Today when I passed through the small town next to Coburg, I found myself suddenly face to face with – myself. I was looking down at me from a poster that was attached to a lantern. I felt immensly chuffed and drove happily past it to be very late for the practice session with those people standing next to me in that announcement: the guys from Luther and the Mockingbirds. The concert will take place in three weeks! I am excited!!!

Who would’ve thought that? We went climbing (in Germany in the middle of winter) and it was warm enough to shed your down jacket (and everything else associated with winter – christmas – snow – shortest days of the year). What a fabulous day nevertheless, but it was a bit eerie!

Wer hätte das denn je gedacht: Klettern am 2. Weihnachtsfeiertag im Frankenjura im T-Shirt (und nicht mit warmem Pulli, Daunenjacke, Mütze, Handschuhen und heißem Tee). Obwohl wir ja eigentlich Weihnachten, kurze Tage, Schnee, generell ja WINTER haben! Was für eine unerwartet schöne Zeit „zwischen den Jahren“, aber ein bisschen gruselig auch.

Last week I came to my parked car and wondered, why someone had thrown a spare bike tyre next to it. Coming closer I realised that the drivers mirror was broken – someone had driven against it. No sign of the culprit though. I reported the hit and run to the police and had it fixed. Not nice, no. The impressive costs hurt and to have someone damage my car and not take responsibility for it hurts, too. I won’t use swearwords, though. The backside of this was: The new mirror has a slightly altered design which prevents the darn thing from whistling all the time. I had fixed the whistling by taping a Walkers chip – bag around (probably the fact that it is a Walker’s bag had nothing to do with it, but it was the best thing at hand at the time – and the whistling was annoying). So dear idiot – if you come back, would you please hit the right hand side back door next time? I will park accordingly. The window is leaking and the door doesn’t close properly at all times. It would also be nice if you left your address on my windscreen to make sure I can get the money from your insurance. It would save me a lot of trouble and money. The smaller investment was to exchange the suspension. Now it eventually is a car – before it was a ship. A floating and – yes – whistling ship.

I went for a first small hike in the snow. It felt so good to be out in the hills again!

Ein erster Versuch, wieder Berge zu besteigen (Berglein trifft den Staffelberg vielleicht besser), ist geglückt – ist das schön, wieder draußen unterwegs zu sein!!!

Well, to have look at least, I have brought my knee to the climbing wall. They have the deluxe ice pack there – another advantage. How long till climbing is back on the schedule?

Oh, ich vermisse das Klettern!!! Saxophonspielen ist kein adäquater Ersatz. So war ich heute mal wenigstens wieder in der Halle. Sie haben das allerbeste Icepack der Welt dort. Zumindest ein Vorteil 🙂

When did I eat something like that the last time? I am pretty sure, that Kohl was chancellor at that time. I am impressed and will take it home with me. Absolutely phenomenal!

Wann gab es das letzte Mal so etwas für mich zu essen? Ich bin mir sicher, Kohl war da noch Bumdeskanzler. Diese Farbe!!! Ich werde es mir als Souvenir einpacken…