h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well - things are quite dramatic on several accounts at the moment.

Next weekend we are looking forward to a trip to Bonn. We shall see our granddaughters again for the first time since we got back from the US. All is in turmoil there because they are moving, our son has a new job and is commuting an hour each way at the moment. There is nothing to keep them in Bonn any more as his new school is over the Rhine and quite a way out Eastwards in the Westerwald. The youngest granddaughter is now 5 months old - she was 2 months old when we saw her last, so we shall notice a big difference.

The main drama next weekend however is the dramatised version of the Matthew Passion which his choir are putting on. I am listening to it now. The choir (Vox Bona) performed it as a concert at Passiontide but the big event will be the acted version next weekend. For the concert they already sang without music. That sounds impressive, but I sang it some 40 years ago and can still sing along with the chorales and the "Sind Blitze und Donner in Wolken verschwunden" bit.

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Drama nearer home is that just before I left for England last week, our car got a flat tyre - I was driving, but it wasn't my fault. There was a nail on the ground where I parked. Because everyone has just put summer tyres on their cars over Easter (mandatory in Germany) or for some other reason, the garage is having trouble getting deliveries of replacements. This year we had had brand new tyres too!

Fortunately, we have a really good public transport system and getting to and from the airport by bus and train is not difficult or expensive, nor does it take much longer.

Bigger drama at home, however, is that our shower has decided to start leaking. Well, it has probably been leaking for a good while, and we only noticed a few days before I left for the UK, as it started dripping through the ceiling below.

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More drama with my mother. I'd only been back a couple of days and she had another bout of delirium, symptom of a UTI. I felt so guilty - should have seen it coming. In hindsight, there were some signs whilst I was there, but I didn't add them up. She called my sister at 5 am yesterday morning with stories that the police were coming to ask her questions. She was wandering about the house, picking things up and re-arranging things, and had gone out of the patio door - all without her frame, and that's quite a step down.

My sis got the doctor to come during the morning and antibiotics were prescribed. Fortunately we now have quite a team of helpers and neighbours who can come and administer the medicines when my sister can't make it because of work commitments.



Well, that's enough drama for one journal. You'd think. But now I'm up to "Lasst ihn kreuzigen". Can it get any more dramatic?

Thanks for reading.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x3lJuUzWs0

The Drama of the Broken Shower continues.

We had three machines going 24/7 to dry the walls out, which were only removed last Friday (in time for the grandchildren's visit!) and the shower is still dismantled. The tiles on the shower wall where the taps and thermostat are had to be removed and the faulty parts replaced.

The men should be coming soon to re-tile the wall, but if they don't hurry up, there will be a further 2 weeks' delay as the plumber is then on holiday, and he won't be back till 29th August to replace the taps so that we can use the shower again.

That will make 4 months during which we have had to crouch in the bathtub to shower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rj5OQirHfY

Singin' in the Bathtub

That's from "Show of shows"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020403/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

Winnie Lightner is credited as the singer for "Singing in the bathtub." Better-known stars in the movie include Myrna Loy and Beatrice Lillie.

We are on our way to Binn for a second concert/dramatic performance of a Bach Passion.

Our son's choir, Vox Bona, is showing the St John's Passion this weekend - again as a semi-dramatic version. They already put it on at Easter and have since been practising singing off by heart and acting the scenes.

Unfortunately we won't be able to see our granddaughters which makes it rather a long journey just for an evening's concert. The girls have made plans as Daddy is busy all weekend and somehow they hadn't twigged that we would be there.

Anyway, we shall do some sightseeing tomorrow in one or two of the picturesque little towns along the Rhein - Koblenz (where I went to a hootoo meet many moons ago) or Bacharach perhaps.

Next week, the choir are singing the Passion again at the Bach festival in Leipzig, after which he shall leave the choir - it's getting a bit much with 3 children and a full time job - and he says he doesn't get such a kick out of choral singing any more.

I've just realised I wrote Binn instead of Bonn. Whoops.

That's where Boothaven was born, isn't it?