friday 1, london and north – early start and train from kings cross up to leeds, very quiet sitting in first class and taking breakfast, lovely journey talking with john and acres of space that we each had a table. train to skipton and few jobs around the house, which had generally been left very well

got van and drove over with josh to clitheroe to pick up stuff needed, had fish and chips, got back too late to go swimming

saturday 2, north – took off doors from upstairs cupboard, took over to eastburn country furniture for stripping and had lunch at the nightingale pub across the road with john, cheese and onion pie seemed to have been rustled up on the fly but was tasty if having no pastry and a lot of potatoes, still it was nice listening to the jazz in the lounge bar

went up to watch wharfedale lose a close match against richmond, 21 v 22, failing to take a penalty in the dying seconds which could have seen them edging ahead – strange that the scrum half decided to run it, might be the lasting image of national league rugby, if they do go down which is looking omninous

sunday 3, north – went over to clitheroe to finish a few jobs over there, although the printer was playing up, needs black ink

got back and we took mum out with all of us, down to the punch bowl in silsden, nice meal, extremely good value, all 7 of us with 4 puddings for 80 quid and a choice of lamb, beef or chicken as mains, plus smaller portions, have to go again

started the painting of the cupboard, inside and outside, now that the doors were off, took a lot of sanding down but got there, finishing at 10pm

monday 4, travelling back to munich – up early to put a coat of paint on, got done for about 7.30am and just enough time for a bite of breakfast, then to drop the car off and catch the train to leeds – awful journey due to breakdown in bingley, over an hour late into leeds

reading couple of online articles before bed – not a good idea, one by paul mason:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/04/the-problem-for-poor-white-kids-is-that-a-part-of-their-culture-has-been-destroyed
like what he has to say about sticking together and that thatcher encouraged the chancers and semi-crooks, who were known in those days and given a wide berth.

tuesday 5 –
jaime’s made a great comment in a meeting, which i think helps overcome procrastination and create focus: get started on something asap, as it is only when you start on something, that you understand the complexity and the time you will need to devote to it to complete.

“A cement mixer collided with a prison van on the M4 motorway today. Police are asking motorists to be on the lookout for 16 hardened criminals.” (from Ronnie Corbett, 1930 – 2016)

wednesday 6 – eve had forgotten her key, turqouise folder, so dropped it off at school, with her and kira waiting during the 11.30 break, then went for swim, 36l with 10l legs.

watched crazy, stupid love film together, we’d watched a couple of years ago and it was just as funny again

friday 8 – listening to thought for the day with Sabs who was going in later due to 3 classes being cancelled and there was a wonderful discussion about eating disorders and a nice quote at the end:
“The more available, the more attractive, the more sophisticated our food becomes, the more disordered our response to it can be and ordering how much, what and when we eat tells us as much about our inner-being as it does about what the bathroom scales would say …” by Rev Dr Rob Marshall

sunday 10 – confirmation sunday, assisted katie with the music playing a couple of hymns and then a number of us including singers created a group to do ‘the lion sleeps tonight’ as the service ended, went down well i think and came up with a shuffle rhythm, which I found out later in the month on the course, was correct for this song, so felt quite chuffed about it

thursday 14 – doing some study and this article was recommended:
Why Software Is Eating The World

took flight to manchester, then train to skipton, arrived quite late

friday 15 – went up to see josh before he went to school, mix up over laces, trying to help, but in the end he just doesn’t want to, because he doesn’t like school

carry on with work on the house, cleaning windows, painting inside the cupboards one last time, also another gloss coat on the main wood surrounds

picked up van at 5pm having gone round town to do a few jobs

drove over to clitheroe to pick up a few things and have meal

on way back, went for swim and managed 20l backstroke legs, a new record for me

saturday 16 – richard comes round to value the place then drive over to see mum and have lunch there, then pick up the cupboard doors

went up to visit elizabeth and andrew taking jamie and celine up, then came back

josh came down and played a game of chess and listened to music on the computer

sunday 17 – started in earnest on the doors and plenty of re-work to do, since doors are made of 3 pieces, hinge part, main part and opening edge, 5 or 6 had to be glued back into place, which without a clamp meant holding long enough on the kitchen floor until the glue had set, leaving for at least half an hour, then assembling resulted in more re-work as one or two fell apart, so decided to leave these overnight for the glue to set fully

monday 18 – got up at 6am to assemble around 4 doors which still needed to be done, then raced round cleaning up and just catching the 9:16 train, leaving at 9:05 and dashing down

wednesday 20 – talking at breakfast with sabs about democracy and the hard path, it was in the context of refugees and why africa is sending so many, even families sending their children or mothers/fathers leaving their children and families. mentioned that the fair democracy germany has is a result of the awful events they had to endure and therefore ensure that future such situations of dictatorship could never happen, democracy would be fair and representative, with the appropriate checks and balances, working for the people, not those in power – ok extrapolating a little, but that no politician could be “bought” or corrupted in the way they can be in africa and to some extent the us and uk.

thinking about it later, the same is true of the crucifixion, sometimes terrible pain and suffering can give rise to wonderful enlightenment and good, as in the birth of the christian faith.

friday 22 – reading about the prince death on bbc got me looking at the following links:
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160419-should-you-dump-your-smartphone-for-a-flip-phone
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160419-what-does-it-really-take-to-stop-wasting-time

saturday 23 – went for run with katie, we had breakfast at backmayr’s and brought croissants back for the girls, eve was already up and had had cereal by the time we got back.

working in the morning then went to guitar course in the afternoon at gasteig

lovely evening talking then left to work downstairs, with sabs learning about einstein’s theory of relativity and eve practising the violin

sunday 24 – it was ever so slightly snowing in the morning and had gone very cold again

went to guitar course in the morning at gasteig, quite good on rhythm and the 3 main ones to really get anchored – 4/4 with the example ‘this land is your land’; ¾ with the example of ‘mull of kintyre’ and the shuffle rhythm with ‘the lion sleeps tonight’ – interesting that I knew these, the first 2 were almost standards which we’d sung together and the last one, we played only a couple of weeks ago.

monday 25 – snow had settled on the tops of cars

friday 29 – getting warmer again after a pretty cold week, by the end of the week it seems finally the snow has gone away for good

we watch the film “Man Up” and have a good laugh

saturday 30 – go to gasteig to take things back and borrow a couple of guitar books, bump into ute