On days without news

Usually, the radio goes on when my colleague gets to work, and goes off when I leave. He can’t stand adverts, so we listen to ‘Deutschland Radio’ and ‘Deutschland Radio Kultur’  which generally makes for a good mixture of news and interesting information about a huge range of topics. Anything from book reviews to current scientific […]

On making the first mince pies of the season (or ever)

I don’t remember the last time I waited until this close to Christmas to start making mince pies… Last night, a friend came over. She’s German and had never even heard of mince pies, let alone thought about making one. That obviously had to be rectified. Here’s the process of rectification: πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ I […]

On the news

“The news” (as a whole) keeps telling me that scary things are happening in the world at the moment. I’m not too keen on scary things so I plucked up lots of courage as I walked past the newspaper salesman and risked a passing glance at the headlines on my way to the station. According […]

On German invitations

If you ever happen to find yourself invited to a German party, remember to turn up at least half an hour before the time on the invite. It doesn’t matter what kind of event it is. Birthday, Barbecue, Leaving do. In the last couple of weeks, I have been late to 3 different “occasions” despite […]

On musical confusion

Dear musicians, band managers and English-lyric writers, Please (PLEASE) help me. I have colleagues who listen to the radio. Even though there are several German bands, most of the music on the radio is currently sung in English. As the only “native-English-speaker” in the place, it’s my job to tell them what’s being sung. I […]

On sleeping in the doghouse

The radio comes on loudly, waking us up the way it does every morning. DB sits up and looks across at the dog (C) we’re looking after, who’s sleeping on the floor next to his side of the bed. DB: (excited) Good morning C! It’s time to get up! Yup yup yup! It really is! […]

On sight-snoring

I am on the road again. Or more rather on the tracks. Since I’m travelling almost entirely by train. Whatever. It’s a 7 1/2 hour journey from where I live to where I have to be at 7pm. Instead of leaving at midday and making a usual late appearance, I chose an early train so […]