Journal Entries
Football already?
Posted Jul 4, 2015
So as some of my friends know now the Gruesomes are big and we have a bit more spare dosh I decided that it's time 
and I had a bit of a hobby that we can share. Actually does have one, football (as a spectator) and it's been quite sad for him to live so close to Mönchengladbach and only rarely get to a game.
So I bought him membership of the club for Christmas (you get priority for buying tickets and 10% discount on stuff in the shop) and we went to all except one of the home games in the 2nd part of last season.
The Borussia park is now 10 years old, the old stadium was falling apart, and at the time they built it, they were still in the top division but not doing brilliantly. They built it with a capacity of 54,010. Only on one occasion last season when I was there was it under 50,000 - and that was a midweek game in December. They sell 30,000 season tickets. ha, sell. There are 30,000 season tickets and nobody ever gives them up, so there's no chance of getting one (and saving a bit of cash on entry)
So anyway, tickets for the first half of next season went on sale at 10am this morning and it was nearly impossible to get on the site. So we gave up and went shopping. When we stopped for our usual coffee (which turned out to be a beer) I tried on my phone. and bingo! managed to get two (a bit more expensive than I'd wanted) tickets for the Bayern München game.
So I tried for some more, and we now have the full set. woo hoo. In the Nordkurve - which is the home fans end - with the exception of Bayern (right next to the fan end) and Schalke (we're going with friends who are Schalke fans. Poor delusional souls)
So now we're broke but happy 
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Latest reply: Jul 4, 2015
Of pearls and football
Posted May 25, 2015
Yesterday was Bob Dylan's birthday. On that day in 1985 I got married (yes, I was a child-bride at 21)
So that meant it was our 30th Anniversary. and I have been having a bit of a weekend of it.
We started on Saturday with buying a "new" car in the morning (our current Golf will not make it through the TÜV - which is like the MOT) and in the afternoon headed off to the final match of the season, which was luckily a home game for the Mighty Borussia Mönchengladbach. Against Augsburg (who beat us away last time). We were right next to the away fans this time, but the atmosphere was like a cup final.
Gladbach couldn't do worse than finish 3rd in the table, so their Champions League place was safe. A win for us and a win for the hated Köln would have put us 2nd above Wolfsburg, but nobody thought that would happen. There were flags on every seat in the stadium and the fan end (the Nordkurve) had arranged a massive flag-waving (different, bigger flags) and a huge banner that stretched right across the upper stand at their end. Spine tingling, especially when they announced a group was over from Liverpool (there's a sort of partnership thing between the two clubs) who then hung out their banner and the whole crowd burst into You'll Never Walk Alone.
Not a song I like but that one really raised goosebumps.
Then our fan song, scarf waving (and I'm finally not getting tied in knots when I do that) and the game started. Gladbach traditionally have 10 minutes at the beginning of each half that I can barely watch, and this was no different with Augsburg having all the ball. But eventually we scored and the place went bananas.
Unfortunately, Augsburg were in with a chance (if they won) of getting into the play offs for the Europa league and they seemed to want it more and the final result was 1-3, but even so. The home fans just stayed in the ground, cheering their team. It was lovely. After that outside the ground was a stage for an End of Season gig, with the players due to come on stage. Apparently there were 20,000 fans there but we're short and can never see so we got the bus/train home again.
On Sunday we were up early, back in our football shirts and off to the stadium for a bit of fun. WDR TV and Radio is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and one of the things they're doing to mark the occasion is to go round all the Bundesliga clubs in Nordrhein Westfalen and record the fans singing the club anthem. Accompanied by the WDR orchestra. They needed about 500 fans to make it work.
The other clubs averaged around 600, we were more than 1,000. It was great fun, first we had a run through of the song, clapping as usual, then the orchestra - who were in tails - played and we had a go at that, which was useless. Then we were told not to clap because it distorts the sound. Which was weird, but lead to more flag waving and scarf spinning. We went through it 15 times in all, and there was a lot of chanting and fun to be had between takes.
At the end we were having a beer outside when a young chap with a camera rolled up, having heard us speaking English, and insisted on filming us saying what we thought of it all. So it may or may not make the final cut. The film will be cut together with those from Dortmund, Schalke, Düsseldorf, Köln (boo) and should be available to view Sometime in August.
We did think about zipping over to Düsseldorf to watch Fortuna try to salvage some dignity this season, but we realised we only had our Borussia shirts on (it was about 20°C) and that would never do. (they lost 2-3 in the end which was quite useless) so we went home instead.
Yesterday evening we went for dinner in a local posh-ish restaurant with the Gruesome Twosome and had a lovely time. And that's where the pearls came in - gave me a neclace with a pearl pendent (30 years = pearl anniversary). He got the new football strip (Saturday, so he could wear it at the match)
so all in all a good weekend.
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Latest reply: May 25, 2015
Criminal minds - TV show
Posted Apr 6, 2015
my and Gruesome #1 like to watch this.
I don't understand it at all. It is invariably about serial murderers with the most depraved and gruesome murder methods. Quite often we'll see at least one victim literally begging for their life.
It completely distresses me - I keep thinking "what if that was a gruesome?" but watches it every night while I'm trying to do OU stuff. But I can always hear/see the TV.
So - why do people watch this stuff?
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Latest reply: Apr 6, 2015
Knickers and Shakespeare
Posted Mar 15, 2015
So yesterday the tickets for the annual Shakespeare festival in Neuss went on sale. We had carefully planned which performances we wanted to see and with the aid of Gruesome #2 managed to book them.
The one I particularly wanted to see is a performance of Hamlet, in Portuguese, by a troupe from Brasil. I can't really describe it but if you want to know more, try this:
http://www.shakespeare-festival.de/en/programm/2015/Trans-Hamlet-Formation-from-the-Favela-into-the-World--622/
We'll see Shakespeare's Kings. Murder Kills based on William Shakespeare - in German with some friends. That looks interesting
and we'll be at the very last performance on 27th June which is Love's Labours Lost. That's a play I don't know very well and haven't yet seen it performed.
For the last two we'll go early and have a picnic outside before the performance. All very civilised.
The Hamlet is a weeknight. And I cannot believe that I have chosen to go to a performance the night before my philosophy exam. Oh well, I'm not expecting a good grade anyway. As long as I pass.
As for knickers: I finally made my visit to Rigby & Peller, suppliers of corsetry to no less a personage than Her Maj Liz the second, and spent the voucher I got from for Christmas. 
I am never buying underwear anywhere else. Ever.
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Latest reply: Mar 15, 2015
my Jollies - March 2015: Tring
Posted Mar 15, 2015
So I took the train from Gipsy Hill to Victoria, then the tube (with huge suitcase - but I didn't stand on the left, no matter how much I was tempted) to Euston, then the train to Berkhamstead.
It didn't take long, and after realising that there were two entrances to the Berkhamstead station, I finally found my friend - someone I knew at school and haven't seen for 31 years.
To be honest, I had been a bit nervous about this visit. What if we didn't get on? what if we had nothing to say? I had committed to a 2 night stay. But in the event it was great, we started talking on Thursday and only stopped when she dropped me off at Terminal 2 on Saturday morning 
we stopped in Waitrose to collect lobster tails which she insisted we must have for dinner. The whole time we were together we talked about everything. School (which had been a hugely traumatic experience for her, she was only there for the A-level years) and what we'd done after. Mine has been pretty ok, but hers has been a rollercoaster!
The lobster tails were delicious. as was the roast chicken, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie we had the next day.
not much to say about this visit really, we had a good laugh, laid some ghosts to rest and took silly photos. and then suddenly it was time for me to leave and I was on my way home.
I had a really good trip, it does a person good to go without family sometimes, but I was really happy to see and the Gruesome Twosome when I got back.
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Latest reply: Mar 15, 2015
Sho - employed again!
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