What a hot weekend, 28°C in Kalterherberg. No-one really believes it when those kind of temperatures are forecasted. A great time was had at Nadja and Collin’s August bash! They really do have interesting friends. Sorry no pictures as I really wasn’t in a photography mood. Don’t know what was wrong with me!!! Hot sun, beer, a tasty BBQ, good conversation, kids happy to run around until ten, what more could one want? If you ask me, not much.

This really is meant to be a blog about positive things and the good things in life. Well I had an exceptionally good chance to get to know Mainz Kastel rail station (bit of a big word for it) today. I thought I’d try a new way home. But the bus was late and I missed the connecting train. So it took an hour for me to get no further than Mainz Kastel. If you have ever been from Wiesbaden you know you can walk there in that. Honestly you can.

But I did see the most amazing cloud formations on the way (made me think about the book I’d like to dip into about cloud formations). And I got time to sort the pictures from the weekend. There are some good ones of Ari and Yorck at their Great Aunt Irmi’s 75th.

Here are the guys and their first tortoise experience

What a hot and urban week

What a wonderful week. Despite or rather because it was soo hot, the Düsseldorf had a completely different atmosphere this week. I took things at a nice slow pace which meant that the afternoons were just perfect. It was easily hot enough for paddling pool fun. And on Thursday, we met up with Derek. We wandered through the Hofgarten (Düsseldorf’s Central Park!) and looked at the ducks and chatted about life, particularly about silly Alex and Steve who moved. Well they would be scoffing at 30°C heat.

Waiting for the tram on the way home, Yorck and I watched some breakdancing kids. They were soo cool. And for some reason complemented the heat really well. Every one standing around watching was grinning. How great is that. Collective grins don’t happen that often.

The week ended perfectly with a wedding anniversary dinner in Benkay. We finally used the dinner voucher that I won at the FEDEFE in February. It was nice to go for dinner just the two of us and eat the most delicious fish ever. I can certainly recommend the place!

Sometime has passed....

Well sometime has certainly passed since I started this. Time to get back on trap. You may ask yourself what made me want to pick this up again. Well several things. The first is I have some stuff to sell. Some good friends moved to China (sniff) last week and left me with a stack of stuff to sell. The idea is to find loving homes for the things and to support, well even start, my "Visiting China" fund. Three seats on an airplane to Beijing don't come cheap. Why not Ebay I hear you cry. Well Ebay is great, but some of these things are kinda heavy and bulky so it will be best to try find them local homes. I shall be back with a list and photos of the homeseekers. Most of the stuff is for babies.

Growing, growing, growing......that is really all this little guy does. Check out the knitted cardigan. Thanks Helen! It almost fits, which is quite incredible as last time anyone looked Yorck was really small. Funny thing is at home he seems quite a reasonable size, if I take him out then he seems to shrink to this tiny baby that everyone cooes at. He cooes back too, but at home where all those aunties can't hear him.

Sunday was a very slow day, except for visiting Arvid's parents. They invited us for St. Martin's tea. Suddenly having four grandchildren has turned their place into a children's playground. These are two of the little people responsible for that. Liv is on the left and Yorck on the right.

Smiley!

Yes, life's good. There's no other description for it. Especially as we now have a baby that can smile. And because last week we had a four day trip to the Eifel. Lazing about, walking (a bit) and eating. So now we're a little more rested and had lots of fresh air.