Here’s a round up of the year for us, starting with …
Eve who finished her ‘O’ level and started the 6th form equivalents this year for the 2 years of Abitur. She cycles mostly to school and friends, there’s a close knit group of 5 friends and they are planning to go abroad next year together on holiday. She joined a fitness club, with all her friends of course. Eve’s birthday this year was a surprise party at a restaurant, originally just the 4 of us to fool her, but then a class full of friends turned up on bikes with perfect timing as we left them to celebrate together.
Sabrina is in her last year of Abitur and has friends in various groups and from previous schools. She continues drumming and spent a week learning Musical Theatre in Bristol. She is planning a big celebration for her 20th in the locality, so we are scanning suitable venues. She enjoyed working in the summer at Linde in the canteen, although we were non-impressed by the 5am starts waking us up.
They are both in the school choir and this has involved spending a week away from school just for singing, then performing the songs in the summer or Christmas concerts. This year’s concert was held in a church near the centre, they performed “In the Bleak Midwinter” and “The Holly and the Ivy.”
We see less of them these days, as they are out so often with friends. Katie and I remember our time at this age, messing about with friends around Chatburn Chippy or at Skipton Parish Churchyard respectivley, but for our two they hang out along the banks of the River Isar which flows through Munich – often with Sabbie and her mates on one side and Eve’s group on the other.
Summer holidays this year were in Bristol to watch Sabrina performing after her course there and then on to London sightseeing. Next we had a really relaxing week on the beaches in Croatia, which Eve insisted we did and although it was a bit of a tight schedule to fit it in, we are so glad we did this.
Our church moved in September. Katie and Phil are still involved in the band, it is always a challenge to see how things turn out - never quite as planned, but we are learning and hopefully getting better with each “experiment”. We got a professional mixing desk and some quality microphones, so have to up our game.
At the end of October, there was a nice surprise in getting an extra day off for the 500th Anniversary of Martin Luther. We spent that week decorating the living room. There was a family get-together outside York on Katie’s side. On Phil’s side of the family, we also came back to celebrate Kathryn and Dave’s Silver Wedding and Martin’s half-century. It’s easier to go away at the weekend now and leave the girls in the flat, although Katie was a little worried when a party was hastily arranged, but it was unfounded apart from some broken crockery and having to apologise to neighbors for the noise.
Phil’s work moved offices this year to somewhere a little easier to get by underground and there was a trip to Madrid, which meant he’s now seen football matches at both the Bernabeu (Real) and Calderon stadiums (Athletico). He volunteered to run a lesson for about 10 students out of Sabrina's year, covering "Smart City" and then take part in a podium discussion about digitalization and its impact on work. This was quite stressful to prepare for, although Sabrina said afterwards that the couple of comments he made were OK.
Concerts attended this year: Lisa Hanigan, Beverley Craven, Mike and the Mechanics (Ben McKelvey as support was also good), Paul Weller, Heather Nova, Nick Cave and Robert Forster (from The Go-Betweens).
Katie has gained another piano student, who pays in kind with ‘german conversation’. Life contains big changes for her as the girls reach adulthood and new roles beckon.
“Einen Wahn verlieren macht weiser als eine Wahrheit finden” - Ludwig Börne, refer:
http://zitate.net/ludwig-b%C3%B6rne-zitate
"Losing an illusion makes one wiser than finding a truth"
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/ludwig_borne