wednesday 1 – relaxing day spent at home lounging about, watching the film “trouble in the curve” with clint eastwood and amy adams, then the football match, with bayern playing barcelona off the field in terms of goals, 3 v 0, but actually a very exciting end-to-end game with fast turnarounds and breaks.
thursday 2 – got up later than expected for work and drizzle so didn’t go into the office, watching katie trying to plat eve’s hair and laughing since she wouldn’t keep still and she goes off with brolly skipping along the street to meet up with hanna, also with brolly; maybe they take the bikes to school tomorrow when it is supposed to be sunnier.
friday 3 – worked at home again and went for swim beforehand.
sabbie went out with lisa and anke to watch the dance performance which included tim.
slept in eve’s room for a change.
saturday 4 – in the hof, a group of people, mainly families who use the sandpit etc were digging up to plant a hedge and working hard, then having a bbq, which was interesting to watch, but glad i didn’t volunteer, enough other jobs and there were enough others taking i would have only been in the way. did some work in the office, then recording the children’s voices using audacity and getting this to work on the usb digital interface, alexis io|2, which worked ok. fixed up eve’s curtain rail, which had come down again.
sunday 5 – helping sabbie with her english project, recording some radio extracts from northern ireland, wales – with welsh and english extracts, scotland and england, plus the national anthem.
later packing for the trip to ulm and trying to get to bed on time, very tired.
monday 6, ulm – took train to ulm, walking with sabs along s-bahn platform and then missing her to say goodbye, made mistake of discussing the referat which she was doing about the uk. short train journey for a change and then running a training session with mile, which went ok, then we started doing some practical work and ended up going backwards and staying until 8pm, then out for meal at the hacker-pschorr wirtshaus adjacent to the hotel where we were staying, nice and central, the stern hotel.
tuesday 7, ulm – went for a run down the fischerviertel in ulm and along the river donau, with a wall, a bit like york in a way.
then at work fixing some problems, not so successful had the feeling we were going backwards, but everything did eventually booted up ok. went for meal in the fischerviertel at a nice restaurant and eventually had a golden ochsen beer, the brewery which i had so often seen from the train on the way to/from stuttgart, there was another decent beer there, berg bier from just outside ulm. ulm is strange in being in baden-wurttemberg, but across the donau in neu ulm, it’s bayern, so a nice mix of competing identities.
wednesday 8, ulm – carrying on the training and made a few mistakes in terms of explanations, but had the sense to correct myself and not feel too bad about it. discussing with katie who gave a few nice quotes from a book recommended by amazon to her, “Native Wisdom for White Minds”, Anne Wilson Schaef, here some provoking quotes:
Success is not always the best teacher. When we can see our mistakes not as failures, but as opportunities for learning, life becomes much, much easier. It is only in a perfectionistic society that mistakes are seen as ‘bad’. It is only in a society based on the illusion of control that people come to believe that by sheer will they can control their lives and the lives of others to such as extent that they can prevent mistakes. All systems based on the illusion of control are addictive systems.
Cultures that live in peace with life focus on participation with life, not on control.
Wisdom starts with mistakes
page 95 says;
‘The Creator designed us to learn by trial and error. The path of life we walk is very wide. Everything on the path is sacred-what we do right is sacred-but our mistakes are also sacred, To criticise ourselves when we make mistakes is not the Indian way. To learn fro our mistakes is the Indian way.
The definition of a spiritual person is someone who makes 30-50 mistakes each day and talks to the Creator after each one to see what to do next time. This is the way of the warrior.’ Don Coyhis, Mohican Writer and Consultant American Indian.
There is no way to walk our path and not make mistakes. We Westerners are often told that we are our mistakes or even that we are a mistake. This is not the Indian way.
We only have mistakes in our life so that we can learn. The bigger our mistakes, the greater our possibilities for learning.
However, we are not alone in our mistakes. When we seek counsel with the Great Spirit after each one, we don’t need to do that one again.
When I accept that I make mistakes and I am not a mistake, I am on the spiritual path.
also:
Sometimes we forget our potential. We become so wrapped up in the muckiness of living day to day that we becomes like eagles whose talons are stuck in tar.
Each new day brings us the opportunity to remember that each one of us is a reflection of the divine. Our inner beings know this – they never forget.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that does its best to help us forget our most basic inner knowing. We need to remember, not dismember, our divine.
Our reflection of the divine is ever present. With our divinity comes responsibility.
When I remember this everything is possible.
and:
We Westerners are full of questions: what did it say? what does it mean? how do you know? our mechanistic science has taken it upon itself to understand and then to control nature.
It takes a lot of listening to hear what the rocks are saying.
all from “Native Wisdom for White Minds”, Anne Wilson Schaef.
thursday 9 – went for super 30km cycle ride around olympiapark, following the route as far as possible and trying to get used to the sections to be careful on etc, managed to split the route into a few phases: an out of the saddle section which is slightly uphill section, a careful bit for freewheeling around the olympic stadium, a section where it would make sense to take a drink, a long section to get some speed up, followed by a section to wind up the cadence, then back into the uphill section and getting out of the saddle again.
watched an interesting film about louise haye which katie is getting into, then we went out for a walk over the wiesen and arriving at the fünfhöfe via the new hofstatt, which is modelled very similarly on fünfhöfe.
we saw the exhibition about “schinkel”, a famous preussian architect/designer/painter, living from 1781 to 1841 and being very prolific, well-travelled and designing with such detail and symmetry, taking inspiration from historical/classical works and making use of his travel through italy and later france and england. in england, he’d been sent to study how the brits were advancing their manufacturing and design efforts and his notebook covered some industrial techniques from the potteries and black country, newcastle-on-trent and dudley. interesting that germany took a very definite attempt to copy from the brits in order to bring industrialisation and wealth to germany/prussia at that time. schinkel was also a theatre/stage designer and there was a demo of his stage set for depicting the fire of moscow, covering napoleon’s demise after september 1812.
friday 10 – work from home/office, go for swim and get soaked on the bike, even using the cape – need a mudguard at the back
have lunch at haralds with eve, uneventful day, getting stuff done and working late, usual pizza and wine for dinner
saturday 11 – go to real to buy stuff for the bike, including a mudguard for my bike and stand for katie’s, plus some lights, spend some time putting them on the bike and generally getting ready for tomorrow
got haircut as well, another benefit of going to real and get a basketball and a simple table tennis set
went to bed way too late and didn’t really have enough to eat with respect to carbs, could have done a bit more on both aspects really as better preparation
sunday 12 – big day for the olympiapark triathlon – get going eventually at around 12.30pm instead of 11.30am – just enough time for the clouds to congregate and give plenty of rain for the cycling, so all the stuff is wet when i get out from swimming to change; still the cycling goes pretty well and it’s good to actually overtake a few MTBs with the racing bike; the run was not so good and not able to get much speed up, Jens overtakes me and Peter is slowly catching me up. Finish with times as follows:
swim: 07:44
T1:
cycle: 44:
T2:
run: 29:18
total 01:24:20
nearly 2-3 mins on each changeover, think when i compare with the elite athletes, they are taking around a minute here – could do some work on this, an easy way to make up 2-4 mins per race, eg. by using a triathlon all-in-one!
overall 33rd in age group (senior 3) out of 60, so overall not bad really, pleased with the swimming and cycling, running i didn’t feel as if i had much power
after leaving olympic swim hall, cycled back to go to last 10 mins of playing time, which took around half an hour of elapsed time to watch fcb basketball beat alba berlin in the 3rd straight victory and thus go thru to the semi-finals of the play-offs. an exciting match, the players wait around at the end and lap it up with the fans in the standing area.
back home to handover eve (and sabbie’s) old bike to klaus and becky, well the bike is for becky of course, who will use it for getting thru the cycling proficiency test (which is done on rider and bike).
have tea and clean the racing bike and other stuff which are completely muddied up wet from racing.
help eve with her german, which is to write one and a half pages on the solar system – i’d earlier drawn a plan of it on A3 paper to help her after we’d discussed it also on saturday evening too.
went round to feierwerk to watch support group “baeckeraids” before “peace” from birmingham. have to say a case of the support group sounding better than the main, they had a real merseybeat sound, good lyrics and something to say; found peace good, wall of guitar noise and effects, the slow numbers were better; overall quite a good concert, around 200 people max, cycled back home using the new lights for bike.
monday 13 – recovering from the exertions yesterday and paying for it in terms of tiredness, not wanting to get stuff done and generally sleepiness
worked from home/office
die Welt newspaper had an article about Frankfurt being the most dangerous city in germany and i thought, is that really news to anyone? sometimes the understatement in the headlines over here is laughable.
tuesday 14 – made it into the office
wednesday 15 – again in the office, then rainer gives me a lift home, in time for katie to go to a COM meeting and i get the mcdonalds stuff for us 3 and stay at home with sabs and eve, making the usual rounds of offering tea to them in their rooms, scurrying away on the internet.
thursday 16 – train to stuttgart and there for the kicker/bar football competition, teamed up with simon and i was hopeless in attack or defence, didn’t win a match, but it was good fun, took next to last train back, since it was delayed so much and i was early for the very last train.
friday 17 – saw eve off to school on the bike, waiting with her until hannah turned up, a little later, then worked from home/office and brought lunch back from haralds for eve and me.
saturday 18 – went round to hannah’s with eve for her to feed the tortoises, berti and willi, very slow and sweet
then she is restless and keen to do something, so instead of going as suggested to real to buy some sports things, i went with her into westpark and we spent a wonderful hour playing basketball, badminton and table tennis – we weren’t very good in anything but she did manage to get some rhythm when i placed the ball to her backhand with table tennis.
went later to real . katie texted me about the date – our 17th wedding aniversary and i missed a stop in replying
wasted some more time and money at real, same as last week!
it was a good decision to go with the flow and simply do something active/sporty – she said earlier she wanted to get up earlier in the hols and not waste time on the computer late at night.
we went to the hopfengarten beergarten in the evening and saw steffi from next door with the family including benni, explained about the basketball nearby had a steckerlfisch which was expensive but very meaty and tasty.
sunday 19 – took eve to church since she was reading
came back and relaxed a little, very tired, recovering from all my recent sporting exertions as katie says
eve goes round to ilda’s then we all have tea together.
monday 20 – go round to tortoises with eve and katie, then we go into west park again for first table tennis, which was not so successful as last time, then some badminton on eve’s birthday field.
we then go on a long walk over to rosengarten where eve has an ice cream, then we come back and the basketball court is free, so we play a little, katie and eve against me, which they win 10 v 6 – eve and i have both improved which rounds off a successful morning.
mess about in the afternoon, do some work preparation and get ready for the week ahead/away.
tuesday 21, hallbergmoos then in car to go to eschborn near frankfurt – in the office at hallbergmoos first, then we take the car to eschborn.
wednesday 22, eschborn near frankfurt – in meetings most of the day, then take train to ulm via lift to frankfurt airport from mile, only just made the train since it was delayed 10 mins.
staying at hotel stern in the centre, watched FC Bayern basketball easily beat Bamberg with tyrese rice playing a dominant role.
thursday 23 – in ulm for last day of support and training, did software upgrade and some enhancements, went for meal in restaurant whilst reading and preparing powerpoint presentations for the next day.
friday 24 – final day and finish off the planned training, went ok.
saturday 25 – went to pick sabs up after her week in italy with the youth group, hadn’t gone so well but she was in better spirits than i imagined.
went down on bob train to meet up with pete and rosaling who were staying on the campsite at wallberg, near rottach-egern.
sunday 26 – went to church and it was Liz and John’s farewell, a lovely service with a 10 minute farewell from the African choir whilst everyone came up to the front to say their goodbyes. We get back home after staying to chat and eat.
Pete and Ros came over from the campsite to be at ours for about 3pm. We chat and then go our separate events – Eve and Katie to the basketball to watch Bayern Munich lose at home to Bamberg – the 3 of us of set off to the Olympic stadium via U6 and U3. Getting colder as we get nearer and nearer, have a beer before going in, impressions of the concert:
Freezing cold and rained from start to finish, there were even stalls selling glühwein – that stadium really lets a westerly wind through!
Pete noticed a shots bar when Rosalind was out of sight and this put us in the mood, if not providing us any heat or cover from Ros (“we were thirsty and decided to get a diet coke”).
Amazing concert, can’t believe I know so few of these great songs, out of 29, I perhaps knew 10 and some of those I only knew, since I’d bought his tour CD the week before.
First hour a lot of early stuff, then after “Born in the USA”, most of the 40,000 crowd were on their feet and stayed there for the next 2 hours.
who’ll stop the rain
this has the full concert intro and opener (with his comments about the champions league!)
long walk home:
working on the highway:
you can see from the comments here, to be at the front, you needed to be there at 2pm!
no surrender:
my hometown:
waiting on a sunny day
this is more how we saw it, from way back in the stands:
this is how those up front saw it:
the ending is here – rockin all over the world and twist and shout:
for me so many great songs, which I’d never heard of before, but immediately wanted to sing along to, classic.
the full setlist included the whole of the Born in the USA album:
http://brucespringsteen.net/shows/05-26-13
we narrowly miss the 23:17 train out to tegernsee, go on to the new angelo hotel for a last drink and we see a young lad from the concert in one of the 35€ t-shirts.
monday 27 – worked half a day, then went with pete and ros into town as they wanted to finish off some shopping, went round the sports shops at karstadt, schuster and sportscheck.
went for meal at hackerbrauhaus nearby on sendlingerstr. excellent food and beer, had spätzle.
tuesday 28, tegernsee – excellent day out for katie and i, pete and roz; we arrive at 10, have a short breakfast at the caravan, then drive to base of wallbergban where we take the seilbahn/cable car up the mountain, from 800m to 1600m. We come down a very steep track, which gives Pete doubts about whether to turn back or not, but we carry on, following katie. it is steep and we go through the woods and then it clears up near the road at about 1200m.
we make it back to the base and drive to get the train which katie had planned to take back, to get back to saby who has been sick in the night.
watch the film “love is all you need” with pierce brosnan, kind of a crazier mamma mia plot, enjoyed watching it with katie and saby.
wednesday 29 – went to haralds for lunch and a couple of things took my attention (apart from the fact that the drains were getting cleared out – mmm I really should vary where I go). finished the second half day of work, which i’d planned this week.
there was a discussion from the oekologische party about the dangers of the european stability fund, this is not so serious a threat and a relatively deep green party, maybe not so important to influence things when germany votes in september; but this party might be the thorn in the side of Merkel being able to form a coalition:
https://www.alternativefuer.de/de/home.html
according to the report i read in focus magazine (another mag like “der spiegel”), 18% of germans would consider voting for this party and they are already at 4%, having only formed the party a couple of months ago; so what do they stand for:
– view from some economic academics is that the current euro rescue plans are just pushing the southern countries into stagnation and levels of debt, from which, given the euro exchange rate, they can never work their way out of (eg. euro imports are relatively cheap and they can never dream of competing with power house nations like germany to build exports up and get any sort of “growth”), unless they have the natural devaluation which having their own currencies would bring about.
– the party proposes these countries exit the euro but hold their debts in it, whilst they introduce their own national currencies and get competitive again, this occuring over a period of up to 5 years, ie. a gradual unwinding of the euro for those countries with huge debts
– other nations stick with the euro as long as it works for them.
this seems the breath of fresh air for people who feel the politicians are not being honest with the public and committing ever increasing amounts of reluctant taxpayer risk – if you like the ukip for cameroon has come to haunt angie, who knows until the election but this could be just starting to play out over here …
imho western governments have made 2 big errors since the crisis: bailing out the banks and the southern eurozone countries.
thursday 30 – bank holiday today.
went out for cycle up along the isar past the deutsche museum and then down as far as the tierpark and home, fell off waiting for the lights at hansastr. couple of people saw me but no-one asked how i was, typical german response, emotions tuned out; ok it was my own fault and i got up straight away but nonetheless.
eve has ilda staying and was up half the night talking and messing about, keeping us both awake. very confused about what to do for the best in terms of setting limits constructively these days, found a couple of interesting links:
http://www.peaceful-parent.com/article_expressing_boundaries_limits.php
has some good hints:
… some guidelines for expressing “I” statements (in no particular order):
Express what you see
Express what you feel about what you see
Express why you feel that
Give reassurance of trusting and caring for your child (if relevant)
Give child opportunity to change their behaviour or enter dialogue based on this information
Express what you expect of your child, but only if they don’t figure it out themselves first.
also:
http://www.peaceful-parent.com/articles_boundaries_and_anger.php
found out later a cyclist trying to protect his girlfriend was murdered on tuesday of this week, near the deutsch museum by a madman.
friday 31 – had meeting at deutsche bank about some investments, couple of things struck me:
there is a shift from bonds to shares, this could be a positive time for equities in the short-term
the fall in gold: still unsure what triggered this, Pete mentioned a goldman sachs memo or was it gold’s general high-price and profit-taking for a flight to equities?
or i also read (not from a finance mag) that cyprus was forced to sell its gold reserves which increased supply.
wondering if this shift away from bonds and gold might indicate the next transition in the crisis:
– another steep rise in equities, before another crash in a couple of years
– flight away from bonds, meaning govts will have to stop printing money, since there will be no-one but themselves to buy them
– inflation will kick-in having been pent-up for so long and the flight away from gold will be seen as counter-intuitive, just as it was seen as counter-intuitive during the flight to gold (during a time when inflation never got out of control)
– interest rates will have to rise as a result of the inflation which now kicks in in a bigger way, around 10%
all pure speculation of course! who knows now?
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