Last visit
3 Hours Ago
This week I had the last instalment of my tooth implant lark. Last week I finally had the new tooth fitted and was shown where and how to keep it clean (a ghastly fiddly job, beyond normal flossing etc). This week I had an appointment to check everything was OK. All's well and I can't tell you how satisfying it is to have a proper tooth to chew with again after over six months of having a gaping ... er .... gap on the left at the bottom. I also used to bite the inside of my cheek and my tongue a lot due to that gap.
So now I've just got to sort out the paperwork and deal with payment of a four-figure sum. Just for that one little biddy tooth.
Good job we just got the info about the tax return. We always get a lot back as my husband is allowed to deduct lots of things because he works from home as a teacher. A couple of years ago there was talk of doing away with this. All the teachers then clubbed together and applied for offices on the school premises, which would, of course, have been far too much outlay for the education budget. So the idea was dropped. As a result our tax return is, as usual, four figures, too. What's left from the tooth will cover this year's holiday.
In other news, some friends are getting together a group to spend a weekend in Geneva in October, including a guided tour of CERN. Wonder if I'll get to meet Brian Cox?
A day off
3 Weeks Ago
Well, it's the first of May and we get the day off. In fact, in May, we get a day off nearly every week: Labour Day (today), Whit Monday, Ascension Day and Corpus Christi.
I have made some plans and resolutions for today and for the whole of May. Telling them would probably put some sort of curse on it all and I won't get stuff done*. And sitting here typing about them won't get anything done either. So if you see me posting too much this month, you are welcome to rap my knuckles.
*It's all the usual stuff like eat sensibly and practise the piano more often.
Yesterday was "Hexennacht" as it is locally known. Walpurgis is the official term. Although, officially in whose book, I'm not sure. It poured with rain, but that didn't stop some kids going round draping loopaper along people's garden fences. We went out for a traditional barbecue at a friend's house, but it all took place indoors because of the weather - cold as well as wet.
Rhubarb is ripe, though, and the lilacs are out, as they should be at this time of year. Maybe I'll make a rhubarb cheesecake (German style) later on. There should be some sun next week, which means strawberries, too 
. The cuckoo has been singing, although he doesn't seem to like wet weather, so I haven't heard him this week - and generally the late spring/early summer is soldiering on.
- Forsythia - already dropping its blooms
- Daffodils - starting to give way to tulips
- birds laying their eggs 
- Magnolia has dropped its flowers
- cherry trees ablaze with pink blossoms
Grape hyacinths seem to be very proliferous. I like blue flowers - they're quite a rarity. Bluebells are entirely unknown in Germany, at least in these parts. A look at wiki shows that they are indigenous only along the very Western part of mainland Europe - the Atlantic coast - and otherwise the British Isles, where, as we know, they play a huge part in romantic literary heritage and nostalgic childhood memories.
Mention is made, however, of a bluebell wood very close to where Sho lives. I wonder if they were imported, by humans or by birds, or if the bluebells have moved West over the centuries, and this is the remainder of the population further East. The pictures indicate that they are thriving - lucky NRW.
Incredible blooper
5 Weeks Ago
On the BBC website there is a link to the order of service for the Thatcher funeral today. The choice of texts is very traditional and very moving.
The order of procession mentions several "virgers".
https://www.stpauls.co.uk/documents/news%20stories/btoos.pdf
I hope someone proof read it before they printed it for the congregation.
Travelling again - another tale of aged parents
Mar 22, 2013
I am sitting at the airport ready to fly back home after a short but monumentally eventful trip.
On Tuesday evening, I flew out from Baden-Baden (as you do). Many people there had been sitting for hours waiting for snowed-up flights to and from Berlin. My route was unaffected by the weather and everything went fine. I was at my mother's by 9 pm GMT.
Son No 2 is currently "touring" the UK with his chamber choir and I didn't want to miss them singing - or at least rehearsing - in a Church, chapel or cathedral in either Cambridge or Bury St Edmunds. In the end I decided to go to the concert in Bury Cathedral on Thursday (last night).
I picked him up in Cambridge on Wednesday, as he had a free afternoon. We had lunch and a chat at my mother's, then I took him back into Cambridge for the evening rehearsal, together with the Chamber choir of Queen's College.
Yesterday my mother and I pottered around until about 4 pm when we had arranged to go to Bury and meet son/grandson before the concert and stay for the concert. We parked in town and set off towards the Abbey and Cathedral. After a few steps, I went to call my son to see where he was and where we could meet, and whilst I was distracted for a second, my mother took a false step on the kerb, keeled over and lay in the gutter. I screamed into the phone (poor musician's ears) and left him dangling while I went to see if she was OK. Well, obviously, she wouldn't be. She is 93 after all. Half a dozen helpful people had turned up with tissues and a girl from the hairdressers opposite brought a beaker of water. She was pouring blood from her brow, which was rather frightening, but turned out not to be too bad.
We made a compress of the water and the tissues and by now a policemen had turned up to check everything was OK. He was an avuncular sort, and accompanied us back to the car. I had by now told son to go and get something to eat without us and drove off to A & E. Full marks to the NHS and all who sail in her - at least the West Suffolk branch. We were seen by a nurse, and then a doctor who reassured us. Her blood pressure, which has a tendency to be a little high, was up, but was already going down again by the time it was measured a second time.
We had a cup of tea in the hospital cafeteria and still went in to town for part of the concert. We arrived late, but heard a couple of interesting pieces by the Osnabrueck choir (son/grandson's crowd) and the the Cambridge choir, and an organ piece.
After about four or five songs, though, I thought she'd had enough and we left for home.
I had to get up at five to catch this flight - which I must run for in a second - and I rang her neighbour to warn her of the incident and to pass on the doctor's instructions. She would be calling in at 9 this morning anyway for their weekly shopping run.
I'll phone her when I get home in a couple of hours from how and will keep you all posted.
Working with leather
Mar 4, 2013
My No 2 son always makes presents and when he was home recently for his brother's birthday, he borrowed my sewing machine to make a pouch for his mobile phone (which he had asked for). There was enough of this fine black leather left for me to make a cover for my Kindle.
So now I am planning to work with leather, which I have not done before. I have roughly cut out the shape, but discovered that I must get myself some decent scissors before I do the finer work. I found some youtube clips with tips on sewing leather. Obvious things like stronger needles and thread (the strong denim needles are still in the machine, they worked perfectly well for son No 2). And work slowly, the man said. Fine - that's all common sense.
I have examined my leather handbags, gloves, etc, to find the best way of finishing the edges.
1. Just cut it: I had assumed that I could just leave them, like felt - leather won't fray, after all.
2. Single row of straight stitching. But it could stretch some. So I thought maybe I could just run round with the sewing machine just about 2-3 mm from the outside edge, to help it keep its shape.
3. Hem. All the leather goods I have looked at, though, are hemmed - just folded over once, but hemmed. That seems awfully fiddly.
4. Zigzag: My son zigzagged around the edge of the pouch he made. Don't like that idea. Looks too improvised and unprofessional for the design I want.
5. Lining: The better quality handbags and gloves I have are all lined (usually with taffeta). This would obviously look best, especially if I sew it down again after turning it out - you can't iron leather! But will the needle go through a double layer of leather?
Anyone have any experience of this? What would produce the best results for an amateur. I don't want to mess it up as I only have the one piece of leather. I shall try out the various techniques tonight and report, but I would like some advice first.....
Perhaps I should go to "Ask"........
Family gathering
Feb 20, 2013
Son No 2 is going on a concert tour to the UK with the Uni Choir and they will be singing in Bath, Oxford, Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds. I can't not go - so I have just booked flights for a very short trip. Unfortunately I can't possibly make the Cambridge gig, but I look forward to hearing them in Bury Cathedral - just up the road from my mother's house. He might even have a chance to re-visit his old haunts in the Ely area maybe while he's there. Their itinerary is pretty packed, however. The tour manager is very efficient and she has organised trips to the Roman Baths at Bath and also sightseeing tours of Oxford and Cambridge, where they shall be sleeping in Sussex College.
The trip includes 6 church services or concerts for them to sing at, lectures, pubs, a trip to Avebury and Stonehenge, and a meal in the Old Kitchens at Queen's College Cambridge.
I'll have to find out what their programme is - they tend towards very modern stuff.
Heraldry
Feb 20, 2013
In this journal - F56786?thread=3284092 - (in 2006) - I mentioned that I sometimes did a quiz in my lunch hour, run by a French TV channel. I still do it, and one question today nearly made me choke on my salad.
"Of which country is the leopard the symbol?"
I vaguely remembered it to be somewhere in North Africa, and put "Libya" - which was wrong, as I expected.
The correct answer was:
........?
Over the ground lies a mantle of white
Feb 15, 2013
Yesterday I went to the dentist for the next step in my root implant process. He very generously gives me a note for two days off work. I misused the free time and drove 30 km for my piano lesson yesterday afternoon. I felt fine once the anaesthetic had worn off, at about 12.30 yesterday lunchtime. And the piano lesson was really nice. I think I've finally got the hang of Schumann, except my hands 
are too small. And I even played the Bach straight through. We had to go in another room, because it wasn't our usual time, and all the main music rooms were occupied. The piano in there was awful - the music school should be ashamed of it!
The forecast for this week was for temperatures above freezing and warm and sunny by today (Friday) We woke up this morning to snow everywhere. It is still snowing quite thickly.
I ought to go outside and sweep the pavement and salt it. But it is snowing .... And anyway, with a fresh wound, (even if it is in my gums) I am not supposed really to exert myself. I'm battling with my lazy ego as to whether to do this. Perhaps when I've finished this cup of 
.
Oh. It's empty. *looks around for something else to do indoors which is a good excuse for not going out and sweeping/shovelling snow*
*goes off to practise the piano* 
Online courses
Jan 28, 2013
A colleague has just pointed me to coursera.org. Oh boy - it's so tempting. Courses on every subject under the sun. All free! I don't know if there are any strings attached.
In other business, we went to the cinema last night and saw Django Unchained. I think it was the first Tarantino film my husband has seen. I usually watch that sort of thing with my kids. But hubbie does now seem to have a grasp of who Leonardo di Caprio is. Maybe even Samuel L. Jackson. If you go and see it, stay for the credits - right to the end....
Food to make you happy
Jan 22, 2013
Time I wrote a journal, I don't seem to have written one for a while.
My sister-in-law's boyfriend invited us to celebrate his birthday just after Christmas. I was really stuck for an idea of a present for him, as he is very modest in his way of living and his house is terrible mess according to my sister-in-law, so I didn't want to give him anything which he would have to put somewhere, even if it was useful or practical.
He does like his food, though. Well - he eats a lot, but often says that he doesn't stop and enjoy the food.
So I invited them for a meal. They came last Sunday. After some internet research (therefore perhaps not entirely reliable) I had put together a meal consisting of foodstuffs which, according to various websites, were guaranteed to make you feel better.
I had translated and printed out a list of all the information I had found, for pre-prandial amusement. There didn't seem to be much info available in German, hence the necessity for translation.
The final menu consisted of:
Avocado and egg salad with a parsley dressing
Poached salmon with spinach and creamed potatoes with spiced sauce
Greek yoghurt with coconut flavour
Green tea with home made oat cookies
The main course sounds a bit ordinary, almost a week night meal. I had intended to do duchesse potatoes, but they went wrong, so I just spooned some blobs on to a baking sheet and browned them under the grill to make interesting looking little potato cakes. The sauce was supposed to be a saffron sauce, but I discovered at the last minute that I didn't have any saffron! So I just chucked in all the ground spices I could find, which was only cloves, ginger and cumin seed.
The avocado and egg went a bit wrong too, as these things do. The eggs weren't quite hard-boiled, so I cut them in half and served them whilst still a little runny and warm. They looked really good like that.
The Greek yoghurt thing was brilliant - I mixed the yoghurt with coconut cream and gelatine and put it into little pots early in the morning. Poured melted dark chocolate over them to serve.
After lunch we went for a walk to the village and by the time we got back it was getting dark and we watched the James Stewart film "It's a Wonderful Life" which I had got specially for the occasion. It was right up our guests' street and we actually managed to sit and watch it in one piece.
S-i-l's bf is a carer and many of his charges have built up a personal relationship with him and he often gets phone calls in his free time. We only had one interruption - which was good - and he told the patient to call an ambulance (he had fallen). The old man lived far too far away for him to get there in any decent amount of time, and, after all, it was bf's day off. He phoned later to see if all was well, but he didn't let it cut out of his leisure time.
So now we've taken down the Christmas tree 
which by special request, we had left up until they visited.
This is going to be fun
Dec 23, 2012
Some time ago, No 3 asked if we could put up 2 American girls who would be passing through for the night of 23-24 December. Yes - that's tonight.
He slept - as is his wont - until about 6 pm and so I had no idea when to expect them, what they would eat, if they would eat at all - all the questions the lady of the house has to consider...By the way, he did at least wait till gone 7 this morning to come home, so that was a decent time - we got up, having been woken like that.
So, I busied myself all day, finally finding my strength and my appetite after my setback earlier this week, and waited for more information. i reckoned that if he was in bed, he wasn't going to the station to meet them.
Apparently, they had thought that, as they were in Europe, they might as well go to Spain, as you do. (What would it be like if everyone just decided to go to Spain because they were in Europe and it happens to be nearby, I ask myself? Perhaps Spain wouldn't be in the straits that it is)
And they landed at 8 pm this evening. At Hahn. 
Hahn has absolutely no public transport connections - just the private coach to the railway station at Mainz. They just missed the last train from Mainz so they're shacking up heaven knows where tonight in Mainz and will be coming tomorrow. As will No 1 and wife. And No 2 - girlfriend to follow. This will be fun.
There's only a tiny window tomorrow when the shops are open so I shall have to make sure I get everything (so will everyone else!). Then they're shut till Thursday.
I haven't got any presents yet, either.
Lost a day
Dec 22, 2012
Just what I didn't need in my tight pre-Christmas schedule - I got the tummy bug that was going round. On Thursday night I went to bed feeling a little odd, and then spent the whole night in the cold bathroom, draped over the loo. At one point I got up to do the dash and fainted ... The whole thing totally debilitated me for the whole of Friday- I couldn't drink or eat. I had two sips of tonic water in the evening and nothing else till a cup of tea this morning. What they don't tell you is how your tummy muscles ache from all that retching. That'll hang on for a couple of days, according to my husband who had it a couple of days ago. The annoying thing was that I had taken the day off work to do Christmas preparations. Now I've got to cram three days' work into two.
Here's a bunch of flowers to dispel the unpleasantness of that thought - 
Don't talk to me about works Christmas parties
Dec 18, 2012
Yesterday was our works Christmas party. It was supposed to be something special. I hadn't wanted to go; quite honestly I don't see the point in them, and I have better things to do than listen to the CEO's blabla. The girls in the office persuaded me, though, and as I had been the one to suggest the venue, I felt some perverted sort of obligation to take part. I only had the soup - a whole meal would have been too much for me.
At one point there was an unprecedented speech-making session as some of the employees were presented with gifts for special achievements - among other things, being with the company for ten years or more (the company itself is only 12 years old - I have been there 11 years.) I had been jocularly grumbling that no one got recognition for their 10 year service, so now they had finally noticed, was anticipating my name coming up - they were calling them out in order of the date they started. My name didn't come up.
They then went on to present gifts to others who had done things worth honouring. When my young colleague who had organised the whole event, was called up, she reminded the PTB that they had forgotten me. So I was mentioned as an afterthought. No one was listening. I couldn't even hear my name mentioned, and had to guess that I was expected to go and accept my gift. The CEO even mentioned that he had had to be reminded about me, instead of glossing over that bit and just making the speech he normally would have made.
The chap who started here directly after me has an unfortunate name, and unnecessary and embarrassing comments were passed on this. The CEO was obviously so keen to get to these tactless witticisms that he completely skipped over out the person before him on the list (i.e. me).
The gifts contained bottles of wine and tins of bratwurst. Even for the Turkish colleagues, two of whom were presented with these, as they have been here even longer than me. That, I found, was almost more embarrassing and thoughtless than my own debacle.
I got on the next tram home.
Needless to say, I didn't sleep well, especially as my husband, who had been on another Christmas do with his sports club, was throwing up all night. Something he ate, or a bug that is gong around.
We were recently warned at work about talking about the company, colleagues, bosses, etc., on social media.
So here is a question: Is h2g2 "sodial media" and can they find me here and accuse me of anything? (especially as I am posting from work, but in a foreign language).
People can be so nice
Dec 10, 2012
My little advents parcels have now arrived at all their destinations. Littl'un called from Berlin to thank us for the parcel and was most enthusiastic. I sent him a little bottle of red wine, a cup, and a bag of spices to make mulled wine, as I did the others, and some post that had come for him.
People are so nice. Last summer he lost his purse at a railway station somewhere between here and Berlin. I think I mentioned it here somewhere, but can't find a journal about it. It arrived in the post today, intact and with the money still in it! He was rather disappointed that the finder had not put their address as he would have liked to express his gratitude.
So that's one person who had a great day. And the fact that he rang us up to tell us made our day more cheerful. 
The third time
Dec 4, 2012
I have spent a long time today - both this morning and this evening - looking for a recipe. I just found it. It was in the first place I looked, but I only found it the third time I looked there. This happens so often - it can't be a coincidence.
But the gems I found, while leafing through my files of scraps. Since my au pairing days - exactly 40 years ago now - I have collected recipes. They fill several files and I have at least two washing baskets of foodie magazines - well thumbed and well spattered.
There are recipes cut straight out of magazines, newspapers and supplements, some I have copied out by hand, some I typed on my little travelling typewriter that I used to tote around with me, some were photocopied, when I shared recipes with girls at work. There are many scraps cut from food packaging, stuck on to disintegrating sheets of unwanted tests dating back to when my husband was a trainee teacher, even whole books photocopied (life was easy in the 70s).
There are endless ideas for pasta, recipes specially using proprietary products that are no longer available, recipes for kids, recipes in German, English and French, recipes from the 70s, with suggestions as to how to use "new" foodstuffs which had just arrived Germany, and ideas for canapes and fondues, recipes from the 80s, when we ground our own flour and knitted our own yoghurt, There are even recipes from pre-war Germany that we found in my mother-in-law's dresser, not to mention all the others she noted down on scraps of paper in the indecipherable Süterlin script they all used, including thrifty post-war ideas (remember, Germany was more devastated after the war than the UK was, even though rationing didn't go on so long here as it did there. Hell, my first formula milk was bought when ration books were still around, but in Germany, the black market was often the only place to get eggs or meat. People starved).
Then there are more modern cuttings, reviving old ingredients, strange vegetables and giving recipes for traditional cakes and stews that the housewives of the 90s and noughties have probably never heard of, let alone had a hankering to cook. Cakes, puddings, posh dinner menus, cheap weekday dishes, meatless dishes, those cocktails that were in fashion in the 60s and 70s, themed pages - ten things to do with a tin of French beans, how to roll sushi, fish recipes, meat recipes, ways of mucking fruit about - lots of stuff using huge quantities of whipped cream.
For many many years, I religiously saved the recipes and archived them in old-fashioned cardboard files. I could only file them chronologically, as I got them, but I kept an index, sort of in categories, and numbered every page I filed away. Pages of magazines are very thin, and forty-year-old paper doesn't stand much turning over in a file - in other words, they're falling apart.
But these days, I just cook out of my head, and only refer to recipes for certain sauces I remember using, or just to look up cooking times in the book that came with the oven/microwave/slow cooker.
When I retire I shall have a great time going through them. If I did one recipe a day, I would be cooking all these things for at least three years. If it's no good, I shall chuck it out, if it's OK, I will copy it or scan it. At least - that's the plan. I shall have to find somewhere that sells powdered eggs, though.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 30 November
Nov 30, 2012
Last one!
Phew!
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 29 November
Nov 29, 2012
Time: 16h CET
Weather - it was nice and dry but it's started raining again. In Stuttgart - not far from here, they have snow and the traffic is struggling.
Tonight I am going to try out my birthday present - the overlock sewing machine. For the kids I now have all the ingredients together for their little Advent parcels. The spices I will put in little bags made from gauze bandages, which I thought would be nice and sterile, slightly see-through and already cut to about the right width. I just have to sew them up the sides.
I also bought myself some clothes this week and the trousers need taking up a little, so that's another little job I can try it out on.
Then I shall pack up the parcels and get out the Christmas decorations and look out my Advent stuff. I have about 5 skeletons of Advent wreaths to decorate - but I only need one for the door and one for the table. Maybe I'll hang one over the fireplace, too..... It depends how creative I feel.
If you think the English-speaking world have lost it with regard to spelling, you should see the stuff the French write. I have just discovered that I interpreted "Piece faisant office de plainte" (part which serves to complain 
) was supposed to mean "plinthe" - plainte and plinthe sound the same, but how was I to know she meant the strips of wood (plinths) that our furniture sits on? I usually manage to interpret these things - it helps to read them out loud, and just ignore the endings which are guaranteed to be wrong - but that one slipped by me.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 28 November
Nov 28, 2012
Time: 21:47 but I'm in bed already
Weather. - Continual rain for a couple of days now.
Today I got really cross with our car mechanics. We have been customers of theirs for 25 or more years and have bought two VWs from them in that time. Today was TÜv (equivalent of MOT) and inspection. I took the car in and used their shuttle service for a lift into the office (no great distance) There were a couple of other people who worked at the same place. The driver said she would like to coordinate the pick-up when all the cars were ready in the afternoon, which was fine by me. My car would be ready at 4, so would theirs, but they would like to be picked up earlier, if possible.
So from half past three onwards, I kept an eye out for the phone. They have my mobile number AND my office number so it would be no problem for them to find me. At 4.15 I was just thinking of phoning them, as it seemed rather late, based on the discussion this morning, but before I could dial, my husband rang me - panic in his voice: Would I go down immediately, they were waiting for me outside the office. I shut down my computer, grabbed my coat and ran out into the yukky rain and wind, but couldn't see the pick-up car. I walked right out on to the road and looked around, but couldn't see anything. So I phoned the garage and they said that the car had left, as they had been waiting too long or something. Someone was on their way now to pick me up.
Why did they not ring to tell me they were coming?
Why did they ring at home? Normally there would have been no one there - it was chance that my husband came in just at that moment - he had had a meeting and it could have gone on till 6 pm. They knew I was to be picked up at the office, so what made them think I'd be at home?
Why did they ring and tell me to come down to the car, and then drive off?
I stood for a good 20 minutes in the rain. I needed that time at work, because I have already lost loads of time waiting for these people.
it never used to be like that. They were very good and their customer service was impeccable. Coordinating everything this time (what with mending the broken mirror - which has now taken so long that it was touch and go whether it could be done at the same time as the inspection and MOT)
There - I've got that off my chest. Thank you.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 27 November
Nov 27, 2012
Today is my middle son's birthday. His 29th. Soon I will have two children over 30.
This week I am trying to catch up on the housework and piano practice I missed last week what with birthdays and being ill and all. So far, I'm quite pleased with myself, but it is only Tuesday lunchtime.....
Did I mention where we went for my birthday dinner last Wednesday? It was to the local ostrich farm. We had a choice of ostrich or kangaroo meat, but I had the lamb, as it was stewed rather than fried and I didn't feel too well. It was just right, very tender and the juice was rich and thick.
The funny thing was that I had suggested it to my colleagues as a possible venue for the Company Christmas do. In the end it was the only place big enough with dates free, so two of the girls went one lunchtime to try it out and to negotiate with the restaurateur ... (isn't that someone who restores pictures?) and then I thought it might be somewhere special to go for a birthday dinner.... Also it is directly by one of the stops for the tram that my son from Karlsruhe would be taking, so win/win all round.
We were the only ones there, and it wasn't cheap. The fun was spoiled by my sister-in-law's boyfriend accidentally knocking a glass of 
over her which put her in a bad mood. But despite that, the evening wasn't entirely a flop. I would like to go there again in the daytime, in the summer, and sit outside and watch the ostriches strutting around.
The inside of the restaurant is decorated in a rustic style, but more colonial African style. All the lampshades are ostrich egg shells.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 26 November
Nov 26, 2012
So I forgot the 25th. I can't possibly cheat for a fourth time and pretend I'm in Hawaii, although I would still have a couple of minutes.
So instead, I shall make myself useful to the Create team and present you with an - albeit subjective -
************************
ASSESSMENT
************************
I apologise to anyone who has found my journals navel-gazing drivel. I have tried to combine a mixture of a personal event, but with a general topic, opening the thread up for possible comments from others. I think many people have aimed for that.
Recumbentman's entries have the ideal balance of the general and the specific. Reading them is like lying in a bath of warm chocolate.
KB's are usually brief and to the point, but always something I, for one, can relate to. Odd, considering the difference in age, gender and location. But that's the internet for you.
Beatrice's are consistently jaunty poems - mainly about food. I don't know how she keeps it up (I gave up on rhymes after 2 days - no more inspiration)
for effort alone, but for the entertainment value!
Z brings a note of profundity, giving lots to think about. And an idea for Christmas cake.
LLWaz writes beautifully about things that are beyond most people's radar, and yet easy to identify with. Luv it!
Icy's quizzes are just the right level of solvability. (I don't think that's a word, but solubility can't be right either)
I've just discovered I wasn't subscribed to Coelecanth's so I'll read that and comment later.
Everyone else has held my attention - be it GB with her heart operation (Take it easy, lass) or Dr Anthea having her baby. HBFJ with her dogs, Deb with her sad anniversaries, BMT with his move. And anyone talking about food will always get my attention.
Some have done the conventional thing - started a new journal every day. Fine by me, even though it does mean conversation overload in the conversation list.
Some have created an A-page and started a new thread from it each day. Same difference, really - provided you remember to subscribe to the A-page.
Some have just added daily to a single journal entry. This has turned out less confusing than I thought it would. Provided you remember to change the date in the subject line, Mrs G!
Z has three parallel threads for different topics. A sensible idea, as most of us find that we are journalling on three or four topics, such as hobbies, job, health, a running story such as a move, etc etc., good as conversations, but difficult to follow as a diary. Which, in a few years' time, won't matter, anyway. I mean, if you came back and read it in a few years, you would find a coherent conversation on his page, whereas for those who have started a thread for every day, like me, you will find 30 threads for November, and soon give up at the tedium of clicking on each thread, in case something interesting happened that day.
Recumbentman writes everything into one A-page. Makes for more fluid reading, and each entry is not interspersed with bookmarks and comments from the rest of us, but you have to remember to go along and look each day.
More later, but must go back to the office now. I had to pop home for an hour from work, because our heating conked out at the weekend and the man has just come to fix it. Instead of doing some very urgent tidying up, I decided to write down all these thoughts that were rattling around in my head.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 24 November
Nov 25, 2012
Oh dear. Late again. another Hawaiian journal. I'm glad I don't live on Hawaii or I wouldn't have this way of cheating. But, if I lived on Hawaii, I wouldn't be so tired all the time and fall into bed straight after dinner, before I've got round to writing my November Journal Entry.
My cough is now coming from less far down my chest (if that makes sense) and my nose is far less bunged up and I slept better. I think I may be better, now., so no more excuses to creep into bed as soon as I get home, and leave everything in the kitchen. The place is a tip!
Saturday morning means school. Everything went fine, although it all seems far less structured than last year. Because of a slight change in the curriculum, our year has been considerably disadvantaged. The year before us and below us both have had subjects that we didn't and so we have missed out on some vital areas of things like voice training, general musical knowledge and harmonics. Whatever. It's voluntary, we don't pay an awful lot for the training, and get individual organ, piano and singing lessons thrown in, and the people are really nice.
The teacher seemed to realise that she had rather messed things up for me last week. Then, I had started to conduct my piece which I had prepared well, and it turned out, as I said, that I have a terrible conducting technique. Because the teacher last year hadn't given us much practical experience, this had been mentioned once, but not really rectified. Last week, after a few bars, I was replaced by someone else, then everyone in the class had a go at conducting my piece. This was most frustrating.
However, this morning, I got to have another go. Despite being ill, I had practised a bit and got a bit better during the week at the actual conducting, but at least this time I got a chance to show that I knew the piece and had thought about it a lot. There was time to get my teeth into the things I had prepared: to iron out some of the difficulties in the individual parts, play single parts, play the accompaniment and give directions with regards to dynamics, breathing, intonation and articulation. She praised a few things, helped with a few things, and, although this way, I hogged the entire lesson and will probably not get so much time in the limelight again for a good while yet, I was pleased to find that I was able to talk to the choir without much hesitation, deviation or repetition, and was getting some response from them.
The 24th is also my mother's birthday. Because of the time difference, I can't phone her before I leave in the morning (6 am GMT!) and the phone was engaged most of the afternoon. I had sent flowers, and left a present for her (a 1000-piece jigsaw of an Alpine scene. Lots of grass and cows and a chalet with geraniums on the balcony). When I finally did get through, in the early evening, my sister had arrived and they were just drinking to her health with the family favourite: gin and tonic. The flowers were a great success, she opened the jigsaw whilst I was chatting to sis, and she was in the best of spirits. (My sister had had the present in safe keeping since I was over a couple of weeks ago.) She'd had lots of phone calls and 12 cards. My youngest from Berlin had rung, which she was most excited about.
This is turning into a very long journal, but I must just add this little laugh we had. Never mind "Things children say" - here's a gem from a (now) 93-year-old.
Youngest son, D, was last in England when he left for Mexico, in February 2011. At the time he had dreadlocks, but these have now come off since he was in Berlin. She said she was looking forward to seeing him without his "ringlets". This started me giggling, but then she corrected herself, realising that that was not the appropriate word. "Dreadnoughts" she said. I couldn't correct her for laughing - that really cracked me up.
Oh dear. I still can't tell jokes very well. I'll have to remember not to tell any when I'm in front of a choir.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 23 November
Nov 23, 2012
time: 17:15 CET
Weather: Not freezing yet.
My cold has nearly gone - I hope I'll be able to sing this evening, but I still have a debilitating cough.
The shortbread, flapjacks etc went down well. Those who ate the flapjacks loved the taste, but did say they didn't look too appetising. 
My French colleague said that the date crunchie things tasted like "Figolu". In the UK they were called Fig rolls, but I haven't seen any of them for ages. They're still available in France, though, and whenever we're passing a supermarket in France I always pick up a few packets, the first of which is usually practically empty by the time we reach home.
I finally got everything done at work for once, so that's quite satisfying.
I suppose I could talk about shopping in France. We don't go very often, although it would be so easy to do so - less than an hour's drive, and, of course, on the border, the supermarkets are well prepared for the foreigners who come to shop. It is so different from either Germany or England. The open fish, cheese and meat counters, for a start. The exciting stationery, the fruit and vegetables, and did I mention the cheese?
Several colleagues of mine live even nearer the border and often leave tantalising little creme brulees or creme carameles in the fridge here at work. One thing that everyone buys in large amounts is bottled water. Simply because it is available there - you can get Evian in 5 litre canisters even, and it is cheap because water is heavily subsidised in France. Not sure exactly how much that reflects on the prices, but I'll do a comparison next time I go.
Another department I love is the household cleaners. I au paired in France and am familiar with the household names, and sometimes it's just nice to have something that smells different.
And then there's biscuits, and patisserie, and charcuterie.
And - Did I mention the cheese 
?
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 22 November
Nov 23, 2012
Cheating again - it's 20 to midnight in Hawaii. Disqualify me, if you dare!
Last night I was slaving away in the kitchen catching up on all the baking I intended to do on Tuesday, but was too ill to do.
I got really organised and weighed out all the ingredients and put them together on trays for each item. Well, that was the idea. Later on, I got a bit confused and wasn't sure which bowl of flour was for which.. I also had to convert the recipes from ounces to grams and then multiply by 2 or 3 because I was making huge batches. Not easy when you're recovering from a cold. 
I made shortbread - easy to make, but not so easy to get the baking right. Because I spent a long time kneading it, the oven had plenty of time to heat up, so maybe that's why it worked out quite well. The shortbread was evenly golden and done in the time given in the recipe - normally everything seems to take at least half an hour longer than prescribed in my oven! That takes 3/4 hour to bake, so I put that in first - a whole baking tray. (A whole cowful of butter went into that)
Then I made flapjacks - the recipe said 30-35 mins. That worked out OK, but I spread the mixture a little thin, so especially the ones at the edges were a little hard, dark and crispy rather than the flapjacks you get in cosy cafés. Still, the Germans haven't seen flapjacks so they can't know that.
Then I made a large tray of something my cookbook calls "Date Crunchies" - a shortbread-type mixture, using semolina, with a layer of date mixture in the middle. Very filling!
(Actually, I always use semolina in my shortbread, because the usual rice flour was impossible to get here in Germany. Now I've finally found rice flour, I find this recipe which uses semolina.
Then I made some ginger nuts (I'm not going to go all PC and call them ginger biscuits) which are so easy to do and turn out just like bought ones, except they are not all uniform size.
Didn't even get to bed later for all that work, although I couldn't tidy up as I had to leave everything spread around the kitchen to cool.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 21 November
Nov 21, 2012
Time: 12:55 CET
Weather - not bad today. Drop of sunshine at the moment, following the November fog. Dank, of course, but this sunshine is making a lot of difference and lifting spirits.
If I was Sol, I could tell you this in the third person. But you'll have to put up with me telling you myself.
Today is my birthday.
Hubby crept off this morning without a word or leaving anything, but I know he has got something and perhaps he wanted to let me sleep, so I could get better.
Littl'un phoned me at the office from Berlin to wish me a happy birthday. He was at uni. He's another of the family who has a birthday in November (there are four of us - five when my father was alive) - his brothers gave him an accordeon for his birthday. He will soon start blaming me for giving in and letting him give up the piano at 8 yrs, as did the others.
Yes, those cookies didn't get made, and tonight we'll be going out for a meal (I should be OK by then). I certainly hope to be fit enough to bake on Thursday evening, so that I have all those hundreds of cookies ready to take to work on Friday and school on Saturday.
A colleague has been supplying me with various infusions containing peppers and ginger and things that seem to have no English name, that she bought in Sri Lanka. They seem to help. The sore throat has gone and I've just got a bunged up nose now.
She's off again on one of her long distance holidays next week. Laos. So I'm on my own - battling the whole of France single-handedly for three weeks. So I'll need to be clear in the head for all that! My French sounds really good with this husky voice......
The girls at work got together and gave me a platter with lots of tiny jars of jam, honey, mini-cheeses etc. The main present was a voucher for the local cinema (in Karlsruhe, where my eldest lives, and some of my colleagues) which shows the most films with the original sound track. This is for the Sunday brunch events , which will be in German, but I can go with my husband and meet eldest son perhaps for lunch or coffee 
afterwards.
It's amazing what happens when nothing happens - that's about 6 topices I've touched on and today has been extremely uneventful.
NaJoPoMo 2012 - TC - 20 November
Nov 20, 2012
Time: 22:37 CET
Weather - drizzly fog, or foggy drizzle.
Did I say I was ill? Had a helluva sore throat yesterday and was coughing and sniffing. Seems Ok now. My colleague is off work for the next three weeks so I shall have to be fit enough to do two people's jobs for that time.
I should be doing all that baking this evening, but I wasn't THAT well. Tomorrow night we'll be going out for dinner, so I'll do the baking on Thursday and take it to work on Friday. I hope they don't mind.
I did do one batch last night. They are really delicious. A biscuit recipe with peanut butter and orange zest in. You can taste the orange more than the peanut butter. Maybe I should have used crunchy. But I was trying to avoid big lumps as they are tiny biscuits. (This way I should get my target of 300 more easily). They have raisins in, too, but even those I chopped up fairly small before mixing them in.
Shortbread and flapjacks aren't really a hassle, but I got in so late after doing some odd shopping and having a piano lesson, that, by the time we'd eaten, I had had enough.
Excuses, excuses. Still, if I can speak tomorrow morning, this early niight will be worth it.
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