A Warm Week

Last week was unusually warm here. November in Germany is generally associated with chilly, grey, wet days, fog enveloping the world outside, leaves falling off their trees and covering the soggy ground - not with days warm enough to be outdoors without a jacket or coat, or even sitting at a streetside café, basking in the sunshine.

Thursday was the warmest day with a high of 17C/62F in my town, and the Germany-wide record of around 22C/71F not too far away in the same federal state. That's almost a summer day in terms of temperature, but of course the late sunrise and early sunset, yellow and brown leaves everywhere and the familiar constellation of Orion in the nightly sky are all sure signs of what time of year it actually is.

Still, I enjoyed the mild weather while it lasted, keeping the windows wide open in the afternoon and not needing the heating apart from early morning and late evening.

What else was I up to?

On Monday (10 November), travelling home from Offenburg went smoothly. Dense fog over the fields meant I hardly saw the sunrise, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. I interrupted work in the afternoon so that I could walk to Benningen in daylight, and picked up work for some time afterwards. 

This birch tree along the way was particularly beautiful with its gold-yellow leaves against the blue sky.

At 6:00 pm, I was at my Mum's and brought her winter coats down from the attic for her.

My team and I were booked for this year's next-to-last pub quiz on Tuesday (11 November). There were six of us, and we did reasonably well, ending up third although we had the 2nd highest number of points - but two teams had the most points and split 1st and 2nd places between them after a tie question.

The fish & chips I had were really good, and it was a fun evening out.

Nothing remarkable happened on Wednesday (12 November). 

Sunrise as seen from my kitchen window on Wednesday.

Instead of the scheduled 17 minutes, it took me nearly an hour to get to work, due to our notoriously bad public transport. 

By the time I finished work, daylight was as good as gone, so no walk for me apart from the few minutes it takes to get from my house to the station in Ludwigsburg, from the station to the office in Weilimdorf, and back.

As mentioned above, Thursday (13 November) was the warmest day of the week. Working from home allowed me to start at 6:15 and then interrupt at 9:00 for an hour of walking with my friend. It truly felt like spring in the mild morning sunshine.

Sunrise on Thursday

Friday (14 November) was a bit of a strange day. I wasn't overly busy, just regular work and household tasks lined up. I got up around 6:00 and felt just the usual tiredness at first. A few hours later, exhaustion came over me as if someone had pulled a plug, and by mid-morning, I had to creep back into bed where I stayed for a full hour, sleeping maybe for half of that time.

Getting up for the second time that day, I still didn't feel entirely myself but worked a bit more until I took my lunch break, after which I had to rest for another half hour. 

I had to really muster the energy to do the cleaning but was determined to go for a walk afterwards, while it was still daylight. I managed 1 1/2 hours of a very undemanding walk finishing by sunset, and it did me good but left me more exhausted than it should have.

There were no other symptoms except for a dull, half-present headache at the right side of the nape of my neck. I even self-tested for COVID, with a negative result.

When evening came, I was actually glad that I was on my own; O.K. was at a work do, and so I could go to bed as early as I wanted without feeling the need to produce a nice meal or hold a conversation. (Of course I could have gone to bed whenever I wanted even with O.K. present, but one does not want that when one sees their partner only on weekends.) 

I still don't know what it was, but was very glad to wake up on Saturday (15 November) feeling my usual self again. O.K. arrived in time for a late simple lunch followed by coffee and cake, before we made use of the sunny and mild afternoon and strolled into town.

A few shops and several hours later, we picked up the pre-ordered Indian food at the restaurant half way between my and my Mum's place. The four of us (Mum, sister, O.K. and I) enjoyed the delicious dishes, although the restaurant had gotten one wrong in spite of me having ordered online directly from their menu. 

Sunday (16 November) is usually the day for a late, long, leisurely breakfast, and this one was no exception. A walk followed, and at about 3:00 pm we arrived at the small neighbourhood museum where both my sister and I had celebrated our birthdays this year. 

They were open for a temporary exhibition, showing nativity scenes lent to the museum for a few weeks and usually on display for Christmas at home with the families who lent them. The scenes ranged from large to tiny, from 100 years old to modern, and it was interesting to see how the same topic can take such different forms. A lot was handmade, among them a small nativity scene my sister made when she was 9 or 10 years old. That little scene still takes pride of place at our Mum's every year at Christmas, and it was nice to see it at the museum.

The volunteers working there serve coffee and (usually home-made) cake, which we enjoyed, and chatted a while with my Mum and her friend R who were also there.

It was raining when we left the museum, and so O.K. and I didn't extend our walk any further but spent the rest of the afternoon at home. We ate relatively early so that O.K. would not arrive at home too late; driving on the motorway in darkness and rain is not much fun, but he made it home in good time and without any incidents, something I am always very grateful for.