This week can only be better

Sunday before last, Sharon exclaimed at 3.30am that the baby may be coming, 8 weeks early, as her waters broke. I'd just pulled the duvet cover over my head as the light was on, so that got me out of bed in no time at all. It was a worrying few hours whilst we waited to know what was going on, but appeared that nothing more was happening. After getting different stories over the past week, she's now been told she has to be in there until it arrives, owing to this and another risk factor which requires them to treat her as soon as she goes into labour. At least we know where we stand now, so at least dealing with that and organising child-care etc. And we were also broken into Monday last week, just the upstairs and mostly jewelery taken. Timing not brilliant, but when it is ever. Anyway, that's the update. Time more precious than ever at this point for me...........

My first Wiesn

Paul H has been living in Munich for nearly six years now, so a visit to the Oktoberfest (Munich beer festival or more locall Wiesn) was long overdue. The festival has been going since 1810, originally held to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Still, that seems to barely matter these days, as it is an excuse for a 2-week plus drinkfest, which can attract up to 6 million people each year. Given that Paul is a local, he took us to one of the smaller (but still huge) tents that is more dominated by Germans, rather that aussies and/or brits beating each other up. A table is a must if you are going to spend all day there and we were queueing from 7.20, for the opening of the doors at 9. As if that was bad enough, the stampede to get a table was something else and pretty dangerous at times. Paul is an old hand, so he ran it, found a table, stood on it and made sure no-one else got within 6 feet of it. Meanwhile, Andy and myself spotted him and laid claim also. After that, it was a case of settling into paced drinking. The music started around 10.30 and from there on it, it was pretty full on, with much singing (German and some English) and standing on the benches. Still, it's nothing like an English pub doing something similar. There are plenty of young ladies there nearly all dressed in dirndl dresses... My friend Andy was a bit trigger happy with the camera on this front (very edited pics here). Everyone was also very friendly, both guys and girls and were nearly all there for the occasion and fun of it, rather that just to get smashed. We left around 5pm, went on a few fairground rides and were home at a reasonable time in the evening. We had the sense to go for a walk in the Bavarian countryside the next day as well. Germany is an often mis-understood nation and I was having a lengthy chat about this with one of the guys on our table. As with anything, you just have to go and experience it for youself, preferably with someone thatlives there. This weekend, together with all my other visits, just confirmed my positive impressions of the place and the people... great fun.

Something to do on Sunday 4th November

My string quartet is now on the approach path to our concert on Sunday 4th November. More details can be found here. We are doing the concert to raise funds for the church in my village, but we are also doing it for our own personal enjoyment. Far more challenging than playing at a wedding. This Saturday, we were fortunate enough to have some coaching from a member of one of the best known professional quartets in the country, namely the Maggni quartet. Martin, the voila player, sat with us for nearly 3 hours and coached us through the Dvorak American quartet. Lots of constructive advice... and one of the first things we learnt was the difficulties in playing F Major in a quartet, something that I would have never have known about. Anyway, it's far too complicated to explain, but fascinating nonetheless. We are also playing some Mozart (always harder than it sounds in my book) and Barber's Adagio, a decision we may come to regret but there you go. We met Martin again the next day at the Harvest festival service in the next village (where he lives) and he seemed to genuinely enjoy the session and said he would be happy to do another one with us. Anyway, come to the concert!!!! Finally, I've put some photos from France here after discovering them on an extra memory chip in our camera.