thursday 1 – girls still away until tomorrow on chorfahrt
tired when getting up at 6.30am and starting work around 9.30am, usual slow start after the week in the uk

friday 2 – again working at home

saturday 3 – go out to lehel for lovely evening out in the late sunshine, looking out over the rooftops, lot of folks from church there, enjoyable evening

sunday 4 – whitsunday
passing on some information about passive houses:
cepheus.de

monday 5 – late start, doing some work downstairs then go to church to investigate sounds problems, fix graham’s amp and look into the bass amp, taking away the top pre-amp for repair, both issues turn out to be mains issues – faulty plug and broken cable

tuesday 6 – went out to the office, saw dan and valerio, changed monitors over and helped another guy, jan who gave some ideas for the future lounge

then some surfing before the upcoming election, some promising work for the future, doubt it will have much impact this time:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/06/democracy-theres-an-app-for-that-the-tech-upstarts-trying-to-hack-british-politics

having started reading about:
The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains Wh… (Kindle Edition) by Dean Burnett

wednesday 7 – today’s read
https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/apr/29/the-austerity-delusion

thursday 8 – get some spam about:

Vorsicht Spam: Tatsachenfindung für – Zahlung an Sato Seino -Aldermore Bank PLC

friday 9 – morning after the election, got up at around 4.30am fully expecting to hear about a majority of 40+ for the tories, was confounded (again) that tall poll predictions were completely wrong, apart from the one poll from yougov which pointed to a hung parliament as late as tuesday.

then some more reading material
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/06/magic-money-tree-theresa-may-banks-nurses
Robert Fulghum (Texas politician): “It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber”.

speaking with katie, she says people have reacted against may’s approach of a bossy, autocratic style where they would have no input, brits are not like the style which may espoused, being more conciliatory and compromising in negotiations: people want to have a say

i feel that the original proposition that the country is rallying around (her view of a hard) brexit, whereas parliament wasn’t, was as delusional as thinking that only she could deliver a success of brexit negotiations

caroline lucas interviewed about the arrogance and insulting attitude of may during the campaign

looking at vote shares, 42% and 40%, these are incredible results for con and lab; the missing 5% in the lab polling, was likely made up of younger voters who weren’t showing up in surveys, or were but this time came out determinedly

so basically, everyone rallied round a bipolar decision which may phrased as between and corbyn and voters followed that, it was her or against her and folk were determined not to have their vote wasted, they wanted it to count.

seems what folk were voting against was a hard brexit and more austerity.

my conclusion: don’t think it is a good idea for another quick election in 6 or 12 months, the tories will be good at getting it done from an administrative point of view and now with a balanced parliament (largely made up of remainer MPs), maybe this is the best outcome for the parliamentary scrutiny of the brexit deal which has to take place – now the deal will have to be good to get MPs to vote for it – and of course, it will mean a softer and more successful brexit imho, ironical that the one big-sticking point for the EU was the NI question and now the people most-affected will be represented (DUP) so directly at negotiations

may has tried to outflank corbyn (by pulling a fast one after getting him to wave through brexit based on a parliamentary vote, then trying to stuff parliament so her/any version of brexit will get waved through by a huge tory presence at westminster) and to bully the electorate into giving her a mandate (was all about her), but those people against it, wanted to make sure their voices were heard, so voted tactically/strategically to make sure their votes counted

her stubborness and failings (refusing to debate/engage, giving lies and stock answers, refer ‘nothing has changed’ on social care when it clearly had and ‘magic money tree’ which is patronising and ducks a real concern, refer link) hardened the resolve of folks who disagreed

listening to some other voices on the radio 4 analyses:
– students and the young voting in force, for sure a factor in Canterbury where the uni was active getting voters to register
– the number of people who were swayed back to labour, put off by the dementia tax (social care costs) and stopping school dinners

for a technical analysis:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2017/jun/09/theresa-may-election-gamble-fail-conservatives-majority-polls

saturday 10 – really tired, didnt do very much apart from putting mirror up in eve’s room and lazing around on the sofa, becoming a couch dad

we all went to hans im gluck at westend in the evening, was wonderful to have a meal out together which eve suggested, was like old times

got back around 8.30pm, girls watched a film, manchester by the sea and said it was good/uusual, that i would have liked it, instead practised guitar until 9.30pm then went to bed early

sunday 11 – got up early and went for long run, around 1 hour after a good sleep, i had the same thoughts as these 2:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/11/this-new-parliament-provides-a-clear-opportunity-for-electoral-reform

band playing today, seemed to go well graham said
sabs was taking the all-age story, eljah on the mountain, played by elishah and i had to play an angel in a big white cape, went ok

took kids into park during sunday school, hannah and merle wanting to learn guitar, so we tried blowin’ in the wind

came back resting outside and then looking at phones for sabs:
https://www.amazon.de/Sony-Smartphone-TFT-Display-Dual-Core-Megapixel-schwarz/dp/B00DG91BLE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
for me:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01J6DKKG0/ref=psdc_3468301_t3_B01KM191IS

and changing the phone over:
https://www.o2online.de/ecare/?contentId=mnp_portierungsformular

plus to order sony BDP-6700 at 120€

monday 12 – working at gbr with tom and guan

talking with sabs about fusion and eve got frustrated because she couldnt break in on the conversation, sabs fault but i should have listened to what was going on

tuesday 13 – looking at fights in the summer:
https://www.flybmi.com/

working at home, then jetting off after lunch for flight at 4pm, S8 up the swanny with SEV but forunately katie had alerted me

nice flight with BA, even they are charging for drinks and snacks on board now

got 140 out to john, needless to say nothing has changed, still a tip, in fact looking worse than ever, since i hadn’t been to clear up in a long time, not sure when last visit was, but clearly too long ago

john came back late from his singing

wednesday 14 – reading about dylan’s nobel prize speech and someone claiming he had cribbed some from these type of summary sites (check graun for first site quoted)
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/

went to lunch with kawan and stefan:
shoryuramen.com

we ate some of the cakes he’d got from last night, allegedly to give to homeless, but ended up eating, well what was still edible, throwing the rest away

have been letting him see the covey 7 habits video on “big rocks”, not sure the penny has dropped yet

thursday 15 – after breakfast and a bit of a clearout, we have the bank meeting and get a few statements, checking no more direct debits

we get lunch at costa’s and then go round dropping his CV off and applying for jobs online from the jobs centre

start getting a few details together for the tax return

we go out quite late, what a surprise, and eat at the usual chinese place

john has found out that one of the umpteen top-up vouchers was not activated and is now in reasonable credit, so we decide to leave phone as a simple pay as you go

friday 16 – get up fairly early and have alpen for breakfast then get stuck into the tax return, fortunately via ipass, there is internet access!

clean windows inside and out in the front room, leave john finishing off when he came back from jumblies

we knock a bucket of water over which drenches me a little, laugh and refill, we probably use around 5 bucketfuls

sometimes john really shows me the problems i have with getting rid of stuff, is easier to clear out someone else’s junk, but not one’s own!

reading the horrific verdicts of the years of neglect, ignorance and penny-pinching:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/16/grenfell-tower-rebuke-right-rampant-inequality
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/16/theresa-may-scared-grenfell-survivors-finished-austerity-cameron-osborne
precipitated perhaps by:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/15/grenfell-tower-red-tape-safety-deregulation

saturday 17 – tired out, but cant sleep and get up 6.30am to feed lizzy then laze around, practice a bit of guitar and unpack

laze around then do a bit of work downstairs

we sit outside for evening meal and there’s a party going on at the far end of the hof
eve mentions about german names, which could never be in english, mr bigman, mr friday etc, bit like the mr men books
we get talking about frickin’ and mention it should be a brand or a supermarket label, maybe ridiculous also, one for sweet stuff, one for savoury, so then you could have sweet and sour frickin’ ridiculous chicken and we all burst out laughing

sunday 18 – go for short run, before getting croissants

helping sabs with her software issue with the Adobe InDesign for the school magazine

go for swim before tea and achieve 50 lengths, instead of the usual 40, want to ramp it up a little

getting music for next song at:
http://www.musicnotes.com/free/
quite a good source

monday 19 – work from home then travel out to pasing for biergarten treffen with joerg’s team at:
http://speisemeisterei-la-trattoria.de
met with reinhold and rares, was a nie evening

tuesday 20 – up reasonably early and travel to frankfurt on train for on-site work, 4 hours there, 4 hours on-site, 4 hours back, long day!

wednesday 21 – guitar course went ok, hanging on
there was an interesting discussion on story-telling techniques:
http://www.dramaticresources.co.uk/

thursday 22 – out to office and drove back with rares

it is the more together week so we had a couple of meetings, oliver presenting first to all-hands, then all-services

went swimming and we did 15 minutes extra which is helpful at the moment, still too much time on style training, but managed to get 400m done, more or less in one stint, since need to build up some endurance pdq

friday 23 – band practice went ok but we are no good on this new song (yet) and didnt try it, went for beer with graham and joseph afterwards

saturday 24 – few jobs at bauhaus and staples, after picking up stuff for the run tomorrow
went to rino and vanda for evening meal

sunday 25 – up early but without breakfast to set off to stadtlauf, struggled round with poor time: 02:17:12 Platz (AK) 178
rested at home as it really took it out of me, results
Platz (M/W) 3025
Platz (AK) 178
Platz (Gesamt) 4153
Zielzeit (Netto) 02:17:12

monday 26 – watched eve go off to the ökofahrt she has planned until wednesday, on the way to hannah’s and school, sabs comes down and goes in the opposite direction

katie leaves for uk, sabs and i have tea together

tuesday 27 – at the conference:

Program

was good, lots of notes, here some about the desk yoga:

google fine
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/27/google-braces-for-record-breaking-1bn-fine-from-eu

ransomware
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/27/petya-ransomware-attack-strikes-companies-across-europe

get back after conference and chat with sabs over tea of the dall/soup.

wednesday 28 – sabs leaves bit earlier and say goodbye from the bathroom, she has that cheeky smile i remember as she was a child

come back from guitar, my playing was awful letting our side down and monica in the lurch – sabs has some friends round asi, theresa and paul

eve studying her physics and i make some extra salad as she is tired after her return

didnt press any questions on her as she was pre-occupied but she later told a lovely story of how on a 3 hour walk into the woods they came across some freshly “hatched” tiny frogs

thursday 29 – up early after poor sleep due to the chinese torture of the drip drip of the water onto the metal window sill
eve gets up and see her off to her bike she gives a smile, she has the physics test first thing

katie back this evening around tea time, catch up a little, then go swimming
have a good session doing lots of alternate backstroke / crawl lengths to try and build up some stamina
have to think about reaching/stretching the arms out wide, grabbing the water and puling back, avoiding the tendency to go over and then the hands dive too deep
go out not over with arms

friday 30 – went to
http://richtigmessen.de/
to get weather station for eve – about 5 years after she really wanted one!
band practice went ok, went for beer at tarullos with graham
practised country roads and american pie, ended up cutting my finger on the high E string