Christmas 2012
Holidays this summer took us to France - one week on the blustery west coast, south of Nantes and one week in splendid, fascinating Paris, in a hotel near Montmartre (Katie and Phil could get up early and explore Sacre Coeur without so many visitors around). The girls were not so impressed with the cycling involved on the coast or the walking in Paris, but actually did marvellously well, bar one or two outbursts; we’ve come to adjust to this as healthy and a chance to improve dialogue and discussion, still a work in progress. We spent 2 days at Versailles as the highlight and the visit was not without some educational side-effects; Eve has started learning French and Sabrina had studied the French Revolution, so she had lots of interesting facts to impart.
Sabrina’s favourite food is shrimps, drink is any j2o flavour. She’s progressing with jazz and ballet dancing. Favourite cities are New York, London and Paris, she likes comedies and dramas, a bit of a film buff. However, when we get flummoxed and start mumbling “er, wasn’t he/she in that film about … er?” Eve is the one to ask.
Eve’s similar short interview yielded favourite composer as Mozart, favourite colour as purple and the best film she saw this year was “Step Four”, like Sabrina and they are both avid Glee fans. The violin playing is coming along and a school Ski-trip looms in January. Come to think of it, the class also had a week away last year and performed a musical adaption of “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves”.
Katie is fine, knee improving and taking up running again. She completed a run for charity with Evie, both donning pink T shirts and running around the Englischer Garten. Music is the main theme, playing/teaching a bit of piano and now singing with a small group, ‘The Bells from Bach’ (most of the members live in Glockenbach!)
Phil had another hospital visit, this time to have the old war wound in the leg seen to (aka. varicose veins); this seems to have been successful so far. On the sports front, he achieved decent times on a couple of 10km runs, one was a road race around Munich finishing in the 40 years old Olympic stadium and in a time nearly 20 minutes faster than the time completed in the first 10km he did since re-starting a few years ago. What helped tremendously was getting a watch which reports distance covered, either from running or walking. It was interesting to observe that in Paris, we were doing nearly 15 miles a day, just sightseeing etc. Work continues unabated with a pleasant trip to Prague, highlight of a busy year.
Further highlights and special days of the year for us were:
December: hectic Christmas build-up as ever, disposing of the Christmas tree in bio-waste before catching flight to the UK; great visit to Manchester Science Museum with excellent textile demonstration.
January: helping to decorate Eve’s school classroom with other parents (same story re- poor funding over here!).
February: Phil back in England for Joshua’s real birthday on 29th February - any excuse.
March: polishing the parquet floor and a rare night out for Katie and Phil at a jazz club.
April: couple of triathlons for Phil, Skipton baths and Munich Olympic park, fun start to the sports season.
May: Champions League final in Munich, Katie’s description captured the turn of events most aptly:
(Bayern’s goal) “It was as if a bomb had gone off, the roar building up as if involving the whole city was involved, then 5 minutes later some noise from the TV next door (Chelsea’s equaliser) which turned everything going on outside into a deathly, eery silence from that point on”; thereafter, only a matter of time. Such a build-up here.
June: trip to Blighty, notable visits to Theatre Royal, York and Swales Cafe, Clitheroe, one extreme to the other.
July: Eve’s birthday party, 5 friends each one from a different country, a few sports in the park, then a sleepover.
August: yet another UK trip and marvellous views from Skipton Parish Church on the Bell Tower open day.
September: beautiful sunny day at Starnberger See and enthralled by the film “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”.
October: running events for Katie, Eve and Phil; started some work on the flat for re-organising rooms a little.
November: flying visit to John and Ruth in London; cold, wet, dark nights settling in. 1st Dec, first glühwein.
Hope we’ve not missed anything important off (apart from the obvious one: great job GB/London 2012!).
yearly reviews
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