turned up – football (a metaphor for male conversations), how he started and what he wrote about (he’d been told he couldn’t sing and his view was if you had something to say, why not just say it – perhaps figures with some of his lyrics!) and his opinion on hurts’ ‘wonderful life’ (likes it and in any case still gets royalties for his song). Raises an interesting perspective, who copied who directly or indirectly, if you go back through say, hurts, black, sam cooke and louis armstrong, expanding to include ‘wonderful world’

http://www.colinvearncombe.com/

saby was up when i got back at around 11pm

thursday 26 – played ‘wonderful life’ to the girls at breakfast and they all knew it from somewhere. sabs chatted about the passenger concert and what she wanted to ask or say to mike after the great concert in the summer and then the time the south africans were over and how she like munich in contrast because you could do so much independently of parents having to drive you places. it is nice to see her so animated and engaged, katie says she is happier when she is a bit busier, ie. has lots of school work to do, it makes her dig deeper and throw herself into life – i love it that she has the expression of that girl full of awe and presence, adored and yet about to break into a giggle at the first opportunity

went out for run and just caught eve and hannah walking to school, high-fiving eve as i ran past – on other occasions recently i see then hug one another as they meet up, their friendship is wonderful

saturday 28 – doing some digitisation of CDs to FLAC, went for salad for me and döner for eve for lunch
went to cathy andf graham’s for evening meal, nice relaxed affair with plenty of chance to talk

sunday 29 – practising nativity play upstairs, helped tremedously by cathy, becky, sabs and lisa, as well as the narrators, who cathy tutored afterwards, which was a great idea, also to carry it on it next week for a “props and hats” rehearsal as cathy put it

monday 30 – very windy in the night

christmas tips for me
Books
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, Ryan Holiday
On Desire: Why We Want What We Want, William B. Irvine

Music
simple guitar stand (eg. millenium)

CDs
5-10€
omd – first album (simply ‘omd’ which has tracks ‘bunker soldiers’ and ‘electricity’ on it) OR the latest album english electric
the jam – either ‘setting sons’ or ‘this is the modern world’
the icicle works – first album (simply ‘the icicle works’, has ‘love is a wonderful colour’ track on it)
15€
mercury rev – latest album – it has picture of man in long coat in the mist on the front