tuesday 1, clitheroe – up early to get going and started on the clearing of the back bedroom cupboard room at bright street

the steam paint stripper works a treat, goes on to steam away for an hour then switches off automatically, but it takes only 3 long slots of soaking and scraping off to get the whole room clear of the old paper, meanwhile as soon as the steam gets behind the the ceiling plaster, a quarter square meter drops down on its own

hard day but good to stick at it

here some notes i made from earlier emails sent around at work:

Tuesday, 1 May, 2018 is a holiday for Cisco India Offices on account of May Day/ Labor Day.

May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on May 1 every year. It is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the festivities. In the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers’ Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers’ Day or Labor Day may also be referred to as “May Day”, but it is a different celebration from the traditional May Day.

The first of May is a national public holiday in many countries worldwide, in most cases as “Labor Day”, “International Workers’ Day” or some similar name – although some countries celebrate a Labor Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States, which celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September.

Here’s wishing our employees a very happy May Day/ Labor Day!

after finishing the work, jumped in the bath to get clean, which looked like a miner had bathed in it after i had washed

went up town to take book back to library and wander up to the

then get something from tesco for tea, it’s a quiche and salad

as i pass down king lane, just on the bottom corner i notice a sign in the wedding shop on the corner, “love never fails”, just as a morland school minibus, where saby went to nursery school rounds the corner with its motto “labor omnia vincit” presenting its ironic reality just as she is so engrossed in her studies (or not!) right now

listen to bbc radio 5, bayern v real madrid match from spain whilst having tea and a couple of beers in the kitchen

wednesday 2, clitheroe, skipton and silsden – finishing off work and then went over to skipton to get wood for bath surround from merrits, saw josh and family, then drove over to see mum – with all the wood in the back i couldn’t take josh, so ended up going alone

mum was in a better mood and i remember seeing her albeit not for as long as last time, just a quick visit, since I wanted to get back to watch the liverpool champions league match, which i made the second half of

mum was in the main room and i told her about our plans with the house in clitheroe, as ever she asked about everyone was, so i could fill her in the details of the girls’ studying for exams and eve’s violin playing, also since i had seen mabel, i could let her know about her too

i remember going back to peep at her when I’d left and she was as ever still glancing over, little did we both know that this was to be the last time we both saw one another

thursday 3 – get early to the airport and have a nice tea and pain au raisin at pret a manger, then get a couple of papers to while away the time, the guardian and the times

brexit dominating my reading, even though there is not a lot to report:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/02/the-guardian-view-on-tory-divisions-deeper-than-brexit
how ireland is the stumbling now as then with the corn laws:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/02/no-hard-brexit-not-enough-mps-martin-kettle
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/slide_presented_by_barnier_at_euco_15-12-2017.pdf

the times has an article about Paola Diana and her book about female empowerment, Saving the World

later in the evening, reading snippets from Dennis MacShane’s book “Brexit, no Exit” or sub-titled: “Why (in the end) Britain Won’t Leave Europe”
“we are a great nation, but if we continue to behave like a Great Power we shall soon cease to be a great nation” Sir Henry Tizard in 1947

A later Guardian quote from 6th July emphasises this:
“There are two kinds of European nations, there are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realised they are small nations.” Danish finance minister, Kristian Jensen, said in 2017, cited in this analysis:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/06/brexit-tories-jeremy-corbyn

In one article with my over-indulged news-reading recently which said we shouldn’t expect the death of democracy to be accompanied by a great fanfare, it might just die a quiet death, think it might have been on one of the Guardian long reads.

And there were some wonderful articles in the letters page in today’s Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/02/democracy-has-to-be-about-more-than-just-casting-a-vote
echoing similar thoughts in the book by David Van Raybrouck “Against Elections.”

finally something more serious, a Rhubarb Crumble recipe
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/may/03/how-to-make-the-perfect-rhubarb-crumble?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=273821&subid=21713217&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

friday 4 – tired from uk exertions and early start yesterday, working at home made it easier

sunday 6 – taking older ones at sunday school, topic was angst vor nichts

monday 7 – went to sana klinik to get my arm looked at for the last time, the Dr said i could gradually build up the loading on it, but there was no need for any physiotherapy

Sabrina had her English Klasur, final state-wide exam today, so all Q12 English students in Bayern would sit the same exam.

There was a cartoon set for the English exam in Baden-Wurtemburg about Brexit fantasy v reality in the Guardian, well Sabs said there was also a Brexit question in her exam, but she didn’t choose it. Brexit must make easy pickings for the examiners!

And of course, “we” are still left with the mess which is Brexit, a veritable train crash happening in frame by frame slowmo, just what are they doing ruminating over these nuanced customs options which the EU are going to reject anyway? The government have completely lost the plot, this is going to be a nightmare and as the Graun showed the backstop option, I can see this going only one way which is a border in the sea and NI in the Customs Union and SM, the lucky beggars in NI.

Interestingly I find a comment on the Guardian web site from Jim Moodie:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/12/house-prices-generation-rent-estate-agents-demand-mortgage-lending-decline
“Brexit and Trump are really about a reboot: wreck it and rebuild.

Brexit is a slow motion housing market train wreck, which will envelope the whole economy, after all construction is by far the largest employment sector after a Government.”

As Andy said yesterday, it is now clear there are no benefits whatsoever of leaving, yet the only one left it seems is the vain hope of negotiating “better” trade deals.

But who seriously is going to trust the government to negotiate any better trade deals than the EU with China, the US or India?
China will engulf the UK with its trade, if not also its emigrants.

The government couldn’t even save the UK steel industry “with” EU help (being too incompetence to apply for the available grants), yet German and Italians had no bother propping up their steel industries with EU grants. What chance have this and other industries without the EU’s clout.

Oh England, come to your senses, get on the streets, turf the idiots out ..

But it won’t happen and even if it does, like the recent protests, it won’t get reported.

Remember listening to a broadcast on our changing relationship with the EU, that in the 75 referendum I heard the roles were more or less reversed, the Tories unanimously in favour of the EU, Labour split down the middle; Harold Wilson deciding finally for, on the basis that, being against the EU, would let the wrong sort of folk get into power.

Finally go to swimming and we do quite a bit of rotation, 4x 3 lengths, butterfly legs then 2 crawl, followed by 10 lengths backstroke legs, was the perfect return start to not overload my arms too much

in terms of total distance covered:
10l – lengths warm-up
12l – butterfly then crawl
10l – backstroke legs
12l – again
10l – again
6l – finish
60l – say, 1500m

thursday 10 – bank holiday in germany, get up at 6 to feed the cat, then katie and i go for a run, first time she has been running for nearly a year, we say a dozen ducklings in the top part of the lake

eve is up when we get and has made waffles, which are delicious for a big breakfast, with the usual croissants, have a mohnschneke today, to be different

interesting:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/10/the-invisible-power-of-big-glasses-eyewear-industry-essilor-luxottica

friday 11 – sabs in good mood for her german exam this morning from around 8am to 12 noon, 4 hours!

worked at home, was quite easy to get back into it after the holiday, since there is so much to do!

going off to band and practising lots of songs, then going for beer with graham, joseph and the new friend he brought along, another isreal

got back around 10.30pm and katie and i just chatting as saby gets back from her little soiree and afternoon’s celebration, having finished technically at least her last klasur/sat exam. there are only 2 colloquia left, not sure what they are

saturday 12 – nice breakfast with the girls, bit of a late start for us all, sat around talking, joking then shuttling through the bathroom

helping get eve started on her search for a camping place, she said she liked desenzano as a town, but the san francesco camp site was quite a way from the town and was pretty expensive, so managed to find this site, which looks recently built and maybe then was not one for cropping up on the usual web searches, which are biased towards the portals, likely since they are paying for the higher ranking:
https://www.desenzanocampingvillage.it/de/cerca-vacanza-ideale-risposta-cortesia

go to the high end hifi show, refer separate more detailed review, really enjoyed it, just went along to get carried along as it were, see what happens, got a nagaoka MP110 basic cartridge from the tonar.eu stand, really friendly guy was there, got a listen to the Jico cartridge, sounded great

also listened to siggi schwarz playing live in one of the nubert rooms, fantastic to watch how he calmly played and grooved along, just caught the last of stairway to heaven, which am practising. notes from watching the performers:
guitarist/siggi – keeps pretty loose and relaxed, is not hurried, but accurate and definite, really gets the groove going and makes sure hits the notes
singer (not sure what he was called, but he was good) – was pretty laid back and certainly not forcing it vocalswise, again focused on clarity and accuracy, was using an ipad for the words, filled in on guitar and mouth organ
audience rapport – have to build, singer handed a shaker out and got everyone clapping along

had a lovely meal with katie and eve outside on the balcony, they had bought grill stuff and we had a nice discussion about where we’re living and where we might have lived as options – eve was incredibly relaxed about it all, that she would have been happy wherever we had ended up, we told about our concerns/regrets and she told a wonderful expresssion, “hätte, hätte, fahrrad kette” for dismissing would haves and might haves since they are not relevant.

sunday 13 – went to the meeting which jeff was holding and was fascinating discussion with folks’ views and interpretations, Jeff gave this link for something brought up about morality:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hinge/id1318557254?mt=2&i=1000400132692

monday 14 – went to office, doing some cabling work in the lab, went with dan and valerio to bistro and wine

went to swim training and then to restaurant next door for “stammtisch”, fortunately artur was there and sat next to martina the coach, but fortunately she didn’t berate me for my stroke, but can hardly say i understood much of what was going, totally new environment and so difficult to follow

tuesday 15 – at home to work on testing, went ok until i realised i had something wrong, but was good to do a dry run

sat for long time with sabs as she finished her breakfast and enthused about the hifi show and what i learned in general, told her about the device i was thinking of and the reasoning, we talked a lot about records, equalisation and digitisation PCM/CD and DSD/SACD, think i understand it better having explained it and love it that she is as in awe of how it all fits together as i am

went to guitar in the evening, was quite good, noko on good form, teaching us “if you could read my mind”

wednesday 16 – checking eve’s front tyre which is flat and it seemed it is a genuine puncture, i thought at first, it had “unplattbar” tyres and inner tubes but this turned out to be on Sab’s bike

went to tower again to work

thursday 17 – dorothea and georg came round to discuss about the holiday:

deciding to book: Appartamento Trilocale A”Desenzano” (3-4 pax) – Von 19/08 bis 25/08 € 641.20 statt € 1042.00

sunday 20 – discussing with katie to try and make up for our contretemps, when i let off steam and have been so tired and feeling dispirited in decisions around the flat and not involving her or working to meet her aims.

Today’s Meditation
I am not here to pass judgement or point the finger at anyone.
My name was written in the sand as one who is forgiven.
Strengthened with hope, impervious to shame, I will walk freely like the freshness of the dry lands after rain.

Let light spill out of heaven through my life, dispelling mediocrity and silent blame.
Too many people, guilt-stricken, wounded, walk in regret, feeling bad about failing, apologise even for breathing.

Raw belief, a passion for others grows in me,
encircling each moment with instinctive prayer.
I will carry the freshness of the dry lands after rain.

Compassion lives in me again.

Andy Raine

this was a meditation sent by susan from northumbriacommunity.org

the 3 of us minus sabs end up at church where it’s pentecost sunday of course with lots of things to do in the service, then afterwards chatting with Graham and Ronald after the service and Ronald suggests listening to Don Moen’s music, checking tracks which stand out and for which there is music available:

monday 21, london – fly out to the uk for a course, which had actually been cancelled, i’d somehow missed the email about it

go for beer and meal at the black swan with pete in twickenham and stay over at the travelodge there

tuesday 22, london – staying over at john’s after day at bedfont lakes office

wednesday 23, london – after eating at the vegetarian restaurant near tesco’s in harrow, i bought some tea to take back and today’s Guardian with some interesting quotes:
“to see what is in front of one’s nose is a constant struggle” George Orwell, from:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/23/pensions-ethically-investment-city-money-social-environmental

and a quote about Google’s stated goal in G2: “to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” – could adapt to my goal with the family cloud setup.

thursday 24 – travelling back with john through terminal 5 at heathrow and see:
“travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts, broad, wholesome, charitable views, of men and things cannot be achieved by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one lifetime” mark twain
this long quote was shown for about 30 seconds during which the rest of the 10 minutes were meaningless adverts over and over again

delayed flight due to thunderstorms at the munich end

reading on the plane coming over, article on nashville with artists, kelly elson – folk, musgrave – country and laney – R&B, living there

we get through and take the S1 just before 11pm, 2-3 hours later than scheduled

monday 28 – go for meal with john at schwanthalerhoehe, an italian place which has taken over what i thought was where the bavarian place i quite liked, this place was expensive and poor service, although opposite a nice spanish restaurant maybe worth trying in the future

tuesday 29 – john flies back to the uk, accompany him to the airport

thursday 31 – holiday over here, corpus christi / fronleichnam