Guilt guilt guilt!!! This is what I feel when I look at how long ago my last blog entry was written.

In a nutshell, picking up from where I left off:

Andrew flew off to Berlin on Friday morning to meet up with his Aussie mates again. Roz caught the train that evening to Amsterdam to stay with a friend of hers. That evening Johannes & Alan, dear friends from Sydney who were in Salzburg visiting Johannes' relatives there, caught the train up to Munich and I met them for dinner with Matthias. We were in the inner courtyard of the Augustiner Bräuhaus in the Kaufingerstrasse. It's lovely there.

On Saturday I flew to Amsterdam, where I was met by Simon, my dear friend who I met in Sydney and who came to see me in Melbourne. He lives in The Hague, so we caught a train there. I had a very relaxed weekend with him, going to cafés and restaurants, and seeing "Over The Hedge" at the cinema - what a hilarious film!! We also did a spot of sightseeing at the Old Prison, not to mention eating poffertjes: small, obscenely buttery little pancakes that are coated in icing sugar and taste yum.

I flew home on Sunday night, but I had one more treat in Amsterdam before I left because Roz came out to the airport to see me for a coffee. What a sweetie! We amused ourselves on the viewing balcony before heading into the terminal for a hit of chips with mayonnaise (a local delicacy that I had already enjoyed the night before in The Hague on the way back from a bit of a bar crawl with Simon).

The next week I played some badminton, saw "Over The Hedge" again (it really is that good), this time in German, caught up with my Mexican friend Lizbeth (she's living in Munich again now after some time in Norway), had dinner with my friend Oliver whose birthday it was, and then went to another street festival, this time the Glockenbachfest, with Matthias, before heading to yet another street festival in Leopoldstrasse with Matthias & Ralf, before then going on to Richard Garvey's birthday party (he & his partner Lise are friends from work). Wow! I think I've just compressed a whole week into one paragraph!

Another week, another bout of eating & drinking: on Monday with Rudi at a nice Italian; on Tuesday with Halyna my Ukrainian friend (I used to work with her at E.ON) for beer at the Augustiner beergarden in the Arnulfstrasse and then with Hias & Christian at Lucullus, on Wednesday with Uwe my acupressure masseur friend at mine (he massaged me and I fed him in return); on Thursday on the Museum Boat at Tutzing on the Starnberg lake with Tine, Olli and Susanne from work; and on Friday with Matthias from Augsburg at Lucullus again (well it IS yummy there) before having a beer at the Nockherberg with Matthias and Harry, where I ran into Richard Garvey again.

The weekend was a busy one too, because Ruth & Andy were over to visit from the UK. Plus which I helped Oliver move flat (Ruth & Andy conveniently & kindly amused themselves in the Deutsches Museum that morning). We went to Viktualienmarkt for a spot of lunch and a mooch around, then headed up to Schwabing to meet with E.ON folk for a coffee (Lorna and her husband John were there, as were Maggi & her husband Jens), and then we hit the Schwabinger Strassenfest with Maggi's friend Britta & husband plus sundry other E.ON people. That evening I took Ruth & Andy to Sushi Cent, the Japanese place I used to live opposite in Haidhausen and which I went to the very first time when Ruth & Andy were visiting me all those years ago. It was just as yummy this time round as it had been then - and this time we were sitting outdoors in the warm evening air. Fab!

On Sunday we headed out to Ammersee and met Michaela, Tim & the boys there for a spot of swimming. An almighty storm brewed on the far shore of the lake, but it wasn't until it started heading towards us at breakneck speed that we decided to pack up & go. A sudden wind began to hurl sand at us as we dashed for cover into a welcoming hostelry, where we proceeded to calm our nerves with hearty Bavarian fare while the rain lashed at the windows. By the time we'd finished eating, the storm had blown over so we had fair skies again for the train ride home.

And the last week of July was pretty busy too. I met up with my friend Tom for food at Lucullus (where else?), followed by cocktails at the Mexican place on Candidplatz. I met up with Harry for schnitzel at Schober (the only place to be on a Tuesday night), I met up with my friend Jürgen on Wednesday. I headed over to Lisa the boys' erstwhile kindergarten teacher's house on Thursday, where she cooked up a huge carp for us all, and I did some Ikea shopping at the weekend with Michaela before catching up with my friend Mike on Saturday night for a few beers around town.

I promise to write about August very soon! Maybe even during August!