I've been getting Apline lately. It's quite something after months in the sun, I can tell you.

I spent a weekend in the Allgäu, which is slightly to the left of Bavaria, visiting Wolfgang, the younger brother of Margit, a good friend of Michaela's who now lives with her husband Denis in Ireland and who I visited a couple of years back with Lisa, my friend in Dublin. Not that any of you really care what the relationship is between any of these people, of course, but I like to see it all written down. It's been a while since I did a blog entry and I'm missing the sheer verbosity of it.

Anyway, Wolfgang is in a band that does cover version of well-known rock songs, and his band was playing on Friday night, so I caught the train (actually three trains - it was cheaper that way) from Munich at lunchtime and arrived in Aulendorf at three o'clock. Wolfgang picked me up in his car, and our first stop was a bakery to buy fresh bread.

Yum! I love German bread! Have I mentioned that before? He had already bought some delicious cold cuts and cheeses, and he had some home-made pickles too (he lives next door to his farmer parents) so we had quite a feast when we got to his house.

Then the other two members of his band arrived, and I helped them load their instruments and paraphernalia into their van. Off we drove to the pub where they were playing, and I got to be a roadie again at th other end. For my troubles I didn't have to buy a single beer all night! The pub staff thought I was a member of the band, and I wasn't exactly going to put them right as long as there was free booze to be had.

The gig went really really well. They played and sang excellently (Wolfgang later told me it was one of their best ever performances) and my God do those boys have staying power! Their first set went on for two hours, and then it was just a fifteen-minute break before another 90 minutes of all-out rock'n'roll.

All the while, people were dancing along in front of the stage area and generally getting down. There was one guy who was really going for it on the headbanging stakes; he managed to bash into me about every ten minutes, but I didn't mind too munch because he was clearly enjoying himself a whole lot.

That night it was fucking freeeeeeezing! Minus fifteen degrees. And that's when you realise that being a roadie isn't always about free beer and sitting around. It was a bit nippy loading the van up again after the gig at three in the morning. Still, the evening was great fun all in all. There was even a bit of local colour, when some guys came in to the pub dressed up in traditional carnival costumes from the Middle Ages (they start their carnival celebrations early in this part of the world).

The next afternoon - there wasn't really a morning - a few mates of Wolfgang's drove over and picked us up to go to a nearby Alp. We got there about an hour before sunset, and started walking up the mountain with sledges tethered to our belts. It was an arduous walk up, but thankfully it wasn't too windy, just bloody cold again. The sunset was spectacular, without a single cloud. Only the vapour trails of planes leaving reasonably nearby Zurich airport broke the continuity of the ever-darkening cobalt blue sky.

After two & a half hours I was soaked through with sweat - it was a steep old climb. But there was a rich reward for my efforts: we at last reached our goal, the mountain Huette where we were served copious amounts of beer and huge portions of delectable dinners (I shared a cheese fondue with Wolfgang, whilst other people ate raclette or massive slices of Leberkäs and other mountain fare).

The most exciting part of the day in the mountains was however yet to come. After several more beers and a schnaps on the house for being such lovely guests, we began our descent on sledgeback. There was a full moon to light our way, and the deep snow all around sparkled like dunes of diamond dust, and sprayed up from under our runners in a fine cloud like icing sugar.

And of course I was completely pissed, so I didn't give a hoot about the fact that I came this close to careening off the top of some big old cliffs on quite a few occasions. Not to mention the huge wipeouts, during one of which my co-madman Otto landed face-down two metres in front of the sledge, and I landed face-down two metres in front of him, having soared over his prostrate figure from my position behind him!

I slept well that night.

My last day in the Allgaeu also failed to have a morning. But the afternoon was action-packed, with a visit to Wolfgang's girlfriend Sabine in the nearby town of Ravensburg, a pretty little place which struck me as typically European and medieval: there's a clock tower that was built in the 14th century which would astonish many a New World citizen, and tacked onto its side is a 20th century concrete multi-storey car park that, a juxtaposition that highlights the nonchalance of Old Worlders for their architectural heritage.

My other Alpine experience was wonderful in a completely different way: I had my first day's skiing of the season, and indeed of the last three years, down in Austria near the border with Italy at the Brenner Pass. It was a one-day bus trip from central Munich which took two hours to bring us to the base of the ski lift.

I borrowed the skis & boots of the husband of Diane, a friend of Michaela's from work, and Diane & I together with Michaela's friend Claire spent the day together on the slopes. It was great! I feared I might have forgotten how to ski, it's been so long, but nothing could be further from the truth.

I took to those shiny planks beneath my feet like the proverbial duck to water. Ah, how I love the scrape of ice & snow underfoot as I rush headlong towards a snow-bedecked valley floor! Ah, the biting wind in my face as I reach the top of the highest ski lift! Ah, the panorama of snow-capped peaks surrounding me in every direction!

And in other news:

Ikea furniture is like Lego for grown-ups. I've done several Ikea runs with Michaela in recent weeks. As ever, we seek the prize of an organised house and an ordered life, and as ever, that goal seems always on the horizon, however many sets of shelves I build!

It's been mostly fucking cold here in Munich, but at least it's sunny for a change. It was overcast and miserable for the first few weeks I was here, which didn't do anything for my general sense of well-being, but recent weeks have been much more cheery.

An unexpected night out created itself out of thin air one evening after meeting Maggi & Jens for tapas. I met some nice guys (Americans & Germans) in a bar in town and joined them for a bit of a bar crawl, ending up in a disco where one of their mates was DJing. It was good fun! I've since caught up with the guys a few times to go to the cinema and that sort of thing. It's nice to have some new people to hang out with here.

I have been spending some quality time with my dear nephews - doing homework with Ryan, building Lego with Charlie, that sort of thing. Oh, and tickling them a lot too. It's a key part of the uncle job description. And my favourite quote so far in relation to this role is from Ryan (to his mate Robert, who I was in the process of pinning down and tickling one evening): "Now you see the power of my Uncle Richard!!" It made me feel like a cartoon superhero. Or perhaps the evil villain dude. Not sure which.