friday 1 – band practice in the evening, then go onto andy’s biergarten near church with scott and graham to watch wales beat belgium 3 v 1.

saturday 2 – set a deadline to get the responses back for the sale of duckett street and rush to get it sent in time, getting quite stressed about it
have lunch with eve, bread and hummus with baked cheese
get out to conrad at oez to buy a mic stand, then get in the shopping for the next couple of days’ cooking requirements

katie cooks a potato gratin for tea and we have the rose wine, dorothea visits for half an hour and we discuss brexit

watch pride and prejudice with sabs and katie, then the second half and remainder of the germany v italy game, which germany win on a penalty shoot out going to 9 rounds, eve joining at about 11.45 for the final thrilling ending

sunday 3 – band playing which went quite well

really tired and took a nap in the afternoon, before rustling up the fruit yoghurt ready for tomorrow and a rhubarb sponge for tea with custard

monday 4 – watch eve and hanna walk up the road to school

the big birthday of course, still making the prints and cutting them out for the photoframe present, just make it in time and katie has helped with the chestnut stuffing, have a lovely meal of roasted root vegetables and potatoes, delicious of course!

eve had a few of her friends round before tea in her room to laugh and chat

we sing and sit around talking

tuesday 5 – go to apple shop to find out about the problem on the webex, is definitely software issue, not hardware

watch the film SUFFRAGETTE with sabs and katie

wednesday 6 – guitar quite challenging with plenty of still difficult spanish songs

thursday 7 – watch the film brooklyn with sabs and katie

friday 8 – practice again then onto Bodo’s as katie calls it for beer with graham and scott

saturday 9 – guitar course from 10 until 2, one guy left at lunch time complaining it was too theoretical after we’d spent an hour on key of D and associated chords, battled on with some ridiculous chords in the afternoon, then went to the library at the gasteig to see what they had to augment the learning

sunday 10 – again guitar course here some good links to the teacher:
http://www.gitarrenunterricht-olching.de/

actually i took away a motivation to learn more about chord theory and harmony, plus the “win” was mainly on the second day, with perhaps a 30% v 70% split saturday v sunday, it did help that i’d gone to the library and borrowed 2 really good books about the topics covered:
gitarren akkorde – bernd stahl
griffbrett-theorie – frank doll

monday 11 – eve going away to week away with choir

tuesday 12, frankfurt – get up at 4.45am to catch 5.30am train to frankfurt
reading on the train this interesting portrait:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/11/theresa-may-the-vicars-daughter-poised-to-pull-the-tories-and-the-country-from-the-abyss

got to eschborn for 10, good day spent working, then go to hotel via biergarten at pub in eschborn

wednesday 13, frankfurt – britain gets new PM today
lift to office, as quite a few colleagues like stefan staying at same io hotel in eschborn

again very productive day, then meal at the italian restaurant, whilst walking the more direct way home

thursday 14, frankfurt – woke up 5.15 like yesterday and decided to talk a walk into the nearby arboretum/woods near the hotel to hear the various bird sounds and enjoy the grey/blue light of dawn, saw some bees already pollinating purple flowers and plenty of trees, swaying in the wind, rabbits and hares running around and the 40m high trees from japan, was a nice exhilarating walk before shower and breakfast

reading on the train back to munich, couple of links stand out:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/jul/14/the-agony-and-ecstasy-of-saint-theresa-the-vicars-daughter

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/13/bullingdon-set-politics-david-cameron-new-era

watch the film STEVE JOBS with sabs, one with michael fassbender and kate winslet, not very inspiring, lots of swearing and anger, not as good as the earlier film, JOBS

friday 15 – final meeting at bavarian statistics office, landesamt, good to hear Martin’s approach at the final executive presentation. Took away some info about what the Landesamt does and what statistics are collected, here some relevant e-government links:

http://freistaat.bayern/

https://www.statistik.bayern.de/

https://www.statistikdaten.bayern.de/genesis/online/logon

monday 18 – working at home

tuesday 19 – ditto

wednesday 20 – working at home then flight to heathrow

thursday 21, london – chasing around trying to get the visa, still at least it meant that i got a salad at my favourite restaurant, 10 shepherd street with the delicious dressing and bread, simply delightful
read a short book about jean-luc godard, a film critic who turned film director, something saby and i were discussing, that the critic’s job is perhaps easier and can be over influential, when perhaps they don’t really understand the art, same goes for music of course.

friday 22, london and skipton – nice journey up in 1st class
pick up hire van and then drive to summerfield to see mum
sitting with mum on the internet and eve texting me about the worry in munich after the shooting at OEZ

saturday 23, clitheroe and skipton – meeting up with electrician/plumber, doing a few jobs at duckett street to completely finish off, then over to see mum again

sunday 24, clitheroe and skipton – sent this link to katie for a few ideas:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/summer_pasta_dishes

did some work on gatwick, since draft report was needed by end of next week

stayed over for last time at 11 duckett street, went out with james, josh, celine and boyfriend came along later, had a really good night playing pool at the craven and listening to music on the jukebox, letting josh and celine choose

monday 25, london – back in london, dropping car off then getting train down and working in the city office

tuesday 26, london – staying over at john’s but only one night as going to bedfont tomrrow and then staying nearer for more optimal working

spend the day going thru stuff with jorge and making progress on the document

stayed over at colnbrook holiday inn, taxi driver took me to wrong one at first, but got to discover colnbrook and it’s worth another visit

wednesday 27, london – again out at bedfont with jorge, long, big day and a few pointers for the discussion tomorrow at gatwick

stayed over at marriot near gatwick airport

thursday 28, london – big, quite difficult meeting on-site but also quite fruitful in understanding the requirements better

flew out of gatwick in the evening

friday 29 – working at home, then band practice