14.10.08
Eis oder Scheiss?
I do like Germany. I’ve just been away to Heidelberg (or its environs) for a few days.
I’d hoped to have an old pal but calls and messages weren’t returned and address changed ages ago from what I know. Very sad.
A swift note on flying again. I’ve recently said that I hate the whole process. But this time I went with a proper airline. Not a cattle train thing but one where they give you a seat number. There was far less hassle, no pushing, a chance to pick your seat, “free” drinks and food. Just a stack load more civilised.
Having said that the airport at Frankfurt is majorly weird. I got off the plane and followed the signs to passport control and baggage reclaim. After an age of walking I went through some doors and seemed to be outside of the secure bit. There were people waiting for travellers, the shops were all around; but I’d still not seen a pass control or baggage place. Eventually I found a passport control desk. Through that to more shops and more people milling around as if they were non-flyers. Very odd indeed.
I was met at Heidelberg Hbf by young Mini and her mum. The train was 6 minutes late, so much for German trains being wonderful. Tsk.
They laughed at me for saying that German trains should be on time. They stared with amazement when I told them that UK trains must be more than 15 mins late to be counted as “late” in the figures. I still think they win.
Their home is rather nice and like all family homes the action all takes place in the kitchen. My bed was in another building in a little outhouse where the girls had a room each and a living room space for both of them. I was in that bit. Comfy and warm.
On Wednesday afternoon Tamali was away and Helena had to study so I was with Mini who I think would be the first to say that she is not the most confident English speaker. She managed marvellously well though. We had a good hour or two chatting about stuff in poor german (on my part) and adequate English (from her).
Later on in the evening we headed out for food in a restaurant called “Fody’s” which involved a minor trip over a river. The food was excellent german stuff but the place was odd. There were 3 bits to it. Outside was too cold so we didn’t sit there. There was a tent which was quiet but allowed smoking so smelt a bit. Inside was warm and comfy but they had awful music on. We chose to sit inside on the basis that bad music isn’t as bad as smoke wafting our way.
Another oddity was that dogs were allowed in the place. There were a few dogs hanging around under tables. I’ve never seen that anywhere else.
But the highlight was that Jules and Lisa joined us for food. Lovely group of folk, lovely food. Rather a good evening.
Oh apart from “the phone call”. As the group were all here we phoned Clurb and Pee. Clurb gave me my “5 things to do”. She did this by telling Jules who gave a running commentary to the table. Unfortunately one of them involved me taking notice of “Mini’s rack”. Jules didn’t know what this was so kept asking me. My discomfort told them that something was naughty. Tsk.
Thursday was a quiet one. The girls had gone to school early so I slept in til late. Loads of reading done. A couple of supermarket trips followed in the afternoon. And that was about it until the evening.
Helena had an English test to do on Friday and she asked me to chat through the work to be tested. After that we had a long chat about politics, the environment, the economy, religion and more. She held her own admirably and if she failed that test then I’m impressed by how advanced their tests are. Very impressed.
I also briefly had a play on the net. Couldn’t get through to clurb.net. Odd but prolly nothing beyond the server having a spasm. And so to bed.
Oh my phone’s ringing. It’s Pee telling me that clurb.net has vanished. Hmm. Swift return to the web to see that the registration of the domain had lapsed and they’d not bothered to send me an email to tell me.
A slightly nervous time trying to fix it but it seemed to work, eventually.
The following day was the start of the Herxheim convention. Tamali was working in the morning and the girls were at school so I didn’t do a lot until 11 when I was handed the car keys and told “do something!”
Car loaded and we were off. Firstly to pick up Jules and then to Herxheim.
On the way we were passed by a juggler’s car. Not only that but it turned out to be Jules’ mum.
We were there a few hours before it started so we could help out setting up. I didn’t get to do a lot at first. I’m not sure whether they wanted to spare me hassle (as I’m a guest) or that they just didn’t want to chat to someone who may not understand. Of course they may just have assumed I’d be useless at anything they wanted. You decide!
When people started to show up Lisa bounded up to tell me that Thomas! had arrived and that Clurb would have been excited to hear this. After a couple of hours of starting I think I recognised about 2 people (including Thomas!)
But then Helena introduces me to quite a lovely bloke with a guitar. He’s called Jurgen and has an interesting story of performing, drugs, alcohol and dropping out. He’s now trying to build a full on eco-life with sustainable everything. I had a great time chatting for a good few hours.
A little later Lisa introduces me to a guy called Gerhard. She’s grinning a bit and then tells us that we know each other. We’re both blank at this but then she calls me MonkeyJuggler and him Palmcron. We both go “Ohhh!” and then start passing. Another grand person to meet. Was fun teaching him 7 club 3 count and 4 count too.
I was up late that night. I spent my time chatting to Tamali, Helena, Lisa and a pair of fellows called Andreas and Kristian. More nice folk.
I went to bed on a borrowed fake thermarest. The most amazing thing about this was that the air squashed away from where the weight was. In practice this meant that I was sleeping with little cushioning between my body and the floor but my feet were on the biggest bulge of air. Very odd indeed.
So a bad night’s sleep and up early.
There wasn’t much going on in the morning so I headed out to see the town. A rather nice place, bizarrely twinned with a place in Rwanda. And also with Ilfracombe!
Once back I did some juggling. Unheard of.
And watched people.
There was an acro workshop that had the bizarrest warm up of running at people then leaping and slapping hands. Then crawling and going through people’s legs. Then they started “swimming” on each other. Very odd behaviour.
Oh yes and part of the warm up included full lumbar flexion and then twisting whilst fully flexed. Note to acro workshop leaders - this is not such a great idea. This movement is the one that is most likely to put someone’s back out. Don’t do it.
Then the show was getting set up. It wasn’t a full on gala-show. Helena called it an “open show” to me and then giggled.
After the show came more passing and then to bed.
Jules showed me to my room (she had the key) and then sat and chatted for hours. Very nice way to end the day.
And I really managed to sleep well. Thankfully I’d set my phone’s alarm, otherwise I’m not sure I’d have made it to the train.
Hugs to everyone and then to the station with Jules.
Met a guy called Jan there and managed a half hour conversation in German. Woot.
And that was it. Home now and really wanting to go back.
Work just isn’t as fun.
Pics here.