thursday 1 – go for run, has not been easy with the cold weather and dark mornings but manage to get motivated finally

friday 2 – band practice and joseph was there which was nice, he was a little under-impressed with the size of the bass amp though, it’s a 10 watt affair from dimavery

sunday 4 – working during the day for next presentation coming up on Tuesday in Hamburg, eve also working hard upstairs, me downstairs

go for meal at the mykonos restaurant near andy and sue’s, graham and cathy come along too and we occupy a nice corner chatting, then wander back in the icy conditions, fortunately the side of the street over the bridge was gritted so it wasn’t as slippy as on the way there

katie was explaining about the abitur and the different kinds of exams now
up to abitur, they’d had X’s (short exams, ex-tempore, sometimes only 10 minutes) and Schulaufgaben
now with Arbitur it was either Kurz Arbeit or Klasuren, I think the latter set city-wide or state-wide

monday 5 – good swim, feel am getting fitting and better on endurance

tuesday 6, hamburg – get up 4.30am to get bus to donnersbergerbrücke and the s1 bahn to airport for my third and last leg of my “training roadshow”

this time the room is full, over 12 people, really glad I did it this way round as this was by far the most demanding, needing to know my stuff and give clear explanations

after the training, with its umpteen questions and a couple of follow-ups, we go the the schachcafe and there are around 8 of us, with ute joining to give me support

wednesday 7, hamburg – working from hamburg office for a while then take train to airport and get back in reasonable time via sbahn to go to guitar lesson

thursday 8 – tired today after all the travelling

friday 9 – met up with with eve at trend optic to sort out her glasses with markus and helping her decide

was considering another VHS course run by this chap, but in the end it was full:
https://www.hansi-schneider.com/links/

sunday 11 – sorting out the gears on eve’s bike which meant making slight adjustments and then cycling round in a figure of eight to check the gears for any improvement – I had gotten it as good as I was going to get, but persisted further – the moral being quit while you’re ahead since i ended up falling off by turning in too tightly to clear a cable which ended up causing wheel instability and my crashing to the floor

felt a bit shaken and my left arm and elbow really hurt

was difficult sleeping but managed on my back with arms crossed over my stomach

monday 12 – arm still hurting so, on katie’s advice and having a flight later in the day to the uk made a decision to go to the sana klinik in solln and having got there felt decidedly out of place with all the folks on crutches and in pots, nearly went home since the wait was long

got seen to first by a doctor who wrestled my arm and caused great pain by twisting it, sent me for x-rays, also painful the way they wanted me to hold the arm whilst they took 2 photos in sections

then back to the doctors for assessment and she said i had a fractured radius bone, and the nurses put a plaster cast around it and told me not to use it and come back in a week

got back around 11.30, so it had taken around 3 hours – glad I hadn’t waited until getting to the uk, where i likely would have spent a day to and forth in A&E

flight delayed and waiting at the airport browsing having changed a 20€ note for sabs, probably for cigs and looking at this:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/11/why-is-nhs-listening-to-siren-voices-of-vape-manufacturers
“Fags aren’t food, booze, sex or drugs: they bring no inherent pleasure. You didn’t enjoy your first cigarette and you haven’t actually enjoyed any other cigarette – you’ve merely enjoyed relief from the nicotine withdrawal that was created by a previous cigarette. Cigarettes don’t fill a void – they create one.”

As soon as the lightbulb flicks on above your head and you see that you have no reason to smoke, you can just let it go. The physical nicotine addiction will disappear from your body in a matter of days and (since there is literally nothing else to keep you doing it) you can feel happy, released, powerful and free immediately.”

Stopping smoking is freeing yourself from slavery, not cigarettes! Don’t waste time enslaving yourself to something else! Do you need a substitute for flu when it’s over? Just get on with your life already!”

tuesday 13 – go see mum via bus to clitheroe and train to silsden
alan and mari from salvation army were there later, read 1st corinthians and prayed with mum which was very kind
they dropped me at the railway station, caught the train back to skipton, visited james and margaret then took last bus home and made my tea, the yorkshire provender with pearl barley, would not have been katie’s cup of tea

wednesday 14 – take masking tape/sellotape away from kitchen silicone sealant in joint to worktop – was a mistake to use it, better to just wipe away or if use, remove after half-dried since when removing it dry, it can pull away at the sealant a little; but anyway I took my time and it seemed to go ok and looks like it will do its job

went to visit mabel although she was not very responsive and she didn’t look at me

got bus back into clitheroe and went to library to finish off some work

then worked on getting the bathroom cleaned out, lagged the bath for heat efficiency and got the rubbish out from under the floorboards cleared out, must have been over 5kg of material removed, plus created chocks to put under the legs and give a little bit more support, one particular leg in the corner being broken

reading a post with this quote:
“Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.”
― David W. Augsburger

thursday 15 – take early bus to skipton then get a few clothes for mum

take another bus to cononley lane ends then over the top to silsden

have dinner with mum which was nice, although i only got a sandwich, but the sponge pudding and custard was good

hearing the lotus eaters ‘the first picture of you’ on the radio at mum’s home, great song:
http://www.yourchords.com/1062547/The-Lotus-Eaters/The-First-Picture-Of-You/

get the bus back via steeton top, then go round to james and margaret’s to talk about tomorrow then get 7pm bus back to clitheroe

friday 16 – getting rubbish sorted out for james’ later visit to tip

jack visits and we go over the decorating quote and what’s included, what’s not

via waterloo timber, go to swales for lunch which is heaving for long piece of skirting for upstairs bathroom and landing, and a short piece for living room

nip up town to library then when james arrives, we travel down to tip

meet up with enrico and go through work in the bathroom which is still to finish off regards floorboards, skirting boards (he says the pattern is called ’taurus’) and bath paneling and other boxing in and door jamb work

saturday 17 – get the earliest bus to skipton, 8.05am then potter about skipton and go round to duckett street around 10

we put up the cameras as they are getting nuisance calls from lads, I fear it might escalate things, and probably the net curtains we put up would deter it more, is not so obviously inviting as a window which you can see through

go to see mum and she is in good form, the 4 of us go over, james, margaret, josh and myself

get 7pm bus back to clitheroe then onto lidl to get some provsions including a couple of soups

sunday 18 – get bus to chatburn and go to chapel with mabel sitting next to doris, whom i remember from her visits to mabel and jack’s on morland crescent

a carer from lithuania brought her to chapel – she has a similar story to us, came to uk 10 years ago, 2 children, now on wrong side of brexit
was met by a chap asking if i was the one from sheffield (ie. robert) or from germany
another chap mentioned about mabel visiting stopper lane chapel in rimington and the organist there, francis duckworth, who the person who wrote the tune ‘rimington’ along with a few others

peter lumsden was speaking in the service, he talked about lent and a time of surrender to ourselves, a better understanding of ourselves and the capability for change

got back and got a few jobs done, more than I’d imagined: the skirting board near the radiator in the living room, then clearing walls of screws and generally getting it ready for decorator
released aerial cable and clothes hangers in front bedroom

filled in 2 holes in back attic room having spoken with next door about boarding it out, he works for a loft boarding firm, seemed to think it could be strengthened

had a bath then protected the bath with the packaging and felt carpet

had another soup and went to bed, quite late after watching bafta awards, fellowship award to ridley scott was interesting, especially what he said in his speech

monday 19 – up at 5.30am for train at 7.05am

left after breakfast and having protected kitchen worktops

packed train from bolton to manchester picadilly, disgrace really crammed in like cattle, only know the ubahn trains in munich which are similar but they are for shorter journey and this simply needed 8 carriages instead of 4!

tuesday 20 – visited sana klinik again and they take the gipsscheine (loose plaster cast) off and take x-rays – 2 each time, vertically and laterally

dr advised that it looks compressed inwards (eingestaucht) and not out of alignment (verschoben), so can use it normally but must not load it and no movements which give it pain, simple movements to and fro bending at the elbow are ok but twisting and especially moving over like a pianist’s wrist give rise to great pain, so in any case can’t do those

listening to an internal presentation and some nice quotes:
“Luck is where Preparation meets Opportunity”
C. Benoit

cockroach similarity with malware and story-telling:
how did it get here, how many others are also here, what is it doing here and how do i get rid of them all and stop them coming back

eve mentioned before supper she had finally found a sport she was good at – high-jump!

she was later listening to a playlist focused on lana del ray, it makes a change from the 70s disco music she has been listening to, bee gees, yvonne eliman etc

wednesday 21 – katie mentioned that eve had had a disturbed night with neck pain – perhaps the high jumping at school yesterday had shaken her up a little

reading some of the comments for me on an internal tool and it is interesting:
‘You have an instinctive sense of “fairness,” even on those occasions when your sense of “fairness” leads you to conclude that you don’t deserve something you’ve been given. This sort of objectivity, even when it leads to your disadvantage, is rare. There will be opportunities to showcase it. Seek them out.’

getting too involved in reading the media again:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/21/local-councillors-lobbying-entertainment

thursday 22 – working at gbr with guan and he mentioned he was leaving in a couple of months, feel a bit sad but also glad, since he would be pursuing what he wanted next, a Master in Dance and Sports at Edinburgh University

still browsing through a couple of sample books I’d downloaded, including jordan b. peterson’s “12 rules”, get directed to where his idea for the book started:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-valuable-things-everyone-should-know

had a game of chess with katie after supper and taking me by surprise, eve accosted me from the side and planted a kiss on my cheek, saying it doesn’t happen often now, so enjoy it ..

friday 23 – go to office and carry out configs with florian on the test setup we have

sunday 25 – “Die Musik drückt das aus, was nicht gesagt werden kann und worüber zu schweigen unmöglich ist”, so Victor Hugo.

monday 26 – update on my elbow and had it X-rayed twice again today, with the visit to the Sana klinik in Solln:
it will take another 4 weeks to heal completely, ie. 6 weeks altogether, I’ve had already 1 week in the Gipsschiene and 1 week out with light exercise.
I cannot load it with lifting or strength exercises (guitar and swimming are out), but otherwise it is fine to work with, typing etc. So I think overall, although it is frustrating, I am lucky 🙂

helping eve after supper to get her ideas together for summer holiday

tuesday 27 – getting back from the office and feeling a bit ill/sad, due to arm and its limitations

hannah was working with eve on the options for the summer holiday

really looked at the girls as they completed their homework, taking in their faces and expressions, and as we were having tea, it was such a delight

wednesday 28 – sabs flat out on the sofa after breakfast, clearly tired, so i put my arms round her in saying goodbye to go to work, like I would a sleeping baby, another thing which doesn’t happen that often these days

at GBR today, was quiet just me and marko in office

went to try out the acoustic band group, even though I can only shake a rattle due to arm, was fun, but not really my thing, so will hope for more next week on tuesday