Christmas 2007
The year has been more relaxed compared to previous ones in Germany, as we’ve actually stayed in one place throughout. We’ve got used to the fact that the empty shell without a kitchen which we moved into last Christmas Eve is now our home and we have finally forgotten the blood, sweat and tears it has taken us to get this far, which is just as well. Last Christmas we gave up on the flat “project” and booked a last minute mini-visit to England flying Christmas Day and returning early Jan. This year to save us from hassle, we’re staying to enjoy a more peaceful, erm boring, Christmas and New Year in Munich. In any event, the kids insist we stay, since they claim they got fewer presents last year!
We enjoy our flat and its location reinforces the decision to move into the city: we are half an hour’s walk to the centre but have underground/overground trains and plenty of bus options right on our doorstep. However, we are disappointed that we haven’t yet found a local, decent Italian restaurant, there are two nearby but neither meets the real thing. The research continues ...
For example, we spent a week in Italy over Whitsuntide which provided plenty of opportunities for eating out. We camped at Lake Garda in the south-eastern corner. We went to the obligatory theme parks nearby: Movieland and Aqua Paradise but missed Gardaland, the white-knuckle rides not being our thing, the screams you could hear from the bus as it travelled past were enough! That said, there were enough opportunities at Aqua Paradise for thrills and spills with plenty of steep, high-speed slides. Both children were let onto slides which left them in shock afterwards. Why the stewards permitted them to go down the slides in the first place beggars belief: Eve was still wearing arm bands! In spite of this, we had a good time there and it was practically the one decent day for weather. Most of the holiday was rained off, good job we were in a caravan although it was more like being in a Chinese laundry with wet clothes everywhere. We went to an interesting car museum near Verona which interested Phil and the girls; they went though a phase of being interested in all car types: saloon, hatchback, estate, sports and cabriolet. Needless to say, they are nagging for a cabriolet for the summer, dream on! Phil insisted on acquiring a second garage space to accommodate it though, let’s wait and see.
School and Kindergarten each arranged a summer fete and since Evie was leaving, they arranged a special trip to a stone-age park followed by an evening party at the Kindergarten along the same theme and went to a lot of trouble to create the right atmosphere; our transparent blue plastic picnic set looked completely out of place, so Phil sprinted back home to find some suitable stoneware. At the school’s summer party they set out stalls and games on the playground. Sabrina’s class ran a funny game involving 2 people going tight-rope style along 2 narrow benches with a dry spaghetti strand between their mouths. It was difficult to do but hilarious. The summer was better than last year with plenty of long hot days.
Sabrina had to represent her class with another girl, in a school reading competition, she didn’t get placed but to get chosen was an achievement: She puts a lot of feeling into story telling and Mum / especially Dad gets corrected if he doesn’t pronounce things properly and with the correct intonation for the character concerned. She still meets up with a best friend from her old school and they arrange overnight stays.
Evie has at last started at Sabrina’s school after we had persuaded the authorities. She appears to be coping well, coming home tired but generally content. She thinks being able to read is really cool. Phil often drops them both off on his way to work. The children play endless games with barbies; pretending they are at an airpor that they have visited Oktoberfest and recently a whole class of barbies is attending a mock theatre school.
Katie is still enjoying playing the piano and a bit of painting occasionally. As the flat slowly comes to completion she wonders about going out to work. She maintains it would be very difficult as both girls are home after school at 1.15 or so every day. She thinks too that a bit more language study is called for first although reading is becoming easier. Forget newspapers and TV! The girls and the support which German schools seem to expect with homework etc. keep us ‘on our toes much of the time. The weeks fly by.
Phil’s year has been disappointing at work because of the slow progress in getting things done after all the re-organisations. There are similar frustrations in the flat tidying up all the little jobs still hanging around, the 80/20 rule is in action, those last 20 % of jobs taking seemingly forever. After many interviews and reviews of the work situation, he is moving from o2 to join Cisco Deutschland’s Service Provider Team. Whilst slightly apprehensive that it will involve more travelling and be more demanding, it offers tremendous challenge and potential as well as a fresh start. The preparations are under way, not least clearing the backlog of jobs in the flat, but a recent order on Amazon illustrates the struggle ahead with 3 different books entitled: “Getting things done”, “Getting the right things done” and “Getting everything done”.
Sabrina and Phil sometimes play chess and we’ve started to play Monopoly together but it usually ends up in quarrels. Needless to say board games are supplemented by electronic ones, Nintendo, Pixel Chick and games on CBBC. Memory games of turning over 2 of the same card, are a dead loss for us as the girls are just too quick. In November, we took advantage of the snow and went sledging in the park nearby.
The year saw plenty of visitors from the UK; we drove to meet up with friends staying nearby in Austria for a weekend break, the scenery was stunning and it was a great hotel; we also took friends around pretty Lake Tegernsee and went with another set of friends to the Genesis concert in the Olympic stadium, with yet more rain! Other notable indoor concerts this year were OMD, Crowded House and Joe Jackson.
We had two trips to the UK in Easter and in August. The children are starting to enjoy walks so we went up Pendle hill and had a great time on the sands at Lytham St. Annes, the walk to the sea took about half an hour but it was well worth it and we have some of our most memorable pictures of the year from this walk, even though we just used a mobile phone’s camera.
yearly reviews
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