Socialising Week

It is very rare that a whole week passes without me seeing my family or some friends or other, but not all weeks are so full of socialising than the last one, where I was out and about four evenings out of five.

Early on Monday (9 February) morning, O.K. took me to the station in Offenburg as usual. Normally, that is a drive of maybe 15 minutes, leaving me plenty of time to buy myself a freshly baked and buttered Brezel to enjoy during my journey; it is too early for me to eat anything before leaving the house, but by the time I board the train I am very hungry.

Things turned out a little different that morning, though. Just after leaving the village and getting on to the major road leading to the city, we were stopped short by a hold-up. Neither the cause nor how long it might take were obvious. Nothing was said on the traffic news on the radio. We inched forward for a few minutes, then O.K. made a u-turn, doubled back part of the short way we had come so far, and drove into the city from a different direction. It was the best decision he could have taken, because no way would we have made it in time to the station otherwise; we later learned that there had been an accident, and it took hours for the hold-up to clear and traffic to move normally again.

The bakery at the station was very busy with a long queue, and for fear of missing my train, I headed to the platform straight away without having bought my customary Butterbrezel, hoping to get something aboard the train.

I found my booked seat, left my luggage there and went in search for what nowadays is called the "Board Bistro" on German long-distance trains. A very friendly man who was singing along to the radio confirmed that he did indeed have a Butterbrezel for me, and did I want it warmed? I found that a good idea, and after a few minutes of waiting, I went back to my seat with a warm Brezel in a brown paper bag. It was pricey (more than twice what it costs at the bakery), but I needed something to eat, and I enjoyed the journey knowing that I wasn't going to feel queasy for lack of food.

After work, I went for a walk with my sister. Those 1 1/2 hours in the fresh air felt very good, as did our chat.

It was Pub Quiz Night again for our team on Tuesday (10 February). We were one point short of the winning team, but so was one other team, and they won the tie question, which meant we came third - no problem for us, and we'd had once again a fun-filled evening with friends.

Wednesday (11 February) was the warmest day of the week; wet but as mild as 12C/53F. Leaving the office in Weilimdorf at 5:00 pm, I made it in time back to Ludwigsburg with about 15 minutes to spare: I had booked a seat for a talk at the local history museum. The headline was "Little America", and the knowledgeable lady spoke about Pattonville, the US-American "village" on the outskirts of Ludwigsburg that was built in the 1950s to house the military families.

I have mentioned Pattonville on my blog before, and it has its own wikipedia article. 

The talk was illustrated with photos, and after about half an hour, the speaker ended and handed things over to the audience. Many (myself included) shared personal memories of the time when Ludwigsburg still had a very strong and visible American presence. It was interesting and fascinating to compare notes, and I even met a lady who I once worked with at the library and who used to live in Pattonville with her American boyfriend and father of her sons.

Working from home on Thursday (12 February) allowed me to pop into town during my lunch break to get flowers for later. I chose three bunches of tulips in white, pink and yellow. After work, my sister picked me up and drove us to Markgröningen, a small town roughly 10 km away. 

We were invited there to a birthday party of one of our oldest friends. I have mentioned the two sisters who lived next door to us in the terraced houses for most of our childhood and youth; it was the younger sister's birthday.

There was plenty of food and drink, and more guests arrived over the next couple of hours. I always enjoy meeting "new" people as well as seeing my friends, and good fun was had by all.

Friday (13 February) saw me staying at home; O.K. and I spent the weekend separately. It being Carnival time, he was busy with the village band, and I opted to stay in Ludwigsburg so that I could see my cousins who were stopping here for one night on their way home to Paris.

In the afternoon, my sister and I met the three of them (two cousins - sister and brother - and the brother's wife) at their hotel within easy walking distance from us. We briefly went into town because they needed to buy a few things, then we bought cake at the bakery down the road from where I live and had coffee and cake at my place.

A little after 6:00 pm, we went to my Mum's. She had prepared a large pot of goulash, another pot of a vegetarian variety and bowls of dumplings. There was also a nice fresh salad for starters. To begin with, we had sparkling wine and good reasons to raise our glasses: My engagement as well as all of us meeting, something that does not happen very often with us living so far apart.

It was a lively evening with great food and free-flowing conversation in German, English and French.

After the week described so far, I am sure you'll understand how much I appreciated having a quiet Saturday and Sunday (14 and 15 February) entirely to myself. Of course I spoke to O.K. on the phone every day, and I also went for walks - a brief one on Saturday, cut even shorter because of the rain, and a longer one on Sunday, when it remained dry until the evening.

It looked rather drab on the fields between Ludwigsburg and Freiberg, but at least it wasn't raining.

Small patches of blue were showing by the time I was approaching Benningen, but the sun never really made it through.

I spent several hours watching the 4th season of "All Creatures Great and Small" on DVD, a Christmas present from my sister - it was the perfect weather for cosy TV, wrapped in a blanket and with a mug of tea ready.

This part of the opening of each episode reminded me of our visit to Ribblehead Viaduct last summer.

Not long before 9:00 pm on Sunday night, it started to snow, and kept snowing for about three hours before the snow turned into rain. Before I went to bed, the world outside was all covered in white, but when I got up during the night, the rain had begun to wash it off, and by Monday morning nothing was left.