First Week of February

The first full week of February was cold, as you'd expect this time of year in these parts. There were sunny days but also clouds and some rain and sleet. I managed several walks, went to the pub quiz and attended a concert - definitely my highlight.

Monday (3 February) started dull and grey, but it didn't bother me, since I was working anyway. When the sun came out early afternoon, I resolved to wrap up work as early as possible and then go for a walk, and I did exactly that.

The ruined castle high above the river, on the outskirts of Ludwigsburg's much older suburb Hoheneck, was my aim. If you look at the pictures, you can see its particular attraction that day.

What's on these branches?

Catkins!! The first I have spotted this season.

I love this picturesque vineyard house. It is the club house of the local association of winemakers.

View from near the castle across the river and towards Neckarweihingen, another one of Ludwigsburg's suburbs that is hundreds of years older than the town itself.

One reason for me wanting to go there was that I had been thinking of my Uncle Rainer a lot since I had learned of his death the previous Thursday. I remember many of our conversations, and years ago he told me that at one point he had seriously considered buying the ruins, making them somehow habitable and live there. The idea never came to fruition, but the conversation stuck with me, and it was my small, personal way of honouring my late uncle (apart from it being a really nice walk on a sunny winter afternoon with early signs of spring).

Tuesday (4 February) was another cold and sunny day. I was working from home and spent the evening at "my" Irish pub for the quiz. Of the original team, three who had said they would be there had to cancel last minute, and so I was really, really glad that my sister had agreed to come (of course she is always welcome! But had there only been three of us, our results would have been meagre indeed). The four of us had a fun evening, no matter that this time we did not walk home with a prize (but still beat our eternal rival, a team by the name Lone Star!).

Let's test your skills as potential members of our team: 

1) What is the name of the scale used to measure wind speed?

2) How many cards are there to a deck of Tarot?

Answers on a postcard :-D

As usual, I worked at the office in Weilimdorf on Wednesday (5 February). The morning was frosty at -6C/21F, and I was grateful that one of my colleagues had remembered to turn up the heating in my room, which was empty since last Wednesday and therefore would have been VERY cold otherwise.

By the time I was home, I wasn't up to anything much, and it was too dark and cold for me to want a walk. But I got my old skipping rope out and did a bit of skipping at least.

Sleety rain fell on Thursday (6 February) morning, making me glad to be working from home. The day remained grey but the rain/snow/rain stopped late morning, and I went for a short-ish walk after work across the fields to Eglosheim and back, just to stretch my legs and clear my head after staring at computer screens all day.

Friday (7 February) saw a mix of clouds and sun; cold at a max of 4C/39F but not frosty. I finished all my work-related tasks by lunch time and therefore was able to go for a more substantial walk in the afternoon, to Benningen (and back by local train).

Just before 7:30 pm, my sister and I met our Mum at the bus stop opposite the palace grounds. From there, we walked the short distance to the "Forum", a venue for concerts, theatre and other events in our home town. The reason: Our Mum had bought tickets for the three of us for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!

Have you heard of them, maybe watched a video or two on youtube, or even attended a live performance? If you have, I am sure you'll agree with me that these guys are BRILLIANT!! Not only are they fantastic musicians and good singers, they are also super entertainers, all seven of them.

Please don't think that it's all just comedy and silliness. Yes, there are some deliberately silly bits. But their level of virtuosity is truly waaay up there with the very best (they ARE the very best, I think!), and everything they play just sounds great. Please go to their youtube channel for videos, and I guarantee they'll cheer you up (and can't we all do with a bit of cheer these days?).

Some of you will remember our dear late fellow blogger Pat, aka The Weaver of Grass. She learned to play the ukulele late in life and performed with a group of people visiting homes for the elderly and for patients with dementia. I always admired her for that (among other things), and it was originally because of her that I came across this band.

Anyway, I'd be hard pressed to name a favourite of the fantastic concert we attended on Friday, but if I had to, I guess I'd have to decide between "You Make Me Feel" and "Raw Hide". Thank you, Mum!!! This really was a super present.

I did my usual cleaning round on Saturday (8 February), and late afternoon made my way to the station and boarded the first of two trains to Offenburg. I arrived at 7:00 pm on the dot - why can't it always be like that? O.K. picked me up, and we drove a short distance to a German-Hungarian restaurant where he had booked a table for us. We enjoyed a very good meal before driving to the village.

Sunday (9 February) started sunny, but by the time we were up and ready to leave, clouds had come up. We still enjoyed a good walk, partly in the woods on the hill behind the village, through orchards and vineyards, before returning to the cottage for coffee and cake.

A visit across the road with O.K.'s Mum followed, and we ended the evening (and the weekend) with what more often than not is our standard Friday night fare: salad, bread and cheese, accompanied by a well chilled rosé wine.

Last Week of January

I know I say this all the time, but especially after the beginning of a new year, it feels as if time passes extra fast - can you believe the first month of 2025 is already over? Wasn't it just a few days ago that we celebrated Christmas and New Year? Outside work, which was busy but unremarkable, there were beautiful walks but also sad news.

At 11C/52F, it was still rather mild for January on Monday (27 January). Of the three trains back from Offenburg, the middle one was delayed so that I caught my connection in Stuttgart only running, and it began to rain just as I walked the short distance from Ludwigsburg station to my home. It was also rather windy, and although the sun put in a brief appearance later, I didn't manage more than an hour's worth of walking (which was perfectly alright). 

Tuesday (28 January) saw a similar mix of rain, wind and sun, but it kept dry all afternoon and evening, allowing for a good after-work walk, even though the strong wind (and my grumbling stomach) made me cut it short and turn home after less than an hour. My lunch break had been pleasantly spent on the massage table at the nearby day spa.

The hill in the distance is Asperg, where we went on the Sunday.

The now familiar Wednesday pattern of working at the office in Weilimdorf and then spending the evening with my sister at my Mum's was repeated on Wednesday (29 January). I brought Thai takeaway for the three of us, which was quite nice. The portions were so big that each of us had about half leftover; not a problem at all, since this type of food heats up very well in the microwave the next day.

It had gradually become colder, and by Thursday (30 January), the morning was close to freezing at 1C/33F. The sun came out, resulting in an afternoon high of about 8-9C/46-48F, and inducing me to walk to Benningen after work. On the fields, I spotted two herons, and as always when I see this type of bird anywhere (and I see them often), I thought of my Uncle Rainer - he and I had a sort of running gag going, with him saying how I saw herons almost everywhere I went. 

Thursday at 7:45 in the morning

Imagine my shock and sadness when at 9:00 pm, my sister rang to tell me that Uncle Rainer had died two hours before. He was my Mum's big brother, five years her senior. He'd had a stroke some time last year (or was it 2023?) but had recovered well enough to still be living at home with his wife. His mind had been clear all along, as I could confirm when we spoke on the phone. The last time he'd called wasn't that long ago, and although his voice sounded weak then, we had a little chat and I didn't think he was going to die so soon after that.

Our Aunt had also been in hospital and not recovered all that well, so to be honest I would have been less surprised if the sad news had been about her.

Anyway, Mum's brother and our Uncle is no more, and my personal loss is nothing compared to what his wife and my cousins are going through now. 

By the way, he was the one who told me about Monika Gwinner when I was a teenager, and my sister and I spent a snowy weekend with our aunt and uncle in 2015. For years, we regularly corresponded by email, and more than once he sent me photos he had taken and gave me permission to use them on my blog, such as the super moon and the "ice flowers" in this post. A picture of six-year-old Rainer can be seen in this post.

Friday (31 January) was my Dad's birthday; he would have been 83 if he were still alive. The day was beautiful and sunny, but cold. O.K. made sure to drive to Ludwigsburg directly from work and arrived just before 6:00 pm, about three hours earlier than usual. We walked to my Mum who had made my Dad's favourite food, and had a meal in his memory. Of course we also talked a lot about my uncle.

It was frosty at -3C/26F on Saturday (1 February), but sunny again. O.K. and I went for a late-ish breakfast at our favourite café in town and then for a long walk, taking in the market square at noon with the traditional brass instruments being played from the top of one of the church towers, the palace grounds, the fields and the cemetery. We became very hungry and walked back into town to have Thai food at one of the shopping malls, which was nice, followed by a quick espresso at an Italian coffee bar not far away. 

Zoomed in; can you see the musicians?

Is a bluer sky possible?

Back home, we had a bit of a rest before our evening meal, a salad of baby spinach leaves with feta cheese and cashew nuts, accompanied by crunchy bread and Italian salami. A silly comedy on TV was just right afterwards.

Sunday (2 February) was true to its name, but as cold as the day before. We had a sumptuous breakfast at home and then went walking with my sister. She had not been to the castle on the hill in Asperg for quite a while, and O.K. had suggested it too, so Asperg it was. 

The blue sky and sunshine made for good views from the top, and provided a great backdrop for the old stone walls.

Looking across the town of Asperg towards Ludwigsburg from the top of the hill (photo by O.K.)

We chose a different way back, stopping at a café for coffees and cakes. After that, my sister went home and O.K. and I had a quiet hour or so before I prepared a tray of vegetables to roast in the oven to go with the schnitzel I fried in the pan (I am sorry to say that, although I had stuck exactly to the instructions, the meat turned out rather dry). O.K. started the long drive home just before 8:30 pm, and as always, I was glad when he called to let me know he was home.

Read in 2025 - 2: I Am The Messenger

I Am The Messenger

Markus Zusak

Lent to me by my book-loving friend who periodically exchanges books with me, I had not known the author before and started to read without any expectations other than it should be good, since so far everything I have borrowed from this friend has met my taste.

It turned out that I really, really liked this book, for various reasons. The setting is - unusual for me - Australia, in a part of town that has seen better days. Not that the Australian factor is over-emphasised, but it is unusual for me to read of a "typically hot November day" or Christmas spent in shorts and t-shirt and drinking cold beer in the shade of the porch.

The main character is Ed, a 19-year old cab driver, flanked by a cast of quirky characters like his three best friends, one of whom he is deeply in love with while she keeps saying that he is her best friend and therefore she doesn't want to spoil their friendship. There is also Ed's Mum and memories of his late Dad. The other love in his life is his old dog, very much a character in his own right.

With an unqualified, low-pay job and no real perspective or ambition for more than playing cards with his friends, walking the dog, occasionally visiting his Mum, Ed's life could go on like this for years and years.

But when he and his friends are accidentally caught in a bank robbery, and equally accidentally Ed manages to stop the gunman, everything changes.

After his unwilling 15 minutes of fame, Ed starts to receive playing cards in the mail, with cryptic messages on the back, sometimes more, sometimes less difficult to decipher. In any case, he has to act on them, and act he does.

I am not going to spoil things for you by telling you what he has to do and about the people he meets along the way, but by the end of the book, loose ends are tied up and Ed - as well as the reader - learns what it was (and is) all about.

An unusual story, quirky characters and the language to match - I can recommend this if you want a story that is mysterious but not a mystery as such (no murders, detectives or crime-solving), not a historical drama or family epos and neither romance nor comedy, but with elements of both.

More about the author can be found on wikipedia.

Weather Week

For me, last week was largely dominated by the weather: There was everything from icy fog to spring-like sunshine, with a range of temperature spanning below freezing to (for some) short sleeves. Strong winds were blowing, but we did not get storms such as had been forecast for the UK.

The week was off to an icy start on Monday (20 January) with a long-lasting fog at -5C/23F making me glad I was working from home. The only time I ventured out was for the approximately five minutes it takes me to reach the nearby Day Spa for a back and shoulder massage during my lunch break, followed by a quick pop in at Aldi's, just another few minutes from there. 

I partly made up for the lack of exercise by doing a tiny bit of rope-skipping in the evening - only 120 jumps/skips. At my fittest, when I was still regularly going for runs AND went to the gym AND did ballroom dancing most Saturdays, I managed 400 to 500 without needing a break. Those were the days...!

Tuesday (21 January) looked beautiful with the icy fog turning every twig and leaf into a crystal-covered work of art. 

The view at 7:00 am from my living room...

... and about half an hour later from my kitchen.

A bit of blue sky was welcome...

...and at about 11:00 it was even brighter, although the blue was gone.

The mulberry tree outside my bedroom window looked beautiful...

...as did this group of trees at the cemetery.

At -4C/25F, it was only marginally warmer than the day before, but I felt the itch for a walk and managed to put in almost two hours in the afternoon, visiting the cemetery and doing a wide loop back home, where I worked for another hour or so before it was time to leave for the pub.

It was my team's first quiz of 2025 (quiz nights picked up again after the Christmas market break on the 7th, but this was the first Tuesday nearly all of us could make it) - and fittingly for our first quiz of the year, we ended up coming first!!

Great fun and the win a rather surprising treat, to be honest - we finished the first half missing two of the possible points, and in the second half, we missed another point, but still had one point more than all the other teams.

The decisive point that put us on 1st place was gained by my sister, who was our guest player that evening - she was the ONLY person in the entire pub who guessed the breed of a dog right, shown on the big TV screen. It was, if you want to know, a Malteser.

One of the points we embarrassingly enough didn't get was the answer to the following question: What was Portugal's currency called before the Euro?

Would you have known...?´

As usual, I worked at the office on Wednesday (22 January). It was again an evening spent with my sister, as we met at our Mum's for a delicious meal.

Sunrise on Wednesday, as seen from my sister's flat.

Winter pastels at their best!

I was lucky to catch this view from my kitchen that morning, the sky changed so quickly.

During the night, it got considerably warmer, and by Thursday (23 January) morning, the thermometer reached 8C/46F. There was some rain, but it stopped in the course of the morning, and around lunch time, the sun made an appearance - enough for me to make me walk to Benningen, picking up work again afterwards.

Looking back towards Hohenasperg

The colours were a lot more intense in reality.

Friday (24 January) was special in that for the first time in months, I heard the unmistakeable spring song of a blackbird when I opened all my windows first thing in the morning. I can't tell you how happy that sound made me, a sign of things to come, even if proper spring is still two months or so away, and it was nowhere near the full dawn chorus yet that I so love to get up to.

After work and my usual cleaning round, I took the trains to Offenburg (not the fast, long-distance one that I had originally booked - that one was 35 minutes delayed) and that evening enjoyed a meal with O.K. at his cottage for the first time since New Year's Day.

Sunny, windy and not just mild, but warm - that's in short the description for Saturday (25 January). 17C/62F is definitely NOT our typical January weather, but that was what we had on that day.

O.K. worked until sunset in his Mum's garden and around her house, taking advantage of the daylight hours and warm, dry weather. I did a few jobs indoors, and then we both agreed that I couldn't be of much use with the trimming of hedges etc. but should go for a walk. 

And so it was that I found myself enjoying the spring-like weather, walking for about 2 hours before returning home and making coffee for O.K. and myself (he didn't even come in for that, such was his drive to finish the jobs he had set out to do).

Looking back towards O.K.'s village...

...and ahead towards the next village.

 This bench looked very inviting, but I wanted to walk, not sit.

Usually, this is one of the first places to find snowdrops, but they aren't out yet.

In the evening, we had a quick but delicious meal of ready-made pasta (a kind of ravioli, filled "all'arrabbiata") and a tasty rucola salad with flakes of grana padano.

Sunday (26 January) was cooler at a max of 9C/48F, but still mild and sunny. It would have been perfect for a hike, had it not been for O.K. and his fellow musicians playing at another band member's 60th birthday mid-afternoon.

We still managed a lunchtime walk of about an hour and 15 minutes around the village, which was pleasant and better than not being out and about at all.

The birthday do did not include partners of the musicians, and so we spent good part of the day separately. Still, it was good to be at O.K.'s for the weekend, having our meals and enough time to talk and laugh together, also popping over to his Mum's for a bit to make sure she was alright and didn't need anything (she'll be 85 this year and has only been home from hospital for a week).

We watched a documentary about Norway in the evening, a country I think I would really like to visit one day.

The Surprise

In my previous post, for Saturday I mentioned that my sister had given me a concert ticket for Christmas, and that she also had a surprise in store for me. It wasn't the concert as such, as I knew that, but it was who else was there.

So, last Saturday (18 January), I walked to Kullman's Diner opposite the train station, where my sister had suggested we grab a bite to eat before travelling into Stuttgart. On my own, I would not have eaten at that time, but it is always nice to share a meal, and since the concert was her present to me, I went along with her suggestion.

Rounding the corner to the entrance of Kullman's, I saw my sister standing there already... but she was not alone: Our two best friends from when we were six and seven years old were there as well, all three ladies grinning at me from ear to ear!

Let me quote from my own post about what was an important event for us in October of 2023: 

"When my sister and I were seven and six years old, we moved into the middle of three terraced houses here in Ludwigsburg. Next door were two sisters our age. The four of us became inseparable - we went to school together and spent most of our free time as a foursome. 

In our late teens, a rift went through our small, tight-knit group. I won't go into detail; let it suffice to say that while I kept in touch more or less regularly with one of the sisters, everyone went their seperate ways. This kind of thing sometimes happens when childhood friends go to uni, start work, have partners and start their own families. 

When [in 2022] first our Dad and two weeks later their Mum died [...], and was soon followed by my sister's best friend R, the idea of a reunion of the four of us was born. 

It took us a year to make it come true, and so on that Sunday, my sister and I drove to a small town nearby where one sister lives with her family (the other one lives in Switzerland). 

There was not a single moment of awkwardness, but instead, we picked up the threads that had been resting (in my sister's case) for over 30 years, as if no time had passed. We still share the same sense of humour and there were many laugh-out-loud moments, but we were also able to talk serious stuff such as the deaths we'd had to cope with."

So, imagine my surprise and delight to see the other half of our quartet! I guessed instantly that this couldn't be a coincidence, which was of course confirmed.

We had our meal at Cullman's and then boarded a local train to Stuttgart, followed by a short trip on the city tram to the concert venue.

The band was Heaven 17 - probably familiar to those of you who, like us, were teenagers in the 1980s. While we loved their music back then and had several albums and 7'' versions (all on vinyl, of course - this was well before CDs or online platforms), the band never performed live until well into the 1990s, by which time we weren't listening to them much anymore.

Not my picture; I nicked it from the ticket vendor's website.

Like many other New Wave / synth pop bands during that decade, Heaven 17 were from the North of England - from Sheffield (Yorkshire) to be precise, home of our esteemed blogging friend Neil a.k.a. Yorkshire Pudding.

On the way to the concert, the four of us kept speculating who from the old days we might spot there, and indeed we ran into someone from the old clique. He had not changed much and was easy to recognise, but when four tall ladies all of a sudden were towering over him, calling out his name, he was quite overwhelmed and at first could only stare and stammer "Ludwigsburg?!" :-D

We got drinks and positioned ourselves in the audience (standing space only) so that we would be able to see everything on stage and have the full benefit of the sound system without it being one-sided. 

The concert started, and we loved every minute!! Glenn Gregory was entertaining and seemed very much down to earth, really engaging with the audience. His way of talking reminded me a lot of my late husband (who wasn't from Sheffield but from near Barnsley, but his choice of words and sense of humour were very similar).

Martyn Ware didn't say much but made up for it with his flamboyant outfit. The lady at the other keyboard and the two background singers were as beautiful as they were brilliant.

All the old favourites were played*, and then some. The mood was great, the audience being totally "there" from start to finish, and we kept demanding more until the band ended up to give us five extra songs - and all that in spite of Glenn having a chest infection and being on antibiotics. Twice, he played only an acoustic guitar and sung unaccompanied. There were also tracks by The Human Leage (of course written by Martyn, who was a founding member of that other great band from Sheffield) and by David Bowie, whom Glenn cited as a big influence on his musical career.

Afterwards, we took the tram and the local train back to Ludwigsburg, where we chatted for a little until the husband of one of our friends arrived. We said our good-byes and all agreed that it had been a GREAT night out! Had anyone told us in our teens that 40 years later, the four of us would attend a Heaven 17 gig and meet R.B. from the old gang, we wouldn't have believed them!

*If you want to have a look, there are some videos on youtube from that evening:

Heaven 17 - live @ Im Wizemann Stuttgart 18.01.2025

This one is the longest, but I must say that in reality, the sound was tons better.

Here is a video of Let Me Go from that night, it is more close-up than the long video:

Heaven 17 Live - let me go, Germany Stuttgart 18.Jan.2025 Im Wizemann

Here is "Trouble":

Heaven 17, live Trouble, 18.Jan.25 Germany, Stuttgart, Im Wizemann

The four of us did not record anything - we just wanted to ENJOY, not be glued to our phones.

Icy Week

Last week was cold, as can be expected mid-January in these parts. Some nights and days were icy, and Wednesday was particularly so: An icy rain turned the roads and pavements in my area into glassy surfaces, causing hundreds of accidents over the course of the morning, with people on foot or bikes falling left, right and centre, and cars crashing into each other or against walls and fences everywhere. Rescue services, medical staff and the police were kept busy, and there is still a backlog on related operations in many hospitals.

Monday (13 January) started at a wintery -7C/19F, but it was a sunny day and would have been great for a walk, had it not been so bitingly cold. I was out twice for a short time, first to stock up on groceries and then for my regular back and shoulders massage at the day spa, which is only about 5 minutes on foot from my house.

It was also Full Moon, and the large silvery orb appeared at the roof of my neighbours' house before sunset. Can you spot it?

After sunset, it was of course a lot easier to see!

The weather was more or less the same on Tuesday (14 January). I was glad to be working from home, just like the day before, and only left the house after work to help my Mum with her putting away most of her Christmas decorations. Of course I stayed for a delicious home-cooked meal: A perfectly shaped cauliflower baked in the oven, accompanied by spuds and sausages.

The moon lit my way home from Mum's, as bright as the street lights.

On Wednesday (15 January), the aforementioned icy rain made getting to work really tricky. The right thing to do would have been to stay home, but it was my regular office day with two "big" meetings that I wanted to attend in person and not online, and so I stubbornly left the house, wearing a pair of boots with good profile.

Well, when you walk on mirror-like surfaces, you can have the best profiled soles in the world - they are no use when there is nothing for them to grip on. And it was exactly like that. I very, very carefully dragged myself along on fences, garden walls and lamp posts, but every time I had to cross a street, there was of course nothing to hold on to. What is usually a quick walk to the station took me three times as long, and at one point, two young gentlemen helped me to safely cross the road - I can tell you, I really felt OLD at that moment, but they were very kind about it, and I was most grateful!

At the station, nothing had been done to make the platform safer, but most people were sensible and climbed on and off the trains with caution. Those who didn't usually landed on their behinds, but I didn't witness any bad falls and eventually made it to work in one piece. I was completely exhausted and had not even started work yet!

Of course everyone who did come to the office that day (half of my colleagues wisely stayed home) shared their "icy" stories. Fortunately, by the time I left work, the ice had gone.

Thursday (16 January) is partly covered in my previous post. I was glad to be working from home and for the chance to go walking for a couple of hours after three walkless days.

On Friday (17 January) after work and a quick round of cleaning, I went to my Mum's to set up a new IKEA coffee table for her. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may recall that I actually like setting up IKEA furniture and usually don't have any trouble with it. 

This time, all went well, too - until the very last part... two drawers (which were super easy to put together) needed to be inserted into the corpus of the coffee table, while having to match holes in the drawers' back and side walls with hooks and bolts on the telescope-like metal bars. I perfectly understood what had to go where, and with some faffing (and my sister's help) was able to put the drawers in as they were supposed to be, but their fronts wouldn't fit as expected. A screw underneath each drawer that was meant to be turned to adjust the height of each drawer simply would not budge, no matter how much we tried. In the end we gave up, and my Mum had a friend look at it, who managed to complete the task on Sunday. I regarded this as a personal failure and was glad to hear that Mum's friend did not have to dismantle anything (meaning I had not done anything wrong); without knowing in detail what he actually did, I suppose it was a question of strength, which I don't have.

Anyway, I had another good meal with my Mum, a nice, thick, hot vegetable soup, before going home.

O.K. and I spent the weekend seperately again, because his Mum was in hospital for surgery (all went well, I am happy to report) and he was looking after her cat, and of course he wanted to stay close just in case, not be 150 km away.

Saturday (18 January) saw me finally cleaning my windows - always a job I leave until I really can't stand it any longer. I don't mind house work at all, but windows are a truly unloved task for me. It's a bit like doing my taxes; when I finally kick myself into action, it doesn't take all that long and really is not much trouble at all, but the sheer thought of it keeps me untypically postponing the task.

Late afternoon, I walked to the station where I was to meet my sister for a meal and then to take a local train into Stuttgart; she had given me concert tickets for Christmas. I was in for a big surprise, and will tell you more about that in an extra post.

Sunday (19 January) lived up to its name with wall to wall sunshine, but it was cold at -5C/23F in the morning and barely reaching 3C/37F during the day.

A quiet morning was followed by a lunchtime walk with my sister. We chose the palace grounds and then went for a meal at a café in town which we both like.

Back home, I had a nap, taking advantage of the family upstairs being out (so no little feet running back and forth over my head), and spent the rest of the afternoon playing my favourite computer game. 

The week ended talking to O.K. on the phone, watching the news and then something on Netflix, and finishing a book I have really been enjoying.