The highlight of the week "between the years" as they say in Germany was a night spent at the Tollwood festival on the Wiesn (the huge park where they hold the Oktoberfest). Michaela, Christopher, Kate & I went to the biggest tent to watch the opera Hänsel und Gretel (based on the familiar childrens' story).

This production was very raunchy and a bit dark and disturbing, with the wicked witch played by a drop-dead gorgeous blonde in a series of ever more revealing red costumes that just oozed sex appeal, and Hänsel and Gretel themselves delving into some uncomfortable psychological territory. And the stage was crazy weird, taking the form of a bumpy bare mountain across which the actors had to pick their way very carefully - sometimes with guide ropes - lest they stumble and fall.

What made the performance even more marvellous was the spectacularly delicious buffet dinner that accompanied it, with oh so many finger-licking courses: wild mushroom risotto to die for, the tenderest venison steaks, an untranslatable white fish which was heavenly, and a boar stew that knocked your socks off. And then, after the opera was over, they brought a dessert of Kaiserschmarrn (fluffy pancake chunks with stewed plums and icing sugar - yum!) to our tables. Our Israeli waiter I think took a bit of a shine to me, and kept bringing us more things, just as an excuse to touch my shoulder and keep us talking. Tee hee!

And then it was New Year! Margit, Denis, David and Philip visited from Ireland, along with Margit's brother Wolfi who came up from Swabia, and we spent the whole time leading up to New Year's Eve buying endless amounts of shopping, cooking endless amounts of food in Michaela's slow cooker, baking endless amounts of bread in her bread baking machine, and drinking endless amounts of mint Bailey's (I kept failing to go home to my own flat as a result).

The party that Michaela threw at her house was a great success, with kids running all over the place and adults swigging beer, wine and bubbly all night long. We even managed to set fire to a nearby tree with an out-of-control firework! But by the time the fire brigade turned up, it had gone out by itself luckily.

New Year's Day was subdued, both in terms of the overcast weather and the addled brains of the revellers. I dropped Chris, Kate & the girls at the station for them to head out to the airport, and then went back to Michaela's and had a quiet day, slowly tidying up (Margit did the lion's share of that work, bless her) and recovering from my mini bout of tonsilitis (I had to keep going for quick sleeps during the New Year's Eve party, which was mightily annoying and crap). I hope 2007 is a year of less illness for me...