thursday 1 – katie hands out names in the mixing bowl to select names for whom one has to buy a present for – so up to 20€ on each person (practice is called “wichtel” in german)

katie’s was a replacement NIV bible
sabs – buntstifte, lamy
me – spaetzle press
forgotten eve’s

go for swim in the evening which works out ok, some comments to work on:
backstroke legs – widen the arms out to stretch out the shoulders
breastroke – arms and legs kick together, again straighten shoulders, pull chin in to assist in this

crawl – follow through only so far back with the hands, then pull arm out, high and angle over without over-reaching but placing hands out slightly wide
head should be down with chin tucked in, wave goes over head and hips are raised nearer surface – also when spotting to find direction

keep head down
not too high looking forward, not too low looking down – experiment, use of snorkel to remove breathing disturbance
when breathing only turn (not lift) the head, almost looking behind and with only one eye out of water, try:


or very good for mistakes in freestyle:

summary:
look to bottom of pool – look down or at a slight angle only, NOT forward
rotate – upper body from side to side – extend arm until feel rotation
keep legs straight – kicking all the way from hips
fingertips downward – pull straight with fingertips pointing straight down towards bottom of pool
breathe early – eg. as hand enters water for pull, NOT late

friday 2 – working through some chords for band practice and ensuring getting fixed-sized fonts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samples_of_monospaced_typefaces

reasonable practice including u2’s “peace on earth”, reasonable first attempt, but later find that it’s hopelessly out from where the words line up with the chords

saturday 3 – got up early and listening to an interview about bullying with Eddie Mayr, how the person through therapy, had become able to go back to confronting the actual bullying and receive strength from it – completely altering their perspective and gaining strength from these times of weakness.

Then someone visiting an estate which was finally being restored to its original Capability Brown design with a quote from him:
“since it is denied us to live a long life, let us show that we have lived.”

went up sendlingerstr for a present at calzedonia (after much searching, find the lacy ones eve had said that kats wanted), interesting that most places only open at 10am in town

come back and work on the words and chords for “peace on earth”

we all watch strictly come dancing in the evening

sunday 4 – up early to get croissants and presents out and ready then we celebrate around the breakfast table

there were 3 birthdays sung for at church – elishah, joel and ruth

we go to the concert in the evening at kupferhaus in planegg, via the u-bahn to klinikum grosshadern and then the 266 bus, katie and girls really enjoyed the concert there, some challenging pieces and wonderfully vocalisations, dynamics and piano/percussion accompaniment. They were using 2 boom mics at the back for the men, 4 mic’s across the main lines of women in the choir, then 3 mic’s at the front for the vocalists

we get back around 10.45 and switch on strictlycome dancing show to catch the results

monday 5 – went for half hour run to see how the knee is, seems ok, just a bit stiff i think

go to wittelsbacherplatz with guan, thorsten and ingo for drink at the weihnachtsmarkt there, bump in to the rest of frank’s crew
there was a pegida demo going on in odeonsplatz, loads of police there, but when the small group of demonstrators turned up for a read out speech, which was being drowned out by other demonstrators outside the cordon, it was clear that there were 10x as many police as demonstrators – looked like they were clearing the roads all the way up to hauptbahnhof for them

come back fairly early since it was so cold!

started watching old version of fliegende klassenzimmer, alone since no one else is interested in it!

tuesday 6 – unusually eve was upset in the evening about teachers putting her on the spot with questions which she finds hard to answer in a quick moment, especially biology teacher who is generally mistrustful of students that they want to learn, sounds like she is in the wrong profession!

wednesday 7 – go to guitar and there is a lot of note reading, some in A major with sharps at F, C and G; quite difficult to play along and needs some practice!

pack for leaving tomorrow and have lovely supper with borek, pflanzerl, spinach, salad and bread

listen to sab’s preparation of her referat on desertification, she was remarkably composed when offering comments on how to improve and make clearer, mainly the causes which were over population resulting in removal of wood for fuel, increased agriculture and over grazing, plus lowered water level due to drainage of rivers and wells

thursday 8, clitheroe – up and on my way to office so that I’m ready to make a dash for the plane at 3pm

found an interesting book in the office clearing out pile, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni and started reading it; also picked out some McKinsey Quarterly Reviews, which had caught my eye.

Staying overnight at the rose and crown:
http://www.theroseandcrownhotelclitheroe.com/
nice room, went to the swan and royal for cheese and onion pie evening meal which was quite substantial

friday 9, clitheroe and skipton – round to bright street to meet with geoff, then to howdens to go through design with paige, then back to bright street and onto skipton via manor house to drop in on visiting mabel, than my mum

went on to maplins in bradford to get cat6 cabling and went for swim with the masters club

finished off with 3 too many beers with jamie at the WMC, good talk about families, worries and how to deal with them

saturday 10, clitheroe and skipton – drove back over to clitheroe to go through data cabling with geoff, then back to M&F to drop off for exchanging couple of things which weren’t right, then on to have lunch with mum

then mostly driving round to pick up extra stuff for the house, 2x hdmi cables from B&Q, which also had data cabling and is good on price

went out for meal at le caveau with the masters swimmers, had local haggis followed by goats curd on polenta, followed by christmas pud – was good to talk with andy, ian, paul, stuart and simon, got chatting with simon about rhubarb and he recommends stem ginger to sweeten plus or minus honey in its pure form or preferably in granola, then making into a crumble

let myself down with a rant about brexit as the final conversation in le caveau and should have left but went back to wolly sheep for another so back late and disturbing margaret to get back in

sunday 11, clitheroe and skipton then back home from manchester airport –

went to the 9.15am service at the baptists, then wandered up town where there was a christmas market going on and got last bit of cabling needed from the BEK’s place on the high street, to finally find a 2m usb cable and tos link to go between dining room and kitchen – at last a plan comes together – all digital interfaces being used now!

went back to devonshire and had breakfast/brunch with margaret and family – she provided the bed, so i provided the breakfast

jobs to clarify with geoff:
cabling – 8 ports and exact positions, dual skt understairs, telephone master socket, 4x doubles – numbering

kitchen electrics

radiators, which new and how many

get back fairly late home

monday 12 – working at home

tuesday 13 – out to office

wednesday 14 – last lesson of guitar class until 18th january
quite a lot of note learning in A major with 2 sharps, pretty challenging

thursday 15 – out for lunch with guys from telefonica and akamai, then out to garching to look around new building, then weihnachtsfeier and wichtel present

friday 16 – practicing at band, scott’s last practice
go for beer with graham at tarullos, near sendlinger tor

saturday 17 – few jobs eg going to bauhaus and getting christmas tree from rewe (eve trusts me, she text katie, which is reassuring), having said that it was a spontaneous decision, based on seeing quite a bit longer tree lying in the pile for sale at 25€

go to andy and sue’s for evening meal, with graham, cathy and dan

sunday 18 – say our goodbyes to scott, watching most of strictly final with katie

monday 19 – for sabs card, i painstakingly, for me at least, copy out the notes from:

https://www.8notes.com/scores/15676.asp

discussion with Geoff to agree
if radiator is ok – Lyta T, 1.866m x 48cm to right of recess kitchen and dining room – should be OK

ok with back bedroom radiator being one which is in dining room

best to install toilet when there, so can see exactly where/how to fit

plan:
kitchen and bath enamelling during week commencing 16th jan – need to check 1st with dave johnston and enamellers

send most of cards out today

tuesday 20 – out at GBR

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another than the one where they sprang up” Oliver Wendell Holmes

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237446

or our Oliver’s response to the Berlin lorry crash at the christmas market:
“Mitgefühl, Respekt und Freiheit sind meine wichtigsten Werte”

watch white christmas film with eve and katie

wednesday 21 – looking for book to study:
ulrich cuber: linux scripting, franzi
or
helmut herold: linux/unix profitools, addison-wesley

perhaps check at gasteig library

thursday 22 – working on the concept that it’s when we are ignored, that we get really motivated to do something and this can be a positive kick to action

so another quote as many folks are leaving at the moment:
Nichts ist beständiger als der Wandel.
nothing is more endurable than change

John Chambers answered the question:
“How much risk is acceptable in managing market transitions?“
as follows:
“The penalty for missing them is much more than the risk of going after them aggressively“

eve leaves to overnight at finja’s

went to swimming, stephan still off ill
great session and getting some underwater camera shots and tips:
bend arms under body (can go wider, not nec. under body)
too much rolling going on, esp. from waist down
am lifting the head to breathe, which is a No-No and likely the CAUSE of the rolling about laterally (however rotation longitudinally is desired, of course)

tried thereafter to focus more on keeping stable, non-rolling body and it came to me:
that in order to get the natural rotation of the shoulders, that these should lightly drive any body rotation needed from the front, otherwise the body should be in a line, rotating in the same plane through the water

it felt ok!

friday 23 – sabs up for late start at school on last day
fix problem with hearing drums through headphones and she is over the moon!

still practising peace on earth the u2 song for sunday, deciding against any picking, just chords for simplicity and correct timing/rhythm

listening to bruce springsteen on desert island discs, notes
van morrison’s madame george (joy)’astral weeks’, gave idea for new york serenade
amazing control over band and completely drug free environment, came from unstructured, chaotic childhood
joe kline’s biography of woodie guthrie, would be a good read

band practice goes reasonably well in the evening

saturday 24 – get liquids in from rewe, then travel to place at golierplatz for isarkindl beers, celery, sage and on way back get some chestnuts for the stuffing mix, also veg stock, so am about ready

settle on sofa to rest/get 40 winks

katie goes to service to play at martha maria and arrives back around 4pm, at which point we, well mainly eve and i, decorate the tree together, sabs and kats helping too

next it’s off to the church service at 6pm and we have to get there early to setup for the small soiree which katie and christine had planned

went well upstairs, most got eaten – sausage rolls, snacks and mince pies, christmas cake was left

sunday 25 – band playing at the service, get through u2’s peace on earth ok, well katie said so

monday 26 – we go to cafe westend in the evening for nice meal, have camembert, katie a gourmet salad

watch an episode of downton abbey with eve and kats when we get back

tuesday 27 – working at home, difficult to get started, but learning some shell scripting which is interesting

watch house with sabs and kats in the evening

wednesday 28 – get tip from guan:

magicformulainvesting.com

saturday 31 – round at anke’s to celebrate with annette and guenther