Journal Entries
Play it again, Sam
Posted Apr 17, 2017
Time goes by.
Yesterday was our 40th wedding anniversary. As it was Easter Sunday, we didn't really celebrate it - quite honestly, I wouldn't know how to. My sister-in-law came for Sunday lunch. Not even her boyfriend could join us because he is a carer in a private company and had a shift on Sunday afternoon. And, of course, the kids didn't even realise it was our anniversary.
Just the three of us. It was nice to just cook a proper Sunday meal, which we all enjoyed.
The starter was a BBC recipe - a simple salad of blanched green asparagus, peas, chopped mint, chopped feta and a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice. The peas were supposed to be freshly podded but I didn't have any, so I just poured some hot water, then cold, over some frozen peas and they were jut right.
The main course was lamb, with braised carrots, spring onions, and creamed celeriac. I couldn't find the right vinegar to make the mint sauce in my cupboard, but I did eventually find a raspberry/balsamic vinegar concoction right at the back and it was fine. Gravy and roast potatoes, too.
Then I did a palate-cleansing sorbet of rhubarb and ginger - unfortunately, although I had put it in the freezer on Saturday evening, it still wasn't the right consistency - more of a slush than a sorbet!
Pudding was profiteroles with melted chocolate drizzled over. Meant to garnish them with strawberries, but forgot.
The table decoration was pink - pink roses and serviettes. And a tempranillo rosado from Argentina, which set it off aesthetically and was just right to complement the meal. I even had two glasses!
The afternoon was spent digesting that lot! It's turned cold again, but unfortunately, we couldn't sit by the fire...
Hubbie is off on the second half of his Camino tour tomorrow. By bike from here to Santiago. He and his friend got to Toulouse a couple of years ago and now comes the difficult part. Difficult enough crossing the Pyrenees by bike, but Spain is not very bike-friendly altogether. They still haven't decided how they are going to get home, provided they even make the whole outward journey! No cycles on trains in Spain, a flight home is probably not feasible, as they don't know when and from where they will be flying so they would have to pay a horrendous price for a last-minute booking.
Anyway, because he may be away anything up to 6 weeks and because the weather was so beautifully warm a couple of weeks ago, he has dismantled, cleaned and generally decommissioned the fireplace for this summer, so that's why we couldn't light a fire in it.
He is spending the day inducting me in the intricacies of the heating system, the PV system, and there's probably more to come. He's done it all before, but I think he doesn't trust me.
While, of course, hoping that things go well (after two aborted attempts, he is losing the will to do this pilgrimage) I really am looking forward to having the house to myself for a few days.
He'll be back.
As time goes by.
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Latest reply: Apr 17, 2017
The ups and downs
Posted Mar 6, 2017
I've got to admit it to someone, so here is as good a place as any: I did the stupidest thing - Last Friday I opened a link in an e-mail at work and set a virus loose. This created havoc (and probably upset the IT department's weekend.) I feel so silly - I've been using computers since most of the IT department were in nappies, and nothing like this has ever happened to me. Problem was, the e-mail was made to look as if it came from Norway, and I have lots of customers in Norway, and assumed it was one of them.
I shall now probably have to bake copious cakes to pacify the IT department and have promised to go in sack and ashes for the rest of Lent. My weekend was bad enough, I hardly slept or ate for worrying about what I'd done.
The up side is that today my middle son had his final teaching exam and passed with top marks. I've always known he had it in him, but somehow he always managed to get on the wrong side of examiners and never scored very high. The German school marking system goes from 1 for the best result to 6 for a fail. He got a 1, and was still stunned when I spoke to him on the phone late this evening. Even at school, he always averaged around 3 or 4.
The lesson he was examined in was about Schubert's Erlkönig, but I kept forgetting to ask which grade he was taking it with.
So now he has to apply for proper teaching posts. Teachers are desperately needed, but the States* aren't taking them on for financial reasons, but with his subjects of Music and English, both of which are obligatory for all pupils at least at the lower levels, and with his great result, he is quite positive about it.
*Education is run at State level in Germany.
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Latest reply: Mar 6, 2017
Bach again
Posted Feb 28, 2017
Have just returned from a weekend rehearsing the St. John's Passion. It was very hard work, especially as I hadn't sung it for some 40 years, and hadn't had the time to prepare as well as I intended. But it was a lovely four days in a retreat in the beautiful town of Rastatt.
This is the third time I will have sung with this choir - we did the Rossini "Petite messe Solonelle" and the St. Mark's Passion by Reinhard Keiser. Other events I had to skip because of various family obligations.
The performance is on 12th March in this church:
http://www.looking-at-germany.com/master/deutsch/orte-alphabet/orte-s-s/speyer/st-josef-kirche-001/st-josef-kirche-002.html
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Latest reply: Feb 28, 2017
Christmas and New Year are over
Posted Jan 11, 2017
I phone my mother every evening - unless we are going out or I am otherwise busy, but even then I'll phone her from my mobile in the interval or between courses if I can.
Since my last visit in mid-November we have spoken about Christmas every day - I bought her a sheet of stamps and we got some Christmas cards and I left them on the dining table for her to write her Christmas cards. She said every night that she "must write her cards" - and finally got round to it just the week before Christmas! Well, it was something to talk about.
I must have told her a couple of dozen times that my choice of dish for Christmas lunch was beef Wellington and that there would be 6 of us and one toddler at the table. Sometimes three times in the same phone call.
She has now wished me "Happy new Year" about 10 times - and asked me if everything is back to normal after the holidays (I went back to work on 2 Jan!)
It's a relief if I can find something different to talk about - we have had snow to sweep and shovel these last couple of days, for example - to get out of the conversational rut.
Sometimes she laughs and remembers that I had just told her what I was cooking for dinner (I'm afraid I usually phone her whilst I'm getting dinner ready - "What's that noise in the background? Are you doing the washing up?") when she poses the same question less than a minute later.
These conversations are repetitive but not tedious, and they give her mind something to do, and also get her to use her voice. Sometimes she claims she hasn't spoken to anyone all day and has to clear her throat when she answers the phone. Then she will later mention that she had been to the hairdressers that morning or spoken to so-and-so on the phone.
She is otherwise in good health, but she will be 98 in November and I don't even know if I'll still be phoning her next Christmas, so I enjoy these moments all the same.
Booked a flight over to the UK in February so will be seeing her again soon. Also want to take my husband to the "Revolutions" exhibition at the V&A, so I'm dragging him along - as a birthday present for him; his birthday is at the beginning of Feb.
If anyone's read this far, have they seen the exhibition? Several people I know have raved about it, some have even gone along more than once.
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Latest reply: Jan 11, 2017
A lousy day at the office and Christmas round the corner.
Posted Dec 19, 2016
Oh boy what a drag, as people used to say. A lousy day at the office. The system is down and we can't do any work. All but a skeleton staff have been given the day off. So I'm sitting here with a Microsoft Editor file open, jotting down the details and phone numbers of everyone who calls, promising to phone them back tomorrow - although even that is not really a definite possiblity. IT are working on it, but apparently they've been working on it since Friday evening. (I wouldn't have liked to spend the last weekend before Christmas going cross-eyed over loads of green symbols on a black background either. )
Maybe this is the SuperGAU (Grösster Anzunehmender Unfall - Worst case scenario) that they have been predicting. We have all seen it coming - there is just so much data in the system that it had to cave in at some point. Well, that's how a lay person would see it. New servers were set up about a year ago, but the whole system has been wobbly for yonks.
And it really is only a week until Christmas. This coming Saturday it's Christmas eve and everyone will be going mad, trying to get the shopping, cooking, cleaning, present-wrapping, tree-decorating and carol-singing-round-the-piano all into the space of one day. Why do the Germans do that to themselves? There's nothing left to do on Christmas day itself, except eat and go for a walk. If you look at the biblical story, or at least, the way we were told in Sunday School, and according to the sentimental carols, the birth of Christ was supposed to be at midnight.
The Germans are very - VERY - strict about not celebrating anyone's birthday until the day itself. It should not even be mentioned. So why are they so set on sitting down at 4 pm on Christmas eve and opening their presents? 8 hours before the alleged time of birth? Before Midnight Mass ??? (which in some parishes is at about 6.30 pm) Traditionally, the children are expected to recite poems, or read the Christmas story, and play carols on their recorders whilst the adults sit round a table laden with coffee and cakes. The little ones are not allowed to see the tree with all its lights and decorations until that magic 4 pm either, so someone has to keep them busy and out of the living room, despite their being over-excited.
In our bi-cultural family, Christmas eve usually consists of the shopping and decorating part, finishing the day with a nice meal with smoked salmon, or raclettes, which the boys (if any of them are at home) can prepare. I let them have the run of the kitchen whilst I decorate the tree and as much of the rest of the house as I have the energy for. Usually I have to do extensive cleaning before I can even start on the decorating or I'll be fighting my way through cobwebs on the ceiling and in the doorways just to find the place where the drawing pins go. Dinner is planned for 7-ish, but usually actually starts at 8 - and by 9 pm I have to leave the table and dash off to church to be there an hour before the service (ours is usually at 10.30 pm which is just about right - it finishes around midnight). When we get back from church, the kitchen has been cleaned up by the elves and the boys and their friends are all off boozing with their friends.
On Christmas day, my sister-in-law comes for lunch, and the big question is whether the kids - especially the youngest, who's now 28 - will be awake in time for a 1.30 pm Christmas lunch.
Things are different this year. No. 1 son is over from America and living with the in-laws, but they are coming for Christmas lunch and other various days. No. 2's girlfriend has a patchwork family so they will have about three Christmases before coming to us on the 27th with little N (who will be 2 in February) for their 4th Christmas! No. 3 (as yet unattached but has a lovely girlfriend) arrives on Wednesday and will be leaving on 28th, the Wednesday after. So we just have the afternoon/evening of the 27th when the whole clan will be in the same place at the same time. I bet one of the kids will be ill or having a strop for most of that time, too.
At some point, the boys will also want to go into the wood and swing the chainsaw and bring home some firewood - they all love doing that.
Despite all this, I don't believe in stress, and what doesn't get done, doesn't get done, and as long as everyone has a pressie to unwrap and there's enough to eat for most meals, it'll be a happy Christmas.
Anyway, if anyone has read this far, let us know about your family's plans and have a Happy Christmas.
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Latest reply: Dec 19, 2016
You can call me TC
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