A Week of Wins and Losses

Actually, there was just one win, but two very sad losses. I have decided to touch on the latter only briefly, as it is not my place to go into detail - you will understand when you read on.

Our early start on Monday (11 March) meant we witnessed a beautiful spring morning with birdsong and sunrise. It was cold at 4C/39F but rose to 13C/55F during the day. I made use of that with a good walk of 2 hours after work.

Working from home on Tuesday (12 March) allowed for a quick drop-in at my Mum's during my lunch break. Later, it was Quiz time at the Irish Pub for my team - and we won! It was a really good evening out with my friends, lovely to see them. Four of the team are Americans, and one of them had been in the US for family matters for several months, so we had not seen him in a while. He brought along his teenage daughter who helped us with questions about current music, which we "oldies" rarely know the answers to. That made the difference, and so we walked out with the first prize (a bottle of whiskey).

I asked Bing Image Creator to give me a picture of six friends, three men and three women, playing the pub quiz at an Irish Pub - and this is what I got:

Not only can Bing not spell, it can't count to more than four, either. (Of course my friends look nothing like the people in the picture, just like I don't look like the person meant to be me.) About the spelling/counting issue, see my recent post about AI. That I nearly always have cider and never beer is something Bing couldn't know.

Wednesday (13 March) saw me taking the usual two trains to Weilimdorf for my customary office day. The sixth of a series of train drivers' strikes had ended during the night, and it was no problem getting to work.

My lunch break was spent with three fellow Privacy Officers at a nearby company; they have an excellent canteen where many from around the industrial estate go for lunch.

It was chilly and wet most of the day but the weather took a turn for a better mid-afternoon. Therefore, on my way home I got off the train in Kornwestheim and walked the rest of the way which did me good.

A glorious spring day on Thursday (14 March) was in sharp contrast to the sadness dominating our hearts and minds. O.K.'s father had been very ill for some time; he was in hospital and we knew he was not long for this world anymore. Thankfully, O.K. and the family were with him in the afternoon. He died later that night.

After work, my sister and I met for a walk to Hoheneck and back of about 2 1/2 hours. You may remember how frequently we used to walk together, and how that changed when our friend R became so ill and my sister was his main carer. It is good that we are now able to pick up our walks again every now and then.

I had an early start on Friday (15 March) for an event with about 20 fellow privacy officers I had organised and was going to moderate, taking two trains in order to get to Obertürkheim.

Of course, I was there before anyone else.

View from my kitchen window early evening that day.

Back home, I had a quick cup of coffee before starting my usual weekend cleaning and then spent a quiet evening, of course including a long phone conversation with O.K.

Saturday (16 March) was the day of a city-wide spring cleaning: Volunteers collected rubbish all over Ludwigsburg. My volunteer group were responsible for the area around the train station (not the platforms and of course not the actual tracks). A surprising number of almost 20 people helped - surprising, because our group only consists of four active and two currently inactive members, and we only were certain about a handful of helpers.

It was not just rubbish that was picked up that day - one lady found the little bird in the photo (not a baby one; a common firecrest from the regulus family, I think) sitting dazed, but otherwise unharmed, on the pavement near a gym. She brought it to the office where I was based for the morning, and we kept it for a while. Once the little fellow became a little more animated, she carried him back to where she found him, put him safely out of people's way among the bushes there, and waited until he flew up into a tree.

I went home, packed my little red suitcase and was off to the train station again shortly afterwards. At 4:30 pm, I arrived in Offenburg.

On Sunday (17 March) O.K.'s sister and her husband had asked us (O.K., his mother and me) for lunch at their place. The excellent meal was of course also an occasion to talk about all those things that now need organising and deciding.

Afterwards, O.K. drove us back to the village where we stopped briefly at the cemetery before taking his mother home. We went for a walk around the village and then, as is mostly the case on Sundays, spent the rest of the afternoon and evening quietly at the cottage.

Compare this with the photo for 9 March in my next-to-last post - the blossoms are now fully open.

The second loss of that week was RJ's father, who died on Sunday night; I learned about it early this following week. (Long time readers of my blog may remember RJ; we were once in a relationship and have remained good friends. Also, he is still one of my employers.)

Such is life - we all know the ups and downs, sunny and dark days. That week had it all, and I must admit it has been getting a bit much lately, even for me.