saturday 1 – didn’t sleep so well, got up at 4am and made a cup of tea, ate cheese and tuc biscuits, most unlike me for snacks in the night. katie was also feeling sick in the night.
helped the guy from the next flat but one along from ours with moving his stuff, some of which had stored in the hobby room to help out.
played half an hour basketball and table tennis with katie; she is quite good at both and demonstrates some of her netball skills from school; apparently she would have been in the hockey team only music took precedence on the saturday.
another wet day, there is flooding in some parts of bayern due to the week of solid rain we’ve had.
watched the dfb pokal (FA cup equivalent) between bayern and stuttgart, the latter making a game of it by hauling the match back to an entertaining 3 v 2 finish in berlin.

sunday 2 – went to church with the girls, early for a change
it was good sermon from anitra who talked about the choice between authority/power and soft-power, what i would now call self-autonomy or independence or simply love.
she asked an interesting question for us to consider a situation where we were controlled by an authority and how we felt … after some moments of reflection about work and bosses, i concluded that the most authortarian person i knew was my own critical self and this was so controlling, powerful and of course, not helpful.

held guitar lesson for all 3 and it seemed to go quite well overall

attempted to go to marienplatz for the triple celebrations but no trains were stopping there, so eve and i gave up and went home

katie and i went along to watch a thrilling basketball game, bayern winning 80 v 71, the match flowed from a 12 point lead, which bamberg hauled back at one point also leading by 6 points before bayern pulled back in the final quarter
kaite really seemed to enjoy it

monday 3 – went out to hallberg office
chatted about the news with others, most affected cities are passau and rosenheim (where a dam broke), regensberg is not so affected

got home and had to prepare a presentation so i tried it out on the girls, they were very good, since it was in german; positive and not so harsh, i think they enjoyed it and it helped bring us together for the evening, saby learning german for a test tomorrow and eve making notes on my mistakes, which i took with me to look at.

tuesday 4, frankfurt – reading about the floods in the SZ newspaper, particularly in passau on the danube where the water level has risen 12.75m, the last time it was so high was 12.2m in 1954; the only time it was recorded higher was 1501 when it reached 13m, normally with heavy rainfall it rises around 4m; passau is of course downstream, so it is particularly acute there, as it is in parts of eastern and south eastern germany.

Apparently, over the 3 or 4 days to Monday, 40% of the year’s rainfall has fallen.

wednesday 5, frankfurt – on a presentation training course led by wolfgang reck, which was very helpful for any training or teaching opportunities

thursday 6, frankfurt – met thomas at the hotel for breakfast, then went into work with rob to the office for the second day of the training
went for run round the arboretum near the hotel in the evening

friday 7, frankfurt – went for run in the morning to find the entrance to the old eschborn airport within the arboretum near the hotel where we were staying
got home via train journey at a reasonable time

monday 10 – katie goes into same klinik (arthemed) which i was at in order to have her varicose veins removed, so working at home for the next 3 days to assist with the children
eve and i go and visit katie in hospital and eat at the restaurant downstairs, they had a healthy selection as ever, there was a vegetarian pastry which we both loved

saturday 15 – clearing out unused trockenbau stuff which katie and i transport down to s-bahn bridge at the recycling point near margaretenplatz

monday 17, essen and düsseldorf – taking very early train up to essen for meetings, which went ok, then onto duesseldorf and later take the train to karslruhe
staying at a nice hotel, hotel rio, a nice 4 star hotel with decent room
ate at dean and david’s, for a nice salad

tuesday 18, karlsruhe – visiting for training and meetings, end up getting locked in server room alone with stefan twice, but it was ok in the end
ate at hotel restaurant then walk around to schlossplatz again to check a route for running, walked around northern part of schlossplatz where they were preparing for the stadtfest
passed a few interesting posters: a photo exhibition by students from nottingham (ayup me duck – this is nottingham) and also a poster about discovering science and interesting facts, effekte-karlsruhe.de
got to schlossplatz and there was good singer accompanied on accordion to the passenger song, which is on the playlists everywhere it seems
went back to read newspaper and have a glass of wine in the bar before retiring for bed

wednesday 19, karlsruhe – went for short run in the morning, then breakfast and into the training and meetings

friday 21, stuttgart – in stuttgart to deliver training which went quite well and enjoyed, relaxed and let folk contribute and participate.
was a journey from hell there and back, since bad weather had knocked a tree down and onto overhead power cables, had to divert via Donauwörth in both directions, got home at 8pm but fortunately everyone had waited.

saturday 22 – lazy morning as ever, recuperating from the week and girls up late as ever.
went with saby on the 53 bus – she was going to hohenzollernplatz, i went onto to muenchner freiheit and then took the u-bahn down to marienplatz

picked up stuff for stadtlauf tomorrow, then got some things from schuster’s in the jubilee sale they were holding with 20% off everything, needless to say knowing bayerns it was packed out since this was the last day, met up with jens who was looking at bike pedals.

sunday 23 – stadtlauf as ever on the third sunday of june; got all psyched up for breaking 50 minutes for the 10km but narrowly missed it and achieved 50m 40s, 43rd in age group out of 300, pretty pleased all in all, 850th in mens, 950th overall.
was ok on pace, at 29m 30s for the 5km but think my watch was not quite accurate on distance, have to adjust slightly. met up with tomas afterwards who had completed the half-marathon.

went back home to see eve, then onto church picnic near the rosengarten in west park, kept fine for a change. played football as ever with the inevitable challenge keeping from tripping over or injuring young children who were keen to play alongside, really enjoyed this and surprisingly managed to keep active and on my feet most of the time.

katie getting ready for going to the uk, so assisting with getting things ready and explained, eg. the DSL move.

monday 24 – went into office today, since katie was flying out to the uk to visit her mum and dad, she took the late flight so we were able to say our goodbyes and eat evening meal before she set off, quiche

tuesday 25 – got up early 5.30am in order to get ready and get the girls up for school, worked at home then cooked a meal which katie had prepared in the evening, spaghetti bolognese
setup the living room as a “war room” – waging war on exams, so that we had a bit more focus and fun

wednesday 26 – again up early with the stress of getting girls up and getting through the work

thursday 27 – eve has big biology schulaufgabe today
cooked prawns in cream with brocolli and rice, was quite nice, drowned the prawns a bit in cream but tasted quite nice and was easy to make, a slight mustard flavour

friday 28 – went into office, since katie was getting back today at 11am, she texts to say she got back a few mins before eve arrives back after having an earlier finish
didn’t get so much done, but it was good to meet up with rainer and discuss things
got back for 6.30pm and had the usual lazy friday night, we watched “crazy, stupid, love” – was good to have a laugh together, sabs also joined us

there’s an article in hoerzu about how to live 10 years longer than you would otherwise and in the process profit from more energy and fitness, here the 10 tips:
1) exercise ie. train your muscles, eg. some movement twice a week for 20 mins – reduces risk of problems from diabetes, reduces risk of high cholesterol and high blood pressure
2) drink eg. 2 litres daily, stops tiredness and lack of energy, but care with alcohol
3) fish eg. 2 fish meals per week which contain omega-3 acids which lightly dilute the blood and protect heart and brain
4) meditate – relaxes the brain, improves concentration and reduces stress
5) partner – build and develop the friendship
6) stay curious – travel, reading, project work
7) vitamin D – is the #1 anti-aging vitamin, helps guard against heart attacks, strokes, cancer and dementia
8) friendships – build and develop
9) apple a day – ie. 5 vegetable/fruit portions a day – contain anti-oxidants which neutralise the free radicals released from digestion which are harmful to cells
10) olive oil – raises “good” cholesterol and reduces “bad” cholesterol

saturday 29 – got up early and went for haircut then lazing about until 10 then set off to see saby in her dance performance – took the bike near to genfer platz
watched saby’s dance which was the first one, then all the rest – some good dances from the older ones, needless to say the younger ones can do anything and get clapped, whereas a minor fall by one of the ballet dancers on points was accompnanied by a sharp intake of breath – then sabs danced again in a spanish skirt, leading the dance it seemed in a better executed performance as far as I could see

researching the rules for triathlon in a week’s time because it seems it will be cold below 17 degrees it’s more or less wetsuits only, above 23 degrees, more or less no wetsuits, only as an exception

then a later article from DTU seems to suggest as low as 14 degrees before it is wetsuits only and above 21 degrees no wetsuits, then a later discussion suggests for tegernsee 16 degrees as the cutoff:

Neoprenpflicht:
Beim Audi Tegernsee Triathlon herrscht unterhalb einer Wassertemperatur von 16 Grad auf beiden Distanzen Neoprenpflicht.

katie had got another film , this time “Lincoln” which I’d wanted to see for a long time, but was dreadfully slow-moving and detailed, like they said on the bbc programme front row, it should have been called “the 13th amendment” since that was what it was mainly about and not about lincoln

sunday 30 – taking class in sunday school, compared the tour de france route this year with the travels of paul, only had 2 in the class, but it was just as challenging and still good fun

REVIEW – facts, links, quotes and summaries

Mercury is visible to 12 June in the west between 10 and 10.30pm
Saturn visible in the south

wind power

there are over 20,000 wind turbine installations in service in germany (uk 4,000), 80% of the turbine consists of steel and turbines currently (2012) generate about 10% of the country’s total requirement.
they are located mainly in the north and offshore is the minority until technical problems are resolved.
the mechanics are that the blades turn at 6 to 20 revs per minute and this is geared up to between 900 to 2000 revolutions per minute on the turbine shafts.
source: mobil DB Bahn magazine, 06.2013 supplement called Faszination Stahl, refer:
www.zukunft-beginnt-mit-stahl.de

relevant also here is the ability to store the energy, here another reference:
STENSEA – stored energy in the sea – a method for storing energy in 30m hollow balls of concrete to release energy from offshore windparks when needed; per ball 20MW performance with 80% efficiency.
source: Die Welt – Juni 2013 Elektroindustrie Sonderausgabe

interesting source of good ideas and thoughts:
http://www.goodnet.org
http://www.wowtalks.tv

then:
http://www.sixtysymbols.com/videos/minute_physics.htm
which is also on youtube
sixty symbols is good for astronomy stuff
http://www.periodicvideos.com/
is good for chemistry stuff

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2011/05/16/steve-jobs-get-rid-of-the-crappy-stuff/

link
link from wolfgang reck – NYT: relax and you’ll be more productive:

some of the comments are great too:

The hours of folly are measured by the clock / But the hours of wisdom, no clock can measure

–William Blake.

Endurance athletes are taught that the body improves in Recovery (rest) and actually becomes less fit during the work phase. Work tears the body down, and through rest your body will restore and super compensate, making the athlete stronger in their next work phase. Training (work) makes you less fit, and sleeping and doing as little as possible actually rebuilds the body (makes you more fit) following the work phase. The best endurance athletes in the world are also some of the laziest people on the planet, and that is by design. As a coach, I tell my athletes that when they work to go as hard as possible, and when they rest – do nothing.

The problem with the contemporary workplace is that it’s 21st tech combined with a 1950s mentality.

also led to investigating:

finally

There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.

There is within each of us a potential for goodness beyond our imagining, for giving which seeks no reward; for listening without judgment; for loving unconditionally.

by Elisabeth Kübler-Ros
http://www.greatwomen.org/component/fabrik/details/2/221

literature
good article about how we “consume” the written word by jonathan at:
http://www.writingwestmidlands.org/2013/06/20/what-writing-is-worth/

“For any reader or listener to give any attention to any writing – written, performed, broadcast, digitised – requires that they give up something else.”

Reminds me of that programme on telly called “Why don’t you switch off your TV set and go and do something less boring instead?” …

Read any good books lately?
I must spend hours consuming the written text, I mean most of the “free” content we consume these days, is just chewing gum rather than wholesome food.

Time I got off t’internet, time and money is finite.

Writing West Midlands, blog:
http://www.writingwestmidlands.org/tag/writing-west-midlands-team-blog/

democracy
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/publications/

Which 2 countries do these quotes make you think of:
“… no democratic accountability. I have lived in 4 different areas … and have never cast a winning vote in 45 years.”
“… dominated by both () parties neither of whom could win more than 50% of the votes cast, yet they govern at every level through the divine right of the two party system”
China and Iran perhaps?

It’s England and Wales and the quotes are from a recent investigation:
http://action.electoral-reform.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1754&ea.campaign.id=21160

It all happens thanks to the anachronism of the first-past-the-post voting system (FPTP) used for UK national and England&Wales council elections.

Another person in the survey puts it more bluntly:
“In FPTP, only the votes cast for the winning party count. As a result, a huge majority of votes do not get translated into seats.
In other words, unless you vote for the winning party, your vote is wasted.
On these grounds, ANY allocation of seats through FPTP is illegitimate, since it only represents the views of a minority”

And this is correct – the ERS analysis of the 2010 UK election concludes what is happening with FPTP:
“The normal pattern is now for two MPs out of every three to lack the support of a majority of local voters, and an increasing number not to reach 40 per cent support.
No MP returned in any of the last three elections has had the support of a majority of the local electorate.”

‘Politics is too important to be left to politicians’:
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/images/dynamicImages/PeoplesGatheringWEB.pdf
trend is likely to continue

It was a more or less fair system when there were actually just 2 parties to choose from, but it is hopelessly flawed in modern democracies, particularly in Europe now, where there are many parties to choose from.
Certainly all other democratic countries where there are more than 2 parties represented use a fairer system as far as I know, so unless you live in China, Iran or England and Wales of course, your democratic rights are being trampled on.

topics for longer focus and reflection
– personal responsibility and why there’s a need to change from authoritarian to loving
– german power generation developments
– finance and how we got it all wrong