tuesday 6 – reading the debate from yesterday:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-09-05/debates/1609058000001/EUReferendumRules

particularly interesting, was Caroline Lucas’s contribution on representative democracy and Peter Grant’s summing up near the end

wednesday 7 – working at home, slowly getting back into it

have some interesting discussions with eve both at breakfast and at the cafe on the lake in the evening (gans am see) over showing affection and the dynamics of couples, since she had been in croatia with hannah and parents cf. hannah had been in uk with us; how much freedom she gets

thursday 8 – eve was with lissie most of the day and I’d gone out to the office and heard about ute’s decision to move to hamburg

we 4 have evening meal on the balcony, as sabs is on the isar with friends

friday 16 – again working at home, finish at 5.30pm and we go to bodo’s near sendlinger tor for tea with a nice pfifferlinge and semmelknödel for me, we are late for band practice as katie’s coffee took so long, but we set up in time

saturday 10 – katie and i go for breakfast at zöttl nearby, then decide spontaneously to take a walk around tegernsee
we only just catch the 11:17 train, getting a single ticket which means the return journey is around €40 for the 2 of us.

we get out at Gmund and although it’s a little noisy from the road at the start, it’s overall a wonderful walk and day
we stop at a self-service cafe on the way for a mozzarella and tomato baguette

carry on around the bottom end, enjoying the views as it takes us nearer the lake shore, the walk turning into a route march towards the end and back on the road to tegernsee, so we get back around 6pm

all in all it must have been around 20-25km over 4 hours

sunday 11 – go for croissants at backmayr, finja and helena were overnighting, eve joins me in going to church

afternoon snooze, still catching up to overcome the tiredness

monday 12 – went for good run of around 5km, had a bit of speed and feel the long walk on saturday had helped

last day before school re-starts for girls, working at home

we watch the film “miss you already” a mostly woman-created production, interesting after all that we’d said at the table about how disadvantaged women are and how it seems mostly men succeed, also we’d discussed why it was that women were more empathic and if it had to do with childbirth; also propensity to gay with respect to nature or nurture, genes or upbringing and parental style, forbidding v allowing

the film is good and human, covering breast cancer and close friendships, i found the interviews and cut scenes interesting, challenges our perceptions on many aspects of women, relationships, cancer and how it affects so many people, directly or indirectly

film stars toni colette and drew barrymore

tuesday 13 – made it out to the office, but boring since we moved up to 4th floor

wednesday 14 – again out to the office, this time went through the presentation with valerio

thursday 15 – working at home, stayed at home instead of swimming so we sit down for lovely salad together
interesting now that both girls are at the same school, think it is helping the dialogue between, sabs talks about the people she has met and that she bumps into eve’s mates which she enjoys

friday 16 – working at home, quite productive day for me for a friday, then katie and i meet at sendlinger tor for band practice after a nice salad at sendlinger tor

massive downpour

went for beer with graham

saturday 17 – had been raining all night and all day, did some work downstairs and cleared the parking space for it to be cleaned up – missed eve who was coming back from overnighting after the justin bieber concert last night, she was angry with me for missing her and i came back to let her in, regret #1001

went back out to edeka to get chestnut stuffing and fruit yoghurt ingredients then proceeded to make it whilst listening to cowboy junkies, then chuck brown+eva cassidy, then hall & oates which gets katie and sabs dancing about a bit, but in the end it all gets too schmalzy so the girls change it to the usual beatles and adele fare over supper!

eve chats over how the concert was last night and how much she enjoyed it:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/justin-bieber/2016/olympiahalle-munich-germany-2bfda426.html

she had guessed the starting song and that for the encore, all were a bit surprised that he came back
she was clearly impressed and they had all become beliebers for the evening, one song was particularly poignant, I’ll show you, think it was.

sunday 18, istanbul airport for transfer – finally it stopped raining, with good timing as i was setting off for the airport at 6.55am, to go to saudi again

met up with valerio in istanbul and we go into an executive lounge for the 25€, it is well worth it with free drinks and food, also internet and decent tables, peace and quiet

reasonable flight meeting a couple of people on the way and watching a couple of good films:
chet – about the white jazz trumpeter, chet baker, who was a heavy drug user right up to his death
i am ali – a long documentary film recounted by people who knew ali, including also audio from him and scenes from fights, found it inspiring

also reading the weekend FT with a couple of good quotes from US TV anchorman Jorge Ramos, who exercises a lot and leaves an empty inbox at the end of each day, believing in the magic trinity of “salud, amor y pesetas” or “health, love and success” and quoting an idea of the French philosophers, due to his theory of Trump’s appeal to whites, since “by 2044 whites will be a minority in the US. They sense this, they feel fearful, and that is why Trump is their symbol, the man who will keep the ‘others’ out.” with:
“But if you do not recognise the other, they will not recognise you. Donald Trump does not do it (and is backward because of it). Immigrants have to: their survival depends on it.”

arrive at the hotel, taking a “london taxi” from the rank, which was the cheapest way, only 80 riyals and get to bed for around 1am

monday 19, riyadh – breakfast and meet up with the others in the office for meetings and preparation work for the next day

buffet meal at hotel

tuesday 20, riyadh – interesting prayer for the day talking about being honest when we are wrong and being graceful not triumphant when we are right

farming today had an article about the coming season of uk apples, discovery, bramley, gala and cox, also a farmer in nottingham espouses the smaller british varieties particularly his favourite, the cox orange pipin

the big day for presentation or was it more of a meeting, it went ok, in the end didn’t have to present, just contribute but it was ok and seemed to go ok

nice meal for lunch and even better meal in the evening

picked up 3 good ideas for recipes, 2 made up from what i reckon should work:
mint lemonade, simply lemon or lime juice with tiny, chopped up mint
coarse chopped parsley (or similar herb) with lemon juice and chopped tomato
om ali:
http://www.jeddahfood.com/om-ali-recipe/
which is a variant on bread and butter pudding!

some interesting quotes in the Saudi Gazette:
“the first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil” maria montessori
“a thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness” john keats

wednesday 21, riyadh – quieter day and finally not feeling tired

few other things to work on, few meetings to sit in on

buffet meal at hotel before taxi to airport

thursday 22 – arrived 8.45am after good flight via jeddah, canadian woman was telling me in german how she lives there 10 months of the year in a compound for expats

managed to sleep a bit on the flight, albeit with a crick in my neck

long tiring day working at home

friday 23 – again at home office, band practice in the evening, then graham and i went to get a beer and discuss possible options for the set on 8th october

saturday 24 – went for swim before tea

sunday 25 – jeff gave us a couple of ideas for bands to check out, jars of clay and caedmon’s call

friday 30 – a quote at work:
Fortune sides with him who dares, Virgil