First Working Week in 2025

Last week saw me (as well as many other people in my part of the world) returning to work after the Christmas/New Year period. I was ready to pick up normal life again after two weeks of celebrations with plenty of good food, family and friends, and our trips between my place and O.K.'s.

Monday (6 January) was my last day off work; it's a holiday in some federal states of Germany, including Baden-Wuerttemberg where I live. O.K. left after breakfast, since he had a performance with some of his fellow band members in the village next to his in the afternoon and didn't want to risk heavy traffic on the motorway.

The day was unusually warm at 14C/57F and sunny, and of course I had to walk to Benningen, didn't I! 

What lies ahead for me this year? I know what lies behind the horizon of this picture, at least!

Later in the afternoon, I changed into something nice and walked to the concert hall in town, where I met with my sister and Mum's friend R. At Christmas, Mum had given the three of us tickets to a concert by the Gershwin Piano Quartet - four men at four grand pianos, playing mostly (but not only) Gershwin. Usually, everything they perform on stage has been arranged by themselves, since there are hardly any original compositions for four pianos around.

The concert was fantastic! We had great seats and enjoyed the evening immensely. The first half was dedicated mainly to Russian composers Rachmaninov and Rimski-Korsakov, while the second half was (almost) all about Gershwin. It was truly incredible what those four men managed to do! If you want to know more about them and their music, click here for their official website (in English); under "media" you'll also find videos that give you an inkling of what we heard and saw.

I am trying to embed the 7 minute trailer from their website, also to be found on youtube, and hope that you can watch it - it's worth every second, believe me!

So, once again, Mum: Thank you for this great Christmas present!

I started work on Tuesday (7 January), working from home. Usually, when I have been off work for 2 weeks, there are close to 200 emails waiting for me. This time, there were only 55 - most other people had not been working around the holidays, either, and I was able to catch up with most of my tasks right on the first day with only a few calls in between. 

I even managed a walk to Asperg and back before sunset, returning to work for another hour or so after that.

For the first time in 2025 I went to the office on Wednesday (8 January). Thankfully, the day before, one of my colleagues had turned up the heating in my room, which had stood empty and unheated since December 18 in 2024. It was warm-ish but I was still glad of my cosy hoody, and went to get myself mugs of hot tea a few times during the afternoon.

It had begun to rain around lunch time, turning into a sleety snow over the next hours, and local trains were at their usual chaotic self for the trip back to Ludwigsburg, but I made it and was glad to be home in my warm flat at around 6:00 pm.

Thursday (9 January) was again warmish at 11C/52F, but rather windy. I worked from home, interrupting the afternoon for an hour's walk in between two appointments.

The ruins of horse stables where I walked that afternoon.

It was my sister's birthday on Friday (10 January), and after finishing work and cleaning my flat, I went to the location she had chosen for her party - a small museum of local history in a former gatehouse from the time when Ludwigsburg was much smaller and a garrison. The wall around the town served mainly to keep unwilling army recruits in and less for keeping undesirable elements out. Only very few remnants of that wall are still visible in places, but there are still six gatehoues at their original sites, and one of them was all for my sister and her guests that evening.

She had cleaned and set up the place with tables and chairs already the day before with the help from a friend, so there wasn't really all that much left to do for us apart from getting the buffet ready, which was quickly done.

Carrot cake I had ordered from our favourite café in town, as a surprise for my sister (it's one of her favourite cakes).

The empty space on the buffet table was later taken up with fresh, crusty Italian bread.

The 15 of us had a great time! It was really good to see some of our friends I had not seen in a couple of years or so (it was of course also good to see those who I have met not that long ago, but you know what I mean). There was way too much food, but my sister gave everyone who left pieces of cake and other things from the buffet to take home.

I was the third-to-last person to leave the premises and arrived home after a ten minute walk at around 1:30 am.

By lunch time on Saturday (11 January), my sister and I were back at the venue, clearing up, cleaning and putting the chairs and tables back in order. I believe it took the two of us somewhere around 1 1/2 hours. 

back to normal

We split the remainder of the buffet between us - it meant I did not need to buy anything to eat for the weekend, and I also took home two of the potted primroses my sister had put on every table.

Spring is still at least two months away, but here's a first little greeting!

The day was sunny but cold, and because I was still tired after the lovely party the evening before, I went to lie down for about an hour when I came home, and spent the rest of the day doing quiet things such as reading, playing my favourite computer game, watching TV and nibbling at the party leftovers.

Today, Sunday (12 January) was another sunny day with temperatures hovering around freezing point all day. I slept long enough to feel reasonably well rested and late morning went for a walk to the lake, to see whether it had iced over or not. It had, but the ice was still very thin. People were out in full force, walking around the lake on the very muddy paths (you don't want to see my boots!) and soaking up the afternoon sunshine.

A new mural in a passage underneath the railway

Katharinenkirche ("Catherine's Church") in the suburb of Eglosheim

The lake (Monrepos) with its thin layer of ice

I was only out for 1 hour 40 minutes, made myself a spot of late lunch (you guessed it - using up more leftovers) and spent good part of the afternoon in my yellow armchair with a book.

Due to conflicting schedules, O.K. and I have spent the weekend separately but, as usual when we can't see each other, we spoke on the phone two or three times every day.

Now a full week is ahead, with five working days instead of four, and a great highlight waiting for me on Saturday - stay tuned for more about that in one of my next posts :-)