thursday 1 – office day, met mArtin and had lunch (very late!), then cupcakes at the team meeting with michael and joerg – got roped into organizing the next team get-together – last time i go into office for a team meeting
brexit-hopping online (documenting to illustrate the waste of time) for 2 hours in the evening whilst katie and eve were both (for a change) watching Germany’ Next Top Model
friday 2 – working at home, but hard to get going, have to print out and sign a disclaimer:
https://partyzettel.de/partyzettel-muttizettel-download/#zdlm-box
http://www.partyzettel.net/erziehungsbeauftragung.pdf
for eve since she and sonja are meeting up with the gang (SHELF after the initials of each member) to go to a Q11 party, with hundreds of others at rosenheimerplatz
saturday 3 – both not sleeping well and were up by 7am, didn’t help by me getting up and telling katie i hadn’t seen eve in bed back from her partys, so she got up told me the time and investigated and of course, eve was tucked up in bed, she had said she was going to leave to get the sbahn just before 2am
katie mentioned something she was studying with friends about grace, as:
“something we feel we don’t deserve and something we can’t earn”
and something which susan had told her from a church service:
“we can’t do anything which will make God love us less, nor we can do anything to make God love us more”
took a while for both aspects (of grace) to settle, but whilst the aspects sound the same, they are in a way contrary or at opposite ends of the scale
sunday 4 – playing in the band with graham at church for the special song which Jonas wanted us to sing (God of Justice by tim hughes), which went ok, with me doing some basic drums on the ipad linked to the bass amp, graham carried it off well, on the recording the drums sounded a little shaky at the start, but then it settled down, so am happy it seemed to get better, given that i have no experience of this and only got the app a few days ago. Jonas’ sermon was about realizing our limitations, guarding against pride (hochmut kommt vor dem Fall) and boasting, even quoting Kendrick Lamarr lyrics and getting texted by obama:
“sit down, be humble”
take bus in order to meet up with jonathan and lisa and we meet at marienplatz, talking and walking up to odeonsplatz and into the englischer garten, getting bit muddy in the process
we go past the weisse rose plaque at the far corner of the hofgarten, which is a dedication to the deaths in 1943 of the group members, including sophie scholl where it talks about a time when the state will look after the rights of the individual as well as the well-being of society as a whole – comment that it paves the way for a new europe and quite forward-thinking considering this was students in their 20s
we talk a lot of the problems back home, old care, brother issues and PIP (resolve to investigate as he has at least 3 reasons to challenge it – such a problem does not clear up, if he was getting it whilst married to someone he doubly needs it now he is alone and if, he was as able as they say he is, he would not be unemployed in london, notwithstanding the issues raised in the application) – society mopping up the issues as i am doing with john, is what was really meant with his “big society”, ‘cos the state will shrink from its responsibilities or maybe the true litmus test of a society is how well its more vulnerable members get treated by people who should know better, ie criminals and fraudsters or get protected by people who have it within their power, ie legislators
my experiences with john being ripped off have been mirrored by jonathan’s parents being involved in various buidling/insurance scams and charity rip-offs – just like john, we both experience the soft underbelly of deceit and thieving in modern day british life for those weaker members of society – and government is doing nothing to prevent this
jonathan told me the wonderful story of tony benn having half an hour spare before he went on at the birmingham literature festival and a cleaner who wanted to meet him, her going to his dressing room and him just asking her questions about her life in order to be able to empathise with what it is like to be an afro-caribbean woman in britain
we had a beer in the schneider-weiss brauhaus on tal and i really appreciated how he really lifts me up and gets me back to my real jovial, laughing, light-hearted self – he said how much i made him laugh at that first time we met after the german class all those years ago, well it lifted my spirits but the Tap 7 got the better of me giving a bit of a headache
monday 5 – katie flies to uk, so in charge of cooking for the week
eve and i shared the chilli which katie had prepared, was rather a lot but we managed it
tuesday 6 – eve cooked soup which katie had prepared with spinatknödeln/spinach dumplings
then went out to guitarband class at hadernerstern, 4 stops away, got train in wrong direction back, which meant i was late home, otherwise this class is not bad, albeit i was only playing a drum machine until arm ready to play again
great day at work, really got going, just fired into it for an hour, then took a break to catch up with other things; rather than the other way round
wednesday 7 – got a bit upset and torn between what was right thing to do in the morning as sabs asked me for money for food, but then proceeded to make her lunch, although the money was allegedly for a kebab; went to sit on the balcony to collect my thoughts, in the end left the money, although making it reasonably clear what i knew
missed guitar unfortunately, due to having to cook and because of injury of course
made a homemade pizza, well with prepared abase and tomato topping – covered with grated scottish cheese, then chopped onion, chicoree, carrots (blanched in microwave 1 minute) and some sliced tomatoes on top, then pepper, some salt and oregano on top, needed 25 minutes at 220 deg. C but tasted really delicious with a green salad
chatted a bit about rhythms with sabs, 1,3 and 2,4 beat and pulse respectively, then pointing out a piece of music which emphasised it so well
thursday 8 – tried a bit of guitar, is coming on slowly
read nice quote about someone on their 20th work anniversary, as i celebrated mine a few weeks ago:
“Thanks for your cooperation. It was really a pleasure working with you, a businessman and a polite person who really listens to customer needs.” a good aspiration
and it was international womens day today a link from dr nerina:
70 Inspirational Women Share Their Secrets about Living Well as a Woman
friday 9 – working at home, then band practice in the evening
saturday 10 – went for walk into town with katie then got a couple of jumpers from Ultimoda on lindwurmstrasse
had a relaxing evening in with katie making potato and spinach soup, eve in for a change which was nice, as was the samtrot mild red wine
sunday 11 – singing at church, since arm still not right, as usual a lot of stress to set it all up and test in time, but it went ok, no major hiccups, minor timing error coming in, but other than that fine
monday 12 – sabs getting dressed up for the motte woche, in which for today she is impersonating herr slazji with my red dennis the menace tie and white shirt, plus katie marks a couple of rings around her ears for the black earrings he wears
katie consoling sabs before tea, as the pressure of the next couple of months and the work needed becomes apparent
missed swimming again due to injury, didn’t seem worth it just to go and practice legs or for half an hour
tuesday 13 – sabs dressing up today as an asocial person, ie. someone on long-term unemployment, drawing hartz iv
see a nice quote on the back of a paper on my commute out to garching office:
“glauben ist die fähigkeit, auf gottes Tempo zu gehen” martin ruben
wednesday 14 – sabs dressing up like first day at school, so she goes in skirt and carries eve’s old schultüte
working at gbr with tom and meeting up with reiner and patrick working on new project
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/13/i-downloaded-all-my-facebook-data-heres-what-i-learned
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/14/tech-big-data-capitalism-give-wealth-back-to-people
thursday 15 – sabs dressing in sleeping attire, as if slept in (ausschlafen)
working again at gbr with marko and again meeting up later with reiner and patrick
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2018/mar/15/should-i-buy-a-nas-drive-back-up-my-laptop-usb-hard-drive
eve’s friend emily is staying over after they watch GNTM in the snug with snacks and after we all have tea together
sabs staying over at baptist’s
friday 16, travelling to uk – nice breakfast the for of us with guest, sabs is dressing up in the art of a profession today, won’t say what she dressed as
have dentists appointment and the hygienist/technician does a great job on a full clean, must have been there an hour
take sbahn out to airport and fly to manchester then car home
eat salad i’d bought at edeka at the airport then watch a few programmes on uk tv, is very tempting, there was a program on the road to santiago de campostela, the jakobs weg which we have started, also a comedy program called Qi which was irritating and quite vulgar then newsnight, bit of a waste of time
saturday 17, clitheroe and skipton – jack comes round to do some work in the back bedroom
do a few jobs up town then went over to skipton to meet john at the bank to go through his accounts, have a coffee at costas and drive over to see mum
john and i watch the rugby and wharfedale lose 14 v 33 against tynedale, they played uphill in the first half and with a strong easterly helping, they were 14 v 12 up, leading 14 v 0 – thereafter only points in the wrong direction as tynedale came into the match then tightened their grip after half-time, even though they were also playing uphill, the normal advantage was wiped away by the bitterly cold wind blowing uphill
felt absolutely freezing afterwards and fortunately auntie elizabeth had made a warming soup with dumplings in it
drop john back at duckett street and drive back to clitheroe
sunday 18, clitheroe and skipton – snow had fallen quite a lot in the night, had to clear car and way out of parking space
drive over for 9.15am service at the baptist church, main roads were pretty clear, park at top of high street
2 ladies talk, one about the work with the craven foodbank (they delivered over 800 individual parcels of food/tins to people, each being sufficient to last a week for a family, they only work with referrals) and the other, ruth, talked about the work of CAP and some interesting quotes by henri nouven, about compassion:
“When information about human suffering comes to us through a person who can be embraced, it is humanised.”
“In community, our lives become compassionate lives because, in the way we live and work together, God’s compassion becomes present in the midst of a broken world.”
pick up josh and we set off to first see mum, having couple of games of chess, josh v john and me v john, see john off at silsden and steeton station then go for swim
have meal in cafe afterwards, drop josh off and go back to clitheroe, do a few jobs clearing the back attic room
monday 19, returning from uk – see next door who is going to look at doing the back attic room boarding out then travel to airport
http://adamschneider.net/music/nanci_griffith/
http://adamschneider.net/music/links.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/19/a-year-without-tech-debt-gadgets-reconnect-nature
had long discussion with katie about her worries with sabs and how little work she has been doing for abitur these last few days
we have meal together have an interesting discussion over evening meal with sabs, reminded me of my dream and about having to climb up a sheer vertical building, but deciding to take a rest until i was ready
tuesday 20 – breakfast with eve, who has her “terrible tuesday”, which we renamed “tackle it tuesday” or perhaps we need the latin equivalent along the lines of carpe diem, stude diem or sustine diem or utor diem
http://www.latin-dictionary.net/search/english/deal%20with
getting warmed up for high end exhibition in may:
http://www.highendsociety.de/index.php/de/technologiebuehne.html
listening on the today program about sir john sulston who had died, with comments from a joint book author of his, georgina ferry – he lived very frugally, had a disregard for material things, a lack of materialism, was doing things for the common good, believed that scientific information should be available to the whole community, not for profit or subject to commercial licensing – she was commenting about the discussion on GM and gene editing
have a nice chat over evening meal, about the quote from marianne williamson that we fear the good in us, not our dark side
sabs goes out to friends as katie and i sit down to endure, at least for the first hour, the denzel washington film “the fence”, but it did get much better after that
wednesday 21 – sabs dressing as a favorite children’s character, she is going as a princess today and i say as she wears katie’s long ballgown, that she looks as if she has come to life from the pages of a children’s story book
yesterday was about gender swap and luis really enjoyed it she said, monday’s was dressing up as a “streber” or swot
guitar was good, lots of beatles stuff in shuffle rhythm, but no where near my best as haven’t been practising due to the arm
katie had made a nice ricotta cheese lasagne and i ate it whilst eve was studying, then i sat on the sofa to read, we had a nice rest of the evening together
sabs overnighting at friends
thursday 22 – going out to office for the office day, all hands and bowling
friday 23 – a rare friday night in, so am imagining we had pizza (now becoming more home made) and listened to any questions
saturday 24 – saw a tiny piece of snow on our patch of garden in front of the block as i went to get croissants
later on in the morning, we went on march for life from us embassy in munich to odeonsplatz
as we got back, the snow had melted
am starting to think about deleting facebook or at least track it better:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/13/i-downloaded-all-my-facebook-data-heres-what-i-learned
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/19/how-to-protect-your-facebook-privacy-or-delete-yourself-completely
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/mar/20/delete-your-account-a-guide-to-life-after-facebook
sunday 25 – palm sunday
following up on the facebook and privacy paranoia later in the afternoon’s surfing:
monday 26 – on the news it was talking about the march for our lives events at the weekend, strangely nothing about the #stopbrexit marches in the uk, bad-timing of course but nonetheless no coverage, did they take place?
anyways, there was a nice quote from one of the march’s banners:
“if the opposite of pro is con, the opposite of progress is congress”
went back to sana klinik (which is actually one of the bigger klinik chains in Germany)
to get checked back out, was interesting talking to the nice doctor about her fears about getting a house in munich, tried to impress that we are in a short-term squeeze on prices, still think back to how sometimes estate agents can get it wrong, the guy thinking high interest rates would drive prices, way back when – when actually prices have been driven to the ceiling thru very low base rates
reading in the Tageszeitung which had a small article on page 2 saying we were 250-300 in total at the march on Saturday in Munich
the x-ray showed that all was ok, there’s only a slight hairline piece of the fracture still to heal
she recommends building up over time and stopping when things hurt
in particular no heavy-lifting or press-ups for another 6 weeks
swimming but only light arm movements again until the 6 weeks are up
guitar playing should be ok
took about an hour to get checked, x-rayed and consulted – each time x-rayed longitudinally along the length flat and vertically with elbow at 90 degrees with palm vertically
go to get passport photos done and pay for citizenship costs at KWR.
go via chaplin’s bakery near harras u-bahn to get borek and rosinenschneke so that i can work thru lunch, make up a bit of time
listening to a leadership training program at work and a chap called shibu who mentioned his career learnings:
mistakes and failures are ok – you learn and become stronger
build on top of a strong foundation
get out of your comfort zone
dream BIG and work hard – without dreams it’s difficult to gain focus
focus on your strengths (80/20 rule of strengths/weaknesses) and your long-term goals
out of box thinking
people networking
be a differentiator
continually re-invent, change is positive
“always put yourself in others shoes”
empathize: it’s all about people
education experience expertise
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” William Shakespeare
if you feel too comfortable in your current job, think about disrupting yourself – have to transform just as a butterfly does!
always believe in yourself to fly to your dreams and when you do dream, dream BIG
met up with Allan and Christian for get-together at Killians’ Irish pub, the indian veg curry and chips was great
Joan Baez said at her concert that we are witnessing the birth of the first, new civil rights movement in over 50 years and she sang Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'” in tribute. Also in a similar vein, she sang a song dedicated to when Obama visted the church after the shooting and could not find words, so sang “Amazing Grace”, the song is “The President Sang Amazing Grace” by Zoe Mulford.
the setlist was very similar to the frankfurt show, dylan’s song further into the set though:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/joan-baez/2018/alte-oper-frankfurt-germany-5bef0bdc.html
tuesday 27 – still reading too much paranoia about social media:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/27/pioneer-delete-facebook-addiction-social-life
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1116104/ten-arguments-for-deleting-your-social-media-accounts-right-now/9781847925398/
wednesday 28 – and it continues
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/25/forget-bit-players-facebook-brought-scandal-on-itself
friday 30 – today program had Cardinal Vincent Nichols, interviewed about his book “Faith Finding a Voice” on, after the Pope had yesterday apparently said hell doesn’t exist
saturday 31 – stumbled again on this and is a to re-cap on someone i should read more of:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/03/30/jurgen-klopp-exclusive-interview-faith-football-liverpool-future/amp/
“Help your mate to be the best he can be and he will help you to be the best. Being selfish is always easier than being unselfish. It’s a double-job, caring about yourself and another.”
he makes one exception for messi
talking about the pressure at mainz to survive, simply to get paid:
“That was pressure. I believe my life taught me to deal with pressure. I always had it. It’s good. That’s the thing about educating your kids – you think, ‘How can I create a situation for them to learn that?’ It’s not possible. You can’t create it. I came through with a lot of luck and fantastic mates. Sensational characters around me. We were really average footballers but we fought.”
inevitably he talks about the situation in the UK right now:
“If such a fantastic country and a strong partner like Great Britain want to try to go the way alone I don’t see the benefit. I can’t see it. I am maybe not the best-informed person [but Brexit] was like countryside against cities, was a little bit young against old and that is not how democracy should work. If you have to make a decision for the whole country then find a solution for the whole country and not for old people in the countryside. That’s all. But I am happy I live here and I deliver that message constantly to all my friends. I tell them, ‘I don’t know all English people but those I meet are fantastic’.”
and in preparing for the next steps in the champions league:
“think about it by yourself. What is right, what is wrong. If you think it is good for all of us then it is probably right. That is how I understand a football team. I don’t do anything that I feel bad about afterwards. I do everything in order that everyone feels better.”
could be applied to family decisions too.
eve and katie make a delicious butter nut squash on a bed of couscous, very filling, a recipe for 4 between 3
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